in imfiKfflfflffl I'ifrn .v fars-well- ff Straff crd THE STATESMEN OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND; I.N ENGLISH HISTORY. BY JOHN FORSTER, OF THE INNER TEMPLE. EDITED BY J, 0. CHOULES. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, No. 82 CLIFF-STREET. 1846. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. TO THOMAS COLLEY GRATTAN, HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL AT BOSTON, THIS EDITION OP THE LIVES OF THE STATESMEN OP THE COMMONWEALTH Ks Betrfcatetr, WITH SENTIMENTS OP ATTACHMENT AND RESPECT, BY THE EDITOR, History triumpheth over Time, which, besides it, nothing but Eternity hath triumphed over ; for it carrieth our knowledge over vast and devouring space for many thousands of years, and giveth to our mind such fair and piercing eyes, that we plainly behold living now, as if we had lived then, that great world, MAGNI DEI SAPIENS OPUS. ... It is not the least debt which we owe unto History, that it hath made us acquainted with our dead ancestors, and out of the depth and darkness of the earth delivered us their memory and fame. Out of History we may gather a policy no less wise than eternal, by the comparison and application of other men's forepast miseries with our own like errors and ill deservings. WALTER RALEIGH. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. AMERICAN citizens can never be indifferent to the history of the struggles for freedom in the land of their fathers ; and there is no more appropriate study for our youth than a careful examination of the men and measures of that period which constituted the transition state of England, from the oppress- ive reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts, to the Constitutional liberty which it afterward enjoyed. The close sympathy which was felt by our pilgrim ancestors with Eliot, Hampden, Milton, and Vane, gave an origin to our na- tional existence, and planted the institutions of piety and learning on our shores. The Puritans were the conservators of civil and religious freedom, and to the days of the civil war we are indebted for the assertion of those political truths which we now cherish as our dearest inheritance. The glories of the English nation in the seventeenth century are our rightful patrimony, and New-Englanders, when they indulge a justifiable pride in the patriotism and statesmanship of Adams and Webster, may remember with exultation that they are the guardians of the same precious ark once watched over by Sidney, Russel, and their compeers. The great merit of Mr. Forster's Lives of the Statesmen of the Common- wealth is, that he has afforded a life-like sketch of characters that will con- tinue to appear more extraordinary to those who, by the march of time, are removed farther from the era in which they appeared on the stage of action. I mistake if this volnme does not quicken much thought into activity, for it holds up to view the real life the stirring, glowing, argumentative life of the days of the Protectorate. The thoughtful reader feels that he knows quite as much of the doings in St. Stephens at this period, as he does of the wrangling and personalities in the House of Representatives at Washington ; and if it were possible for old Noll, or Eliot, or Pym to walk our globe again, he would not fail to recognise them. A perusal of this biography compels to the reflection, that faith in eternal verities is as important to nations as to indi- viduals. The strong, earnest faith of England made her revolution at the death of Charles what it was, a blessing, then and forever, while the skepti- cism of France rendered the revolution at the death of Louis a living curse, a widespread damnation. The large sale of this work in America, not- VI PREFACE. withstanding the London edition in five volumes is so costly, affords gratify- ing evidence that the public mind is called out to the investigation of this period of time, and no part of English history is more deserving the profound attention of the " Sons of sires who baffled Crowtfd and mitred tyranny," than the days of Charles I., and the devout, God-fearing, and strong-hearted Oliver Cromwell. A careful revisal has been given to the work, notes have been added, but no alteration has been made in the text of the author. JOHN. OVERTOX. CHOULES. Jane, 1846. THE STATESMEN COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND. A DESIRE having been expressed that this portion of a series of British statesmen, originally published in the " Cabinet Cyclo- paedia," should be given to the world in a distinct form, that desire is here complied with. I seize, at the same time, the occa- sion it affords me of soliciting the reader's attention, on the threshold of the work, to some considerations of historical interest that may give greater completeness to its design. It is scarcely possible without some such general view as history will rarely give of the social, political, and re- ligious influences which, in their gradual action after the Norman Conquest, built up what we call the Constitution of the state to understand the secret of the origin and power of that remarkable race of men by whom, on the awful stage of the old English Revolution, events of such influ- ence to succeeding ages were created and controlled. Any notice of the Saxon period would be foreign to this purpose, save in so far as the revival of the national spirit, after the Norman invasion, brought back the more sturdy features of our old national charac- ter with the better portions of free Saxon usage. As little needful is it to describe from its earlier beginnings the subversion of the feudal system, which gradually de- clined as towns arose, as municipal com- munities were formed, as capital was ac- cumulated, and the arts cultivated with success. It is obvious that, with the en- richment of a mercantile or manufacturing class, the power of an aristocracy must de- crease ; and our country formed no excep- tion to the rule. It will be more important to explain briefly to the reader the secret of that attachment to monarchy, which, without question, continued to prevail throughout the nation at the beginning of the struggle for liberty described in this volume, and a knowledge of which, while it reveals the less obvious difficulties that beset the struggle, and may refine and ex- alt our perceptions of the policy and states- manship of its leaders, marks also, with singular precision, the commencement of Popular Progress in the Norman period of our history. From no principle of passive obedience, but out of the simple instinct of self-pres- ervation, that attachment arose. It is clearly indicated, in its relations both to king and people, in one of the proclama- tions of Henry the Third, first discovered and partly quoted by Sir Robert Cotton. From this we perceive that it was not till majesty had been driven to extremities by the barons that it bethought itself of the expediency of securing the affections of the people ; and we observe farther, that the humble prostration of the commons before the feet of sovereignty had at once its motives and its reward in the assurance of a full and sufficient protection against the great lords. A common enemy had, in fact, made common cause between the highest and lowest states of the realm, and the dormant political rights of the peo- ple were suddenly roused into action on behalf of the endangered security at once of people and of king. Gradual advances had been made in law and jurisprudence during the reign of the first in the great line of the Plantagenets, the wise and powerful administration of Henry the Second; the general adoption of juries had given justice to the common- alty, and the institution of circuits had car- ried it to each man's door. The Crusades, too, had served to reawaken the failing spirits of men, had loosened more and more the bondage of the feudal laws, and had opened to the new and enterprising race then peopling our English towns vari- ous and most profitable sources of com- merce with other lands. Nor had a silently growing but very potent influence of a higher nature passed unheeded. The gay resources of religious chivalry implied nobler and more generous offices than the mere relaxation of crusading knights, or conciliation of their lady-loves. They scattered the seeds of a national literature, which, whether tracked through the wan- dering paths of Troubadour or Dominican, sprang up afterward, during the whole period of the thirteenth century, in silent but most significant places. Still had no distinct recognition of the people been heard. The thirteenth century opened, and, as an order of the state, they were still unknown. But about then it was, and not till then, that, happily in one sense, if unsuccessfully V1U HISTORICAL TREATISE. in another, monarchy appealed to them in its despair. It was the weak and power- less John who first stretched out his hands to them, in fear of his barons, and im- plored them to lift up a distinct voice in the arrangement of public affairs. Strange and memorable for all ages were the events that followed. The success of the barons in the struggle was far from a popular suc- cess ; but it was secretly acted upon by those passing, powerful, and silently ex- panding influences to which allusion has been made, and which shaped the mere exclusive claims of a powerful faction, as against their feudal lord, into an uncon- scious but eternal record of general rights, inalienable and imperishable, nor ever af- terward to be denied to even the meanest Englishman. Little known to its framers were the mighty secrets included in the great Charter. Little did they suspect that, under words that were intended to limit the relations of feudal power, many of the grandest equitable truths of polity lay concealed, as though afraid to show themselves till a milder and more auspi- cious day. They denied protection to serfs, and knew not that the swords which gave them that very power of denial had already cut through forever the bonds of English serfdom. They protested against the power of taxation in a prince, while they reserved it in limitation for themselves, ignorant that the formidable principle would bear down the weak exception. They de- manded the regular summoning of a great council to control the king, whether in im- position of new laws or administration of old ; but they dreamed not that within fifty years the mere tenants of the crown, to whom they limited the commons' portion of that council, would almost insensibly yield to the admission of burgesses and knights by the forms of popular election. Of incalculable importance, for these rea- sons, is it to consider this great charter justly. A truth has not its fair side and its foul. A principle is not a convertible thing ; nor could these iron barons of Mer- ton, all-powerful as they were, claim its operation in the one case, and control it in the other. All was not done when their part was done. It was enough for them to have conceived the prudent thought that, when once the rust of the Norman Conquest had been worn out of the souls of men, the various and discordant elements of England could never be moulded into any safe polit- ical form without a distinct admission, however limited, of political privileges to every rank, and a nominal concession, however unfairly hampered, of civil rights of liberty and property to every class. The selfishness in which that thought be- gan has not availed to check the reverence now fairly due to it. It was for future time to purge the selfishness and leave the greatness. It was for a posterity that has heaped upon these men praise they would have trampled on as insolence to demon- strate the inherent force and inexhaustible power of the simple spirit of resistance to irresponsible tyranny, whether lodged in the honest and manly warmth of a peasant's jerkin, or within the harsh and selfish links of a baron's mail. The five centuries that followed the scene at Runnymede were filled with the struggles of freedom, and never, at any new effort, were the provis- ions of that feudal charter appealed to in vain. Even when silent in themselves, the spirit out of which they were born still gave itself forth irresistibly in accents of warning and terror, of strength and con- solation. Whether our thoughts have turn- ed to the terrible death-field of Simon de Montford ; to the gray discrowned head of the second Richard ; to the miserable fate of the first Charles ; to the stakes of Rid- ley and Cranmer, or the as sublime suffer- ings of More ; to the prisons of Eliot or of Marten ; to the scaffold of Strafford or of Vane ; to the glorious fall of Hampden, or the hopeless and irretrievable ascent of Cromwell ; whether our hopes for Eng- lish liberty beat high with the eloquence of Pym, or have been composed to a more sober assurance beneath the wigs of Som- ers, of Danby, or of Halifax, we have yet borne witness, at every new emotion, to the presence of that spirit of MAGNA CHART A. Ignorant of the extent of good which had been thus achieved for them, and still, by the influences I have named, controlling the power of the barons by dint of their superior attachment to the monarchy, the English people found themselves now, with the passage of each successive reign, more and more distinctly recognised as a power and a resource in the government. They were formally summoned to the legislature by John's successor ; many of Henry the Third's writs for their election, directing "the sheriffs to elect and return two knights for each county, two citizens for each city, and two burgesses for every borough in the country," were discovered by Prynne ; and in the reigns of the first and second Ed- wards and their successors, we find them a strong and efficient branch of the state. That the compact was no slavish one by which the popular rights were thus revived and secured, sufficiently appears in a glance at these succeeding reigns. The sturdiest free Saxon need not have blushed, could he have lived them over. In all affairs of peace and war, in the marriages of princes, in a direct control of the domestic govern- ment, and in the formal tenure of the pub- lic purse, the commons of England, even thus early, claimed and accomplished the privilege of being consulted. Their exist- ence once recognised, all else followed in its course. Not a reign passed that did POPULAR PROGRESS. not give them a more decisive position. With the help of the wiser princes, in de- spite of the weaker, THEIR power still grew. In the reign of the first Edward, when so many great improvements in the laws were effected, that the somewhat too lofty title of the English Justinian has been claimed for that prince, they gave the res- idents of the various counties in which, at last, the jury system had been finally con- solidated, the power, which was afterward lost, of electing their own sheriffs. They also claimed at this period a security for free and uninfluenced elections sure evi- dence of a growing importance ; and a re- markable statute, which dates in the third year of Edward, runs in these words : " And because elections ought to be free, the king commandeth, upon great forfeiture, that no man, by force of arms, nor by malice, or menacing, shall disturb any to make free election." The power of the purse was a more formidable claim; but, having wrest- ed it in the weak government of this great monarch's successor, they always after- ward, or at least with rare exceptions, made money supplies conditional, not only that the specific services for which they were voted might be secured, but that, as the voluntary gift of lords and commons, they should not by any pretence be drawn into forced precedents. In Edward the Second's time, we find them voting as a distinct house, apart from the temporal and spirit- ual barons. It is curious and significant, too, to mark in this short reign the com- mencement of the system of government boroughs. Edward the Second's counsel- lors, acting upon a regular plan of strength- ening the regal influence, erected no less than twenty-two new boroughs ; and then it was that the lower house not only claim- ed, in a memorable statute, equal legislative power with the other estates of the realm, but declared that power to be a fundament- al usage of England. " The matters," they said, " to be established for the estate of the king and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, shall be treated, accorded, and established in Parlia- ment by the king, and by the assent of the prelates, earls, and barons, and the com- monalty of the realm, according as hath been before accustomed." Then, too, the great Charter was again confirmed, and with the striking addition of " Forasmuch as many people be aggrieved by the king's ministers against right, in respect of which grievan- ces no one can recover without a common Parliament, we do ordain that the king shall hold a Parliament once in the year, or twice, if need be." Six different statutes in the succeeding reign still more confirm- ed and enlarged its provisions. But the historical student should pause with pride at the name of Edward the Third. During the brilliant fifty years' reign of IX that famous sovereign, seventy Parlia- ments were summoned, and by one of them, which in this may express the spirit of all, it was insisted that the nomination of the chancellor and other great public officers should be committed to itself; a claim which, though tolerated in effect in modern days, would, if formally advanced among us, be condemned as an invasion of regal prerogative. Then, too, was passed one of the most popular laws conceded by any prince, one of the most advan- tageous achieved by any people. This was the statute of treasons, which lim- ited the crime, before vague and uncer- tain, to three principal heads : the conspi- ring the death of the king, the levying war against him, the adhering to his enemies ; and which prohibited the judges, if any other cases should occur, from inflicting the penalty of treason without application to Parliament. Without a struggle, this famous statute was won. For Edward himself, he always conceded freely what weaker sovereigns would have perilled life to hold. He was too wise to mistake in any case a shadow for a substance, and too powerful to fear concessions that had a tendency, without danger to the throne, to conciliate the other authorities of the realm. Peace, therefore, had her victories for him not less renowned than even war. He could compose or amuse his restless lords by a politic foundation of their order of the Garter, as he would propitiate his discon- tented commons by a frank redress of their complaint or grievance. No manlier prince, and none more prudent or successful, oc- cupied the English throne. No influence more brilliant or powerful, or having plain- er tendencies to popular cultivation, sur- vived to a succeeding age. It was Ed- ward's object always to interest men in himself, but for no apparently selfish rea- sons ; to justify his own ambition by the ambition of a common country ; to aggran- dize his own glory, but as the summit of the greater glory of the nation ; and in this he rarely failed. Even his palaces taught something of elevation to his people. The magnificent structures of Westminster Hall and Windsor rank justly with the in- tellectual influences that were then diffu- sed, and, as though an era of so much that was great should not pass without a mark to distinguish it among even the greatest of all future time, the poet Chaucer arose to charm and instruct his countrymen, and, by the purification of their native tongue, to complete the national glory. In the thirty-sixth of the third Edward, an act was passed declaring that the language so en- nobled should be in future used as the lan- guage of legislation. Every advance in intellect, how slight sover, unerringly marks the advance of a people. There are tens of thousands of HISTORICAL TREATISE. listeners for every new thought, all sure to find it in their own good time, no matter where it was first dropped, or in what ob- scure corner lodged. Wicliff lived in this reign. Michael Scot and Duns Scotus had preceded him ; and Friar Bacon had pro- claimed the advent of the true philosophy, as the morning star the day. An imbecile prince succeeded, but the strong or the weak would have been alike powerless in an age upon which such migh- ty agencies as those of the sway of Edward had, in so direct a shape, descended. The beginning and the close of that reign were, therefore, not unworthy of all that had pre- ceded it. The one was marked by a wide revolt of the serf class, and the other by the formal deposition of a rightful king. This last event established on an irremove- able base the political importance of the English people. A king was formally ar- raigned, with at least the nominal co-oper- ation of the constituted authorities of his empire, for treason to the trust reposed in him ; was convicted, and was punished. The terms of " divine right," or indefeasi- ble power," were, from that instant, struck out for ever from the dictionary of the state. " I confess," said that humbled prince, to the men who had sternly and calmly laid down their allegiance, " I rec- ognise, and, from certain knowledge con- scientiously declare, that I consider myself to have been, and to be, insufficient for the government of this kingdom, and for my notorious demerits not undeserving of dep- osition." Nor was the voluntary abdica- tion held sufficient. The houses of lords and commons, in solemn conclave in the hall at Westminster, made Richard the Second's renunciation of his crown their own compulsory act, and, amid the enthu- siastic shouts of thousands of the common people who had there assembled, Henry of Lancaster was conducted to the vacant throne. The popular power was, perhaps, seen and felt in more visible action on that mo- mentous occasion than at any preceding period, even among the Saxons. It was only some years before that the exclusive pretensions of the barons had been inva- ded by admission of regal writs of sum- mons into their hereditary house ; and here they were now themselves inducting a new sovereign to the seat of supreme power, with less guarantee that he would found his future pretensions on the fidelity of their swords, than that he would rest it rather on even those commonest shouts of the people. From such shouts, in which the old Saxon liberty again seemed pealing through the air, there no doubt fell more safety on the ear of even the haughty Bo- lingbroke, than from the clanking armour of the barons who led him to Richard's chair. May we not even realize the thought which is left us by the poet whose genius takes rank with history, and sup- pose the new sovereign of the house of Lancaster, for years before this crowning day, an earnest and suppliant candidate for the popular shouts that now hailed, at last, the downfall of the family of York ] " Ourself and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green, Observed his courtship to the common people. How he did seem to dive into their hearts, With humble and familiar courtesy ; What reverence he did throw away on slaves, Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles, And patient underbearing of his fortune, As 'twere to banish their affects with him. Off' goes his bonnet to an oyster wench ; A brace of draymen bid . . God speed him well . And had the tribute of his supple knee, With . . ' Thanks, my countrymen ! my loving friends !' As were our England in reversion his, And he our subject's next degree in hope." The first great object of these crafty courtesies attained, they did not cease as soon. Ever watchful, and wary as he was bold, the policy of the aspiring Bolingbroke continued the policy of the English king. The parliamentary authority which had given him power, the popular sympathies which had confirmed his title, were strengthened and promoted by every pos- sible resource during fourteen years of great though still disputed rule. It was natural, in the circumstances of such a reign, that the question of succession should assume paramount importance, but the most enthusiastic student of popular prog- ress is scarcely prepared for the elevated as well as resolute character of the meas- ures it calmly originated. Never, at any period of the reign, was it denied that the right of Parliament to alter the succession was the solid and single claim of the house of Lancaster. Henry's first house of commons asserted that great principle by formally taking on itself to recognise his son as Prince of Wales and heir-apparent to the throne. It was re- vived and confirmed in the year 1404, when the sovereign, all-powerful save in this, solicited and obtained from the Par- liament a permission that the right of suc- cession to the crown should be vested in the prince's brothers, if he himself should die without heirs. In 1406, another and a grander step was taken, by which the most essential principle of popular right was reached and consummated. The com- mons themselves in that year carried up a petition to Henry, limiting the succession expressly to his sons and their heirs male, and obtained its formal enactment. This was, in effect, a precedent for the settle- ment of the crown in after years on the house of Hanover. Other precedents, scarcely less illustri- ous, date from this reign. In the first ses- sion of Henry the Fourth, a law was pass- ed that no judge should be released from POPULAR PROGRESS. the penalty affixed to the sanction of an iniquitous measure, by pleading the orders of the king 1 ; or even the danger of his own life from the sovereign's menaces. In the second year of the reign, that practice, which was afterward one of the strongest bulwarks of popular privilege, was formal- ly insisted on as a right, and a necessary supply was proposed to be withheld from the prince until he had answered a peti- tion of the subject. Three years after this, the king was desired to remove from his household four officers, one of them even his own confessor, who had given offence to the commons ; and Henry, that he might gratify the wishes of his faithful subjects, complied with the request, though he told them that he knew of no offence which the persons complained of had committed. In the sixth year of the same reign, while they voted the king supplies, they appoint- ed treasurers of their own, whom they in- structed to see the money disbursed for the purposes intended, and required to de- liver in regular accounts to the house. In that year, also, new laws to regulate par- liamentary elections attested the rapidly- increasing strength of the commons. An important statute on " the grievous com- plaints of the commons against undue elec- tions for shires from the partiality of sher- iffs," and directing " that the next county court, after writs for Parliament are deliv- ered, proclamation shall be made of the day and place of the Parliament, and that all they that be there present, as well suit- ers duly summoned as others, shall pro- ceed to the election freely and indifferent- ly, notwithstanding any request or com- mand to the contrary" bears date in the year 1406. That was the ever-memorable year, too, in which the House of Commons, having been asked to grant supplies, startled the king with a plain proposal that he should seize all the temporalities of the Church, and employ them as a perpetual fund to serve the exigencies of the state. It is needless to. describe what the Church was then, or the extent to which the enormous and ill-gotten wealth of the regular clergy had at last attained. Its accumulation had been somewhat checked by statutes of mortmain under the first and third Edwards, but these were again eluded by licenses of alienation ; and the hand of a church- man, according to the competent evidence of Bishop Burnet, is particularly famous for the habit of never once letting go what it has once firmly grasped. Equally objection- able with the extent of this wealth was its unequal apportionment. While such ab- bots as those of Reading, or Glastonbury, or Battle lived with the riotous pomp of princes, and passed their days in feasting, thousands of monks were labouring with the lowest poverty, and toiling after the XI loftiest learning. The project of the com- mons included, therefore, a general and reasonable endowment of all the clergy to precede any state appropriation of the enormous surplus of ecclesiastical rev- enues. The argument they urged for it, and returned to again and again with a resolute energy, was, that the exorbitant riches, no less than the too scanty earnings of churchmen, could tend only to disqualify them for performing the ministerial func- tions with proper zeal and attention ; and though they failed in their immediate pur- pose, and had a heretic or two burned in their faces by way of archiepiscopal re- venge, and were dubbed by the higher cler- gy, in scorn, a lack-learning Parliament, they might have felt that, by the very agi- tation of such a question, the seeds were sown of no partial gain for posterity. The feeling it left behind shows the deep im- pression it had made, and in a manner fore- shadows all that followed. " The fat ab- botes swet," says Halle, " the proude priors frouned, the poor friers cursed, the sely nonnes wept, and al together wer nothyng pleased nor yet content." It was in the eighth year of this same great reign, however, that the most striking advance was made towards the freedom of a thoroughly and decisively limited mon- archy. Thirty very important articles were then proposed and conceded for the regulation of the king's household and gov- ernment, and the momentous principle of ministerial responsibility was distinctly set forth in them. Henry was required, and he consented, to govern the realm by the advice of a permanent council ; and this council was, at the same time, obliged, with all the judges and all the officers of the royal household, to take a solemn oath in Parliament to observe and defend the amended institutions. This reformation has been termed, on authority well entitled to respect, a noble fabric of constitutional liberty, hardly inferior to the petition of right. It is vain to say that many of these vast advantages were, in later years, obscured or disregarded. To show that they were once achieved, and that the principle in- volved in them was solemnly recognised and acted on, is to demonstrate all. There are truths in politics as in morals which, when once revealed to the light, no after darkness suffices to obscure. Seeming dead, they yet speak from what men think to be their graves. He who outrages or denies them does so at his own peril ; no common practice will justify him, no pre- cedent absolve him. A king who con- tinued strong enough to rule by the striet right of the Norman Conquest, fairly meas- ured his reign and its immunities by the length and temper of his sword ; but he who surrendered that right to either pray- xii ers or threatenings, and flung back to his people any portion of the freedom which had been theirs before, which was theirs still, and which no act of theirs could waste or alienate, barred himself and his descendants forever from the resumption of a conqueror's claims. The struggle be- tween two such principles as tyranny and freedom, once set on foot, admits no com- promise. A generation of men who have insisted upon certain rights for themselves, cannot, by subsequent indolence or indif- ference, be said to have bargained away those rights from a succeeding generation ; nor, when the theft of a people's liberties has been confessed by one restoration of them to the just possessors, can any prince, into whose violent keeping they may again have fallen, claim exemption from the pen- alties of political crime. The thief and the receiver are classed together by our laws. When Henry the Fifth took up the crown from off his father's deathbed, he said that, as the sword had won it, the sword should keep it still. But in that crown was now implied the popular sanction, and this the generous and impetuous prince well knew the value of preserving. It was not the crown of William the Norman, and the sword that was to keep it did not turn it- self against English breasts. By the splen- dour of foreign conquests, Henry sought to dazzle or propitiate such doubts as were still thought by some to lurk about his title ; but, with the vast majority of his people, none knew better than he that his best se- curity w.as a fair administration of the laws, equitable concessions to his Parliament, and protection to the poor from the op- pression of those above them. As little was he wanting in these, therefore, as in the brilliancy of success in battle, and the year which witnessed the victory of Agin- court completed also, and finally secured, the legislative rights of the English House of Commons. It had been found that the privilege left by the commons to the judges, to clothe in the formal terms of legal language, at the close of each session, the various bills and petitions passed in its course, had open- ed many opportunities to fraud on the part of the lawyers. The usage had originally risen from the desire of the house, in those days of imperfect education, to achieve, as far as possible, brevity and precision in the language of their statutes. In very many cases, however, the judges were discover- ed to have deliberately arrested the pur- pose of the commons to their own ends or those of the sovereign, and to have sub- stituted for popular protection a popular snare. Therefore it was that an act was now introduced and passed, providing that " from this time forward, by complaint of the commons asking remedy for any mis- chief, there be no law made thereupon HISTORICAL TREATISE. which should change the meaning by addi- tion or by diminution, or by any manner of term or terms." A formal and solemn grant, in the name of the king, was at the same time appended to it, stating that from thenceforth nothing " be enacted to be pe- titions of his commons that be contrary to their asking, whereby they should be bound without their assent." The effect was to secure to the house an unrestricted power over everything that belonged to the sacred trust of legislation. What followed was the necessary inci- dent to such a power. Authority, without the means for its sharp and decisive en- forcement, is the most dangerous weak- ness known to a state. The commons claimed, therefore, in the name and for the protection of the people, certain exclusive rights and exemptions needful to the fear- less discharge of the popular trust, to last as long as that trust lasted, and to cease when it was laid down. Among other things, they demanded personal release from such judicial proceedings as might be in danger of impeding parliamentary func- tions. They asserted their right to an ab- solute despotism concerning everything that passed within their own walls. In es- pecial, they solemnly exacted the exclusive jurisdiction of offences, whether committed by their own members or by others, which peculiarly and manifestly tended to impair the powers they held in trust as deputed from the people, and which were, in fact, the people's own, or threatened in any way to obstruct the public duties they were by them called on to discharge. In a word, they achieved what was thenceforward known by the formidable name of PRIVI- LEGE OF PARLIAMENT the shield and buck- ler under whose protection all the battles of liberty were fought in after ages, and by whose assistance they were mainly won. An attempt to drag the adjudication of this privilege into the courts of law followed ; when, in the famous case of Thorpe the speaker, the judges declared "that they would not determine the privilege of the high court of Parliament, of which the knowledge belongeth to the lords of Parlia- ment, and not the justices." It may be safely predicted, that when this privilege is in the smallest degree forfeited or aban- doned, we have lost the best security of true political freedom. When once the deputed privileges of the people are assail- ed successfully, the absolute rights of the people are safe no longer. That Parlia- ments without parliamentary liberties are but a fair and plausible way into bondage, was the saying of one who passed his life in the illustration and enforcement of this and every other truth which could affect the happiness of the English people. First established in practice, as I have thus de- scribed it, by this Parliament of Henry the POPULAR PROGRESS. Fifth and a more enduring honour to tha reign than any of Henry's warlike triumphs it served to herald the way for a yet more tremendous concession to the popu- lar element in the state. It was followed, not many years afterward, by the awfu] right of IMPEACHMENT. The reign of Henry the Sixth began in doubt and disaster, as it continued and closed in bloodshed ; yet it began, too, in a formidable assertion of the independent power of Parliament ; and one of its latest statutes bore testimony to the still increas- ing interest and importance of popular representation. The first thing done after the death of the hero of Agincourt was an alteration of that form of government, during the mi- nority of the young king, which had been settled by Henry's will. Without paying any regard to the latter, the lords and com- mons at once assumed a power of giving a new arrangement to the whole administra- tion. They would not suffer even the name of regent, as implying too much dignity in the state, apart from the individual claims of a king. The title of protector or guar- dian was supposed to express a more lim- ited authority, and this they substituted. In order, also, to limit the protectoral pow- er still farther, they named a council, with- out whose advice and approbation no measure of importance was ever to be de- termined. Nor less striking or decisive than these are what I have referred to as the later evidences of parliamentary power afforded even by this disastrous reign. They lie in the form and preamble 'of a statute " for the due election of members of Parliament in counties." I have noted the rapid precipitation of the fall of the feudal system, and of its great distinctions of tenure, after the concession of Magna Charta. I have described that enactment of Henry the Fourth (one of the first ad- vantages which accrued to the people from the doubtful title of the house of Lancaster) by which clandestine elections were re- strained, and the power given to every freeholder present at the place of election for that seems to be the true construc- tion of the words used, and certainly not any implication of a right of universal suf- frageto give their votes, whether sum- moned or not, freely and indifferently. The statute now passed, while professing to limit this right to a certain extent of freehold, offers a priceless proof, in the very terms of its preamble, of how much the commonest orders of the English peo- ple had in late years risen ; in all that gives the sense of personal power, the knowl- edge of political privileges, the gradual means to estimate them, and, in the end, the strength to win them. This is that famous preamble : " Where- as the election of knights has of late, in Xlll many counties of England, been made by outrageous and excessive numbers of peo- ple, many of them of small substance and value [an expression confirmatory of the above construction of Henry the Fourth's statute], yet pretending to a right equal to the best knights and esquires, whereby manslaughters, riots, batteries, and divis- ions among the gentlemen and other peo- ple of the same counties shall very likely rise and be, unless due remedy be provided in this behalf." Even our greatest anti- popular historian may here feel impelled to exclaim, What an important matter the election of a member of Parliament was now become ! The " remedy provided" was a limitation of the right of suffrage, exclusively settled by the act on such as possessed forty shillings a year in land free from all burden within the county ; and it was a remedy which happily left un- touched the very seat and core of the dis- ease. When a people have once been thoroughly recognised, it is a worse than vain attempt to seek to thrust them back into obscurity. Before describing other passages in this reign, which, in the very centre of all its horrors, its confusions, its desolating streams of blood in field or on scaffold, is to be noted here for its unacknowledged services to civilization and humanity, it will be well to transcribe, from the works of Sir John Fortescue, certain brief passa- ges which, in effect, describe the nature of the settled political advantages achieved before Henry the Sixth's accession. For- tescue was chief justice for many years in this prince's reign ; became his chancellor ; and, having been driven by the civil wars into France, with his royal master's wife and son, employed his leisure in the com- position of learned works, which rendered him, to succeeding times, a great Constitu- tional authority. The chief object of the principal of these was to contrast the po- litical Constitution of England with that of France, and to impress upon the mind of the young prince of the house of Lancas- ter the nature of his legal tenure as a po- itical magistrate in precepts which, it is right to add, Fortescue was not called upon to change when he afterward entered the service of a prince of the house of York. They were precepts recognised by both parties in the nation. This was the " De L,audibus Legum Angliae," the republica- ;ion of which, some years ago, with the earned notes of Mr. Amos now chief commissioner in India, and whose name I can never mention without confessing the warmest and most lasting obligations which a pupil can owe to his teacher conferred an inexpressible benefit on ev- ery student of English history. Its results may be briefly stated before the extracts are submitted to the reader, since their tes- XIV HISTORICAL TREATISE. timony to at least the comparative happi- ness and freedom of all classes of English- men under the Plantagenet rule is strong and incontestable. In France, according to this work and its contents are more than warranted by Philip de Comines the principle of the civil code, that the will of the monarch is law, prevailed, while in England the people lived under the protec- tion of laws of their own enactment. In England they paid taxes of their own im- posing, while in France the people were plundered at the sole discretion of their prince, who at the same time granted the nobility an immunity of taxation, lest he should drive them into rebellion. In Eng- land a man, upon any charge of crime, had the benefit of trial by a jury of his peers, while in France confession was extorted by the rack : " a custom which is not to be accounted law, but rather the high road to the devil." * An independent middle class of society also existed in England, while in France there existed only the two great divisions of a noblesse and a wretched peasantry. In England, in short, the peo- ple lived in reasonable political security, and in circumstances of social comfort ; in France they were in the most debased and most deplorable misery. " A king of England," says Fortescue and he speaks of two hundred years before the sixth Henry, as well as of that prince's time " a king of England cannot, at his pleasure, make any alterations in the laws of the land, for the nature of his govern- ment is not only regal, but political. Had it been merely regal, he would have a pow- er to make what innovations and altera- tions he pleased in the laws of the king- dom, impose tallages and other hardships upon the people, whether they would or no, without their consent. . . . But it is much otherwise with a king whose gov- ernment is political, because he can nei- ther make any alteration or change in the laws of the realm without the consent of the subject, nor burden them against their wills with strange impositions ; so that a people governed by such laws as are made by their own consent and approbation en- joy their properties securely, and without the hazard of being deprived of them, either by the king or any other. ... As the head of the body natural cannot change its nerves or sinews cannot deny to the sev- eral parts their proper energy, their due proportion and aliment of blood, neither can a king, who is the head of the body politic, change the laws thereof, nor take from the people what is theirs by right, against their consent. . . . For he is ap- pointed to protect his subjects in their lives, properties, and laws ; for this very end and purpose he has the delegation of power from the people, and he has no just claim to any other power but this. . . . The stat- utes of England are not enacted by the sole will of the prince, but with the concurrent consent of the whole kingdom, by their rep- resentatives in Parliament. And if any bills passed into a law, enacted with so much solemnity and foresight, should happen not to answer the intention of the legislators, they can immediately be amended and re- pealed, in the whole or in part ; that is, with the same consent and in the same manner as they were at first enacted into a law. . . . By the laws of England the truth of any matter cannot appear to a judge but upon the oath of. twelve men of the neighbourhood where the fact is sup- posed to be done. . . . "What evidence wit- nesses give in must be in open court, in the presence and hearing of a -jury of twelve men, persons of good character, neighbours where the fact was committed, apprized of the circumstances in question, and well acquainted with the lives and con- versations of the witnesses ; especially as they be near neighbours, and cannot but know whether they be worthy of credit or not ; it cannot be a secret to every one of the jury what is done by or among their neighbours. ... A king of England does not bear sway over his subjects as a king merely, but in a mixed political capacity ; he is obliged by his coronation oath to the observance of the laws, which some of our kings have not been well able to di- gest, because thereby they are deprived of that free exercise of dominion over their subjects, in that full, extensive manner, as those kings have who preside and govern by 'an absolute regal power. ... In Eng- land, no one takes up his abode in another man's house without leave of the owner first had. . . . Neither is it lawful to take away another man's goods without the consent of the proprietor, or being liable to be called to an account for it. ... The king cannot despoil the subject without making ample satisfaction for the same ; he cannot, by himself or his ministry, lay taxes, subsidies, or any impositions of what kind soever upon the subject ; he cannot alter the laws, or make new ones, without the express consent of the whole kingdom in Parliament assembled. . . . The inhab- itants of England are not sued at law but before the ordinary judge, where they are treated with mercy and justice, according to the laws of the land ; neither are they impleaded in point of property, or arraign- ed for any capital crime, how heinous so- ever, but before the king's judges, and ac- cording to the laws of the land. These are the advantages consequent from that political mixed government which obtains in England ; and from hence it is plain what the effects of that law are in practice, which some of your ancestors [the treatise is addressed to the chancellor's pupil, Hen- ry the Sixth's son], kings of England, have POPULAR PROGRESS. endeavoured to abrogate. . . . That mus needs be judged to be an hard and unju law which tends to increase the servitude and to lessen the liberty of mankind ; fo human nature is evermore an advocate fo liberty. God Almighty has declared him self the God of liberty ; this being the gif of God to man in his creation, the other is introduced into the world by means of his own sin and folly ; whence it is that ev erything in nature is so desirous of liberty as being a sort of restitution to its primi live state : so that to go about to lessen this is to touch men in the tenderest point It is upon such considerations as these that the laws of England, in all cases, de- clare in favour of liberty." Such is the ancient chancellor's testimo- ny to the truth of the popular progress in England, appealed to triumphantly in after years by Cotton, Coke, and Selden, when they first began to fight with the bloodies weapons of moral and intellectual truth, and under the invincible shield of those laws whose nature it was to " declare in all cases in favour of liberty," the great battle of the people. It is simple, manly, plain, and unaffected by any of those preposter- ous doubts and mysteries about prerogative which were started in later days. Be it observed, at the same time, that the advan- tages it so forcibly commemorates did not by any means at once embrace within their sphere all the various classes that were soon after known by the name of the peo- ple. Even while Fortescue wrote, a vast body of mere men-at-arms and feudal re- tainers, of peasants and of vassals, re- mained to be merged into that recognised class ; but it is no Jess certain that a larger admission of these within the constitutional pale was effected by circumstances be- tween the accessions of Henry the Sixth and Henry the Seventh than in any pre- vious age. This period divides itself into two epochs. The first comprises the melancholy con- duct and ignominious close of the second war for the establishment of the Planta- genets in France. But, as in the affairs of men, it is often with the business of nations, that there is a providence which shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will. Every leaf that was lost from the laurels of Hen- ry the Fifth was a security gained for the internal welfare of England in the rule of his successors ; for by the loss of the last, in which, with such apparent ignominy, the contest ended, all projects of territorial aggrandizement on the European Continent were happily ended also, and with them those accessions to the power of conquer- ing kings that were incompatible with a moderate system of political liberty, as well as that attention given to desired ac- quisitions abroad which had become incon- sistent with a due regard to the subject's interests at home. The second epoch in- cludes the wars of the white and red Roses, and to this it is more important to direct the attention of the reader. The dispute of the rival houses of York and Lancaster implied at its origin the popular acquiescence and assistance in a change of regal succession, and it exerted a proportionate influence on the political position of the people. When the barons of the Yorkist party revived the dispute in a more bloody form after that temporary insanity of Henry the Sixth, into which his constant imbecility, aggravated by ill- ness, had driven him the influence it ex- erted, though in another form, was of a character still more beneficial. It at once engaged the two great aristocratic factions in a self-exhausting struggle, while it ena- bled, in the interval, a great mass of the people, who stood almost quite aloof from the contest, to improve largely, not only by the exhaustion of the strength of their noble adversaries, but by their own plebeian suc- cesses in commerce and the arts, the pow- ers and rights of the commonalty of Eng- land. There is not a matter of more curious ontemplation in our history than these wars of the white and red Roses. They raged only upon the surface of the land ; the peaceful current beneath ran on as Deacefully as before. No burnings, no jlunderings, no devastations, reached the ;owns. When we look within the latter 'or evidence of the desolating strife which was deluging the country round in blood, we behold commerce increasing ; the arts thriving ; schools for education in progress Rafter the first endowments in London in he twenty-fifth of Henry the Sixth, the bundation of grammar schools increased rapidly everywhere) ; and, in the only sign of outward danger, a still surer symbol of 'nner and lasting safety, since the town combinations against possible outrage from the barons took the form of guilds, of cor- jorations, and of those other municipal safeguards which now for the first time arose in the Norman period, and which are he schools, or small republics, in which a jeople are best taught not only the art of elf-government, but its priceless value, its ndependence, and its honour. The few egislative enactments of this singular pe- iod, passed when parliaments were at lei- ure from raising or putting down the rival overeigns, sufficiently prove the impor- ance into which commerce had risen. It s unfortunate that they do not also prove knowledge of its true interests, or of the means of best promoting them. It was a parliament of Edward the Fourth which fter confirming the statutes of the fourth, fth, and sixth Henries, with the impolitic nd dangerous distinction of " late, in fact ut not of right, kings of England" pro- XVI hibited the importation of foreign corn ; and it is an unhappy circumstance that the idea of a people being ruined by making their food too cheap did not remain the peculiar property of the fifteenth century. It was in parliaments of Edward the Fourth and Richard the Third that importations of foreign manufacture were forbidden, where the like articles could be produced at home. And it was by Richard the Third himself that the practice of extorting mon- ey from merchants and citizens, on pre- tence of loans and benevolences, was abol- ished, for which the usurper has obtained the honourable praise of Lord Bacon " as a prince in militar virtue approved, jealous of the honour of the English nation, and likewise a good law-maker for the ease and solace of the common people." But even the lowest ranks of that com- mon people the common men-at-arms themselves were able, out of these wars of York and Lancaster, to snatch a way to rise in. Their actual loss of life in the struggle was nothing in proportion to that of their chiefs ; and the result of the final victory was such as mainly to withdraw their services from the aristocracy, and at- tach them to the people and the king. When Stowe tells us of the battle of North- ampton, he adds, that " the carles of Marche and Warwecke let cry, thorow the field, that no man should lay hand upon the king, ne on the common people, but on the lords, knights, and esquires." When we read of the results of the battle of Bosworth, we find victory in the hands of Henry and the smaller baronial faction of the Lancas- ters, and observe the instant commence- ment of a system by which the preponder- ating Yorkist aristocrats were sought to be depressed, by which severe statutes against the farther prevalence of armed retainers were freshly enacted or revived, restrictions on the devising of land, in effect, removed, and all things directed towards an ultimate transfer of the old baronial strength into new and, as it was supposed, less formidable channels. Large numbers of the baronial vassals took refuge in the towns, increasing their power and privi- leges ; large numbers, unhappily, still re- mained upon the soil ; and these, no longer necessary for the shows of pomp or the realities of war, suffered the worst horrors of destitution, were driven to its last re- sources, became incendiaries or thieves, overran the land as beggars, and, in the end, rendered necessary that great social change which took the name of a Poor Law in the reign of Elizabeth. With the battle of Bosworth Field the civil wars were finally closed, and with them the illustrious line of the Plantagenets. The pretensions of York and Lancaster were compromised by Richmond's marriage with the heiress of the house of York ; and in HISTORICAL TREATISE. the person of Henry the Seventh the line of the Tudor princes assumed sovereign rule in England. The strife had lasted up- ward of thirty years ; twelve great pitched battles had been fought in it ; eighty prin- ces of the blood had fallen ; the ancient nobility had been almost entirely annihi- lated ; and in the renowned and powerful Earl of Warwick who was said to have daily feasted at his board, in the different manors and castles he possessed, upward of thirty thousand persons there had fall- en the greatest and the last of those mighty barons by whom the crown had in former times been checked and overawed, and in whom, less happily, a serious obstruction had always existed to the political ad- vancement of the mass of the people. Such, indeed, had been this deluge of noble blood in the field or on the scaffold, that Henry the Seventh could find only twenty- eight temporal peers to summon to his first Parliament ; and such the change effected by it, in a political sense, on the manage- ment of public affairs, that the accession of the first Tudor is considered the origin of the modern system, and from it the con- stitutional historian of England has dated the compiencement of his history. It is n,t in itself, however, but by pecu- liar accidents alone, entitled to this distinc- tion. The time at which Henry the Sev- enth ascended the throne marks the exact date, not only of the revival of ancient lit- erature, but of the time when the old Con- tinental system was broken up, and founda- tions laid for the modern political arrange- ment of the European commonwealth. His reign itself includes a period of transi- tion which will be lastingly memorable, not in the annals of England only, but in the history of the world. Great things had been begun, but their completion was wait- ed for ; great men had risen, but the great- er, of whom they were the heralds, had yet to come. I have described the rise of an industrious commercial class, but not the discovery of a new continent and of East- ern commerce. The mariner's compass had guided the eager and adventurous Portu- guese to distant points of Africa, and to regions more profitable still ; but there was also living one calm and courageous Span- iard, by whom a new world was about to be disclosed to the rising hopes or the fail- ing energies of the old. The printing-press of Gutenberg had begun to reveal its might and its mysteries, but William Caxton's was yet silent. Wicliff had taught great doctrines, but the name of Luther was still unheard. The monks had tortured Roger Bacon, and Francis Bacon had not risen to torture the monks. What an entire world of intellect lives within these last two names alone. What far-extending views of philosophy and rea- son. What an elevation of the hopes of POPULAR PROGRESS. rvn men, and a sharpening of the intellect to achieve them, may be said to have gone forth from the grave of the first of these daring philosophers. A final verdict was then passed against the tricks of Church impostors, against the pretences of magic, against the delusions of abstract reason, against all the bad devices by which craft and hypocrisy are from age to age sustain- ed. It seems a simple thing to have said that no man could be so thoroughly con- vinced by argument that fire will burn as by thrusting his hand into the flames ; yet there lay the ominous germe of that Baco- nian philosophy which taught the vast su- periority of one simple interrogation of na- ture, by actual experiment, over all the cobweb quibbles of all the schools. It is as easy now to laugh at the brazen head of Friar Bacon, as it was easy in his day to invent the story, or to bury the philosopher himself for upward of twenty years in the living grave of a convent prison ; but let the more thoughtful reader imagine what the effect must have been of only one half page of the first circulated " Epistola" of this astonishing genius, as I shall quote its translation here, communicated, as it ne- cessarily was, to many active spirits of the time ; and communicated, not as a tale of wonder or of prodigy, but as the simple revelation of science; not as a mystery of secret and miraculous art to astonish or amuse mankind, but as an honest and plain announcement of the wonders nature had in store for all who could be excited and'en- couraged to a vigorous search after knowl- edge. " I will mention," he says, " things which may be done without the help of magic, such as, indeed, magic is unable and in- capable of performing ; for a vessel may be so constructed as to make more way with one man in her than another vessel fully manned. It is possible to make a chariot which, without any assistance of animals, shall move with that irresistible force which is ascribed to those scythed chariots in which the ancients fought. It is possible, also, to make instruments for flying, so that a man sitting in the middle thereof, and steering with a kind of rud- der, may manage what is contrived to an- swer the end of wings, so as to divide and pass through the air. It is no less possi- ble to make a machine of a very small size, and yet capable of raising or sinking the greatest weights, which may be of in- finite use on certain occasions, for by the help of such an instrument, not above three inches high, or less, a man may be able to deliver himself and his companions out of prison, and to ascend or descend at pleas- ure. Yea, instruments may be fabricated by which one man shall draw a thousand men to him by force and against their will, as also machines which will enable men to walk without danger at the bottom of seas and rivers." It was not a mere matter of accident that a friar so wonderful should have risen at such a time. In the still and wearied pause which had followed a storm of strife, and before these intellectual influences appeared in action on the scene, the first Tudor began his reign. It is useless to disguise the fact that, notwithstanding many great principles asserted and advantages achieved, it was not, in its immediate course, favourable to liberty. But a distinction of vast impor- tance is, at the same time, to be carefully noted. The defection from popular prog- ress did not lie with the people themselves, but with their natural leaders in the state, the House of Commons. Risings in the commonalty were frequent, remonstrances in the commons were few. In the early years of the reign Henry appealed directly to the country for a loan, leviable at a cer- tain rate, but was flatly refused it. In a Parliament of a few years later he found more compliances The truth was, that, relatively to what is called the state, cir- cumstances had thrown an overbalance of power into the hands of Henry, while to the mass of the people these very circum- stances rendered him the unconscious in- strument of transition and of progress. Nor less was this the destiny of all, the Tudors. The position they occupy in his- tory, and the rights they exercised, were peculiar to a great social mission which began and ended with their race. Lord Bacon has pronounced the laws of Henry the Seventh to be " deep, and not vulgar." They were not vulgar, but it may be fairly made a question if they were very deep ; just as Henry himself was by no means a great man, and yet very far from a little one. The act which worked most permanently and for great results, was one from which nothing but the most tempora- ry advantages seem to have been originally contemplated ; and it is a question whether the first idea of it is due to Henry the Sev- enth or to Richard the Third. This was the statute of Fines, as it is generally call- ed ; the act out of which arose greater fa- cilities of alienating entailed lands, and which has therefore been ascribed to Hen- ry's sagacious and politic desire still far- ther to reduce the aristocratic influence, and divert it into new channels. Here, how- ever, as in other things, there cannot be a doubt that the king was quite unconscious of the mighty change he was the means of effecting. He knew it as little as that the new powers he first gave to the old Con- silium Regis would in after years, under the name of the Star Chamber, strike, by their vicious uses, at the very heart of the monarchy itself. That a more direct power of alienation was never aimed at by the framer of this XV111 HISTORICAL TREATISE. statute of fines, will appear from a brief mention of the state of the law at the time. Edward the First's act, De Donis Conditio- nalibus, had declared that lands given to a man and the heirs of his body, with re- mainder to other persons, or reversion to the donor, could not be alienated, either from his own issue or from those who were to succeed them by the possessor for the time being ; but the courts of justice in subsequent reigns made many strong ef- forts to relax the strictness of these en- tails, not out of any hatred to them on the score of principle, but rather because they had been also held incapable of forfeiture for felony or treason ; and ultimately, in the reign of Edward the Fourth, the judges held, in the celebrated case of Taltarum, that a tenant in tail might, by means of an imaginary device of law, which was term- ed suffering a common recovery, divest all who were to follow him of their succes- sion, and become absolute owner of the fee simple. This unwarrantable stretch of judicial authority having been recog- nised, and often acted upon afterward, the intention of Henry the Seventh's statute was merely to throw greater obstructions in the way of those suits for the recovery of lands, which the recent civil turmoil had rendered very frequent, by establishing a short term of prescription. Its effect, at the same time, was to give a great impulse and a more decided efficacy to the power of alienation. It enacted, on the old prin- ciple of favouring possession, that a fine levied with proclamations in a public cour of justice should, after five years, be a bar to all claims upon lands. The history of the House of Commons in this reign is not to be contemplated with out pain and sorrow, natural as, perhaps it was in the new position of the king, anc necessary to what followed in the govern ment of his successor : yet it passed two statutes which are not undeserving of hon curable mention. The first was that of Henry's settlement, which " ordained an enacted by the assent of the lords and at the request of the commons, that the inherit ance of the crowns of England and France and all dominions appertaining to them should remain in Henry the Seventh and th heirs of his body for ever, and in none oth er." These words are admirably fitted fo the occasion. The reader need not be re minded that, though Henry was the only surviving heir of the house of Lancaster, the illegitimacy of the ancestor from whom he derived the inheritance precluded its asser- tion as a just right. This, therefore, is artfully avoided in the words quoted, which, while they neither assert nor contradict the pretensions of lineal descent, are fra- med with a view to the creation of a par- liamentary title. At the same time, how- ever, a marriage with the only surviving ssue of Edward the Fourth was forced pon Tudor, as though the house really ared to see a " spectre of indefeasible ight standing once more in arms on the omb of the house of York." The other tatute referred to bore upon this subject Iso, and was framed to place the subject's uty of allegiance on a solid ground of eason and justice. Its language is such is a free people had the right to claim, 't enacted, after reciting that subjects are y their allegiance bound to serve their irince, for the time being, against every )ower and rebellion raised against him, hat " no person attending upon the king and sovereign lord of this land for the time eing, and doing him true and faithful ser- /ice, shall be convicted of high treason, by act of Parliament or other process of law, nor suffer any forfeiture or punishment ; nit that every act made contrary to this statute should be void and of no effect." The latter provision was, of course, idle, since the laws of one generation cannot )ar the legislation of another ; but it shows from what an- earnest and passionate ex- perience of the horrors of disputed alle- giance this act had risen : an experience well justified in later ages, when the stat- ute was appealed to again and again, and too often vainly. The hoards of money amassed by Henry the Seventh through a long and lucky life, with the spirit of an extortioner and the care of a miser, are said to have amounted at his death to a sum that in our days would be tantamount to sixteen millions. With a treasury so enriched, with a title altogether undisputed, with extreme youth and a robust health, with a very handsome person and a more than average intellect, Henry the Eighth succeeded to his father's throne. Events of vast importance to mankind do not steal into the world like thieves in the night, though men seldom recognise, till all is over, the heralds that preceded them. Invisible messengers might they have been, " Horsed on the sightless couriers of the air," that gave the tidings of their coming ; but these were not felt the less, nor the less welcomed : men's souls were stirred, their brains made busy, and their hearts set strongly yearning. Such a ferment was in England long before the voice of Luther was heard from out of Germany. It began with the heresy of Wicliff, a hundred and fifty years before Luther was born. Its workings were at first obscure, but by the light of the fagots that burned the follow- ers of Wicliff they were slowly and sure- ly revealed. The martyrdom of a few of these Lol- lards marks the beginning of Henry's reign. It is not my intention to dwell in detail POPULAR PROGRESS. upon any part of its course. The House of Commons became more servile ; the few ancient lords that remained carried on an ignoble struggle with the new lords Henry created, as to which should surpass the other in servility ; the nation looked on in a strange and uncertain attitude of compli- ance and disgust ; while above all there rose, in the festive, riotous, and burly form of Henry, a power of a kind that had been till then unknown a power of unlimited passion, of unrestricted indulgence ; of dai- ly humours that availed against centuries of right and law ; of caprices and lusts be- fore which intellect was nothing, virtue nothing, life or love nothing ; in whose presence even the genius of Wolsey and of More weighed lighter than dust, and at whose slightest frown the perfect graces of Anne Boleyn changed to a bloody hor- ror. And this power, such and so terrible, existed for a purpose far greater and more lasting than its cruelties or crimes could be. and therefore it was permitted to exist. Be it only kept in mind that with the polit- ical Constitution of England it had no natu- ral alliance or connexion, and that with the Progress of the People it only became iden- tified by the vast results for which Provi- dence suffered its continuance during a space of forty years. Twelve of those years had passed when Martin Luther appeared before the diet at Worms and flung defiance at the pope. The nations of Europe were not unprepa- red for this, even from an obscure and ap- parently powerless monk. Gregory the Seventh's vast structure of theocratical power had long been broken down, and the various popes after his time, who made such strenuous efforts to excommunicate each other, had been more successful in excommunicating from popular deference or respect the faith which they professed. " Brother Martin has a fine genius," said the dainty and dilettanti Leo, " but these are the squabbles of friars." They were the muttered thunders of nations. England was lying in wait to swell the sound ; the world was ripe to echo it. The civil gov- ernments of Europe had long impressed upon the governed that there was some- thing rotten in them all. A new interest was wanted to engage and elevate men's hearts and souls. Nothing in which the higher nature or faculties of men could participate seemed to be going on in any part of Europe. What was Italy with its Cambray leagues ? What Spain and its Cor- tes under Ferdinand and Isabella, or their successors ? What was France with its States-General under Louis the Twelfth 1 What England, with its degenerate House of Commons, in waiting on the lusts of Henry ? The same word suffices for all. The whole was a cheat which men, with- out resistance, could endure no more. xix Henry himself was one of the first to re- sist Luther, not the pope. This only marks the more truly what a mere brutal instrument he was a mass of passion and will that were convertible for other uses, and in which even the grossest and most indecent inconsistency was suffered to take the shape of power. The title of Defender of the Faith, conferred upon him by Leo, he turned into a battering-ram against Clement. With it he even propitiated large masses of the moderate Catholics in Eng- land who did not pin their doctrines impli- citly to the skirts of the Roman See, but were ready to offer homage to a new pope in the person of Henry himself. This was, in fact, Henry's own most pas- sionate desire. It was well that it was so, or Protestantism might never have been es- tablished as it was in his great daughter's reign. He had himself no regard for the truth in anything he did. The Gospel light as little beamed on him from Boleyn's laughing eyes, when she was about to mount his bed, as from her serene and pa- tient look when she was about to mount his scaffold. The Gospel light has nothing to do with lust, has no sympathy for satis- fied cruelty, takes no regard of personal interests, sheds no virtue upon ambitious passions, and could find in the whole huge bulk of Henry not a crevice or a corner into which it might cast even one of its di- viner rays. Yet who, save Henry, could have done what the time cried out for? What, save his reckless brutality, could have discharged that painful but impera- tive work? Who could so have thrust down the monasteries, and hunted out the priests 1 W T ho would have dared, save he, to cram his own exchequer with their enor- mous revenues? Above all, what prince or priest, acting sincerely as a reformer of the faith and a champion of Luther's doc- trines, could have done what was abso- lutely needful at the first flinging down of the national allegiance to Rome : could have kept in resolute check both Protest- ant and Catholic ', could have persecuted with an equal hand the Romanist and the Lutheran; could have passed as an adhe- rent to Catholic doctrines while he spurn- ed the papal authority, and have loudly de- clared his passion for transubstantiation, while he still more loudly shouted forth his abhorrence of submission to a court at Rome. Be it assuredly believed that all was more wisely ordered than the mere wisdom of ordinary policy could presume to have foreseen. This broad and vicious body of Henry the Eighth was as the bridge between the old and the new reli- gions. It is fearful, but not unsalutary, to cast a parting glance at it after its great work upon the earth was done. It lay immovea- ble and helpless, a mere corrupt and bloat- HISTORICAL TREATISE. ed mass of dying tyranny. No friend was near to comfort it ; not even a courtier dared to warn it of its coming hour. The men whom it had gorged with the offal of its plunder hung back in affright from its perishing agonies, in disgust from its ul- cerous sores. It could not move a limb nor lift a hand. The palace doors were made wider for its passage through them ; and it could only then pass by means of machinery. Yet to the last it kept its ghastly state, descended daily from bed- chamber into room of kingly audience through a hole in the palace ceiling, and was nightly, by the same means, lifted back again to its sleepless bed. And to the last, unhappily for the world, it had its hor- rible indulgences. Before stretched in that helpless state of horror, its latest victim had been a Plantagenet. Nearest to itself in blood of all its living kindred, the Count- ess of Salisbury was, in her eightieth year, dragged to the scaffold for no pretended crime save that of corresponding with her son, and, having refused to lay her head upon the block (it was for traitors to do so, she said, which she was not), but mo- ving swiftly round, and tossing it from side to side to avoid the executioner, she was struck .down by the weapons of the neigh- bouring men-at-arms ; and while her gray hairs streamed with blood, and her neck was forcibly held down, the axe dischar- ged, at length, its dreadful office. The last victim of all followed in the graceful and gallant person of the young Lord Surrey. The dying tyranny, speechless and incapa- ble of motion, had its hand lifted up to affix the formal seal to the death-warrant of the poet, the soldier, the statesman, and schol- ar; and, on the "day of the execution," according to Holinshed, was itself " lying in the agonies of death." Its miserable comfort, then, was the thought that youth was dying too ; that the grave which yawn- ed for abused health, indulged lusts, and monstrous crimes, had in the same instant opened at the feet of manly health, of gen- erous grace, of exquisite genius, and modest virtue. And so perished Henry the Eighth. Not so perished all his passions, or the penalties which are exacted for them in this world. He left children who inherited both, and pursued each other with an un- natural hatred. The legitimacy of Mary branded Elizabeth as illegitimate ; the le- gitimacy of Elizabeth affixed a stain on the birth of Mary ; and both were subject to that stain in the presence of their brother Edward. It had been made treason to hold the marriages both of Catharine of Arragon and Anne Boleyn to be legal ; treason to hold the children by those marriages ille- gitimate ; treason to be silent on the sub- ject ; and treason to refuse to take an oath upon it when required. One statute disa- bled Mary from the succession to make way for Elizabeth ; another set aside Eliz- abeth to make room for Edward ; a third, in raising that prince to a settled superior- ity in law, confirmed both his sisters in the imputation of disgrace. What but misery and hate could follow all this ! And hate and misery followed hard indeed. Mary was thirty-two years old when her father died ; Elizabeth was fourteen ; Edward scarcely nine. What wonder that the per- secution of Mary by the authority of her boy-brother tended to change into gall the distempered blood she had inherited] or that the after persecution of Elizabeth by Mary forced forth the less loving qualities of that greater woman Tudor] Very pain- ful is it to contemplate all this, but far more painful would it be to speak in repro- bation of what was vile and cruel, nor care to discriminate the sources to which it owed existence. I have refrained from any remark on the popular progress in the civil government of this reign, apart from the great event of the beginning of the Reformation. A word concerning the House of Commons will yet be not without its use, low as the con- dition was to which it had servilely de- scended. Even in its mean and unworthy office of subserving to the interests and wishes of a tyrant, nobler duties were im- plied ; the idea of higher functions was, at least, never lost ; nor the sense that, how- ever unworthy the immediate agent, it alone could be the instrument, of changes that affected the people. Towards that house the people were still instructed to look for good or evil. They saw it still grant subsidies which could not be raised by any other course ; they saw it still used in the proposal of statutes which, without its consent, could never have been bind- ing. Even the worst infringements of pub- lic liberty were but confessions of its pow- er. When the sole proclamations of Hen- ry the Eighth received, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, the force of stat- utes (" provided they should not be preju- dicial to any person's inheritance, offices, liberties, goods, and chattels, or infringe the established laws"), it was the House of Commons which enacted it; declaring thus that without its authority no royal prerog- ative dared ever soar so high, that with- out its assistance liberty could never have fallen under such a fatal wound. When one fifth of the landed property of the na- tion passed from the possession of its own- ers, it was by the act of the House of Com- mons. When bills of attainder struck down the guilty, or shed the blood of the innocent, still it was from that house they came. The king may have been, indeed, all-powerful, but it was in the omnipotence of the parliamentary authority which had been suffered by base servility to descend upon him. POPULAR PROGRESS. xxi Finally, two direct cases of constitutional advantage were achieved in this reign, of which some mention should here be made. The first was the extension of parliament- ary representation to the entire principal- ity of Wales, on the basis of certain great and important principles laid down in the preamble of the bill which granted it that it is disadvantageous to any place to be unrepresented ; that representation is es- sential to good government ; and that those who are bound by the laws should have a direct influence in the enactment of those laws. All this is distinctly laid down in the thirteenth chapter of the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth of Henry the Eighth, by which upward of thirty members were ad- ded to the lower house. The second ad- vantage was in support of privilege of Par- liament. A burgess of the name of Fer- rers had been arrested on his way to the house. The sergeant was at once sent with the mace to the prison to demand his immediate release. The sheriffs in whose names the arrest had been made, as well as the jailer who refused to comply with the demand of the sergeant, were subse- quently brought to the bar and punished with imprisonment, while the king himself, in the presence of his judges, confirmed in the strongest manner this great assertion of privilege. Holinshed, who relates the incident, says, in reference to this demand for release of a party from prison at the mere demand of the sergeant of the house, that " the chancellor offered to grant them a writ of privilege, which they of the Com- mons' House refused, being of a clear opin- ion that all commandments and other acts proceeding from the nether house were to be done and executed by their sergeant without writ, only by show of his mace, which was his warrant." In the short reign of Edward the Sixth, the Reformation was really introduced in England, and Protestantism established upon the soil. But the edifice was yet feeble, and was indeed far from comple- tion, when the sudden accession of Mary, on her brother's premature death, over- threw it altogether. The last effort of the Reformers, before that event occurred, may be even said to have constituted the most essential stone of the building; and this was not quite accomplished at its fall. Edward the Sixth, after the example of his father, had been placed in the exact posi- tion of the pope ; and Cranmer, with other bishops, had contented themselves with again taking out the commissions conce- ded to the tyranny of the old king, by which their sees were merely held during pleas- ure. A new scheme of ecclesiastical laws had been drawn up, when the young king was thrown upon his deathbed. One thing is quite certain in any careful consideration of the tendencies of this short 1 reign. The Reformation was pushed on after Henry the Eighth's death much too I precipitately, and the Catholics, in conse- quence, began to recover ground. In vain I did the Princess Mary herself implore to have the exercise of the old religion, to which she clung, conceded to her at home ; in vain did Gardiner and Bonner protest against their unmerited deprivation of lib- erty and property ; in vain did even Heath and Day, worthy and moderate bishops, who had gone as far as the Reformers should have wished, and only stopped where they also should have been content with making a temporary pause in vain did even these solicit charity or justice. Some indulgences there were which Cran- mer and Ridley would have granted, but the young king stood firm against all, and against his sister Mary with an obdurate harshness. Much misery had meanwhile been at- tendant on the new distribution of the Church lands, and insurrections every- where told of want and of despair. The comfortable dish at the convent-door was sighed for again. The blessings of the new faith had not fallen according to the promise. The waverers from the old system began to retrace their steps, the protectors of the new to abate their en- thusiasm. What was it that was wanted, then 1 Something that should display the worst vices of the Romanist faith, the big- otry, the intolerance, the spiritual slavery, the lower deep than that lowest into which conscience seemed threatening to return. And then Mary ascended the throne. Still there was something wanted. A transla- tion of the Bible had for some years been offered for sale in the parish churches, but men seemed yet to need an incentive to its study a light to read it by ; and within two years the fires began in Smithfield. No light of greater efficacy could have been devised to show the moderation of its doc- trine, the gentleness of its wisdom, the all- embracing charities of its love. As hun- dreds perished in the flames, thousands upon tens of thousands began to breathe with ardent hope the name of Anne Bo- leyn's daughter. This is all that need be said of the de- plorable reign of Mary, save an important reference to one or two strong intima- tions of reviving independence in members of the House of Commons. In these the people seemed rising on the scene once more. No sovereign packed that house more sedulously with the creatures of the crown than Mary did. Men of the new faith were driven from the places of elec- tion by force and terror ; foreign gold was distributed in profusion ; pensions and bribes universally rewarded political prof- ligacy ; and a forcible exclusion from the house, even after regular election, was the HISTORICAL TREATISE. xxu common tribute to political honour. With all this, Mary approached her first Parlia- ment in fear. She met them with affected moderation on her lips, though the fever of bigotry already consumed her heart. Nor did the result prove the fear mispla- ced. This first Parliament was speedily dissolved for thwarting her in her mar- riage negotiations. Another was sum- moned, and shared the same fate. Within two years she had summoned three Parlia- ments, which, though subject to heavy re- ; sponsibility for many crimes, are not, in some respects, undeserving of most hon- ourable mention. In respect to the Spanish marriage, for example, nothing could induce them to give way to Mary's passionate desire for Philip, by conceding to that prince a dig- nity which they believed to be incompati- ble with the independence of the English crown, or by conferring a political author- ity upon him which might involve danger to the privileges and laws of the English peo- ple. They gave him, indeed, the empty ti- tle of king, which was due to his own in- dependent rank, and in everything else ex- acted much and gave nothing. Commend- able spirit was also shown in the repeated negotiations concerning the old property of the Church ; and guilty as these Parlia- ments of Mary were in much that has dis- graced them with posterity, it is a memo- rable circumstance to record that a band of patriots absolutely existed in one of them who, having publicly declared that all their efforts to serve the country were unavail- ing in that assembly, and that they would no longer remain to countenance what they would rather curse, openly and deliberate- ly seceded from the house. Mary's at- torney-general filed an information against them, but it was not pursued, and the reign soon after saw its close. Its work had not been left undone. For the ad- vent of Elizabeth, all parties were now thoroughly prepared. The glory of this extraordinary woman's reign was the final uprooting of the Ro- j man Catholic faith, and the establishment of Protestantism. Amid many passions she indulged, and more over which she ex- ercised a great control ; amid many crimes she committed, and many from which she most magnanimously refrained, this has consecrated her memory. It was a policy not restricted to the country which she gov- erned : she championed it throughout the world. All who were carrying on, against overwhelming numbers, the struggle of the new faith in other lands, were taught, not vainly, to appeal to her ; and as it was one of the grand peculiarities of the Refor- mation to have given a new interest to or- dinary politics, by lifting them out of the selfish regions of factious party into the nobler and serener atmosphere of con- science and religion, the English queen, while she deservedly won the fame of a defender of mental freedom, assumed, without desert, to be entitled to the office and the praise of a defender of political freedom also. Nor was this delusion practised unsuccessfully. It lasted for at least the half of her entire reign. The de- lusion was then discovered, and in the other half a difference arose. The political position of Elizabeth at her accession was in all respects very striking. She at once entered on the easy inherit- ance of that estate which the singular stewardship of her father and grandfather had been cultivating and improving for up- ward of seventy years, and, as it might now almost seem, for her use alone. But the tenure of the estate was not less singular than its growth or its extent. Once car- ried to its highest point of cultivation, it was doomed to inevitable and speedy de- cay ; its ripeness and its rottenness must appear together. Elizabeth lived to enjoy the one, and not altogether to escape the other. The state in the first period of her reign] That was Elizabeth. The state in the second period! That was a combi- nation of Elizabeth, the House of Com- mons, the rack, and the scaffold. Her desire and resolve to work out the problem of the political system of her fa- ther and grandfather appeared immediately on her accession. Everything was in fa- vour of the plan. The House of Lords had now no power independent of the crown, for by the sole pleasure and will of the sovereign it had of late existed ; the fear of confiscation and the scaffold on one hand, the hope of influence and Church property on the other, dealt out with a most impartial regard to the regal interest from the steps of the Tudor throne, held that house, from the beginning to the close of the reign, in the humblest subjection to Elizabeth a nullity, a negation in the state. For the House of Commons, there was every reason to suppose that the business of the establishment of Protestantism would so far occupy the members as to leave undisputedly, at the first, a dictation of the main branch of the civil government in the queen's own hands. And this was a just belief; the members were so propitiated. " I have heard of old Parliament men," said Peter Wentworth, from his place in that house, twenty years afterward, " that the banishment of the pope and popery, and the restoring of true religion, had their beginning from this house, and not from the bishops." With regard to the people, it was always Elizabeth's fondest purpose to place herself at their head. The idea which had entered her great spirit seems to have been, that she could fling down every barrier between the sovereign au- thority and the popular allegiance. Her POPULAR PROGRESS. subjects she would have made her children. Her kingdom was to be to her as her own palace. It might be said, even, that she did not so much desire to be a sovereign prince as to be a sovereign demagogue. She would mix with the people, gladly make their interests hers, condescend to their amusements, uphold their prejudices, gossip with them, joke with them, swear with them, but never, on any pretence, suffer them to mount higher than her knee. Their aspiring tendencies she never coun- tenanced. While she patted a mayor or an alderman on the head, she disdained to lift her finger for the support of a Spenser or a Shakspeare. The man of genius found no protection in her. nor did she ever give any direct encouragement to the cultiva- tion of literature. The reverse of this has been stated so confidently and so long, that it is hazardous to replace it by the truth. Sad and sorry as it may be, it is the truth notwithstanding. But the people, in her despite, had their Spensers and their Shakspeares ; they had their translation of the Bible, with its les- sons of brotherhood and charity ; they had their tales of a New World, their lessons from the Old ; they had as free an access to the great literature of the ancient wri- ters as to that of the living and surpassing genius which surrounded them ; they had poetry in thought, and poetry in action ; adventure and chivalry moved in living realities through the land ; and the com- monest people might lift caps, as they passed along the streets, to a Drake, a Sid- ney, or a Raleigh. It was only necessary that the rising influences which marked the accession of the Tudor family should thus appear in full and active operation on the minds of the English people, to sen- tence to a gradual but certain downfall the half political, half patriarchal system of this famous woman, by far the greatest of the race. Discontent directed itself first against the weakest and most ominous quarter. In the year 1570, the institution of epis- copacy in the Protestant Church was openly assailed by the Lady Margaret's professor of divinity at Cambridge. There had been an active discussion going on for some years on matters of minor con- sideration. Tippets had been violently contested, and sad and serious had been disputes on the surplice. But now, to the amazement of the imperious Parker, who had declared that he would maintain to the death these essentials of the new religion, all farther mention of such mat- ters ceased, and the archbishop was sum- moned to maintain to the death neither tippet nor surplice, but the whole ecclesi- astical hierarchy of England. This was sudden, but the people did not seem to be taken suddenly. Cartwright's lectures were as a match to a train, and a formi- dable party of Puritans forthwith started up in England. It was obvious, at the commencement of Elizabeth's reign, that the great danger lay here. It was, of course, an essential feature in the Tudor system, that the frame- work of the ancient hierarchy of Rome should be left untouched. At a time when politics had suddenly become, as it were, only a part and parcel of religion, the idea of unlimited spiritual dominion was too valuable to be surrendered, implying, as by a very simple analogy it did, unlimited temporal dominion also. This dominion, again, by the acts of supremacy and uni- formity, was placed at the absolute use and disposal of the sovereign, who thus formal- ly assumed the cast-off robes of the pope. But such an assumption, even so early, scattered the seeds of discontent in fruitful places. The very Catholics assumed a vir- tue in the eyes of the more pure religious Reformers, when they saw the peculiar nature of the persecution with which the queen indiscreetly visited them, and felt, as in the instance of the Act of Uniformity, that even they themselves would not be able altogether to escape its penalties. It was prohibited by that statute, under pain of forfeiting goods and chattels for the first offence, a year's imprisonment for the second, and imprisonment during life for the third, that a minister should, whether beneficed or not, use any but the established Liturgy ; and a fine was, at the same time, imposed on all who should absent them- selves from church on Sundays and holy- days. The act of supremacy was much more atrocious. It enacted, with what has been truly termed an iniquitous and san- guinary retrospect, that all persons who had ever taken holy orders, or any degree in the universities, or had been admitted to the practice of the laws, or held any office in their execution, should be bound to take the oath of supremacy when tendered to them by a bishop, or by commissioners ap- pointed under the great seal. A praemunire was the penalty for the first refusal ; death, under the pains of high treason, for a second. Not without a manly protest did these statutes pass at the time. " I say," ex- claimed Lord Montagu, in his place in Parliament, " that this law that is pretend- ed is not necessary; forasmuch as the Catholics of this realm disturb not, nor hinder the public affairs of the realm, neither spiritual nor temporal. They dis- pute not, they preach not, they disobey not the queen, they cause no trouble nor tu- mults among the people. ... I do entreat whether it be just to make this penal statute to force the subjects of this realm to receive and believe the religion of the Protestants upon pain of death. This, I say, is a thing most unjust. For that it is repugnant to the law of nature, and all civil XXIV HISTORICAL TREATISE. laws. The reason is, for that naturally no man can, or ought to be constrained to take for certain that which he holdeth to be uncertain. For this repugneth to the natural liberty of man's understanding. For understanding may be persecuted, but not forced. It is sufficient and enough for Protestants to keep possession of the churches, and the authority to preach and excommunicate, not to seek to force and strain men to do or believe, by compulsion, what they believe not ; and not to swear, and to make God witness of their lie." This was spoken in 1562, while, at the same time, Mr. Atkinson vainly adjured the House of Commons with equal eloquence, and as fine a sense of philosophic tolera- tion, to listen to like reason. " Is it not," he asked, " a sufficient punishment for a man that he shall not, by his wit and learn- ing, so long as he continueth a certain opinion, bear any office, or have any coun- tenance in this commonwealth f What better proof can you have of the goodness of the law, that you see, since that time, no great breach of the law ; no seditious congregations, no tumult, but the common peace well kept ? . . . Suppose you that the greatest part will refuse the oath 1 Think you that all that take it change their con- sciences ? Nay, many a false shrew there is, that will lay his hand to the book when his heart shall be far off. Of this hath this house full experience. If men, for trifles, will forswear themselves, it cannot choose but be perilous when their goods, lands, liberties, and lives shall depend upon it. And if men were seditious before, now will they become ten times more seditious. And if any were rebellious before, now will his heart become more rebellious ; for that he is enforced to perjury. . . I beseech you," concluded this admirable speaker, in a tone of prophetic warning, " I beseech you that you will well remember the trust that your country putteth in you ; and, since you have the sword in your hand to strike, be well ware whom you strike. For some shall you strike that are your near friends, some your kinsmen, but all your country- men, and even Christians. And though you may like these doings, yet may it be that your heirs after you may mislike them ; and then farewell your name and worship." The dangers thus predicted fell even more heavily than had been foreseen. The sword struck, and recoiled from the breasts of friends as well as foes. Persecution, insurrection, and the scaffold went on, af- ter Protestantism had been immoveably es- tablished, in a continual round. Not the admirable and devoted attitude of the Catholics on the threatened approach of the armada, when, in that " agony of the Prot- estant faith and name," they flocked in every county to the lord-lieutenant's stand- ard, and implored to be allowed to prove that the national glory of England was dearer to them than their religion itself: not even this abated the severities against them. On the other hand, not even the hatred borne by the purer order of the Re- formers to Romanism and its professors in the slightest degree tended to the toler- ation of Protestant nonconformity. In- deed, the spirit of persecution in the last case was perhaps more keen and personal than in the first. Elizabeth loved, to the latest moment of her life, the gorgeous ceremonials of religion, as she cherished all that placed in subjection to authority the senses and the faith of men. It was with this feeling that she clothed her own bishops in such supreme authority; that she adhered to forms and ceremonies which, but for this, her masculine sense would have put aside in scorn ; that she called in to a constant share in her govern- ment, during its later period, the rack and the scaffold, and bequeathed to her suc- cessors a regal inheritance rotting to its very core. No bishop, no king, was a danger- ous, and, indeed, fatal maxim. Its very form implied not only an endeavour to check the great impulses of the Reformation, but also the possibility of a rebound from that en- deavour which would involve ruin to both bishop and king. And so it proved. Cartwright's lectures at Oxford were fol- lowed by an immediate movement in the House of Commons. A few days after the opening of the session, in the Parliament which met in April, 1571, Mr. Strickland, " a grave and ancient man of great zeal," rose and addressed the house at great length, and with great temper, on the abuses of the Church, and presented a bill for the reformation of the Common Prayer. This was followed, a few days after, by a bill to take away the granting of licenses and dis- pensations by the Archbishop of Canter- bury. The queen, upon this, interfered, in great anger. Mr. Strickland's bills were arrested, and himself too. He was sum- moned before the council, and commanded not to return to the house till their farther pleasure. This was resented with spirit and success ; and Mr. Strickland, in despite of queen and council, resumed his seat next day, when, in the course of a debate on the subject, Mr. Yejverton said, " that all mat- ters not treason, or too much to the deroga- tion of the imperial crown, were tolerable there, where all things came to be con- sidered of, and where there was such ful- ness of power as even the right of the crown to be determined ; and by warrant whereof we had so resolved, that to say the Parliament had no power to determine of the crown was high treason. He remem- bered how that men are not there for them- selves, but for their counties. He showed it was fit for princes to have their prerog- atives, but yet the same to be straitened within reasonable limits. The prince, he POPULAR PROGRESS. xxv showed, could not herself make laws, neither ought she, by the same reason, break laws." He concluded with defending both Mr. Strickland and his bills. Such expressions may well startle the believers in that kind of history which com- pares England and Elizabeth to Turkey and its sultan. But they were not then uttered for the first time in this reign. The political achievements of the days of the elder Henrys and Edwards were not to be so soon forgotten. The^principles implied had been laid down over and over again, though the peculiar crisis of affairs at Elizabeth's accession enabled her, as I have shown, to dispense with them largely in her practice. As early as 1566, Onslow, then speaker of the House of Commons, thus referred to the authority of the com- mon law, in his sessional address to the throne. " For, by our common law," he said, " although there be for the prince pro- vided many princely prerogatives and roy- alties, yet it is not such as the prince can take money or other things, or do as he will, at his own pleasure, without order ; but quietly to suffer his subjects to enjoy their own, without wrongful oppression, wherein other princes, by their liberty, do take as pleaseth them." He next proceed- ed to tell the queen " that, as a good prince, she was not given to tyranny contrary to the laws, had not attempted to make laws contrary to order, but had orderly called this Parliament, who perceived certain wants, and thereunto had put their helping hand." Onslow was at this time the queen's solicitor as well as speaker of the house, and Elizabeth offered no denial to his claims either for the house or the com- mon law. Harrison, who was a writer of some au- thority, used still stronger language a little later in the reign. " This house," he said, referring to the commons, " hath the most high and absolute power of the realme; for thereby kings and mightie princes have from time to time been deposed from their thrones ; laws either enacted or abrogated ; offenders of all sorts punished ; and cor- rupted religion either disannulled or re- formed. To be short, whatsoever the peo- ple of Rome did in their centuriafis or tri- bunitiis comitiis, the same is and may be done by authoritie of our Parlement House., which is the head and body of all the realme, and the place wherein everie par- ticular person is intended to be present, if not by himselfe, yet by his advocate or at- tornie. For this cause, also, .anything ther enacted is not to be misliked, but obeied of all men without contradiction or grudge." The noble language employed by Hooker, in his " Ecclesiastical Polity," is more accessible, and need not be repeat- ed here. He anticipates in that the whole theory of Locke ; in every part of it de- rives the origin of government explicitly, both in right and in fact, from a primary contract ; enlarges on the advantages of a limited monarchy, and expressly lays down that of Elizabeth as a government restrain- ed by law. But, finally, I may quote the striking ex- pressions of Aylmer, afterward Bishop of London, as early as 1559, when he answer- ed Knox's " Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous Regiment of Women." The blast had been blown against Mary, but the echo of the sound loitered disagreeably in the ears of the new queen. " Welly" says Aylmer, " a woman may not reigne in England : better in England than any- where, as it shall wel appere to him that withoute affection will consider the kinde of regiment ; while I conferre ours with oth- er as it is in it selfe, and not maymed by usurpation, I can find none either so good or so indifferent. The regiment of Eng- land is not a mere monarchic, as some, for lack of consideracion, thinke, nor a mere oligarchic, nor democratie, but a rule mixte of all those, wherein each one of these have or should have like authoritie. Thim- age whereof, and not the image, but the thing in dede, it is to be sene in the Par- liament Hous, wherein you shall find these thre estats : the king or quene, which rep- resenteth the monarche ; the noble men, which be the aristocratic ; and the burgess- es and knights, the democratie. The verye same had Lacedemonia, the noblest and best city governed that ever was ; thei had theire kings, theire senate and Hippagretes, which wer for the people. As in Lacede- monia none of these could make or break laws, order for warre or peac, or do any thing without thother; the king nothing without the senate and commons, nor ei- ther of them or both withoute the king (al- beit the senate and the ephori had greater authoritie than the king had). In like ma- ner, if the Parliament use theire privile- ges, the king can ordein nothing withoute them. If he do, it is his fault in usurping it, and theire follye in permitting it. . . But to what purpose is all this 1 -To declare that it is not in England so daungerous a matter to have a woman ruler as men take it to be. For, first : it is not she that' ru- leth, but the laws, the executors whereof be her judges appointed by her, her justi- ces, and such other officers Secondly: she maketh no statutes or laws, but the honorable court of Parliament ; she break- eth none, but it must be, she and they to- gether, or else not. If, on the other part, the regiment were such, as all 'hanged uppon the king's or quene's wil, and not uppon the lawes;wrytten ; if she might de- cre, and make lawes alone, without her senate ; if she judged offences according to her wisdome, and not by limitation of statutes and laws ; if she might dispose XXVI HISTORICAL TREATISE. alone of warre and peac ; if, to be short, she wer a mere monark, and not a mixte ruler, you might, peradventure, make me to feare the matter the more, and the les to de- fend the cause. But the state being as it is or ought to be (if men wer wurth theyr eares), I can se no cause of feare." And no fear there was. The slumber was only for a time. Men were worth their ears, and had resolved that neither pillory nor rack should continue to make light of them. After Strickland's return to the house, a very bold step was taken, and taken suc- cessfully. It had been found necessary that the Articles of the English Church, as altered from those of Edward the Sixth, and settled in the convocation of 1562, should receive the sanction of Parliament to make them more binding on the clergy. They were now introduced. On those that related to matters of faith no discus- sion arose ; while, on those that declared the lawfulness of the established form of consecrating bishops and priests, the su- premacy of the crown, and the power of the Church to order rites and ceremonies, an opposition started up of so decided a char- acter, that the house eventually withheld its assent to them, and the insertion of the word " only" into a portion of the statute excluded those articles from legislative as- sent. Peter Wentworth, one of Strick- land's supporters and fellow-patriots, and the most distinguished assertor of civil lib- erty in Elizabeth's reign, described in a subsequent Parliament his conversation on this subject with Archbishop Parker. " I was," said this bold and honest speaker, " among others, the last Parliament sent for unto the Bishop of Canterbury, for the Articles of Religion that then passed this house. He asked us why we did put put of the book the articles for the homilies, consecrating of bishops, and such like 1 1 Surely, sir,' said I, ' because we were so occupied in other matters, that we had no time to examine them how they agreed with the Word of God.' ' What,' said he, ' surely you mistook the matter ; you will refer yourselves wholly to us therein 1 ?' ' No, by the faith I bear to God,' said I, 'we will pass nothing before we under- stand what it is ; for that were but to make you popes ; make you popes who list,' said I, ' for we will make you none.' And sure, Mr. Speaker, the speech seemed to me a pope-like speech, and I fear lest our bish- ops do attribute this of the pope's canons unto themselves, Papa non potest errare ; for surely, if they did not, they would re- form things amiss, and not to spurn against God's people for writing therein as they do : but I can tell them news ; they do but kick against the pricks, for undoubtedly they both have, and do err." Make you popes who list, for we will make you none, is, in a single sentence, a whole history. The people were taught to re- ject the false dogma of a papal supremacy, and suddenly found a High Church principle of a character scarcely less offensive lift- ing up its insolent head among them. Having achieved the sacred right of private judgment and national independence in the all-important matter of religion, they were instantly required to submit to an ecclesi- astical usurpation of civil power and con- scientious belief almost less tolerable than that which they so reluctantly bore in the days of papal slavery. The intellect and chivalry of the land, its earnest and serious persuasions, alike forbade it. And now a sudden encounter of both gave birth to a new race of men, who were soon destined to start forth, still affronted by that No king, no bishop cry, bear down both Church and throne into the dust. The sons and daugh- ters of the Arcadia were the parents of the men of Charles and Cromwell. Meanwhile the struggle which began against Elizabeth herself was so far con ducted with spirit and with boldness, as to achieve many very solid and large acces- sions to the privileges of the House of Commons (which it is not necessary to make farther reference to), as well as to leave on lasting record a valuable protest against the Tudor system, as one which centuries of English history rejected and disclaimed. It was in vain that Elizabeth packed the house with placemen ; in vain she flooded the country party with up- ward of sixty-two new members. The Wentworths and Stricklands still remain- ed, and still in every session proclaimed at least the duty and the right of Parlia- ment to inquire into every public matter, to remedy every public abuse, to avert, as far as possible, every public mischief. The cry of English liberty was never raised more piercingly, though it remained for later days to send back to it a louder and more terrible echo. "Two things, Mr. Speaker," said Peter Wentworth, in the .session of 1575, " two things do great hurt in this place, of the which I do mean to speak. The one is a rumour which runneth about the house, and this it is : ' take heed what you do ; the queen's majesty liketh not such a mat- ter ; whosoever preferreth it, she will be offended with him.' Or the contrary : ' her majesty liketh of such a matter ; whoso- ever speaketh against it, she will be much offended with him.' The other is, that sometimes a message is brought into the house, either of commanding or inhibiting, very injurious to the freedom of speech and consultation. I would to God, Mr. Speaker, that these two were buried in hell ; I mean rumours and messages ... I will show you a reason," continued this honest orator, and he had a brother, Paul Wentworth, worthy of him, " I will show you a reason to prove it perilous always to follow the prince's mind. Many times POPULAR PROGRESS. XXVll it falleth out that a prince may favour a cause perilous to himself and the whole state. What are we, then, if we follow the prince's mind ! Are we not unfaithful unto God, our prince, and state ? Yes, truly ; for we are chosen of the whole realm, of a special trust and confidence by them reposed in us ... Sir, I will dis- charge my conscience and duties to God, my prince, and country. Certain it is, Mr. Speaker, that none is without fault, no, not our noble queen, sith her majesty hath committed great fault, yea, danger- ous faults to herself . . . No estate can stand where the prince will not be govern- ed by advice." For these daring referen- ces to the sovereign, \Ventworth was sum- moned before the council, justified all he had uttered, and was flung into the Tower. The house obtained his release after a month's imprisonment ; but shortly after his reappearance he was again arrested and committed, with several friends and supporters ; again released ; and, on re- suming his seat, again in bitter opposi- tion. The spirit which animated him could not be repressed by bonds, could not by death be extinguished. How, it may be asked, did Elizabeth re- sist it so long ] Because she had wily counsellors, and, in everything that direct- ly affected the comforts of the great mass of the people, was a wise and prudent prin- cess. She husbanded her tyranny, and, for the most part, laid its finger lightly on the commonalty of England. She would have treated them, in more senses than one, as though they were her own. She was frugal in her personal wants, and never kept an ill-supplied exchequer. In the first session after Wentworth's more determin- ed resistance, she had generously remitted one subsidy voted to her, and was yet able, after the close of that session, which had been more than commonly distasteful, to dispense with farther subsidies for the space of five years, during which she re- frained from summoning another Parlia- ment. When compelled, at last, to do so, the invincible Wentworth again presented himself, with a still stronger and more compact band of allies, and again the re- monstrances began. Her last House of Commons met in 1601, and its proceedings imply a serious advance of hostile temper, as well in the country as the house. I quote a singular extract from one of the debates on subsidies which had been rendered more needful to Elizabeth by a foreign war, an Irish rebellion, and a sudden depreciation in the value of money from a report of the time. " Then Ser- geant Heyle : ' Mr. Speaker, I marvel much that the house will stand upon granting of a subsidy, or the time of payment, when all we have is her majesty's ; and she may lawfully, at her pleasure, take it from us. Yea, she hath as much right to all our lands and goods as to any revenue of her crown.' At which all the house hemmed, and laughed, and talked. ' Well,' quoth Sergeant Heyle, ' all your hemming shall not put me out of countenance.' So Mr. Speaker stood up and said, ' It is a great disorder that this should be used ; for it is the ancient use of every man to be silent when any one speaketh ; and he that is speaking should be suffered to deliver his mind without interruption.' So the ser- geant proceeded ; and when he had spoken a little while, the house hemmed again, and so he sat down. In his latter speech he said, ' he could prove his former posi- tion by precedent in the times of Henry the Third, King John, King Stephen,' &c., which was the occasion of their hem- ming." It is significant to mark in this that the worthy sergeant stands alone in his obsolete views and obsolete precedents. All the house laughed at him. How short the time that had elapsed since the ser- geant might have been coughing at the house, and the house complaining of the sergeant ! But out of doors there is laughter too, and remark upon public affairs. Gathering clusters of common men discuss the do- ings of Parliament, even as Mr. Secretary Cecil passes along in his carriage. Mob orators are collecting; eager faces are turned to them. The common people themselves, at last, seem to be taking pol- itics in hand. " I must needs give you this for a future caution," said Cecil to" the as- sembled commons, on the 25th of Novem- ber, 1601, "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 over- throw of these monopolies ! God send the prerogative touch not our liberty !' I think those persons would be glad that all sovereignty were converted into pop- ularity ; we being here but the popular mouth, and our liberty the liberty of the subject." And Cecil might the less inaptly think so, since his mistress had sent him there with a conciliatory message from the throne, freely surrendering her demand of certain monopolies, in consequence of their having occasioned several fierce de- bates of resistance in the house. It is a memorable thing that this should have been one of the last public acts of the great Elizabeth. It illustrates her system of government, the means by which she had sustained it so long, and the inevitable cer- tainty that it could not be sustained much longer. Her mission had reached its close. She went down to the House of Commons a few days afterward, and spoke to them XXV111 HISTORICAL TREATISE. in a gentle and melancholy tone, as though conscious the meeting would be their last. " Of myself," she said, in a spirit of self- vindication, and she might say it with truth and pride, " I must say this : I never was any greedy, scraping grasper, nor a strait, fast-holding prince, nor yet a waster ; my heart was never set on worldly goods, but only for my subjects' good. What you do bestow on me, I will not hoard it up, but receive it to bestow on you again. Yea, mine own properties I account yours. Since I was queen," she continued, "yet never did I put my pen to any grant, but that upon pretext and semblance made unto me that it was both good and benefi- cial to the subjects in general, though a private profit to some of my ancient ser- vants, who had deserved it well. But the contrary being found by experience, I am exceeding beholden to such subjects as would move the same at first. . . . And if my kingly bounty hath been abused, and my grants turned to the hurt of my people, contrary to my will and meaning, or if any in authority under me have neglected or perverted what I have committed to them, I hope God will not lay their culps and of- fences to my charge. ... To be a king," she added, with an eloquent and even af- fecting protest against any harsh judgment in posterity, " to be a king and wear a crown is more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasure to them that bear it. For myself, I was never so much enticed with the glorious name of a king, or royal authority of a queen, as delighted that God hath made me his instrument to maintain his truth and glory, and to defend this king- dom from peril, dishonour, tyranny, and oppression. There will never queen sit in my seat with more zeal to my country or care to my subjects, and that will sooner, with willingness, yield and venture her life for your good and safety, than myself. And though you have had, and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sit- ting in this seat, yet you never had, or shall have, any that will be more careful and loving. Should I ascribe anything to my- self and my sexly weakness, I were not worthy to live then, and, of all, most un- worthy of the mercies I have had from God, who hath ever yet given me a heart which never yet feared foreign or home enemies. . . . And so I commit you all to your best fortunes and farther councils. And I pray you, Mr. Comptroller, Mr. Sec- retary, and you of my council, that before these gentlemen depart into their counties, you bring them all to kiss my hand." And having so spoken, this lion-hearted woman returned to her palace, passed a few more months there in depression and in sorrow, and, dying, bequeathed her crown to her " cousin of Scotland." The Stuart race at once and undisputedly ascended the English throne. The movement which hurled them from it, and led to the temporary establishment of a republic in our country, is described in this volume. The biographies it contains are so eventful, that the history of the age itself might well be written in it ; for the times, awful as they were, were not greater than the men. The ideas of both present themselves to us at once, like shadowy and solid giants standing together, and hardly letting us discern which leads the other. The subjects have been selected with reference to the various stages in the strug- gle, from the opposition in the reign of James to the breaking out of the civil war, and thence to the execution of Charles, the erection of a republic, the usurpation of Cromwell, and the resumption of power by the Republicans on the abdication of his son. I have included the principal person who adhered to Charles. The exertions of the great men who founded the Commonwealth of England required illustration from those of the only great man who made a brave resistance to them. Four lives out of the seven are here written in a detached shape for the first time ; for, though few have been able to dispute the celebrated saying of Bishop Warburton, that, at the period they illus- trate, the spirit of liberty was at its height in this country, " and its interests were conducted and supported by a set of the greatest geniuses for government that the world ever saw embarked together in one common cause," the number of those who have troubled themselves to inquire into the reason or precise value of this saying have been fewer still. It is a grave re- proach to English political biography, that the attention so richly due to the states- men who opposed Charles I., in themselves the most remarkable men of any age or nation, should have been suffered to be borne away by the poorer imitators of their memorable deeds, the authors of the im- perfect settlement of 1688. I may, perhaps, be allowed to add, that the latter part of that portion of this work devoted to the life of Cromwell contains what I have endeavoured to render as clear and faithful a statement as it was possible to make of the case of the Republican statesmen who opposed him. The portrait of Eliot has been engraved by the courtesy of Lord St. Germains, the patriot's lineal descendant. It is the first published portrait of Sir John Eliot. I am also indebted to the same obliging courtesy for the noble contemporary portrait of Hampden, which, having passed from the possession of Hampden's son as a gift to the son of Eliot, has been carefully pre- served among the heirlooms of that family. J. F. TABLE, ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL, STATESMEN OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND. A.D 1590. 1607. 1609. 1623. 1623. 1624. 1625. 1626. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 1590-1632. page His Family and Descent 1 (20th of April.) His Birth . . .. . 1 Painful Incident of his early Life taken advan- tage of by his political Enemies ... 1 Enters College 2 Death of his Father .2 His Apology to Mr. Moyle ; Extracts from his Letters . . . . . . . .3 His Studies at the University .... 3 Visits the Continent j his first Meeting with George Villiers . ... 3 Returns from the Continent . . 3 Marries t Loses his Wife ....... 4 Resumes his Intercourse with Villiers . . 4 Villiers succeeds Somerset in the royal Favour . 4 Eliot made Vice-admiral of Devonshire, and ap- pointed Chairman of the Committee of Stan- naries ........ 4 False Charges of his political Enemies . . 4 (8th of November.) His Letter to the Duke of Buckingham, Lord High Admiral of England 5 Remarks on this Letter 5 Aspect of public Affairs at the Meeting of the Parliament which introduced Eliot to public Life 5 Ignominious Defeat of the Elector Palatine by Spinola 5 Deadly Jealousy between Buckingham and the Spanish Minister Olivarez .... 6 A Parliament summoned ; Dissolution of the Spanish Treaty ...... 6 Eliot returned for the Borough of Newport in Cornwall ........ 6 Distinguishes himself, and is received as the Leader of the Country Party .... 6 (1st of March.) His Speech on the Question of the Spanish Treaties 6 Opposes any Attempt to move from the consti- tutional Usages of the House . . .7 His unceasing Exertions against Monopolies . 7 His Speech on the Question of the Appeal against the long Delays of the Court of Chan- cery 8 Terms on which he and his Friends consented to furnish Supplies for the Spanish War . . 8 Measures passed to reform many Grievances in the Law, and in prevention of vexatious Pros- ecutions 8 James I. remonstrates with Buckingham . . 9 (29th of October.) Dissolution of Parliament . 9 Sudden and mysterious Death of James I. . 9 (18th of June.) Meeting of Parliament; Eliot again at his Post ...... 9 Unwise Measures of Charles 1 10 Efforts of the Parliament to secure the future Safety of the People by an Enlargement of the Basis of popular Representation . . .10 Motion of Sir John Eliot 10 Origin of Sir Thomas Wentworth's Dislike of him 10 Cessation of his personal Intercourse with Buck- ingham 11 Charges against him .11 His Opposition to the Measures of the King and Buckingham on the Subject of Subsidies . 12 (12th of August.) Parliament dismissed ; dis- graceful Scenes 12 (6th of February.) A Parliament assembled ; the King's Message to the Huuse . . . .13 Eliot's Speech in answer to his Majesty's Mes- sage ; his bitter Taunt against Buckingham . 13 The Commons vote for the Grant of three Subsi- dies and three Fifteenths . . . .14 1626. Buckingham impeached by the Commons- im twelve Articles ...... 14 Speech of Sir Dudley Digges . . . .14 Extraordinary oratorical Display of Eliot on this Occasion ........ 14 Rage of the King when told of Eliot's Speech . 15 Eliot committed to the Tower . . . .15 Memorable expostulation of Sir Dudley Carleton to the House of Commons . . . .16 Eliot released : his Reappearance in the House 16 Buckingham elected Chancellor of Cambridge . 16 Stormy Debate in the Commons . . .16 Parliament dissolved 17 Oppressive Measures of Charles I. . . .17 His Instructions to the Clergy . . . .17 Eliot a Prisoner in the Gatehouse . . .18 His able Argument against the forced Loan . 18 Buckingham undertakes the Command of the Expedition for the Relief of Rochelle . . 19 Disastrous Results of this Expedition ; Writs for a new Parliament issued . . . .19 1628. /17th of March.) The famous Third Parliament . opened by the Ki ng at Westminster in a Speech of insolent Menace 19 A Resolution passed to grant no less than five Subsidies to be paid within twelve Months . 20 Sir John Eliot again in Parliament ; acts in all Respects as the Leader of the House . . 20 Extract from a Speech characteristic of his Style 21 Resolutions passed in the Commons declaratory of the Rights of the People . . . .21 Conference between the Lords and the Commons 21 Messages from the King to the Commons . . 22 Resistance of the Commons to the Measures of the King 23 The King's Letter to the Lords .... 22 The Petition of Right adopted by both Houses now presented to the King . . . .23 (3d of June.) The King's Answer to the Peti- tion of Right read in the House of Commons . 23 Sir John Eliot's Speech on this Occasion . . 24 Proceeds to open the Question of " Insincerity and doubling in Religion ;" " Want of Councils" 24 Develops to the House the Principles of Eliza- beth's Policy in singularly opposite and pitiful Contrast to the prevailing Policy . . .25 Tremendous Effect of his Speech upon Bucking- ham and the Ministers ..... 25 Resumes his Speech, and continues to urge the Madness of breaking Peace with France at a Time so strangely unfortunate . . .25 Third Division of his Argument, "the Insuffi- ciency and Unfaithfulness of our Generals" . 25 Consideration of " the Ignorance and Corruption of our Ministers" 26 Concludes his Speech with a Proposition for a Remonstrance to the King . . . .27 Effects produoed by his Speech ; royal Message to the House 27 Extraordinary Scene in the House . . .27 Sir John Eliot accused of having given Offence to his Majesty in his recent Speech . . 28 Buckingham named as the " Grievance of Griev- ances ;" the Commons' Petition " for a clear and satisfactory Answer in full Parliament to the Petition of Rights" . . . 28 The Commons summoned to meet the King in the Upper House ....... 28 The King gives his Assent to the Petition of Rights . .28 Remonstrance against certain Proceedings of Buckingham 29 The King's Speech ; Parliament prorogued . 29 Eliot retires into Cornwall ; his Letter to Sir John Cotton 29 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXX A.T1. Pa-e 1G28. Assassination of Buckingham .... 29 Arruinianism ; arbitrary Measures of the King . 30 1629. (20th of January.) Meeting of Parliament ; Ton- nage and Poundage ...... 30 Motion of Sir John Eliot ..... 30 (27th.) His Speech during the Debate on Re- ligious Grievances ...... 31 Effects of his Speech ...'.. 32 The Question of Religion surrendered to a Sub- committee ....... 32 (25th of February.) Report of the Committee . 32 Remonstrance concerning Tonnage and Pou ndage 33 (2d of March.) Eliot's Speech, da presenting his Remonstrance ....... 33 The House in violent and open Disorder . . 33 Steady and undaunted Conduct of Eliot . . 33 Dissolution of Parliament ; Sir John Eliot sum- moned to appear before the Council Table . 34 Proceedings against him ..... 34 Sentenced to be imprisoned during the King's Pleasure, and to be fined 2000 ... 34 Committed a close Prisoner to the Tower . . 35 Occupies the Hours of his Imprisonment with a Work having for its Object the Establishment of the Independence of Man's Mind . .35 His Letter of Advice to his Sons . . .36 His Pain on hearing of the Irregularities of his eldest Son ....... 36 His Letter to his Son Richard . . . .37 His Letter to Hampden ; Advice and Instruction to his Son respecting a Course and Object of Travel ........ 37 Passage from Hampden's Reply on these Points 37 His Letter to Sir Oliver Luke . . . .38 To his Kinsman Knightley, describing the Com- mencement of his Disorder .... 38 His Letter to Bevil Grenville . . . .38 1631. (26th of December.) His Letter to Hampden complaining of being put under new Restraints by Warrant from the King . . . .39 Finds Consolation and Sustainment in the philo- sophical Work in which he had engaged : . 39 Compared to Sir Walter Raleigh . . .39 His increasing Illness ; petitions the King to set him at Liberty ...... 40 Sends for a Painter to the Tower, and has his Portrait painted exactly as he then appeared . 40 His last Moments present the perfect Pattern of a Christian Philosopher; Quotations from his last Letters to Hampden . . . . . 1632. (27th of November.) His Death 40 41 His Son refused Permission to carry his Body into Cornwall to be buried . . . . .41 His Character as a Statesman . . . .41 APPENDIX. Some Account of an unpublished philosophical Treatise, entitled "The Monarchy of Man," written by Sir John Eliot during his last Im- prisonment ....... 43 THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD. 1593-1641. 1593. (13th of April.) His Birth and Parentage ; re- ceives his earliest and strongest Impressions in the Midst of aristocratic Influences . . .55 Little Account of his early Education ; sent to St. John's College, Cambridge . . . 55 Acquires the Honour of Knighthood . . .55 1611. His Marriage with Frances, Daughter of the Earl of Cumberland ....... 56 (November.) Proceeds to France ; strange Events in France at this Period . I ... 50 Events in England ...... 56 Character of James 1 56 His unwise Measures 57 State of Parties 57 RETROSPECT. The Parliament summoned in 1610 ; Impositions by Prerogative ; growing Spirit and Power of the Commons ; a Bill pass- ed against Impositions . . . . .58 Farther Allusion to the Proceedings of this distin- guished Session 58 Negotiation between James and the Commons . 58 Shameful Expedient resorted to by the Court . 59 1614. Wentworth returned Knight of the Shire for Yorkshire 59 The " Stratford Papers," the Source whereof we derive our Information of the public and pri- vate Character of this Statesman . . .59 A.D. Faze 1614. Letter to his early Tutor, Mr. Greenwood . . 60 Death of his Father ; takes his Seat in Parlia- ment as Member for Yorkshire . . .61 State of Parties ; Dissolution of Parliament . 61 1615. Appointed to the Office of Custos Rotulorum, or Keeper of the Archives for the West Riding . 61 1617. Receives a Letter from the Duke of Buckingham requiring him to resign his Office . . .62 Continues in his Place ; meets with strong Oppo- sition from the Savile Party . . . .62 Disgraceful Occurrences during the Interval be- tween the two Parliaments . . . .62 1621. Assembling of Parliament ; early Sittings of this Parliament distinguished by active and resolute Steps in behalf of Privilege . . . .63 Wentworth takes no Part in these Proceedings . 63 1622-31. His Illness; Death of his Wife . . . 63 His Exertions in Behalf of his Brothers . . 63 Extracts from his Correspondence with Sir George Calvert, the King's Secretary of State . . 64 Playful and conndential Style of his Letters . 64 He ventures more openly among the popular Par- ty ; his second Marriage with Lady Arabella Hollis 65 His extreme Moderation ; he advises a Grant of Subsidies ; Adjournment of the Parliament to Oxford 65 Disabled from sitting in Parliament by being ap- pointed Sheriff of Yorkshire . . . .65 His Letter to his Kinsman Wandesford . . 66 Receives the King's Warrant dismissing him from the Office of Custos Rotulorum . . .67 His Letter to Sir Richard Weston, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on this Subject . . .67 Buckingham's violent Dislike to him . . .68 The second Parliament dissolved ; Privy Seals issued 68 Wentworth receives a Privy Seal ; Anxiety of his Friends 63 Refuses the Loan ; summoned to the Council Ta- ble at London 69 Committed to the Marshalsea ; Extracts from the Letters of his Brother-in-law Denzil Hollis . 69 Is released ........ 69 His Speech in the Third Parliament on the Dis- cussion of the general Question of Grievances 69 His Speech on one of Secretary Cooke's pressing Applications for Subsidies . . . .70 Proposes a Committee for Grievances ; Effect of his Speeches ....... 70 (26th of June.) Parliament prorogued . . 70 (14th of July.) Created Baroa Wentworth, and called to the Privy Council . . . .70 Preliminary Remarks previous to entering on the History of his political Life . . . .71 His deep Esteem for Mr. Greenwood, his early Tutor 72 His Method of Study transmitted to us by Sir George Radcliffe 72 His extreme Cautiousness 73 Anger one of the Instruments of his Policy . 73 His Letter to Secretary Cooke . . . .73 Extracts from his Correspondence . . .73 Political Principles evidenced in these Letters . 76 An Illustration of his Practice of letting slip no Method, however ordinary, of compassing his Designs 76 Proceedings cited in proof of his excessive Vanity 76 We resume the Progress of his Fortunes . . 77 Surprise excited by his Elevation to his Presiden- cy in the North 77 Character of the important Office intrusted to him ; defers his Departure to the North until after the Dissolution of Parliament . . .77 His first Proceedings on succeeding to this enor- mous Power ....... 77 Claims for himself, as the Representative of ab- solute Royalty, the most absolute Reverence and Respect 78 His arbitrary Measures 78 Case of Sir David Foulis 78 Wentworth's Letter to Lord Cottington on the Subject 79 Foulis degraded from his various Offices, fined 5000 to the King, 3000 to Wentworth, and committed to the Fleet during his Majesty's Pleasure 79 Wentworth in his domestic Circle . . .80 Death of his Wife, the Lady Arabella ; his Let- ter to Sir E. Stanhope on the Subject . . 80 Reappears in his Court at York, and pursues with startling Energy some of his most reso- lute Measures ....... 81 His characteristic Letter to Weston on being ac- ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXXI l.D. Page cused of intriguing- for the Staff of the Lord- treasurer 81 1632. Appointed to the Government of Ireland . . 81 Condition of Ireland at this Time in the highest degree difficult and dangerous . . .81 Energy and Prudence of Wentworth ; the Treas- ury Necessities and Means of Supply his pri- mary Care . 83 His vigorous Despatch to Lord Cottington . . 83 Follows his Despatch in Person, and prevails on the Council to enter into his Design . 84 Extract from his Letter to the Lord-justices . 84 His meditated financial Projects .... 84 Establishes a Scheme of absolute Power in Ire- land 85 Stipulations assented to ; characteristic of his Sa- gacity no less than his Ambition . . .85 Resolves not to resign his Presidency of York- shire 86 His Prosecution of apparent personal Resent- ments, what this was 86 Commencement of his official Connexion with Lord Mountnorris, Treasurer of Ireland . . 87 His third Marriage with Elizabeth Rhodes . 87 Extracts from some curious Letters relating to this Marriage . . . . . .88 His Gallantries 89 His Person 89 Lady Carlile, Lady Loftus, Lady Carnarvon . 90 Wentworth unexpectedly delayed in his Depar- ture for Ireland ...... 91 1633 (July.) His Arrival in Dublin forms a new Era in the Government of Ireland . . . .92 He orders the Ceremonial of the British Court to be observed within the Castle . . . .92 Extract from his first Despatch . . . .92 His Law Reforms 93 His Exactions 93 Calls his first Privy Council .... 93 Proceedings of the Council . . . . .93 They propose a Parliament 93 Power the great Law of Wentworth's Being, how mistaken ........ 94 His Despatch urging the Necessity of calling a Parliament instantly . . . . .95 Obtains a reluctant Consent from Charles I. . 96 Issues his Writs for a Parliament to be instantly held in Dublin 96 Summons a Privy Council to deliberate on the Propositions to be transmitted to England as S.ubjects for Discussion in the Session . . 96 1634. (July.) Meeting of Parliament; an admirably balanced Party of Catholics and Protestants assemble in the Irish House of Commons . . 91 Speech of the Lord-deputy 97 Demands at once the enormous Grant of six Sub- sidies , . M The Subsidies granted unconditionally . . 98 Proceedings of the House of Lords ; Delight and Astonishment of the English Ministers . . IS Overbearing Energy of Wentworth's Measures during the Sitting of the second Session of the Irish Parliament 99 Extracts from his Despatches at this Time . 99 Extracts from his Correspondence with Laud . 99 Introduces into Ireland the Court of High Com- mission 100 Measures by which he sought to reduce the Peo- ple of Ireland to a Conformity in Religion . 100 Removes the Decision of ecclesiastical Rights from the Courts of Common Law to the Castle Chamber 102 Issues a Commission for the Repair of Churches 102 Writes to the King to solicit an Earldom, and is refused 102 Presents the Irish common Lawyers with the Ma- jority of the English Statutes that had been passed since the Time of Poynings . . . 103 Turns his Attention to the Army ; strengthens them in Numbers and in Discipline . . 103 His increasing Reputation ..... 103 Death of Weston ; Wentworth offered the Treas- urer's Staff 103 Establishes a permanent Revenue in Ireland . 104 A Mint erected in Ireland, in spite of the desperate Opposition from the Officers of the English Mint 104 Wentworth's Measures for improving the Com- merce of Ireland 104 Introduces the general Cultivation of Flax to in- duce the Manufacture of Linen . . . 105 Announces to the King that the annual Revenue should exceed the Expenditure by 60.000 . 105 His minute Attention to his private Affairs in England 105 A.T). 1634. 1636. 1639. 1640. 1641. PS Extracts from his Letter to Mr. Greenwood on the Subject ....... 105 The whole Production impressed with the Pecu- linnties of his Subtle and energetic Genius . 106 Thwarted by the King in his Desire to continue the Parliament ...... 107 Follows up his Plans for increasing the Estates of the Crown by a Search after defective Titles 107 Opposition of the Roman Catholics . . .107 Proceedings against Lord Mountnorris . . 108 Sentence passed ....... 108 Receives a Remission of his Sentence . . 109 Enmity provoked against Wentworth by the Case of Lord Mountnorris ..... 109 (May.) Obtains Permission from the King to ap- pear at the English Court .... 109 Gives a detailed Account of all the Measures he had accomplished during his Administration in Ireland ........ 110 Leaves the Court for Wentworth Woodhouse ; loaded with the Applause of the King and his Lords of the Council, and followed by the aw- ful Gaze of doubting Multitudes . . . 110 Re-appears in York ; his vigorous Measures with respect to the Collection of the famous Tax of Ship-money ....... 110 A second Time entreats from Charles the Honour of an Earldom, and is refused .... Ill Returns to his Government. in Ireland, and re- sumes his Measures precisely at the Point at which he had left them ..... Ill A loud and violent Voice of Clamour raised against him by the popular Party in England . 112 His Letter to the King ..... 112 His Letter to Archbishop Laud . . . .112 Builds two royal Residences . . . .112 His Mode of living equal iri Magnificence to the Houses themselves ...... 113 His private Habits ...... 113 His Advice to the King on the Subject of the Af- fairs of Scotland ...... 114 Forces down some rising Commotions among the 60,000 Scottish Settlers in Ulster . . .114 Openly expresses his Censure of the royal Scheme that had prevailed since the Death of Bucking- ham ......... 115 His Despatches on the Subject of the " Antrim Negotiations" ....... 115 His Letter to his Mother-in-Law Lady Clare . 115 (November.) Appears in London . . . 117 Created Earl of Strafford and Baron of Raby ; adorned with the Garter, and invested with tho Title of Lord- lieutenant or Lieutenant-general of Ireland ........ 117 . (March.) Arrives again in Ireland ; Proceedings of the Irish Parliament ..... 117 Progress of his Infirmities ..... 118 (4th of April.) Arrives at Chester . . . 118 Dictates a long Despatch to the Earl of Northum- berland . ....... 118 Extraordinary Incident illustrating his unremit- ting Vigilance ....... 118 His characteristic Letter to Windebanke . . 119 Proceeds by easy Journeys to London ; takes his Seat in the House of Lords . . . .120 Appointed to the Command of the Army in the Place of Northumberland .... 120 Disgraceful Intrigues against him . . . 120 Arrives in London ; enters the House of Peers ; impeached of high Treason in the Name of the Commons of England ..... 121 His Letters to Lady Strafford after his Arrest . 121 Preliminary Proceedings ..... 122 Articles of Accusation against him . . . 122 (24th of February.) His Answers in detail to the Charges of the Commons read to the House 122 (22d of March.) Fixed for his Trial ; his Letter to his Wife ....... 122 Short Summary of the Charges against him . 123 (23d of March.) Case opened against him at Westminster Hall by Pym . . . .123 His uncomplaining Composure duwng his Trial 124 He addresses the Lords ..... 124 Interest excited in his Favour .... 125 The Evidence finally admitted against him ; call- ed upon to make his general Defence in Person against the Facts, leaving the Law to his Counsel ........ 125 He argues against the Doctrine of arbitrary and constructive Treason ..... 126 The Triumph of Pym as unparalleled as the Overthrow of Stafford ..... 128 Defence of the Accused and the Accusers . . 128 Strafford condemned ...... 127 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXXll A.D. Page 1641. (21st of April.) The Bill of Attainder passed; the King addresses the House in his Favour . 127 His Letter to the King, releasing him from his pledged Word 128 Farther Efforts ot the King to save him . . 128 Remarks on the Conduct of the King . . .129 Strafford employs the three more Days of Exist- ence granted to him in the Arrangement of his Affairs 129 His Letter of Advice to his Son . . . .130 His Speech at the Scaffold 130 (12th of May.) His Execution . . . .131 In the succeeding Reign the Attainder reversed ; the Proceedings obliterated ; and his Son re- stored to the Earldom ..... 131 APPENDIX My humble Opinion concerning a Parliament in this your Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland . . 132 A Copy of the Paper containing the Heads of the Lord Strafford's last Speech, written by his own Hand, as it was left upon the Scaffold . . 134 JOHN PYM. 1584-1643. His Birth, Parentage, and Education . . .135 His Marriage with Anna Hooker ; her Death . 135 Sketch of the Character of this Lady . . .135 His affectionate Care towards his Children . 136 1620. Takes his Seat in Parliament for Calne . . 136 State of Parties at this Time . . . .137 The King's Speech ; Proceedings of the Commons 137 Committees of Inquiry 137 Pym an active and zealous promoter of these Com- mittees . . . . . .138 (15th of March.) Accusation of Lord Bacon .138 His Defence 138 The Commons vote a solemn Declaration of their Resolve to spend their Lives and Fortunes in Defence of the Protestant Cause . . . 139 Both Houses adjourned by royal Commission . 139 Proceedings against Archbishop Abbot . .139 (November.) Assembling of Parliament . . 140 Remonstrance to the King 140 1621. (3d of December.) The King's Letter to the Speaker 140 Commencement of that open Warfare which end- ed in the Destruction of the Stuart Race . 140 Reply of the Commons to the King's Letter . 141 This Declaration carried to the King at Newmar- ket, by Pym and eleven other Members depu- ted by the House 141 The King's Rejoinder 141, 142 Symptoms of Alarm at the Court . . .142 The memorable Protest of the Commons . .143 Torn out of the Journals by the King . . 143 Arrest and Imprisonment of some of the leading Members ; Dissolution of Parliament . . 143 Petition from Francis Philips to King James, praying for the Release of his Brother, Sir Robert 143 Pym again in Parliament ; his Exertions chiefly employed upon the Declaratory Statute against Monopolies, and against the Delinquencies of the Lord-treasurer, Middlesex . . . 144 1625. Takes his Seat for the first Time as Member for the Borough of Tavistock, in the first Parlia- ment of Charles I. ...... 144 Case of the King's Chaplain, Doctor Montague . 145 Pym appointed one of the secret Managers of an Impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham 145 Proceeds to point out the fatal Consequences to the well-being of the State, no less than to the Morals of the Subject, which must result from the Continuance of such Practices as those of the Duke 145 Extract from his Speech .... 146-148 1628. Thrown into Prison ; is released on his Return to the third Parliament for Tavistock . . 148 His Speech on the Motion for the Grant of Sub- sidies 148 Hit indefatigable Exertions during the Progress and Preparation of the Petition of Rights . 149 His general Principle of Parliamentary Interfe- rence in religious Affairs 149 (4th of June.) His Speech on the Case of Doc- tor Mainwaring ; Division of his Subject 150-153 Effects produced by this Speech . . .153 Sentence pronounced against Mainwaring . . 154 Takes an active Part in the Debates on the Spread of Anninianism 154 .. 1028. The Result of these Debates ; the famous Vow or Declaration respecting Religion . . . 154 Apostacy of Wentworth 154 Charles I. governs by prerogative ; Measures adopted by the Executive to enslave the Peo- ple . 155 Illegal Impost 155 A few of these shocking Enormities illustrated by Extracts from the Rev. Mr. Garrard's Let- ters to the Lord-deputy .... 155, 156 First Introduction of Hackney-coaches commem- orated by Mr. Garrard 156 Enforcement of illegal Patents and Proclamations of the King 157 Extract from Clarendon relative to the civil Gov- ernment of England at this Period . . . 157 Ship-money ; Extract from Garrard's Letters il- lustrating the Manner in which this Tax was worked 158 Opposition to the Payment of this Tax ; Case of Hampden 159 Brief Review of Laud's Administration of reli- gious Affairs ....... 160 1638. (1st of May.) Eight Ships bound for New-Eng- land, and filled with Puritan Families, arrested in the Thames by an Order from the Council ; Plans for the Colonization of Part of the North American Continent ..... 161 1638. Brief Mention of the Affairs of Scotland . .162 1640. (3d of April.) Meeting of Parliament ; Speeches of the King and the Lord-keeper . . 162 Pym again in Parliament ; becomes a Leader by the common Consent of all .... 162 Petitioning Parliament first organized as a Sys- tem by Pym and Hampden . . . .16 Speech of Pym on the Subject of Grievances . 163 Extraordinary Effects of this Speech throughout England 16 Extracts from this Speech 163 He propounds divers particular Points wherein the Privilege of the Parliament had been broken 165 Proceeds to the next Sort of Grievances concern- ing Religion 165 Proceeds to the third Kind of Grievances, the civil Oppressions of the State .... 166 Begins with Tonnage and Poundage, and other Impositions not warranted by Law . . .167 Of enforcing Men to compound for Knighthood . 16 The great Inundation of Monopolies . . . 168 Ship-money ........ 169 Enlargement of the Forests beyond the Bounds and Perambulations appointed and established by Act of Parliament 169 The military Charges laid upon the several Coun- ties of the Kingdom 17 Extra-judicial Declarations of Judges . . 170 That the Authority and Wisdom of ihe Council- table have been applied to the contriving and managing of several Monopolies and other great Grievances ....... 170 Tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Head of civil Griev- ances 171 These Extracts as important as they are inter- esting 171 Second and main Branch of his Speech, that the Disorders from whence these Grievances issued were as hurtful to the King as to the People . 171 Pym resumes his Seat. Extraordinary Impres- sion made by his Speech. Resolution of the Commons to address the Lords . . . 173 Proceeds to the Lords with the Address ; mem- orable Words uttered by him on this Occasion 173 Conference between the Lords and Commons ; Debates on Ship-money ; Dissolution of Par- liament 174 Commitment of individual Members . . . 174 Extraordinary Exertions of Pym . . . 175 Disastrous War with Scotland drags the King daily more near to the Feet of his Subjects . 175 Council of Peers summoned to York . . . 175 Petition from Pym praying for a Parliament, sub- scribed by 10,000 Citizens of London . . 176 (3d of November.) Writs issued for a new Par- liament 170 Character of the Long Parliament . . .176 The Patriot Leaders 177 The Commons debate with closed Doors ; Pym's Speech 177 Message from the Lords desiring instant Confer- ence on a Treaty with the Scots . . . 178 Impeachment of Strafford resolved . . . 178 Pym made choice of for the Messenger to perform that Office in the House of Lords . . .178 Accusations against the Bishops . . . 179 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXX111 1640. Impeachment and Escape of Windebanke and Finch 179 The Judges called to Account ; Sir Robert Berke- ley impeached of Treason ; publicly arrested in the King's Bench Court . . . .178 (2d of December.) Extract from Mr. Pym's Speech on this Occasion .... 180-182 A Vote passed by the Commons decreeing 300,000 for the friendly Relief and Aid, and towards the Losses and Necessities of their Brethren the Scots 182 Triennial Bill 182 Pym's Speech on presenting the Articles of Im- peachment against Strafford .... 183 The King makes an Effort to save him by a Com- promise with the Leaders of the Opposition . 183 Extracts from this Negotiation . . . 183, 184 Nature and Conduct of the Compromise . . 184 1641 (22d of March.) Trial of Strafford opened at Westminster Hall 185 Mr. Pym's Speech 185-187 Presents to the House certain weighty Reasons for closing the Proceedings against the Earl by the legislative Enactment of a Bill of Attainder 187 His Motives for this sudden Course . . . 187 His Speech on the last Day of the Trial ; com- bining the Splendour of one of the Common- places of Cicero with the logical Force of Lord Bacon's profound Meditations . . . 188-193 Incidents connected wilh the Plots for Stafford's Rescue, illustrating Pym's Character . .193 Army Plot ; Effects of Pym's Speech . . .194 . (9th of May.) The King signs the Bill of Attain- der against Slrafford 194 Pym's Speech justifying the Impeachment and Detention of Laud ..... 195-197 This Speech remarkable for the absence of all Sectarian Intolerance 197 Review of the Times, and Position of the leading Men 198 Abolition of the Star Chamber and High Commis- sion Courts ....... 199 The " Root and Branch" Petition revived in the House of Commons 199 Bishops' Votes ; Division between the Lords and Commons ........ 199 Debates on the Bill for the Extirpation of Epis- copacy 200 Extract from Mr. Pym's Speech pointing out the Propriety of impeaching the thirteen Prelates who had been most active in framing the Can- ons 200-202 The King's Visit to Scotland ; Purposes of this Journey ; narrowly and jealously watched by the Patriots 202 (9th of September.) Adjournment of Parliament 203 Increasing Popularity of Pym .... 203 Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlile . . . 203 Pym's Movements during the short Recess of Par- liament 203 Intrigues of Charles I. in Scotland . . . 204 (20th of October.) Reassembling of Parliament 204 " The Incident" 205 Pym reports the Proceedings of the Committee during the Recess 205 Extracts from the Letters of the King to Sir Ed- ward Nicholas 205 The Irish Rebellion ; cold and laconic Remark of the King respecting it 206 Mr. Pym appears at the Head of the Commons in Conference with the Upper House . . 206 His grave and condensed Statement of the Dan- ger accruing to the Kingdom from the evil Counsellors of the King 206 Conspiracies against his Life .... 207 (22d of November.) Presents to the House the grand Remonstrance on the State of the King- dom 208 Violent and long Debate on its Introduction . 208 Tumults in the Houses of Parliament . .208 (25th of November.) Return of the King . .209 The grand Remonstrance presented to him at Hampton Court ...... 209 Bill in the Lower House for raising Soldiers by Impressment ; Conference between the Lords and Commons 209 Protest of the Bishops 209 The Commons debate with closed Doors ; Im- peachment and Committal of the Twelve Bish- ops 209 1642. Disturbance in London and Westminster . . 209 (3d of January.) The King attempts to seize the Five leading Members of the Commons . .210 (4th.) Mr. Pym addresses the Speaker on the .. , 1642. Articles of Impeachment presented against him by the King's Attorney ..... 211 The Rest of the accused Members rise success- ively and refute the alleged Charges against themselves ....... 212 The King enters the House ; his Violence . . 212 Rushworth's Account of this extraordinary and unparalleled Scene . . . . . .213 The King proceeds in his Search of the Five Members ........ 214 Petition drawn up in Defence of Pym . . 214 The House of Commons complete their open De- fiance of Charles by adjourning till the llth of January, and ordering the accused Members on that Day to attend in their Places at West- minster, and resume their public Duties . . 215 The King offers to compromise .... 215 (llth of January.) Triumph and Return of the Five Members ....... 215 Energetic Measures of the Commons . . . 215 Pym's Speech during the Conference with the Lords ....... 215-218 Effect of this Speech ...... 218 The King's Letter to the Speaker complaining ofit ......... 219 Answer of the Commons ..... 219 Second Letter from the King ; vigorous Remon- strance, recommended in an earnest and forcible Speech by Pym, forwarded to Charles . . 220 Agitation of the Question of the Command of the Militia of the Kingdom ..... 220 Resolutions passed by the Commons ; the Militia Ordinance denounced as illegal by the King . 221 Petition of Sir Edward Dering against the Militia Ordinance ; Pym's Speech on this Occasion . 221 (22d of August.) Charles I. erects his Standard at Nottingham ....... 222 Pym intrusted with the momentous Duty of watching over and conducting the Affairs of Parliament and the Executive, while the Ma- jority of his Friends were absent in the War . 223 Spirit of the Public Journals .... 223 Pym presents himself at Guildhall ; his Address to the Authorities ..... 223-225 The King addresses a Manifesto to the City of London in the highest Style of a Conqueror . 225 Mr. Pym's Speech commenting on the various Al- legations of Charles ...... 225 The Effect of this Speech strikingly described by the Reporter ....... 226 Discovery and Suppression of Waller's Plot . 226 Successes of the King ; he issues a free Pardon to all, with some few Exceptions, on the laying down of Arms ....... 227 Impeachment against the Queen . . . 227 Extracts from the " Mercurius Aulicus" . . 227 Charges against Pym ...... 227 Voted by the Commons to be false and scandalous 228 His Illness ; Death of Hampden .... 228 The Office of Lieutenant-general of the Ordi- nance of the Kingdom conferred on him by the House of Commons ...... 229 1643. (8th of December.) His Death ; Account of his last Moments ....... 229 Respect showed to his Memory by the House of Commons ........ 230 (15th of December.) His Funeral . . .230 Extracts from the Funeral Sermon preached by Mr. Marshall ....... 231 Account of his Family and Descendants . . 232 APPENDIX. A. A Discovery of the great Plot for the utter Ruin of the City of London and th^ Parliament ; as it was at large made known by John Pym, Esq., on Thursday, being the 8th of June, 1643, at a Common Hall, and afterward corrected by his own Hand for the Press ..... 234 R Some Extracts from the Sense of the House, or the Opinion of some Lords and Commons con- cerning the Londoners' Petition for Peace . 236 C. Certain select Observation* on the several Offices and Officers in the Militia of England, with the Power of the Parliament to raise the same as they shall judge expedient, &>:.. collected from the Papers of the late Mr. John Pym, a Member of the House of Commons, writ in the Year 1641, MS ........ 237 D. A Sketch of English Affairs from the Dissolution of the Third Parliament to the raising of the King's Standard at Nottingham, from a Speech by Sir Arthur Hazlerig on the 7th of Februa- ry, 16S8 ........ 238 E. A Declaration and Vindication of John Pym, Esq. 23D XXXIV ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. .. F. A Narrative of the Disease and Death of John Pym, Esq., late a Member of the honourable House of Commons, attested under the Hands of his Physicians, Chirurgeons, and Apothecary 240 JOHN HAMPDEN. 1594-1643. Preliminary Remarks 241 1594. His Birth and Parentage 241 Tradition respecting his Family . . . .24 1619. His early Education ; his Marriage . . . 242 1620. Takes his Seat in Parliament for the Borough of Grampound ....... 242 Attaches himself at once to the popular Party . 242 Makes himself a prominent Member of the famous Glanville Committee, in the first Parliament of Charles ........ 242 His Opposition to the proposed Loan to the King 243 Committed to a close and rigorous Imprisonment in the Gate-house 243 Returned for the Borough of Wendover, and takes his Seat in the celebrated Third Parliament . 243 Achieves the entire Confidence of the popular Party, and takes Part in the Preparation of the Petition of Rights 243 Intrusted with the Guardianship of Eliot's two Sons during his Imprisonment .... 244 Extracts from his Correspondence with Eliot du- ring his Imprisonment in the Tower . 244-247 His Letter in Allusion to Eliot's younger Son, and to the Passages of the " Monarchy of Man," forwarded for his Perusal .... 244 His Criticism on the " Monarchy of Man," illus- trating his literary Taste and Skill . . . 245 His last Letter, a noble Compliment to the Ge- nius of Eliot 247 Melancholy Progress of public Affairs ; Hampden becomes one of the acknowledged Leaders of the People 247 1635. His Opposition to the Payment of Ship-money . 247 1636. Sir Peter Temple, High Sheriff of Bucks, sum- moned before the Council-table for his Default of Arrears ; his Letter to his Mother an Illus- tration of the Occasion and the Time . . 247 Hampden's Trial 248 Returned Member for Buckinghamshire ; has left no Record of his Eloquence behind him . . 248 Clarendon's Account of him at this momentous Period 248 Zeal with which he applied himself to the Bu- siness Affairs of this Parliament . . . 249 His Letter to the Archbishop of York . . . 249 Is again returned for Buckinghamshire ; his sec- ond Marriage 249 Retires from the Division on the Attainder of Lord Strafford 250 His Conduct on that Attainder discussed . . 250 Hampden the first who dared to anticipate a broader Field of Warfare than the Floor of the House of Commons, and to prepare himself for a more real Struggle 251 An earnest Promoter of the grand Remonstrance and of the anti-episcopal Measures . . . 251 His Speech on the Morning after the Impeach- ment of the Five Members .... 251 Mr. Southey's Opinion of this Speech refuted . 252 Buckinghamshire Petition in Defence of Hampden 253 Commencement of the Civil War ; Hampdeu sub- scribes 2000 to the Wants of the Parliament, and accepts the Commission of a Colonel in the Parliamentarian Army 253 Divisions of th# Parliamentarian Army . . 253 The King's Forces 255 Occasional Skirmishes on both Sides . . . 255 1642. (23d of October.) Battle of EdgehUl ; Address of the King to his Officers 256 Both Sides claim the Victory ; Hampden's Letter ta the Lieutenants of Buckinghamshire . . 256 Reverses of the Parliamentarians . . . 257 Close of the first Year of the War ; brilliant Suc- cesses of Hampden*, and great Opportunities lost by Essex 257 Extract from the " Mercurius Aulicus" . . 258 Vile Insinuations against Hampden's Honesty and Virtue 258 Successes of the Royalists 258 Serious Discontents in the Parliamentarian Re- giments 258 Wise Measures of Hampden .... 259 Receives his Death Wound .... 259 A true Relation of this Affair, abridged from the King's Collection of Pamphlets . . .260 A. IX Page 1642. Letter of Essex to the Speaker of the House of Commons ........ 261 Extract from one of the Parliament Newspapers giving an Account of Hampdeu's Death . .261 Extract from the " Weekly Intelligencer" . . 262 Lines from an Elegy written by a Friend and Fel- low-soldier of Hampdeu's .... 263 His Character 264 SIR HENRY VANE. 1612-1662. 1612. His Birth and Parentage 265 A brief Review of the chief Incidents of the Life of Sir Henry Vane the Elder . . . .265 Early Education of Sir Henry Vane . . . 266 Becomes a Gentleman-Commoner of Magdalen Hall ; visits Geneva 266 Returns to England ; his Prejudice and Bitterness against the Church ; rebuked by the Bishop of London 266 The opening Passages of his Life decisive eviden- ces of his Greatness ...... 266 Vane announces his Determination to leave his Country, and seek the Liberty of Conscience denied him here, in the New World beyond the Waters of the Atlantic 267 Interest and Curiosity excited throughout Europe by the Progress of Colonization in America . 267 Vane embarks for America ; characteristic Cir- cumstance on board the Passage Ship . . 267 1635. Arrives at Boston 268 (3d of March.) Admitted to the Freedom of Mas- sachusetts ....... 268 1636. Elected Governor of the Colony ; Detail of his short Administration 268 Difficulties which he had to contend with even before a single Act of his Government was . known 268 His Measure for the Prevention of the Evils ari- sing from the Number of foreign Vessels in the Harbour 269 Incident of his Government furnishing a striking Illustration of his own Character, no less than the Character of the Men he had to deal with, and who were necessarily associated with him in the Government 269 He summons the Officers of the British Vessels in the Port to a Conference with himself and the Magistrates of the Colony . . . . 269 The Conference reopened the following Day with greater Violence 270 The Case and its Result submitted to the Consid- eration of the Clergy 270 Commencement of that Hostility which ultimate- ly brought his Administration to a close ; Ex- . tracts from Sikes's Tribute to his Friend . 270 His great Influence with the People of the Colony enables him for some time to withstand effect- ually the Hostility of its Chiefs ... 271 Commencement of Occurrences which led to the PequotWar 27 The Antinomian Controversy . . . .27 Mrs. Anne Hutchinson ; her Arrival in Boston . 272 Her uncontrolled and irresistible Influence upon the whole Community 272 Accused of Heresy ; Vane interferes ; the ever fillant and generous Defender of the Rights of aith and Conscience 27! Her Doctrines explained 273 Many of her Doctrines become the ruling Princi- ple of the Life and the Faith of Vane . . 274 Description of the Divisions and conflicting Par- ties in Christendom, quoted by Sikes from one of Vane's religious Essays .... 275 His Advocacy of Mrs. Hutchinson only in accord- ance with the Principles which governed every Passage in his Life 276 Winthrop elected Governor, and Vane and his Friends left out of Office 27 His Controversy with Vane . . . . 2i7 This Discussion only to be alluded to here in so far as it illustrates the Character of Vane as a Statesman 277 1637. Extracts from Vane's Answers to Winthrop's " Defence of an Order of the Court, explaining its Intent, and illustrating its Equity" . 277, 278 (August.) Vane embarks for England . . 278 His Letters to his old and active Enemy, Win- throp 279 Brief Review of his colonial Residence and Ad- ministration 280 His Marriage with Frances, Daughter of Sir Christopher Wray 280 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXXV A.D. Page 1640. (April.) Returned Member of Parliament for the Borough of Kingston-upou-Hull . . .28 Appointed Treasurer of the Navy . . .28' Receives the Dignity of Knighthood from the Hands of Charles I. 28 (1st of November.) Again elected Member for the Borough of Kingston-upon-Hull, and takes his Seat at Westminster as a Member of the memorable Long Parliament . . . .281 His Conduct in the Affair of Lord Strafford's Trial 281 Distinguishes himself in all Matters of religious Reform ; one of the greatest Supporters of the "Root and Branch" Petition against Prelacy , 282 Reappointed Treasurer of the Navy by the Par- liament ; memorable Circumstance in connex- ion with this Reappointment .... 28! Severe Reverses suffered by the Parliament du- ring the second Year of the Civil War . . 281 Fervour and Determination of the Adherents of the Parliament 283 1643. (July.) The Parliament negotiate with the Scots; four Commissioners appointed; Vane principally confided in 284 Clarendon's Description of this Embassy , Serious Difficulty occurs in Vane's Departure from London 284 His Arrival in Edinburgh ; " a solemn League and Covenant effected" 284 The treacherous Intrigues of the Duke of Hamil- ton foiled on this remarkable Occasion by Vane's Article respecting Religion .... 285 (17th of August.) The solemn League and Cov- enant voted by the Legislature and the Assem- bly of the Church at Edinburgh . . . 285 Vane exposed to a more violent Hatred from the Royalists than he had yet experienced . . 285 Commencement of his Intimacy with the Marquis of Argyle ........ (25th of September.) The solemn League and Covenant adopted in England .... 286 1644. The Opening of the Campaign strengthened by the Accession of the Army from Scotland . 286 Vane in the Camp of Manchester . . . 266 Remonstrance and Discontent of the Presbyte- rians in the Debates in the House of Commons 287 Peculiar religious Opinions of Sir Henry Vane . 287 Extract from his " Retired Man's Meditations" . 287 A portion of his Prayer the Night before his Death 288 Different Opinions respecting his religious Opin- ions 289 Extracts from his religious Essays . . . 290 State of Parties 293 Treaty of Uxbridge 294 The King's Letter to the Queen .... 294 Proceedings of the Parliament .... 295 The Self-denying Ordinance .... 295 The New Model 295 A second Self-denying Ordinance transmitted to the Lords .296 Forces of the Parliament and of the King . . 296 Battle of Naseby 297 Defeat of the Royalists the first Result of Vane's Policy in the Matter of the Self-denying Ordi- nance and the New Model .... 298 Vane directs his Attention to the State of the Representation in the House of Commons . 298 Cromwell's Letter to the Parliament . . . 299 Charles endeavours to negotiate with the Parlia- ment 299 Origin of Vane's Conversion to Republicanism . 300 Extract from his Essay on Government . . 300 Petition secretly got up by the Presbyterians in the Name of the City carried into Parliament . 302 Mr. Godwin's Description of the Statesmen that flourished at this Time 302 Vane's Position that of the greatest Difficulty . 303 Whitelocke's Description of the Troops raised by Cromwell 303 Disgraceful London Riots in Favour of the Pres- byterians 303 Vane in Fairfax's Camp at Hounslow . . .303 Flight of the King from Hampton Court . . 304 1648. Treaty at the Isle of Wight arranged . . 304 Result of the Treaty ; Debate in the House of Commons on the Subject ..... 304 Speech of Sir Henry Vane 304 Pride's Purge ; Vane refusing to share in a Tri- umph obtained by such Means, retires to Raby 305 1649. (26th of February.) Leaves his Retirement and again joins his old Friends and Associates . 305 Elected one of the Members of the Council of State ; refuses to take the Oath expressing Ap- probation of the King's Trial and Execution . 306 A.D. pjgo 1649. Proceedings of the Council of State ; Bradshaw elected President of the Council . . . 306 Milton made Secretary to the Council for Foreign Tongues . . 308 Question considered in the Council the Dismis- sion of the present Parliament, and the sum- moning of another ...... 306 Objects of Vane ; the Administration of a State without the Intervention of a Sovereign and a Court, and the free and full Toleration of all Modes of religious Worship and Opinion . 307 Steps taken to strengthen the present Parliament 308 Temporary Arrangement effected . . . 308 1650. Close of the first Year of the Commonwealth ; Reduction of the Rebellion in Ireland . .308 Trial and Acquittal of Lilburne .... 309 Vane takes his Seat in the second Year's Council of State ; gradual Construction of the Naval Administration 309 Excellence of the Administration ; System of the Commonwealth . 309 Fairfax resigns the Commander-in-chiefship . 309 1651. Battle of Worcester . . . . . . 309 The restless Movements again resumed in the House of Commons on the Question of Dissolu- tion and a new House 309 (15th of May.) A Committee appointed to take the Subject into Consideration . . . 309 1652. (24th of September.) The Subject again discuss- ed in the House 310 Incorporation of Scotland with the English Legis- lature 310 Speech of Sir Henry Vane on the Subject of the Union 310 His unparalleled Efforts to increase the Navy . 312 Sonnet addressed to him by Milton . . . 312 1653. His Exertions to avert the Despotism of Cromwell 313 Cromwell's Plan for dissolving the Parliament . 313 (20th of April.) Vane hurries down to the House, to make a last Effort to sustain the Republic . 314 Cromwell with an armed Force dissolves the Par- liament 314 Cromwell arrives at Whitehall the absolute Dic- tator of three Kingdoms ; Vane at his private Home, a private Man 315 Brief Review of the Proceedings of the Long Par- liament 315 Provisions of the Bill orfwhich Vane was content to rest his Case with the People and Posterity 316 'Vane, a few Days after the Usurpation, settles quietly at Raby Castle 317 Proceedings of Cromwell 318 Vane publishes his "Retired Man's Meditations" 318 Enters the Field after his noble Fashion against the Dictator of the Commonwealth ; Extracts from his Political Treatises .... 319 " England's Remembrancer" published ; Vane summoned before the Council .... 320 (21st of August.) Appears before the Council . 320 (9th of September.) Sent a Prisoner to the Isle of Wight 321 1656. (31st of December.) Is Released . . .321 Measures adopted to involve his Estates in the Meshes of the Law 321 1658. (3d of September.) Death of Cromwell . . 321 1659. (27th of January.) Writs for a Parliament issued by the Council of his Son and Successor Rich- ard Cromwell 321 Extraordinary and extreme Measures to prevent the Election of Sir Henry Vane . . . 322 Vane once more takes his Seat in the House of Commons 322 (9th of February.) His Speech during the De- bate on the Question of the Recognition of Richard Cromwell 322 The Republicans beaten ; the Government vested in a single Person 324 (18th of February.) Vane again addresses the House on this Point 324 (21st of February.) His next Effort against Rich- ard Cromwell, aimed at him through his Ad- ministration 325 His Speech on the Proposition of sending as much Shipping and Forces as might be necessary to .promote the Success of a Mediation in the Af- fairs of the Kings of Sweden and Denmark . 325 Effect produced by this Speech ; its Recommend- ation most subtilely and effectively aimed . 326 (1st of March.) His Speech during the Debate on the famous " Petition and Advice" . . 327 (9th of March.) Directs his Assaults against the Scotch and Irish Nominees .... 328 His Speech on the Presentation of the Petition from seventy Royalist Prisoners, who had some ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXXVI A.D. Page 1659. Years before sent to Barbadoes and sold as Slaves 328 Extraordinary Party formed without the Doors of the House ; Richard Cromwell attempts to dis- solve the Parliament 328 They debate with closed Doors . . . .32 Vane addresses the Speaker .... 329 Formal Abdication of Richard Cromwell ; Re- suscitation of the famous Long Parliament ; Administration of the Government for a short Period on Republican Principles . . . 329 Rapid Sketch of the general Features of Vane's Conduct before his Arrest .... 329 1660. RESTORATION. (July.) Arrested at Hampstead, and flung into the Tower .... 330 Debates in the Commons on the Act of Indemnity 330 Vane removed to a solitary Castle on one of the Isles of Scilly 330 Extracts from his religious Works written during his Imprisonment 331 1662. (7th of March.) His Letter to his Wife . .332 Removed to the Tower of London, the Grand Jury having found a Bill against him as a false Traitor 333 (2d of June.) Arraigned before the Court of King's Bench 333 The Indictment read to him twice in English . 333 Refused the Assistance of Counsel . . . 333 His Address to his Judges 333 Before resuming his Seat once more claims the Benefit of Counsel ; refused ; brought up to Trial 334 Substance of the Evidence in Support of the Prosecution 334 Sir Henry Vane called upon for his Defence . 334 Extracts from this immortal Defence, in which he illustrated the emphatic Differences which separated his Case from that of almost every other Supporter of the Cause .... 335 Proves by a few Witnesses the utter Falsehood of much of the Crown Evidence . . . 336 A Verdict of Guilty found against him ; carried back to the Tower 336 The King's Letter to Clarendon the Day after Vane's Trial 337 (llth of June.) Vane brought up to receive his Sentence . 337 His Reasons why Sentence of Death should not be passed upon him 337 Sentenced to be executed on Tower Hill . . 339 Passages from his Prayer with his Family the Night before his Execution .... 339 His Conversation with the Sheriff the Morning of his Execution 340 His triumphal Progress from the Tower to the Scaffold 340 His Address to the People 341 His Execution ; Remark of Sikes on this infamous Murder 342 His eldest Son sworn into William's Privy Coun- cil at the Revolution of 1688, which banished forever from England the detested Family of the Stuarts 342 APPENDIX. A. A Healing Question propounded and resolved, upon Occasion of the late public and seasona- ble Call to Humiliation, in order to Love and Union among the honest Party, and with a De- sire to apply Balm to the Wound before it be- come incurable 343 B. The People's Case stated 347 C. Vanity of Vanities, or Sir Harry Vane's Picture 351 D. Sir Harry Vane's Speech at a Committee for the Bill against Episcopal Government, June llth, 1641 351 E. A Letter from a Person of Quality to a Relation of Sir Harry Vane, a Week after the Execution 352 HENRY MARTEN. 16021660. 1602. His Birth and Parentage 353 His early Education 353 1619. The Degree of Bachelor of Arts conferred on him by the University of Oxford .... 353 His Marriage 353 Anecdote of him related by Aubrey . . . 353 1640- Chosen to represent the County of Berkshire in Parliament 353 (April.) The Long Parliament summoned ; Mar- ten a second Time returned with Enthusiasm 354 A.TJ. Page 1640. The first who is reported to have avowed Repub- lican Principles 354 Anecdote relating to this Fact .... 354 Clarendon's Imputations on his good Faith re- specting his great political Associates have no Warrant or Authority 355 1640, 1641. He takes a most prominent Part in all the Consultations of the Liberal Leaders, and in all their most memorable Actions . . . 355 1642. Simple Frame of the first Executive Government of the Parliament ; Marten appointed one of the Committee of Safety ..... 355 A Colonel's Commission granted to him by the Parliament ....... 355 More successful as a Civilian than a Soldier ; once more at Westminster engaged in fierce Contests and Disputes with the House of Lords 355 Disputes between the two Houses respecting two young Horses taken out of the King's Stables by a Person of the Name of De Luke . . 356 Anecdote of Marten, said to belong to this Period, related by Doctor Peter Heylin . . . 356 1643. (16th of August.) Expelled from the House and committed to the Tower ..... 357 Discharged after a Fortnight, without paying any Fees for his Imprisonment .... 357 Contributes out of his own Resources upward of 3000 to the parliamentary Commissioners for the Maintenance of the War .... 357 During his Absence from the House the Self-de- nying Ordinance debated and passed . . 357 1646. (16th of January.) A Resolution passed for his Reinstatement in the House .... 357 Received with an enthusiastic Welcome on re- entering the House of Commons . . . 357 His Interference in behalf of Lilburne . . 358 Anecdotes of his Wit 358 Case of Judge Jenkins and Sir Francis Butler . 358 Humane Interference of Henry Marten . . 359 Speech intended to have been spoken by Jenkins at the Place of Execution .... 359 Another Instance of Marten's humane Interfe- rence in the Case of the Poet Davenant . . 359 Strife between the Independents and the Presby- terians ; Marten the most active and perseve- ring of the Opponents of the King . . . 360 1647. The Scots Commissioners claim the Right of In- terference and Dictation in the Terms of Peace proposed to the royal Prisoner . . . 360 Marten's Argument on this Occasion . . 360, 366 The Pretences of the Scots and the serious Inva- sions they implied against the newly-achieved Freedom of England ably exposed . . . 361 The altered Position of the Scots since the Con- clusion of the War exquisitely illustrated in the Answer to their first Argument . . 362 He describes the wise and tolerant Faith of the Independents with a careless yet noble Sim- plicity 362 The general Case of the Independents against all their Opponents, whether of England or Scotland, stated with inimitable Ease and Clearness 363 His Treatment of the fifth and last Argument of the Scots Commissioners .... 36-1 The Close of this Argument remarkable as illus- trating, wilh superior Force, the Republican Fervour of Marten's Views, the various Wit of his Illustrations, and the Republican Plainness and Strength of his Style .... 365 Four Bills, imbodying the Conditions of Treaty, sent by Parliament to the King for his Assent 366 He rejects the Bills of the Parliament, and signs a secret Treaty with the Scots, by which he binds himself to renounce Episcopacy and ac- cept the Covenant in solemn Parliament of both Kingdoms ...... 366 Commencement of Operations for changing- the Form of Government from a Monarchy into a Republic 366 Debates on this Subject ; Cromwell's Speech . 366 Advance of Fairfax upon London : is joined by Marten in his capacity as Colonel . . . 367 Extracts from Ireton's famous Papers and Re- monstrances to the House of Commons, shown up in behalf of the Army .... 367 The Parliament renews a friendly Negotiation with the King 368 He rejects their Proposals with infatuated Scorn 368 Extracts from these Proposals .... 368 The Army send up a Remonstrance to the House, calling for the immediate breaking up of the Treaty, and for Justice on the King as the " capital Source of all Grievances" . . . 370 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXXVll A.D H-47. 1648. 1649. 1650. 1657- I860. Pride's Purge . .... 3(0 (23d of December.) First Step against the Life of the King attempted in the House of Com- mons ........ 371 A Committee of Thirty-eight appointed to pre- pare Charges against him .... 371 Anecdote of Marten's Share in these Deliberations 371 (28th of December.) An Ordinance for the King's Trial carried into the House of Commons . 371 (1st of January.) Charge against the King re- ported by the Committee of Thirty-eight . 371 (2d of January.) The Ordinance and the Charge sent up to the Lords ..... 371 (6th of January.) The Ordinance read a third time and passed ; the Number of Commission- ers named in it a hundred and thirty-five . 372 (8th of January.) Proclamation made in West- minster Hall by the Sergeant-at-arms of the coming Trial of the King .... 372 (9th of January.) Report of the Committee for the Construction of the Great Seal carried into the House of Commons by Henry Marten . 372 The Instructions of the Committee adopted, and the new Seal ordered to be prepared with all convenient Despatch ..... 372 (10th of January.) The Commissioners again meet; Bradshaw chosen President of the Court 372 Counsel for the Prosecution fixed upon ; the King brought privately from Windsor to St. James's ........ 373 (20th of January.) Conducted by Colonel Har- rison from St. James's to Westminster . . 373 The Charge delivered in Writing by Coke, and read by the Clerk ...... 374 The King replies in a grave and collected Man- ner ......... 374 Progress of the Trial ; the Duty of preparing the Draught of a final Sentence intrusted to Henry Marten ........ 374 Sentence pronounced on him by Bradshaw . 375 Receives the farewell Visit of his Children . 375 (29th of January.) The Warrant for his Execu- tion signed by the fifty-nine Commissioners . 375 Extraordinary scene between Marten and Crom- well, said to have occurred on the signing of this Warrant ....... 376 (30th of January.) Execution of the King . 376 Its Effect on the Kingdom ..... 377 The Business of the Commonwealth resumed with quiet and resolved Deliberation . . 377 A Vote passed in the Commons declaring Monar- chy extinguished in England .... 378 Marten the most prominent Actor in all the Pro- ceedings of the Parliament at this Period . 378 (17th of February.) An Executive Council of State installed ....... 378 Proceedings of the Council; Repeal of the Stat- ute of Banishment against the Jews . . 378 Difficulties which beset the Commonwealth rela- ting to the Question of a Dissolution of the Parliament ....... 379 Speech of Marten during the Debate in the House of Commons on this Subject .... 379 Dissensions in the Army promoted by Lilburne . 379 Losses endured by Marten in the Public Service taken into consideration by the House of Com- mons ........ 380 One thousand Pounds per Annum settled on him by the Parliament ...... 380 His Disputes with Cromwell .... 380 Excluded from the Council of State . . .381 Instances of his happy Humour during the serious Debates of this Period ..... 381 His Name again appears in the Council of State 381 Last Scene of the Council of State, as described by Godwin ; brief and concentrated Remon- strance of Bradshaw ..... 381 Marten thrown into Prison ..... 382 1658. Extracts from Scot's Speeches in Oliver Cromwell's last Parliament . . . 3S2, 384 Death of Oliver Cromwell ; Resumption of Power by the Republicans ...... 384 Thurloe's Proposition in Richard Cromwell's first Parliament ....... 384 Scot's Speech in Vindication of the Intentions of the Long Parliament ..... 385 Richard Cromwell driven from the Protectorate ; Henry Marten once more takes his Seat in the House of Commons ...... 386 Restoration of Charles II. ; Henry Marten sur- renders, and resolves to stand his Trial . . 387 (10th of October.) Placed at the Bar of the Old Bailey, and required to plead .... 3P7 Questions put to him by the Court . . 387 A.T). Pag 1660. The Case opened by the Crown Counsel . . 387 Examination of Witnesses 388 Sir Purbeck Temple's Evidence .... 388 The Solicitor-general addresses the Jury . . 388 Marten called upon for his Defence ; he address- es the Court 389 The Solicitor-general follows in Aggravation of the Case 389 The Lord-chief-baron delivers the Charge ; a Verdict of Guilty returned by the Jury . . 389 Discussion of the Matter in the House of Com- mons 390 1660-81. Imprisoned in the Castle of Chepstow, in Monmouthshire ...... 390 Anecdote of his long Imprisonment . . . 390 His Death in, the seventy-eighth Year of his Age 391 OLIVER CROMWELL. 1599-1658. 1599. (25th of April.) His Birth 392 His Family 392 Descended from the Royal Family of the Stuarts 394 Amiable Character of his Mother . . . 394 Oliver Cromwell baptized in the Parish Church of St. John 395 Marvellous Stories of his Youth . . . . 395 Anecdote relative to his first Meeting with Charles 1 395 Singular and awful Incidents connecting his Childhood with the mighty Future that await- ed him 396 Description of his School Days .... 397 1616. (23d of April.) Enters Sidney Sussex College as a Fellow Commoner ...... 398 Notice^ of his boyish Irregularities . . . 399 1617. (June.) Death of his Father, Robert Cromwell 400 Enters as a Member of Lincoln's Inn . . . 400 Returns to Huntingdon ; his wild, dissolute Char- acter 400 His Lawsuit with his Uncle, Sir Thomas Steward 401 1620. (22d of August.) His Marriage with Elizabeth Bourchier 402 Her amiable Character 403 Fixes his Residence in his native Town of Hunt- ingdon, and addresses himself to those Studies and Pursuits which were to pave his Way to Greatness 403 His House becomes notorious as the Refuge of the Nonconformist Ministers ..... 403 He encourages them in their Opposition, pro- claims their Wrongs, and urges the Necessity of Redress 404 Dates of the Births of his Children . . . 404 1626. (14th of October.) His Letter to Mr. Henry Downtell, of St. John's College, Cambridge, characteristic of his Mind at this Period . . 405 1628. (March.) Takes his Seat in the Third Parlia- ment of Charles I., as Member for the Borough of Huntingdon ....... 406 Is introduced to the House by Hampden . . 406 His Speech during the Debate in the Case of Main waring 406 Striking Effect which his Speech created . . 406 Dissolution of the Parliament ; Cromwell returns to Huntingdon 406 Appointed Justice of the Peace under the New Charter granted at this Time to the Hunting- don Corporation ...... 407 1631. Sells his small Patrimony, and removes with his Wife and Children to St. Ives . . .407 Achieves an Influence through the Neighbour- hood, unequalled for Piety and Self-denying Virtue 408 1635. His Letter to Mr. Stone during his Residence at St. Ives 408 1636. (June.) Removes to the City of Ely on the Death of his Uncle, Sir Thomas Steward . . .409 Appointed to the Trusteeship of some important Charities in the City 409 Attacked by one of his worst hypochondriacal Distempers 409 1638. (13th of October.) His deeply interesting Letter to his Cousin, Mrs. St. John .... 410 Slight Allusion in this Letter to his domestic Con- cerns ........ 410 His Eagerness in watching the Progress of Events towards the now inevitable Long Parliament . 411 Occasion whereof he most skilfully avails himself in furtherance of his eager Hopes and 1 Wishes 411 Inflames the People everywhere against the greedy Claims of Royalty, and gross Exactions of the Royal Commission . . . . 411 xxxvm ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. 1638. 1640. 1642. 1643. 1647. 1643. 1644. 1644. Completion of the Bedford Level ; popular Dis- content ..... . 412 (November.) Cromwell offers himself as a Can- didate for the Representation of Cambridge . 412 Is returned after a formidable Opposition by a Majority of a single Vote ..... 412 (llth of November.) Opening- of the Parliament 413 Arrest of the Earl of Strafford . . . .413 Sir Philip Warwick's Description of Oliver Crom- well at the Beginning of this Parliament . 414 Proceedings of the Commons . . . .414 Letters of Charles Louis, Prince Elector of the Palatinate, to his Mother the Queen of Bohe- mia, illustrating the Character and Events of the Time ....... .415 Impoverished State of the Exchequer . . 416 Reckless Extravagance of the King . . . 417 Passage from Clarendon referring to the latter part of this Year . . . . . . 417 (12th of November.) Letter of Charles Louis, detailing an Interview with his imprisoned Un- cle, Charles 1 ........ 418 Cold and unfeeling Strain of his Letters within a Month of his Uncle's Execution . .419 Remonstrance of the Commons .... 419 Commencement of the Civil War . . . 419 Decisive Movements of Cromwell . . 420 Organization of his immortal Troop of Iron- sides ........ 420 Excellence of his military Discipline . . . 421 Sir Philip Warwick ; his Account of Cromwell's Regiment of Ironsides ..... 421 Cromwell's last Instruction to this celebrated Regiment ........ 422 Their determined Zeal ..... 422 Movements of the King's Troops . . . 423 Sir Bevil Grenville ; his Letters to his Wife . 424 Seizure of Sir Thomas Couisby .... 425 First pitched Battle between Charles and his Subjects ........ 425 Cromwell's Letter to the Speaker describing this Battle ....... 425 Defeat of the Royalists ..... 425 Colonel Thornhaugh ; Ireton ; Beginning of his Intimacy with Cromwell .... 426 Success of the Royal Troops ; Rout of the Par- liamentarians at Bradock Down . . . 426 Siege of Plymouth ...... 426 Battle of Lansdowne ...... 427 The Cause of the Parliament in Danger ; fatal Imbecility, and suspected Treachery of Essex ; Death of Hampden ...... 427 Settlement of the Solemn League and Covenant 428 Jealousies in the King's Troops .... 428 Battle of Newbury ...... 428 Description of this Battle ..... 428 Lord Falkland slain ; his Character . . . 430 Cromwell in Lincolnshire ..... 431 (9th of October.) Is joined by Fairfax ; his ex- traordinary Influence over his determined Iron- sides ........ 431 Close of the Campaign ..... 432 Cromwell appointed Lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Ely ; his Exertions in Cambridge . 432 Parliamentary Commission for effecting a Reform in the Universities of Cambridge . . 432 (19th of January.) Commencement of the tre- mendous Campaign of 1644 ... . 433 Distribution of the Forces of the Parliament and of the King . . . . . . 433 The Royalists defeated at Yprk . " . . 433 Siege of York ; Movements of the Midland and Western Forces ...... 434 (4th of June.) The King's Letter to his Neph- ew, Prince Rupert ...... 434 Admirable military Movements by the King . 435 The Parliamentarians under Waller defeated on the Banks of the Charwell .... 435 Quarrel between Prince Rupert and the Marquis of Newcastle ....... 435 (2d of July.) Battle of Marston Moor ; Night of the Battle ....... 435 Nearly Half of the entire Kingdom now hopeless- ly lost to Charles 1 ....... 437 Cromwell wounded ; his Letter to his Brother- in-law after this Victory ..... 437 Rise of the Independents ; their Aversion to Pres- byterianiem as well as Prelacy . . . 438 Milton's " Areopagitica" ..... 438 Condition of the Parliamentary Army and its Chiefs ; the King proposes a Negotiation . 438 High-minded Policy of the Commons ; Manches- ter and Cromwell, Essex and Waller, march against the King ...... 439 A.D. Pago 1644. (27th of October.) Serious Fight between the Royalists and Parliamentarians at Deiming- ton 439 Cromwell seeks Counsel and Co-operation from the Genius of the Younger Vane . . .440 Resolves to venture a decisive Stroke against the Presbyterian Councils and their Favourers in the Parliamentary Army 440 The first startling Exhibition of the legislative Influence of the Independents .... 440 Eve and Origin of Cromwell's Greatness and In- fluence as a Politician 440 Cowley's " Vision," Extracts from . . . 441 His Division of the Men whom Cromwell deceived 441 Sir Harbottle Grimston 442 Bishop Burnet ; his Account of Cromwell's Con- duct in the House of Commons . . . 442 Extract from Hollis's Memoirs .... 442 Craft and Duplicity of Cromwell . . . 443 His Conversation with Ludlow . . ... 443 He endeavours to accomplish a Reconciliation be- tween the Presbyterians and Independents . 444 His Character that of a deliberate Usurper . 445 Extract from Ludlow at the lime of Cromwell's Return from his Government in Ireland . . 445 Enthusiastic Democracy of the Army, and its fiercely Republican Officers .... 446 The Army the first Power of the State . . 446 Major-general Harrison ; his Reasons for joining Cromwell 446, 447 Extract from Bishop Burnet illustrating Crom- well's Character 447 Major Streater, Colonel Okey .... 447 Cromwell's Letter to the Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh 447 Style adopted towards Cromwell by indifferent Persons, whom he had obliged, or who hoped for Favours from him 448 Straits to which he was reduced on the Eve of the Battle of Dunbar 449 His Letter to Fairfax on his recovering from Ill- ness 44V His Letter to Lord Wharton .... 44' His Letter to Mr. Cotton, Pastor at Boston ; a striking Illustration of certain eminent Peculi- arities which lay at the very Root of the Strength and Weakness of his Character . 44C 1 His Letter to his eldest Daughter, containing several characteristic Points .... 450 Extracts from Letters of Harrison and Bradshaw 450 Anecdote of Cromwell related by VVhitelocke in his " Memorials" ...... 451 Anecdote of Cromwell related in the Life af Wal- ler 451 General Affairs of his Household ; his Strictness in religious Observances ...... 452 Religion with him rather a Matter of Policy than Persuasion . . . ..' 452 Selection of his Chaplains : ". . . .452 His remarkable Fondness for Buffoonery . . 452 Extract from a Loyalist Pamphlet, entitled " The Court and Kitchen of Mrs. Joan Cromwell" . 453 Anecdotes of Cromwell related in Whitelocke's " Memorials" 453 General Remarks on his Character and Abilities for Statesmanship 454 His Want of Truth 454 Close of the Notices of Cromwell's more familiar Habits 454 (23d of November.) Discontent of the House of Commons with the Affair of Dennington Cas- tle ; Cromwell's Speech on this Occasion . 455 Lord Manchester's Narrative of this Affair, in the House of Lords . . . . . . 455 (2d of December.) Measures against Cromwell 455 (9th of December.) The Project of the Self-de- nying Ordinance brought forward in the Com- mons ; Cromwell's Speech . . . 45& Progress of this Measure ; its Defeat by the Lords 457 1645. A second Measure introduced .... 457 (3d of April.) Passed into a Law ; Reduction of the Army 457 Sir Thomas Fairfax appointed Commander-in- chief 457 (10th of June.) Cromwell appointed a Lieuten- ant-general of Cavalry 458 His Success at Islip Bridge .... 459 Successful Movements of the King . . .459 Fixes his Headquarters at Daventry . . . 459 Movements of Cromwell and Ireton . . . 460 (14th of June.) Battle of Naseby . . .460 Fortune of the Day turr-ed by Cromwell . . 461 Brilliant and decisive Victory of the Parliament- arians 461 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. Page 1645. Cromwell's Letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons after this Victory . . . 461 Vigilance of Cromwell ; Leicester retaken . 462 (4th of August.) Defeat of the Club Men ; Crom- well's Letter to Fairfax oil this Occasion . 462 Surrender of Bristol 463 Marvellous Escape of Fairfax and Cromwell . 463 Surrender and Capitulation of Winchester to Cromwell's victorious Troops .... 464 Fall of Basing- 464 (14th of October.) Cromwell's Letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons . . . 464 Continued Successes of Fairfax and Cromwell . 465 Flight of the King in Disguise from Oxford . 465 Cromwell -received in London with extraordinary Honours ; enters the House of Commons . 465 (1st of December.) The Title and Dignity of Baron of the Kingdom of England conferred on Cromwell 465 1646. (31st of January.) A Pension of 2500 settled on him by the Commons 465 Negotiations opened with Cromwell by the King ; Stipulations of the Treaty .... 466 Rejected by Cromwell 466 Extract from the Memoir prefixed to the State Letters of Orrery 467 Cromwell recommends to the People of England such a Government as the Netherlands' States- General 468 Flight of the King to Carisbrooke . . . 468 Examination of Colonel Robert Hammond at the Bar of "the House of Commons . . .468 Cromwell's Letters to him in every way charac- teristic of the Writer 468 Resolution for establishing a Republic in England passed by a Majority of 141 to 92 . . . 469 Speeches of Cromwell and Ireton . . . 469 Startling Effect of this Measure ; Attempt to dis- band the Army . - . i .' . . . 469 Rise of the Agitators ...... 469 Conduct of Cromwell illustrated by a Letter ad- dressed to some Officers iti the Welsh Counties 469 1648. Presbyterian Invasion by the Covenanters' Army of the Scots, and regular Commencement of the Second Civil War . .. ... . 470 (17th of August.) Battle of Preston : both King- doms thrown into the Hands of the Republicans 470 (20th of August.) Cromwell's Letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons ; a most striking Despatch of this Battle . . . 470 He marches for Scotland 472 (20th 'of September.) Issues his Proclamation . 472 Is received with Enthusiasm in Edinburgh . 472 Returns to London ; Death of his eldest Son . 472 His Negotiation with Mr. Majof'for the Marriage of his Son Richard 473 Extracts from his private Correspondence . . 473 1649. (1st of May.) Marriage of his Son Richard to Dorothy Major 476 Mighty Events created and controlled by Crom- well in the Interval comprised by these mar- riage Negotiations ...... 476 Bishop Burnet's Account of the Sequel of this Second Civil War 477 Anecdote with Reference to a Cousin of Crom- well's 477 Execution of the King 477 Charles II. proclaimed 478 (10th of July.) Cromwell appointed Lieutenant- general and General Governor of Ireland . 478 His Letter to Mr. Major . . . . . 478 (13lh of August.) His second Letter, just before his Entrance into Dublin .... 479 His Letter to his Daughter 479 Farther Extracts from his private Letters from Ireland 479 His Arrival in Dublin 479 Selects Drogheda for his first Object of Attack . 480 (10th of September.) Sends a Summons to the Governor to surrender, which is rejected . 480 He effects a Breach, and takes the Town by Storm 480 His Despatch, describing the desperate Resist- ance of the Enemy . . ... 480 His Progress through Ireland in grim and bloody Triumph 480 Opposition offered by Wexford ; another Deluge of Blood 480 Rosse surrenders to him after a Siege of three Days . . . . . . . .481 1650. Extracts from his Despatches during his terrible Irish Government ...... 481 Siege and Massacre of Wexford .... 481 Some Glimpses of Cromwell's wiser Policy visible in these Despatches 482 XXXIX A.D. Pag 1650. Last Extract descriptive of some later Incidents in the Campaign 483 Cromwell returns to England; appointed Com- mander-in-chief, and directed to proceed to Scotland to reduce the Rebellion there . . 484 (23d of July.) Enters Scotland with 11,000 Horse and Foot ; his Proclamations and wise Disci- pline 484 David Leslie Commander-in-chief of the Scottish Army 484 (1st of September.) Cromwell enters Dunbar . 485 (2d of September.) Holds a Council of War ; Battle of Dunbar 485 (3d of September.) The Parliamentarians gain a decided Victory 486 Cromwell's Despatch written the Day after the Battle 486 His Letter to Richard Major at Hursley . . 487 Farther Extracts from his private Correspond- ence 487 Successes of Cromwell in Glasgow and Edin- burgh . . .489 Spends the Winter in polemical Discussions and Correspondence with various Ministers . . 489 Transports his Army into Fife, and proceeds to- wards Perth, which he captures after a Siege of two Days 489 Makes Preparations for the Battle of Worcester 48U 1651. Charles II. proclaimed at Worcester . . . 490 Alarm in London ...... 490 (2d of September.) Cromwell's Preparations completed 490 (3d of September.) Battle of Worcester, signal Defeat of the Royalists, and Triumph of Crom- well 490 His memorable Letter to the Parliament of Eng- land ' . . . .491 His Excitement on the Field .... 491 1652. State of Parties after the Defeat of Worcester . 491 Sublime Talents and Energy of the Men who were at the Head of Affairs 491 A Majority of the People still strongly attached to the Forms of Monarchical Government . 491 The Government of the new Form has now brought to a successful Issiie its Struggle for Existence . . . '. ' . . . . 492 Cromwell's Despatches read from the Speaker's Chair to the assembled Commons, and from every Chapel in the vast City to its crowded and excited Congregation .... 492 Extract from one of his Despatches . . . 492 Vote of the House at this memorable Crisis . 493 Four of the first Members of the Government ap- pointed by the Parliament to meet and con- gratulate Cromwell at Aylesbury, on his Way to the Capital 493 His slow and triumphant Progress with his Army towards London 493 Receives the Parliamentary Commissioners at Aylesbury with an Air of Courtesy and Conde- scension, which had a regal Stamp upon it . 494 Enters London in great Solemnity and Triumph, accompanied by the Four Commissioners of Parliament 494 1652. (16th of September.) Resumes his Parliament- ary Duties by a Revival of the Debate touching a new Representative ..... 494 (8th of December.) Sudden Death of the gallant and Virtuous Ireton 495 (10th of December.) Cromwell summons and holds a Meeting at the Speaker's House of those Friends, military and civil, whom he supposes to be well affected towards his own political Views . 493 Startling Question which he propounds to them 495 The Conference opened by the Speaker of the House of Commons . . . .-,. . 496 Discussion of the Question, Whether a Republic or a mixed Monarchical Government would be best to be settled 496 Different Opinions on the Subject . . .496 Conclusion of the Conference .... 497 A Bill passed to limit the Duration of the Parlia- ment to the 3d of November, 1654 . . . 497 Energy and Excitement of both Parties in the House at this memorable Crisis . . . 497 Discussion of the Question for the Reduction of the Army 498 (12th of August.) The Question referred lo Council of State, to give an Account, with al convenient Speed, of the former Vote respect- ing the Retrenchment of the Forces . . 498 Cromwell declares open War upon the Parlia- ment ... ... 498 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. "" Page 1652. A Council of Officers held at Whitehall . . 498 (13th of August.) A Petition drawn up and pre- sented by them to the Parliament . . . 498 Insincerity and Selfishness of the Petition . . 499 The Petition referred to a Committee . . 499 Consideration of the Bill for the Dissolution of the Parliament, and the Provision for future Parliaments in Succession .... 500 (8th of November.) Conference between Crom- well and Lord-commissioner Whitelocke . 500 Whitelocke's Account of their private Discourse 500 Conclusion of their Conference . . . .501 Cromwell turns back to his Military Council . 503 Contest between the Chiefs of the Common- wealth and their too powerful Servant . . 504 Grand Position assumed by the Republican Lead- ers in closing their War with the Dutch . 504 The sacrilegious Purposes of Cromwell suspend- , ed for a brief Space 505 The last great Effort of the Dutch to recover the Supremacy of the Sea ..... 505 Events tend to establish more decisively than ever the internal Power of the Commonwealth 505 Cromwell and his Officers endeavour to calum- niate the Parliament, and pronounce them guilty of those Crimes whereof themselves were faulty 506 Proceedings of the Parliament .... 506 Deceit and Duplicity of Cromwell . . . 506 Sudden Change in the Policy of the Parliament 506 Fierce Contempt exhibited by Cromwell for the popular Pretences on which he first rested . 507 Measures adopted by him for establishing the Basis of his Tyranny 508 Designs to prepare the Minds of the common People by the. Use of his favourite Engine, Fanaticism 508 1653. (19th of April.) Last Meeting of Cromwell's Council 509 Proceedings of the Council .... 509 Measures of the Parliament .... 510 Cromwell's violent Disputes with the Parliament 510 Expels the Members by Violence . . . 511 Becomes virtually Lord of England, and stands with a heavier and more daring Foot upon her Neck than had ever been placed there by any of her Kings . . . . . . .511 His Reception by the Council of State . . 512 Publishes his Declaration of the " Grounds and Reasons for dissolving the Parliament'' . . 512 A second and third Declaration published . . 515 Sympathies divided between the Old and New Parliaments 516 Cromwell's Speech in Explanation of his Conduct 516 Singular and incomprehensible Style of his " Justification" 517 Discontent of the Members at the abrupt Disso- lution of the Parliament 520 Political Struggles of a great Character for the Future rather than the Present . . . 520 State of Parties at this Period . . . .521 Fatal and disastrous Etfect produced on all by the forcible Dispersion of the Long Parliament 522 Position of the Statesmen after the Action of the 20th of April 523 Necessity a favourite Plea with the Partisans of Cromwell 523 Mrs. Hutchinson's Description of the Condition of the Commonwealth on the Eve of its Fall . 523 Ludlow's Description of the disinterested and im- partial Character of the Long Parliament . 523 Brief Sketch of the Measures by which the Statesmen of the Long Parliament made them- selves so famous ...... 525 Financial Proceedings ..... 525 System of Sequestration ..... 526 Various Measures of Law Reform . . . 527 Abolition of the Court of Wards . . .527 System of Religious Toleration .... 528 A Bill passed with a View to correct certain Ex- travagances in the Professors of Religion . 528 Administrative Genius of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth 529 List of the Names of the Statesmen of the Com- monwealth 532 State of the Commonwealth at the Time of its Overthrow by the Violence of Cromwell . 533 Commencement of the Reign of Saiuts . . 533 Warlike Construction of the new Council of State 533 Movement of the Royalists 534 Cromwell seeks the Interests and Friendship of Cardinal de Retz . .... 534 State of Parties 534 A. D. Page 1653. The Spirit of Confusion alone predominant . 535 A Parliament called ; the Barbone Parliament . 536 Test to the Members 537 General Characteristics of the great Majority of the Members 538 Monk selected by Cromwell to supersede Blake in the naval Command 539 Antony Ashley Cooper and George Monk . . 539 (4th of July.) Speech of the Protector on the Opening of the Barbone Parliament . .539 He deprecates the Proceedings of the late Par- liament 540 1654. His elaborate and worthless Attempt to vindicate the Dispersion of the Long Parliament . .540 Etfect produced 543 Close of his memorable Address .... 544 His Instrument of Government .... 544 His Resignation accompanied with all the Forms that could declare it final and irrevocable . 545 Characteristic Incident recorded by Lord Leices- ter in his Journal ...... 545 Cromwell's favourite Policy, to win open Trust and pay it back with secret Treachery . . 545 Meeting of the Convention in the Old Parliament House at Westminster ; Mr. Francis Rouse elected Speaker ...... 545 Cromwell invited to assist in their Deliberations as Member of the House 546 (12th of July.) Proceedings of the Parliament or Convention ....... 546 First Movement in the House against Tithes . 547 (20th of July.) Eleven important Questions re- ferred to as many Committees . . . 547 Incidents which marked the Interval between the Issue of the Writs and their Meeting in Obe- dience to them, while the Military Council held supreme Command ..... 547 Brief Review of the Dutch War . . .548 Naval Victory of Monk ; Admiral Dean killed . 548 (22d of June.) Arrival of the Ambassadors from Holland to negotiate for Peace . . . 548 Cromwell receives the Dutch Delegates with a haughty Pride ; refuses their Propositions . 549 Another naval Victory for England . . . 549 Monk issues a memorable and characteristic Or- der through his Ships 550 (31st of July.) Great naval Victory ; Van Tromp, the Dutch Admiral, killed .... 550 Reception of the English Admirals in London . 551 Case of Lilburne 551 His Reappearance in England : his Arrest . 551 Endeavours to obtain a Respite of his Trial till the Meeting of the Convention . . . 552 Arraigned at the Sessions on the capital Charge of having violated the Statute of his Banish- ment 552 His Trial and Acquittal 553 His Trial a striking Characteristic of the Time 553 Royalist Conspiracy 554 Cromwell's Letter to his Son-in-law Fleetwood 554 Whitelocke sent in the Character of Ambassador Extraordinary to the Swedish Queen Christina 554 Proceedings of the Parliament of Saints . . 555 Their War with the Lawyers ; Act respecting Marriages ....... 555 A Bill introduced for Relief of Creditors and poor Prisoners for Debt 555 Brief Sketch of its Provisions .... 556 List of the Enactments of general Government and Policy passed by the Convention . . 556 A Bill brought in, read and debated on, for the uniting of Scotland to the Commonwealth of England as a Part of it, with equal Privileges 558 Declaration thai the Court of Chancery should be totally taken away and abolished . . 558 Question how to dispose of the Causes actually pending in the Court, and to substitute a less objectionable Tribunal in its Place . . . 558 Second great Vote for a general Revision and new modelling of the whole Body of the Law . 559 Debates on the Subject 560 Third Vote involving the Subject of Presentations to Benefices ....... 561 Third and last Vote involving the much-tried Question of Tithes 561 Debate on this Subject 561 Disputes in the Parliament .... 562 1654. (16th of December.) Cromwell inaugurated Lord-Protector 564 The Instrument of Government read aloud by one of the Clerks of the Council .... 565 Triennial Parliaments established . . . 566 Cromwell's first Act is to revive the Forms of Monarchy 56ft ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. xli A.D. Page 1654. Completes the Arrangement of his Council, as named in the Instrument of Government . 567 Extravagant Rumours in London . . . 568 Proceedings of the Council .... 568 Commissioners appointed to approve of public Preachers 568 Persons who suffered under this Ordinance . 569 Imprisonment of Feakes and Powell . . . 569 Henry Cromwell sent to Ireland . . . 569 Monk's successful Mission to Scotland ; the Roy- alist Movement under Middleton vanquished . 570 Conciliatory Measures of Cromwell towards the Presbyterians ....... 570 His Measures with Regard to the Royalists . 571 Conspiracy against his Life ; Proclamation of Charles Stuart 571 Trial and Execution of the Conspirators . .572 Final Settlement of Portuguese Treaty; Trial and Execution of Don Pantaleon Sa, brother to the Portuguese Ambassador .... 573 Cromwell's manner of receiving the Foreign Am- bassadors and Envoys ..... 574 The Treaty of Peace with the Dutch signed after a ten Months' tedious Negotiation. . . 574 Main provisions of the Treaty .... 575 Rejoicings in Celebration of this Peace . . 575 Milton's congratulatory Address to Cromwell . 576 Ratification of the Treaty with Sweden . . 576 Treaty with Denmark 577 Extracts from the private Correspondence of Cromwell at this Period 577 His Visit to the City ; is entertained by the Lord-mayor ....... 578 1655 (4th of September.) Opening of Parliament ; Cromwell's Speech 579 Tokens of Satisfaction, and Hums of Approbation which followed this Speech .... 580 Angry Debates in the Commons . . . 581 Conduct of the Republicans at this Crisis . . 581 (12th of September.) Cromwell receives the Members in the Painted Chamber at White- hall 582 His vigorous Speech on this Occasion . 582, 584 Some of the Members refuse to sign the Recog- nition of the Government prepared for them . 584 Accident occurs to Cromwell .... 584 Various Descriptions of this Accident . . 585 Debates in the Commons, whether the Protec- torate was to be Hereditary, or for Life only . 586 The Amendment of the Court Party carried without a Division ...... 586 (22d of January.) The House once more sum- moned to meet Cromwell in the Painted Cham- ber 587 His Speech 587 Refers to the Question of the Protectorship be- ing made Hereditary ..... 587 Declares the Parliament dissolved . . . 588 Royalist and Republican Conspiracies crushed . 588 Precautionary Measures of Cromwell . . 589 First Part of his great despotic Scheme follows in an Ordinance against the Adherents of the Stuarts 589 His Letter to his Son-in-law Fleetwood, recall- ing him from the Government of Ireland . 589 His Letter to his Son Henry during his Admin- istration in Ireland 590 Major-generals appointed ..... 590 Substance of their official Instructions . . 590 Their Powers of Action 591 Individual Cases, expressing the general Iniquity of their Proceedings 591 State of England at this Period .... 592 Review of the Foreign Policy of the Protecto- rate 592 Example of Cromwell's far-seeing Policy . . 594 His characteristic Letter to Major-general For- tescue ........ 594 Negotiation entered into with France . . 595 Projects respecting the Jews .... 595 Treaty with France signed .... 596 War with Spain 596 Case of Cony . .... 597 Writs issued for a Parliament .... 597 View of the Power and Position of Cromwell at this Period 597 Excitement at the Election for the Parliament now summoned exceeds that of any previous Occasion 599 1656. (17th of December.) The Parliament meet the Protector in the Painted Chamber . . . 599 His obgeure and artful Speech .... 599 The Title and Claims of Charles Stuart disan- nulled 602 6 A.D. Pag* 1656. Discussion of private Bills 602 Presbyterian and Sectarian Measures of this Par- liament COH Debate on the Question of the legal Confirmation of the Major-generals 603 1657. Explosion of the Sexby and Syndercombe Plot against Cromwell's Life ..... 603 (19th of January. ) Casual Mention of the Policy of re-establishing the Kingship . . . 603 Debate on the Subject 603 The Crown offered to Cromwell . . .606 His formal Answer ...... 606 A Committee of the House named for Conference, to solve the apparent Doubts of the Protector 607 Cromwell proposes to argue the Question on the ground of Expedience ..... 607 Characteristic Passage from the Memoirs of Lud- low 607 (12th of May.) Cromwell formally declines ac- cepting the Crown 608 His Speech on this Occasion ; his first grand Failure 609 The Petition and Advice passed without the Title of King 609 Cromwell establishes a House of Peers ; a new and solemn Inauguration follows ; Hollowness of this 609 A Glance at his Foreign Administration . . 610 His Remonstrance to the Grand Seignor respect- ing the unjust Surprisal of an English Ship . 611 His second Remonstrance addressed to Vizier Azem . . . . . . . .611 Marriage of his Daughters, Mary and Frances . 612 1658. (28th of January.) Reassembling of Parliament 613 Scot and Hazlerig, backed by a formidable Ma- jority, refuse to acknowledge the new House as a House of Lords ..... 614 Speech of the Lord Protector . . . .614 Conspiracies against his Life .... 616 Letter of Lady Elizabeth to her Sister-in-law, Mrs. Henry Cromwell 617 Execution of Slingsby and Hewet . . .617 Domestic Afflictions of Cromwell . . . 617 Measures for defeating the Republicans . . 617 (4th of August.) Death of Lady Elizabeth Clay- pole 618 Illness of the Lord Protector . . . .618 (25th of August.) Thurloe's Despatch to Henry Cromwell ...'... 618 (3d of September.) Death of the Lord Protector ; Thurloe's Despatch to Henry Cromwell, an- nouncing the melancholy Event . . . 620 Cromwell's FORTUNATE DAY .... 620 APPENDIX. A. Alexander, Lord-high-steward of Scotland . 621 B. Oliver Cromwell 622 C. The Protecting Brewer 622 D. Sir Oliver Cromwell 622 E. Cromwell and Christina 624 Whitelocke first sees Christina in her magnifi- cent Palace, and is not afraid .... 625 Christina tells Whitelocke, at their first private Interview, her Opinion of Cromwell ; and in- quires if it is really true that he Prays and Preaches 625 Christina, struck by Whitelocke's Prudence in a long Conference of State, becomes Confiden- tial at its Close 626 Whitelocke's Device in writing privately to Cromwell ; also his Device in delivering Pres- ents from Mr. Hugh Peters to Christina . 626 Christina interests herself in the domestic Affairs of Cromwell ; prophesieth his Desire to be King, simple Lord-general as he is ; and start- leth Whitelocke with some delicate Questions, as also with a Piece of Plain-speaking . . 626 The wise Oxenstierne interested in Cromwell . 627 News of Cromwell's Usurpation reacheth Stock- holm ; Christina's Opinion of the Protectorate, and her wise Advice ..... 627 The Swedish Chancellor discusseth Cromwell's Usurpation with Whitelocke ; some Home- truths evaded by the Lawyer-ambassador . 627 Christina and her Ladies at Whitelocke's May- day Entertainment ; Whitelocke standeth up for the Honour of England .... 628 Whitelocke danceth with Christina ; a curious Remark afterward 628 The Chancellor Oxenstierne transmitteth Advice to Cromwell by his Ambassador, which the Ambassador forgetteth to deliver . . . 629 A youthful Queen, prosperous as she is beloved, xlii ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Page tired of State, and resigns her Crown ; the Lord-ambassador Whitelocke's Wonder- ment; he recollects that Cromwell once in- tended to retire 629 Whitelocke returned ; he recounts to Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, the Ad- ventures of his Embassy to Christina ; the Lord Protector's Remarks thereon . . . 630 F. A new Ballad to the Tune of Cock-Lorrel . 632 G. A Sketch of the Civil Wars to the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell, in a Letter from John Maidstone, of Oliver's Household, to John Winthrop, Esq., Governor of the Colony of Connecticut in New-England .... 632 H. Specimens of the Court Circular in Cromwell's Protectorate 6S5 I. Some Extracts from a Description of Cromwell's Lords 635 K. Procession with Ceremony of the Investiture and Installation of his Highness Oliver Cromwell, as by the Parliament appointed to be perform- ed in Westminster Hall on June 26, 1657 . 638 L. Death, Funeral Order, and Procession of his Highness, the most serene and most illustrious Oliver Cromwell, late Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ire- land, and the Dominions and Territories there- unto belonging 689 CONTENTS, Page SIR JOHN ELIOT 1 APPENDIX 43 THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD 55 APPENDIX 132 JOHN PYM 135 APPENDIX A 234 APPENDIX B 336 APPENDIX C 237 APPENDIX D 238 APPENDIX E 239 APPENDIX F 240 JOHN HAMPDEN .... 241 SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER 265 APPENDIX A 343 APPENDIX B ' 347 APPENDIX C 351 APPENDIX D 951 APPENDIX E 352 HENRY MARTEN 353 OLIVER CROMWELL 392 APPENDIX A 621 APPENDIX B 622 APPENDIX C 622 APPENDIX D 622 APPENDIX E. 624 APPENDIX F 632 APPENDIX G 632 APPENDIX H 635 APPENDIX I 635 APPENDIX K 638 APPENDIX L 639 HARPER & BROTHERS THE STATESMEN OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, SIR JOHN ELIOT. 1590-1632. JOHN ELIOT was "a Cornishman born, and an esquire's son."* His family, though new residents in that county, were of very ancient Devonshire descent. Prince alludes to them in his " Worthies ;" and Fuller has pointed out the name of Walter Eliot, one of his an- cestors, in the sheriff's return of the gentry of the county of Devon, made in 1433, during the reign of Henry VI. Browne Willis, who may be considered a good authority on the subject, having married a lineal descendant of the fam- ily,! states that this Walter Eliot allied him- self to the family of Sir Richard Eliot, appoint- ed a justice of the Court of King's Bench by Henry VIII., but more illustrious as the father of one of the earliest of our vernacular writers, the famous Sir Thomas Eliot.! The first of the family who settled in Cornwall appears to have been the great-uncle of Sir John, who ob- tained from the family of Champernowne the priory of St. Germain's and its lands, in ex- change for property possessed by him at Cut- lands, near Ashburton. To this priory the name of Port Eliot was then given, which it bears to this day. Its large estates have de- scended with it from father to son, and form a considerable portion of the property of the pres- ent Earl of St. Germain's.!! At this seat of Port Eliot John Eliot was born, on the 20th of April, 1590.f In his youth he was subjected to none of the restraints that * Anthony Wood, Ath. Oxon., vol. ii., p. 478, ed. Bliss. t See Ducarel's " Life of Browne Willis." t Browne Willis's " Notitia Parliamentaria," vol. ii., p. 142. I) " I do not know," says an accomplished living descend- ant of the patriot, "the exact year in which this change took place ; but John Eliot died at the priory of St. Ger- main's, having given it the name of Port Eliot, in 1565. An account of that transaction is to be found in Carew's Sur- vey of Cornwall, published about 1580. Chalmers, in his Biographical Dictionary, speaks of the family of Eliot of Port Eliot, and those of Heath field and Minto, to be de- scended from a Sir W. Aliot, who came over with William the Conqueror ; but this account is merely traditional, and cannot be borne out by proof. The Herald's Visitation of Cornwall, made in 1602, and preserved in the Heralds' Col- lege, gives the armorial bearings of the family ; a shield containing twelve quarterings : a proof, at a time when pretensions to heraldic honours were minutely scrutinized, that the origin of the family could not have been very rt- cent." Lord Eliot. II In " Notitia Parliamentaria" (the notice of the borough of St. Germain's, at p. 149, of the second volume), a descrip- tion will be found of Port Eliot. See also " Carew's Survey of Cornwall," ed. 1602 ; and the fourth volume of Mr. D'ls- raeli's " Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I.," p. 509. IT Browne Willis. Anthony Wood fixes it incorrectly at 1592. should have been applied to a temper naturally ardent. His father was a man of easy habits, kept very hospitable house,* flung it open to every sort of visiter, and never, it is to be pre- sumed, troubled himself to consider the effect of such a course upon the uncontrolled disposi- tion and manners of his son. It is to this lax education that we have to attribute a painful incident in the life of Eliot, of which the most treacherous advantage has been taken by his political enemies. t Archdeacon Echard, a notorious advocate of the Stuarts, and a most inaccurate historical writer, gave the first public account of it. Af- ter stating, most untruly (as we have seen), that Eliot was of a " new family,"! this arch- deacon proceeds : " Within his own parish there lived one Mr. John Moyle, a gentleman of very good note and character in his country, who, together with his son, had the honour to serve in Parliament. Whether out of rivalship or otherwise, Mr. Eliot, having, upon a very slight occasion, entertained a bitter grudge against the other, went to his house under the show of a friendly visit, and there treacherously stabbed him, while he was turning on one side to take a glass of wine to drink to him." He states farther : " Mr. Moyle outlived this base at- tempt about forty years, who, with some others of his family, often told the particulars to his grandson, Dr. Prideaux, and other relations, from whom I had this particular account."!! We are here left uncertain, it will be seen, whether the account was received at fifth or sixth hand from gossiping relations, or from the respected and learned Dean of Norwich. A late writer, how- ever, has thought fit to assume the latter, and has insisted, with considerable and very ob- stinate vehemence, on the probable truth of the statement.1 With the help of materials in a lately-published work by Lord Nugent,** * See " Carew's Survey of Cornwall." t How eagerly such a charge as that which follows would have been seized by the bitter opponents of Eliot among his contemporaries, had a reasonable foundation ex- isted for it, is sufficiently obvious. It might have served as the tithe of an apology for his harsh treatment. Nowhere, however, in Parliament or elsewhere, does a trace of it ap- pear. t Echard's History, p. 424, folio, ed. 1720. Is this the " contemporary writer" to whom Mr. D'Israeli alludes in vol. iv., p. 508, of his Commentaries ? I can find no other. $ Echard's History, p. 424. II Ibid. IT Mr. D'Israeli. See his Commentaries, Tol. ii., p. 270 ; vol. iv., p. 513 ; his pamphlet in answer to Lord Nug,ent r * " Memorials of Hampden," p. 5. ** Memorials of Hantpden. BRITISH STATESMEN. and guided by a fact I have discovered respect- ing Sir John Eliot's father, I now present this singular incident in a new, and, it may be hoped, a final aspect. It occurred, so far as there is truth in it, in the extreme youth of Eliot. That he should have earned for himself at that time the epithet "wilful" will scarcely appear surprising after what I have said of the habits and indulgences of his father. Mr. Moyle, who resided at Bake, a district of the parish of St. Germain's, close to Port Eliot,* took upon himself to warn old Eliot that such was the disposition of his son. Miss Aikin, the historical writer, has now in her possession a letter, written by an ancestor of one of the most respectable families of Dev- onshire, wherein the cause and course of the quarrel which ensued are given, as described by the daughter of Mr. Moyle himself, a witness not likely to be unjustly partial to Sir John Eliot.t This is the statement of that letter : Mr. Moyle having acquainted Sir John Eliot's father with some extravagances in his son's expenses, and this being reported with some aggravating circumstances, young Eliot went hastily to Mr. Moyle's house and remonstrated. What words passed she knows not, but Eliot drew his sword and wounded Mr. Moyle in the side. " ' On reflection,' continues Mr. Moyle's daughter, ' he soon detested the fact, and from thenceforward became as remarkable for his private deportment, in every view of it, as his public conduct. Mr. Moyle was so entirely reconciled to him that no person in his time held him in higher esteem.' " That this hasty ebullition of will occurred in extreme youth I am now prepared to prove. I find, from documents of the time, that Eliot's father died in 16094 He was buried in the Church of St. Germain's on the 24th of June in that year. Anthony Wood (the best authority on such a point, though on such only) tells us that young Eliot entered college in 1607, and continued there three years. It is evident, therefore, that, at the time of the quarrel with JJoyle, Eliot could not have been more than sev- enteen, or, assuming (which is most unlikely) that it occurred in a college vacation of his first year, eighteen years old. This will be con- sidered as established beyond farther doubt. It is confirmed still more by a remarkable docu- ment which has been found among the Eliot papers,ll "An apologie," addressed to Mr, Moyle by young Eliot, for the " greate injury' he had done him, and witnessed by names some of which were afterward greatly distin- guished in the Parliamentary history of the time. The terms of it are highly curious, and indicate the writer clearly. It is an atonemen which marks the characteristic impulse of a young and generous mind, anxious to repair an * Notitia Parliamentaria. Browne Willis, the intimate friend of the Moyles, does not make the slightest allusion to this incident, as remembered harshly by that family ; a circumstance explained by the testimony which has been since obtained from the daughter of the pretended " victim.' t See Memorials of Hampden, vol. i., p. 152. Aikiu'i Charles the First, vol. i., p. 265. t Willis's Researches into the Pedigree of the Eliots Not. Parl., vol. ii., p. 144. fy Ath. Oxon., vol. ii., p. 478. II See Lord Eliot's communication to Mr. D'Israeli, ful of excellent feeling;, and a proper concern for the memory of his great progenitor, " Commentaries," vol. iv., p. 509. unpremeditated wrong. " Mr. Moyle," so runs he apology, " I doe acknowledge I have done /ou a greate injury, which I wish I had never done, and doe desire you to remit it ; and I desire that all unkindnesse may be forgiven and forgotten betwixt us, and henceforward I shall desire and deserve your love in all friend- y offices, as I hope you will mine. "Jo. ELYOTTE." That this apology was honestly meant and strictly redeemed that the writer did desire the love of him whom he had hastily injured, and deserve it, and, moreover, obtain it, we are brtunately not without ample proof. In the volume of Eliot papers already referred to ex- st two letters,* written, many years after this jvent, by Sir John to this very Mr. Moyle, grant ng him solicited favours. It was a saying of shrewd severity, that few natures exist capable of making compensation to those whom they may have injured, or even of ceasing to follow them with resentment. Assuredly, however, rare and virtuous as such natures are, John Eliot's was one of them. He held himself the constant and willing debtor of the man he had unwillingly offended. " I am sorry," he says, in one of his letters, after granting Moyle what he had asked, " this return is not better to the occasion you have given me ; it may serve for an expression of my power, though my affec- tion be beyond it. I can command corruption out of no man, but in mine own heart have a clear will to serve you, and shall faithfully re- main your true friend." In the other, written some months after, in answer to an interces- sion by Moyle for an offending tenant of Sir John's, the following passage occurs : " In an- swer to your love, I will give orders to my ser- vant Hill, at his return into the country, to re- pay him the money that's received, and so to leave him to his old interest for the tenement, in which he must acknowledge your courtesy and favour, for whose satisfaction it is done by your most affectionate friend."t Taken in connexion with the statements I have given, this incident assumes, in my mind, a more than ordinary interest, and becomes, indeed, an important feature in the life of Eliot. It is the line drawn between his passing youth and coming manhood. Whatever may have been the turbulence of his boyhood, whatever the struggle of its uncurbed passions, this event startled him into a perfect and sober self- control. His '' private deportment," says Mr. * Eliot Papers, MS., Nos. 63 and 98. t Mr. D'Israeli has said, in his fourth volume, p. 513 (in reference to the " apologie" quoted above), " I perfectly agree that this extraordinary apology was not written by a man who had stabbed his companion in the back ; nor can I imagine that, after such a revolting incident, any approx- imation at a renewal of intercourse would have been possi- ble." He then proceeds, with very amusing pertinacity, to shift the grounds of the charge. His aigument, however on his own admission, is wholly exploded by the letters above cited. No malignity, however desperate or reckless, can again revive it. I cannot leave the subject of this first calumny, in the promotion of which Mr. D'Israeli has joined with such painful and mistaken bitterness, without expres- sing my regret that political passion and preconceived no- tions of character should so bewilder an ingenious mind. Mr D'Israeli, though in all cases too fond of suggesting events from rumours, has rendered many services to his- tory, and notwithstanding his various misstatements re- specting Eliot, which I shall have occasion to refute, has never scrupled to pay a not unwilling tribute to the great- ness of his intellect. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 3 Moyle's daughter, was as remarkable ever af- ter as that of his public conduct. In the latter his temper never ceased to be ardent for the general good and against the wrongful oppress- or. In private it was ardent in kindness, in busy purposes and affections for those around him. To the " last right end," he stood " A perfect patriot, and a noble friend," and so his biographer must delineate him, apart from all preconceived affections or prejudices. Immediately after the quarrel with Mr. Moyle, it is probable that young Eliot left his home for the University of Oxford. Anthony Wood states that he " became a gentleman-commoner of Exeter College in Michaelmas term, anno 1607, aged 15."* The same authority tells us that he left the University, without a degree, after he had continued there about three years, t That his time, however, was not misspent at that venerable seat of study he afterward well proved. He had naturally a fine imagination ; and when, on the lapse of a few years, it burst forth in the House of Commons, it was sur- rounded with the pomp of Greek and Roman learning. In the studies of his youth, in those invaluable treasures of thought and language which are placed within the reach of every scholar, he had strengthened himself for great duties. And more than this. In his youthful contemplation of the ancient school philosophy, he had provided for his later years the enjoy- ment of those sublime reveries which, we shall have occasion to see, were his chief consola- tions in a dungeon. Little, probably, did he then imagine, as he was first making the ac- quaintance of Seneca, of Plato, and the Stagy- rite, that they would stand him in the stead of friends, when prison bars had shut out every other. The sudden interruption to his studies, at the expiration of three years, appears to have ori- ginated in his desire to obtain some acquaint- ance with the common law of England. This knowledge began then to be considered a neces- sary accomplishment for one who aspired to the honours of Parliament, with the view of supporting the principles of the rising country party. Eliot was one of these ; and, as Wood informs us, after leaving the University, " went to, one of the inns of court, and became a bar- rister."}: The lapse of a year or two introdu- ces us to a new incident in his private life, of which a malignant advantage has, as usual, been taken by his political opponents. His disposition, never less active than medi- tative, induced him to visit the Continent. At precisely the same period, the discerning Lady Villiers$ had sent her famous son to grace the * Ath. Oxon., vol. ii., p. 478. This is incorrect, how- ever, as I have stated, in respect to Eliot's age. He was seventeen. t Ath. Oxon., vol. ii., p. 478. t Ibid. <) Buckingham was a younger son, by a second marriage, of Sir George VjUiers, of Brookesley, in Leicestershire, whose family, though ancient, had hitherto been unheard of in the kingdom. His mother is reported to have served in his father's kitchen, but he, being struck with her extra- ordinary beauty and person, which the meanness of her clothes could not hide, prevailed with Lady Villiers, not without difficulty, to raise her to a higher office ; and on the death of that lady he married this her servant. As, however, the heir by a former marriage succeeded to the family estate, it became a grand object with Lady Villiers, who had obtained the means through a second husband, whom she afterward deserted, to accomplish her children for pushing their own fortune in the world. Hence her beauty of his face and the handsomeness of his person (his only birthright) by the advantages of foreign travel. Eliot and Villiers met, and the courtesies of English travellers in a foreign country ensued between them.* They jour- neyed together ; and it is not surprising that a generous warmth in the disposition of Eliot should have suited well with the bold address and sprightliness of temper for which alone, at that time, George Villiers was remarkable. It is said they became intimate. In all probability they did so, if we may judge from a circum- stance that shall in due course be noticed. Meanwhile, I have another misrepresentation to clear away. After his return from the Con- tinent, Eliot married. It has been reserved for the writer before referred to Mr. D'Israeli, whose ingenuity of research and pleasant at- tractiveness of style are only outstripped by his violent political tendencies and his most amu- sing professions of philosophical impartiality to fasten upon even this domestic and most pri- vate incident in the life of Eliot, as another in- stance of what he is pleased to consider the turbulence and " ungovernable passion" of his " bold and adventurous character."? Without quoting any authority, Mr. D'Israeli states, that " when the House of Commons voted 5000 for a compensation to the family for his [Eliot's] ' sufferings,' they also voted another 2000, part of four, for which he had been fined by the Court of Wards, by reason of his marriage with Sir Daniel Norton's daughter." He then goes on to state that this indicates the violent car- rying off of the lady by the turbulent Eliot. What possible authority Mr. D'Israeli can bring forward for this statement I know not. The only record in existence bearing on such a sub- ject, so far as I am aware, is an entry in the Earl of Leicester's journal, of unquestioned au- thenticity and correctness. It is most satis- factory on the point, as will be seen ; and I will not suppose that this was the source from which Mr. D'Israeli derived his statement. It is as follows: "Monday, 18th January, 1646. The House of Commons this day, according to for- mer order, took into consideration the great losses and sufferings of many members, in the yeare tertio Caroli, for speaking (in Parliament) in behalf of the kingdom. A report whereof was made to the House, from the committee to whom it was formerly referred ; and the Commons, upon debate, passed several votes for allowances to be given to such members, in recompense of theyr wrongs and sufferings, as followeth." Several names are then speci- fied, and among them, " that 5000 be allowed to Sir John Elliotte's younger children, and his elder son's fine in the Court of Wards to be re- mitted. "t conduct to George, as I have noticed it above. See R. Coke, p. 74. Hacket's Life of Williams, part i., p. 171. Brodie's British Empire, vol. ii., p. 12. 13. * Echard's History, p. 424. Mr. D'Israeli claims the merit of having discovered this (vol. iv., p. 507 ; pamphlet, p. 3), a claim on which his friends also insist (see Quarter- ly Review, No. xciv., p. 470), on what authority does not appear. Echard was the first discoverer, if there be any merit in it ; nor would his statement have carried any weight, but that other circumstances have tended to, con- firm it. t See Mr. D'Israeli's Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 283. t Sidney Papers, p. 2, 3. This early portion of the journal is especially remarkable for its accuracy and precis- ion. All of it was written for the author's private use. BRITISH STATESMEN. This " elder son," against whose turbulence the reproof of Mr. D'lsraeli ought to have been directed, was a youth of idle and riotous habits, very wild irregularities, which subsequently, as we shall show, proved a source of much anx- iety and disquiet to his father. He was the exact person for the adventure maliciously fix- ed upon Sir Sohn. The latter married without violating the laws of any court, but was de- prived of his wife by death, after she had pre- sented him with two sons.* The "younger children" alluded to in the passage quoted would seem to comprise the family of the sec- ond son. Eliot's intercourse with Villiers was now re- sumed. A wonderful change had taken place in the interval. The base creature Somerset had been prosecuted at last, ostensibly for the murder of Overbury.f but in reality to provide room for a fourth favourite, on whom the ma- jesty of the day might lavish its shameless fondness. That new favourite was selected in the person of George Villiers. Well might Lord Clarendon exclaim, " Never any man, in any age, nor, I believe, in any country or nation, rose in so short a time to so much greatness of honour, fame, or fortune, upon no other advan- tage or recommendation than of the beauty or gracefulness of his person."t Among the suc- cessive honours showered in ridiculous abun- dance upon him, fell that of Lord -high -admiral of England. With this office was connected the duty of appointing vice-admirals in the sev- eral counties ; and it is probable that, personal motives of acquaintance, or even friendship, quite apart, the name of Eliot was instantly suggested to the young favourite as one that claimed, on every ground, a promotion of this sort. He possessed one of the largest paternal estates of any gentleman of the time, and had the command of much influence in his own and the neighbouring county. Accordingly, we find that the lapse of a short time after that which saw Villiers promoted to the office of lord-high- admiral saw Eliot made Vice-admiral of Dev- onshire. He was also appointed chairman of the Committee of Stannaries of the duties of which office he has left a manuscript report and, at the same time, he received knighthood. In accordance with the desperate and un- wearied spirit of misrepresentation I have al- ready had so many occasions to allude to, the political enemies of this illustrious person have seized on this change in his estate to attribute it to those vile and vulgar motives which alone they would seem to be acquainted with. Ech- ard leads the way, connecting it, most unfor- tunately for his purpose, with the incident of Mbyle. After giving the false account, for- merly quoted, of that youthful anecdote, the archdeacon proceeds : " And now, supposing he had perfected his revenge, he immediately hastened to London to address himself to his * This is evident from the Eliot Papers, MS. t I avail myself of the opportunity which the mention of this name affords me to remind the reader that Sir Thom- as Overbury, scarcely remembered but for his misfortunes, js deserving of a better and more grateful remembrance. He was an accomplished scholar, and adorned literature by many delicate writings. Some passages in the "Witty Characters" appended to his poem of " The Wife," are quite unequalled for simplicity and gentleness. J History of the Rebellion, folio ed., vol. i., p. 9. <> Echard's History, p. 424. sure friend the Duke of Buckingham, in order to get his pardon, which, to his great disap- pointment, he could not obtain without advan- cing a considerable sum of money into the ex- chequer. But as soon as his pardon was sealed and the money paid, he received intelligence that Mr. Moyle was unexpectedly recovered. Upon the happy assurance of this, he again ap- plied himself to the duke to procure the repay- ment of the money ; but that being swallowed up in the occasions of the court beyond any re- covery, all that he could obtain in lieu of it was to be knighted ; which, though it might have allayed the heat of his ambition, was so hei- nously taken at the hands of a person once his equal, that after that he never ceased to be his mortal enemy, but helped to blow up such a flame in the House as was never extinguished." This monstrous account, which I have extract- ed partly for the amusement of the reader, has found its believers in the present day.* It is idle to waste words on its refutation. At the period when, it is thus hardily asserted, the assassin Eliot hurried up to his friend the duke to crave protection from the laws he had out- raged, that " assassin" was but a boy, and the " duke" plain George Villiers, with less power than his pretended suppliant. But the inconsistencies of the candid " his- torians" and " commentators" do not end here. Mr. D'lsraeli, who adopts the ridiculously false statement just quoted, has attempted to cor- roborate it by the production of a letter written in the year 1623 to the duke.t That is to say, he adopts the statement that Sir John repaid the protection and the knighthood given him by the duke with immediate and violent hostility ; and proposes to corroborate that by producing a letter, written in courteous and deferential terms, by Sir John to the duke, some consider- able time after the period of the knighthood. The gross folly of this is apparent. I pass that, however, to consider the letter, and the posi- tion attempted to be established by its means, namely, " that in 1623 we find Sir John a sup- pliant to, and, at least, a complimentary admi- rer of, the minister, and only two years after, in 1625, Eliot made his first personal attack on that minister, his late patron and friend, whom he then selected as a victim of state."J With respect to the first part of this charge, the answer is short and obvious. The letter is not written in Sir John's personal character, but as Vice-admiral of Devonshire to the Lord- high-admiral of England. This is admitted even, in another place, by the author of the charge himself. The office of vice-admiral had proved extremely troublesome to Sir John, involving him in many disputes concerning the wrecks on the coast, and saddling him with the expenses of various trials.il Rather than sub- mit to these, it would appear that, in one in- stance, Eliot preferred to subject himself to the inconveniences of arrest. Under such circum- stances, it was most natural that he should seek some reparation for the injuries he had under- gone in support of the office and rights of the * See Mr. D'Israeli's Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 270 ; a passage which has not yet been retracted. t Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 270. i Pamphlet, p. 6. t) Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 270. II See Commons' Journals, 27th of February, 1623 ; and again, 2d of March, in the same year. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 5 Duke of Buckingham. For this purpose the letter in question was written ; its tone is ex- poslulatory, and, courteous as its terms are, it is even deficient in those elaborately compli- mentary phrases which were considered due, in that age, to the ceremonious observances of letter-writing. It is as follows : " Right Honourable With what affection I have served your grace, I desire rather it should be read in my actions than my words, which made me sparing, in my last relation, to touch those difficulties wherewith my letters have been checkt, that they might the more fully speak themselves. / shall not seek to gloss them now, but, as they have been, leave them to your grace's acceptance, which I presume so noble, that scandal or detraction cannot decline it. It were an injury of your worth, which I dare not attempt, to insinuate the opinion of any merit by false colours or pretences, or with hard cir- cumstances to endear my labours, and might beget suspicion sooner than assurance in your credit, which I may not hazard. My innocence, I hope, needs not these ; nor would I shadow the least errour under your protection. But when my services have been faithful, and not alto- gether vain, directed truly to the honour and benefit of YOUR PLACE, only suffering upon the disadvantage of your absence, I must importune your grace to support my weakness, that it may cause no prejudice of your rights and liberties, which I have studied to preserve, though with the loss of mine own. My insistance therein hath exposed me to a long imprisonment and great charge, which still increaseth, and threat- ens the ruin of my poor fortunes, if they be not speedily prevented ; for which, as my endeav- ours have been wholly yours, I most humbly crave your grace's favour both to myself and them, in which I am devoted. Your grace's thrice humble servant, J. ELIOT." " Novemb. 8, 1623."* Now, not a single expression in this letter is inconsistent with the construction which I have placed on it, or justly appropriate to any other construction. The complimentary phra- ses fall evidently short of the notorious custom of the time. I am, indeed, surprised at the bareness of the language, considering the year in which it was written. Buckingham had just then managed to conciliate the country party,t and was bespattered with praise in all directions. The people, freed from the politi- cal panic that had been caused by the prospect of the Spanish match, in the suddenness of the escape showered applauses on the masked duke ; and Sir Edward Coke, leading the oppo- sition in the House of Commons, was betrayed shortly after into the very professional hyper- bole of calling him the " saviour of his coun- try.'^ Had the terms of Eliot's letter, there- fore, been most adulatory, there would have existed little cause for wonder; we see that * Cabala, ed. 1663, p. 412, 413. The italics are my own. They show the independence of spirit which breaks through even this official complaining. t In the same volume of letters the " Cabala" p. 340, is letter to the duke from a stanch and unslandered pa- triot, Sir Robert Philips, on which a precisely similar charge to this we are now discussing might be as easily founded. Had Mr. D'lsraeli overlooked this? He admits Philip to have been emphatically an independent country gentleman. J Clarendon, Hist., vol. i., p. 7. they are not so. Whether the letter was an- swered or not appears uncertain ; but the ac- quaintance of the parties did not cease here, as I shall have occasion to indicate hereafter.* One word more on this subject. Mr. D'Israeli, alluding to the date of this letter, calls it " the close of 1623,"t which would intimate that Parliament had already commenced its sitting, and then goes on to tell his readers that the patriotism of Eliot was a "political revolution, which did not happen till two years after he had been a suppliant to this very minister.''^ This is most untrue. The letter was written in the eighth month of 1623 (old style), two months before the assembling of Parliament ; and in that Parliament the voice of Eliot was heard in stirring accents of honest patriotism. Though none of his speeches at this period have been preserved in the Parliamentary his- tories, I am prepared to prove, from the jour- nals of the House of Commons, and from man- uscript records, that no " political revolution" ever occurred in his life ; that he was consist- ent from the first ; that his eloquence was often exerted in that last assembly of James's reign, and never but in support of the great party for whose rights and privileges he afterward suf- fered death. A few words may here be allowed to me, on the aspect of public affairs at the meeting of this Parliament, which introduced Eliot to pub- lic life. I shall always avoid, in these biogra- phies, matters of general history or character, except so far as may be needed in illustration of individual conduct, or of those particular questions which called forth its distinctive en- ergies ; that individual conduct shall also be limited, as much as possible, to the subject of each life. Thus, in the present instance, I have nothing to do with the great men who laboured in, the same cause with Eliot, except as their general policy and characteristics illustrate his exertions. I have nothing to do with the great questions they agitated, except in so far as they called forth his individual energies : what re- mains will be noticed in other biographies ; nor shall I seek in vain the opportunity of observ- ing upon any great incident of this great era of statesmanship. The first object will in all cases be to carry light and life into general history by particular details of character. The ignominious defeat of the elector pala- tine by Spinola, and the circumstances which ought especially to have induced James to ren- der assistance to his weak, but unfortunate son- in-law, belong to history. II In not doing so, he * At the duke's death a suit pended between them, and accounts still unsettled. Eliot MSS. t Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 272. t Ibid., vol. ii., p. 227. <) For a sketch of the preceding Parliaments, see the bi- ography of Strafford. II See the various histories. Dr. Lingard has treated the subject very fully. See, also, some able reasoning on the general question in Bolingbroke's Remarks, p. 285-306, 8vo edit. Mr. Brodie has stated the demerits of James's con- duct with appropriate bitterness. There are, also, some very important communications relative to this in Lord Hardwicke's State Papers ; in the second volume of Som- ers's Tracts, by Scott ; and in Howell's Familiar Letters. See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 76-113 ; Backet's Life of Will- iams ; Heylin's Life of Laud ; and Saunderson's James L Mr. D'Israeli's " Secret History of the Spanish Match" is very pleasant and ingenious. See, also, Roger Coke's " Detection," a very honest book, if we set aside its plagia- risms. BRITISH STATESMEN. subjected himself to the derision of Europe,* and to the self-reproach (if he were able to have felt it) of having sacrificed the noblest op- portunity of making himself popular in his own nation, and honoured everywhere as the as- serter of civil and religious liberty. But he was bound in the fetters of Spain, and had set his foolish heart on a match for the prince with the infanta. This was a politic bait thrown out by that wily country, and greedily seized by the king. It was intended as a means of drag- ging the pusillanimous James into the league with the house of Austria for oppressing the Protestants and invading the liberties of Ger- many. It succeeded. The people of England saw their brother Protestants abroad hunted down by tyrants ; they saw the Evangelical League broken and discomfited by the Roman Catholic Union; themselves made parties to the wrong which they abhorred, and enemies to that holy cause of freedom and of conscience on which, at home, they had staked all. Dis- content rose to a frightful pitch, and the person of the king was even threatened, t At this moment the tide of affairs was suddenly turn- ed, and the man who had resisted the outcries of an insulted nation yielded to the peevish complaints of a haughty and offended minion. Jealousy of Bristol's negotiations had resolv- ed Buckingham to carry the prince to Spain ; jealousy of the wily Archbishop Williams now induced him to wish for home. Moreover, he had been neglected in that stately country, not to say insulted, for his levity and profligate bearing. A deadly jealousy had also risen be- tween him and the Spanish minister, Olivarez ; and he began to feel that, in proportion as the edifice of his power was lofty, it was unstable. He saw an expedient for securing it on a wider and more solid basis, and straightway seized it. He effected a rupture, and hurried the prince home, whither the welcome news of this new policy had travelled before, securing them an enthusiastic welcome. The unaccustomed acclamations wafted a new sense into the all- grasping soul of Buckingham ; and, resolving to try the game of patriotism, he forced the king to summon a Parliament. He threw him- self into the arms of the (deceived) popular party, and drove the unhappy James from his boasted " kingcraft" into a declaration of war against Spain. J The Parliament assembled with hopes never before entertained. The dissolution of the Spanish treaty was justly considered a great * From a curious volume, entitled " Truth brought to Light," we learn that in Flanders they presented in their comedies messengers bringing news that England was ready to send a hundred thousand ambassadors to the assistance of the palatinate. "And they pictured the king in one place with a scabbard without a sword ; in another place, with a sword that nobody could draw, though divers per- sons stood pulling at it. In Bruxels they painted him with his pockets hanging out, and never a penny in them, and his purse turned upside down. In Antwerp they pictured the Queen of Bohemia like a poor Irish mantler, with her hair hanging about her ears, and her child at her back, with the king, her father, carrying the cradle after her." Truth, brought to Light. Introduction. t See a curious tract, " Tom Tell Truth," in the second Yolume of Somers's Collection. t The keenest dissection, as it appears to me, of the con- duct of Buckingham and the prince, throughout the whol of this Spanish affair, will be found in a work very recently published in the present series History of England, voL iv., continued from Sir James Mackintosh. national deliverance ; and the favoonte of James, who had disrobed him of his inglorious mantle of peace, was now the favourite of the nation. At this extraordinary juncture Eliot took his seat in the House of Commons. It has been asserted, by Wood* and others, that he sat in the previous Parliament ; but this is certainly a mistake. He was returned now for the first time, with Mr. Richard Estcourt, for the borough of Newport in Cornwall. And now, from the first moment of his public life, his patriotism began not from pique, or a spirit of opposition, for as yet he had no oppo- nents save those of his religion and his coun- try ; for be it ever remembered that in that day politics were necessarily and intimately connected with religious doctrine. The Ro- mish cause was the cause of the oppressor, while the Protestant was that of the oppressed ; and the English constitutional party saw no chance for good government save in a root-and- branch opposition to the Roman Catholic faith. Their cause of freedom at home was weakened by the success of popish tyranny abroad ; and the great struggle going on between the Prot- estant patriots of Bohemia and the various Ro- man Catholic powers leagued in extensive con- federacy against them seemed a not improb- able shadowing forth of the future destiny of the popular party in England. So thought the leaders of this Parliament, "the greatest and the knowingest auditory," as a political adver- sary called them, " that this kingdom, or, per- haps, the world, afforded ;"t and so they acted, confirming that great reputation. Eliot at once distinguished himself, and was received as a leader of the country party. I have been at some pains to trace his conduct through this Parliament, for it has not been mentioned by any historian, while advantage has been taken of the silence to bear out the assertion of his having been, at this period, a mere undistinguished subserver to the Duke of Buckingham. We shall see how far this is just. The Parliament met on the 12th of February, 1623. It was adjourned, however, until the 19th, when the speech was delivered, and the House farther adjourned until the 23d. The three following days were occupied in arran- ging conferences with the lords respecting the duke's intended "Narrative." On the 27th Eliot arose. It was the earliest day of the ses- sion, and it was his first appearance in the House. He declared at once the cause he had entered to sustain ; and putting aside, as sub- ordinate, even the all-engrossing question of the war, raised his voice for certain ancient privileges of the nation.} On the 1st of March he spoke on the question of the Spanish trea- ties in the high strain of popular feeling. He al- luded to war as that " which atone will secure and repair us," and recommended the setting out of a fleet " by those penalties the papists and recusants have already incurred"^ means which would have been especially odious to * Woodis seldom to be relied on in any date except those which are furnished by the Oxford books ; Lord Nugent has, inaccurately adopted his statement that Eliot sal in. tha Parliament of 1621. t Racket's Life of Williams, p. 179. J Commons' Journals, Feb. 27, 1623. i) Journals of that date. SIR JOHN ELIOT. the court. But Eliot never waited to trim his propositions by the court fashion, even in its popular days, and we never discern in him the bated breath or the whispering humbleness. On that occasion, also, he seems to have resent- ed the long and vacillating negotiations of the king and his secretaries. " Fitter for us to do than to speak," he said, and most justly said, at that crisis. On the 8th of the same month he opposed a hasty decision with respect to the king's answer at Theobald's.* It was not satisfactory, owing to the immediateness of its demand for supplies. He had been appointed one of the deputation ; and, alluding to "many strange reports" since their return, he moves " to have some time each to take copies, and then to deliberate and advise."t This he car- ried. On the llth he went up to the Lords on this same subject, with some of the great lead- ers of the House Philips, Selden, Coke, Rud- yard, Saville, Stroude " to confer with them about his majesty's estate. "t This conference elicited an assurance from the treasurer, the following day, of "his majesty's resolution to call Parliament oft, to make good laws, and re- dress public grievances." From this may be well inferred the nature of the previous day's remonstrance from Eliot and his friends. Nor did this plausible assurance put those faithful men off their guard. They answered the treas- urer, " that we had no doubt here yesterday, as among the lords. We fittest to relieve the king's particular wants, when we have enabled the subjects to do it by removing their grievan- ces. '' An explanation of the disputed passages in the answer was subsequently given, such as satisfied the House. In the same spirit were all Eliot's speeches in the matter of this Spanish war. He never supported it but for the promotion of the popu- lar cause, and always accompanied his appro- bation of the measure with an avowal of those greater ulterior objects which he felt it ought to accomplish. I need not go through the nu- merous minutes of the journals in which his name appears at this time. His attention to the business of debate, as to the committees, must have beea most arduous, since it was un- remitting. Besides the great number of private bills in the management of which his name ap- pears, he took part in all public questions, lent his aid to the best legal reforms, and generally formed one in the more learned committees appointed to consider disputed questions on the privileges of the universities.il He opposed al- ways with watchful jealousy any attempt to move from the constitutional usages of the House ; and when the ministers proposed, through Sir Guy Palmer, to have a committee to draw a bill for the continuance of all bills the next session in statu quo, that they might so " husband time," the name of Eliot was found successfully opposed to this, in connexion with his friends, Philips, Coke, and Digges.lT He * See the Answer, Parl. Hist., vol. vi., p. 92, edit. 1763. t Commons' Journals, March 8, 1623. t Ibid., March 11, 1623. $ Ibid., March 12, 1623. II Ibid., pastim. He was also very active in endeavour- /ng to set the grants of crowu lands on a better footing. Many instances will be found of his exertions in respect to the universities ; as in the case of the Wadham and Mag- dalen Colleges ; and he is often associated with Coke, Phil- ips, and Gyles, in the forwarding of Cornish private bills. j Commons' Journals, April 29, 1624. was unceasing in his exertions against monop- olies,* and in reminding the House of the pe- titions those " stinging petitions," as the king used bitterly to call them " not to be forgotten against recusants ;"t but, when duty to the cause permitted it, he never pressed 'the letter of offence against any offender. Humanity came in rescue of the strictness of his judg- ments. When some of the popular party push- ed hard against the under-sheriffof Cambridge, for a misdemeanor at the election, Eliot hu- manely interceded. He suggested that the custody the sheriff had already undergone, and the expenses he had been put to, were surely sufficient punishment, and recommended his immediate dismissal. The ever true and able Sir Robert Philips seconded the suggestion. In no single respect can the enemies of Eliot taunt him with his conduct in this session ; nor will they dare hereafter to use their equally danger- ous weapon, the imputation of his silence, to prove that his patriotism was sluggish or inac- tive, or moving only at the will of others. After the most anxious searcli, I can find no allusion from Eliot respecting Buckingham which indicates a feeling of any sort. His si- lence on this head is indeed remarkable, as the lauded name of the duke was then most fre- quently on the lips of other popular members ; and yet, that it did not proceed from any vin- dictive feeling at an abrupt cessation of inter- course, I think I am enabled to prove. From a minute of the journals of the House, it ap- pears that, on one of the debates respecting the Spanish treaties, some private letters of the Duke of Buckingham were referred to, whereupon Eliot stated that he had that morn- ing seen those letters. This is specially en- tered in the journals.t No other member makes the remotest allusion to having seen them. This appears to me to offer a fair pre- sumption that Eliot still continued to meet Buckingham in private intercourse. If this is admitted, then the amiable theory of those writers who have concluded that the letter to the duke, previously quoted, was the last of a series of unanswered applications, and that, from the time of its date, a vindictive feeling had been awakened in the breast of the offend- ed writer that Eliot's patriotism, in fact, was altogether a personal pique at Buckingham? has received another blow, prostrate as it was before. And another, should any one chance to think another necessary, remains to be inflicted. In this Parliament a question arose, on which I have discovered the note of a speech by Eliot, which could never have been delivered by him if his character had not rested clearly free from all imputations of personal dependance or po- litical subserviency. It occurred in a debate " at the close of 1623," the very period fixed by our modern commentators from which to * Commons' Journals, April 7, 1624. t Ibid., April 8, 1624. t Commons' Journals, April 1, 1624. In no other place do I find the smallest allusion to Buckingham, not even at the close of the Spanish business, when thanks were moved by Eliot to " the prince, the king, and to God" for the re- sult of the deliberations. Commons' Journals, April 24, 1624. $ Mr. D'Israeli (passim) ; whose suggestions on this sub- ject have been lately adopted by a distinguished writer.- See Quarterly Review, No. 94, p. 471 BRITISH STATESMEN. date their obstinate accusations. At that pe- riod several committees were sitting on the various courts of justice to investigate com- plaints against their mal-administration. Among many petitions presented to the House in con- sequence of these committees, was one from the wife of a person named Grys, complaining of wrongs she had suffered from the court of chancery, and appealing against the long delays of that court. To this petition Sir Edward Coke objected. The lawyer stood in the way of the redresser of grievances. He told the House that the woman was half distracted ; that the wrong she complained of occurred in " Egerton's time ;" that he was now gone ; and that it was a most unusual thing to com- plain against the dead. After some discussion, it was at last resolved that the grievance in question, with others, should be argued by counsel before a sub-committee. This sub- committee was then about to be chosen, when Sir John Eliot rose. He spoke, as was his cus- tom ever, in concern for the wrongs of the op- pressed. He warned the House to be careful in their choice, for he knew of what vast im- portance it was that the " cries of the vexed subject" should be heard by unbiased men. He implored them to " have a special care" that its members should " have no dependance upon men in place ;" he suggested that it would be better to have no lawyers upon it ; that it were more just to " have countrymen that have no dependance."* There are. few who will disagree with me in thinking that these are not the words of a follower of Buck- ingham. That they should have been spoken by one who laboured under the very odium of what he so earnestly condemned is, to a mon- strous degree, improbable. Not on that occa- sion, nor on any other, did his opponents in the House dare to hint such a charge. I find the patriotic old lawyer replying to this earnest ap- peal, with a statement of " great inconvenien- ces in having such a sub-committee," and an entreaty to "have it well considered of;" but not a word of reproach on the motives of Eliot. It is necessary that I should now advert to the terms on which Eliot and his friends in this Parliament consented to furnish supplies for the Spanish war. On the gross abuse of these supplies their subsequent bitter opposition was most justly founded. Their earnest desire to see James's mean subserviency to Spain at once destroyed, never for an instant blinded them to the serious con- sequence of pressing the people by heavy sub- sidies. Nine hundred thousand pounds had been demanded. They granted three hundred thousand ; promising more if, in the right prosecution of the contest, more should become necessary. Over and over again they distinct- ly stated that the country was not in a condi- tion to hazard a general war ; and, by many sharp stipulations, they restricted hostilities to one object, specific and defined. They seem, indeed, to have had some reason, before the final arrangement, to suspect the gross duplici- tyt which had been practised on them by Buck- ingham, and to have resolved to defend their own policy at all events. They declared that * Commons' Journals, March 17, 1623. t This will be alluded to shortly. their object, in so earnestly promoting war, was the recovery of the Palatinate, and that alone : that hostilities with Spain, therefore, were to be entered into only in so far as that branch of the house of Austria was expected to assist the others in retaining the territory of the elector palatine. Nothing could be more distinct than their stipulations on this point. They were recognised before the death of James. No war with Spain was proclaimed, though correspond- ence with its court was broken ; and when Mansfield received his commission, with twelve regiments, for the service of the Palatinate, he was required " not to make any invasion, or do any act of war against the country or domin- ion" of the King of Spain.* How far this first condition was preserved, we shall shortly have occasion to see. Another condition there was, proposed by the king himself, that, in order to ensure the application of the grant to the pur- poses sought to be attained, it should be paid into the hands of commissioners, appointed by the House, who should expend the money upon that business alone for which it was granted. t The rupture of peace was no headlong enter- prise, plunged into by the parliamentary lead- ers, without regard to the issue, or the means of its attainment.}: Meanwhile, during these negotiations, no popular grievance was lost sight of. Up to this period, a couplet familiar in the common mouth had imbodied the history of parliaments : " Many faults complained of, few things mended, A subsidy granted, the Parliament ended." With the exception of the subsidy bill of 1621, no bill had been allowed to pass for the space of thirteen years. Legislation was now at last resumed. Measures were passed to reform many grievances in the law, and in prevention of vexatious prosecutions. " Their long coun- sels, which had been weather-bound, came to a quiet road, and their vessel was lighted of stat- utes which are of immortal memory."^ The greatest of all these was that which abolished monopolies for the sale of merchandise, or for using any trade. It was nobly drawn up by Coke, Eliot, Philips, and other members, as a * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 153, 154. t Hume calls this " unprecedented in an English mon- arch." (Vol. v., p. 98.) But though the practice had cer- tainly then become unusual, it was common at a former, pe- riod of English history. See Brodie's Hist, of British Em- pire, vol. ii., p. 39. That the king proposed this, however, under compulsion by his new tyrant Buckingham, and as a mere trick to deceive the Commons, was soon evident. To the astonishment of all, on accepting the subsidies, he used this language : " 1 desire you to understand that I must have a faithful secret council of war, which must not be or- dered by a multitude, for so my designs may be discovered before hand. One penny of this money shall not be bestow- ed but in sight of your committees ; but whether I shall send 2000 or 10,000, whether by sea or by land, east or west, by diversion or otherwise, by invasion upon the Bava- rian or the emperor, you must leave that to your king." An ingenious method of rendering the check he had before submitted to, for the purpose of procuring a liberal grant, void and effectless. t Commons' Journals, and Parl. Hist., passim. <) Racket's Scrinia Reserata (Life of Williams), part i., p. 200. He goes on, in his fashion, to say, " The voices all went one way, as a field of wheat is bended that's blown with a gentle gale, one and all ;" which proves that quaint old gentleman to have been a reader of Beaumont and Fletcher * * * " And the people, Against their nature, are all bent for him ; And like a field of standing corn, that's moved With a stiff gale, their heads bow all one way." PMlaster. ' SIR JOHN ELIOT. mere declaratory statute, reciting that such monopolies were already contrary to the an- cient and fundamental laws of the realm. " It was there supposed," says Hume, " that every subject of England had entire power to dispose of his own actions, provided he did no injury to any of his fellow-subjects ; and that no pre- rogative of the king, no power of any magis- trate, nothing but the authority alone of laws, could restrain that unlimited freedom."* Fol- lowing upon this measure, and of an importance no less great, came the impeachment of the Lord-treasurer Middlesex. For two centuries with the single exception of the case of Ba- con, too feeble to fix, with any certainty, the precedent that grand constitutional right had lain dormant. It was now asserted with eager- ness by the Commons, and promoted hotly by Buckingham, who had long hated the growing independence of the power of Middlesex, and as his caprice had raised him from obscurity, now turned to hunt him to disgrace. In vain the shrewdness of James remonstrated " By God, Stenny, you are a fool, and will shortly repent this folly ; and will find that, in this fit of popularity, you are making a rod with which your own breech will be scourged." In vain he turned to the prince, and, with a bitterness of prophecy, like that of Bacon to Middlesex (" Remember that a Parliament will come !"), told him that he would live " to have his belly full of parliamentary impeachments.''! The Commons were suffered to proceed. They proved the guilt of the lord-treasurer ;t and rescued from the disuse of centuries, and be- yond the chance of recall, a vital parliamentary right against future ministers of the crown. James never forgave this. Hacket tells us that, in reference to the matter, " he was quip- ped every day with ignominious taunts, that the kind correspondences between him and the Parliament began to have a cloud over them." There were other causes besides this. Farther grievances remained to be discussed, and the House had entered upon them with unwearying zeal. The king then gave them to understand that, though they were to apply redress to some known grievances, they were not to go on seek- ing after more ; and shortly afterward, in dis- content, prorogued them. II He had failed in the object of his concessions. He fancied they would have put him in possession of more money and more power. " He let fall some flowers of his crown," says the quaint Hacket, " that they might gather them up ; which, in- * History, vol. v., p. 98, 99. See, also, Lord Coke on the subject of this great act, 3 lust., 181. t Clarendon, Hist., p. 20. J See the proceedings in the Parl. Hist. Carte thought him clearly guilty, p. 116. It appears also that Nicholas Fcrrar, a most conscientious person, was one of his four ar- dent accusers. Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, vol. iv. See, also, Hallam,vol. i.,p. 508. Clarendon, Hack- et, and others consider him to have been used as a sacri- fice to Buckingham's resentment. Eliot acted on all the committees of this impeachment, with Sandys, Digges, Phil- ips, Wentworth, Pym, &c. See Journals, April 12, 1624, &c., &c. t> Life of Williams, part i., p. 189, 190. I! See Parl. Hist., vol. vi., p. 128, <fcc. Intimation having then gone abroad of the new treaty of marriage carrying on at Paris, the Commons had sent up what the king called a " stinging petition" against the papists. See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 140, et seq. ; also Roger Coke's Detection, vol. i., p. 185. Nothing could exceed the present duplicity of the king and his successor on this subject. B deed, was no more than deflumum pennarum, the moulting of some feathers, after which the eagle would fly the better."* Much to the as- tonishment and disgust of the eagle in question, however, measures which had for their object the clipping of his wings, the effectual marring of his royal flights, had appeared to be ripening daily. Under these circumstances, on the 29th of October, 1624. the day to which the Parlia-. ment had been prorogued, the Parliament was finally dissolved. The death of James, sudden and mysterious, followed close upon this event ; and the House of Commons was almost instantly challenged to a contest by his ill-advised successor. They had prepared themselves for it by their exer- tions of the last five-and-twenty years. They had obtained little, it might be said, in respect of distinct enactments ; but they had fenced themselves round with privileges, never to be questioned more, by favourites or by monarchs. " They had rescued from disuse their ancient right of impeachment ;they had placed on rec- ord a protestation of their claim to debate all matters of public concern ; they had remon- strated against the usurped prerogatives of binding the subject by proclamation, and of levying customs at the outposts ; they had se- cured beyond controversy their exclusive privi- lege of determining contested elections of their members.''! Vast rights remained yet to be asserted, oppressive wrongs to be redressed ; but an increasing energy in the nation gave new confidence and strength to its representa- tives ; and they assembled at the summons of the new monarch, immediately after his acces- sion, more than ever proudly watchful of privi- lege, and more than ever sternly resolved on good government. In this Parliament, which met at Westminster on the 18th of June, 1625, Eliot was again at his post. He took his seat with a new colleague, Mr. Ralph Specot, for the same borough as before that of Newport. It may be well, before we listen to the com- ments of Mr. Disraeli, and of others from whom a more liberal consideration was to be expect- ed, as to the severe conduct of this Parliament to their young sovereign, to ask whether any reasonable foundation of confidence had been laid between them before their meeting this day 1 Had any symptoms of a new and better administration appeared in any quarter of the government 1 Did favouritism, intrigue, or cor- ruption seem to have abated a jot of their all- governing influence at court 1 Had oppression and injustice, even for the few little weeks of the new reign, ceased to harass the nation * But for so short a time had the doctrine and the practice of absolute power and monarchy imprescriptable, been vailed before the pres- ence of the people, as their new inheritor, with admirable hypocrisy, vailed his crown before that people's representatives, on this day of their assembling U The answer which history gives to these questions is a just warrant for the murmurs of distrust which, in his progress to his first Par- * Life of Williams, vol. i., p. 186. t Hallam, vol. i., p. 509. J Charles, on the day of this Parliament's meeting, wore his crown, vailing it at the opening and the close of his speech, with a solemn and unusual deference 10 BRITISH STATESMEN. liaraent, already sounded in the ears of the monarch, which scattered the seeds of disaf- fection in all directions, and planted bitter thorns in the young crown, as yet scarcely set- tled on the temples of its wearer. To the amazement of all, the statement made to James's last Parliament by Buckingham, and corroborated by Charles, had been discovered to be one tissue of gross falsehoods. On that statement, it has been seen, the war with Spain was undertaken. We have Clarendon's au- thority for asserting that they knew it to be un- true.* " But yet," says Rushworth, " the prince not only gave the testimony of his silence to these untruths, but, on its being reported to the House the same day, approved thereof there also."t The inevitable discovery of the truth, therefore, by the arrival of Bristol, now completely shattered all the popularity which Charles and Buckingham had acquired in the last reign from the breach of the Spanish trea- ties. But it did more. It inflamed displeasure by the shame of imposition, and poisoned at once those fresh springs of public confidence which a new king has, as it were, a right to claim as his own. Nor was this all. With an almost indecent haste, the king had entered into a marriage with a daughter of Roman Cath- olic France ; had consented to certain secret articles in the settlement of the marriage in fa- vour of her religion ; had agreed to a suspen- sion of the penal laws against the Catholics ; and, as an earnest of his promised indulgences, had already granted to several Romish priests a special pardon, without the formality even of a conviction, of all offences committed by them against the penal laws. In fact, of his own in- considerate will, he had provoked in the Eng- lish nation that precise shame of religious sub- jection, to avoid which they had been anxious to rush into a war with Spain. Nor was this the only religious wrong. Symptoms had shown themselves of an unholy helium episcopate at home. Laud's celebrated schedule of ecclesi- astics, branded with the letters and P, as they happened to be orthodox, or suspected Puritan, had already been discussed in the min- isterial councils, and had been felt also in por- tentous signs of that exclusive system of church patronage, the subsequent effects of which were so terrible. t This Parliament, therefore, shaped their de- terminations accordingly. Their first efforts were directed to secure the future safety of the people by an enlargement of the basis of popu- lar representation. On a repetition of the king's demand for supplies, Eliot and his friends went up to him with an address, respectfully and cautiously worded, promising supplies, but claiming the redress of grievances. The intem- perate and threatening answer of the king had no effect on the steady purposes of these great * Clarendon, Hist, of Rebellion, vol. i., p. 19, folio ed. A. reference to the proceedings on the mumal charges of Buckingham and Bristol, in Rush-worth's first volume, or in the sixth and seventh volumes of the " Parliamentary His- tory," will supply very satisfactory means of judgment on this and other important points connected with the Spanish business. Nothing, as Mr. Hallam remarks (vol. i., Const. Hist., p. 520), can be more gratuitous, or indeed impossible, than many of Mr. Hume's assertions relating to them. t Rushworth, Hist. Coll., vol. i., p. 76, et seg., ed. 1682. J Ibid., vol. i., p. 167, 168. See, also, Laud's Diary. t) See Glanville's Reports. men. They voted tonnage and poundage for one year. The House of Lords, disdaining to accept it with such a limitation, rashly rejected the bill. Still, the Commons were not alarmed. They pursued their own course calmly ; granted the king readily, as they had promised, two subsidies, and were proceeding to votes of in- quiry and censure into various wrongs and grievances, when the plague suddenly broke out in London. The major part of the mem- bers objected to continue at their post. " While we are now speaking," said one, " the bell is tolling every minute."* An adjournment to Oxford was consequently proposed, and, after a vast deal of squabbling between the king and his two rival ministers, granted. Williams and Buckingham, now coming fast to an open rup- ture, could not but illustrate the truth of the old saying.t Just as the House was adjourning to Oxford, however, Sir John Eliot, with char- acteristic spirit, rose and made the following motion : " An order that, within three days af- ter our next meeting, the House shall then be called, and the censure of the House to pass upon all such as shall then be absent." Ever true and sincere himself, he would consent to no adjournment which had not some chance, in the sincerity of others, of answering the end proposed.^ In the course of the proceedings before this adjournment, I should mention that I have ob- served a circumstance which seems likely to have been the origin of Sir Thomas Went- worth's dislike of Eliot. A feeling of bitterness unquestionably existed between them during the greater part of their parliamentary career.^ Mr. D'Israeli does not fail to suggest, that Wentworth might have " disdained the vio- lence and turbulence of Eliot ;"|| and he goes on to state all the malicious motives that have been suggested on both sides by Hacket and his hero. Even Mr. Hallam is betrayed, I think, on this point, into an unworthy admission. " Al- ways jealous," he says, speaking of Wentworth, " of a rival, he contracted a dislike for Sir John Eliot, and might suspect that he was likely to be anticipated by that more distinguished pa- triot in royal favours. "T Such a supposition on * Rushworth, Hist. Coll., vol. i., p. 173. t A lively'account (though sometimes over ingenious) of this notorious quarrel will be found in Mr. D'Israeli's secret history of the king's first ministers, " Commentaries," vol. i., p. 249-272. It was a Peachem and Lockit affair. "Nev- er trust," says that excellent moralist, Jonathan Wild, " never trust the man who has reason to suspect you know he has injured you." The archbishop and the duke acted with decision on this maxim. While the worthy prelate was intriguing deeply for the duke's impeachment, the no less worthy peer was engaged in a similar plan for the ruin of the bishop. See Brodie's Hist, of Brit. Enip., vol. ii., p. 81. Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 139. Racket's Scrinia Re- serata, part xi., p. 16, 17, 18. Rushworth, vol. i. In all their disputes, however, I think Williams has the decided advantage ; and he must have startled Buckingham not a little when he suddenly whispered in his grace's ear the memorable words, " NQ man that is wise will show himself angry with the people of England." t Commons' Journals, July 11. I) One of Racket's elegant sentences runs thus : " Sir John Eliot of the West, and Sir Thomas Wentworth of the North (the northern cock, as he afterward calls him), both in the prime of their age and wits, both conspicuous for able speakers, clashed so often in the House, and cudgelled one another with such strong contradictions, that it grew from an emulation between them to an enmity." Scrinia Reserata. II Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 273. T Constitutional History, vol. ii., p. 57. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 11 Wentworth's part supposes a possibility of its truth on Eliot's. I believe the dislike to have originated in no such matter, but, on the con- trary, in Eliot's keen penetration and unswerv- ing sense of justice. I find that, shortly after this first Parliament assembled, a dispute upon the validity of Sir Thomas Wentworth's return for the county of York came before the House. Sir John Saville claimed a new election. This was opposed by the court party, who, for rea- sons best known to themselves and the intrigu- ing Archbishop Williams, supported Went- worth.* Eliot, on the other hand, supported the claims of Saville, and impressed their jus- tice so forcibly on the popular side of the House, that the election of Wentworth was declared void.t From this I date the hatred of the fu- ture Earl of Strafford towards one whom no court intrigue could influence, whom no friend- ship could persuade to desert the great princi- ples of public justice. Wentworth was again returned ; thenceforward opposed Eliot when- ever he was able ; and, when that great states- man had perished in the cause so basely forsa- ken by himself, he sneered at him as a " fan- tastic apparition," and never ceased to spit forth venom to the creature Laud against his mem- ory and glory. Sir John Eliot, however, was on the eve of illustrating, by a more striking example, this great feature in his character. Though he still held the office of Vice-admiral of Devonshire,} he felt that the time had at last arrived which left him no alternative of choice with reference to the lord high admiral. Up to this period he had sustained, as is all but certain from the proofs I have alleged, a personal intercourse with that nobleman, and was certainly still con- nected with him in office. His duty now re- quired that this should cease. His youthful companion had long been lost in the pampered minister of kings, his superior in office was be- neath him in public honesty. Both were aban- doned. Sir John Eliot now saw, in the speedy destruction of Buckingham, the only destruc- * I shall have occasion to allude to these more specifical- ly in the biography of Strafford. Eliot is never understood to have been in any way connected with Saville, whose character was not of that stamp to command either his pub- lic or private sympathy. His keen penetration had already pointed to the future Earl of Strafford as a patriot who " rather looked to be won than cared to be obdurate ;" and it is very certain that he looked upon the meaner Lord Sa- ville in future (the period of whose elevation, by-the-by, is singularly misstated by Hume) with a still more contemp- tuous scorn. But the present case was simply one of jus- tice. What its precise merits were, I am unable to state ; but that Wentworth was capable of resorting to the most unscrupulous and disgraceful expedients in furtherance of his own aims, is evident from what we know of his conduct at a former contest with Saville : I allude to the election for York in 1621. The candidates were Wentworth, Sa- ville, and Calvert, the secretary of state. Wentworth, having secured his own return, zealously laboured to pro- voke the freeholders against Saville, and, still apprehensive of Calvert's failure, from his knowledge of the extensive in- fluence of his opponent, wrote to the secretary in these words: "I have heard that when Sir Francis Darcy op- posed Sir Thomas Luke, in a matter of like nature, the lords of the council writ to Sir Francis to desist. I know my lord-chancellor is very sensible of you in this business ; a word to him, and such a letter would make an end of all." Stratford's State Papers, vol. i., p. 10. t Commons' Journals, July 4. The motion of " Mr. So- licitor" for counsel for Wentworth was defeated by a ma- jority of thirty-nine. Wentworth, at a new election, was again returned. t Harl. MSS., 390. Letter of Mead to Sir Martin Stute- ville, dated Feb. 23. tion of that power behind the throne which was greater than the throne itself, and was daily be- coming more and more fatal to the people.* He had at last concentrated in his own person, and in those of his servile adherents, the most considerable offices of the crown, and in his single existence seemed to be content to in- volve the question of the privileges of the na- tion. Eliot, contented also with that issue, buckled himself to the destruction of the min- ister with terrible earnestness. It is a striking tribute to the honesty of Eliot that the dishonest men of all parties declared themselves, in turn, against him. Archbishop Williams, in his abject paper of apology to the king, to disclaim all connexion " with any of the stirring men," declared that about this time " Sir John Eliot, the only member that began to thrust in a complaint against me, was never out of my lord duke's chamber and bosom, "t This, one of the cringing falsehoods of that learned divine, simply proves that Eliot hated sycophancy in every shape, whether popular or aristocratic, and was equally opposed to the duke and to Williams, the duke's mortal ene- my. At the very moment when the Jie was so hardily asserted, he had been appointed one of the secret managers to prepare an impeach- ment against Buckingham. This charge is yet scarcely so preposterous as one of a similar character, belonging also to this period, gravely brought forward by Mr. D'Israeli. "That Sir John Eliot," says that writer, " was well known to the king, and oft- en in the royal circle, appears by Sir John's complaint in the Parliament at Oxford in 1625, of six Romish priests being lately pardoned, which the duke had prevailed upon the king to be done in his presence at Hamptom Court." Whereupon Mr. D'Israeli concludes that " Eli- ot, like Sir Dudley Digges, was, in fact, a great servant of the duke's."J This is an oddly em- phatic instance of perverse misrepresentation, or I would scarcely hazard the reproach of te- diousness in refuting it. Archdeacon Echard is Mr. D'Israeli's authority. Roger Coke I discover to have been the only authority for Archdeacon Echard. I quote the original pas- sage. " When the Parliament met at Oxford," says Coke, plagiarizing a previous statement by Hacket, " the speaker had no sooner taken his chair but a western knight enlarges the sense of his sorrow that he had seen a pardon for six priests bearing test July 12 ; whereas but the day before it, when they were to part from Westminster, the lord keeper had promised in the king's name, before them all, that the rig- our against the priests should not be deluded. "|| Oldmixon, quoting this account, makes the western knight Sir Robert Philips of Somer- * " The whole power of the kingdom was grasped by his insatiable hand ; while he both engrossed the entire confi- dence of his master, and held, invested in his single person, '.he most considerable offices of the crown." Hume's His- ;ory, vol. v., p. 137. "Who he will advance, shall be ad- /anced ; and who he doth but frown upon, must be thrown down." Stafford's Papers, vol. i., p. 28. t Scrinia Reserata, part i. This would have been better guessed, as I shall have occasion to show, of Wentworth. Still, it would have been incorrect. t Commentaries, vol ii., p. 272. I) Echard's History, folio ed., p. 422. II Roger Coke's Detection, vol. i., p. 232, ed. 1694. But see, also, Scrinia Reserata, part i. 12 BRITISH STATESMEN. setshire, and quotes it correctly enough.* The archdeacon, on the other hand, takes for grant- ed that the western knight must have been Sir John Eliot of Cornwall ; and, with his usual in- correctness, coupling the passage with a few words that go before it, stating that the king had signed the pardon in the presence and by the influence of Buckingham, tortures it into what Mr. D'Israeli has adopted. And Mr. D'ls- raeli consummates the series of misrepresen- tations by supporting upon their authority a charge of sycophancy against Eliot ! I have now to state that, whatever demerit attaches to the circumstance must be removed from Eliot, and from Philips also ; for that the " west- ern knight" who " enlarged . the sense of his sorrow" was Sir Edward Gyles, one of the Cornish members.! Eliot had more stirring game in hand. Scarce- ly had the Parliament reassembled at Oxford when secret intelligence reached him that the loan of ships which had been promised to the King of France, at the close of the late reign, for the purpose of employment against the Spanish interest in Italy and the Valtoline, had been perverted, by the deliberate treachery of Buckingham and his minion the king, to the use of the French Catholics against the Huguenots of Rochelle.i He saw and seized his oppor- tunity. He hurried down to the House, and implored them to grant no farther supplies, for that there were heavy grievances to be con- sidered. Charles having heard this, summon- ed the Houses to meet him at the great hall in Christ Church, to " convince them of the ne- cessity of considering his business first." Un- der his direction, his ministers then detailed his wants ; and to prevent the effect, so much * Oldmixon's History, p. 78, ed. 1730. t Commons' Journals, 1st of August. Brodie gives the name correctly, vol. ii., p. 73. Mrs. Macaulay is also cor- rect, vol. i , p. 276. I was somewhat surprised to find, from the preface to Monsieur Guizot's vivid " Histoire de la Revolution d'Angleterre," that the work by that lady was published in France in 1791, with the name of Mirabeau as its author ! (Hist, par Guizot, vol. i., preface, p. xvii.) It is singularly honourable, I may add, to the French na- tion, that M. Guizot has found encouragement enough to make it worth his while to publish, for the use of his coun- trymen, a series of translations of original memoirs of the times of the two great English revolutions (Collection des Alemoires relatifs d la Revolution d'Angleterre, accompag- nee de Notices et d'Eclaircissimens Historiques), amount- ing to twenty-eight octavo volumes ! Such a collection would be invaluable to the historical inquirer in our own country ; but where is the public patronage that would bear out any English bookseller or English man of letters in such an undertaking? t Lord Nugent discovered, among the Earl St. Germain's papers, a copy of the high-minded protest by Admiral Pen- nington, together with the original orders from Bucking- ham, and from Charles himself, relating to this disgraceful business. These I take to have been forwarded secretly by Pennington to Sir John Eliot, in the way of self-vindication. His, as Lord Nugent truly observes, was a hard position. He commanded the ship, and led the fleet, of his sovereign. But he had been sent forth, amid the acclamations of his country, to give effect to a generous treaty with the op- pressed and the besieged. He had no sooner arrived at his destination than he found himself under secret orders to put himself under a foreign command, in a murderous war- fare against the English honour and the Protestant reli- gion .See Nugent's Memorials, vol. i., p. 100, and Appen- dix A. Lord Nugent has omitted to state a singular cir- cumstance in connexion with this business, which renders my suggestion still more probable. On the eve of the meeting of the Oxford Parliament, Pennington was hasten- ing to lay before that assembly an account of the proceed- ings, when, to prevent the effect of such a disclosure, he wot concealed by the interference of the court till the disso- lution, which quickly followed. See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 176, Brodie, Brit. Emp., vol. ii., p. 72. dreaded, of the disclosure of the affair at Ro- chelle, Secretary Coke told the Commons, with a cool and deliberate hypocrisy, that "the French king chose to sheath his sword in the bowels of his own subjects rather than declare war against the Catholics."* After the conclu- sion of this conference, the members of the Commons returned to their House, and Sir John Eliot rose. He implored them to pause before they yielded up their only irresistible ar- guments for good government. "It is not usual," he said, " to grant subsidies upon sub- sidies in one Parliament and no grievances re- dressed." He then boldly stated that the treas- ury had been misemployed, that evil counsels guided the king's designs, that the necessities of the nation had arisen through improvidence, and that they had need to petition the king for a strait hand and a better counsel to manage his affairs, t Next, he "desired there might an account be given for all the moneys given in Parliament since the 12th of King James, with some invectives against the commissioners, whom he called the pretending sparers of the king's purse, laying to their charge the loss of thousands of men's lives in our late expeditions by land and sea."t He reserved his heaviest blow for the last, aiming it with a deadly effect against Buckingham. " I desire to know," said Eliot, " whether the money designed for the Pa- latinate did not maintain the ships sent against Rochelle?"^ The Commons, inflamed by this address, threw out intelligible hints of impeach- ing Buckingham. The king, exasperated in the extreme, threatened a dissolution, while he urged once more his necessities. Cold and res- olute was the answer of the Commons. " Ne- cessity is a dangerous counsellor, and is a con- tinual argument of supplies in all Parliaments. Those who have put the king and kingdom into such a necessity and hazard ought to answer for it, whosoever they be. "|| This ominous al- lusion more nearly alarmed the king, and an abrupt dissolution followed. Parliament was dismissed on the 12th of August, f It was speedily re-summoned ; but disgrace- ful scenes had intervened. The king, under the advice of Buckingham, had openly dis- pensed with the laws. Letters had been is- sued by order of council, under the privy seal, forcing loans from private persons,** generally * Rushworth, Hist. Coll., vol. i., p. 178. t See Oldmixon's History, p. 79. See, also, Rushworth, vol. i., p. 180. t Harleian MSS., 390. Letter of Mead to Stuteville. t> See Oldmixon, p. 79, and Rushworth, vol. i., p. ISO. II Rushworth, vol. i., p. 190. IT Mr. Hume, in one of the early passages of his history (which remains unequalled for its beauty of style and phil- osophical remark, though it is utterly worthless as a book of authority), describes this Parliament with a strango mixture of truth and error. " It was necessary to fix a choice: either to abandon entirely the privileges of the people, or to secure them by firmer and more precise barri- ers than the Constitution had hitherto provided for them. In this dilemma, men of such aspiring genius and such in- dependent fortunes could not long deliberate ; they boldly embraced the side of freedom, and resolved to grant no supplies to their necessitous prince without extorting con- cessions in favour of civil liberty. The end they esteemed beneficial and noble ; the means regular and constitutional. To grant or refuse supplies was the undoubted privilege of the Commons." See the whole passage, vol. v., p. 138, quarto edit., 1763. See, also, Clarendon, vol. i., p. 6, folio edit. ** Lord Nugent found one of these requisitions in the MS. collection at Slowe. It is addressed to Sir Willian? Andrews, of Lathbury, in Buckinghamshire, then a tenant of John Hampden's, and afterward one of the deputy lieu- SIR JOHN ELIOT. 13 those who were connected with the popular party, for the mad purpose of carrying on the Spanish war ; and the Spanish war was carried on, up to the disastrous, ill-concerted, and most wretchedly conducted expedition to Cadiz. Parliament could then be warded off no longer, hated as was even its name. Buckingham, with an ominous foreboding of the future, strove to disqualify the leading men, by getting them pricked as sheriffs of their respective counties. Elliot, it is said, was the chief ob- ject of his anxiety on this head ;* but, in Eliot's case, he found it impracticable. I think it probable, however, that the duke prevented his election for Newport. Here was only a means of greater triumph. He presented himself to his native county of Cornwall, and was instant- ly^ returned by the electors.! It was an age when the middle and lower ranks of the people shared a common enthusiasm, and were inac- cessible alike to fear or to favour. It is stri- king, and even affecting, to mark the quiet calmness with which Eliot now sought to pro- vide that the risk and danger, to which he knew his conduct in the coming Parliament must expose himself, might not fall heavily on his children. He assigned over every portion of his most extensive estates in trust to rela- tives for the benefit of his family, i Having done this, he repaired to his place in the House of Commons, resolved, at whatever hazard, to strike down the great traitor who had imperill- ed the liberty and the property of the kingdom. At Westminster, on the 6th of February, 1626, this " great, warm, and ruffling"^ Parlia- ment assembled. Eliot had scarcely taken his seat, before his vehement eloquence, overflow- ing with imbittered invective, was heard thun- dering against the doomed minister. In his style of oratory, a singular power of severity and keenness united itself with the clearest fa- cility of detail, was adorned with the most pleasing classical allusion, and was directed against its object with such warmth and ear- nestness of passion as it is always most diffi- cult to resist. The case of the chaplain Mon- tagull was abandoned for the higher quarry : searching committees were appointed, and the defeats and disgraces of the nation were traced home to Buckingham. The rage of the king exceeded all bounds, and> under its influence, he sent an insolent message to the Hoase. " I must let you know that I will not allow any of my servants to be questioned among you, much less such as are of eminent place, and near unto me. * * I see you especially aim at the Duke of Buckingham. * * I would you would hasten for my supply, or else it will be worse tenants for that county under the Parliament. It appears that for these contributions, exacted with the utmost sever- ity and injustice, collectors were appointed, whose acquit- tance should be a sufficient warrant for repayment in eigh- teen months. " Put not your faith in princes !" Sir Will- iam Andrews' acquittance, remains appended to the requi- sition. * Echard's History, p. 426. D'Israeli's Commentaries, vol. i., p 298. t Parliamentary History and Commons' Journals. "3., No. 7000. Letter of Pory to P 'Israeli's Commentari I shall have to advert to this hereafter. J Harleian MSS., No. 7000. Letter of Pory to Pucker- ing. See, also, D'Israeli's Commentaries, vol. iv., p. 510. i> Whitelocke's Memorials of the English Affairs, p. 7, edit. 1682. II I shall hare occasion to allude to this case in the biog- raphy of Pynj "or yourselves ; for if any evil happen, I think I shall be the last that shall feel it."* Eliot smiled at this impotent rage. " We have had a representation of great fear," he said ; " but I hope that shall not darken our understand- ngs. Our wills and affections were never more clear," he continued, " more ready, as to lis majesty ; but we are balked and checked n our forwardness by those the king intrusts with the affairs of the kingdom." Again he inflamed the House by comments on the Span- sh expedition. " The last action was the ting's first action ; and in this the king and iingdom have suffered dishonour. We are weakened in our strength and safety ; our men and ships are lost." Then followed a bit- ter taunt against even the personal courage of Buckingham, who, it will be recollected, had left the command of the expedition to Sir Ed- ward Cecil. " The great general had the whole command, both by sea and land ; and could the great general think it sufficient to put in his deputy and stay at home ?" The orator next, taking advantage of the excitement of his hear- ers, thundered forth questions of a more fatal meaning. " Are not honours now sold, and made despicable 1 Are not judicial places sold 1 And do not they then sell justice again 1 Ven- dere jure potest emerat ille prius." After some well-employed classical allusions, Eliot pro- ceeded thus : " I shall to our present case cite two precedents. The first was in the eleventh year of Henry III. The treasure was then much exhausted ; many disorders complained of; the king wronged by ministers. Many sub- sidies were demanded in Parliament, but they were denied ; and the Lords and Commons join- ed to desire the king to resume lands which had been improvidently granted, and to exam- ine his great officers, and the causes of those evils which the people then suffered. This was yielded unto by the king ; and Hugh de Burgo was found faulty, and was displaced ; and then the Commons, in the same Parliament, gave supply. The second precedent was in the tenth year of Richard II. Then the times were such, and places so changeable, that any great officer could hardly sit to be warmed in his place. Supply was at that Parliament required : the Commons denied supply, and complained that their moneys were misemployed ; that the Earl of Suffolk (Michael de la Pole) then overruled all ; and so their answer was, ' they could not give ;' and they petitioned the king that a com- mission might he granted, and the Earl of Suf- folk might be examined. A commission," Eliot continued, reserving himself for a closing sar- casm at Buckingham, "at their request was awarded ; and that commission recites all the evil then complained of; and that the king, upon the petition of the Lords and Commons, had granted that examination should be taken of the crown lands which were sold, of the or- dering of his household, and the disposition of the j ewels of his grandfather and father. / hear nothing said in this house of our jewels, nor will 1 speak of them ; but I could wish they were within these walls /"t The effect of this speech was * Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 3. t Buckiiignam had raised money upon the crown jewels and plate, by the king's order, at the Hsgue. Strafford, State Papers, vol. i., p. 28. Ingram to Wentworth. Owing 14 BRITISH STATESMEN. complete, and, in the midst of the general in- dignation excited, Dr. Turner's resolutions, that " common fame" was a good ground of accusation against Buckingham, were passed ; and notice was sent to the duke of the proceed- ings against him. At the same time, in illus- tration of the good faith with which they act- ed, they announced that the king's immediate necessities should be relieved while his minis- ter was brought to trial ; and they redeemed this pledge by a vote for the grant of three sub- sidies and three fifteenths.* The king now felt more strongly than ever the imminent danger of his favourite. Again he interfered, and again his interference was defeated by the boldness of Eliot. " Remember," he said, " that Parliaments are altogether in my pow- er for their calling, sitting, and dissolution ; therefore, as I find the fruits of them good or evil, they are to continue or not to be."t The Commons retired to deliberate this with locked doors, and the key placed in the hands of the speaker. What passed in that mem- orable sitting did not publicly transpire ; but I can supply some portion of it at least from a manuscript letter of the time. " Sir John Eliot rose up and made a resolute (I doubt whether a timely)t speech, the sum whereof was, that they came not thither either to do what the king should command them, or to ab- stain where he forbade them ; and therefore they should continue constant to maintain their privileges, and not do either more or less for what had been said unto them." This ominous meeting with locked doors alarmed the king ; negotiations were opened, explana- tions offered, every possible resource of avoid- ance attempted, but in vain. It was too late to dispute the right of impeachment after the precedents of Bacon and Middlesex ; and the Commons, after addressing the king in deco- rous language, impeached Buckingham on twelve articles.lt Eight chief managers were appointed. To Pym, Herbert, Selden, Glanville, Sherland, and to a singular omission of the editors of the last great parlia- mentary history, we look vainly among the debates they hare collected for this very remarkable speech. It is in Rushworth, however (vol. i., p. 220), and in the Old Parlia- mentary History, vol. vi., p. 441, edit. 1763. * Rushworth's Hist. Coll., vol. i., p. 221. Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 3. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 225. Whitelocke, p. 4. t Here the timid writer alludes to what was frequently urged against Eliot, the severe and unsparing character of his speeches. Clarendon was accustomed to the House of Commons, and speaks differently. " Modesty and modera- tion in words," says that noble writer, "never was, nor never will be observed in popular councils whose founda- tion is liberty of speech." Hist, of the Rebellion, vol. i., p. 7, folio edit. <t Harleian MSS. Letter of Mead to Sir Martin Stute- ville, dated April 8. In a subsequent letter of the same correspondent in this collection (dated April 28), I find the first shadowing forth of the iniquitous dispersion of Sir Robert Cotton's library an event which that learned anti- quary was unable to survive. " Sir Robert Cotton's books are threatened to be taken away, because he is accused to impart ancient precedents to the Lower House." II The duke's obsequious and fawning answer had simply the effect of adding another charge to the impeachment. I must refer the reader to the various histories for an ample exposure of the disgraceful practices resorted to by the king to rescue his favourite from the powerful opposition of the Earls Bristol and Arundel in the Upper House. Brodie's Hist, of the British Empire, vol. ii., p. 105, et seq. Lin- gard's History, vol. ix., p. 345, et seq. The History, from Sir James Mackintosh, in Lardner's Cyclopaedia, vol. v., p. 37-46. Wandesford was intrusted the duty of dilating upon the facts of the impeachment ; to Sir Dud- ley Digges the task of opening the proceedings in a " prologue" was committed ; and for Sir John Eliot the arduous duty was reserved of winding up the whole proceedings by one of his impressive perorations, that should serve as an " epilogue" to this mighty drama. They did not over estimate the value of his eloquence.* The speech delivered by him on this great occasion is an important chapter in his history. Sir Dudley Digges, a courtly patriot, had spo- ken the "prologue" in the highest prevailing style of ornate circumlocution and quaintly ele- vated metaphor. Professing to deliver himself in " plain country language, setting by all rhe- torical affectations," the monarchy he compared to the creation, the Commons to the earth, the Lords to the planets, the king to the glorious sun, the clergy to the fire, the judges and magistrates to the air, and the Duke of Buckingham to a comet, " a prodigious comet." All this was only a striking foil to the nervous and daring invective, the clear and gorgeous declamation of Eliot. The proud minister, who had kept his seat during the harangue of Digges, inso- lently braving his accuser, and jeering his quaint expressions, was observed to leave the house when Eliot, on the following day, arose. t It was well for himself that he had done so. Never was an attack made, in that or any suc- ceeding time, so eloquent, so bitter, so earnest, so disdainful. The orator excelled himself. He had summoned to his service all his literary accomplishments, and he closely environed his argument with a passion that was absolutely terrible. He began by describing the ambition of " this man," as he disdainfully termed the duke, im- peaching it by " the common sense of the mis- eries and misfortunes which the people suf- fer," and protesting in eloquent phrase against those high misdemeanors which " have lost us the regality of our narrow seas, the ancient inheritance of our princes." He then exposed, as " full of collusion and deceit," the " inward character" of the mind of Buckingham. " I can express it," said Eliot, bitterly, " no better than by the beast called by the ancients stcl- lionatus ; a beast so blurred, so spotted, so full of foul lines that they knew not what to make of it." He next presented to their lordships " the duke's high oppression" in all its strange extent, " not to men alone, but to laws and statutes, to acts of council, to pleas and de- crees of court, to the pleasures of his majes- * For the history of this impeachment, and reports of the various speeches, see Rushworth, vol. i., p. 302, et seq. ; Parliamentary History, vol. vi. and vii. ; History from Hack- intosh, vols. v., p. 46, et seq. The thirteen articles of the impeachment were arranged under the following heads: Plurality of offices ; buying the place of high admiral ; buying the wardenship of the cinque ports ; not guarding the narrow seas ; unlawfully and corruptly staying a French ship ; extorting 10,000 from the East India merchants ; putting English ships in the hands of the French, to be employed against the Protestants of Rochelle (this embraced two articles) ; compelling Lord Roberts to buy his peerage ; selling places of judicature ; procuring honours for his poor kindred ; malversation of the king's revenue ; giving physic to the late king. t The duke's absence is marked by a letter in the Harl. MS., 383. See, also, Rushworth. In Ellis's Original Let- ters, vol. iii., p. 226 (second edit.), an account will be found of the duke's " jeering and fleering insolence," and the spir- ited rebuke it at last provoked. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 15 ty." The orator afterward, having indulged some quiet sarcasms at Buckingham, his vic- tims, and his extortions, "mathematically ob- served and exquisitely expressed," advanced to the most serious imputations, which he han- dled with a fearful severity. " That which was wont to be the crown of virtue and merit is now become a merchandise for the greatness of this man, and even justice is made his prey ! The most deserving offices that require abil- ities to discharge them are fixed upon the duke, his allies, and kindred. He hath drawn to him and his the power of justice, the power of honour, and the power of command in ef- fect, the whole power of the kingdom, both for peace and war !" Eliot then painted a mourn- ful picture of the result of the favourite's ex- tortions in the present state of the kingdom, the " revenues destroyed, the fountain of sup- ply exhausted, the nerves of the land relaxed," placing beside it, in vivid and indignant con- trast, the gorgeousness of Buckingham's pos- sessions. " He intercepts, consumes, and ex- hausts the revenues of the crown, not only to satisfy his own lustful desires, but the luxury of others ; and, by emptying the veins the blood should run in, he hath cast the body of the kingdom into a high consumption. Infinite sums of money, and mass of land exceeding the value of money, nay, even contributions in Parliament, have been heaped upon him ; and how have they been employed 1 Upon costly furniture, sumptuous feasting, and magnificent building, the visible evidences of the express ex- hausting of the state! And yet his ambition," proceeded Eliot, alluding darkly to more dread- ful charges, " which is boundless, resteth not here, but, like a violent flame, bursteth forth and getteth farther scope. Not satisfied with injuries and injustice, and dishonouring of re- ligion, his attempts go higher to the prejudice of his sovereign. The effects I fear to speak, and fear to think.* I end this passage, as Cicero did in a like case, ne gravioribus utar verbis quam rei naturafert, aut levioribus quam causa necessi- tas postulat." The closing passage of Eliot's speech was tremendous, and must have electrified the house. " Your lordships have an idea of the man, what he is in himself, what in his affections ! You have seen his power, and some, I fear, have felt it ! You have known his practice, and have heard the effects. It rests, then, to be considered what, being such, he is in refer- ence to the king and state how compatible or incompatible with either 1 In reference to the king, he must be styled the canker in his treas- ure ; in reference to the state, the moth of all goodness. What future hopes are to be ex- pected, your lordships may draw out of his ac- tions and affections. In all precedents I can hardly find him a match or parallel. None so like him as Sejanus, thus described by Taci- tus : Audax sui obtegens, in alias criminator, jux- ta adulator et superbus. My lords, for his pride and flattery it was noted of Sejanus that he did clientes suos provinciis adornare. Doth not this * We feel with Eliol on this point. The reader is refer- red to a forcible passage in Mr. Brodie's History of the British Empire, vol. ii., p. 43, 44. I have satisfied myself respecting Mr. Brodie's proof, by referring to the MS. in the Ayscough Collection of the Brit. Museum, No. 4991, p. 206. man the like 1 Ask England, Scotland, and Ireland, and they will tell you ! Sej anus's pride was so excessive, Tacitus saith, that he neglected all counsel, mixed his business and service with the prince, seemed to confound their actions, and was often styled imperatoris laborum socius. How lately, and how often, hath this man commixed his actions, in dis- course, with actions of the king ! My lords, I have done. You SEE THE MAN ! By him came all these evils ; in him we find the cause ; on him we expect the remedies ; and to this we met your lordships in conference." The rage of the king, when told of Eliot's speech, betrayed him. In a manuscript letter of the time the writer alludes to the unseemly anger displayed as " private news which I de- sire you to keep to yourself as your own, by separating this half sheet, and burning it or concealing it." The allusion to the death of his father, and to Sejanus, had strangely affect- ed Charles. "Implicitly," he exclaimed, "he must intend me for Tiberius !"* and he hurri- ed to the House of Lords to complain of Sir John Eliot. Then began those cruel persecu- tions which Eliot had foreseen, and prepared himself for, and which were only exhausted at last in the death of their illustrious object. He was that day committed close prisoner to the Tower ; and, by an odd kind of chance, which may be worth noting for some of my readers, was flung into the dungeon which, after a few short months, received Felton, Buckingham's assassin, t Digges was also committed. The House of Commons, on hearing of this gross breach of privilege (the first of that series of open and undisguised outrages which brought Charles to the scaffold), broke up instantly, notwithstanding a very heavy press of business before them ; and, after dinner, many members met in Westminster Hall, " sadly communica- ting their minds to one another.":): The follow- * Harleian MSS., 383. Letter of Mead, dated May 11. The writer subsequently says that Sir Robert Cotton had told him that the king's affection towards the duke " was very admirable no whit lessened." When Charles, indeed, came in his barge from Whitehall to order Eliot to the Tow- er, Buckingham sat by his side ! MS. letter to Mead. t " As Felton the last weeke passed through Kingston- upon-Thames, an old woman bestowed this salutation upon him : ' Now God blesse thee, little David,' quoth she ; meaning he had killed Goliath. He hath hitherto (saith my author) been fairly used in the Tower, being put into the same lodging where Sir John Eliot lav, and allowed two dishes of meat every meal." Harleian MSS., 390. Felton was a miserable enthusiast, who revenged upon Bucking- ham only a private wrong. But his name deserves honour for the memory of one striking incident at the close of his unhappy life. I quote it from Ellis's Original Letters, vol. iii., p. 267, second edit. " Another friend told me that on Tuesday morning, some of the lords being with him, my Lord of Dorset told him, ' Mr. Felton, it is the king's pleas- ure you should be put to tenure, to make you confesse your complices; and therefore prepare yourself for the rack.' To whom Felton : ' I do not believe, my lord, that it is the king's pleasure ; for he is a just and a gracious prince, and will not have his subjects to be tortured against law. I do again affirm, upon my salvation, that my purpose was known to no man living ; and more than I have said before I can- not. But if it be his majesty's pleasure, I am ready to suf- fer whatever his majesty will have inflicted upon me. Yet this I must tell you by-the-way, that if I be put upon the rack I will accuse you, my Lord of Dorset, and none but yourself.' So they left him there without bringing him to the rack." The letter writer might have gone farther, for this was not all. To excuse themselves from the pos- sible supposition that they could have been influenced in this case by terror, the judges were ordered to deliver a de- cision that "no such punishment as the rack is known or allowed by our law." We owe this to Felton. t Harleian MSS., 383. Letter to Mead, dated May 12. 16 BRITISH STATESMEN. ing morning they met in the House ; but when the speaker reminded them of the business of the day, " Sit down ! sit down !" was the gen- eral cry : "no business till we are righted in our liberties !"* A sullen silence succeeded, which was broken by the memorable expostulation of Sir Dudley Carleton, the king's vice-chamber- lain. Unadvisedly he let the court secret out ! After complaining of the violent and contemp- tuous expressions resorted to by Eliot and Dig- ges, he blurted forth as follows : " I beseech you, gentlemen, move not his majesty with trenching on his prerogative, lest you bring him out of love with Parliaments. In his messages he hath told you that, if there were not corre- spondency between him and you, he should be enforced to use new counsels. Now, I pray you to consider what these new counsels are, and may be. I fear to declare those that I con- ceive. In all Christian kingdoms you know that parliaments were in use anciently, until the monaruhs began to know their own strength ; and, seeing the turbulent spirit of their parlia- ments, at length they, by little and little, began to stand upon their prerogatives, and at last overthrew the parliaments throughout Chris- tendom, except here only with us. And, in- deed, you would count it a great misery, if you knew the subjects in foreign countries as well as myself, to see them look not like our nation, with store of flesh on their backs, but like so many ghosts, and not men, being nothing but skin and bones, with some thin cover to their nakedness, and wearing only wooden shoes on their- feet ; so that they cannot eat meat or wear good clothes, but they must pay and be taxed unto the king for it. This is a misery beyond expression, and that which yet we are free from."t Poor Sir Dudley had scarcely delivered himself of this when his ears were saluted with loud and unwelcome shouts, " To the bar ! to the bar !" He narrowly escaped the necessity of apologizing at the bar on his knees. Ultimately Digges, coy patriot, having con- sented to retract certain expressions complain- ed of, was released. Eliot, on the other hand, coldly and sternly refused to listen to any pro- posals ; and the king, unable to keep up the struggle, was obliged, after the expiration of eight days, to sign a warrant for his release. On his reappearance in the House, the vice- chamberlain, by his master's command, repeat- ed the charge of intemperate language ; upon which Sir John, instead of denying anything he had said, or meanly endeavouring to explain away the harshness of the terms he had made use of, in a remarkably eloquent and sarcastic speech avowed and defended every name he had applied to Buckingham.^ The spirit of this * Harleian MSS., 383. Letter to Mead, dated May 12. See, also, Rushworth, vol. i., p. 358, and Parliamentary His- tory, vol. vii., p. 159, for other accounts of this scene. t Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 6. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 359. Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 159. t Hatsell's Precedents. For a report of Sir John's speech, see Rushworth, vol. i., p. 362 ; and Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 165. The latter is more full and correct. I quote a striking passage : " For the words, the man, he said he spoke not by the book, but suddenly. For brevity's sake he used the words, The man. He thought it not fit at all times to reit- erate his titles ; and yet thinketh him not to be a god." In conclusion, Eliot touched with a modest and manly forbear- ance on the old charge against him. " For the manner of his speech, as having too much vigour and strength, he said he could not excuse his aatural defects ; but he then en- great man communicated itself to the House, and by a unanimous vote, refusing even to or- der him to withdraw,* they cleared him from every imputation. Charles, nothing'taught by this egregious fail- ure, continued to play the minion to Bucking- ham, who had now resolved, by another disso- lution, to throw for his only chance of safety. This was, indeed, a desperate step, and so Charles would seem to have considered it ; but his fears, his consciousness of the injuries he was committing on his subjects, everything sank before the influence of the favourite. " The duke being in the audience chamber, pri- vate with the king, his majesty was overheard (as they talk) to use these words : ' What can I do more] I have engaged mine honour to mine uncle of Denmark and other princes. I have, in a manner, lost the love of my subjects. What wouldst thou have me do 1 ' Wh ence some think the duke moved the king to dissolve the Parliament."! Or, it may have been, the duke moved the king to get himself promoted to the chancellorship of Cambridge. Monstrous as it appears, a royal message was sent forthwith to the convocation, on the present occurrence of the vacancy, ordering them to elect the duke ! Vain was every entreaty to postpone the elec- tion ; at least until after the event of the im- peachment were known. It was carried.J and received the formal and elaborate approval of the king. The Commons, then, after a stormy debate, in which Eliot took his usual warm and vigorous part,$ sent to crave audience of his majesty " about serious business concerning all the Commons of the land." The king re- turned answer that they should hear from him the next day. They did hear from him : the next day they were dissolved ;[| and the rash monarch proceeded to. try the effect of those " new counsels" which he and his servants had so often threatened. These " new counsels" appeared in the shape of a naked despotism. Everything short of the absolute surrender of the subject to the muskets of the soldiery was resorted to ; and deavoured, and ever did in that House, to avoid passion ; and only desired to do his duty." * The entry in the Journals is remarkable : " Sir John Eliot of himself withdrew ; the House refusing to order his withdrawing." t A letter in the Harleian MSS. Mead to Stuteville, dated May 13. t By means the most disgraceful, -which, after all, only se- cured Buckingham a majority of three votes over Lord An- dover, hastily set up by the Commons. In Ellis's Original Letters, vol. iii., p. 231, we have a curious account of the contest. " My lord bishop labours ; Mr. Mason visits for his lord, Mr. Cosens for the most true patron of the clergy and of scholars. Masters belabour their fellows. Dr. Maw sends for his, one by one, to persuade them ; some twice over Divers in town got hackneys, and fled to avoid importunity. Very many some whole colleges were got- ten by their fearful masters, the bishop, and others, to sus- pend, who otherwise were resolved against the duke, and kept away with much indignation : and yet for all this stirre the duke carried it but by three votes from my Lord Andover, whom we voluntarily set up against him, without motion on his behalf, yea, without his knowledge We had but one doctor in the whole towne durst (for so I dare speak) give with us against the duke ; and that was Dr. Porter ol Queen's." I) It was he who proposed, and had the chief hand in framing, the celebrated remonstrance (Rushworth, vol. i., p 400), which every member of the House held in his pos- session on the day of the dissolution of this Parliament. A proclamation was subsequently issued against it by the king. See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 411. II See, also, Sanderson's account in his Life of Charles, p 58 ; and Rushworth, vol. i., p. 398. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 17 we learn, from a remarkable passage in Hume's history, good reason why the new counsels fell short of that. " Had he possessed any milita- ry force," says the philosophical apologist of Charles, "on which he could depend, 'tis not improbable that he had at once taken off the mask, and governed without any regard to par- liamentary privileges. * * * But his army was new levied, ill paid, and worse disciplined ; no- wise superior to the militia, who were much more numerous, and who were, in a great meas- ure, under the influence of the country gentle- men."* As it was, the mask was very clumsi- ly kept on. The first thing attempted under it was to cover, by a bungling imposition, an out- rageous stretch of power. The people were instructed by the agents of government that, as subsidies had been voted in the last House of Commons, they could not legally refuse to pay them, though Parliament had been dissolv- ed before the bill imbodying them had passed ; and they were levied accordingly ! A commis- sion to improve the revenues of crown lands went forth next on a mission of the grossest tyranny ; and, following this, a commission to force the most enormous penalties against religious recusants. Privy seals for the loan of money were at the same time issued, in all directions, to men of reputed property, and an immediate advance of a hundred and twenty thousand pounds was insolently demanded from the city of London. Lastly, a levy of ships was ordered from the port towns and counties adjoining a forecast of the memorable tax of ship money, t As men grieved and wondered at these things, the news arrived of the defeat of the King of Denmark at the bloody battle of Luttern ; and Charles seized the advantages of this disaster to his ally to execute a meas- ure he had long meditated, and of which all these oppressions we have named were but even the feeble foreshadowing. He sent com- missioners into every quarter of the kingdom, with the most frightfully inquisitorial powers, to execute a GENERAL FORCED LOAN.J He issu- * History, vol. v., p. 151. Clarendon's account may be subjoined to this : " Upon every dissolution, such as had given any offence were imprisoned or disgraced ; new proj- ects were every day set on foot for money, which served only to offend and incense the people, and brought little sup- plies to the king's occasions ; yet raised a great stock for expostulation, murmur, and complaint, to be exposed when other supplies should be required. And many persons of the best quality and condition under the peerage were com- mitted to several prisons, with circumstances unusual and unheard of, for refusing to pay money required by these ex- traordinary ways." Hist, of Rebellion, vol. i., p. 22. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 411-172. Rymer, xviii., p. 730- 842. Whitelocke, p. 7-9. In these authorities ample infor- mation will be found. See, also, Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 320- 338. In connexion with these accounts it may be amusing to quote an anecdote from the office book of the master of the revels, " here entered," as he observes, " for ever, to be remembered by my son, and those who cast their eyes' on it, in honour of King Charles my master." The king, reading a manuscript play of Massinger's, had stumbled on the fol- lowing : " Moneys ! we'll raise supplies what ways we please, And force you to subscribe to blanks, in which We'll mulct you as we shall think fit. The Caesars In Rome were wise, acknowledging no laws But what their swords did ratify :" and, in the disgust of the moment, wrote a halting line against it : " This is too insolent, and to be changed !" Truly, nothing should be so disgusting to us as a hideous likeness of ourselves ! t It is worth while giving an extract from the private in- itructions of these commissioners. They were " to treat r, ed an elaborate proclamation at the same time, excusing these new counsels by the exigence of the moment ; and, in private instructions to the clergy, ordered them to use the pulpit in advancement of his monstrous projects.* Rev- erend doctors, with an obedient start, straight- way preached illimitable obedience on pain of eternal damnation.! Imprisonment of various sorts compensated for the inefficacy of reli- gious anathemas. The poor, who could not, or would not pay, were pressed into the army or the navy ; substantial tradesmen were drag- ged from their families ; men of rank, even, were ordered into the palatinate ;t large batch- es of country gentlemen were lodged in custo- dy ; and, as a punishment to some, more ag- apart with every one of those who are to lend, and not in the presence or hearing of any other, unless they see cause to the contrary ; and, if any shall refuse to lend, and shall make delay or excuses, and persist in their obstinacy, that they examine such persons upon oath, whether they have been dealt withal to deny, or refuse to lend, or make an ex- cuse for not lending ; who hath dealt so with them, or what speeches or persuasions he or they have used to him tend- ing to that purpose ? And that they shall also charge every such person, in his majesty's name, upon his allegiance, not to declare to any other what his answer was." Rushworth, vol. i., p. 419. * Laud, now bishop of Bath and Wells, drew these in- structions up in the name of the king. (See Heylin's Life, p. 161, et seq. ; and Laud's Diary.) "The dexterous per- formance of which service," says Heylin, " as it raised Laud higher in his majesty's good opinion of him, so it was recompensed with a place of greater nearness to him than before he had." f Sibthorp, vicar of Brackley, in Northamptonshire, and Mainwaring, a king's chaplain and Vicar of St. Giles's, made themselves most notorious in this slavish and criminal ser- vice. Extracts from the sermons of these men, of the most atrocious description, will be found in Rushworth, vol. i., p. 422, 423. They had excellent imitators. I find among the Sloane MSS., a letter descriptive of a sermon preached by the Dean of Canterbury, from which the reader may take an extract : " It was the speech of a man renowned for wisdom in our age, that if he was commanded to put forth to sea in a ship that had neither mast nor tackling, he would do it. And being asked what wisdom that were, replied, the wis- dom must -be in him that hath power to command, not in him that conscience binds to obey." The question of the licensing these sermons for publication led to the suspen- sion of Abbot from the See of Canterbury. Abbot, however, was no better than his brother Laud, probably a little worse, since the conduct of the former was at least intelligible. See History, from Mackintosh, vol. v., p. 70. The arch- bishop's Narrative in Rushworth, vol. i., p. 434-457. Wai- pole's Royal and Noble Authors, art. Northampton, note by Park. Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. i., p. 570, note. t There is something so extremely natural and forcible in Sir Peter Hayinan's sturdy account of his experience in this particular, that I cannot forbear quoting it. After Par- liament had assembled, a debate arose on " Designation to Foreign Employment," whereupon Sir Peter Hayman got upon his legs : " I have not forgot my employment into the palatinate. I was called before the lords of the council, for what I knew not, but I heard it was for not lending on a privy seal. I told them, if they will take my estate, let them ; I would give it up ; lend I would not. When I was before the lords of the council, they laid to my charge my unwillingness to serve the king. I said,' I had my life and my estate to serve my country and my religion. They told me, that if I did not pay I should be put upon an employ- ment of service. I was willing. After ten weeks' waiting, they told me I was to go with a lord into the palatinate, and that I should have employment there, and means befitting. I told them I was a subject, and desired means/ Some put on very eagerly, some dealt nobly. They said I inust go on my own purse. I told them nemo militat suis expensis. Some told me, I must go. I began to think, what, must I ? None were ever sent out in that way. Lawyers told me I could not be so sent. Having this assurance, I demanded means, and was resolved not to stir but upon those terms ; and, in silence and duty, I denied. Upon this, having giv- en me a command to go, after twelve days they told me they would not send me as a soldier, but to attend on an ambas- sador. I knew that stone would hit me, therefore I settled my troubled estate, and addressed myself to that sen-ice." Eliot's comments on this usage were appropriately bitter. Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 403. t> Some were brought up to London, and committed to 18 BRITISH STATESMEN. gravated and horrible, probably, than any we have named, the remains of the disgraced and infamous troops that had survived the affair at Cadiz were quartered upon their houses, in the midst of their wives and children!* And as these crimes had been sanctioned by the min- isters of religion, so the vile slaves who sat in the seats of justice were ordered to confirm them by law. A voice or two that had hinted from the bench a feeble utterance of opposition were instantly stifled, and the conclave of judg- es remanded five recusants, who had brought their habeas corpus.! rigorous confinement in the Fleet, the Gatehouse, the Mar- shalsea, and the New Prison. Eliot was one of these. The rest, as Sir Thomas Wentworth and others, were subjected to confinement, strict, but much less rigorous, in various counties. Hampden had been thrown into the Gatehouse at first, but was afterward released and sent into Hamp- shire. One anecdote will illustrate the numberless instances of quiet and forbearing fortitude, practised by men recollect- ed no longer, but who at this time shed lustre on the English character. George Catesby, of Northamptonshire, being committed to the Gatehouse as a recusant, alleged, among other reasons for his non-compliance, that he considered "that this loan might become a precedent ; and that every precedent, he was told by the lord president, was a flower of the prerogative." The lord president told him that " he lied !'" Catesby merely shook his head, observing, " I come rot here to contend with your lordship, but to suffer." Lord Suffolk then interposed to entreat the lord president not too far to urge his kinsman, Mr. Catesby. The latter, however, waived any kindness he might owe to kindred, declaring that " he would remain master of his own purse." D' Israe- li's Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 9. * See a letter in Strafford's State Papers, vol. i., p. 40 ; and Rushworth, vol. i., p. 418-420. " There were frequent robberies," says the collector, " burglaries, rapes, rapines, murders, and barbarous cruelties. Unto some places they were sent as a punishment, and wherever they came, there was a general outcry." From his place in Parliament, Sir Thomas Wentworth afterward denounced this : " They hare sent from us the light of our eyes ; enforced companies of guests worse than the ordinances of France ; vitiated our wives and daughters before our faces ; brought the crown o greater want than ever it was, by anticipating the rev- enue ! And can the shepherd be thus smitten, and the flock not be scattered?" Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 370. t The case of Sir Thomas Darnel, Sir John Corbet, Sir Walter Earl, Sir John Heveringham, and Sir Everard Hamp- den, which is reported at great length in the State Trials, is an admirable illustration, among other things, of the char- acter of the crown lawyers and judges of the time. There is an abridgment of the proceedings in Rushworth, p. 458- 462. Sir Randolph Crew, immediately before this case was argued, having, as Rushworth expresses it, " showed no zeal" (i., 420), was removed to make room for Sir Nicholas Hyde ; and it is quite clear that two of the judges (Jones and Doddridge) who sat with the latter, having shown a de- cided leaning towards the prisoners during the argument, were brought to a better understanding with Sir Nicholas before the decision. When the case was afterward sent before the House of Lords, and the judges were, so to speak, put upon their trial, Judge Whitelock betrayed the secret. " The Commons," he said, " do not know what letters and commands we receive." Beyond all praise was the conduct of the counsel employed for the prisoners on this occasion. The most undaunted courage exalted the profoundest knowl- edge. The sober grandeur of Selden, and the rough energy of Noy, must have struck with an ominous effect on the court councils. It was here that Selden threw out, in a pa- renthesis, those remarkable words, which, it has been ju- diciously observed (History, from Mackintosh, vol. v., p. 77), are applicable to periods much later and of more pretension to liberty than that of Charles. They are yet, in fact, to be expounded. " If Magna Charta were fully executed, as it ought to be, every man would enjoy his liberty better than he doth." In connexion with this remarkable case, too, Sir Edward Coke (who argued it before the lords) presented, for the first time, to his astonished profession, the highest vigour of a noble and liberal thought, issuing, as it were, even out of the most formidable technicalities of law. " Shall I have an estate for lives or for years m England, and be tenant at will for my liberty* A freeman to be ten- ant at will for his freedom ! There is no such tenure in all Littleton !" The excited state of the public mind during the arguments on this question is vividly conveyed in a let- ter I have found among the Harleian MSS. " The gentle- men's counsel for habeas corpus, Mr. Selden Mr. Noy, Sir John Eliot at this moment lay a prisoner in the Gatehouse. He had been foremost to refuse the loan, was arrested in Cornwall, brought before the council table, and thence committed to prison. In prison, and before the council table, as in his place in the House of Commons, Eliot had the unfailing resource of fearlessness and a composed vigour. Where- ever circumstances placed him. he knew that, so long as they left him life, they left him able to perform its duties. From the Gatehouse he forwarded to the king an able argument against the loan, which he concluded by a request, urged with a humble but brave simplicity, for his own immediate release. This document has been preserved. It commences with a protest against the supposition that " stubborn- ness and will" have been the motives of the writer's recent recusancy. " With a sad, yet a faithful heart," Eliot continues, " he now presumes to offer up the reasons that induced him. The rule of justice he takes to be the law ; impartial arbiter of government and obe- dience ; the support and strength of majesty ; the observation of that justice by which sub- jection is commanded." Through a series of illustrious examples the writer then advances to his position of strict obedience to the laws, in the duty of resisting their outrage. " He could not, as he feared, without pressure to these immunities, become an actor in this loan, which by imprisonment and restraint was urged, contrary to the grants of the great char- ter, by so many glorious and victorious kings so many times confirmed. Though he was well assured by your majesty's promise that it should not become a precedent during the hap- piness of your reign, yet he conceived from thence a fear that succeeding ages might thereby take occasion for posterity to strike at the property of their goods." He concludes by assuring the king that he will never consent to " inconveniences in reason," or to the dis- pensation, violation, or impeachment of the laws. " No factious humour, nor disaffection led on by stubbornness and will, hath herein stirred or moved him, but the just obligation of his conscience, which binds him to the ser- vice of your majesty, in the observance of your laws ; and he is hopeful that your majesty will be pleased to restore him to your favour, and his liberty, and to afford him the benefit of those laws which, in all humility, he craves."* Eliot probably never expected that this petition would be granted. Its publication effected his purpose in strengthening the resolutions of the people ; and he quietly waited in his prison for the day of a new Parliament. This was precipitated by the insolent fury of Buckingham, who had consummated the desperate condition of affairs by a new and unprovoked war with France. At the sugges- tion of the duke's outraged vanity.t Charles Sergeant Bramsten, and Mr. Colthorp, pleaded yesterday vith wonderful applause, even of shouting and clapping of hands : which is unusual in that place." * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 429. Whitelocke says, that " Sir John Eliot took this way to inform the king what his coun- cil did not." Memorials, p. 8. Anthony Wood oddly con- verts this into a statement that Eliot was obliged to write in this way to the king, because his (Eliot's) "counsel would not assist him otherwise." t Clarendon distinctly assigns this as the motive: "In his embassy in France, where his person and presence was SIR JOHN ELIOT. 19 had dismissed tha French servants of his young queen ; she herself had been insulted ;* the remonstrances of the French court answerec by a seizure of French ships ; and an expedi tion for the relief of Rochelle undertaken by the very court whose treachery had so lately assisted to reduce it. Recollecting the bitter sarcasm of Eliot,t Buckingham undertook the command of the present expedition in person ; and, having concerted measures so wretchedly as to be obliged to disembark on the adjacent Isle of Rhee he there suffered his army to be baffled by an inferior force, and to be at length overtaken in a situation where valour was of no avail, and where death destroyed them dreadfully, without even the agency of an ene- my.J The result of this was in all respects frightful ; mutiny proved the least of the dan- gers that followed ; and the financial difficulties of the court became so urgent that the last desperate and dreaded resource forced itself upon the king. The loan recusants were set wonderfully admired and esteemed (and, in truth, it was a wonder in the eyes of all men), and in which he appeared with all the lustre the wealth of England could adorn him with, and outshined all the bravery that court could dress itself in, and over-acted the whole nation in their own most peculiar vanities, he had the ambition to fix his eyes upon, and to dedicate his most violent affection to, a lady of a very sublime quality." But I will cut short the reader's impa- tience, and this interminable sentence, by saying- at once that Buckingham fell violently in love with the young Queen of France, Anne of Austria, declared his passion, and was listened to with anything but resentment. With what suc- cess the duke might ultimately have urged his suit, it would be impossible to say, since great authorities differ ; but it is certain that his purpose was abruptly foiled by the interference of Cardinal Richelieu, in whom he suddenly discovered a formidable rival. The mad desire to foil this great statesman and most absurd lover, and to be able to re- turn to Anne of Austria in all the triumphs of a conqueror, now urged him to these extremities against France. The thing is scarcely credible, but so it certainly appears to have been. What is to be said of the wretched weakness of Charles? See Memoires inedits du Comte de Brienne, i., Eclaircissements. Madame de Motteville, Memoires d'Anne d'Autriche. Aikin's Court of Charles, vol. i., p. 67. Brodie's Hist, of British Empire, vol. ii., p. 139. Lingard's History, vol. ix., p. 361. Clarendon, vol. i., p. 31. Carte (vol. iv., p. 132) has attempted to throw discredit on it by the pro- duction of dates from the Mercure Francois, but unsuccess- fully. * This is not an occasion to notice the personal disputes of the king and queen, nor the way in which, for his own purposes, they were secretly inflamed by Buckingham. Charles, like most unfaithful and decorous husbands, sus- pected his wife ; and his wife, a woman of energy and spir- ited sense, despised him. Buckingham's insults to the queen are described by Clarendon, vol. i., p. 31, and other writers. See History, from Mackintosh, vol. v., p. 62. I may add, that the account of the young queen's reception of the news of the dismissal of her servants, as given in a letter of the day, is extremely characteristic of a quick temper redeem- ed by a ready self-command. " It is said, also, the queene, when she understood the designe, grew very impatient, and brake the glasse windows with her little fiste ; but since I heare her rage is appeased, and the king and shee, since they went together to Nonsuche, have been very jocund to- gether." Karl. MSS., 383. Ellis's Original Letters, vol. iii., p. 239. t See p. 13, of this memoir. t See a letter of Denzil Hollis to Wentworth. StrafFord Papers, vol. i., p. 42. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 465. Carte, vol. iv., p. 17R, et stq. Many curious particulars, and es- pecially the letters of Charles to Buckingham, connected with this affair, will be found in Hardwicke's State Papers, vol. i., p. 13, et seq. I shall have to advert to it again in noticing one of Eliot's speeches. >i Sir Robert Cotton was consulted by the lords of the council, and his advice is said to have determined the mat- ter. It is melancholy to see, however, that this great schol- ar was tempted on this occasion (see his Paper in Rush- worth, vol. i., p. 467) into concessions extremely unworthy of him. It is probable that a rumour of this, coupled with his silence on th affair of the loan, led to his defeat at the Westminster election. Eliot was warmly attached to him. It was at the meetings held at his house, where all the em- at liberty, and writs for a new Parliament were issued. > Unprecedented excitement prevailed at the elections.* Sir John Eliot was triumphantly returned for Cornwall, and every country gen- tleman that had refused the loan was sent to the House of Commons. " We are, without question, undone !" exclaimed a court prophet ; and the king, agitated by fear and rage, prepared himself to " lift the mask." Secret orders were transmitted to the Low Countries for the levy of 1000 German horse, and the purchase of 10,000 stand of arms, immediately to be con- veyed td England, t This famous third Parliament was opened by the king at Westminster, on the 17th of March, 1628, in a speech of insolent menace. If they did not do their duty, he told them, " I must use those other means which God hath put into my hands, to save that which the follies of oth- er men may otherwise hazard to lose. Take not this as threatening ; I scorn to threaten any but my equals. "t Wonderful was the tem- per and decorum with which the great leaders of that powerful house listened to this pitiful display. The imagination rises in the contem- plation of the profound statesmanship which distinguished every movement of these men, and it is difficult to describe it in terms of ap- propriate praise. Conscious of the rigour of the duties they had to perform, for these they reserved their strength. Not a word was wast- d before the time of action came not an en- rgy fell to the ground as too great for the oc- asion. A resolved composure, a quiet confi- dence steadily shone from their slightest prep- aration ; and the court, who had looked to nent men of the day assembled, that Eliot's intimate friend- ship with Selden most probably commenced. See the Cot- :onian MSS., Jul. C., iii. * An extract from a manuscript letter, dated March 8, 627, will present a lively notion of this excitement. It has quite a modern air : " There was a turbulent election of " >urgesses at Westminster, whereof the duke (Buckingham), >eing steward, made account he should, by his authority and vicinity, have put in Sir Robert Pye. It continued hree days, and when Sir Robert Pye's party cried ' A Pye ! a Pye '. a Pye !' the adverse party would cry ' A pudding ! i pudding ! a pudding !' and others, ' A lie ! a lie ! a lie !' n fine, Bradshaw, a brewer, and Maurice, a grocer, carried t from him by about a thousand voices, they passing by also Sir Robert Cotton, besides our man and Mr. Hayward, who were their last burgesses, because, as it is said, they had dis- ;ontented their neighbours in urging the payment of the oan. It is feared (saith mine author), because such patriots are chosen everywhere, the Parliament will not last above ight days. You hear of our famous election in Essex, where Sir Francis Barrington and Sir Harbottle Grimston lad all the voices of 16,500 men." Sloane MSS. t There is no doubt of this. The pretence afterward as- igned was to defend the kingdom from invasion (Carte, iv., i. 183) ; but the real object was to overawe the House of Commons. See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 474. A commission va.s issued at the same time (concurrent with the issuing if the election writs !) to certain privy councillors, to con- ider of raising money by impositions, or otherwise, " where- n form and circumstances must be dispensed with, rather han the substance be lost." These schemes were all de- eated, but their discovery necessarily exasperated the Com- mons. Rushworih, vol. i., p. 614. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 477. The men to whom this oolish impertinence was addressed are thus described in a nanuscript letter of the time by a very moderate politician : ' The House of Commons was both yesterday and to-day is full as pne could sit by another; and they say it is he most noble and magnanimous assembly that ever these walls contained. And I heard a lord intimate they were able to buy the Upper House (his majesty only except- id) thrice over, notwithstanding there be of lords tem- loral to the number of 118: and what lord in England mould be followed by so many freeholders as some of these are?" Letter, dated March 21, 1628, in Shane's MSS. 20 BRITISH STATESMEN. strengthen themselves by the provocation of outrage, were lost in a mixed feeling of won- der and doubt, perhaps of even hope. " Was it possible that the ' new counsels' had cooled the fire of patriotism ?" Finch, a man known to be favourably affected to the court, was cho- sen speaker. " Was the expediency of some compromise recognised at last 1 " A resolution was passed to grant a supply, no less than five subsidies, and to be paid within twelve months ! "Was all this possible 1 !" "Were these the men who had been sent from every quarter of the country to oppose the court, to resent the wrongs of their constituents, and to avenge their own 1" Old Secretary Cooke hurried down with feeble haste to grasp at the subsi- dies. He was then quietly told that they could not be paid ; that the bill for collecting them, indeed, should not be framed until certain ne- cessary securities were given by the king for the future enjoyment of liberty and property among the subjects of the kingdom. The crest- fallen ministers resorted to their hypocritical arts of evasion and refusal ; the patriot lead- ers prepared for action. The consummate pol- icy we have described had resolved the dispute into the clearest elements of right and wrong ; and the position of the Commons against the court was firmly and immoveably determined.* What they had resolved to do could now be done ; and, the court policy once openly be- trayed, the passionate eloquence of Eliot was heard, opening up to the public abhorrence the wounds that had lately been inflicted upon the liberties and laws.t * I refer the reader, for the only exact account of the proceedings of this Parliament, to the journals and debates. Dr. Lingard has described the conduct of the leaders of the country party very faithfully. " They advanced step by step ; first resolving to grant a supply, then fixing it at the tempting amount of five subsidies, and, lastly, agreeing that the whole should be paid within the short space of twelve months. But no art, no entreaty could prevail on them to pass their resolution in the shape of a bill. It was held out as a lure to the king ; it was gradually brought nearer and nearer to his grasp, but they still refused to surrender their hold ; they required, as a previous condition, thai he should give his assent to those liberties which they claimed as the birthright of Englishmen." History, vol. ix., p. 379. See, also, Hume, vol. v., p. 160. . it is," observes Mr. Brodie, " that no copy nas been pre served of Sir John Eliot's speech upon the grievances '. H appears to have been the most eloquent man of his time.' Echoing his regret, I am surprised that Mr. Brodie should have passed without mention a most remarkable speech of Eliot, which I shall have immediate occasion to allude to, delivered by him on the same subject in the present ses- sion, and admirably handed down to us from the MSS. of Napier. He had noble seconders on the occasion referred to in the text. " I read of a custom," said Sir Robert Phil- ips (rising after Eliot had ceased), "among the old Ro- mans, that once every year they held a solemn feast for their slaves, at which they had liberty, without exception, to speak what they would, thereby to ease their afflicted minds; which being finished, they severally returned to their former servitude. This may, with some resemblance and distinction, well set forth our present state ; when now, after the revolution of some time, and grievous suffer- ing of many violent oppressions, we have, as those slaves had, a day of liberty of speech ; but shall not, I trust, be hereafter slaves, for we are free. Yet what new illegal proceedings our states and persons have suffered under, my heart yearns to think, my tongue falters to utter ! I can live," passionately Philips continued, " although another, who has no right, be put to live with me ; nay, I can live although I pay excises and impositions more than I do. But to have my liberty, which is the soul of my life, taken from me by power ! and to have my body pent up in a jail, without remedy by law, and to be so adjudged ! O iinprov- The result, after many committees on the liberty of the subject, was a resolution to pre- pare the memorable petition of right.* Sir John Eliot took part in all the debates ; lifted them to the most vigorous and passionately de- termined tone ; and now acted in all respects as the great leader of the House. Charles's attempts to get hold of the subsi- dies continued to be unceasing, and every art was resorted to by his ministers. Buckingham, meanwhile, covered with his recent failures and disgraces, had hitherto kept himself out of view ; and it is another proof of the noble pol- icy we have characterized in every movement of the popular leaders at this time, that, intent upon their grander objects, they passed the subdued favourite, so long as he was not in- truded before them, in contemptuous silence. The court party, however, rarely failed to mis- construe conduct of this sort ; and now, with a fatal precipitancy, presumed upon this si- lence. Cooke, the king's secretary, by way of an inducement to suffer him to touch the sub- sidies, assured the House that the king was very grateful for their vote, and, moreover, that Buckingham had implored his majesty to grant all the popular desires, t An extract from a manuscript letter of the time will con- vey the most lively notion of what followed. " Sir John Eliot instantly leaped up, and taxed the secretary for intermingling a subject's speech with the king's message. It could not become any subject to bear himself in such a fashion, as if no grace ought to descend from the king to the people, nor any loyalty ascend from the people to the king, but through him only. Whereunto many in the House made an exclamation, ' Well spoken, Sir John Eliot !' "J From a more detailed report, I will give an ex- tract of this speech, happily characteristic of Eliot's style, of the dignified phrase, not unmix- ed with a composed sarcasm, with which, in the present instance, the sharpness of his re- ident ancestors ! O unwise forefathers ! to be so curious in providing for the quiet possession of our laws, and the liberties of Parliament, and to neglect our persons and bod- ies, and to let them lie in prison, and that, durante bene- placito, remediless '. If this be law, why do we talk of liberties 1 Why do we trouble ourselves with a dispute about law, franchises, property of goods, and the like 7 What may any man call his own, if not the liberty of his person 7" Sir Benjamin Rudyard followed. " This is the crisis of Parliaments," he said; "by this we shall know whether Parliaments will live or die !" To him succeeded the dark and doubtful energy of Wentworth, and the un- dimmed clearness of the venerable Sir Edward Coke. " I'll begin," said the latter, after approving the proposed sup- plies, "with a noble record. It cheers me to think of it! It is worthy to be written in letters of gold ! Loans against the will of the subject are against reason and the franchises of the land, and they desire restitution. Franchise ! What a word is that 'franchise !'" Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 363, et seq. These men were indeed capable of the great duties that fell to them. [Such specimens of eloquence as these go far to illustrate the opinion of the great orator of our country, that the finest bursts of parliamentary eloquence on record are to be found in the debates of the Parliaments in the reign of Charles I. C.] * The grievances detailed before these committees were reduced to six heads; attendance at the council board, im- prisonment, confinement, designation to foreign employ- ment, martial law, undue proceedings in matters of judica- ture. These were severally debated, and Eliot spoke upon all of them with characteristic energy. The portions that remain of his speeches are sufficient to indicate this. Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 399-405, &c. t Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 431. } Sloane MSS., 4177. Letter from Mr. Pory. Another account will be found among these manuscripts, in a letter from Mr. Mead, dated April 12, 1628. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 21 buke was tempered : " My joy at this message is not without trouble, which must likewise be declared. I must disburden this affliction, or I cannot, otherwise, so lively and so faithfully express my devotion to the service of this House as I had resolved. I know not by what fatality or infortunity it has crept in, but I ob- serve, in the close of the secretary's relation, mention made of another in addition to his maj- esty ; and that which hath been formerly a matter of complaint I find here still a mix- ture with his majesty, not only in his business, but in name. Is it that any man conceives the mention of others, of what quality soever, can add encouragement or affection to us, in our duties and loyalties towards his majesty, or give them greater latitude or extent than nat- urally they have 1 Or is it supposed that the power or interest of any man can add more readiness to his majesty, in his gracious incli- nation towards us, than his own goodness gives him 1 I cannot believe it ! But, sir, I am sor- ry there is occasion that these things should be argued ; or that this mixture, which was for- merly condemned, should appear again. I be- seech you, sir, let it not be hereafter ; let no man take this boldness within these walls, to introduce it ! It is contrary to the custom of our fathers, and the honour of our times. I desire that such interposition may be let alone, and that all his majesty's regards and goodness- es towards this House may spring alone from his confidence of our loyalty and affections."* The secretary remained silent, but the court remembered that rebuke bitterly. Equally firm, however, against its threaten- ing and cajoling, the Commons persisted in their great purpose. Resolutions were passed declaratory of the rights of the people, and a conference appointed with the Lords, that they might concur in a petition to the throne, found- ed upon Magna Charta and other statutes ; di- rected to the security of the person, as the foremost of all securities ; strengthened on that point by twelve direct and thirty-one indi- rect precedents ; completed by certain resolu- tions of their own, reducing those precedents to a distinct unity of purpose ;t and to be call- ed a petition of right, because requiring nothing save the recognition and direction of violated laws. The Lords and Commons met, and the constitutional lawyers stated their case with a startling clearness. " It lies not under Mr. * Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 433. In this speech, also, Eliot, referring to the king's thankful recognition of the vote of subsidies, and the honeyed words he had addressed to them through Cooke, expressive of his sense of their claims, threw out a remark in which there appears an ominous union of sarcasm and sternness. " I presume we have all received great satisfaction from his majesty in his present gracious answer and resolution for the business of this House ; in his answer to our petition for religion, so par- ticularly made ; in his resolution in that other considera- tion concerning the point, ALREADY SETTLED HERE, in declaration of our liberties ; and for the Parliament in gen- eral." t These resolutions were four in number, and had for their object the security of the subject from those infamous pretences of the court lawyers and court judges, which had been so remarkably exhibited in the case of the five mem- bers. See thorn in Rushworth, vol. i., p. 513. Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 407. The profound skill and judgment of the leaders of the Commons, by sealing down the old statutes thus, at once shut out every possible plea of silence or eva- sion from the corrupt judges, and struck from under them their old resource to antagonist enactments, judicial prece- dents, and exercises of prerogative. Attorney's cap," exclaimed Sir Edward Coke, " to answer any one of our arguments." "With my own hand," said Selden, " I have written out all the records from the Tower, the Ex- chequer, and the King's Bench, and I will en- gage my head Mr. Attorney shall not find in all these archives a single precedent omitted."* The close of the conference elicited from the Lords a series of counter-resolutions, which were immediately rejected by Eliot and his friends, as nothing more than an ingenious subterfuge. These resolutions, in point of fact, if agreed to, would, after recognising the legality of the precedents urged, have left the matter precisely where it was. The king's word was to be the chief security, t The Lords, in truth, had been tampered with ; and the court heedlessly betrayed this by pro- posing, a few days after, in a royal message, precisely the same security, with the addition of a piece of advice that one regrets to see so evidently wasted. It would have been hailed with nods of such profuse delight by a parcel of Chinese mandarins. " The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion ; and all laws, with his wrath, are of no effect ; but the king's fa- vour is like the dew upon the grass ; there all will prosper !"t Undoubtedly this was lost upon the present audience. Eliot, who was well read in literature, might, probably, have reminded Philips or Selden of the leonine propensities of the Athenian weaver, who aggravated his voice, however, to such an extent, in roaring, that at last he came to roar as gently as a dove or a nightingale. Certainly no other notice was taken. The Commons returned to their house, and quietly, and without a single dis- sentient, ordered their lawyers to throw the matter of their petition into the shape of a bill, that the responsibility of openly rejecting it might fall on the Lords and the king. Message succeeded message, but still the * See the reports of the conference in the Journals. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 527, et seq. ; and Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 409, et seq. The legal research and vast ability displayed by the popular leaders in this conference determined the Lords to hear counsel for the crown. One of these, how- ever, Sergeant Ashley, having argued in behalf of the pre- rogative in the high tone of the last reign, was ordered into custody by their lordships, who at the same time as- sured the Conimons that he had no authority from them for what he had said. (See Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 47 for the offensive argument ; and afterward, p. 53 and p. 68.) This was a somewhat strong step to take against a king's coun- sel, employed at a free conference ; and Mr. Hallam urges it (Const. Hist., vol. i., p. 533) as a " remarkable proof of the rapid growth of popular principles." It is a compli- ment to the growing influence of the Lower House, but certainly no proof of the popular principles of a body of men who, the very moment after they had thus seemed to condemn arbitrary doctrines, proposed to grant to the king in extraordinary cases, the necessity of which he was to determine, a power of commitment without showing cause ! This was robbing Peter to pay Paul with a vengeance ! See their five propositions in Rushworth, vol. i., p. 546. An anecdote of one of their lordships which occurred at this time is worth subjoining. As the Earl of Suffolk was passing from the conference into the committee chamber of the House, he insolently swore at one of the members of the Commons, and said Mr. Selden deserved to be hanged, for that he had rased a record. This was immediately noised about, and came to the ears of Eliot. He took up the matter with great warmth, in vindication of his regard for Selden, had the circumstances investigated by a com- mittee, and proposed some stringent resolutions against the earl, " which were agreed unto by the whole House." See Commons' Journals, April 17, 1628 ; and Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 452. t See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 546. t See Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 81. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 551. Aikin's Court of Charles, vol. i., p. 206. 23 BRITISH STATESMEN. Commons proceeded. Briefly and peremptori- ly, at last, Charles desired, through his secre- tary, to know decidedly whether the House would or would not rest upon his royal word. "Upon this there was silence for a good space."* Pym was the first to break it ; and Eliot hastened to relieve Pym from the per- sonal dilemma in which his fearless acuteness threatened to place him. " I move," said he, " that this proposition be put to the question, because they that would, have it do urge us to that point, "t The question was rejected. Charles instantly sent down another message, peremptorily warning them not " to encroach on that sovereignty or prerogative which God hath put into our hands," and threatening to end the session on Tuesday sennight at the farthest. " Whereupon," say the Journals, "Sir John Eliot rose and spoke." He com- plained bitterly of the proposed shortness of the session. " Look," he exclaimed, " how many messages we have ! Interruptions, mis- reports, and misrepresentations produce these messages. I fear," continued Eliot, " his maj- esty yet knows not what we go about. Let us make some enlargement, and put it again be- fore him."J An address for this purpose was instantly agreed to by the House, was present- ed by the speaker, and again the king found himself completely baffled. It would be too painful to follow his windings and doublings through their long and mean course, but that at every turn some new evidence arrests us of the brilliant powers and resources of the great statesman whose character we seek to illus- trate. So clear and decisive was the last statement of the Commons, that Charles fancied he had no resource now but to intimate his assent to the proposed bill ; yet, even in doing this, he sought, by an insidious restriction, to withhold from the old statutes and precedents that unity and directness of purpose which the cement- ing resolutions of the House were, for the first time, about to give to them. " We vindicate," Wentworth had said, " what ? new things ? No ! our ancient, legal, and vital liberties by * Rushworth, yol. i., p. 553. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 95. t There is no mention of this in the debates, but I have it on the authority of a manuscript letter in the collection of Dr. Birch. 1 may take this opportunity of stating that that learned person had with his own hand transcribed for publication, from the Harleian and various other collections, a vast number of letters, illustrative of the reigns of James I. and Charles I. ; but which remain to this day on the shelves cf the Sloane collection as the transcriber left them. Their arrangement and publication would confer a valuable service on history, yet I fear there is no prevailing encour- agement for undertakings of this sort. It is to be regretted. t Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 99. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 555. In the address which was voted in consequence of Eliot's proposition, the king is advised distinctly of the na- ture of the resolutions they had passed, as I have above explained them. " They have not the least thought of straining or enlarging the former laws ; the bounds of their desires extend no farther than to some necessary explana- tion of that which is truly comprehended within the just sense and meaning of those laws, icith some moderate pro- vision for execution and performance." Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 102. Sir Benjamin Rudyard expressed the matter, in the course of the debate on this address, in a more home- ly way. "For my own part," he said, "I should be very glad to see that good, old, decrepit law of Magna Charta, which hath been so long kept in lain bedrid, as it were I should be glad, I say, to see it walk abroad again, with new vigour and lustre." The conclusion of his speech was a covered rebuke to Charles. " No man is bound to be rich or great no, nor to be wise : but every man is bound to be honest." re-enforcing the laws enacted by our ancestors, by setting such a seal upon them as no licen- tious spirit shall dare hereafter to enter upon them !" " I assent," said Charles, unworthily at the same moment seeking to evade this seal, " but so as that Magna Charta and the other six statutes alluded to may be without addi- tions, paraphrases, or explanations."* The Commons had not had time to spurn the prof- fered deceit, when, with a childish imbecility, the king sent down another message, desiring that they should take his word.f The House was at this moment sitting in committee. Secretary Cooke, who brought the message, concluded with an earnest desire that "the debate upon it should be done before the House, and not before the committee." He had good reasons for this ; for he knew what arguments might possibly be urged, and that the court had at least one security against them, in the se- cret commands which the king had already placed upon the timid speaker.J Sir John El- iot, conscious of the weakness of Finch, saw through the secretary's purpose, and effectual- ly foiled it. With great energy he urged pro- ceeding in committee as more likely to be hon- ourable and advantageous. "That way," he said, " leads most to truth. It is a more open way. Every man may there add his reasons, and make answer upon the hearing of other men's reasons and arguments. " The House assented ; the debate proceeded with closed doors ; and the result was a plain and deter- mined resolution by the Commons that they could only take the king's word in a parliament- ary way. They passed their bill, and sent it up to the Lords. II To the Lords the king now addressed a let- ter, stating that he could not, without the over- throw of his sovereignty, part with the power of committing the subject, but promising, in all ordinary cases, to obey Magna Charta, and not to imprison, for the future, " any man for re- fusing a loan, nor for any cause which, in his judgment and conscience, he did not conceive necessary for the public good."T This letter was instantly sent to the Lower House, and all the notice we find of it in their journals is given in four words " They laid it aside."** Not so the Lords, who, with customary pliancy, founded upon it a saving clause to reserve his * Speech of the lord-keeper, Parl. Hist, TO!, iii., p. 98. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 557. The miserable fatuity of con- senting thus to their proceeding by bill, while he robsthem of all the advantages they sought to achieve by that mode of procedure, is too apparent. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 557. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 103. The secretary's wriiftjling' method of delivering this message was curious and instructive. t Finch had already commenced his bargain for promo- tion by promising the king to discountenance, as much as possible, any aspersion of his ministers, and, more especial- ly, of Buckingham. I have already suggested the only motive the Commons could have had in electing this man as their speaker. They appeal to have desired to impress the court, on their first meeting, with a sense of how little they were disposed to be actuated in their duties by any violent temper, or the resentment of individual wrongs* They committed an error, but a generous one. $ Par!. Hist., vol. viii., p. 104. II In the interval between this and the first assent of Charles, the affair of Dr. Mainwaringwas brought before the House. I shall have to allude to it in the biography of Pym. IT The Lords' Journals, May 12. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 560. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 110. ** Rushworth, vol. i., p. 561. Parl. Hist., vol. viii.,p 112. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 23 majesty's " sovereign power," and, so weak- ened, sent down the bill. " Let us take heed," said Coke, on hearing the addition, " what we yield unto ; Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no sovereign." Selden followed with a singular warning and precedent ;* the clause was generally condemned ; and, after a conference, the Lords consented to abandon it. The petition of right, adopted by both Houses, was now presented to the throne. Charles, for two long months, had, by every sort of subterfuge, struggled to avoid this cri- sis. It had arrived, notwithstanding. On the one hand, want awaited him ; on the other, the surrender of his darling power. Incapable of either, he sought a passage of escape through one perfidy more, and in this he might have succeeded but for Eliot. He sent for the judges, and, with the most solemn injunctions to secrecy, put three questions to them re- specting the proposed petition of rights : " Whether the king may commit without show- ing a cause !" " Whether the judges ought to deliver on habeas corpus a person commit- ted 1" "Whether he should not deprive him- self of such power of commitment by granting the petition of right 1" The judges answered to the first and second questions, that the gen- eral rule of law was against him, but exceptive cases might arise ; and to the third they said, that it must be left to the courts of justice in each particular case.t Consoling himself * Th debate on this question was one of the most re- markable, for a display of ready knowledge and acute judg- ment. See, especially, Seldeii's speech, and that delivered by Glanvil before the Lords. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 562- 579. A precedent had been urged by the opposite party, from a petition in the reign of Edward I. Selden's all- wonderful learnin^never failed him. " That clause of 28th Edward I.," he said, at once silencing his opponents, "was not in the petition, but in the king's answer." Then mark how triumphantly he turned the tables on them ; the pas- sage is, in all respects, remarkable. " In 28th Edward I., the Commons, by petition or bill, diJ obtain the liberties and articles at the end of the Parliament ; they were ex- tracted out of the roll, and proclaimed abroad. The addi- tion was added in the proclamation ; but in the bill there was no 'savant,' yet afterward it was put in; and, to prove this, though it is true there is no Parliament-roll of that year, yet we have histories of that time. In the libra- ry at Oxford there is a journal of a Parliament of that very year which mentions so much ; as, also, in the public li- brary at Cambridge there is in a MS. that belonged to an abbey. It was of the same year, 28th Edward I., and it mentions the Parliament, and the petitions, and ' articulos quos petierutt sic eonfirmavit rex, ut in fine adderet, salvo jure eoronce rcgis,' and they came in by proclamation. But, in London, when the people beard of this clause being added in the end, they fell into execration for that addition ; and the great earls that went away satisfied from the Par- liament, hearing of this, went to the king, and afterward it was cleared at the next Parliament. Now there is no Par- liament-roil of this of that time ; only in the end of Edward III. there it one roll that recites it." So closed the debate on " sovereign power." I may add that, upon this proposed addition, that notably bungling intriguer, Bishop Williams, eminently distinguished himself. He professed to be an ardent promoter of the petition of right, yet he stood up mightily for the clause. The consequence was a meeting between himtelf and Buckingham, a perfect reconcilement, and, as we are told, " his grace had the bishop's consent, with a little asking, that he would be his grace's faithful servant in the next session of Parliament ; and was allowed to hold up a seeming enmity, and his own popular estima- tion, that h might the sooner do the work." Such were the public men with whom Eliot had to deal, and upon the faith of such as these have attempts been made upon his character. See Hacket's Scrinia Reserata, p. 77, et seq. t The questions and answers were discovered, at length, in the Hargjrave MSS., xxxii., 97. Hallam's Constitutional History, vol. L, p. 533. Ellis's Original Letters, new se- ries, vol. iii., p. 250. History, from Mackintosh, vol. v., p. 4>2. Much unnecessary trouble, on the part of the king, ap- with these assurances, he went to the House of Lords in a sort of secret triumph, resolved to assent to the bill, yet in such terms as might still leave its construction to his convenient parasites on the bench. The Commons hur- ried up to their lordships' bar. " Gentlemen," he said, with a sullen abruptness, " I am come hither to perform my duty. I think no man can think it long, since I have not taken so many days in answering the petition as ye spent weeks in framing it ; and I am come hither to show you that, as well in formal things as in essential, I desire to give you as much content as in me lies." He then, to the surprise of his hearers, instead of the ordinary goit droit fail comme il est de'sire, delivered the following by way of royal assent : " The king willeth that right be done according to the laws and customs of the realm, and that the statutes be put in due execution, that his subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or op- pressions, contrary to their just rights and lib- erties, to the preservation whereof he holds himself in conscience as well obliged as of his own prerogative."* The next meeting of the House of Commons was a very momentous one. The singular treachery of the king had struck with a para- lyzing effect upon many of the members ; it seemed hopeless to struggle with it farther ; it had continued proof against every effort ; all the constitutional usages of Parliament had fallen exhausted from the unequal contest ; and already the House saw itself dissolved, without the achievement of a single guarantee for the liberty and property of the kingdom. The best and the bravest began to despair. But then the genius of Eliot rose to the gran- deur of that occasion ; and, by its wonderful command over every meaner passion, by its great disregard of every personal danger, w r rested the very sense of hopeless discom- fiture to the achievement of a noble security. Knowing more thoroughly than others the character of the king, he knew that he was yet assailable. His conduct at this awful crisis has seemed to me to imbody a perfect union of profound sagacity and fearless magnanimity, unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled, in the history of the most illustrious statesmen. " On Tuesday, the 3d of June," says Rush- worth, " the king's answer to the petition of right was read in the House of Commons, and seemed too scant. Whereupon Sir John Eliot stood up and made a long speech, wherein he gave forth so full and lively a representation of all grievances, both general and particular, as if they had never before been mentioned."* But observe with what consummate policy. It was not a representation of the grievances alone, such as had been urged some months before : pears through all these proceedings ; for he afterward proved himself quite as capable of openly violating a statute enacted in the regular manner, as of playing the game of evasion with his duty and his conscience. But wounded vanity had clearly much to do with it. * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 588. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 145. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 591. The indefatigable collector, however, only gives a brief outline of the speech. It may be worth notice also, that, owing to some confusion in his pa- pers, a portion of this outline was printed in the wrong place, and still stands as a separate speech both in his work and the Parliamentary History. See the latter, vol. vii., p. 399 ; and Rushworth, vol. i., p. 520. 24 BRITISH STATESMEN. it was a pursuit of them to their poisonous spring and source ; it was an exhibition beside them of their hideous origin ; it was a direction of the wrath of the people against one oppress- or, whose rank was not beyond its reach ; it was, in one word, a fatal blow at Charles through that quarter where alone he seemed to be vulnerable it was, in its aim and result, a philippic against the Duke of Buckingham. Demosthenes never delivered one more clear, plain, convincing, irresistible. It calls to mind that greatest of orators. Eliot's general style was more immediately cast in the manner of Cicero, but here he rose beyond it, into the piercing region of the Greek. Demosthenic strength and closeness of reasoning, clearness of detail, and appalling earnestness of style, are all observable in the naked outline I now present. What may have been the grandeur and the strength of its complete proportions 1 I recollect a remark of Mr. Hazlitt's, that the author of this speech might have originated the " dogged style" of one of our celebrated politi- cal writers. " There is no affectation of wit in it," he continued, " no studied ornament, no display of fancied superiority. The speaker's whole heart and soul are in his subject ; he is full of it ; his mind seems, as it were, to sur- round and penetrate every part of it ;" nothing diverts him from his purpose, or interrupts the course of his reasoning for a moment. No thought of the personal loss, then frightfully incurred, no fear of the dangers that were sure to follow. His argument rose paramount, for it was the life of the nation's liberties.* " Mr. Speaker," Eliot began, " we $it here as the great council of the king, and, in that capacity, it is OUR DUTY to take into considera- tion the present state and affairs of the king- dom. In this consideration, I confess, many a sad thought hath affrighted me ; and that not only in respect of our dangers from abroad, which yet I know are great, as they have been often in this place pressed and dilated to us, but in respect of our disorders here at home, which do enforce those dangers, and by which they are occasioned. For, I believe, I shall make it cleare unto you that, as at first the cause of these dangers were our disorders, so our disorders now are yet our greatest dangers. It is not so much the potency of our enemies as the weakness of ourselves that threatens us. That saying of the father may be assumed by us : Non tarn potentia sua, quam negligentia nos- tra. Our want of true devotion to Heaven, our insincerity and doubling in religion, our want of councils, our precipitate actions, the insuffi- ciency or unfaithfulness of our generals abroad, the ignorance or corruptions of our ministers at home, the impoverishing of the sovereign, * It is a saying of May, the historian, in reference to this and other speeches, that "the freedom that Sir John Eliot used in Parliament was by the people applauded, though much taxed by the courtiers, and censured by some of a more politique reserve (considering the times) among his own party, in that kind that Tacitus censures Thraseas Foetus, as thinking such freedom a needlesse, and therefore a foolish thing, where no cure could be hoped by it. Sibi periculum, nee aliis libertatem." This is the old reproach of the timid and indifferent. I am about to show, in the present instance, that he incurred the danger, which soon after fell upon his life, in no spirit of idle forwardness, but for the achievement of a great practical purpose, which he did achieve. the oppression and depression of the subject, the exhausting of our treasures, the waste of our provisions, consumption of our ships, de- struction of our men these make the advan- tage to our enemies, not the reputation of their arms. And. if in these there be not reforma- tion, we need no foes abroad. Time itself will ruin us !" A slight interruption from the ministers here appears to have given Eliot a moment's pause. With admirable address he appealed to the House. "You will all hold it necessary that what I am about to urge seems not an asper- sion on the state, or imputation on the govern- ment, as I have known such motions misinter- preted. Far is this from me to propose, who have none but clear thoughts of the excellency of the king, nor can have other ends than the advancement of his majesty's glory. I shall desire," he continued, " a little of your patience extraordinary to open the particulars, which I shall do with what brevity I may answerable to the importance of the cause and the neces- sity now upon us, yet with such respect and observation to the time as I hope it shall not be thought troublesome." He then proceeded to open up the question of " insincerity and doubling in religion." He pursued it through many strong and terrible examples. " Will you have authority of books 1" he asked, furnishing them with a series of the most striking passages from the recent collec- tions of the committee that had been sitting on religious affairs. " Will you have proofs ol men]" he continued. "Witness the hopes, witness the presumptions, witness the reports of all the papists generally. Observe the dis positions of commanders, the trust of officers, the confidence in secretaries to employments in this kingdom, in Ireland, and elsewhere ! These all will show it hath too great a certain- ty ; and to this add but the incontrovertible evidence of that all-powerful hand which we have felt so sorely. For if the heavens oppose themselves to us for our impiety, it is we that first opposed the heavens." Eliot next handled the " want of councils." " This," he said, " is that great disorder in a state with which there cannot be stability. If effects may show their causes, as they are often a perfect demonstration of them, our misfortunes, our disasters, serve to prove it, and the consequences they draw with them. If reason be allowed in this dark age, the judg- ment of dependencies and foresight of contin- gencies in affairs do confirm it. For, if we view ourselves at home, are we in strength, are we in reputation equal to our ancestors 1 If we view ourselves abroad, are our friends as many, are our enemies no more 1 Do our friends retain their safety and possessions ] Do not our enemies enlarge themselves, and gain from them and us 1 To what counsel owe we the loss of the Palatinate, where we sacrificed both our honour and our men ob- structing those greater powers appointed for that service by which it might have been de- fensible 1 What counsel gave direction to the late action, whose wounds are yet bleeding I mean the expedition to Rhee, of which there is yet so sad a memory in all men 1 What design for us, or advantage to our state, could that in> SIR JOHN ELIOT 25 port 1 You know the wisdom of our ancestors, and the practice of their times ; how they pre- served their safeties ! We all know, and have as much cause to doubt as they had, the great- ness and ambition of that kingdom WHICH THE OLD WORLD COULD NOT SATISFY.* Against this greatness and ambition we likewise know the proceedings of that princess, that never-to-be- forgotten, excellent queen, Elizabeth, whose name, without admiration, falls not into men- tion even with her enemies ! You know how she advanced herself, and how she advanced this nation in glory and in state ; how she de- pressed her enemies, and how she upheld her friends ; how she enjoyed a full security, and made them then our scorn who now are made our terror !" The principles of that policy by which Eliza- beth had effected all this, Eliot now developed to the House, exhibiting beside them the singu- larly opposite 'and pitiful contrast of the pre- vailing policy. The passage is remarkable for its subtlety, no less than for its exactest truth. " Some of the principles she built on were these ; and, if I mistake, let reason and our statesmen contradict me. First, to maintain, in what she might, a unity in France, that that kingdom, being at peace within itself, might be a bulwark to keep back the power of Spain by land. Next, to preserve an amity and league between that state and us, that so we might come in aid of the Low Countries, and by that means receive their ships and help them by sea. This TREBLE CORD, so working between France, the States, and England, might enable us, as occasion should require, to give assist- ance unto others. It was by this means, the experience of that time doth tell us, that we were not only free from those fears that now possess and trouble us, but our names were also fearful to our enemies. See now what correspondency our actions have with this ; square them by these rules. They have induced, as a necessary consequence, a division in France between the Protestants and their king, of which we have had too woful and lamenta- ble experience. They have made an absolute breach between that state and us, and so enter- tain us against France, and France in prepara- tion against us, that we have nothing to prom- ise to our neighbours hardly to ourselves! Nay, observe the time in which they were at- tempted, and you shall find it not only varying from those principles, but directly contrary and opposite, ex diametro, to those ends ! and such as, from the issue and success, rather might be thought a conception of Spain than begot- ten here with us !" ~ Every word was now falling with tremen- 'dous effect upon Buckingham, and the minis- ters could endure it no longer. Sir Humphry May, the chancellor of the duchy, and one of the privy council, started from his seat, " ex- pressing," as Rushworth states it, " a dislike. But the House ordered Sir John Eliot to go on. Whereupon he proceeded thus : ' Mr. Speaker, I am sorry for this interruption, but much more sorry if there hath been occasion wherein, as I shall submit myself wholly to your judgment, to receive what censure you should give me, * The entire range of English oratory furnishes nothing finer in expression and purpose than this allusion to Spain. D if I have offended ; so, in the integrity of my intentions and clearness of my thoughts, I must still retain this confidence ; that no greatness shall deter me from the duties which I owe to the service of my king and country, but that, with a true English heart, I shall discharge my- self as faithfully, and as really to the extent of my poor power, as any man whose honours or whose offices most strictly oblige him.' " With admirable self-possession, Eliot then resumed his speech at the very point of inter- ruption, and continued to urge the madness of breaking peace with France at a time so em- phatically unfortunate. " You know," he said, "the dangers Denmark was in, and how much they concerned us ; what in respect of our al- liance and the country, what in the importance of the Sound (what an advantage to our ene- mies the gain thereof would be !). What loss, then, what prejudice to us, by this disunion ! we breaking upon France, France enraged by us, and the Netherlands at amazement be- tween both ! no longer could we intend to aid that luckless king, whose loss is our disaster."* Here Eliot having, as it appears to me, reduced the mattei ad absurdum, suddenly turned round to the ministerial bench. " Can those, now, that express their troubles at the hearing of these things, and have so often told us, in this place, of their knowledge in the conjunctures and disjunctures of affairs, say they advised in this 1 Was this an act of council, Mr. Speak- er 1 / have more charity than to think it ; and, unless they make a confession of themselves, I can- not believe it." The orator now, under cover of a discussion of a third division of his argument, " the insuf- ficiency and unfaithfulness of our generals," dragged Buckingham personally upon the scene. For a moment, however, before doing this, he paused. "What shall I sayl I wish there were not cause to mention it ; and, but out of apprehension of the danger that is to come, if the like choice hereafter be not prevented, I could willingly be silent. But my duty to my sovereign, my service to this House, and the safety and honour of my country, are above all respects ; and what so nearly trenches to the prejudice of this, must not, shall not be for- borne." Then followed this bitter and searching ex- posure of the incapacity of Buckingham in his various actions. How much its effect is in- creased by the ominous omission of his name ! " At Cadiz, then, in that first expedition we made, when we arrived and found a conquest ready (the Spanish ships, I mean, which were fit for the satisfaction of a voyage ; and of which some of the chiefest then there them- selves, have since assured me that the satis- faction would have been sufficient, either in point of honour or in point of profit) why was it neglected 1 why was it not achieved 1 it being of all hands granted, how feasible it was ! * It would be easy to dilate this speech into a volume, so pregnant is every word with meaning-, so condensed are its views, yet so exact and forcible. The reader who is best acquainted with the general history of the time will appre- ciate it best. The present is an allusion to the disastrous defeat of the King of Denmark by Count Tilly. The Kingf of England had precipitated the quarrel by his weak impor- tunities, and then, by this outrageous war with France, ut- terly disabled his own power of assistance. BRITISH STATESMEN. " After, when with the destruction of some of our men, and with the exposition of some others, who (though their fortunes since have not been such) by chance came off when, '. say, with the loss of our serviceable men, that unserviceable fort was gained, and the whole army landed why was there nothing done 1 j why was there nothing attempted 1 If nothing was intended, wherefore did they land] If there was a service, wherefore were they ship- ped again 1 "Mr. Speaker, it satisfies me too much in this when I think of their dry and hungry inarch into that drunken quarter (for so the soldiers termed it), where was the period of their journey that divers of our men, being left as a sacrifice to the enemy, the general's labour was at an end /" " For the next undertaking at Rhee I will not trouble you much only this, in short. Was not that whole action carried against the judgment and opinion of those officers that were of the council 1 Was not the first, was not the last, was not all, in the landing, in the intrenching, in the continuance there, in the assault, in the retreat, without their assent? Did any advice take place of such as were of the council 1 If there should be made a par- ticular inquisition thereof, these things will be manifest, and more! I will not instance the manifesto that was made for the reason of these arms ; nor by whom, nor in what man- ner, nor on what grounds it was published ; nor what effects it hath wrought, drawing, as it were, almost the whole world into league against us ; nor will I mention the leaving of the wines, nor the leaving of the salt, which were in our possession, and of a value, as it is said, to answer much of our expense ; nor that great wonder which no Alexander or CcBsar ever did, the enriching of the enemy by courtesies when our soldiers wanted help ;* nor the private inter- courses and parleys with the fort which con- tinually were held ; what all these intended may be read in the success, and, upon due ex- amination thereof, they would not want their proofs !" Eliot passed to the consideration of " the ignorance and corruption of our ministers. Where," he asked, " can you miss of instan- ces 1 If you survey the court, if you survey the country ; if the Church, if the city be ex- amined ; if you observe the bar, if the bench ; if the ports, if the shipping ; if the land, if the seas all these will render you variety of proofs, and that in such measure and propor- tion as shows the greatness of our disease to * The affected gallantries and courtesies practised by Buckingham to the enemy, during this expedition, were ri- diculous in the extreme. When Toiras sent a trumpet to request a passport to convey some wounded officers to the coast, Buckingham sent them his grand chaloupe, or yacht, furnished with every elegant convenience, and lined with ires belle escarlette rouge ; while his musicians, with all the varieties of their instruments, solaced and charmed the wounded enemy in crossing the arm of the sea. Toiras once inquiring " whether they had saved any melons in the island?" was the next day presented, in the duke's name, with a dozen. The bearer received twenty golden crowns ; and Toiras despatching six bottles of orange flower water, and a dozen jars of cypress powder, the duke presented the bearer with twenty Jacobuses ! After a sharp action, when Toiras sent one of his pages with a trumpet, to request leave to bury some noblemen, the duke received the messenger with terms of condolence. See an amusing account in D'lsraeh'i Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 48. be such that, if there be not some speedy applica- tion for remedy, our case is almost desperate." Eliot here paused for a few moments. " Mr. Speaker," he said, " I fear I have been too long in these particulars that are passed, and am unwill- ing to offend you ; therefore, in the rest I shall be shorter." As he condenses his statements, it will be seen he becomes more terrible. " In that which concerns the impoverishing of the king, no other argument? will I use than such as all men grant. The Exchequer, you know, is empty, and the reputation thereof gone ; the ancient lands are sold ; the jewels pawned ; the plate engaged ; the debt still great ; almost all charges, both ordinary and extraordinary, borne up by projects. What poverty can be greater? What necessity so great 1 What perfect English heart is not al- most dissolved into sorrow for this truth ! " For the oppression of the subject, which, as I remember, is the next particular I pro- posed, it needs no demonstration : the whole kingdom is a proof. And for the exhausting of our treasury, that very oppression speaks it. What waste of our provisions, what consump- tion of our ships, what destruction of our men have been ! Witness that journey to Argiers. Witness that with Mansfield. .Witness that to Cadiz. Witness the next. Witness that to Rhee. Witness the last (I pray God" we may never have more such witnesses !). Witness, likewise, the Palatinate. Witness Denmark. Witness the Turks. Witness the Dunkirkers. WITNESS ALL ! What losses we have sustain- ed ! how we are impaired in munition, in ships, in men ! It is beyond contradiction, that we were never so much weakened, nor ever had less hope how to be restored." Eliot concluded thus, with a proposition for a remonstrance to the king. " These, Mr. Speaker, are our dangers ; these are they which do threaten us, and they are like the Trojan horse, brought in cunningly to surprise us. In these do lurk the strongest of our enemies, ready to issue on us ; and if we do not speedily expel them, these are the signs these the invitations to others. These will so prepare their entrance, that we shall have no means left of refuge or defence. For if we have these enemies at home, how can we strive with those that are abroad 1 If we be free from these, no other can impeach us ! Our ancient English virtue, like the old Spartan val- our, cleared from these disorders a return to sincerity in religion, once more friends with leaven, having maturity of councils, sufficiency of generals, incorruption of officers, opulency n the king, liberty in the people, repletion in treasure, plenty of provisions, reparation of ships, preservation of men our ancient Eng- ish virtue, I say, thus rectified, will secure us ; >ut unless there be a speedy reformation in hese, I know not what hopes or expectations we can have. " These are the things, sir, I shall desire to lave taken into consideration ; that, as we are he great council of the kingdom, and have the apprehension of these dangers, we may truly represent them unto the king : whereto, I con- eive, we are bound by a treble obligation of iuty to God, of duty to his majesty, and of duty o our country. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 27 " And therefore I wish it may so stand with the wisdom and judgment of the House, that they may be drawn into the body of a remon- strance, and in all humility expressed ; with a prayer unto his majesty, that, for the safety of himself, for the safety of the kingdom, and fr the safety of religion, he will be pleased to give us time to make perfect inquisition thereof; or to take them into his own wisdom, and there give them such timely reformation as the ne- cessity and justice of the case doth import. " And thus, sir, with a large affection and loyalty to his majesty, and with a firm duty and service to my country, I have suddenly (and it may be with some disorder) expressed the weak apprehensions I have ; wherein, if I have erred, I humbly crave your pardon, and so sub- mit myself to the censure of the House."* Eliot's purpose was already accomplished ! Scarcely had he resumed his seat, when the ef- fects he had laboured to produce broke forth. " Disaffection !" cried Sir Henry Martin and others of the court party ; " and there wanted not some who said that speech was made out of some distrust of his majesty's answer to the petition."t From the popular side, on the oth- er hand, some stern and significant words were heard about the necessity of a remonstrance. The crisis had unquestionably come. The courtiers went off to tell their news at the council table ; the patriots " turned themselves into a grand committee touching the danger and means of safety of king and kingdom." The newsmongers discharged their duty faithfully. The next day a royal message came to the House, acquainting them that within six days the session would close, and desiring them not to touch upon any new matter, but to conclude the necessary business, t The day following that brought another message, " com- manding the speaker to let them know that he will certainly hold that day prefixed without alteration ; and he requires them that they enter not into, or proceed with, any new busi- ness which may spend greater time, or which may lay any scandal or aspersion upon the state, government, or ministers thereof."^ The scene that ensued was in all respects extraor- dinary. Sir Robert Philips was the first to rise. " I consider my own infirmities," said Philips, " and if ever my passions were wrought upon, now this message stirs me up especially. What shall we do, since our humble purposes * This speech was preserved in Sir John Napier's manu- scripts, and will be found in the Old Parliamentary History, vol. viii., p. 155. t Rushworth, vol. i.,p. 592. Eliot is said to have remark- ed on this, that he had for some time " had a resolution to open these last-mentioned grievances, to satisfie his majesty herein, only he had stayed for an opportunity." This reads like a sarcasm. Be that as it may, it is remarkable that Wentworth, upon this, is described to have stepped forward and " attested that averment," saying that he had heard such to have been the determination of Eliot. This is the only appearance of courtesy, or, indeed, of any other feeling than a violent dislike, which it is possible to trace in the conduct of Wentworth to Eliot. And it might have been meant in the wayof " damned good-natured friendship." On the whole, however, I suspect it to have been simply anoth- er fillip to the wavering negotiations of the court, which Wentworth was now waiting the issue of. Many commu- nications had already passed through the medium of the speaker and Weston. See Stafford's State Papers, vol. i., p. 46. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 593. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 167. 4 Rushworth, vol. i., p. 605. Parl. Hist., vol viii., p. 168. are thus prevented?"* Eliot here suddenly started up, and spoke with more than ordinary vehemence. "Ye all know," he said, "with what affection and integrity we have proceeded hitherto to have gained his majesty's heart. It was out of the necessity of our duty we were brought to that course we were in. I doubt a misrepresentation to his majesty hath drawn this mark of his displeasure upon us ! I ob- serve in the message, among other sad partic- ulars, it is conceived that we were about to lay some aspersions on the government. Give me leave to- protest, sir, that so clear were our in- tentions, that we desire only to vindicate those dishonours to our king and country ! It is said also, as if we cast some aspersions on his majesty's ministers ! I am confident no minister, how dear soever, can " A strange interruption stopped him. " Here," says the account in the Napier MSS., "the speaker started up from the chair, and, apprehending Sir John Eliot intended to fall upon the duke, said, tmth tears in his eyes, ' There is a com- mand laid upon me to interrupt any that should go about to lay an aspersion on the ministers of the state.' "t Eliot sat down in silence. Events for passions include events now crowded together to work their own good work ; and the great statesman, the author, as it were, of that awful scene, may be conceived to have been the only one who beheld it from the van- tage ground of a sober consciousness and con- trol. Into that moment his genius had thrown a forecast of the future. The after terrors he did not live to see, but now concentred in the present spot were all their intense and fervid elements. They struggled in their birth with tears. I do not know whether ft may not be thought indecorous and unseemly now for statesmen to shed tears, but I consider the weeping of that memorable day, that " black and doleful Thursday,"! to have been the pre- cursor of an awful resolve. Had these great men entertained a less severe sense of their coming duty, no such present weakness had been shown. The monarchy, and its cherished associations of centuries, now trembled in the balance. " Sir Robert Philips spoke," says a member of the House, writing to his friend the day after, " and mingled his words with weep- ing. Sir Edward Coke, overcome with passion, seeing the desolation that was like to ensue, was forced to sit down when he began to speak, through the abundance of tears ; yea, the speak- er in his speech could not refrain from weep- ing and shedding of tears, besides a great many whose great griefs made them dumb and si- lent. " A deep silence succeeded this storm, and the * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 606. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 606. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 191. t This expression is used in a manuscript letter of the day. This interesting letter will be found in Rushworth, vol. , p. 609. It will be seen that, in the commencement of it, .he writer, Mr. Alured, distinctly conveys the impression .hat this extraordinary scene had been caused by Eliot's jreat speech of two days before. He gives a sketch of the speech, and afterward describes the interference of the min- sters. " As he was enumerating which, the chancellor of ;he duchy said, ' it was a strange language ;' yet the House commanded Sir John Eliot to go on. Then the chancellor desired, if he went on, that himself might go out. Where- upon they all bade him begone, yet he stayed and heard him out." BRITISH STATESMEN. few words that broke the silence startled the House into its accustomed attitude of resolu- tion and composure. " It is the speech lately spoken by Sir John Eliot which has given of- fence, as we fear, to his majesty."* The ir- resolute men who hazarded these words at such a time little anticipated their immediate result. " Hereupon," says Rushworth, " the House declared 'that every member of the House is free from any undutiful speech, from the beginning of the Parliament to that day,' and ordered ' that the House be turned into a committee to consider what is fit to be done for the safety of the kingdom ; and that no man go out upon pain of being sent to the Tow- er.' " The time for action had arrived. The speaker, in abject terror, " humbly and earnest- ly besought the House to give him leave to ab- sent himself for half an hour, presuming they did not think he did it for any ill intention ; which was instantly granted him. "t He went to the king. In the interval of his absence cheer- ful acclamations resounded once more through the House, for again Buckingham was fear- lessly named as the " grievance of grievan- ces ;" and " as when one good hound," ob- serves a member who was present, " recovers the scent, the rest come in with a full cry, so they pursued it, and every one came on home, and laid the blame where they thought the fault was, and were voting it to the question, ' that the Duke of Buckingham shall be instanced to be the chief and principal cause of all those evils,' when the speaker, having been three hours absent and with the king, brought this message, ' that his majesty commands, for the present, they adjourn the House till to-morrow morning, and*that all committees cease in the mean time.' What we shall expect this morn- ing God of heaven knows, "t The king, it is evident, now shook with alarm. The clouds were gathering over his favourite thicker and blacker than ever. That morning, however, with a last vague hope, he sent a cozening message, and a wish for a " sweet parting. " The only notice taken of it by the Commons was the forwarding of a petition "for a clear and satisfactory answer in full Parliament to the petition of rights,"|| and the stern opening of an investigation into several high grievances, more especially the charge I have before mentioned of a design for introdu- cing foreign troops into the kingdom. IT No al- ternative was left to Charles, and the Commons were summoned the next day to meet him in the Upper House. " To avoid all ambiguous interpretations, and to show you there is no doubleness in my mean- * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 606, 607. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 192. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 609. i Rushworth, vol. i., p. 610. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 196. $ " So for this time," ran the close of the message, "let all Christendom take notice of a sweet parting between him and his people ; which, if it fall out, his majesty will not be long from another meeting ; when such grievances, if there be any, at their leisure and convenience may be considered." Parl. "Hist., vol. viii., p. 197. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 610. II Parl. Hist., vol. viii. .p. 201. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 612. IT Burlemach, a naturalized Dutch merchant, was exam- ined, and admitted that he had received 30,000 from the treasury, for the raising of German horse, which he had dis- bursed accordingly. He farther admitted that 1000 horse had been levied inconsequence, and arms provided for them in Holland, but that " he heard they were lately counter- manded." Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 200. And see Rush- worth, vol. i., p. 612. ing, I am willing to pleasure you as well in words as in substance. Read your petition, and you shall have an answer that, I am sure, will please you."* Such was Charles's speech to the members of the House of Commons who crowded that day round their lordships' bar. The petition was read accordingly, and the usual answer was returned : Soit droit fait comme il est desire. " At the end of the king's first speech," says a memorandum on the Lords' journals, " at the answer to the petition, and on the conclusion of the whole, the Commons gave a great and joyful applause." Charles the First, after he left the House of Lords that day, stood in a different relation to the people from that he had occupied before. It is impossible to deny this fact.f The Com- mons had asserted it in cleaving so strongly to their resolutions, the king himself in striving so desperately to evade them. A certainty of direction and operation had been given to the old laws. Charles appeared, indeed, to sanc- tion the notion of a great and vital change by the first step he took. He sent a message to the Commons, desiring " that the petition of rights, with his assent thereunto, should not only be recorded in both Houses, and in the courts of Westminster, but that it be put in print, for his honour and the content and satis- faction of his people. "J The Commons, according to Rushworth, "returned to their own house with unspeaka- ble joy, and resolved so to proceed as to ex- press their thankfulness. Now frequent men- tion was made of proceeding with the bill of subsidies, of sending the bills which were ready to the Lords, and of perfecting the bill of tonnage and poundage. Sir John Strange- waies expressed his joy at the answer, and farther added, ' Let us perfect our remon- strance.' " And such was their exact mode of procedure. The largest supplies that had been voted for years were at once presented to the king. The king's commission of excise was demanded to be cancelled under the new act of right. The bill for the granting of ton- nage and poundage, which was already far ad- vanced, was passed, but a protest voted at the same time, on the ground of its inconsistency with the new act, against Charles's old course of levying this imposition without consent of Parliament.il A remonstrance was also voted * Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 202. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 613. t Hume observes, " It may be affirmed, without any ex- aggeration, that the king's assent to the petition of rights produced such a change in the government as was almost equivalent to a revolution ; and by circumscribing in so many articles the royal prerogative, gave additional secu- rity to the liberties of the subject." Without going so far as this, it is quite certain that it materially altered Charles's position in a moral as well as legal sense. The petition of rights (it is given at length in Hume's History, vol. v., p. 171) affirmed and confirmed expresslythe enactments of the 9 Hen. III., chap. 29 (Magna Charta), that no freeman be deprived of his liberty or his property except by judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land ; of the 28 Edw. III., chap. 33, that no man, of whatever estate or condition, should be taken, imprisoned, disseized, disherited. or put to death, without being brought to answer by due process of law ; and of the 25, 37, 38, 42 Edw. III., with the 17 Rich. II., to the same intent. But it did even more than this, by its im- bodiment of the supplementary resolutions of the Commons, which, as I have already observed, bound the judges to a strict letter of construction, and deprived them of the plea of antagonist enactments. t Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 203. I) Rushworth, vol. i., p. 613. II The only plea advanced by the court lawyers against SIR JOHN ELIOT. 29 and presented to the king against certain pro- ceedings of Buckingham.* These measures were not only in conformity with the petition, but were positively required to give it efficacy and completeness. No opportunity of conces- sion or concord was withheld from Charles, but no distinct right was forborne. The grand committees that were then sitting, on the va- rious heads of religion, trade, grievances, and courts of justice, were ordered to sit no long- er, t Every appearance of unnecessary oppo- sition was carefully avoided. But suddenly, in the midst of these meas- ures, the Commons were summoned by the king to the House of Lords. After a long in- terview with the speaker, Charles had hurried there to close the session. "It may seem strange," he said, when they appeared at the bar, " that I come so suddenly to end this ses- sion before I give my assent to the bills. I will tell you the cause, though I must avow that I owe the account of my actions to God alone." This was a very proper commencement to his speech ; for, after peevishly complaining of the remonstrance against Buckingham, he went on to inform them that he would have no inter- ference with his rights over tonnage and poundage ; and, farther, that they had alto- gether misunderstood the petition of rights. ' ' I have granted no new, but only confirmed the ancient liberties of my subjects." His conclu- ding words were very remarkable. "As for toa- nage and poundage, it is a thing I cannot want, and was never intended by you to ask, nor meant by me, I am sure, to grant. To conclude, I command you all that are here to take notice of what I have spoken at this time to be the true intent and meaning of what I granted you in your petition ; but especially you, my lords, the judges, for to you only, under me, belongs the interpretation of laws."t Parliament was then prorogued to the 20th of the following October. The patriot leaders separated, it may be sup- posed, with many gloomy forebodings. New miseries and oppressions were about to visit the people. Yet had this immortal session strengthened the people's hearts for endurance no less than it had sharpened their powers for resistance. The patriots had no cause to sep- arate with any distrust of each other. Eliot went immediately into Cornwall. ] am fortunately enabled to follow him there Among the manuscripts of Sir Robert Cotton I have found a letter written to that learnec antiquary some few days after his arrival. It the conduct of the Commons in this matter worthy of notice was founded on the iniquitous judgment of the Court of Ex chequer in Bates's case during the last reign. But this plea had surely been barred by the resolutions I have so often named. Supposing it to be urged that the language of the petition was not sufficiently general to comprehend dutie: charged on merchandise at the outports, as well as interim taxes and exactions an opinion which was strongly con tested by Eliot it is quite certain that the iniquitous appli cation of the statutes in Bates's case, that grossest of in stances of "judge-made law," was distinctly foreclosed Tonnage and poundage, like other subsidies, could thereafte only spring from the free grant of the people. * This remonstrance, drawn up by Selden and Eliot, i extremely able. It is impossible, after reading it, to ques- tion its necessity. See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 619. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 613. i The reader, coupling this with Charles's previous con ultation with the judges, will readily understand its sig nificancy. s, in many points of view, interesting. It is a appy specimen of Eliot's style ; and it proves, f such proof were wanting, that this great tatesman had embraced the public cause with tie deep fervour of a private passion. How acceptable your letters are," he writes, " and with what advantage they now ome, I need not tell you ; when, besides the nemorie of my owne losses (which can have 10 reparation like the assurance of your fa- our), I but acknowledge the ignorance of hese partes, almoste as much divided from eason and intelligence as our island from the ivorld. That the session is ended we are gladd, because to our understandinges it im- lies a concurrence in the general!, and inti- mates a contynuance of the Parliament hav- ng not the notion of particulars by which we mighte compose ourselves to better judgment. The souldier, the mariner, the shipps, the seas, he horse, the foot, are to us no more than the stories of the poetts, either as thinges fabulous or unnecessarie, entertained now only for dis- course or wonder, not with the apprehension of the least feare or doubte ! Denmarke and he Sound are taken rather for wordes than meaninges ; and the greatnesse and ambition of Austria or Spain are to us a mere chimera, lochell and Dunkirk are all one. What friends we have lost or what enemies we have gained more than that encmie tchich we have bredd our- selves) is not soe much to us as the night show- r or sunneshine ! nor can we thinke of anie thinge that is not present with us. What they doe in Suffolk with their sojourners wee care not, while there are none billeted on us ; and it is indifferent to our reasons, in the contesta- tions which they have, whether the straunger or the countryman prevaile. Onlie one thing gives us some remembraunce of our neigh- bours, which is the greate resorte of Irish dai- lie comminge over, whoo, though they begg of us, wee doubte maie take from others, and in the end give us an ill recompense for our char- itie. This is a bad character, I confesse, which I give you of my country, but such as it de- serves. You onlie have power to make it ap- peare better, by the honor of your letters, which come nowhere without happinesse, and are a satisfaction for all wantes to me. Your affectionate servant, John Eliot."* Stirring events, however, soon reached Eliot in his retirement, such as must have moved even those stagnant waters, which he describes so well. The " self-bred" enemy of England was no more Buckingham had fallen by the hand of an assassin, t But the service of des- * Cottonian MSS., c. iii., p. 174. t Very interesting notices of this event, and the circum- stances which followed it, will be found in the third volume of Ellis's Original Letters, p. 256-282, second edition. The funeral of the so brilliant duke was the most melancholy winding up of all. The king had designed a very grand one ; " Nevertheless," says Mead to Stuteville, " the last night, at ten of the clock, his funeral was solemnized in as poor and confused a manner as hath been seen, marching from Wallingford House, over against Whitehall, to West- minster Abbey ; there being not much above 100 mourners, who attended upon an empty coffin, borne upon six men's shoulders ; the duke's corpse itself being there interred yes- terday, as if it had been doubtful the people in their mad- ness might have surprised it. But, to prevent all disorder, the train bands kept a guard on both sides of the way, all along from Wallingford House to Westminster Church, beating vp their drums loud, and carrying their pikes and 30 BRITISH STATESMEN. potism which the king had lost promised to b replaced by a more dangerous, because a mon able, counsellor. Wentworth had gone ove to the court.* Weston, a creature of th late duke's, had been created lord-treasurer Other changes followed. Laud was made Bish op of London, and, with Laud's elevation, Ar minianism reared its head formidably, t Ar minian prelates were the favourites of the court ; the royal favour shone exclusively on Arminian clergymen ; and Montague, obnox ious as he had proved himself by the Arminian tendency of his works, was raised to the bish opric of Chester. On this subject Eliot felt strongly. He had already, from his place in the House of Commons, denounced the ten- dency of those Arminian doctrines, whose es- sential principle he had justly described to be that of claiming for the king, as absolute head of the Church, a power resembling the pope's infallibility an independent state supremacy a power over the liberty and property of the subject. His acute perception had already de- tected in Laud that resolution towards new ceremonies in the Protestant Church which should raise her out of the apostolic simplicity to a worldly equality with the Church of Rome ; and in Laud's fervid sincerity on this point he saw the deepest source of danger. It was even now, indeed, in action, for farther news soon arrived that Charles, as supreme gov- ernor of the Church, had published an author- ized edition of the articles containing the ob- jectionable clause (" the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and hath author- ity in matters of faith"), and with an order that no doctrine should be taught that differed from those articles, that all controversies re- specting outward policy should be decided by the convocation, and that no man should pre- sume to explain the article respecting justifica- tion contrary to its plain meaning, or to take it in any other than the literal and grammatical sense.J Nor was this all. The terrors of the Star Chamber and High Commission had fol- lowed close upon Laud's new powers ; and the cases of Burton, Prynne, and Gill, their zeal and their frightful sufferings, afflicted the coun- try. The political application of these doc- trines had received, at the same time, a fatal illustration in various flagrant violations of the petition of rights. A copy of the statute itself reached Cornwall, printed by the king's order (a shameless attempt at imposture, which is scarcely to be credited !), with the addition of his first and rejected answer. Tonnage and poundage had been recklessly levied. Richard Chambers, Samuel Vassal, and John Rolles, muskets upon their shoulders, as in a march ; not trailing them at their heels, as is usual at a mourning. As soon as the coffin was entered the church, they came all away with- out giving any volley of shot at all. And this was the ob- scure catastrophe of that great man." Harl. MSS., 390. * Eliot, it may be presumed, was perfectly prepared for this event. The expression I have elsewhere used of Went- worth's having " basely abandoned" the popular cause is somewhat hasty. I think I shall be able to show that he never, in reality, was attached to it. Pym appears to have thought so, but Eliot had watched more closely. t The memoir of Pym will be a more proper occasion than this for a detailed expression of the exact state of opin- ions in religion, and the nature of their influence on polit- ical questions. + Bibliotheca Regia, 213. See Lingard's History, vol. ix., p. 400. three distinguished merchants, the last named of whom was a member of the House of Com- mons, had submitted to a seizure of their goods, rather than become parties to a violation of the public liberties, and the judges had refused them protection.* Such was the news that travelled day by day to the seat of Sir John Eliot. To crown the whole, Richelieu, laying aside his hat for a helmet, had, by his personal appearance at Rochelle, finally reduced that ill-fated place and driven back the disgraced English fleet, t But now, bad news having spent itself, the time fixed for the Parliament approached. Eli- ot left his home, to which he was never to re- turn, and hurried up to London. Parliament met, having suffered an interme- diate prorogation, on the 20th of January, 1829. The spirit with which they reassembled was evidenced by their very first movement. They revived every committee of grievance. Sir John Eliot then moved a call of the House for the 27th, when vital matters, he said, would be brought into discussion. It was farther order- ed on his motion, that " Mr. Selden should see if the petition of rights, and his majesty's an- swer thereunto, were enrolled in the Parlia- ment rolls and courts at Westminster, and in what manner." Selden having reported, al- most immediately after, the gross fraud that had been practised, Pym rose and moved an ad- journment of the debate " by reason of the few- ness of the House, many being not then come up." Sir John Eliot's conduct was character- istic. " Since this matter," he said, " is now raised, it concerns the honour of the House, and the liberties of the kingdom. It is true, it deserves to be deferred till a fuller House, but it is good to prepare things, for I find this to be a point of great consequence. I desire, there- fore, that a select committee may both enter into consideration of this, and also how other liberties of this kingdom have been invaded. I found, in the country, the petition of rights printed indeed, but with an answer that never *ave any satisfaction. I desire a committee nay consider thereof, and present it to the House, and that the printer may be sent for to >e examined about it, and to declare by what warrant it was printed." Eliot's influence with the House was paramount ; what he proposed was instantly ordered, and the disgrace of the attempted imposition indelibly fixed upon the king.* Eliot followed up this blow. The seizure of ;he goods of Mr. Rolles came into question ; some attempt was made to narrow the inquiry, and Sir Robert Philips proposed to refer the matter to a committee. Sir John rose sharply. ' Three things, sir," he said, " are involved in .his complaint : first, the right of the particular gentleman ; secondly, the right of the subject ; * The conduct of the judges in this case showed how arefully they had attended to the significant suggestions f the king. " Vassal pleaded to the information the statute e tallagio non concedendo. The Court of Exchequer over- uled his plea, and would not hear his counsel. Chambers ued out a replevin to recover possession of his goods, on le ground that a seizure for tonnage and poundage, with- ut grant of Parliament, was against law ; but the writ as superseded by the Court of Exchequer." t See History from Mackintosh, vol. v., p. 110. * See Parliamentary Hist., vol. viii., p. 245, 246. The rocoedings of this session are but imperfectly reported in .ushworth's Collections. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 31 thirdly, the right and privilege of the House. Let the committee consider the two former, but, for the violation of the liberties of this House, let us not do less than our forefathers. Was ever the information of a member com- mitted to a committee 1 Let us send for the par- ties. Is there not here a flat denial of the res- titution of the goods 1 Was it not also said that if all the Parliament were contained in him, they would do as they did 1 Let them be sent for."* The Sheriff of London, Acton, who seized the goods, was in consequence sent for, appeared at the bar on his knees, and was or- dered to the Tower. The officers of the cus- toms were, at the same time, punished.! The fiery decision of Eliot had its usual ef- fect upon the court. The king sent a message to the House to desire them to forbear all far- ther proceedings until he should have address- ed both houses next day at Whitehall as he purposed. His speech was an entreaty that they should not be jealous of him, and an en- deavour to impose upon them a self-evident ab- surdity that he took tonnage and poundage as a " gift of the people," but as a gift, forsooth, for his life, according to the custom of his pred- ecessors, which he desired them, therefore, to imbody in a bill, since they had no discretion to withhold it.J This speech was not noticed by the Commons. The 27th of January, the day fixed for the call of the House on Eliot's motion, arrived. The House was in debate on religious griev- ances. I have already alluded to the encour- agement given to Arminianism by the court, and to the justifiable alarm it had been viewed with by the popular party. Sir John Eliot's present purpose was to break the power of Laud, and to- this full house he now presented himself in all the confidence of an eloquence which worked its greatest influence on minds of the greatest order, which could sway them at will to high excitement or wrap them in deepest admiration. The reader will perceive with what a sober dignity the opening passages of this speech are conceived. " Sir," he began, taking advantage of a rest in the debate which had been caused by Mr. Coriton, " I have always observed, in the pro- ceedings of this House, our best advantage is in order ; and I was glad when that noble gen- tleman, my countryman, gave occasion to stay our proceedings, for I feared they would have carried us into a sea of confusion and disor- der. And now, having occasion to present my thoughts to you in this great and weighty bu- siness of religion, I shall be bold to give a short expression of my own affection, and in that or- der that, I hope, will conduce best to the ef- fecting of that work, and direct our labour to an end. To enter, sir, into a particular disqui- sition of the writings and opinions of divines, I fear it would involve us in a labyrinth that we shall hardly get out of, and, perchance, hin- der that way, and darken that path, in which we must tread. Before we know, however, what other men have declared, it is necessary that we should presently ourselves lay down what is truth. I presume we came not hither to dispute of religion. Far be it from the * Parl. Hist., rol. viii., p. 255. t Ibid., p. 287. t Ibid., p-. 256. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 644. thoughts of that Church that hath so long time confessed it now to dispute it. Shall posteri- ty think we have enjoyed our religion fourscore years almost, and are we now doubtful of the defence 1 God forbid. It may be, however, sir, and out of some things lately delivered I have not unnecessarily collected, that there is a jealousy conceived, as if we meant so to deal with matters of faith that did not perhaps be- long unto us, as to dispute of matters of faith. It is our profession. They are not to be dis- puted. Neither will that truth be receded from, this long time held. Nor is that truth decayed. It is confirmed by Parliament, because it was truth. And this, sir, before I come to deliver myself more particularly, give me leave, that have not yet spoken in this great cause, to give some apprehension I have of fear, for it is not in the Parliament to make a new religion, nei- ther, I hope, shall it be in any to alter the body of that truth which we now profess." Eliot now alluded to the declaration which I have already described as published in the king's name, but which had issued from the hand of Laud. " I must confess, sir, among all those fears we have contracted, there ariseth to me not one of the least dangers in the declaration, which is made and published in his majesty's name ; and yet, sir, this conclusion exclusive- ly let me state, that I may not be mistaken whatever in this, or other things shall appear to make mention of his majesty, we have not the least suspicion of jealousy of him. I hope it is by those ministers about him which not only he, but all princes, are subject to." The speaker then adduced various precedents which covertly aimed at Laud. " As it was in that," he continued, " so it may be in this. I speak to this end to draw it to this conclusion, that if there be anything that carrieth the title of his majesty, it may be the fault of his minis- ters. Far be it from me to have suspicion of him. And now to that particular, in that dec- laration, wherein, I confess, with me, is an ap- prehension of more fear than I have of all the rest, for in the last particulars we heard what is said of popery and Arminianism. It is true our faith and religion have before been in dan- ger ; but it was by degrees. Here, sir, like an inundation, it doth break in at once. We are in danger at once to be ruined and overwhelm- ed ; for, I beseech you mark, the ground of our religion is contained in these articles. If there be any difference of opinions concerning the sense and interpretation of them, the bish- ops and clergy in convocation have a power ad- mitted to them here to do anything which shall concern the continuance and maintenance of the truth professed ; which truth being con- tained in these articles, and these articles be- ing different in the sense, if there be any dis- pute about that, it will be in them to order which way they please ; and, for aught I know, pope- ry and Arminianism may be a sense introduced by them, and then it must be received. Is this a slight thing, that the power of religion, must be drawn to the persons of those menl I honour their profession and honour their per- sons ; but, give me leave to say, the truth we profess is not men's, but God's ; and God for- bid that men should be made to judge of that truth!" BRITISH STATESMEN. This passage wrought upon the House ; and Eliot, throwing out a sarcasm with his usual skill and effect, thus continued : " I remember a character I have seen in a diary of Edward VI., that young prince of famous memory, wherein he doth express the condition of the bishops and clergy in his time, and saith, under his own handwriting, ' that some for sloth, some for ignorance, some for luxury, and some for popery, are unfit for discipline and govern- ment.' Sir, I hope it is not so with us ! nay, give me leave to vindicate the honour of those men that openly show their hearts to the truth. There are among our bishops such as are fit to be made examples to all ages, who shine in virtue like those two faithful witnesses in heav- en, of whom we may use that eulogy which Seneca did of Caius, that to their memories and merits, ' Nee hoc quidem obstet quod nos- tris temporibus nati sint ;' and to whose mem- ory and merit I may use the saying, that the others' faults are no prejudice to their virtues ; who are so industrious in their works, that I hope posterity shall know there are men that are firm for the truth. But, sir, that all now are not so free, sound, and orthodox in religion as they should be, witness the men complained of and you know what power they have. Witness those men nominated lately Mr. Montague, for instance. I reverence the or- der ; I honour not the man. Others may be named as bad. I apprehend such fear that, should it be in their power, we may be in dan- ger to have our whole religion overthrown. " But," Eliot exclaimed, as he saw the ex- citement rising in the House, " I give this for testimony, and thus far do express myself against all the power and opposition of these men ! Whensoever any opposition shall be, I trust we shall maintain the religion we profess, for in that we have been born and bred nay, sir, if cause be, in that I hope to die ! Some of these, sir, you know, are masters of ceremo- nies, and they labour to introduce new ceremo- nies in the church. Some ceremonies are use- ful ! Give me leave to join in one that I hold necessary and commendable, that at the repe- tition of the creed we should stand up to testi- fy the resolution of our hearts, that we would defend that religion we profess. In some churches it is added, that they did not only stand upright with their bodies, but with their swords drawn! and if cause were, I hope, to defend our prince, country, and religion, we should draw our swords against all opposers !"* This speech, it has been remarked, was a light that fell into a well-laid train. Its result was a " vow," made on the journals, that " the Commons of England claimed, professed, and avowed for truth that sense of the articles of religion which were established in Parliament in the 13th year of Queen Elizabeth, which, by the public acts of the Church of England, and by the general and current exposition of the writers of that Church, had been declared unto them ; and that they rejected the sense of the Jesuits, Arminians, and of all others, wherein they differed from it."t Eliot did not fail to * Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 268. t Rush-worth, vol. i., p. 649; Journals, Jan. 29. The 13th of Elizabeth was selected, because the Legislature had then ordered the clergy to subscribe the articles, and to read them in the churches, yet neither the English nor the follow up this advantage. Some days after- ward he fastened upon Laud by name. " In this Laud," he exclaimed, " is contracted all the danger that we fear ! and I doubt not but that his majesty, being informed thereof, will leave him to the justice of this House."* His majesty, meanwhile, was sending message af- ter message to hasten the tonnage and pound- age bill, every one of which, with admirable skill, was foiled by Eliot and his friends, t In. vain the king continued his messages. Those were commands, they replied, and commands were inconsistent with their privileges. " The heart-blood of the commonwealth," added Eli- ot, " receiveth life from the privileges of this House."J The question of religion surrendered to a sub-committee the popular leaders had enga- ged themselves in a conclusion of the inquiry into the seizure of merchants' goods, with a view to the prevention of such future wrongs, by the infliction of some stringent punishment on the delinquents concerned in the present. The chancellor of the duchy threatened the displeasure of the king, and a close to the Par- liament. Eliot, cutting short his threat, quiet- ly observed, " The question, sir, is, whether we shall first go to the restitution, or to the point of delinquency. Some now raise up dif- ficulties in opposition to the point of delin- quency, and talk of breach of parliaments. And other fears I met with, both in this and elsewhere. Take heed you fall not on a rock. I am confident to avoid this would be some- what difficult, were it not for the goodness and justice of the king. But let us do that which is just, and his goodness will be so clear that we need not mistrust. Let those terrors that are threatened us light on them that make them. Why should we fear the justice of a king when we do that which is just 1 Let there be no more memory or fear of breaches ; and let us now go to the delinquency of those men. That is the only way to procure satisfaction."^ Upon this the king sent word that he was the delinquent, for that what the accused did " was by his own direct orders and command."il This brought matters to a crisis, and the House ad- journed itself for two days. On the 25th of February, when they reas- sembled, the committee of religion had con- cluded its report, and a long list of formidable charges, levelled against Laud, was agreed to be presented to the king. The question of the king's offence against the privileges of the House, in the seizure he had avowed, was thus judiciously avoided, yet an opportunity given to Charles, by some redemption of the recently violated liberties, of receiving from the patriot leaders, without betrayal of their trust, a pow- er of raising new subsidies. The king showed his appreciation of this conduct by sending an instant command to both Houses to adjourn to Monday, the 2d of March. f Latin edition of that year contained the clause respecting the authority of the ministers of the church. * Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 284. t Evidences of this will be found throughout the debates. On one occasion, poor old Secretary Cooke fell under a sharp rebuke from Eliot, and narrowly escaped a heavier censure. Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 278. t Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 311. (} Ibid., vol. viii., p. 317. || Ibid., vol. viii., p. 31&. T Ibid., vol. viii., p. 326. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 660. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 33 Eliot now saw what was intended, and pre pared for it with a fearless composure. H drew up a remonstrance concerning tonnag and poundage. In this able document, nothin L that is essential to a just opinion of the con duct of the Commons respecting the bill tha had been proposed is omitted. The delay i shown to have been necessary, and the purpo ses of the leaders of the House are nobly vindi cated. It concludes with a solemn statement that " the Commons had so framed a grant of subsidy of tonnage and poundage to your maj esty, that you might have been the better en abled for the defence of your realm, and you subjects, by being secured from all undue char ges, be the more encouraged cheerfully to pro ceed in their course of trade ; but, not being now 'able to accomplish this their desire, there is no course left unto them, without manifes breach of their duty both to your majesty am their country, save only to make this humble declaration, that the receiving of tonnage anc poundage, and other impositions not grantee by Parliament, is a breach of the fundamenta liberties of this kingdom, and of your majesty's royal answer to the petition of rights."* Eljot at the same time, drew up three articles of protestation, which ran thus : " 1. Whoever shall bring in innovation in religion, or by fa- vour seek to extend or introduce popery or Arminianism, or other opinions disagreeing from the true and orthodox Church, shall be reputed a capital enemy to this kingdom and commonwealth. 2. Whosoever shall counsel or advise the taking and levying of the subsi- dies of tonnage and poundage, not being grant- ed by Parliament, or shall be an actor or in- strument therein, shall be likewise reputed an innovator in the government, and a capital en- emy to this kingdom and commonwealth. 3. If any merchant, or other person whatsoever, shall voluntarily yield or pay the said subsidies of tonnage and poundage, not being granted by Parliament, he shall likewise be reputed a be- trayer of the liberty of England, and an enemy to the same."t With these documents Sir John Eliot entered the House of Commons on the morning of the 2d of March, 1629, for the last time. He waited only till prayers had been said, and then arose. For the last time, on that fatal day, this great statesman struck, with daring eloquence, at a profligate courtier and a dis- honest churchman. "Buckingham is dead," he said, " but he lives in the Bishop of Winches- ter and my Lord-treasurer Weston !" (Wes- ton, it was understood, had been a party to the disastrous advice by which Eliot had anticipa- ted too surely they were now about to be dis- solved.) " In the person of the lord treasurer," the orator continued, amid the interruptions of some and the enthusiastic cheering of others, " in his person all evil is contracted, for the in- novation of religion, and for the invasion of our liberties. He is the great enemy of the com- monwealth. I have traced him in all his ac- tions, and I find him building on those grounds laid by his master, the great duke. He se- cretly is moving for this interruption. From * Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 327 ; and see the information afterward exhibited in the Star Chamber. Rushworth, ol. i., p. 665, 666. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 660 and 666. fear, these men go about to break parliaments, lest parliaments should break them." Eliot concluded, as if by a forecast of the future, with these memorable words : " I protest, as I am a gentleman, if my fortune be ever again to meet in this honourable assembly, where I now leave, I will begin again .'"* Advancing to the speaker, Sir John Eliot then produced his re- monstrance, and desired that he would read it. The speaker refused. He presented it to the clerk at the table. The clerk also refused. With fearless determination Eliot now read the remonstrance himself, and demanded of the speaker, as a right, that he should put it to the vote. Again the speaker refused. " He was commanded otherwise by the king." A severe reprimand followed from Selden, and the speaker rose to quit the chair. Denzil Hollis and Valentine dragged him back. Sir Thomas Edmonds, and other privy councillors, made an attempt to rescue him, but " with a strong hand'' he was held down in the chair, and Hollis swore he should sit still till it pleas- ed them to rise. The House was now in open and violent disorder. The speaker weepingly implored them to let him go ; and Sir Peter Hay man in reply renounced him for his kins- man as the disgrace of his country, the blot of a noble family, and a man whom posterity would remember with scorn and disdain. Every moment increased the disorder, till at last it threatened the most serious consequences. Some members involuntarily placed their hands upon their swords. Above the throng was again heard the voice of the steady and un- daunted Eliot. " I shall then express by my ;ongue what that paper should have done !" ie flung it down upon the floor, and placed the protestations I have described into the hands of Hollis. " It shall be declared by us," he ex- claimed, " that all that we suffer is the effect of new counsels, to the ruin of the government of he state. Let us make a protestation against hose men, whether greater or subordinate, hat may hereafter persuade the king to take onnage and poundage without grant of Parlia- nent. We declare them capital enemies to the ting and the kingdom ! If any merchants shall willingly pay those duties, without consent of Parliament, they are declared accessories to he rest !" Hollis instantly read Eliot's paper, iut it to the House in the character of speaker, and was answered by tremendous acclama- ions. During this, the king had sent the ser- geant to bring away the mace, but he could not obtain admission ; and the usher of the black od had followed, with the same ill success, n an extremity of rage, Charles then sent for he captain of his guard to force an entrance. Jut a later and yet more disastrous day was eserved for that outrage ; for, meanwhile, El- ot's resolutions having been passed, the doors were thrown open, and the members rushed )ut in a body, carrying a king's officer that ivas standing at the entrance " away before hem in the crowd. "t Such was the scene of * Parl. Hist., vol. vtii., p. 326. t I state this on the authority of a MS. letter in the Sloane ollection (4178). The writeradds, " It is said that a Welsh age, hearing a great noise in the House, cried out, ' I pray ou let hur iii : let hur in ! to give hur master his sword, or they are all a fighting.' " Letter to Paul ITEwes, datet larch 5, 1628. BRITISH STATESMEN. Monday, the 3d of March, 1629, "the most I gloomy, sad, and dismal day for England that ' had happened for 500 years."* The king instantly went down to the House of Lords, called the leaders of the Commons " vipers" who should have their rewards, and dissolved the Parliament.! Two days afterward, Sir John Eliot received a summons to appear before the council table. This memorable scene closed his public life, and closed it worthily. He was asked "wheth- er he had not spoken such and such words in the Lower House of Parliament, and showed unto the said House such and such a paper 1" Keenly and resolvedly he answered, " that whatsoever was said or done by him in that place, and at that time, was performed by him as a public man and a member of that House ; and that he was,, and alway^s will be, ready to give an account of his sayings and doings in that place, whensoever he should be called unto it by that House, where, as he taketh it, it is only to be questioned ; and, in the mean time, being now but a private man, he would not trouble himself to remember what he had ei- ther spoken or done in that place as a public man." He was instantly committed ; his study was entered by the king's warrant, and his pa- pers seized, t Much time elapsed before his case was final- ly adjudged. I will present, however, in as few words as possible, the course of the pro- ceedings that were taken. I am able to illus- trate it by the help of letters of the time. Eliot sued for his habeas corpus. An an- swer was returned in the shape of a general warrant, under the king's sign manual. The insufficiency of this return was so clearly shown by Eliot's counsel in the course of the argu- ment, that the judges, " timid and servile, yet desirous to keep some measures with their own consciences, or looking forward to the wrath of future parliaments," wrote what Whitelocke calls a " humble and stout letter"^ to the king, stating that they were bound to * MS. diary of Sir Symonds D'Ewes. For the various accounts of this remarkable scene, from which I have drawn the above description, see Rushworth, voL i., p. 660; Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 326-333. See, also, the information lodg- ed against Eliot in the Star Chamber (Rushworth, i., p. 665), and the proceedings on the subsequent information in the King's Bench ; State Trials, vol. iii., or Rushworth, vol. i., p. 679-691. The examinations before the council table (Parl. Hist., vol. viii., .p. 355) will be found highly in- teresting. Sir Miles Hobart said, " He would not stick to confess that it was he that shut the door that day ; and when he had locked the door, put the key in his pocket [and he did it because the House demanded it]." Denzil Hollis, finding " his majesty was now offended with him, humbly desired that he might rather be the subject of his mercy than of his power." To which the lord treasurer answer- ed, " You mean rather of his majesty's mercy than of his justice. " Mr. Hollis replied, " I say of his majesty's power, my lord." t Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 533; and see Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 13. " I must needs say," observed the king, " that they do mistake me wonderfully that think I lay the fault equally upon all the Lower House ; for, as I know there are many as dutiful and loyal subjects as any are in the world, so I know that it was only some vipers among- them that had cast this mist of difference before their eyes." J Rushworth, vol. i., p. 661. The same was done with the studies of Selden and Hollis. $ Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 14. The conduct of the udges was execrable ; and notwithstanding the efforts of tVhitelocke to exculpate his father, Judge Whitelocke (in tvhich he succeeded with the Long Parliament), it is impos- lible to discern a material difference between him and the bail Eliot, but requesting that he would send his directions to do so. This letter was not at- tended to ; the judges in consequence deferred the time for judgment, and Eliot was continued in custody. When the day at last arrived that judgment could no longer be deferred, the body of Eliot was not forthcoming. In vain his counsel called for judgment ; the judges, in the absence of the prisoner, declined. Eliot had been removed by the king's warrant, the evening before the meeting of the court, from the custody of the keeper to whom his writ had been addressed ! Some days after, how- ever, Charles consented that he should be brought up for admission to bail, on condition that he presented a petition declaring he was sorry he had offended. The condition was spurned at once. The offer was repeated by the judges, but Eliot " would do nothing, but resolutely move for his habeas corpus. Where- at one of the judges said, ' Comes he to outface the court ?' " and the severity of his imprison- ment was ordered to be increased.* Some months passed away, and the question still re- mained unsettled. Charles then offered Eliot his privilege of bail if he would give sureties for good behaviour. Eliot at once declared in answer that he would never admit the possi- bility of offending the law by liberty of speech in Parliament. The judges are described upon this to have suggested to him the possibility of his remaining in prison even seven years long- er.t He answered that he was quite prepared ; his body would serve to fill up the breach that was made in the public liberties as well as any other. The king now showed himself equally resolute ; and, refusing an enormous sum that had been offered for his bail,t ordered the at- torney-general to drop the proceedings in the Star Chambet, and to exhibit an information against him in the King's Bench for words spo- ken in Parliament. As member of a superior court at the period of the alleged offence, he pleaded to the jurisdiction, and thus brought in issue the great question of the privilege of the House of Commons the question, in point of fact, upon which the character of " the English Constitution" altogether depended. The battle was fought bravely by his counsel, but vainly. The court held that they had jurisdiction ; Eliot refused to put in any other plea ; and judg- ment was finally given that he " should be im- prisoned during the king's pleasure, should not be released without giving surety for good be- haviour and making submission, and, as the greatest offender and ringleader in Parliament, should be find in 2000."$ This iniquitous judgment found Eliot cheer- fully prepared. He immediately sent to the * Sloane MSS., 4178. Various striking accounts of the proceedings, as they affected all the prisoners, will be found in this volume one of those transcribed by Dr. Birch es- pecially under dates June 10, June 25, June 28, and October 15, 1629. See, also, p. 92 of the same volume. t Letter, dated 15th of October. J It is said by Mr. D'Israeli, on a private authority, that 10,000 had been offered. This was vast indeed. Mr. D'Israeli doubts, however (Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 281), whether any bail could be tendered, since Eliot was con- demned to be imprisoned at the king's pleasure. Mr. D'Israeli forgets that the bail was tendered during the pro- ceedings, and not at their close. i> The arguments will be found in the State Trials, vol. iii. : and in Rushworth, vol. i., p. 679-691. The judgment was reversed by the Long Parliament. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 35 lieutenant of the Tower " to provide him a convenient lodging, that he might send his up- holsterer to trim it up." On being told of the fine, he smiled, and said, "that he had two cloaks, two suits, two pairs of boots and galash- es, and if they could pick 2000 out of that, much good might it do them." (I have already mentioned the course he had taken to provide for the worldly welfare of his sons. His ex- tensive estates were at present held by rela- tives in trust for their use.*) "When I was first committed close prisoner to the Tower," he added, " a commission was directed to the high sheriff of Cornwall, and five other com- missioners, my capital enemies, to inquire into my lands and goods, and to seize upon them for the king ; but they returned a nihil."t I could multiply the evidences of his easy, and even gay, humour at this moment. He is de- scribed, for instance, to have " laughed heartily" at receiving a message from the judges com- plaining of the " misbehaviour of his page and servant, who, with others, had been tossing dogs and cats in a blanket, in the open street of Southwark, near the King's Bench prison, saying, 'We are judges of these creatures, and why should not we take our pleasure upon them as well as other judges upon our mas- ter 1' " After some short delays, he was con- ducted to the Tower, where he had twice be- fore undergone imprisonment, and from which he never stirred again. A man named Dud- son, the under-marshal of the King's Bench, who guarded him there, appears to have con- sidered his person the peculiar property of a dungeon. "Mr. Lieutenant," he said, on de- livering Eliot, " I have brought you this wor- thy knight, whom I borrowed of you some few months ago, and now do repay him again.":): A " convenient lodging" had not been pre- pared. The only accommodation that could be had was " a darke and smoaky room." But he was not denied the use of books, and writing materials were, upon his earnest solicitation, granted to him. Some of the letters written at this period from his dungeon have, fortunate- ly, been preserved. $ A great philosophical * Boscawen was one of the trustees. A letter to him, written by Eliot during his imprisonment, is preserved among the Eliot MSS. (fol. 56), and sets this beyond a doubt. " Having a great confidence in your worth, as I find you to have been selected by my father-in-law, I have pre- sumed also for myself to name you in a trust for the man- agement of that poor fortune which, through the disturb- ances of these times, I may not call mv own. Your trouble will only be for the sealing of some leases, now and then, upon compositions of my tenants ; for which, as there is oc- casion, I have appointed this bearer, my servant, Maurice Hill, to attend you, to whom your despatch in that behalf shall be a full satisfaction of the trust." Sir John continu- ed, nevertheless, as this extract intimates, to manage his pecuniary affairs himself as long as he was able, and in the early part of his imprisonment he arranged with his own hand many of his tenants' leases. He was liberal in acts of kindness, and strict in matters of justice. He grants his eldest son 200 a year for the expenses of travelling abroad, a very large allowance ; and writes back his opinion on a request from one of his tenants to have a wall rebuilt, to which he (Sir John) was not liable, "There would be more charity than wisdom in this." Maurice Hill was an inval- uable servant to Sir John in these extremities, and deserv- ed the kindness with which the latter often subscribes him- self " your loving master." Mr. D'Israeli has given these interesting circumstances from Lord Eliot's admirable com- munication. See Commentaries, vol . iv., p. 507, et seq. t I have derived the above from a letter in the Sloane collection. Mead to Stuteville, dated Feb. 27, 1629-30. t Mead to Stuteville, March 13, 1629-30. $ Among the Eliot family papers. work, on which he employed himself, has also come down to us.* They present Sir John Eliot, in this last scene of all, not simply un- shrinking in fortitude, true to himself, magnan- imous, and patient. All this he was ; but some- thing yet greater than this. It would seem certain that, soon after his imprisonment, a secret feeling possessed him that his active life had closed. He did not acknowledge it to himself distinctly, but it is not the less appa- rent. Daily, under his confinement, his body was sinking. Daily, as his body sank, his soul asserted independent objects and uses. " Not alone," says the poet, whose genius has just risen among us,t " Not alone when life flows still do truth And power emerge, but also when strange chance Affects its current ; in unused conjuncture Where sickness breaks the body hunger, watching, Excess, or langour oftenest death's approach Peril, deep joy, or wo." And now, as death approached Eliot for, from the first month of his present imprisonment, it approached with the steadiest and surest step a new world revealed itself, to be res- cued and regenerated by his virtue ; a new tyranny to conquer, which needed not the phys- ical aid that had deserted him in his struggle with the old ; a new government to establish which was within the control and accomplish- ment of all "the monarchy of man." He resolved to occupy the hours of his imprison- ment with a work that should have for its ob- ject the establishment of the independence of man's mind ; of its power over the passions and weaknesses of humanity, of its means of wresting these to the purposes of its own gov- ernment the illustration of the greatest good that could be achieved on earth, man's monar- chy over himself, a perfect and steady self-con- trol. Such a plan, while it embraced the lofty thoughts that now sought freedom from his over-informed and sinking body, would enable him also to vindicate the course he had pur- sued in his day of strength and vigour, and, in leaving to his countrymen, finally, an unyielded purpose, an unquailing endurance, a still un- mitigated hatred of oppression, would teacli them, at the same time, that these great quali- ties had victories of their own to achieve, in which no worldly power could foil them ; and that, supposing the public- struggles of the time attended with disastrous issue, it was not for man, with his inherent independence, to admit the possibility of despair. If greater virtue, and beauty, and general perfectness of charac- ter have, at any time, in any age or country been illustrated, I have yet to learn when and by whom. These thoughts and purposes of Eliot soon broke upon his friends. Hampden was watch- ing his imprisonment with the most anxious solicitude. It is one proof of the virtuous character of this great man having already dawned, that Eliot had intrusted to him the care of his two sons. Soon after the com- mencement of his imprisonment, Hampden, who discharged this duty with affectionate * It may be seen in the Harleian collection, No. 2228. t The author of Paracelsus, Mr. Robert Browning. There would be little danger in predicting that this writer will soon be acknowledged as a first-rate poet. He has already proved himself one. BRITISH STATESMEN. zeal, received from Eliot a long letter of ad- vice and counsel for them, which sufficiently indicated the studies that already engaged him- self. The opening of it shows the last linger- ing of the struggle which was soon to settle to a perfect composure.* "Sonns," he begins, " if my desires had been valuable for one hour, I had long since written to you ; which, in lit- tle, does deliver a large character of my for- tune, that in nothing has allowed me to be master of myself. I have formerly been pre- vented by employment, which was so tyranni- cal on my time, as all minutes were anticipa- ted ; now my leisure contradicts me, and is soe violent on the contrary, soe great an enemy to all action, as it makes itself unuseful ; both leisure and business have opposed me either in time or libertie, that I have had no means of expression but my praiers, in which I have never failed to make God the witness of my love, whose blessings I doubt not will deduce it in some evidence to you. And now having gotten a little opportunity (though by stealth), I cannot but give it some testimony from my- self, and let you see my dearest expectation in your good." He goes on to say with what de- light he will always hear " of the progress of your learning, of your aptness and diligence in that, of your careful attendance in all exercises of religion, and the instruction and improve- ments of your minds, which are foundations of a future building." Some of the philosophy of his own life he then presents to them. " It is a fine history, well studied the observation of ourselves." He describes to them the many evils he has endured, the continuity of his suf- ferings, " of which there is yet no end. Should those evils," he continues, " be complained 1 Should I make lamentation of these crosses 1 Should I conceave the worse of my condition in the study of myself that my adversities op- pose me 1 Noe ! I may not (and yet I will not be so stoical as not to think them evils, I will not do that prejudice to virtue by detrac- tion of her adversaries). They are evils, for I doe confess them, but of that nature and soe followed, soe neighbouring upon good, as they are noe cause of sorrow, but of joy ; seeing whose enemies they make us enemies of for- tune, enemies of the world, enemies of their children ; and knowing for whom we suffer for him that is their enemy, for him that can command them whose agents only and instru- ments they are to work his trials on us, which may render us more perfect and acceptable to himself. Should these enforce a sorrow, which are the true touches of his favour, and riot af- fect us rather with the higher apprehension of our happiness 1 Among my many obligations to my Creator, which prove the infinity of his mercies, that like a full stream have been always flowing on me, there is none concerning this life, wherein I have found more pleasure or advantage, than in these trialls and afflictions (and I may not limitt it soe narrowly within the confines of this life, which I hope shall ex- tend much farther) the operations they have had, the new effects they worke, the discover- ies they make upon ourselves, upon others, upon all." Nobly and beautifully he subjoins, "This happiness in all my trials has never parted from me. How great, then, is his favour by whose means I have enjoyed it ! The days have all seemed pleasant, nor nights have ever been tedious, nor fears nor terrors have pos- sest me, but a constant peace and tranquillity of mind, whose agitation has been chiefly in thanks and acknowledgments to him by whose grace I have subsisted, and shall yet, I hope, participate of his blessings upon you. I have the more enlarged myself in this, that you might have a right view of the condition which I suffer, least from a bye relation, as through a perspective not truly representing, some false sence might be contracted. Neither could I thinke that altogether unusefull for your knowl- edge which may afford you both precept and example. Consider it, weigh it duly, and when, you find a signe or indication of some error, make it an instruction how to avoid the like ; if there appears but the resemblance of some virtue, suppose it better, and make it a presi- dent for yourselves ; when you meet the prints and footsteps of the Almightie, magnify the goodness of his providence and miracles that makes such low descents ; consider that there is a nature turns all sweetness into venom, when from the bitterest hearbs the bee extracts a honie. Industry and the habit of the soule give the effect and operation upon all things, and that to one seems barren and unpleasant to another is made fruitfull and delightsome. Even in this, by your application and endeav- our, I am confident may be found both pleasure and advantage. This comes only as a testi- mony of my love (and soe you must accept it, the time yielding noe other waie of demonstra- tion), and by this expression know that I daily praie for your happiness and felicity as the chief subject of my wishes, and shall make my continual supplication to the Lord, that from the riches of his mercie he will give you such influence of his graces as your blessing and prosperitie may satisfy, and enlarge the hopes and comforts of your most affectionate father." This is the nature which turns venom into sweetness. Hampden hastens to assure him that the present conduct of his sons is all he could desire. " If ever you live," he writes, "to see a fruite answerable to the promise of the present blossoms, it will be a blessing of that weight as will turn the scale against all worldly afflictions, and denominate your life happy." His affection had spoken with too generous a haste. The elder son, John Eliot, who had been sent, by his father's desire, to Oxford, fell into many irregularities, and great- ly offended the superiors of his college.* This was afterward only slightly intimated to his father, but it cost him much pain. The young- er boy, Richard Eliot, remained at Hampden's seat, and pursued his studies under Hampden's care. He appears to have interested his illus- trious tutor extremely. Delicately, however Hampden is obliged to intimate to his friend, at last, that even Richard is somewhat remiss in his studies. Eliot immediately writes to the boy. He begins by a slight reproach for his not hav- * All the extracts from tetters that follow, unless other- wise specified, are from the Eliot family papers, already re- ferred to. * This youth afterward, as I have already noticed, "raa off" with a ward in chancery. He hecame, ultimately, a hanger-on in the court of Charles II. Evelyn mentions him. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 37 ing written to his father. " I had no little doubt, after so long a silence, where you were, or whether you were or no." He desires him to forego the temptations of his young acquaint- ance ; to forego, indeed, all society for the present, " that esca malorum, as Cicero calls it," and to retire wholly to himself. " Virtue," he continues, " is more rigid than to be taken with delights ; these vanities she leaves, for these she scorns herself; her paths are arduous and rough, but excellent, and pleasant to those who once have past them. Honour is a concomi- tant they have to entertain them in their jour- ney, nay, it becomes their servant, and, what is attended by all others, those who travel in that way have it to wait on them. And this effort of virtue has not, as in the vulgar accep- tation, its dwelling on a hill ; it crowds not in the multitude, but extra conspectum, as Seneca says, beyond the common prospect." He illus- trates this farther by some quotations from his favourite Tacitus. That there was no pedan- try in this habit is proved by such familiar re- sort to it in an affectionate advice to his boy. At this time, indeed, as I shall presently show, he was living in the world of the illustrious thinkers of old, and had entitled himself to it as his own. He concludes his letter with the fol- lowing eloquent and earnest remonstrance : " How comes it that your tutor should com- plain you are careless and remiss 1 It can- not be, when there is true affection, there should be indiligence and neglect ; when studie is declined the desires are alienated from the virtue ; for no ends are attained without the means, and the neglect of that shows a diver- sion from the other. If it be since my last, T must resume my fears that, though your own judgment did not guide you, my cautions should be lost. If it should be hereafter, when that advice, those reasons, and the commands and authority of a father (a father most indulgent to the happiness of his child), which I now give you to redeem the time is spent, to redeem the studies you have missed, and to redeem yourself who are ingaged to danger, or that hazard and adventure if these make no im- pressions,, and these must be read in the char- acters of your course, if they work not an al- teration ; if they cause not a new diligency and intention, an intention of yourself, and inten- tion of the object, virtue ; an intention of the means, your study, and an exact intention of the time to improve it to that end ; I shall then receive that wound, which I thank God no en- emy could give me, sorrow and affliction of the mind, and that from him from whom I hoped the contrary. But I still hope, and the more confidently for the promise which your letters have assured me. Let it be bettered in per- formance by your future care and diligence, which shall be accompanied with the prayers and blessings of your most loving father." Ultimately, Eliot, having been much entreat- ed to it by his son John, consents that he shall go abroad, and writes to Hampden mentioning this, adding his desire that, before the youth's departure, he should endeavour to obtain his " license," or degree, at Oxford. He forwards, at the same time, a letter of advice and instruc- tion respecting a course and object in travel. He is particular in his directions as to the places to be visited, in what order, and with what pur- pose. He shows, in this, a lively knowledge of the state of politics on the Continent. " Be careful," he urges in conclusion, " in your re- ligion, make your devotions frequent, seeke the blessing from above, drawe your imitation to goode patternes, lett not vaine pedantries de- ceive you, prepare your estimation by your vir- tue, which your own carriage and example must acquire, wherein you have assistants in the most earnest prayers and wishes of your loving father." In the same communication to Hampden, Eliot sends an expression of his views respecting his younger son, Richard. He considers that the best mode of employing with a good purpose his quick and vivacious humour will be to send him to the Netherlands, to learn the art of war, in the company of Sir Horace Vere. A passage from Hampden's reply on these points, which is charmingly written, will properly close this subject. " I ame so per- fectly acquainted," he says, "with y cleare insight into the dispositions of men, and abili- ty to fitt them with courses suitable, that had you bestowed sonnes of mine as you have done y r owne, my judgmt durst hardly have called it into question, especially when in laying downe y r desigtie you have prevented the objections to be made ag* it : for if Mr. Richard Eliot will, in the intermissions of action, adde study to practice, and adorne that lively spiritt with flowers of contemplation, he'll raise our expec- tations of another Sir Edward [Horace] Vere, that had this character, all summer jn the field, all winter in his study, in whose fall fame makes this kingdome a great loser : and having taken this resolution from counsaile with the Highest Wisdom (as I doubt not but you have), I hope and pray the same Power will crown it with a blessing answerable to your wish." It is a great privilege to be thus admitted to the private thoughts and conduct of such men as Eliot and Hampden. The secret of their public exertions is here expressed. It is by the strenth and right direction of the private affec- tions that we are taught the duty of serving mankind. The more intense the faculty of en- joyment and comfort in the narrow circle of family regards, the more readily is its indul- gence sacrificed in behalf of the greater family of man. The severity of Eliot in the House of Commons is explained by the tender sweetness of these letters from the Tower. Without a hope of release, Eliot's impris- onment continued. The whole county of Cornwall, I learn from a manuscript letter, pe- titioned the king for his freedom,* -but no an- swer was deigned. Sustained by the genius of Wentworth, Charles's tyranny was now open and undisguised ; and, in a royal procla- mation, he had forbidden even the name of Par- liament to pass the lips of his people. t Eliot * Mead to Stuteville, Sept. 26, 1629. MS. letter. Nor was Eliot without the sympathy of men of learning, cor- respondents of Sir Robert Cotton, in London, at the univer- sities, and on the Continent. " I should gladly heare some cheerful news of Sir John Eliot," writes the learned Richard James. " Will the tide never turn? Then God send us heaven at our last end !'' Nor is it to be supposed that any possible exertion was wanting on the part of his friends. Sir Bevill Grenville, in a letter to his wife, " his best friend, the Lady Grace Grenville," speaks of Eliot as ' being re- solved to have him out of his imprisonment." (Nugenfs Memorials.) Every exertion failed. t Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 3. lu this extraordinary docu- 38 BRITISH STATESMEN. was not even suffered to remain quietly in his wretched lodging. He was removed from place to place, each one as " darke and smoakey" as the first. " The lodging which I had upon my first remove before Christmas," he writes to Sir Oliver Luke, " being again altered, I may saie of my lodgings in the Tower as Jacob for his wages, 'Now, then, ten times have they chaunged it ;' but, I thank God, not once has it caused an alteration of my mind so infinite is that mercie which has hitherto protected mee, and I doubt not but I shall find it with mee." He concludes by referring to some " light papers" which seem to have engaged him in the intervals of his greater work. " When you have wearied your good thoughts with those light papers that I sent you, return them with the corrections of your judgment. I may one day send you others of more worth, if it please God to continue me this leisure and my health ; but the best can be but broken and in patches, from him that dares not hazard to gather them. Such thinges, from me, falling like the leaves in autumn soe variously and uncertainly, that they hardly meet again ; but with you I am confident what else my weak- ness shall present will have a faire acceptance." This allusion to his health was ominous. Sick- ness had already begun to threaten him. Some days after this, he writes to his kins- man Knightly (whose son afterward married one of Hampden's daughters) a description of what he conceives to have been the commence- ment of his disorder, the colds of his prison. " For the present I am wholly at a stand, and have been soe for this fortnight by a sicknesse which it hath pleased my Master to impose, in whose hands remain the issues of life and death. It comes originally from my colds, with which the cough having been long upon me causes such ill effects to follow it, that the symptoms are more dangerous than the grief; it has weakened much both the appetite and concoction, and the outward strength ; by that some doubt there is of a consumption, but we endeavour to prevent it by application of the means, and, as the great physition, seek the blessing from the Lord." Good humour and easy quiet, however, did not desert him, though his disease steadily advanced. A week after the date of the foregoing, he writes to Hamp- den : " Lately my business hath been much with doctors, so that, but by them,, I have had little trouble with myself. These three weeks I have had a full leisure to do nothing, and strictly tied unto it either by their direction or my weakness. The cause originally was a ment, the king took occasion also to attack Eliot. In refer- ence, it may be supposed, to his commissioners of inquiry into Eliot's property having had a " nihil" returned to them, Charles observes, " Notwithstanding his majesty's late dec- laration, for satisfying the minds and affections of his loving subjects, some ill-disposed persons do spread false and per- nicious rumours abroad ; as if the scandalous and seditious proposition in the House of Commons, made by an outlawed man, desperate in mind and fortune, tumultuously taken by some few, after that by his majesty's royal authority he had commanded their adjournment, had been the voice of the whole House, whereas the contrary is the truth." The words I have printed in italics are not in Rushworth, but Rymer supplies them. (Foedera, xix., 62.) The infatua- ted king continues, " This late abuse having for the present driven his majesty unwillingly out of that course, he shall account it presumption for any to prescribe any time to his majesty for Parliaments ; the calling, continuing, and dis- solving of them, being always in the king's own power." cold, but the symptoms that did follow it spake more sickness ; a gradual indisposition it begot in all the faculties of the bodie. The learned said a consumption did attend it ; but I thank God I did not feel or credit it. What they ad- vised as the ordinance that's appointed I was content to use, and in the time I was a patient, suffered whatever they imposed. Great is the authority of princes, but greater much is their's who both command our purses and our wills. What the success of their government wills, must be referred to him that is master of their power. I find myself bettered, though not well, which makes me the more readie to ob- serve them. The Divine blessing must effec- tuate their wit it is that medicine that has hitherto protected me, and will continue me among other affairs to remain your faithfull friend." It is affecting to observe, even in his manner of writing, a characteristic of the fatal disorder that had seized him. As his illness became more determined, the severity of his imprisonment was increased. Pory the letter writer, indeed, remarked, about this time, " I heare Sir John Eliot is to remove out of his darke smoakey lodging into a bet- ter ;" but I can find no evidence of the remo- val. On the contrary, shortly before his last letter to Hampden, he had written to Bevil Grenville (who then opposed the court, but af- terward, with no suspicion of his virtue, died fighting for the king at Landsdowne) a state- ment of increased restraint. His friend had by letter alluded to some rumours that were then abroad,* and on the faith of which Pory seems to have gossiped, as above, of his probable lib- eration. " The restraint and watch uppon me," Eliot answers, "barrs much of my intercourse with my friends ; while their presence is de- nied me, and letters are soe dangerous and suspected, as it is little that way we exchange ; soe as if circumstances shall condemn me, I must stand guiltie in their judgments ; yet yours (though with some difficultie I have re- ceived, and manie times when it was knocking at my door, because their convoy could not en- ter they did retire again, wherein I must com- mend the caution of your messenger, but at length it found a safe passage by my servant) made mee happie in your favour, for which this comes as a retribution and acknowledgment. For those rumours which you meet that are but artificial, or by chance, it must be your wisdom not to credit them. Manie such false fires are flyinge dailie in the ear. When there shall be occasion, expect that intelligence from friends ; for which in the meene time you do well to be provided ; though I shall crave when that dispute falls, properlie and for rea- sons not deniable, a change of your intention in particulars as it concerns myselfe ; in the rest I shall concur in all readiness to serve you, and in all you shall command me who am no- thing but as you represent." His concluding * These rumours prevailed strongly at one time. They arose out of whispers of a possibility of a Parliament ; and I find it stated in a letter among the Harleian MSS., 7000, dated Dec. 14, 1631-2, that " Sir John Eliot had lately been courted and caressed in his prison by some great men who are most, in danger to be called in question." If any such overtures were made to him, it is certain that he continued immoveable. Rapiu, indeed, says distinctly (vol. x., p. 263, note), ' Sir John Eliot had been tampered -with, but was found proof against all temptation." SIR JOHN ELIOT. 39 words are affecting. " My humble service to your ladie. and tell her that yet I doubt not to kisse her hand. Make much of my godson." Immediately after this, instead of any evi- dence of better treatment, I have to furnish proof of an accession of the most savage and atrocious severity. Eliot hitherto had been permitted, under certain restrictions, to receive visits from his friends. This poor privilege was now withdrawn, and it is well that this is to be offered on the best authority, or I could not have asked the reader to give credence to it the comfort of a fire, necessary to life in a damp prison, whose inmate already struggled with a disorder brought on by cold, was. in the depth of winter, wholly, or almost wholly, de- nied to Eliot ! On the 26th of December, 1631, he thus writes to Hampden : " That I write not to you anything of intelligence, will be ex- cused when I do let you know that I am under a new restraint, by warrant from the king, for a supposed abuse of liberty, in admitting a free resort of visitants, and under that colour hold- ing consultations with my friends. My lodg- ings are removed, and I am now where candle- light may be suffered, but scarce fire. I hope you will think that this exchange of places makes not a change of minds. The same pro- tector is still with me, and the same confidence, and these things can have end by him that gives them being. None but my servants, hardly my mn, may have admittance to me. My friends I must desire, for their own sakes, to forbear coming to the Tower. You among them are chief, and have the first place in this intelli- gence. I have now leisure," he continues, with affecting resignation, " and shall dispose myself to business ; therefore those loose pa- pers which you had, I would cast out of the way, being now returned again unto me. In your next give me a word or two of note ; for those translations you excepted at, you know we are blind towards ourselves ; our friends must be our glasses ; therefore in this I crave (what in all things I desire) the reflection of your judgment." Thus, in the midst of his worst sufferings, Eliot had the consolation and sustainment of the philosophical work in which he had enga- ged. His own study, as I have described, had been plundered of its papers and sealed up by the king ; but his friends supplied him with books ; and in this office, as in every other care and kindness, Hampden was most for- ward.* Sir Robert Cotton's library would have proved of inestimable value to Eliot at this time, as some few years before it had served a kindred spirit, t but the atrocious tyranny that now prevailed had reached its learned owner. Accused of having furnished precedents to Sel- den and Eliot, Sir Robert Cotton's great libra- ry was seized and held by the king ; and, una- ble to survive its loss, the great scholar died.t * I shall have a more proper opportunity (in the notice of Hampden) of eliciting a number of delightful personal char- acteristics from his present conduct to his friend. t Sir Walter Raleigh. See an interesting letter in the Biographia Britannica, vol. v., p. 3485. t The following extract from Sir Symonds D'Ewes' diary is deeply affecting : " When I went several times to visit and comfort him [Sir Robert Cotton] in the year Ifi30, he would tell me, ' thcv had broken his heart, that had lucked lip his library from hjin.' I easily guessed the reason, be- cause bis honour and ecteein were much impaired by this I have spoken of a kindred spirit with that of Eliot. It is impossible, in describing Eliot's la- bours at this moment when, Active still, and unrestrain'd, his mind Explored the long extent of ages past, t And with his prison hours enrich'd the world not to recollect Sir Walter Raleigh. Kin- dred they were, at least in magnanimity of spirit and largeness of intellect. If it were worth while, I could point out other resem- blances. Their faces, in portraits I have seen, were strongly like. They were both of old Dev- onshire families ; both were new residents in Cornwall ; and, through the Champernownes, one of whom had given birth to Raleigh, their families were in a degree related.* They both died victims of the grossest tyranny, but not till they had illustrated to the world exam- ples of fearless endurance, and left, for the world's instruction, the fruit of their prison hours. In one particular here, or, rather, ac- cident, the resemblance fails ; for Raleigh's in- tention of benefit was fulfilled by the publica- tion of his labours, while Eliot's have remain- ed to the present day unpublished, disregarded, almost unknown. I shall shortly endeavour to remove from literature, at least, a portion of this reproach ; and, in so doing, an opportunity will be given to Eliot himself to complete this allusion to Raleigh, by one of the finest trib- utes that has yet been paid to that gallant and heroic spirit. The health of the imprisoned philosopher sank day by day. His " attorney at law," how- ever, told Pory that he was the same cheerful and undaunted man as ever. His friends now appear to have resolved to make a desperate effort to save him. I quote from one of Pory's manuscript letters to Sir Robert Puckering :t ' On Tuesday was sennight, Mr. Mason, of Lincoln's Inn, made a motion to the judges of King's Bench for Sir John Eliot, that, whereas the doctors were of opinion he could never re- cover of his consumption until such time as he might breathe in purer air, they would, for some certain time, grant him his enlargement for that purpose. Whereunto my Lord-chief- justice Richardson answered, that although Sir John were brought low in body, yet was he as high and lofty in mind as ever, for he would neither submit to the king, nor to the justice of that court. In fine, it was concluded by the bench to refer him to the king by way of peti- tion." Eliot refused to do this, proceeded still with his treatise, and uttered no complaint. Hamp- den continued to send him books, and, with delicate good sense, rallies him to his labours : " Make good use of the bookes you shall re- ceive from mee, and of your time ; be sure you shall render a strict account of both to your ever assured friend." As the work progressed, fatal accident ; and his house, that was formerly frequented by great and honourable personages, as by learned men of all sorts, remained now, upon the matter, empty and deso- late. I understood from himself and others, that Dr. Neile and Dr. Laud, two prelates that had been stigmatized in tho first [last ?] session of Parliament in 1628, were his sore en- emies. He was so outworn, within a few months, with an- guish and grief, as his face, which had formerly been ruddy and well coloured, was wholly changed into a grim and blackish paleness, near to the resemblance and hue of a dead visage." Within a "few months" more he died. * See a statement at p. 1 of this memoir ; and Biog. Brit., vol. v., p. 34(57. t Sloaae MSS., 4178. 40 BRITISH STATESMEN. it was sent in portions to Hampden, who criti- cised it, and, as I shall show, gave value to his praise by occasional objection : " And that to satisfy you, not myselfe, but that by obeying you in a command so contrary to my own dis- position, you may measure how large a power you have over John Hampden." Very little political allusion passed in these letters. It was a dangerous subject to touch, for Eliot's correspondence was never safe from exposure.* Some time before, he had mentioned this, as we have seen, to Grenville ; and he wrote to Denzil Hollis a letter which bears upon politi- cal affairs, but only in dark hints, which he might not express more plainly. " Through a long silence," he says, " I hope you can re- taine the confidence and memoire of your frende. He that knows your virtue in the generate cannot doubt any particular of your charitie. The corruption of this age, if no oth- er danger might occur, were an excuse, even in business, for not writing. The sun, we see, begets divers monsters on the earth when it has heat and violence ; time may do more on paper ; therefore, the safest intercourse is by harts ; in this way I have much intelligence to give you, but you may divine it without proph- esie." Nearly four years had now passed over Eliot in his prison. Those popular leaders who had been subjected to confinement at the same time, had all of them, within the first eighteen months, obtained their release. t Eliot only was detained. After the conclusion of the treatise that had so long served to keep up his interest and attention, he appears to have sunk rapidly. Almost worn out by his illness, his friends at last prevailed upon him to petition the king. The-account of his " manner of pro- ceeding" is affecting to the last degree. I give it in the words of a letter from Pory to Sir Thomas Puckering : " Hee first presented a petition to his majesty, by the hand of the lieu- tenant, his keeper, to this effect : ' Sir, your judges have committed mee to prison here in your Tower of London, where, by reason of the quality of the ayer, I am fallen into a dan- gerous disease. I humbly beseech your majes- ty you will command your judges to sett mee at liberty, that, for recovery of my health, I may take some fresh ayer,' &c. Whereunto his majestie's answer was, ' it was not humble enough.' Then Sir John sent another petition, by his own sonne, to the effect following : ' Sir, I am hartily sorry I have displeased your majes- ty, and, having so said, doe humbly beseech you once againe to comand your judges to sett me at liberty, that, when I have recovered my health, I may returne back to my prison, there to undergoe suche punishment as God hath al- lotted unto mee,' &c. Upon this the lieuten- ant came and expostulated with him, saying it was proper to him, and common to none else, * Many of Hampden's most beautiful letters never reach- ed him. t Before Valentine had obtained his bail, Eliot began to suspect him of juggling for release ; and he writes of him to a friend, Thomas Godfrey, " This is all I can tell you of him, unless by supposition I could judge him in his reser- vations and retirement, knocking at some back door of the court, at which, if he enter to preferment, you shall know it from your faithful friend." I could furnish many such proofs of the jealous care with which Eliot watched the virtue of his friends. to doe that office of delivering petitions for his prisoners. And if Sir John, in a third petition, would humble himselfe to his majestie in ac- knowledging his fault and craving pardon, he would willingly deliver it, and made no doubt but hee should obtaine his liberty. Unto this Sir John's answer was : ' I thank you, sir, for your friendly advise, but my spirits are growen feeble and faint, which, when it shall please God to restore unto their former vigour, I will take it farther into my consideration.' "* That this is a perfectly correct account can- not be doubted. Pory collected the particulars after the death of Eliot, and gives us his au- thority. " A gentleman," he says, " not un- known to Sir Thomas Lucy, told me, from Lord Cottington's mouth, that Sir John Eliot's late manner of proceeding was this." Moreover, in one of Lord Cottington's own despatches to Wentworth, the savage satisfaction with which the court had received, and with which they knew Lord Wentworth would also receive, the assurance of the approaching death of the for- midable Eliot, is permitted to betray itself. "Your old dear friend, Sir John Eliot," ob- serves the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Lord-deputy of Ireland, winding up a series of important advices with this, the most impor- tant Of all, " IS VERY LIKE TO DIE."t Within two months from that date Lord Cot- tington's prediction was accomplished. Eliot, however, had yet a duty of life left, which he performed with characteristic purpose. He sent for a painter to the Tower, and had hit* portrait painted, exactly as he then appeared, worn out by disease, and with a face of ghast- ly paleness. This portrait he gave to his son, that it might hang on the walls of Port Eliot, near a painting which represented him in vig- orous manhood a constant and vivid evidence of the sufferings he had unshrinkingly borne " a perpetual memorial of his hatred of tyran- ny." These pictures are at Port Eliot still. I have been favoured with a loan of the earlier portrait, by the courtesy of Lord St. Germain's. It represents a face of perfect health, and keen- ly intellectual proportions. In this respect, in its wedge-like shape, in the infinite majesty of the upper region, and the sudden narrowness of the lower, it calls to mind at once the face of Sir Walter Raleigh. Action speaks out from the quick, keen eye, and meditation from the calm breadth of the brow. In the disposition of the hair and the peaked beard, it appears, to a casual glance, not unlike Vandyke's Charles. The later portrait is a profoundly melancholy contrast. It is wretchedly painted, but it ex- presses the reality of death-like life. It pre- sents Eliot in a very elegant morning dress, apparently of lace, and bears the inscription of having been " painted, a few days before his death, in the Tower." In the last moments of his life, Eliot present- ed the perfect pattern of a Christian philoso- pher. I quote the last of his letters to Hamp- den. " Besides the acknowledgment of your favour that have so much compassion on your frend, I have little to return you from him that has nothing worthy of your acceptance, but the * Harleian MSS., 7000. t Strafford's State Papers, vol. i., p. 79, dated October 18, 1632. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 41 contestation that I have between an ill bodie and the aer, that quarrell, and are friends, as the summer winds affect them. I have these three daies been abroad,* and as often brought in new impressions of the colds, yet, body, and strength, and appetite, I finde myself bettered by the motion. Cold at first was the occasion of my sickness, heat and tenderness by close keepinge in my chamber has since increast my weakness. Air and exercise are thought most proper to repaire it, which are the prescription of my doctors, though noe physic. I thank God other medicines I now take not, but those catholicons, and doe hope I shall not need them. As children learn to go, I shall get ac- quainted with the aer ; practice and use will compasse it, and now and then a fall is an in- struction for the future. These varieties He does trie us with, that will have us perfect at all parts, and as he gives the trial, he likewise gives the ability that shall be necessary for the worke. He has the Philistine at the disposi- tion of his will, and those that trust him, under his protection and defence. ! infinite mercy of our master, deare friend, how it abounds to us, that are unworthy of his service ! How broken ! how imperfect ! how perverse and crooked are our waise in obedience to him ! how exactly straight is the line of his provi- dence to us ! drawn out through all occurrents and particulars to the whole length and meas- ure of our time ! how perfect is his hand that has given his Sonne unto us, and through him has promised likewise to give us all things relieving our wants, sanctifying our necessi- ties, preventing our dangers, freeing us from all extremities, and dying himself for us ! What can we render 1 what retribution can we make worthy soe great a majestie 1 worthy such love and favour 1 We have nothing but ourselves, who are unworthy above all, and yett that, as all other things, is his. For us to offer up that, is but to give him of his owne, and that in far worse condition than we at first received it, which yet (for infinite in his good- nesse for the merits of his Sonne) he is con- tented to accept. This, dear frend, must be the comfort of his children ; this is the physic we must use in all our sicknesse and extremi- ties ; this is the strengthening of the weake, the nuriching of the poore, the libertie of the captive, the health of the diseased, the life of those that die, the death of the wretched life of sin ! And this happiness have his saints. The contemplation of this happiness has led me al- most beyond the compass of a letter ; but the haste I use unto my frends, and the affection that does move it, will, I hope, excuse me. Frends should communicate their joyes : this, as the greatest, therefore, I could not but im- part unto my frend, being therein moved by the present expectation of your letters, which al- ways have the grace of much intelligence, and are happiness to him that is trulie yours." I add to this an extract from one of Pory's * The precincts of his prison, it is unnecessary to add, enclosed the " abroad" of Eliot. The " air and exercise" he afterward mentions, as having somewhat "bettered" him, were only what he could win from a few narrow paces within the walls of the Tower. It is easy to conclude from this, that a sight of his native country, the greeting of one healthful Cornish breeze, would almost instantly have re stored him. letters, dated November 15, 1632. " The same night, Monday, having met with Sir John El- iot's attorney in St. Paul's churchyard, he told me he had been that morning with Sir John in the Tower, and found him so far spent with his consumption as not like to live a week longer."* He survived twelve days. On the 27th of November, 1632, Sir John Eliot died. Imme- diately after the event, his son (Richard, as I presume, since he did not go abroad as he pur- posed) "petitioned his majesty once more, hee would bee pleased to permitt his body to be carried into Cornwall, there to be buried. Whereto was answered at the foot of the peti- tion, ' Lett Sir John Eliot's body be buried in the church of that parish where he dyed.'"t This attempt to wreak an indignity on the re- mains of Eliot was perfectly in accordance with Charles's system. A paltry piece of heartless spite on the lifeless body of a man appropriately closes a series of unavailing at- tempts to reduce his living soul. What re- mained of the great statesman was thrust into some obscure corner of the Tower church, and the court rejoiced that its great enemy was gone. Faithful and brave hearts were left to re- member this, and the sufferings of Eliot were not undergone in vain. They bore their part in the heat and burden of the after struggle. His name was one of its watchwords, and it had none more glorious. His sufferings, then, have been redeemed. The manner of his death was no more than the completion of the pur- poses of his life. Those purposes, and the ac- tions which illustrated and sustained them, I have described in these pages, for the first time, with fidelity and minuteness. In doing this, I have also endeavoured to exhibit his personal and intellectual qualities so fully, that any reiteration of them here might be tedious, and is certainly unnecessary. In estimating his character as a statesman, our view is lim- ited by the nature of the political struggle in which he acted. We have sufficient evidence, however, to advance from that into a greater and more independent field of achievement and design. His genius would assuredly have proved itself as equal to the perfect govern- ment of a state, as it showed itself supreme in the purpose of rescuing a state from misgov- ernment. As a leader of opposition, he has had no superior in history, probably no equal. His power of resource, in cases of emergency, was brilliant to the last degree, and his elo- quence was of the highest order. The moral structure of his mind was as nearly perfect as that of the most distinguished men who have graced humanity. It ranks with theirs. Yet this is he whose memory has been in- sulted by a series of monstrous slanders flung out against it by political opponents with a recklessness beyond parallel ! The time for such slanders, however, has happily passed away, and the name of John Eliot may now be preserved, unsullied, for the affection and ven- eration of his countrymen. What remains to be said of this great per- son, I shall subjoin as an appendix to this me- * Harleian MSS., 7000. t Ibid., 7000. 42 BRITISH STATESMEN. moir. I am about to examine his philosophical ' mingled sweetness and grandeur have been treatise for, I believe, the first time. It has j quoted ; no attempt has even been made to de- been mentioned, certainly by more writers than j scribe them. I am about to remove this re- one, and about twenty lines have been quoted j proach from literature, and to enrich it with from it ; but this is the utmost extent of appre- j several specimens of thought and style, which ciation it has received. No one has yet shown | might give an added lustre to the reputation any evidence of other than the most superficial of our loftiest writers in prose to a Hooker or glance at its contents ; none of its passages of { a Milton. APPENDIX, SOME ACCOUNT OF AN UNPUBLISHED PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISE, THE MONARCHY OF MAN, WRITTEN BY SIR JOHN ELIOT DURING HIS LAST IMPRISONMENT. A CONSIDERATION of such affecting interest is so imme- diately and vividly excited in looking at the first page of this manuscript, that I have had it carefully copied for the read- er. It presents at once the scene of Eliot's imprisonment, and the lonely and weary hours this cherished work may have lightened. The pure exaltation of the philosopher is approached most nearly by the simplicity of a child ; and how touching is the childlike care and interest which, to while away the lingering time, has so elaborately wrought itself within every letter of this exquisite title ! Crouching under the T and the M two faces will be detected rather ungain, indeed, but still sufficient to remind the solitary prisoner of the more " human fece divine." I leave the rest to the imagination of the reader, which is, in many respects, silently and deeply appealed to. I will only add that the omission of the woru " fecit," in the truly and touchingly noble motto, appears to me to be in the highest taste. It reads, as it stands, like an abridged motto on a shield, chiv- alrous and significant. It is no proof of the judgment of the only two writers who have given the title of this trea- tise, that they undertake to repair Eliot's omission in this re- spect v.Ueus mu hac This wood-cut, it is to be observed, is very considerably reduced from the original, which is of a folio size. The treatise itself occupies two hundred and forty folio pages, which are written over with extreme closeness, and by no means so legibly as the specimen before the reader. Eliot was fond of abbreviations ; and the key of his style, in that particular, has grown something rusty, and tnes the pa- tience. Tie treatise opens with a general proposition in favour of what Eliot calls the covenant of monarchy. The example of man's monarchy follows the monarchy of the mind as the greatest of those covenants, after that of the government of nature, of God. " Of all covenantes, kingdomes are the best, answering to the first and highest, both of institutions and examples, either in the policie of man or the president of his maker. Next to that great monarchic and kingdoms, quod sub Jove, nomen habet, in which the microcosme, the whole world, is comprehended, is the monarchic of man, that little world and microcosme, coming the neerest, both in order and pro- portion, for excellencie of matter and exquisitnes of forme. In tymi! and order nothing makes to question it ; it beeing the instant and imediate successor of that greater, wherein, the Creation being accomplisht, man was made a governour. In excellency and proportion what paralell may it have? what similitude can be given it? its forme beeing like the disposition of the heavens, soe geometricall and exact, that each part, each orbe, hath his owne motion, in his own tyme, to his owne ends, genuine and proper." The course of each " orbe and member" is pursued in terms of exalted eulogy, and the ''matter" is next handled. By this is meant the subject matter of the proposed govern- BRITISH STATESMEN. ment, which embraces nothing extraneous, nothing connect- ed with creatures that are inferior, in point of grandeur, to man himself. "The excellence of the matter likewise does appear, in that it is not an invention of humanitie, a fabrike of art, but of a substance heauenly, the perfection of all creatures, the true image of the Deity. 'Twere too lowe, too narrow, for the founder to reduce the gouernment to beasts, and to confine it to that compasse, which yet likewise was cast within man's will, and those things submitted to his use. This were unworthie the original!, that transcendent great- nes from whence this excellence is derived, to applie it onely to such things. And much more were it unworthie the ends, the glory and the honor, of that greatnes which reflects from purer obiects. 'Tis larger, 'tis better. 'Tis of .man chiefly this goverment consists. Man, to be the gouernour of himselfe, an exact monarchic within him, in the composition of which state nothing without him may have interest, but all stands subservient to his use, nee only to his maker." Eliot then proposes to consider the component parts of this monarchy, and the relative duties they sustain. " In this monarchic of man, to make the excellence con- spicuous, first is requisite a description of the parts, then the knowledge of theire duties ; that, euery member beeing scene, and theoffice it sustaines,it may then appear of what use and advantages they are, what severall meritts they implie, both in degrees and simplie, what conference they have, of how much importance to the generall, what cor- respondence and relations with themselves. " In the parts, the minde doth sitt as soveraigne, in the throne and center of the heart, the station of most aptnes both for intelligence and coinand. Two sorts of servants doe attend him, daylie administering in that court ; the one for use and businesse, as Plutarche has it of Craterus, friends and servants to the KINO ; the other, like Hephestion, for pleasure and delight, friends and servants unto ALEXANDER. These, the rationall and bruite faculties of the soule, are both necessarie in theire kinds, both usefull to their sover- aigne, though differing in theire service, and differing in the way. " Of the first a senate is compos'd, a solid body for councill and advice, still intent on the gouernment. Such are mem- orie, judgement, fancie, and theire like. The second are the waiters and followers, which respect not the affaires, but the presence, of theire king, as the will and affections that accompanie him. Subservient to these, and according to these principles, all other things are mov'd, every part and member in his place ; the great officers beeing the sen- c.es ; and ministers subordinate, the organs ; the subiect, the body, in which all these subsist, and though the most unactive part it be, yet it is trucly called the center and foundation of the rest. " This is the frame and constitution of this monarchic, and of these parts it does consist." The question follows of the several offices and duties of these various parts, and " On this point," Eliot observes, with an allusion of extreme elegance, " wee shall endeavour to expresse, as young painters doe rare beauties, some lines and slight resemblances, though, in the exactness, wee come short of the true figure and perfection." " There is one common duetie of them all, to which all are equally obliged ; prince as well as subjects, subjects as theire prince ; all offices are directed to this end, and all are accomptable for that trust ; proportionably indeed to the quallities they are in ; geometrically, and ad pondus, though not arithmetically and alike. The greater and more digni- fied, for more, as more advantage has been given them ; the lesse, and all, for somewhat to the capacities they have. Which is for the conservation of the whole, the publike utilitie and good, wherein all indeavours must conterminate as theire absolute and true end. "And the reason is binding in this point. For if the whole fabrike be desolved, how can a part subsist? Be it the chamber of the councill, the head ; or the king's throne, the heart ; or yet, which is more excellent, what they both containe, the king himself and councell, the mind and facul- ties of reason ; what subsistance can they have, or what be- ing can they hold, without that frame and body of which they are king and councell? A father is soe called, but in relation to a child ; and if that childhood cease, he ceases to be a father. It is ignorance, madness, to think that in a disjuncture they can stand, either the prince or the sub- iect ; when the prince is such but in referrence to the sub- iect, and the subiect has not being without the subsistance of the state. Adeo manifestum est (as an emperour speaks in Tacitus) neq ; perire neq ; salvos esse, nisi una, $c. The conjuncture is so strict, that in the dissolution of the generall, noe particuler can be fast ; and, without preserva- tion of the members, the body cannot stand ; therefore each part must strive for the conservation of the whole, and that whole intend the preservation of the parts." Eliot then reduces to two heads, the division and limita- tion of their respective duties. The passage is striking. " The king is to command ; the subiect to obey. Both, however, with like readines in theire places, and like af- fection to each other. The subiect must not make his cen- ter in himself, and direct onely his indeavours to that end, as if there they were to terminate ; but they must alwaies be with respect unto his soueraigne, and to the publike good, therein inclining his will. As the king is to answere this observance in correspondency thereof, he must not retire his thoughts to private purposes and designes, respects that are particuler, peculier interests of his owne ; but his authority must move as it has been appointed, in ordine, for his sub- iects, for the common use and benefit, for the safety and tranquillitie of the state, for the singuler advantage of each member, and the universall happinesse and good." The treatise now flows naturally into an examination of the analogies of civil government. " And in this, generally, this monarchic is agreeable to all others, of the same frame and constitution ; and what is true in them is conclusive upon this, their reasons being alike ; as conversively from this, may be argued to the rest. Wee will therefore consider them together, to see how the authority does arise, and what powers and judgments have been giuen them. That done, wee will discend to exercises and corruptions, with the effects and consequences that are incident, from whence, by comparison, the knowledge wille be easic. Where the advantage rests, that shall be an ev- idence to iustifie the right. Even the fruite and proffit shall be made arguments to prove it. Wherein, notwith- standing all disguises to the contrarie, the true utile shall be seen, like the heliotropium, that beautie of the gardens, always converting to the sunne, the honestum, to which it shutts and opens, as that is present or removed." The original of civil monarchy Eliot seeks for in the heavens. From the solitude of his dungeon, into that clear region, " above the thunder," it was some consolation to pass ! " To finde out the original! of these excellencies, the be- ginning of these monarchies and monarchs, wee must first search the heavens, and, by ascending thither by thought and speculation, bring down the knowledge of that truth. Wee shall there see them, from before all eternitie, written in the councells of the court, the great ruler there haueing so decreed it, in conformity to his gouernment. From his owne excellence and perfection was theire idea taken, the patterne and example being himselfe, the worke his owne, the institution and invention his, and the end and scope for which it was ordained. Soe thence wee shall finde theire originalls derived ; there they haue beginning ; from thence they haue continuance ; there both their Genesis and Exo- dus are inroll'd. All their degrees, periods, and revolutions, their remissions, and intentions, are guided by this influ- ence. Inde est imperator (saith Tertullian), vnde et homo : inde potestas, vnde et spiritus. The same power which first created man gave their originall to princes. He who of nothing gave being unto all things he that to man whilst he was yet but clay, that unactive piece of element, infused a spirit and fire to give him life and motion from him pro- ceeds this power.'' Aristotle, Dion, Plato, and Pliny give the strength of their authority to the writer ; and, pursuing various monarchical analogies, in a manner much resembling that of Sydney's treatise, through families, cities, and so on, he arrives at the government of the " great glol>e itself," in considering which, he says, the reason sinks, for, since it cannot ascend up to " nature, which is but the daughter of the world," much less should it compass " the world, the universall mother of all nature." Eliot then exclaims, with a passing eulogv on Cicero, which, considering the many points of literary resemblance between them, is very interesting: " Without a maker the world had not been at first, without a ruler it would haue no continuance. The varieties and con- trarieties that are in it, beyond the understanding of weake man, so reconciled to order and agreement, give it a full ex- pression. O the height of this gradation, which none but Cicero could climbe !" And thus he proceeds through a laboured praise, considering the accomplished Roman in all his aspects, " resorting to the person from the cause, from the client to the advocate," till he knows not, as he ex- presses it, " whether his truth or eloquence be more ad- mirable." The next passage I shall quote is beautiful and character- istic. Eliot proposes to examine the authority of princes, their powers and judgments, with their controlling rules and limits. In the course he lays down towards this, I recog- nise an admirable sense of the proprieties in argument, with a feeling of the probable public appearance of his labours ; a glance at the strange aspect of the times, and an endeavour to save his work, as it were, from the severities that had fallen on himself ; which will not be read without much interest. It is full of delicate beauty. I subjoin to this the commencing passages of the argument which follows it, be- speaking toleration for the objects and intentions of man, on the ground of the wretched dependancy and infirmity of his acts. " Thus then wee see how the authority does rise, and from whence princes have originall, both in particular, far SIR JOHN ELIOT. 45 ours, and generally, for all nature, therein assenting. Our next view must be of the powers and judgements that are giuen them, wherein likewise there is community. Then their rules and limits wee will touch, with some notes of advantage and disadvantage from the use. Which done, wee will draw the application to ourselves, to our owne monarchic, the mind, and shew the propriety of that ; hand- ling by the way the questions most in controversie touching the exercise of that power ; which wee will take, as they are emergent from our subject, and arise naturally in dis- course ; not compelling, not coveting, any that does not vol- untarily come in, and readily accost us ; nor balking those which the occasion shall present, for any fear or difficulties. Only this favor wee petition, which candor will allow us for our encouragement in the worke, that no prejudice may impeach us in the censure of our reason ; if it tide contrary to the tymes, if it oppose the stream and current wee are in, either in dilating or contracting the interests and pre- tentious, superior or inferior. Wee shall impartially deliv- er it, if not to the truth of the cause, which may exceed our judgement, yet to the truth and identity of our sense ; and if in that we fail, though it be an error, 'tis not a crime un- pardonable, uncapable of remission. Yet wee shall be care- ful to avoid it, and are not unhopefull in that point, having our affections on a right level, so equally disposed as nothing but ignorance can divert them. " First then, to take the just height and latitude of this power, we must begin our consideration at the end the end and scope for which it was ordain'd, which is the perfec- tion of all workes aud the first thing always in intention. Acts may have diverse inclinations and effects, from the ac- cidental intercurrence of new causes contrary to their in- stitution and design, whereon no sound judgement can be grounded. To an act of virtue there may be a concurrency of vice, through the corruption and infirmitie of the object. A charity may be intervened to ill uses, as not seldom hap- pens thro' the depravity of men, and so lose the fruit of vir- tue. The council of Achitophell may be follie, though an effect of wisdom. Equity may be converted to iniquity. Justice into injury, or into cruelty of extremity. No virtue, indeed, in operation is so sacred, but circumstance may cor- rupt it, diverse effects may follow it, as from new causes and intentions intervenient. Thus we see it in the motion of the spheres, the perfection of whose course revolves from east to west, and yet all the lesser and lower orbes run a counter course to that, turning from west to east. Their natural motions and inclinations are irregular, ad raptum. So, in the acts of virtue, oblique intentions may occur to corrupt it in particulars, though the virtue be the same. Therefore, as the intention must be the indication of the act, the end must shew the intention. For as a good act may be ill done in respect of the intention, so the intention of what purity soever may be corrupted by the end. If our descent and end shall terminate in the east ; if our horo- scope and ascendant shall be placed in the period of the west ; if we shall then, as Strato saith, seeke the sunne it- self rising in the west, we cannot conclude properly, or right. For the end of the great workman must direct us, not the effect and operation of the worke. Finis operantis, the end and the proposition of the first mover, the maker of those powers ; not ./tat* operis, the practice and exercise of man, who, like those lower orbes, has no regularity, but ad raptum." The authority to be committed to princes, with the as- sistance of their deliberative and executive governments, aud the duties required of them, are then treated by Eliot. He tempers the apparent remoteness of such an authority by many familiar analogies, and illustrates the dangers that beset a prince in the example of the pilot of a ship : " The leaks," he says, " are infidelity and treachery in ministers ; the rocks, inequality and distemper in the gouernment ; the sands and synks are factions and divisions ; the winds and waves, the attempts and invasions of the enemie ; the py- ratts are the false and subtil underminers, that would robb and steale away all law, liberty, and religion." A singular passage follows, but it is too long for my pres- ent purpose. Eliot takes up the power to be given to min- isters as a thing to be limited, invariably, and in all things, by rule ; " secundum artem, according to certainty ;" that it should be, in fact, a PRINCIPLE, or the man to whom it is intrusted will turn, as he says, " a sophister and impos- tor." He then ranges through several chemical analogies, combining and condensing them, with a rich facility and skill. He that desires to have " the gold and quintessence" at last, must search laboriously from " metal to metal, ele- ment to element ;" and so, in the view of Eliot, must the course of that man be laid who seeks the true understand- ing of government, "emergent and resultant from the world." Government, he proceeds to reason, is called " su- preme," but it is only so '' for the good and welfare of the subject. The latter part of which definition, though it be not expressly in the words, is included in the sense, as the end and object of all such authority and power. And it fol- lows likewise by inference and reason, if the use and inter- est be not severed. For, as Cicero says, respublica is but respopuli ; and if the right and interest be the people's, so should the benefit and use." This supreme power of the state Eliot now reduces to two divisions ; "the first con- cerning the exercise of that power as it is distributive to others," the ministers of princes, which he ties down, with much strong sense and argument, to a strict obedience of the laws ; " the other reflecting particularly upon princes, and the privilege and prerogative of their persons," which, when he comes to discuss, he introduces with a melancholy application to himself. Nothing, at the same time, can be more quiet or firm. I have not found, indeed, in the whole of this remarkable work, one touch of querulous impatience. " The next thing that comes to meet us in our way is the second question we expounded, whether the lawes have an operation upon princes. And this with more difficuties is involved, as lying within that mysterie, the prerogative of kings, which is a point so tender as it will hardly bear u mention. We may not therefore handle it with any rough- ness, lest it reflect some new beam of terror on ourselves ; but with what caution we may, yet without prejudice to truth ; that in what freely we have undertaken we may faithfully be delivered, and safely render the opinion which we gave without suspect of flattery." In the next sentence Eliot sets such a suspicion at rest ! With a sudden and indignant sense that the claims set up for princes in that day are "even too absurd for argument, he exclaims, " It falls not into question whether laws have an influence on kings, but conclusive and .in right! It is to question how far such persons should be subject to the laws, what bounds and circumscriptions they have given them, and in what compass and degrees they ought to be limited and confined." He then continues (following up a precedent passage of elaborate eulogium on the law, which I ought to have mentioned, and which is so nobly carried out in Pym's great speech against Strafford, that I cannot help imagining Pym to have been admitted to some knowledge of the com- position of this treatise by his imprisoned friend), " Two things occur in this, the laws and priviledges of each coun- try, in both which the subject has like interest. By the priviledge the prince is free from all things but the law ; by the law he craves in all things to be regulated. By the priviledge he has a propriety of consent in the sanction of all lawes ; by the lawes he has a certain rule and level by which to square his actions. By the priviledge all approved customs are received in the strength and vigour of the lawes ; by the lawes no actual repetitions shall create a custom, without acceptation and allowance. The law is rex omni- um, as Pindarus says, the king and governourof all things ; the other is regi similis, something like unto a king, as Bo- din has it ; as absolute, though less known." Eliot, in the next passage, brands the slavish sycophancy of his time. " Of these laws and priviledges," he says, " (which we shall join together, making but one joint subject of this question), the discussion will be easier if we turn our disquisition, and thus state it : What power the king has upon them ? Wherein there is such a confluency of flattery, conducing to our prejudice ; such labour to make monarchic unlimitted, an absoluteness of government with- out rule ; so much affection, or corruption rather, specified ; such distortion and perversion of authorities to that end ; learning made prostitute to fallacy ; religion turned to policie ; heaven brought down to earth ; light transformed to darkness ; as to attempt against it, is now to row against the tide ! against the stream and current of these times to seek a passage unto truth !" Not the less did the philosophic patriot seek it, and he could afford pity, from his dungeon, to the hollow meanness of the slaves whose doctrines kept him there. " Some would insinuate," he says, pointing to the sermons of Sibthorp and Laud, " from the dehortation of the Israelites, a warrant and authority for the extention of that power. What then was said in terrour, they now make it a conclusion of the right ! Others inferr from the con- fession made by David, ' Against thee only have I sinned,' that princes offend not men, and therefore have a liberty upon them to do what acts they please. Which judgements we shall rather pity than contest ! The heathens, likewise, both Greeks and Latins, have been searcht to have their at- testations for this sense ; but how truly we shall, in a few general instances, soon shew !" Eliot then brings up to his aid what Prynne would have called " squadrons" of author- ities. " Plinie shall be first, who in direct terms avers, non est princeps supra leges, sed leges supra principem, noe prince is without the regulation of the laws, but they are far above the authority of princes. We know in what time and state that author wrote, where monarchic and empire had not their meanest exaltation. No princes had a power be- yond the authority of the Romans no Romans greater than the princes of that age. Yet of them he speaks it, who were the masters of all others, that the laws and statutes of their country had a mastery upon them. And so Tacitus does expresse it, of the first laws at Rome." Valentinian fol- lows, and Plato, and all are shown to be emphatic assertors of the great principle, that " nothing but ruin can be the fortune of that kingdom where the prince does rule the laws, and not the laws the prince." Aristotle, iii the same way, 46 BRITISH STATESMEN. and with the same spirit and wisdom, does confirm it, speak- ing of the miseries and fatalities of those states which hap- pen, as he says, where kings endeavour more than is fitting in the government. A very sharp and masterly dissection of a disputed passage in Aristotle follows, when Eliot shows that the " court parasites" of the day have basely abusec the text. Several fine quotations from various parts of Cic cro are next brought forward, which, as if exultingly, Elioi exclaims, " make it against the law and principles of nature for one man to act his pleasure on another ! ' To detract any thing from any man," says he, ' and this man to draw a benefit to himself from the hurt and prejudice of that, is more contrary to nature than all poverty and sorrow, than whatever can happen to the body, not death itself excepted, or to the outward condition of a man.' What more fully or more plainly can be spoken ? What greater authority can be had, either for the persons or the reasons ? The Greeks, the most excellent of them, and from whom the contrary is insinuated (but how truly have we observed by the way), the Latins likewise, and not the meanest of their kind, whose judgments no posterity can impeach, we have really and actually on our side. Princes and emperors consent- ing ! We may confirm it by the examples of some others, if number be more valuable than weight ; yet not such as shall lessen the esteem; for if no other were produced, their worths might serve for a counterpoise to all opposites." I do not know if every reader will agree with me, but, in this picture of a great mind, forcing itself, as it were, in obedience to the sad necessity of the time, to appear to need satisfaction for the penetration of ils own genius in the au- thority and reverence of past ages, I recognise an object of very deep and affecting interest. The treatise, indeed, is scarcely so remarkable to me for the power it exhibits, great and truly valuable as that is, as for the evidences of a wider power which it restrains. It will be seen, however, as El- iot emerges from the fetters of political discussion, into what beauty and grandeur he ascends, mastering, moulding to his immortal purpose, and impregnating with his own intellect- ual power his variously fine attainments. I may with pro- sly n priety furnish the reader at this moment with a passage of the criticism of Hampden, written on receiving the first rough draft of this portion of the treatise. " When you have finished the other parte, I pray thinke me as worthy of the sight of it as the former, and in both together I'll be- tray my weakness to my friend by declaring my sense of them. That I did see is an exquisite nosegay, composed of curious flowers, bound together with as fine a thredd. But I must in the end expect honey from my friend. Somewhat out of those flowers digested, made his owne, and givinge a true taste of his own sweetnesse. Though for that I shall awaite a fitter time and place." And again, of other ex- tracts from this portion of the manuscript, with no less del- icate expression, Hampden says, " This I discerne, that 'tis as complete an image of the patterne as can be drawne by lines ; a lively character of a large mind ; the subject, method, and expressions excellent and homogeniall ; and, to say truth (sweete heart), somewhat exceeding my com- mendations. My words cannot render them to the life ; yet (to show my ingenuousness rather than witt) would not a lesse model have given a full representation of that subject ? Not by diminution, but by contraction, of parts. I desire to learn ; I dare not say. The variations upon each partic- ular seem many ; all, I confesse, excellent. The fountaine was full ; the channel narrow ; that may be the cause. Or that the author imitated Virgil, who made more verses by many than he intended to write, to extract a just number. Had I seene all his, I could easily have bidd him make few- er ; but if he had badd me tell which he should have spa- red, I had beene apposed. So say I of these expressions." It is very truly and beautifully said, and, as we advance, the reader will see ample reason for the more exalted and enthusiastic praise which Hampden afterward bestowed on his friend's labours. Meanwhile he will pardon this di- gression. . Eliot, producing his examples of princes who have will- ingly ranged themselves on his side, in acknowledgment of the supremacy of law, proceeds: " Plutarche relates it of Antiochus, that great king of Asia, the third of his name, but the first in honour and accomplishment, that he, in con- formity of this duty, sent despatches to his princes for pre- vention of the contrary ; intimating that if any letters or commands should be brought in his name, adverse or in- congruous to the laws, they should believe that (igna.ro se) they were given without his knowledge and consent, and therefore that no other obedience should be yielded than his prison. The majority of his extracts from Plato and Aristotle are given in Latin, evidently to help himself on the faster, for the original editions are always referred to, and when he uses the Greek letters, he writes them with too much neatness and labour to have permitted himself their constant use. Other authorities follow Gratian ; and the writer then triumphantly appeals to the opinion of a mas- ter among " both emperors and civilians," to an edict of Prince Theodosius. " By him it was thus written for posterity. ' It is the majesty of him that governeth to confesse himself bound to the laws ; so much doth authority depend on law, and so much is submission to the laws greater than authority. And that we will not to be unlawful, we shew it unto others by the oracle of this present edict.' In this," Eliot contin- ues, "a conclusion is laid down, not only that all princes are subject to the laws, but that it is their majestic, their honor and exaltation, so to be ! And the reason follows it, that the law is the ground of authority, all authority and rule a dependant of the law. This edict was not only an edict for that time, but for the generations of succeeding ages, and for all posterity to come. Rightly, therefore, and most worthily, stiled an oracle. And in correspondence to this is the mouerne practice of these times. Almost in all the states of Europe princes, at the assumption of' their ~ tak< crowns, assume and take an oath for the maintenance and observation of the laws. So, if we look either into author- ity or example, the use and practice of all times, from the moderne to the ancient, the reason is still cleare, without any difficulty or scruple, de jure, in right, that princes are to be regulated by the laws, and that the laws have an op- eration on the prince." " Yet two things," Eliot observes, in a passage of much interest, and which illustrates an opinion I have expressed above, "we are told, do oppose, and are made arguments against this : the honor and the profit of the king, which are said to have some prejudice by this rule. Many pre- tensions there are made, by those that are enemies to law, to inculcate this doctrine unto princes, which in particular to convince were not a task of hardness, if the danger ex- ceeded not the trouble. But the infection of these times is uncompatible of such labours, when scarce the least disease is curable. We shall therefore follow them as wee did in the strength and assistance of authorities, whjch, in point of profit, do conclude that there is no fruit or advantage in injustice. Ubi turpitude, says Cicero, ibi utilitas esse non potest where shame and dishonesty inhabit, there profit cannot sojourne. And that dishonestie he puts for the vio- lation of a dutie. Againe, nihil utile quod non idem hones- turn, et nunquam potest utilitas cum honestate contendere." Some historical examples, very graphically told, are now adduced in illustration of the last noble maxims, and Eliot hints at the contrast they present to the examples of modern days. " And yet how much more should those conventions be observed which are ratified by oath, and made with friends and citizens, fellow-citizens and brethren, of the same moth- er!" He thenhandles thequestionof the position in whicha king is placed by having the authority of the law upon him ; whether or not it is a failure of dignity. The following is subtilly expressed : " In reason first, how can it be dishon- our to a king to be subject to himself? No man repines at ;he motioms of his will ; no man thinks those actions dis- lonourable which flow from his own intentions ; nor holds .hat phisike vilifying which works his health and safety. Yet all these must be granted to infer dishonor from the aws. Phisike that works a safety must have a vilified reception ; actions free and voluntary must be in antipathy with our thoughts ; affections must displease ; and so, too-, the inclinations of the will (not as they are depraved, but simply as affections) ; and kings must hold it base to be foverned by themselves, before it be concluded that there :omes dishonor by the laws ; which are but the promulga- ;ions of royaltie ; the proper motions and dispositions of that >ower ; the special acts of princes ; their own influences and intentions ; a health-giving composition of their own, either made actually by their hands, or prepared for them >y their fathers, their predecessors, and accepted by them- elves, so that they become their own ; and in being subject unto them they are but subject to themselves, which cannot be dishonorable. No man can be said to be inferior to himself, yet this must be granted in this case. Upon this honorable punctilio, kings must become inferior to them- selves, and a loyal king must be less than an illegal. Yet all power has root but in the wills of men. Vis omnis im- perij in consensu obedientium constat, all empire and au- was challenged by that rule. For which Gratian, on the j thority rests in the obedience of the subject, and the true like occasion, gives a reason, and thereupon reduced it to a j forme of all obedience is comprehended in trie lawes. For law." The words of Gratian are then given. I may here | those services are false, imposed by fear and terror, and so observe that Eliot is scrupulously exact in his method of is that maxim that procures them Oderint dum metuant ! quotation ; that where the words of the original authority Let them hate so that they fear. That versus execrabilit, are used in the text, the book and chapter are carefully j as Seneca calls it ! for he gives it this operation on a prince, written down in the margin ; and that, where the sense only and therefore it is well termed execrable. By it he is driv- of the authority is employed in the treatise, a note gener- | en from extremity to extremity. He is hated because fear- ally supplies the exact quotation and its reference. He ed, and will maintain that fear because he is so hated." must have had at least the companionship of many books in The greater value of love, far beyond this, is next shown, SIR JOHN ELIOT. 47 in the example of an affectionate people. Eliot then looks back upon his arguments ; and, in summing them up, en- forces them again with new authorities, and shows great learning in the fathers. He also refers to the great text- book of constitutional law in that day, the famous treatise of Fortescue. " Fortescue, that learned chancellor of Eng- land, calls it impotencie and non-power to do things contrary to the laws ; and therefore the laws, he says, are no restric- tion to power, for to do contrary to them is no act of power ; as it is no power to sinne, or to do evil, or to be sick, or old ; for all these are instances that he gives, and in these re- spects he says they are contingent unto men. Men are less perfect than the angels, who have not libertie in those, and therefore those laws that regulate the will cannot be dis- honourable. Comines, that wise Frenchman, has also a question to this purpose, upon the restraint of Lewis XI., when in the distraction of his sickness." Before closing this branch of his subject finally, Eliot de- votes some space to an exposure of the false constructions that had been placed upon writings of authority by various prerogative men. I regret that I cannot give an extract, as it exhibits a very searching vigour. With the following se- vere similitude he closes: " He that governs not after the laws and customs of his country, is to be held a tyrant. To him Tacitus has applied the fable, Quod quisquis viscera humana, cum aliarum vie- timarum visceribus forte gusteret, lupus fieri cogitur, that whoever shall taste the interior of a man, though but by chance in the mixtures of the sacrifices, he transforms into a wolf. Those human entrails in the morall are but the publike rights and priviledges ; the devouring whereof, though but by mixture and confusion, is like that cruelty in the proverb, homo homini lupus, man a wolf to man, a trans- formation of humanity into the beastly nature. In the Psalms it has an expression that is higher, to which no ag- gravation can be added, no accumulation can be given. And that likewise proceeding from a king, who, enumera- ting some acts of oppression and injustice (which are the effects of an arbitrary and unlimited dominion, a tyranny, as elsewhere he does call it), accepting of persons, not defend- ing of the poore, destroying of their rights, want of preserva- tion and protection to the people, for these, he says, all the foundations of the earth are out of course ! as if the whole frame of nature had a dependance upon justice, and that the violation of the one threatened the dissolution of the other !" The next division of the treatise is devoted to a consider- ation of the power of government, and the qualities neces- sary for its legitimate exercise. Here, under one of many heads, a severe education is insisted on, with great force, as absolutely necessary to a prince. Eliot contrasts vividly Cyrus and his sons. " But the accession of Cyrus to the crowne was from a harder fortune, which fitted him with virtue. His sonnes had a softer education, being brought up by women, eunuchs, and the like, who infused principles of weakness, and with their flattery and adulations taught nothing but the doctrine of greatness. No man was suffer- ed to oppose them in any exercise or purpose ; but all was praising and commending of all they said or did (as who dares yet do otherwise in the familiarity of princes !)." Dis- missing this, however, Eliot proceeds to argue with some- thing like an uneasy sense of the absurdities in abstract reasoning, which are unquestionably connected with the monarchical principle that, taking kings at the very best, as models of temperance and fortitude, they must be allow- ed to need something more. "Princes might have that plenitude of temperance as should restrain them from all license and exorbitance. That likewise should be accom- panied with a fortitude to manage and subdue all loose ap- petites and affections, and make them impenetrable in that part. Yet there would be wanting one thing more neces- sary to perfection, nay, most necessary for the perfection of a kiner, which is a kind of all knowledge and omniscience, a vast and generall comprehension of all things in his govern- ment, with their several incidents, emcrgents, and contin- gents, their conjunctures, disjunctures, relations, and de- pendencies." This is a formidable list, and the passage which follows it is striking. Eliot revives, from his favourite author, the image of that Roman tyrant which, at the impeachment of Buckingham, had struck such dismay into Charles, for the purpose of proving that there have been princes in the old time, who, affecting a love for parliaments, were wont to commence projects by that authority, and to carry them on without it ! " In this we have the confession of Ti- berius, not the unwisest, though not the best, of princes, who saith, non posse principcm sua conscientid cuncta com- plecti, a prince cannot have that universality of science to comprehend all things in his braine. A senate, therefore, was thought necessary to be auxiliar and assistant, where- in that emperor did concurre. With all the wisdom of his elders, squaring his profession out to justice, though his ac- tions spake the contrary. Cuncta per consoles incipiebat, says Tacitus, he began all things by the consuls. In rela- tion to the senate, indeed, and in a publike oration to that court, he did declare the necessity of their counsell, saying, experiendo didicisse quam arduum, quam sub jectum fortune, regendi cuncta onus, that by experience he had found the danger -and difficulty of sole government." The hypocrisy of Tiberius is afterward shown, and at the same time wrest- ed to a finer purpose in argument than sincerity itself could have illustrated. Eliot closes with some noble passages out of Plato. The nature of parliaments themselves, granting the ne- cessity of their existence, is next examined. The powers which were granted them among the Jews at their sanhe- drini, at Athens, in jEtolia, at Rome, in Carthage, and Sparta, are alluded to. The base purposes of those men who poison the ears of princes with jealousy of parliaments are bitterly exposed, and some of the doctrines of Machiavell held up to scorn. A vast number of authorities are quoted, and much use is made of the arguments of Philip de Com- ines. Eliot, in his course, speaks highly of the genius of Sallnst, and bursts into a fine eulogiutn at the mention of Aristotle, " that stupendum hominis, that wonder and mir- acle of reason !" He closes with some general arguments out of Bodin, and, winding up his parallel between a tyrant and a king, strikes heavily at the recent exactions of royal- ty. " This feeds on the affections of his subjects, the other on their fears. This has his fears principally for them ; the other has them for the objects of his fears. This takes no- thing from his subjects, but on publike warrant and neces- sity ; that drinks, carouzes in their blood, and does fatt him with their marrow, to bring necessity upon them." The entire subject of the civil government of man is then wound up in the following broad and satisfactory proposition. " Monarchy is a power of government and rule for a common good and benefit, not an institution for private interests and advantage. To this runs the confluence of all author- ity and reason, either grounded on the end, or the definition and examples of the order." Eliot now advances to the grander purpose of his treatise, the consideration of the monarchy of the mind. He opens with some general comparison of the civil with the meta- physical relations in this government. He treats of the "councillors of the mind, "and carries them up to their final aims, " the end and perfection of all empire, the bonum pub- licum of the politicks ; that summum bonum of philosophers, that ne ultra in felicitie." From this inquiry, however, he intimates that we must exclude at once the vanity of am- bition, with its " heapings of Pelion on Ossa ;" and, in work- ing the inquiry out, we must be prepared for the weaknesses of man in many points, since even the wisest men, the philosophers of the old time, have not been able to agree. This carries Eliot into an interesting expression of their dif- ferences. He describes them by the fable of Menippus. " He found nothing but confusion upon earth, nothing but incertainty with men. Doubt and ambiguity in some ; dis- sent and contradiction among others ; difference and disa- greement amongst all. Then soe the philosophers, at least their sects in controversie, if not the particulars of all kinds, yet the kinds of all particulars. The Stoicks and Epicure- ans opposed. The Peripatetickes varying from both. The Academickes differing from all. And these divided between the old and new, the Eretrians, Megnrians, and Cyrenians, all in opinions separate and distinguished. Like Hetero- genialls, rather, and things contrary ; not as professors of one science, masters of philosophy, lovers of truth and wis- dom !" This is well said. In their differences, however, Eliot discerns elements of the truth. He proposes, therefore, to examine them. " It may be we shall draw some advantage for the information of ourselves by contraction of their fan- cies ; as was thought by a concursion of the atoms, towards the making and creation of the world. Wee will therefore take a short survey of them, and try what they will yield ; judging, not by number, but by weight, what estimation may be given them ; and as we find their true worth and value, so will we rate them in our book, casting the profit which they bring in the accompt of our own endeavours. To which we shall add what in reason or authority we shall find necessary for the opening of this secret ; this end of all our labour ; this scope and object of our hopes ; that sum- mum bonum in philosophic, that bonum publicum in our poli- cy, the consummation and perfection of our happinesse !" In accordance with this design, Eliot plunges at once into the various schools of ethics that prevailed among the an- cients, describes them all, and discusses their respective doctrines. At every step he gives proof of the profound scholar, of a man of wide compass of thought, and of that peculiar power in the application of learning which stamps it with the creative genius. A trail of light runs along the track of the old systems as we follow them in his pages. The Peripatetics first appear, the Academics next, and the Stoics follow, with the thunder of Aristotle striking down their systems from beyond. The Eretrians are afterward introduced, and to them the Epicureans, in open opposition. And thus we follow all in turn, the genius of Eliot quicken- ing these dead systems into an active present knowledge Suddenly he exclaims, " But let us draw nearer to the light, and dispel those mists that shadow and obscure it, by the 48 BRITISH STATESMEN. beames and radiance of the sun, that so we may find the summum bonum which we look for." " SENECA, ' Romani nomiuis et sapentite nmgnus sol,' as Lipsius styles him, ' that great glory of the Roman name and wisdom,' thus compounds it : ' Ex bond conscientia, ex honestis cousiliis ex rectis actionibus, ex contempt^ fortui- torum, ex placido vitre et continuo tenore, unam prementis viam.' ' Of a knowledge and intentions uncorrupted, of council liberal and just, of actions rectified and exact, of scorn of accident, of a propitious and even course and con- stancie of life, its diameter and straightness kept without reflection or transition." Where these are met in a true di- agram and mixture, where these ingredients are consolidate, there he makes that summum bonum, that great happinesse, the term of man's perfection, the true end and object of his hopes." Following up the principle of this moral system, Eliot de- fines with an exquisite clearness the relations of virtue. In the midst of this, while borrowing an illustration from Sen- eca, he breaks into a magnificent eulogy of the " wisdom and sublimity of his ethicks. His speculations in philoso- phic," exclaims Eliot, with an intense fervour and beauty of expression, " doe preach divinitie to us, and his unbelief may indoctrinate our faith ! Is it not shame," he afterward asks, " that we that are professors in the art should have less knowledge than those that never studied it? that their ignorance should know that of which our knowledge is still ignorant ? at least in the exercise and practice '." In the following I recognise the sublimity and sweetness of Hook- er. " In this he puts that summum bonum and chiefe good, Deo parere, to be obedient unto God, to be obsequious to his will. Hocfac, tit vives, as was the motto of the law doe this and live. Live in all happinesse and felicity ; in all fe- licity of mind, in all felicity of body, in all felicity of estate ! For all these come from him ; he only has the dispensation of these goods ; and he that serves him shall have the frui- tion of them all. This was the notion of that Heathen, which, what Christian can heare and not admire it? It strikes a full diapason to the concord of the Scriptures, and concents with that sweet harmony ! O let us then apply it to ourselves, and make his words our works ! Let us en- deavour for the benediction in the gospel, knowing these things to be blessed, that we do them !" Suddenly Eliot checks himself: "But to return to our own charge and province, that we be not taxed for usurpa- tion in intruding on another ; to resume the disquisition we intended for the end and object our government, the perfec- tion of our monarchy, which our divine Seneca doth deter- mine in that axiome and theoreme, Deum sequi." Several neat touches of statement and description succeed, with the object of a wider direction to Seneca's maxim, after which Eliot remarks : " We will now endeavour, upon all that has been said, to extract a quintessence from the variety of ex- pressions and opinions which we have mentioned ; to make one solid globe, one entire and perfect conclusion." In the course of this the moral and physical relations of the world are surveyed, and from them is shown the possibility of the attainment of a firm and independent position for the mind. " This habit and position of the mind, to constitute per- fect happinesse, must be both cleare and firme ; cleare without cloud or shadow to obscure it, and firme in all con- stancy. Immoveable like the centre ! Add then to this that it does come from God that it is munus Dei, his free gift and largesse and then we see what is this choice happi- ness and good, that summum bonum in philosophy, that bonum publicum in our policy, the true end and object of the mon- archic of man ! It is a cleare and firme habit and position of the mind by knowledge, rectifying all the actions and af- fections to the rule and conformity of reason. It is to be happy. Not in greatness, and honor, riches, or the like, but in any state or quality, that elixar may be found ; from the most simple being of mankind that quintessence may be drawn. The mind being brought to that quality and condi- tion, the faculty working on the object, not the object on the faculty, there is in any state, how mean or low soever, an equal passage and ascent to that great height and exalta- tion !" The elements by which the proposed monarchy of the mind may be constructed having been thus established, and the possibility of its construction shown, Eliot mentions with exultation the great virtues which, once it is constructed, shall tend to its immortal sustainment. But then he re- strains himself. Before we triumph we must subdue. Through sorrow it may be necessary to advance to joy. " We must do as ^Eneas did with Dido, through sad storys of tragedies and disasters make a transition unto love. As mariners in rowing look contrary to their courses, so wee, in the search of happiness and felicity, must have our eyes upon the subject of our misery. Those we must first behold which are enemies of our state, and from them make a pas- sage to our government. Wherein, if, by knowledge of the adversaries, we can find means to conquer and subdue them, if, by the strength and opposition of the vertues, we can overcome and subjugate the affections, then we may triumph in our victorie, and in all security and peace erect that tro- phy of felicity, that summum bonum and chief happiness of man." The impediments to man's happiness are accordingly treated, and, from this onward, with such a union of power and sensibility, of sweetness and grandeur, as I do not think has ever been surpassed by the best prose writers in our language. It is the privilege of true intellectual greatness to glorify itself in what the world calls adversity, and never did it employ a means more noble than this of Eliot's. Re- warded with a prison for the service of active years devoted to his country ; the tyranny apparently triumphant, to op- pose which he had surrendered fortune and freedom ; a dis- ease induced by the foul air of his dungeon making rapid strides upon his life, yet only in its prime ; it is impossi- ble to detect in this illustrious person the quailing of a sin- gle nerve. He rises superior to all extremities, in simply continuing equal to himself. The philosopher of the Tower is no more and no less than the statesman of the House of Commons. The essential object of his exertions is in both cases the same, and I look upon these exalted meditations as only a continuance, in intense expression, of the active energies of his life. The steady invasion of disease forbade him to hope that the latter could ever be renewed ; and, thus excluded from the sphere of virtuous public action, he left an example of even greater value to the world an ex- ample to console them in temporary defeat, to carry ardour and enthusiasm unhurt through trial an example that should multiply their powers of action and resistance, by strengthening their moral purposes. I see no unnatural contrast, therefore, in any portion of Eliot's life. I recognise his old brave fearlessness in his present inculcation of a per- fect restraint and self-command ; I trace the rapid grandeur of his younger days in the composed magnanimity of morals which sustains him through this " last scene of all." Through the impediments that obstruct man's happiness in self-government, Eliot, as I have said, proceeds. Hem- med in as the mind is shown by him to be, he undertakes to point out the passage of escape from this " bondage and captivitie." The first impediment he notices is " feare." He goes through the various chances that may occasion it, with a pregnant personal reference ; he describes the " ef- fects of power sudden, various, and fearful ; whereia im- prisonment, wounds, and death, and that in a thousand forms, are threatened ; in which both sickness and poverty are involved :" but in none of these, he says, is there real cause of fear. He concludes his masterly examination !hus : " Feare must yield to happinesse, or happinesse to feare." Eliot then passes to what he calls " the next link of this chaine of our uuhappinesse, another part of the fetters that we beare" to that " inexplicable piece of vanity, our hope." This he considers in many respects a great evil. " But not to be mistaken," he says, " for want of some distinction in this case ; all hopes are not like, nor alleuemies of our gov- ernment, though all have one incertainty, by the trouble of expectation, and the dependance upon time. Ail have this vanity and weakness, that their rest is upon others, not in themselves, and in that respect they are obnoxious unto fortune : yet all have not a participation in the evil ; all are not sharers in the guilt ; some are natural, and have their principles in nature." The exceptions are occasion- ally treated, and with a prodigious mass of learned allusion. In conclusion, Eliot dwells with much intenseness on the perpetual agitations in which hope keeps a man ; the fear to lose, the jealousy, the satiety, aixl all the incidents that fall to it. Sorrow approaches next, and this is described as the worst and least excusable of the impediments yet named. For yet, Eliot says, fear has some resource of safety, hope has some desire of happiness. " These," he strikingly continues, " have somewhat for justification and apology, at least for ex- cuse and extenuation of their evils. But sorrow only is in- ferior to them all. No argument can be made for her de- fence ; she can pretend neither to happiness, nor safety, nor to what might be subservient to either. As the professed enemie to both, her banners are displayed. She fights against all safety, and bids defiance unto happiness. Her ends, her arts are in contestation of them both. Reason has nothing to alledge why sorrow should be used ; it pro- pounds no advantage in the end, no advantage in the act, but the mere satisfaction of itself, the sole expletion of that humour ; therefore is it the most improper of all others, as incomparably the worst, and that likewise the effects and consequence on the body will show." The conclusion of the subject is a subtle treatment of the selfishness of sorrow. It is not called forth, he says, by the misfortunes of our friends, for that feeling is pity ; nor by the triumphs of our enemies, for that is envy. " Sorrow is selfishness." For the " privation of whatever we hold dear, of whatever is in a tender estimation," Eliot suggests nobler and better rem- edies. Pleasure follows. "And thus we see how these enemies doe threaten us. Fear does anticipate, hope divert, sorrow overturn the happiness we look for ; or, rather, they fight against the happiness itself; fear secretly undermining, hope circumventing, sorrow charging it at full. But, above SIR JOHN ELIOT. 49 all, the most dangerous is behind PLEASURE '." The rea- son of the peculiar danger that attends the indulgence of pleasure is then shown to consist in the so false resem- blance it bears in itself to happiness, that it is like to steal through all the " guards and watches" that we keep, into our strongest " retreats and strongholds." Nothing, Eliot observes, in the course of much splendour of eloquence and reason, " nothing is so petulant and refractory, so exorbitant and irregular, as pleasure. No rule, no law. no authority cau contain it ; but, like Semiramis, admit her government for a day, she usurps the rule for ever." Having considered these impediments to happiness, these obstructions to the monarchy of man, Eliot indulges a spec- ulation on the design of Providence in thus appearing to have opposed, by the creation of such unworthy passions, its own vast and pure design. " But here an objection or wonder may be made, how, from one fountain, such different streams should flow ; how, from the self-same head, such contraries should derive them- selves ; and that greater wonder may arise how the great architect and workman, who gave being to all things in his divine wisdom, did so create the mind by the infusion of such principles, that the contrariety of their motions should threaten the destruction of his work ! For faction and di- vision imply this, and the dissension of the parts hazards the confusion of the whole. It's a great cause of wonder, in tlie thing, that it is so, but of far greater admiration in the reason. That he, thus wise, thus willing, thus able to give perfection to his art, should, in the masterpiece there- of, in his own portraiture and image, leave it with .imper- fection ! This is enough for wonder and admiration (if it were so). But yet the next has more the inscrutability of that reason ; which turns these imperfections to perfec- tions ; which in these contrarieties makes agreement ; by these differences, these divisions, these dissensions, works unity and concord ! This is a cause of wonder and admira- tion so transcendent, as human capacity cannot reach. O ! the incomprehensible glory of the wisdom by which such secrets are disposed ! We may see it almost in every thing, as the effect gives illustration to the cause ; and so in fact confirm, though we cannot penetrate, the reason it- self. All things, almost generally, will demonstrate it. If we look into the universality of the world^er the concurrence of its parts, are there more contraries than in the comon materials they consist of? Can there be more antipathy than the elements sustain? What greater enemies than fire and water can be found 7 What more violent than their wars ? And so with the air and earth. Dryness and moisture are opposed ; than which no things can be more different ; yet amongst these what a sweet league anc! ami tie is contracted 1 What mutual love and correspondency they retain ! Fire agrees with water, earth with air, the latter with the former, each severally with other, and so respect- ively with all ! and that which is the perfection of them all, the composition which they make, the frame of those ma- terials, the body so compounded, has its being and existence by the very mixture and diagram of these ! Nay, by the want of either, their dissolution is enforced. So necessary is the contrariety of the parts, and the opposition which they make, that, without it, the whole cannot subsist. As thus as in the generals, so in the particulars from thence. In the immense infinitie of creatures, amongst the dead or liv- ing, are their antipathies to be numbered ? Can arithmetic define the contrarieties they have? Stone opposing stone, metal against metal, plant against plant ; all war ! And animate beasts contrary to beasts, fowls against fowls, fishes against fishes ; in hate, in cruelty opposed, killing and de- vouring e<ich other ; and yet all made serviceable to man ! Amongst men, too, what contestations are there extant ; wha-t wars, what quarrels, what dissensions ! Nation in antipathy with nation, kindred opposed lo kindred, family against family, man against man ! And, besides, how in- finite is their difference and variety in temper, in atFection, in condition ; so that reconciliation seems impossible, and, without it, their subsistence. Yet in the revolution oif that wisdom these thing are so turned, in the divine wheel of providence their conversions are so made, that all move di- rectly to one end ! The alloy and contestations of the parts work the conservation of the whole." Eliot now sums up the character and objects of the mon- archy he seeks to establish ; ranging against it its various impediments, that he may enlarge on the means of their re- moval. This is beautifully done, by an exhibition of the utter vanity of the causes to which, in general, they owe their existence. Poverty, for instance, he begins with, as a thing which provokes fear, but in which there is no essential cause for fear. He treats this at great length, and with much fervour. Don Guzman himself never said finer things in behalf of poverty. " Are riches," he asks, " of that virtue that their want should seem so terrible ? How many have they sold to misery and unhappiness ! What worlds of men have they corrupted and betrayed ! cor- rupted in manners and affections, betrayed of their liberties and lives !" Out of these reflections he plunges into a praise of poverty. He tells the poor what they escape. He sums G up the diseases of the rich, famous for their excruciating pains ; and contrasts with them the "privileges of poverty, the immunities of want." He then drags forth from anti- quity a long list of illustrious poor ; he speaks of the lives of Fabricius, Curio, Menenius, Valerius, and Seneca; and holds them up as the best of all examples to comfort and to teach. " Who more valiant than Miltiades ?" he exclaims ; "who more wise than Cymon? who than Ari slides more just? who more temperate than Phocion? Yet all these the poorest as the best of all their times !" Sickness is treated of by Eliot next, as no just cause of fear. From sickness, suggested by his own sufferings, he advances through the various effects of power, to imprison- ment, to death, but in none can he find "just cause of feare." He acknowledges their aspects to be startling. " To dispel the feare of that which power and greatness may impose requires a harder labour, because the dangers seem far greater, and are more various and more sudden. For not to reflect on poverty and sickness as incidents to this (which wounds and confiscations do imply), those too frequent and two known effects of power but to look for- ward and to view it in the other issues, which it has ; dis- grace, imprisonment, DEATH, and those in all their ugli- ness and deformity. This last is that tyrant which our ap- prehensions do so fear ; that monstrum horrendum informe, which strikes us with such terror ; this is that dire aspect at which our resolutions do so fly ; this is that traitor that makes such sedition ill our government, and which we must the more carefully oppose for the vindication of our happi- ness. In this place, therefore, we will only deal with it, and with the rest hereafter." Into these passages respecting death Eliot throws all his eloquence : " Death," he says, ' has its consideration but in terror ; and what is assumed from that is like the ima- ginations of children in the darke, a meere fancie and opin- ion." With a melancholy fondness, the anticipation of their approaching intimacy, he defends death as a friend might be defended. It has been slandered, he says, by those who cannot have known it, "most untruly, most unjustly slandered." " For either happiness it contains, or it repels calamity, or gives satiety and weariness an end, or does prevent the hardness of old age ! A conclusion 'tis to all ; to some their wish ; but to none more meriting and deserv- ing than to whom it comes uncalled for ! It frees from servitude, dissolves the chains of captives, sets all prisoners at liberty, and restores the banished to their country. All their sorrows and disasters have termination in this point. It has been called humanis tempestatibusportus, the harbour of human miseries, the sedation of our troubles. Implying thus the comparison of our life to a fluctuation on the seas, we as poor mariners sailing in the weak vessels of our na- ture and fortune, the wind tossing us by the continual agi- tation of her tempests, trouble being instant and upon us, danger most iminent and before us, hope fled, safety no- where to be found ; death only is the haven to receive us, where there is calmness and tranquillity, where there is rest from all these storms and tempests ! In that port all fluc- tuations of our life are quieted and composed; nor winds nor seas have power upon us there ; fortune and time are excluded from that road ; there we anchor in security, without the distractions of new troubles ; there without danger or hazard do we ride." With a slight shade of humour, such as issues so natural- ly out of a subject of this sort, and suits with it so well, Eliot next calls for the evidence of men who have them- selves died, as to the character of death. " No great vari- ety," he observes, " can be looked for in this strange kinde of proof, men so seldom returning from the dead." This is simply an introduction to the story of that Athenian whom Plato raised to speak of the terrors below the earth. Such terrors were only for "the oppressors of mankind, such as had made their wills their laws, tyrants, Arideus and his followers, whom hell itself abhorred !" Far different was the lot of the good, " the sen-ants unto virtue." Life is af- terward beautifully presented by Eliot, in contrast with its dark neighbour, as only " an inne to rest in, a lodging for the night, an hostelry in our travels, in our continual jour- ney to the mansion of our fathers !" Nay, life itself, he ex- claims, taken at the best, is only made up of various deaths, one passion dying, another succeeding but to die. "So that our whole life is but an exercise of dying, and all the changes and vicissitudes of nature, death, in a measure and degree ! Why then should death be thought so terrible ? where is the reason of that fear ?" Rather, he afterward suggests, should it be made a matter of triumph and of glory. " What martyrs have there been even in the work of dying ! More joying, more rejoicing, than in all the acts of life ! The glory of the Deity, the incarnate majesty of the Son, those incomprehensible mysteries of divinity, then appearing to them, by revelation to their sense, or by illu- mination of the fancy the heavens opening to give free passage to their view these, as it were, descending unto them, giving them the possession here of that happiness that eternal happiness and felicity, which is the chief ob- ject of all hopes ; not that happiness we treat of, the rum- 50 BRITISH STATESMEN. mum bonum of this life, the bonum publicum of our monarchy, but the supernatural felicity to come, the transcendent hap- piness hereafter !" Nor will Eliot rest at these examples of the victorious agonies of martyrdom, since they are sustained as it were by the divine presence. There is a bravery which comes nearer to his own, a grandeur of moral courage which needs no miracle to help it. " I will resort," he says, " to patterns of morality. Then, to see the confidence in them, the will- ingness and cheerfulness of dying take it from those Gre- cians, those three hundred at Thermopolis, who, for their country, opposed themselves to all the power of Xerxes to those many millions of the Persians whose thirst scarce seas could satisfy, nor whole regions for one day find pro- visions for their hunger ! Yet unto these those Grecians could expose themselves, so few against so many, for the safety of their mother. The clouds of darts that fell on them they tearm'd an umbrell for the sunne ; their danger they made glory ; their death they thought their life ; so far from terror was it that they made it the subject of their hopes. O happy men ! thus for their country to have died ! Most happy country, to have brought forth such men ! whose death became the character of her life, and was to her and them a patent of immortality !" Among the crowding thoughts of many examples of this kind, Eliot kindles into a greater fervour, and he fills the solitary recesses of his dungeon with men of Rome, of Athens, and of Sparta, " fel- lows whom death itself might fear, sooner than be fearful unto them. Mirrors of men," he finely continues, "are chronicled for a free acceptance of that fate ; women did scorn their children that did not scorn to flie it !" And as Eliot thus recalls the past, an example nobler than all the others rises up, because completer in the elements of moral grandeur, in the perfection of self-control, the monarchy of man. The philosopher Ramus stands before him, " who died not as Cato, to avoid the dying by his enemies, nor suddenly, to prevent the torment of the time, nor as those Grecians, in the heat of blood and danger, when death does come unthought but giving it all leave of preparation, ad- mitting all circumstance of terror, in that form which his enemies had cast, to the extremitie of their malice so he encounters, so he receives and meets it, even in its very contemplation ! His speculations were upon it, it was the subject of his thoughts, and in that he valued it more pre- cious than his life." To this illustrious shadow of the past SIR WALTER RALEIGH succeeds ! His image, indeed, had scarcely van- ished from those dark walls that now surrounded Eliot, and his spirit remained in the magnanimity of Eliot's soul. " Shall I not add, as parallel to this, a wonder and example of our own ? such as if that old philosopher were yet living, without dishonour he might acknowledge, as the equal of his virtue. Take it in that else unmatched fortitude of our RALEIGH '. the magnanimity of his sufferings, that large chronicle of fortitude ! All the preparations that are terrible presented to his eye guards and officers about him fetters and chains upon him the scaffold and executioner before him and then the axe, and more cruel expectation of his enemies ! And what did all this work on the resolution of this worthy ? Made it an impression of weak fear 1 or a distraction of his reason? Nothing so little did that great soul suffer ! but gathered more strength and advantage upon either. His mind became the clearer, as if already it had been freed from the cloud and oppression of Hie body ; and the trial gave an illustration to his courage, so that it changed the affection of his enemies, and turned their joy t sorrow, and all men else it filled with admiration ; leav- ing no doubt but this, whether death were more acceptable te him, or he more welcome unto death !" How nobly expressed this is ! The style of Eliot, un- cr&mped by the authorities to which he chose at times to link it, was as free and grand as his own free thoughts. These his friend Hampden, as the treatise advances, al- ludes to with a profound deference. " Your apprehensions, rthat ascend a region above those clouds which shadow us, are (fit to pierce such heights ; and others to receive such no- ttions as descend from thence ; which, while you are pleas- ed to impart, you make the demonstrations of your favour to (become the rich possessions of your ever faithful friend." Eliot betrays a melancholy reluctance to let the subject of death pass from him. Assuming that these examples of fearlessness in dying are of too exalted a character for the emulation of all men, that all have not the same motives or .means of snstainment, he very beautifully says : " There is no affection within man but has given examples in this case. 'Hope, joy, sorrow, fear itself, has conquered it, the weakest oftfH others ! Fear of death has forced men to act the thing theyrfear." And, after some very subtle reasoning to this ipoirn^, he proceeds : " Therefore, that truth so known, we :jnay in a generality conclude that death and fear are con- quered both by love. Sorrow can do as much. And we : have it an the infirmest of her daughters, pity, which is the -tenderect of all thoughts, yet that subdues this fear, as Tcitus inotes it of the multitudes after the fall of Otho." Tfet Eliot concludes not even here. Still he lingers on the praise and the privilege of death. " I shall then no more be sick ; I shall then no more be bound ; I shall then leave off to fear; I shall then not die again. If death were an evil at the first, then it shall be no more. All the crosses and disasters, all the calamities and afflictions, all things that are fearful and evil in this life, them shall I be free from ! No death shall thenceforth be an interruption to my happi- ness, therefore why should I fear it ? But if death have all these priviledges, why then do we live ? why do we not, as Cleombrotus, having read Plato's discourses of the immor- tality of the soul, precipitate ourselves? hasten to that ex- cellence J press to that rich magazine of treasures? why do we bear such miseries in life, there being- such felicity in death ? and the transition in our power, so facile and so ready ? The answer with the ethicks is emergent : mors non debet esse fuga actionum, sed actio death must not be a flight from action, but an action. Subterfuge is the property of a coward ; blows and wounds are the honor of a soldier. Dangers must not affright, but harden him, where the cause requires his hazard." And through much elo- quence he proceeds, impressing over again, and with an in- creased fervour, the necessity of subduing fear, " though the sun itself should tremble though th*e immense fabric of the world should shake ;" and at last concluding by pray- ing of all men, in all cases, to " expect calmly that issue which time and virtue have appointed. Thus we must look for death ; not as an enemy, but a friend ; which in his own hours visits us, expects no invitation, may not be com- Ielled, but has a free liberty before him. When he comes, e comes attended by many priviledges, decked with flow- ers of happiness, rest, and sweetness, and exemption of all the evils of life. Therefore there is not the least cause to fear it, or to raise that jealousy and distraction in our gov- ernment." The duty of opposing the desires is the next matter dis- cussed. Eliot, after a delicate handling of the bodily pas- sions, points out the jealousy and restless irresolution of desire, agitated between the doubt of attainment and the doubt of loss, hindering even its own satisfaction, and join- ed with sorrow. " Shall this, then," he asks, " have en- tertainment in the heart, where happiness and felicity should dwell ? That it is a vanity and mere nothing, either the act or the consequence do prove it ; for, in itself, what is it more than an imagination and light fancy ? In the effect and consequence, does any man conceive there is the least advantage in the thought ? Does the most affectionate in, this case think that the object is drawn nearer by his wish? 'Tis true, of faith 'twas said, ' believe, and then thou hast,' but never of this desire. We may desire and want ; nay, that want is but desire. Desire does make the want. As it is nothing in itself, nothing but want does follow it a vain and fruitless issue, like the mother. Nor is this all for which wisdom does oppose it, that it is, thus, a vanity and mere nothing. No ! as an evil likewise she contests it ; nay, as the ground and root of all our miseries, the spring and fountain of calamity !" Wielding, then, vast knowledge with the most perfect ease, giving freshness to old truths, and binding together by living ties the rude ma- terials of dead learning, Eliot goes through the dangers that are in desire ; " the cares, anxieties, and doubts ; the thousand troubles and distractions which men in hope and men in love are charged with ; for these in the notion are but one, though distinguished in the expression. Pardou me, Love," interposes Eliot here, " that soe hardly I have matched thee ! it is my reason, not my affection, that does speake it." He passionately continues, " What theatre or amphitheatre will serve to repr&sent the tragedies it has acted? In tragic scones of blood, what executions have been done by the hand of this affection ! Man a butcher upon man, acquaintance on acquaintance, familiar on famil- iar, friend upon friend, kinsman upon kinsman, brother upon brother, father upon son, the son upon the father ! drinking up blood like leaches ; nay, making sacrifices of themselves, to eternal horror and confusion ; and, with their own hands, forcing a passage to that darkness which even hell itself does tremble at ! What numberless examples of this kind have love, covetousness, ambition, and their like, almost every day exhibited, and are still contriving, to threaten, as it were, the destruction of mankind !" In accordance with his general plan of showing in the profoundest view the vanity of the particular passion, by showing the objects that usually excite it to be vain, Eliot now treats the ordinary motives to love. In a portion of his previous discussion of it he had reduced it simply, in its voluptuous form, to " what is pleasant ;" and " pleasure" he had shown to be unworthy. " The felicitie we look for is an action : not a thought, not a dream, or imagination of the fancie ; it is an action of virtue !" As of one of the motives to the passion, he then speaks of the vanity of beauty. " What," he asks, " can be found in beauty the object that love has so to possess the affection of the mind, and cause a defection from reason ? The description that was given it by that unfortunate piece of merit who died where now I live, may be a resolution in this point, who has it in that idea of his wife, that SIR JOHN ELIOT. 51 " ' Carnal beauty is but skin deep, But to two senses known ; Short even of pictures, shorter lived than life, And yet survives the love that's built thereon !' " wherein there is such a latitude of sense, such a perspi cuity of truth, that, if all other fancies were collected, fchi might be the judgment of them all. Here, in an abstract is a full comprehension of their natures, with all plainness yet elegantly rendered." The name of this " unfortunate piece of merit" may hav already suggested itself to the reader. It is Sir Thoma Overbury. Keen was Eliot's sympathy for oppression in al cases ; and here, in his love of literature (which Overbury' writings, as I have before had an opportunity of saying 1 , had in that age, most delicately adorned), and in some circum stances of his own condition, much conspired to sliarpe even that sharp sympathy. He dwells for some time wit! fondness on this quotation from Overlmry's poem, and then in a passage of lively interest, apologises, as it were, to th reader. "Let it not," he says, " seem a wonder that write this fancy for authority, being so new, and borne amongst ourselves. I must confess my ignorance, if it be so. I esteem it not the less as begotten in this age, and as it is our own I love it much the more. 'Tis truth which do look for, and the propriety of expression to endear it, no only to the judgment, but the affections : making an insin uation also by the language for the sense and reason of th( tiling. This I find here, in this Theoreme, in as great full ness, and as succinctly rendered, as the exoticks can pretend Why then we should not value it to the truth and merii which it bears is a wisdom past the apprehension of my weakness. I must declare my folly in that point. As it is of my country, I honour it the more ; and as it was the pro- duction of this place, my admiration is the greater, that in such solitude and darkness, where sorrow and distraction mostly dwell, such happy entertainments and such minutes were enjoyed." I am not acquainted with any passage in the language which expresses, in a few admirable words, a sounder canon of criticism than is to be observed in the course of the above. It is unnecessary to direct the reader's attention to the deep meaning of the closing lines. I may add, that the feeling so strongly intimated here, of opposition to a prevalent fash- ion of that age, a fashion which belongs, perhaps, to the lit- erary coxcombry of all ages, is in many other parts of his work emphatically urged by Eliot. Another object of desire riches is now discussed. The passage is a beautiful companion to that of the deprecation of poverty as an object of fear. His opening reasons against the avarice of wealth are strongly stated. " Preposterous and absurd" are the mildest epithets he affords to it at last. He describes riches to be " deceitful in their nature, where- as we think them somewhat, when truth does speake them nothing ; deceitful in their qualities being flitting and un- certain, without any constancie or stabilitie, always wing'd, and flying from one subject to another ; deceitful in their use as we take them to be helpful to our happiness, though working the contrary by continuall anxieties and cares ! Why should we then desire them, being no way to be trust- ed, but in all consisting of fallacie and frauds ?" Very beau- tiful are the series of questions that follow. "Hast thou worth or meritt that might challenge them as due ? That is a mysterie to them. They cannot discerne it. The worthless and the worthy are equal in their sense." "They are the maine occasion," he continues, "of all differences, the ager contentiosus, as it were, the field of quarrel and contention, as that antiently neare Berwicke to the English and Scotch nations." Nobly Eliot sums up their high de- merits. " If these be their proprieties, how can we then desire them ? If they be but serviceable to these, if they have no fellowship with honesty, if they dissolve the pow- ers of reason and of virtue, if they be distractive and con- tentious, blind, mad, deceitful, and uncertain, what is it that should make that attraction in our hearts, and disturb our self-sovereignty and command ?" The subject is closed with a very fine allusion to the only one mode of converting the dross of riches into true gold, by the alchemy of virtue. You may have riches, Eliot says, you may desire them, if your purpose is to convert them to good. " But how is that ?" he asks ; " by what means must it be done ? The poet does expresse it ; " ' Divitias proba Virtutis instrumenta facite. Sic Boni credimini, et vitara beatam Degere poteritis !' " Make riches instruments of virtne, let them be servants to that mistress. Soe you may live happily and well." Honour is the next subject treated by Etiot as an ob- ject of desire. This, in the worldly acceptation, is regarded by him with an extreme scorn. " Something still may be said for beantie and for riches ; but the honour and glory that the world so names have noe reality or substance, noe solidd being or existence, but are suppositious and imagin- arie, like those essences of philosophers, qua quasi aunt, as they say, which are but as if they were." "Let the de- scription of that author," Eliot continues, having indulged a severe censure upon the worldly cause of honour, fame, " let the description of that author speake the nature of the subject. Let Fame, from which honour is deduced, show what this honour is, it being the daughter of that mother. In that mother take the qualitie of the daughter. Of which Virgill thus : " ' Illam Terra parens, ira inritata deorum, Extremam, ut perhibent, Coeo Euceladoque sororem Progenuit, pedibus celerem, et pernicibus alis. Monstrum horrendum, ingens : cui, quot sutit corpora Tot vigiles oculi subter, mirabile dictu, [plumie, Tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit auris. Nocte volat coeli medio temeque, per umbram Stridens, nee dulci decimal lumina somno. Luce sedet custos, aut summi culmine tecti, Turribus aut altis, et magnas territat urbis: Tarn ficti pravique tenax, quam nuutia veri.' (which Eliot translates with freedom}" ' First, as sister to the Gyants, the Earth produced it in malice of the Gods swift-footed, light-winged, a huge and horrid monster; having that strange thing to be told under each feather of her body, a prying watchful eye ; and unto that both ears and tongues as many, and mouths not fewer, always in sound and motion. All night it flies through the middle of the heavens, and divides the darkness, giving no place to rest. And in the day it sits on the supreme tops of houses, or in high turrets, a terror to whole cities, being as well the herald of lies and mischiefs as a reporter of the contra- ry !' This Virgill makes both her nature and descent." Adopting the suggestion of the Latin poet, Eliot now works out a very fine contrast between the huge, but inca- pable, energies of the Titans, and the calm accomplishing grandeur of the gods. In the eyes of the latter, he says, and to the perceptions of philosophy, fame is nothing. The following passage succeeds. It is a masterly dissection of one of the things denominated honour, in shape of an inqui- ry into the claim of hereditary rank ; which for sober satire, joined to exalted reason, could with difficulty be excelled. It calls to my memory some forcible and eloquent things, which are urged in a style precisely similar, by one of the most original thinkers of this or of any age, Mr. Walter Sav- age Landor, in his delightful " Examination of Shakspeare r Deer-stealing." " And now to see," says Eliot, " wheth- er this ' honor' be confined within an order, limited to per- sons and degrees, or left promiscuously to all, as their worths and qualities shall deserve it. Wherein let reason be the judge. Is it the reward of virtue or of fortune they would make it ? Let them answer who so magnify this >retence. Do they apply that honor to their houses or hemselves? Is it the distinction of their families, or the faerdon of their merits ? If they will take it for distinction, tis but a name, and the poorest. The basest have as much, and small cause there is to glory in that subject. If it be he distinction of their families, the character of their houses, hough it once implied a glory, what can it be to them more han treasures are to porters ? But they will say it is the flory of their ancestors, the acquisition of their virtues, and from them it does descend hereditarily to us.' So may he porter say. That treasure is his master's, and by his will-imposed upon his shoulders ; but to whose use, and in whose right, has he received it ? in his owne, or to his owne irofit and advantage ? Masters would take this ill, if their ervants should usurp it ; and all men would condemn them, >oth of falsehood and ingratitude. So is it, in the other, an njury to their ancestors, if they pretend that honor to be heirs. They can but carry it to their use, as a monument f their virtues that acquired it, not in their own interest nd right, to the glory of themselves ; nay, not without their tiame, whose purchase cannot equal it, being but the sole nheritors of the fortune, not the worth. But if they waive leir families, and reduce it to themselves, between their irtues and their fortunes, how will they divide it? If for- une do appropriate it, then the most vicious, the most ig- orant, the most dishonorable may be honorable ; slaves, nd they, may be equal in this kind ; for not seldom have ley tasted the liberality of fortune, and this honor none villenvy them. If virtue be the loadstone that procures it, where is it ? Let them shew it in the effect, and then I ope they'll grant that all so qualified may be honorable. .11 men that have the virtue may participate. Where, len, is the propriety they challenge ? where is that pecu- ar interest they claim ? Certainly not in this. This hon- r will not bear it, which is the crown of virtue ! All per- sons, all orders, all degrees extant may be capable thereof, "'hey are without exception or exclusion, and, for such oth- r honors as are fancied, let them enjoy an immunity there- n ; I shall rather pity than malign them !" After this, as it were to while away the time, Eliot bring* p in aid of the general question new " squadrons of author- ties ;" disputing some, exalting; others. " In one word," e subsequently says, " honor is no other than to follow joodnesg. To be a servant unto virtue is to be master of 53 BRITISH STATESMEN. true honor, and without that service no honor can be had. Therefore the Romans, those most honorable above all men, in the temples which they dedicated, joined those of virtue and honor to each other, and to that of honor left no entrance or accession but through the gate of virtue ; shewing by that symbol where true honor rests, and how it is attained, which is by following virtue. But how is that ? how is vir- tue to be followed ? in a fair and easy pace ? will that con- duce to honor T can honor be so had ?" Eliot answers these questions with elaborate care, and closes the subject, after a strong reiteration of his protest against the hereditary claim, that honour should not be " appropriated to any or- der or degree, as is pretended," for that " to be gotten and descended even of princes is an accident," with an allusion to those enemies of Roman tyranny whose honour, because it was true, outshone the worst envy of the times. Eliot had a peculiar right to call to mind these men, for in his own nature he presented some of their noblest qualities the fiery energy of Cassius, and Brutus's brave philosophy. " Tacitus," he says, " notes it upon the funeral of Junia, where so many famous images were exhibited, the glory of their families, that Brutus and Cassius being omitted through the envy of those times, they ontshined the rest because their statues were not seen. ' Eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur prefulgebant,' as he has it. They being so concealed, their glory was the greater. Which shews that honor is most had when it is least affected. Why, then, should this disturb us with ambition? why should it make a faction in our government ? why should it cause the distraction of our hopes ? Ambition cannot pur- chase it, the hope thereof is vain ; no art, no practice can acquire it but by the rule of virtue. And so only, as the virtue is intended, let virtue be our aim. Leave that desire of honor. Let it not be a worke of our affections, for in that case we must fight with honor as with enemies." The reader will have remarked with what a steady pur- pose, in how close a vice of logic, the main object and ar- gument of the treatise is kept. Eliot now examines his po- sition. " And thus we see from the several objects of desire how little cause there is for that disturbance and impulsion. Honor contains no reason, being rather an enemie than friend to that affection, flying and not following it. Beauty has as little, consisting but of vanity. Riches much less, that are but instruments of corruption. Also for fear, pov- erty, death, sickness, and the like, which have as small warrant and authority for that passion. Let us now search what more there is in Pleasure, that counterfeit of happi- nesse, and apply our laws to that ; for, being the most dangerous of our adversaries, it must the more cautiously be dealt with." To the subject of pleasure, accordingly, Eliot reverts, with the intention of impressing more emphat- ically in that regard the duty of self-restraint. A vast num- ber of authorities are brought to bear upon it, and Eliot takes occasion to express the most exalted admiration of Homer. He calls him a " prophet and a poet." He amuses himself, at the same time, with notices of Lucian' comments upon Homer, and pursues at great length the analogy be- tween the resistance of Ulysses to the Syrens, and a perfect self-restraint in man. He bound himself, he says, he re- stricted his liberty. "But wherewith was that done? What were the obligations he incurred? How shall this come to us ? Most properly and most readily, if we will endeavour but that means, if we will use the example of that worthy. The same safety is for us which was then wrought to him, and that that great prophet has delivered, with all sincerity and fulness. You know he makes Vlys- ses then on ship board. And that much experienced man, most curious of all knowledge, would needs add to that the musick of the Syrens, the perception of that excellence, though not trusting to himself for the resistance of their powers, in which both danger and destruction were implied. To avoid this, he feigns to be fastened to the mast ; his men, meanwhile, do intend their labours, having their senses stopped (vulgar appetites being not capable of such dainties). Now, as this musick was but pleasure, those Syrens the oc- casion, so the virtue were the cords that did restrain and bind him, reason the mast to which he was so fastened, philosophy the ship in which he sailed and went ; and in this ship, thus fastened to that mast, having had both the occasion and delight, he escap't the dangers threatened, and in that preserved the safety of his course. But what was that ? the same that is our government, the way to hap- piness and felicity ! this was his Ithaca, this was that course intended, and with these helpes, notwithstanding all the difficulties, this he accomplished and performed ! Now is not this a plain direction unto us ? Is not our remedy, our deliverance from this danger, aptly expressed in this mirror and example ? Our syrens are not more, their har- monies not stronger ; the same ship we have, with the same tackle ; the same ropes, the same mast continue still. Cannot our course, then, be the same ' Is not the same safety yet before us ? If we doubt that tackle will not hold us against those strong enchantments, let us stop our senses, as Vlysses did with his men, and first avoid the occasions. Nothing is lov'd, not known. Let us, then, stint our curi- osity herein, and the desire will leave us. But how is that? how shall that work be done ? Is it to shun all pleasure, all occasions ? That cannot be, nor is it requisite to this ? For virtue in the concrete is not absolute, nor to be so ex- pected in our monarchy," All this is subtly and well expressed ; and its deep spirit of philosophy has farther vent in the following remarkable passage : " We daily see it in experience, that those who have least affections are most violent (least, I mean, exten- sively, in respect of number, and the object) ; their passions being impetuous as contracted to that narrowness, and mas- terlessin that. As Tacitus notes it in Tiberius, who, being most reserved and hidden unto all men, to Sejanus yet was open and incautious. SMJ it is likewise unto others. The heart, being straightened by some objects, growcs more vio- lent in those passions ; the affection does inlarge as the scope thereof is lessened. Therefore we thus expose that precept of division : that pleasures may be a remission to the mind, not an intention that we may taste, not swallow them that the appetition may be obtemperate to reason, wherein only true pleasures doe consist." Carrying out his plan of reverting to the more dangerous impediments in the way of man's monarchy, Eliot now re- sumes the subject of sorrow : " Sorrow," he again insists, " is a perfect enemy, standing in such antipathy with happi- ness, that it is irreconcileable for our government : there- fore to this also we must oppose all the resistance we have, for this moves most violently against us ; and if it get possession of our hearts, if it once enter on that fort, all our happiness is gone, our monarchy is subverted ! For it destroys the end, the felicity we look for, and then the means is uselesse. It dissolves it in the principle, and so brings it to confusion. For where sorrow is no felicity can, be, and a mind so affected can have no taste of happiness. To encounter it, therefore, as physicians do diseases, we will first meet it in the cause ; for if that can be removed, the effect forthwith will follow it. The object being gone, the affection must fall after it." Eliot then points out, with renewed earnestness, the fallacy and folly of supposing that things which assume at times the aspects of sorrow are in reality sorrowful. He argues the great principle of the poet of nature, that " there's a Providence that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." Above all, however, ha impresses the virtue of opposing- whatever appears in sor- row's shape. The exercise, he says, will be great, a disci- pline of humanity, and an invaluable example to others. "For are not solfliers sometimes heightened in their cour- age by the valour of their fellows ? Do not the valiant often receive new fortitude and spirits by the acts of magnanim- itie of others? Has not admiration, has not emulation this effect, to work the likeness of that virtue which it has seen before it ? to reduce to act the image of that idea which the apprehension has conceived, and, from the excellence of the pattern, to draw an antitype thereof. Wherefore were exhibited those bloody spectacles at Rome those butcheries of men those tragic representations to the peo- plebut to inure them to blood, to harden them in dangers, to familiar them with death ? And shall not better acts, to better ends directed, have the like power and operation 1 Shall not divinity, by the works of divine men opposing their afflictions, have as great force in precedent and exam- ple as these Romans had by that fighting with beasts, or contesting one another, to harden, to encourage the minds of the more virtuous against all difficulties, all dangers ?" Eliot, after remarking on Plato's noble commentary of the inscription on the Delphic oracle, yvdiQi atavrov, farther, urges this consideration: "It is required of man that he should profit many. It is a common duty of mankind, as far as ability may extend, still to do good to all, or, if not that, to some, as opportunity shall be granted him. Or, if he fail in that, yet to his neighbours, or at least unto himself. But here, in this act of passion and wrestling with calamities, there is advantage given for all. In this contestation of those things we call miseries there is a per- formance of all these. First, to thyself, thou profittest through the favor of the gods, that give thee this instruc- tion, this education, this trial, this knowledge of thyself, this confirmation of thy virtue. Then to thy neighbours, and all others, thou art profitable by thy precedent and ex- ample. Thy fortitude adds courage unto them, stout and valiant. How then how, in this excellence of duty, in this great duty of advantage of advantage to ourselves, of ad- vantage to our neighbours, of advantage nnto all we should repine and sorrow, as 'tis a prejudice to our happiness, it's a wonder unto reason !" With much beauty Eliot after- ward disposes of the last and best plea that would seem to remain for sorrow a friend at the grave of his friend. " Let me first ask this question of the sorrower : For whose sake that passion is assumed 1 for his that is so lost, or for thine own that lost him ? Answer to this, and make a justification for thyself. If thou wilt say for his, where is the evil that he suffers ? Wherein lies the reason of that grief? Design it out ; give it some character to express it. Is it in that he is dead ? in that he has made a transition to the elders ? That cannot be for death contains no evil, as SIR JOHN ELIOT. 53 our former proofs have manifested"; but is a priviledge of immortality, an eternity of happiness. Is it for that he is not ? that he is not numbered with the living * That were to lament but because he is not miserable. Thou canst not but acknowledge the distraction of thy fears, the anxiety of thy cares, the complexion of thy pleasures, the mixture of thy sorrows ! With all these, and upon all, no rest, no quiet, no tranquillity, but a continual vexation of thy thoughts, a servile agitation of thy mind from one passion to another ! And wilt thou grieve for him that has his freedom, his im- munity from these ? On the other side : is that sorrow for thyself, that thou hast lost a friend the sweetness, the ben- efit of his friendship thy comfort in society the assistance of thy business the sublevation of thy cares the extenua- tion of thy griefs the multiplication of thy joys thy cas- tle thy counsel thy sword thy shield thy store thy health thy eye thy ear thy taste thy touch thy smell the CATHOLICON of thy happiness (for all these are attri- butes of friendship) ? consider, first, whether friendship may not change, whether a breach and enmity may not fol- low it, as not seldom happens in the most strict conjunctions, with which then no enmity may compare ! Then 'twere better thus to have lost it, that evil being prevented^ and the obligation, the virtue kept entire ! But if that doubt pre- vails not ; if thou supposes! a perpetuity in that friendship, an assurance of that love ; is it not envy in thee, and un- worthiness thereof, for these respects, those temporary ben-. efits to thyself, to grudge at his happiness and felicity, which is infinite and celestial ? Justice may resolve how far this is from friendship, how unworthy of that name !" This sorrowing, Eliot afterward observes, is variously ap- plied. "Marcellus wept when he had taken Syracuse; Alexander, to have no more worlds to conquer." Conclu- ding with the phrase of the ethics, that to conquer what might be fancied real calamities "not only makes a man a conqueror, and wise, but equal, nay, superior to the gods ;" Eliot, in a passage of great eloquence, banishes sorrow from his government. Having thus disposed of the impediments to the monarchy of man of the obstructing passions Eliot now turns to the elevation of the monarchy itself, to the virtues by whose exercise and operation, condensed into two great purposes, the structure is to be raised. " Our next care must be how to obtain the virtue, how to possess the means which must procure that end ; and if that can be acquired, then is our felicity complete, then we have that perfection of our gov- ernment, the summum bonum in philosophy, the bonum publicum in our policy, the true end and object of the mon- archy of man. Two parts it has action and contemplation ; of which the first divides itself into two branches, as the virtue agendo aud dicendo, doing and saying, both which concur to action. By doing, is intended those travels and motions of the body that are necessary in the performance of those works which the duty aud office of our callings re- quire ; by saying, is meant that expression of the tongue whereby the intelligence of the heart is made communicable to others, and the thoughts are conveyed to the understand- ing of the hearers. In these two all action does consist, and so that part of the virtue and perfection. Both these have a rule, and level, and direction, which we did touch before, as the cornon duty of mankind. In that duty their office is implied, which is that it be profitable to many. In the general good and benefit it must be extended, first to all, then, after, to ourselves." Here Eliot interposes in a pa- renthesis this valuable reminder : " For all right of office is destroyed by the inversion of this order. To reflect first upon ourselves, our own particular interests, and then upon the general, is the contrary of duty, the breach of office and relation. Therefore to the publike both our words and ac- tions must first move, without respect, without retraction for our private. They must first intend the common good and benefit, and so descend by degrees unto ourselves. For as members are in bodies for the perfection of the man, so men in bodies politike, as parts of these societies, and for the conservation of the whole, and to that end their chief endeavour must incline." Eliot then, with a noble fervour, inculcating the practice of his own life, thus resumes: " Here some questions will arise ; how far this shall engage us ? what latitude it imports ? what cautions and excep- tions it admits ? Difficulties may occur, and then involve us in anxieties, with troubles and perplexities disturbing our tranquillities, distracting the quietness we are in. And shall we forsake that sweetness ? shall we neglect that fatness of our peace (as the fig and olive said of old) for the publike use and service? for the profit and commodity of others? YES ! no difficulties may retard us, no troubles may divert us, no exception is admitted to this rule ! but where the greater good is extant, the duty and office there is absolute, without caution or respect. That greater good appearing, nothing may dissuade us from the work no respect of ease, no respect of pleasure, no respect of the troubles we may meet ; but in performance of that duty, in accomplishment of that office, our troubles must seem pleasant, our labours must seem facile, all things easy, all things sweet therein ; for the rula is, Officium non fraction scqui, to observe the duty, not the benefit, to seek that end which is propounded in the general, not to propound an end and reason of our own. But danger may be incident ! it may betray our safeties, and expose our fortunes, expose our liberties, ex- pose our lives to hazard ! and shall we, then, adventure upon these ? shall we forsake our safeties ? shall we incur those dangers, for foreign interests and respects, for that which concerns but others, which is foreign unto us ? Yes, this likewise we are bound to; our obligation lies in this. No danger, no hazard may deter us. The duty and office stand entire." In this first division of material for Eliot's grand structure the reader will recognise the old principle of the ancients, in their separation of the characteristics of wisdom. The one, which we have just seen described, comprehending the beginning and end of all things to be done, <j>p6vtcii, pru- dentia ; the other, which Eliot is now about to subjoin, com- passing the manner and ways conducing to those ends, oo<t>ia, sapientia. " The rest," he says, describing the latter, " all follow this, and are but servants to this mistress, several op- erations of this faculty having their appellations from their works. If we would ask what fancy does intend, what is the signification of that name, the answer is, 'Tis wisdom, the divine spirit of the mind, that hunts out all intelligence . If we may inquire what memory does import, the same an- swer serves, 'Tis wisdom, the influence of that faculty. For where the fancy cannot keep all things upon intention, memory is suggested for supply of that defect, and so makes up the wisdom. If we would know what judgment does implie,the resolution is the same. 'Tis but an act of wis- dom, the operation of that power. Therefore in this con- sists the perfection of all theory, the sum of all contempla- tion, and so that other part of virtue." Very beautiful is the passage that follows : " But how may this wisdom, then, be had ? Where may we seek and find it * The answer is most obvious : In the doctrines of philosophy ; for philoso- phy is the introduction to this wisdom ; so both the word and reason do import ; for by the word is signified only a love of wisdom, a love of that wisdom which we speak of; and that love will be accompanied with an endeavour to at- tain it, which is intended in the common sense and notion. For that science of philosophy is but a guest of wisdom, the study of that excellence : and BO Plato gives it in his gradations unto happiness. Philosophy is the first step he makes as the desire of wisdom; to which he adds the study and contemplation to attain it. From that study and spec- ulation he arises unto wisdom, from that wisdom unto hap- pinesse. So that philosophy is the principle. Wisdom does there begin, which has its end in happinesse, and happi- nesse in this order is the production of philosophy. In sum, all contemplation is but this, but this study of philosophy. If it ascend the heavens to view the glory of that beauty, philosophy does direct it. If it descend to measure the cen- tre of the earth, philosophy goes with it. If it examine na- ture and her secrets, philosophy must assist it. If it reflect on causes or effects, that turn is by philosophy. The con- templation of all ends, all beginnings, all successes, is pro- pounded by philosophy. So that philosophy, in contempla- tion, is as prudence in the virtues, the architect and chief workman, that gives motion and direction to the rest. Great is the excellence of philosophy, as it is chief in contempla- tion, and the accompaniment of that virtue. Greater much it is, as it is a principle to wisdom, and an instructor to the counsell. But beyond all comparison it is greatest, as it is the first degree to happinesse, as it leads on to that perfec- tion of our government ! No words can sufficiently expresse it, nor render a true figure of that worth. Being in con- templation, contemplation only must conceive it !" The question then occurs : Which of these great divisions of the virtues is to be considered the highest and most per- fect ? And Eliot answers it. As an exercise of the facul- ties, in pure and single grandeur, he pronounces at once in favour of philosophy, of contemplation ; but is careful to modify this immediately after, by pronouncing no wisdom complete without the active practices of virtue. Speaking on the first head, he urges the superior greatness of the contemplative philosopher, in regard that his thoughts are fixed on the final intelligence : " And he that levels at that mark,.though he come short, yet shoots higher than he that aims but at man. Besides, there is this advantage in it, that nothing can be contracted from the president to preju- dice or corrupt it, which lower examples may induce ; but much perfection may be added hjr the elevation of the mind. A chemicks in the disquisition of the elixar, though the wonder be not found, yet have extracted great varieties by that labour, excellent demonstrations by that work. It ii the way in part to resume the image we have lost, for that was not an outward figure, but a resemblance in virtue. If that similitude was laid in virtue, it cannot so aptly be re- paired as by the imitation of the Deity, in whom the exact- ness of all virtue does remain. This help philosophy does give us in the speculation of eternity ; and likewise it de- rives to our present view and prospect the knowledge of all antiquity, in whit their happiness consisted, what were the ingredient! of that compound, and how it was lost at first, 54 BRITISH STATESMEN. whence the judgment may resolve what is true happinesse to us." On the second head, however, Eliot immediately subjoins: " But if so, if philosophy and contemplation have this fruit, that these degrees of happinesse be in them, and so direct a way to happinesse itself, how is it that we in- volve us in such toils, such anxieties and perplexities, to acquire it ? It is a vanity and folly by such hard labour to effect, when a less trouble, a less travail comes so near ' If philosophy and contemplation can procure it, those sweet and gentle motions of the soul, what need the co-operations of the body, those actions and those passions, which virtue does require, and which so often force distraction, nay, de- struction upon men ? Yet they are needful, for without vir- tue true happinesse cannot be, and these compose the other half of virtue. For contemplation and action make the whole. Virtue consists only in both, and in part there is no perfection. Therefore to contemplation action also must be joined, to make a complete virtue, and by that virtue only true happinesse may be had." And, careful not to be misunderstood in what he had said before of the supremacy of contemplation, he adds (with an intimation that he will discuss the matter more fully in a future treatise a project stopped by death !) that contemplation must be considered the chief, for "contemplation is the beginning of all action, the principle of that motion : action but a derivative of that, and no derivation can be equal to the primitive, no second comparable with the first. All actions are but the emana- tion of the will, and the will receives her instance from the apprehension of the mind. But still," he adds, " both must be concurrent. Virtue is a composition of them both. Con- templation must prepare the matter of our happinesse, action dispose and order it." Eliot's great purpose now accomplished, he closes his la- bours with an exalted eulogy on the independence and su- periority of the mind. I present it to the reader entire. It is worthy to have closed a work of such nobility in concep- tion and power in execution. " This makes up that perfection of our monarchy that happinesse of the mind which, being founded upon these grounds, built upon these foundations, no power or great- ness can impeach. Such is the state and majesty, that no- thing can approach it but by the admission of these ser- vants ; such is the safety and security, that nothing can vi- olate or touch it but by these instruments and organs ; such is the power and dignity, that all things must obey it. All things are subject to the mind, which, in this temper, is the commander of them all. No resistance is against it. It breaks through the orbes and immense circles of the heav- ens, and penetrates down to the centre of the earth ! It opens the fountains of antiquity, and runs down the streams of time, below the period of all seasons ! It dives into the dark counsels of eternity and into the abstruse secrets of nature ! It unlocks all places, and all occasions are alike obvious to it ! It does observe those subtil passages in the air, and the unknown paths and traces in the deeps! There is that great power of operation in the mind, that quickness and velocity of motion, that in an instant it does passe from extremity to extremity, from the lowest to the highest, from the extremest point of the west to the horo- scope and ascendant in the east. It measures in one thought the whole circumference of heaven, and by the same line it takes the geography of the earth. The air, the fire, all things of either, are within the comprehension of the mind. It has an influence' on them all, whence it takes all that may be useful, and that may be helpful in its government. No limitation is prescribed it, no restriction is upon it, but in a free scope it has liberty upon all. And in this liberty is the excellence of the mind ; in this power and composition of the mind is the perfection of the man ; in that perfection is the happinesse we look for ; when in all sovereignty it reigns, commanding, not commanded ; when at home, the subjects are subject and obedient, not refractory and factious ; when abroad, they are as servants, serviceable and in readiness, without hesitation or reluctance ; when to the resolutions of the counsell, to the digests of the laws, the actions and af- fections are inclined this is that summum bonum, and chiefe good, which in this state and condition is obtain'd '. The mind for this has that transcendence given it, that man, though otherwise the weakest, might be the strongest and most excellent of all creatures. In that only is the excel- lence we have, and thereby are we made supei.'or to the rest. For in the habits of the body, in all the faculties thereof, man is not comparable to others, in sense and mo- tion far inferior to many. The ancients suppose it the in- discretion of Epimetheus, having the first distribution of the qualities, to leave us so defective, when to the rest he gave an excellence in their kinds. As swiftness and agility to some, strength and fortitude to others ; and whom he found weakest, these he made most nimble, as in the fowls and others it is seen ; and whom he found most slow, to these he gave most strength, as bulls and elephants do expresse it ; and so all others in their kinds have some singularity and excellence, wherein there is a compensation for all wants ; some being armed offensively and defensive, and in that having a provisional security. But man only he left naked, more unfurnished than the rest : in him there was neither strength nor agility to preserve him from the danger of his enemies multitudes exceeding him in either, many in both to whom he stood obnoxious and exposed, having no resistance, no avoidance for their furies ! But in this case and necessity, to relieve him upon this oversight and improvidence of Epimetheus, Prometheus, that wise states- man, whom Pandora could not cozen, having the present ap- prehension of the danger by his quick judgment and intelli- gence, secretly passes into heaven, steals out a fire from thence, infuses it into man, by that inflames his mind with a divine spirit and wisdom, and therein gives him a full sup- ply for all ! For all the excellence of the creatures he had a far more excellence in this. This one was for them all. No strength nor agility could match it. All motions and abilities came short of this perfection. The most choice arms of nature have their superlative in its arts. All the arts of Vulcan and Minerva have their comparative herein. In this divine fire and spirit, this supernatural influence of the mind, all excellence organical is surpast ; it is the transcendent of them all ; nothing can come to match it ; nothing can impeach it ; but man therein is an absolute master of himself; his own safety and tranquillity by God (for so we must remember the ethicks did expresse it) are made dependant on himself. And in that self-depend- ance, in the neglect of others, in the entire rule and domin- ion of himself, the affections being composed, the actions so directed, is the perfection of our government, that summum bonum in philosophy, the bonum publicum in our policy, the true end aad object of this MONARCHY OF MAS." THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD. 1593-1641. THOMAS WENTWORTH was born on the 13th of April, 1593, in Chancery Lane, at the house of his mother's father, Mr. Robert Atkinson, ; bencher of Lincoln's Inn.* He was the eldes of twelve children, and the heir of " an estate which descended to him through a long train of ancestors, who had matched with many heiresses of the best families in the North worth at that time 6000/. a year."t His father, Sir William Wentworth, continued to hold a manor which his ancestors had held from the time of the Conquest downward. J The youth of Wentworth was passed, anc his mind received its earliest and strongest im- pressions in the midst of the aristocratic influ- ences. And he was by no means taught to dis- regard them. He must have considered the various ramifications of the family pedigree with a very early pride and zeal, to have been so well prepared, on his sudden elevation to the peerage, with the formidable list of pro- genitors that were cited in his patent. It was there set forth, among other grand and notable things, that he was lineally descended from John of Gaunt, and from the ancient barons of Newmark, Oversley, and so forth ; and that his ancestors, either by father or mother, had matched with divers houses of honour ; as with Maud, countess of Cambridge, daughter to the Lord Clifford of Westmoreland ; with Margaret, daughter and heir to the Lord Philip de Spencer ; the lords D'Arcy of the North ; Latimer, Talboys, Ogle ; Ferrers, earl of Dig- by ; Quincy, earl of Winchester ; Beaumont, earl of Leicester ; Grantmesnil, baron of Hinc- ley and lord-high-steward of England ; Pev- eril, earl of Nottingham ; Leofric, earl of Mer- cia ; and Margaret, duchess of Somerset, grand- mother of Henry VII. It was from the high conventional ground of such proud recollec- tions that Thomas Wentworth looked forward to the future. Little account of his early education has been preserved, but he afterward proved that no accomplishment suited to rank and lofty ex- pectations had been omitted ; and it is charac- teristic of the encouragement given by his fa- ther to his aristocratic tendencies, that the col- lege selected for the completion of his studies should have been that which was founded by the illustrious grandmother of Henry VII., whom he claimed as one of his ancestors. He was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge.il Here he soon gave evidence of the powers of a fine intellect, and of that not ungenerous warmth of disposition which is lavish of grati- tude and favour in return for personal service. He met with a tutor, Mr. Greenwood, whose useful attentions to him at this time were se- cured for the future by a prompt appreciation * Radcliffe's " Essay towards the Life of my Lord Straf- forde," published as an appendix to " The EARL OF STRAF- FOBDE'S LETTERS AND DISPATCHES," 2 vols. folio, Dublin edit., 1740, vol. ii., p. 429. Biographia Britannica, vol. vii., p. 4172. t Knowler's Dedication to the Letters. t An account of the Wentworths will be found in Collins ; and see Thoresby's Ducatus Leodiensis. t) Collins'* Peerage of England, vol. ii., p. 20, 21. I Radcliffe'* Essay. of their value ; he availed himself of them through his after life, and never at any time failed faithfully, and even affectionately, to re- member and reward them.* I may add, in far- ther proof of this characteristic quality, that we find him shortly after profiting by the ac- tive service of a person named Radcliffe,t con- nected with his family by some claims of clan- ship, and that, from this time, Radcliffe never left his side. He had been found useful. Wentworth left his college while yet very young ; he cannot have been more than eigh- teen. But he had received benefits from his residence there, and he did not fail to exhibit his recollection of these also, when the power and opportunity arose.:): Not that it required, in this particular case, the circumstance of ser- vice rendered to elicit Wentworth's return. The memory of his proudly-recollected ances- tress was abundantly sufficient to have called it forth, "being," as he himself, shortly after this, writes to one of his country neighbours, " I must confess, in my own nature, a great lover and conserver of hereditary good-wills, such as have been amongst our nearest friends. " When a hereditary good-will hap- pened to be associated with one of his greatest ancestral glories, it ran little chance of being lessened or lost. The next circumstance I trace in the scanty memorials of this portion of his history is his acquisition of the honour of knighthood. II This title was then to be purchased at a reasonable rate of money ; doubtless Wentworth so pur- chased it ; and the fact may be taken, along with the evidences I have already named, in farther corroboration of the development of the aristocratic principle. Though still extremely young, this remarkable person had been left to all the independence of mature manhood ; was treated with deference by his father ; and even now, having not yet passed his eighteenth year, * I shall have other occasions to allude to this. It may be worth while to add, that Greenwood was himself a man of ancient family, and not likely, on that account, to prove less suitable to Wentworth. See Biog. Brit., vol. vii., p. 4173, note C. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 9. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 125, 189 ; ii., p. 390. I may allude to this again. On his promotion to the earldom, two years before his death, he acknowledged, in warm phrase, the congratulations of the provost and fellows of his old col- lege : " After my very hearty commendations, so mindful 1 am of the ancient favours I received in that society of St. Johns's whilst I was a student there, and so sensible of your present civility towards me, as I may not upon this invita- tion pass by either of them unacknowledged. And there- fore do hereby very heartily thank you for renewing to me the sense of the one, and affording me the favour of the other. And in both these regards shall be very apprehensive of any occasions, wherein I may do any good offices either towards that house or yourselves, the provost and fellows thereof." $ Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 25. I! The writer in the Biog. Brit., and Mr. MacDiarmid, assign a later period to this, but without authority. Rad- cliffe distinctly, in his Essay, names the year 1611; and there is eitant a letter of Sir Peter Frecheville's to Went- worth's father, Sir William Wentworth, dated in this year, which commences thus : " I do unfeignedly congratulate he honourable fortunes of my cousin, your eldest son ;" in reference, s must be supposed, to the youth's new title. While on this subject I may add, that Mr. MacDiarmid has also fallen into error in attributing certain praises (vol. i., >. 1, of the Strafford Papers) to Thomas Wentworth.; they listmctly relate to his brother William, then educating for '.he bar. 56 BRITISH STATESMEN. aspired to the hand of Frances, eldest daughter of the Earl of Cumberland, whom he married before the close of 1611.* If it has seemed strange to the reader that the immediate suc- cessor to an ancient patrimony should have sought to feed his love of rank by the purchase of a paltry knighthood, here is the probable reason that influenced him. A title of any sort matched him more fittingly with a lady of title. Immediately after his marriage, in November, 1611, he went into France.! Mr. Greenwood, his former tutor, joined him there, and remain- ed with him.J Strange events at that moment shook the kingdom of France. Henry IV. assassinated, the Parliament invaded and beset, Marie de' Medicis regent, Sully disgraced, Concini in fa- vour ! These things sunk deep into the mind of Wentworth. " II put faire des lors," ex- claims the Comte de Lally-Tolendal, " de pro- fondes reflexions sur les horreurs du fanatisme, sur les abus du pouvoir, sur le malheur d'un pays depourvu de ces loix fixes, qui, dans 1'im- possibilite d'anneantir les passions humaines, les balancent du moins 1'une par 1'autre, et les forcent par leur propre interet a servir, meme en depit d'elles, 1'interet general."^ Without adopting M. de Lally-Tolendal's exact con- struction, it is certain that the events I have named, occurring as it were in the immediate presence of Wentworth, || were not calculated to weaken his impressions in favour of strict establishment, and in scorn of popular regards. The image of a Ravillac, indeed, haunted his after life !f Meanwhile events, in themselves not so startling and painful as these, but not the less ominous of a stormy future, were occurring in England. In the biography of Eliot I confined myself strictly to an explanation of the circum- stances of general history under which he en- tered his first Parliament : I must now retrace my steps. James I. had many reasons to be weary of his own kingdom, when the death of Elizabeth seated him on the English throne. He came to this country in an ecstasy of infinite relief. Visions of levelling clergy and factious nobles had vanished from his aching sight. In hope- ful conceit, he turned to his Scotch followers, and remarked, they had at last arrived in the land of promise. His first interviews with his English coun- sellors were no less satisfactory. " Do I mak * RadclifiVs Essay. t [He married Margaret, eldest daughter of Francis Clif- ford, fourth Earl of Cumberland : for which statement, see Strafford's life in Jesse's Court of Stuarts. C.] t Radcliffe's Essay. . I) This is the only remark with any pretension to origi- nality I have been able to find through the course of a long " Essai sur la Vie de T. Wentworth, Comte de Strafford," which the Comte de Lally-Tolendal (penetrated with pro- found disgust at the patriotic party in England, and with the striking resemblance between Strafford's fate and that of his own unfortunate father) undertook to write for the in- struction of his countrymen. He perpetrated a very ridic- ulous tragedy on the same subject. II He does not appear to have visited France only at this period, as has been supposed. He went on to Venice, where he formed a friendship with Sir Henry Wotton. We find lim afterward, in his correspondence, contrasting to his friend the ambassador, " these cold and sluggish climates," with " the more sublimated air of Italy." Papers, vol. i., p. 5. Wotton continued his ardent friend and admirer. T His letters afford very frequent evidence of this. the judges'! do I mak the bishops?" he ex- claimed, as they pointed out to his delighted attention the powers of his new dominion " then, Godis wauns ! I mak what likes me law and Gospel." There is enough of shrewd- ness in this remark to express James's charac- ter in that respect. He was not an absolute fool, and little more can be said of him. It is a pity he was not, since he was deficient in much wisdom. It is the little redeeming leaven which proves troublesome and mis- chievous ; the very wise or the very foolish do little harm. His " learning," such as it was though not open to the serious censure which is provoked by his preposterous vanity in the matter of " kingcraft," his disgraceful love of personal ease, and his indecent and shameless fondness for personal favourites never furnished him with one useful thought, or a suggestion of practical benefit.* He wrote mystical definitions of the prerogative, and po- lite " Counterblasts to Tobacco ;" issued forth damnation to the deniers of witchcraft,! and poured out the wraths of the Apocalypse upon popery ; but whenever an obvious or judicious truth seemed likely to fall in his way, his pen infallibly waddled off from it. He expounded the Latin of the fathers at Hampton Court,f but avoided the very plain and intelligible Latin of Fortescue. Not so the great men, his opponents, who were now preparing for a constitutional strug- gle, of which Europe had as yet given no ex- ample. At the close of Elizabeth's reign th^y had risen to a formidable party ; they had wrun>.: * Bacon's opinion has been urged against this, as evidence of genuine praise or of the basest sycophancy. He dedica- ted his greatest work, the "Advancement of Learning," to James. It is worth while, however, to quote the exact words of this dedication. They are very curious. If they were meant seriously, never was so much flattery ingeni- ously mixed up with so much truth. They savour much more of irony. " I am well assured," writes Bacon, " that this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a posi- tive and measured truth ; which is, that there hath not been, since Christ's time, any king or temporal monarch, which hath been so learned in all literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the succession of the emperors of Rome, of which Csesar the dictator, who lived some years before Christ, and Marcus Antoninus, were the best learned ; and so descend to the emperors of Gnccia, or of the West, and then to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest : and he shall find his judgment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a king, if by the compendious extrac- tions of other men's wits and labour, he can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of learning, or if he counte- nance and prefer learning and learned men : but to drink in- deed of the true fountain of learning, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself, in a king, and in a. king born, is almost a miracle." This makes out too formidable an ex- ception to be quite complimentary, and perhaps James's ir- reverent joke about the book itself was not unconnected with its dedication. " It is like the peace of God," he said, " it passeth all understanding !" It was a fair retort upon the sycophancy of James's more profligate flatterers, when Henry IV. of France admitted that he might be " Solomon, the son of David." t See the preface to his " Dsemonologie." t An extraordinary account of the indecent conduct of James at this conference is given by Harrington, an eye- witness (Nugae Antiquse, vol. i., p. 181), and is worth refer- ring to. Barlow, a partial observer of the king and bishops, gives a long account of the discussion in his Phojnix Britan- nicus, p. 140, et y., edit. 1707. See, also, Winwood's Memorials, p. 13. James and his eighteen abject bishops boasted that they had thoroughly beaten their four Puritan, adversaries ; and beat them, it must be confessed, thy did, with the rudest and most atrocious insults ; certainly not with learning. In the latter respect, Dr. Reynolds, tha Puritan leader, had the advantage of perhaps any other matt in England. Se Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. i., p. 405. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 57 concessions even from her splendid despotism, and won for themselves the courteous title 'of "mutineers."* They soon found that they had little to fear from her successor. He had no personal claims on their respect,! no dignity to fence in royalty. They buckled on the ar- mour of their privileges, and awaited his ludi- crous attacks, without respect and without fear 4 James soon commenced them, and with a hand doubly defenceless. He had impoverished his crown by conferring its estates on his needy followers ; he had deprived it of the sympathy and support of the wealthier barons, in disgusting them with his indiscriminate peerage creations. From this feeble hand, and a head stuffed with notions of his royal " divinity," he issued the first of his proclama- tions for the assembling of Parliament. It contained a deadly attack on the privileges of the House of Commons, in an attempt to regu- late the Parliamentary elections. This was re- sented and defeated, and so the fight began. II * Sloane MSS., 4166. Letter of Sir E. Hoby to Sir T. Edmonds, dated Feb. 12, 1605. See, also, Hallam's Con- stitutional Hist., vol. i., p. 401. A curious tract in the Sloane MSS., 827, confirms the loss of Elizabeth's popular- ity, and states its cause, in a short history of the queen's death, and the new king's accession. See, too, the pro- ceedings in the case of Peter Wentworth (a Cornish Went- worth), Parl. Hist., vol. iv., p. 186, et seq. The name of Wentworth fills up more than one illustrious era of the English history. t The news of the progress of his journey from Scotland had travelled before him ! " By the time he reached Lon- don," says Carte, a friend of the Stuarts, " the admira- tion of the intelligent world was turned into contempt." The reader will find good reason for this in Harrington's Nugte Antique, vol. i., p. 180 ; Wilson, in Kennet, vol. ii., p. 667 ; Neal, p. 408, quarto edit. ; Fuller, part ii., p. 22 ; Hallam, vol. i., p. 402, 403. Nor is it likely that this con- tempt should have been diminished by his personal aspect, which Weldon (quoting Balfour) has described, and Saun- derson (in his Aulicus Coquinarise an answer to Weldon's book) has not dared to contradict. " He was of a middle stature," says Balfour, " more corpulent throghe his clothes then in his body, zet fatt enouch ; his clothes euer being made large and easie, the doubletts quilted for steletto proofe ; his breeches in grate pleits and ful] stuffed ; he was naturally of a timorous dispositione, which was the gratest reasone of his quilted doubletts ; his eye large, euer roulling after aney stranger cam in his presence ; insomuch as maney for shame have left the roome, as being out of countenance; his beard was werey thin ; his toung too large for his mouthe, vich euer made him speake full in the mouthe, and made him driuke werey uncomelie, as if calling his drinke, wich cam out into the cupe in eache syde of his mouthe ; his skin vas as softe as tafta sarsnet, wich felt so becausse he neuer washt his hands, onlie rubbed his fingers' ends slightly vith ihe vett end of a napkin. His legs wer verey weake ; having had, as was thoughl, some foule play in his youlhe, or rather, befor he was borne ; thai he was not able lo stand at seuin zeires of age ; that weaknes made him euer leaning on other men's shoulders." " His walk," subjoins Wilson, "was ever circular." The satirical Fran- cis Osborne has certainly completed this picture : " I shall leave him dressed for posterily," says that writer, " in the color I saw him in, the next progress after his inaugura- tion ; which was as green as the grass he trod on ; with a feather in his cap, and a horn, instead of a sword, by his side. How suitable to his age, calling, or person, I leave others to judge from his pictures." Trad. Mem., c. xvii. I An ominous hinl of relative advantage may be quoted from the Journals, vol. i., p. 156. " That a people may he without a king, a king cannot be wilhout a people." 9 Sec Bolingbroke on Ihe History of England, p. 237, 238. Harris's Life of James, p. 69, 71. " A pasquil," says Wil- son, " was pasted up at St. Paul's, wherein was pretended an art to help weak memories to a competent knowledge of the names of the nobility." P. 7. II See Commons' Journals, p. 147, et seq., 166 ; Carte, vol. iii., p. 730 ; Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii., p. 18 ; Bo- lingbroke's Remarks, p. 250. Hume observes that "the facility with which he departed from this pretension is a proof that his meaning was innocent" (vol. v., p. 12). Fear, Jus saving characteristic, is the more obvious solution. H The popular party proclaimed their intentions at once with boldness, and in explicit lan- guage. They warned the king of his impru- dence ; they spoke of the dissolute and- aban- doned character of his court expenses. They did not refuse to assist his wants, but they maintained that every offer of money on their part should be met with corresponding offers of concession on the part of the crown. They brought forward a catalogue of grievances in the practice of the ecclesiastical courts, in the administration of civil justice, and in the con- duct of the various departments of the govern- ment. For these they demanded redress.* Artifice and intrigue were the first answers they received, and a prorogation the last. James had now sufficient warning, but, nev- ertheless, plunged blusteringly forward. With no clear hereditary right to the crown, t he flouted his only safe pretension the consent and authority of the people. With no personal qualities to command respect, he proclaimed himself a " lieutenant and vicegerent of God," and, as such, adorned and furnished with " sparkles of divinity." In total ignorance of the nature and powers of government, nothing could shake his vain conceit of the awe to be inspired by his regal wisdom. The Commons, however, left no point of their claims unas- serted or uncertain ; they reserved no " arcana imperii," after the king's fashion. They drew up in committee a " Satisfaction" of their 1 proceedings for the perusal of James, who makes an evident allusion to it in a letter of the time.f It is vain to say, after reading such documents as this, that liberty, a discrimina- tion of the powers and objects of government, was then only struggling to the light, or had achieved no distinct form and pretension. It was already deep in the hearts and in the understandings of men. " What cause," they eloquently said, " we, your poor Commons, have to watch over their privileges is evident in it- self to all men. The prerogatives of princes * They tried to get the Upper House to join them in these complaints, but vainly. Their lordships refused. See Som- ers's Tracts, vol. ii., p. 14 ; Commons' Journals, p. 199, 235, t Mr. Hallam has admirably and fully discussed this point, Const. Hist., p. 392-400. I have no doubt the king was able to feel his want of clear pretensions acutely ; but his blundering shrewdness taught him no better mode of con- cealing it than by magnifying the inherent rights of primo- genitary succession, as something indefeasible by the Le- gislature. We find him frequently, with much testiness, reminding the Commons, " you all know, I came from the loins of your ancient kings ;" a sure proof that he feared they did not know it. See Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 192. t This remarkable paper will be found at length in Petyt's Jus Parliament, ch. x., p. 227 ; and is extracted into Mr. Hatsell's first vol. of Precedents, Appendix, No. 1. Hatsell states that it was not entered on the Journals. This is part- ly a mistake, for at p. 243 the first paragraph will be found. Rapin alludes to it ; and Mr. Hallam has made very spirit- ed use of it (vol. i., p. 418), though he seems to labour under misapprehension in stating that Hume was ignorant of its existence. Hume, on the contrary, makes special allusion uueny , auriuuies 11 LU uuuua aim oanuys ; anu inclines to think that it had not been presented to the monarch by the House. The last supposition is certainly incorrect ; and Mr. Hallam produces a letter which appears to indicate* the feelings with which the king regarded it (vol. i., p. 419). About this time, it may be added, mention is made in the Journals that fresh seats were required for the extraordi- nary attendance of members. P. 141. 58 BRITISH STATESMEN. may easily, and do daily, grow. The privi- leges of the subject are, for the most part, at an everlasting stand. They may be, by good providence and care, preserved ; but being once lost, are not recovered but with much disquiet." Another session succeeded, and the same scenes were again enacted, with the same re- sults. In vain were monopolies cried down, and the merchants lifted their voices unavail- ingly against the inglorious peace with Spain. After this prorogation, James's obstinacy held out for upward of two years, when want of money overcame it. The session of 1610 was a most distinguished one, and called the unjust prerogative to a rigorous reckoning. James had most illegally, in the face of two great charters, and twelve other Parliamentary enactments, imposed cer- tain duties on imports and exports. Bates, a Turkey merchant, refused payment of one on currants, and carried his case into the exche- quer.* The judges there refused him justice, in terms more disgraceful and subversive of liberty than even the iniquitous decision. Against this, and in no measured terms, the Commons now protested. Lawyers, more learned than the judges, exposed, in masterly reasoning, the ignorance and corruption of Barons Fleming and Clark. Sir Francis Bacon appealed with all his eloquence to the rever- ence of past ages, and the possession of the present ; but Hakewill proved, t in an argu- ment of memorable clearness and vast knowl- edge, that the only instances adduced were on forbidden articles, and therefore false as pre- cedents ; and Bacon appealed in vain. Still more vain was the rage of the monarch, who hastened to the House to lay his arrogant commands upon them. He told them, after a comparison savouring of blasphemy, that it "was seditious in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power. "J They answered in a remonstrance of great strength and spirit, and of much learning.^ After producing a host of precedents, they passed a bill against impositions ; but, to use Hume's phrase, " the House of Lords, as is usual, defended the barriers of the throne," and threw out the bill. |[ * A very learned preface to the report of the case of Bates in the State Trials, comprising the entire argument on the question, has been written by Mr. Hargrave. Coke, in his 2d lust., p. 57, proves the illegality of the decision ; though, in his Reports (p. 12), he had inclined to its favour, on other grounds than those stated by the judges. See, also, Birch's Negotiations, and an eloquent and very learned note on the subject of impositions, in Mr. Amos's Fortescue, p. 28-31, 142, 143. I cannot leave the latter work without adding that, various and extensive as is the learning displayed in it, it is for those only to appreciate Mr. Amos's profound ac- quaintance with constitutional law and history who, like myself, have to acknowledge, with the deepest gratitude, information personally communicated. t See his speech, State Trials, vol. ii., p. 407. Mr. Hal- lam's statement of the discussion is interesting, vol. i., p. 433-438. t It is worth referring to this speech, as given in King James's Works, p. 529-531. The discontent it provoked will be found by referring to Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii., p. 175 ; Commons' Journals, p. 430 ; and Miss Aikin's James, vol. i., p. 350. $ It will be found at length in Somers's Tracts, vol. ii., p. 159. II Hume, referring to this measure, observes : " A spirit of liberty had now taken possession of the House. The leading members, being men of independent genius and large views, began to regulate their opinions more by the future I may allude a little farther to the proceed- ings of this distinguished session, since they illustrate forcibly the exact relative positions of the crown and Parliament at the period of Wentworth's return. Unwearied in exertion, the House of Com- mons now fastened on a work that had been published by Dr. Cowell, one of the party of civilians encouraged against the Common law- yers, and which contained most monstrous doctrines on the subject of kingly power.* They compelled James to suppress the book. The wily Cecil had striven to effect a compro- mise with them, by the proposition of a large yearly revenue to the crown, in return for which he promised that the liberality of the sovereign in the matter of grievances should be commensurate. He had entreated, how- ever, without success, that the subsidies should have priority : the Commons were resolute in enforcing the condition before yielding the grant. The fate of their impositions' bill had instructed them. Cecil now pressed again for the subsidies; they persisted in the farther entertainment of grievances. They complained of the ecclesiastical high commission court, and its disregard of the common law ; they protested against the recent system of substi- tuting proclamations for laws ; they sought redress for the delays of the courts in granting writs of prohibition and haebeas corpus ; they questioned the right of the council of Wales to exclude from the privileges of the common law four ancient English counties ; they remon- strated against patents of monopolies, and a late most unjust tax upon victuallers ; but, above all, they strove to exonerate the country from the feudal burdens, t They did not dis- pute that these in right belonged to the crown, but they negotiated for their abolition ; for they never then insisted on a right, except with proofs and precedents in their hands for claim- ing it as such. In that particular stage of the contest, the necessity and justice of such cau- tion is apparent, and forms an important fea- ture of their struggles. The negotiation now commenced. James did not care to abolish purveyance,t which was sought for ; but with that was coupled a demand for the exchange of every other kind of tenure into that of free and common socage. " What !" said James, " reduce all my sub- jects, noble and base, rich and poor, to hold their lands in the same ignoble manner 1" The indignant " father of his people" would not listen to it, and, after some delay, a compro- mise was struck. The tenure by knight ser- vice was retained ; but its most lucrative and oppressive incidents, such as relief, premier seisin, and wardship, were surrendered, along consequences which they foresaw, than by former prece- dents which were laid before them ; and they less aspired at maintaining the ancient constitution than at establish- ing a new one, and a freer, and a better" (vol. v., p. 34). However true this may be in reference to future proceed- ings, it is certainly incorrect as applied to the present. * See Roger Coke's Detection, vol. i., p. 50, edit. 1694. These passages have since been suppressed, and it is now considered a useful book. See Hume's admirable note, vol. v., p. 37. t See the Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 225-245. Also, the Com- mons' Journals for 1610. Winwood, vol. iii., p. 119. t An admirable note on purveyance will be found in Amos's Fortescue, p. 134, 135. <) Parl. Hist,, vol. v., p. 229, et seq. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 59 with purveyance. Still the Commons delayed, for Cecil's demands were exorbitant. They resolved to pause some short time longer, that they might ascertain the best mode of levying so large a sum with the least distress to the nation. The session had already been pro- tracted far into summer ; a subsidy was grant- ed for immediate wants, and a prorogation took place. The loss of the Journals of the ensuing ses- sion renders it difficult to follow their proceed- ings. It is certain, however, from other sour- ces, that the events of the interim had resolv- ed the leaders of the House on abandoning the terms proposed. They saw no signs of great- er justice at the outports, or in the proclama- tions, or in the ecclesiastical courts. The most important of their petitions on particular griev- ances had been refused, and now, when they sent one up to the throne for the allowing pris- oners on a capital charge to bring witnesses in their own defence, the king protested to them that, in his conscience, he could not grant such an indulgence. " It would encourage and mul- tiply forgery," he said : " men were already ac- customed to forswear themselves even in civil actions ; what less could be expected when the life of a friend was at stake 1"* Such was the exquisite philosophy of James. A coolness en- sued ; threats followed ; a prorogation was again the intermediate argument, with a disso- lution within nine weeks as the final one. Those nine weeks were employed in vain in the pur- pose of weakening the popular party, and on the day threatened, seven years from their first assembling, the dissolution took place, t The interval which ensued was one of profu- sion, debauchery, and riot in the court,:}: and of attempted oppression and wrong against the people. Fortunately, the spirit of liberty had strengthened to resistance. " The privy seals are going forth," says a contemporary writer,^ " but from a trembling hand, lest that sacred seal should be refused by the desperate hard- ness of the prejudiced people." It was refused ; and the shameful expedient was abundantly re- sorted to by the court, of selling the honours of the peerage, and of creating a number of he- reditary knights, who should pay tribute for their dignity. H All would not serve, however ; and Bacon, reckoning somewhat unduly on his own skill,1T prevailed upon the king to summon another Parliament. At this eventful moment Wentworth came * Commons' Journals, p. 451. Lords' Journals, p. 658. Winwood, vol. iii., p. 193. t A curious letter of the king 1 , illustrative of the angry feelings that prevailed at the dissolution, exists in Mars- den's State Papers, p. 813. See Hallam, vol. i., p. 451. t Observe the account in Fulke Lord Brooke's Five Years of King James ; Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs ; Weldon, p. 166; Coke's Detection, vol. i., p. 42-49. The court pre- sented at this moment a disgusting scene of profligacy. It requires a strong stomach even to get through a perusal of the details. Ladies rendered themselves especially notable, not merely for laxity of virtue, but for the grossest drunken- ness. See Nugas Antique, vol. i., p. 348. <) In Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. II An account of this proceeding will be found in Lingard's History, vol. vi., quarto edit., from Somers's Tracts. See, also, Hallam, vol. i., p. 461 ; Aikin, vol. i., p. 389. The project appears to have been the suggestion of Salisbury. See Baker's Chronicle, p. 416, edit. 1679 ; Guthrie, vol. iii., p. 704 ; and Macaulay's History, vol. i., p. 75. IT MS. in the possession of Mr. Hallam, Const. Hist., vol. i., p. 461, 462. back to England, and was immediately return- ed knight of the shire for Yorkshire.* It is now my duty to follow him through the commen- cing passages of his public life, and I hope to do this faithfully. I have felt very strongly that the truth lies (as it generally does in such ca- ses) somewhere between the extreme state- ments that have been urged on either side, by the friends and the foes of Wentworth. One of his latest biographers,t who brought to his task a very amiable feeling and desire which wasted itself at last, however, in an ex- cess of sweetness and candour sets out with a just remark. " The factions which agitated bis contemporaries," Mr. MacDiarmid observes, " far from ceasing with the existing generation, divided posterity into his immoderate censurers or unqualified admirers ; and writers, whether hostile or friendly, have confounded his merits and defects with those of the transactions in which he was engaged. Even in the present day, an undisguised exposure of his virtues and vices might be misconstrued by many into a prejudiced panegyric, or an invidious censure of man as well as of the cause." Now from this I shah 1 certainly, in some measure, secure myself by the course I propose to adopt. The collection of documents known by the title of the " Strafford Papers" seems to me to contain within itself every material necessary to the il- lustration of the public and private character of Ihis statesman, on an authority which few will be disposed to contest, for the record is his own. The general historical statement I have already given was necessary to bring Wentworth more intelligibly upon the political scene ; but hereafter I mean to restrict myself almost entirely to the authorities, illustrations, and suggestions of character that are so abun- dantly furnished by that great work. The let- ters it contains, extending over a period of more than twenty years, comprise the notices of the country gentleman, the anxieties of the Parliament-man, the growing ambition of the president of the North, the unflagging energy of the lord deputy, the intense purpose and reckless daring of the lieutenant-general, and the cares, magnanimously borne, of the ruined and forsaken aspirant, about to render the for- feit of that life which three kingdoms had pro- nounced incompatible with their well-being. Their evidence is the more unexceptionable, that they are no hasty ebullitions, the offspring of the moment, a sudden expression of senti- ments to be disavowed in succeeding intervals of calm. With a view, as it would seem, to guard against the inconveniences of a natu- rally fiery and uncontrollable temperament, Strafford wrote with singular deliberation, and his perspicuous and straightforward despatch- * The writer in the Biographia Britannica, and Mr. Mac- Diarmid, reject Sir George Radcliffe's dates without the slightest scruple, but without the smallest excuse. They are all of them extremely accurate, and it is quite certain that Wentworth sat in the Parliament of 1614. The writers n the liiog. Brit, plead in apology that Radclifie's own statement ''my memory is (of late especially) very bad and decayed" quite warrants their freedom with his dates ; uut they seem to have overlooked the fact that Radcliffe distinctly restricts the decay of his memory to facts he has altogether forgotten. " Seeing my unfaithful memory," he subsequently says, " hath lost part of the occurrences which concerned my lord, I am loth to let slip that which yet re- main;." t Mr. MacDiarmid, Lives of British Statesmen, 2 vols. 60 BRITISH STATESMEN. es* deliver the results of a thorough conviction. " He never did anything of any moment," re- marks Sir George Radcliffe, " concerning either political or domestical business, without taking advice ; not so much as a letter written by him to any great man of any business, but he show- ed it to his confidents if they were near him. The former part of his life, Charles Greenwood and myself were consulted with ; and the latter part, Chr. Wandesford came in Charles Green- wood's room, Charles Greenwood desiring not to be taken away from his cure ; they met al- most daily, and debated all businesses and de- signs, pro et contra : by this means his own judgment was very much improved, and all the circumstances and probable consequences of the things consulted were discovered and considered."! From the high praise which is given by Sir George to this practice, it is to be inferred, moreover, that it was no cheap expe- dient to obtain an obsequious and all-approving set of counsellors ; for he complacently sub- joins, that such a course " is very efficacious to make a wise man, even though he advise with much weaker men than himself ; for there is no man of ordinary capacity that will not often suggest some things which might else have been let slip without being observed ; and in the debatings of things a man may give an- other hints and occasions to observe and find out that which he that speaks to it, perhaps, never thinks on ; as a whetstone," &c., conclu- ding with that very original simile. It may also be remarked here that, of his more impor- tant despatches to the king, Wentworth was accustomed to transmit duplicates to the lead- ing members of the council. Thus, in a letter to Secretary Cooke, he writes : " Having such confidence in your judgment and good affection both towards his majesty's service and myself, I hold it fit to give you a clear and particular understanding of all my proceedings in these af- fairs, to which end I have sent you the dupli- cates of all my despatches to his majesty and others, as you will find in the pacquet this bear- er shall bring unto you ; only I desire you will be pleased not to take notice thereof, unless it be brought unto you by some other hand. These businesses have cost me a mighty labour, hav- ing been at first written over by my own hand. And I have been as circumspect and consider- ate therein as possibly I could. And now I beseech you, help me with your judgment in anything you shall find amiss, and let me clear- ly and speedily he led into the right path, in case I have erroneously, in anything, swerved from that which is best and honourablest for our master ; for it would grieve me more than any other thing, if my weakness should lead him into the least inconvenience ; and this you ever find in me, that no man living shah 1 more promptly depart from an error than myself, that have, in good faith, no confidence in my own judgment, how direct and intent soever my affections may be." What these letters want, therefore, in those sudden and familiar * It is much to be regretted that Mr. Brodie, whose work contains several valuable suggestions towards the life of Stratford, should suffer himself to depreciate so strongly the merit of his letters and despatches, and his intellectual at- tainment! generally. I shall have ample occasion to refute this. t Essay. outbreaks which are to be looked for in a less guarded correspondence, is amply made up in the increased authority of the matter thus care- fully elaborated and cautiously put forth. Nor are instances altogether wanting in which the curb is set aside, and the whole nature of the writer has its resistless way. I have remarked on the aristocratic influen- ces which surroudned Wentworth's youth. Everything had tended to foster that principle within him. His ancient lineage, extending, at no very distant period, to the blood royal ; the degree of attention which must have early attached itself to the eldest of twelve children ; his inheritance of an estate of 6000 a year, an enormous fortune in those days ; his edu- cation ; all the various circumstances which have been touched upon, contributed to produce a character ill fitted to comprehend or sympa- thize with "your Prynnes, Pyms, Bens, and the rest of that generation of odd names and natures,"* who recognised, in the struggling and oppressed Many, those splendid dawnings of authority which others were disposed to seek only in the One. From the first, we ob- serve in Wentworth a deep sense of his exact social position and its advantages. This is ex- plained in a passage of a remarkable letter, written at a later period to his early tutor, Mr. Greenwood, but which I shall extract here, since it has reference to the present tune : " My sister Elizabeth writes me a letter con- cerning my brother Mathew's estate, which I know not how to answer till I see the will ; nor do I know what it is she claims, whether money alone, or his rent-charge forth of my lands, or both. Therefore I desire the copy of the will may be sent me, and her demand, and then she shall have my answer. This brother, that she saith was so dear unto her, had well tutored her, or she him, being the couple of all the children of my father that I conceived loved me least ; it may be they loved one another the better for that too. However it prove, I know not ; but this I am most assured, that in case any of the three brothers died without is- sue, my father ever intended their rent-charge should revert to me, and not lie still as a clog upon my estate ; or that any daughter of his, whom he had otherwise provided for forth of the estate, should thus intercept his intentions towards his heir. But how often hath he been pleased to ex- cuse unto me the liberal provisions taken forth of my estate for my- brothers and sisters 1 And as often hath been assured by me, I thought nothing too much that he had done for them ; and yet lean make it confidently appear that he left not my es- tate better to me than my grandfather left it to him by 200 a year ; nay, some that understand it very well have, upon speech had with me about it, been very confident he left it me rather worse than better than he received it. But I shall and can, I praise God, and have heretofore, patient- ly looked upon their peevishness and froward- ness towards me, and all their wise and prudent councils and synods they have held against me, as if they had been to have dealt with some cheater or cozener, not with a brother, who had ever carried himself justly and loving- * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 344. Such was Wentworth's ill-judged classification. " Ben" may be presumed to have meant Sir Benjamin Rudyard. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 61 ly towards them ; nor do I, nor will I, deny them the duties I owe unto them, as recom- mended unto my care by my father. Nay, as wise as they did, or do, take themselves to have been, I will say, it had not been the worse for them, as I think, if they had taken less of their own fool- ish, empty fancies, and followed more of my ad- vice, who, I must needs say, take myself to have been full as able to have directed their course as they themselves could be at that age."* Here the remark cannot but occur of the very early age at which these extraordina- ry " excuses" from a father to a son must have been proffered and accepted ! Sir William Wentworth died in 1614, t shortly after his son, who had scarcely accomplished his twenty-first year, was returned to Parliament from York- shire. This patriarchal authority, then, this strong sense of his hereditary rights of proper- ty, was of no late assumption ; and, in after life, it was Wentworth's proud satisfaction that he came not to Ireland "to piece up a broken fortune."} " For," says he elsewhere, " as I am a Christian, I spend much more than all my entertainments come unto ; yet I do not complain ; my estate in England may well spare me something to spend." At his so ear- ly maturity, being called to the family inherit- ance by the death of his father, a new charge devolved to him in the guardianship of his elder sister's children, the issue of Sir George Sa- vile, which trust he faithfully discharged. His own account of his family regards, generally, given in the passage quoted, appears to me to be perfectly just. His disposition was kind, but exacting. Those of his relatives who paid him proper deference received from him atten- tions and care. And it is remarkable to ob- serve in those brothers, for instance, who con- tinued attached to him through all his fortunes one an intimate counsellor, another a "humble poster in his affairs" the complete deference they at all times cheerfully paid to him. Such was the new member for Yorkshire, who took his seat in the Parliament of 1614. I have described the condition of affairs. They had arrived at such a point that not to declare in favour of the popular party was to exert an influence against them. The liberal strength had not declined in the present assembly. The confederacy of " undertakers,"^ banded for the purpose of influencing the elections, had pur- sued their vile avocations without effect. The new members were stanch, resumed complaints against monopolies and other unjust grants, called the Bishop of Lincoln to account for dis- respectful words, and received the tribute to their honesty of a dissolution after two months' sitting,!! and of imprisonment, in many cases, * Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 484. t Kadcliffe's Essay. t Straffbrd Papers, vol. i., p. 138 ; and see TO!, i., p. 79. l> For the origin of these " strange ugly kind of beasts," as the king, in his subsequent confession of their existence, oddly called them, see Wilson, in Kennet, vol. ii., p. 696. For James's present false denial of their having been em- ployed, see Carte, vol. iv., p. 19, 20; Bacon's Works, vol. i., p. 695 ; Commons' Journals, p. 462. II "This House of Commons," says Hume, "showed rather a stronger spirit of liberty than the foregoing, so lit- tle skill had the courtiers for managing elections" (vol. v., p. 49). It subsequently received from the politer courtiers the title of the " addle" Parliament, from the circumstance of its not having been allowed to pass a single bill. Aikin, vol. i., p. 439. See a curious fact mentioned in D'Israeli's Character of James, p. 158, and the king's assertion, in his remarkable commission for the dissolution. afterward.* During these two months Went- worth had continued silent ; not unobserved, but silent. I have examined the Journals, and find no trace of his advocacy of either side in the great struggle.! At the close of the session he returned to Yorkshire, and a year passed over him at his country residence, engaged, to all appearance, in no pursuits less innocent than his favourite sport of hawking. Let the reader judge, how- ever, if his personal ambitions had been forgot- ten. Sir John Savile, the father of the after- ward Lord Savile and not, as has been inva- riable stated by modern writers, the Lord Savile himself \ at this time held an office of great esteem in the county, that of custos rotu- lorum, or keeper of the archives, for the West Riding. So strong an influence, however, had for some time been moving against Savile in the county, that the Lord-chancellor Elles- mere was induced to interfere. It is instruc- tive to observe that Sir Thomas Fairfax, a near kinsman of Wentworth's, was the most active against Savile. I quote a passage of a letter from Sheffield, the lord president of the North, to Ellesmere : " I desired much to have waited upon you myself, to present an infor- mation lately made unto me of the evil carriage of one Sir George Savile, a gentleman of York- shire, one of the principal in commission, that maketh use of his authority to satisfy his own ends, if sundry complaints be true which of late have been made unto me touching one partic- ular, which, in my opinion, is a matter of foul condition, and which I am bold to intreat your lordship to give me leave to make known unto * The compilers of the Parliamentary History have denied this, but see debate on it in Journals of Feb. 5, 12, and 15, 1621 ; and Hatsell's proof, vol. i., p. 133, 134, edit. 1796. Hume admits the statement, vol. v., p. 50. t In some of the less precisely accurate histories in Echard's, Oldmixon's, and Mrs. Macaulay's Wentworth had been erroneously ranked as one of the "factious" mem- bers of this session, who had earned imprisonment after the dissolution by a violent personal attack on the king. Mr. Brodie set the mistake completely at rest, by showing its origin. A Mr. Thomas Wentworth, a very popular mem- ber, represented Oxford in all the Parliaments of James, and in the first two Parliaments of Charles. It was he who spoke violently, and was imprisoned. It was he, also, who took the active part against Buckingham in the second Par- liament, which had been ascribed to Sir Thomas Wentworth (who did not sit in that Parliament at all), even by Rush- worth. In expressing great surprise at this mistake on the collector's part, however, Mr. Brodie overlooks the circum- stance of its having arisen from a mere error of the press. Had it been otherwise, it would have been difficult (consid- ering that Rushwprth attended the house himself, and was necessarily acquainted with the persons of the different members) to have received even Mr. Brodie's authority and that of Wentworth's own letters against the indefatigable collector. But the context of Rushworth shows the error to have been merely one of the press. He is stating the ar- gument of the lawyers of the House on the difference between " common fame" and " rumour," and observes : " It was de- clared by Sir Tho. Wentworth, Mr. Noy, and other lawyers in the debate," &c. Now Mr. Wentworth was a lawyer, and an eminent one, the author of a legal treatise of great merit, on Executors, and Recorder of Oxford ; but Sir Thomas Wentworth was none of these things. The mis- take does not occur again. See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 217. The author of the History continued from Mackintosh has fallen into Rushworth's error, vol. v., p. 33. i It is singular that this mistake should have occurred ; for occasionally, in the Papers, he is called " the old knight," "old Sir John," &c. (vol. i., p. 38, <fec.) ; and in his own letter to the Lord-chancellor Ellesmere, on which the whole of the present business turns, he expressly alludes to " service of forty years under the late queen of gracious memory." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 2. But so incor- rectly are circumstances looked at, which do not seem to bear immediately on the matter in hand, yet are to illus- trate it afterward not unimportantly. BRITISH STATESMEN. you by the relation of Sir Thomas Fairfax, a gentleman of good worth, to whom the partic- ulars of that matter are well known." The re- sult was, that in 1615 Savile was removed, and Sir Thomas Wentworth appointed to the office. The court had not forgotten the good services of his silence, and Wentworth was not un- grateful. " Calling to mind," he afterward writes to Weston, " the faithful service I had the honour to do his majesty, now with God, how graciously he vouchsafed to accept and express it openly and sundry times, I enjoy within myself much comfort and contentment. . . . You can best witness the opinion, nay, I might say the esteem his late majesty held of me."* But a new actor now appears upon the scene, in whose hands James had become a puppet, and to whose shameless influence he had sur- rendered all his esteems and regards. Having discharged the duties of his new office for nearly two years, Wentworth received (near the close of 1617) a startling notice from no less a person than his grace the Duke of Buck- ingham. Old Savile.had been busy with him. " These are to let you understand that, where- as his majesty is informed that Sir John Sa- vile yielded up his place of custos rotulorum voluntarily unto you, whom now his majesty hath received into favour again, and purposeth to employ in his service, his majesty will take it well at your hands, that you resign it up again unto him with the same willingness, and will be mindful of you to give you as good prefer- ment upon any other occasion."t Bucking- ham, however, had committed a mistake here. Wentworth replied to this notice in a letter which has, unfortunately, been lost, but whose import may be gathered from some passages in Buckingham's reply : " The reasons set down in your letter are so substantial to prove that Sir John Savile made no voluntary resignation of the place to you, but yielded it up rather out of a necessity to avoid that which otherwise would have fallen upon him, that I see it was a misinformation given to his majesty and to me which occasioned the writing of my letter unto you." Other grounds of apology are add- ed, and Buckingham proceeds : " Upon these grounds I thought it could neither be any wrong nor disgrace to move you in that busi- ness ; but I pray you believe that I am so far from doing the least indignity to any gentle- man of your worth, that I would be ready, upon any occasion, to do you the best service I could. Therefore I desire you not to trouble yourself either with any doubt of farther pro- ceeding in this matter, which went so far only upon misunderstanding, or with so long a jour- ney to give me satisfaction, seeing I have fully received, it by your letter, and have acquainted his majesty with the true state of the business, as you have set it down." Buckingham subscribes himself his " very assured friend," and then, in a very curious and significant postscript, be- trays good reason for his sudden change of style, and sufficiently explains the shrewd and determined course that had been adopted by Wentworth : " I beseech you to excuse me to my Lord of Cumberland and my Lord Clifford * Letter, dated 1626, Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 35, 36. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 4. that I write not to them now, as I purpose to do at more leisure ; for now I made haste to signify that which I have to you, that I might spare you so troublesome a journey." So Wentworth continued in his place ; and old Savile, eaten up with mortified spleen, waited his first opportunity of retaliation. Wentworth foiled him at that game too, by striking the first blow ! A new Parliament was spoken of, and a strong opposition from the Savile party against Wentworth signifi- cantly indicated. He went instantly up to London ; spoke carelessly, it may be supposed, to his friends at court of his indifference about standing any contest ; and so won from the ministerial party an entreaty that he would stand, and endeavour to bring in one of the secretaries of state along with him.* Went- worth then consented, returned to Wentworth Woodhouse, and commenced his election exer- tions. In these his character had full play ; and here, in the first great effort of his public life, were amply vindicated his achievements of a later period. The energy and activity he exhibited amounted almost to a marvel ! Ev- ery difficulty sank before him. Doubts were satisfied, jealousies put to shame, indifference moved to action, enmity even to friendship, dishonesty foiled in its own way, friends stim- ulated, the opposition of those who still con- tinued enemies diverted. I mean to quote these letters at some length hereafter, in im- mediate illustration of the character of the lord-president and lord-deputy, to the right un- derstanding of which they appear to me to of- fer a remarkable assistance. Wentworth, of course, triumphed, for nothing could withstand his vigour and resources. He went to the poll, after all, on the day of his election, with Calvert, in no vain reliance on friendly profes- sions, but with positive lists, furnished him by the petty officers of the several hundreds, of the names of those voters who had distinctly engaged to support his interests. t It may be supposed into what a deadly feud the hatred of the Saviles had now been pro- voked. From this time we hear little more of the father : the son, Sir John Savile the younger, supplies his place. He was a person of mean intellect ; but he had a restless ambition, and was active in intrigue. He had " suck'd in with his milk," as Clarendon says, a particular malice to Wentworth ; and through his life he had many opportunities of showing how steadily he remembered that " Strafford had shrewdly overborne his father. "J Disgraceful occurrences had filled up the in- terval between the last Parliament and this Parliament of 1621. The exaction of benevo- lences ; the usurpations of the Star Chamber ; * " I was at London much entreated, and indeed at last en- joined, to stand with Mr. Secretary Calvert." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 10. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 13. j Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. ii., p. 155, folio edit. $ "The benevolence goes on. A merchant of London, who had been a cheesemonger, but now rich, was sent for by the council, and required to give the king 200, or logo into the Palatinate and serve the army with cheese, being a man of eighty years of age. He yielded rather than pay, though he might better have given nine subsidies, accord- ing as he stands valued. This was told to me by one that heard it from his owne mouth. They talk also of privy seals. His majestie at Theobald's, discoursing publicly how EARL OF STRAFFORD. 63 the deaths of the unfortunate Arabella Stuart of the promising youth Prince Henry,* and 01 the accomplished Overbury ; the rapid rise o: Villiers ; the pardon, and dark allusions of Somerset;! the disgrace of Coke; these ar some of the events which had blotted the his tory of the nation. And these were of horn growth. Abroad, mischief had been equall) busy ; for the small remnant of foreign polic; in the government disappeared with Cecil. Th weak and unassisted Frederic, son-in-law oi the English king, had been ignominiously driven from his new dominions by Spinola ; Prague had furnished its disasters ; and the Protestan interest the faith of which, as he had abun dantly assured Vorstius, James conceited him self the defender was trampled down every where. Proportioned to the disgust and indignation with which these things had been contemplatec by the popular party, were the feelings with which they now assembled in this Parliameni of 1621. The early sittings were distinguishec by active and resolute steps in behalf of privi- lege. It is not necessary to allude to them at any length here. Some great state criminals were subsequently struck down ; and after a few months, the Parliament was dissolved by proclamation, and the king committed himself in many acts of foolish violence. \ Wentworth had taken little or no part in these proceedings. He avoided the risk of endangering a certain show of country inde- pendence, by active opposition to what was called the country party, and held the most moderate of courses between the court and the people. The service he had already rendered to the former in the matter of Calvert's return he had been enabled to render palatable to his county by the circumstances of the Savile feud ; and it now left him to a convenient kind of neutrality in other respects, which might be felt, in secret quarters, as no less serviceably intended to the court. I find him acting on committees in this Parliament, but never put- ting himself forward as a speaker. Shortly after, "he explained his policy in this respect in a letter to his brother-in-law, Lord Clifford. Al- he meant to governe, was heard to say he would governe ac- cording to the good of the common-weale, hut not according to the common will." Such is an extract from a MS. letter of that day. Harl. MSS., 389. It is partly quoted in El- lis's Original Letters, 2d series, vol. iii., p. 241. It is very characteristic. * For some account of the strange circumstances attend- ing the death of this prince, see Osborne, p. 531 ; Burnet, vol. i., p. 10; Winwood, vol. iii., p. 410; Harris's Life of James, p. 301, 302. Fox, in his letter to Lord Lauderdale, stated his conviction that Henry had been poisoned. The report of the physicians, however, is unanimous on this point, and unfavourable to the supposition. See Cornwal- lis's Memoir, in the 2d vol. of Somers's Tracts ; and the ad- mirable remark of Hume, vol. v., p. 48. t See Osborne, p. 534 ; Weldon, p. 95, 168, 125 ; and Harris, p. 82-86, for certain remarkable points in the char- acter of James. With respect to the allusions of Somerset, see Weldon, p. 118 ; the king's letters to Bacon, in the Cabala ; Birch's edition of Bacon, vol. iii. ; and Von Rau- mer's sixty-third letter, in his Illustrations of History. Sir Walter Scott has a curious note in his edition of Somers's Tracts (vol. ii., p. 488) on this mysterious affair. See, also, Somers's Tracts, vol. ii., p. 335, 336 ; and Brodie's History, p. 15-19. I have no inclination to venture an opinion on so extremely unpleasant a subject ; but if suspicions reasonably prevailed before, the publication of Von Raumer's work on the history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is not likely to lessen them. Dr. Lingard has put forward objec- tions, which see in his History, vol. vi., p. 116, quarto ed. J See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 52-55. luding to parliaments, he says, " For my opin- ion of these meetings your lordship knows suf- ficiently, and the services done there coldly requited on all sides, and, which is worse, many times misconstrued. I judge farther, the path we are like to walk in is now more narrow and slippery than formerly, yet not so difficult but may be passed with circumspection, patience, AND PRINCIPALLY SILENCE."* The present dissolu- tion Wentworth regretted ; but he made silence chiefly serve to assist him in this also. " As for the disaster," he writes to Lord d'Arcy, " fallen upon this so hopeful a Parliament, albeit I should take pleasure to relate it, yet the en- closed proclamation for dissolution might well save me the labour ; much more, then, when I cannot think a thought of it but with grief, will it well become me to be silent, "t He had moved his family up from Wentworth Woodhouse before the session ; and they re- sided, during its continuance, in Austin Friars. Here his body first began to show its extreme frailty. He had " a great fever," says Sir George Kadcliffe ; one of those pestilential fevers, it is to be presumed, which so often ravaged the close and crowded streets of Lon- don ; and which, at the same time (1622), struck his wife more fatally. He removed from Lon- don, but too late to save the Lady Margaret. She died shortly after, leaving no issue, but a memory which he held in respectful regard.^ In his intercourse with his court friends at London, Wentworth had zealously interested himself in behalf of two or three of his broth- ers. The anxiety with which he sought to get them fairly " settled" somehow was ex- tremely characteristic. The first thing we now find him engaged in at Wentworth Woodhouse after his domestic loss is the following out of these exertions for the youths of his family. He writes to Sir Edward Conway, one of the king's principal secretaries of state, to remind him of his promises in behalf of " the bearer, my fifth brother, who, intending to try his for- tune in the wars, desires more than in any place else to serve as a gentleman of the com- pany under my cousin your son." He apolo- gizes for not having seen the secretary before leaving London, on the score of the sudden necessity of his illness. " If you would vouch- safe him," he continues, " so much of your fa- vour, as to recommend him by your letters in such sort, that my cousin may be pleased to afford him his good direction and council, and cast his eye upon him as a kinsman (if his car- riage may be such as may deserve it), I should udge myself much bound unto you for this, as "or other your many noble curtesies bestowed upon me. And this I will be answerable for, hat he shall approve himself, by God's grace, religious, honest, well governed, and daring nough. I conceive, likewise (if it might stand with your good pleasure), that a letter of recom- mendation to Sir Horace Vere might stand him n good stead, which I humbly submit to your kvisdom, and myself to your honourable censure "or this my boldness." This is the same thought, he reader will perceive, as that which suggest- ed itself to Eliot when writing to Hampden of * Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 19. t Ibid., p. 15. t [She was buried at York. C.I i See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 14, 16, 18. 64 BRITISH STATESMEN. his younger son. Sir Edward Conway at once granted his request, and Michael Wentworth was sent off to the wars ; not without a letter from his brother, however, of excellent purpose and advice. Among many sound suggestions for his professional advancement, he observes : " Methinks it were good to keep a journal-book of all that passeth during your being in the army ; as of your removes, your skirmishes, your encampings, the order of your marches, of your approaches, of your retreats, of your fortifications, of your batteries, and such like ; in the well and sound disposal whereof, as I conceive, consists the chief skill and judgment of a soldier." The letter concludes admirably : " Only let me add this one counsel, that if you come in person to be brought on in any service, I conceive you shall do well to go on with the sober and staid courage of an understanding man, rather than with the rash and ill-tempered heat of an unadvised youth. In which course too, I conceive, you may sufficiently vindicate yourself from the opinion of fear and baseness, and gain a good esteem among the wiser sort. And, indeed, a man that ventures himself des- perately beyond reason (besides that thereby he too much undervalues himself) shall by men of sure and sad brains be deemed, without doubt, unfit for government and command, that exerciseth none of it first over his own unruly and misleading passions." This conduct, so deprecated here by Wentworth, is a descrip- tion of that very conduct which it is the gen- eral custom to ascribe to the Earl of Strafford, but incorrectly, as I trust I shall be able to show. His health had now strengthened, and, with it, a flow of good spirits came. Sir George Calvert, the king's secretary of state, was se- lected for the first advantage of these. " Mr. Tailor telling me," Wentworth writes, " he would see you before the end of this week, I might not omit to present my service unto you in these few lines. Matter worthy your trou- ble these parts afford none, where our objects and thoughts are limited in looking upon a tu- lip, hearing a bird sing, a rivulet murmuring, or some such petty, yet innocent pastime, which, for my part, I begin to feed myself in, having, I praise God, recovered more in a day by an open country air than in a fornight's time in that smothering one of London. By my troth, I wish you, divested of the importu- nity of business, here for half a dozen hours, you should taste how free and fresh we breathe, and how procul metu fruimur modestis opibus, a wanting sometimes to persons of greater emi- nency in the administration of commonwealths. But seeing this is denied to you in your course, and to me as part of my misfortune, I shall pray you may ever receive as full contentment in those more weighty as we do in these lighter entertainments."* This " innocent pastime," nevertheless, did not withhold him from the Parliament, which was now summoned. Its proceedings have been described in the life of Eliot. Wentworth played his usual cautious part, and returned to Wentworth Woodhouse, at its adjournment, a better friend than ever, more playful and more confidential, to his majesty's "principal secre- .* Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 16. tary of state." Calvert himself had gone to his country seat at Thistleworth, and is con- gratulated by his correspondent with many classical similitudes and quotations on having " retired to the delights of his Tusculanie, erep- tus specioso ejus damno." An amusing anec- dote of James, then hunting with his court at Rufford, concludes the letter. " The loss of a stag, and the hounds hunting foxes instead of a deer, put the king, your master, into a mar- vellous chaff, accompanied with those ordinary symptoms better known to you courtiers, I conceive, than to us rural swains ; in the height whereof comes a clown galloping in, and sta- ring full in his face : His blood ! (quoth he) am I come forty miles to see a fellow 1 and presently in a great rage turns about his horse, and away he goes faster than he came ; the oddness whereof caused his majesty and all the com- pany to burst out into a vehement laughter ; and so the fume for that time was happily dis- persed." Seven days after this the " rural swain" of Woodhouse writes again to his selected confi- dant. He begins by a laughing mention of having written some politics recently to his " cousin Wandesford, as being a statist," a pol- itician, a meddler in state affairs; "but here with you," he adds, " I have matters of other guess stuff to relate, that our harvest is all in, a most fine season to make fishponds, our plums all gone and past, peaches, quinces, and grapes almost fully ripe, which will, I trow, hold bet- ter relish with a Thistleworth palate, and ap- prove me how to have the skill to serve every man in his right cue. These only we country- men muse of, hoping in such harmless retire- ments for a just defence from the higher pow- ers, and, possessing ourselves in contentment, pray with Dry ope in the poet, ' Et siqua est pietas, ab acutte vulnere falcis Et pecoris morsu, froudes defendite nostras.' Thus, you see, Ovid serves us at every turn. How bold we are with you since you entred our list ; and how we take time, while time serves ! For, Michaelmas once come, and your secretary's cloak on your shoulders, I trust you shall find us better manner'd than to interrupt your serious hours with our toys." On the arrival of Michaelmas, however, the Parliament was again adjourned, for the pur- pose, as it afterward appeared, of a final disso- lution. Our rural swain, in consequence, de- spatches, with an airy sauciness, to his state friend, in a tone between jest and earnest, some slight shades of significant advice, dashed with a sort of reminder that the writer though given to looking at tulips, and hearing birds sing, and rivulets murmuring, and keeping sheep from biting his hedges, and such like in- nocent pastime might yet be called upon, as an effect of want of employment, to play the part of an " unruly fellow in Parliament." The words of this letter are eminently happy and well chosen. " Now," says Wentworth, "that you have given us a put-off till February, we are at good ease and leisure to pry (the true effects of want of employment) saucily out of our own calling into the mysteries of state ; to cast about for a reason of this sudden change. In a word, we conclude that the French treaty must first be consummate before such unruly EARL OF STRAFFORD. 65 fellows meet in Parliament, lest they might ap- pear as agile against this as that other Spanish match. For my part, I like it well, and con- ceive the bargain wholsom on our side, that we save three other subsidies and fifteenths. Less could not have been demanded for the dissolving of this treaty, and still the king your master have pretended to suffer loss (no doubt for our satisfaction only), which certainly we should have believed, and reputed ourselves great gainers, and that rightly too. For is it a small mailer, trow you, for poor swains to unwind so dextrously your courtly true-love knots 1 You think we see nothing ; but believe it, you shall find us legislators no fools ; albeit, you of the court (for by this time I am sure you have, by a fair re- treat from Thistlcworth, quit your part of a coun- try life for this year) think to blear our eyes with your sweet balls, and leave us in the suds when you have done. Thus much for the common-weal. For your own self, I am right glad for your ague recovered, hoping it will cleanse away all bad-disposed humours, and give entrance con- sequently unto a settled continuing health, wherein no man alive shall be more pleased. In the alacrity of which faith, and out of an earnest desire to be made an eyewitness there- of, you shall have (God willing) within these few weeks to attend you, your honour's ever most humbly, most readily to be command, THOMAS WENTWOETH." It is just possible that these hints might have been taken at last by the court party, but that Wentworth's proposed journey was retarded by a sudden return of illness. In the spring, Ratcliffe observes, "As I take it, he had a double tertian ; and after his recovery, a re- lapse into a single tertian ; and, a while after, a burning fever." On his recovery from these afflicting disorders, he came instantly up to London. Charles now sat upon the English throne, and Buckingham's influence reigned over the royal councils more absolutely than even in James's time. This, it is probable (for he had good reason to suspect a personal dis- like on Buckingham's part), induced Went- worth to venture more openly among the pop- ular party, and by that means convey to the king, inaccessible through his minister, the im- portance of his talents and services. I shall show very soon how extremely anxious he was to exhibit himself, as it were, personally to the king. We find him now, accordingly, in fre- quent communication with Denzil Hollis, and others of the popular men. He had, from the first, provided a convenient organ of commu- nication with them in the person of his kins- man Wandesford, who subsequently proved so accommodating a patriot. Soon after this (one of the results of his visits to the house of Hol- lis's father, the Earl of Clare), he married the Lady Arabella Hollis, " younger daughter of the earl, a lady exceeding comely and beautiful, and yet much more lovely in the endowments of her mind."* Wentworth now began to be talked of as an accession to the Liberal party, and the court grew somewhat alarmed. On the meeting of Parliament, his election for Yorkshire came into dispute, and, as I have shown in the me- moir of Eliot, the ministerial men supported * Radcliffe's Essay. his claims. No doubt this arose from a desire, by some little sacrifice in a matter of no essen- tial concern, to nip slightly the budding pa- triot. Eliot's opposition threw him out. What has been already suggested on this subject* is corroborated by some occasional allusions in the Strafford papers. Wentworth's friend, Sir Richard Beaumont, for instance, writes in an- swer his earnest request : " My occasions are, and have been such, as with no convenience I can come up to London ; for which I am very sorry, that I shall not enjoy your good com- pany this summer, and give what assistance I could to make good our York election, which I liold as clear as the noon sun ; for if it be tol- erated that men shall come six, seven, nay, ten apprentices out of a house, this is more like a rebellion than an election. The gentry are wronged, the freeholders are wronged."t Sir Richard Beaumont goes on to allude to the borough of Pontefract, observes that he is much beholden for the honour of having been elect- ed there, but hints a private reason which will prevent his accepting, and suggests the name of another friend to be returned on a new writ. " I should have been willing to have kept your place for you, or for any friend of yours, and served in it, and yielded it up of an hour's warning to have done you service ; but as it is," &c. It would appear from this that Went- worth had already, against the chance of de- feat, secured a seat to fall back upon in the borough of Pontefract. t When the Parliament commenced proceed- ings, Wentworth partly showed gratitude to the court, and partly redeemed his new alli- ance. He spoke with extreme moderation, and advised a grant of subsidies, while, at the same time, he intimated opposition to Buck- ingham. The adjournment to Oxford then took place ; but, on their reassembling, while Eliot and others were dooming the minister to impeachment, Wentworth continued silent. The cause of this will very soon appear. He returned to Yorkshire. Necessity, in a few months, called together another Parlia- ment. He set to work instantly to prepare for his election ; but, in the midst of his arrange- ments, to the infinite surprise of himself no less than of his friends, an announcement reached him that his name was among those of the men disabled from serving by Bucking- ham's notable scheme of pricking them sheriffs of their respective counties. Wentworth was now sheriff of Yorkshire. Sir Arthur Ingram, a cautious friend, writing to him at this mo- ment, gave him one consolation : " It was told me by two counsellors, that in the naming of you, the king said you were an honest gentleman, but not a tittle to any of the rest. This much advan- tage have you that way." He had previously said that every exertion to prevent the step had been used, but added, " I think, if all the council that was at court had joined together in request for you, it would not have prevailed ; for it was set and resolved what should be done before the great duke's going over, and from that the king would not change a tittle. " * Memoir of Eliot, p. 31, 32. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 27. i See Letter to the Mayor of Pontefract, vol. i., p. 26. Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 29. 66 BRITISH STATESMEN. Buckingham had gone by this time into Hol- land ; and it would thus appear that .Charles, though inclined favourably to Wentworth, did not dare to contravene the order of his minion. Be that as it might, here was a great occasion. It was soon announced to Wentworth that the pricked men were resolved to make a struggle, to defeat the unusual tyranny that had sought to disable them from Parliament. " I met with Sir Francis Seymour here, at Reading," writes the cautious Ingram ; " I find by him that he is very desirous to be of the House, notwith- standing he is chosen sheriff; he hath taken, as he telleth me, very good advice in it ; and he hath been resolved that he may be returned, and serve for any town or city that is out of his own county. He would gladly that you would favour him so much as to get him cho- sen for some place in the north, and he will, if it stand with your good liking, have you cho- sen in the west. This he did desire me to write to you of, and that you would send him or me an answer so soon as you can. This, his desire, I have by these few lines made known unto you, leaving it to your own wis- dom to do therein what you shall think good. For my own poor opinion, it is a thing that no doubt will displease the king exceeding much, and, therefore, to be well considered of. On the other side, I think the House would be exceeding glad of it, and would hold you in, in spite of any. That which induceth Sir Francis the rather in this is, that he knoweth that Sir Edward Coke and Sir Robert Philips will be both returned. But, good sir, out of the love I bear to you, I dare not give you any encouragement in it. "* Went- worth's conduct upon this was decisive of the character I am endeavouring to represent. With the ready and resolved purpose of a man who is already decided on the main course to be pursued, yet is not unwilling that it should receive corroboration or modification from his friends, he instantly consulted several of them. Observe how characteristically this is convey- ed in a letter from his father-in-law, Lord Clare : "You resolve, in my opinion of this particular, rightly; for we live under a prerogative gov- ernment, where book-law submits unto lex lo- quens ; then be these extraordinaries, that rely rather upon inference or interpretation than the letter, too weak staves for such subjects to lean upon. This is a novelty and a stranger, that a sheriff, who, according to the received rule of our forefathers, is tied to his county as a snail to his shell, may cause himself to be chosen a burgess, or servant for a borough, and so, in a sort, quit the greater and the king's service for a subject's and a less : therefore, as a novelty, it is rather to be followed than to begin it, and as a stranger to be admitted as a proba- tioner, and to be embraced upon farther ac- quaintance. For my part, I shall be glad if Sir Edward Coke and Sir Robert Philips can make their undertaking good ; and I could wish Sir Francis Seymour were a burgess, so you were not seen in it ; and if any of them, without your knowledge and consent, shall confer any such place upon you, you are no way in fault thereby ; and yet Caesar's wife must be free from suspicion ; so, as I may conclude, it is not good to stand within the distance of absolute power. But I * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 30. see the issue : the question will fall between the king and the Parliament ; the House will demand her member, and the king denies his officer, and the king's election was prior, so as in conclusion some drops of displeasure may fall upon the borough, whose charter is always in the king's reach. But this is my chimera, and the lion may be less terrible than the picture. Howsoever, this well succeeding would put the courtier out of his trick, secure the Parliament better, and the subject in general, and make great ones more cautious in wrestling with that high court. Yet as you write, son, this business is of such a nature, as it is much better to be a spectator than an actor, and in this I give you no opinion ; I only confirm yours."* His resolution now perfectly assured, Wentworth writes in playful confidence to his kinsman Wandesford, whose services he relied on to keep him as well as possible with the popular members. He begins by a pleasant piece of humour : " Re- turna brevium is the office of a sheriff indeed ; but in this, that in this high calling (and now sworn too) I answer your long letter, is more than in justice, scarcely in favour, you could expect from me ; and little less than incivility in you thus to abuse a simple gentleman in his place, and put me beyond the length of my teth- er, it being my part this year, laconicum agere, as- becomes best, to say truth, a man of affairs attendant upon justices, escheators, juries, bankrupts, thieves, and such kind of cattle. Well, then, still to pursue, as a good officer should do, the duties of my vocation, I will tell you, my purpose is to carry myself in such a temper, that for my expense it shall participate of moderation and sobriety, without the least tincture-of wantonness or petulancy, which will both better express the sense wherewith I take it from above, and be more suiting with that just regard I owe the gentry of this country, to whom I have been so much beholden ; of whom I should be too much forgetful, and of my own modesty too, if I did any ways intend (at least as far as my indiscretion could go) to bring the former licentious custom in again so much to their prejudice. Therefore, in a word, come king, come judge, I will keep myself within the articles made when Sir Guy Palmes was sher- iff; and run dog, run cat, drink a red ryal by the place at least, by God's leave." He goes through many topics very amusingly, and then observes, "You will partly see by the enclosed how the pulse beats above," which I take to be an allusion to the letter (he afterward desires it to be enclosed back to him) of his friend Ingram, in which the king's feeling had been so favour- ably expressed. " For my own part," he con- tinues, " / will commit others to their active heat, myself, according to the season of the year, fold myself up in a cold, silent forbearance, apply my~ self cheerfully to the duties of my place, and heart ily pray to God to bless Sir Francis Seymour. For my rule, which I will not transgress, is, ' Never to contend with the prerogative out of a Parliament, nor yet to contest with a king but when I am constrained thereunto.' "t Wentworth faithfully adhered to these inten- tions ; and while " the great, warm, and ruffling Parliament" in London was infusing, by the * Straffbrd Papers, vol. i., p. 31. t Ibid., p. 32-34. EARL OF STRAFFORIX 67 boldness of its acts and words, new spirit and strength into the country, he remained quiet in Yorkshire, discharging his duty, as his humor- ous classification had described it, among "jus- tices, escheators, juries, bankrupts, thieves, and such like cattle." It is true he had found time to attend in London for certain purposes that are speedily to be explained, but he did not meddle with Parliament matters there, return- ing to Yorkshire again as quiet as before, and, indeed, a little more contented.* Soon afterward, before the proceedings of the Parliament had closed, and while attending a county meeting in his office of high sheriff, a paper was handed to Wentworth. It was the king's warrant dismissing him from the office he had so ardently desired to hold of custos rotulorum \ Giving way to momentary aston- ishment and indignation, he publicly told the meeting in what manner he had just been dis- charged, and that his successor was to be old Sir John Savile. " Yet I could wish," he add- ed, " they who succeed me had forborne this time this service, a place in sooth ill chosen, a stage ill prepared, for venting such poor, vain, insulting humour. I leave it," he concluded, " not conscious of any fault in myself, nor yet guilty of the virtue in my successor that should occasion this removal."t This was admirable for a public display. As soon as he had arrived at Wentworth Wood House, however, he despatched the following letters, one almost immediately after the other, to " the Right Honourable Sir Richard Weston, Knt, Chancellor of his Majesty's Exchequer!" They fully explain, it will be seen, the whole course of Wentworth's recent conduct. " I have been beholden unto you," he begins, " for many courtesies, which in your own particular I will undoubtedly ever thankfully acknowledge. Give me leave, then, to put you in remembrance of some things wherewith you formerly have been acquainted, as also to give you an ac- count of some things which have happened since. At the dissolved Parliament in Oxford, you are privy how I was moved from, and in behalf of, the Duke of Buckingham, with promise of his good esteem and favour ; you are privy that my answer was, I did honour the duke's person, that I mould be ready to serve him in the quality of an honest man and a gentleman ; you are privy that the duke look this in good part, sent me thanks ; as for respects done him, you are privy how, du- ring that sitting, I performed what I had profess- ed. The consequence of all this was the making me sheriff the winter after. It is true, the duke, a little before Whitsuntide last, at Whitehall, in your presence, said, it was done without his grace's knmeledge, that he was then in Holland. At Whitehall, Easter term last, you brought me to the duke, his grace did before you contract (as he pleased to term it) a friendship with me, all former mistakes laid asleep, forgotten. After, I went, at my coming out of town, to receive his commands, to kiss his grace's hands, where I had all the good words and good usage which could be expected, which bred in me a great deal of content, a full security. Now the consequence here again is, that even yesterday I received his majesty's writ for the discharging me of the poor place of cuslos ro- * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 35. t Ibid., p. 36. tulorum which I held here, whose good pleasure shall be cheerfully obeyed ; yet I cannot but observe as ill luck of it, that the reward of my long, painful, and loyal service to his majesty in that place is to be thus cast off, without any fault laid to my charge that I hear of, and that his grace, too, was now in England. I have therefore troubled you with this unartificial re- lation, to show you the singleness of my heart, resting in all assurance justly confident you shall never find that I have, for my own part, in a tittle transgressed from what had passed betwixt us. All which I confess, indeed, to this bare intent and purpose, and no other, that I might preserve myself in your opinion a man of plainness and truth. Which obtained, I have fully my end, and so I rest in the con- stant condition of your truly affectionate friend to dispose of, THOMAS WENTWORTH." The courteous conclusions of Wentworth's letters have a significancy at times. The next letter to Weston, following up the purpose of the last, runs thus : " Calling to mind the faithful service I had the honour to do his majesty now with God, how graciously he vouchsafed to accept and express it openly and sundry times, I enjoy within myself much comfort and contentment. On the other side, albeit therein still strongly dwell entire intentions (and by God's goodness shall, with me to my grave) towards his sacred majesty that now is, yet I may well apprehend the weight of his indignation, being put out of all commissions, wherein formerly I had served and been trusted. This makes me sensible of my misfortune, though not conscious of any inward guilt which might occasion it ; resting infinitely ambitious, not of new employment, but much rather to live under the smile than the frown of my sovereign. In this strait, therefore, give me leave to recommend to you the pro- tection of my innocence ; and to beseech you, at some good opportunity, to represent unto his maj- esty my tender and unfeigned grief for his disfa- vour, my fears also that I stand before his justice and goodness clad in the malevolent interpretations, and prejudiced by the subtle insinuations, of my adversaries ; and, lastly, my only and humble suit, that his majesty will princely deign that either my insufficiency or fault may be shown me ; to this only end, that, if insufficiency, I may know where and how to improve myself, and be better enabled to present hereafter more ripe and pleasing fruits of my labours in his service ; if a fault, that I may either confess my error and beg his pardon, or else, which I am most confident I shall do, approve myself throughout an honest, well-affected, loyal sub- ject, with full, plain, and upright satisfaction to all that can, by the greatest malice or disguised untruth, be objected against me. The content- ment of others in my actions is but subordinate, and consequently neither my principal study nor care. Thus have I presumed upon you, farther than any particular interest of mine can warrant, out of a general belief in your wisdom and nobleness, the rather, too, because I conceive you can best witness the opinion, nay, I might say the esteem, his late majesty held of me. All which, nevertheless, as in good manners and discre- tion I ought, I submit wholly to your best pleasure, without importunately pressing farther herein than may stand with your convcniency, your 68 BRITISH STATESMEN. other respects, and, however, retain with me the lasting truth of your honour's most humbly, most readily to be commanded, THOMAS WENT- WORTH."* It did not suit with Weston's convenience to answer these letters at the time, but it is prob- able that no word of them was withheld from the king. Buckingham was still too powerful to be in anything gainsayed, and it was clear that he had formed a violent dislike to Went- worth. He sought now to mortify him as much as possible through the means of Savile. The son of the " old knight," or the " old cavalier," as one of Wentworth's correspondentst calls him, was promoted to a barony and an office in the household. It is not difficult, on mature consideration, to assign an intelligible reason for these proceedings by Buckingham, though at first they appear startlingly gratuitous. He had, in truth, an equal motive to be jealous of Wentworth, in the way of favour as in that of opposition. While it is possible that he did not very clearly understand the policy that had been shown by Wentworth in either case, it is more than probable that he feared to be undone by him in both. In favour, he might already have received occasion to suppose Wentworth likely to prove a formidable rival (not dreaming that a large capacity could never so impose upon Charles as a mean one) ; and in opposition, he may still have thought him too likely to be dangerous, for a perfect trust. Nor was he without reason for suspicion, at least, on the latter score. Wandesford, the most intimate friend and kinsman of the quiet sheriff, had been one of the most active managers of the impeachment in the last session. And there were other causes of dread. Wentworth had had some communication with the intriguing Archbishop Williams, and, worse than all, was known to have frequently visited the person whom the duke more deeply feared, the Arch- bishop Abbot. I quote from Abbot's narrative " concerning his disgrace at court," a passage elucidatory on this point. In describing the three of his acquaintances to whom exception had been taken by Buckingham (" I know from the court, by a friend," he interposes, " that my house for a good space of time hath been watched, and I marvel that they have not rather named sixty than three"), the archbishop ob- serves, " The third was Sir Thomas Wentworth, who had good occasion to send unto me, and sometimes to see me, because we were joint ex- ecutors to Sir George Savile,t who married his sister, and was my pupil at Oxford ; to whose son also Sir Thomas Wentworth and I were guardians, as may appear in the Court of Wards, and many things passed between us in that be- half ; yet, to my remembrance, I saw not this gentleman but once in these three quarters of * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 34, 35. t Lord Mansfield, who appears to have remonstrated with the Duke of Buckingham himself, while Wentworth thus remonstrated, as it were, with the king, respecting the late proceedings. " I writ my mind," says Mansfield to Went- worth, " at full to my lord duke ; and, I protest to God, no more sparing the old cavalier or his nature than I would speak of him to you, nor mincing my desires or my nature, which is not to do courtesies for injuries." It is most prob- able that this was done at Wentworth's desire. See Pa- pers, vol. i., p. 43. t Sir George, it may be remarked, was not a " Yorkshire Savile " a year last past, at which time he came to seek his brother-in-law, the Lord Clifford, who was then with me at dinner at Lambeth."* The second Parliament dissolved, privy seals were now issuing. Savile, still hot against his old opponent, prevailed with the court to send Wentworth a privy seal. The latter re- ceived 'it while his recent overtures to Weston remained yet unaccepted. It had the appear- ance of a cold rejection of them.t Still he hes- itated as to his course. " I have been here now some two or three months," writes Lord Baltimore to him, " a spectator upon this great scene of state, where I have no part to play ; but you have, for which your friends are sorry. It is your enemies that bring you on the stage, where they have a hope to see you act your own notable harm ; and therefore keep your- self off, I beseech you, et redimas te quam queas minima."!. A letter from Lord Haughton fol- lowed. " It was supposed," he informs Went- worth, " this humour of committing had been spent, till that your antagonist did revive it ; who, I hear, brags he hath you in a toil or di- lemma ; if you refuse, you shall run the fortune of the other delinquents ; if you come in at the last hour into the vineyard, he hopes it will lessen you in the country."^ Such was indeed the dilem- ma, the toil, in which Wentworth found him- self; but he hesitated still! His friends now became extremely anxious, and letter upon let- ter was despatched to him. Their general cry was one of dissuasion, but in all events of im- mediate decision. H Lord Clifford wrote sever- al times in anxious solicitude. " Your friends here do think you take the best course in wri- ting to the commissioners and coming up in- stantly, if you are not yet resolved to lend : but that being the point we all wish you would grant us ; for, without that, we can have no hope of your safety for your health or person. Then, the deferring of the answer will so lessen the gift, as the acceptance of it would be but faint and cold. Whereas, if you would now assent to slip the money into some commissioner's hand, you might wave the trouble to appear, either in the country or here. I must tell you, that I have met here with many that are persuaded that you struck a tally here yourself when you were at London, and my answer to such was igno- rance. Another sort there are, who inquire much after your coming up, and these I con- ceive not out of any good affection, because some of them have relation to old Sir John." Lord Baltimore wrote more earnestly still. " If you resolve betimes to take this course, which I would-to God you would, it may be yet inter- preted obedience to your sovereign, and zeal to his service ; and whatsoever slackness hath been in it hitherto may be excused by your friends here, either by indisposition of health, or some other rea- son, which your own judgment can better dic- tate unto you than my advice. I should say much more to you were you here, which is not fit for paper ; but never put off the matter to your appearance here, for God's sake ; but send * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 451. Written about the year 1628-9. t In the Life of Eliot I have sufficiently explained the court practices at this time. Privy seals were generally addressed to the " disaffected" only. t StrafTord Papers, vol. i., p. 37. $ Ibid. II See the Papers, vol. i., p. 37-40. EARL OF STRAFFORD. your money in to the collectors in the country without more ado. Your friends are much per- plexed and in fear of you, and none more than 7." Wentworth, thus driven, made up his mind, at last, to refuse to lend. He could no longer conceal from himself that a crisis had arrived, and he was not ignorant of a means (though he might have hitherto wished to avoid some in- cidents attached to it) that would possibly force from it a perfect triumph. He refused the loan, and was summoned to the council table at Lon- don. He did not omit an opportunity to his main purpose that seemed to offer itself here. Wandesford describes it in a letter written to him after his committal to the Marshalsea. " Now that you are reckoned with the afflicted, a man may pray safely for your deliverance ; and, seeing it would be no better, I am glad you come in so fair, and so handsomely upon the point itself. Sir Arthur tells me the presi- dent reports well of your carriage at the table. shall be glad to hear of you in your present con- finement, lest that prison and this season give you a nightcap in earnest."* He only remained six weeks in the Marshal- sea. He was then removed to Dartford in Kent, where, Radcliffe observes, he " was not to go above two miles from that town." This was an easy imprisonment, and, easy as it was, was still more alleviated by the presence of the Lady Arabella.! She had already present- ed him with a boy, and, during his present re- striction, gave birth to a girl. The letters of her brother, Denzil Hollis, written at this peri- od to Wentworth, are very delightful in many respects, t and, in the disastrous news of the court schemes which they supplied, may have served to strengthen his present patriotic pur- poses. " I am most glad," he writes, "to hear my sister is in so fair a way of recovering strength, since she last made you the second time a father : I wish she may many times do it to both your comforts, and every time still with more comfort than the former ; that yet in our private respects we may have some cause of joy, since the public affords us so little ; for you see how that goes on de mal en pis, as the French say." He then gives a vivid account of the melancholy Isle of Rhee expedition, and, describing the numbers that had been lost, pleasantly concludes thus : " In the mean time we have lost many good men, yet let us make the best of it ; and I hope it will make our wives, instead of bearing wenches, which of late you say they have been much given to, fall to bring- ing of boys, young soldiers for the reincrew of our army : and I know no reason but mine should begin ; and she had as good do it at first, for if she do not, at her peril, I hope to make her go again for it ; and when my sister Arabella shall see how mine is served, I hope she will take fair warning, and do as she should do ; but I fear not her so much, for she has begun pretty well already. And now I will close my letter as you do yours (with thanks by the way for it, as also for the whole letter), heartily praying she may so continue, to make you a glad father * Strafford Paperg, vol. i., p. 39. t [On the twenty-fourth of February, 1625, he united himself to Arabella, second daughter of John Hollis, first Earl of Clare. C.] t See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 4(M2. 6 of many goodly and godly boys and some wenches among, lest the seventh work mira- cles, as old wives will tell us and herself to be a joyful and good mother, as I know she is a good and loving wife, and long may she so be to your comfort and her own." Wentworth and the other recusants released, they met, under the circumstances of extreme excitement which have been already described, in the famous third Parliament. It is scarce- ly necessary to remark here, that the under current of intrigue which had been set in mo- tion by Wentworth was only known to his con- venient friend Wandesford. It is not likely, from the tone of Hollis's letters, that he had ever been made acquainted with it. For the rest of the patriots, with the exception of the keen-sighted Eliot, they all held well with Wentworth, as a great and valuable supporter of the popular cause. He had long been known for his talents ; their outburst in, behalf of lib- eral principles had long, by a certain section of the leaders, been anxiously watched for ; and now, disappointing none, even of those who had known them longest, and looked for them most impatiently, they burst forth amid the de- lighted cheers of the House, and with a start- ling effect upon the court. On the discussion of the general question of grievances, Wentworth rose. " May this day's resolution," he solemnly began, " be as happy, as I conceive the proposition which now moves me to rise to be seasonable and necessary ! For whether we shall look upon the king or his people, it did never more behove this great physician, the Parliament, to effect a true con- sent amongst the parties than now. This de- bate carries with it a double aspect, towards the sovereign, and towards the subject ; though both be innocent, yet both are injured, both to be cured. In the representation of injuries I shall crave your attention ; in the cure, I shall beseech your equal cares and better judgments. In the greatest humility I speak it, these illegal ways are punishments and marks of indigna- tion. The raising of money by loans, strength- ened by commission, with unheard-of instruc- tions ; the billeting of soldiers by the lieuten- ants, have been as if they could have persuaded Christian princes nay, worlds, that the right of empire was to take away goods by strong hand ; and they have endeavoured, as far as was possible for them, to do it. This hath not been done by the king (under the pleasing shade of whose crown I hope we shall ever gather the fruits of justice), but by projectors ; these have extended the prerogative of the king be- yond its just limits, so as to mar the sweet har- mony of the whole." Wentworth then burst suddenly, and with great dramatic effect (he studied this at all times), into the following rapid and passionate invective : " They have rent from us the light of our eyes ! enforced companies of guests worse than the ordinances of France ! vitiated our wives and daughters before our faces ! brought the crown to greater want than ever t was, by anticipating the revenue ; and can ;he shepherd be thus smitten, and the flock not be scattered 1 They have introduced a privy ouncil, ravishing at once the spheres of all an- cient government ! imprisoning us without bail BRITISH STATESMEN. or bond ! They have taken from us what shall I say 1 Indeed, what have they left us ? They have taken from us all means of supply- ing the king, and ingratiating ourselves with him, by tearing up the roots of all property ; which, if they be not seasonably set again into the ground by his majesty's hand, we shall have, instead of beauty, baldness !" For this, in the noblest language, the orator proposed his remedy. " By one and the same thing hath the king and people been hurt, and by the same must they be cured to vindicate what 1 New things 1 No ! our ancient, law- ful, and vital liberties ! by reinforcing of the an- cient laws made by our ancestors ; by setting Much a stamp upon them as no licentious spirit shall dare hereafter to enter upon them. And shall we think this a way to break a Parlia- ment 1 No ! our desires are modest and just. I speak truly, both for the interest of the king and people. If we enjoy not these, it will be impossible to relieve him ; therefore let us nev- er fear but they will be accepted by his good- ness. Wherefore I shall descend to my mo- tion, which consists of four parts, two of which have relation to the persons, and two to the property of our goods. 1st. For our persons, the freedom of them from imprisonment, and from employments abroad, against our own consents, contrary to the ancient customs of this kingdom. 2d. For our goods, that no lev- ies may be made but by Parliament ; and no billeting of soldiers. It is most necessary that these be resolved, and that the subjects may be secured in both. Then, for the manner, it will be fit to determine it by a grand commit- tee."* Wentworth sustained, through the short but important proceedings of the session, the repu- tation he had achieved by this speech in the House and the country. He spoke on all the great questions and emergencies that occurred. Only two of his speeches, however, remain in any completeness. The second was delivered on one of Secretary Cooke's pressing applica- tions for the subsidies. il I cannot help lament- ing," he said, " the unlawful courses and slights, for which the only excuse is necessity. We are required to give ; but before we can resolve to give, it must be determined what we have to give. What heavy fogs have of late darken- ed our hemisphere, and yet hang over us, por- tending our ruin, none is so weak as to be ig- norant of ! What unsteady courses to dispel these mists have been pursued, and thereby raised near us great storms, I take no pleasure to remember ; yet, in all bodies diseased, the knowledge precedes the cure. I will shortly tell the principals, next their remedies. I must reduce them into two heads : 1. Whereby our persons have been injured ; 2d. Whereby our estates have suffered. " Our persons have been injured," continued Wentworth, more earnestly, "both by impris- onment without law nay, against law, bound- less and without bank ! and by being designed to some office, charge, and employment, foreign or domestic, as a brand of infamy and mark of disgrace. Oh ! Mr. Speaker, when it may not be safe to deny payments upon unjust exac- * From a MS. in the Harleian Library. See Prl. Hist., l. vii., p. 369-371. tions, but we must go to prison for it, nor in this place to speak our consciences, but we must be stamped to unwilling and unfitting employments ! Our estates have been racked two ways ; one in the loan, wherein five subsi- dies were exacted, and that by commission of men of quality, and instructions to prosecute the same with an asperity which no times can parallel ! And hence the other consideration, of the projectors and executioners of it. Nay, this was not all, but ministers in their pulpits have preached it as Gospel, and damned the re- fusers of it so, then, we are already doomed to damnation ! "Let no man," he said, in conclusion, after proposing a committee for grievances, " judge this way a break-neck of Parliaments, but a way of honour to the king, nay, of profit ; for be- sides the supply which we shall readily give him, suitable to his occasions, we give him our hearts. Our hearts, Mr. Speaker, a gift that God calls for, and fit for a king!"* There may have been more passion than logic in these speeches, but they had their ef- fect. The court now saw more thoroughly the man they had discarded, and Weston hastened to answer his last letter ! He reasoned here not unjustly, that it could scarcely be too late at any time to answer a letter which in its terms so clearly proved the non-existence of any lasting obstacle, such as a firm point of principle. The present conduct of Wentworth, to Weston at least, could appear no other than a temporary resource. Even Buckingham's continued objections were therefore set aside, and, before the conclusion of the session, a ne- gotiation with Wentworth had opened nay, almost before the burning words which have just been transcribed had cooled from off the lips of the speaker, a transfer of his services to the court was decided on ! We have indispu- table evidence that on the 28th of May Finch was acting as a go-between, t On the 26th of June the Parliament was prorogued. On the 14th of July Sir Thomas Wentworth was crea- ted Baron Wentworth, and called to the privy council.}: It is clear, however, that at the same time he had stipulated to be made a viscount, and lord-president of the North ; but this ap- parently could not be done till the death of Buckingham had removed a still lingering ob- stacle. [I * Parl. Hist., vol. vii.,p. 440. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 46. i [Shortly after his elevation to the peerage, he met his old friend Pym. " You see," said Strafford, " I have left you." " So I perceive," replied the patriot ; " but we shall never leave you, as long as you have a head on your shoul- ders." Pym kept his word, and never lost sight of Straf- ford till he had brought him to the scaffold. C.J <> See Papers, vol. ii., p. 390. II A passage in Rushworth (vol. viii., p. 768) i corrobo- rative of the view which I have presented of Wentworth's public conduct. The collector professes to give all those parliamentary speeches "in which my Lord of Strafford an discovered his wit and temper, that the court took particu- lar notice of him," and gives only the speeches that were delivered in this, third Parliament. It is clear that he had not rendered himself at all formidable before. Rushworth, indeed, subsequently sets this at rest by adding, "Note he began to be more generally taken notice of by all men, ant! his fame to spread abroad, where public affairs, and the criticisms of the times, were discoursed by the most refined judgments, ; those who were infected with popularity flat- tering themselves that he was inclined to support their in- clination, and would prove a champion on that account ; but such, discourse, a? it endeared him to his country, so EARL OF STRAFFORD. 71 1 have thus endeavoured to trace at greater length, and with greater exactness than has been attempted hitherto, the opening passages in the political history of this extraordinary man. The common and vulgar account given by Heylin* has been, it is believed, exploded, along with that of the no less vulgar Hacket.t All Wentworth's movements in the path which has been /olio wed appear to me to be perfectly natural and intelligible, if his true character is kept in view. From the very intensity of the aristocratic principle within him arose his hes- itation in espousing at once the interests of the court. This, justly and carefully considered, will be found the solution of his reluctant ad- vances, and still more reluctant retreats. The intervention of a favourite was hardly support- able by one whose ambition, as he felt obliged to confess to himself even then, would be sat- isfied with nothing short of the dignity of be- coming "the king's mistress, to be cherished and courted by none but himself." He was to be understood, and then invited, rather than forced to an explicit declaration, and then only accepted. The purpose of the alternating at- traction and repulsion of his proceedings, such as I have described them, submissive and re- fractory, might have been obvious, indeed, to an obtuser perception than Buckingham's, but that mediocrity will always find its little account in crushing rather than winning over genius, and is rendered almost as uncomfortable by an uncongenial coadjutor as by a strenuous oppo- nent. Wentworth's conduct, at the last, was forced upon him by circumstances ; but his en- ergetic support of the Petition of Rights was only the completion of a series of hints, all of which had been more or less intelligible ; and even now, unwillingly understood as this was by the minister, it was yet more reluctantly acted upon, for by Buckingham's death alone, as we are informed, the " great bar" to Went- worth's advancement was removed.}: It may be added, that, even in all these circumstances, when many steps were forced upon him which his proud spirit but poorly submitted to, and wronged itself in submitting to, it is yet possi- ble to perceive a quality in his nature which was afterward more fully developed. He was possessed with a rooted aversion, from the first, to the court flies that buzzed around the mon- arch, and as little inclined to suffer their good offices as to deprecate their hostility. The re- ceipt, shortly after this, of divers ill-spelled and solemn sillinesses from the king, seems to have occasioned a deep and enduring gratitude in him for the dispensing with a medium that had annoyed him. " I do with infinite sense," writes he, " consider your majesty's great good- ness, not only most graciously approving of that address of mine immediately to yourself, but allowing it unto me hereafter, which I shall rest myself upon as my greatest support on earth, and make bold to practise, yet I trust without importunity or sauciness." The few attempts to ingratiate himself with the queen, \vhichi were ultimately forced on Wentworth begot to him an interest in the bosom of his prince, who (having a discerning judgment of men) quickly made his observation of Wentworth's, that he was a person framed for great affairs, and fit to be near his royal person and councili." * Life of Laud, p. 194. t .Scrinia Reserata. i Biog. Britt., vol. vii., p. 4179. by his declining fortunes, were attended with but faint success, and he appears to have im- pressed her, on the whole, with little beyond the prettiness of his hands, which she allowed to be " the finest in the world"* to the preju- dice of his head, which she was not so inclined to preserve. In one word, what it is desired to impress upon the reader, before the delineation of Went- worth in his after years, is-this, that he was con- sistent to himself throughout. I have always considered that much good wrath is thrown away upon what is usually called " apostacy." In the majority of cases, if the circumstances are thoroughly examined, it will be found that there has been " no such thing." The position on which the acute Roman thought fit to base his whole theory of ^Esthetics, " Humano capiti cervicem pictor eqninam Jungere si velit, et varias induce re. plumas, Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atram Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne, Spectatura admissi risum teneatis, amici ?" &c. is of far wider application than to the exigen- cies of an art of poetry ; and those who carry their researches into the moral nature of man- kind cannot do better than impress upon their minds at the outset, that in the regions they explore they are to expect no monsters no essentially discordant termination to any " mu- lier formosa superne." Infinitely and distinctly various as appear the shifting hues of our com- mon nature when subjected to the prism of CIRCUMSTANCE, each ray into which it is broken is no less in itself a primitive colour, suscepti- ble, indeed, of vast modification, but incapable of farther division. Indolence, however, in its delight for broad classifications, finds its ac- count in overlooking this ; and among the re- sults, none is more conspicuous than the long list of apostates with which history furnishes us. It is very true, it may be admitted, that when we are informed by an old chronicler that " at this time Ezzelin changed totally his disposition," or by a modern biographer that " at such a period Tiberius first became a wick- ed prince," we examine too curiously if we consider such information as in reality regard- ing other than the act done and the popular in- ference recorded, beyond which it was no part of the writer to inquire. But such historians as these value themselves materially on their dispensation of good or evil fame ; and as the " complete change," so dramatically recounted, has commonly no mean influence on the nature of their award, the observations I have made may be of service to the just estimate of their more sweeping conclusions. Against all such conclusions I earnestly pro- test in the case of the remarkable personage whose ill-fated career we are now retracing. Let him be judged sternly, but in no unphilo- sophic spirit. In turning from the bright band of patriot brothers to the solitary Stratford " a star which dwelt apart" we have to con- template no extinguished splendour, razed and blotted from the book of life. Lustrous, in- deed, as was the gathering of the lights in the * This is told us by Madame de Motteville, who repeat! what Henrietta had said to her : " II 6tait laid, mais assez agreable de sa personne ; et la reine, me contaut toutes ces choses, s'arreta pour me dire qu'il avait les plus belles '* 72 BRITISH STATESMEN. political heaven of this great time, even that radiant cluster might have exulted in the ac- cession of the " comet beautiful and fierce," which tarried a while within its limits ere it "dashed athwart with train of flame." But it was governed by other laws than were owned by its golden associates, and impelled by a contrary, yet no less irresistible force than that which restrained them within their eternal or- bits it left them, never to " float into that azure heaven again." Before attending Wentworth to his presi- dency in the North, we may stop to consider one of those grand features in his character on which many subordinate considerations depend, and a proper understanding of which ought to be brought, as a first requisite, to the just ob- servation of his measures. I cannot believe Wentworth to have been the vain man popular opinion has pronounced him, nor discover in him any of that overween- ing and unwarranted self-confidence which friends no less than foes have laid to his charge. An arrogance, based on the supposed posses- sion of pre-eminent qualities which have no existence, is one thing, and the calm percep- tion of an undoubted superiority is another. Wentworth, indeed, " stood like a tower," but that unshaken confidence did not "suddenly scale the light." Its stately proportions were slowly evolved ; its eventual elevation una- voidable, and amply vindicated. We have met with no evidences of a refractory or self-suffi- cient disposition in the youth of Wentworth. His studies at Cambridge had a prosperous is- sue, and he ever remembered his college life with affection. " I am sorry to speak it, but truth will out," writes he to Laud concerning an episcopal delinquent, "this bishop is a St. John's man of Oxford, I mean, not Cambridge ; our Cambridge panniers never brought such a fairing to the market."* His deep esteem for his tutor, Greenwood, reflects honour on both parties. I have said that it was originated by * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 189. Laud makes merry upon this happy phrase of the lord-deputy's. The passa- ges are characteristic of the correspondence, and therefore worth quoting. " And so your lordship," he writes, " is ' very sorry to tell the truth, but only that it will out. A St. John's man you say he is, and of Oxford your Cam- bridge panniers never brought such a fairing to the mar- ket. Yes, my good lord, but it hath ; for what say you of Dean Palmer 1 who, besides his other virtues, sold all the lead off from the church at Peterburgh ; yet he was brought in your Cambridge panniers; and so was Bishop Rowland too, who used that bishopric as well as he did the deanery. I must confess this man's baseness hath not many fellows, but his bribery may have store. And 1 pray, is that ever a whit the less fault, because it is gentleman-like for hun- dreds and thousands, whereas this man deals for twenty shillings and less ? I hope you will not say so ; and if you do not, then I pray examine your Cambridge panniers again, for some say such may be found there, but I, for my part, will not believe it, unless your lordship make me." Went- worth appears to have contested this point in Laud's own huaaour. The bishop retorts by asking ham what his " Jon- nism" means. " Now you are merry again. God hold it. And what? Dr. Palmer acted like a king? Be it so. But he was another card in the pack. As for Bishop How- land, you never heard of him. What ! nor of Jeames his wife neither? Good Lord, how ignorant you can be when you lit. Yea, but you have taken St. John's Ox. Fla- grante crimine, and I put you to your memory. Is it so ? Come on, then : you know there is a cause in the Star Chambers some were to answer, and they brought their answers ready written. If the Bishop of Lincoln sent them ready for his turn, hath he not an excellent forge ? What if this appear T I hope you will not then say I put you to your memory. 'Tis now under examination, and is not this if, &c., flagraate crimine? Go brag now." good services performed, and so, perhaps, it is necessary to limit all Strafford's likings all, except the fatal one which cost him life, his liking for the weak and unworthy king, which had its origin in that abstract veneration for power which (or rather, as he afterward too late discovered, the semblance of which) we have just seen him, by some practices beneath his nature, climbing up to, and in the exercise of which we are to view him hereafter. But his esteem for Greenwood, whatever its origin, was not to have been provoked by truckling sycophancy. Nothing of that sort would have succeeded in impressing its object with so pro- found a respect as dictates the following para- graph in an interesting letter to his nephew and ward, Sir W. Savile. " In these, and all things else, you shall do passing well to con- sult Mr. Greenwood, who hath seen much, is very well able to judge, and certainly most faithful to you. If you use him not most re- spectively, you deal extreme ungrateful with him, and ill for yourself. He was the man your father loved and trusted above all men, and did as faithfully discharge the trust reposed in him as ever in my time I knew any man do for his dead friend, taking excessive pains in settling your estate with all possible cheerful- ness, without charge to you at all. His advice will be always upright, and you may safely pour your secrets into him, which, by that time you have conversed a little more abroad in the world, you will find to be the greatest and no- blest treasure this world can make any mai owner of; and I protest to God, were I it your place, I would think him the greatest an> best riches I did or could possess."* In the same letter Wentworth assures this youth, " You cannot consider yourself, and advise and debate your actions with your friends too much ; and, till such time as experience hath ripened your judgment, it shall be great wisdom and advantage to distrust yourself, and to for- tify your youth by the counsel of your more aged friends, before you undertake anything of consequence. It was the course that I gov- erned myself by after my father's death, with great advantage to myself and affairs ; and yet my breeding abroad had shown me more of the world than yours hath done, and I had nat- ural reason like other men ; only I confess I did in all things distrust myself, wherein you shall do, as I said, extremely well, if you do so too."t There is no self-sufficiency here ! Wentworth's method of study has been trans- mitted to us by Sir George RadclifFe, and I quote it in strong corroboration of the view which has been urged. " He writ," RadclifFe assures us, as well as he spoke : this perfection he at- tained,, first, by reading well-penned authors in French, English, and Latin, and observing their expressions ; secondly, by hearing of eloquent men, which he did diligently in their sermons and public speeches ; thirdly, by a very great care and industry, which he used when he was young, in penning his epistles and missives of what subject soever; but, above all, he had a natural quickness of wit and fancy, with great clearness of judgment, and much practice, with- out which his other helps, of reading and hear- ing, would not have brought him to that great * Papers, vol. i., p. 170. t Ibid., p. 169. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 73 perfection to which he attained. I learned one rule of him, which I think worthy to be remem- bered : when he met with a well-penned oration or tract upon any subject or question, he framed a speech upon the same argument, inventing and dis- posing what seemed Jit to be said upon that subject before he read the book ; then reading the book, compare his own with the author, and note his own defects, and the author's art and fulness, whereby he observed all that was in the author more strictly, and might better judge of his own wants to supply them."* Now this early habit of confronting, so to speak, the full-grown wits of other men of satisfying himself of his own pre- cise intellectual height by thoroughly scanning the acknowledged stature of the world's giants is as much removed from a rash assumption as from the nervous apprehension of mediocrity. Wentworth's temper was passionate ; and it is curious and instructive, in the present view of his character, to mark the steps he took in relation to this. I have already spoken of his extreme cautiousness ; of the select council that canvassed his business, suggested his measures, and revised his correspondence ; of his defer- ence to advice, and, indeed, submission to re- proof, from his assured friends. " He was nat- urally exceeding choleric," says Sir George Rad- cliffe, " an infirmity with which he had great wrestlings ; and though he kept a watchfulness over himself concerning it, yet it could not be so prevented but sometimes upon sudden occasions it would break. He had sundry friends that often admonished him of it, and he had the great pru- dence to take in good part such admonitions : nay, I can say that I, one of his most intimate friends, never gained more upon his trust and affection than by this freedom with him in tell- ing him of his weaknesses ; for he was a man and not an angel, yet such a man as made a conscience of his ways, and did endeavour to grow in virtue and victory over himself, and made good progress accordingly." This " good progress" brought him eventually to a very ef- ficient self-control. In cases where he would seem to have exceeded it, and to have been transported beyond decency and prudence, it would be hasty to assume, as Clarendon and other writers have done, that it was in mere satisfaction of his will. These writers, it will not be difficult to show, have not that excuse for the failure of their principles in Went- worth's person. The truth was, that, as in the case of Nap'oleon and other great masters of the despotic art, anger was one of the instru- ments of his policy. He came to know when to be in a passion, and flew into a passion ac- cordingly. " You gave me a good lesson to be patient," he writes to old Secretary Cooke, " and indeed my years and natural inclinations give me heat more than enough, which, how- ever, I trust more experience shall cool, and a watch over myself in time altogether over- come ; in the mean space, in this at least it will set forth itself more pardonable, because my earnestness shall ever be for the honour, justice, and profit of my master ; and it is not always anger, but the misapplying of it, that is the vice so blameable, and of disadvantage to those that let themselves loose thereunto."-^ * Papers, vol. ii., p. 435. t Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 87. K In the same despatch to the secretary from which I have taken the above, he had observed, immediately before, " Nor is it one of my least comforts that I shall have the means to resort to so wise and well-affected a friend to me as I esteem yourself, and to a servant that goes the same way to my master's ends that I do ; and therefore let me adjure you, by all the in- terests that I may or would have in you, that as you will (I am sure) assist me when I am right, so, by your sensible and grave counsel, reduce me when I may happen to tread awry."* And thus, from the first, is Wentworth found soliciting the direction of others in all impor- tant conjunctures ; not, indeed, with the vague distress of one unprovided with expedients of his own, and disposed to adopt the first course that shall be proposed, but with the calm pur- pose of one decided on the main course to be pursued, yet not unwilling that it receive the corroboration, or undergo the modification, of an experienced adviser. This has been occa- sionally illustrated in the business of his nom- ination by the king for the office of sheriff, where, having already chosen his party, he sub- mits his determination to his father-in-law, the Earl of Clare, whose answer has been quoted. I have mentioned, also, his practice of trans- mitting duplicates of his despatches on all ur- gent occasions to Laud, Cooke, and Cottington. No passage, indeed, in the career of Went- worth proves him to have been a vain man. His singular skill is never satisfied, without an unremitting application of means to any desired end, and the neglect of no circumstance, the most minute and apparently trivial, that may conduce to its success. Would he ensure his own return for a county, and smuggle in a min- isterial candidate under the wing of his own popularity 1 He proceeds as though his per- sonal merits could in no way influence the event, and all his hopes are founded on the ac- tivity of his friends, which he leaves no stone unturned to increase. In one and the same day, Sir Thomas Gower, high sheriff of York, is in- formed that, " Being, at the entreaty of some of my best friends, resolved to try the affec- tions of my countrymen in the next election of knights for the shire, I could do no less than take hold of this fit occasion to write unto you these few lines, wherein I must first give you thanks for the good respect you have been pleased to show towards me, to some of my good friends who moved you for your just and equal favour at the time of the election ; which, as I will be found ready to deserve and affec- tionately to requite, so must I here solicit you for the continuance of your good purposes to- wards me ; and lastly desire to understand from you what day the county falls out upon (which is to be the next after the receipt of the writ), that so I may provide myself and friends to give our first voices for Mr. Secretary, and the second for myself." Sir Henry Bellasis assured that, " Presently upon my return from London, I find by Mr. Carre how much I am beholden unto you for your good affection. la truth, I do not desire it out of any ambition, but rather to satisfy some of my best friends, and such as have most power over me. Yet, if the country make choice of me, surely I will * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 87. BRITISH STATESMEN. zealously perform the best service for them that my means or understanding shall enable me unto. And having thus far upon this occa- sion declared myself, must take it as a great testimony of affection in them that shall afford me their voices, and those of their friends for Mr. Secretary Calvert in the prime, and my- self in the second place. Particularly am I hereby to give you therefore thanks, and will so settledly lodge this favour in my heart, that I will not fail to remember and deserve it. In my next letters I will likewise let Mr. Secretary know your good respect and kindness towards him, whereof I dare assure you he will not be unmind- ful. The election day will fall out very un- happily upon Christmas-day ; but it is irreme- diless, and therefore must be yielden unto. If you will please to honour me with the company of yourself and friends upon that day at dinner, I shall take it as a second and especial favour ; in retribution whereof you shall find me still conversant, as occasion shall be ministered, in the unfeigned and constant offices of your very assured and affectionate friend." Sir Henry Sa- vile instructed that " I have received your two letters, and in them both find matter to thank you for your respect and kindness towards me. The later of them I received just the afternoon I came out of town, but I write effectually to Mr. Secretary for a burgess-ship for you at Richmond, in regard I knew my Lord of Cumberland was partly engaged ; but I will amongst them work out one, or I will miss far of my aim. So soon as I hear from Mr. Secretary, I will give you far- ther certainty herein ; in the mean time, me- thinks it were not amiss if you tried your an- cient power with them of Aldborow, which I leave to your better consideration, and in the mean time not labour the less to make it sure for you elsewhere, if these clowns chance to fail you. The writ, as I hear, is this week gone to the sheriff; so the next county day, which must, without hope of alteration, be that of the election, falls to be Christmas-day, which were to be wished otherwise ; but the discom- modity of our friends more upon that day than another makes the favour the greater, our obli- gation the more, and therefore I hope they will the rather dispense with it. If the old knight should but endanger it, 'faith, we might be re- puted men of small power and esteem in the country ! but the truth is, I fear him not. If your health serve you, I shall wish your com- pany at York, and that yourself and friends would eat a Christmas pie with me there: I tell you there would be a hearty welcome, and I would take it as an especial favour, so value it, and as such a one remember it." Sir Mat- thew Boynton reminded that " The ancient and near acquaintance that hath been betwixt us causeth me to rank you in the number of my friends ; and being moved by my friends to stand second with Mr. Secretary Calvert for knight of the shire at this next Parliament, I assure myself I might confidently address my- self unto you for the voices of yourself and friends in the election, which falls out unfortu- nately to be upon Christmas-day. But as the trouble of my friends thereby will be the great- er, so doth it add to my obligation. I hope likewise to enjoy your company and friends that day at dinner. You shall be in no place better welcome." And Christopher Wandes- ford given notice that " the writ will be deliv- ered by Mr. Radcliffe within these two days to the sheriff, to whom I have written, giving him thanks for his kindness, desiring the continu- ance thereof. And now, lest you should think me forgetful of that which concerns yourself, I hasten to let you know that I have got an ab- solute promise of my Lord Clifford, that if I be chosen knight, you shall have a burgess-ship (re- served for me) at Appleby, wherewith I must con- fess I am not a little pleased, in regard ice shall sit there, judge, and laugh together." The reader will remember that all these, with many other letters, are written and de- spatched on the same day. No apology is ne- cessary for the length at which I quote them ; since, in rescuing them from false and distort- ed arrangement, much misconception is pre- vented, and a very valuable means of judgment furnished on Wentworth's general conduct. He goes on to let Sir Thomas Fairfax know that " I was at London much entreated, and, indeed, at last enjoined, to stand with Mr. Secretary Calvert for to be knight of this shire the next Parliament, both by my Lord Clifford and himself; which, after I had assented unto, and despatched my letters, I perceived that some of your friends had motioned the like to Mr. Secretary on your behalf, and were therein engaged, which was the cause I writ no sooner unto you. Yet, hearing by my cousin Middle- ton that, he moving you in my behalf for your voices, you were not only pleased to give over that intendment, but freely to promise us your best assistance, I must confess I cannot forbear any longer to write unto you how much this courtesy deserves of me ; and that I cannot choose but take it most kindly from you, as suitable with the ancient affection which you have always borne me and my house. And presuming of the continuance of your good re- spect towards me, I must entreat the company of yourself and friends with me at dinner on Christmas-day, being the day of the election, where I shall be most glad of you, and there give you farther thanks for your kind respects." And thus reports progress to Mr. Secretary himself: "May it please you, sir, the Parlia- ment writ is delivered to the sheriff, and he by his faithful promise deeply engaged for you. I find the gentlemen of these parts generally ready to do you service. Sir Thomas Fairfax stirs not ; but Sir John Savile, by his instru- ments exceeding busy, intimating to the com- mon sort under-hand, that yourself, being not resiant in the county, cannot by law be chosen, and, being his majesty's secretary and a stran- ger, one not safe to be trusted by the country ; but all this according to his manner so closely and cunningly as if he had no part therein ; neither doth he as yet farther declare himself than only that he will be at York the day of the election ; and thus, finding he cannot work them from me, labours only to supplant you. I endeavour to meet with him as well as I may, and omit nothing that my poor understanding tells me may do you service. My lord-presi- dent hath writ to his freeholders on your be- half, and seeing he will be in town on the elec- tion day, it were, I think, very good he would be pleased to show himself for you in the Cas- EARL OF STRAFFORD. 75 tie-yard, and that you writ unto him a few lines, taking notice you hear of some opposition, and therefore desire his presence might secure you of fair carriage in the choice. / have heard, that when Sir Francis Darcy opposed Sir Thomas Lake in a matter of like nature, the lords of the council writ to Sir Francis to desist. I know my lord- chancellor is very sensible of you in this business ; a word to him, and such a letter, would make an end of all. Sir, pardon me, I beseech you, for I protest I am in travail till all be sure for you, which imboldens me to propound these things, which, notwithstanding, I most humbly submit to your judgment. When you have resolved, be pleased to despatch the bearer back again with your answer, which I shall take care of. There is not any that labours more heartily for you than my Lord Darcy. Sir, I wish a better oc- casion wherein to testify the dutiful and affec- tionate respects your, favours and nobleness may justly require from me." Sir Arthur In- gram is then apprized, in a letter which is full of character, that, " As touching the election, we now grow to some heat ; Sir John Savile's instruments closely and cunningly suggesting under-hand Mr. Secretary's non-residence, his being the king's servant, and out of these rea- sons by law cannot, and in good discretion ought not, be chosen of the country ; whereas himself is their martyr, having suffered for them ; the patron of the clothiers ; of all oth- ers the fittest to be relied on ; and that he in- tends to be at York the day of the election craftily avoiding to declare himself absolutely. And thus he works, having spread this jeal- ousy, that albeit I persuade myself generally they would give me their prime voice, yet in good faith I think it very improbable we shall ever get the first place for Mr. Secretary ; nay, I protest we shall have need of our strength to obtain him a second election : so as the likeli- est way, so far as I am able to judge, to secure both, will be for me to stand for the prime, and so cast all my second voices upon him, which, notwithstanding, we may help by putting him first in the indenture. I am exceeding sorry that the foulness and length of the way put me out of hope of your company, and therefore, I pray you, let us have your advice herein by the bearer. Your letter to your friends in Halifax admits some question, because you desire their voices for Mr. Secretary and myself the rather for that Sir John Savile stands not ; so, say they, if he stand, we are left to our liberty. You will therefore please to clear that doubt by another letter, which, delivered to this mes- senger, I will get sent unto them. I fear great- ly they will give their second voice with Sir John. Mr. Leech promised me he would pro- cure his lord's letter to the freeholders within Hallomshire and the honour of Pontefract ; that my cousin Lascells, my lord's principal agent in these parts, should himself labour Hal- lomshire ; Mr. Banister, the learned steward of Pontefract, do the like there ; and both of them be present at the election, the better to secure those parts. I hear not anything of them. I pray you, press Mr. Leech to the per- formance of his promise, letting him know Sir John Savile's friends labour for him, and he declares in a manner he will stand, and get him to send the letters by this my servant. I desire likewise he would entreat my cousin Lascells that he would take the pains to come over, and speak with me the Monday before Christmas-day here at my house. Sir, you see how bold I am to trouble you, and yet I must desire you would be pleased to afford me the commodity of your house for two nights, to en- tertain my friends. I shall, God willing, be most careful that nothing be impaired, and shall number this among many other your noble courtesies, which have inviolably knit me unto you." Sir Thomas Dawney is solicited to the same effect, and Sir Henry Slingsby informed that " The certainty I have of Sir John Savile's standing, and the various reports I hear of the country people's affection towards Mr. Secre- tary, makes me desirous to know how you find them inclined in your parts. For this wapen- take, as also that of Osgodcross and Staincross, I certainly persuade myself will go wholly for us. In Skyrack I assure myself of a better part, and I will perform promise with Mr. Sec- retary, bringing a thousand voices of my own besides my friends. Some persuade me that the better way to secure both were for me to stand prime, cast all my second voices on Mr. Secretary, and put him first into the indenture. I pray you consider of it, and write me your opinion ; / would not lose substance for such a loyish ceremony. There is danger both ways : for if Mr. Secretary stand first, it is much to be feared the country will not stand for him firm and entire against Sir John. If I be first cho- sen, which I make no question but I could, then is it to be doubted the people might fly over to the other side, which, notwithstanding, in my conceit, of the two is the more unlikely ; for, after they be once settled and engaged for me, they will not be so apt to stir. And again, it may be so suddenly carried as they shall have no time to move. At a word, we shall need all our endeavours to make Mr. Secretary, and therefore, sir, I pray you gather up all you possibly can. I would gladly know how many you think we may expect from you. My Lord Clifford will be at Tadcaster upon Christmas-eve, about one of the clock : if that be your way, I am sure he would be glad yourself and friends would meet him there, that so we might go into York the next day, vote, and dme together, where you shall be most heart- ily welcome." Sir Thomas Fairfax is again moved very earnestly to make " All the strength of friends and number you can to give their voices for us at the next election, falling to be upon Christmas-day ; the rather, because the old gallant of Hooley intends certainly to stand, whom, indeed, albeit I should lightly weigh, were the matter betwixt him and me, yet I doubt Mr. Secretary (if his friends stand not closely to him) being not well known in the country. Sir, you have therefore hereby an opportunity offered to do us all an especial fa- vour, which shall bind us to a ready and cheer- ful requital, when you shall have occasion to use any of us. My Lord Clifford will be, God willing, at Tadcaster upon Christmas-eve, about one of the clock, where I assure myself he will much desire that yourself and friends will be pleased to meet him, that so we may go into York together ; and myself earnestly entreat the company of yourself and them the next day at dinner, which I shall esteem as a double fa- 76 BRITISH STATESMEN. vour." And his cousin Thomas Wentworth advertised that, ' Being, as you know, engaged to stand with Mr. Secretary Calvert to be knights for this Parliament, and Sir John Savile our only opponent, I must make use of my friends, and entreat them to deal thoroughly for us, in regard the loss of it would much prej- udice our estimations above. In which num- ber I esteem yourself one of my best and fast- est friends. The course my Lord Darcy and I hold is, to entreat the high constables to desire the petty constables to set down the names of all free- holders within their townships, and which of them have promised to be at York and bestow their voices with us, so as we may keep the note as a testimony of their good affections, and know whom we are beholden unto, desiring them farther to go along with us to York on Sunday, being Christmas- eve, or else meet us about two of the clock at Tadcaster. I desire you would please to deal effectually with your high constables, and hold the same course, that so we may be able to judge what number we may expect out of your wapentake. As I no ways doubt of your ut- termost endeavours and pains in a matter of this nature, deeply touching my credit, so will I value it as a special testimony of your love towards me. I hope you will take the pains to go along with us, together with your friends, to York, that so we may come all in together, and take part of an ill dinner with me the next day, where yourself and friends shall be right heart- ily welcome."* It is not necessary to recall attention to the political principle, or the party views, which are evidenced in these letters ;t but how singu- lar and complete is the illustration they afford, of Wentworth's practice of letting slip no meth- od, however ordinary, of compassing his de- signs ! Is he interested, either, in the success of a lawsuit T we find that " he spent eight years' time, besides his pains and money, in soliciting the business and suits of his nephews Sir George and Sir William Savile, going every term to London about that only, without missing one term in thirty, as I verily believe. And all this merely in memory of the kindness which had passed betwixt him and his brother-in-law Sir George Savile, then deceased, "t And so with all things that interested him. To this head, then, the reader is asked to re- fer many proceedings, which hitherto have been cited in proof of an excessive vanity. They were rather the suggestions of a mind well aware of the influence of seeming trifles on the accomplishment of important purposes. The pompous enumeration of his heraldic honours itf the preamble to his patent of nobility, and the " extraordinary pomp" with which he was created viscount and president of the North, were no unnecessary precaution against the surprise and disdain of an insolent herd of courtiers, and were yet ineffectual wholly to restrain their sarcasms. $ The unexampled * These various letters will be found in the Strafford Papers. t The beginning of electioneering tactics is also curi- ously discernible in them. I Radcliffe's Essay. $ " The Duke of Buckingham himself flew not so high in so short a revolution of time. He was made a viscount with a great deal of high ceremony upon a Sunday, in the afternoon, at Whitehall. My Lord Powis, who affects him not much, being told that the heralds had fetched his pedi- gree from the blood royal, viz., from John of Gaunt, said, splendour of his after progress to the opening of the Irish Parliament was, no doubt, well cal- culated to " beget an awful admiration" in the minds of a body of men whose services he was then preparing to obtain by far more question- able means ; and his fierce resentment of the slightest infringement of the etiquette he had succeeded in establishing, his minute arrange- ments with respect to the ceremony he con- ceived necessary to the powers he was intrust- ed with, have their censure on other grounds than any intrinsic absurdity they evince. It seems to me to be high time, in cases of this sort, to shift our censure to the grosser absurd- ity of the principles which require such means for their support. Ceremony in the abstract the mere forms of etiquette, sinking through their own emptiness, sustaining no purpose, and unsustained by none Wentworth regarded with a more supreme scorn than they were held in by any of his prudish opponents among his own party. " I confess," writes he on one occasion, "this matter of PLACE I have ever judged a womanly thing, and so love not to trouble myself therewith, more than needs must." He cares not, moreover, submitting cheerfully throughout to the king's unworthy arrangement, that himself should gather " gold- en opinions" by a liberal bestowment of hon- ours in Ireland on the more troublesome of his suitors, while to his deputy was confided the ungracious task of interposing a veto on the royal benefaction, and receiving, in his own per- son, the curses of the disappointed.* Against the bitterness of their discontent Wentworth had his unfailing resource. " I shall not neg- lect," he writes, " to preserve myself in good opinion with this people, in regard I become thereby better able to do my master's service ; longer than it works to that purpose. I am very indifferent what they shall think or can say concerning me." Not the less scruple had he in complaining of the king's arrangement, when it was tortured to purposes he had never con- templated, and he discovered that the charac- ter of his government was become that of an iron rule, wherein reward had no place, even for its zealous supporters. t For the foolish gravity of the luckless king had continued to 1 Dammy, if ever he comes to the King of England, I will turn rebel.' " Epistolee Howelliana:, No. 34, edit. 1650. * See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 140. t One instance, out of the many which strikingly illus- trate Wentworth's character in this respect, may be sub- joined. Lord Newburgh had procured from the king a promise of promotion for a young man in the Irish army, which the lord-dpputy felt would be disadvantageous to tha public service. Here are some passages of his remon- strance : " For if I be not favoured so far as that I may bo able to make myself friends, and draw unto myself some dependance by the expectance men may have from me in these places, that so I may have assistance and cheerful countenance from some, as I have already purchased the sour and bent brow of some of them, I foresee I shall have little honour, comfort, or safety amongst them. For a man to enforce obedience by punishment only, and be deprived all means to reward some to be always in vinegar, never to communicate of the sweet is, in my estimation of it, the meanest, most ignoble condition any free spirit can be re- duced unto The conclusion therefore is, I am confi- dent his majesty will not debar me of what (be it spoken under favour) belongs to my place, for all the solicitation of the pretty busy Lord Newburgh, who, if a man should move his majesty for anything in the gift of the chancellor of the duchy, would as perlly cackle, and put himself in the way of complaint, as if he had all the merit and ability in the world to serve his master.' 1 Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 136-142. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 77 pen epistle upon epistle, disposing of the mos subordinate posts in the army, as well as th higher dignities of the Church. The system in the first instance, however, was one whicl a proud man, certainly, might submit to, but a vain man would hardly acquiesce in. I resume the progress of Wentworth's for tunes. His elevation became an instant sub ject of general remark ; and it is not difficul to discover that, in his native county, where he was best known, the surprise excited by so sudden a change, after such violent opposition was balanced by a greater surprise, on the oth er hand, that the honour should have been de layed so long. " Give me leave to inform you,' writes Sir Richard Hutton,* in a passage which is expressive of both these feelings, " that your late conferred honour is the subject of much discourse here in Yorkshire, which I conceive proceeds from the most, not out of any other cause than their known worth in you, which is thought merited it much sooner and greater ; but this is only to entertain you a little longer ; for I know that your actions are not justly lia- ble to any censure, I am sure not to mine ; for, being yours, it speaks them good to me, if noi the best." The character of the important of- fice intrusted to Wentworth included much that was especially grateful to him : enlarged by his desire, it presented power almost unlimited ; freedom at the same time from the little an- noyances of the court ; and the opportunity of exhibiting his genius for despotic rule in his own county, where personal friends might wit- ness its successes, and old adversaries, should the occasion offer, be made the objects of its triumph. To crown his cause of satisfaction, the Duke of Buckingham, who had still hung darkly over his approach to a perfect confidence and favour, was removed by the knife of Fel- ton. Secret congratulations passed, within a few days after this event, between Wentworth and Weston. Everything seemed to favour his entrance into power, and a light rose upon the future. " You tell me," writes his friend Wandesford to him, " God hath blessed you much in these late proceedings. Truly I be- lieve it, for by these circumstances we know, we may guess at them we know not."t This friend was not forgotten. Though so recently one of the active managers of the impeachment against Buckingham, he was at once received into favour, and Wentworth waited his oppor- tunity to employ the services of others, equally dear and valuable, while he did not fail to im- prove his opportunities of intercourse among his new associates. Laud was the chief object of his concern in this respect, for he had ob- served Laud's rising influence with the king. Wentworth wisely deferred his departure to the North until after the dissolution of Parlia- ment. The powers that awaited him there, in- creased by his stipulations, I have described as nearly unlimited. The council of York, or of the North, whose jurisdiction extended over the counties of York, Northumberland, Cum- berland, and Westmoreland, over the cities of York and Hull, the bishopric of Durham, and the town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,t included within itself the powers of the courts of com- Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 47. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 162. t Ibid., p. 49. mon law, of the Chancery, even of the Star Chamber. It had originated in the frequent northern rebellions which followed Henry VIII. 's suppression of the lesser monasteries. Before the scheme for the suppression of the greater monasteries was carried into effect, it was judged expedient, in consequence of such disturbances, to grant a commission to the Bishop of Llandaff and others, for the purpose of preserving the peace of these northern coun- ties. This commission was, to all appearances, simply one of oyer and terminer ; but a clause had been inserted in it, towards the conclusion, authorizing the commissioners to hear all caus- es, real and personal, when either or both of the parties laboured under poverty,* and to de- cide according to sound discretion. This lat- ter license, however, was soon afterward de- clared by all the judges to be illegal ; and the power of hearing real and personal causes at all was rarely acted upon up to the second year of Elizabeth's reign, when it also was declared to be illegal, since causes regarding property, whether real or personal, could only be decided by the laws of the land. It was reserved for James to issue, over these decisions, a new commission, " very differing," says Clarendon, "from all that went before." The commis- sioners were no longer ordered to inquire " per sacramentum bonorum et legalium hominum," or to be controlled by any forms of law, but were referred merely to secret instructions, which, for the first time, were sent down to the council. This at once reduced the whole of the North to an absolute subjection, and that so flagrant, that the judges of the court of Com- mon Pleas had the decent courage to protest actively against it, by issuing prohibitions on demand to the president and council ; and James himself was obliged to have the instructions enrolled, that the people might, in some meas- ure, be able to ascertain by what rules their conduct was to be regulated, t One of Wentworth's first announcements, in succeeding to this enormous power, the very- acceptance of which was a violation of the vi- tal principles and enactments of the petition of right, was to declare that he would lay any man by the heels who ventured to sue out a prohibition in the courts at Westminster.} His excuse for such a course of proceeding was afterward boldly avowed.^ " It was a chaste ambition, if rightly placed, to have as much power as may be, that there may be )ower to do the more good for the place where a man serves." Now Wentworth's notion of ;ood went straight to the establishment of ab- solute government ; and to this, his one grand object, from the very first moment of his pub- ic authority, he bent every energy of his soul, ie devoted himself, night and day, to the pub- ic business. Lord Scroop'sll arrears were * " Quando anibae partes, vel altera pars, gravata pauper- ate fuerit." Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 162. t An interesting account of the origin and practices of his council of York was given by Hyde (Lord Clarendon) n the Long Parliament. The speech is reported by Rush* worth, vol. ii., p. 162-165. t Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 159. I) In his answers to the charges of his impeachment, ee Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 161. II His predecessor in the government of York, afterward Sari of Sunderland. Wandesford speaks of him with great ontempt, in a letter to Wentworth : " Your predeces- or, like that candle hid under a bushel, while he lived in his plape, darkened himself and all that were about him, 78 BRITISH STATESMEN. speedily disposed of, an effective militia was imbodied and disciplined, and all possible means were resorted to for an increase of rev- enue. The fines on recusants, the composi- tions for knighthood, and the various exactions imposed by government, were rigorously en- forced by him. At the same time, his hand, though heavy, was equal, and the reports of his government were, in consequence, found to be very various. The complainants contradicted each other. " Your proceeding with the recu- sants," writes Weston, " is here, where it is well understood, well taken, though there be different rumours ; for it is said that you pro- ceed with extreme rigour, valuing the goods and lands of the poorest at the highest rates, or rather above the value, without which you are not content to make any composition. This is not believed, especially by me, who know your wisdom and moderation ; and your last, too, gave much satisfaction even to those who informed me, when they saw thereby that you had compounded with none but to their own contentment."* Cottington, the chancellor of the exchequer, had expressed more character- istically, some days before, the approbation of the court. "For the business of the recu- sants, my lord-treasurer sent immediately your letter to the king (who is in his progress), from whom he received a notable approbation both of your intentions and proceedings, as he him- self will tell your lordship in his own letters ; for you are his mistress, and must be cherished and courted by none but himself." So early did the king deem it expedient to exhibit that peculiar sense of his minister's service. When the minister had bound himself up inextricably with the royal cause, it was thought to be less expedient ! In such a course as this which "Wentworth had now entered on, it is quite clear that to have permitted the slightest disregard of the authority assumed must have proved fatal. I cannot see anything unnatural, therefore, in his conduct to Henry Bellasis, and in several other personal questions which at present come un- der notice. Nothing is apparent in it at vari- ance with the system to be worked out, nothing outrageous or imprudent, as his party have been at some pains to allege. These matters are not to be discussed in the abstract. Des- potism is the gist of the question ; and if the phrase "unnatural" is to be used, let it fal upon that. The means employed to enforce it are obliged, as a matter of necessity, to partake of its own nature, or it would not for an instant be borne. One of Wentworth's first measure had been to claim for himself, as the represent- ative of absolute royalty, the most absolute reverence and respect. On the occasion of a " solemn meeting," however, this young man Bellasis, the son of the Lord Faulconberg manifested a somewhat impertinent disregarc of these orders, entered the room without " showing any particular reverence" to the lord-president, remained there with his hat on and as Wentworth himself passed out of the meeting " with his hat off, the king's mace bearer before him, and all the rest of the com and dieth towards us (excuse me for the phrase) like a nuff unmannerly left in a corner." Stratford Papers, vol i., p. 49. * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 52 )any uncovered, Mr. Bellasis stood with his iat on his head, looking full upon his lordship without stirring his hat, or using any other reverence or civility." In a man of rank, this was the less to be overlooked. Bellasis was ordered before the council board, where he )leaded that his negligence had arisen from accident, that his look was turned the other way, that he was not aware of the lord-presi- dent's approach till he had passed, and, finally, that he meant no disrespect to the lord-presi- dent's dignity. He was required to express, in addition, his sorrow for having given offence to ' Lord Wentworth." He refused to do this ; jut at last, after a month's imprisonment in the Gate House, was obliged to submit.* Other cases of the same description occurred. A bar- rister at law, something disaffected to the lord- president's jurisdiction, expiated his offence in a lowly submission on his knees ;t and a punishment fell on Sir David Foulis, heavier and more terrible, in proportion to Wentworth's sense of the conduct that had provoked it. Sir David Foulis was a deputy lieutenant, a justice of the peace, and a member of the coun- cil of York. Holding this position in the coun- ty, he had. on various occasions, made very disrespectful mention of the council of York ; had thrown out several invidious insinuations against its president ; and had shown much activity and zeal in instigating persons not to pay the composition for knighthood, which he considered an illegal and oppressive exac- tion. J Wentworth immediately resolved to make him a signal example ; and the extraor- dinary perseverance, and unscrupulous meas- ures, by dint of which he at last secured this, are too singularly illustrative of his character to be passed over in silence. An information was immediately ordered to be exhibited in the Star Chamber against Sir David Foulis ; against his son, who had shared in his offence, and against Sir Thomas Layton, the high sher- iff of the county, who had sanctioned and as- sisted the disaffection. Some necessary delays put off the hearing of the cause till after Went- worth's departure to Dublin. But one of the last things with which he busied himself pre- vious to his departure was the making sure of the issue. He wrote from Westminster to the lord-treasurer (one of the judges that were to try it !), who was then in Scotland, " I have perused all the examinations betwixt me and Foulis, and find all the material parts of the bill fully proved, so as I have him soundly upon the hip ; but I desire it may not be spoken of, for albeit I may by order of the court see them, yet he * See the proceedings before the council board, Rush- worth, vol. ii., p. 88. t See Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 160. t Foulis had, in less important matters, equally sought to baffle the authority of the lord-president. I find the fol- lowing passage in a letter to Wentworth, from Sir William Pennyman, one of his watchful retainers: "There was a constable under Sir David Foulis (who, by reason of some just excuse, as was pretended, appeared not) that refused to pay twelve pence to Captain Philips, and it was thus dis- covered. I bid one of the townsmen lay down twelve pence, and the constable should pay him again. He answered, That the constable told him, that Sir David Foulis had commanded him, that if any were demanded he should pay none ; and of this I thought it but my part to acquaint your lordship ; not that I would aggravate anything against Sir David Foulis, for it might only be some misprision in the constable, but that your lordship might know of the least passage which may have relation or reflection upon your- self." EARL OF STRAFFORD. 79 may not, till the end of the next term."* Wes- tern did not receive this hint at first very cor- dially ; but Cottington, another of the judges, wrote to him a week or two after he had quit- ted London, " We say here that your lordship's cause against Foulis shall come to hearing this term, and I inquire much after it." Went- worth, though then much distracted by sickness and affairs, acted eagerly on this intimation, and sent over a special messenger to Cotting- ton, with a short brief of the strong points of the case, written out by himself, and an ex- tremely characteristic letter. He says boldly, " I must wholly recommend myself to your care of me in this, which I take to concern me as much, and to have therein as much the bet- ter, as I ever had in any other cause all the days of my life ; so I trust a little help will serve the turn." It is clear, in point of fact, that Wentworth felt that much of his authori- ty, in so far as personal claims sustained it or, in other words, that much of his probable success or non-success in the new and desperate assumptions by which alone his schemes of government could be carried on was concern- ed in the extent of punishment awarded in the present case, and the corresponding impression likely to be created. He omits no considera- tion in his letter, therefore, that is in any way likely to influence Cottington. He points out particularly how much the "king's service" is concerned, and that the arrow was " shot at him" in reality. " The sentencing of this man," he continues, " settles the right of knighting business bravely for the crown, for in your sentence you will certainly declare the undoubted right and prerogative the king hath therein by common law, statute law, and the undeniable practice of all times ; and therefore I am a suitor by you to his majesty, that he would be graciously pleased to recommend the cause to the lords, as well in his own right as in the right of his absent poor servant, and to wish them all to be there. You are like to be- gin the sentence, and I will be bold to tell you my opinion thereon. You have been pleased sometimes, as I sat by you, to ask me my con- ceit upon the cause then before us ; admit me now to do it upon my own cause, for, by my troth, I will do it as clearly as if it concerned me not. " An aggravation of every point in the case against Foulis and his son follows, with a cu- rious citation of a number of precedents for a heavy punishment, and a strong personal ap- peal in behalf of his own character. " Much more I could say, if I were in the Star Cham- ber to speak in such a cause for my Lord Cot- tington ; but I will conclude with this, that I protest to God, if it were in the person of an- other, I should in a cause so foul, the proof so clear, fine the father and the son, Sir David and Henry Foulis, in 2000 apiece to his maj- esty, and in 2000 apiece damages to myself for their scandal ; and they both to be sent down to York, and there publicly, at York as- sizes next, to acknowledge, in the face of the whole country, the right his majesty hath to that duty of knightings, as also the wrong he hath done me ; humbly craving pardon of his maj- esty, and expressing his sorrow so to have mis- represented his majesty's most gracious pro- * Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 91. ceedings, even in that course of compounding where the law would have given him much more, as also for so falsely slandering and belying me without a cause. For Sir Thomas Layton, he is a fool, led on by the nose by the two former, nor was I willing to do him any hurt ; and so let him go for a coxcomb as he is ; and when he comes home, tell his neighbours it was well for him he had less wit than his fellows."* As the hearing approached more nearly, Went- worth, regardless of the equivocal reception Weston had formerly given him, wrote again to the lord-treasurer. " My lord, I have to be heard this term a cause between Sir David Foulis and me in the Star Chamber, and a very good one, if I flatter not myself exceedingly : I do most earnestly beseech your lordship's presence, and that I may taste of the ordinary effects of your justice and favour towards me your faithful servant, albeit here removed in another kingdom. "t Scarcely a member of that considerate court did he fail to solicit as earnestly. How could the honest judges fail to perform all that had been so asked of them 1 Foulis was degraded from his various offices ; fined 5000 to the king, 3000 to Wentworth ; con- demned to make a public acknowledgment of the most abject submissiveness " to his majes- ty and the Lord-viscount Wentworth, not only in this court, but in the court of York, and likewise at the open assizes in the same coun- ty ;" and finally committed to the Fleet during his majesty's pleasure. His son was also im- prisoned and heavily fined. Layton, the " fool," was presented with his acquittal. Wentworth's gratitude at this result overflowed in the most fervent expressions to his serviceable friends. Cottington was warmly thanked. " Such are your continued favours towards me," he wrote to Laud, " which you were pleased to manifest so far in the Star Chamber in that cause be- twixt Sir David Foulis and me, not only by your justice, but by your affection too, as in- deed, my lord, the best and greatest return I can make is to pray I may be able to deserve," &c. A long despatch to Cooke included an expression of the "obligation put upon me by the care you expressed for me in a suit this last term, which came to a hearing in the Star Chamber, betwixt Sir D. Foulis and me, and of the testimony your affection there gave me, much above my merit. Sir, I humbly thank you," &c., &c. A still more important and weighty despatch to Weston closed with, " I do most humbly thank your lordship for your noble presence and justice in the Star Cham- ber, being the business indeed, in my own esti- mation, which more concerned me than any that ever befel me hitherto in my whole life." And to his cousin the Earl of Cleveland he thus expressed himself: " I understand my cause in the Star Chamber hath had a fair evening, for which I am ever to acknowledge and reverence the justice of that great court to an absent man. Your lordship hath still been pleased to honour me with your presence when anything concerned me there ; and believe me, if ever I * Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 145, 146. A more remark- able opportunity was reserved for him, on the occasion of his own impeachment, to express his contempt of this Sir Thomas Layton. See Rushworth, vol. viii., p. 151. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 143. 80 BRITISH STATESMEN. be absent from the place where I may serve you, it shall be most extremely against my will. I see it must still be my fortune to work it out in a storm, and I find not myself yet so faint as to give over for that, or to abandon a good cause, be the wind never so loud or sour." One characteristic circumstance remains to be added. All the various letters and despatches in which the passages I have quoted are to be found, together with others to various noble lords, bear the same date.* No one of those who had served Wentworth was left to speak of thanks that he only had received.? In relief from this painful exhibition of a false public principle tyrannizing over private morals and affections, I turn to present the somewhat redeeming aspect of those uncontrolled regards which Wentworth could yet suffer himself to indulge. In consequence of incessant applica- tion} to the duties of his office, he was now able to pass little of his time at the family seat ; but he seems to have been anxious that his children, William and the little Lady Anne, should, for health's sake, continue to reside there. He had intrusted them, accordingly, to the charge of Sir William Pennyman, a person bound to his service by various strong obliga- tions. The Lady Arabella, then on the eve of confinement, remained with Wentworth. Pennyman appears to have had careful instruc- tions to write constant accounts of the chil- dren, and it is interesting to observe the sort of details that were thought likely to prove most welcome to their father. "Now," he says, " to write that news that I have, which I presume will be most acceptable, your lord- ship's children are all very well, and your lord- * See the Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 189, 194, 202, 204, &c., &c. t I may conclude the mention of this Foulis affair by quoting a characteristic note from one of Wentworth's vo- luminous private despatches to the Rev. Mr. Greenwood. After instructions of various sorts respecting his personal affairs in Yorkshire, which occupy eight closely-printed fo- lio pages, the lord-deputy subjoins : " One word more I must of necessity mention, that is, the business betwixt me and Sir David Foulis. How this stands I know not ; but I pray you inform yourself what lands I have received the rents of by virtue of the extent, and what money Richard Marris has received towards my 3000 damages and costs of suit ; and that you will cause a perfect and half year's account to be kept of all the disbursements and receipts concerning this matter in a book precisely by itself. I be- beech you set this business in a clear and certain course, for you may be sure, if any advantage or doubt can be rais- ed, I shall be sure to hear of it." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 488. Letter from Dublin, dated Nov., 1635. i His friends were constantly, but vainly, warning him of the dangers he incurred by this. " I long," writes his friend Mainwaring to him, " to hear of my lady's safe delivery, and of your lordship's coming up. . . Your lordship must give me leave to put you in mind of your health, for I hear you take no recreation at all." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 54. Q This person afterward played his part at the impeach- ment. It may be worth while to quote a passage from one of his letters, written at the period referred to in the text, in illustration of the means which Wentworth employed to engage, as deeply as possible, the devotion of men who promised to be useful to him. " For my own part," writes Pennyman to the lord-president, " I hope shortly to pay my composition, and I wish I could as easily satisfy your debt, and compound with your lordship, as I can with the king. But it is a thing impossible. My best way, I think, is to do like the painter, who, when, after a great deal of pains, he could not describe the infinite sorrow of a weeping father, presented him on a table with his face covered, that the spectators might imagine that sorrow which he was not able to express. My debt, like his sorrow, is not to be de- scribed, much less my thanks and acknowledgments. Yet give me leave to tell your lordship that there is not one alive that more honours you than your lordship's most faithful and indebted servant." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 56. i ship need not fear the going forward of your building, when you have so careful a steward as Mrs. Anne. She complained to me very much of two rainy days, which, as she said, hindered her from coming down, and the build- ing from going up, because she was inforced to keep her chamber, and could not overlook the workmen."* This important little maiden, then between three and four years old, had certainly inherited the spirit of the Wentworths. " Mr. William and Mrs. Anne," Pennyman writes on another occasion, " are very well. They were not a -little glad to receive their tokens, and yet they said they would be more glad to receive your lordship and their worthy mother. We all, with one vote, agreed in their opinion, and wished that your lordship's occasions might be as swift and speedy in their despatch as our thoughts and desires are in wishing them."t At the commencement of 1631, Wentworth's second son was born. This child, Thomas Wentworth, after eight months of uncertain health, died. At about this time the services of the lord-president seem to have been urgent- ly required in London, and Weston wrote to him entreating his immediate presence. t The health of the Lady Arabella, however, who was again near the period of confinement, was now an object of deep anxiety to Wentworth, and he remained with her in Yorkshire. In Octo- ber, a second daughter, the young Arabella, was born to him, and within the same month, on a Tuesday morning, says Radcliffe, "his dear wife, the Lady Arabella, died. I took this earl out of bed, and carried him to receive his last blessing from her."|| Wentworth deeply felt her loss, and never, at any time, through his after life, recalled her beauty, her accomplish- ments, or her virtue, without the most tender enthusiasm. 1T Some days after this sad event, Wentworth received intelligence from his friend and rela- tion, Sir Edward Stanhope, of certain intrigues which, during his absence, had been moving against him in the court at London. " I re- ceived your letter," he writes back, '* by which I perceive you have me in memory, albeit God hath taken from me your noblest cousin, the incomparable woman and wife my eyes shall ever behold. I must confess this kindness works with me much." After some allusions to Stanhope's intelligence, he proceeds : " Yet truly I cannot believe so ill of the propounders, * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 55. t Ibid., p. 57. t " I hope," writes the lord-treasurer, " this bearer will find you well, well disposed, and the better, enduring: so prudently as I hear you do, the loss of your younger son. We are glad here to hear you are in so good a temper, and that you receive it as a seasoning of human felicity, which God often sends where he loves best ; but you need none of my philosophy ; and therefore this is only to remember you of being here in the beginning of the term, according to your promise, and I entreat you to think it necessary to make haste. We want you now for your counsel and help in many things." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 58. <) Essay. Mr. Mac Diarmid and other writers have fall- en into the error of supposing that she died after the birth of the last boy. II Radcliffe here alludes, "by this earl," to the boy Will- iam, who was Earl of Strafford when his essay was writ- ten. Mr. Brodie whimsically turns it into Sir George Rat- cliffe carrying Wentworth himself oul of bed to receive his wife's last blessing. Brit. Emp., vol. iii., p. 129. T [She left him with three children William, who in 1665 was restored to his father's titles ; Anne, married to Edward Watson, Earl of Rockingham ; and Arabella, mar- ried to John M'Carthy, Viscount Mountcashel, in Ireland. -C.] EARL OF STRAFFORD. 81 both because in my own nature I am the man least suspicious alive, and that my heart tells me I never deserved but well of them indeed passing well. It is impossible it should be plot- ted for my ruin ; sure at least impossible I can think so ; and if there can be such mischief in the world, then is this confidence given me as a snare by God to punish me for my sins yet farther, and to draw me yet more immediately and singly to look up to him, without leaving me anything below to trust or, look to. The worst, sure, that can be is, with honour, profit, and contentment, to set me a little farther off from treading upon anything themselves de- sire ; which granted, I am at the height of my ambitions, brought home to enjoy myself and friends, to leave my estate free and plentiful to your little cousin, and which is more than all this, quietly and in secret to serve my Maker, to commune with him more frequently, more profitably, I trust, for my soul than formerly."* Of short duration was this composed attitude of mind ! The ink was scarcely dry upon his letter when he reappeared in his court at York, pursued with startling energy some of his most resolute measures, and reassured his master in London of the invaluable nature of his services by sundry swellings of the royal revenue. Money, the main nerve that was to uphold the projected system, was still the grand object of Wentworth's care, and money he sent to Charles. The revenue, which, on his succeed- ing to the presidency of York, he had found no more in amount than 2000 a year, he had al- ready raised to an annual return of 9500. t Still, however, intriguers were busy against him, and a rumour was conveyed by them to Weston's ear that he had resolved to use his notoriously growing influence with the king to endeavour to win for himself the staff of the lord-treasurer. The trusty Wandesford discovered this, and despatched the intelli- gence to Wentworth. The next courier from Yorkshire brought a packet to Weston. " Let shame and confusion then cover me," ran the characteristic letter it enclosed, " if I do not abhor the intolerable anxiety I well un- derstand to wait inseparably upon that staff, if I should not take a serpent as soon into my bosom, and if I once find so mean a thought of me can enter into your heart, as that to compass whatever I could take most delight in, I should go about beguilefully to supplant any ordinary man (how much more, then, im- potently to catch at such a staff, and from my lord-treasurer !) if I leave not the court in- stantly, betake myself to my private fortune, reposedly seek my contentment and quiet with- in my own doors, and follow the dictamen of my own reason and conscience, more accord- ing to nature and liberty than in those gyves which now pinch and hang upon me. Thus you see how easily you may be rid of me when you list, and, in good faith, with a thousand thanks : yet be pleased not to judge this pro- ceeds out of any wayward weary humour in me neither, for my endeavours are as vigorous and as cheerful to serve the crown and you as ever they were, nor shall you ever find them to faint or flasquer. I am none of those soft-tempered spirits ; but I cannot endure to be mistaken, or * Straffbrd Papers, vol. i., p. 61. Li t Ibid., p. 89, 90. suffer my purer and more entire affections to be soiled, or in the least degree prejudiced, with the loathsome and odious attributes of cove- tousness and ambitious falsehood. Do me but right in this. Judge my watches to issue (as in faith they do) from clearer cisterns. I lay my hand under your foot, I despise danger, I laugh at labour. Command me in all difficul- ties, in all confidence, in all readiness. No, no, my lord," continued Wentworth, lapsing into the philosophic tone he could assume so well, " No, no, my lord ! they are those sover- eign and great duties I owe his majesty and your lordship, which thus provoke me beyond my own nature rather to leave those cooler shades, wherein I took choicest pleasure, and thus put myself with you into the heat of the day, than poorly and meanly to start aside from my obligations, convinced in myself of the most wretched ingratitude in the whole world. God knows how little delight I take in the outwards of this life, how infinitely ill sat- isfied I am with myself, to find daily those calm and quiet retirements, wherein to con- template some things more divine and sacred than this world can afford us, at every moment interrupted through the importunity of the af- fairs I have already. To heaven and earth I protest it, it grieves my very soul !"* Weston's suspicions, which, had he known Wentworth better, would never for a moment have been entertained, could not but sink before such lan- guage as this ; and the lord-president's speedy arrival in London exploded every hostile at- tempt that still lingered about the court against him. Charles was now remodelling his counsels. The extraordinary success of Wentworth's northern presidency had inspired him with new hopes ; his coffers had been filled without the hated help of the House of Commons ; ' and that prospect of independent authority which he ear- nestly entertained, no longer seemed distant or hopeless. A conclusion of peace with France and Spain favoured the attempt. He offered Lord Wentworth the government of Ireland. His favourite scheme was to deliver up the three divisions of the kingdom to the superin- tendence of three favourite ministers, reserving to himself a general and not inactive control over all. Laud was the minister for England, and the affairs of Scotland were in the hands of the Marquess of Hamilton. Ireland, accept- d by Wentworth, completed the proposed plan. The condition of Ireland, at this moment, was in the highest degree difficult and danger- ous. From the conquest of Henry the Second up to the government of Essex and Montjoy, icr history had been a series of barbarous dis- asters. The English settlers, in a succession of ferocious conflicts, had depraved themselves >elow the level of the uncivilized Irish ; for, "nstead of diffusing improvement and civiliza- ion, they had obstructed both. The system of government was, in consequence, become he mere occasional and discretionary calling of a Parliament by the lord-deputy for the time, composed entirely of delegates from within the English pale, whose duty began and closed in he sanctioning some new act of oppression, or he screening some new offender from punish- * Strafford Papeis, vol. L, p. 79, 80. 82 BRITISH STATESMEN. ment. One glimpse of a more beneficial pur- pose broke upon Ireland in the reign of Henry the Seventh, during the government of Sir Ed- ward Poynings, who procured a decree from the Parliament, that all the laws theretofore enacted in England should have equal force in Ireland. With the determination of destroy- ing, at the same time, the discretionary power that had been used, of summoning and dismiss- ing Parliaments at pleasure, and of passing sud- den laws for the purpose of occasional oppres- sions, Sir Edward Poynings procured the en- actment of his famous bill, that a Parliament should not be summoned above once a year in Ireland, nor even then, till the propositions on which it was to decide had been seen and ap- proved by the privy council of England. But the native Irish chiefs had been too fiercely hardened in their savage distrust of the Eng- lish to reap any advantage from these meas- ures. They retreated to their fastnesses, and only left them to cover the frontier with out- rage and bloodshed. Lord Montjoy at last subdued them, released the peasantry from their control, and framed a plan of impartial government. In the course of the ensuing reign new settlements of Eng- lish were accordingly formed, the rude Irish customs were discountenanced, the laws of England everywhere enforced, courts of judi- cature established after the English model, and representatives from every part of the kingdom summoned to the Parliament. When England herself, however, began to groan under oppres- sions, Ireland felt them still more heavily, and was flung back with a greater shock. The ar- bitrary decrees of Charles's privy council, mil- itary exactions, and martial law, were stran- gling the liberties of Ireland in their very birth. Bitter, tqo, in its aggravation of other grievan- ces, was Irish theological discord. The large majority of Papists, the sturdy old Protestants of the Pale, the new settlers of James, Presby- terians, and Puritans, all were in nearly open warfare, and the penalties enforced against re- cusants were equally hateful to all. The rig- our of the Church courts, and the exaction of tithes, kept up these discontents by constant exasperation. Such was the state of affairs when Charles sent Lord Falkland to Dublin. His lordship soon found that his government was little more than the name of one. The army had gradu- ally sunk to 1350 foot and 200 horse ; which mean force, divided into companies, was com- manded by privy counsellors, who, managing to secure their own pay out of the receipts of the exchequer> compounded with the privates for a third or fourth part of the government allow- ance ! Insignificant in numbers, such manage- ment had rendered the soldiers ten times more inefficient, and, utterly wanting in spirit or con- duct, often, indeed, the mere menial servants of the officers, they excited only contempt. Over and over again Lord Falkland detailed this state of things to Charles, and prayed for assist- ance ; but the difficulties in England, and the deficiencies in the Irish revenue, united to withhold it. At last, however, warned by im- minent dangers that threatened, the king an- nounced his resolution to augment the Irish forces to 5000 foot and 500 horse, and, unable to supply the necessary charge from an empty treasury, he commanded the new levies to be quartered on the different towns and counties, each of which was to receive a certain portion of the troops, for three months in turn, and to supply them with the required necessaries. Alarmed by this project and justly consider- ing a great present sacrifice, with some chance of profit, better than to be burdened with a tax of horrible uncertainty, which yet gave them no reasonable reliance for the future the Irish people instantly offered the king a liberal vol- untary contribution, on condition of the redress of certain grievances. Catholics and Protest- ants concurred in this, and delegates from both parties laid the proposal before the king him- self, in London. The money they offered first, in the shape of a voluntary contribution of 100,000, the largest sum ever yet returned by Ireland, and to be paid by instalments of 10,000 a quarter. Their list of grievances they produced next, desiring relief from the ex- actions of courts of justice, from military dep- redations, from trade monopolies, from the re- ligious penal statutes, from retrospective inqui- ries into defective titles beyond a period of six- ty years,* and finally praying that the conces- sions should be confirmed by an Irish Parlia- ment. Some of these conditions were intoler- able to Charles. A Parliament was at all times hateful to him, and scarcely less convenient than the absence of Parliaments, to a prince who desired to be absolute, was the privilege of increasing the royal revenue, and obliging the minions of royalty, by discovering old flaws in titles. Glorious had been the opportunity of escheating large possessions to the crown, or of passing them over to new proprietors ! Yet here was a present offer of money an ad- vantage not to be foreborne ; whereas, so con- venient was Charles's moral code, an assent to obnoxious matters was a thing to be withdrawn at the first convenient opportunity, and evaded at any time. The " graces," as the conces- sions were called, were accordingly promised to be acceded to ; instalments of the money were paid ; and writs were issued by Lord Falk- land for a Parliament. The joyful anticipations raised in conse- quence soon received a check. The writs were declared void by the English council, in consequence of the provisions of Poynings's law+ not having been attended to by Lord Falkland, who was proved to have issued the writs on his own authority, without having previously transmitted to England a certificate of the laws to be brought forward in the pro- posed Parliament, with reasons for enacting them, and then, as he ought to have done, waited for his majesty's license of permission under the great seal. Still the people thought this a casual error, and they waited in confi- dence of its remedy. The Roman Catholic party, meanwhile, encouraged by the favoura- ble reception of their delegates at court, and elated by a confidence of protection from the queen, proceeded to act at once in open de- * It had been usual to dispossess proprietors of estates for defects in their tenures as old as the original conquest of Ireland ! No man was secure at his own hearth-stone. See Leland, vol. ii., p. 466-468. t These provisions had received additional ratification by subsequent statutes, the 3d and 4th of Philip and Mary. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 83 fiance of the penal statutes. They seized churches for their own worship, thronged the streets of Dublin with their processions, erect- ed an academy for the religious instruction of their youth, and re-enforced their clergy by supplies of young priests from the colleges of France and Spain. The extreme alarm of the Protestants at these manifestations induced Lord Falkland at last to issue a proclamation, prohibiting the Roman Catholic clergy from exercising any control over the people, and from celebrating their worship in public. The Roman Catholics, incensed at this step, now clamoured for the promised graces and Parlia- ment ; the Protestants had too many reasons to join them in the demand ; and both parties united in declaring that payment of the contri- bution, under present circumstances, was an intolerable burden. In vain Lord Falkland of- fered to accept the payment in instalments of 5000 instead of 10,000 a year ; the discon- tents daily increased, and, in the end, drove the lord-deputy from power. Lord Falkland, the object of censure that should have fallen elsewhere, returned to England. A temporary administration, consisting of two lords-justices the one, Lord-chancellor Viscount Ely, and the other, Lord-high-treasu- rer the Earl of Cork was formed. Both these noblemen were zealously opposed to the Roman Catholics, and instantly, without waiting the king's orders, commenced a rigorous execution of the penal statutes against recusants. An intimation from England of the royal displeas- ure threw some shadow over these proceedings, but not till the opposition they had strengthen- ed had succeeded in suppressing the academy and religious houses which had been erected by the Roman Catholics in Dublin. To com- plete the difficulties of the present state of af- fairs, the termination of the voluntary contri- bution now fast approached, and the temper of all parties left any hope of its renewal more than desperate. Imminent, then, was the danger which now beset the government of Ireland. Without the advantage of internal strength, it had no pros- pect of external aid. The treasury in England could not afford a farthing to increase the ar- my ; the money designed for that purpose had been swallowed up in more immediate neces- sities, and the army sank daily into the most miserable inefficiency. Voluntary supply was out of the question, and compulsory exactions, without the help of soldiers, still more ridicu- lously vain. In the genius of the lord-presi- dent of the North, Charles had one hope re- maining.* Wentworth received his commission in the early months of 1632. He resolved to defer his departure, however, till he had informed himself fully of the state of his government, and fortified himself with all the authorities that should be needful. The energy, the pru- dence, the various powers of resource with which he laboured to this end, are only to be appreciated by an examination of the original * Ample authorities for this rapid summary of Irish af- fairs will be found in Leland's History, vol. ii., p. 107, to the end, and vol. iii., p. 1-10, edition of 1733. I have also availed myself of Mr. MacDiarmid's account, Lives of Brit- ish Statesmen, vol. ii., p. 125-135. documents, which still remain in evidence of all.* They were most extraordinary. The first thing he did was to procure an order from the king in restriction of the authority of the government of lords-justices during his own absence from Dublin. t In answer, then, to various elaborate congratulations from the offi- cers of the Irish government, he sent back cold, but peremptory requests for information of their various departments. The treasury ne- cessities, and means of supply, were his pri- mary care. The lords-justices declared that the only possible resource, in that respect, was to levy rigorously the penalties imposed by statute on the Roman Catholics for absence from public worship. The cabinet in London, powerless of expedient, saw no chance of avoiding this, when Lord Cottington received from York one of Wentworth's vigorous de- spatches. " Now, my lord," reasoned the new lord- deputy, " I am not ignorant that what hath been may happen out again, and how much every good Englishman ought, as well in rea- son of state as conscience, to desire that king- dom were well reduced to conformity of reli- gion with us here as, indeed, shutting up the postern gate, hitherto open to many a danger- ous inconvenience and mischief, which have over-lately laid too near us, exhausted our treasures, consumed our men, busied the per- plexed minds of her late majesty and all her ministers. Yet, my lord, it is a great business, hath many a root lying deep, and far within ground, which would be first thoroughly opened before we judge what height it may shoot up unto, when it shall feel itself once struck at, to be loosened and pulled up ; nor, at this dis- tance, can I advise it should be at all attempt- ed, until the payment for the king's army be else- where and surelier settled than either upon the vol- untary gift of the subjects, or upon the casual in- come of the twelvepence a Sunday. Before this fruit grows ripe for gathering, the army must not live pracario, fetching in every morsel of bread upon their swords' point. Nor will I so far ground myself with an implicit faith upon the all-foreseeing providence of the Earl of Cork as to receive the contrary opinion from him in verbo magistri, when I am sure that if such a rush as this should set that kingdom in pieces again, I must be the man that am like to bear the heat of the day, and to be also ac- countable for the success, not he. Blame me not, then, where it concerns me so nearly, both in honour and safety, if I much rather desire to hold it in suspense, and to be at liberty upon the place to make my own election, than thus be closed up by the choice and admission of strangers, whom I know not how they stand affected either to me or the king's service. Therefore let me beseech you to consult this business seriously with his majesty and with * See the Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 61-97. t Id. ibid., p. 63. After intimating to the lords-justices Wentworth's appointment, the royal order proceeds : " We have, therefore, in the mean time, thought fit hereby to re- quire you not to pass any pardons, offices, lands, or church livings by grant under our great seal of that our kingdom, nor to confer the honour of knighthood upon any, or to dis- pose of any company of horse or foot there ; only you are required in this interim to look to the ordinary administra- tion of civil justice, and to the good government of our sub- jects and army there." 84 BRITISH STATESMEN. my lord-treasurer. Admit me here, with all submission, to express myself upon this point ; and finally, be pleased to draw it to some pres- ent resolution, which, the shortness of time considered, must instantly be put in action. I do conceive, then, what difficulties nay, what impossibility soever the council of Ireland hath pretended, that it is a very easy work to continue the contribution upon the country for a year longer, which will be of infinite advantage to his majesty 's affairs ; for we look very ill about us if in that time wejind not the means either to establish that revenue in the crown, or raise some other equiva- lent thereunto. And this we gain, too, without hazarding the public peace of the subject by any new apprehensions, which commonly ac- company such fresh undertakings, especially being so general as is the twelvepence upon the absentees." The despatch then went on to suggest that the very representations of the lords-justices might be used for the purpose of dispensing with their propositions, and to draw out, for the instruction of the council, a succinct plan of effecting this.* Distrustful, notwithstanding, of the energy of Cottington and his associates, Wentworth followed his despatch in person, arrived in London, t prevailed with the council to enter into his design, and had a letter immediately sent off to the lords-justices, bitterly complain- ing of all the evils they had set forth, of the impossibility of raising voluntary supplies, and the consequent necessity of exacting the pen- alties. " Seeing," added the king, by Went- worth's dictation, " seeing you conceive there is so much difficulty in the settlement of the payments, and considering the small hopes you mention in your letters of farther improvement there, we must be constrained, if they be not free- ly and thankfully continued, to strcighten our for- mer graces vouchsafed during those contributions, and make use more strictly of our legal rights and profits to be employed for so good and neces- sary a work." Leaving this letter, with other secret instructions, to work their effects, Went- worth next despatched a private and confiden- tial agent to Ireland, himself a Roman Catholic, to represent to his brethren personally and in secret the lord-deputy's regard for them, his willingness to act as a mediator, and his hope that a moderate voluntary contribution might be accepted in release of their heavy fines ; in one word, he sent this person " a little to feel their pulse under-hand."t " The instrument I employed," Wentworth afterward wrote to Cot- tington, " was himself a Papist, and knows no other than that the resolution of the state here is set upon that course [of exacting the recu- sant fines], and that I do this privately, in fa- vour and well-wishing, to divert the present storm, which else would fall heavy upon them all, being a thing framed and prosecuted by the Earl of Cork, which makes the man labour it in good earnest, taking it to be a cause pro aris etfocis." The first thing this agent discovered and communicated to his employer was that his temporary representatives, the lords-justi- * See Strafford papers, vol. i., p. 75-77. t This is evident from a subsequent despatch to Cotting- ton, in which he reminds him that the resolution I am about yonr lordship, the ! , , _... p. 74. t See Strafford Pape ces, were seeking to counteract his purpose, and had utterly neglected the instructions of the last letter that had been despatched to them from the king. With characteristic en- ergy, Wentworth seized this incident for a double purpose of advantage. There would be little hazard in supposing that their lordships of Ely and Cork were in- debted to the extraordinary letter, from which I shall quote the opening passages, for the strongest sensation their official lives had known. " Your lordships," wrote Wentworth, " heretofore received a letter from his majesty, directed to yourselves alone, of the 14th April last ; a letter of exceeding much weight and consequence ; a letter most weightily and ma- turely consulted, and ordered by his majesty himself ; a letter that your lordships were ex- pressly appointed you should presently cause to be entered in the council book, and also in the signet office ; to the end there might be public and uniform notice taken of his majes- ty's pleasure so signified by all his ministers, and others there, whom it might concern. How is it, then, that I understand this letter hath, by your lordships' order, lain ever since (and still doth, for anything I know) sealed up in silence at the council table 1 Not once pub- lished or entered, as was precisely directed, and expected from your lordships ! copies deni- ed to all men ! and yet not so much as the least reason or colour certified over hither for your neglect, or (to term it more mildly) for- bearance to comply with his majesty's direc- tions in that behalf! Believe me, my lords, I fear this will not be well taken if it come to be known on this side, and in itself lies open enough to very hard and ill construction, re- flecting and trenching deeper than at first may be apprehended. And pardon me, my lords, if in the discharge of my own duty I be transported beyond my natural modesty and moderation, and the respects I personally bear your lordships, plainly to let you know I shall not connive at such a presumption in you thus to evacuate my mas- ter's directions, nor contain myself in silence, see- ing them before my face so slighted, or at least laid aside, it seems, very little regarded. There- fore I must, in a just contemplation of his maj- esty's honour and wisdom, crave leave to ad- vise you forthwith to mend your error by en- tering and publishing that letter as is com- manded you, or I must, for my own safety, ac- quaint his majesty with all ; and I pray God the keeping it close all this while be not, in the sequel, imputed unto you as a mighty disser- vice to his majesty, and which you may be highly answerable for."* The next communi- cation from his popish agent informed Went- worth that the omissions complained of had been repaired, and, farther, that all parties had agreed to " continue on the contribution as now it is," till his coming. The deputy was thus left to complete, without embarrassment, his already meditated financial projects ; and the lords-justices, with their friends, had lei- sure to consider, and amene themselves to, the new and most peremptory lord who was short- ly to appear among them ! Ireland was hereafter to be the scene of an absolute government the government of a * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 77 EARL OF STRAFFORD. 85 comprehensive mind, but directed to a narrow and mistaken purpose. The first grand object of Wentworth's exertions was to be accom- plished in rendering the king's power uncon- trollable. Beyond this, other schemes arose. The natural advantages of Ireland, worked to the purpose of her own revenue, might be far- ther pressed to the aid of the English treasury ; and a scheme of absolute power successfully established in Ireland, promised still greater service to the Royalist side in the English struggle. The union of singular capacity with the most determined vigour which characterized every present movement of Wentworth, while it al- ready, in itself, seemed a forecast of vast though indefinable success, left the king no objection to urge against any of the powers he demanded. The following stipulations were at once assented to. They are all characteristic of Wentworth, of his sagacity no less than his ambition. They open with the evident as- sumption that the debts of the Irish establish- ment will soon be settled, and with consequent cautious exceptions against the rapacity of those numerous courtiers, who waited, as Went- worth well knew, to pounce upon the first va- cant office, or even the first vacant shilling. The lord-deputy demanded, . "That his majesty may declare his express pleasure, that no Irish suit, by way of reward, be moved for by any of his servants, or others, before the ordinary revenue there become able to sustain the necessary charge of that crown, and the debts thereof be fully cleared. That there be an express caveat entered with the secretaries, signet, privy seal, and great seal here, that no grant, of what nature soever, concerning Ireland, be suffered to pass till the deputy be made acquainted, and it hath first passed the great seal of that kingdom, accord- ing to the usual manner. That his majesty signify his pleasure that especial care be taken hereafter that sufficient and credible persons he chosen to supply such bishoprics as shall fall void, to be admitted of his privy council, to sit as judges, and serve of his learned coun- cil there ; that he will vouchsafe to hear the advice of his deputy before he resolve of any in these cases ; and that the deputy be com- manded to inform his majesty truly and impar- tially of every man's particular diligence and care in his service there, to the end his majes- ty may timely and graciously reward the well deserving, by calling them home to better pre- ferments here. That no particular complaint of injustice or oppression be admitted here against any, unless it appear the party made his first address to the deputy. That no con- firmation of any reversion of offices within that kingdom be had, or any new grant of a reversion hereafter to pass: That no new office be erected within that kingdom before such time as the deputy be therewith acquaint- ed, his opinion first required, and certified back accordingly. That the places in the deputy's gift, as well of the civil as the martial list, be left freely to his dispose ; and that his majesty will be graciously pleased not to pass them to any upon suit made unto him here."* * I have already alluded to the limitation under which this proposition was acceded to by the king. Charles was Lord Wentworth farther required and ob- tained, in the shape of supplementary private propositions, the following : " That all propositions moving from the dep- uty touching matters of revenue may be di- rected to the lord-treasurer of England, with- out acquainting the rest of the committee for Irish affairs.* That the address of all other despatches for that kingdom be, by speciaF di- rection of his majesty, applied to one of the secretaries singly. t That the Lord-viscount Falkland be required to deliver in writing in what condition he conceives his majesty's rev- enue and the government of that kingdom now stand, together with a particular of such designs for advancing his majesty's service as were either unbegun or unperfected by him when he left the place, as also his advice how they may be best pursued and effected." Not even content with these vast and ex- traordinary powers and precautions, Lord Wentworth engaged for another condition the most potent and remarkable of all that he was to consider them changeable on the spot whenever the advancement of his majesty's affairs required. " Your lordship may rest as- sured," writes Secretary Cooke, " that no me- diation shall prevail with his majesty to ex- empt the Lord Balfour from the rest of the op- posers of the contributions, but that he will be left with the rest to the censure of your jus- tice. And I am persuaded, that in this and all the rest of your proceedings for his service, his princely resolution will support you, if the rest of your friends here do their duties in their true rep- resentation thereof unto him. As your speedy passage for Ireland is most necessary for that government, so your safety concerneth his majesty's honour no less than your own. It is therefore found reasonable that you expect Captain Plumleigh, who, with this fair weath- er, will come about in a short time, (so as it may be hoped) he will prevent your coming to that port, where you appoint to come aboard. Your instructions (as you know), as well as the establishment, are changeable upon occasions for advancement of the affairs. And as you will be careful not to change without cause, so, when you find it necessary, his majesty will conform them by his wisdom to that he findeth fit upon your advice. For my service in anything that may tend to farther your noble ends, besides the duty of my place and trust, the confidence you repose in me, and the testimony you give thereof, are so obligatory, that I must forget myself much if you find not my professions made good. For the Yorkshire business, in the castigation of those mad men and foolst to make the grants conditionally to the applicants, and Wentworth was to concede or refuse them, as the good of the service required. " Yet so too," stipulated the king, " as I may have thanks howsoever ; that if there be any- thing to be denied, you may do it, not I." Strafford Pa- pers, vol. i., p. 140. * Reasons are subjoined to each proposition. As a speci- men, I quote from the few lines appended to the above : " Thus shall his majesty's profits go more stilly and speedily to their ends without being unseasonably vented as they pass along ; and the deputy not only preserved, but encouraged to deliver his opinion freely and plainly upon all occasions, when he is assured to have it kept secret, and in few and safe hands." t " This I will have done by Secretary Cooke," so writ- ten by the king himself upon the original paper. These " mad men and fools" were " Sir John Bouchier 86 BRITISH STATESMEN. which are so apt to fall upon you, that course which yourself, the Lord Cottington, and Mr. Attorney resolve upon, is here also taken, that prosecution may be made in both courts. I find your vice-president a young man of good understanding and counsellable, and very for- ward to promote his majesty's service.* The secretary is also a discreet, well-tempered man."t Wentworth, notwithstanding his new digni- ties, had resolved not to resign the presiden- cy of Yorkshire. And here we see, in the midst of his extraordinary preparations for his Irish government, he had yet found time to prosecute every necessary measure that had a view to the security of his old powers in the North. We gather from this letter of the sec- retary their general character. He celebrated his departure by some acts of vigorous power, and he wrung from the council of London such amplifications even of his large and unusual presidential commission as might compensate for the failure of personal influence and ener- gy consequent on his own departure.^ He and his complices," who soon received their most unjust judgment. This passage will serve to prove the value of Wentworth's answer to this matter, also urged against him afterward on his impeachment. " For the sentence against Sir John Bouchier, the defendant was not at all ac- quainted with it, being then in Ireland !" See Rushworth, Tol. ii., p. 161. It is to be observed, at the same time, that the Commons had not the advantage of the present evidence. * Edward Osborne had been finally chosen by Went- worth. A passage in the following extract from a letter of Sir William Pennyman's shows that the latter had been previously thought of for the office : " My servant can best satisfy your lordship of the good health of Mr. William and Mrs. Anne, for he saw them both before his journey ; they have been very well, and I trust will continue so. I am most willing I wish I could say able too to be your lord- ship's vice-president, but the defect of this must be sup- plied with the surplusage of the other." t Strafford Papers, v.ol. i., p. 93. The allusion to Lord Balfour, with which the above despatch opens, requires explanation. Wentworth, who had already possessed him- self of the most intimate knowledge of the stale of parties and disputes in his new government, had written thus some days before to Cooke : " I have sent here likewise unto you a letter from the lords-justices, together with all the examinations taken of the Lord Balfour, and the rest which refused the contribution in the connty of Ferma- nagh, by all which you will find plainly how busy the sheriff and Sir William Cole have been in mutinying the country against the king's service ; and I beseech you ac- quaint his majesty therewithal, and for the rest leave it to me when I come on the other side, and believe me, I will teach both them and others better grounds of duty and obedience to his majesty than they have shown in this wan- ton and saucy boldness of theirs. And so much the more careful must we be to correct this peccant humour in the first beginnings, in regard this is a great revenue, which his majesty's affairs cannot subsist without ; so that we must either continue that to the crown, or get something from that people of as much value another way ; wherein I conceive it most necessary to proceed most severely in the punishment of this offence, which will still all men else for a many years after ; and, therefore, if the king or your- self conceive otherwise, help me in time, or else I shall be sure to lay it on them soundly. My Lord Balfour excuseth his fault, and will certainly make means to his majesty for favour, wherein under correction, if his majesty intend to prosecute the rest, I conceive it is clearly best for the ser- vice to leave him entirely to run a common fortune, as he is in a common case with the rest of those delinquents." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 87. t The obtaining of such a commission formed one of the articles of his after impeachment, and his answer was, that he had never sat as president after the articles were framed. But he did not deny that the power they vested was exercised by his vice-president, on the lord-president's behalf, and consequently with the full responsibility of the latter. His instrumentality in obtaining these instructions, indeed, was not directly proved ; but it was proved that on one occasion " the president fell upon his knees and de- sired his majesty to enlarge his powers, or that he might pressed more especially for the settlement of a dispute with Lord Faulconberg by a perempto- ry punishment of the latter: "for this you know," he wrote to the secretary, " is a public business, and myself being to leave this gov- ernment for a while, desirous to settle and es- tablish this council in their just powers and credits, which is fit for the king's service, would fain see ourselves righted upon this arro- gant lord, and so discipline all the rest upon his shoulders, as I might well hope they should exer- cise their jurisdiction in peace during the time of my absence."* Lord Wentworth's fiercest pros- ecution of apparent personal resentments was, in all cases, the simple carrying out of that despotic principle in its length and breadth, and with reference to its ulterior aims, which had become the very law of his being. In this point of view only can they be justly or intelli- gibly considered. The cruelties associated with the name now about to be introduced have their exaggeration or their excuse, according as the feelings of the reader may determine but, at all events, have their rational and phil- osophical solution in this point of view alone. The Lord Mountnorris held at this time the office of vice-treasurer, which in effect was that of treasurer of Ireland. Clarendon observes of him, " He was a man of great industry, ac- tivity, and experience in the affairs of Ireland, having raised himself from a very private mean condition (having been an inferior servant to have leave to go home and lay his bones in his own cot- tage." Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 161. The commission was granted immediately after. Its most terrible article was that which in every case, in distinct terms, wrested from the subject the privilege of protection in Westminster Hall, and cut him off from any share in the rights, poor and con- fined as they were, of the rest of his fellow-subjects. Du- ring Wentworth's absence in Ireland, one judge of the Ex- chequer, Vernon, dared to move in defiance of these mon- strous restrictions. The lord-deputy instantly wrote to Cottington, described Vernon's conduct, and thus proceed- ed : "If this were not a goodly example in the face of a country living under the government of the president and council, for the respect and obedience due to the authority set over them by his majesty, of that awful reverence and duty which we all owe to his majesty's declared good-will and pleasure under the great seal, I am much mistaken. I do, therefore, most humbly beseech this judge maybe con- vented at the council board, 'and charged with these two great misdemeanors ; which if he deny, I pray you say openly in council I am the person will undertake to prove them against him, and withal affirm that by these strange extravagant courses he distracts his majesty's government and affairs more than ever he will be of use unto them, and that, therefore, I am a most earnest suitor to his maj- esty and their lordships that he be not admitted to go that circuit hereafter; and, indeed, I do most earnestly beseech his majesty by you, that tec may be troubled no more with such a peevish, indiscreet piece of flesh. I confess, I dis- dain to see the gownmen in this sort hang their noses over the flowers of the crown, blow and smiffle upon them till they take both scent and beauty off them, or to have them put such a prejudice upon all other sorts of men as if none were able or worthy to be intrusted with honour and admin- istration of justice but thimselves." This is surely a char- acteristic betrayal of Wentworth's interest in the powers of the new commission ! Some difficulties appear to have been encountered in the way of the course he proposed against this judge, for we find him at a subsequent date writing thus to the lord-treasurer : " If Mr. Justice Ver- non be either removed or amended in his circuit, I am very well content, being by me only considered as he is in rela- tion to his majesty's service in those parts the gentleman otherwise unknown to me by injury or benefit." See Straf- ford Papers, vol. i., p. 129, 295. * A note subjoined to this is too characteristic to be omitted : " There is like to be a good fine gotten of him [Lord Faulconberg] for the king, u-hich, considering the manner of his life, were wonderaus ill lost ; and lost it will be, if I be not here: therefore I pray you let me have iny directions wilh all possible speed." EARL OF STRAFFORD. 87 Lord Chichester) to the degree of a viscount and a privy counsellor, and to a very ample revenue in lands and offices ; and had always, by servile flattery and sordid application, wrought himself into trust and nearness with all depu- ties at their first entrance upon their charge, in- forming them of the defects and oversights of their predecessors ; and after the determination of their commands and return into England, in- forming the state here, and those enemies they usually contracted in that time, of whatsoever they had done or suffered to be done amiss, whereby they either suffered disgrace or dam- age as soon as they were recalled from those honours. In this manner he began with his own master, the Lord Chichester, and contin- ued the same arts upon the Lord Grandison and the Lord Falkland, who succeeded ; and, upon that score, procured admission and trust with the Earl of Strafford, upon his first admis- sion to that government."* This is quoted here for the purpose of introducing a letter of Wentworth's, which was written about this time, and which appears to me not only to cor- roborate Clarendon's account, but (in opposi- tion to those who have urged, as Mr. Brodie,t that Wentworth began his official connexion with Mountnorris by " courting" the latter) to give, at the same time, the noble vice-treasurer and informer-general fair warning of the char- acter and intentions of the- lord-deputy he had thereafter to deal with. Mountnorris had pre- viously allied himself with Wentworth by mar- riage with a near relation of his deceased wife, the Lady Arabella. " I was not a little troub- led," runs Wentworth's letter, " when my ser- vant, returning from Dublin, brought back with him the enclosed, together with the cer- tainty of your lordship's yet abode at West- Chester. I have hereupon instantly despatched this footman expressly to find you out, and to solicit you most earnestly to pass yourself over on the other side ; for besides that the moneys which I expect from you (which I confess you might some other ways provide for), the cus- toms there, you know how loose they lie ; our only confidence here being in you." Several other details are pressed with great earnest- ness. " Therefore," he continues, " for the love of God, linger no longer, but leaving your lady with my Lady Cholmondely, in case her present estate will not admit her to pass along with you I will, God willing, not fail to wait on her ladyship over myself, and deliver her safe to you at Dublin ; the rather for that, to tell your lordship plainly, which I beseech you keep very private to yourself, it will be impos- sible for me to despatch the king's business, and my own, and get hence before the end of November at the soonest. My Lord Ranelagh will be here, I believe, within this day or two ; and, in regard of his and my Lord Dungarvan's being here before, I hold it fit to communicate with your lordship the occasion, which is this, that there being a proposition made to me for a marriage with my Lord of Cork's daughter,t * Hit. of Rebellion, vol. i., p. 175. t Hiit. of Brit. Empire, vol. iii., p. 70. t This lady, whom Wentworth, for excellent reasons, declined marrying, afterward married George Goring, son of the Earl of Norwich. This was the lord-deputy's man- agement. Some eight or nine months after, he writes to I, that had no thought such a way, did never- theless move a match between the young lord and my Lord Clifford's daughter, which was by them accepted ; and so he comes now, I be- lieve, to treat farther of this matter with my Lord Clifford. But this I must entreat you to keep private ; with this, that albeit the house of Cumberland is to me, as all the world knows that knows me, in next esteem to my own family, yet be you well assured this alliance shall not decline me from those more sovereign duties I owe my master, or those other faiths I owe my other friends." Some other expres- sions of courtesy are then followed by this re- markable passage. " It is enough said amongst honest men ; and you may easily believe me ; but look you, be secret and true to me, and that no sus- picion possess you ; which else in time may turn to both our disadvantages. For God's sake, my lord, let me again press your departure for Ire- land. And let me have 2000 of my enter- tainment sent me over with all possible speed, for I have entered fondly enough on a purchase here of 14,000, and the want of that would very foully disappoint me." It is clear to me in this that Wentworth had resolved, from the first, to watch Mountnorris narrowly, and, on the earliest intimation of any possible renewal of his old treacheries, to crush him and them for ever. Lady Mountnorris would possibly be startled in hearing from her lord that the sorrowing widower of the Lady Arabella was already speaking of the negotiation of another marriage. The entire truth would have startled her still more. Lord Wentworth had at this very time, though a year had not passed since the death of his last wife, whom he appears to have loved with fervent and continuing affection, " married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Godfrey Rhodes,* privately." Such is the statement of Sir George Radcliffe. Since Radcliffe wrote, however, some cu- rious letters relating to this marriage have been discovered in the Thoresby museum. Sir George says that the marriage took place in October. I am now about to quote a letter which bears the date of October in the same year (the 30th), and which goes to prove that, supposing the statement in question correct, Wentworth must have sent the lady off to a distance from himself immediately after the ceremony. Nor is this the only singular cir- the Earl of Carlile : " Young- Mr. Goring is gone to travel, having run himself out of 8000, which he purposeth to redeem by his frugality abroad, unless my Lord of Cork can be induced to put to his helping hand, which I have under- taken to solicit for him the best I can, and shall do it with all the power and care my credit and wit shall anywise sug- gest unto me. In the mean time, his lady is gone to the bath to put herself in state to be got with child, and when all things are prepared, she is like to want the principal guest. Was ever willing creature so disappointed? In truth, it is something ominous, if you mark it, yet all may do well enough, if her father will be persuaded, and then, if she be not as well done to as any of her kin, Mr. Goring loseth a friend of me forever. You may say now, if you will, I put a shrewd task upon a young man, there being no better stuff to work upon ; but it is the more charity in us that wish it, and the most of all in him that shall perform it et bon et gentil cavalier." Such, I may remark, is the (to him unusual) tone of levity which he seldom failed to employ in writing to this Earl of Carlisle, whose wife, the famous countess, had secretly become his mistress. This earl died in 1636. The countess will be spoken of shortly. See, also, Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 119. * [Of Great Houghton, in Yorkshire. C.] BRITISH STATESMEN. cumstance suggested by this letter. Even Sir George Radcliffe, probably, did not know all. " Madam," Wentvvorth writes, " I have, in little, much to say to you, and in short terms to profess that which I must appear all my life long, or else one of us must be much to blame. But, in truth, I have that confidence in you, and that assurance in myself, as to rest secure the fault will never be made on either side. Well, then, this little and this much, this short and this long, which I aim at, is no more than to give you this first written testimony that I am your hus- band ; and that husband of yours, that will ever discharge those duties of love and respect towards you which good women may expect, and are justly due from good men to discharge them, with a hal- lowed care and continued perseverance in them ; and this is not only much, but all which belongs me ; and wherein I shall tread out the remainder of life which is left me. More I cannot say, nor perform much more for the present ; the rest must dwell in hope until I have made it up in the bal- ance, but I am and must be no other than your lov- ing husband." A postscript* closes the letter, referring to some paste for the teeth, which proves that the lady was in London. Went- worth himself was at York, and, it is evident from his letters, had not quitted the country during the whole of that month. The lady's answer to this letter would seem to have been humbly affectionate, and to have conveyed to Wentworth a lowly but fervent expression of thankfulness for that her new husband had promised not to cast her off as a deserted mis- tress ! His reply (dated about a fortnight af- ter his first letter) is in excellent spirit, and highly characteristic : " Dear Besse," he be- gins, with the encouragement of tender words, " your first lines were wellcum unto me, and I will keep them, in regard I take them to be full, as of kindness, so of truth. It is no pre- sumption foi> you to write unto me ; the fellowship of marriage ought to carry with it more of love and equality than any other apprehension. Soe I de- sire it may ever be betwixt us, nor shall it break of my parte. Virtue is the highest value we can set upon ourselves in this world, and the chiefe which others are to esteem us by. That preserved, we become capable of the noblest impressions which can be imparted unto us. You succeed in this family two of the rarest ladies of their time. Equal them in those ex- cellent dispositions of your mind, and you be- come every ways equally worthy of anything that they had, or that the rest of the world can give. And be you ever assured to be by me cherished and assisted the best I can, thorow the whole course of my life, wherein I shall be no other to you than I was to them, to wit, your loving husband, Wentworth." Still, how- ever, Wentworth did not acknowledge her pub- * " If you will speak to my cousin Radcliffe for the paste I told you on for your teeth, and desire him to speak to Dr. Moore, in my name, for two pots of it, and that the doctor will see it be good, for this last indeed was not so, you may bring me one down, and keep the other yourself." On the back of this letter the following words are written, in a delicate female hand : " Tom was born the 17th of Septem- ber, being Wednesday, in the morning, betwixt two and three o'clock, and was christened of the 7th of October, 1634." There is another letter of Wentworth's to Lady Wentworth, dated from Sligo, in 1635, in the same muse- um, wherein he sends his blessing to "little Tom." This child died, but Elizabeth Rhodes afterward bore Lord Straf- ford a girl, who was yet an infant at her father's death. licly ; still he kept her, for some time, at a dis- tance, and finally sent her over to Ireland, in the charge of Sir George Radcliffe, some time before he himself quitted England. She arri- ved in Dublin with Radcliffe in January, 1633,* and was not joined by Wentworth till the July of that year, when his lordship at last ventured to acknowledge her.f Laud, upon this, seems to have put some questions to the lord-deputy, whose answer may be supposed, from the fol- lowing passage in the archbishop's rejoinder, to have been made up of explanations and apol- ogies, and a concluding hint of advice. " And now, my lord, I heartily wish you and your lady all mutual content that may be ; and I did never doubt that you undertook that course but upon mature consideration, and you have been pleased to express to me a very good one, in which God bless you and your posterity, though I did not write anything to you as an examiner. For myself, I must needs confess to your lordship my weakness, that having been married to a very troublesome and unquiet wife before, I should be so ill advised as now, being about sixty, to go mar- ry another of a more wayward and troublesome generation, t There will not be any farther occasion to remark upon the early circumstan- ces of this marriage, which in its subsequent results presented nothing of a striking or unu- sual description, but I shall here add, for the guidance of the reader in his judgment of these particulars of Wentworth's conduct, some few considerations, which in justice ought not to be omitted. Lord Wentworth was a man of intrigue, and the mention of this is not to be avoided in such a view of the bearings of his conduct and char- acter as it has been here attempted, for the first time, to convey. It is at all times a deli- cate matter to touch upon this portion of men's histories, partly from the nature of the subject, and partly from a kind of soreness which the community feel upon it, owing to the incon- sistencies between their opinions and practi- ces, and to certain strange perplexities at the heart of those inconsistencies, which it remains for some bolder and more philosophical genera- tion even to discuss. Meantime it is pretty generally understood, that fidelity to the mar- riage bed is not apt to be most prevalent where leisure and luxury most abound ; and, for the same reason, there is a tendency in the richer classes to look upon the licenses they take, and to talk of them with one another, and so, by a thousand means, to increase and perpetuate the tendency, of which the rest of society have lit- tle conception, unless it be, indeed, among the extremely poor ; for similar effects result from being either above or below a dcpendance upon other people's opinions. When it was public- * Radcliffe's Essay. t His friends were instant in their congratulation, and, in a profusion of compliments, sought to intimate to his lord- ship, that in this marriage of one so far beneath him in rank and consideration, he had only furnished another proof of his own real and independent greatness. There is some- thing pleasanter in the Earl of Leicester's note, who simply regrets that he " had not the good fortune to be one of the throng that crowded to tell you how glad they were that you had passed your journey and landed safely in your gov- ernment, or (which I conceive a greater occasion of rejoi- cing with you) that you were happily and healthfully ar- rived in the arms of a fair and beloved wife." Strdfford Papers, vol. i,, p. 157. f Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 125. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 89 ly brought out, therefore, that Wentworth, as well as gayer men of the court, had had his " levities," as the grave Lord-chancellor Clar- endon calls them, it naturally told against him with the more serious part of the nation ; not, however, without some recoil, in the opinions of candid observers, against the ingenuousness of those who told it, because the latter, as men moving in the same ranks themselves, or on the borders of them, must have known the li- cense secretly prevailing, and probably partook of it far more than was supposed. Lady Car- lile, one of the favourites of Wentworth, sub- sequently became the mistress of Pym himself. Lord Clarendon, backed with the more avowed toleration, or, rather, impudent unfeelingness which took place in the subsequent reign, not only makes use of the term just quoted in speaking of intrigue, but ventures, with a sort of pick-thank chuckle of old good-humour, to confess that, in his youth, he conducted him- self in these matters much as others did, though with a wariness proportionate to his under- standing. " Caute," says he, in the quotation popular at the time, and used by Wentworth himself, " si non caste." We are also to take into consideration, that if the court of Charles the First had more sen- timent and reserve than that of his heartless son, it was far from being so superior to courts in general in this respect, as the solemn shad- ow which attends his image with posterity nat- urally enough leads people to conclude. The better taste of the poetry-and-picture-loving monarch did but refine, and throw a veil over, the grosser habits of the court of his father James. Pleasure was a Silenus in the court of James. In that of Charles the Second, it was a vulgar satyr. Under Charles the First, it was still of the breed, but it was a god Pan, and the muses piped among his nymphs. Far from wondering, therefore, that Went- worth, notwithstanding the gravity of his bear- ing and the solemn violence of his ambition, allowed himself to indulge in the fashionable license of the times, it was to be expected that he would do so, not only from the self-indul- gence natural to his will in all things, but from the love of power itself, and that he might be in no respect behindhand with any grounds which he could furnish himself with for having the highest possible opinion of his faculties for ascendency. As nine tenths of common gal- lantry is pure vanity, so a like proportion of the graver offence of deliberate seduction is owing to pure will and the love of power the love of obtaining a strong and sovereign sense of an existence not very sensitive, at any price to the existence of another. And thus, without supposing him guilty to that extent, might the common gallantries of the recherche and domi- nant Strafford be owing greatly to the pure pride of his will, and to that same love of con- quest and superiority which actuated him in his public life. A greater cause for wonder might be found in the tenderness with which he treated the wives to whom he was unfaithful, and especially the one, this Elizabeth Rhodes, who was com- paratively lowly in birth. But so mixed a thing is human nature, as at present constituted, that the vices as well as virtues of the man might M come into play in this very tenderness, and help to corroborate it ; for, in addition to the noble and kindly thoughts which never ceased to be mixed up with his more violent ones, he would think that the wife of a Wentworth was of necessity a personage to be greatly and ten- derly considered on all occasions ; and even his marriage into an obscure family would be reconciled to his pride by the instinct which leads men of that complexion to think it equally difficult for themselves to be lowered by any- thing they choose to do, and for the object of their attention not to be elevated by the same process of self-reference. Nor to quit this delicate subject, which I could not but touch on, to assist the reader, with what has gone before, to a proper judg- ment of facts that are yet tp be mentioned, and which, in truth, contains matter for the pro- foundest reflection of those who might choose to consider it by itself will it be thought extra- ordinary by such as have at all looked into the nature of their fellow-creatures, that a man like Wentworth should have treated his wives tenderly at the very times at which he was most unfaithful to them ; for, whether influ- enced by love or by awe, they do not appear to have offended him at any time by their com- plaints, or even to have taken notice of his con- duct ; and they were, in truth, excellent wom- en, worthy of his best and most real love ; so as to render it probable that his infidelities were but heats of will and appetite, never, perhaps, occasioning even a diminution of the better af- fections, or, if they did, ending in the addition- al tenderness occasioned by remorse. It is a vulgar spirit only that can despise a woman for making no remonstrances, and a brutal one that can ill treat her for it. A heart with any nobleness left in it keeps its sacredest and dear- est corner for a kindness so angelical ; and Wentworth's pride had enough sentiment to help his virtues to a due appreciation of the generosity, if it existed, or to give it the bene- fit of supposing that it would have done so, in favour of such a man as he, beloved by wives of so sweet a nature. The Lord Wentworth was of a tall and grace- ful person, though much sickness had early bent an originally sensitive frame, which con- tinued to sink more rapidly in after life under the weight of greater cares. Habitual pain had increased the dark hue and deep contrac- tions of a brow, formed and used to " threaten and command," and no less effective in enfor- cing obedience than the loud and impressive voice that required it. He alludes to this spor- tively in a letter to the Earl of Exeter, where- in he writes, " This bent and ill-favoured brow of mine was never prosperous in the favour of ladies ; yet did they know how perfectly I do honour, and how much I value, that excellent and gracious sex, 2 ampersuaded I should become a favourite amongst, them tush, my lord, tush, there are few of them know how gentle a gargon I am."* Happy, * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 178, 180. His letters to Lord Exeter and his wife are all very pleasant, and, in their deep sense of personal attentions during illness, touch- ing'. "Be not so venturesome on my occasion," he writes, dissuading Exeter from a winter journey to discharge such offices of friendship, "be not so venturesome on my occa- sion, till this churlish season of the year be past, and the spring well come on. There is old age in years as wull as 90 BRITISH STATESMEN. as it is evident, is the opposite conscious- ness, out of which such pleasant complaining flows ! Whereupon Lord Exeter rejoins with justice, in a passage which may serve to re- deem his lordship amply from the stupidity that is wont to be charged to him, " My lord, I could be angry with you, were you not so far off, for wronging of your bent brow, as you term it in your letter ; for, you had been cursed with a. meek brow and an arch of white hair upon it, never to have governed Ireland nor Yorkshire so well as you do, where your lawful commands have gotten you an exact obedience. Content yourself with that brave, commanding part of your face, which showeth gravity without dulness, severity without cruelty, clemency without easi- ness, and love without extravagancy." An un- gallant consolation under female displeasure follows : " And if it should be any impeach- ment unto your favour with that sex you so much honour, you should be no loser ; for they that have known them so long as I have done, have found them nothing less 'than dia- bolos blancos;" which Lady Exeter judges fit to dispense with in a postscript : " I cannot consent to the opinion of the lord that spake last, neither do I believe that it was his own, but rather vented as a chastisement to my particular. To your lordship all our sex in general are obliged, myself infinitely, who can return you nothing but my perpetual well wish- es, with admiration of your virtues, and my heartiest desire that all your employments and fortunes may be answerable."* Wentworth, indeed, had not needed this assurance, under a remark which May's happy quotation, " Non formosus crat, sed erat facundus Ulysses, Et tanien aequoreas torsit am ore Deas," has long since shown to be uncalled for. The intense passion of a Mirabeau or a Stratford will hardly make shipwreck for the want of a " smooth dispose." Wentworth had much wronged his "bent brow," and he knew that he had wronged it. It was sufficiently notorious about the court, that whenever it relaxed in favour of any of the court dames, its owner was seldom left to hope in vain. The Lady Carlile,t the Lady in bodies ; January and February are the hoar hairs of the year, and the more quietly, the more within doors we keep them, we with the year grow the sooner young again in the spring." "To neither of you," he concludes, ''with this new year I can wish anything of new, but that you may tread still round the ancient and beaten paths of that hap- piness you mutually communicate the one with the other." * Slrafford Papers, vol. i., p. 241. t This extraordinary woman, whom Dryden called the " Helen of her country," and from whom Waller borrowed a compliment for Venus ("the bright Carlile of the court of heaven''), played a conspicuous part in the public affairs of the time. " She was thought to he as deeply concerned in the counsels of the court, and afterward of the Parlia- ment, as any in England." After the death of Strafford she had become the mistress of Pym. Yet her passions were not extreme ! Sir Toby Matthews lets us into her character : " She is of too high a mind and dignity not only to seek, but almost to wish, the friendship of any creature : they whom she is pleased to chuse are such as are of the most eminent condition, both for power and employments ; not with any design towards her own particular, either of ad- vantage or curiosity ; but her nature values fortunate per- sons as virtuous." The writer of Waller's life (the countess was aunt to the poet's Sacharissa), in the Biographia Britan- nica, say* that several letters of hers are printed in the " Straffbrd Papers." This is a mistake ; but we find fre- quent allusions to her throughout the correspondence. If any one wished to know of Wentworth's health, they ap- plied to Lady Carlile. *' I hope you are now recovered of your gout, which my Lady of Carlile told me you had" (ii., Carnarvon, the young Lady Loftus, were not, if written letters and general rumours deserve trust, the only evidences of this. Sad indeed were the consequences of Went- worth's casual appearances in the queen's withdrawing-room ! " Now if I were a good poet," writes the Lord Conway to the lord- deputy himself, " I should, with Chaucer, call upon Melpomene ' To help me to indite Verses that weepen as I write.' " My Lady of Carnarvon, being well in the fa- vour and belief of her father and husband, came with her husband to the court, and it was de- termined she should have been all this year at London, her lodgings in the Cockpit ; but my Lord Wentworth had been at court, and in the queen's withdrawing-room was a constant looker upon my lady, as if that only were his busmess, for which cause, as it is thought, my Lord of Carnarvon went home, and my lord-chamber- lain preached often of honour and truth. One of the sermons I and my Lady Killegrew, or my Lady Stafford, which you please, were at ; it lasted from the beginning to the end of sup- per ; the text was, that .... \Vhen supper was ended, and we were where we durst speak, my Lady Killegrew swore by G d that my lord-chamberlain meaned not anybody but her and my Lord of Dorset. But my Lady Car- narvon is sent down to her husband, and the night before she went was with her father in his cham- ber till past twelve, he chiding and she weeping, and when she will return no man knows ; if it be not till her face do secure their jealousy, she had as good stay for ever. Some think that my Lord Wentworth did this rather to do a despight to her father and husband than for any great love to her."* Sir George Radcliffe, indeed, in his Essay, observes on this head : " He was defamed for incontinence, wherein I have reason to believe that he was exceedingly much wronged. I had occasion of some speech with him about the state of his soul several times, but twice espe- 124). If any one wanted favour at court, they wrote to Wentworth to bespeak the interest of Lady Carlile. We find even Laud, for a particular purpose, condescending to this : " I will write to my Lady of Carlile," Wentworth writes back, " as your grace appoints me. In good sadness I judge her ladyship very considerable ; for she is often in place, and is extreamly well skilled how to speak with ad- vantage and spirit for those friends she professeth unto, which will not be many. There is this farther in her dis- position, she will not seem to be the person she is not, an ingenuity I have always observed and honoured her for." (Papers, vol. ii., p. 120.) And again, out of many I could put before the reader : " I have writ fully to my Lady of Carlile, and am very confident, if it be in her ladyship's power, she will express the esteem she hath your lordship in to a very great height." (Vol. ii., p. 138.) * Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 47. Lord Conway's letters to Wentworth are extremely amusing. They record with particular care the unlucky courtships of Vandyke: "It was thought," he writes on one occasion to the lord-deputy, " that the Lord Cottington should have married my Lady Stanhope; I believe there were intentions in him, but the lady is, as they say, in love with Carey Raleigh. You were so often with Sir Anthony Vandike, that you could not but know his gallantries for the love of that lady ; but he is come off with a coglioneria, for he disputed with her about the price of her picture, ajid sent her word that if she would not give the price he demanded, he would sell it to another that would give more. This week every one will be at London ; the queen is very weary of Hampton Court, and will be brought to bed at St. James's ; then my Lady of Carlile will be a constant courtier ; her dot? hath lately written a sonnet in her praise, which Harry Percy burned, or you had now had it." EARL OF STRAFFORD. 91 cially, when I verily believe he did lay open unto me the very bottom of his heart. Once was, when he was in a very great affliction upon the death of his second wife, and then for some days and nights I was very few minutes out of his company ; the other time was at Dublin, on a Good Friday (his birthday), when he was preparing himself to receive the blessed sacra- ment on Easter-day following. At both these times I received such satisfaction as left no scruple with me at all, but much assurance of his chastity. I knew his ways long and inti- mately, and though I cannot clear him of all frailties (for who can justify the most innocent man?), yet I must give him the testimony of conscientiousness in his ways, that he kept himself from gross sins, and endeavoured to approve himself rather unto God than unto man, to be religious inwardly and in truth, rather than outwardly and in show." What has been quoted from Lord Conway's letter, however and, were it necessary to my pur- pose, many letters more, and of stronger mean- ing, are to be produced does not come within Radcliffe's rebuke of the " defamation " em- ployed against Strafford. The only tendency of what Sir George says, therefore, is to con- firm the charge in its warrantable view (with which alone I have dwelt upon it) of illustra- ting duly private conduct and character. Far different was Pym's great object when, instan- cing in the House of Commons, as Clarendon informs us, " some high and imperious actions done by Strafford in England and Ireland, some proud and over-confident expressions in dis- course, and some passionate advices he had given in the most secret councils and debates of the affairs of state, he added some lighter passages of his vanity and amours, that they who were not inflamed with anger and detest- ation against him for the former, might have less esteem and reverence for his prudence and discretion."* These words may recall me to the actual progress of Strafford's life and thoughts. Pru- dence and discretion whatever his great asso- ciate of the third Parliament might afterward think right, or just, or necessary to his fatal purposes, to urge still, so far as they may be associated in a grand project of despotism, em- inently characterized every movement of Lord Wentworth. The king had now become ex- tremely anxious for his departure, which the winding up of certain private affairs alone de- layed, t On the completion of these he arrived * Clarendon, Hist, of Rebellion, vol. i., p. 137. t A note from Radcliffe's Essay will show that the ener- getic method and despatch which made the difficulties of the public business sink before him were no less serviceable in the conduct of his private affairs. " In the managing of his estate and domestical affairs, he used the advice of two friends, Ch. Gr. and G. R., and two servants, Richard Mar- ris his steward, and Peter Man his solicitor. Before every term they met, and Peter Man brought a note of all things to be considered of ; which being taken into consideration one by one, and every one's opinion heard, resolution was had and set down in writing, whereof his lordship kept one copy and Peter Man another : at the next meeting, an ac- count was taken of all that was done in pursuance of the former orders, and a new note made of all that rested to be done, with an addition of such things as did arise since the last meeting, and were requisite to be consulted of. His whole accounts were ordered to be made up twice every year, one half ending the 20th of September, the other the 20th of March ; for by that time the former half year's rents were commonly received, or else the arrears were fit to be in London, for the purpose of setting sail im- mediately. Here, however, he was unexpect- edly delayed by the necessity of waiting the arrival of a man of war ; for so dangerously was the Irish Channel at that time infested with pirates, that the lord-deputy could not venture to pass over without convoy. " The winds fall out so contrary," he writes in an- swer to the secretaries, who, with the king and court, were engaged in a progress, " that the king's ship cannot be gotten as yet forth of Rochester River ; but so soon as we can speed it away, and I have notice from Captain Plum- leigh that he is ready for my transportation, I will not stay an hour, desiring extremely now to be upon the place where I owe his majesty so great an account, as one that am against all non-residents, as well lay as ecclesiastical." Wentworth took care, at the same time, to avail himself of some opportunities offered him by this delay. He completed some pending arrangements ; secured finally the close coun- sel and assistance of Laud ;* established a pri- vate and direct correspondence with the king himself for the sanction of his more delicate measures ; instructed a gossiping person, a hired retainer of his own, the Rev. Mr. Gar- rard, to furnish him, in monthly packets of news, with all the private scandal, and ru- mours, and secret affairs of the court, and of London generally ; and obtained the appoint- ment of his friends Wandesford and Radcliffe to official situations, and to seats in the privy council, reserving them as a sort of select cab- inet of his own, with whom everything might be secretly discussed. t These things settled, sought after ; it being no advantage either to the tenant or landlord to suffer arrears to. run longer. * A few months after his departure, Laud was created Archbishop of Canterbury. Wentworth had foreseen this. " One advantage your lordship will have," writes Lord Falk- land, in a somewhat pettish letter, "that I wanted in the time of my government, an Archbishop of Canterbury to friend ; who is, withal, a person of especial power to assist you in that part which shall concern the Church govern- ment, the third and principal member of the kingdom ; for the translation of the late archbishop into heaven, and of the late Bishop of London unto the see of Canterbury, makes that no riddle, being so plain." The sort of stipula- tions for mutual service which passed between the lord- deputy and Laud may be gathered from two out of twenty requests of the latter which reached Dublin Castle before Wentworth himself had arrived there. They are equally characteristic of the sincerity and atrocity of the bigotry of Laud. " I humbly pray your lordship to remember what you have promised me concerning the church at Dublin, which hath for divers years been used for a stable by your predecessors, and to vindicate it to God's service, as you shall there examine and find the merits of the cause." And again : " There is one Christopher Sands, who, as I am in- formed, dwells now in Londonderry, and teaches an Eng- lish school there, and I do mnch fear he doth many things there to the dishonour of God, and the endangering of many poor souls. For the party is a Jew, and denies both Christ and his Gospel, as I shall be able to prove, if I had him here. I humbly pray your lordship that he may be seized on by authority, and sent over in safe custody, and deliver- ed either to myself or Mr. Mottershed, the register of the high commission, that he may not live there to infect his majesty's subjects." Vol. i., p. 81, 82. t He found great advantage in this ; and a few months after his arrival in Dublin wrote to the lord-treasurer some strenuous advice, suggested by his experience, " that too many be not taken into counsel on that side, and that your resolutions, whatever they be, be kept secret ; for, believe me, there can be nothing more prejudicial to the good suc- cess of those affairs than their being understood aforehand by them here. So prejudicial 1 hold it, indeed, that on my faith there is not a minister on this side that knows any- thing I either write or intend, excepting the Master of the Rolls and Sir George Radcliffe, for whose assistance in this government, and comfort to myself amidst this generation, 92 BRITISH STATESMEN. he now himself became anxious for his depar- ture, which, with some farther delay, and not without some personal loss,* he at last accom- plished. Lord Wentworth arrived in Dublin in July, 1633. His very arrival, it is justly said, formed a new era in the government of Ireland. He ordered the ceremonial of the British court to be observed within the castle ; a guard, an in- stitution theretofore unknown, was establish- ed ; and the proudest of the Irish lords were at once taught to feel the " immense distance" which separated them from the representative of their sovereign.t An extract from the lord-deputy's first de- spatch, written about a week after his arrival, and duplicates of which he forwarded at the same time, with his customary zeal, to Cooke and Cottington, is too characteristic to be omitted. " I find them in this place," he writes, " a company of men the most intent upon their own ends that I ever met with, and so as those speed, they consider other things at a very great distance. I take the crown to have been very ill served, and altogether impossible for me to remedy, unless I be entirely trusted, and lively assisted and countenanced by his maj- esty, which I am bold to write unto your lord- I am not able sufficiently to pour forth my humble acknowl- edgments to his majesty. Sure I were the most solitary man without them that ever served a king in such a place." Vol. i., p. 193, 194, <fec. Wandesford's office was that of Master of the Rolls. * " They write me lamentable news forth of Ireland," he informs the secretary, in one of his last letters before his departure, "what spoil is done there by the pirates. There is one lyes upon the Welch coast, which it seems is the greatest vessel, commanded by Norman ; another in a ves- sel of some sixty tuns, called the Pickpocket of Dover, lyes in sight of Dublin ; and another lyes near Youghall who do so infest every quarter, as the farmers have already lost in their customs a thousand pounds at least, all trade being at this means at a stand. The pirate that lyes before Dub- lin took, on the 20th of the last month, a bark of Liverpool, with goods worth 4000, and amongst them as much linen as cost me 500 ; and, in good faith, I fear I have lost my apparel too ; which if it be so, will be as much loss more unto me, besides the inconvenience which lights upon me by being disappointed of my provisions upon the place. By my faith, this is but a cold welcome they bring me withal to that coast, and yet I am glad at least that they escaped my plate ; but the fear I had to be thought to linger here unprofitably forced me to make this venture, where now I wish I had had little more care of my goods, as well as of my person." Vol. i., p. 90. t See Stafford's Papers, vol. i., p. 200, 201. In the vari- ous orders he procured, he invariably distinguished between the demands of his place and the courtesies due to his per- son. In this despatch to Cooke, a number of minute in- structions are prayed for, which were instantly granted. Among others, he demanded " instructions to call upon the nobility and others to attend the deputy upon all solemn processions to church, and such like. This is not so well observed as it ought, and they grow generally more negli- gent than is fit they were, not truly, I trust, in any distaste to me, for to my person they give as much respect as I desire from them ; but I know not how, in point of greatness, some of them think it too much perchance to be tied to anything of duty, rather desirous it might be taken as a courtesy. It would do, therefore, very well, his majesty were graciously pleased by letter to signify what the attendance is he re- quires at their hands." These he specifies accordingly, with a vast quantity of laborious and ceremonious regula- tions, adding, " I confess I might, without more, do these things ; but where I may seem to take anything to myself, I am naturally modest, and should be extreme unwilling to be held supercilious or imperious amongst them ; so as I cannot do therein as I both could and would, where I were commanded. Therefore, if these be held duties fit to be paid to his majesty's greatness, which is alike operative, and to be reverenced thorough every part of his dominions, I crave such a direction in these as in the other, that GO they may know it to be his pleasure ; otherwise I shall be well content they may be spared, having, in truth, no such vanity in my- self at to be delighted with any of these observances." ship once for all, not for any end of my own, but singly for his majesty's service. Besides, what is to be done must be speedily executed, it being the genius of this country to obey a deputy better upon his entrance than upon his departure from them ; and therefore I promise your lord- ship I will take my time ; for while they take me to be a person of much more power with the king, and of stronger abilities in myself, than indeed I have reason either in fact or right to judge myself to be, I shall, it may he, do the king some service ; but if my weakness therein once happen to be discovered among them in this kingdom, for the love of God, my lord, let me be taken home; for I shall but lose the king's affairs, and my own time afterward ; and my unprofitableness in the former, I confess, will grieve me much more than any prejudice which may happen to my own particular by the ex- pense of the latter. The army I conceive to be extremely out of frame ; an army rather in name than in deed, whether you consider their numbers, their weapons, or their discipline. And so, in truth, not to natter myself, must I look to find all things else, so as it doth almost affright me at first sight, yet you shall see I will not meanly desert the duties I owe my master and myself; howbeit, without the arm of his majesty's counsel and support, it is im- possible for me to go through with this work, and therein I must crave leave to use your lordship only as my mediator, so often as I shall have occasion. I send your lordship the original herein enclosed, of the offer for this next year's contribution, and to the secretary but the copy, judging it might be thought fitter for your lordship to present it to his majesty than the other. You will be pleased to send it me safely back, there being many particulars contained therein of which I shall be able to make very good use hereafter, if I do not much mistake myself."* Wentworth, in fact, extraordinary as were the powers with which he had been invested, had still reason for distrust in the weakness and insincerity of the king, and thus sought to impress upon his council, as the first and grand consideration of all, that, unless unlimited au- thority was secured to him, he could and would do nothing. One thing, he saw at once, stood in the way of his scheme of government. In the old time, while Ireland continued to be governed only as a conquered country, the lord-deputy and council had used their discre- tion in superseding the common law courts, and assuming the decision of private civil caus- es. During the weaker governments which succeeded, however, this privilege was surren- dered ; and Lord Falkland himself had confirm- ed the surrender by an express prohibition. The common law and its authority had, in con- sequence, gained some little strength at the period of Wentworth's arrival. He had not * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 96, 97. In the lord-treasu- rer's copy of this despatch is the following characteristic note on a money transaction in which Wcston thought he had been somewhat sharply dealt with : " Your lordship is ileaged to term my last letter you received in Scotland an. ingry one ; but, by my troth, your lordship, under favour, vas mistaken ; for I neither was, nor conceived I had causa EARL OF STRAFFORD. 93 rested many days in his state chair before this prohibition was suspended, and the old privi- lege restored.* At all risks, even the most fatal, Wentworth silenced the objectors in both countries. He had visions before him which they dared not to contemplate ! Their notion of government was one of sordid scheming : not the less was the subject to be wronged, but the more should the instruments of wrong avoid the responsibility of it ; they saw nothing but their own good, and sought to prevent nothing save their own harm. Wentworth was a despot, but of a different metal. He shrunk from no avowal in shrinking from no wrong ; and, confident of the plans he proposed to execute, felt that the individual injury he in- flicted at present would be redeemed and for- gotten in the general prosperity of the future. " These lawyers," he writes to the lord-mar- shal, "would monopolize to themselves all ju- dicature, as if no honour or justice could be rightly administered but under one of their bencher's gowns. / am sure they little under- stand the unsettled state of this kingdom, that could advise the king to lessen the power of his deputy, indeed his own, until it were brought into that stayed temper of obedience and conformity with that of England, or at least till the benches here were better provided with judges, than God knows as yet they are. Therefore, if your lordship's judgment approve of my reasons, I beseech you assist me therein, or, rather, the king's service, and I shall be answerable with my head."i Equal in all his exactions, he had suspected also from the first that the great complainants against his government would be men of rank ; and now, in farther organization of his powers, procured an order from the king, that none of the nobility, none of the principal officers, " none of those that hath either office or estate here," should presume to quit the kingdom without the license of the lord-deputy. J When his use of this power was afterward spoken against, he silenced the objectors by a stern and sarcastical reference to one of the graces they had themselves solicited, which seemed indeed to warrant the authority, but had been proposed with a far different purpose, that of preventing men of large fortunes from desert- ing their estates, and wasting their revenues abroad ! Wentworth called his first privy council. The members of this body had hitherto borne great sway in the government of the island^ * " I find that my Lord Falkland was restrained by proc- lamation not to meddle in any cause betwixt party and par- ty, which certainly did lessen his power extremely ; I know very well the common lawyers will be passionately against it, who are wont to put such a prejudice upon all other pro- fessions, as if none were to be trusted, or capable to admin- ister justice, but themselves ; yet how well this suits with monarchy, when they monopolize all to be governed by their year-books, you in England have a costly experience ; and I am sure his majesty's absolute power is not weaker in this kingdom, where hitherto the deputy and council-board have had a stroke with them." Such is an extract from a re- markable despatch to Cooke, which fills nearly ten closely- printed folio pages, written soon after the lord-deputy's ar- rival, and filled with reasoning of the most profound and subtle character, in reference to his contemplated schemes and purposes. See vol. i., p. 194. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 223. i Ibid., p. 362, and see p. 348. >) The lord-justices were the chief leaders of this body. Wentworth, in one of his despatches, had written thus: " On Thursday seven-night last, in the morning, I visited both the justices at their own houses, which albeit not for- greater, indeed, than the lords-deputies them- selves and they were now, for the first time, to see their authority broken, and their rank and influence set at scorn. Only a select num- ber of them were summoned, a practice usual in England,* but in Ireland quite unheard of. But the mortifications reserved for those that had been honoured by a summons were almost greater than were felt by the absent counsel- lors ! Having assembled at the minute ap- pointed, they were obliged to wait several , hours upon the leisure of the deputy, and, when he arrived at last, were treated with no particle of the consideration which deliberative duties claim. .Wentworth laid before them a provision for the immediate necessities of government, and more especially for the maintenance of the army. The views of the lord-deputy, some- what more reaching than their own, startled them not a little. Sir Adam Loftus, the son of the lord-chancellor, broke a sullen silence by proposing that the voluntary contribution should be continued for another year, and that a Parliament should meantime be prayed for. "After this followed again a long silence," when the lord-deputy called on Sir William Parsons, the master of the wards, to deliver his opinion. It was unfavourable. " I was then put to my last refuge," says Wentworth, "which was plainly to declare that there was no necessity which induced me to take them to counsel in this business, for rather than fail in so necessary a duty to my master, I would un- dertake, upon the peril of my head, to make the king's army able to subsist, and to provide for it- self amongst them without their help. Howbeit, forth of my respect to themselves I had been persuaded to put this fair occasion into their hands, not only to express their ready affections and duties to his majesty, and so to have in their own particular a share in the honour and thanks of so noble a work, but also that the proposition of this next contribution might move from the Protestants, as it did this year from the Papists, and so these no more in show than substance to go before those in their cheerfulness and readiness to serve his maj- esty; ... so as my advice should be unto them, to make an offer under their hands to his majesty of this next year's contribution, with the desire of a Parliament, in such sort as is contained in their offer, which herewith I send you enclosed. They are so horribly afraid that the contribution money should be set as an an- nual charge upon their inheritances, as they would redeem it at any rate, so as upon the name of a Parliament thus proposed, it was some- thing strange to see how instantly they gave con- sent to this proposition, with all the cheerfulness possible, and agreed to have the letter drawn, merty done by other deputies, yet I conceived it was a duty I owed them, being as then but a private person, as also to show an example to others what would always become them to the supreme governor, whom it should please his majesty to set over them." This was a subtle distinction, which their lordships did not afterward find they had much profited by. * " I desire," Wentworth had demanded of Cooke, " that the orders set down for the privy council of England might be sent unto us, with this addition, that no man speak cov- ered save the deputy, and that their speech may not be di- rected one to another, but only to the deputy ; as also, ta- king notice of their negligent meetings upon committees, which, indeed, is passing ill, to command me straitly to cause them to attend those services as in duty they ought." 94 BRITISH STATESMEN. which you have here signed with all their hands."* A "Parliament!" This word, Wentworth knew, would sound harshly in the ear of Charles, who had, by this time, prohibited its very men- tion in England. But he saw, from what had occurred in the council, in what consideration the mere name was held there ; and he saw, moreover, abroad among the nation, a feeling in favour of it, which might, by a bold move- ment, be even wrested to the purpose of tyr- anny, but could never, with any safety to that < cause, be altogether avoided. Nor was this aspect of affairs forced upon Wentworth by necessity alone. He had cer- tainly entered Ireland with one paramount ob- ject, that of making his master " the most ab- solute prince in Christendom," in so far as re- garded that " conquered country." Wealthier he meant her to become, even in the midst of his exactions ; but a slave he had resolved to make her, in so far as the popular control was to be admitted over her government. Yet it has been shown that Wentworth was not a vain man ; that he was ever ready to receive the suggestions of the occasion and the time ; and it is clear that he entered Ireland by no means assured of being able to carry his pur- poses into effect by the simple and straight- forward machinery of an absolute despotism. The king might see in Parliaments nothing but an unnecessary obstruction to the free exer- cise of his royal will, and might have directed Wentworth to " put them off handsomely," or otherwise. But Wentworth had impressions of his own which were not to be so got rid of. These Parliaments which had been only hur- riedly glanced at by the averted eye of Charles, on some occasion when he had been forced to " come at the year's end with his hat in his hand," and to whom the notion they had con- veyed was simply the strengthening his con- viction that " such assemblies were of the na- ture of cats, they ever grew cursed with age" these Parliaments were known thoroughly, and were remembered profoundly by Went- worth. He had been conversant with the measures, and connected with the men. He had been the associate of Pym, and had spoken and voted in the same ranks with Eliot. Such an experience might be abhorred, but could not be made light of; and that mighty power, of which he had been the sometime portion, never deserted the mind of Wentworth. He boldly suffered its image to confront him, that he might the better resist its spirit and divert its tendency. * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 98, 99. With characteristic purpose Wentworth subjoins to this despatch a private note to Cooke : " I should humbly advise that in some part of your next letter you would be pleased to give a touch with nour pen concerning Sir Adam Loftus, such as I might show im, for he deserves it ; and it will encourage the well-af- fected, and affright the other, when they shall see their ac- tions are rightly understood by his majesty ; and also some good words for the lord-chancellor, the Lord Cork, the Lord of Ormond, and the Lord Mountnorris ; and chiefly to ex- press in your despatch that his majesty will think of their desire for a Parliament, and betwixt this and Christmas give them a fair and gracious answer, for the very hope of it will give them great contentment, and make them go on very willingly with their payments." Had none of these men afterward thwarted him in his great despotic projects, Wentworth would have sought every means of covering them with rewards, to which he recognised no stint or measure, when called for by his notion of public service. When he arrived in Ireland, therefore, he was quite prepared for the mention of Parlia- ment even for the obligation of granting it. He had not watched human nature superficially, though, unfortunately, he missed of the final knowledge. He would have retained that en- gine whose wondrous effects he had witnessed, and had even assisted in producing. He would have compelled it to be as efficient in the ser- vice of its new master, as of late in withstand- ing his pleasure. And Wentworth could not but feel, probably, that the foundation for so vast a scheme as his, which was to imbody so many far-stretching assumptions, might be not unsafely propped at the first with a little rever- ence of authority.* He would set up a Parlia- ment, for instance, which should make itself "eminent to posterity as the very basis and foundation of the greatest happiness and pros- perity that ever befell this nation" by the ex- traordinary and notable process of being forced to confirm the king's claim to unlimited prerog- ative ! That " way of Parliaments," it is evi- dent from many passages in his despatches, he could not but covet, even while he spoke of leaving " such forms," and betaking himself to " his majesty's undoubted privilege." Power, indeed, was the great law of Wentworth's be- ing ; but from all this it may be fairly sup- posed, that even over the days of his highest and most palmy state lingered the uneasy fear that he might, after all, have mistaken the na- ture of power, and be doomed as a sacrifice at last to its truer, and grander, and more lasting issues. The fatal danger he frequently chal- lenged the " at peril of my head," which so often occurs in his despatches must have unpleasantly betrayed this to his confederates in London. A Parliament, then, he acknowledged to himself, must ultimately be summoned in Ire- land. But he was cautious in communicating this to the English council. "My opinion as touching a Parliament," he writes to Cooke, " I am still gathering for, but shall be very cautious and cunctative in a business of so great weight, naturally distrusting my judg- ment, and more here, where I am in a sort yet a stranger, than in places where I had been bred, versed, and acquainted in the affairs and with the conditions of men : so as I shall hard- ly be ready so soon to deliver myself therein as formerly I writ ; but, God willing, I shall transmit that and my judgment upon many other the chief services of his majesty betwixt this and Christmas. I protest unto you it is never a day I do not beat my brains about them some hours, well foreseeing that the chief success of all my labours will consist * On one occasion, it may be remarked, when the attor- ney-general in England much wished, as he fancied, to strengthen the famous PoyningV act by an abolition of cer- tain incidents attached to it, Wentworth opposed him in an elaborate argument. I quote a remarkable passage from the despatch : " Truly I am of opinion, that in the-se matters of form it is the best not to be wiser than those that went before us, but ' stare super vias antiquas: For better it is to follow the old track in this particular, than questinn the validity of all the statutes enacted since Poyning's act ; for if this which is done in conformity thereunto be not sufficient to warrant the summons of this present Parliament, then were all those Parliaments upon (lie same grounds unlawfully as- sembled, and consequently all their acts void; which is a point far better to sleep in peace, than unnecessarily or far- ther to be awakened." Vol. i., P. 269. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 95 much in providently and discreetly choosing and saddening my first ground ; for if that chance to be mislayed or left loose, the higher I go, the greater and more sudden will be the downcome."* Some short time, however, af- ter the date of this letter, he forwarded an elaborate despatch to the secretary for the con- sideration of the king. In this despatch he insisted very strongly on the wide distinction between English and Irish Parliaments which had been planted by the act of Poynings.t he dwelt on the exigencies of the state, and al- leged various powerful reasons in that regard. He claimed also the permission to issue the writs instantly ; for if they were deferred till the voluntary contribution should again be about to terminate, they would appear, he ar- * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 134. More genuine and characteristic stiil was a letter he enclosed by the same messenger to Lord Carlile : " I am yet ingathering with all possible circumspection my observations, where, upon what, and when to advise a reformation, and to set myself into the way of it, under God's good blessing, and the con- duct of his majesty's wisdom. I shall, before it be long, be ripe to return the fruit of my labours to be examined and considered on that side, and then rightly disposed to set them on work and pursue them here with effect, taking along with me those two great household gods, which ought al- ways to be reverenced in the courts, and sway in the actions of princes honour and justice. These councils, I confess, are secret ones, it being one of my chiefest cares to conceal my intentions Jrom them all here, as they, with the same in- dustry, pry into me, and sift every corner for them ; and this I do, to the end I might, if it be possible, win from them ingenuous and clear advice, which I am sure never to have if they once discover how I stand affected ; for then it is the genius of this place to soothe the deputy, be he in the right or wrong, till they have insinuated themselves into the frui- tion af their own ends, aud then at after to accuse him, even of those things wherein themselves had a principal share, as well in the counsel as in the execution. God deliver me from this ill sort of men, and give me grace so far to see into them beforehand, as that neither my master's service or myself suffer by them. My lord, I ever weary you when I begin, and judge how I should have troubled you if the wind had stood oftener for England." The Earl of Strafford had mel- ancholy and disastrous proof of the truth of that account by Wentworth " of the genius of that place." Some of the men who hunted him most fiercely to the scaffold were men that had been willing instruments of his worst power in Ire- land. t The origin of this act has been already adverted to. The popular leaders in England declaimed strongly against Wentworth's interpretation of it. If measures were produ- ced, they maintained, of sufficient weight to satisfy the king and council, the intention of the law was fulfilled ; for, they argued, it was never designed to preclude the members of Parliament, when once assembled, from introducing such other topics as they might deem expedient for the general welfare. Wentworth, on the other hand, strenuously con- tended that the express letter of the law was not to be thus evaded ; that the previous approbation of the king and coun- cil was distinctly required to each proposition ; and that no other measures could ever be made the subject of discussion. Surely, however, looking at the origin of the measure, the popular is the just construction. The act was designed, with a benefical purpose, to lodge the initiative power of Parliament in the English council, as a protection against the tyranny of lords and deputies. But once establish this power, and the restraint was designed to terminate. Great was the opportunity, however, for Wentworth, and he made the most of it. Poynings' act was his shield. " I am of opinion," he writes to Cooke, " there cannot be anything in- vaded, which in reason of state ought to be by his majesty's deputy preserved with a more hallowed care, than Poy- nings' act, and which I shall never willingly suffer to be touched or blemished, more than my right eye." Vol. i.,p. 279. Again, when the English attorney proposed something which the lord-deputy feared might work against the stabil- ity of the Poynings' bill, Wentworth described it, " A mighty power gotten by the wisdom of former times ; and it would be imputed to this age, I fear, as a mighty lachete by those that shall still succeed, should we now be so im- provident as to lose it ; and, for my own part, so zealous am I for the prerogatives of my master, so infinitely in love with this in especial, that my hand shall never be had as an in- strument of so fatal a disservice to the crown as I judge the remittal or weakening this power would be." gued, to issue from necessity, the Parliament would be imboldened to clog their grants with conditions, " and conditions are not to be ad- mitted with any subjects, much less with this people, where your majesty's absolute sover- eignty goes much higher than it is taken (per- haps) to be in England." A detailed plan suc- ceeded his many and most emphatic reasons, which unquestionably " clinched" them. The Parliament that was to be summoned, Went- worth pledged himself should be divided into two sessions, the first of which should be ex- clusively devoted to the subject of supplies, while the second, which might be held six months afterward, should be occupied with the confirmation of the " graces," and other na- tional measures, which his majesty so fearfully apprehended. Now the Parliament, Went- worth reasoned, would, in its first session, in all probability, grant a sufficient supply for the expenditure of three years, and this once se- cured, the " graces" might be flung over, if necessary. Farther, the lord-deputy pledged himself that he would procure the return of a nearly equal number of Protestants and Catho- lics to the House of Commons, in order that both parties, being nearly balanced against each other, might be more easily managed. He proposed, moreover, to obtain qualifications for a sufficient number of military officers, whose situations would render them dependant on pro- pitiating the pleasure of the lord-deputy. Then, he urged, with the parties nearly equal, they might easily be kept in an equal condition of restraint and harmlessness, since the Catholics might be privately warned, that if no other pro- vision was made for the maintenance of the army, it would be necessary to levy on them the legal fines ; while all that was necessary to keep the Protestants in check would be to hint to them that, until a regular revenue was es- tablished, the king could not let go the volun- tary contributions, or irritate the recusants by the enforcement of the penal statutes. " In the higher house," Wentworth concluded, " your majesty will have, I trust, the bishops wholly for you ; the titular lords, rather than come over themselves, will put their proxies into such safe hands as may be thought of on this side ; and in the rest, your majesty hath such interest, what out of duty to the crown, and obnoxiousness in themselves, as I do not apprehend much, indeed any, difficulty amongst them." The whole of this extraordinary document is given in an appendix, and the reader is re- quested to turn to it there. Let him turn afterward to the dying words of its author, and sympathize, if he can, with the declaration they conveyed, that " he was so far from being against Parliaments, that he did always think Parliaments in England to be the happy constitution of the kingdom and na- tion, and the best means, under God, to make the king and his people happy." In what sense these words were intended, under what dark veil their real object was concealed, the reader may now judge. It is uplifted before him. Those five sections by which Charles is " fully persuaded to condescend to the present calling of a Parliament" the notice of the villanous juggle of the " two sessions," with which the 96 BRITISH STATESMEN. wretched people are to be gulled the chuck- ling mention of the advantage to be taken of " the frightful apprehension which at this time makes their hearts beat" the complacent pro- vision made for the alternative of their " start- ing aside" the king who is to be able, and the minister who is to be ready, " to chastise such forgetfulness," and "justly to punish so great a forfeit as this must needs be judged to be in them" all these things have long ago been expiated by Wentworth and his master ; but their damning record remains against those who would proclaim that expiation to have been unjustly demanded. Overwhelmed by his minister's project, Charles at last yielded.* Still, even while, reluctantly, he consented, he could not see al- together clearly the necessity for " these things being done these ways," and all the assurances of the lord-deputy could not prevent Charles bidding him, " as for that hydra, take good heed ; for you know that here I have found it as well cunning as malicious. It is true that your grounds are well laid, and I assure you that I have a great trust in your care and judg- ment ; yet my opinion is, that it will not be the worse for my service, though their obstinacy make you to break them, for I fear that they have some ground to demand more than it is Jit for me to give. This I would not say if I had not confi- dence in your courage and dexterity ; that, in that case, you would set me down there an example what to do here." Wentworth now issued his writs for a Par- liament to be instantly held in Dublin, and great joy prevailed among the people. The privy council were summoned, in conformity with the provisions of the law of Poynings, to de- liberate on the propositions to be transmitted to England as subjects for discussion in the session. "To gain this first entrance into the work," Wentworth observes, " I thought it fit to intrust it in this manner with a committee, not only to expedite the thing itself the more, but also better to discover how their pulses beat, wherein I conceived they would deliver themselves more freely than if I had been pres- ent amongst them myself." Soon, however, while the lord-deputy waited without, he was rejoined by his trusty counsellors Wandesford and Radcliffe, with the news that their associ- ates were restive ; that they were proposing all sorts of popular laws as necessary to con- ciliate the houses ; and that, as to subsidies, they quite objected to transmitting a bill with blanks to be filled up at discretion, and were of opinion that the amount should be specified, and confined within the strictest limits of ne- cessity. " I not knowing what this might grow to," writes Wentworth, " went instantly unto them, where they were in council, and told them plainly I feared they began at the wrong end, thus consulting what might please the people in a Parliament, when it would better become a privy council to consider what might please the king, and induce him to call one." The imperious deputy next addressed them in a very long and able speech, pressed upon them the necessities of the nation, and the only modes of arresting them. " The king there- fore desires," he continued, " this great work * Stafford Papers, vol. i., p. 231. may be set on his right foot, settled by Parlia- ment as the more beaten path he covets to walk in, yet not more legal than if done by his pre- rogative royal, where the ordinary way fails him. If this people, then, can be so unwise as to cast off his gracious proposals and their own safety, it must be done without them ; and for myself, as their true friend, I must let them know that I cannot doubt but they will altogether save me the trouble, hasten in their advice, and af- ford their best means for the fulfilling these his so good intentions. That, as a faithful servant to my master, I shall counsel his majesty to attempt it first by the ordinary means ; disap- pointed there, where he may with so much right expect it, / could not, in a cause so just and necessary, deny to appear for him in the head of that army, and there either persuade them fully his majesty had reason on his side, or else think it a great honour to die in the pursuit of that wherein both justice and piety had so far convinced my judgment as not left me wherewithal to make one argument for denying myself unto com- mands so justly called for and laid upon me." In conclusion, Wentworth gave them a still more characteristic warning : " Again I did beseech them to look well about, and be wise by others' harms. They were not ignorant of the misfortunes these meetings had run in Eng- land of late years ; that therefore they were not to strike their foot upon the same stone of distrust which had so often broken them ; for I could tell them as one that had, it may be, held my eyes as open upon those proceedings as another man, that what other accident this mischief might be ascribed unto, there was nothing else that brought it upon us but the king's standing justly to have the honour of trust from his people, and an ill-grounded, nar- row suspicion of theirs, which would not be- ever entreated, albeit it stood with all the rea- son and wisdom in the world. This was that spirit of the air that walked in darkness be- twixt them, abusing both, whereon if once one beam of light and truth had happily reflected, it had vanished like smoke before it !"* The council could not hold to one of their purposes in the presence of such overawing energy, " whereupon they did, with all cheer- fulness, assent unto the council ; professed they would entirely conform themselves unto it ; acknowledged it was most reasonable this * See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 236-241, for the de- spatch, in which these things are all most happily described. Laud, in a subsequent letter, gives Wentworth some ac- count of the way in which the despatch had been received. I extract one amusing passage : " The next day, at Green- wich, your despatch to Secretary Cooke was read to the committee, the king present, order given for us to meet, and for speed of our answer to you. If speed be not made to your mind, I am not in fault, and I hope you will have all things in time. Everybody liked your carriage and dis- course to the council, but thought it too long, and that too much strength was put upon it ; but you may see what it is to be an able speaker. \our old friend says he had rather see you talk something into the exchequer, but he pleases himself extremely to see how able Brutus is in the senate- house ! And wot you what ? When we came to this pas- sage in your despatch, ' Again I did beseech them to look well about, and to be wise by others' harms ; they were not ignorant of the misfortunes these meetings had run in Eng- land of late years,' <fcc. Here a good friend of yours inter- posed, ' quorum pars magna fui.' I hope you will charge this home upon my Lord Cottington ; he hath so many Spanish tricks, that I cannot tell how to trust him for any- thing but making of legs to fair ladies." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 255, 256. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 97 kingdom should defray itself ; that they would not offer the pardon, or any other act that might bear the interpretation of a condition ; that they would send over no other laws hut such as I should like ; nay, if I pleased, they would send over the bill of subsidy alone."* Another obstruction remained, which was as fiercely and immediately disposed of. The council had ventured to suggest to the lord- deputy the existence of an ancient custom, whereby the Lords of the Pale claimed the right of being consulted respecting the project- ed measures, but which Wentworth had at once silenced by " a direct and round answer." Four days after this, however, the Earl of Fin- gal, on behalf of his brother peers, obtained an interview, and, as the deputy described, " very gravely, and in a kind of elaborate way, told me," &c., &c. It is simply necessary to add, that so peremptory and supremely contemptu- ous was Wentworth's reception of these tra- ditionary claims, that the Lord Fingal was fain to escape from his presence with a submissive apology, t Nothing remained now but the elections. Some difficulty attended them at the first, but one or two resolute measures quelled it.J In July, 1634, an admirably balanced party of Catholics and Protestants assembled in the Irish House of Commons. With extraordinary pomp and ceremony^ the lord -deputy proceeded to meet them. His speech, however, was more startling than his splendour. He began by telling them that two sessions should be held ; and that the first, " according to the natural order," should be devoted to the sovereign, and the second to the subject. " In demanding supplies," he continued, " I only require you to provide for your own safety ; I expect, therefore, your * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 255. To this Wentworth shrewdly subjoins, " But I, not thinking it fit it should come so singly from the king without some expression of care for the good government of his people, have caused it to be ac- companied, as you will receive it, by this express." t See the deputy's own account, Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 246, 247. t " The priests and Jesuits here," writes Wentworth, in a very able despatch to Cooke, " are very busy in the elec- tion of knights and burgesses for this Parliament, call the people to their masses, and there charge them, on pain of excommunication, to give their voice with no Protestant. I purpose hereafter to question some of them, being, indeed, a very insufferable thing for them thus to interpose in causes which are purely civil, and of passing ill consequence to warm and inflame the subjects one against another ; and, in the last resort, to bring it to a direct party of Protestant and Papist, which surely is to be avoided as much as may be, unless our numbers were the greater. A sheriff that, being set on by these fellows, carried himself mutinously in the election of burgesses for this town, we brought into the Castle Chamber upon an ore tenus, where, upun what he had set under his hand, we fined him 200, and 500 more for his contempt in refusing to set his hand to another part of his examination, both at the council board and in open court, disabling him for ever bearing that office hereafter in this city ; which wrought so good an effect, as giving order presently for chasing of a new sheriff, and going on the next day with the election again, the voices were ull order- ly taken ; and the conformable proving the greater number, Catelin, the king's sergeant and recorder of this town, and Alderman Barry, a Protestant, were chosen ; the former whereof I intend to make the speaker, being a very able man for that purpose, and one I assure myself will in all things apply himself to bis majesty's service." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 260. ^ " It was the greatest civility and splendour," writes Wentworth, " Ireland ever saw. A very gallant nobility and gentry appeared, far above that 1 expected." Vol. i., p. 276. See a programme in the Biog. Brit., vol. vii., p. 4184, 4185. N contributions will be both liberal and perma- nent : that is, there must be a standing reve- nue (mark it well) provided by you to supply and settle the constant payments of the army ; for it is far below my great master to come at every year's end, with his hat in his hand, to entreat that you would be pleased to preserve yourselves." Moreover, he told them that, if they expected constant protection without con- tributing towards it, they looked for more than had ever been the portion of a " conquered king- dom." A bitter warning succeeded this of the fate of English Parliaments. " Take heed," he said, in a lesson from his own patriotic experien- ces, "take heed of private meetings and con- sults in your chambers, by design and privity aforehand to contrive how to discourse and car- ry the public affairs when you come into the houses ; for, besides that they are in themselves unlawful, and punishable in a grievous measure, I never knew them in all my experience to do any good to the public or to any particular man. I have oftenknown them do much harm to both." With these were mingled some just entreat- ments. " Divide not nationally betwixt Eng- lish and Irish. The king makes no distinction betwixt you, but reputes you all without preju- dice, and that upon safe and true grounds, I assure myself, his good and faithful subjects. And madness it were in you, then, to raise that wall of separation amongst yourselves. If you should, you know who the old proverb deems likest to go to the wall ; and, believe me, Eng- land will not prove the weakest. But, above all, divide not between the interests of the king and his people, as if there were one being of the king, and another being of his people." He concluded with a distinct statement, that their conduct during the session should be at- tended, according to its results, with punish- ment or reward.* Not in words only, but equally in the man- ner of its delivery, did this speech proclaim the despotic genius of Lord Wentworth. Here he resorted to all those arts which, as I have be- fore remarked, are essentially necessary to the success of the despot ; and illustrated, by con- duct which to such superficial statesmen as my Lord Cottington seemed vain and unnecessary, his profound knowledge of character. " Well," he writes to his more relying friend the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, " well, spoken it is since, good or bad I cannot tell whether ; but sure I am not able yet to help myself to a copy of it. But as it was, / spake it not betwixt my teeth, but so loud and heartily that I protest unto you I was faint withal at the present, and the worse for it two or three days after. It makes no matter, for this way I was assured they should have sound at least, with how little weight soever it should be atr- tended. And the success was answerable ; for had it been low and mildly delivered, I might per- chance have gotten from them, it was pretty well ; whereas this way, filling one of their senses with noise, and amusing the rest with earnestness and vehemence, they swear (yet forgive them, they know not what they say !) it was the best spoken they ever heard in their lives. Let Cottington crack me that nut now."t Secure of his measures, Wentworth demand- ed at once the enormous grant of six subsi- cu a i uiiue me enurmuus gram 01 six suusi- * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 287-290. t Ibid., p. 273. 98 BRITISH STATESMEN. dies. * With the view, at the same time, of pre- venting the possibility of the parties communi- cating in any way with each other, and so cut- ting from beneath them every ground of mutual reliance, he introduced the proposition to the House on the second day of their meeting. Ig- norant of each other's sentiments incapable of anything like a plan of opposition nothing was left for Protestants and Catholics but to seek to rival each other, as it were, in the devo- tion of loyalty. The subsidies were voted un- conditionally.t and one voice of profound re- spect for the lord-deputy rose from allj Not less successful was his management of the convocation of Irish clergy, which had been summoned with Parliament, and from whom eight subsidies were ultimately procured. For- tified with his money bills, and just as the ses- sion was on the eve of closing, Wentworth turned with contempt to the proceedings of the House of Lords. Here had been opposition * He had great difficulty in inducing the privy council to accede to this. At last he prevailed : " Sir Adam Loftus," as he writes to Cooke, "first beginning the dance, which is now the second time he hath done the king passing good service in this kind." Vol. i., p. 259. Not a single service did Lord Wentworth ever receive without acknowledging it strongly to the king, accompanied by the special naming of those who had so served him. t These were the first " settled subsidies" that had ever been paid in Ireland. See Papers, vol. i., p. 307. i See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 277-279. One restive member there was, and one only. This was Sir Robert Talbot ; who, having mentioned Wentworth without a suf- ficiently awful respect, was instantly expelled, and commit- ted to custody till, on his knees, he begged pardon of the deputy. Commons' Journ., vol. i., p. 116. Leland, vol. iii., p. 18. One case may be added to this of a very different character, in proof that, when Wentworth saw the means of advancing the public service, even at the cost of some personal consideration, he did not care to waive the latter. Among the proclamations he had issued to regulate the Parliamentary sitting, he expressly forbade the entrance of any member of either house with his sword, and all obeyed this except the young Earl of Ormond, who told the usher of the black rod that he should have no sword of his except through his body. Equally resolute was his answer to the fiery questioning of the lord-deputy himself, quietly produ- cing his majesty's writ, which had called him to Parliament "cinctum cum gladio," or "per cincturam gladii." The doubt then occurred to the deputy of the superior value of young Ormond's service to his enmity ; and, after consulta- tion with " his two friends, Sir George Radcliffe and Mr. Wandesford," the youth was taken into favour. I am obli- ged to Mr. Crofton Croker for the favour of this note, which I find in a manuscript translation he has been good enough to lend me, of the Irish portion of the travels of a gascona- ding coxcomb of a Frenchman, Sieur de la Boullaye-le-Gouz, who honoured the island with his company in 1644, and obliged the world with a most amusing account of his visit. This very Ormond was then viceroy, and the part he had himself played to Lord Wentworth was curiously enough rivalled on this occasion by the illustrious Le Gouz. " I followed the train," observes our traveller, in Mr. Croker's happy translation, " in order to enter more freely into the castle, but at the door they ordered me to lay down my sword, which I would not do, saying that, being born of a condition to carry it before the king, I would rather not see the castle than part with my arms. A gentleman in the iuite of the viceroy, seeing from my gallant bearing that I was a Frenchman, took me by the hand, saying, ' Strangers shall on this occasion be more favoured than residents,' and he brought me in. I replied to him that his civility equalled that of the French towards his nation, when they met them in France !" <) It was one of the strokes of the lord-deputy's policy to aggravate every difference between the two houses. He describes, with singular sarcasm, in one of his despatches, a difference of this sort. " The Commons would not confer with the Lords unless they might sit and be covered as well as their lordships, which the other would by no means ad- mit. For my part I did not lay it very near my heart to agree them, as having heretofore seen the effects which follow when they are in strict understanding, or at differ- ence amongst themselves. I saw plainly that keeping them at distance I did avoid their joining in a petition for the graces." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 279. the positive enactment of various salutary regulations the consideration of grievances ! " I let them alone," says one of his despatches, till the last day that I came into the House to conclude the session ; but then, being very jealous lest in my time anything might creep in, and grow upon the king's prerogative in this tender and important particular,* I clearly de- clared they had therein proceeded farther than they had warrant for and did beseech their lordships to be better advised for the fu- ture, and not to exceed that power which was left them by that law, to wit, a liberty only to offer by petition to the deputy and council such considerations as they might conceive to be good for the Commonwealth, by them to be transmitted for laws, or staid, as to them should seem best ; whereunto they condescend- ed without any opposition." The English ministers were rapt in delight and astonishment ! As the time approached, however, for the second session the session of " graces" a shadow fell over their congrat- ulations. Bucklered with his law of Poynings, the lord-deputy bravely reassured them. " For my own part," he wrote to Cooke, in the apt simile of an amusement which he was then, in the intervals of his bodily infirmities, ardently given to, " for my own part, I see not any haz- ard in it, considering that we have this lyme hound in our power, still to take off when we please ; which is not so easy with your Parlia- ments of England, where sometimes they hunt loose, forth of command, choose and give over their own game as they list themselves. "t Farther, however, to quiet the apprehensions of Charles, and induce him to suffer the con- tinuance of Parliament, Wentworth wrote to the king, telling him that the lord-deputy and his council meant to take on themselves the whole responsibility and blame of refusing the obnoxious graces, while the whole merit of granting such as might be granted safely should be given to his majesty.}: Wentworth redeemed his pledge. ' It is un- necessary to describe the proceedings of that session at any length. Suffice it to say, that the arts and energy of the first session were redoubled to a greater success in the second. None of the obnoxious graces were accorded. He openly told the Parliament that he had re- fused even to transmit them to England, and asserted his right to do this under the law of Poynings. For a time, the overbearing ener- * The law of Poynings. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 305. Wentworth preserved through life, notwithstanding his frightful illnesses, the most passionate fondness for hunting and hawking. It is curious to observe, in his accounts of these amusements, an occasional letting out of another object he may have had in them, besides that of personal enjoyment. They gave him an opportunity of display. " Your defeat of your hawking sport in Wiltshire," he writes at about this time to Cotting- ton, " is nothing like to mine ; for (as the man you wot of said by the pigeons) here hath not been a partridge in the memory of man, so as having a passing high-flying tarsell I am even setting him down, and to-morrow purpose, with a cast or two of spar-hawks, to betake myself to fly at black- birds, ever and anon taking them on the pate with a trunk. It is excellent sport, there being sometimes 200 horse on the field looking upon us, where the Lord of Fonsail drops out of doors with a poor falconer or two ; and if Sir Robert Wind and Gabriel Epsley be gotten along, it is a regale." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 163. t See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 328. And see the de- spatch to Cooke, vol. i., p. 338. >> See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 345, et seq. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 99 gy of his measures forced the members to the silence of fear ; but this was broken by the Catholic party, who, having suffered the most grievous wrong in the deception, at last made a feeble show of resistance. Wentworth in- stantly flung all his influence for the first time among the Protestants, and precipitated the Catholics into a trial of their strength, unadvi- sed with each other, and utterly unprepared. They were at once defeated. The Protestants then claimed their reward, and with an ear- nestness which was only finally subdued by the lord-deputy's threats of worse terrors than those which their wrongs included.* He had nothing left now but to write one of his most pleasing despatches to his royal master, con- taining " at once a clear and full relation of the issue of this second session, which was, through the wayward frowardness of the Popish party, so troublesome upon the first access, but is now recovered and determined by the good as- sistance of the Protestants, with great advan- tage to your majesty, by those excellent and beneficial laws which, with much tugging, are gotten from them ; and all the graces prejudicial to the crown laid also so sound asleep as I am con- fident they are never to be awakened more."t In the next despatch he had the satisfaction of assuring his majesty that the privilege of im- peachment had been wrested both from Lords and Commons ;t in the next, that certain troub- les of the convocation had been most emphat- ically silenced ; and in the next, that his maj- esty was now, in the person of his humble dep- uty, the uncontrolled disposer of the destinies of Ireland ! " So now I can say," wrote Went- worth at the close of a long despatch, which by the same messenger he had forwarded to Laud, and which contains a remarkable summary of the many important services he had rendered * "I roundly and earnestly told them I was very indif- ferent what resolution the House should fall upon, serving too just and gracious a master ever to fear to be answerable for the success of affairs in contingence, so long as I did sin- cerely and faithfully endeavour that which I conceived to be for the best. That there were two ends I had my eye on, and the one I wouldinfallibly attain unto either a submission of the people to his majesty's just demands, or a just occasion of breacli, and either would content the king. The first was undeniably and evidently host for them ; but could my mas- ter in his goodness consider himself apart from his subjects, or these become so ingrate, / spake it confidently upon the peril of my head, a breach should be better for him than any tupply they could give him in Parliament. And therefore I did desire that no man should deceive himself: my master was not to seek in his counsels, nor was he a prince that ei- ther could or would be denied just things." For the vari- ous incidents of this session, see Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 320, 321, 328, 339, 341, 343, 344, 345, 349, 353. t In the same despatch (which see iu Straflford Papers, vol. i., p. 341), Wentworth urges upon the king the neces- sity of his surrendering matters of patronage and so forth more immediately into his lord-deputy's hands : " The fewer sharers in the service, the fewer there will be to press for rewards, to the lessening of your majesty's profit, and the more entire will the benefit be preserved for your own crown ; which must, in all these affairs, and shall, be my principal, MAT, INDEED, MY SOLE END." i See the case of Sir Vincent Gookin, Papers, vol. i., p. 349 and 393. Wentworth established by this case, that, under Poynings' law, acts of judicature no less than of legis- lation were prohibited, save by consent of the deputy and his council. $ See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 342-345. " I am not ignorant," subjoined Wentworth to this despatch, with a sort of involuntary forecast of an after reckoning, which he threw off in a self-deceiving jest, " I am not ignorant that my stirring herein will be strangely reported, and censured on that side ; and how I shall be able to sustain myself against your Prynnes, Pirns, and Bens, with the rest of that generation of odd names and natures, the Lord knows." to the crown, " so now I can say the king is as absolute here as any prince in the whole world can be, and may be still, if it be not spoiled on that side ; for so long as his majesty shall have here a deputy of faith and understanding, and that he be preserved in credit, and independent upon any but the king himself, let it be laid as a ground, it is the deputy's fault if the king be denied any reasonable desire." This was grateful news to Laud. Of all the suggesters of the infamous counsels of Charles, Laud and Wentworth were the most sincere : Laud, from the intense faith with which he looked forward to the possible supremacy of the ecclesiastical power, and to which he was bent upon going " thorough," through every obstacle ; Wentworth, from that strong sense with which birth and education had perverted his genius, of the superior excellence of despot- ic rule. Their friendship, in consequence, not- withstanding Wentworth's immense superiori- ty in point of intellect,* continued tolerably firm and steady most firm, indeed, consider- ing the nature of their public connexion.t The letters which passed between them partook of a more intimate character, in respect of the avowal of ulterior designs, than either of them, probably, chose to avow elsewhere ; and though many of their secrets have been effectually con- cealed from us by their frequent use of ciphers, sufficient remain to shadow forth the extre- mest purposes of both. Laud had to regret his position in England, contrasted with that of the Irish deputy. " My lord," he writes to Wentworth, speaking of the general affairs of Church and State, " to speak freely, you may easily promise more in either kind than I can perform ; for as for the Church, it is so bound up in the forms of the common law, that it is not possible for me, or for any man, to do that good which he would, or is bound to do. For your lordship sees, no man clearer, that they which have gotten so much power in and over the Church will not let go their hold ; they have, indeed, fangs with a witness, what- soever I was once said in a passion to have. And for the State, indeed, my lord, I am for thor- ough ; but I see that both thick and thin stays somebody, where I conceive it should not ; and it is impossible for me to go thorough alone. Be- sides, private ends are such blocks in the pub- lic way, and lie so thick, that you may promise what you will, and I must perform what I can, * It is amusing, at times, to observe the commissions to which Wentworth descended for the gratification of Laud, laughing at them secretly while he gravely discharged them. The archbishop himself, however, had an occasional suspi- cion of this, and is to be seen at times insinuating, from be- neath velvet words, a cat-like claw : " I perceive you mean to build," he writes to the lord-deputy on one occasion, " but as yet your materials are not come in ; but if that work do come to me before Christmas, as you promise it shall, I will rifle every corner in it : and you know, my good lord, after all your bragging, how I served you at York, and your church work there : especially, I pray, provide agoodriding house, if there be ever a decayed body of a church to make it in, and then you shall be wall fitted, for you know one is made your stable already, if you have not reformed it, of which I did look for an account according to my remembrances be- fore this time." Vol. i., p. 156. Wentworth had forgotten one of his friend's first commissions, which the reader will recollect to have been quoted. t A curious and instructive essay might be gleaned from the StrafFord Papers on the subject of the friendships of statesmen, or, rather say, of a king's advisers, for the ma- jority of these men did not deserve the name of state- 100 BRITISH STATESMEN. and no more."* To this Wentworth answers j their mutual purposes, Wentworth also intro- in a letter which is not preserved. Its import, j duced into Ireland the Court of High Commis- however, may be gathered from this remarka- , sion, and wrested it to various notable pur- ble passage in Laud's rejoinder : " I am very poses, political as well as religious. glad to read your lordship so resolute, and more to hear you affirm that the footing of them which go thorough for our master's service is not now upon fee, as it hath been. But you are withal upon so many ifs, that by their help you may preserve any man upon ice r be it nev- er so slippery. As, first, if the common law- yers may be contained within their ancient and sober bounds ; if the word thorough be not left out (as I am certain it is) ; if we grow not faint ; if we ourselves be not in fault ; if it come not to peccatum ex te Israel; if others will do their parts as thoroughly as you promise for yourself, and justly conceive of me. Now, I pray, with so many and such ifs as these, what may not be done, and in a brave and noble way 1 But can you tell when these ifs will meet, or be brought together ?"t Satisfactory is the lord-deputy's returning assurance : " For the ifs your lordship is pleased to impute unto me, you shall hereafter have more positive doctrine. I know no reason, then, but you may as well rule the common lawyers in England, as I, poor beagle, do here ; and yet that I do, and will do, in all that concerns my master's service, upon the peril of my head. I am confident that the king, being pleas- ed to set himself in the business, is able, by his wisdom and ministers, to carry any just and honourable action thorough all imaginary oppo- sition, for real there can be none ; that to start aside for such panic fears, fantastic apparitions, as a Prynne or an Eliot shall set up, were the meanest folly in the whole world ; that the debts of the crown taken off, you may govern as you. please ; and most resolute I am that work may be done, without borrowing any help forth of the king's lodgings, and that is as downright a peccatum ex te Israel as ever was, if all this be not effected with speed and ease."t Resolutely did the lord-deputy, as I have shown, realize these principles, and every new act of despotism which struck terror into Ire- land shot comfort to the heart of Laud. " As for my marginal note," exclaims the archbish- op, " I see you deciphered it well, and I see you make use of it too ; do so still thorow and thorow. Oh that I were where I might go so too ! but I am shackled between delays and uncertainties. You have a great deal of honour here for your proceedings. Go on a God's name /" And on Wentworth went, stopping at no gratuitous quarrel that had the slightest chance of pleasing the archbishop, even to the demolishing the family tomb of the Earl of Cork, since his grace, among his select ecclesiastical researches, had discovered that the spot occupied by my Lord of Cork's family monuments was precisely that spot upon which the communion-table, to answer the purposes of heaven, ought to stand !|| To minister to The distinction between him and his confed- erate during all these proceedings is, neverthe- less, to be discerned as widely as the difference of their respective intellects. Wentworth was a despot, but his despotism included many noble, though misguided purposes. Even with this High Commission Court, unjustifiable as were the means, he unquestionably effected an increase to the respectability and usefulness of the clergy, and reformed the ecclesiastical courts, while, at the same time, he never lost sight of the great present object of his govern- ment, that it should, " in the way to all these, raise, perhaps, a good revenue to the crown."* So, while Laud, in England, was, by a series of horrible persecutions, torturing and muti- lating the Puritans,t the deputy of Ireland could boast with perfect truth that, " since I had the honour to be employed in this place, no hair of any man's head hath been touched for the free exercise of his conscience.''! It is also due to Wentworth to observe, that while, at this time, with a view to the further- ance of his general scheme of government, he conceived the vast and unattainable project of reducing all the people of Ireland to a conform- ity in religion, the measures by which he sought to accomplish that project were, many of them, conceived in the profoundest spirit of a large and wide-reaching policy. Theological strife he knew the useless horrors of; and he soon discovered, by his " experience of both houses," that "the root of all disorders in this kingdom is the universal dependance of the popish fac- tion upon Jesuits and friars."^ He speedily declared his determination to the king himself. " I judge it, without all question, far the great- est service that can be done unto your crowns * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 111. f Ibid., p. 155. t Strafford Papers, vol. i. ( p. 173. Following- this pas- sage, in the same letter, is the language which it would be a gross outrage of decency to quote. The archbishop ap- pears to have relished it exceedingly. I) Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 329. II It would be impossible to notice in detail the various personal contests in which Wentworth engaged, though none of them passed, not even the most trifling, without illustrating, in a remarkable degree, the general features of his character. I may refer the reader respecting this affair of the Earl of Cork to the Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 156, 200, 216, 222, 257, 298, 379, 459, and to vol. ii., p. 270 and p. 338. Lord Cork hit upon an ingenious plan of thwarting the lord-deputy, though it failed in consequence of the superior influence of the latter. He wrote to the Lord- treasurer Weston, then notoriously jealous of Wentworth, and opposed to him and Laud, " entreating his favour, for that under this monument the bones of a Weston was en- tombed." * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 187. t " Mr. Prynne, prisoner in the Tower, who hath got his ears sewed on that they grew again as before to his head, is relapsed into new errors." Letter of his newsmonger, Gerrard, to Wentworth, Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 266. Again Prynne's ears expiated those " new errors." Laud's own notice in his diary (Nov., 1630) of the punishment of Leighton, a Scotch divine, the father of Bishop Leighton, is more horrible : " Friday, Nov. 16, part of his sentence was executed upon him in this manner, in the new palace at Westminster, in term time. 1. He was severely whipped before he was put in the pillory. 2. Being set in the pil- lory, he had one of his ears cut off. 3. One side of his nose slit. 4. Branded on one cheek with a red-hot iron, with the letters S S. And, on that day sevennight, his sores upon his back, ear, nose, and face being not cured, he was whipped again at the pillory in Cheapside, and there had the remainder of his sentence executed upon him, by cut- ting off the other ear, slitting the other side of the'nose, and branding the other cheek." Leighton was released, after ten years' captivity, by the Long Parliament, having- by that time lost his sight, his hearing, and the use of his limbs. i See his letter to Con, the popish resident, Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 112. His correspondences with this per- son are in all respects curious, and, to me, significant of a purpose which his death prevented the open disclosure of. If Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 431, 432. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 101 on this side, to draw Ireland into a conform- ity of religion with England; which, indeed, would undoubtedly set your majesty in greater strength and safety within your own dominions than anything now left by the great and happy wisdom of yourself and blessed father unac- complished, to make us an happy and secure people within ourselves ; and yet, this being a work rather to be effected by judgment and degrees than by a giddy zeal and haste, when- ever it shall seem good in your wisdom to at- tempt it (for I am confident it is left as a means whereby to glorify your majesty's piety to posterity), there will, in the way towards it, many things fall continually in debate and con- sideration at the board, with which it will be very unfit any of the contrary religion be ac- quainted."* Urged by the English council, he set about the great work. Undisguised was the aston- ishment of the archbishop, however, at the slow and gradual means proposed by the lord- deputy. His grace had fancied that the trouts who had been so completely tickled out of their moneyt might be as easily tickled out. of their religion, or anything else. The Lord Went- worth thought differently. " It will be ever far forth of my heart." he wrote, in answer to ur- gent pressings of the question, accompanied with especial requests for the enforcing of fines for nonconformity, " to conceive that a con- formity in religion is not above all other things principally to be intended ; for, undoubtedly, till we be brought all under one form of divine service, the crown is never safe on this side ; but yet the time and circumstances may very well be discoursed, and sure I do not hold this a fit season to disquiet or sting them in this kind ; and my reasons are divers. This course alone will never bring them to church, being rather an engine to drain money out of their pockets than to raise a right belief and faith in their hearts, and so doth not, indeed, tend to that end it sets forth. The subsidies are now in paying, which were given with a universal alacrity ; and very graceful it will be in the king to indulge them otherwise as much as may be till they be paid. It were too much at once to distemper them by bringing plantations upon them, and disturbing them in the exer- cise of their religion, so long as it be without scandal. And so, indeed, very inconsiderate, as I conceive, to move in this latter, till that former be fully settled, and by that means the Protestant party become by much the stronger, which, in truth, as yet I do not conceive it to be. Lastly, the great work of reformation ought not, in my opinion, to be fallen upon till all incidents be fully provided for, the army rightly furnished, the forts repaired, money in the coffers, and such a preparation in view as might deter any malevolent licentious spirit to stir up ill humour in opposition to his majesty's pious intendments therein ; nor ought the exe- cution of this to proceed by step or degrees, but all rightly dispersed, to be undertaken and gone through withal at once. And certainly, in the mean time, the less you call the conceit * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 307. t " Now, fie upon it, if the salmon of that river be bad, yet your loss is the less, since you have so many trouts that may be tickled into anything, or anything out of them." Laud to Wentworth, Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 329. of it into their memory, the better it will be for us, and themselves the quieter ; so, as if there were no wiser than I, the bishops should be privately required to forbear these ecclesiastical censures till they understood farther of his maj- esty's pleasure therein."* Steadily he proceeded, as if already, in the far but not uncertain distance, he saw the ac- complishment of this extraordinary design. He began at what he conceived to be the root of the evil. The churches had fallen to ruin ; the Church revenues had been cut to pieces by long leases and fraudulent appropriations ; and the offices of the Church had been given into the hands of the ignorant, since to such only the abject poverty of her means offered any of the inducements of service, t " Now," wrote Went- worth to the still precipitate archbishop, " to attempt the reducing of this kingdom to a con- formity in religion with the Church of England, before the decays of the material churches here be repaired, an able clergy be provided, so that there might be both wherewith to receive, in- struct, and keep the people, were as a man going to warfare without munition or arms. It being, therefore, most certain that this to be wished ref- ormation must first work from ourselves, I am bold to transmit over to your grace these few prop- ositions, for the better ordering this poor Church, which hath thus long laid in the silent dark. The best entrance to the cure will be clearly to discover the state of the patient, which I find many ways distempered : an un- learned clergy, which have not so much as the outward form of churchmen to cover them- selves with, nor their persons any ways rever- enced or protected ; the churches unbuilt ; the parsonage and vicarage houses utterly ruined ; the people untaught through the non-residency of the clergy, occasioned by the unlimited shameful numbers of spiritual promotions with cure of souls, which they hold by commendams ; the rites and ceremonies of the Church run over without all decency of habit, order, or gravity, in the course of their service ; the pos- sessions of the Church, to a great proportion, in lay hands ; the bishops farming out their ju- risdictions to mean and unworthy persons :" and so, through all the sources of the evil, in a despatch of elaborate learning and profound suggestion, the lord-deputy proceeds, enforcing upon the archbishop, finally, that he must sur- render his present hopes of any immediate re- sult. " It would be a brainsick zeal and a goodly reformation, truly," he exclaims, in a supplementary despatch of yet greater energy and earnestness, "to force a conformity to a religion, whereas yet there is hardly to be found a church to receive, or an able minister to teach the people. No, no ; let us fit ourselves in these two, and settle his majesty's payments for the army, discharge his debts, and then have with them and spare not ! I believe the hottest will not set his foot faster or farther on * Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 49. t The reader will be startled, probably, to hear the value of some of the Irish bishoprics in that day. ' The old Bishop of Kilfanora," writes Wentworth to Laud, " is dead, and his bishopric one of those which, when it falls, goes a begging for a new husband, being not worth above fourscore pounds to the last man ; yet in the handling of an under- standing prelate it might perchance grow to be worth two hundred pounds, but then it will cost money in suit." Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 172. 102 BRITISH STATESMEN. than I shall do. In the mean time, I appeal to j any equal-minded man whether they or I be more in the right." Unparalleled were the confidence and self- possessed resource with which Wentworth's great schemes now ran side by side. At one and the same moment he forced the revenue by which his projected buildings in the Church were to be raised, and cleared away the ob- structions which still covered the sites he had selected. The decision of ecclesiastical rights was removed by him from the courts of com- mon law to the Castle-chamber ; the Earl of Cork was forced to restore an annual revenue of 2000 which had been originally wrested from the Church ; and, understanding that the Bishop of Killala had been meddling with un- derhand bargains to defraud his see, he sent for him to the presence chamber, and told him, with open and bitter severity, that he deserved j to have his surplice pulled over his ears, and to be turned out of the Church on a stipend of four nobles a year!* His usual success fol- lowed these measures ; lands and tithes came pouring into his hands ; and he issued a com- mission for the repair of churches, and won for it a ready obedience. t In the midst of his labours, Wentworth turn- ed aside, for a moment, to prefer a personal suit to the king. Consideration in the eyes of those over whom he held so strict and stern a hand was beyond all things valuable to him. It was, indeed, the very material of his scheme of government. He appears, therefore, to have felt at this time that some sudden and great pro- motion from the king to himself would give his government an exaltation in the eyes of that " wild and rude people," of infinite importance to its security. His claims upon the king were immeasurable, as his services had been admit- ted to be. He wrote to him to solicit an earl- dom. " The ambition," he said, " which moves me powerfully to serve your majesty, as my obligations are above those that preceded in this employment, suggests unto me an hope I may be more enabled in these restless desires of mine, if I might, before our meeting again in Parliament, receive so great a mark of your favour as to have this family honoured with an earldom. I have chosen, therefore, with all humbleness, to address these lines immediate- ly to yourself, as one utterly purposed to ac- knowledge all to your princely grace, and with- out deriving the least of the privity of thanks elsewhere." A characteristic desire closed the letter, that " no other person know hereafter your majesty found it in your wisdom not fit to be done."t And such was Charles's shortsight- ed and selfish wisdom ! He refused the re- quest. It was sufficient for his purpose that Wentworth was now indissolubly bound to him, since the personal hatred his measures had al- * See the Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 151-156, 171, 380, &c. t One or two of the most remarkable of the measures he projected incidental to this purpose of conformity may he mentioned here. The reader must examine Wentworth's various despatches, if he desires to master the knowledge of them all. He took resolute steps to prevent the children of Catholics from being sent to foreign convents for their education. He proposed the erection of a vast number of Protestant schools throughout Ireland, with large endow- ments and able teachers. He enforced the most rigorous penalties upon non-residence. See Papers, vol. i., p. 393 ; vol. ii., p. 7. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 301, 302. ready excited in the English popular party pre- cluded the possibility of his return to them. Nor had Wentworth provoked the hatred of the pop- ular party alone. Under his superior tyranny, the lords of petty despotism had been crushed,* and incapable oppressors had become the lord- deputy's fiercest accusers of oppression. To please the king, moreover, he had taken upon himself the refusal of various offices to his more importunate courtiers, careless of the odi- um he provoked and scorned. To heap upon him any marks of personal favour, under such circumstances, was an act of courage and hon- esty which the weak monarch did not dare at- tempt. Such wretched tools as Buckingham were more to his personal liking, though less in the balance of his treasury ! " I desire you not to think," he wrote, after refusing the lord- deputy's suit, " that I am displeased with the asking, though for the present I grant it not ; for I acknowledge that noble minds are always accompanied with lawful ambitions. And be confident that your services have moved me more than it is possible for any eloquence or importunity to do ; so that your letter was not the first proposer of putting marks of favour on you ; and I am certain that you will willing- ly stay my time, now ye know my mind so free- ly, that I may do all things a mi modo."^ This refusal was sorely felt by Wentworth. Covering their allusion to the king, he threw into his next despatch to Cottington some ex- pressions of uneasy regret. " I spend more here than I have of entertainments from his majesty ; I suffer ext'reamly in my own private at home ; I spend my body and spirits with ex- tream toil ; I sometimes undergo the miscon- structions of those I conceived should not, would not have used me so. ... But I am re- solved to complain of nothing. I have been something unprosperous, slowly heard, and as coldly answered that way. I will either sub- sist by the integrity of my own actions, or I will perish. "J The lord-deputy's relief was in the measures with which his enterprising genius had sur- rounded him. I have alluded to his repression of certain turbulences that had arisen in the convocation : he now, by his personal influence, prevailed with the learned Usher to surrender * His inquiries into questionable titles and church grants had exploded many a little tyrant, though in this way much private wrong was done. The servants of the English court, however, could never exactly understand his policy in respect of opposition to the aristocracy, and especially his habit of sternly refusing any presents or conciliatory favours from them. I quote a characteristic passage from a despatch of the Secretary Windebank : " Though, while we had the happiness and honour to have your assistance here at the council hoard, you made many ill faces with your pen (pardon, I beseech your lordship, the over free cen- sure of your Vandyking), and worse oftentimes with your speeches, especially in the business of the Lord Falconberg, Sir Thomas Gore, Vermuyden, and others, yet I understand you make worse there in Ireland, and there never appeared a worse face under a cork upon a bottle, than your lordship hath caused some to make in disgorging such church liv- ings as their zeal had eaten up. Another remarkable error of your lordship, which makes much noise here, is that you refuse all presents, for which, in one particular, you had your reward ; for it is said that a servant bringing you a present from his master, and your lordship refusing it, the servant likewise would have none of your reward. By this your lordship may perceive hnw circumspect you hnve reason to be of your ways, considering how many malicious eyes are upon you, and what interpretations they make of your ac- tions." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 161. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 332. $ Ibid., p. 354. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 103 the ecclesiastical articles he had forwarded to Ireland, and which were anything but accepta- ble to Laud ; he forced upon the clergy a se- ries of hateful metropolitan canons ; and, by a series of measures similar in spirit to those which had subdued the Parliament, he con- founded and subdued the restless parsons.* In an early despatch, he had to boast of only one dissentient voice from a new and most as- tounding " Protestant uniformity!" The Irish common lawyers now received some farther proofs of his care, with intelligi- ble hints of his prospective schemes. He pre- sented them with the majority of the English statutes that had been passed since the time of Poynings, but exacted from them certain condi- tions, at the same time, which soon enabled him to describe to the king, in the following terms, his Irish ministers of justice : " Not de- clined to serve other men's unwarrantable pur- poses by any importunity or application ; nev- er in so much power and estimation in the state and with the subject as now, and yet con- tained in that due subordination to the crown as is fit ; ministering wholly to uphold the sov- ereignty ; carrying a direct aspect upon the prerogatives of his majesty, without squinting aside upon the vulgar and vain opinions of the populace."t The army next engaged his attention. He supplied them with clothes, with arms, with am- munition ; he redeemed them from licentious- ness,:): and strengthened them in numbers and in discipline. He completed several regiments of foot, collected together some most efficient cavalry, and, in a very short time, astonished the court in England by returns of a richly-appoint- ed and well-marshalled force. They heard with still greater astonishment that the lord-deputy himself could find time to visit the whole ar- my, and to inspect every individual in it ! And he farther declared to them, that he held him- self ever ready to mount horse at a moment's warning, and lead a troop of his own, raised and accoutred at his own charge, to repress, by a sudden movement, any popular commotion. Vainly, however, he strove to communicate energy enough to Charles to procure his sec- onding some wider schemes projected by him in reference to the army. The army was the keystone of that vast building which the ima- gination of Wentworth had already raised in the distance. The army was to hang in potent control over everything, to be " the great peace- maker betwixt the British and the natives, be- twixt the Protestant and the Papist, and the * See Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 342-344. t Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 18. t " Whence it is that the soldier is now welcome in every place, where before they were an abomination to the inhabi- tants ; that hy this means the army in true account may be said to be of double the strength it had been appre- hended." Strafford Papers, vol ii., p. 17. t) " For myself, I had a dead stock in horses, furniture, and arms for my troop, that stood me in 6000, and all in readiness upon an hour's warning to march. Nor did 1 this out of vanity, but really in regard I did conceive it became me not to represent so great a majesty meanly in the sight of the people ; that it was of mighty reputation to the ser- chief securer, under God and his majesty, of the future and past plantations." But Went- worth was foiled, by the indolent envy of his English coadjutors, from realizing the great de- sire he held, " that his majesty breed up and have a seminary of soldiers in some part or other of his dominions."* Indolent envy and active opposition notwith- standing, the general reputation of the lord- deputy of Ireland increased daily. " Mr. Sec- retary Cooke," wrote Lord Cottington to him, " is so diligent and careful to give your lord- ship an account of all your despatches and an- swers to them, as there is nothing for me to say, but that, for aught I can discern, every- body else is so too. My lord-marshal is your own, my Lord of Canterbury your chaplain, Secretary Windebank your man, the king your favourite, and I your good lord. In earnest you have a mighty stock of opinion amongst us, which must of necessity make you damnable proud, if you take not heed."t The Lord-treas- urer Weston alone, the old propitiator of the king's regards to the quondam supporter of the petition of rights, but now bitterly jealous of Wentworth's friendship with Laud, scarcely cared to conceal his animosity, t A fatal at- tack of illness, however, at this time removed Weston ; and the only alloy which served to dash the secret satisfaction with which the news of this event was received by Wentworth, was the existence of very decided rumours that the vacant staff would be offered to him- self.^ I have already touched on the many objec- tions which Wentworth entertained to an of- fice of this sort, and he now sought by every means, and with characteristic energy, to pre- vent its being offered to him at all. To hi# friends who wrote to him urging its acceptance, he peremptorily answered ; and, at the same time, by the same messenger, forwarded vari- ous requests to several of them, that they would take on themselves to intimate in every quar- ter, as plainly as possible, their knowledge of his objection to it. In farther promotion of this object, he practised a very singular piece of deception. His retained gossip, Mr. Gar- rard who continued faithfully and regularly, in the absence of a newspaper, to fulfil all the duties of one, and to retail to the deputy all the occurrences and scandal of the court and the city had given him, from time to time, most minute accounts of the illness of Weston * Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 198. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 430. t The truth is, I conceive my lord-treasurer some time before his death wished me no good, being grown extreme jealous of my often writing to my Lord of Canterbury, and myself, out of a sturdiness of nature, not so gently passing by his unkind usage as a man of a softer and wiser temper might have done ; for I confess I did stomach it very much to be so meanly suspected (being as innocent and clear of crime towards him as the day), considering that I had, upon my coming from court, given him as strong a testimony of my faith and boldness in his affairs nay, indeed, a strong- er, than any other friend he had durst, or, at least, would do for him. So as finding myself thus disappointed of the confidence I had in his professions at our parting, I grew so impatient as to profess even to himself I would borrow a being from no man living but my master, and there I would vice of the crown, when they saw me in such a posture, aa , fasten myself as surely as I could. So as by his death it is that I was upon an hour's warning able to put myself on ' not altogether improbable that I am delivered of the heavi- horseback, and to deliver, in spight of all opposition, a letter est adversary I ever had." Wentworth to the Earl of New in any part of the kingdom ; and lastly, in regard men should castle, Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 41 1. See, also, a letter tee I would not exact so much duty from any private captain of Laud's, vol. i., p. 329. at I did myself upon my myself, being their general." Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 18. Q See Garrard's letter, in StrafFord Papers, vol. i., p. 388. 389. 104 BRITISH STATESMEN. through its progressive stages, and finally had reported his death.* It was Wentworth's pol- icy, however, to convey to the court, that, so indifferent was he in respect of Weston's of- fice, he had never troubled himself to inquire the probable issue of his illness, and, indeed, had never heard of it. As soon, therefore, as an official intimation of the occurrence was sent to him from Cottington, we find him an- swering thus : " My very good lord, I was nev- er more surprised in my life than upon the read- ing of your last letter, not having had any no- tice of my lord-treasurer's least indisposition be- fore. And how it happens I know not, but I am sure I was never well since almost, and that Monday night last I swooned twice before they could get off my cloathes."t And again, assuring Lord Newcastle : " Yet I protest, 1 ever wished well to his person, and am heart- ily sorry for his death, which was signified unto me by my Lord Cottington before I heard anything of his sickness, and took me, in a man- ner, by surprise."^. These precautions were successful. Left settled in his government of Ireland, he next sought, by every possible resource, to estab- lish a permanent revenue. In this pursuit, he exhausted his industry, his energy, his genius. Under his superintendence, the produce of the customs rose, within four years, from 12,000 a year to 40,000, and continued to advance rapidly. Nor were the means by which it was accomplished other than just and honourable. He improved the method of collection, protect- ed the coasts, swept the Channel and the har- bours of pirates, and, in fine, lifted the com- merce and the shipping of Ireland into a rich prosperity, by freeing it from danger. "My bumble advice," observes Wentworth, " forthe increase of trade was, that his majesty should not suffer any act of hostility to be offered to any merchants or their goods within the Chan- nel, which was to be preserved and privileged, as the greatest of his majesty's ports, in the same nature and property as the Venetian state do their Gulf, and the King of Denmark his Sound ; and therefore I humbly besought his majesty and their lordships that it might ac- cordingly be remembered and provided for in all future treaties with foreign princes." In completion of this scheme, the lord-deputy struggled hard to rescue the trade of Ireland from several absurd restrictions and monopo- lies ; and in this, having partially succeeded, his government left a claim for gratitude which is remaining still. $ In resorting to just measures occasionally, * See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 243, 374, 387, <fcc. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 393. J Strafford Papers, p. 411. Cottington himself was a candidate for the office, and never forgave Laud his disap- pointment, which the profits of the mastership of the records were by no means sufficient to heal over. The treasury was administered by commission for twelve months, when it was placed by Laud, to the astonishment of all who were still unacquainted with the archbishop's designs for the state advancement of the Church, in the hands of Juxon, bishop of London. Laud, recording the appointment in his Diary (March, 1636), observes, that " No churchman had it since Henry VII. 's time ;" and adds, "Now if the Church will not hold themselves up under God, I can do no more." t) For the various measures, and the elaborate reasoning with which the lord-deputy supported them, see Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 67, 90, 106, 202, 308, 393, 307, 400, 521 192, 351, 366, 386, 405, 174, 340, 299, &c., &c. ; and vol ii., p. 18, 198, 137, 20, 89, 135, 42, 151, &c., &c. however, when they were not found to inter- fere with his ulterior schemes, Wentworth had taught himself no lesson of refraining from what was unjust. Money was to be had some- how : if justly, well ; if not, it was to be had no less. He now, for instance, imposed a li- cense upon the retail of tobacco, and himself farmed the privilege for an annual rent of 7000, and finally of 12,000. A tax was laid also on brewing, by way of feeler for the intro- duction of the excise an object of mortal ha- tred with the Irish. The statutes of wills and uses were intro- duced, no less beneficial to the crown, and, hap- pily, more just to the subject. They strength- ened the tenure of property, fixed a remedy against fraudulent conveyances, restored wid- ows to their jointures, and heirs to their inher- itances. What was vastly more important to Wentworth, they increased the king's fines in the Court of Wards by 10,000 a year ! A mint, also, was erected in Ireland, in spite of desperate opposition from the officers of the English Mint, with the view of remedying the excessive scarcity of coin ; workmen were in- troduced from England, to sink in various parts of the island for saltpetre, which Wentworth fancied might be obtained to commercial pur- poses ; and he made several successful efforts to work the silver mines and marble quarries.* Greater projects, too, than these, occupied the mind of the lord-deputy. Before he set foot in Ireland,t he had conceived the noble scheme of opening a victualling trade between Ireland and Spain. The distrust with which the patriotic party regarded Spain may have influenced him first, as if in defiance, to rise superior to such " vain apprehensions ;" but be that as it might, his despatches vindicate his plan. They show how admirably the com- modities and the wants of the respective king- doms correspond, and how closely reciprocal are their interests. They even supply a state- ment, drawn up with enormous pains from the information of various commercial agents, of the commodities which each port in Spain could either receive from Ireland, or give back in re- turn. In one matter especially Wentworth saw the source of enormous advantage, since the great annual fleets to the colonies, which were so often detained in the Spanish harbours for want of provisions, could clearly be sup- plied far more conveniently and cheaply from Ireland than from any other country in Europe. Contemporaneously with this measure, the lord- deputy had resolved to attempt two other proj- * I have already supplied various authorities for these measures, to which I must refer the reader. With one of his packets to the king, Wentworth forwarded " an ingot of silver of 300 ounces, being the first that ever was got in Ireland ;" accompanying it with a proud expression of his hope that " this kingdom now at length, in these latter ages, may not only fill up the greatness and dominion, lint even the coffers and exchequer of the crown of England. Sure I am, it becomes not this little one that her breasts should ever be dry, nor ought she with a sparing hand to communicate of her strength and wealth there, considering- with what mass of treasure and streams of blood she hath, been redeemed and preserved by that her elder and more excellent sister. May your majesty's days be as lasting and glorious as the best and purest of metals, and God Almighty prosper and accomplish all your princely thoughts and coun- sels, be they old or new." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 174. t See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 93, 94. That remark- able despatch was written while waiting at Westminstei for the ship that was to convoy him to Dublin. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 105 ects. " And surely, sir," he wrote to the king, " if we be able to furnish, and go through with this undertaking increase the growth and set up the manufactory of hemp and flax in that your kingdom I will hope to leave your sub- jects there in much happier condition than I found them, without the least prejudice. to your subjects here. For this is a ground I take with me, that to serve your majesty com- pleatly well in Ireland, we must not only endeav- our to enrich them, but make sure still to hold them dependant upon the crown, and not able to subsist without us, which will be effected by wholly laying aside the manufacture of wools into cloth or stuff there, and by furnishing them from this kingdom, and then making your maj- esty sole merchant of all salts on that side ; for thus shall they not only have their cloath- ing, the improvement of all their native com- modities (which are principally preserved by salt), and their victual itself from hence (strong ties and enforcements upon their allegiance and obedience to your majesty), but a means found, I trust, much to advance your majes- ty's revenue upon salt, and to improve your customs. The wools there grown, and the cloths there worn, thus paying double duties to your crown in both kingdoms, and the salt out- ward here, both inward and outward there."* In such principles as these, as through the ma- jority of Wentworth's despotic schemes, some good wrestled with the evil. The linen man- ufacture, for instance, springing out of this monstrous intention, turned out to be a bless- ing to the island. Having learned, on his ar- rival in the country, that no article for export was manufactured there except a small quan- tity of coarse woollen yarn, and unwilling, by encouraging this branch, to interfere with the staple of England, he instantly resolved, by in- troducing the general cultivation of flax, to in- duce the manufacture of linen. At his own charge and adventure he imported and sowed a quantity of superior flax seed ; the next year, his first crop having outgone his expectation, he expended 1000 on the same venture, erect- ed a vast number of looms, procured workmen from France and Flanders, and at last sent forth a ship to Spain, at his own risk,t with the first investment of linen that had ever been exported from Ireland. Sanguine of hopes so well laid, Wentworth then hazarded a pre- diction which has since been amply realized. " Very ambitious am I," writes he to Sir Will- iam Boswell, " to set up a trade of linen- cloathing in these parts, which, if God bless so as it be effected, will. I dare say, be the greatest enriching to this kingdom tbat ever befell it."t The other project he had set up along with this happily fell to the ground for want of encouragement. In proposing to mo- nopolize the sale of salt, without which the Irish could neither carry on their victualling trade nor cure their ordinary provisions, and which was at that time either manufactured by patentees or imported from abroad, Lord Went- worth reckoned on a considerable increase of revenue, and the reduction of the Irish to a * StrafFord Papers, vol. i., p. 93, 94. t See his characteristic letter to the Duke of Medina, SlraflTdrrJ Papers, vol. ii., p. 109, 110. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 473. state of complete dependance. The internal manufacture abolished, it would be next to im- possible to smuggle a commodity so bulky and so perishable by sea, and yet, he urged, " again of so absolute necessity as it cannot possibly stay upon his majesty's hand, but must be had whether they will or no, and may at all times be raised in price so far forth as his majesty shall judge to stand with reason and honour. Witness the Gabelles of salt in France."* This once accomplished, Wentworth felt he would have in his own hands the disposal of the food and the clothing of the Irish, and he pressed it with all his vehemence. " Holding them," ex- claimed he, " from the "manufacture of wool (which, unless otherwise directed, I shall by all means discourage), and then enforcing them to fetch their cloathing from thence, and to take their salt from the king (being that which preserves and gives value to all their native staple commodities), how can they depart from us without nakedness and beggary 1 which in itself is so weighty a consideration as a small profit should not bear down !" The small profit, however, in consequence of the jealousies of Weston, did bear it down, and the lord-deputy was obliged at last to surren- der it. The embarrassments of the Irish treasury had now vanished ; no anticipations any long- er weakened it ; every charge of government was paid to a day ; and, in the fifth year of his power, Lord Wentworth announced to the king that the annual revenue would exceed the ex- penditure by 60,000. This, then, was being " crowned with the completest success !" for, according to such political reasoners as M. de Lally-Tolendal, the prosperity of the exchequer is the true test of the wellbeing of the state, and as long as a wretched people can be flattered or terrified into " coining their hearts" in sums, the king is ably served, and the minister is borne out in his exactions. Yet Wentworth deserves bet- ter advocates ; and it is perhaps due to his fame as a statesman to keep in mind that we do not view his system in a perfect state, since the ground, as it were, had only been cleared for the building w^ien Death struck down the builder. Yorkshire, meanwhile, and Wentworth Woodhouse, had not been forgotten by the lord-deputy ! If he had been living simply as a private gentleman in Ireland, instead of being the immediate manager and director of schemes which would have overwhelmed the strength of a dozen ordinary men, he could not have at- tended with greater minuteness and apparent ease to his private affairs in England. I can- not resist extracting here some passages from an extraordinary letter to his early tutor, Mr. Greenwood, which occasion has already been taken to refer to. It is one of the most singu- lar proofs that could be found anywhere of the compatibility of a comprehensive genius with a vigilant attention to the most minute details. From his viceroyalty the Lord Wentworth can signify his desire " that my tenants use their grounds and houses as honest men and good husbands ought to do, according to their sev- * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 192, 193 ; and see p. 183, 333, 346. 106 BRITISH STATESMEN. eral leases ; that my woods be preserved, and at due seasons felled and sold to the best profit spring- woods I mean ; that the hedges and fences be preserved ; that the ponds, pheasants, partridges, and parks be preserved, and as much profit made of the herbage of Tankersly Park as may be without hurt to the deer ; that fires be kept in the houses at Wood- house and Tankersly, and that the housekeep- ers preserve the rooms sweet, and the stuff without spoil, and principally that the houses be kept dry from taking of rain ;" that " the keep- er of Tankersly must have the more imme- diate care of the woods belonging to Tankers- ly, especially those within the park, and to see that the pond-heads there be kept up, and the water to have a large and open passage to run away in the time of flood, and the grates so cleansed and firm as they break not, nor yet choak up, in which cases all the fish will be sure to go away with the flood." And again, that " none of my demains be plowed in any case. I understand in this Richard Marris hath not followed my direction, which indeed, now and then, if a man would never so fain, he would have done. But if, upon advice taken with you and Robin Rockley, you find at any time good for the grounds they were broken up, then would I have them plowed for my own use (for I know right well the profit of those new rift grounds'), taking still care that they be well limed and manured, and so left as fat and full in heart as might be, to which purpose I would have no cost spared, for I would have the grounds about my houses kept aloft, so as there may be beauty and, pleasure communicated even from them to the houses themselves." With these desires are conveyed a vast host of minor di- rections respecting the servants he would have Greenwood reward, promote, confide in, or dis- trust. Nor does he forget to " beseech you to cause my new study there, which looks into the hall, to be glazed, strong doors and locks to be set upon it ; and such boxes being made as are at Woodhouse, which Richard Forster will, upon your direction, give notice for, the evidence may be put into those boxes, and set in that study, where they will be more safe and handsomely kept than where, they are now. If you could cause like locks to be made for that study as are at Woodhouse, so that one key might open the locks in both places, it were much the better, and advising a little with Rich- ard Forster, he might so order the matter as to have them so ;" and to beg that " the red dam- ask bed, with stools, canopies, chairs, &c., be- longing thereunto, be carefully looked unto." We learn also from this omniscient despatch, that the death of his steward, Richard Marris, "troubles me not so much, albeit in truth I loved him very well, as the sadness and indeed fearfulness of the misfortune thorough which he was lost most grievous, God knows, for him, and scandalous to all that have relation to him ; amongst the rest, I am sure to have my share. Nor do I think that he was drowned as you write, for then how should one pocket be dry 1 But rather that, heavy with drink, he dropped from his horse near the place where his cloak lay, and, so it may be, amazed with the fall, was dragged by the horse, and the girths loosing, left in that wet place, where he was found dead, and where, doubtless for want of company, and in a cold night and lodging, stormed to death. But enough of so woful a subject, which I wish might never be mentioned or remembered again, farther than to consider in it the just judgments of God, and to deter us from this swinish vice, and all other which may draw down upon ourselves like punishments." Sub- joining this, the course to be pursued with re- spect to the brother and heir of the deceased is laid down at great length, and in all its pos- sible bearings, coupled with the following characteristic notice : " I pray you in any case, if it may be, let him be drawn to this by fair and still means ; but if that work not with him, then would I have you let him know that, un- til the account be declared betwixt me and his brother, which I am most willing and desirous may be before the next spring fairly examined by auditors indifferently chosen betwixt us, / will hold the possession both of lands and goods ; that I will assign my debt to the king, and so ex- tend and keep in extent the whole estate, till I be honestly and truly satisfied ; as also that I will perform that last office in accomplishment of that which I know was his brother's intention, to see all his other creditors justly paid before he meddle with the estate, but that then at after I will not be his loss, by the help of God, one farthing. And I pray you, if the first mild- er way take not (which, if there be either hon- esty or conscience in the man, methinks it should), then to proceed roundly the other way, holding all you have, putting the bonds of Darcy Wentworth and Pieter Man in suit upon the land, and keeping all in the state you have already so well settled them, till my coming over." The reverend gentleman had previous- ly been given to understand that, " as for all my rents, the course I desire to be held is thus : A month after every rent day, I would have a time appointed when yourself and Robert Rock- ley may meet, and all the bailiffs be appointed to attend you : there receive their accounts, giving them strict charge to gather what shall be behind, and to bring the remainder and fin- ish their account at Thornhill within a month after. And I beseech you give them no spa- ring, for I have suffered very much by it ; how- ever, I never could perceive my tenants were a groat the better ; besides, when they find they shall be distrained upon, they will observe their day carefully, so as within a rent day or two, this course strictly observed, the rents will come in without any stop." The whole production is, indeed, impressed with the pe- culiarities of Wentworth's subtle and energet- ic genius ; nor was there reason for <VIr. Green- wood to doubt, as he is at the close assured, that the writer " upon a good occasion would not deny his life to him." So also, burdened with his mighty schemes, the lord-deputy found time for every office of private service, of friendship, and of scholar- like amusement. He made his newsman, Mr. Garrard, forward him copies of Dr. Donne's poetry,* which he was amazingly fond of; gathered antiquities for the king ;t vanquished Inigo Jones in a discussion on architecture ;J reared a young greyhound among his own chil- * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 338, &c. t Ibid., vol. ii., p. 82. i Ibid., p. 83. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 107 dren for the little Prince of York ;* corre- sponded with old friends in Yorkshire ;t dis- cussed with Vandyke on various marbles ; hunted, hawked, J and played at the games of primero and mayo. " He played excellently well," says RadclifTe ; " and for company sake, in Christmas, and after supper, he would play sometimes ; yet he never was much taken with it, nor used it excessively, but as a recreation should be used. His chief recreation was after supper, when, if he had company which were suitable unto him, that is, honest, chearful men, he would retire into an inner room, and set two or three hours, taking tobacco and telling stories with great pleasantness and freedom ; and this he used constantly, with all familiarity in private, laying then aside all state and that due respect which in public he would expect." Never for a single instant, however, were the public affairs suffered to wait his leisure They threatened now to demand more than ordinary care, for the king had resolutely thwarted the deputy in his desire to continue the Parliament. "My reasons," he wrote, " are grounded upon my experience of them here. They are of the nature of cats they ever grow curst with age ; so that if ye will have good of them, put them off handsomely when they come to any age, for young ones are ever most tractable. . . . Now that we are well, let us content ourselves there with, "ij Charles, at the same time, had urged upon his minister the preferable course of following out their plans (which were far more favoured with himself than even a submissive Irish Parlia- ment), of increasing the estates of the crown by a search after defective titles. Wentworth, upon this, set resolutely to work. He exam- ined various old records, and discovered that the whole province of Connaught, on the for- feiture of its Irish chieftain, had lapsed, many years ago, to the crown. It had, indeed, even since that time, again been granted away, but the court lawyers now either found flaws in the conveyances or made them. It will be recollected that a recognition of the validity of such titles formed one of the obnoxious " graces" which Wentworth had laid to sleep so soundly. Pledging himself at once to the king, there- fore, that he would reduce Connaught to the absolute possession of the crown, the lord- deputy proceeded into the county of Roscom- mon, summoned a jury composed of " persons of such means as might answer the king a * The Countess of Dorset had preferred the request, to which Wentworth instantly answered : " I did, with all gladness, receive from your ladyship, by this bearer, the first commands it ever 'pleased our young master to honour me withal, and before Christmas I will not fail to furnish his highness with the finest greyhound this kingdom af- fords ; till then I shall humbly crave his highness's pardon ; for to send any before I may have convenient time, under my own eye, to be sure he is of a safe and gentle disposition, and that I may try him here first, how he shall behave him- self amongst my own children, were the greatest indiscre- tion and boldness in me possible. And albeit I assure my- self your ladyship's care and other his highness's attend- ants would be such as the dog should do no harm, yet that were no thanks to me." Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 303. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 116. t " In his later days," Radcliffe observes, "he got little time to see his hawks fly, though he always kept good ones." t> Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 365. Wentworth's previ- ous entreaties for a prorogation will be found at p. 353. round fine in the Castle-chamber in case they should prevaricate, and who, in all seeming, even out of that reason, would be more fearful to tread shamefully and impudently aside from the truth than such as had less, or nothing to lose,"* told them that his present appeal to them was a mere act of courtesy, and, in re- turn for a series of deep and significant threats, received a ready obedience. The same scenes, with the same results, were acted in Mayo and Sligo, and Lord Wentworth went on to Galway. Here he was prepared for opposition. The people, chiefly Roman Catholics, were sup- ported by a formidable body of priests, and had the strenuous countenance and assistance of their hereditary lord, the Earl of St. Alban's and Clanricarde, a nobleman of esteem at the English court. The spirit of Wentworth rose at the prospect, and he prepared the court, in a memorable despatch, for the measures they were to expect from him : " If it be followed with just severity," he wrote, " this opposition will prove of great use to the crown, as any one thing that hath happened since this plan- tation fell in proposition. It shall not only, with a considerable addition of revenue, bring security to this county, which of the whole kingdom most requires it, but make all the succeeding plantations pass with the greatest quietness that can be desired ; whereas, if this froward humour be negligently or loosely han- dled, it will not only blemish the honour and comeliness of that which is effected already, but cut off all hope for the future." He sum- moned a jury on the same principle as in the preceding counties. They were obstinate in their refusal to obey him. The sheriff who had selected them was instantly fined 1000 ; the jurors themselves were cited into the Cas- tle-chamber, and fined 4000 each ; and the Earl of Clanricardet received a heavy repri- mand from the court, and was made to suffer severely. Bitter murmurs were heard in Ire- land, and men spoke out more strongly in Eng- land. But the deputy knew no fear. " This comfort I have to support me against the mal- ice of this race of sturdy beggars, that howbeit they threaten me with a Felton or a Ravillac, yet my master is pleased graciously to accept of my endeavours, and to say publicly at coun- cil-board the crown of England was never so well served on this side as since my coming to the government.":): Exasperated, nevertheless, with these signs of opposition, he now thought to silence them ffectually by one terrible warning. His knowl- dge of the character of the vice-treasurer, the Lord Mountnorris, has been already shown, and I have quoted the deeply significant inti- mation which opened their official connexion, vlountnorris had long disregarded this, and lad, indeed, omitted no opportunity which his )lace afforded him of thwarting in every possi- )le way the schemes of Wentworth. A trifling ircumstance now gave the latter an occasion of punishment. Severely afflicted with the ;out for so frightful were his bodily infirmi- * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 442 ; a despatch in which he entire proceedings are characteristically given. t For the representations made by Wentworth against his nobleman, see Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 451, 479, 492 ; and vol. ii., p. 31, 35, 365, 381. t Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 412 ; and see p. 371. 108 BRITISH STATESMEN. ties that freedom from one complaint seldom failed to be followed by thraldom to another the lord-deputy sat one day in the presence- chamber, when one of his attendants a Mr. Annesley, a distant relation of the Lord Mount- norris accidentally dropped a stool upon his foot. " Enraged with the pain whereof," says Clarendon, " his lordship with a small cane struck Annesley. This being merrily spoken of at dinner at the lord-chancellor's table, where the Lord Mountnorris was, he said, ' the gentleman had a brother that would not have taken such a blow.' "* These words were spoken in the month of April. Eaves- droppers reported them to Wentworth, who instantly forwarded a messenger to London to bring back a king's commission for the trial of Mountnorris. It was sent at his request. Not till December, however, was any farther step taken, though the interim had been em- ployed in giving security to the lord-deputy's purpose. In December, Mountnorris received a sum- mons to attend a council of war the next morn- ing. Ignorant of the cause of so sudden a movement, he was vainly asking his brother councillors to explain it, when Wentworth en- tered, produced the king's commission, charged Lord Mountnorris with an attempt to stir up mutiny against himself as general of the army, and ordered the charge to be read. It ran to this effect : That it having been mentioned at the lord-chancellor's table that Annesley had let a stool fall on the lord-deputy's foot, Mount- norris had scornfully and contemptuously said, " Perhaps it was done in revenge of that pub- lic affront that my lord-deputy did me formerly ; but I have a brother who would not have taken such a revenge." In vain the accused fell on his knees, and requested time for consultation ; in vain he demanded even a copy of the charge, or permission to retain counsel : everything was denied to him ; the lord-deputy cited two articles of war which rendered him amenable to imprisonment and to death ; demanded from the councillors the immediate and summary judgment of a court-martial on both the arti- cles ; and sternly silenced a proposal which they ventured to submit, of separating the char- ges. Guilty the accused was to be voted, " of both or of none ! " Even Lord Moore, one of the councillors who, with Sir R. Loftus, the broth- er of another councillor, had proved Went- worth's case was ordered to resume his seat, and judge the man whom he had accused ! Under the eye of the lord-deputy the council then deliberated and voted ; and their sentence condemned Mountnorris to imprisonment, de- prived him of all his offices, ignominiously dis- missed him from the army, incapacitated him from ever serving again, and finally left him to be shot, or beheaded, at the pleasure of the general. Before the whole court Lord Went- worth then expressed exultation : " the sen- tence was just and noble, and for his part, he would not lose his share of the honour of it !" He turned afterward to the unfortunate Mount- norris ; told him that now, if he chose, he had * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 174. This statement is borne out by Baillie's letters. Rushworth, on the other hand, gives it as Wentworth's witnesses afterward swore to it. Collections, vol. iii., p. 187 ; and see Nalsoa's Collections, vol. i., p. 59. only to order execution, but that he would pe- tition for his life, and " would sooner lose his hand than Mountnorris should lose his head." His purpose was to be more effectually an- swered, in truth, by a contemptuous pardon, and this, from the first, he appears to have de- signed, trusting to the general ignominy that would be thrown over Mountnorris to crush any after-attempt he might make against his own power. The remarks which have been already made on other personal oppressions apply here with still greater force, and to the system which Wentworth had to uphold should the horror and reproach be carried. It is certain that, at the period of this proceeding, Lord Clarendon has justly described the is- sue to which the positions of the parties had brought them : " That either the deputy of Ire- land must destroy my Lord Mountnorris while he continued in his office, or my Lord Mount- norris must destroy the deputy as soon as his commission was determined."* Wentworth was not the man to leave this issue in the hands of chance, nor, at the same time, to blind himself to the results of such conduct as the necessity had forced upon him. " But if, because I am necessitated to preserve myself from contempt and scorn, and to keep and re- tain with me a capacity to serve his majesty with that honour becoming the dignity of that place I here by his majesty's favour exercise, therefore I must be taken to be such a rigid Cato Censorius as should render me almost in- hospitable to humane kind, yet shall not that persuade me to suffer myself to be trodden upon by men indeed of that savage and inso- lent nature they would have me believed to be, or to deny unto myself and my own subsist- ence so natural a motion as is the defence of a man's self." The wife of Mountnorris was a kinswoman of the Lady Arabella Hollis, whose memory Wentworth cherished with such enthusiasm, and " in the name and by the memory of her" hoping that God would so reward him. for it upon " the sweet children of her kinswoman," Lady Mountnorris, immediately after the sen- tence, in a deeply pathetic letter, besought Wentworth to take " his heavy hand from off her dear lord."t Every writer concurs in sta- ting that this letter was coldly and contemptu- ously disregarded by the lord deputy, but an extract from one of his despatches may at least serve to throw some doubt over such a state- ment. " I send you," he writes to Secretary Cooke, "here enclosed the sentence of the council of war in the case of the Lord Mount- norris I foresee full well how I shall be skirmished upon for it on that side : causeless traducing and calumniating of me is a spirit that hath haunted me through the whole course of my life, and now become so ordinary a food as the sharpness and bitterness of it, in good faith, distempers not my taste one jot. Final- ly, as I formerly signed the sentence together * The reader may be referred, in case he desires to pur- sue this subject farther, to the most ample materials of judg- ment and discrimination as to the character and bearing of the parties. Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 73, 76, 1 19, 250, 349, 388, 392, 402, et seq., 448, 497, et seq., 502, 504, 508, et seq., 511, et seq., 514, 519; and to vol. ii., p. 5, 14. et seq., and 145. The unfortunate want of an index to the Strafford Papers makes these references necessary, t Clarendon's State Papers, vol. i., p. 449. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 109 with them, so do I most heartily now join in their letters to you, where we all become hum- ble petitioners to his majesty for his life, which was, God knows, so little looked after by me, that howbeit I hold under favour the sentence most just, yet were it left me in choice wheth- er he must lose his head or I my hand, this should redeem that. His lordship was prison- er in this castle some two days, but upon his physician's certificate that the badness of his lodg- ing might prejudice his health, I sent him upon good bond restrained only to his own house, where he is like to remain till I receive his majesty's far- ther pleasure concerning him." It is most un- likely that such an extraordinary favour as this had been granted on the application of a phy- sician merely, while the lord-deputy had an ob- vious reason for keeping out of sight the influ- ence of the lady. Some short time after, Mountnorris, on con- dition of submitting to Wentworth, and ac- knowledging the justice of his sentence, re- ceived his liberty. Prosecutions, however, had been lodged against him meanwhile in the Star Chamber, and he felt himself a lowered and wellnigh beggared man. "At my Lord Mountnorris his departure hence," writes the deputy, "he seemed wondrously humbled, as much as Chaucer's friar,* that would not for him anything should be dead ; so I told him I never wished ill to his estate nor person farther than to remove him thence, where he was as well a trouble as an offence unto me; that being done (howbeit thorough his own fault with more prejudice to him than I intended), I could wish there were no more debate betwixt us ; and I told him that, if he desired it, I would spare my prosecution against him in the Star Chamber there." Immediately before this pas- sage occurs, in the same letter, Wentworth had remarked, " I assure you I have had a churlish winter of this ; nor hath the gout been without other attendants that do prognostic no long life for me here below ! which skills not much. He lives more that virtuously and gener- ously spruds one month, than some other that may chance to dream out some years, and bury himself alive all the while." The life of the * Chaucer and Dr. Donne appear to have been Went- worth's favourite poets. Chaucer indeed, to the court readers of that day, was as Shakspeare in our own. It is clear, too, from the frequent use of peculiar expressions in his despatches, that the lord-deputy was not unacquainted, and that intimately, with the great dramatist, though he never, as with Chaucer and Donne, quotes connected pas- sages. It is worth subjoining, as an instance out of many, one of Wentworth's sneers at Sir Piers Crosby that " trifle Crosby," as he elsewhere calls him. " Since his depar- ture I have neither heard from him nor of him, more than that he vouchsafed with his pretty composed looks to give the Gallway agents countenance and courtship before the eyes of all the good people that looked upon them, gracing and ushering them to and from all their appearings before the lords ; there is no more to be added in his case but these two verses of old Jeffrey Chaucer : ' Nowhere so busy a man as he ther n'as, And yet he seemed busier than he was.' " When the newsmonger Garrard heard of the affair of Mountnorris, he quotes Dr. Donne, as if to communicate some tender sympathy to his lordship in that way : " When first I heard the news, which was on St. Stephen's day, and how all men talked of it, it disorder'd me, it brake my sleep, I waked at four in the morning, it made me herd the next day less in company ; not that I believed what was said, but that I had no oracle, no such friend on the sudden to go to, who could give such satisfaction as I desired. No- blest lord, your letter hath done it ; what Dr. Donne writ once is most true, Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls, *br thus friends absent speak," <fcc. lord-deputy had, indeed, in the intensity of sen- sation it had required for its sustainment, cov- ered a larger span of existence than years can measure, and now the term that remained to it was fated to be dashed with almost unceas- ing anxieties and troubles, more bitter in pro- portion to the temperament they wrought on. His anticipations of the enmity that would be provoked against him by the case of Mount- norris were more than realized. Laud ventur- ed to intimate to him, " I find that, notwith- standing all your great services in Ireland, which are most graciously accepted by the king, you want not them which whisper, and perhaps speak louder where they think they may, against your proceedings in Ireland, as being over-full of personal prosecutions against men of quality And this is somewhat loud- ly spoken by some on the queen's side I know you have a great deal more resolution in you than to decline any service due to the king, state, or Church, for the barking of discontent- ed persons ; and God forbid but you should ; and yet, my lord, if you could find a way to do all these great services and decline these storms, I think it would be excellent well thought on."* To this advice succeeded other galling announcements. Lord Clanricarde died suddenly, from a broken heart, it was said, in consequence of the Galway proceedings ; and the death of the sheriff of that county, who had been imprisoned by Wentworth, immediately followed. Both of these deaths were laid at his door. " They might as well," exclaimed the lord-deputy, adverting to the first, " they might as well have imputed unto me for a crime his being threescore and ten years old !" With cooler satire he put off the fate of the sheriff. " They will lay the charge of Darcy the sher- iff's death unto me. My arrows are cruel that wound so mortally ! but I should be more sorry, by much, the king should lose his fine." Still this did not subdue the daily increasing murmurs ; one exaggeration begot another ; and he re- solved at last, by a sudden public appearance in England, to confound his accusers, and, even in their very teeth, to throw for new marks of favour. Permission having been obtained from the king, Wentworth appeared at the English court in May, 1 636. He was recerved. with the high- est favour, and so delighted the king with his * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 479. Lord Cottington's ac- count was something different : " You said right, that Mount- norris his business wou'd make a great noise ; for so it hath amongst ignorant, but especially ill-affected people ; but it hath struck little among the wiser son, and begins to be blown away amongst the rest." His lordship, in the same letter, communicates to Wentworth a remarkable sequel to the affair. The lord-deputy, in order to procure Mount- norris's offices for his favourites (chiefly young Loftus. the husband of a lady who has been before adverted to), had proposed to distribute 6000 as a sort of purchase of them, to the principal English ministers. (Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 508.) The sly old courtier Cottington, however, into whose hands the business fell, hit on a more notable expedi- ent. " When William Raylton first told me," he writes, " of your lordship's intention touching Mountnorris's place for Sir Adam Loftus, and the distribution of moneys for the effecting thereof, I fell upon the right way, which was, to uiis jjusi your lorusmp win receive nis majesty s lener tu that effect, so as there you have your business done with- out noise." The money happened to be particularly wel- come to Charles, who had just been purchasing an estate ! See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 311. 110 BRITISH STATESMEN. account of the various measures by which he had consolidated the government of Ireland, that he was entreated by his majesty to repeat the details " at a very full council." " How- beit I told him I feared his majesty might be wearied with the repetition of so long a narra- tive, being no other than he had formerly heard, and that I desired, therefore, I might give my account to the lords without his majesty's far- ther expense of time, yet he told me it was worthy to be heard twice, and that he was will- ing to have it so."* No wonder! A more striking description was never spoken. He de- tailed all the measures he had accomplished for the Church, the army, and the revenue, for manufactures and commerce, for the laws and their administration, and through every vigor- ous and well-aimed word shone the author of all those measures ! Wentworth adverted, to- wards the close of his relation, to " some par- ticulars wherein I have been very undeservedly and bloodily traduced." He mentioned the slanders that had been circulated, proclaiming him " a severe and austere hard-conditioned man, rather indeed a basha of Buda, than the minister of a pious Christian king." His report of what followed is a direct illustration of much that has been advanced in this memoir. " How- beit, if I were not much mistaken in myself, it was quite the contrary ; no man could show wherein I had expressed it in my nature, no friend I had would charge me with it in my private con- versation, no creature had found it in the mana- ging of my own private affairs, so as if I stood clear in all these respects, it was to be confessed by any equal mind that it was not anything with- in, but the necessity of his majesty' 1 s service, which enforced me into a seeming strictness outwardly. And that was the reason indeed ; for where I found a crown, a Church, and a people spoiled, I could not imagine to redeem them from un- der the pressure with gracious smiles and gen- tle looks. It would cost warmer water than so ! True it was, that where a dominion was once gotten and settled, it might be stayed and kept where it was by soft and moderate coun- sels, but where a sovereignty (be it spoken with reverence) was going down the hill, the nature of a man did so easily slide into the paths of an uncontrolled liberty as it would not be brought back without strength, nor be forced up the hill again but by vigour and force. And true it was indeed, I knew no other rule to gov- ern by but by reward and punishment ; and I must profess, that where I found a person well and entirely set for the service of my master, I should lay my hand under his foot, and add to his respect and power all I might, and that where I found the contrary, I should not han- dle him in my arms, or soothe him in his unto- ward humour, but if he came in my reach, so far as honour and justice would warrant me, I must knock him soundly over the knuckles ; but no sooner he become a new man, apply himself as he ought to the government, but I also change my temper, and express myself to him, as unto that other, by all the good offices I could do him. If this be sharpness, if this be * See Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 13-22. The despatch in which Wentworth again, for the third time, details his remarkable narrative, is addressed to Wandesford, who, in the mean while, was administering the Irish government. severity, I desired to be instructed better by his majesty and their lordships, for in truth it did not seem so to me ; however, if I were once told that his majesty liked not to be thus served, I would readily conform myself, follow the bent and current of my own disposition, which is to be quiet, not to have debates and disputes with any. Here his majesty inter- rupted me, and said that was no severity, wish- ed me to go on in that way, for if I served him otherwise I should not serve him as he expect- ed from me." Wentworth left the court for "Wentworth Woodhouse loaded with the applause of the king and his lords of the council, and followed by the awful gaze of doubting multitudes. As he passed through York he was arrested by enthusiastic friends, and with some difficul- ty escaped them. " I am gotten hither," he writes to Laud, " at last, to a poor house I have, having been this last week almost feast- ed to death at York. In truth, for anything I can find, they were not ill pleased to see me. Sure I am it much contented me to be amongst my old acquaintance, which I would not leave for any other affection I have, but to that which I both profess and owe to the person of his sa- cred majesty. Lord ! with what quietness in myself could I live here in comparison of that noise and labour I meet with elsewhere ; and, I protest, put up more crowns in my purse at the year's end too ! But we'll let that pass ; for I am not like to enjoy that blessed condi- tion upon earth ; and therefore my resolution is set to endure and struggle with it so long as this crazy body will bear it', and finally drop into the silent grave, where both all these (which I now could, as I think, innocently de- light myself in) and myself are to be forgotten. And fare them well ! I persuade myself exuto Lepido I am able to lay them down very quiet ly."* His rest was extremely short, for he soon reappeared in York, discharged several of the duties of his presidency, and fell with all his accustomed vigour on the collection of ship- money. That famous tax had recently been levied. The same success waited upon Went- worth's present measures in respect to it as the capacity and energy which animated all he did almost invariably commanded. In every other county, murmurs, threats, and curses accompanied the payment ; in Yorkshire, du- ring Wentworth's presence, silence. His let- ter to the king reads like one of his Irish de- spatches. " In pursuit of your commands, I have effectually, both in public and private, recommended the justice and necessity of the shipping business, and so clearly shown it to be, not only for the honour of the kingdom in general, but for every man's particular safety, that I am most confident the assessment this next year will be universally and cheerfully answered within this jurisdiction."? * Strafford Papers, vol. ii.. p. 26. t In a subsequent letter Wentworth wrote : I forgot in my last humbly to offer my opinion, that in case your maj- esty find or apprehend any backwardness in the south, it were pood the next year's writs for the shipping assessment were hastened first down into these parts, where they are sure to find no opposition or unwillingness, which example may rather further than hinder in the right way which others ought to follow elsewhere." EARL OF STRAFFORD. Ill The lord-deputy, as the time approached for bis return to his government, unburdened him- self of a suit to the king which he now felt concerned him daily more and more. For the second time he entreated from Charles the honour of an earldom. He begged it in refu- tation of the malicious insinuations of his ene- mies, to prove that their calumnies were dis- believed, and to strengthen him in the eyes of the Irish. At the same time he wrote to Laud, telling him plainly the use the enemies of the state were making of the king's withholding from his deputy some public mark of his fa- vour, and urging the danger it threatened to his authority and to the public service. Again Wentworth's suit was rejected. Since Charles's last answer, his reasons for refusal had in- creased every way. His reply was peremptory. " Believe it, the marks of my favours that stop malicious tongues are neither places nor titles, but the little welcome I give to accusers, and the willing ear I give to my servants." The jest with which his majesty's letter closed did not mend the matter. " I will end with a rule that may serve for a statesman, a courtier, or a lover never make a defence or apology before you be accused." The lord-deputy felt this deep- ly. " I wish," he wrote to Laud, " thorough the opinion that I stand not full to his majesty's liking in my service in this place, his majesty's affairs may not suffer as well as myself. But fall that as it may, I am resolved never to stir that stone more, dead to me it is to be for ever. Indeed, I neither think of it, nor look for it." His friend George Butler he recommend- ed to look for rewards and punishments in the next world ; " for in good faith, George, all be- low are grown wonderous indifferent." Nor did Wentworth scruple to exhibit very broadly to the king the still rankling disappointment. " Out of the truth of my heart," he wrote, " and with that liberty your majesty is pleased to afford me (which shall nevertheless ever re- tain all the humility, modesty, and secrecy pos- sible), admit me to say, reward well applied advantages the services of kings extreamly much ; it being most certain that not one man of very many serve their masters for love, but for their own ends and preferments, and that he is in the rank of the best servants that can be content to serve his master together with himself. Finally, I am most confident, were your majesty purposed but for a while to use the excellent wisdom God hath given you in the constant, right, and quick applying of re- wards and punishments, it were a thing most easy for your servants in a very few years, under your conduct and protection, so to settle all your affairs and dominions as should render you, not only at home, but abroad also, the most powerful and considerable king in Chris- tendom."* With Laud, Wentworth communicated more freely on this subject, and in one of his more desponding letters suddenly consoles himself with Dr. Donne and Vandyke. " I most hum- bly thank your lordship for your noble care and counsel tending to the preservation of my health, a free bounty it is of your love towards me, where otherwise of myself I am so won- drous little considerable to anybody else. The * Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 41. Lady Astrea, the poet tells us, is long since gone to heaven, but under favour I can yet find reward and punishment on earth. Indeed, sometimes they are like Doctor Donn's ' ana- gram of a good face,'* the ornaments missed, a yellow tooth, a red eye, a white lip or so ! and seeing that all beauties take not all affec- tions, one man judging that a deformity which another considers as a perfection or a grace, this, methinks, convinceth the certain incer- tainty of rewards and punishments. Howso- ever, he is the wisest commonly, the greatest, and happiest man, and shall surely draw the fairest table of his life, that understands, with Vandike, how to dispose of these shadows best to make up his own comeliness and advan- tage."! Whereupon his grace of Canterbury warns the lord-deputy from Vandyke and Dr. Donne into the book of Ecclesiastes : "Once for all, if you will but read over the short book of Ecclesiastes, while these thoughts are in you, you will see a better disposition of these things, and the vanity of all their shadows, than is to be found in any anagrams of Dr Donne's, or any designs of Vandyke ; so to the lines there drawn I leave you."J Disappointed of that public mark of favour he had claimed so justly, but strengthened by private instructions^ from the king which left no bound or limit to his power, Lord Went- worth returned to Ireland. He resumed his measures precisely at the point in which he had left them, overawed every effort to disturb the breathless tranquillity which his energy had inspired, and under his vigilant eye the infant cultivation, manufactures, and commerce of the country began to increase and prosper. " While the subject enjoyed security from the entire sup- pression of internal insurrections and depreda- tions, the royal revenues, arising from prod- uce and consumption, experienced a rapid in- crease. "II This " security," however, was nev- er felt to be other than that of absolutism, for Wentworth, hand in hand with his most stri- king financial improvements, carried on his in- quiries into defective titles with a terrible rigour. He placed at the king's disposal the entire dis- trict of Ormond, and in his Irish exchequer the sum of 15,000, wrung from the family of the O'Byrnes in Wicklow, to redeem their posses- sions from a similar award. Successful in ev- ery effort he made, he did not care to call into request the new powers he had been intrusted with. Not a messenger or a letter arrived from England, however, without news that dashed his prosperity and his pride. He saw as much * " Marry and love thy Flavia, for she Hath all things whereby others beauteous be ; For though her eyes be small, her mouth is great ; Though theirs be ivory, yet her teeth be jet ; <tc. <tc. <fco. What though her cheeks be yellow, her hair's red ; * * * * Though all her parts be not in th' usual place, She hath yet the anagrams of a good face !" Second Elegy. t Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 159. t Ibid., p. 169. <) See his letter to Wandcsford, Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 13, et seq. II Mr. MacDiarmid, whose summary of Wentworth's finan- cial measures is very able. I have occasionally availed my- self of it. See Lives of British Statesmen, vol. ii., p. 170- 181. The despatches of the lord-deputy, in the early por- tion of the second volume of the Strafford Papers, are sin- gularly powertul. 112 BRITISH STATESMEN. beyond the narrow vision of the English cour- tiers as his sagacity outreached theirs, and, in the hollow madness of their measures, had al- ready discerned disastrous issues. The ruin they were precipitating, he bitterly knew would involve himself; yet he had not even the poor consolation of feeling that the only portion of the king's service that had in it any of the elements of stability, his own government, had a single hearty defender in that English court. Their praises obsequiously waited on his presence alone. Laud, indeed, was still his friend ; but Laud's ecclesiastical administration had by this time wellnigh incapacitated its master for any purpose of good. The popular party in Eng- land, meanwhile, taking advantage of the oc- casion, raised a loud and violent voice of clam- our against the lord-deputy of Ireland. He flung it back, in the hasty self-bullying of his will, with a contemptuous scorn ;* but he knew secretly its power, and in his graver despatch- es warned the court from leaving him unpro- tected to its effects : " With the disesteem of the governor," he wrote, " the government shall impair, if not in the existence, sure in the beauty of it, which is as considerable as that most men are guided and- guide themselves by opinion. So as, if you will have my philosophy in the point, let no prince employ a servant longer than he is resolved to have him valued and esteemed by others, thorough those pow- ers he shall manifest to be intrusted with him." Still he saw no symptoms of what he desired, and at last he wrote personally to the king. " Sir," he said, " I take my natural inclinations to be extreamly much more tender and gentle than the smooth looks and cheeks of your ministers on that side find in their own bosoms, and yet heighten the cry upon me !" But Charles had now the queen's influence in many respects upon him, and the queen was not displeased to hear of the sinking fortunes of Wentworth. Lord Holland, her favourite counsellor, was even heard to insinuate that the lord-deputy was subject to occasional touches of madness. This, among the other reports, came to Went- worth's ear. He charged it upon Holland, who denied it, confessing he might have attributed " hypochondriac humours," certainly not mad- ness. Wentworth wrote back to the king : " As for the ' hypochondriac humour' his lordship mentions, it is a great word and a courtly phrase ; but if I mistake not the English of it, * " In truth," he wrote to Laud, " I still wish (and take it also to be a very charitable one) Mr. Hambden and oth- ers to his likeness -were well whipt into their right senses ; if that the rod be so used as that it smarts not, I am the Paul's, London, and withal show how to jerk, to temper the voice, to guide the hand, to lay on the rod excellently ; sure I am he made me laugh heartily when I was there last ; and the chancellor of the University might with a word fetch up to your lordship at Lambeth both the person and the poems (for I must tell you there is the second, if not the third part of the song), and then bring but Mr. Hambden and Bond in place, and it may every way prove a three man's song. But fetch in the nobleman you mention, and then it may chance to prove a vrty full concert ! As well as I think of Mr. Hambden' s abilities, 1 take his will and peevishness to be full as great, and without diminution to him, judge the other, howbeit not the father of the country (a title some will not stick to give unto them both, to put them, if it be possible, the faster and farther out of their wits), the very sinciput, the vertical point of the whole fac- tion." Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 158. it is to be civilly and silently maddish ; and if so, I can assure his lordship, he shall find as little of that in me as of any other more active heat. But I shall not stir that matter farther, only, if it be denied his lordship said I was mad, it were very easy to show his memory might fail him sometimes. . . . Your majesty may be pleased to excuse this foul writing, be- ing in truth so tormented in the present with the toothache, as troubles my sense more than the mistaken reports of any others shall do." Sad indeed were the bodily infirmities which exasperated these complainings of the lord- deputy. The gout, the toothache, the ague, an. intermittent pulse, faint sweats and heaviness, and, to crown all, the frightful disorder of the stone, alternately broke his spirits, and warned him "that no long life awaited him here be- low !" What still remained to him, he yet resolved to live out bravely. "A frame of wood," he writes to Laud, " I have given order to set up in a park I have in the county of Wickloe. And, gnash the tooth of these gallants nevei so hard, I will, by God's leave, go on with it, that so I may have a place to take my recrea- tion for a month or two in a year, were it for no other reason than to displease them, by keeping myself, if so please God, a little longer in health."* Among other reports to his prej- udice had been that of " building up to the sky."t We find him afterward adverting to this : " I acknowledge, that were myself only considered in what I build, it were not only to excess, but even to folly, having already hou- ses moderate for my condition in Yorkshire ; but his majesty will justify me, that at my last being in England, I acquainted him with a pur- pose I had to build him a house at the Naas, it being uncomely his majesty should not have one here of his own, capable to lodge him with moderate conveniency (which, in truth, as yet he hath not), in case he might be pleased some- times hereafter to look upon this kingdom ; and that it was necessary in a manner, for the dig- nity of this place, and the health of his deputy and family, that there should be one removing house of fresh air, for want whereof, I assure your lordship, I have felt no small inconveni- ence since my coming hither ; that when it was built, if liked by his majesty, it should be his, paying me as it cost if disliked, a suo damno, I was content to keep it, and smart for my folly. His majesty seemed to be pleased with all, whereupon I proceeded, and have, in a manner, finished it, and so contrived it for the rooms of state, and other accommodations which I have observed in his majesty's houses, as I had been, indeed, stark mad ever to have cast it so for a private family. "t * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 106. t Ibid., p. 107. His expensive repairs of the Castle of Dublin had also been reproached to him. But on his first arrival he had certainly alleged a good case of necessity to Cooke : " This castle is in very great decay. I have been enforced to take down one of the great towers, which was ready to fall, and the rest are so crazy as we are still in fear part of it might drop down upon our heads." Vol. i., p. 131. t The remains of this building, which was called Juggars- towne Castle, are visible still, and, I am informed by gen- tlemen who have seen them, sufficiently indicate its extra- ordinary grandeur and extent. They cover several acres They are close to the road-side, about sixteen Irish miles from Dublin, and provoke, even. >\ow, from many an unre EARL OF STRAFFORD. 113 Between these two royal residences Went- worth now divided a great portion of his time. His mode of living equalled in magnificence the houses themselves. At his own charge he maintained a retinue of 50 attendants, besides his troop of 100 horse, which he had originally raised and equipped at an expense of 6000, and kept up at an enormous yearly cost. Thi: style of living, which he took care to bear out in every other respect, he characteristically vindicated to Cottington as " an expense, not of vanity, but of necessity, judging it not to be- come me, having the great honour to represent his majesty' 1 s sacred person, to set it forth, no, not in any one circumstance, in a penurious mean man- ner, before the eyes of a wild and rude people." Nor did he scruple to conceal the fact that his own private fortune had been assisted, in these vast charges, by certain public profits. "It is very true," he writes to Laud, " I have, under the blessing of Almighty God, and the protec- tion of his majesty, 6000 a year good land, which I brought with me into his service ; and I have a share for a short term in these cus- toms, which, while his majesty's revenue is there increased more than 20,000 by year, proves nevertheless a greater profit to me than ever I dreamed of." When Laud read this passage to Charles, the king observed, impa- tiently, " But he doth not tell you how much ;" and plainly intimated that he grudged the min- ister his share of profit. t Wentworth had few occasions of gratitude to Charles during a life worn out in his service-! In respect of these customs, it is not to be doubted that Charles's suspicions were grossly unjust. He would have had more of abstract justice with him in object- ing to a different source of his lord-deputy's rev- enue, that of the tobacco monopoly, for, on the latter ground, undoubtedly, Wentworth was open to grave charges, though even here the king was the last person from whom with any propriety they could issue. The lord-deputy's private habits have been described. He hawked, he hunted,* and fish- flecting passer-by, a curse upon the memory of " Black Tom." Such is the name by which the Irish peasantry still remember Stratford. When M. Boullaye-le-Gouz vis- ited Ireland, he found this castle in the property and pos- session of Sir George Wentworth, Strafford's brother, and guarded by forty English soldiers. Mr. Croker's MS. * Stratford Papers, vol. i., p. 128. t Laud writes, " I have of late heard some muttering about it in court, but can meet with nothing to fasten on : only it makes me doubt somebody hath been nibbling about it." See Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 127. t Wittily he writes to Laud, " We are in expectance every hour to hear what becomes of us and the lord-chan- cellor to say the plain truth, whether we shall have a gov- ernment or no ; and to the intent that I might be the better in utrumque paratus, at this present I am playing the Robin Hood, and here in the country of mountains and woods hunting and chasing all the out-lying deer I can light of. But, to confess truly, I met with a very shrewd rebuke the other day ; for, standing to get a shoot at a buck, 1 was so damnably bitten with midges as my face is all mezled over ever since, itches still as if it were mad. The marks they set \vill not go off again, I will awarrant you, this week. I never felt or saw such in England. Surely they are younger brothers to the inuskitcms the Indies brag on so much. I protest, I could even now well find in my heart to play the shrew soundly, and scratch my face in six or seven places." Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 173. This allusion to the lord-chancellor had reference to a judgment recently given against that dignitary by Wentworth himself, in a suit brought against him by Sir John Gifford, on behalf of Sir Francis Ruishe, for an increase of portion to the lady who had married young Loftus : " According to the lord- chancellor's owu clear agreement with Sir Fruncis Kuishe, ed,* whenever his infirmities gave him respite. He passed some of his time also among books, and, in one portion at least of these studies, had his thoughts upon a stormy political future. " I wish," writes his friend Lord Conway to him, "you had had your fit of the gout in Eng- land, lest you should attribute something of the disease to the air of that country. I send you the Duke of Rohan's book, ' Le parfait Capi- taine.' Do not think the gout is an excuse from fighting, for the Count Mansfelt had the gout that day he fought the battle of Fleury."^ In the pleasures of the table he indulged little. " He was exceeding temperate," observes Radcliffe, " in meat, drink, and recreations. He was no whit given to his appetite ; though he loved to see good meat at his table, yet he ate very lit- tle of it himself ; beef or rabbits was his ordi- nary food, or cold powdered meats, or cheese and apples, and in moderate quantity. He was never drunk in his life, as I have often heard him say ; and for so much as I had seen, I had reason to believe him ; yet he was not so scru- pulous but he would drink healths where he liked his company, and be sociable as any of his society, and yet still within the bounds of temperance. In Ireland, where drinking was grown a disease epidemical, he was more strict publicly, never suffering any health to be drunk at his public table but the king's, queen's, and prince's, on solemn days. Drunkenness in his servants was, in his esteem, one of the great- est faults." Throughout his various admirable letters to his young wards, the Saviles, in whose education he took extreme interest al- ways, the hatred of this vice is still more char- acteristically shown. He returns to the warn- ing again and again, coupling with drunkenness the equal vice of gaming: the one a "pursuit not becoming a generous, noble heart, which will not brook such starved considerations as the greed of winning;" the other, one "that father to the lady." These are Wentworth's words. The chancellor refused to submit to the judgment on the ground that the action ought to have been brought in the ordinary courts of law, and that the tribunal before which it was tried was both illegal and partial. Wentworth, upon this, had resorted to his usual severity, and was now waiting its issue with the king. It may be worth stating, that mis- takes have been made with respect to the name of the lady chiefly affected in this case by Mr. MacDiarmid and other writers, in consequence of Sir John Gifford having brought the original action. She was Lady Loftus, not Lady Gif- ford. * For some accounts of his fishing exploits, see Papers, vol. ii.,p. 213, &c. Laud appears to have relished the lord- deputy's presents of "dryed fish" amazingly, and to have !>een anything but fond of his " hung beef out of Yorkshire." His grace had a shrewd eye to appetite : " Since you are for both occupations, flesh and fish, I wonder you do not think of powdering or drying some of your Irish venison, and send that over to brag too." t Slrafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 45. Some of Lord Con- ay's letters referred to matters not quite so decent, and the lord-deputy's replies gave him no advantage on that score. See Papers, vol. ii., p. 144-146. Couway's acquaint- ance with his intrigues has already received notice, and the following passage from one of Wentworth's letters to this confidant is not a little significant: " I desire your judg- ment of the enclosed, which was written to this your ser- vant the other day, and chancing to open and read it in the iresence, I burst out before I got it read, that the standers- >y wondered what merry tale it might be that letter told me. But I must conjure you to send it me back, not to trust it forth of your hands, only if you will, I am content I'ou show it my Lord of Northumberland and my Lady of Oarlile, lest if it were shown to others they might judge ne Vane, or something else, of so princely a favour! For ess, the least of her commands are not to be takeu what, then, may we term these her earliest desires V 114 BRITISH STATESMEN. shall send you, by unequal staggering paces, to your grave, with confusion of face."* No public duty was neglected meanwhile, for from his country parks and castles Went- worth in an hour or two could appear in the Dublin presence-chamber. The king sent him every license he required against the Lord- chancellor Loftus ; and that nobleman, for hav- ing disputed the judicial functions of the depu- ty, "that transcendent power of a chancellor," as Wentworth scornfully called him, was de- prived of the seals, and committed to prison till he consented to submit to the award and to acknowledge his error, t But while the king thus secretly authorized these acts of despotism, the English court, no less than the English nation, were known to be objecting to their author. Impatiently he wrote to Laud, demanding at least the charge, something on which to ground an issue. " The humour which offends me," he exclaims, " is not so much anger as scorn, and desire to wrest out from among them my charge ; for, as they say, if I might come to fight for my life, it would never trouble me indeed, I should then weigh them all very light, and be safe under the goodness, wisdom, and justice of my master. Again, howbeit I am resolved of the truth of all this, yet to accuse myself is very uncomely. I love not to put on my armour before there be cause, in regard I never do so but I find my- self the wearier and sorer for it the next morning." He could get no satisfactory answer to this, for in truth the English court by this time had enough upon its hands. The king meditated a war with Spain for the recovery of the palati- nate, to which he was the rather urged by the queen, since France had already engaged. For- tunately, before taking this step, he was in- duced to advise with the lord-deputy of Ire- land. This was the first time Wentworth had ever been consulted on the general affairs of the kingdom, and he instantly forwarded a pa- per of opposing reasons to the king, so strong- ly and so ably stated that the war project was given up.f The queen's indifferent feeling to him, it may well be supposed, was not removed by such policy. * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 169, &c. And see an ad- mirable letter at p. 311 of vol. ii. t This case was brought forward at the impeachment, and was much aggravated by a discovery, which has been before named, in reference to the young Lady Loftus. " In the preferring this charge," says Clarendon, " many things of levity, as certain letters of great affection and familiarity from the earl to that lady, which were found in her cabinet after her death, others of passion, were exposed to the pub- lic view'' (vol. i., p. 175). Ample details of the entire course of the transaction will be found in referring to the Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 67, et seq., 82, 160, et seq., 172, et sea., 179, 196, 205, 227, et seq., 259, et seq., 298, 341, 369, 375, 389. t The document will be found in the Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 60-64. It is one of the ablest of Wentworth's ar- guments for his scheme of absolute power. He takes oc- casion to say in it, " The opinion delivered by the judges, declaring the lawfulness of the assignment for the ship- ping, is the greatest service that profession hath done the crown in my time." I) It ought to be stated, to Wentworth's honour, that, though he much desired to have stood well with her maj- esty, he declined to purchase her favour by acts inconsist- ent with his own public schemes. See curious evidences of this in Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 221, 222, 257, 329, 425, 426, &c. When she had solicited an army appoint- ment for some youug courtier, he wrote an earnest entreaty to her chamberlain, accompanying his reasons for declining The peace, however, which Lord Wentworth so earnestly recommended was now more fa- tally broken. The whole Scottish nation rose against Charles, in consequence of Laud's re- ligious innovations. Wentworth was not at first consulted respecting these commotions, but he had thrown out occasional advice in his despatches which was found singularly ser- viceable.* He strove as far as possible, by urging strong defensive measures, to prevent an open rupture. " If," he wrote to Charles, " the war were with a foreign enemy, I should like well to have the first blow ; but being with your majesty's own natural, howbeit rebellious sub- jects, it seems to me a tender point to draw blood first; for, till it come to that, all hope is not lost of reconciliation ; and I would not have them with the least colour impute it to your majesty to have put all to extremity till their own more than words enforce you to it."f Nor did Wentworth serve Charles at this conjuncture with advice alone, for by his ama- zing personal energy he forced down some opening commotions among the 60,000 Scot- tish settlers in Ulster, and not only disabled them from joining or assisting their country- men, but compelled them to abjure the cove- nant, i Nor this alone. He forwarded from Ireland a detachment of troops to garrison Car- lisle ; he announced that the army of Ireland was in a state of active recruiting and disci- pline ; he offered large contributions from him- self and his friends towards the necessary ex- penses of resistance ; and by every faith of loy- alty, and bond of friendship and of service, he called on every man in Yorkshire to stir him- self in the royal cause. " To be lazy look- ers on," he wrote to the Lord Lome, " to lean to the king behind the curtain, or to whisper forth only our allegiance, will not serve out turn ! much rather ought we to break our shins in emulation who should go soonest and far- thest, in assurance and in courage, to uphold the prerogatives and full dominion of the crown ; ever remembering ourselves that no- bility is such a grudged and envied piece of monarchy, that all tumultuary force offered to kings doth ever, in the second place, fall upon the peers, being such motes in the eyes of a giddy multitude as they never believe them- selves clear-sighted into their liberty indeed till these be at least levelled to a parity as the other altogether removed, to give better pros- pect to their anarchy. " The sluggish and irresolute councils of Eng- land looked ill beside the movements of the deputy. The king asked a service from him, but the instructions came too late. " If his majesty's mind had been known to me in time," he wrote to Vane, the treasurer of the house- hold, " I could have as easily secured it against all the covenanters and devils in Scotland as the appointment : " If I may by you understand her majes- ty's good pleasure, it will be a, mighty quietness unto me ; for if once these places of command in the army become suits at court, looked upon as preferments and portions for younger children, the honour of this government, and, con- sequently, the prosperity of these affairs, are lost." The king himself appears to have made it a personal request of Wentworth, that he should carry himself " with all duty and respect to her majesty." Vol., ii., p. 256. * See vol. ii., p. 191, 192, 235, 280, 324, &c. t Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 314. J Ibid., vol. ii., p. 270, 338, 345. I) Ibid., p. 210. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 115 now walk up and down this chamber ; bu where trusts and instructions come too late there the business is sure to be lost." Openly he now expressed his censure of the roya scheme that had prevailed since the death of Buckingham. " I never was in love with that way of keeping all the affairs of that kingdom of Scotland among those of that nation, but carried indeed as a mystery to all the counci of England ; a rule but over mu^h kept by our master, which I have told my Lord of Portland many and often a time, plainly professing unto him that I was much afraid that course woulc at one time or other bring forth ill effects ; what those are, we now see and feel at one and the same instant." Finally, when Vane had written in an extremely desponding tone, he rallied him with a noble energy. " It i very true you have reason to think this storm looks very foul and dark towards us, so do also myself; for if the fire should kindle at Raby, I am sure the smoke would give offence to our eyesight at Woodhouse ! but I trust the even- ing will prove more calm than the morning of this day promises. Dulcius lumen solis esse so- let jam jam cadentis. All here is quiet ; no- thing colours yet to the contrary. And if I may have the countenance and trust of my master, I hope, in the execution of such com- mands as his majesty's wisdom and judgment ordain for me, to contain the Scottish here in their due obedience, or, if they should stir (our 8000 arms and twenty pieces of cannon ar- rived, which I trust now will be very shortly), to give them such a heat in their cloaths as they never had since their coming forth of Scotland ! And yet our standing army here is but 1000 horse and 2000 foot, and not fewer of them, I will warrant you, than 150,000, so you see our work is not very easy. The best of it is, the brawn of a lark is better than the carcass of a kite, and the virtue of one loyal subject more than of 1000 traitors. And is not this pretty well, trow you, to begin with ?"* No extremity was urged that found Went- worth unprepared. Windebanke hinted the dan- ger he incurred. " I humbly thank you," he answered, " for your friendly and kind wishes to my safety, but if it be the will of God to bring upon us for our sins that fiery trial, all the respects of this life laid aside, it shall ap- pear more by my actions than words that I can never think myself too good to die for my gra- cious master, or favour my skin in the zealous and just prosecution of his commands. Statu- tum est semcl." Another whom he fancied not unwilling to thwart him, reckoning upon safety from the consequences in the lord-depu- ty's certain destruction he thus warned : " Perchance even to those that shall tell you before their breath I am but as a feather, I shall be found sadder than lead ! for let me tell you, I am so confidently set upon the justice of my master, and upon my own truth, as un- der them and God I shall pass thorough all the factions of court and heat of my ill-willers with- out so much as sindging the least thread of my coat, nor so alone, but to carry my friends * This letter is dated " Fairwood Park [the name of his seat in Wicklow], th s Ifith of April, 1639. I will change it with you, if you will, lor Fair Lane." Strafford Papers. vol. ii., p. 325-328. along with me." And, in the midst of the storms his measures were raising on all sL'es round him, he found time and ease enough t, amuse himself in tormenting with grave jests a foolish Earl of Antrim, whom the king had sent to "assist" him. The despatches he wrote on the subject of the "Antrim negotia- tions" are positive masterpieces of wit and hu- mour.* At the same time, he did not hesitate to assure the king that, but for the safety of Ireland, he would " be most mightily out of countenance to be found in any other place than at his majesty's side !" Charles acknowledged these vast services with frequent letters. Wentworth was now his great hope, and he found, at last, that at all risks he must have him in England. He had formerly declined his offered attendance he now prayed for it. He wished, he said, to con- sult him respecting the army, " but I have much more," he sorrowfully added, " and indeed too much, to desire your counsel and attendance for some time, which I think not fit to express by letter, more than this the Scots' covenant begins to spread too far. Yet, for all this, I will not have you take notice that I have sent for you, but pretend some other occasion of business." Wentworth instantly prepared himself to obey. A short time only he took to place his government in the hands of Wandesford and to arrange some of his domestic concerns. His children were his great care. " God bless the young whelps," he said, " and for the old dog there is less matter."t Lady Clare, his mother-in-law, had often requested to have the elder girl with her, and Wentworth had as oft- en vainly tried to let her leave his side. His passion was to see them all near him in a group together, as they may yet be seen in the undying colours of Vandyke, from whose can- vass, also, as though it had been painted yes- terday, the sternly expressive countenance of their father still gazes at posterity. The pres- ent was a time, however, when the sad alter- native of a separation from himself promised him alleviation even, and he resolved to send both sisters to their grandmother. The letter he despatched on the occasion to the Lady Clare remains, and it is too touching and beau- tiful to be omitted here. A man so burdened with the world's accusations as Strafford should be denied none of the advantage which such a document can render to his memory. It is un- necessary to direct attention to its singularly haracteristic conclusion : " My Lord of Clare having writ unto me your ladyship desired to have my daughter * See the Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 187, 204, 211, 289, et seq., 300, et seq., 321, et seq., 325, 331, 334, 339, 353, 156. It is not too much to say that, in reading these pa- >ers, the memory is called to the Swifts of past days, and he Fonblanques of our own. The poor lord's pretensions are most ludicrously set forth, and in a vein of exquisite 'leasantry, but little consistent with the popular notion of Itrafford's unbending sternness. t See various letters in the course of his correspondence, n which the most tender enthusiasm is expressed for them ind for their dead mother (vol. i., p. 236 ; vol. ii., p. 122, 23, 146, 379, 380). Nor was his affection less warmly ex- messed to the child of his living wife. In several affection- te letters to the latter he never fails to send his blessing o " the baby" or to " little Tom." Shortly before this vis t o England, however, the latter died, and shortly after it, a ir! \vas born. 116 BRITISH STATESMEN. Anne with you for a time in England, to recov- er her health, I have at last been able to yield so 'much from my own comfort, as to send both her and her sister to wait your grave, wise, and tender instructions. They are both, I praise God, in good health, and bring with them hence from me no other advice, but entirely and cheerfully to obey and do all you shall be pleased to command them, so far forth as their years and understanding may administer unto them. "I was unwilling to part them, in regard those that must be a stay one to another, when by course of nature I am gone before them. I would not have them grow strangers whilst I am living. Besides, the younger gladly imi- tates the elder, in disposition so like her bless- ed mother, that it pleases me very much to see her steps followed and observed by the other. "Madam, I must confess, it was not with- out difficulty before I could perswade myself thus to be deprived the looking upon them, who, with their brother, are the pledges of all the comfort, the greatest at least, of my old age, if it shall please God I attain thereunto. But I have been brought up in afflictions of this kind, so as I still fear to have that taken first that is dearest unto me, and have in this been content willingly to overcome my own affections in order to their good, acknowledging your lady- ship capable of doing them more good in their breeding than I am. Otherways, in truth, I should never have parted with them, as I pro- fess it a grief unto me not to be able as well as any to serve the memory of that noble lady in these little harmless infants. " Well, to God's blessing and your ladyship's goodness I commit them ! whe.re-ever they are, any prayers shall attend them, and have of sor- row in my heart till I see them again I must, which I trust will not be long neither. That they shall be acceptable unto you, I know it right well, and I believe them so graciously minded to render themselves so the more, the more you see of their attention to do as you shall be pleased to direct them, which will be of much contentment unto me ; for, whatever your ladyship's opinion may be of me, I desire, and have given it them in charge (so far as their tender years are capable of), to honour and observe your ladyship above all the women in the world, as well knowing that in so doing they shall fulfil that duty whereby of all others they could have delighted their mother the most ; and I do infinitely wish they may want nothing in their breeding my power or cost might procure them, or their condition of life hereafter may require ; for, madam, if I die to- morrow, I will, by God's help, leave them ten thousand pounds apiece, which I trust, by God's blessing, shall bestow them to the comfort of themselves and friends, nor at all considerably prejudice their brother, whose estate shall nev- er be much burdened by a second venter, I as- sure you. " I thought fit to send with them one that teacheth them to write , he is a quiet, soft man, but honest, and not given to any disorder ; him I have appointed to account for the money to be laid forth, wherein he hath no other direc- tion but to pay and lay forth as your ladyship shall appoint, and still as he wants to go to "Woodhouse, where my cousin Rockley will supply him. And I must humbly beseech you to give order to their servants, and otherwise to the taylors at London for their apparel, which I wholly submit to your ladyship's better judgment, and be it what it may be, I shall think it all happily bestowed, so as it be to your contentment and theirs, for cost I reckon not of; and anything I have is theirs so long as I live, which is only worth thanks, for theirs and their brother's^all I have must be whether I will or no, and therefore I desire to let them have to acknowledge me for before. " Nan, they tell me, danceth prettily, which I wish (if with convenience it might be) were not lost, more to give her a comely grace in the carriage of her body, than that I wish they should much delight or practise it when they are women. Arabella is a small practitioner that way also, and they are both very apt to learn that, or anything they are taught. " Nan, I think, speaks French prettily, which yet I might have been better able to judge had her mother lived. The other also speaks, but her maid being of Guernsey, the accent is not good. But your ladyship is in this excellent, as that, as indeed all things else which may be- fit them, they may, and I hope will, learn bet- ter with your ladyship than they can with their poor father, ignorant in what belongs women, and otherways, God knows, distracted, and so awanting unto them in all, saving in loving them, and therein, in truth, I shall never be less than the dearest parent in the world ! " Their brother is just now sitting by my el- bow, in good health, God be praised ; and I am in the best sort accommodating this place for him, which, in the kind, I take to be the noblest one of them in the king's dominions, and where a grass time may be passed with most pleasure of that kind. I will build him a good house, and by God's help, leave, I think, near three thousand pounds a year, and wood on the ground, as much, I dare say, if near London, as would yield fifty thousand pounds, besides a house within twelve miles of Dublin, the best in Ireland, and land to it which, I hope, will be two thousand pounds a year, all which he shall have to the rest, had I twenty brothers of his to sitt beside me. This I write not to your ladyship in vanity, or to have it spoken of, but privately, to let your ladyship see I do not for- get the children of my dearest wife, nor alto- gether bestow my time fruitlessly for them. It is true I am in debt, but there will be, be- sides, sufficient to discharge all I owe, by God's grace, whether I live or die. And next to these children, there are not any other persons I wish more happiness than to the house of their grandfather, and shall be always most ready to serve them, what opinion soever be had of me, for no others' usage can absolve me of what I owe not only to the memory, but to the last legacy that noble creature left with me when God took her to himself. I am afraid to turn over the leaf, lest your ladyship might think I could never come to a conclusion ; and shall, therefore," &c. He had arranged everything for his depar- ture, when one of his paroxysms of illness seiz- ed him. He wrestled with it desperately, and set sail On landing at Chester, he wrote to EARL OF STRAFFORD. 117 Lady Wentworth a sad description of the ef- fects of the journey upon his gout, and the " flux" which afflicted him. He rallied, how- ever, and appeared in London in November, 1639. In a memorable passage, the historian May has described the general conversation and conjecture which had prepared for his ap- proach. Some, he says, remembering his early exertions in the cause of the people, fondly imagined that he had hitherto been subservient to the court only to ingratiate himself thorough- ly with the king, and that he would now em- ploy his ascendency to wean his majesty from arbitrary counsels. Others, who knew his char- acter more profoundly, had different thoughts, and secretly cherished their own most active energies. Wentworth, Laud, and Hamilton instantly formed a secret council a " cabinet council," as they were then enviously named by the oth- er courtiers a "junto," as the people reproach- fully called them. The nature of the measures to be taken against the Scots was variously and earnestly discussed, and Wentworth, con- sidering the extremity of affairs, declared at once for war. Supplies to carry it on formed a more diffi- cult question still, but it sank before Went- worth's energy. He proposed a loan subscri- bed to it at once, by way of example, the enor- mous sum of 20,000 and pledged himself to bring over a large subsidy from Ireland, if the king would call a Parliament there. Encour- aged by this assurance, it was resolved to call a Parliament in England also. Laud, Juxon, Hamilton, Wentworth, Cottington, Vane, and Windebanke were all present in council when this resolution was taken. The king then put the question to them whether, upon the res- tiveness of Parliament, they would assist him " by extraordinary ways." They assented, passed a vote to that effect, writs for Parlia- ments in both countries were issued, and Went- worth prepared himself to quit England. Charles, unsolicited, now invested him with the dignity of earldom. His own very exist- ence seemed dependant on Wentworth's faith, and there was sufficient weakness in the char- acter of the king to render it possible for him to suppose that, even at such a time, the in- ducement of reward might be necessary as a precaution. The lord-deputy was created Earl of Strafford and Baron of Raby, adorned with the Garter, and invested with the title of Lord- lieutenant, or Lieutenant-general of Ireland a title which had not been given since the days of Essex. " God willing," wrote Strafford to his wife immediately after, "you will soon see the lieutenant of Ireland, but never like to have a deputy of Ireland to your husband any more."* On his way to Ireland, the earl was overta- ken at Beaumaris by a severe attack of gout, yet, still able to move, he hurried on board, not- withstanding the contrary winds, lest he should be thrown down utterly. He wrote, at the * Letter in the Thoresby Museum, Biog. Brit., vol. vii., p. 4182. Some days before he had written to her charac- teristic news of his children. "The two wenches," he said, " are in perfect health, and now, at this instant, in this house, lodged with me, and rather desirous to be so than with their grandmother. I am not yet fully resolved what to do with them." They were afterward sent back to Lady Clare till the Lady Stnilford arrived in London. same time, to Secretary Cooke, in the highest spirits, to assure him and his master that they need not fear for his weakness. " For," ex- claims the lord-lieutenant, " I will make strange shift, and put myself to all the pain I shall be able to endure, before I be anywhere awanting to my master or his affairs in this conjuncture, and, therefore, sound or lame, you shall have me with you before the beginning of the Par- liament. I should not fail, though SIR JOHN ELIOT were living ! In the mean space, for love of Christ, call upon and hasten the busi- ness now in hand, especially the raising of the horse and all together, the rather, for that this work now before us, should it miscarry, we all are like to be very miserable ; but, carried through advisedly and gallantly, shall by God's blessing set us in safety and peace for our lives at after, nay, in probability, the generations that are to succeed us. Fi a faute de courage, je rfen aye que trap ! What might I be with my legs, that am so brave without the use of them] Well, halt, blind, or lame, I will be found true to the person of my gracious master, to the service of his crown and my friends." Strange that, at such a moment, Lord Strafford should have recalled the memory of the virtuous and indomitable Eliot ! He was soon doomed to know on whose shoulders the mantle of Buck- ingham's great opponent had fallen. In March, 1640, Strafford again arrived in Ireland. The members of the Parliament that had just been summoned crowded round him with lavish devotion, gave him four subsidies, which was all that he had desired, and declared that that was nothing in respect to their zeal, for that " his majesty should have the fee-sim- ple of their estates for his great occasions." In a formal declaration, moreover, they imbod- ied all this, declared that their present warm loyalty rose from a deep sense of the inestima- ble benefits the lord-lieutenant had conferred upon their country, and that all these benefits had been effected " without the least hurt or grievance to any well-disposed subject."* The authors of this declaration were the first to turn upon Strafford in his distress. Valuing their praise for its worth in the way of exam- ple, the earl forwarded it to England, and re- quested it to be published to the empire. He had now been a fortnight in Ireland. Within that time, with a diligence unparalleled and almost incredible, he had effected these re- sults with the Parliament, and levied a body of 8000 men as a re-enforcement to the royal ar- my.f He again set sail for England. I pause here to illustrate the character of this extraordinary person in one respect, which circumstances are soon to make essential. His infirmities of health have frequently been allu- ded to, but they come now upon the scene more fatally. No one, that has not carefully exam- ined all his despatches, can have any notion of their frightful nature and extent. The soul of the Earl of Strafford was indeed lodged, to use the expression of his favourite Donne, within a "low and fatal room." We have already seen his friend Radcliffe inform- ing us that in 1622 " he had a great fever, and * See Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 396, 397. Rushworth, ol. iii., p. 1051. Nalson, vol. i., p. 2SO-2S4. t See Radcliffe's Essay. BRITISH STATESMEN. the next spring a double tertian, and after hi recovery a relapse into a single tertian, and a while after a burning fever." It is melancholy to follow the progress of his infirmities, as they are casually recorded by himself: how the trouble of " an humour, which in strict accept- ation you might term the gout," soon increases to " an extreme fit, which renders him unfit, not only for business, but for all handsome ci- vility," and is aggravated by "so violent a fit of the stone, as I shall not be able to stir these ten days : it hath brought me very low, and was unto me a torment for three days and three nights above all I ever endured since I was a man!" how the eyes that are "these twelve days full of dimness," ere long are " scarce able to guide his pen thorough blindness with long writing ;" and this, too, while " an in- firmity I have formerly had in great measure, saluteth me, to wit, an intermitting pulse, at- tended with faint sweats and heaviness of spirits !" But ever by the side of the body's weakness we find a witness of the spirit's triumph a vin- dication of the mightiness of will ! A length- ened despatch to the secretary is begun in " a fit of the gout, which, keeping me still in bed, partly with pain and partly with weariness, makes me unfit for much business." When he entreats a correspondent to " pardon my scrib- bling, for since the gout took me I am not able to write but with both my legs along upon a stool, believe me, which is not only wearisome in itself, but a posture very untoward for gui- ding my pen aright," it is with the consolation that, " as Sir Walter Raleigh said very well, so the heart lie right, it skills not much for all the rest." And the advice to " forbear his night watches, and now begin to take more care of his health," is met by the assurance that, " had he fivescore senses to lose, he did and ought to judge them all well and happily bestowed in his majesty's service !" On the occasion of this last return to Eng- land, however, even what, has been described would serve little to express what he suffered. Then, when every energy was to be taxed to the uttermost, the question of his fiery spirit's supremacy was indeed put to the issue by a complication of ghastly diseases ! In the let- ter from Dublin, dated Good Friday, 1640, which assures the king that " from this table I shall go on shipboard," he is compelled to add that, " besides my gout, I have a very vio- lent and ill-conditioned flux upon me, such as I never had before. It hath held me already these seven days, and brought me so weak, as in good faith nothing that could concern my- self should make me go a mile forth of my chamber. But this is not a season for bemoaning of myself; for I shall cheerfully venture this cra- zed vessel of mine, and either, by God's help, wait upon your majesty before the Parliament begin, or else deposit this infirm humanity of mine in the dust /" And " from the table" on " shipboard" he went accordingly, and arrived at Chester on the 4th of April, quite broken down by the fa- tigues of a rough voyage. "I confess," he writes, " that I forced the captain to sea against his will, and have since received my correction for it. A marvellous foul and dangerous night, indeed, we have had of it !" In this state he despatches the following letter to the king: "May it please your sacred majesty. With some danger I wrought thorough a storm at sea, yet light on a greater misfortune here in harbour, having now got the gout in both my feet, attended with that ill habit of health I brought from Dublin. I purposed to have been on my way again early this morning, but the physician disadviseth it ; and in truth, such is my pain and weakness, as I verily believe I were not able to endure it. Nevertheless, I have provided myself of a litter, and will try to-morrow how I am able to bear travel, which if possible I can do, then by the grace of God will I not rest till I have the honour to wait upon your majesty. In the mean time, it is most grievous unto me to be thus kept from those duties which I owe your majesty's ser- vice on this great and important occasion. In truth, sir, in my whole life I never desired health more than now, if it shall so please God ; not that I can be so vain as to judge my- self equally considerable with many other of your servants, but that I might give my own heart the contentment to be near your com- mands, in case I might be so happy as to be of some small use to my most gracious master in such a conjuncture of time and affairs as this is. God long preserve your majesty." Next, he dictates a long despatch to the Earl of Northumberland, and attempts, at least, to conclude it with his own hand : "And yet, how- beit I am much resolved and set on all occa- sions for your service, will my weary hand be able to carry on my pen not one line farther, than only in a word to write myself, in all truth and perfection, your lordship's most hum- bly to be commanded, STRAFFORDE." I quote also from this despatch to Northum- berland an extraordinary incident which oc- curred on this occasion, and which illustrates his unremitting vigilance in matters which he could hardly have been expected to superintend even under far more favourable circumstances. Upon my landing at Nesson I observed a Scottish ship there riding upon her anchors, of some six or seven score ton, and of some eight or ten pieces of ordnance, and here in town I learn that the ship belongs to Irwin, that she was fraught by some merchants here with sacks, and that the master, now in town, is this morning to receive some 600 for freight. Hereupon, considering the day for the general imbargo is so instant, as your lordship knows, I have privately advised the merchants to stay payment of the freight until to-morrow, and will a;ive present direction for the apprehension of the master and his mate, now in town. I have also spoken to the customers to send down to Nesson to arrest the said ship upon pretence of ozening the king in his customs, for which the master is to be examined, and, however, the ship to be fraught for the king's service for the transportation of these men. I have likewise iven command to Captain Bartlett presently to repair thither, to be assistant therein to the officers of the customs, and before his leaving the port to see execution of all this, as also to ;ake forth of her all her Scottish mariners, her sails and guns, and to bring them on shore, caving only aboard such English mariners as shall be sufficient to send the ship there, till EARL OF STRAFFORD. 119 farther directions. Thus will she lye fair and open for your arrest, and perchance prove your best prize of that kind, and really being manned with English mariners, which may be pressed for that occasion, be of all other the fittest vessel for the transportation of your men and ammunition to Dunbarton. If I have been over-diligent herein, in doing more than (I con- fess) I have commission for, I humbly crave your lordship's pardon, and hope the rather to obtain it, in regard it is a fault easily mended, for my honest Blue-cap will be hereby so af- frighted, as the delivery back unto him of his freight, goods, and ship will sufficiently fulfil his desires and contentment." A letter written the following day to Winde- banke is most eminently characteristic : " I thank you," he says, " for your good wishes, that I might be free of the gout ; but a deaf spirit I find it, that will neither hear nor be persuaded to reason. My pain, I thank God, is gone, yet I am not able to walk once about the chamber, such a weakness hath it left be- hind. Nevertheless, my obstinacy is as great as formerly, for it shall have much more to do before it make me leave my station in these uncertain times. Of all things I love not to put off my cloaths and go to bed in a storm. The lieutenant," he proceeds, " that made the false muster, cannot be too severely punished. If you purpose to overcome that evil, you must fall upon the first transgressors like lightning /" Beside such zealousness as Strafford's, the devotion of others was like to come tardily off. The letter to Windebanke proceeds : " The proxies of the Irish nobility I have received and transmitted over. I cannot but observe how cautious still your great friend, my Lord of St. Alban's, is, lest he might seem to express his affections towards the king with too much frankness and confidence. Lord! how willing he is, by doing something, as good as nothing, to let you see how well contented he would be to disserve the crown, if it were in his power, as indeed it is not. But if his good lordship and his fellows were left to my handling, I should quickly teach them better duties, and put them out of liking with these perverse fro- ward humours. But the best is, by the good help of his friends, he need not apprehend the short horns of such a curst cow as myself; yet this I will say for him, all your kindness shall not better his affections to the service of the crown, or render him thankful to your- selves longer than his turn is in serving. Re- member, sir, that I told you of it. The Lord Roch is a person in a lesser volume, of the very self-same edition. Poor soul, you see what he would be at, if he knew how. But seriously let me ask you a question, What would these and such like gentlemen do, were they absolute in themselves, when they are thus forward at that very instant of time when their whole estates are justly and fairly in the king's mercy ! In a word, till I see punish- ments and rewards well and roundly applied, I fear very much the frowardness of this gener- ation will not be reduced to moderation and right reason, but that it shall extreamly much" difficult his majesty's ministers, nay, and him- self too, in the pursuit of his just and royal Mr. Brodie has accused Strafford's despatch- es of heaviness, and certainly every word in them has its weight. This extraordinary let- ter concludes thus : " It troubles me very much to understand by these your letters that the deputy lieutenants of Yorkshire should show themselves so foolish and so ingrate as to re- fuse to levy 200 men and send them to Ber- wiek, without a caution of reimbursement of coat and conduct money. As for the precedent they allege, they well term them to be indeed of former times, for sure I am none of them can remember any such thing of their own knowledge, or have learned any such thing by their own practice. What they find in some blind book of their fathers kept by his clerk, I know not, but some such poor business is the best proof I believe they can show for that al- legation. Perchance Queen Elizabeth now and then did some such thing; but then it ought to be taken as matter of bounty, not of duty, the law being so clear and plain in that point, as you know. Upon my coming to town I will inform myself who have been the chief leaders in this business, and thereupon give my gentlemen something to remember it by hereafter. But, above all, I cannot sufficiently wonder that my lords at the board should think of any other satisfaction than sending for them up, and laying them by the heels, especially considering what hath already been resolved on there amongst us. What, I beseech you, should become of the levy of your 30,000 men, in case the other counties of the kingdom should return you the like answer 1 And there- fore this insolence of theirs ought, in my poor opinion, to have been suffocated in the birth, and this boldness met with a courage, which should have taught them their part in these ca- ses to have been obedience, and not dispute. Certain I am, that in Queen Elizabeth's time (those golden times that appear so glorious in their eyes, and render them dazzled towards any other object) they would not have had such an expostulation better cheap than the Fleet. The very plain truth is, and I beseech you that it may humbly, on my part, be repre- sented to his majesty in discharge of my own duty, that the council-board of late years have gone with so tender a foot in those businesses of lieutenancy, that it hath almost lost that pow- er to the crown ; and yet such a power it is, and so necessary, as I do not know how we should be able either to correct a rebellion at home, or to defend ourselves from an invasion from abroad, without it. All which, neverthe- less, I mention with all humility in the world, without the least imputation to any particular person living or dead, and humbly beseech his majesty to cause the reins of this piece of his government to be strongly gathered up again, which have of late hung too long loose upon us his lieutenants and deputy lieutenants with- in the kingdom." Notwithstanding his desperate state, Straf- ford caused himself to be pushed on to London. A desire of the king that he should not hazard the journey, reached him already engaged in it.* He persisted in being transported thither * It is worth quoting, as almost the only expression of care and sympathy Charles had hitherto given fo his min- i*tsr. "Having teen divers letters, Strafford, to my Lord 120 BRITISH STATESMEN. in a litter by easy journeys. In London a great- er and final occasion was yet to be afforded him for the display of an indomitable nature triumphantly baffling disease and decay, and still, with the increasing and imperious urgen- cy of the need, towered ever proudlier the in- exhaustible genius of Strafford. The Parliament had met, and the earl imme- diately took his seat in the House of Lords. Their proceedings, and their abrupt dissolution, belong to history. After that fatal state error, an army, to the command of which Northum- berland had been appointed, was marched against the Scots. Severe illness, however, held Northumberland to his bed, and the king resolved to appoint Strafford in his place. " The Earl of Strafford," observes Clarendon, " was scarce recovered from a great sickness, yet was willing to undertake the charge out of pure indignation to see how few men were forward to serve the king with that vigour of mind they ought to do ; but knowing well the malicious, designs which were contrived against himself, he would rather serve as lieutenant-general un- der the Earl of Northumberland than that he should resign his commission ; and so, with and under' that qualification, he made all pos- sible haste towards the north before he had strength enough for the journey."* The same noble historian, after saying that Strafford could with difficulty, in consequence of illness, sit in his saddle, describes the shock he experienced in receiving intelligence of the disgraceful flight of a portion of the king's troops at Newbourne on the Tyne, and proceeds thus : " In this pos- ture the Earl of Strafford found the army about Durham, bringing with him a body much bro- ken with his late sickness, which was not clear- ly shaken off, and a mind and temper confess- ing the dregs of it, which, being marvellously provoked and inflamed with indignation at the late dishonour, rendered him less gracious, that is, less inclined to make himself so, to the of- ficers upon his first entrance into his charge : it may be, in that mass of disorder not quickly discerning to whom kindness and respect was justly due. But those who by this time, no doubt, were retained for that purpose, took that opportunity to incense the army against him, and so far prevailed in it, that in a short time it was more inflamed against him than against the enemy."t In this melancholy state, with a disgraced and mutinous force, Strafford fell back upon York. From this moment he sank daily. Intrigues of the most disgraceful character, carried on by Holland, Hamilton, and Vane, and assisted ev- ery way by the queen, united with his sickness to break him down. Still he was making despe- rate efforts to strengthen and animate his army, when suddenly he found that a treaty with the Scots had actually commenced, and that his es- of Canterbury, concerning the state of your health at this time, I thought it necessary by this to command you not to hazard to travel before ye may do it with the safety of your health, and in this I must require you not to be your own judge, but be content to follow the advice of those that are about you, whose affections and skill ye shall have occa- sion to trust unto. If I did not know that this care of your health were necessary for us both at this time, I would have deferred my thanks to you for your great service lately done until I might have seen you. So, praying to God fur your speedy recovery, I rest your assured friend." * History, vol. i., p. 114. t Vol. i., p. 115. pecial enemy, Lord Savile, was actively em- ployed to forward it. Ultimately, these nego- tiations were placed in the hands of sixteen peers, every one of whom were his personal opponents. And the crowning enemy was be- hind " an enemy," as Lord Clarendon ob- serves, "more terrible than all the others, and like to be more fatal, the whole Scottish -nation, provoked by the declaration he had procured- of Ireland, and some high carriage and expres- sions of his against them in that kingdom."* They illustrated this eminent hatred by per- emptorily refusing, in the midst of much pro- fession of attachment to the king and the Eng- lish nation, to hold any conferences at York, because it was within the jurisdiction of him whom they called that " chief incendiary," their "mortal foe," the Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In this there was exaggeration. Notwith- standing the assertions of nearly all the histo- ries that Strafford's continual counsel to Charles was to rely on arms alone, it is quite certain, from the minutes of the Council of Peers at York,t that this is erroneous. When he sent the commission to Ormond to bring over his own army of 20,000 men from Ireland, the ne- gotiations had not been resumed, and, on the resumption of them, that commission was with- drawn. Now, however, thwarted and exas- perated on all sides, he resolved to furnish one more proof (it was destined to be the last) of the possibility of recovering the royal au- thority by a great and vigorous exertion. Du- ring the negotiations no actual cessation of arms had been agreed to by the Scots, and he therefore secretly despatched a party of horse, under a favourite officer, to attack them in their quarters. A large body of the enemy were de- feated by this manoeuvre, all their officers ta- ken prisoners, the army inspirited, and the spir- its of Strafford himself restored. Again he spoke confidently of the future, when sudden- ly the king, prevailed on by others, commanded him to forbear. In the same moment, without any previous warning, he was told that a Par- liament was summoned. Strafford saw at once the extent of his dan- ger. He had thrown his last stake and lost it. He prayed of the king to be allowed to retire to his government in Ireland, or to some other place where he might promote his majesty's service, and not deliver himself into the hands of his enraged enemies. Charles refused. He still reposed en the enormous value of his min- ister's genius, and considered that no sacrifice too great might be incurred for the chance of its service to himself in the coming struggle. At the same time, he pledged himself by a sol- * The hatred was, indeed, mutual. Strafford more than once, in his despatches, shows that he even disliked, and was disposed to turn into ridicule, their mode of speech. Alluding to a Scotchman, for instance, a Mr. Barre, whom he supposed to have been favoured by the court intriguers against him, he writes from Ireland thus : " Then on that side he procures, by some very near his majesty, access to the king, there whispering continually something or anoth- er to my prejudice ; boasts familiarly how freely he speaks with his majesty, what he saith concerning me, and nou'ant pleese your mejcsty ea we.rde mare anent your debuty of Yr- land, with many such like botadoes, stuffed with a mighty deal of untruths and follies amongst." And see Rush- worth, vol. iii., p. 1293. t Printed in the Ilardwicke State Papers. And see a very able and impartial view of Strafford's conduct and character, in the History continued from Mackintosh... EARL OF STRAFFORD. 121 emn promise, that, " while there was a king in England, not a hair of Strafford's head should be touched by the Parliament !" The earl ar- rived in London. " It was about three of the clock in the after- noon," says Clarendon, " when the Earl of StrafTord (being infirm and not well disposed in health, and so not having stirred out of his house that morning), hearing that both houses still sate, thought fit to go thither. It was be- lieved by some (upon what ground was never clear enough) that he made that haste there to accuse the Lord Say, and some others, of hav- ing induced the Scots to invade the kingdom ; but he was scarce entered into the House of Peers, when the message from the House of Commons was called in, and when Mr. Pym at the bar, and in the name of all the Commons of England, impeached Thomas, earl of Straf- ford (with the addition of all his other titles), of high treason !" Upward of twelve years had elapsed since Sir Thomas Wentworth stood face to face with Pym. Upon the eve of his elevation to the peerage they had casually met at Greenwich, when, after a short conversation on public af- fairs, they separated with these memorable words, addressed by Pym to Wentworth : " You are going to leave us, but I will never leave you while your head is upon your shoulders !"* That prophetic summons to a more fatal meet- ing was now at last accomplished ! Strafford had entered the House, we learn from one who observed him, with his usual im- petuous step " with speed," says Baillie, "he comes to the House ; he calls rudely at the door ; James Maxwell, keeper of the black rod, opens ; his lordship, with a proud, glooming countenance, makes towards his place at the board-head ; but at once many bid him void the House ; so he is forced, in confusion, to go to the door till he was called. . . He offered to speak, but was commanded to be gone with- out a word. In the outer room, James Max- well required him, as prisoner, to deliver his sword. When he had got it, he cries, with a loud voice, for his man to carry my lord-lieu- tenant's sword. This done, he makes through a number of people to his coach, all gazing, no man capping to him, before whom that morn- ing the greatest in England would have stood discovered." This was a change indeed ! Yet it was a change for which Strafford would seem to have been found not altogether unprepared. In all the proceedings preliminary to his memorable trial, in all the eventful incidents that followed, he was quiet and collected, and showed, in his general bearing, a magnanimous self-subdue- ment. It is a mean as well as a hasty judg- ment which would attribute this to any un- worthy compromise with his real nature. It is probably a juster and more profound view of it to say, that into a few of the later weeks of his life new knowledge had penetrated from the midst of the breaking of his fortunes. It was well and beautifully said by a then living poet, " The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks that time has made !" * An admirable commentary on this fierce text is suppli- rrl liy my friend Mr. Cattenuole, at the commencement of the volume. Gl- and when suddenly upon the sight of Strafford broke the vision of the long unseen assembly of the people, with the old chiefs and the old ceremonies, only more august and more fatal when he saw himself, in a single hour, dis- abled by a set of men not greater in vigour or in intellect than those over whom the weak- minded Buckingham had for years contemptu- ously triumphed the chamber of that assem- bly forsaken for Westminster Hall its once imperious master become a timid auditor, lis- tening unobserved through his screening cur- tains, and unable to repress by his presence a single threatening glance, or subdue a single fierce voice, among the multitude assembled to pronounce judgment on his minister that mul- titude grown from the " faithful Commons" into the imperial council of the land, and the sworn upholders of its not yet fallen liberties Pym no longer the mouthpiece of a faction that might be trampled on, but recognised as the chosen champion of the people of Eng- land, " the delegated voice of God" when Strafford had persuaded himself that all this vision was indeed a reality before him, we may feel the sudden and subduing conviction which at once enthralled him to itself! the conviction that he had mistaken the true presentment of that principle of power which he worshipped, and that his genius should have had a differ- ent devotion. He had not sunk lower, but the Parliament had towered immeasurably higher ! The first thing he did after his arrest was to write to the Lady Strafford. " Sweet harte, You have heard before this what hath befallen me in this place, but be you confident, that if I fortune to be blamed, yet I will not, by God's help, be ashamed. Your carriage upon this misfortune I should advise to be calm, not seeming to be neglective of my trouble, and yet so as there may appear no dejection in you. Continue on the family as formerly, and make much of your children. Tell Will, Nan, and Arabella I will write to them by the next. In the mean time, I shall pray for them to God that he may bless them, and for their sakes deliver me out of the furious malice of my enemies, which yet I trust, through the good- nesse of God, shall do me no hurt. God have us all in his blessed keeping. Your very lov- ing husbande, STRAFFORDE." A few days after this, having vainly prof- fered bail, he was committed to the Tower. Thereupon he wrote again to Lady Strafford. "Sweet harte, I never pityed you so much as I do now, for in the death of that great person the deputy, you have lost the principal friend you had there, whilst we are here riding out the storm, as well as God and the season shall give us leave. Yet I trust Lord Dillon will supply unto you in part that great loss, till it please God to bring us together again. As to myself, albeit all be done against me that art and malice can devise, with all the rigour pos- sible, yet I am in great inward quietnesse, and a strong beliefe God will deliver me out of all these troubles. The more I look into my case, the more hope I have, and sure, if there be any honour and justice left, my life will not be in danger, and for anything els, time, I trust, will salve any other hurt which can be done me. Therefore hold up your heart, look to the chil- BRITISH STATESMEN. dren and your house, let me have your prayers, and at last, by God's good pleasure, we shall have our deliverance, when we may as little look for it as we did for this blow of misfortune, which, I trust, will make us better to God and man. Your loving husbande, STRAFFORDE." The preliminary arrangements having been settled, and some negotiations proposed by Charles with a view to his rescue having failed, Strafford's impeachment began. Never had such " pompous circumstances" and so "state- ly a manner" been witnessed at any judicial proceeding in England. One only, since that day, has matched it. It was not the trial of an individual, but the solemn arbitration of an issue between the two great antagonist prin- ciples, liberty and despotism. Westminster Hall, which had alternately witnessed the tri- umphs of both, was the fitting scene. Scaf- folds, nearly reaching to the roof, were erected on either side, eleven stages high, divided by rails. In the upper ranks of these were the commissioners of Scotland and the lords of Ireland, who had joined with the commoners of England in their accusations. In the centre sat the peers in their Parliament robes, and the lord-keeper and the judges, in their scarlet robes, were on the woolsacks. At the upper end, beyond the peers, was a chair raised un- der a cloth of state for the king, and another for the prince. The throne was unoccupied, for the king was supposed not to be present, since in his presence, by legal construction, no judicial act could legally be done. Two cabi- nets or galleries, with trellis-work, were on each side of the cloth of state. The king, the queen, and their court occupied one of these,* the foreign nobility then in London the other. The Earls of Arundel and Lindsey acted, the one as High-steward, and the other as High- constable of England. Strafford entered the hall daily, guarded by two hundred trainbands. The king had procured it as a special favour that the axe should not be carried before him. At the foot of the state-cloth was a scaffold for ladies of quality ; at the lower end was a place with partitions, and an apartment to retire to, for the convenience and consultations of the managers of the trial ; opposite to this the wit- nesses entered ; and between was a small desk, at which the accused earl stood or sat, with the Lieutenant of the Tower beside him, and at his back four secretaries. The articles of accusation had gradually, du- ring the long and tedious preliminary proceed- ings, swelled from nine which was their ori- ginal number to twenty-eight. Pym, in an able speech, presented them to the House of Lords. Strafford entreated that seeing these charges filled 200 sheets of paper, and involved the various and ill-remembered incidents of fourteen years of a life of severe action the space of three months should be permitted for the answer. He was allowed three weeks, and on the 24th of February, 1641, his an- swers, in detail, to the charges of the Com- mons were read to the House. The 22d of * The king, however, observes Baillie, " brake down the screens with his own hands, so they sat in the eyes of all, bat little more regarded than if they had been absent, for the lords sat all covered." Baillie was the principal of the college of Glasgow, and present by order of the Scottish party. March was then fixed for the commencement of his trial. On the first reception of the articles, Straf- ford, with characteristic purpose, wrote to his wife. " Sweet harte, It is long since I writt unto you, for I am here in such a trouble as gives me little or no respitt. The charge is now come in, and I am now able, I prayse God, to tell you that I conceive there is nothing capitall ; and for the reste, I know at the worste his majestie will pardon all, without hurting my fortune ; and then we shall be happy, by God's grace. Therefore comfort yourself, for I trust thes cloudes will away, and that wee shall have faire weather afterwardes. Farewell. Your loving husbande, STRAFFORDE." He expressed the same opinion in a letter to Sir Adam Loftus. A short summary of the charges will be suf- ficient for the present purpose ; for it is not necessary, after the ample notice which has been given of Strafford's life and actions, to occupy any considerable space with the pro- ceedings, which only farther illustrated them here.* The grand object which the leaders of the Commons had in view was to establish against Strafford AN ATTEMPT TO SUBVERT THE FUNDA- MENTAL LAWS OF THE COUNTRY. t They had an unquestionable right, with this view, to blend in the impeachment offences of a different de- gree ; nor was it ever pretended by them that more than one or two of the articles amounted to treason. Their course to deduce a legal construction of treason from actions notorious- ly gone " thorough" with in the service and in exaltation of the king was to show that, no matter with what motive, any actions underta- ken which had a tendency to prove destructive to the state, amounted, in legal effect, to a trai- torous design against the sovereign. The sov- ereign, it was argued by these great men, could never have had a contemplated existence be- yond, or independent of, the state. It could never have been the object, they said, to have defended the king by the statute of Edward III., and to have left undefended the great body of the people associated under him. This prin- ciple Strafford had himself recognised in his support of the petition of right, and it is truly observed by Rushworth, that " all the laws con- firmed and renewed in that petition of right were said to be the most envenomed arrows that gave him his mortal wound." The proofs by which it was proposed to sustain the tre- mendous accusation were to be deduced from a series of his actions infringing the laws, from words intimating arbitrary designs, and from certain counsels which directly tended to the entire ruin of the frame of the Constitution. Over the three great divisions of his public functions the articles of impeachment were dis- tributed. As president of the council of York, he was charged with having procured powers subversive of all law, with having committed insufferable acts of oppression -under colour of his instructions, and with having distinctly an- * Rushworth has devoted a large folio volume to the oc- currences of the impeachment alone. t They had passed this vote in the House of Commons, and against it not a voice was raised, even by the earl's most ardent supporters. ' That the Earl of Strafford had endeavoured to subvert the ancient and fundamental laws of the realm, and to introduce arbitrary and tyrannical gov- ernment." EARL OF STRAFFORD. 123 nounced tyrannical intentions, by declaring tha the people should find " the king's little finger heavier than the loins of the law." As gov ernor of Ireland, he was accused of having pub licly asserted " that the Irish was a conquerec nation, and that the king might do with them as he pleased." He was charged with acts o oppression towards the Earl of Cork, Lore Mountnorris, the Lord-chancellor Loftus, the Earl of Kildare, and other persons. He had it was alleged, issued a general warrant for the seizure of all persons who refused to submit to any legal decree against them, and for their de- tention till they either submitted, or gave bail to appear before the council table : he had sent soldiers to free quarters on those who would not obey his arbitrary decrees ; he had prevent- ed the redress of his injustice by procuring in- structions to prohibit all persons of distinction from quitting Ireland without his express li- cense : he had appropriated to himself a large share of the customs, the monopoly of tobac- co, and the sale of licenses for the exportation of certain commodities : he had committed grievous acts of oppression in guarding his mo- nopoly of tobacco : he had, for his own inter- est, caused the rates on merchandise to be raised, and the merchants to be harassed with new and unlawful oaths : he had obstructed the industry of the country by introducing new and unknown processes into the manufacture of flax : he had encouraged his army, the instru- ment of his oppression, by assuring them that his majesty would regard them as a pattern for all his three kingdoms : he had enforced an il- legal oath on the Scottish subjects in Ireland : he had given undue encouragement to Papists, and had actually composed the whole of his new-levied troops of adherents from that reli- gion. As chief minister of England, it was laid to his charge that he had instigated the king to make war on the Scots, and had himself, as governor of Ireland, commenced hostilities : that, on the question of supplies, he had decla- red, " That his majesty should first try the Par- liament here, and if that did not supply him ac- cording to his occasions, he might then use his prerogative to levy what he needed ; and that he should be acquitted both of God and man if he took some other courses to supply himself, though it were against the will of his subjects :" that, after the dissolution of that Parliament, he had said to his majesty, "That, having tried the affections of his people, he was loose and absolved from all rules of government, and was to do everything that power would admit ; that his majesty had tried all ways, and was refused, and should be acquitted both to God and man ; that he had an army in Ireland which he might employ to reduce England to obedience." He was farther charged with having counselled the royal declaration which reflected so bitterly on the last Parliament ; with the seizure of the bullion in the Tower ; the proposal of coining base money ; a new levy of ship-money ; and the loan of 100,000 from the city of London. He was accused of having told the refractory citizens that no good would be done till they were laid up by the heels, and some of their aldermen hanged for an example. It was laid to his charge that he had levied arbitrary ex- actions on the people of Yorkshire to maintain his troops ; and, finally, that his counsels had given rise to the rout at Newburn."* In his answers and opposing evidence, Straf- ford maintained that " the enlarged instruc- tions for the council of York had not been pro- cured by his solicitations ; that the specified instances of oppression in the northern coun- ties were committed after his departure for Ireland ; and that the words imputed to him were directly the reverse of those which he had spoken. With regard to Ireland, he vin- dicated his opinion that it was a conquered country, and that the king's prerogative was much greater there than in England. He con- tended that all the judgments, charged on him as arbitrary, were delivered by competent courts, in none of which he had above a single voice : that the prevention of persons from quit- ting the kingdom without license, as well as placing soldiers at free quarters on the disobe- dient, were transactions consistent with ancient usages : that the flax manufacture owed all its prosperity to his exertions, and that his prohi- bition tended to remedy some barbarous and unjust methods of sorting the yarn : that his bargains for the customs and tobacco were profitable to the crown and the country : and that the oath which he had enforced on the Scots was required by the critical circumstan- ces of the times, and fully approved by the gov- ernment. In regard to his transactions in Eng- land, he answered that hostility against Scot- land having been resolved on, he had merely counselled an offensive in preference to a de- fensive war : that his expressions relative to supplies were in strict conformity to the estab- lished maxim of the Constitution :f that, in such emergencies as a foreign invasion, the sovereign was entitled to levy contributions, or adopt any other measure for the public de- fence : that the words relative to the employ- ment of the Irish army were falsely stated, and that he had not ventured to apply to the king- dom of England words uttered in a committee xpressly assembled to consider of the reduc- tion of Scotland. He said that his harsh ex- pressions towards the citizens of London were :ieard by only one interested individual, and not heard by others who stood as near him : that he contributions in Yorkshire were voluntary: and that the proposals for seizing the bullion and coining base money did not proceed from him.J The charges which remained untouched by these answers were abandoned by the Com- nons, as irrelative or incapable of proof, and on the 23d of March, 1641, the chief manager, Mr. Pym, rose in Westminster Hall, and open- d the case against him. The " getting up" of that mighty scene has >een described, arid a few words may serve to mt it, as it were, in action. Three kingdoms, by their representatives, were present, and for fifteen days, the period of the duration of the trial, "it was daily," says Baillie, " the most glorious assembly the sle could afford." The earl himself appeared )efore it each day in deep mourning, wearing * Stratfbrti's Trial, p. 61-75. Nalson, vol. ii., p. 11-20. t Salus populi suprema lex. t Stafford's Trial, p. 61-75. Nalson, vol. ii.. p. 11-20 have partly availed myself, in the above, of Mr. MacDi- armid's abstract, p. 251-259. Some of the charges specified were added in the course of the trial. 124 BRITISH STATESMEN. his George. The stern and simple character of his features accorded with the occasion his " countenance manly black," as Whitelock terms it, and his thick dark hair cut short from his ample forehead. A poet who was present exclaimed, " On thy brow Sate terror mixed with wisdom, and at once Saturn and Hermes hi thy countenance." To this was added the deep interest which can never be withheld from sickness bravely borne. His face was dashed with paleness, and his body stooped with its own infirmities even more than with his master's cares. This was, indeed, so evident, that he was obliged to allude to it himself, and it was not seldom al- luded to by others. " They had here," he said, on one occasion, " this rag of mortality before them, worn out with numerous infirmities, which, if they tore into shreds, there was no great loss, only in the spilling of his, they would open a way to the blood of all the nobility in the land." His disorders were the most terri- ble to bear in themselves, and of that nature, moreover, which can least endure the aggrava- tion of mental anxiety. A severe attack of stone,* gout in one of his legs to an extent even with him unusual, and other pains, had bent all their afflictions upon him. Yet, though a generous sympathy was demanded on this score, and paid by not a few of his worst oppo- nents, it availed little with the multitudes that were present. Much noise and confusion pre- vailed at all times through the hall ; there was always a great clamour near the doors ; and we have it, on the authority of Rushworth him- self, that at those intervals when Strafford was busied in preparing his answers, the mos,t dis- tracting " hubbubs" broke out, lords walked about and chatted, and commoners were yet more offensively loud.f This was unfavoura- ble to the recollection, for disproof, of incidents long passed, and of conversations forgotten !f But conscious that he was not to be allowed in any case permission to retire, as soon as one of his opponent managers had closed his charge, the earl calmly turned his back to his judges, and, with uncomplaining composure, conferred with his secretaries and counsel. He had, indeed, it is not to be forgotten, strong assurances to sustain him secretly. He had, first, his own conviction of the legal in- competency of the charges, and to this was added the doubly-pledged faith of the king. In his prison he had received the following letter : " STRAFFORD, The misfortune that is fallen upon you by the strange mistaking and con- juncture of these times being such that I must lay by the thought of employing you hereafter in my affairs, yet I cannot satisfy myself in honour or conscience without assuring you (now in the midst of your troubles) that, upon the word of a king, you shall not suffer in life, honour, or fortune. This is but justice, and therefore a very mean reward from a master to so faithful and able a servant as you have * See Nalson, vol. ii., p. 100, et teq. t Baillie adds, that in these periods " flesh and bread" was ate, and " bottles of beer and wine were going thick from mouth to mouth." t Baillie cannot refrain from saying, while he describes the guilt to have been fully proved, that some of the evi- dence was only " chamber and table discourse, flim-flams, and fearie-fairies." showed yourself to be, yet it is as much as I conceive the present times will permit, though none shall hinder me from being your constant and faithful friend, CHARLES." But against these aids were opposed certain significant symptoms of a desperate and fatal purpose on the part of the managers of the impeachment. The bishops, on whom he might reasonably have relied, had, on the motion of Williams, withdrawn from attendance " in agitatione causa sanguinis," surrendering the right they had, un- der what was called " the constitutions of Clarendon," of attending in capital trials up to the stage of judgment. Next, the person on whose evidence Strafford mainly relied in the proof of his answers, Sir George Radcliffe, had, by a master-stroke of Pym's, been incapacitated suddenly by a charge of treason against him- self; not preferred, certainly, without cause, on the presumption of the guilt of the principal for he had been Strafford's guilty agent in all things but preferred with a fatal effect to Strafford himself. Again, though counsel had been granted him, they were restricted by the lords, on conference with the commons, to the argument of points of law. Lastly, with an irresistible energy, equalled only by Strafford's own, Pym had forced from the king a release for all the members of his secret council from their oath of secrecy, in order to their examina- tion before the committee of impeachment. " My lords," said Strafford, alluding to this, and to certain words of his own which such examination had been alleged to have proved, " My lords, these words were not wantonly or unnecessarily spoken, or whispered in a corner, but they were spoken in full council, where, by the duty of my oath, I was obliged to speak ac- cording to my heart and conscience, in all things concerning the king's service. If I had forborne to speak what I conceived to be for the benefit of the king and the people, I had been perjured towards Almighty God ; and for delivering my mind openly and freely, shall I be in danger of my life as a traitor 1 If that ne- cessity be put upon me, I thank God, by his blessing, I have learned not to stand in fear of him who can only kill the body. If the ques- tion be whether I must be traitor to man or perjured to God, I will be faithful to my Crea- tor ; and whatsoever shall befall me from pop- ular rage or from my own weakness, I must leave it to that Almighty Being, and to the jus- tice and honour of my judges. My lords, I conjure you not to make yourselves so unhap- py as to disable yourselves and your children from undertaking the great charge and trust of the Commonwealth. You inherit that trust from your fathers, you are born to great thoughts, you are nursed up for the great and weighty employments of the kingdom. But if it be once admitted that a counsellor, deliver- ing his opinion with others at the council-table, candide et caste, under an oath of secrecy and faithfulness, shall be brought into question, upon some misapprehension or ignorance of law if every word, that he speaks from a sin- cere and noble intention, shall be drawn against him for the attainting of him, his children, and posterity I know not (under favour I speak it) any wise or noble person of fortune who will, upon such perilous and unsafe terms, adventure EARL OF STRAFFORD. 125 to be counsellor to the king ! therefore I be- seech your lordships so to look On me that my misfortune may not bring an inconvenience upon yourselves. And though my words were not so advised and discreet, or so well weighed as they ought to be, yet I trust your lordships are too honourable and just to lay them to my charge as high treason. Opinions may make a heretic, but that they make a traitor I have never heard till now." Again, in reference to matters alleged against him on the evidence of familiar conversations, he eloquently protested thus : " If, my lords, words spoken to friends in familiar discourse, spoken in one's chamber, spoken at one's table, spoken in one's sick bed, spoken perhaps to gain better reason, to give himself more clear light and judgment by reasoning if these things shall be brought against a man as treason, this, under favour, takes away the comfort of all hu- man society by this means we shall be de- barred from speaking (the principal joy and comfort of society) with wise and good men to become wiser, and better our lives. If these things be strained to take away life and hon- our, and all that is desirable, it will be a silent world ! A city will become a hermitage, and sheep will be found amongst a crowd and press of people, and no man shall dare to impart his solitary thoughts or opinions to his friend and neighbour !" Noble and touching as this is, let the reader remember, as he reads it, the case of Mountnorris, and the misquoting and torturing of words, in themselves harmless, by which the lord-deputy of Ireland sacrificed that man to his schemes of absolute power. It is mournful to be obliged to add that it is chiefly the genius of a great actor which calls for ad- miration in this great scene ; for though he was, as we may well believe, sincere in his sud- den present acknowledgment of that power of the Commons which he had so often braved, the same plea of sincerity cannot serve him in his bold outfacing of every previous action of his power. As the trial proceeded, so extraordinary were the resources he manifested, that the managers of the Commons failed in much of the effect of their evidence. Even the clergy who were present forgot the imprisonment of the weak and miserable Laud (who now lay in prison, stripped of his power by this formidable Par- liament, which the very despotism of himself and Strafford had gifted with its potently oper- ative force !), and thought of nothing but the " grand apostate" before them. " By this time," says May, " the people began to be a little di- vided in opinion. The clergy in general were so much fallen into love and admiration of this earl, that the Archbishop of Canterbury was almost quite forgotten by them. The courtiers cried him up, and the ladies were exceedingly on his side. It seemed a very pleasant object to see so many Sempronias, with pen, ink, and paper in their hands, noting the passages, and discoursing upon the grounds of law and state. They were all of his side, whether moved by pity proper to their sex, or by ambition of be- ing able to judge of the parts of the prisoner. But so great was the favour and love which they openly expressed to him, that some could not but think of that verse " Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulysses, Et tamcn aequoreas torsit amore deas '." Even the chairman of the committee who pre- pared his impeachment, the author of the Me- morials, observes, " Certainly never any man acted such a part, on such a theatre, with more wisdome, constancy, and eloquence, with great- er reason, judgment, and temper, and with a better grace in all his words and gestures, than this great and excellent person did." Such, indeed, appeared to be a very prevailing feeling, when, on the morning of the 10th of April, before the opening of that day's trial, Pym entered the House of Commons and an- nounced a communication respecting the Earl of Strafford of vital importance . The members were ordered to remain in their places, and the doors of the House were locked. Pym and the young Sir Harry Vane then rose, and produced a paper containing " a copy of notes taken at a junto of the privy council for the Scots affairs, about the 5th of May last." These notes were made by Sir Henry Vane the elder, and Claren- don says that he placed them in the hands of Pym out of hatred to Strafford. With much more appearance and likelihood of truth, how- ever, Whitelocke states that the elder Vane, be- ing absent from London, and in want of some papers, sent the key of his study to his son, and that the latter, in executing his father's orders, found this paper, and was ultimately induced by Pym to allow its production against Straf- ford. The Commons received this new evi- dence with many expressions of zealous thank- fulness. On the 13th of April the notes were read in Westminster Hall by Pym. They were in the shape of a dialogue and conference, and con- tained opinions delivered by Laud and Ham- ilton ; but the essential words were words spo- ken by Strafford to the king. " i'ou have an army in Ireland that you may employ to re- duce this kingdom to obedience." Vane the el- der was then called. He denied recollection of the words at first, till it had been asserted by others of the privy council that Strafford had used those words, " or the like," when the earl's brother-in-law, Lord Clare, rose and suggested that " this kingdom," by grammatical construc- tion, might mean Scotland. With singular abil- ity Strafford directed all his resources to the weakening of this evidence, but it was gener- ally regarded as fatal. He urged his brother- in-law's objection ; the very title of the notes, in proof of the country referred to, " no danger of a war with Scotland, if offensive, not defen- sive ;" and protested against a man's fife be- ing left to hang upon a single word. The evi- dence was finally admitted against him, and he was called upon to make his general defence in person against the facts, leaving the law to his counsel. He began by adverting to his painful and ad- verse position, alone and unsupported, against the whole authority and power of the Com- mons, his health impaired, his memory almost gone, his thoughts unquiet and troubled. He prayed of their lordships to supply his many infirmities by their better abilities, better judg- ments, better memories. "You alone/' he said, " I acknowledge, with all gladness and humility, as my judges. The king condemns 126 BRITISH STATESMEN. no man ; the great operation of his sceptre is mercy ; he dispenses justice by his ministers ; hut, with reverence be it spoken, he is not my judge, nor are the Commons my judges, in this case of life and death. To your judgment alone, my lords, I submit myself in all cheerfulness. I have great cause to give thanks to God for this, and celebrated be the wisdom of our an- cestors who have so ordained." With great force and subtle judgment he then argued against the doctrine of arbitrary and constructive treason, and afterward pro- ceeded : " My lords, it is hard to be questioned upon a law which cannot be shown. Where hath this fire lain hid so many hundred years, without smoke to discover it, till it thus bursts forth to consume me and my children t That punishment should precede promulgation of a law, to be punished by a law subsequent to the fact, is extreme hard ! What man can be safe if this be admitted 1 My lords, it is hard in an- other respect that there should be no token set by which we should know this offence, no admonition by which we should avoid it. My lords, be pleased to give that regard to the peerage of England, as never expose yourselves to such moot points such constructive inter- pretations of laws : if there must be a trial of wits, let the subject-matter be of somewhat else than the lives and honours of peers. It will be wisdom for yourselves, for your poster- ity, and for the whole kingdom, to cast into the fire these bloody and mysterious volumes of constructive and arbitrary treason, as the prim- itive Christians did their books of curious arts, and betake yourselves to the plain letter of the law and statute, that telleth us what is and what is not treason, without being more ambitious to be more learned in the art of killing than our forefathers ! It is now 240 years since any man was touched for this alleged crime, to this height, before myself. Let us not awaken these sleeping lions to our destructions, by taking up a few musty records, that have lain by the walls so many ages, forgotten or neglected. May your lordships please not to add this to my oth- er misfortunes let not a precedent be derived from me, so disadvantageous as this will be in its consequence to the whole kingdom. Do not, through me, wound the interest of the Com- monwealth : and howsoever these gentlemen say they speak for the Commonwealth, yet in this particular I indeed speak for it, and show the inconveniences and mischiefs that will fall upon it ; for, as it is said in the statute 1 Hen. IV., ' No one will know what to do or say for fear of such penalties.' Do not put, my lords, such difficulties upon ministers of state, that men of wisdom, of honour, and of fortune may not with cheerfulness and safety be employed for the public. If you weigh and measure them by grains and scruples, the public affairs of the kingdom will lie waste ; no man will meddle with them who hath anything to lose. My lords, I have troubled you longer than I should have done, were it not for the interest of those dear pledges a saint in Heaven hath left me." At this word (says the reporter) he stopped a while, letting fall some tears to her memory ; then he went on : " What I forfeit myself is nothing ; but that indiscretion should extend to my posterity woundeth me to the very soul. You will pardon my infirmity ; something I should have added, but am not able ; therefore let it pass. Now, my lords, for myself, I have been, by the blessing of Almighty God, taught that the afflictions of this present life are not to be compared to the eternal weight of glory which shall be revealed hereafter. And so, my lords, even so, with all tranquillity of mind, I freely submit myself to your judgment, and whether that judgment be of life or death, Tc Deum Laudamus."* Great was the struggle to be made against such noble and affecting eloquence, and Pym proved himself not unequal to it. While we yield due admiration to the unexampled de- meanour of Strafford in this conjuncture to that quick perception of his exact position, which, while it revealed to him the whole mag- nitude of the danger, suggested the most plau- sible defence, and supplied resolution where, to an ordinary spirit, it would have induced despair, so that, while sinking down the tre- mendous gulf into which he had been so sud- denly precipitated, he displayed the same cool- ness in catching at every weed, however feeble, that might retard his descent, as though the peril had long been foreseen and the methods of escape long rehearsed while we praise this in him,, let us not forget the still more extra- ordinary bearing of his adversary the triumph of Pym, as unparalleled as the overthrow of Strafford. In either case, the individual rose or fell with the establishment or the withdrawal of a great principle. Pym knew and felt this, and that with him it now rested whether or not the privileges so long contested, the rights so long misunderstood, of the great body of the people, should win at last their assured consum- mation and acknowledgment. In the speeches of Pym, the true point is to be recognised on which the vindication of Strafford's death turns. The defence of the accused was tech- nical, and founded on rules of evidence and legal constructions of statutes, which, though clearly defined since, were in that day recog- nised doubtfully, and frequently exceeded. The * This is from Whitelocke's Memorials. It is the most beautiful and complete report that has been given. I may subjoin a characteristic note from Baillie's letters. "At the end, he made such a pathetic oration for half an hour as ever comedian did on the stage. The matter and expres- sion was exceeding brave. Doubtless, if he had grace and civil goodness, he is a most eloquent man. One passage is most spoken of his breaking off in weeping and silence when he spoke of his first wife. Some took it for a true de- fect in his memory, others for a notable part of his rhetoric ; some that true grief and remorse at that remembrance had stopt his mouth ; for they say that his first lady, being with child, and finding one of his mistress's letters, brought it to him, and chiding him therefore, he struck her on the breast, whereof she shortly died." Letters, p. 291. The latter statement is only one of a thousand horrible and disgusting falsehoods which, notwithstanding the abundance of true accusatory matter, were circulated at the time against Straflford, and one or two specimens of which maybe found in the fourth volume of Lord Somers's Collection of Tracts. His friends, however, it is to be remarked, were not less forward in getting up all sorts of fictitious points of sympa- thy (in some respects, also, unnecessary, since they had plenty of true resources in that regard) around him and his memory ; and as an instance I may mention that an ex- tremely pathetic letter of Sir Walter Raleigh to his wife (the most pathetic, probably, in the language), written while he expected execution, was printed with Strafford's signature, and with the alteration of words to meet the cir- cumstances of Strafford's death. The writers of the Biog. Brit, do not seem to have been aware of this. But see Som- ers's Tracts, vol. iv., p. 249, 250 ; and compare with Eiog. Brit., vol. v., p. 3478. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 127 defence of the accusers, if they are indeed to be put upon their defence before a posterity for whose rights they hazarded all things, rests upon a principle which was implanted in man when he was born, and which no age can deaden or obscure. " My lords," said Pym, " we charge him with nothing but what the ' law' in every man's breast condemns, the light of nature, the light of common reason, the rules of com- mon society."* Nor can it be doubted that occasions must ever be recognised by the phi- losopher and the statesman when the commu- nity may be reinvested in those rights which were theirs before a particular law was estab- lished. If ever such an occasion had arisen, surely, looking back upon the occurrences of the past, and forward upon the prospects of the future, it had arisen here. It was time that outraged humanity should appeal, as Pym after- ward urged, to " the element of all laws, out of which they are derived, the end of all laws, to which they are designed, and in which they are perfected. "t The public liberty was in danger from the life of Stratford, and the ques- tion of justice reared itself above the narrow limits of the law ; for yet, again Pym urged, the law itself can be no other than that " which puts a difference betwixt good and evil, betwixt just and unjust. It is God alone who subsists by himself; all other things subsist in a mutual dependance and relation. "t Nor can it be al- leged, even by the legal opponents of this im- peachment, that the proofs advanced under the fifteenth article, which had charged Straf- ford with raising money by his own authority, and quartering troops upon the people of Ire- land, did not advance far more nearly to a sub- stantive treason, within the statute of Edward III., than many of the recognised precedents that were offered. " Neither will this," Pym contended on that ground with a terrible ear- nestness, "be a new way of blood. There are marks enough to trace this law to the very original of this kingdom ; and if it hath not been put in execution, as he allegeth, this 240 years, it was not for want of a law, but that all that time hath not bred a man bold enough to commit such crimes as these !" At this moment, it is said, Strafford had been closely and earnestly watching Pym, when the latter, suddenly turning, met the fixed and wasted features of his early associate. A rush of other feelings crowding into that look for a moment dispossessed him. " His papers he looked on," says Baillie, " but they could not help him to a point or two, so he behooved to pass them." But a moment, and Pym's elo- quence and dignified command returned. He had thoroughly contemplated his commission, and had resolved on its fulfilment. The occa- sion was not let slip ; the energies, wound up to this feat through years of hard endurance, were not frozen, and the cause of the people was gained. In the condemnation of Strafford they resumed an alienated power, and were reinstated in an ancient freedom. He was condemned. The judges themselves, on a solemn reference by the House of Lords for their opinion whether some of the articles amounted to treason, answered unanimously, * Rushworth, vol. viii., p. 108, 109. t Ibid., p. C63. t Ibid., p. 661. that upon all which their lordships had voted to be proved, it was their opinion the Earl of Strafford did deserve to undergo the pains and penalties of high treason by law. Meanwhile, before this opinion was taken, the Commons had changed their course, and introduced a bill of attainder. This has been sorely reproached to them, and one or two of the men who had acted with them up to this point now receded. Lord Digby was the prin- cipal of these. " Truly, sir," he said, on the discussion of the bill, " I am still the same in my opinions and affections as unto the Earl of Strafford. I confidently believe him to be the most dangerous minister, the most insupport- able to free subjects, that can be charactered. I believe his practices in themselves as high, as tyrannical, as any subject ever ventured on, and the malignity of them hugely aggravated by those rare abilities of his, whereof God had given him the use, but the devil the application. In a word, I believe him to be still that grand apostate to the Commonwealth, who must not expect to be pardoned in this world till he be despatched to the other ; and yet, let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, my hand must not be to that despatch. I protest, as my conscience stands informed, I had rather it were off!"* The authority of Digby in this affair, however, may well be questioned, since it has been proved that he had at this time entered into an intrigue to save the life of the prisoner, and though he spoke against the bill with extreme earnest- ness, he at the same time no less earnestly of- fered to swear that he knew nothing of a cer- tain copy of important notes which had been lost, though they were afterward found in his handwriting in the royal cabinet taken at Nase- by, and it turned out that, having access to them as a member of the impeachment com- mittee, he had stolen them.t The bill of attainder was passed on the 21st of April. While on its way to the Lords, the king went to that house and addressed them. " I am sure," he said, " you all know that I have been present at the hearing of this great case from the one end to the other, and I must tell you that I cannot in my conscience con- demn him of high treason : it is not fit for me to argue the business ; I am sure you will not expect that ; a positive doctrine best becomes the mouth of a prince." After beseeching them not to treat the earl with severity, he thus concluded : " I must confess, for matter of misdemeanors, I am so clear in that, that though I will not chalk out the way, yet let me tell you that I do think my Lord Strafford is not fit hereafter to serve me or the Common- wealth in any place of trust, no, not so much as that of a constable ; therefore I leave it to you, my lords, to find some such way as to bring me out of this great strait, and keep ourselves and the kingdom from such inconveniences. Certainly he that thinks him guilty of high treason in his conscience may condemn him of misdemeanor." When Strafford- heard in his prison of this intended interference, he had earnestly pro- * [This speech of Digby's is one of the most beautiful specimens of eloquence which we have received from the many great speakers of that day. The whole may be tumid in Sir R. Baker's Chronicles of England. C.] t See Whitelocke, p. 43. 128 BRITISH STATESMEN. tested against it, and on learning that the step was actually taken, he gave himself up for lost.* He had judged truly. The leaders of the Commons took advantage of the occasion it offered. The Presbyterian pulpits of the fol- lowing day, which happened to be Sunday, sent forth into every quarter of London cries of "justice upon the great delinquent;" and on the succeeding morning, furious multitudes, variously armed, thronged the approaches to the House of Lords ; placarded as " Strafford- ians, or betrayers of their country," the names of those commoners who had voted against the attainder ; and shouted openly for the blood of Stratford. Pym, meanwhile, had discovered and crush- ed a conspiracy for his release, which had ori- ginated in the court, and was disclosed by the inviolable fidelity of the governor of the Tower. No hope remained. The lords, proceeding upon the judicial opinion I have named, passed the bill of attainder, voting upon the articles judicially, and not as if they were enacting a legislative measure. The Earl of Strafford, with a generosity worthy of his intellect, now wrote to the king and released him from his pledged word. " To say, sir," he wrote in the course of this memo- rable letter, " that there hath not been a strife in me, were to make me less man than, God knoweth, my infirmities make me ; and to call a destruction upon myself and my young chil- dren (where the intentions of my heart at least have been innocent of this great offence), may be believed, will find no easy consent from flesh and blood." Its concluding passages ran thus : " So now, to set your majesty's con- science at liberty, I do most humbly beseech your majesty, for prevention of evils which may happen by your refusal, to pass this bill, and by this means to remove, praised be God (I cannot say this accursed, but, I confess), this unfortunate thing forth of the way towards that blessed agreement which God, I trust, shall ever establish between you and your sub- jects. Sir, my consent shall more acquit you herein to God than all the world can do besides. To a willing man there is no injury done. And as, by God's grace, I forgive all the world with a calmness and meekness of infinite con- tentment to my dislodging soul, so, sir, to you I can give the life of this world, with all the cheerfulness imaginable, in the just acknowl- edgment of your exceeding favours, and only beg that in your goodness you would vouch- safe to cast your gracious regard upon my poor son and his three sisters, less or more, and no otherwise, than as their (in present) unfortu- nate father may hereafter appear more or less guilty of this death." The singular note which has been preserved by Burnet, and which relates circumstances taken from the lips of Hollis himself, continues the deep interest of this tragic history : " The Earl of Strafford had married his sister : so, though in the Parliament he was one of the hottest men of the party, yet when that matter was before them he always withdrew. When the bill of attainder was passed, the king sent for him to know what he could do to save the Earl of Strafford. Hollis answered that, if * Clarendon and Radcliffe. the king pleased, since the execution of the law was in him, he might legally grant him a reprieve, which must be good in law ; but he would not advise it. That which he proposed was, that Lord Strafford should send him a pe- tition for a short respite, to settle his affairs and to prepare for death, upon which he advi- sed the king to come next day with the petition in his hands, and lay it before the two houses, with a speech which he drew for the king, and Hollis said to him, he would try his interest among his friends to get them to consent to it. He prepared a great many by assuring them that, if they would save Lord Strafford, he would become wholly theirs in consequence of his first principles, and that he might do them much more service by being preserved than he could do if made an example upon such new and doubtful points. In this he had wrought on so many, that he believed if the king's party had struck into it he might have saved him."* While the party thus prepared to second Hollis waited their time, the king suddenly re- sorted to a different scheme, and, having with tears in his eyes signed the commission for giving assent to the bill, declaring at the same time that Strafford's condition was happier than his own, sent the Lords a letter, written by his own hand, and, as a farther proof of his deep interest, with the young Prince of Wales as its messenger. " I did yesterday," ran this letter, " satisfy the justice of the kingdom by passing the bill of attainder against the Earl of Strafford ; but mercy being as inherent and inseparable to a king as justice, I desire at this time, in some measure, to show that likewise, by suffering that unfortunate man to fulfil the natural course of his life in a close imprison- ment ; yet so, if ever he make the least offer to escape, or offer directly or indirectly to med- dle in any sort of public business, especially with me, either by message or letter, it shall cost him his life without farther process. This, if it may be done without the discontentment of my people, will be an unspeakable content- ment to me. To which end, as in the first place, I by this letter do earnestly desire your approbation, and to endear it more, have chose him to carry it that of all your House is most dear to me. So I desire, that by a conference you will endeavour to give the House of Com- mons contentment, assuring you that the exer- cise of mercy is no more pleasing to me than to see both houses of Parliament consent, for my sake, that I should moderate the severity of the law in so important a case. I will not say that your complying with me in this my in- tended mercy shall make me more willing, but certainly 'twill make me more cheerful in grant- ing your just grievances. But if no less than his life can satisfy my people, I must say fiat justitia. Thus, again recommending the con- sideration of my intention to you, I rest." The following was added as a postscript : " If he must die, it were charity to reprieve him until Saturday." Hollis's scheme was now thoroughly defeat- ed, and death secured to Strafford. This pitia- ble letter ended all. It is a sorry office to plant the foot on a worm so crushed and writhing as the wretched king who signed it, for it was one of the few crimes of which he was in the event * Own Time, book i. EARL OF STRAFFORD. 129 thoroughly sensible, and friend has for one co-operated with foe in the steady applicatior to it of the branding iron. There is, in truth hardly any way of relieving the "damned spot of its intensity of hue, even by distributing the concentrated infamy over other portions of Charles's character. The reader who has gone through the preceding details of Strafford's lift can surely not suggest any ; for when we hav convinced ourselves that this " unthankful king' never really loved Strafford ; that, as much as in him lay, he kept the dead Buckingham in his old privilege of mischief, by adopting hi: aversions and abiding by his spleenful purpo ses ; that, in his refusals to award those in creased honours for which his minister was a petitioner, on the avowed ground of the roya interest, may be discerned the petty triumph of one who dares not dispense with the servi- ces thrust upon him, but revenges himself by withholding their well-earned reward stil does the blackness accumulate to baffle our ef- forts. The paltry tears he is said to have shec only burn that blackness in. If his after con- duct indeed had been different, he might have availed himself of one excuse ; but that the man who, in a few short months, proved that he could make so resolute a stand somewhere, should have judged this event no occasion for attempting it, is either a crowning infamy or an infinite consolation, according as we may judge wickedness or weakness to have prepon- derated in the constitution of Charles I.* Sufficient has been said to vindicate these remarks from any, the remotest, intention of throwing doubt on the perfect justice of that bill of attainder. Bills of attainder had not been uncommon in England ; are the same in principle as the ordinary bills of pains and pen- alties ; and the resort to that principle in the present case arose from no failure of the im- peachment, as has been frequently alleged,! but because, in the course of that impeachment, circumstances arose which suggested to the great leader of the popular cause the greater safety of fixing this case upon wider and more special grounds. Without stretching to the slightest extent the boundaries of any statute, they thought it better at once to bring Straf- ford's treason to the condemnation of the sour- ces of all law. In this view it is one of their wisest achievements that has been brought within the most hasty and ill-considered cen- sure their famous proviso that the attainder should not be acted upon by the judges as a precedent in determining the crime of treason. As to Strafford's death, the remark that the people had no alternative includes all that it is necessary to urge. The king's assurances of his intention to afford him no farther opportu- nity of crime, could surely weigh nothing with men who had observed how an infinitely more disgusting minister of his will had only seemed to rise the higher in his master's estimation for the accumulated curses of the nation. Nothing but the knife of Felton could sever in that case the weak head and the wicked instrument, and * [The world will more readily forgive the faults of Strafford than they will acquit Charles for having consent- ed to his death. Spe Jesse's Court of England under the Stuarts, vol. ii., p. 370. C.] t The judges and peers voted judicially even on the bill, as has been already stated. R it is to the honour of the adversaries of Straf- ford that they were earnest that their cause should vindicate itself completely, and look for no adventitious redress. Strafford had outra- ged the people : this was not denied. He was defended on the ground of those outrages not amounting to a treason against the king. Foi my own part, this defence appears to me deci- sive, looking at it in a technical view, and with our present settlement of evidence and treason. But to concede that point, after the advances they had made, would have been in that day to concede all. It was to be shown that another power had claim to the loyalty and the ser- vice of Strafford ; and if a claim, then a ven- geance to exact for its neglect. And this was done. Nor should the subject be left without the remark that the main principle contended for by Pym and his associates was, at the last, fully submitted to by Strafford. He allowed the full power of the people's assembly to take cognizance of his deeds and to dispose of his life, while most earnestly engaged in defending the former and preserving the latter. Now the calm and magnanimous patience of Straf- ford was very compatible with a fixed denial of the authority of his judges, had that appear- ed contestable in his eyes ; but we find no in- timation of such a disposition. He would not have the Parliament's " punishment precede promulgation of a law ;" he pleads that " to be punished by a law subsequent to the fact is extreme hard ;" and that " it is hard that there should be no token set by which we should know this offence, no admonition by which we should avoid it ;" and he is desirous that " a precedent may not be derived from one so dis- advantageous as this ;" but, in the mean time, the cause is gained, the main and essential point is given up ! The old boasts of the lord- lieutenant's being accountable to the king alone, of the king's will being the one and the only law of his service, are no longer heard. It may be said that a motive of prudence withheld Strafford from indignantly appealing to the king in his lurking-place from the unrecognised ar- ray of questioners and self-constituted inquisi- tors who had taken upon themselves to super- sede him ; but when the sentence was passed and its execution at hand, when hope was gone and the end rapidly hastening, we still find Strafford offering nothing against the right. One momentary emotion, not inconsistent with his letter to the king, escaped him when le was told to prepare for death. He asked if he king had indeed assented to the bill. Sec- etary Carleton answered in the affirmative ; and Strafford, laying his hand on his heart, and aising his eyes to heaven, uttered the memor- able words, " Put not your trust in princes, nor n the sons of men, for in them there is no sal- ation." Charles's conduct was indeed incred- bly monstrous. Three days more of existence were granted o Strafford, which he employed calmly in the arrangement of his affairs. He wrote a peti- ion to the House of Lords to have compassion n his innocent children ; addressed a letter to is wife, bidding her affectionately to support ler courage, and accompanied it with a letter f final instruction and advice to his eldest 130 BRITISH STATESMEN. son.* This is in all respects deeply touching " MY DEAREST WILL," he wrote, " these are tin last lines that you are to receive from a fathe that tenderly loves you. I wish there were a greater leisure to impart my mind unto you but our merciful God will supply all things bj his grace, and guide and protect you in all you ways to whose infinite goodness I bequeath you. And therefore be not discouraged, bu serve him, and trust in him, and he will pre serve and prosper you in all things. Be sun you give all respect to my wife, that hath eve had a great love unto you, and therefore wil be well becoming you. Never be awanting in your love and care to your sisters, but let therr ever be most dear unto you ; for this will give others cause to esteem and respect you for it and is a duty that you owe them in the memo ry of your excellent mother and myself, there fore your care and affection to them must be the very same that you are to have of your self; and the like regard must you have to your youngest sister, for indeed you owe it her also, both for her father and mother's sake Sweet Will, be careful to take the advice of those friends which are by me desired to ad vise you for your education." And so the ten- derness of the father proceeds through many fond and affectionate charges. With charac- teristic hope he says, " The king, I trust, wil deal graciously with you, and restore you those honours and that fortune which a distemperec time hath deprived you of, together with the life of your father." Advice is next given to meet the occurrence of such a chance. " Be sure to avoid as much as you can to inquire af- ter those that have been sharp in their judg- ments towards me, and I charge you never to suffer thought of revenge to enter your heart, but be careful to be informed who were my friends in this prosecution, and to them apply yourself to make them your friends also ; and on such you may rely, and bestow much of your conversation amongst them. And God Almighty of his infinite goodness bless you and your children's children ; and his same good- ness bless your sisters in like manner, perfect you in ever good work, and give you right un- derstandings in all things. Amen. Your most loving father, THOMAS WENTWORTH."! At one time, probably, a deeper pang would have been involved to Strafford in this affect- ing surrender of his cherished title than in that of existence itself. But this was not the time. Nothing but concern for his family and friends disturbed the composure of his remaining hours. He wrote kind and encouraging letters to " dear George," as he called Sir George Radcliffe ; shed tears for the death of Wandesford, whom * [He also wrote a beautiful letter to Guildford Slingsby, his secretary ; this is the finest effort of his pen. C.] t Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 416. The letter bears date the llth of May, 1641, and has the following- postscript: " You must not fail to behave yourself towards my Lady Clare, your grandmother, with all duty and observance ; for most tenderly doth she love you, and hath been passing kind unto me. God reward her charity for it. And both in this and all the rest, the same that I counsel you, the same do I direct also to your sisters, that so the same may be observed by you all. And once more do I, from my very soul, beseech our gracious God to bless and govern you in all, to the saving you in the day of his visitation, and join us again in the communion of his blessed saints, where is fulness of joy and bliss for evermore. Amen, Amen." The " youngest sister" was the infant of Lady Strafford. he had intrusted with the care of his govern- ment and family, but who broke his heart on hearing of the sad events that had fallen on his patron ; and requested of the Primate of Ire- land (Usher), who attended him, to desire "my lord's Grace of Canterbury," his old friend, the now imprisoned and afflicted Laud, " to lend me his prayers this night, and to give me his blessing when I go abroad to-morrow, and to be in his window, that, by my last farewell, I may give him thanks for this, and all other, his former favours." He had previously asked the Lieutenant of the Tower if it were possible to have" an interview with Laud, adding, with playful sarcasm, " You shall hear what passes betwixt us. It is not a time either for him to plot heresy, or me to plot treason." The lieu- tenant, in reply, suggested a petition to the Parliament. "No," was the quiet rejoinder. " I have gotten my despatch from them, and will trouble them no more. I am now peti- tioning a higher court, where neither partiality can be expected nor error feared." Laud, old and feeble, staggered to the win- dow of his cell as Strafford passed on the fol- lowing morning, and, as he lifted his hands to bestow the blessing his lips were unable to ut- ter, fell back and fainted in the arms of his at- tendant. Strafford moved on to the scaffold with un- disturbed composure. His body, so soon to be released, had given him a respite of its infirmi- ties for that trying hour. Rushworth, the clerk of the Parliament, was one of the spectators, and has minutely described the scene. " When he arrived outside the Tower, the lieutenant desired him to take coach at the gate, lest the enraged mob should tear him in pieces. ' No,' said he, Mr. Lieutenant, I dare look death in the face, and the people too ; have you a care I do not escape ; 'tis equal to me how I die, whether by the stroke of the executioner, or by the madness and fury of the people, if that may give them better content.' " Not less than 100,000 persons, who had crowded in from all parts, were visible on Tower Hill, in a long and dark perspective. Strafford, in his walk, took off his hat frequently, and saluted them, and received not a word of insult or re- proach. His step and manner are described 3y Rushworth to have been those of " a gen- ral marching at the head of an army, to jreathe victory, rather than those of a con- demned man, to undergo the sentence of death." At his side, upon the scaffold, stood his brother, Sir George Wentworth, the Bish- op of Armagh, the Earl of Cleveland, and oth- rs of his friends, and behind them the indefat- gable collector Rushworth, who " being then ;here on the scaffold with him," as he says, ook down the speech which, having asked heir patience first, Strafford at some length addressed to the people. He declared the in- nocence of his intentions, whatever might have >een the construction of his acts, and said that he prosperity of his country was his fondest ivish. But it augured ill, he told them, for the people's happiness, to write the commence- nent of a reformation in letters of blood. "One hing I desire to be heard in," he added, " and o hope that for Christian charity's sake I hall be believed. I was so far from being EARL OF STRAFFORD. 131 against Parliaments, that I did always think Parliaments in England to be the happy con- stitution of the kingdom and nation, and the best means, under God, to make the king and his people happy."* He then turned to take leave of the friends who had accompanied him to the scaffold. He beheld his brother weeping excessively. " Brother," he said, " what do you see in me to cause these tears 1 Does any innocent fear betray in me guilt 1 or my innocent boldness atheism 1 Think that you are now accom- panying me the fourth time to my marriage bed. That block must be my pillow, and here I shall rest from all my labours. No thoughts of envy, no dreams of treason, nor jealousies, nor cares for the king, the state, or myself, shall interrupt this easy sleep. Remember me to my sister and to my wife ; and carry my blessing to my eldest son, and to Ann, and Arabella, not forgetting my little infant, that knows neither good nor evil, and cannot speak lor itself. God speak for it, and bless it !" While undressing himself, and winding his hair under a cap, he said, looking on the block, " I do as cheerfully put off my doublet at this time as ever I did when I went to bed." "Then," proceeds Rushworth, closing this memorable scene, "then he called, 'Where is the man that shall do this last office 1 (mean- ing the executioner). Call him to me.' When he came and asked him forgiveness, he told him he forgave him and all the world. Then kneeling down by the block, he went to prayer again by himself, the Bishop of Armagh kneel- ing on the one side, and the minister on the other ; ro the which minister after prayer he turned himself, and spoke some few words softly ; having his hands lifted up, the minis- ter closed his hands with his. Then bowing himself to the earth, to lay down his head on the block, he told the executioner that he would first lay down his head to try the fitness of the block, and take it up again, before he laid it down for good and all ; and so he did ; and before he laid it down again, he told the executioner that he would give him warning when to strike by stretching forth his hands ; and then he laid down his neck on the block, * The paper of minutes from which he had spoken this speech was afterward found lying on the scaffold, and was printed by Rushworth, vol. viii., p. 761. See Appendix to this Memoir. stretching out his hands ; the executioner struck off his head at one blow, then took the head up in his hand, and showed it to all the people, and said, ' God save the king !' " Thus, on Wednesday, the 12th of May, 1641, died Thomas Wentworth, the first Earl of Strafford. Within a few weeks of his death the Parliament mitigated the most severe con- sequences of their punishment to his children, and in the succeeding reign the attainder was reversed, the proceedings obliterated, and his son restored to the earldom.* A great lesson is written in the life of this truly extraordinary person. In the career of Strafford is to be sought the justification of the world's " appeal from tyranny to God." In him Despotism had at length obtained an in- strument with mind to comprehend, and reso- lution to act upon her principles in their length and breadth, and enough of her purposes were effected by him to enable mankind to see " as from a tower the end of all." I cannot discern one false step in Strafford's public conduct, one glimpse of a recognition of an alien principle, one instance of a dereliction of the law of his being, which can come in to dispute the deci- sive result of the experiment, or explain away its failure. The least vivid fancy will have no difficulty in taking up the interrupted design, and by wholly enfeebling or materially imbold- ening the insignificant nature of Charles, and by according some half dozen years of immu- nity to the " fretted tenement" of Strafford's "fiery soul," contemplate then, for itself, the perfect realization of the scheme of "making the prince the most absolute lord in Christen- dom." That done, let it pursue the same course with respect to Eliot's noble imagin- ings, or to young Vane's dreamy aspirings, and apply in like manner a fit machinery to the working out the projects which made the dun- geon of the one a holy place, and sustained the other in his self-imposed exile. The re- sult is great and decisive ! It establishes, in renewed force, those principles of political con- duct which have endured, and must continue to endure, " like truth from age to age." * [The eulogy of his enemy Whitelocke deserves to be his epitaph: "Thus," he says, "fell this noble earl, who for natural parts and ability, and for improvement of knowledge by experience in the greatest affairs ; for wisdom, faithful- ness, and gallantry of mind, hath left few behind him that can be ranked as his equals." C.] APPENDIX TO THE LIFE OF THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. MY HUMBLE OPINION CONCERNING A PARLIAMENT IN THIS YOUR MAJESTY S KINGDOM OF IRELAND. CHARLES B. 1. Albeit the calling 1 of a Sections 1,2, 3,4, 5. Upon Parliament in this kingdom Parliament ; and especially as it is in England, where relying upon your faith and there is a liberty assumed to dexterity in managing so offer everything in their own -reat a work for the good of time and order ; and this sub- ur service, we are fully per- ordination, whereunto they uaded to condescend to the have been led by the wisdom tion always weighty very necessary to ; be considered with great deliberation whether the present conjuncture of affairs doth now advise a Parliament or no t And, after a serious discourse with myself, my reason persuades me the a serious uisuuurse wii.ii in for the assembling thereof. or uie assemuiiug uiereui. 2. For, the contribution from the country towards the trmy ending in December next, your majesty's revenue jails short twenty thousand pounds sterling by the year of the present charge it is burdened withal, besides the vast debt of fourscore thousand pounds Irish upon the crown, be at least an attempt first to effect it with ease, were to love difficulties too well, rather voluntarily to seek them, than unwillingly to meet them, and might seem as well vanity in the first respect so to affect them, as faintness to bow under them when they are not to be avoided. 3. The next inclination thereunto ariseth in me from th condition of this country, grown very much more civil am affairs and expenses abroad ; that this great charge is sus- tained, and this great debt contracted through employments for a public good, whereof the benefit hitherto hath been entirely theirs ; that there hath been but one subsidy grant- ed in all this time, nor any other supply but this contribu- tion ; in exchange whereof, your princely bounty returned creased under tne guard 01 your wisdom ana justice, so ut- tle issued hence from them, the crown so pressed only for their good, and so modest a calling upon them now for a -upply, which in all wisdom, good nature, and conscience they are not to deny should they not conform themselves to your gracious will, their unthankfulness to GoH and the best of kings becomes inexcusable before all the world, and JUOl., CL11U JUOH_y lu [IUI1I3U SU needs be judged to be in them. 4. Next, the frightful apprehension, which at this time makes their hearts beat, lest the quarterly payments towards the army, continued now almost ten years, might in fine turn to an hereditary charge upon their lands, inclines them to give any reasonable thing in present to secure themselves of that fear for the future ; and therefore, according to the wholesome counsel of the physician, Dum dolet accipe. 5. And, lastly, If they should meanly cast from them these mighty obligations, which indeed I cannot fear, your majesty's affairs can never suffer less by their starting aside, when the general peace abroad admits a more united power in your majesty, and less distracted thoughts in your ministers, to chastise such a forgetfulness, to call to their remembrance, and to enforce from them other and better duties than these. Sect. 6, 7, 8, 9. We ap- 6. In the second place, the point the time of the meeting time your majesty shall in to be in Trinity term next, for your wisdom appoint for this the reasons you here allege. meeting imports very much ; which, with all submission, I should advise might not be longer put off than Easter, or Trinity term at farthest ; and I shall crave leave to offer my reasons. 7. The improvements mentioned in my despatch to the lord-treasurer, from which I no ways recede, would not be foreslowed, wherein we lose much by deferring this meet- ing, a circumstance very considerable in these streights, wherein, if surprised, might be of much disadvantage, in case the Parliament answer not expectation ; and to enter upon that work before would be an argument for them to scant their supply to your majesty. 8. Again, a breach of Parliament would prejudice less thus than in winter, having at the worst six months to turn our eyes about, and many helps to be gained in that space ; where, in the other case, the contribution ending in Decem- ber next, we should be put upon an instant of time, to read over our lesson at first sight. 9. Then the calling of a Parliament and determining of the quarterly payments falling out much upon one, might make them apprehend there was a necessity enforcing a present agreement, if not the good one we would, yet the best we could get, and so imbolden them to make and flat- ter themselves to gain their own conditions, and conditions are not to be admitted with any subjects, less with this people, where your majesty's absolute sovereignty goes much higher than it is taken, perhaps, to do in England. Sect. 10. We well approve 10. And, lastly, There be- and require the making of two ing some of your majesty's sessions, as you propose. The graces which, being passed first to be held in summer for into laws, might be of great our own supplies, and the sec- prejudice to the crown; and and in winter, for passing yet it being to be feared they such laws and graces only as will press for them all, and shall be allowed by us. But uncertain what humour the this intimation of two sessions denying any of them might we think not fit to be imparted move in their minds, I con- to any till the Parliament be ceive, under favour, it would set. And farther, we will ad- be much better to make two mil no capitulations nor de- sessions of it, one in summer, mands of any assurance under the other in winter ; in the our broad seal, nor of sending former to settle your majes- over deputies or committees ty's supply, and in the latter to treat here with us, nor of to enact so many of those any restraint in our bill of graces as in honour and wis- subsidies, nor of any condition dom should be judged equal, of not maintaining the army ; when the putting aside of the but in case any of these be in- rest might be of no ill conse- sisted upon, and that they will quence to other your royal not otherwise proceed or be purposes. satisfied with our royal prom- ise for the second session, or shall deny or delay the passing of our bills, we require you thereupon to dissolve the Par- liament, and forthwith to take order to continue the contri- butions for our army, and withal to proceed to such improve- ments of our revenue as are already in proposition, or may hereafter be thought upon for the advantage of our crown. Sect. 11. Concerning the 11. All the objections I am short law to preserve the ut- able to suggest unto myself termost benefit of the compo- are two : That it might ren- sitions upon concealments, der fruitless the intended im- and the plantations of Con- provement upon the conceal- naght and Ormond, we like it ments, and prejudice the well, if you can obtain it, for plantations of Connaght and confirmation of what you have Ormond. The former may done, or shall hereafter do easily be helped by a short about those businesses. But law, propounded in my de- your promising of such a law, spatch to my lord-treasurer ; we doubt, may hinder the ser- and posito, that there no oth- vice, and cause them to be er law pass the first session : satisfy'd with nothing but a the second is likewise suffi- special statute. ciently secured. Sect. 12, 13, 14, 15. For 12. Then it is to be fore- demandsto be made for us, we seen what your majesty wil] EARL OF STRAFFORD, 133 allow your propositions in demand, how induce and pur- these sections, both in the sue the same, for the happy matter and in the form ; only settlement of the regal rights the last clause, which giveth and powers in this more sub- hope to maintain the army ordinate kingdom. afterward without farther 13. My humble advice is, charge to them at all, we con- to declare, at the first open- ceive may be drawn to a bind- ing of the meeting, that your ing assumption ; and besides, majesty intends and promises it is not necessary, the very two sessions ; this former for proposition being sufficient to yourself, that latter, in Mi- that effect. chaelmas term next, for them; this to ascertain the pay- ments of your army, and to strike off the debts of your crown ; that, for the enacting of all such profitable and wholesome laws as a moderate and good people may expect from a wise and gracious king. 14. That, this being the order of nature, reason, and ci- vility, your majesty expects it should be entirely observed, and yourself wholly intrusted by them ; whjch they are not only to grant to be fit in the general case of king and subjects, but ought indeed to acknowledge it with thank- fulness due to your majesty in particular, when they look back, and call to mind how, for their ease, you were con- tent to take the sixscore thousand pounds (which their agents gave to be paid in three) in six years ; and not barely so neither, but to double your graces towards them the while, which they have enjoyed accordingly, much to their advantage and greatly to the loss of the crown. 15. And that, considering the army hath been represent- ed over to your majesty from this council, and in a manner from the body of this whole kingdom, to be of absolute ne- cessity, to give comfort to the quiet minds in their honest labours, to contain the licentious spirits within the modest bounds of sobriety, it consists not with your majesty's wis- dom to give unto the world, no, not the appearance of so much improvidence in your own counsels, of so much for- getfulness in a case of their safety, as to leave that pillar of your authority and their peace unset for continuance, at least one six months before the wearing forth of their con- tribution. Sect. 16, 17, 18. We do 16. Therefore your majes- not conceive that hereby you ty was well assured, in con- purpose easily to relinquish formity to the rules of reason any of our demands, for all and judgment, they would which you have laid so fair presently grant three sub- and solid grounds. And con- sidies, to be paid in three sidering the payment of the years, to disengage the crown army is absolutely necessary of fourscore thousand pound to be borne by the country, debt, and continue their they cannot pretend by their quarterly payments towards three subsidies to make a fit- the army four years longer, ting recognition of respect in which time it was hopeful for our coming to the crown (suitable to your gracious in- without that last addition to tentions) some other expedi- buy in rents and pensions. ent might be found out to maintain the army without farther charge to them at all ; which law past, they shou'd have as much leisure to enact for themselves at after as they could desire, either now or in winter. Nay, your majesty wou'd be graciously pleased, with the assistance of your council, to advise seriously with them, that nothing might remain either unthought of ordeny'd conducing to the pub- lic good of this kingdom ; but if they made difficulty to pro- ceed with your majesty in this manner, other counsels must be thought of, and little to be rely'd or expected for from them. 17. I am not to flatter your majesty so far as to raise any hope on that side that all this shou'd be granted but by pressing both, and especially the continuance of the quar- terly payments to the army, which they dread above any earthly thing. I conceive it probable that, to determine and lay asleep (as they think) the contribution, and in ac- knowledgment of your majesty's happy access to the crown, they may be drawn to a present gift of three subsidies, pay- able in three years, which alone wou'd keep the army on foot during that time, and if my calculation hold, almost discharge the debt of the crown besides. 18. For thus I make my estimate : the contribution from the country is now but twenty thousand pounds sterling by the year, whereas I have good reason to trust each subsidy will raise thirty thousand pounds sterling, and so there will be ten thousand pounds for three years over and above the establishment ; which thirty thousand pounds sterling, well and profitably issued, will, I trust, with honour to your majesty, and moderate satisfaction of the parties, strike off the whole fourscore thousand pounds Irish which in present presseth so sore upon this crown. Sect. 19, 20, 21, 22. We 19. And then, sir, after that like well the appointing of in Michaelmas term all bene- tuch a committee, and we re- ficial acts for the subject be fer the nomination to yourself, thought of, as many, no few- We have a/so given order to er nor no more, enacted, than tome of our council here, with were fit in honour ami wis- the assistance of our attorney- dom to be granted; if, for general, to consider of the a conclusion to this Parlia- graces, that nothing pass by ment, we could gain from Taw which may prejudice our them other two subsidies, to crown. buy in rents and pensions, to ten thousand pounds yearly value (a thing they are inclinable unto, as is mention'd in my despatch to the lord-treasurer), I judge there were a happy issue of this meeting; and that it shou'd, through God's blessing, appear to the world in a few years you had, without charge, made a more absolute conquest of this na- tion by your wisdom than all your royal progenitors have been able to accomplish by their armies, and vast expensa of treasure and blood. 20. These being the ends, in my poor opinion, which are to be desired and attained, the best means to dispose and fit all concurring causes thereunto are not to be forgotten ; and therefore, as preparatives, I make bold to offer these ensu- ing particulars : 21. It seems to be very convenient a committee be forth- with appointed of some few of us here, to take into consid- eration all the bills intended when there was a Parliament to have been called in the time of my Lord Falkland ; such as shall be judged beneficial, to make them ready ; such as may be of too much prejudice to the crown, to lay them aside ; and to draw up others, which may chance to have been then omitted. This work may be by the committees either quickened or foreslowen, as the Parliament proceeds either warmer or cooler in your majesty's supplies. 22. Next, that your majesty's acts of grace, directed to my Lord Falkland the 24th of May, 1628, may be consid- ered by such of your council in England as shall please your majesty to appoint, there being many matters therein contained which in a law wou'd not futurely so well sort with the power requisite to be upheld in this kingdom, nor yet with your majesty's present profit ; which hath persua- ded me to except against such as I hold best to be silently passed over, and to transmit a paper thereof to my lord- treasurer. Sect. 23. We approve the 23. It is to be feared the reformation of these pressures meaner sort of subjects here and extortions by examples live under the pressures of and by commissions, by our the great men, and there is own authority, but by no a general complaint that of- means to be done by Parlia- ficers exact much larger fees ment. than of. right they ought to do. To help the former, if it be possible, I will find out two or three to make examples of; and to remedy the latter, grant out a commission for examining, regulating, and setting down tables of fees in all your courts, so as they shall find your majesty's good- ness and justice watching and caring for their protection and ease both in private and public respects. Sect. 24. We allow of this 24. I shall endeavour the course. lower House may be so com- posed as that neither the re- cusants, nor yet the Protestants, shall appear considerably more one than the other, holding them as much as may be upon an equal balance, for they will prove thus easier to govern than if either party were absolute. Then wou'd I, in private discourse, show the recusant that, the contribu- tion ending in December next, if your majesty's army were not supply'd some other way before, the twelve pence a Sunday must of necessity be exacted upon them ; and show the Protestant that your majesty must not let go the twenty thousand pounds contribution, nor yet discontent the other in matters of religion, till the army were some way else certainly provided for ; and convince them both that the present quarterly payments are not so burdensome as they pretend them to be, and that by the graces they have had already more benefit than their money came to : thus pois- ing one by the other, which single might perchance prove more unhappy to deal with. Sect. 25. To make' captains 25. I will labour to make and officers burgesses we alto- as many captains and officers gether dislike, because it is burgesses as possibly I can, Jitter they attend their char- who, having immediate de- get at that time. Hake your pendance upon the crown, choice rather by particular may almost sway the business knowledge of men's interests betwixt the two parties which and good affections to our way they please. service. Sect. 26. In the higher 26. In the higher House, House, for the Prelates, we your majesty will have, I have written our special letter trust, the bishops wholly for to the. Primate of Armagh, you. The titular lords, rath- addressing him therein to be er than come over them- directed by yourself. selves, will put their proxies into such safe hands as may be thought of on this side ; and in the rest, your majesty hath such interest, what out of duty to the crown, and ob- noxiousness in themselves, as I do not apprehend much an7 difficulty among them. Sect. 27. For the Peers, 27. To these, or to any- 134 that their proxies may be well disposed, we wou'd have you send with speed the names of those there in whom you re- post special trust. And in case your list cannot be here in time, we will give order that all the proxies be sent to you with blanks to be assigned there. In general, for the better preventing of practices and disorders, you shall suf- BRITISH STATESMEN. thing else directed by your majesty, I will, with all pos- sible diligence, apply myself so soon as I shall understand your pleasure therein, most humbly beseeching you will take it into your gracious memory how much your maj- esty's speedy resolution in this great business imports the prosperity of your affairs in this place, and m that re- fer no meetings during the spect vouchsafe to hasten it setting of the houses, save as much as conveniently may only in public, and for the be. WENTWORTH. service of the houses by ap- pointment, and for no other ends. 1634, April 12. The answers contained in the apostiles are made by his majesty, and by his command- ment set down in this manner. JOHN COKE. A COPY OF THE PAPER CONTAINING THE HEADS OF THE LORD STRAFFORD S LAST SPEECH, WRITTEN BY HIS OWN HAND, AS IT WAS LEFT UPON THE SCAFFOLD. 1. I come to pay the last debt we owe to sin. 2. Rise to righteousness. 3. Die willingly. 4. Forgive all. 5. Submit to what is voted justice, but my intentions in- nocent from subverting, &c. 6. Wishing nothing more than great prosperity to king and people. 7. Acquit the king constrained. 8. Beseech to repent. 9. Strange way to write the beginning of reformation and settlement of a kingdom in blood on themselves. 10. Beseech that demand may rest there. 11. Call not blood on themselves. 12. Die in the faith of the Church. 13. Pray for it, and desire their prayers with me. HURPLR (t BROTHERS. JOHN PYM. 1584-1643. JOHN PYM, the son of a Somersetshire "esquire," was born at Brymore, in his fa- ther's county, in the year 1584. His family, though described by Clarendon as of a "private quality and condition of life,"* were rich and of very old descent ; his mother was afterward Lady Rous ;+ and this boy, the only issue of her first marriage,:): was sent, in the beginning of the year 1599, to Broadgate's Hall, now Pembroke College, Oxford, where he entered as a gentleman commoner. Here he made himself remarkable, not only by quick natural talents, but by a sleepless and unwearied pur- suit of every study he took in hand. Lord Clarendon has indulged a sneer at his " parts," as having been " rather acquired by industry than supplied by nature or adorned by art ;"|| but we have it on the better authority of An- thony a Wood, that Pym's lighter accomplish- ments of literature, no less than his great learning ftnd " pregnant parts," were admired in the University. " Charles Fitz-Geoffry, the poet, styled the said Pym, in 1601, Phabi deli- cice Lepos puclli."^ It is stated in some of the histories that, on leaving Oxford, Pym entered one of the inns of court with a view to the bar ; but it is diffi- cult to find good authority for this.** He was throughout life, however, remarkable for his thorough knowledge of the laws ; and no doubt he studied them, at this time, with the almost certain expectation of being called upon, at no distant day, to serve in Parliament by the side of that great party who had already, by no un- equivocal signs of their power and resolution, startled the misgoverned people into hope. He had certainly, even thus early, attracted the attention of the great Whig nobleman of the day, the Earl of Bedford ; and to his influ- ence, it is probable, he owed that appointment to a responsible office in the Exchequer, in which, according to Lord Clarendon, many af- ter years of his youth were passed, and where, it is to be supposed, he acquired the knowledge and habits of business, and great financial skill, which, scarcely less than his genius for popular government, distinguished him through the long course of his public life. In the Parliamentary returns of the year 1614, the name of " John Pym" is to be found as member for the borough of Calne.ft These were the returns of that "addle" Parliament * Clarendon's Hist., vol. iv. (Oxford ed. of 1826), p. 437. t See the dedication to the sermon delivered at the fu- neral of this lady, among the pamphlets at the British Mu- seum. t The dedication in the sermon I have just referred to evidently restricts her issue by Mr. Pym to the great sub- ject of this memoir. <l " In the year of his age," says Anthony 4 Wood, " fif- teen, being then, or soon after, put under the tuition of Degory Whear." II Clarendon's Hist., vol. iv. (Oxford ed. of 1826), p. 437. T Wood's Ath. Oxon., ed. Bliss, vol. iii., p. 73. ** Anthony a Wood merely says, " Before he (Pym) took a degree, he left the University, and went, as I conceive, to one of the inns of court." tt It has been incorrectly stated that Pym first sat as member for Tavistock ; he did not sit for the latter borough till some years after. It was the same influence, however, which returned him for both places. which has been before described,* and which, "meeting according to their summons, such faces appeared there as made the court droop ;"t among the new faces were those of Pym and Wentworth. Upon the precipitate dissolution of this Par- liament, after a sitting of two months, several of the more forward members were called be- fore the council and committed to the Tower. If Rushworth is correct in saying that Pym. was twice imprisoned in the reign of James, it may reasonably be supposed that he was one of those committed on the present occasion.J It is certain that he at once took an active share^ in the measures of the opposition, and the " maiden speech" of such an accession to the popular party is not unlikely to have been rewarded by a warrant from the council-table. About this time Pym married Anna, the daughter of John Hooker, Esquire, a country gentleman of Somersetshire. For the next six years his name is not to be found in con- nexion with public affairs. These years were probably passed in retirement, where the mind does not find it difficult to imagine him, strengthening himself, in the calmness of do- mestic quiet, for the absolute devotion of his great faculties and deep affections to that old cause which was now again, not dimly, dawn- ing upon the world. In the year 1620 the wife of Pym died. The private memorials of this great man are too rare, and obtained with the cost of too much labour, to be thought unworthy of the reader's attention, however scanty they may be. What I shall now quote gives a grateful sketch of the character of this lady, on the authority of an excellent and accomplished man. The year in which she died witnessed also the death of Philippa, Lady Rous, Pym's mother ; and on the occasion of the funeral of Lady Rous, a sermon was delivered by the famous Charles Fitz-Geoffry, II which, on its subsequent publi- cation, he dedicated to Pym. * Life of Stratford, p. 61. t Wilson in Kennet, vol. ii., p. 696. t In the Reliqua; Wottonianse (p. 443) some of the "re- fractory" members so committed are characteristically de- scribed : 1st, Sir Walter Chute, "who, to get the opinion of a bold man after he had lost that of a wise, fell one morn- a lawyer, " whose fault was the application of certain texts in Ezekiel and Daniel to the matter of impositions ;" and, 4th, Christopher Nevil, "a young gentleman fresh from the schools, who, having gathered together divers Latin sen- tences against kings, bound them up in a long speech." These are the only names specified, but it is known that upward of ten men were committed. i) See the Journals. II For curious notices of this writer, see Wood's Ath. Oxon., vol. ii., p. 607 ; Mere's Wit's Commonwealth, part ii., and Censura Literaria. He was thought a "high-tow- ering falcon" in poetry, on the strength of a really fine and loftily-written account, in Latin verse, of the life and ac- tions of Sir Francis Drake. His minor compositions are 'Blind poet Homer you do equalize, Though he saw more with none than with most eyes: Our Geoffry Chaucer, who wrote quaintly neat, In verse you match, equal him iu conceit : 136 BRITISH STATESMEN. " I present you here," he writes in this dedi- cation, " with that whereat you could not be present, your dearest mother's funerall a la- bour I could willingly have spared, if God had been so pleased. But, seeing the great Dis- poser hath otherwise decreed, I gladly publish what I sorrowfully preached. Neither will I use that triviall apology for this publication the importunitie of friends. I confess mine ambition to divulge my observance of that house to which I owe my best endeavours. . . . What the religious cares of others received with some comfort, I here offer to your judi- cious eye ; that as you are interested in the same sorrows, so you may be partaker of the same comforts. Poor, I confesse, are these of mine to those rich ones which the rare gifts of nature and grace afford to yourselfe ; yet herein I would have you symbolize with the great ones of this world, who, although they possess whole cities and kingdoms, will yet accept an offer of a few acres." " You may well take up," Fitz-Geoffry con- tinues to Pym, " the complaint of the pathet- ical prophet ' I am the man that have seen affliction :' a great affliction, first, in being de- prived of a most loving, holy, helpfull wife ; whose learning rare in that sex, whose vir- tues rarer in this age, whose religion the rarest ornament of all the rest, could not choose but level the sorrow of losing her with the former comfort of enjoying her. This crosse is now seconded with the losse of a dear mother, and such a mother as was worthy that sonne, who was worthy such a wife. With the prophet's complaynt I doubt not but you also take up his comfort : ' It is good for a man that he beare the yoke in his youth.' " " I have fairly gayned by this publication," the writer concludes, " if hereby you take no- tice of my thankfulnesse to yourselfe, the world of my serviceablenesse to my patron. If God shall conferre a farther blessing (as commonly he doth in all good attempts), that as some re- ceived comfort in hearing, so many may be edi- fied by reading these my weake endeavours, this I shall esteeme my happinesse. In this hope, bequeathing the successe to him who is able to doe above all that we can doe or thinke, yourselfe to his chiefest blessing, my best af- fections to your worthy selfe, remaineth yours in all love and duty, CHARLES FITZ-GEOFFRY."* Featured you are like Homer in one eye, Rightly surnamed the son of Geoffry." * Death's Sermon unto the Living, delivered at the fu- neral of the religious Lady Philippa, 4to, 1620. From the sermon itself one or two points, touching on the personal characteristics of Pym's mother, will be thought worth ex- tracting. "Expect not," says the preacher, " that I should speake of her ancestors, and make that the beginning of her prayse, which is rather the prayse of others." From the following it is evident that the first husband of Lady Phil- ippa, the father of Pym, must have died very soon after Pym's birth. She is spoken of as " A comfortable helper to her loving husband (her second husband), and no small support of so great a house for more than thirtie years' con- tinuance and an especiall ornament unto hospitalitie, the long-continued praise of that house." One of the conclu- ding passages of the sermon is eloquently descriptive of this excellent woman: ' She who not long sithence came cheer- fully into this place on the Lord's day (as her godly man- ner was), hath caused us mournfully to repayre hither on this day. She who used to come in her coach, is now carri- ed in a coffin. She who used to heare attentively and look steadfastly on the preacher, is here now (so much of her as remaineth), but. can neither see nor hear the preacher ; hut I in silence preacheth to the preacher himself, and to every | Pym was now left with five young children, two sons and three daughters ;* and he did not marry again. "What he was from that mo- ment," says a learned contemporary divine, Dr. Stephen Marshall, " was only for the pub- lic good : in and for this he lived in and by this he died. It was his meat and drink ; his work, his exercise, his recreation, his pleasure, his ambition his ALL." Such enthusiastic ex- pressions may justly describe his general course of life thenceforward, though the reader will be careful not to construe them too literally. Pyra never was a candidate for the honours of ascet- icism : he required something besides an im- peachment to dine upon, and was not content with supping off a religious committee : nor ever, it must be added, did the heavy distrac- tion of public affairs bewilder him from that af- fectionate care towards his children, which is observed upon by many of those who were about him, and which was afterward richly rec- ompensed. In this respect he was more for- tunate than his friend Eliot. His second son, Charles, afterward sat with him.t a fellow-la- bourer, in the Long Parliament ; and the name of his eldest son, John, appears in the returns of the Short Parliament,} and also in the list of those gallant Parliamentarians who were severely wounded at the battle of Newbury. On the assembling of the Parliament of 1620-21, Pym again took his seat for Calne. A series of truly disgraceful events^ had filled hearer and beholder, that this is the end of all men. And by her own example (which is the life of preaching) she confirmeth the doctrine, that neither arms nor scutcheons, nor greatness of state, nor godliness of life, nor gifts of mind, nor sobriety of diet, nor art of physicke, nor husband's care, cost, nor diligence of attendants, nor children's tears, nor sighs of servants, nor prayers of the Church, can ex- cept us from that common condition ; for if they could, we had not seen this great and sad assembly here this day." Worthily, from the bosom of such a mother, can we ima- gine young Fym instructed to the great achievements of his after life! "The boy," says our great poet Words- worth, " is father to the man ;" so also, anticipating Words- worth, Charles Fitz-Geoffry said in this very sermon. The passage is quaint and curious, but pregnant with meaning. Speaking from the text of death, he suddenly breaks forth, thus : " for that is the end of all men. Man is, as it were, a book ; his birth is the title-page ; his baptism, the epistle dedicatory ; his groans and crying, the epistle to the reader ; his infancie and childhood, the argument or contents of the whole ensuing treatise ; his life and actions, the subject ; his crimes and errors, the faults escaped ; his repentance, the connexion. Now there are some large volumes in folio, some little ones in sixteens ; some are fayrer bound, some playner; some in strong vellum, some in thin paper, some whose subject is piety and godliness, some (and too many such) pamphlets of wautonesse and folly ; but in the last page of every one there stands a word which is finis, and this is the last word in every book. Such is the life of man : some longer, some shorter, some stronger, some weak- er, some fairer, some coarser, some holy, some profane ; but death comes in, like finis at the last, to close up the whole ; for that is the end of all men." * See the Perfect Diurnall, No. 21, from llth Dec. to the 18th of Dec., 1643. t For the Devonshire borough of Beeralstone. See the returns. t Which met in April, 1640. He sat for Pool, in Dorset- shire. $ See Life of Strafford, p. 62, 63. Let an intelligent foreigner describe the state of the public mind during the progress of these events. " Consider, for pity's sake," runs one of Count Harley de Beaumont's reports, " 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 these representations in order to enjoy the laugh against her husband ; whom the Parliament braves nnd de- spises, and who is universally hated by the whole people." Let me complete the picture by referring the reader to au- thorities at p. 63, note t, col. 1. JOHN PYM. 137 up the interval since the last dissolution, but one of these events had been attended with a great result in attaching Sir Edward Coke to the popular party. Hampden also, in this year, first entered the House of Commons, and in the preparations for the session we observe the first formation of the system of Parliamentary party which has wrought such great results, for good and ill, in England. The men who were foremost in opposition to the court, whether in or out of the House of Commons, held constant meetings at the house of the great antiquary, Sir Robert Cotton, in West- minster. Here assembled, for a common pur- pose, the men of learning and of action the intellectual and moral power of England. Here were the Pyms and Seldens leagued ; Camden, Coke, Noy, Stpwe, Spelman, Philips, Mallory, Digges, Usher, Holland, Carew, Fleetwood, and Hakewell, acknowledged a common object here. The famous library of Sir Robert Cot- ton, now the priceless property of the nation, furnished to these meetings the precedents from which their memorable resolutions were taken ; and from within its walls the statutes of the great days of England were, one by one, unrolled, and launched in succession upon the popular mind. May we not, with slight altera- tion, apply to it the matchless language of Mil- ton ! " Behold now that mansion-house of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with God's protection ; behold that shop of war, with its anvils and hammers working, to fash- ion opt the plates and instruments of armed justice in defence of beleaguered truth ; behold the pens and heads there, sitting by studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new no- tions and ideas, wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching reformation !" If the courtiers drooped, then, at the last Parliament, how much more reason had they to sink down at this !* It required all the en- ergy and intellect of Lord Bacon who had then, just on the eve of his terrible fall, attain- ed to the highest summit of official rank, pow- er, and fame to reassure and strengthen them. Never, he told the king, would he have a better chance of success with a Parliament than now, if, taking advantage of the universal depression of the Protestant interest abroad, he humoured the anti-Catholic zeal of the popular party by asking money from them in support of a cru- sade to be undertaken in behalf of the interests of Protestantism.f James could only half un- derstand his chancellor's purpose ; and in the speech to the Commons on their day of meet- ing, having substituted his own jargon for Ba- * The Count Harley de Beaumont, writing from Eng- land a month before this Parliament met, observes : " Au- dacious language, offensive pictures, calumnious pamphlets, these usual forerunners of civil war, are common here, and are symptoms doubly strong of the bitter temper of men's minds, because in this country men are in general better regulated, or by the good administration of justice are more kept within the sphere of their duties. Yet I doubt that any great action will come of it, inasmuch as the kin? will, in case of need, surely join the stronger party." This was correctly guessed ; for most certainly, had James been in the place of Charles, the civil war would not have been. A little blustering, and he would have yielded. t See Bacon's works, vol. v., p. 531, 532. Aikin's Life of James I., vol. ii., p. 194-198. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 20, 21. Parl. History, vol. v., p. 309-319. Liugard, vol. ix. (8vo ed.), p. 243-245. S con's grave and cautious periods,* he managed to foil it completely. What he said to them was meant to be conciliatory, but it was a fee- ble mixture of threats and supplications. The Commons listened coldly, and, on its conclusion, turned to the consideration of their privileges. They complained, in strong terms, of the imprisonment of the members at the close of the last Parliament for their conduct in that house, and broadly asserted that to the House itself belonged alone the right of judg- ing and punishing every breach of decorum committed within its walls. The king in vain, attempted to parry this remonstrance, and was at last obliged to defer to it by a solemn assu- rance that as he had already granted, so it was his intention thenceforward to maintain, that liberty of speech which was demanded by his faithful Commons. Upon receiving this mes- sage, they voted two subsidies, but without tenths or fifteenths ; so small a sum, in fact, that it only left the king more completely at their feet. James hereupon, with his usual clever folly, returned them thanks in the most grateful terms, t Though the supply was small, he preferred it, he told them, to millions, be- cause it was so freely given ; lastly, he exhort- ed them, in the exuberance of his cunning, to apply to the redress of the national grievances, assuring them that they would always find him ready " to more than meet them half way."J Avoiding, with quiet indifference, the royal snare thus set for them, the leaders of the House at once proposed to restrict their literal acceptation of his majesty's speech to the lat- ter half of it only. They sent him back reso- lutions from their committees of inquiry, lev- elled against certain notorious monopolists, who had long crippled the freedom of English trade, * This expression may startle those who are acquainted with the schoolmaster tone of Bacon in addressing Parlia- ments generally, yet a glance at his "reasons for assem- bling the Parliament," which is drawn up with very great eloquence, will show that it is not misplaced. He observes, at its conclusion, " that in respect of so long intermission of a Parliament, the times may have introduced some things fit to be reformed, either by new laws or by the moderate desires of our loving subjects dutifully intimated to us, wherein we shall ever be no less ready to give them all gracious satisfaction than their own hearts can desire." Bacon's subsequent arrogant speech to this very Parliament the haughty spirit going before a fall ! is not for an in- stant to be weighed against this cautious and elaborate com- position. t See Roger Coke's Detection, part i., p. 111. t See the Journals of the House of Commons, p. 523. Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 328, &c. ^ Three patent monopolies had been the especial subject of discussion in the meetings of the opposition, as abuses of the highest degree of enormity : they were those for the licensing of inns, the licensing of hostelries, and the manu- facture of gold thread ; in which two notorious projectors, Mompesson and Michel, were pretty generally known to be only the agents of Buckingham and his family. By virtue of the first two, the patentees were enabled to exact foi their licenses whatever sums they pleased ; and on the re- fusal of innkeepers or publicans to comply with their arbi- trary extortions, they fined or threw them into prison at their discretion. The knaveries and oppressions practised under the authority of the third patent were manifold. The monopolists manufactured thread so scandalously debased with copper that it was said to corrode the hands of the ar- tificers and the flesh of those who wove it. This adultera- ted article they vended at an arbitrary and exorbitant price ; and if they detected any persons in making or selling a bet- ter and cheaper article, they were empowered to fine and imprison such interlopers, without law ; while a clause in their patent protected themselves from ali actions to which they would otherwise have been liable in consequence of these attacks upon the liberty and property of their fellow- subjects, and of the right of search, even in private houses, which they assumed. (Aikin's James the First, vol. ii., p. 338 BRITISH STATESMEN. and against some officers of the king's courts, by whom the administration of justice had been for some time openly polluted.* Of the com- mittees from which these several charges em- anated, Pym was an active and zealous pro- moter, t The king, with every mean desire to whee- dle money from the Commons,! was by this bold course startled into his old attitude of blustering arrogance ; and at his elbow stood Buckingham, who, knowing too well that his brother, Sir Edward Villiers, would be struck down along with the other state criminals now plainly aimed at by the Commons, urged him at once to a dissolution ; when, from a little distance, was heard the voice of the wily Will- iams, then creeping slowly but very surely up the state ladder, " Swim with the tide, and you cannot be drowned. If you assist to break up this Parliament, being now in pursuit of jus- tice, only to save some cormorants who have devoured that which must be regorged, you will pluck up a sluice which will overwhelm yourself. Delay not one day before you give Sir Edward Villiers a commission for an em- bassage to some of the princes of Germany, or the Northlands, and despatch him over the sea before he be missed. Those empty fellows, Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Michel, let them be made victims to the public wrath, and cast all monopolies and patents of griping projectors into the Dead Sea after them. I have searched the signet office, and have col- lected almost forty, which I have hung in one bracelet, and are fit for revocation. Damn all these by one proclamation, that the world may see that the king, who is the pilot that sits at the helm, is ready to play the pump to eject such filth as grew noisome in the nostrils of his people. " Ultimately this was accepted as a piece of wise counsel, and, observes Hacket, "out of this bud the dean'sll advancement very shortly spread out into a blown flower." Sir Edward Villiers fled ; Sir Giles Mompes- son the original of Massinger's Overreach and his creature Sir Francis Michel were im- peached and degraded ; and many minor offend- ers were swept down in the same righteous 207. Lingard, vol. ix., p. 247, 248.) " Others," says Hack- et, "remonstrated against a pack of cheaters, who procu- red the monopoly of gold thread, which, with their spin- ning, was palpably corrupted and embased. These gilt flies were the bolder, because Sir Edward Villiers was in their indenture of association, though not named in their patent." Scrinia Reserata, p. 49. * Among these were Field, bishop of Llandaff ; Sir John Bennet, judge of the prerogative court ; and Sir Henry Yel- verton, the king's attorney-general. See Bacon, vi., 383. t In the unjustifiable proceedings against Floyde, into which the House were shortly after betrayed, I cannot dis- cover that Pym took any active share. No doubt, however, in the melancholy religious excitement that prevailed at the time, and which was the natural result of the then in- variable appearance of popery, both at home and abroad, in affinity and alliance with despotism, Pym did not resist the general feeling. I shall have many opportunities for show- ing, however, that he was not an intolerant man. For the circumstances of Floyde's case, see the State Trials, vol. ii., p. 1159. Carte, vol. iv., p. 78-80. t In one of the despatches of Tillieres, then French am- bassador in London, I find a shrewd reason given for the aniiety of the court to secure, by any expedient, a supply of money from Parliament. By that, the Frenchman ar- gues, the opposition will be "kept in check ;" for, he con- tinues, " however ill inclined they appear, these grar.ts of money, which give a claim on their property, compel them to proceed with more gentleness and reverence." * See Hacket's Scrinia Reserata, p. 49, 50. II Williams was at this time Dean of Westminster. storm of popular indignation, above which, mo- ving and directing, Pym was seen pre-eminent. So especially active was he about those affairs at this time, that the king, as we learn from the authority of Anthony a Wood, singled him out from the rest of the members as a man of "a very ill-tempered 'spirit."* The most melancholy duty of this famous Par- liament remained to be performed, to the world's wonder and its lasting loss. On the 15th of March, Sir Robert Philips reported to the House, as chairman of one of its committees of inqui- ry, that they had received information respect- ing a case of bribery which " touched the hon- our of so great a man, so endowed with all parts both of nature and art, as that he would say no more of him, not being able to say enough. "t We turn aside, with deep regret and self-humiliation, at the thought of the dis- grace of Lord Bacon ; but, careless of the in- fluence of Pope's worthless and senseless dis- tich,:): it is only just that we should remember, in some reassurance of the goodness as well as greatness of the intellect, that Bacon's sub- mission was wrung from him by the mean and paltry spite of Buckingham ; that he was not confronted with his accusers ; never cross-ex- amined any of the witnesses against him ; nev- er adduced any on his own behalf. It becomes us, therefore, using his own most affecting ap- peal, to give to that submission " a benign in- terpretation ; for words that come from wasted spirits and an oppressed mind are more safe in being deposited in a noble construction than in being circled with any reserved caution. When the book of hearts shall be opened, I hope I shall not be found to have the troubled fount- ain of a corrupt heart, in a depraved habit of taking rewards to pervert justice, howsoever * Ath. Oxon., vol. iii., p. 73. Wood adds, as some set- off to the king's opinion, that Pym was not without great esteem at the time, as a " person of good language, voluble tongue, and considerable knowledge in the common law." t See the Commons' Journals, p. 530-563. Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 350. Rushworth, vol. i., p. 28. State Trials, vol. ii., p. 1088. Clarendon and Carte have striven to rep- resent the impeachment of Bacon as the result of private pique and resentment in the one case, on the part of Coke ; in the other, on that of Buckingham. Whatever may have been the truth in either case, the Commons, having had the charges submitted to them, had no resource but that which they adopted ; and the deference and tenderness exhibited by them, during the whole of the proceedings, towards the illustrious accused, was truly remarkable. I should add that, though Coke did not appear prominently, his conduct in endeavouring to implicate Bacon in Mompesson's crimes favours the supposition of his having done his best to move the original committee of inquiry. See the Journals of March 9th, and Carte, iv., 74. t " If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined The wisest, greatest, meanest of mankind !" One of these superlatives must be questioned let the common sense of the reader determine which. t> It will probably be in the reader's recollection that a servant of Bacon's subsequently said very distinctly, that his lord was absolutely prohibited by the king from making his defence. This may be questioned ; but can it be ques- tioned that, had Basan not been restrained either by a pos- itive command of James, or, at least, by a knowledge of what must be the royal wish, he might have palliated his offence in a very great degree ? Many of the alleged bribes were, in reality, the customary compliments to chancellors ; and of the worst of his delinquencies Buckingham was the sole instigator the great cause and origin, as any one who reads the now published correspondence of Bacon and Buck- ingham will see to be established beyond a doubt. To this, indeed, Lord Bacon alludes, in this memorial of ac- cess to the king in 1622. " Of my offences, far be it from me to say, Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas, hut I will say that I have good warrant, for ' they were not the greatest offenders in Israel on whoa the wall of Shilo fell.' " JOHN PYM. 139 I may be frail, and partake of the abuses of the times." It was with this feeling the manly and earnest mind of Jonson contemplated Ba- con's fall ; for he had celebrated his prosperity, and would not shrink from him in his years of adversity and sorrow. " My conceit of his per- son was never increased towards him by his place or honours ; but I have and do reverence him for the greatness that was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his words, one of the greatest men, and most wor- thy of admiration, that had been in many ages. In his adversity, I ever prayed that God would give him strength, for greatness he could not want. Neither could I condole in a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to virtue, but rather help to make it manifest," Strengthened by the great good they had al- ready achieved, Pym and the other leaders of the country party in this famous Parliament now addressed themselves to subjects which, while they deeply interested the religious feelings of the people, involved, as they well knew, some of the most dearly-cherished prejudices of the king. A war for the recovery of the Protest- ant cause in the Palatinate ; some repeal of the indulgence granted to Catholics in the non- execution of the penal laws ; destruction of those treaties that had been concluded with the King of Spain and the Emperor, to the heavy discouragement, as it was generally felt, of Protestantism ; and, finally, arrest of the ne- gotiations now carrying on for the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Spanish Infanta : these questions day by day gathered formida- ble influence in the House, and at last, in the utter absence of any signs of immediate sup- ply, effectually alarmed James. He lost tem- per and patience, and, suddenly dropping the mask he had worn so ill, sent an intimation to the House of Commons that he expected them to adjourn over the summer. This was re- ceived with extreme dissatisfaction ; much an- gry parleying followed ; but after some days' delay both houses were adjourned by royal com- mission. The Commons, however, before sep- arating, voted a solemn declaration of their re- solve to spend their lives and fortunes in de- fence of the Protestant cause* (the reader will keep in view what has been already urgedt re- specting the inseparable connexion of this cause in that day with civil freedom) ; and this dec- laration was " sounded forth," says a person who was present, " with the voices of them all, withal lifting up their hats in their hands so high as they could hold them, as a visible tes- timony of their unanimous consent, in such sort that the like had scarce ever been seen in Par- liament." A recess of five months followed, in the course of which the whole Church was thrown into confusion, and the king's theology suffered a great eclipse. The cause is worth adverting to, in illustration of the personal positions of the dignitaries of the Church ; for it was against this class of men, according to Lord Clarendon, that Pym first showed himself " concerned and passionate, "t * Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 472, 473. t See Life of Eliot, p. 6. t Hist, of RebeL, vol. iv., p. 437, The good, easy Archbishop Abbot happened to have joined the Lord Zouch on a hunting- party at Bramzhill Park, in Hampshire. Here his grace, having singled out a buck one morn- ing, " and warned the company to be on their guard," took his aim, and, as the accounts say, " through mistake or want of skill," shot the keep- er of the park, who was passing over the ground on horseback. A verdict of unintentional hom- icide was returned ; but the opportunity was too happy to be lost, wherefore a pack of his grace's reverend opponents set in full cry after him, urging that by the canon law he had be- come incapable of holding any ecclesiastical preferment, or exercising any ecclesiastical function. His leading opponents were no less than four bishops elect, all of whom, under the circumstances, refused to receive consecration at his hands, and took their stand, very pathet- ically, upon impassable scruples of conscience, to which it would, of course, be a gross insult to suggest that, with two at least of these four reverend men, the hope of succeeding to the dignity of the disabled archbishop must have been strongly present. It was, in fact, notori- ous, that Williams and Laud* entertained this hope. The sober and religious people of Eng- land were, meanwhile, attentively listening, and from the high places in Church and State no- thing was to be heard but an agitation of the momentous question of whether the amuse- ments of hunting and shooting wore allowable in a bishop. James suffered all the throes of the strongest theological conceptions, but brought nothing forth. In despair of his own delivery, he at last appointed a commission of prelates and canonists : they could not agree ; but, by way of a compromise, the majority proposed that Abbot should be absolved from all irregu- larity ad majorem ca.utda.rn. An agonizing ques- tion followed : Where was the ecclesiastical superior to absolve the metropolitan 1 A brill- iant thought at last relieved the unprecedented difficulty. It was suggested that the king, as head of the Church, possessed exactly that plenitude of power which in Roman Catholic countries resided in the pope. Whereupon James issued his triumphant commands to the eight consecrated bishops, and Abbot was par- doned forthwith, upon the issue of a solemn declaration from the conclave that " the hunting aforesaid was decent, modest, andpeaceable."t Laud had a quarrel of twenty years' standing- with Ab- jot, who had, on several occasions, at Oxford, opposed and censured him on account of the Roman Catholic tendencies of doctrines maintained by him in his academical exercises, t This will probably be pronounced to have been, upon, ;he whole, a wise as well as important decision, and is cer- tainly not without even present application to affairs of this sort. There is a kind of hunting nowadays indulged occa- sionally by clergymen and archdeacons which is anything jut decent and peaceable. Buck-shooting, even at the oc- casional risk of an accidental loss of life, as in his grace of Canterbury's case, is in reality nothing to it. It may be ery much the fashion, therefore, when we see a minister jf the Gospel partridge-shooting or fox-hunting, to pull forth our Bibles, and make a parade of our acquaintance with Paul and Timothy ; but the propriety of the practice is really more than doubtful, since the consequences may be such as to put society under serious disobligation to the rash hinderer of clerical pastimes. A pheasaHt is more al- owable game than a peasant. When Domitian left off fly- tilling, he took to killing Roman citizens ; and our times lave witnessed less innocent amusements, on the part of the clergy, than the sports of the field. As for the silence of Holy Writ about detonators, it is not more silent about detonators than about lawn sleeves and mitres ; and, be- 140 BRITISH STATESMEN. The Parliament assembled in November, and in some anger at the imprisonment of one of their members, Sir Edwin Sandys,* during the recess. Some few days after their meet- ing, Pvm seconded Sir Edward Coke in mo- ving, as one of their first resolutions, that they should remonstrate with the king on the caus- es of the public discontent then prevailing, and point out the remedies. A petition was ac- cordingly prepared, suggesting, among other things, Prince Charles's marriage with a Prot- estant ; and that the king should direct his ef- forts against that power (Spain) which first maintained the war against the Protestant cause in the Palatinate. t This petition was opposed by the court party as utterly without precedent ; the chancellor of the duchy said that " it was of so high and transcendent a na- ture, he had never known the like within those walls." Privately, meanwhile, a copy of it had been sent to the king, on whom it took sudden and desperate effect. Calvert and Weston, according to Wilson, " had aggravated the matter to him, with all the acrimony they could, so far as to reflect upon particular per- sons that were the most active instruments in it."J Foremost among the persons so named were Pym, Coke, and Philips. Accordingly, from Newmarket, whither he had gone at the sides, if it says nothing for them, it certainly says nothing against. " If you must drink," says the ordinary of New- gate to Mr. Jonathan Wild, " if you must drink, let us have a bowl of punch ; a liquor I the rather prefer, as it is no- where spoken against in Scripture." The same reason holds for an archbishop's or archdeacon's dog and gun, with precisely the same force. * Sandys had been placed under arrest with Selden, not then a member of the House ; also Lords Oxford and South- ampton, Sutcliff, dean of Exeter, the Bishop of Bangor, Sir Christopher Neville, Sir G. Leeds, and Brise, a Puritan minister ; after examination before the council, and a short confinement, they were restored to liberty. See Camden's Annals of James, 1621. Kennel's History, vol. ii., p. 657. Their offences are not assigned, but it would seem they had indulged in talking " arcana imperil'' against a royal proclamation. Secretary Calvert was commissioned by the king to declare that Sandys, the only member committed, had not been committed for any Parliamentary matter, and Sir Thomas Wentworth even discountenanced the resent- ing it as a breach of privilege. But it is difficult to doubt the cause of Sandys' commitment. See Debates and Journals. t See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 40. This remonstrance, it has been truly said, was fitted to disconcert all the projects of James : it penetrated without reserve into the deepest recesses of those arcana imperil which he held so dear and BO sacred ; it proclaimed the futility of those negotiations in which he had exposed himself to become the dupe of Spain and the laughing-stock of Europe ; it warned him that his arbitrary suspension of laws would be no longer borne with ; it taught him that the darling project of alli- ance which had prompted all these sacrifices of dignity and principle was contemplated with abhorrence ; and, above all, that the purses of the English people would never be opened to him but in the cause of Protestantism and the liberties of Germany against the great Catholic league, the emperor, and especially the King of Spain. The following passage closed the petition : " This is the sum and effect of our humble declaration, which we (noways intending to press upon your majesty's undoubted and regal prerogative) do with the fulness of our duty and allegiance humbly sub- mit to your most princely consideration : the glory of God, whose cause it is ; the zeal of our true religion, to which we have been born, and wherein, by God's grace, we are resolved to die ; the safety of your majesty's person, who is the very life of your people ; the happiness of your chil- dren and posterity, the honour and good of the Church and State, dearer unto us than our own lives having kin- dled these affections, truly devoted to your majesty." The words in italics were not in the petition as first proposed to the House, but were inserted in the course of the debate on it to meet some scruples of the time. See Journals. Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 489, and Aikin's James, vol. ii., p. 275-7. J See Wilson, in Kennel's History, vol. ii., p. 740. time, " to be farther from the sound of that noise of the discontent of the Commons," James instantly despatched a letter to the speaker complaining of the influence possessed by some certain* " fiery, popular, and turbu- lent spirits" in the lower House, forbidding them to inquire into the mysteries of state, or to concern themselves about the marriage of his son, or to touch the character of any prince, his friend or ally, or to intermeddle with caus- es which were submitted to the decision of the courts of law, or even to send to him their pe- tition, if they wished him to hear or answer it ; and, finally, to recollect that he (King James) thought himself " very free and able to punish any man's misdemeanours in Parliament as well during their sitting as after, which we mean not to spare hereafter, upon any occasion of any man's insolent behaviour there that shall be ministered unto us ; and if they have already touched any of these points which we have forbidden in any petition of theirs which is to be sent unto us, it is our pleasure that you shall tell them that, except they reform it before it come to our hands, we will not deign the hearing nor answering of it."t From the date of this letter the 3d of De- cember, 1621 may be dated the commence- ment of the kind of open warfare of antagonist principles which ended in the destruction of the Stuart race. The historian Hume con- fesses that it was " rash and indiscreet" in the king thus to risk the " tearing off that sacred veil which had hitherto covered the English Constitution, and which threw an obscurity upon it so advantageous to royal prerogative : every man began to indulge himself in political reasonings and inquiries ; and the same fac- tions which commenced in Parliament, were propagated through the nation. "t Would the philosopher have thought James rash and in- discreet if his letter had proved successful 1 The truth was, that, backed by all the power of the executive, and with all the prisons of the Tower at his command, James's venture was perfectly in accordance with Hume's princi- ples. He had, however, miscalculated the characters of the men opposed to him, the great majority of whom were already, for life or death, devoted to the achievement of a pop- ular and responsible government in England. In the spirit of men so leagued their reply to this letter was framed. The greatest respect tempered the most resolute firmness. Some abstract of this document will find a fitting place here, since Pym was one of the most ac- tive members^ of the committee appointed to draw it up, and it is, besides, of the last im- portance that the reader should distinctly un- derstand the exact ground that was occupied by the opposing parties in this, the first open * The following, which stands upon the journals imme- diately after the king's letter, is an evidence of Pyin's quick resolution and high courage: " Mr. Pym saith that the words of ' fiery, popular, and turbulent' are laid by his maj- esty on the whole House ; for since we have not punished or questioned any such, but (as the letter saith) been led by their propositions, it is the acl of the whole House. He desireth a petition may be from us to the king, to know who his majesty hath been informed those fiery, turbulent spirits are, that we may justify ourselves, and clear the House of the taint of those words." t Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 492. Roger Coke's Declaration, vol. i., p. 119, ed. 1694. t Hist., vol. v., p. 82, quarto ed. I) See Journals. JOHN PYM. 141 contest between the English Parliament and the English king. They began by professing their sorrow at the displeasure shown by his majesty's letter to the speaker, while they took comfort to them- selves in the assurance of his grace and good- ness, and of their own faithfulness and loyal- ty. They entreated that their good intentions might " not undeservedly suffer by the misin- formation of partial and uncertain reports, which are ever unfaithful intelligencers," but that his majesty would vouchsafe to under- stand from themselves, and not from others, what their humble petition and declaration, re- solved upon by the universal voice of the House, did contain. They beseeched, also, that his majesty would not henceforth give credit to private reports against all or any of the members of that House, on whom they themselves should not have inflicted a cen- sure, but that they might ever " stand upright" in his royal judgment. Adverting, then, to the cause of their assembling in Parliament, and to the particulars of information laid before them by his majesty's command, they inferred that they " were called to a war," and certain- ly with the King of Spain, who had five armies on foot, and who was known to have occupied the lower Palatinate ; and hence they took credit for the unprecedented celerity and alac- rity with which their zeal for his majesty and his posterity had prompted them to proceed in voting the necessary supplies, and considering of the mode of conducting hostilities. To this they added, that although they could not con- ceive that the honour and safety of his majes- ty and his posterity ; the patrimony of his chil- dren, invaded and possessed by their enemies ; the welfare of religion and the state of the kingdom, were matters at any time unfit for their deepest consideration in time of Parlia- ment, yet that, at this time, they were clearly invited to it ; and that the mention of Popish recusants, and whatever said touching the hon- our of the King of Spain in which, however, they contended that they had observed due bounds had necessarily arisen out of the sub- ject. Next they disclaimed all intention of in- vading his majesty's undoubted prerogative in disposing of his son in marriage, but mairitain- ed that, as the representatives of the whole commons of England, who have a large inter- est in the prosperity of the king and royal fam- ily, and of the State and Commonwealth, it be- came them to offer their opinion respecting this matter. On these considerations, they hoped that his majesty would now be pleased to re- ceive their petition and declaration at the hands of their messengers, to read and favour- ably to interpret it, and to give answer to as much of it as relates to Popish priests and recusants, to the passing of bills, and to par- dons. The declaration ended thus : " And whereas your majesty doth seem to abiidgr. us of the ancient liberty of Parliament for free- dom of speech, jurisdiction, and just liberty of the House, and other proceedings there (where- in we trust in God we shall never trangress the bounds of loyal and dutiful subjects) ; a liberty which we assure ourselves so wise and so just a king will not infringe, the same being our ancient and undoubted right, and an inherit- ance received from our ancestors ; without which we cannot freely debate, nor clearly dis- cern of things in question before us, nor truly inform your majesty ; in which we have been confirmed by your majesty's most gracious for- mer speeches and messages : we are, there- fore, now again enforced, in all humbleness, to pray your majesty to allow the same, and thereby to take away the doubts and scruples your majesty's late letter to our speaker hath wrought upon us."* This declaration, with the original petition, was carried to the king at Newmarket by Pym and eleven other members deputed by the House. " Chairs !" cried the king, as they en- tered the presence chamber ; " chairs ! here be twal' kynges comin' !" In the interview which followed he refused to receive the ori- ginal petition ; and, as Roger Coke expresses it, after reading the second declaration, " furled all his sails, and resolved to ride out this storm of the Commons." In other words, he set to work, and endited, with his own hand, an enor- mously long rejoinder, which may be thus trans- lated and abridged from the rich Scotch dialectt of the original. He began by applying to the case some words of Queen Elizabeth, addressed to an insolent ambassador : " We looked for an ambassador we have received a herald." So, he assert- ed, he had looked for thanksgiving from the Commons for all the " points of grace" he had conceded to them. " But not only," he con- tinues, " have we heard no news of all this, but contrary, great complaints of the danger of religion within this kingdom, tacitly implying our ill-government in this point. And we leave you to judge whether it be your duties, that are the representative body of our people, so to distaste them with our government ; whereas, by the contrary, it is your duty, with all your endeavours, to kindle more and more a dutiful and thankful love in the people's hearts towards us, for our just and gracious govern- ment." In respect to their taxing him with trusting uncertain reports and partial informa- tions, he proceeded thus : " We wish you to remember that we are an old and experien- ced king, needing no such lessons, being in our conscience freest of any king alive from hearing or trusting idle reports ;" and as to their petition in particular, he went on to say, that he had made their own messengers com- pare the copy of it which they brought with that which he had received before, which corre- sponded exactly, excepting a concluding sen- tence added by them afterward. Having thus satisfied himself with a reason which did not even glance at the gross breach of privilege complained of, he next told them, that if, in ig- norance of the contents of their petition, he had received it, to his own great dishonour, he could have returned nothing to their messen- gers but that he judged it unlawful and unwor- thy of an answer. ' For," he observes, " as to your conclusion thereof, it is nothing but pro- testatio contraria facto ; for in the body of your petition you usurp upon our prerogative royal, and meddle with things far above your reach, * Rushworth, vol. i., p. 46. Parl. Hist., rol. v., p. 495. Aikin's James the First, vol..ii., p. 282, 284. t Roger Coke, vol. i., p. 121. 142 BRITISH STATESMEN. and then, in the conclusion, you protest the contrary ; as if a robber would take a man's purse, and then protest he meant not to rob him." He denied that the communications made by him to the House could in any manner authorize their proceedings. He had, indeed, made known that he was resolved by war to re- gain the Palatinate, if otherwise he could not ; and had invited them to advise upon a supply for keeping the forces there from disbanding, and raising an army in the spring. "Now what inference," he continues, " can be made upon this, that therefore we must presently denounce war against the King of Spain, break our dearest son's match, and match him to one of our religion, let the world judge. The dif- ference is no greater than if we would tell a merchant that we had great need to borrow money from him for raising an army ; that thereupon it would follow that we were hound to follow his advice in the direction of the war, and all things depending thereupon. But yet, not contenting yourselves with this excuse of yours, which indeed cannot hold water, you come after to a direct contradiction, saying that the honour and safety of us and our pos- terity, the patrimony of our children, invaded and possessed by their enemies, and the wel- fare of religion and state of our kingdom, are matters at any time not unfit for your deepest considerations in Parliament. To this gener- ality we answer, with the logicians, that where all things are contained nothing is omitted. So this plenipotency of yours invests you with all power upon earth, lacking nothing hut the Pope's, to have the keys, also, both of heaven and purgatory. And to this vast generality of yours we can give no other answer, for it will trouble all the best lawyers in the House to make a good commentary upon it. For so did the Puritan ministers in Scotland bring all kind of causes within the compass of their ju- risdiction, saying that it was the Church's of- fice to judge of slander, and there could be no kind of crime or fault committed but there was a slander in it, either against God, the king, or their neighbour : or like Bellarmine's distinc- tion of the Pope's power over kings, in ordine ad spiritualia, whereby he gives them all tem- poral jurisdiction over them." With respect to the war, he then professed in general terms that he would suffer no consideration, not even the marriage of his son, to interfere with the restitution of the Palatinate ; and boasted that by his intervention with the King of Spain and the archduchess in Flanders, he had already preserved it from farther conquest for a whole year. " But," he added, " because we conceive that ye couple this war of the Palatinate with the cause of religion, we must a little unfold your eyes therein." And he proceeded, in de- fiance of all historic truth, to lay the whole blame of the war of Bohemia, and the conse- quent oppression of the Protestants in Germa- ny, on the ambition of his son-in-law, and his unj ust usurpation of the crown of another. He severely reprimanded the Parliament, next, for the terms in which the King of Spain and his inordinate ambition were spoken of in their pe- tition, not to allude to " the particular ejacula- tions of some foul-mouthed orators in your house against the honour of that king's crown and state." Respecting the prince's marriage, he professed himself indignant that the House should not place so much confidence in his re- ligion and wisdom as to rely on his former dec- laration, that religion should receive no injury by it ; and then informed them that he was al- ready too much advanced in the treaty to re- tract with honour. After much more objurga- tory language respecting what he treats as their unpardonable presumption, quoting the proverb, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, he conde- scends ungraciously enough, but yet out of a sort of ungainly desire of seeming to conciliate to explain away, in some degree, his general prohibition of their meddling with matters of government and mysteries of state, accusing them, at the same time, of misplacing and mis- judging his sentences, as " a scholar would be ashamed so to misplace and misjudge any sen- tences in another man's book." With the fol- lowing very startling passage he at last con- cludes : " And although we cannot allow of the style, calling it your ancient and undoubted right and inheritance, but could rather have wished that ye had said that your privileges were derived from the grace and permission of our ancestors and us (for most of them grow from precedents, which shows rather a tolera- tion than inheritance), yet we are pleased to give you our royal assurance that, as long as you contain yourselves within the limits of your duty, we will be as careful to maintain and preserve your lawful liberties and privile- ges as ever any of our predecessors were nay, as to preserve our own royal prerogative ; so as your house shall only have need to be- ware to trench upon the prerogative of the crown, which would enforce us, or any just king, to retrench them of their privileges that would pare his prerogative and flowers of the crown. But of this we hope there never shall be cause given."* This letter had not been long despatched, when symptoms of alarm broke out at the court. Williams recommended the qualifica- tion of its terms " with some mild and noble exposition ;"t and the king prepared to adopt this suggestion, after he was told that the Commons, on receiving his letter, had on the instant appointed a committee to prepare a pro- test. Secretary Calvert accordingly went down to the House with an explanatory message from the king, wherein, while he reiterated his assurances respecting their privileges, and tacitly withdrew the menace that rendered them precarious, he said that he could not with patience endure his subjects to use such anti- monarchical words to him concerning their lib- erties as " ancient and undoubted right and in- heritance," without subjoining that they were granted by the grace and favour of his prede- cessors. The house heard this coldly. Cal- vert and the other ministers, seeing the coming storm, made a still more desperate effort to avert it by admitting the king's closing expres- sions in the original letter to be incapable of defence, and calling them a slip of the pen at the close of a long answer.}: This availed as c o te ngs etter. See Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. ii., p. 500. JOHN PYM. 143 little as the former. The last and worst expe- dient was then resorted to, and the clerk of the House received notice of instant adjournment till the ensuing February. In this extremity the leaders of this great Parliament acquitted themselves with memo- rable courage. Nothing, they said, should sep- arate them till they had placed on record a pro- test against the monstrous pretensions of James. The time that remained to them was indeed short, but they proved it long enough for the accomplishment of an act which exert- ed a sensible influence on the contest between the people and the king up to its very close. All that was done in the most celebrated Par- liaments of Charles followed, as a natural con- sequence, from what was done now. Instantly upon the receipt of this notice of adjournment, a message was sent to the com- mittee to whom the king's letter had been re- ferred ; some time passed in debate meanwhile, and it was not, as it would seem by the king's subsequent proclamation,* until " six o'clock at night, by candle-light," a thing unprecedented in those days, " that the said committee brought into the House a protestation (to whom made appears not) concerning their liberties." This assertion of ignorance on the king's part, as to whom the protestation was made, emphatical- ly points out the nobler quarter to which it ad- dressed itself the great mass of the English people. To them it was made, and, sinking into their hearts, met with a fruitful and con- genial soil. After a long and earnest debate, advancing to a very late hour, the protestation was entered " as of record" upon the journals in the following ever-memorable words : "The Commons now assembled in Parlia- ment, being justly occasioned thereunto, con- cerning sundry liberties, franchises, and privi- leges of Parliament, do make this protestation following : That the liberties, franchises, privi- leges, and jurisdictions of Parliament are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inherit- ance of the people of England : and that the arduous and urgent affairs concerning the king, state, and defence of the realm, and of the Church of England, and the maintenance and making of laws, and redress of mischiefs and grievances which daily happen within this realm, are proper subjects and matter of coun- cil and debate in Parliament : and that in the handling and proceeding of those businesses, every member of the House of Parliament hath, and of right ought to have, freedom of speech to propound, treat, reason, and bring to con- clusion the same : and that the Commons in Parliament have like liberty and freedom to treat of these matters in such order as in their judgments shall seem fittest : and that every member of the said House hath like freedom from all impeachment, imprisonment, and mo- lestation (other than by censure of the House itself) for or concerning any speaking, or rea- soning, or declaring of any matter or matters touching the Parliament, or Parliament busi- ness : and that if any of the said members be complained of and questioned for anything done or said in Parliament, the same is to be show- * See Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 514-16. Memorial of the King's Reasons for destroying the Protestation of the Com- mons. ed to the king by the advice and assent of all the Commons assembled in Parliament, before the king give credence to any private informa- tion."* No time was lost by the courtiers, it may be supposed, in communicating intelligence of this act to the king, who instantly, frantic with spite and outraged imbecility, hurried up to London from Newmarket, hastily assembled around him at Whitehall the privy council and six of the judges who happened to be in town, sent for the clerk of the House of Commons, and commanding him to produce his journal- book, tore out the protestation with his own hand, and ordered the deed to be registered by an act of council. His next exploit was to dis- solve the Parliament.t This he did by procla- mation, assigning as the necessity which had driven him to it, the " inordinate liberty" as- sumed by some " particular members of the House" " evil-tempered spirits" who sowed tares among the corn."! Finally, he summoned these " evil-tempered spirits" before the coun- cil-table in the persons of Coke, Philips, Pym, and Mallory, and, having in vain endeavoured to exact submission from them, committed them to separate prisons. I have found, and will here quote, a curious letter in illustration of the nature of these im- prisonments, which have been sometimes spo- ken of by writers of the court party as though they spoke of matters comparatively trifling a sort of temporary detention or honourable arrest. What follows will show the full ex- tent of the dangers to which men of high birth and fortune were now content to expose them- selves, in the hope, by such means, of still more quickening the sympathies and strength- ening the purposes of the mass of the common people. It describes the capture and impris- onment of Sir Robert Philips, Pym's intimate friend on the occasion now in question ; and describes, also, there can be little doubt, the course adopted, at the same time and for the same reason, towards Pym himself. It is in the shape of a petition from Francis Philips to King James, praying for the release of his brother, Sir Robert. >' It is not for myself," he writes, " I thus implore your majesty's grace, but for one that is far more worthy, and in whom all that I am consists my dear brother ; who, I know not by what misfortune, hath fallen, or rather been pushed, into your majesty's displeasure ; not in dark and crooked ways, as corrupt and ill-af- fected subjects use to walk, and neer to break their necks in, but even in the great road, which both himself and all good Englishmen that know not the paths of the court, would have sworn would have led most safely and * Rushworth, vol., i., p. 53. t A ludicrous anecdote of what very ominously befell the king on the same day is given in a manuscript letter of ths time. "The Parliament was, on Wednesday, cleane dis- solved by proclamation. The same day his ma>e rode by :oach to Theobald's to dinner, not intending, as the speech is, to returne till towards Easter. After dinner, ryding on horseback abroad, his horse stumbled and cast his majestic into the New River, where the ice brake: he fell in, so that nothing but his boots were scene. Sir Richard Yong was next, who alighted, went into the water, and lifted him out. There came much water out of his mouth and tmdie ; his majestie rode back to Theobald's, went into a warme bed, and, as we heare, is well, which God continue." Harl. MSS., 389. t Rushworth, vol. i., p. 55. BRITISH STATESMEN. most directly to your majesty's service from your majesty's displeasure. There needs no other invention to crusifie a generous and hon- est-minded suppliant, upon whom hath issued and been derived a whole torrent of exemplary punishment, wherein his reputation, his person, and his estate grievously suffered ; for, having (upon the last process of Parliament) retired him- self to his poor house in the countrey, with hope a ichilc to breathe after these troublesome affairs, and still breathing nothing- but your majesty's ser- vice, he was sent for, ere he had finished his Christ- mas, by a sergeant at arms, who arrested him in his men house, with as much terror as belongs to the apprehending of treason itself; but (thanks be to God) his conscience never started, and his obedience herein showed it was not in the power of any authority to surprise it ; for at the instant, without asking one minute's time of reso- lution, he rendered himself to the officer's discretion, who (according to his directions) brought him up captive, and presented hirn at the council- table as a delinquent, from whence he was as soon committed to the Tower, where he ever since hath been kept close prisoner, and that with so strict a hand, as his own beloved wife and my- self, having some time since urgent and unfeigned occasion to speak with him about some private bu- siness of his family, and hereupon making hum- ble petition to the lords of your majesty's most honourable privy council for the favour of ac- cess, we were, to our great discomforts, denied it; by reason, as their lordships were pleased to declare unto us, that he had not satisfied your majesty fully in some points, which is so far from being his fault, as, I dare say, it is the greatest part of his affliction, that he sees him- self debarred from the means of doing it. The lords commissioners that were appointed by your majesty to examine his offence, since the first week of his imprisonment have not done him the honour to be with him, by which means not only his body, but (the most part of his mind) his humble intentions to your majesty, are kept in restraint. May it please, therefore, your most excellent majesty, now at length, af- ter five months' imprisonment and extreme durance, to ordain such expedition in this cause as may stand with your justice, and yet not avert Jfcur mercy either of them will serve our turns but that which is most agreeable to your royal and gracious inclination will best accomplish our desire. To live still in close prison is all one as to be buried alive ; and for a man that hath any hope of salvation, it were better to pray for the day of judgment than to lie languishing in such wa- king misery ; yet not ours, but your majesty's will be done." A subsequent passage of the petition runs thus : " If (I say) it be not yet time to have mercy, but that he must still remain within the walls of bondage to expiate that which he did in these privileged ones, my hope is that he will die at any time for your majesty's service, and will find patience to live anywhere for your majesty's pleasure ; only thus much let me be- seech your majesty's grace, again and again, not to deny your humble and most obedient suppliant, that you will, at least, be pleased to mitigate the rigour of his sufferings so far as to grant him the liberty of the Tower, that he may no longer groan under the burthen of those in- commodities which daily prejudice his health and fortune in a higher degree (I believe) than either your majesty knows or intends." No answer was returned by the king ; and under this kind of restraint Pym and his friends were all, with one exception,* kept close pris- oners, t until, as Roger Coke states, the break- ing of the Spanish match necessitated the king to call another Parliament. Such sufferings, however, while they excite all the sympathies of the heart and mind, are much too high for pity. " I had rather," said Pymt on more than one occasion, " I had rather suffer for speak- ing the truth, than that the truth should suffer for want of my speaking." The prisons of such men are the sanctuaries of philosophy and patriotism. The last Parliament of James was summon- ed, and Pym, having obtained his release, again sat for Calne. The proceedings of this Parlia- ment have been followed so minutely in the biography of Eliot, that it is not necessary to say more here than that Pym's exertions, du- ring its continuance, were chiefly employed upon the declaratory statute against monopo- lies, and against the delinquencies of the Lord- treasurer Middlesex. James died, and Charles ascended the throne. The precise condition of affairs at this junc- ture has been already placed before the read- er ;|| and it will be only necessary to remind him, that the bitter distrust awakened in the English people towards their young king by the Earl of Bristol's exposure of the circumstan- ces attending the breach of the Spanish trea- ties at the close of the reign of James, was ag- gravated by ostentatious and ill-timed indul- gences granted to the professors of the Roman Catholic religion immediately upon Charles's accession. Under the influence of these feel- ings, the first Parliament of the new reign met, when Pym took his seat, for the first time, as member for the borough of Tavistock, in Dev- onshire, which he represented in all succeed- ing Parliaments till his death. The first matter we find him engaged in heref was the case of the king's chaplain, Doc- * This exception was in the case of Selden, who, though not a member of the Parliament, had been consulted by it, and given very decisive opinions respecting questions of privilege. He was released in consequence of the earnest intercession of the subtle Lord-keeper Williams, an extract from whose letter on this subject, addressed to Bucking- ham, supplies us with one or two curious hints of character. " Now," says our artful bishop, " poor Mr. Selden petitions your lordship's mediation and favour. He and the world take knowledge of that favour your lordship hath ever af- forded my motions ; and myself, without the motion of any ; and so draweth me along to entreat for him, the which I do the more boldly, because, by his letter enclosed, he hath absolutely denied that ever he gave the least approbation of that power of judicature lately usurped by the House of Commons. My lord, the man hath excellent parts, which may be diverted from an affectation of applause of idle peo- ple to do some good and useful service to his majesty. He is but young, and it is the first offence that ever he commit- ted against the king. I presume, therefore, to leave him to your lordship's mercy and charity." Hacket's Scrinia Reserata, part i., p. 69. Doctor Racket proceeds, after giv- ing this letter, in his characteristic style : " These soft words mollified anger, and Mr. Selden was released by the next pacquet that came from the court in progress." t Detection, vol. i., p. 130. t See speech on the journals of the lust Parliament of James ; also on the 17th March, 1641. I) P. 6, 9. II Life of Eliot, p. 9, 10. T I should mention, also, that Pym was a very active member of the celebrated committee known by the name ot its chairman, Mr. Sergeant Glanville. This was that grand JOHN PYM. 145 tor Montague, which may be very briefly ex- plained. The then inseparable connexion, in the minds of the English people, between Po- pery and despotism, has been very frequently touched on. The effect of the Reformation the sense of emancipated intellect which had naturally flowed from it had been such as to imbue men's minds generally with the deepest sense of the paramount importance of a pure system of religious ethics in matters of politi- cal government. This sense struck still more deeply into the heart of England, when in ev- ery quarter of the Continent the Romish cause appeared as the cause of the oppressor, while the Protestant was that of the oppressed ; and nowhere was a struggle for good government to be seen, that had not instantly arrayed against it all the powers and influences of the Roman Catholic Church. If anything was wanting to strengthen a consequent necessity, on the part of the men who now enjoyed the confidence of the great masses of the people, of a bitter opposition to the doctrines of Po- pery, it was furnished by the conduct of those High Church court divines who were known to be most favourable to the despotic system in politics. They made every effort to intro- duce, under the cover of the Arminian tenets, a sort of bastard Popery into the Church of England. Their design was plainly to secure a safe retreat for absolute monarchy under a timely alliance of prerogative with priestcraft and Church power. Foremost in support of this design was Mon- tague, one of the king's chaplains ; and upon this divine Pym fastened with inveterate pur- pose. He had republished, on Charles's ac- cession, a book which Archbishop Abbot had censured, at the request of the House of Com- mons, in the preceding year. Encouraged by Laud, he composed also a defence of this book, called it an appeal to Caesar, and inscribed it to Charles. Here he asserted the Romish Church to be a true church, resting on the same authority and foundation as the English, and differing from it only in some points of lesser importance ; defended the use of ima- ges ; affirmed that the saints had knowledge and memory of human things, and exercised peculiar patronage over certain places and per- sons ; maintained the real presence ; numbered ordination among the sacraments ; and ap- proved confession and absolution, and the use of the sign of the cross. In the same work, as a contrast to all this, much bitterness was indulged against the Puritans ; lecturing and preaching were decried ; even the reading of the Scriptures was alluded to with a sneer ; and, finally, by way of gratifying the despotic propensities of the king, a prerogative was claimed for him, founded on divine right, and paramount to the English laws.* Pym was the author of the report upon this book presented to the House of Commons. committee of privileges, whose report is still referred to as an eminent achievement of " Parliamentary reform." Ad- vancing from their decisions on certain contested returns, they drew out a general outline and system of the legal right of voting, and issued new writs to several places, to three Buckinghamshire boroughs among them, where the custom of returning members had fallen into disuse. Hamp- den was also an active member of this famous committee. * See Montague's works, entitled " A new Gag for an old Goose," and "Appello Caesareiu." Montague was ordered immediately after into the custody of the sergeant at arms, and brought, for submission, before the bar of the House. A vehement intercession was then made for him by Laud, who so far betrayed himself, in a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, as to declare that it was impossible to con- ceive how any civil government could be sup- ported, if the contrary of Montague's doctrines were to be maintained ; and urged him to en- gage the king to reclaim to himself the judg- ment of the cause, as a branch of his preroga- tive.* Upon this Charles interfered, but with no other effect than to expose himself still more to the distrust of his people. Notwith- standing his request that, since Montague was his servant, the punishment might be referred to himself, the prisoner was obliged to give bail for his appearance before the House when called on, in the sum of 2000. After the first ill-advised dissolution, and on the eve of the issue of writs for Charles's sec- ond Parliament, Rushworth tells us that " Bish- op Laud procured the Duke of Buckingham to sound the king concerning the cause, books, and tenets of Doctor Richard Montague ; and understanding by what the duke collected that the king had determined within himself to leave him to a tryal in Parliament, he said, ' / seem to see a cloud arising and threatening the Church of England : God for his mercy dissipate it /' "t But this Parliament, guided by the energy and intellect of Eliot, had higher game in hand ; and Pym found himself, some few days after its assembling, appointed one of the secret man- agers of an impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham. This impeachment has been al- ready described at some length,t but one or two characteristic extracts from the speech with which Pym presented the eleventh and twelfth articles to the judgment of the House of Lords will find a proper place here. Those articles, it will be recollected, charged the duke with procuring titles of honour and grants of land for poor and unworthy creatures of hia own, and also with embezzling the king's mon- ey, and securing to himself grants of crown property of enormous value on dishonest con- ditions, to the gross prejudice of the crown no less than of the subject.^ Pym began his task by observing that " want of oratory" would be no disadvantage to his cause, since the " proportion of matter" he had to deliver was such that their lordships would not be likely to criticise his "art or expression." Having read the eleventh article, he proceeded to point out the fatal consequences to the well- being of the state, no less than to the morals of the subject, which must result from the con- tinuance of such practices as those of the duke. A grave, deliberative, and weighty style will * See Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 137. Cabala, p. 156. t Rushworth, Coll., vol. i., p. 199. J Eliot's Life, p. 13-16. $ Anthony Wood observes, " Pym was a great enemy to the favourite of King Charles I., called George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, and very active in aggravating some of the articles that were put up against him ; viz., that he forced Sir Richard Roberts, Bart., knowing him to be rich, to take the title of Lord Roberts of Truro upon him, and that, in consideration thereof, to make him pay for it to him the said duke 10,000. Farther, also, that he sold the offic'. of lord-treasurer to the Earl of Manchester for 20,000, and the office of master of the wards to the Earl of Middlesex for 6000," &c., &c. Afh. Ox,, jol. ii., p. 73. 146 BRITISH STATESMEN. arrest the reader's attention in the extracts which follow ; and let him think what a mas- terly and effective foil this must have been to the quick and impassioned eloquence of Eliot. " There are some laws." he said, alluding to the tampering of the duke with grants and hon- ours, "peculiar, according to the temper of several states ; but there are other laws that are co-essential and co-natural with govern- ment, which being broken, all things run unto confusion ; and such is that law of suppressing vice and encouraging virtue by apt punishments and rewards. Whosoever moves the king to give honour, which is a double reward, binds himself to make good a double proportion of merit in that party that is to receive it the first of value and excellency, the second of con- tinuance ; for as this honour lifts them above others, so should they have virtue beyond oth- ers ; and as it is also perpetual, not ending with their persons, but depending upon their posterity, so there ought to be, in the first root of this honour, some such active merit to the Com- monwealth as may transmit a vigorous example to their successors, to raise them to an imitation of the like." Waving, then, with great dignity, any reflections " on those persons to whom this article collaterally relates, since the com- mands I have received from the Commons con- cern the Duke of Buckingham only," the speak- er proceeded to urge, from the facts stated in the article itself, the heavy nature of the griev- ance charged. " It is prejudicial," he said, "first, to the noble barons ; secondly, to the king, by disabling him from rewarding extraordinary virtue ; thirdly, to the kingdom, which compre- hends all. It is prejudicial to this high Court of Peers. I will not trouble your lordships with recital how ancient, how famous this degree of barons hath been in the western monarchies ; I will only say, the baronage of England hath upheld that dignity, and doth conceive it in a greater height than any other nation. The lords are great judges a court of the last re- sort ; they are great commanders of state, not only for the present, but as law-makers and counsellors for the time to come ; and this, not by delegacy and commission, but by birth and inheritance. If any be brought to be a mem- ber of this great body who is not qualified to the performance of such state functions, it must needs prejudice the whole body ; as a little water put into a great vessel of wine, which, as it receives spirits from the wine, so doth it leave therein some degrees of its own infirmi- ties and coldness. It is prejudicial to the king. Not that it can disable him from giving honour, for that is a power inseparable from the crown ; but, by making honour ordinary, it becomes an incompetent reward for extraordinary virtue. When men are made noble, they are taken out of the press of the common sort ; and how can it choose but fall in estimation when honour it- self is made a press 1 It is prejudicial to the kingdom. Histories and records are full of the great assistance which the crown has received from the barons on foreign and domestic occa- sions ; and not only by their own persons, but their retinue and tenants ; and therefore they are called by Bracton, ROBUR BELLI. How can the crown expect the like from those who have no tenants, and are hardly able to maintain themselves 1 Besides, this is not all ; for the prejudice goes not only privatively from thence, in that they cannot give the assistance they ought, but positively, in that they have been a greater burden to the kingdom since, by the gifts and pensions they have received nay, they will even stand in need to receive more for the future support of their dignities. This makes the duke's offence greater, that in this weakness and consumption of the state he hath not been content alone to consume the public treasure, which is the blood and nourishment of the state, but hath brought in others to help him in this work of destruction ; and, that they might do it the more eagerly by enlarging their honour, he hath likewise enlarged their neces- sities and appetites." With several precedents from early reigns, clearly and forcibly urged to the House, in proof that " when men are called to honour, and have not livelihood to support it, it induceth great poverty, and causeth bri- beries, extortions, embraceries, and mainte- nance," Pym concluded his " aggravation" of this article. He now desired the twelfth article to be read, imbodying various charges of embezzlement in various ways, both of money and land ; and then, having subdivided these charges into sep- arate branches, he presented each to the at- tention of the House with such popular clear- ness and brevity, and in such a natural and lucid order, that what must otherwise have been con- fused and unintelligible to all save those peers who were thoroughly versed in the nicest dis- tinctions of property and technicalities of la\v, took, from the style of Pym, a remarkable sim- plicity and plainness. In speaking of the lands which the duke had procured, with unusual con- ditions of favour, from the crown, and urging the monstrous grievance, " that in a time of necessity, so much land should be conveyed to a private man," the orator interposed thus : " And because the Commons aim not at judg- ment only, but at reformation, they wish that, when the king bestows any lands for support of honours, those ancient cautions might be revived of annexing the land to the dignity (lest, being wasted, the party returns to the crown for a new support) ; by which provision the crown will reap this benefit, that as some lands go out by new grants, others will come in by extinct entails." Observing next upon the un- usual clauses inserted in these grants for the duke, Pym directed their lordships' attention more especially to " the surrender of divers par- cels of those lands back to the king, after he had held them some years, and taking others from the king in exchange. Hence," contin- ued he, " the best of the king's lands, by this course, being passed away, the worst remain- ed upon his hand ; so that, having occasion to raise money, such lands could not supply him. Opportunity was also hereby left to the duke to cut down woods, to enfranchise copyholders, to make long leases ; and yet, the old rent re- maining still, the land might be surrendered at the same value. Whether this be done I am uncertain, not having time to examine ; but I recommend it to your lordships to inquire af- ter it ; and the rather, for that the manor of Couphill, in Lincolnshire, was so dismembered, and by a surrender turned back to the king." JOHN PYM. 147 In the next branch of his subject, a favourite style of embezzlement with Buckingham was admirably handled that of selling the king's lands, and causing tallies to be struck for the money paid, as if it had really gone into the Exchequer, whereas it had notoriously been received by the duke. " Divers parcels of land were sold and contracted for by his own agents, and the money received to his own use ; and yet tallies struck as if the moneys had come into the Exchequer. This is to be proved by his own officers, by the officers of the Excheq- uer, and by the tallies themselves, which tal- lies amount to 44,090 5s. Whence I observe, 1. That there ran one thread of falsehood to- wards the king through all his dealings. 2. That it was a device to prevent the wisdom of Parliament, if it should be thought fit, from making a resumption ; for by these means these grants seem to have the face of a valuable con- sideration, whereas they were free gifts. 3. If the title of these lands prove questionable, yet, it appearing by record as if the king had received the money, he was bound in honour to make the estate good, and yet the duke had the profit." Alluding afterward to Buckingham's gross practice of procuring, under pretence of secret service, great sums to be issued by privy seals to sundry of his creatures, Pym thus, with ear- nest gravity in a speaker whose style was less steady and deliberative it would have passed for severity or passion hinted at the punishment which such practices might require. " The quality of the fault," he said, " I leave to your lordships. I leave to your lordships the proportion of judgment in which you will rate it whether to that crime which in the civil law is called crim.cn peculatus, which was when any man did unjustly turn to his own use that money which was either sacra, dedicated to God's service, or re ligiosa,.\ised about funerals or monuments of the dead, or publica, as the busi- ness now in question is ; the rather, because the public treasure was held in the same repu- tation with that which was dedicated to God and religion. This offence crim.cn pcculatus by that law, was death and confiscation. Or whether your lordships will think it to carry pro- portion with that crime which is called in the civil law crimcn falsi, and is defined to be when any shall simulatione veri suum compendium, alieno dispendio, faccre, viz., by semblance of truth make gain to himself out of others' losses ; which, in the case of a bondman, was death, and in the case of other men was banishment and confis- cation, as the nature of the fact required. Or whether your lordships will esteem it according to the sentence of the Star Chamber ordinary in cases of fraud, or according to the common law, which so much detests this dealing, which they term covin, as it doth vitiate ordinary and lawful actions. Or, lastly, whether your lord- ships will estimate it according to the duke's own judgment, in his own conscience; for direct ac- tions are not afraid to appear open-faced, but ill dealings desire to be masked with subtlety and closeness ; and therefore it were even of- fence sufficient, were there no more than a cunning concealing of what he received from the king, since that argues either guilt of un- thankfulness, in hiding his master's bounty ; guilt of unworthiness, as if he durst not avow the receipt of that which he had not merited ; or guilt from fear of punishment, by these in- quisitions into his actions which now are come to pass." One extract more in reference to the great danger that had been done to the state in the confusion between the king's estate and Buck- ingham's, by the duke's practices of falsifying the records and entries will illustrate the quarter from which Pym doubtless derived his admirable habits of business and order. "By the wisdom of the law, in the constitution of the Exchequer, there be three guards set upon the king's treasurer and accompts. The first is a legal impignoration, whereby the estates, personal and real, of the accomptants, are made liable to be sold for the satisfaction of their debts. The second is an act of control- ment, that the king relies not upon the industry nor sincerity of any one man ; but, if he fail in either, it may be discovered by the duty of some other officer, sworn to take notice of it. The third is an evidence and certainty, not for the present time only, but of perpetuity, because the king can neither receive nor pay anything but by record. All these ways have been bro- ken by the Duke of Buckingham, both in the case next>before recited, and in these that fol- low. The custom of the Exchequer, my lords, is the law of the kingdom for as much as con- cerneth the revenue. Now every breach of that law, by particular offence, is punishable ; but such an offence, as is the destruction of the law r itself, is of a far higher nature." Pym next alluded to " two privy seals of release the one the 16th, the other the 20th Jac. con- cerning divers sums secretly received to his majesty's use, but by virtue of these releases to be converted to the Duke of Buckingham's own profit, the proof whereof is referred to the privy seals themselves ;" and thus con- tinued : " Hence, my lords, appear the duke's subtilties, by which he used to wind himself into the possession of the king's money, and to get that by cunning steps and degrees, which, peradventure, he could not have ob- tained at once. A good master will trust a good servant with a greater sum than he would give him ; yet after, when it is out of his pos- session, will be drawn the more easily to re- lease him from accounting for it, than to have made it a free gift at first." Having gone through the various charges in detail, Pym now presented to the House in one mass the gross amount in money and land ab- sorbed from the public estate by Buckingham, and afterward summed up his share of the great duty that had been assigned to him by the House of Commons in this grave and deliberate manner. " This is a great sum in itself, but much greater by many circumstances. If you look upon the time past, never so much came into any one private man's hands out of the public purse. If you respect the time present, the king had never so much want, never so many occasions, foreign, important, and expen- sive. The subjects have never given greater supplies, and yet those supplies are unable to furnish those expenses. But as such circum- stances make that sum the greater, so there are other circumstances which make the sum 148 BRITISH STATESMEN. little, if it be compared with the inestimable gain the duke hath made by the sale of honours and offices, and projects hurtful to the states both of England and Ireland, or if it be com- pared with his own profuseness. Witness, notwithstanding this gift, his confession before both Houses of Parliament to be indebted 100, 000 and above. If this be true, how can we hope to satisfy his immense prodigality 1 if false, how can we hope to satisfy his covetousness 1 And, therefore, no wonder the Commons so earnest- ly desire to be delivered from such a grievance. I shall now produce the precedents of your lordship's predecessors. Precedents they are in kind, but not in proportion, for in that view there are no precedents. The first is the 10th Rich. II., which was in the complaint against Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, out of which I shall take three articles. The first, that be- ing chancellor, and sworn to the king's profit, he had purchased divers lands from the king, more than he had deserved, and at an under rate. The second, that he had bought an an- nuity of 50 per annum, which grant was void, and yet he procured the king to make it good. The third, whereas the master of St. Anthony's, being a schismatic, had forfeited his estate in- to the king's hands, this earl took it in farm at 20 marks the year, converting the overplus, which was 1000 marks, to his own benefit, which should have come to the king. The next precedent is one of the llth Rich. II., out of the judgment against Robert de Vere and others, out of which I shall take two articles, the fifth and seventh. The fifth was for taking lands and manors annexed to the crown, where- by they themselves were enriched, and the king made poor. The seventh was intercepting the subsidies granted for the defence of the king- dom. The third precedent is 28 Hen. VI., in the Parliament roll, out of the complaint against William, duke of Suffolk, to the effect that, be- ing next and privatest of council to the king, he had procured him to grant great possessions to divers persons, whereby the king was much impoverished, the expense of his house unpaid, wages, the wardrobe, castles, navy debts unsat- isfied ; and so, by his subtile counsel and un- profitable labour, the revenues of the crown, of the Duchy of Lancaster, and of other the king's inheritances, so diminished, and the commons of the realm so extremely charged, that it was near a final destruction ; and, more- over, that the king's treasure was so mischiev- ously diminished to himself, his friends, and well-wishers, that, for lack of money, no ar- mour nor ordnance could be provided in time. These precedents, my lords, the Commons pro- duce as precedents in kind, but not in propor- tion ; and, since these great persons were not brought to judgment upon these articles alone, you will observe this as a just conclusion, that ravening upon the king's estate is always ac- companied with other great vices. All these considerations I humbly submit to your lord- ship's great wisdom, and conclude with hoping that, as this great duke has so far exceeded all others in his offences, he may not fall short of them in punishment."* * See the Old Parliamentary History, vol. vii., p. 123- 139. The recent editors of the Parl. Hist, have entirely omitted this striking speech. I cannot resist subjoining, in The result of this great movement against Buckingham, the abrupt dissolution of the sec- ond Parliament, and the disastrous events that followed, have been sufficiently placed before the reader. Pym was thrown into prison, and only again released on his return to the third Parliament for Tavistock. In that memorable third Parliament, his exertions were only sec- ond to those of Eliot. With that great patriot and statesman, indeed, Pym went hand in hand ;* and his deference to Eliot's powers was only less admirable than the extent and capacity of his own. When, after the first debate on grievances, in which the member for Tavistock did not fail to distinguish himself, the motion for granting five subsidies was brought forward, in accord- ance with the noble plan of operations deter- mined upon by Eliot, and already fully de- scribed in my account of his exertions, it was Pym who urged most emphatically upon the House the necessity of the immediate grant. " In business of weight," he said, " despatch is better than discourse. We came not hither without all motives that can be towards his majesty. We must add expedition to expedi- tion : let us forbear particulars. A man in a journey is hindered by asking too many ques- tions. To give speedily is that which the king calls for. 'A word spoken in season is like an apple of gold set in pictures of silver ;' and actions are more precious than words. Let us hasten our resolutions to supply his majes- ty.'^ Now it might really have been upon this note, a very remarkable list of precedents similar to those urged by Pym, which were furnished by Sir Robert Cotton, when sitting in the previous Parliament at Oxford. " I will tell you what I have found, since this assembly at Oxford, written by a reverend man, twice vice-chancellor of this place : his name was Gascoigne a man that saw the tragedy of De la Pole. He tells you that the revenues of the crown were so rent away by ill counsel, that the king was enforced to live de tallagiis populi, and was grown in, debt quinque centena millia Hbrarum ; that his great favour- ite, in treating a foreign marriage, had lost his master a foreign duchy; that, to work his ends, he had caused the king to adjourn the Parliament in villis et partibus remotis regni, where few people, propter defectum hospitii et vic- tualium, could attend, and by the shifting that assembly from place to place, to enforce (I use the author's own words) illos paucos qui remanebant de communitate regni concedere regi guamvis pessima. It was," says he, in con- clusion, "a speeding article against the Bishop of Win- chester and his brother, in the time of Edward III., that they engrossed the person of the king from his other lords. It was not forgotten against Gaveston and the Spencers in the time of Edward II. The unhappy ministers of Richard II., Henry VI., and Edward VI., felt the weight, to their ruin, of the like errors. I hope we shall not complain in Parliament again of such. I am glad we have neither just cause nor undutiful dispositions to appoint the king a coun- cil to redress those errors in Parliament, as those 42 Henry III. We do not desire, as 5 Henry IV. or 29 Henry VI., the removing from about the king any evil counsellors. We do not request a choice by name, as 14 Edward II., 3, 5, 11 Richard 11., 8 Henry IV., 31 Henry VI. ; nor to swear them in Parliament, as 35 Edward I., 9 Edward II., 5 Richard II. ; or to line them out their directions of rule, 43 Henry III. and 8 Henry VI." This sort of display of learning has a wonderful significancy of meaning beneath it. See His- tory 15, from Mackintosh, vol. v., p. 10, 11. * Pym was the only man in the House of Commons who seemed to have a perfect understanding with Eliot as to the course of his intentions towards Buckingham, and, in pros- ecuting the matter in such a way as to give the greatest possible effect to Eliot's policy, he showed himself master of the same large ulterior views. When the news of the arrest of Eliot was carried to the House of Commons, Pym was the only person present who did not seem startled out of his self-possession. In the midst of tumultuous shouting and cries for instant adjournment, his voice was heard coun- selling judgment and temper. See Journals, May 12, 1626. t Parl. Hist., vol. vii., p. 430. JOHN PYM. 149 such words as these, spoken with a view to give effect to the noble and temperate policy which was thought necessary for the achieve- ment of the petition of right, that Lord Claren- don afterward ventured,* in his indulgence of revengeful spleen against the memory of Pym, to ground his famous accusation, that, at a par- ticular time, " Mr. Pym made some overtures to provide for the glory and splendour of the crown, in which he had so ill success that his interest and reputation visibly abated." The time named by the historian is indeed much later ; but the speech which has just been quo- ted is about the best semblance of authority for such a charge that can be found on the debates or journals of the House of Commons ;t and it will scarcely be maintained that, in the absence of such corroborative authority, Lord Claren- don's assertion upon such a matter is entitled to the smallest weight. J Certainly the court was soon fated to be un- deceived, if it had ever persuaded itself to con- strue these words of the patriot leader into a shrinking or relenting from the popular cause. Pym's activity in searching every possible quarter for precedents during the preparation of the petition of rights was marked and inces- sant ; he was said by Sir Edward Coke to have examined every state paper in the manuscript collections at Lambeth. Equally indefatigable were his exertions during the progress of that great measure through the houses ; and many of the wretched expedients^ vainly resorted to by Charles, day by day, and week by week, to elude the purpose or weary out the perseve- rance of his opponents, were defeated by Pym's address and courage. When Secretary Cooke carried down Charles's brief and peremptory message to the House, desiring to know wheth- er they would or would not rest upon his royal word, || it was Pym's voice which broke the long silence that followed the startling ques- tion. He rose and said, with consummate presence of mind and admirable temper, "We have his majesty's coronation oath to maintain the laws of England what need we then to take his word 1" and afterward quietly pro- posed to move " whether we should take the king's word or no." Old Cooke, upon this, started from his seat with the indignant ques- tion, " What would they say in foreign parts if the people of England refused to trust their king 1" " Truly," rejoined Pym, quickly, " tru- ly, Mr. Speaker, I am just of the same opinion I was, namely, that the king's oath is as pow- erful as his word." Eliot then came to the as- sistance of Pym, and the dishonest message was rejected.! So, when the petition of rights itself was sent down from the House of Lords with the addition of the saving clause proposed by Williams, to the effect that " they would * See Hist, of Rebellion, vol. iv., p. 438. t I have carefully examined them all with this view, and may here remark, that were I to give only the names of the numberless committees of which Pym was the leading mem- ber through all the Parliaments of Charles, I might fill half this volume with such details alone. His habits of business must have been wonderful indeed ! t See post, p. 183, note. The speech there referred to is not upon the journals. * They are all described in the Life of Eliot. II ' Upon this there was silence for a good space." See Rushworth, vol. i., p. 553 ; Parl. Hist., vol. xviii., p. 95 ; Life of Eliot, p. 22. T Sloane MSS., 4177. leave entire the SOVEREIGN POWER with which his majesty was trusted, for the protection, safety, and happiness of the people," Pym rose from his seat, and uttered these remarkable words : " I am not able to speak to this ques- tion. I know not what it is. All our petition is for the laws of England, and this ' power' seems to be another distinct power from the power of the law. I know how to add sover- eign to the king's person, but not to his pow- er. We cannot 'leave' to him a sovereign power, for we never were possessed of it."* The issue has been fully described. Great as Pym's exertions were, however, during the progress of the petition of right, we do not find that they in any way served to abate his attendance on the various religious committees of this famous session, at all of which he sat as chairman. An ingenious ad- mirer of Charles I. has, in allusion to this, ob- served : " The profound politicians among the patriots, as Pym and Hampden, now allied themselves to the religionists. The factions at first amalgamated, for each seemed to assist the other, and, while the contest was doubtful, their zeal, as their labours, was in common. Religion, under the most religious of monarchs, was the ostensible motive by which the patri- ots moved the people. When, on one occa- sion, it was observed that the affairs of religion seemed not so desperate that they should whol- ly engross their days, Pym replied, that they must not abate their ardour for the true reli- gion, that being the most certain end to obtain their purpose and maintain their influence. "t This is not correctly stated, since no such al- liance, except in so far as the objects of both parties could not be kept apart, was at this time formed. Pym was never, at any period of his life, a Nonconformist ; he died, as he had lived, in the discipline, no less than in the faith, of the pure English Church, " a faithful son of the Protestant religion. "t It is true that he was the means of exacting from the country party in the House of Commons a greater at- tention than they had before been used to pay to matters of religious faith and doctrine, but with what aim 1 not, most surely, to inflame the religious passions of the people, or to strength- en any set of dissenters from the Church, but to assault, through the sides of court di- vines, the strongest holds of absolute power. The sect of the Puritans was not increased by Pym's exertions. It was the good work of Laud, and of such as Laud, to enlist upon their side the deepest sympathies of even the most sober sections of the English people, who thought it hard indeed that vast numbers of high-minded, industrious, and conscientious men, firmly attached to the laws of England, should be driven from their native soil, or har- assed in property and estate, or mutilated in person, only for scrupling to comply with a few indifferent ceremonies that had no relation to the favour of God or to the practice of virtue. Laud Puritanized England. Pym's share in the work, as well as his general principle of Parliamentary interference in religious affairs, * Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 118. t D'Israeli's Commentaries on the Life of Charles the First, vol. hi., p. 296, 297. t His own words. See Rushworth's Collections, vol. v., p. 377. 150 BRITISH STATESMEN. will be best explained by his speech in the case of Doctor Mainwaring. While the House of Commons were delibera- ting, in distrust and resentment, on the king's first answer to the petition of right, which had just been presented to them, Pym seized the occasion of carrying up to the House of Lords a " declaration" against Mainwaring. During the last interval of Parliament, this divine, one of the royal chaplains, had rendered himself notorious by the slavish doctrines of his ser- mons. In obedience to Laud's instructions* to the clergy to " preach the loan," he had de- livered two infamously servile discourses, with a view to show that " the king could make laws and do whatsoever pleased him'; that he was not bound by any pre-existing law respecting the rights of the subject ; and that his sole will in imposing taxes without the consent of Par- liament obliged the subjects' conscience, on pain of eternal damnation."! One extract from these effusions will show their style and char- acter. " Of all relations, the first and original is between the Creator and the creatures ; the next between husband and wife ; the third be- tween parents and children ; the fourth between lord and servants ; from all which forenamed respects there doth arise that most high, sa- cred, and transcendent relation between king and subject." On Wednesday, the 4th of June, Pym pre- sented himself to the Lords as the accuser of Mainwaring. He began by saying that he should speak to this cause with more confi- dence, because he saw nothing to discourage him. " If I consider the matter," he continued, " the offences are of a high nature and of easy proof; if I consider your lordships, who are the judges, your own interest, your own hon- our, the examples of your ancestors, the care of your posterity, all will be advocates with me in this cause on the behalf of the common- wealth. And when I consider the king our sovereign the pretence of whose service and prerogative might, perchance, be sought unto as a defence and shelter for this delinquent I cannot but remember that part of the king's an- swer to the petition of right of both houses, ' that his majesty held himself bound in con- science to preserve their liberties,' which this man would persuade him to impeach. Nor, my lords, can I but remember his majesty's love to piety and justice, manifested upon all occasions ; and I know Love to be the root and * These instructions commenced thus. They were drawn up by Laud in the name of the king : " We have observed that the Church and the State are so nearly united and knit together, that, though they may seem two bodies, yet, indeed, in some relation they may be accounted but as one, inasmuch as they are both made up of the same men, which are differenced only in relation to spiritual or civil ends. This nearness makes the Church call in the help of the State to succour and support her whensoever she is pressed beyond her strength. And the same nearness makes the State call in for the service of the Church, both to teach that duty which her members know not, and to exhort them to, and encourage them in, that duty which they know. It is not long since we ordered the State to serve the Church, and, by a timely proclamation, settled the peace of it ; and now the State looks for the like assistance from the Church, that she and all her ministers may serve God and us by preaching peace and unity at home, that it may be the better able to resist foreign force uniting and multiplying against it." Who can doubt the design so plainly intimated in this passage, of a crusade of Church and State against the people's liberties? t Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 8-10. spring of all other passions and affections. A man therefore hates, because he sees somewhat in that which he hates contrary to that which he loves ; a man therefore is angry, because he sees somewhat in that wherewith he is angry that gives impedi- ment and interruption to the accomplishment of that which he loves.* If this be so, by the same act of apprehension by which I believe his majesty's love to piety and justice, I must needs believe his hate and detestation of this man, who went about to withdraw him from the exercise of both." After this very striking commencement, Pym proceeded to that which he said was the task enjoined him, " To make good every clause of that which had been read unto them ; which, that he might the more clearly perform, he pro- posed to observe that order of parts into which the said declaration was naturally dissolved. 1. Of the preamble. 2. The body of the charge. 3. The conclusion, or prayer of the Commons. " The preamble consisted altogether of reci- tal first, of the inducements upon which the Commons undertook this complaint ; second, of those laws and liberties against which the offence was committed ; third, of the violation of those laws which have relation to that of- fence. Now," he continued, " from the con- nexion of all these recitals, it was to be ob- served that there did result three positions, which he was to maintain as the groundwork and foundation of the whole cause. The first, that the form of government in any state could not be altered without apparent danger of ruin to that state. The second, that the law of England, whereby the subject is exempted from taxes and loans not granted by common consent of Parliament, was not introduced by any statute, or by any charter or sanction of princes, but was the ancient and fundamental law, issuing from the first frame and constitu- tion of the kingdom. The third, that this lib- erty of the subject is not only most convenient and profitable for the people, but most honour- able and necessary for the king ; yea, in that very point of supply for which it was endeav- oured to be broken. " As for the first position, the best form of government is that which doth actuate and dispose every part and member of a state to the common good ; and as those parts give strength and ornament to the whole, so they receive from it again strength and protection in their several stations and degrees. If this mutual relation and intercourse be broken, the whole frame will quickly be dissolved and fall in pieces ; for while, instead of this concord and interchange of support, one part seeks to * Mr. Browning has worked upon the same noble thought iu his poem : * * * " All love renders wise In its degree ; from love which blends with love Heart answering heart to that which spends itself In silent mad idolatry of some Pre-eminent mortal some great soul of souls Which ne'er will know how well it is adored ! * * Love is never blind, but rather Alive to every the minutest spot That mars its object, and which hate (supposed So vigilant and searching) dreams not of. * * * Trust me, If there be friends who seek to work our hurt, To ruin and drag down earth's mightiest spirits, Even at God's foot, 'twill be from such as love Their zeal will gather most to serve their cause And least from those who hate." Paracelsus, part 3. JOHN PYM. 151 uphold the old form of government, and the other part to introduce a new, they will mis- erably consume and devour one another. His- tories are full of the calamities of whole states and nations in such cases. But it is equally true that time must needs bring about some alterations, and every alteration is a step and degree towards a dissolution : those things only are eternal which are constant and uni- form. Therefore it is observed by the best writers on this subject, that those common- wealths have been most durable and perpetual which have often reformed and recomposed them- selves according to their first institution and ordi- nance ; for by this means they repair the breach- es, and counterwork the ordinary and natural effects of time. " The second is as manifest. There are plain footsteps of those laws in the govern- ment of the Saxons : they were of that vigour and force as to overlive the Conquest nay, to give bounds and limits to the Conqueror, whose victory only gave him hope, but the assurance and possession of the crown he obtained by composition, in which he bound himself to ob- serve these and the other ancient laws and liberties of the kingdom, and which afterward he likewise confirmed by oath at his corona- tion ; and from him the said obligation de- scended to his successors. It is true they have been often broken, and they have been often confirmed by charters of kings and by acts of Parliaments ; but the petitions of the subjects, upon which those charters and acts were found- ed, were ever PETITIONS OF RIGHT, demanding their ancient and due liberties, not suing for any new. " To clear the third position may seem to some men more a paradox, that those liberties of the subject should be so convenient and profitable to the people, and yet most neces- sary for the supply of his majesty. But sure- ly," he said, " if those liberties were taken away, there would remain no more industry, no more justice, no more courage ; for who will contend, who will endanger himself for that which is not his own 1 And yet," he added, " he would not insist upon any of those points, nor upon others equally important ; but only observe, that if those liberties were taken away, there would remain no means for the subjects, by any act of bounty or benevolence, to ingratiate themselves with their sovereign." And, in reference to this point, he desired their lordships to remember " what profitable pre- rogatives the laws had at various times ap- pointed for the support of sovereignty, as ward- ships, treasures-trouve, felons' goods, fines, amercements, and other issues of courts, wrecks, escheats, and many more, too long to be enumerated ; which, for the most part, are now, by charters and grants of several princes, dispersed into the hands of private persons ; and that, besides the ancient demesnes of the crown of England, William the Conqueror did annex to the crown, for the better mainte- nance of his estate, great proportions of those lands which were confiscate from those Eng- lish who persisted to withstand him, of which, notwithstanding, very few remain at this day in the king's possession ; yet also, since that time, the revenue of the crown hath been sup- plied and augmented by attainders and other casualties, and in the age of our fathers by the dissolution of monasteries and chantries, of which near a third part of the whole land came into the king's possession." He remembered farther that constant and profitable grant of the subjects in the act of tonnage and pound- age. " But of what avail," he added, " have all these grants and prerogatives been 1 They were now so alienated, anticipated, or over- charged with annuities and assignments, that no means were left for the pressing and im- portant occasions of the time but one, and that one the voluntary and free gift of the subjects in Parliament. It is that which is now as- sailed ; but trust me, my lords," Pym exclaim- ed, " the hearts of the people, and their bounty in Parliament, are the only constant treasure and rev- enue of the crown which cannot be exhausted, alien- ated, anticipated, or otherwise charged and encum- bered .'" There is nothing more remarkable in the speeches of Pym than what may be emphati- cally termed their wisdom. This will have fre- quent and abundant illustration in the course of this memoir. Never, in the most excited moments of even his latter life, did he seem other than far removed above the idle clamours of party, and the little views of the "ignorant present," while with this he could combine, at will, the most immediate and most practical resources of the orator ; for the wisdom I have spoken of was, as it always is with the great- est men, a junction of the plain and practical with the profound and contemplative ; to such an extent, however, in his case, and in such perfection, as may not be equalled in that of any other speaker of ancient or modern time, with the single exception of Burke. Hence his speeches were not simply a present achieve- ment of the matters he had in hand, but a grand appeal, on their behalf, to the enlightened judg- ment of the future ; and the presenting the more prominent passages of them thus, for the first time, to the attention and admiration of his fellow-countrymen, is no less to discharge a very tardy act of justice to his memory, than to furnish the most striking, and, as it were, living materials for a judgment on the great times in which he lived. After a farther homiletic subdivision of his subject, a practice of which he was extremely fond, and which gave a certain weight and scholastic formality to the commonest point he touched on, Pym proceeded at great length through the second grand division of his speech, step by step to " show the state of the case as it stood both in the charge and the proof;" to "take away the pretensions of mitigation and limitation of his opinions urged by the doc- tor in defence ;" to " observe circumstances of aggravation ;" and " to propound some pre- cedents of former times, wherein, though he could not match the offence now in question, yet he should produce such as should suffi- ciently declare how forward our ancestors would have been in the prosecution and con- demning of such offences, if they had been then committed." The materials of the charge, he observed, were contrived into three distinct articles. The first of these comprehended two clauses : " First. That his majesty is not bound 152 BRITISH STATESMEN. to keep and observe the good laws and cus- toms of the realm concerning the right and lib- erty of the subject to be exempted from all loans, taxes, and other aids laid upon them without common consent in Parliament. Sec- ond. That his majesty's will and command, in imposing any charges upon his subjects with- out such consent, doth so far bind them in their consciences that they cannot refuse the same without peril of eternal damnation !" Two kinds of proof were produced upon this arti- cle : " The first was from assertions of the doctor's, concerning the power of kings in gen- eral, but, by necessary consequence, to be ap- plied to the kings of England. The next was from his Censures and Determinations upon the particular case of the late loan, which, by necessity and parity of reason, were likewise applicable to all cases of a like nature ; and lest, by frailty of nature, he might mistake the words or invert the sense, he desired leave to resort to a paper, wherein the places were care- fully extracted out of the book itself." And then he read each particular clause, pointing to the page for proof, and afterward proceeded and said, that from this evidence of the fact doth issue a clear evidence of his wick- ed intention to misguide and seduce the king's conscience, touching the observations of the laws and liberties of the kingdom, and to scan- dalize and impeach the good laws and govern- ment of the realm, and the authority of Parlia- ments. " Now, my lords," continued Mr. Pym, " if to give the king ill counsel in one particu- lar action hath heretofore been heavily punish- ed in this high court, how much more heinous must it needs be thought to pervert and se- duce, by ill counsel, his majesty's conscience that sovereign principle of all moral actions in man, from which they are to receive warrant for their direction before they be acted, and judgment for their reformation afterward ! If scandalum magnatum slander and infamy cast upon great lords and officers of the kingdom has been always most severely censured, how much more tender ought we to be of that slander and infamy which is here cast upon the laws and government, from whence are derived all the hon- our and reverence due to those great lords and ma- gistrates ! All men, my lords, and so the great- est and highest magistrates, are subject to passions and partialities, whereby they may be transported into over-hard injurious crosses ; and though these considerations can never jus- tify, they may sometimes excuse, the railing and evil speeches of men who have been so provoked ; it being a true rule, that whatsoever gives strength and enforcement to the tempta- tion in any sin, doth necessarily imply an abate- ment and diminution of guilt in that sin. But to slander and disgrace the laws and govern- ment is without possibility of any such excuse, it being a simple act of a malignant will, not in- dMced nor excited by any outward provocation ; for the laws, carrying an equal and constant respect to all, ought to be reverenced equally by all." And thus he derived the proofs and enforcements upon the first article of the charge. In the same strain of grave and lofty elo- quence Pym urged the second and third arti- cles of the impeachment, and then observed, with conclusive effect, upon Mainwaring's at- tempted limitations of his doctrines. The doc- tor had pleaded, for instance, among other things, that " he did not attribute to the king any such absolute power as might be exercised at all times or upon all occasions, but only upon necessity extreme and urgent ;" and to this Pym answered, " That it is all one to leave the power absolute, and to leave the judgment ar- bitrary when to execute that power ; for, al- though these limitations should be admitted, yet it is left to the king alone to determine what is an urgent and pressing necessity, and what is a just proportion, both in respect of the ability and of the use and occasion ; and what shall be said to be a circumstance, and what the substance of the law. Thus the subject is left without remedy ; and, the legal bounds being taken away, no private person shall be allowed to oppose his own particular opinion, in any of these points, to the king's resolution ; so that all these limitations, though specious in show, are in effect fruitless and vain." Having answered, in the same easy strain, all Mainwaring's flimsy defence, he now took up some " circumstances of aggravation," and presented them to the Lords. The remark he makes on the fact of some of these sermons having been preached before the "king and court at Whitehall," is very singular and sig- nificant. " The first," he said, alluding to the circum- stances of aggravation, " was from the place where these sermons were preached the court, the king's own family, where such doctrine was before so well believed that no man need to be con- verted. Of this there could be no end but ei- ther simoniacal, by flattery and soothing to make way for his own preferment, or else ex- tremely malicious, to add new afflictions to those who lay under his majesty's wrath, dis- graced and imprisoned, and thus to enlarge the wound which had been given to the laws and liberties of the kingdom. The second was from the consideration of his holy function. He is a preacher of God's word, and yet he had en- deavoured to make that, which was the only rule of justice and goodness, to be the warrant for violence and oppression. He is a messen- ger of peace, but he had endeavoured to sow strife and dissension, not only among private persons, but even betwixt the king and his peo- ple, to the disturbance and danger of the whole state. He is a spiritual father ; but, like that evil father in the Gospel, he hath given his children stones instead of bread ; instead of flesh he hath given them scorpions. Lastly, he is a minister of the Church of England, but he hath acted the part of a Romish Jesuit : they labour our destruction, by dissolving the oath of allegiance taken by the people ; he doth the same work, by dissolving the oath of pro- tection and justice taken by the king." With the same eloquent boldness he next observed, as a circumstance of aggravation, that the authors quoted by Mainwaring in sup- port of his doctrines were " for the most part friars and Jesuits ;" and, worse than this, that he had been guilty of " fraud and shifting in ci- ting even those authors to purposes quite dif- ferent from their own meanings." In this por- tion of his great task, Pym gave some mem- orable illustrations of the labour and learning JOHN PYM. 153 he had applied to it, only one very short speci- men of which may he given here. " In the twenty-seventh page of his first sermon," Mr. Pym continued, " he cites these words, Suarez de Legibus, lib. v., cap. 17 : Acceptationem popu- li non esse conditionem necessariam, ex vi juris naturalis aut gentium, neque ex jure communi. Now the Jesuit adds, Neque ex antique jure His- panic, which words are left out by the doctor, lest the reader might be invited to inquire what was antiquum jus Hispania. ; though it might have been learned from the same author, in an- other place of that work, that about two hun- dred years since this liberty was granted to the people by one of the kings, that no tribute should be imposed without their consent ; and this author adds farther, that after the law is introduced, and confirmed by custom, the king is bound to observe it." From this place Pym took occasion to make this short digression : " That the kings of Spain, being powerful and wise princes, would never have parted with such a mark of absolute royalty if they had not found in this course more advantage than in the other ; and the success and prosperity of that kingdom, through the valour and industry of the Spanish nation, so much advanced since that time, do manifest the wisdom of the change." It would be scarcely possible to illustrate Pym's courage and high- minded indifference to popular prejudice better than by these few words in praise of the Span- ish nation, at that time the object of universal execration with the English people. As a concluding point of aggravation, Pym now mentioned the circumstance of Mainwa- ring's having repeated, " in his own parish church of St. Giles," the very offensive doc- trines originally charged against him, " even since the sitting of Parliament and his being questioned in Parliament ;" and then " desired the Lords that this circumstance might be care- fully considered, because the Commons held it to be a great contempt offered to the Parlia- ment for him to maintain that so publicly^which was here questioned. A great presumption, they held it, for a private divine to debate the right and power of the king, which is a matter of such a nature as to be handled only in this high court, and that with moderation and ten- derness." Pym now, in conclusion, produced some such precedents as might testify what the opinion of our ancestors would have been, if this case had fallen out in their time ; and herein, he said, " he would confine himself to the reigns of the first three Edwards, two of them princes of great glory." He began with the eldest West. I., cap. 34 : " By this statute, 3 Edw. I., provision was made against those who should tell any false news or device, by which any discord or scandal may arise betwixt the king, his people, and great men of the kingdom. By 27 Edward I. (Rot. Parl., n. 20), it was decla- red by the king's proclamation, sent into all the counties of England, that they that reported that he would not observe the great charter were malicious people, who desired to put trouble and debate betwixt the king and his subjects, and to disturb the peace and good es- tate of the king, the people, and the realm. In 5 Edward II. (Inter novas Ordinationes), Henry de Beamond, for giving the king ill counsel U against his oath, was put from the council, and restrained from coming into the presence of the king under pain of confiscation and banish- ment. By 19 Edward II. (Clause, Mem. 26, indors.), commissions were granted to inquire upon the statute of West. I. touching the spread- ing of news, whereby discord and scandal might grow betwixt the king and his people. In 10 Edw. III. (Clause, M. 26), proclamation went out to arrest all of those who had presumed to report that the king would lay upon the woods certain sums, besides the ancient and due cus- toms ; where the king calls these reports ' ex- quisita mendacia, &c.. quae non tantum in pub- licam laesionem, sed in nostrum cedunt dam- num, et dedecus manifestum.' In 12 Edward III. (Rot. Almaniae), the king writes to the Archbishop of Canterbury, excusing himself for some impositions which he had laid, pro- fessing his great sorrow for it ; desires the archbishop, by indulgences and other ways, to stir up the people to pray for him ; hoping that God would enable him, by some satisfactory benefit, to make amends, and comfort his sub- jects for those pressures." Having added to these temporal precedents one or two from ec- clesiastical records, Pym presented to their lordships the following result to be collected from them : " If former Parliaments were care- ful of false rumours and news, they would have been much more tender of such doctrines as these, which might produce great occasions of discord betwixt the king and his people. If those who reported the king would lay imposi- tions and break his laws were thought such heinous offenders, how much more should the man be condemned who persuaded the king he is not bound to keep those laws ! If that great king Edward was so far from challenging any right in this kind, that he professed his own sorrow and repentance for grieving his sub- jects with unlawful charges if confessors were enjoined to frame the conscience of the people to the observances of these laws, certainly such doctrines as those of Mainwaring, and such a preacher as this, would have been held most strange and abominable in all those great times of England!" Then, having recited the prayer of the Com- mons, desiring Mainwaring to be brought to examination and judgment, Pym concluded, " That, seeing the cause had strength enough to maintain itself, his humble suit to their lord- ships was, that they would not observe his in- firmities and defects, to the diminution or prej- udice of that strength."* Laud trembled at the effects of this speech, and even expressed to the king his alarm for an impeachment against himself; but Charles ;old him to be under no uneasiness till he saw rim forsake his other friends, t Yet even harles winced from an open defiance of the manifest feeling excited by Pym, and for a time pretended to yield up Mainwaring to the judg- ment of Parliament. " Truly," says Sander- son,J " I remember the king's answer to all : ' He that will preach other than he can prove, let him suffer ; I give them no thanks to give I have collected this speech from various documents ; int a fair report will be found in the Old Parliamentary History, vol. iii., p. 171-189. t Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 171. See, also, Laud's Diary. } Life of Charles the First, p. 115. 154 BRITISH STATESMEN. me my due ;' and so, being a Parliament busi- ness, he (Mainwaring) was left by the king and Church to their sentence." Immediately after the passing of the petition of right, that sen- tence was pronounced by the upper House ; and, in spite of Mainwaring's tears and affected penitence, to say nothing of his impudent hy- pocrisy, he was condemned to imprisonment du- ring the pleasure of Parliament ; to be fined a thousand pounds to the king ; to make a sub- mission, both in writing and personally, at the bar of the House, and also at the bar of the Commons ; to be suspended from the ministry for three years ; and to be incapable of ever holding an ecclesiastical dignity or secular of- fice, or of preaching at court. Lastly, the peers ordered his sermons to be burned.* " A heavy sentence, I confess," observes Heylin.t " but such as did rather affright than hurt him ; for his majesty, looking on him in that conjuncture as one that suffered in his cause, preferred him first to the parsonage of Stamford-Rivers in Essex (void not long after by the promotion of Montague to the see of Chichester), afterward to the deanery of Worcester, and, finally, to the bishopric of St. David's. This was indeed the way to have his majesty well served, but such as created hirr. some ill thoughts towards the Commons for bis majesty's indulgence to him." Theae disgraceful promotions, strengthened by the translation of Laud himself to the see of London, took place during the prorogation of Parliament, and the feelings with which the Commons reassembled in consequence have already been described.:): Pym took an active part in their debates on the spread of Armin- ianism, and spoke with bitterness of the re- cent promotions. " Who," he asked, " could pretend to ignorance of the articles of the true Protestant religion 1 Had they not been set- tled by the Articles set forth in 1552 ; by the Catechism set forth in King Edward the Sixth's days ; by the writings of Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer, Wicliffe, and others ; by the constant profession, sealed by the blood of so many mar- tyrs, as Cranmer, Ridley, and others ; by the Thirty-nine Articles set forth in Queen Eliza- beth's time ; and by the Articles set forth at Lambeth as the doctrine of the Church of Eng- land, which King James sent to Dort and to Ireland as the truth professed here 1 Lastly, had they not been set forth by his majesty's own declaration and proclamation to maintain unity in the settled religion 1 Yet these are now perverted and abused, to the ruin and sub- version of religion ! Consider the preferments which such have received since the last Parlia- ment who have heretofore taught contrary s to the truth ! Then consider again for what overt acts these men have been countenanced and advanced ! what pardons they have had for false doctrines ! what manner of preaching hath been lately before the king's majesty ! what suppression of books that have been written against their doctrines, and what permitting of such books as have been written for them!" Subsequently Pym propounded certain reme- dial measures, which he urged it to be the duty of the Parliament in general, and of each Chris. * Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 151, &c. Rushworth, vol. i., .. 585-593. t Life of Laud, p. 180. T.ifn of Flint, n. 30 i. ooo-aaa. i Life of Eliot, p. 30. tian in particular, to follow, " For," he contin- ued, " howsoever it is alleged that the Parliament are not judges in matters of faith, yet ought they to know the established and fundamental truths, and the contrary to them ;* for Parliaments have confirmed acts of general councils, which have not been received until they have been so au- thorized ; and Parliaments have enacted laws for trial of heretics by juries. The Parliament punished the Earl of Essex for countenancing of heretics ; and there is no court can meet with these mischiefs but the court of Parlia- ment. The convocation cannot, because it is but a provincial synod, only of the jurisdiction of Canterbury, and the power thereof is not adequate to the whole kingdom ; while the con- vocation of York may, perhaps, not agree with that of Canterbury. The High Commission cannot, for it hath its.authority derived from Parliament, and the derivative cannot preju- dice the original. It is, in short, reserved for the judgment of the Parliament, that being the judgment of the king and of the three estates of the kingdom."! The result of these debates was the famous vow or declaration:): respecting religion, which, as Carte takes upon himself to inform us, " Mr. Pym, having the more time to take care of oth- er people's religion because he had very little of his own, drew up, and presented to the House." This was the last great act of that most celebrated Parliament, in which Pym had achieved for himself, almost equally with Eli- ot, the pursuing hatred of the court. Fortu- nately, however, he was not an actor in the stormy and tempestuous scene of its dissolu- tion, and therefore escaped that vengeance by which the popular cause lost so formidable a champion, and himself so dear a friend. But another friend had fallen from his side some few months before, alienated by a worse stroke, in the thought of Pym, than that of im- prisonment or death. Sir Thomas Wentworth had gone over to the court ; and Pym, who is described to have been the only one of the lead- ing popular men, besides Hollis, really intimate with Wentworth, is said to have felt this de- sertion with singular acuteness. Vainly ima- gining that " Mutual league, United thoughts and counsels, equal hope, And hazard in the glorious enterprise," had joined them inseparably, it was probably Pym who, whenever Eliot impugned the trust- in Aikin's Life of Charles, and also in the history from Mackintosh, the following words are attributed to Pym in this debate : " It belongs to Parliament to establish true religion and to punish false." But the passage in the text is the original from which that truly sweeping apophthegm of Parliamentary supremacy and persecution has been ta- ken ; and, it is scarcely necessary to add, it does not by any means authorize such a violent and absurd construction. I had before observed (Life of Eliot, p. 30) that Rushworth's reports of this session are very incorrect, and the words in question are taken from Rushworth. But for the correct speech, see Old Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 262-5263. t Oliver Cromwell's first reported speech in Parliament was made on this occasion, and is worth subjoining. He said " that he heard by relation from one Dr. Beard, that Dr. Alablaster had preached flat popery at St. Paul's Cross, and that the Bishop of Winchester (Dr. Neile) commanded him, as he was his diocesan, he should preach nothing to the contrary. He said that Mainwaring, so justly censured for his sermons in this House, was, by this bishop's means, preferred to a rich living. If these are steps to Church preferments, what may we not expect ?" t See the Life of Eliot, p. 32. i) Carte, History, vol. iv., p. 200. JOHN PYM. 155 worthiness of Wentworth, pledged his own faith for him, and so increased for himself the bitterness of the present desertion. Feeling, therefore, in all its force, the truth of one of his own favourite thoughts, hatred now sprang into the place of his former love. The anec- dote which dates the first terrible dawning of the change rests on the cautious authority of Doctor Welwood.* "There had been a long and intimate friendship," he says, "between Mr. Pym and Sir Thomas Wentworth, and they had gone hand and hand in the House of Com- mons. But when Sir Thomas Wentworth was upon making his peace with the court, he sent to Pym to meet him alone at Greenwich, where he began in a set speech to sound Mr. Pym about the dangers they were like to run by the courses they were in, and what advantages they might have if they would but listen to some offers which would probably be made them from the court. Pym, understanding his drift, stopped him short with this expression : You need not use all this art to tell me that you have a mind to leave us ; but remember what I tell you : You are going to be undone ; and re- member also, that though you leave us now, I will never leave you while your head is upon your shoul- ders !' " Pym kept his word. The desperate course of government by pre- rogative now began. Charles, while disrobing himself on the day of the Parliament's dissolu- tion, passionately vowed that he would never put on those robes again ; and, not content with a violent declaration of his reasons for the dissolution, issued a proclamation which forbade even the word Parliament to cross the lips of his people, since he who alone had the power of calling, continuing, and dissolving Parliaments, was the best judge when to as- semble them, and now declared that though such an event might happen, it would only be after the country had evinced a better disposi- tion, and the " vipers of the Commonwealth" had received their condign punishment, and " those who are misled by them had come to a better understanding of his majesty and them- selves." With deep sorrow for the miseries which now, for a time, impended over Eng- land, and afflicted to the soul by the personal sufferings of many of his dearest friends, it may be yet supposed that Pym looked forward de- liberately and undespairingly, since, if for no reason else, he had to keep the appointment he had made with Wentworth. It will be necessary to sketch very briefly the measures by which the executive now sought to enslave the people. The duties of tonnage and poundage, which Charles had solemnly pledged himself never to take but as a gift from his people, were rigor- ously extorted ; warrants were issued by the council to seize the goods of all who attempted to land them without authority, and to detain them till the customs were paid ; and orders were despatched to imprison all who attempted to recover their property by replevin. Richard Chambers a name ever memorable among London citizens courageously appealed from the vengeance of the council ; but he was drag- ged into the Star Chamber, fined 2000, and doomed to imprisonment till he made various * See Memorials of English Affairs, p. 46, 47. abject submissions : these he refused to make, and for twelve years he languished in prison, from which he was released a beggar. Various merchants made attempts to elude these meas- ures by sending their goods beyond the seas ; but nothing is so vigilant as tyranny, and the goods were seized in England, while unlimited orders were issued in consequence to search warehouses, and prevent what was denomina- ted a fraud on the revenue. Equally disgraceful were the taxes imposed for the support of muster-masters of the mili- tia ; coat and conduct money was also exact- ed, while soldiers were billeted as of old. But the grievance which out-Heroded all the rest was the revival of monopolies. This was car- ried to an extent which was truly appalling. Under the pretext, for instance, that certain persons had made discoveries in the manufac- ture of soap, and that the dealers in general imposed a bad article upon the people, these persons were erected into a corporation, and the right of the manufacture and sale of the commodity vested in them exclusively, they having paid ten thousand pounds for their pat- ent, and rendered themselves liable to a tax of eight pounds per ton upon the sale. The ori- ginal pretext, it may be easily supposed, was a lie, the commodity being, in fact, so adultera- ted as to ruin the clothes of the people. In the same manner, almost every article of ordinary consumption, whether of manufacture or not, was exposed to a similar abuse. Upon every- thing, no matter how insignificant, the fetters of monopoly were fixed. Salt, starch, coals, iron, wine, pens, cards and dice, beavers, felts, bone-lace, meat dressed in taverns, tobacco, wine-casks, brewing and distilling, lamprons, weighing of hay and straw in London and Westminster, gauging of red herrings, butter casks, kelp and seaweed, linen cloth, rags, hops, buttons, hats, gutstring, spectacles, combs, to- bacco-pipes, saltpetre, gunpowder, down to the sole privilege of gathering of rags, were all sub- jected to monopolies, and consequently heavily taxed ! Some few of these shocking enormities may be illustrated by extracts from the Rev. Mr. Garrard's letters* to the lord-deputy. " Here is much ado," he writes on one occasion, " about the soap business ; it is very doubtful whether in the end it will stand or no. For the present, it is strongly backed, and I hear a proclamation shall come forth to stop all mouths that speak against it. Commissioners have been appoint- ed : the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir William Becher, Sir Abraham Williams, Spiller, joined to the lord-mayor and some aldermen. They have had two general washing-days at Guild- hall ; most of them have given their verdict for the new soap to be the better ; yet continual complaints rise up that it burns linen, scalds the laundress's fingers, wastes infinitely in keeping, being full of lime and tallow ; which if true, it is of that use in this kingdom that it will not last. The lord-mayor of London, by the king's commandment, received a shrewd reprimand for his pusillanimity in this business, being afraid of a troop of women that clamor- ously petitioned him against the new soap : my lord-privy-seal, his brother-in-law, was to j ~ ' ____ " _._ See Life of Stratford, p. 91. 156 BRITISH STATESMEN. give it him at the board, and did very sharp- ly."* " Here are two commissions afloat," he writes on another occasion, " which are attend- ed diligently, which will bring, as it is conceiv- ed, a great sum of money to his majesty. The first, concerning the licensing of those who shall have a lease for life to sell tobacco in and about London, and so in all the boroughs and villages in England ; fifteen pounds fine, and as much rent by the year. . . . The other is for buildings in and about London since a procla- mation in the thirteenth of King James." In the cases of the latter, three years' rent, and " some little rent to the king" additional, was exacted by the commissioners as a composi- tion for suffering the buildings to stand. " How far this will spread," Garrard adds, " I know not ; but it is confidently spoken that there are above 100,000 rents upon this string about London. I speak much within compass. For Tuttle [Tothill], St. Giles's, St. Martin's Lane, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, and beyond the Tower from Wapping to Blackwall, all come in, and are li- able to fining for annoyances, or being built con- trary to proclamation, though they have had licenses granted to do so : my Lord of Bed- ford's license in this case, as it is said, will not avail him."t The first notice of coal as an article of export is made thus : " My Lords of Dorset and Holland have obtained a beneficial suit of the king, worth better than 1000 a year apiece to them, for seacoal exported." Then we are startled by the following : " We have very plausible things done of late. The book called the Declaration of the King's for rectifying of taverns, ordinaries, bakers, ostel- ries, is newly come forth. I'll say no more of it ; your agent here will send it to your lord- ship. All back doors to taverns on the Thames are commanded to be shut up : only the Bear at the bridge-foot is exempted, by reason of the passage to Greenwich. To encourage gen- tlemen to live more willingly in the country, all game fowl, as pheasants, partridges, ducks, as also hares, are by proclamation forbidden to be dressed or eaten in any inns, and butchers are forbidden to be graziers. "t The first introduction of hackney-coaches is next commemorated by Mr. Garrard : " Here is one Captain Bailey ; he hath been a sea-cap- tain, but now lives on the land about this city, where he tries experiments. He hath erected according to his ability some four hackney- coaches, put his men in a livery, and appoint- ed them to stand at the Maypole in the Strand, giving them instructions at what rates to carry men into several parts of the town, where all day long they may be had. Other hackneymen seeing this way, they flocked to the same place, and perform their journeys at the same rate, so that sometimes there is twenty of them together, which disperse up and down, so that they and others are to be had anywhere." But now, within two short months of this date, during which time the plan, serving as a com- fort and luxury to the great mass of the people, had succeeded to an extraordinary extent, we find Garrard mentioning " a proclamation com- ing forth about the reformation of hackney- coaches, and ordering of other coaches about London : nineteen hundred was the number of hackney-coaches of London, base lean jades, unworthy to be seen in so brave a city, or to stand about a king's court." Nothing that con- tributed, unencumbered by monopoly, to the comfort of the people, was permitted to con- tinue ! Again Garrard writes, " Here is a proc- lamation coming forth to prohibit all hackney- coaches to pass up and down in London streets ; out of town they may go at pleasure, as here- tofore. Also the attorney-general hath sent to all taverns to prohibit them to dress meat ; somewhat was required of them a halfpenny a quart for French wine, and a penny for sack and other richer wines, for the king ; the gen- tlemen vintners grew sullen and would not give it, so they are well enough served."* No sin- gle thing escaped that had escaped monopoly : the monopolists only were allowed to thrive. Soon after the above we find Garrard mention- ing " a project for carrying people up and down in close chairs, for the sole doing whereof Sir Sander Duncombe, a traveller, now a pension- er, hath obtained a patent from the king, and hath forty or fifty making ready for use." The next enormity which Garrard alludes to in his packets of news is monstrous indeed. " Here is at this present," he says, " a commission in execution against cottagers, who have not four acres of ground laid to their houses, upon a statute made the 31 Eliz., which vexeth the poor people mightily, all for the benefit of the Lord Morton, and the secretary of Scotland, the Lord Sterling : much crying out there is against it, especially because mean, needy, and men of no good fame, prisoners in the Fleet, are used as principal commissioners to call the peo- ple before them, to fine and compound with them."t Subsequently he remarks, " The tav- erns begin to victual again ; some have got leave. 'Tis said that the vintners within the city will give 6000 to the king to dress meat as they did before ; and the suburbs will yield somewhat. "J Such illustrations, curious and valuable as they are, considering the source whence they proceed, and to whom they are addressed, might be largely indulged ; but one more will serve. " Here," writes Garrard, "here are abundance of new projects on foot, upon seacoal, salt, malt, marking of iron, cut- ting of rivers, setting up a new corporation in the suburbs of London much opposed by the Londoners and many others. Where profit may come to the king, let them pass ; but to enrich private men, they have not my wishes. Discontinuance of Parliaments brings up this kind of grain, which commonly is blasted when they come." And all these fearful outrages were commit- ted upon the people, while there was probably not a single family in England, with the small- est share of education or intelligence, in whose house a copy of the famous PETITION of RIGHT * Strafford's Papers, vol. i., p. 507. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 206. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 176. t> Rnshworth has recorded that in the first year of Charles there were not above twenty coaches to be had for hire in and about London. " The grave judges of the law," he adds, "constantly rid on horseback, in all weathers, to Westminster.'' Collections, vol. ii., p. 317. * Straffbrd Papers, vol. i., p. 507. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 117. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 262. Ibid., vol. ii., p. 55. JOHN PYM. 157 might not be found ! But this consideration it was, beyond every other, that still sustained with the strongest hope, during the twelve terrible years' continuance of such outrages, such men as Pym and Hampden. It was this which, even while their friend Eliot sank to his death under the murderous vengeance of the court, and while others of their friends, as Noy, Digges, Littleton, and Glanville, crept over to the side of the public enemy it was this which reassured them that least of all were they then to despair. The breath of God was not to be monopolized, neither was the petition of rights to be recalled. In enforcement of the illegal patents and proclamations of the king, most grievous com- missions also were granted, to one or two of which Garrard's correspondence has alluded. They were such, for instance, as a commission touching cottages and inmates ; another about services ; one for compounding with offenders for transporting butter ; another for compound- ing with those who used or imported logwood ; one to compound with sheriffs, and such as had been sheriffs, for selling under-sheriffs' places ; another for compounding for the de- struction of wood in iron works ; another for concealments, and encroachments within twen- ty miles of London ; and the list might be stretched indefinitely. Nor had the resources of tyranny expended themselves here. Under the candid pretext of curing defects in titles of land, a proclama- tion was issued, proposing to grant new titles upon the payment of a reasonable composition ; and all who declined to avail themselves of this general offer from the court were threat- ened, in no measured terms, with the loss of their property : nor, indeed, were such cases unfrequent. Many pretended flaws in titles were dragged into the courts, where a parcel of obsequious judges sat ready to establish the objections. Even the form of the judges' pat- ents was changed to fix their slavish depend- ance more surely ! The old clause, guamdiu se bene gesserit was changed into durante bene placito, and the benefit of the first clause was even denied to one judge who had received his patent before the change, because he was thought too upright for the designs in hand.* Other means, too, were adopted to bring the civil government of England into unison with these enormities. The jurisdiction and pow- ers of the courts of Star Chamber and High Commission were enlarged to a most extraor- dinary degree. New illegal oaths were en- forced, and new courts, with vast powers, erected without colour of law ; and when com- missions were issued for examining into the extent of fees that were complained of, the commissioners compounded with the delin- quents, not only for their past offences, but their future extortions. Finally, the orders of the council board were received as positive law. Clarendon tells us that Finch, who, for * See May's History, p. 17. Hut. Mem., vol. i., p. 132. Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 16. For the various authori- ties in support of the text, see Mr. Brodie (Hist, of Brit. Emp., vol. ii., p. 275-286) ; also Rushworth, throughout his first and third volumes of Collections ; Old Parl. Hist., vol. ix., p. 62, et seq. ; Hilyard's Case ; Clarendon's Life, p. 37, 73 ; May's History j Aikin's Charles the First ; and Strafford's Letters. his conduct in the late Parliament, had been promoted to the office of lord-keeper of the great seal, now boldly declared " that while he was keeper no man should be so saucy as to dispute orders of the council board, but that the wisdom of that board should be always ground enough for him to make a decree in chancery." An extract from the same noble historian shall complete my sketch of the civil govern- ment of England at this period. " Supple- mental acts of state were made to supply de- fect of laws ; and so tonnage and poundage, and other duties upon merchandises, were col- lected by order of the board, which had been positively refused to be settled by act of Par- liament, and new and greater impositions laid upon trade ; obsolete laws were revived and vigorously executed, wherein the subject might be taught how unthrifty a thing it was, by too strict a detaining of what was his, to put the king as strictly to inquire what was his own. And by this ill husbandry the king received a vast sum of money from all persons of quality, or, indeed, of any reasonable condition, through- out the kingdom, upon the law of knighthood. And no less unjust projects of all kinds many ridiculous, many scandalous, all very grievous were set on foot, the envy and reproach of which came to the king, the profit to other men. To recompense the damage the crown sustained by the sale of the old lands and by the grant of new pensions, the old laws of the forest were revived, by which not only great fines were imposed, but great annual rents intended, and like to be settled by way of con- tract ; which burden lighted most upon persons of quality and honour, who thought themselves above ordinary oppressions, and were, there- fore, like to remember it with more sharpness. For the better support of these extraordinary ways, and to protect the agents and instru- ments who must be employed in them, and to discountenance and suppress all bold inquirers and opposers, the council table and Star Cham- ber enlarged their jurisdictions to a vast ex- tent, < holding' (as Thucydides said of the Athe- nians) ' for honourable that which pleased, and for just that which profited ;' and being the same persons in several rooms, grew both courts of law to determine rights, and courts of revenue to bring money into the treasury the council table by proclamations enjoining to the people what was not enjoined by the law, and prohibiting that which was not prohibited, and the Star Chamber censuring the breach, and disobedience to those proclamations, by very great fines and imprisonment, so that any disrespect to acts of state, or to the persons of statesmen, was in no time more penal, and those foundations of right, by which men val- ued their security, to the apprehension and un- derstanding of wise men, never more in dan- ger to be destroyed."* The reader will scarce- ly conceive this picture capable of aggrava- tion ; but the noble historian afterward pro- ceeds, very dryly, to tell how the people chiefly borne down by these terrible measures were Protestants, while the Papists were not only encouraged, but protected, as the chief promo- ters of the mischief. " They grew," he says, * Hist, of Rebellion, vol. i., p. 119-122. 158 BRITISH STATESMEN. " not only secret contrivers, but public pro- fessed promoters of, and ministers in, the most grievous projects ; as that of soap, formed, framed, and executed by almost a corporation of that religion, which, under that license and notion, might be, and were suspected to be, qualified for other agitations." No wonder the Roman Catholics were hated ! It is to be add- ed, that whatever trifling fragments of law or protection might be supposed to remain to the people still, were utterly swept away from a long line of northern counties by the terrible administration of the presidency of the North. Yet the king continued poor ! His advocate has hinted a justification of him in the extract just given, to the effect that while the reproach of these monstrous extortions came to him, the profit went to other men ; but this is much more in the nature of an aggravation. When Charles found that the case was so, it served him only as a better excuse for breaking down the spirit of the people by still heavier burdens. What Clarendon has said is indeed quite true, that the tax upon the community was infinitely beyond what came into the Exchequer. For the monopoly of wine, for instance, the king received only 38,000 per annum ; but then the vintners paid 40s. per tun to the patentees, which, upon 45,000 tuns, raised the tax to 90,000. The vintners, again, imposed 2d. per quart, which raised it to 8 per tun, or 360,000 nearly twelve times as much as went into the Exchequer.* And so with other impositions. The difficulties of the court, therefore, in the disastrous career they had entered on, were only becoming, day by day, more imminent, when the famous invention of Mr. Attorney-general Noyt came in to give a longer lease to tyranny, and make more fatal its final redemption. " Lastly" (I again avail myself of the lan- guage of Lord Clarendon), " for a spring and magazine that should have no bottom, and for an everlasting supply of all occasions, a writ was framed in a form of law, and directed to the sheriff of every county of England, ' to provide a ship of war for the king's service, and to send it, amply fitted and provided, by such a day to such a place ;' and with that writ were sent to each sheriff instructions that, * See the Old Pail. Hist., vol. ix., p. 62, et seg. t " He was a man," says Dr. Heylin, in his Life of Laud, p. 301, "extremely well versed in old records, with which consulting frequently in the course of his studies, he had excerpted and laid by many notes and precedents for the king's levying of such naval aid upon the subjects, by his own authority, whensoever the preservation and safety of the kingdom did require it of them ; which notes and pre- cedents, taken as they came in his way, on small pieces of paper (most of them no bigger than one's hand), he kept in the coffin of a pye, which had been sent him by his mother, and kept there till the mouldincss and corruptibleness had perished many of his papers." The singularity of Noy's manners gives colour to this story. I cannot resist subjoin- ing another anecdote, which seems a proof, in a certain sort, that Noy winced a little under his new position, after, as his friends used to say, "he was bewitched to become the king's." When created attorney-general, a messenger, as usual, was sent to attend on him ; but, after enduring his presence with very angry scowlings for a few days, Noy could not bear it any longer. He ordered him to get home and hide himself, " lest the people, who have always seen me walk free and alone, should fancy me a state prisoner." See Wood's Ath. Oxon., vol. ii., p. 582. Noy died soon after his discoveries in the matter of ship-money, and they were wonderfully improved upon by Finch: see Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. ii., p. 16-21. For admirable characters of Noy and Finch, see Clarendon's Hist., vol. i., p. 129-131. ' instead of a ship, he should levy upon his county such a sum of money, and return the same to the treasurer of the navy for his maj- esty's use, with direction in what manner he should proceed against such as refused ;' and from hence that tax had the denomination of SHIP-MONEY ; a word of lasting sound in the mem- ory of this kingdom, by which for some years really accrued the yearly sum of 200,000 to the king's coffers ; and it was, in truth, the only project that was accounted to his own service." A lively illustration of the manner in which this tax was worked will be supplied by one or two extracts from Garrard's letters to the Lord-deputy of Ireland. In one letter* he writes, " In my last I advertised your lordship that the Mayor of London received some rep- rimand for being so slow in giving answer to the writ sent into the city about the shipping business ; afterward the city council were called before the Lords, and received some gentle check, or, rather, were admonished to take heed how they advised the city in a case so clear for the king, wherein his majesty had first advised with his learned counsel and with his council of state. It wrought this effect, that they all yielded, and instantly fell to seiz- ing in all the wards of London. It will cost the city at least 35,000. They hoist up the merchant strangers, Sir William Curtyre, 360 ; Sir Thomas Cuttcale, 300 : great sums to pay at one tax, and we know not how often it may come. It reaches us in the Strand, being with- in the liberties of Westminster, which furnish- eth out one ship. My Lord of Bedford, 60 ; my Lord of Salisbury, 25 ; my Lord of Clare, 40 ; the lord-keeper and lord-treasuer, 20 apiece : nay, lodgers, for I am set at 40s. Giv- ing subsidies in Parliament, I was well content to pay to, which now hath brought me into this tax ; but I tell my Lord Cottington that I had rather give and pay ten subsidies in Parliament than Ws. this new-old way of dead Noye's. Let- ters are also gone down to the high sheriffs of the maritime counties to quicken them. Have you heard the answer given by a great lord that hath been a judge 1 ' 'Tis true this writ hath not been used when tonnage and pound- age was granted, now 'tis not, but taken by prerogative, ergo, this writ is now in full force.' " On a subsequent occasion he writes, " The sheriff of Sussex sent up to the Lords to re- ceive their farther directions what he was to do, giving them information that seven or eight poor towns in that county stood out, and would not pay towards the shipping. But as soon as they heard that the sheriff, by a new command, began to distrain, they came roundly in and paid their money. "t The lord-deputy speedily corrected his correspondent's complaints about the tax, having furnished the court with his opinion that it was " the greatest service the legal profession had done the crown in his time ;" while he added, " but unless his majes- ty hath the like power declared to raise a land army upon the same exigent of state, the crown seems to me to stand but upon one leg at home, to be considerable but by halves to foreign prin- ' ces abroad ; yet sure this, methinks, convinces * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 358. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 372. JOHN PYM. a power for the sovereign to raise payments for land forces, and consequently submits to his wisdom and ordinance the transporting of the money or men into foreign states, so to earry, by way of prevention, the fire from our selves into the dwellings of our enemies (an art which Edward III. and Henry V. well un- derstood) ; and if, by degrees, Scotland and Ireland be drawn to contribute their propor- tions to these levies for the public, omne tulit punctum. Well fortified," Wentworth contin- ued, " this piece forever vindicates the royalty at home from under the conditions and re- straints of subjects, and renders us also, abroad, even to the greatest kings, the most considera- ble monarchy in Christendom."* Stimulated thus, the court partially extended their viewi that way, and, advancing gradually from the maritime districts, levied the hated tax upon almost every man in England. " For home news," Garrard writes in one of his subsequent letters,! " the shipping business goes on cur- rently all over England, so 'tis apprehended at court. Some petitions have been offered to the king from poor towns, which he hath re- ferred to his council." Again : " The London- ers have not been so forward in collecting the ship-money, since they have been taught to sing Hey-down-derry, and many of them will not pay till after imprisonment, that it may stand upon record they were forced to it. The assessments have been wonderful unequal and unproportionable, which is very ill taken, it being conceived they did it on purpose to raise clamour through the city." And again, he writes, " Your lordship is very right, that there is no reason all public works should be put upon the crown. And yet you see how un- willing the people are to contribute to any, be it never so honourable or necessary for them- selves. Witness the ship-money, which at this very present ending of the term is under argu- ment in the Exchequer chamber before all the judges, brought thither upon a case of Mr. Hambden's, as I think ; but I am sure, either upon a case of his or the Lord Say's. So have you the greatest news of the time." Great news this was indeed ! Many men had resisted ship-money ; many poor men had been flung into prison for refusing to pay it, and lay there languishing and unknown ; many rich men had vainly stirred themselves against it ; but at last, in the person of Hampden, the pop- ular party prepared to make their final and re- solved resistance, and in his great name all the renown of that resistance has been absorbed. J Pym and St. John were Hampden's close counsellors in the interval before the public tri- al, and six months were passed in preparations on both sides. At last, after a display of extra- * Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 61, 62. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 468. i It may be observed, at the same time, that doubtless the court party were to be consulted as to the choice of a person in whose case the right of resistance was to be deci- ded, since up to this period, when refusers of ship-money had gone before the courts, the judges on circuit had over- ruled, or declined to entertain, any plea founded on the assumed illegality of the imposition, and thus the question of right had remained undecided. Unable, however, to re- sist any longer the demand for a settlement of the question, it is probable that the king's party thought that, in its progress, the "affability and temper" of Hampden as an opponent would serve them best. It is certain that Lord Say and Sele was distinctly refused a trial. ordinary learning and power on the part of St. John, till then almost unknown in the courts, and a scarcely less remarkable exhibition of venal prostitution of research on the part of the crown lawyers, judgment was pronounced in favour of ship-money, and against the illus- trious defendant, by nine out of the twelve judges. Of the three dissentients Hutton,* Croke, and Denham Croke would also have given judgment for the crown, had not his wife, a lady of eminent piety and a truly heroic spir- it, sustained his sinking virtue. " She told him," says Whitelocke.t " she hoped he would do nothing against his conscience, for fear of any danger or prejudice to her or his family ; and that she would be contented to suffer want, or any misery with him, rather than be the oc- casion for him to do or say anything against his judgment or conscience." Lord Clarendon observes that this decision " proved of more advantage and credit to the gentleman condemned than to the king's ser- vice. Men before," he adds, "pleased them- selves with doing somewhat for the king's ser- vice, as a testimony of their affection, which they were not bound to do ;% many really believing the necessity, and therefore thinking the burden reasonable. But when they heard this demand- ed in a court of law as a right, and found it, by sworn judges of the law, adjudged so, upon such grounds and reasons as every stander-by was able to swear was not law, and so had lost the pleasure and delight of being kind and dutiful to the king ; and instead of giving were required to pay, and by a logic that left no man anything which he might call his own ; when they saw in a court of law (that law that gave them title to, and possession of, all that they had) rea- sons of state urged as elements of law, judges as sharpsighted as secretaries of state, and in * Hutton was a friend of Lord Weutworth's, and address- ed a long and curious letter to him, exculpatory of the hon- est course he pursued on this question. I subjoin a char- acteristic extract from the lord-deputy's reply : " Con- sidering it is agreed by common consent that in time of public danger and necessity such a levy may be made, and that the king is therein sole judge how or in what manner or proportion it is to be gathered, 1 conceive it was out of humour opposed by Hambdeu, beyond the modesty of a sub- ject, and that reverence wherein we ought to have so gra- cious a sovereign ; it being ever to be understood, the pros- pects of kings into mysteries of state are so far exceeding- those of ordinary common persons, as they be able to discern and prevent dangers to the public afar off, which others shall not so much as dream of till they feel the unavoidable stripes and smart of them upon their naked shoulders ; be- sides, the mischief which threatens states and people are not always those which become the object of every vulgar eye, but then commonly of most danger when least discov- ered nay, very often, if unseasonably over early published, albeit privately known to the king long before, might rather nflame than remedy the evil ; therefore it is a safe rule for us all, in the fear of God, to remit these supreme watches o that regal power, whose peculiar indeed it is ; submit ourselves in these high considerations to his ordinance, as >eing no other than the ordinance of God itself ; and rather attend upon his will, with confidence in his justice, belief n his wisdom, assurance in his parental affections to his ubjects and kingdoms, than feed ourselves with the curi- ous questions, with the vain flatteries of imaginary liberty, which, had we even our silly wishes and conceits, were we o frame a new Commonwealth even to our own fancy, night yet, in conclusion, leave ourselves less free, less hap- iy than now, thanks be to God and his majesty, we are, iay, ought justly to be, reputed by every moderate-minded Christian." t Memorials, p. 25. t But they were, before the decision, bound to obey the ax, and that by sharper conditions than attended any other levy. These and other expressions of Lord Clarendon in the extract are artful misrepresentations, easily seen through: the extract is very valuable evidence, notwithstanding. 160 BRITISH STATESMEN. the mysteries of state, judgment of law ground- ed upon matter of fact, of which there was nei- ther inquiry nor proof, and no reasons given for the tax in question but what included the estates of all the standers-by, they no more looked upon it as the case of one man, but the case of the kingdom, nor as an imposition laid upon them by the king, but by the judges, which they thought themselves bound in conscience to the public justice not to submit to." In oth- er words, the event justified the policy of the leaders of the people, and they now quietly re- sumed their former position, hopeful and de- termined. Laud soon wrote to Wentworth that the " faction are grown very bold, and the king's moneys come in a great deal more slow- ly than they did in former years, and that to a very considerable sum ;"* and Whitelocke closes his description of the proceedings with these words : " Hampden and many others of quality and interest in their counties were un- satisfied with the judgment, and continued, with the utmost of their power, in opposition to it, yet could not at that time give any other stop or hinderance ; but it remained, alia mente repostum." Leaving it thus, for a time, in the minds of Pym and Hampden, it is now necessary in completion of such a sketch of the present gov- ernment of England as will be thought essen- tial to a right judgment of the exertions of Pym's latter life that I should slightly revert to Laud's administration of religious affairs. It was frightfully consistent with the view that has been furnished of the condition of civil matters. The barbarous punishment of Leigh- ton^ the Scotch divine ; the cruel persecution of Balmerinot at Edinburgh ; the shocking se- verities that were practised upon Prynne, Bur- ton, and Bastwick,^ need only be alluded to to * Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 170. t See Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 55; Whitelocke, p. 15; Neal, vol. i., p. 547 ; aud see Laud's Diary for November 16, 1630. t See Carte, vol. iv., p. 222. State Trials, vol. iii., &c. Q See Laud's Diary ; Neal's History of the Puritans ; Rushworth, vol. ii., p. 220, et seg. Heylin's Life of Laud, 249, <fec. Garrard writes to Lord Wentworth : " Some few days after the end of the term, in the palace-yard two pil- lories were erected, and there the sentence of Star Cham- ber against Burton, Bastwick, and Prynne was executed : they stood two hours in the pillory ; Burton by himself, be- ing degraded in the High Commission Court three days be- fore. The place was full of people, who cried and howled terribly, especially when Burton was cropt. Dr. Bastwick was very merry : his wife, Dr. Foe's daughter, got a stool, and kissed him ; his ears being cut off, she called for them, and put them in a clean handkerchief, and carried them away with her. Bastwick told the people, the lords had collar-days at court, but this was his collar-day, rejoycing much in it. Since, warrants are sent from the lords to the sheriffs of the several counties where they are to be im- prisoned, to receive them aud see them placed. Also Dr. Layton, homo ejusdemfarinae, censured seven years since, and now prisoner in the Fleet, is removed to some remote prison of the kingdom." From that prison Leighton was not released till ten years after, when he had lost sight, hearing, and the use of his limbs ! Another of the lord- deputy's correspondents had before described the mutila- tion of Prynne : " No mercy showed to Prynne : he stood in the pillory, and lost his first ear in a pillory in the pal- ace at Westminster in full term, his other in Cheapside ; where, while he stood, his volumes were burned under his nose, which had almost suffocated him." Lastly, Laud himself wrote thus to Wentworth : " I have done expect- ing of thorow on this side, and therefore shall betake my- self to that which you say, and I believe, is the next best ; and yet I would not give over neither. But what can you think of thorow where there shall be such slips in business of consequence ? What say you to it that Prynne and his followers should be suffered to talk what they pleased recall the horror and disgust with which their sufferings have passed into history. The very name of toleration was banished from England. A refusal to attend divine worship in the par- ish church was, in all persons, without excep- tion, punished in the first instance by fine, and on a repetition of such refusal by transporta- tion. Popish recusants, indeed, were allowed to compound for these penalties by a heavy an- nual payment ; and the celebration of mass, though illegal, was connived at ; but no similar indulgence was extended to the religious ser- vices of Protestant dissenters. The dissenting ministers, in point of fact, did not yet form a distinct class ; they were, with very rare ex- ceptions, ordained and beneficed clergy of the English Church ; and being thus lawfully sub- ject to the authority of their diocesan, the means of detecting and punishing their devia- tions from conformity were easy and obvious. Accordingly, from Laud they found no quarter. At the thought of every episcopal visitation the clergy groaned and trembled. Lecturers were peremptorily s lenced ; domestic chaplains in the houses of private gentlemen punished, and their patrons ordered to attend their parish churches ; while the parochial clergy, where non- conformable, were fined, suspended, in some cases deprived, and ultimately, in very many instances, driven out of England with the more zealous of their followers, happy to escape without some mutilation of their per- sons, for scarcely a sitting of the Star Chamber passed without its victim, and its consequent exhibition, in the public streets, of some scene of bloody human agony ! On one occasion, while Lilburne and Wharton, after having suf- fered a severe whipping, were standing ex- posed in the pillory, news was carried to the Star Chamber that Wharton, unsilenced by his suffering or his shame, was scattering pamph- lets about and haranguing the mob ; and the court, happening to be sitting at the moment, made an order that he should be gagged, and the order was executed instantly ! Prynne, having had his old ears stitched to his head, " relapsed," as Garrard expresses it, " into new errors," and again suffered a mutilation of the fragments ! Meanwhile, the language of Went- worth and Laud held out no hope of change. " Go it as it shall please God with me," wrote Wentworth, " believe me, my lord, I will be still thorough and thoroughout, one and the same.* The cure of this grievous and over-spreading leprosy is, in my weak judgment, to be effected rather by corrosives than lenitives ; less than thorough will not overcome it : there is a can- cerous malignity in it, which must be cut forth !" What wonder if, in the midst of all this fright- ful despotism over the property and conscien- ces of men, large numbers of the English peo- ple now sent their thoughts across the wide Atlantic towards the New World that had ris- en beyond its waters ! Such were the gloomy apprehensions and terrors with which the Old World was filled, that only two alternatives while they stood in the pillory, and win acclamations from the people, and have notes taken of what they spake, and those notes spread in written copies about the city, and that when they went out of town to their several imprison- ments, there were thousands suffered to be upon the way to take their leave, and God knows what else J" * Strafford Papers, vol. i., p. 298. JOHN PYM. 161 indeed now seemed to many persons to remain : that, as May expresses it,* " Things carried so far on in a wrong way must needs either en- slave themselves and posterity forever, or re- quire a vindication so sharp and smarting as that the nation would groan under it." Too weak to contemplate the last alternative, and too virtuous to submit to the first, crowds of victims! to the tyranny of Church and State now accordingly left their homes and their country, willing to encounter any sufferings, privations, and dangers in the distant wilder- ness they sought, because of the one sole hope they had, that there, at least, would be found some rest and refuge for liberty, for religion, for humanity ! So extensive, however, did the emigration threaten to become, that Laud thought it ne- cessary to interfere at last, and with a refine- ment of tyranny of which, it has been truly said, the annals of persecution afford few equally strong examples to seek to deprive the con- scientious sufferers of that last and most mel- ancholy of all resources, a rude, and distant, and perpetual exile. On the 1st of May, 1638, eight ships bound for New England, and filled with Puritan families, were arrested in the Thames by an order in council. It has been a very popular " rumour of history," that among the passengers in one of those vessels were Pym, Hampden, Cromwell, and Hazelrig. Were this anecdote authentic, the hand of fate had been visible upon Charles indeed ! But there is no good authority:): for it, and it is de- ficient in all the moral evidences of truth. The mind cannot bring itself to imagine the spirits of such men as these yielding so easily to the despair of country ; and at this moment Hamp- den was the " argument of all tongues" for his resistance to ship-money, while to Pym the vis- ion of the fatal meeting to which he had sum- moned Wentworth now became daily more and more distinct. Nor are we wanting of absolute circumstances of proof, obvious enough to me, of the utter incorrectness of the statement. In the same part of Rush worth's Collections where the original order is to be found, a subsequent proclamation may be seen also, wherein, after stating the seizure of the ships, the following passage occurs : " Howbeit, upon the humble petition of the merchants, passengers, and own- ers of the ships now bound for New England, and upon the reasons by them represented to the board, his majesty was graciously pleased to free them from their late restraint, to pro- ceed in their intended voyage."^ So that, in * History of the Long Parliament, p. 17. t " The plantations of Ormond and Clare," writes Laud to Wentworth at this time, " are a marvellous great work for the honour and profit of the king and safety of that king- dom, and you have done very nobly to follow that business so close ; but I am sorry to read in your letters that you want men extremely to fill that work ; and this is the more considerable a great deal, that you should want men in Ire- land, and that, the while, there should be here such a uni- versal running to New England, and God knows whither ; but this it is, when men think nothing is their advantage but to run from government. As for your being left alone in the envious and thorny part of the work, that is no news at least to me, who am forced to the like here, scarce a man appearing where the way is rough indeed." t The only known authorities are Dr. George Bates and Dujjdale, both zealous Royalists, and, on this point, quite beneath ronsideration. Q See Rushworth.vol. ii., p. 409, and see Aikin's Charles, vol. i., p. 473. X fact, there is no reason for supposing that all who had embarked for New England on board the eight ships alluded to did not proceed to New England. No doubt they did so. The anecdote in question, however, is not without ground of a certain kind. Some years before its date, the attention of the leading men among the patriots had been strongly directed to the subject of the colonization of part of the North American Continent, with a view to its affording a refuge of safety and comfort to such of their party or their families as the sad troub- les which impended over England might force from their homes. The subject had occupied even Eliot's thoughts in his prison, as a pas- sage from one of Hampden's letters to him may serve to show. " The paper of considerations concerning the Plantation might be very safely conveyed to me by this hand, and after trans- cribing, should be as safely returned, if you vouchsafe to send it to me."* The result of all this consideration of the subject was the purchase of a large grant of land in the name of Lord Brook, and Lord Say and Sele ; and in 1635, according to Horace Walpole, these two lords " sent over Mr. George Fenwick to pre- pare a retreat for them and their friends, in consequence of which a little town was built, and called by their joint names Saybrooke."t Now in this scheme there can be little doubt that Hampden was concerned ; and I have found certain evidence, in Garrard's letters to Lord Strafford, that Pym was a party to it. " Our East India Company," writes that inde- fatigable newsmonger, " have this week two ships come home, which a little revives them. The traders also into the Isle of Providence, who are the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Say, the Lord Mandeville, the Lord Brook, Sir Ben- jamin Rudyard, Mr. Pym, and others, have ta- ken a prize, sent home worth 15,000 by vir- tue of letters of marque granted to the planters there by his majesty for some injuries done them by the Spaniard."* The date of this let- ter is December, 1637 ; and from that date, as the prospects of the court darkened, the hopes of Pym and Hampden must have grown with the passage of every day. Time and fate soon pressed in hard, indeed, upon the government of Charles. Driven to the close of every expedient, his last hope cen- tred in the Lord-deputy of Ireland, and Went- worth's capacity and vigour had now twice re- stored the court finances and paid the king's debts. Ruin again impended, when Laud, as if to dash at once into the gulf, made a despe- rate attempt to impose the yoke of the Com- mon Prayer Book upon the Scotch people. A fool might have seen the result, and indeed one fool did see it, and was whipped for his folly. I do not know that it has been remarked be- fore, but the disgrace of the famous Archy, the jester of Charles I., took place at this time. " Archy is fallen into a great misfortune," writes a letter of the time. " A fool he would be, but a foul-mouthed knave he hath proved himself; being in a tavern in Westminster, drunk, he saith himself, he was speaking of the Scottish * Eliot MSS. in Lord Eliot's possession, t See Walpole's Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. ii., p. 352, ed. Park. i Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 140. 162 BRITISH STATESMEN. business, he fell a railing on my Lord of Canter- bury, said he was a monk, a rogue, and a traitor. Of this his grace complained at council, the king being present : it was ordered he should be carried to the porter's lodge, his coat pulled over his ears, and kicked out of the court, nev- er to enter within the gates, and to be called into the Star Chamber. The first part is done, but my Lord of Canterbury hath interceded to the king that there it should end. There is a new fool in his place, Muckle John, but he will never be so rich, for he cannot abide money." This last must have seemed a fool indeed ! The affairs of Scotland belong to general history, and require only a brief mention here. Suffice it, then, to say, that after several months' alternation of persecution and negotiations, the Scottish people remained firm. Most truly has it been said of the conduct of the Covenanters, that the display they now made of fearless pur- pose, and even of fearless reason ; of unwea- ried, unwinking energy and sagacity ; of ardour without violence, and enthusiasm without ex- travagance, has done imperishable honour to the Scottish character. Why should it be de- nied that Pym, Hampden, and others of the English opposition placed themselves immedi- ately in communication with those men? It stands upon the authority of Whitelocke, and may not be denied. With the dawning of the fierce opposition in Scotland to the frightful tyr- anny of conscience attempted by Laud, sprang up the consummation of the hopes entertained during twelve long years of oppression by Pym and Hampden, that a day for the liberties of England would still come. Let the friends of Charles I. make what use of the admission they please, it is quite certain that at the Lon- don meetings of the Scotch commissioners from the Covenant, headed by Lords Loudon and Dumferling, not only Pym and Hampden took an active part, but also Lords Essex, Holland, Bedford, and Say. Meanwhile Lord Wentworth stood by the side of Charles in England, and a war was re- solved upon against the Scottish people. The lord-deputy's unparalleled exertions at this pe- riod have been already described,* but the si- lent efforts of Pym and Hampden flung them powerless back, and all the attempts at loans and ship-money levies now fell flat to the ground. The strong spirit of hope was in truth again gone forth among all classes of men, and that word which had been proscribed by Charles twelve years before, was again heard as a fa- miliar word in England. A Parliament, it was resolved, should be in- stantly summoned. Wentworth was created Lord Strafford ; returned to Ireland as lord- lieutenant ; called a Parliament there ; pro- cured a large sum of money from them, with a farther offer of " their persons and estates," if required ; and in the beginning of April return- ed to England. The example of the Irish Par- liament would, it was vainly hoped, influence the Parliament of England. Meanwhile, the elections for members had been concluded without a single demonstration of tumult in any part of the country ; and on the 3d of April, 1640, the king opened the houses in per- son, and in the midst of a larger number of * See Life of Strafford, p. 117. members of the Commons than had ever been known to assemble on the first day of the ses- sion. His speech was equally short and un- gracious. " My lords and gentlemen," he said, " there never was a king that had a mor-e great and weighty cause to call his people together than myself: I will not trouble you with the particulars. I have informed my lord-keeper, and command him to speak, and desire your attention."* The lord-keeper's speech was in the absurdest strain of high prerogative. He observed that " his majesty's kingly resolutions were seated in the ark of his sacred breast, and it were a presumption of too high a nature for any Uzzah uncalled to touch it ; yet," he continued, " the king is now pleased to lay by the shining beams of majesty, as Phoebus did to Phaeton, that the distance between sover- eignty and subjection should not bar you from that filial freedom of access to his person and councils ; only let us beware how, like the son of Clymene, we aim not at the guiding of the chariot." He proceeded subsequently to say, " that his majesty did not expect advice from them, much less that they should interpose in any office of mediation, which would not be grateful to him ; but that they should, as soon as might be, give his majesty a supply, and that he would give them time enough afterward to represent any grievances to him."t " The House," proceeds Lord Clarendon, who on this occasion made his first entrance into the House of Commons as Edward Hyde, member for the borough of Wootton-Basset, " met always at eight of the clock, and rose at twelve, which were the old Parliament hours, that the committees, upon whom the greatest burden of business lay, might have the after- noons for their preparation and despatch. It was not the custom to enter upon any impor- tant business during the first fortnight, both because many members used to be absent so long, and that time was usually thought neces- sary for the appointment and nomination of committees, and for other ceremonies and preparations that were usual ; but there was no regard now to that custom ; and the ap- pearance of the members was very great, there having been a large time between the issuing out of the writs and the meeting of the Parlia- ment, so that all elections were made and re- turned, and everybody was willing to fall to the . A leader only was wanting ; and in this great position, by the common consent of all, Pym now placed himself. As he looked round the seats, crowded as they were with members, what gaps must have appeared in them to him ! The line of his early friends and associates was broken indeed. " The long intermission of Parliament," observes Clarendon, " had worn out most of those who had been acquainted with the rules and orders observed in those conventions." Sir Edward Coke and Sir Rob- ert Philips^ were dead now, and Sir John Eliot * Rushworth, vol. iii. (part second), p. 1114. Rushworth was appointed, this session, clerk-assistant to the House of Commons. t See Clarendon, vol. i., p. 233. i Clarendon's History, vol. i., p. 233-234. t> " Sir Robert Philips," wrote Garrard to the lord-depu- ty on the 10th of May, 1638, " Sir Robert Philips, your old acquaintance, has died of a cold choked with phlegm." Strafford Papers, vol. ii., p. 164. JOHN PYM. 163 had perished in his prison. But it was a great and redeeming consolation to Pym that Hamp- den still sat by his side, and that up to the close of their illustrious career the most intimate private friendship henceforth united them even more closely, if that were possible, than the great public objects they pursued in common. Hitherto Hampden had been " rather of reputa- tion in his own country than of public discourse or fame in the kingdom ;" but the business of ship-money had made him the argument of all tongues ; and to the toils and perils of public life he n>>w, by Pym's side, entirely devoted himself. He brought up all his family to Lon- don from their seat in Buckinghamshire, which only at a few chance intervals he ever saw again ; and it is an additional proof of the close intimacy I speak of, that henceforward they lived in lodgings near Pym's house,* which was then in Gray's Inn Lane, until the commence- ment of the following Parliament, when Pym having changed his residence to Westminster, Hampden removed there also.f Before the meeting of the present Parliament, I should also mention, they had ridden together through several of the English counties, less with the view, as Anthony a Wood states, of " promo- ting elections of the Puritanical brethren," than of urging the people to meet and send petitions to the House of Commons as soon as possible after it had assembled. Petitioning Parliament was first organized thus, as a system, by Pym and Hampden. The result was sensibly felt the day after the delivery of the king's speech, when several county members rose and pre- sented petitions from their respective counties,t complaining of ship-money projects and monop- olies, the Star Chamber and High Commission courts, and other heavy grievances. Hence though the king had, at the close of the lord- keeper's speech the day before, distinctly asked of the House that they should proceed at once to the consideration of the Scotch business with a view to supplies, and for this purpose had specially ordered the lord-keeper's speech and his own to be entered on the journals even the Royalist members of the House could not but recognise, after the presentation of such a series of petitions from the people they represented, a certain sort of " divided duty." This was exactly the occasion Pym had sought, and he availed himself of it. " While men gazed upon each other," says Lord Clarendon, " looking who should begin (much the greater part having never before sat in Parliament), Mr. Pym, a man of good repu- tation,^ but much better known afterward, who had been as long in those assemblies as any man then living, brake the ice ; and in a set discourse of above two hours, after mention of the king with profound reverence, and com- mendation of his wisdom and justice, he ob- served, ' that by the long intermission of Par- liaments many unwarrantable things had been practised, notwithstanding the great virtue of his majesty ;' and then enumerated all the proj- ects which had been set on foot ; all the ille- * See Lord Nugent's Memorials of Hampden, vol. i., p. 296. t See Clarendon's Life. $ Rushworth, vol. iii., p. 1131. Q Whitelocke thus describes him : " Master Pym, an an- cient gentleman of great experience in Parliamentary af- fairs, and no less known fidelity to his country." gal proclamations which had been published, and the proceedings which had been upon those proclamations ; the judgment upon ship-money, and many grievances which related to the ec- clesiastical jurisdiction ; summing up shortly and sharply all that most reflected upon the prudence and justice of the government, and concluding ' that he had only laid that scheme before them that they might see how much work they had, to do to satisfy their country, the method and manner of the doing whereof he left to their wisdoms.' " To this may be added the characteristic description given by May, the historian of the Long Parliament : " Master Pym, a grave and religious gentleman, in a long speech of almost two hours, recited a cat- alogue of the grievances which at that time lay heavy on the Commonwealth, of which many abbreviated copies, as extracting the heads only, were with great greediness taken by gentlemen, and others throughout the kingdom, for it was not then in fashion to print speeches of Parlia- ment." The effect of this speech was so extraordi- nary throughout England, that it has been made matter of general comment with all the histo- rians of the period. The only reference they are able to give, however, is to the abstract supplied by Rushworth ;* and this seemed to me to be so unsatisfactory a version, that I commenced a search among the pamphlets at the British Museum, in the hope that some pub- lication of a speech that had produced such re- sults, and which might possibly have taken place with Pym's authority, had escaped the notice of the indefatigable collector. This hope was not disappointed ; and some extensive ex- tracts shall now be laid before the reader, from a report 'which received the subsequent correc- tion of Pym himself. These extracts are re- markable on every account : they do not simply illustrate the period better than any laboured history can ; they will be found to mark, also, most emphatically, a certain grave and subdued style and manner in the speaker, which singu- larly contrasts with his tone at the meeting of the Parliament that followed. It is as though he spoke and doubtless he did speak with the thorough knowledge that, as the present Par- liament had been called by the king, the next was to be forced into existence by the people. The report is given in the third person, and opens thus : " Never Parliament had greater businesses to dispatch, nor more difficulties to encounter ; therefore wee have reason to take all advanta- ges of order and addresse, and hereby wee shall not only doe our owne worke, but dispose and inable ourselves for the better satisfaction of his majestie's desire of supply. The grievances being removed, our affections will carry us with speede and cheerefulnesse, to give his majestic that which may be sufficient both for his hon- our and support. Those that in the very firet place shall endeavour to redresse the grievan- ces, will be found not to hinder, but to bee the best furtherers of his majestie's service. Hee that takes away weights doth as much advantage motion as he that addeth wings. Divers pieces of this maine worke have heene already pro- pounded ; his endeavour should be to present * Vol. iii., p. 1131. Old. Purl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 425. 164 BRITISH STATESMEN. to the House a modell of the whole. In the | creation, God made the world according to that i idea or forme whicn was eternally pre-existent I in the divine minde. Moses was commanded to frame the tabernacle after the patterne shew- ed him in the mount. Those actions are seldome well perfected in the execution which are not first well moulded in the designe and proposition." In such passages as these, for abundance of argument, and weight, no less than closeness of reasoning, the eloquence of Pym approaches to the more deliberate compositions of Lord Bacon. " He said he would labour to contract those manifold affaires, both of the Church and State, which did so earnestly require the wisdome and faithfulnesse of this House, into a double meth- od of grievances and cures. And because there wanted not some who pretended that these things wherewith the Commonwealth is now grieved are much for the advantage of the king, and that the redresse of them will be to his majestie's great disadvantage and losse (hee said), he doubted not but to make it appeare that in discovering the present great distem- pers and disorders, and procuring remedie for them, we should bee no lesse serviceable to his majestic, who hath summoned us to this great councell, than usefull to those whom we doe here represent. For the better effecting where- of he propounded three maine branches of his discourse. In the first (he said) he would offer them the severall heads of some principal! grievances under which the kingdome groaned. In the second he undertook to prove that the disorders from whence those grievances issued were as hurtfull to the king as to the people. In the third he would advise such a way of healing and removing those grievances as might bee equally effectuall to maintaine the honour and greatnesse of the king, and to procure the prosperitie and contentment of the people. " In the handling whereof he promised to use such expressions as might mitigate the sharpnesse and bitternesse of those things whereof he was to speake, so far as his duty and faithfulnesse would allow. It is a great prerogative to the king, and a great honour at- tributed to him, in a rnaxime of our law, that he can doe no wrong ; he is the fountaine of justice; and, if there be any injustice in the execution of his commands, the law casts it upon the ministers, and frees the king. Actim- tie, life, and vigour are conveyed into the sublu- nary creatures by the influence of Heaven; but the malignitie and distemper, the cause of so many epidemicall diseases, doe proceed from the noysome vapours of the earth, or some ill affected qualities of the aire, without any infection or alteration of those pure, celestiall, and incorruptible bodies. In the like manner (he .said), the authoritie, the power, and countenance of princes may concur in the actions of evill men, without partaking in the injustice and obliquitie of them. These matters whereof we complaine have been pre- sented to his majestie, either under the pre- tence of royall prerogatives, which he is bound to maintaine, or of publike good, which is the most honourable object of regall wisdome. But the covetous and ambitious designes of others have interposed betwixt his royall intentions and the happinesse of his people, making those things pernicious and hurtfull which his majes- tie apprehended as just and profitable." How admirable is the grace and modesty of expression in the first passage that follows, and how thoughtful and comprehensive the tone of the rest ! " He said, the things which he was to pro- pound were of a various nature, many of them such as required a very tender and exquisite consideration. In handling of which, as he would be bold to use the libertie of the place and relation wherein he stood, so he would be very carefull to expresse that modestie and hu- militie which might be expected by those of whose actions he was to speake. And if his judgement or his tongue should slip into any particular mistake, he would not thinke it so great a shame tofaile by his own weaknesse, as he should esteem it an honour, and advantage to be corrected, by the wisdome of that House to which he submitted himselfe, with, this protestation, that he desired no reformation so much as to rcforme himselfe. " The greatest libertie of the kingdome is re- ligion ; thereby we are freed from spirituall evils, and no impositions are so grievous as those that are laid upon the soule. The next great libertie is justice, whereby we are preserved from injuries in our persons and estates ; from this is derived into the Commonwealth peace, and order, and safety ; and when this is inter- rupted, confusion and danger are ready to over- whelm all. The third great libertie consists in the power and priviledge of Parliaments ; for this is the fountaine of law, the great councell of the kingdome, the highest court ; this is in- abled, by the legislative and consiliarie power, to prevent evils to come ; by the judiciarie power, to suppresse and remove evils present. If you consider these three great liberties in the order of dignitie, this last is inferiour to the other two, as meanes are inferiour to the end ; but if you consider them in the order of necessitie and use, this may justly claime the first place in our care, because the end cannot be obtained without the meanes ; and if we doe not preserve this, we cannot long hope to enjoy either of the other. Therefore (he said), being to speake of those grievances which lie upon the kingdome, hee would observe this order : " 1. First to mention those which were against the priviledge of Parliaments. 2. Those which were prejudiciall to the religion estab- lished in the kingdome. 3. Those which did interrupt the justice of the realme in the lib- ertie of our persons and propriety of our es- tates. " The priviledges of Parliament were not given for the ornament or advantage of those who are the members of Parliament. They have a reall use and efficacie towards that which is the end of Parliaments. We are free from suits that we may the more intirely ad- dict ourselves to the publike services ; we have, therefore, libertie of speach, that our counsels may not be corrupted with feare, or our judgements perverted with selfe respects. Those three great faculties and functions of Parliament, the legislative, judiciarie, and con- siliarie power, cannot be well exercised with- out such priviledges as these. The wisdome of our laws, the faithfulnesse of our counsels, the JOHN PYM. 165 righteousnesse of our judgements, can hardly be kept pure and untainted if they proceed from distracted and restrained mindes. " It is a good rule of the morall philosopher, Et non ladas mentem gubernatricem omnium ac- tionum. These powers of Parliament are to the bodie politike as the rationall faculties of the soule to a man : that which keepes all the par Is of 'the Commonwealth in frame and temper, ought to be most carefully preserved in that freedome, vigour, and activitie which belongs to its selfe. Our predecessors in this House have ever beene most carefull in the first place to settle and se- cure their priviledges ; and (he said) he hoped that we, having had greater breaches made upon us than heretofore, would be no lesse ten- der of them, and forward in seeking reparation for that which is past, and prevention of the like for the time to come. " Then hee propounded divers particular points wherein the priviledge of Parliament had beene broken. First, in restraining the members of the House from speaking. Sec- ondly, in forbidding the speaker to put any question. " These two were practiced the last day of the last Parliament (and, as was alledged, by his majestie's command) ; and both of them trench upon the very life and being of Parlia- ments ; for if such a restraining power as this should take root and bee admitted, it will be im- possible for us to bring any resolution to per- fection in such matters as shall displease those about the king. " Thirdly, by imprisoning divers members of the House for matters done in Parliament. Fourthly, by indictments, informations, and judgements in ordinary and inferiour courts, for speaches and proceedings in Parliaments. Fifthly, by the disgraceful order of the King's Bench, whereby some members of this House were injoyned to put in securitie of their good behaviour ; and for refusall thereof were con- tinued in prison divers yeares, without any particular allegation against them. One of them was freed by death.* Others were not dis- missedf till his majestic had declared his inten- tion to summon the present Parliament. And this he noted not onely as a breach of priviledge, but as a violation of the common justice of the kingdome. Sixthly, by the sudden and abrupt dissolution of Parliaments, contrary to the law and custom. " Often hath it beene declared in Parliaments that the Parliament should not be dissolved till the petitions be answered. This (he said) was a great grievance, because it doth prevent the redresse of other grievances. It were a hard case that a private man should bee put to death without being heard. As this represent- ative body of the Commons receives a being by the summons, so it receives a civill death by the dissolution. Is it not a much more heavie * This allusion to Eliot is interesting ; and I should add that, two or three days after, Pym moved " that it be re- ferred to the committee of the Tower to examine after what manner Sir John Eliot came to his death, his usage in the Tower, and to view the rooms and places where he was im- prisoned, and where he died, and to report the same to the House." I have not been able to find the report. The terms of the notice are very remarkable, and suggest other notions besides that of Pym's affection for his old friend. t That is, not released from bail. They were all released from prison before Eliot. doome by which we lose our being, to have this civill death inflicted on us in displeasure, and not to be allowed time and libertie to an- swer for ourselves 1 that we should not onely die, but have this mark of infamy laid upon us ? to bee made intestabiles, disabled to make our wills, to dispose of our businesse, as this House hath always used to doe before adjournments or dissolutions 1 Yet this hath often beene our case ! We have not beene permitted to poure out our last sighes and groanes into the bo- some of our deare soveraigne. The words of dying men are full of piercing affections ; if we might bee heard to speake, no doubt we should so fully expresse our love and faithfulnesse to our prince, as might take off the false sugges- tions and aspercions of others : at least we should in our humble supplications recommend some such things to him in the name of his people as would make for his owne honour and the publike good of his kingdome. " Thus he concluded the first sort of griev- ances, being such as were against the priviledge of Parliament, and passed on to the next, con- cerning religion, all which hee conveyed under these four heads. The first was the great en- couragement given to poperie, of which he pro- duced these particular evidences: 1. A sus- pension of all laws against Papists, whereby they enjoy a free and almost publike exercise of that religion. Those good statutes which were made for restraint of idolatrie and super- stition are now a ground of securitie to them in the practice of both, being used to no other end but to get money into the king's purse ; which, as it is clearly against the intentions of the law, so it is full of mischiefe to the kingdome." Here Pym interposed a few words, which vindicate his memory from the charge that has so often beene urged against it, of religious big- otry and intolerance. Laud's indulgences to the Catholics may possibly be thought now- adays, and justly so thought, unworthy of ei- ther regret or blame ; but let the reader place himself in the position of a Protestant Noncon- formist of that period, and think of the hard- ships he would have suffered for refusing to bow his conscience to certain prescribed for- mulae in doctrine and ceremoniall, and contrast them next with these Catholic indulgences ; or, considering himself only as a statesman bent on the achievement of responsible govern- ment, let him, knowing the connexion in that day of popery with absolute power, observe the eager servility with which the " indulged" Catholics sought to make themselves, upon ev- ery occasion, the most active instruments of Charles's despotism. Thoroughly was Pym justified in saying what follows ! " By this means a dangerous party is cher- ished and increased, who are ready to close with any opportunitie of disturbing the peace and safety of the state. Yet (hee said) hee did not desire any new laics against poperie, or any rigorous courses in the execution of those alreadie in force : he was far from seeking the ruin of their persons or estates ; onely he icish't they might be kept in such a condition as should restraine them from doing hurt. " It may bee objected, there are moderate and discreet men amongst them, men of es- tates, such as have an interest in the peace 166 BRITISH STATESMEN. and prosperitie of the kingdome as well as wee. These (hee said) were not to be considered ac- cording to their owne disposition, but according to the nature of the body whereof they are par- ties. The planets have severall and particular motions of their owne, yet they are all rapt and transported into a contrarie course by the su- perior orbe which comprehends them all. The principles of poperie are such as are incompat- ible with any other religion. There may be a suspension of violence for some by certain re- spects ; but the ultimate end even of that mod- eration is, that they may with more advantage extirpate that which is opposite to them. Laws will not restrain them oathes will not. The pope can dispense with both these, and where there is occasion, his command will move them to the disturbance of the realme, against their owne private disposition yea, against their owne reason and judgement to obey him ; to whom they have (especially the Jesuiticall par- ty) absolutely and intirely obliged themselves, not onely in spiritual matters, but in temporal, as they are in order ad spiritualia. Henry III. and Henry IV. of France were no Protestants themselves, yet were murthered because they tolerated the Protestants. The king and the kingdome can have no securitie but in their weaknesse and disabilitie to do hurt. " 2. A second incouragement is their admis- sion into places of power and trust in the Com- monwealth, whereby they get many depend- ants and adherents, not onely of their owne, but even of such as make profession to be Protest- ants. 3. A third, their freedome of resorting to London and the court, whereby they have opportunitie, not onely of communicating their counsels and designes one to another, but of diving into his majestie's counsels, by the fre- quent accesse of those who are active men amongst them, to the tables and company of great men ; and, under subtile pretences and disguises, they want not means of cherishing their owne projects, and of indeavouring to mould and biasse the publike affairs to the great advantage of that partie. 4. A fourth, that as they have a congregation of cardinals at ROme, to consider of the aptest wayes and means of establishing the pope's authoritie and religion in England, so they have a nuncio here, to act and dispose that partie to the execution of those counsels, and, by the assistance of such cun- ning and Jesuiticall spirits as swarm in this town, to order and manage all actions and events to the furtherance of that maine end. " The second grievance of religion was from those manifold innovations lately introduced Into several parts of the kingdome, all inclining to poperie, and disposing and fitting men to entertain it. The particulars were these : 1. Divers of the chiefest points of religion in dif- ference betwixt us and the Papists have beene publikely defended, in licensed bookes, in ser- mons, in universitie acts and disputations. 2. Divers popish ceremonies have beene not only practised, but countenanced, yea, little less than injoyned, as altars, images, crucifixes, bowings, and other gestures and observances,* which put upon our churches a shape and face of poperie. Hee compared this to the drie bones * See the Life of Eliot, p. 30 ; and Life of Stratford, p. 99-101. in Ezekiel. First, they came together ; then the sinews and the flesh came upon them ; after this the skin covered them ; and then breath and life icas put into them ! So (hee said"), after these men had moulded us into an outward forme and visage of poperie, they would more boldly endeav- our to breathe into us the spirit of life and poperie. "The third grievance was the countenan- cing and preferring those men who were most forward in setting up such innovations : the particulars were so well knowne that they need- ed not to be named. "" The fourth was the discouragement of those who were knowne to bee most conscionable and faithful! professors of the truth. Some of the wayes of effecting this he observed to be these : The courses taken to inforce and Marge those unhappy differences, for matters of small mo- ment, which have beene amongst ourselves, and to raise up new occasions of further division, whereby many have beene induced to forsake the land, not seeing the end of those voluntarie and human injunctions in things appertaining to God's worship. Those who are indeed lov- ers of religion, and of the .churches of God, would seek to make up those breaches, and to unite us more entirely against the common enemie. 2. The over-rigid prosecution of those who are scrupulous in using some things injoyned, which are held by those who injoyn them to be in themselves indifferent. It hath beene ever the desire of this House, exprest in many Parlia- ments in Queene Elizabeth's time and since, that such might be tenderly used. It was one of our petitions delivered at Oxford to his maj- estie that now is ; but what little moderation it hath produced is not unknowne to us all ! Any other vice almost may be better endured in a minister than inconformitie ! 3. The unjust pun- ishments and vexations of sundry persons for matters required without any warrant of law : as, for not reading the booke concerning recre- ation on the Lord's day ; for not removing the communion table to bee set altarwise at the east end of the chancell ; for not coming up to the railes to receive the sacrament ; for preach- ing the Lord's day in the afternoone ; for cat- echising in any other words and manner than in the precise words of the short catechisme in the Common Prayer Booke. " The fifth and last grievance concerning re- ligion was the incroachment and abuse of ec- clesiastical jurisdiction. The particulars men- tioned were these : I. Fining and imprisoning in cases not allowed by law. 2. The challen- ging their jurisdiction to be appropriate to their order, which they alledge to be jure divino. 3. The contriving and publishing of new arti- cles, upon which they inforce the churchward- ens to take oathes and to make inquiries and presentments, as if such articles had the force of canons ; and this, he said, was an effect of great presumption and boldnesse, not onely in the bishops, but in their archdeacons, officials, and chancellors, taking upon themselves a kinde of synodall authoritie. The injunctions of this kinde might, indeed, well partake in name with that part of the common law which is called the extravagants !" A more masterly statement than this, of the precise bearings of one of those great questions of the time, which it is probably the most diffi- JOHN PYM. 167 cult to sympathize with now, except, indeed, in the broad statement of a certain widely-felt ecclesiastical oppression, could not possibly be furnished ; and from such a speaker it is inval- uable. But Pym's treatment of the civil oppressions of the state is felt, from the nature of the sub- ject, with still greater force. A more massive document was never given to history. It has ail the solidity, weight, and gravity of a judicial record, while it addresses itself equally to the solid good sense of the masses of the people, and to the cultivated understandings of the time. The deliberative gravity, the force, the broad, decided manner of this great speaker, contrast forcibly with those choice specimens of awk- ward affectations and laboured extravagances that have not seldom passed in modern days for oratory. " Having dispatched these several points, hee proceeded to the third kinde of grievances, be- ing such as are against the common justice of the realme, in the libertie of our persons and proprietie of our estates, of which (he said) he had many to propound : in doing whereof, he would rather observe the order of time where- in they were acted than of consequence ; but when hee should come to the cure, hee should then persuade the House to begin with those which were of most importance, as being now in execution, and very much pressing and ex- hausting the Commonwealth. " He began with the tonnage and poundage, and other impositions not warranted by law ; and because these burdens had long lain upon us, and the principles which produced them are the same from whence divers others are deri- ved, he thought it necessarie to premise a short narrative and relation of the grounds and pro- ceedings of the power of imposing herein prac- tised. It was (he said) a fundamental truth, essential to the constitution and government of this kingdome an hereditarie libertie and priv- iledge of all the freeborn subjects of the land that no tax, tallage, or other charge might be laid upon us, without common consent in Par- liament. This was acknowledged by the Con- queror ; ratified in that contract which he made with this nation upon his admittance to the kingdome ; declared and confirmed in the lawes which he published. " This hath never beene denyed by any of our kings, though broken and interrupted by some of them, especially by King John and Henry III. Then, againe, it was confirmed by Mag. Chart, and other succeeding lawes, yet not so well settled but that it was sometime attempt- ed by the two succeeding Edwards, in whose times the subjects were very sensible of all the breaches made upon the common libertie, and, by the opportunitie of frequent Parliaments, pursued them with fresh complaints, and for the most part found redresse, and procured the right of the subject to be fortified by new stat- utes. " He observed that those kings, even in the acts whereby they did break the law, did really af- firm the subject's libertie, and disclaime that right of imposing which is now challenged ; for they did usually procure the merchants' consent to such taxes as were laid, thereby to put a col- our of justice upon their proceeding; and or- dinarily they were limited to a short time, and then propounded to the ratification of the Par- liament, where they were cancelled or confirm- ed, as the necessitie and state of the kingdome did require. But, for the most part, such char- ges upon merchandise were taken by authoritie of Parliament, and granted for some short time, in a greater or lesser proportion, as was requi- site for supply of the publike occasions six or twelve in the pound, for one, two, or three yeares, as they saw cause, to be employed for the de- fence of the sea ; and it was acknowledged so clearly to be in the power of Parliament, that they have sometimes beene granted to noble- men, and sometimes to merchants, to bee dis- posed for that use. Afterward they were grant- ed to the king for life, and so continued for di- vers descents, yet still as a gift and grant of the Commons. " Betwixt the time of Edward III. and Queene Mary, never prince (that he could remember) offered to demand any imposition but by grant in Parliament. Queene Mary laid a charge upon cloth, by the equitie of the statute of tonnage and poundage, because the rate set upon woolle was much more than upon cloth ; and, there being little wooll carried out of the kingdome unwrought, the queene thought she had reason to lay on somewhat more ; yet not full so much as brought them to an equalitie, but that still there continued a lesse charge upon wooll wrought into cloth than upon wooll carried out unwrought, until King James's time, when, upon Nicholson's project, there was a further addi- tion of charge, but still upon pretence of the statute, which is that we call the pretermitted custome. " In Queene Elizabeth's time, it is true, one or two little impositions crept in, the generall prosperitie of her raigne overshadowing small er- rors and innovations. One of these was upon currants, by occasion of the merchants' com- plaints that the Venetians had laid a charge upon the English cloth, that so we might bee even with them, and force them the sooner to take it off. But this being demanded by King James, was denyed by one Bates, a merchant, and upon a suit in the Exchequer, was adjudged for the king. Now the manner of that judge- ment was thus : There were then but three judges in that court, all differing from one an- other in the grounds of their sentences. The first was of opinion the king might impose upon such commodities as were forraigneand super- fluous, as currants were, but not upon such as were native and to be transported, or necessa- rie, and to be imported for the use of the king- dome. The second judge was of opinion he might impose upon all forraigne merchandise, whether superfluous or no, but not upon native. The third, that forasmuch as the king had the custody of the ports and the guard of the seas, and that he might open and shut up the ports as he pleased, hee had a prerogative to impose upon all merchandise, both exported and im- ported. Yet this single, distracted, and divided judgement is the foundation of all the imposi- tions now in practice ! for after this King James laid new charges upon all commodities outward and inward, not limited to a certaine time and occasion, but reserved to himself, his heires and successors forever the first impositions in 168 BRITISH STATESMEN. fee simple that were ever heard of in this kingdome. This judgement, and the right of imposing there- upon assumed, was questioned in septimo and duodecimo of that king, and was the cause of the breach of both those Parliaments. In 18 & 21 Jacobi, indeed, it was not agitated by this House, but onely that they might preserve the favour of the king for the dispatch of some oth- er great businesses upon which they were more especially attentive.* But in the first of his present majestie, it necessarily came to be re- membered, upon the proposition on the king's part for renewing the bill of tonnage and pound- age ; yet so moderate was that Parliament, that they thought rather to confirm the impositions alreadie set by a law to be made than to abolish them by a judgement in Parliament ; but that and divers insuring Parliaments have beene un- happilie broken before that endeavour could be ac- complished : onely at the last meeting a remon- strance was made concerning the libertie of the subject in this point ; and it hath alwayes beene expressed to bee the meaning of the House, and so it was (as hee said) his owne meaning in the proposition now made, to settle and restore the right according to law, and not to diminish the king's profit, but to establish it by a free grant in Parliament. " However, since the breach of the last Par- liament, his majestie hath, by a new booke of rates, very much increased the burden upon merchandise ; and now tonnage and poundage, old and new impositions, are all taken by pre- rogative, without any grant in Parliament, or authoritie of law, as we conceive, from whence divers inconveniences and mischiefes are pro- duced : 1. The danger of the president, that a judgement in one court and in one case is made binding to all the kingdome. 2. Men's goods are seized, their legall suits are stopped, and justice denyed to those that desire to take the benefit of the law. 3. The great summes of money received upon these impositions, intend- ed for the guard of the seas, claimed and de- fended upon no ground but that of publike trust, for protection of merchants and defence of the ports, are dispersed to other uses, and a new tax raised for the same purposes. 4. These burdens are so excessive, that trade is thereby very much hindered, the commodities of our owne growth extremely abased, and those mported much enhaunced ; all which lie not upon the merchant alone, but upon the gener- alitie of the subject ; and by this means the stock of the kingdome is much diminisht, our exportation being lesse profitable, and our im- portation more changeable. And if the warrs and troubles in the neighbour parts had not brought almost the whole streame of trade into this king- dome, we should have found many more preju- diciall effects of these impositions, long before this time, than yet wee have done. Especially they have beene insupportable to the poore plantations, whither many of his majestie's sub- jects have beene transported, in divers parts of the Continent and islands of America, in fur- therance of a designe tending to the honour of the kingdome and the inlargement of his majes- tie's dominions. The adventurers in this no- ble worke have for the most part no other sup- port but tobacco, upon whic hsuch a heavie rate * The war with the Palatinate. See Life of Eliot, p. 6-8. is set, that the king receives twice as much as the true value of the commoditie to the owner. 5. Whereas these great burdens have caused divers merchants to apply themselves to a way of traffique abroad by transporting goods from one countrey to another, without bringing them home into England ; but now it hath beene lately endeavoured to set an imposition upon this trade, so that the king will have a dutie even out of those commodities which never come within his dominions, to the great, dis- couragement of such active and industrious men. " The next' generall head of civill grievances was inforcing men to compound for knighthood ; which though it may seeme past, because it is divers yeares since it was used, yet upon the same grounds the king may renew it, as often as he pleaseth, for the composition looks back- ward, and the offence continuing is subject to a new fine. The state of that businesse he lay- ed downe thus : Heretofore, when the services due by tenure were taken in kind, it were fit there were some way of triall and approbation of those that were bound to such services. Therefore it was ordained, that such as were to doe knight's services, after they came of age and had possession of their lands, should bee made knights ; that is, publikely declared to be fit for that service : divers ceremonies and so- lemnities were in use for this purpose ; and if by the partie's neglect this was not done, he was punishable by fine, there being in those times an ordinary and open way to get knight- hood for those who were borne to it. Now it is quite true- that, although the use of this hath for divers ages beene discontinued, yet there have past very few kings under whom there hath not beene a generall summons, requiring those who had lands of such value as the law prescribes to appeare at the coronation, or some other great solemnitie, and to bee knighted, and yet nothing intended but the getting of some small fines. So this grievance is not altogeth- er new in the kind, but it is new in the manner, and in the excesse of it, and that in divers re- spects : 1. First, it hath beene extended beyond all intention and colour of law. Not only inne- holders, but likewise leaseholders, copyholders, merchants, and others ; scarce any man free from it. 2. The fines have beene immoderate, far beyond the proportion of former times. 3. The proportion have beene without any exam- ple, president, or rule of justice ; for though those that were summoned did appeare, yet dis- tresses infinite were made out against them, and issues increased and multiplyed, and no way open to discharge those issues, by plea or otherwise, but onely by compounding with the commissioners at their owne pleasure. " The third generall head of civill grievances was the great inundation of monopolies, where- by heavie burthens are laid, not onely upon for- raigne, but also native commodities. These began in the soape pattent. The principall un- dertakers in this were divers popish recusants, men of estate and qualitie, such as in likelyhood did not onely aime at their private gaine, but that by this open breach of law the king and his people might be more fully divided, and the wayes of Parliament men more thoroughly obstructed. Amongst the infinite inconveniences and mischiefes which JOHN PYM. 169 this did produce, these few may be observed : 1. The impairing the goodnesse, and enhaun- cing the price of most of the commodities and manufactures of the realme, yea, of those which are of most necessarie and common use, as salt, soape, beere, coles, and infinite others. 2. That, under colour of licences, trades and man- ufactures are restrained to a few hands, and many of the subjects deprived of their ordinary way of livelihood. 3. That upon such illegall grants, a great number of persons had beene unjustly vexed by pursevants, imprisonments, attendance upon the councell-table, forfeiture of goods, and many other wayes. " The fourth head of civill grievances was that great and unparalleled grievance of the ship-money, which, though it may seeme to have more warrant of law than the rest, be- cause there hath a judgement passed for it, yet in truth it is thereby aggravated, if it bee con- sidered that the judgement is founded upon the naked opinion of some judges without any writ- ten law, without any custome, or authoritie of law-bookes, yea, without any one president for it ! Many expresse lawes, many declarations in Parliaments, and the constant practice and judgement at all times being against it ! yea, in the very nature of it, it will be found to be dis- proportionable to the case of ' necessitie 1 which is pretended to be the ground of it ! Necessitie excludes all formalities and solemnities. It is no time then to make levies and taxes, to build and prepare ships. Every man's person, every man's ships, are to be imployed for the resist- ing of an invading enemie. The right on the subject's part was so cleare, and the pretences against it so weake, that hee thought no man would venture his reputation or conscience in the defence of that judgement, being so con- trary to the grounds of the law, to the practice of former times, and so inconsistent in its selfe. " Amongst many inconveniences and obli- quities of this grievance, he noted these : 1. That it extendeth to all persons and to all times ; it subjecteth our goods to distresse, and our persons to imprisonment ; and, the causes of it being secret and invisible, referred to his majestie's breast alone, the subject was left without possibilitie of exception and reliefe. 2. That there were no rules or. limits for the pro- portion ; so that no man knew what estate he had, or how to order his course or expences. 3. That it was taken out of the subject's purse by a writ, and brought into the king's coffers by instructions from the lords of his most hon- ourable privie councell. Now in the legall de- fence of it, the writ onely did appeare ; of the instructions there was no notice taken, which yet in the real execution of it were most pre- dominant. It carries the face of service in the writ, and of revenue in the instructions. Why, if this way had not beene found to turn the ship into money, it would easily have appeared how incompatible this service is with the office of a sherifie in the inland counties, and how incon- gruous and inconvenient for the inhabitants ! The law in a body politike is like Nature, which always prepareth and disposcth proper and Jit in- struments and organcs for every naturall opera- tion. If the law had intended any such charge as this, there should have beene certaine rules, suitable meanes and courses, for the levying and managing of it. " The fifth head was the inlargement of the forrests beyond the bounds and perambulations appointed and established by act of Parliament, 27 & 28 Edward I. ; and this is done upon the very reasons and exceptions which had beene on the king's part propounded, and by the Com- mons answered, in Parliament, not long after that establishment. It is not unknowne to many in this House, that those perambulations were the fruit and effect of that famous charter which is called Charta de forrestd, whereby many tumults, troubles, and discontents had beene taken away, and composed between the king and his subjects ; and it is full of danger, that, by reviving those old questions, wee may fall into the like distempers. Hereby, howev- er, no blame could fall upon that great lord, who is now justice in Eyre, and in whose name these things were acted ; it could not be ex- pected that he should take notice of the lawea and customes of the realme, therefore he was carefull to procure the assistance and direction of the judges ; and if any thing were done against law, it was for them to answer, and not for him. " The particular irregularities and obliquities of this businesse were these : 1. The surrepti- tious procuring a verdict for the king, without giving notice to the countrey, whereby they might be prepared to give in evidence for their own interest and indemnitie, as was done in Es- sex. 2. Whereas the judges in the justice seat in Essex were consulted with about the entry of the former verdict, and delivered their opinion touching that alone, without meddling with the point of right, this opinion was after inforced in other counties, as if it had beene a judgement upon the matter, and the counsell for the coun- ty discountenanced in speaking, because it was said to be alreadie adjudged. 3. The inherit- ance of divers of the subjects have beene here- upon disturbed, after the quiet possession of three or four hundred years, and a way opened for the disturbance of many others. 4. Great summes of money have beene drawn from such as have lands within these pretended bounds, and those who have forborne to make compo- sition have beene threatened with the execu- tion of these forrest lawes. 5. The fifth was the selling of nusances, or at least some such things as are supposed to bee nusances. The king, as father of the Commonwealth, is to take care of the publike commodities and advanta- ges of his subjects, as rivers, highways, com- mon sewers, and such like, and is to remove whatsoever is prejudiciall to them ; and for the triall of those, there are legall and ordinary writs of ad quod damnum ; but of late a new and extra-judiciall way hath beene taken, of de- claring matters to be nusances ; and divers have thereupon beene questioned, and if they would not compound, they have beene fined ; if they doe compound, that which was first prosecuted as a common nusance is taken into the king's protection, and allowed to stand ; and having yeelded the king money, no further care is taken whether it be good or bad for the Commonwealth. By this a very great and pub- like trust is either broken or abused. If the mat- ter compounded for be truly a nusance, then it 170 BRITISH STATESMEN. is broken to the hurt of the people ; if it bee not a nusance, then it is abused to the hurt of the partie. The particulars mentioned were : First, The commission for buildings in and about this towne, which heretofore hath beene pre- sented by this House as a grievance in King James his time, but now of late the execution hath beene much more frequent and prejudi- ciall than it was before. Secondly, Commis- sion for depopulations, which began some few yeares since, and is still in hot prosecution. By both these the subject is restrained from disposing of his owne. Some have beene com- manded to demolish their houses ; others have beene forbidden to build ; others, after great trouble and vexation, have beene forced to re- deeme their peace with large summes, and they still remaine, by law, as lyable to a new ques- tion as before ; for it is agreed by all, that the king cannot licence a common nusance ; and although indeed these are not such, yet it is a matter of very ill consequence, that under that name they should be compounded for, and may in ill times hereafter bee made a president for the kings of this realme to claime a power of licencing such things as are nusances indeed. " The seventh great civill grievance hath beene the militarie charges laid upon the sever- all counties of the kingdome, sometimes by warrant under his majestie's signature, some- times by letters from the councell-table, and sometimes (such hath beene the boldnesse and presumption of some men) by the order of the lord-lieutenants, or deputy-lieutenant alone. This is a growing evill, still multiplying and in- creasing from a few particulars to many, from small summes to great. It began first to be practised as a loane, for supply of coat and con- duct money ; and for this it hath some coun- tenance from the use in Queene Elizabeth's time, when the lords of the councell did often desire the deputy-lieutenants to procure so much money to be laid out in the countrey as the service did require, with a promise to pay it againe in London, for which purpose there was a constant warrant in the Exchequer. This (he said) was the practice in her time, and in a great part of King James's. But the payments were then so certaine, as it was little otherwise than taking up money upon bills of exchange. At this day they follow these presi- dents in the manner of the demand (for it is with a promise of a repayment), but not in the cer- taintie and readinesse of satisfaction. " The first particular brought into a tax (as he thought) was the muster-master's wages, at which many repined ; but being for small summes, it began to bee generally digested ; yet, in the last Parliament, this House was sensible of it, and to avoid the danger of the president that the subjects should be forced to make any payments without consent in Parlia- ment, they thought upon a bill that might bee a rule to the lieutenants what to demand, and to the people what to pay. But the hopes of this bill were dasht in the dissolution of that Parlia- ment. Now of late divers other particulars are growing into practice, which make the grievance much more heavie. Those mention- ed were these : 1. Pressing men against their will, and forcing them which are rich or un- willing to serve, to find others in their place. 2. The provision of publike magazines for pow- der and other munition, spades and pickaxes. 3. The salarie of divers officers besides the muster-master. 4. The buying of cart-horses and carts, and hiring of carts for carriages. " The eighth head of civill grievances was the extra-judiciall declarations of judges, where- by the subjects have beene bound in matters of great importance without hearing of councell or argument on their part, and are left without legall remedie, by writ of errour or otherwise. He remembered the expression used by a for- mer member of the House, of a ' teeming Par- liament.' This (hee said) was a teeming griev- ance ; from hence have issued most of the great grievances now in being : the ship-money, the pretended nusances alreadie mentioned, and some others which have not yet beene toucht upon, especially that concerning the proceed- ings of ecclesiastical courts. " The ninth generall head was, that the au- thoritie and wisdome of the councell-table have beene applied to the contriving and managing of severall monopolies, and other great grievances. The institution of the councell-table was much for the advantage and securitie of the subject, to avoid surreptitious and precipitate courts in the great affaires of the kingdome. But by law an oath should be taken by all those of the king's councell, in which, amongst other things, it is exprest that they should for no cause for- beare to doe right to all the king's people. If such an oath be not now taken, he wisht it might be brought into use againe. " It was the honour of that table to bee, as it were, incorporated with the king ; his royall pow- er and greatnesse did shine most conspicuous- ly in their actions and in their councells. Wee have heard of projectors and resurees hereto- fore ; and what opinion and relish they have found in this House is not unknowne. But that any such thing should be acted by the councell- table which might give strength and counte- nance to monopolies, as it hath not beene used till now of late, so it cannot be apprehended without the just griefe of the honest subject, and encourage- ment of those who are ill affected. He remem- bered that in tertio of this king, a noble gentle- man, then a very worthy member of the Com- mons' House, now a great lord and eminent counsellour of state, did in this place declare an opinion concerning that clause used to bee inserted in patients of monopolie, whereby jus- tices of peace are commanded to assist the pat- tentees ; and that he urged it to bee a great dis- honour to those gentlemen which are in com- mission to be so meanely employed : with how much more reason may wee, in jealousie of the honour of the councell-table, humbly desire that their precious time, their great abilities, de- signed to the publike care and service of the kingdome, may not receive such a staine, such a diminution, as to be imploycd in matters of so ill report, in the estimation of the law ; of so ill effect, in the apprehension of the people ! "The tenth head of civill grievances was comprised in the high court of Star Chamber, which some thinke succeeded that which in the Parliament rolls is called magnum concilium, and to which Parliaments were wont so often to referre those important matters which they had no time to determine. But now this court, JOHN PYM. 171 which in the late restauration or erection of it, in Henry VII.'s time, was especially designed to restraine the oppression of great men, and to remove the obstructions and impediments of the law this, which is both a court of coun- cell and a court of justice hath beene made an instrument of erecting and defending monopo- lies and other grievances ; to set a face of right upon those things which are unlawfull in their owne nature, a face of publike good upon such as are pernicious in their use and execution. The soape-pattent and divers other evidences thereof may be given, so well knowne as not to require a particular relation. And as if this were not enough, this court hath lately inter- meddled with the ship-money ! divers sheriffes have beene questioned for not levying and col- lecting such summes as their counties have been charged with ; and if this beginning bee not prevented, the Star Chamber will become a court of revenue, and it shall bee made crime not to collect or pay such taxes as the state shall require ! " The eleventh head of civill grievance was now come to. Hee said hee was gone very high, yet hee must go a little higher. That great and most eminent power of the king, of making edicts and proclamations, which are said to be leges temporis, and by means of which our prin- ces have used to encounter with such sudden and unexpected danger as would not indure so much delay as assembling the great councell of the kingdome this, which is one of the most glorious beames of majestic, most rigorous in commanding reverence and subjection, hath, to our unspeakable griefe, beene often exercised of late for the injoyning and maintaining sun- dry monopolies and other grants, exceeding burdensome, and prejudiciall to the people. " The twelfth next. Now, although he was come as high as he could upon earth, yet the presumption of evill men did leade him one step higher even as high as heaven as high as the throne of God ! It was now (hee said) growne common for ambitious and corrupt men of the clergie to abuse the truth of God and the bond of conscience, preaching downe the lawes and liberties of the kingdome, and pretending divine authoritie for an absolute power in the king, to doe what he would with our persons and goods. This hath beene so often published in sermons and printed bookes, that it is now the high way to preferment ! " In the last Parliament we had a sentence of an offence of this kind against one Main- waring, then a doctor, now a bishop, concern- ing whom (hee said) hee would say no more but this, that when he saw him at that barre, in the most humble and dejected posture that ever he ob- served, he thought he would not so soone have leapt into a bishop's chaire ! But his successe hath emboldened others ; therefore (hee said) this may well bee noted as a double grievance, that such doctrine should be allowed, and that such men should bee preferred yea, as a roote of grievances, whereby they indeavour to corrupt the king's conscience, and, as much as in them lyes, to deprive the people of that royall pro- tection to which his majestic is bound by the fundamentall lawes of the kingdome, and by his owne personall oath. " The thirteenth head of civill grievances he would thus expresse : The long intermission of Parliaments, contrary to the two statutes yet in force, whereby it is appointed there should bee Parliaments once a yeare at the least ; and most contrary to the publike good of the king- dome, since, this being well remedied, it would generate remedies for all the rest." These extracts will be thought as important as they are interesting by every student of Eng- lish History, or of the noblest aspects of the English character. To abridge them would be indeed to realize the story of the man who put a brick in his pocket, thinking to show it as the model of a house. What a grave, clear, solid, and laborious style ! What honest seriousness and simplicity of tone in the reasoning ! What an exquisite general union of fact and feeling in the ideas ! What tenacity and firmness in the expression ! Nowhere is there any affec- tation of philosophy or fine taste ; the under- standing is invigorated and nourished through- out with its proper food. I will only observe farther, that the wonderful adaptation of the manner and construction of the speech to the peculiar circumstances of the occasion will be better felt by the reader hereafter. " Having gone through the severall heads of grievances, he came to the second maine branch, propounded in the beginning : that the disorders from whence these grievances issued were as hurtfull to the king as to the people, of which he gave divers reasons : 1. The inter- ruption of the sweet communion which ought to be betwixt the king and his people in matters of grace and supply. They have need of him by his general! pardon ; to be secured from pro- jectors and informers ; to bee freed from obso- lete lawes ; from the subtle devices of such as seek to restraine the prerogative to their owne private advantage and the publike hurt ; and he hath need of them for counsel and support in great and extraordinary occasions. This mu- tuall intercourse, if indeed sustained, would so weane the affections and interests of his sub- jects into his actions and designes, that their wealth and their persons would be his; his owne estate would be managed to most advantage ; and publike undertakings would be prosecute 1 at the charge and adventure of the subject. The victorious attempts in Queene Elizabeth's time upon Portugall, Spaine, and the Indies were for the greatest part made upon the sub- jects' purses, and not upon the queene's, though the honour and profit of the successe did most accrew to her. 2. Those often breaches and discontentments betwixt the king and the peo- ple are very apt to diminish his reputation abroad, and disadvantage his treaties and alli- ances. 3. The apprehension of the favour and incouragement given to poperie hath much weakened his majestie's partie beyond the sea, and impaired that advantage which Queene Elizabeth and his royall father have hereto- fore made, of being heads of the Protestant union. 4. The innovations in religion and rig- our of ecclesiastical courts have forced a great many of his majestie's subjects to forsake the land, whereby not onely their persons and their posteritie, but their wealth and their industry, are lost to this kingdome, much to the reduc- tion, also, of his majestie's customes and sub- sidies. And, amongst other inconveniences of 172 BRITISH STATESMEN. such a sort, this was especially to be observed, that divers clothiers, driven out of the countrey, had set up the manufacture of cloth beyond the seas, whereby this state is like to suffer much by abatement of the price of woolls, and by want of employment for the poore, both which likewise tend to his majestie's particular losse. 5. It puts the king upon improper wayes of supply, which being not warranted by law, are much mare burdensome to the subject than advan- tageous to his majestie. 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 or ministers of the crowne, and it was thought a very good service and ref- ormation to reduce two parts to the king, leav- ing still a third part to the instruments that were employed about getting it in. It may well be doubted that the king may have the like or worse successe in England, which appeares al- ready in some particulars. The king, for in- stance, hath reserved upon the monopoly of wines thirty thousand pound rent a yeare ; the vintner payes forty shillings a tun, which comes to ninety thousand pounds ; the price upon the subject by retaile is increased twopence a quart, which comes to eight pound a tun, and for for- ty-five thousand tun brought in yearely, amounts to three hundred and sixty thousand pounds, which is three hundred and thirty thousand pounds losse to the kingdome above the king's rent ! Other monopolies also, as that of soape, have beene very chargeable to the kingdome, and brought very little treasure into his majes- tie's coffers. Thus it is that the law provides for that revenue of the crowne which is naturall and proper, that it may be safely collected and brought to account ; but this illegall revenue, being without any such provision, is left to haz- ard and much uncertaintie, either not to be re- tained, or not duly accounted of. 6. It is apt to weaken the Industrie and courage of the sub- ject, if they be left uncertaine whether they shall reape the benefit of their own paines and hazard. Those who arc brought into the condition of slaves will easily grow to a slavish disposition, who, having nothing to lose, doe commonly show more boldnesse in disturbing than defend- ing a kingdome. 7. These irregular courses doe give opportunitie to ill instruments to in- sinuate themselves into the king's service, for we cannot but observe that if a man be officious in furthering their inordinate burdens of ship-mon- ey, monopolies, and the like, it varnisheth over all other faults, and makes him fit both for imploy- ment and preferment ; so that out of their offices, they are furnisht for vast expences, purchases, buildings, and the king loseth often more in desperate debts at their deaths than he got by them all their lives. Whether this were not lately verified in a Westerne man, much im- ployed while he lived, he leaves to the knowl- edge of those who were acquainted with his course ; and he doubted not but others might be found in the like case. The same course, againe, has beene pursued with those that are affected to poperie, to prophanenesse, and to superstitious innovations in matters of religion. All kinds of spies and intelligencers have means to be counte- nanced and trusted if they will be but zealous in these kinde of services, which, how much it de- tracts from his majestie in honour, in profit, and prosperitie of publike affaires, lyes open to every man's apprehension. And from these reasons, or some of them, he thought it pro- ceeded that through the whole course of the Eng- lish story it might be observed, that those kings who had beene most respectfull of the lawes had beene most eminent in greatnesse, in glory, and successe, both at home and abroad ; and that others, who thought to subsist by the violation of them, did often fall into a state of weaknesse, povertie, and infortunitie. 8. The differences and dis- contents betwixt his majestie and the people at home have in all liklyhood diverted his royall thoughts and councells from those great oppor- tunities which he might have, not onely to weak- en the house of Austria and to restore the Pal- atinate, but to gaine himself a higher pitch of power and greatnesse than any of his ances- tors ; for it is not unknowne how weake, how distracted, how discontented the Spanish col- onies are in the West Indies. There are nowe in those parts, in New-England, Virginia, and the Carib Islands, and in the Barmudos, at least, sixty thousand able persons of this nation, many of them well armed, and their bodies seasoned to that cli- mate, which, ivith a very small charge, might be set downe in some advantageous parts of these pleas- ant, rich, and fruitfull countries, and easily make his majestie master of all that treasure, which not onely foments the warre, but is the great support of poperie in all parts of Christendome. 9. And lastly, those courses are like to produce such distempers in the state as may not be settled without great charge and losse, by which means more may be consumed in a few months than, shall be gotten by such wayes in many yeares. " Having thus past through the two first gen- erall branches, he was nowe come to the third, wherein he was to set downe the wayes of healing and removing those grievances, which consisted of two maine branches : first, in de- claring the law where it was doubtfull ; the second, in better provision for the execution of law, where it is cleere. But (hee said) be- cause he had alreadie spent much time, and be- gan to finde some confusion in his memory, he would refer the particulars to another opportu- nitie, and for the present onely move that which was generall to all, and which would give waight and advantage to all the particular wayes of redresse. " That is, that wee should speedily desire a conference with the Lords, and acquaint them with the miserable condition wherein wee finde the Church and State ; and as we have alreadie re- solved to joyn in a religious seeking of God, in a day of fast and humiliation, so to intreat them to concur with us in a Parliamentary course of petitioning the king, as there should be occasion, and in searching out the causes and remedies of these many insupportable grievances under which we lye ; that so, by the united wisdome and authoritie of both houses, such courses may be taken as (through God's blessing) may advance the honour and great- nesse of his majestie, and restore and establish the peace and prosperitie of the kingdome. " This (hee said) wee might undertake with comfort and hope of successe ; for though there be a darknesse upon the land, a thick and palpable darknesse, like that of Egypt, yet, as in that the JOHN PYM. 173 sunne had not lost his light, nor the Egyptians their sight (the interruption was onely in the medium), so with us there is still (God be thanked) light in the sunne wisdome and justice in his maj- estic to dispell this darknesse ; and in us there remains a visual faculty, whereby we are inabled to apprehend, and moved to desire, LIGHT ; and when we shall be blessed in the injoying of it, we shall thereby be incited to return his maj- estie such thanks as may make it shine more cleerely in the world, to his owne glory, and in the hearts of his people, to their joy and con- tentment."* * I found this speech, as I have already stated, in the very valuable collection of king's pamphlets now deposited in the British Museum. The effect it produced, and the numerous abridgments of it taken at the time by different members, for the purpose of circulation through the coun- try, as described by May, have led to a curious confusion respecting it. The varying versions of the same speech have been treated as separate speeches by all the historians, collectors, and memorialists, except Lord Clarendon. I can- not account for the error in Rushworth's case (compare vol. iii., p. 1131, of his collections, with vol. iv., p. 21), save by the supposition of the second report having been inserted by the publisher after the collector's death. The loose way in which it appears, thrown in, as it were, " in a lump," with the other speeches that folio wit, certainly favours this supposition ; which is strengthened by the circumstance of this very collection of speeches, including the abridgment of Pym's speech in the April Parliament, having been pub- lished in 1641, as delivered in the Long Parliament, where- as many of them, with Pym's, belong to the previous meet- ing. Compare Rudyard's, Grimston's, &c. This would probably not be thought worth remarking on, were it not that it establishes Clarendon's accuracy on a point that has been disputed, and is important in reference to Pym him- self. It is now clear to me, as Clarendon states, that the first speech delivered by this great statesman in the Long Parliament was the speech in which he denounced Lord Strafford. It marks emphatically the difference that was obvious in his " temper." I will subjoin, as a curiosity, the naked outline which Whitelocke gives of " Pym on griev- ances ;" and upon which it is to be observed, that, though it is given in the mention of the opening proceedings in the Long Parliament, Whitelocke's words by no means imply a contradiction of the fact that it was delivered the Parlia- ment before. He says, " many smart speeches were made in the House of Commons touching grievances, which Mr. Pym divided into three heads." The following abstract is then given in an isolated form, no mention of its delivery, or the delivery of any thing like it, having been made by the memorialist in his report of the April Parliament : "I. Against privilege of Parliament. II. Prejudice of religion. III. Liberty of the subject." Under the first head were reckoned, " 1. Restraining the members of Parliament from speaking. 2. Forbidding the speaker to put a question. 3. Imprisoning divers members for matters done in Parlia- ment. 4. By proceedings against them therefor in inferior courts. 5. Enjoining their good behaviour and continuance in prison even unto death, b'. Abrupt dissolutions of Parlia- ments." Under the second head, of religion, were mentioned, " 1. The suspension of laws against them of the popish reli- gion ; laws and oaths will not restrain them ; the pope dis- penseth with all. 2. Their places of trust and honour in the Commonwealth. 3. Their free resort to London and to the courts to communicate their counsels and designs. 4. As they have a college in Rome for the pope's authority in Eng- land, so they have a nuncio here to execute it." Under the innovations of religion were brought in, " 1. Maintenance of popish tenets in books, sermons, and disputes. 2. Prac- tice of popish ceremonies countenanced and enjoined, as al- tars, images, crucifixes, and bowings. 3. Discouragement of Protestants by rigid prosecution of the scrupulous for things indifferent ; no vice made of so great as inconformi- ty. 4. Encroachment of ecclesiastical jurisdiction : (I.) In fining and imprisoning without law ; (2.) Challenging their jurisdiction to be appropriate to their order, jure divino ; (3.) Contriving and publishing new orders of visitation in force, as of canons, the boldness of bishops, and all their subordinate officers and officials." Under the third head, the grievances : " 1. By tonnage and poundage unduly taken. 2. Composition for knighthood. 3. The unparalleled griev- ance of ship-money. 4. Enlargement of the forests beyond the due bounds. 5. Selling of nuisances by compounding for them. 6. The commission for building. 7. The commission for depopulations. 8. Unlawful military charges, by war- rant of the king, letters of the council, and orders of the lieutenants of the counties and their deputies. 9. Extra-ju- dicial declarations of judges, without hearing council or a When Pym resumed his seat, the king's so- licitor, Herbert, attempted, " with all imagina- ble address," to call off the attention of the members from the impression his extraordinary speech had made, but vainly. The deadly force of Pym's statements and reasoning, equalled only by the singular moderation of his tone, had diffused through the House a deep and settled calm of determination. A commit- tee was immediately appointed to inquire into the violation of privilege by the speaker of the last House of Commons, in refusing to put a question on the ground of prohibition from the king ; the proceedings in the Star Chamber and King's Bench respecting the imprisoned members and the deceased Eliot were ordered to be called for by the speaker's warrant, to- gether with whatever proceedings had taken place in the Exchequer Chamber, and any other courts, respecting ship-money. Subse- quently it was resolved that grievances should be considered before supply, and that confer- ence on grievances should be desired by the Lords. Pym and St. John were appointed managers of this conference " Mr. Pym for the first, and to make an introduction to the whole business."* Meanwhile the House of Lords, at the ear- nest and humiliating entreaty of the king, had passed two resolutions, to the effect that sup- ply ought to have precedence of grievances, and that the Commons should be invited to a conference in order to their being disposed thereto."! These resolutions had just passed, when Pym laid them before the House of Commons as a gross breach of privilege. An address to the Lords was, in consequence, agreed to and approved, " and that Mr. Pym should go up to that House with it." Pym instantly proceeded to the Lords, and the words he uttered are in- deed memorable : "Your lordships have med- dled with, and advised concerning, both matter of supply and the time when the same should be made, and this before such time as the same was moved to your lordships by the Com- mons. As a course for the repair of this breach of privilege, the Commons beg to suggest that your lordships would, in your wisdoms, find out, yourselves, some sort of reparation, and of prevention of the like infringement for the fu- ture. And the Commons humbly desire, through me, to represent to your lordships that, in case your lordships have taken notice of any orders or proceedings of the Commons concerning re- ligion, property, and privileges, and that they were to proceed to the supply, which they have some cause to conceive by these words : ' That this being done, your lordships would freely join with the Commons in those three things ;' for the avoiding all misunderstandings between your lordships and the Commons for time to come, they desire your lordships hereafter to take no notice of any thing which shall be debated by the Commons until they shall themselves de- guments. 10. Monopolies countenanced by the council-table, and justices of the peace required to assist them. 11. The Star Chamber Court. 12. The king's edicts and proclama- tions lately used for maintaining monopolies. 13. The am- bitious and corrupt clergy preaching divine authority and absolute power in kings to do what they will. 14. The in- termission of Parliaments." Memorials, p. 36. * Pail. Hist., vol. viii., p. 456. 1 Lords' Journals, April, 1640. 174 BRITISH STATESMEN. dare the same unto your lordships, which the Commons shall always observe towards your lordships' proceedings, conceiving the contra- ry not to consist with the privileges of the House."* Some few short years before, such an asser- tion of power and privilege as this would have seemed monstrous ; for it implies, it will be ob- served, that even upon the king's information and authority their lordships were not ever to touch upon the proceedings of the Commons. But the reader who has observed the course pursued by Pym and his associates in James's Parliaments of 1614 and 1620, as detailed in these pages, and reflects how deeply the prin- ciples then insisted on must have sunk, during the succeeding twenty years, into the minds of the people, and what a consequent vigour and diffusion had been given to the democratic principle, his surprise at Pym's tone will cease. How much more flagrantly absurd is the ap- pearance which Charles's pretensions assume ! On Pym's return to the House, he was thank- ed " for the good service he did them ;"t and the original conference appointed with the Lords was directed to proceed. Pym and St. John, on the part of the Commons, persisted in claiming precedence for redress of grievances ; but the dispute was interrupted in this stage by a message from Charles, demanding an im- mediate answer whether he was to have sup- ply or not ; and followed by a proposition from the elder Vane, now secretary of state, as well as treasurer of the household, that the king would give up his right to ship-money in con- sideration of a grant of twelve subsidies, pay- able in three years. Strenuous debates arose on this proposition. Pym and Hampden, back- ed by the more fearless patriots, objected, not only that the sum was too great, but that such a transaction would recognise the legality of ship-money. The court party, seconded by Hyde and the trimmers, urged the advantage of closing with the offer. The debates lasted two days. On the second day, after the House had sat from eight in the. morning till five in the afternoon, debating two antagonist resolu- tions from Hampden and Hyde, the latter pro- posing to grant a supply " without naming the amount," Vane told the House distinctly that the king would accept nothing short of his original demand in amount and manner, and an instant adjournment was the consequence. At an early hour on the following morning the Parliament was dissolved. Clarendon has ascribed this dissolution to the perfidy of Vane, and asserts that Charles himself repented of the act the instant after it was performed. But the king's solicitor, Her- bert, is not accused of perfidy, and Clarendon admits that he seconded Vane's statement, while all the other privy counsellors present sanctioned it in silence. The truth is, that the noble historian wishes to make it appear that the House would have favoured his proposal in the end, whereas Vane interpreted the temper and disposition of the members far more truly, f * Old Parl. Hist., vol. yiii.j p. 455. t Ibid. t I subjoin a passage from a historian who equally ad- mires both Clarendon and the king-, and which seems to me to set the question at rest. Carte, in his General History, vol. iv., p. 281, 282, says: "From the part Vane acted soon after, he was supposed to have given those assurances Neither Laud nor his biographer have accused Vane ; Secretary Windebanke declared at the time, that though the dissolution was " a very great disaster," there was " no other way ;"* and, finally, the king himself has thoroughly repudiated the " case" his noble advocate strives to make out, by one of his own accus- tomed and deliberate acts of imbecile rage and madness. Some days after the dissolution, he consigned Mr. Crew, the chairman of the com- mittee for religion, to the Tower, because that high-spirited gentleman refused to surrender certain petitions that had been intrusted to him, when their disclosure would have aban- doned many clerical petitioners to the ven- geance of their metropolitan. Two other mem- bers, Sir John Hotham and Mr. Bellasis, were also committed for refusing to disclose to the council what had passed in Parliament. And these proceedings were appropriately wound up by the issue of a declaration of reasons for the dissolution, in which, among other notable matters, Pym, Hampden, St. John, and the rest are thus described : " The ill-affected mem- bers of the House of Commons, instead of an humble and dutiful way of presenting their grievances to his majesty, have taken upon them to be the guiders and directors in all mat- ters that concern his majesty's government, both temporal and ecclesiastical ; and (as if kings were bound to give an account of their regal actions and of their manner of government to their subjects assembled in Parliament) they have, in a very audacious and insolent way, entered into examination and censuring of the present gov- ernment, traduced his majesty's administration with as much malice as falsehood, in order to throw all into confusion ; either out of disaffection to his majesty, or a mortal hatred to the Ear! of Stratford, who had opposed his promotion, and whose ruin was then projecting. There was no guessing at the motives of Herbert's conduct ; and though his views were different from Vane's, they both joined in representing the general humour and disaffection of the House to be so violent, that if the members came together again, they mould pass such a vote against ship-money as would blast that revenue and other branches of the receipt. The noble historian from whom this relation is taken, and who bore so considerable a part in the debate, seems to have thought this representation exaggerated ; but it may well be questioned whether his candour and favourable opinion of some persons, with whom he unwarily concurred in many of their measures, and whose dark designs he had not yet dis- covered, did not bias his judgment ; and there was certaiuly a great failure at least of his memory in the accounts he gives of the debates, as if they had taken up two days, whereas what he says of them passed only on the second day (Monday), when the proposal of twelve subsidies was made, and embarrassed the question. On Saturday, the debate could only turn on the single point whether a supply should or should not be granted. If this question was not then put, it must be imputed to the strength of the party which was for postponing the supply till after the redress of grievances, and had the day before, by a majority of 257 to 148, rejected the Lords' desire of a present conference, be- cause they would not be diverted from prosecuting the busi- ness of ship-money. Whoever likewise considers the whole tenour of proceedings in this Parliament, and compares them with those of the disaffected faction in the former Parliaments of this reign, after which it copied, and ob- serves that a day for the judicial hearing of the cause of ship-money, in order to repeal the sentence of the judges, had been appointed without any appearance of an opposi- tion, and was actually come, will be apt to think it not ill founded. * * His majesty could scarce entertain better hopes, or expect different measures, from an assembly whose pro- ceedings were chiefly directed by Pym and Hampden ; two whole days spent in debates, without coming to a conclusion or putting a question, showed sufficiently an indisposition to grant a supply; all appearances countenanced the sug-- gestion of these terrible votes about ship-money, and other branches of the revenue, which would have been the utter ruin of his majesty's affairs." * See the Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii., p. 86. JOHN PYM. 175 of justice, and rendered, as much as in them lay, odious to the rest of his majesty's subjects, not only the officers and ministers of state, but even his majesty's very government." On the occasion of this dissolution there was no violence, no protest, no show of resistance in the smallest degree on the part of the Com- mons. Everything was deep, settled, calm : if there was a ruffle on the surface, it was one of joy. Hitherto the faces of sagacious men had darkened at a Parliament's dissolution, but they were serene and smiling now. " It was ob- served," says Clarendon, " that in the counte- nances of those who had most opposed all that was desired by his majesty, there was a mar- vellous serenity ; nor could they conceal the joy of their hearts, for they knew enough of what was to come to conclude that the king would be shortly compelled to call another Par- liament. Within an hour after the dissolving, Mr. Hyde met Mr. Saint John, who had natu- rally a great cloud in his face, and very seldom was known to smile, but then had a most cheerful aspect ; and seeing the other melan- cholic, as in truth he was from his heart, asked him what troubled him ; who answered, that the same that troubled him, he believed, troub- led most good men : that in such a time of confusion, so wise a Parliament, which alone could have found remedy for it, was so unsea- sonably dismissed ; the other answered, with a little warmth, ' That all was well ; and that it must be worse before it could be better ; and that this Parliament could never have done what was necessary to be done.' " The reflection of the joy which thus lighted up the countenance of St. John exhibited itself in the short-sighted multitude in the forms of turbulence and insurrection ; and Clarendon takes the opportunity of observing that a gen- eral impression prevailed, that such a set of sober and dispassionate men, or fewer who brought ill purposes with them, as had gone to the formation of the House just dissolved, would never meet in Parliament again. This is simply one of Clarendon's thousand attempts to mislead the judgment. A comparison of the lists of the Parliaments of April and November* will at once convince the reader that the so terrible change for the court was in the times, and not the men. From the instant of the dissolution Pym's exertions were truly extraordinary. The par- ty, and the purposes of the party, were now to be organized for the last time. " Mr. Pym," says Clarendon, " continued after the unhappy dissolution for the most part about London, in conversation and great repute amongst those lords who were most strangers to the court, and were believed most averse to it ; in whom he improved all imaginable jealousies and dis- contents towards the state." There is no doubt that a close correspondence with the Scotch commissioners was now entered into, under the management of himself and Hamp- den ; and two places, Broughton Castle, in Oxfordshire, the seat of Lord Say,t and Faws- * In Nalson, the Old Parliamentary History, or Rush- worth. t "It was much observed," says Echard, "that in the Lord Say's house there was a particular room, and a passage to it, which his servants were not permitted to come near ; and wheu the company was complete, great nuise and talk- ley, in Northamptonshire, the house of Sir Richard Knightley (whose son had married Hampden's daughter), were, from their position with reference to the North Road, and their easy distance from London, fixed upon for the purposes of frequent consultation.* Pym, Hampden, and St. John, with Lords Say and Brook, and, somewhat later in the year, the Earls of Bedford, Warwick, and Essex, Lord Holland, Nathaniel Fiennes, and young Vane, here held their meetings ; and a private press, which Sir Richard Knightley's father had es- tablished at Fawsley, was brought into con- stant requisition. Whenever, on the other hand, necessity obliged the meetings to be held in London, they took place at Pym's house in Gray's Inn Lane, from whence various reports were instantly communicated to the chief pla- ces in the country, t Meanwhile the disastrous war with Scotland was dragging the king daily, as Pym had fore- told, to the feet of his subjects. Not a day now passed over the heads of the court party without accumulating upon them some fresh evidences of weakness or dishonour. The melancholy part which Strafford was forced to play has been already told. In the midst of their worst distresses, when Charles had been driven back to York after the disgraceful affair of Newbourne, and when, as Laud ex- presses it, the king's counsellors were " at the wall,"J Secretary Windebanke wrote to inform them of the frequent assemblage in London and elsewhere of certain persons of quality, mentioning Pym, Hampden, Lords Say, Rus- sel, and Brook, who, he said, had prevailed with some lords to join them, "that had been observed not to be very well contented at the time, namely, the Earles of Essex, Warwick, and Bedford." These meetings, Windebanke added, were much apprehended to be " for some dangerous practice or intelligence with the rebels of Scotland." In Charles's worst moments of terror and alarm, he could not di- vest himself of his habits of deceit and perfidy. He now thought to avert the danger closing round him by imposing on his people something of the show of a Parliament, which should in- duce them to give what every arbitrary expe- dient had again failed in procuring, and disarm the popular leaders of their resources. Ac- cordingly, upon a precedent of Edward III.'s time, he summoned to York a " council of peers." While his people, under the guidance ings were usually heard amongst them, to the admiration of those who lived in the house, who could not see or dis- cover the persons themselves." (from MS. note), I find the following (p. 39) : " It is report- ed that the Lord Digby, of late being at Mr. Knightley's house in Northamptonshire, in a parlour there, whilst his souldiers were busily searching, and plundering, and rifling other roomes, hee smote his hand upon the table, and swore ' that that was the table whereat all these civil wars had been plotted at least a dozen yeares before.' It should seem Mr. Pym had sojourned some time in that house, and that was sufficient for an inference that the nest of Ana- baptists had been there too, and that that nest had studied ' 's State Papers. Hardwicke, State Papers, vol. ii., p. 168. 176 BRITISH STATESMEN. of Pym and Hampden, were advancing with giant strides into the just and responsible gov- ernments of the future, this imbecile man pro- posed to satisfy them by crawling back into precedents of the comparatively barbarous times of England ! As soon as this measure was made public, Pym saw that his work was accomplished. He prepared a petition for a Parliament ; pla- ced, with their consent, the names of Bedford, Hertford, Essex, and Warwick at its head; and, with Hampden and St. John, repaired to York.* Eight more signatures were here ob- tained from the peers then assembled, and the petition was presented to the king. Bedford and Hertford, being called to a conference with the committee of state on the subject, declared boldly that they acted, not for themselves alone, but in trust for " many other noblemen, and most of the gentry in several parts of the kingdom." A second petition was forward- ed to the committee immediately after from the hands of Pym, also praying for a Parlia- ment, and subscribed by 10,000 citizens of London.f Other petitions from different quar- ters, but with the same prayer, reached York at the same moment ; and the king, hunted through all his father's shifts and expedients of " kingcraft," issued writs for a new Parlia- ment on the 3d of November. And now again, without the pause of an in- stant, Pym and Hampden were seen in the discharge of their great duty as chiefs and ad- visers of the people. It is stated in several books of the time, and repeated by many of the historians,}: that between the interval of the issue of the writs and the elections, they rode through every county in England, urging the electors to their duty. Warwick, Brook, and Bedford, Lord Kimbolton (the Earl of Man- chester's son), Fiennes (Lord Say's second son), and the younger Vane, exerted them- selves, meanwhile, in their respective districts ; and Warwick soon wrote to his Essex friends from York, so recently the headquarters of the king, that " the game was well begun." The party of the king were not less active, but they were less successful. In the opinion of the great mass of the peo- ple, Pym was the author of this Parliament^ by the common consent of all, he was to be * " At the same time," says Clarendon, " some lords from London (of known and since published affections to that in- vasion) attended his majesty at York with a petition, signed by others, eight or ten in the whole, who were craftily per- suaded by the liegers there, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, and Mr. Saint John, to concur in it, being full of duty and modesty enough, without considering that nothing else at that time could have done mischief, and so suffered themselves to be made instruments towards those ends which in truth they abhorred." Clarendon, vol. i., p. 259. t The lord-mayor had been implored to suppress this pe- tition, but refused. t Echard ; Carte; Warwick; Anthony Wood. I) I find this in a curious pamphlet of the time, which I was not able to discover in the king's collection, but which I purchased from Mr. Rodd, of Newport-street, to whose in- telligence and liberality so many historical collectors have to confess their obligations. The pamphlet is a petition sent up to the king by large numbers of the common people, at the time of his attempted impeachment for high treason ; and among answers to the king's charges against Pym, con- tains the loilowiiig : " In the fifth article he is impeached, 4 that he hath traitorously indeavoured to subvert the rights and very being of Parliaments.' To this we may answer with great facilitie, he was the chief cause that this Parlia- ment was assembled, and it seems very incongruous that he should subvert the same." placed in the position of its leader. Preparing himself for that great office, he well knew that the highest duty of his life, and the most fatal, there awaited him. He was to keep his old appointment with Wentworth, now the Earl of Strafford. Any allusion to this illustrious man has been hitherto avoided as much as possible, since a previous portion of this work was devo- ted to an analysis of his character and actions ; and little allusion will even now be necessary for those who have had that analysis before them. Pym judged Wentworth's course as a minister too truly when, on the occasion of their separa- tion twelve years before, he had threatened him with a visionary doom. The twelve years had realized one of the greatest geniuses for despotic government that the world has known ; but they had also strengthened, with an almost superhuman power of popular resistance, the mind of Pym. Wentworth himself had re- ceived occasional very ominous proofs of this, and some correspondence passed concerning it between himself and the king ; but Pym's si- lence respecting the minister in his famous speech of the preceding April, instead of seem- ing most ominous of all, had driven back, for a time, the fear of danger. The conduct of the great opposition leader, however, after the dis- solution, recalled Stratford's worst apprehen- sions ; and on the disastrous failure of his Scotch expedition, he prayed the king to be al- lowed to return to his Irish government. But the genius of Strafford was the king's last and only hope ; and, pledging a " royal word" that not " a hair of his head" should be touched by the Parliament, the king ordered his minister's presence in London. Charles himself knew not so well as Pym how much Strafford's ge- nius was indeed his last resource. And how much less did he know, that while he pledged his word for Strafford's safety, a few weightier words, lingering yet in the mind of Pym, would bring to the people's service the Tower and the Block, and break, in one short instant, that spell of arbitrary power with which he and his father, and the worst ministers of both, had been for upward of thirty years struggling to subdue the rising liberties ! In the death of Srafford, Pym saw that the prestige of royalty, which had hitherto, in Charles's worst extrem- ities, availed so much, would be utterly over- thrown. On the 3d of November the Long Parliament met. There are few well-informed students of English history who, with a fearless and frank admission of the errors of this illustrious as- sembly, do not pause with emotion at the men- tion of its name, mindful that there is scarcely a privilege of good and safe government now enjoyed by the common people of England that does not justly date from its commencement. The day that witnessed that commencement was a bright day for every one in England, save the ministers and apologists for tyranny. " It had a sad and melancholic aspect," says Lord Clarendon, "upon the first entrance, which presaged some unusual and unnatural events. The king himself did not ride with his accus- tomed equipage nor in his usual majesty to Westminster, but went privately in his barge to the Parliament stairs, and after to the church, as if it had been to a return of a prorogued or JOHN PYM. 177 adjourned Parliament. And there was like- wise an untoward, and, in truth, an unheard-of accident, which broke many of the king's meas- ures, and infinitely disordered his service be- yond a capacity of reparation. From the time the calling a Parliament was resolved upon, the king designed Sir Thomas Gardiner, who was recorder of London, to be speaker in the House of Commons ; a man of gravity and quickness, that had somewhat of authority and gracefulness in his person and presence, and in all respects equal to the service. There was little doubt but that he would be chosen to serve in one of the four places for the city of London, which had very rarely rejected their recorder upon that occasion ; and, lest that should fail, diligence was used in one or two other places that he might be elected. But the opposition was so great and the faction so strong to hinder his being elected in the city, that four others were chosen for that service, without hardly mentioning his name ; nor was there less industry used to prevent his being chosen in other places." This incident was in- deed an omen of ill promise for the court. It was in that day the invariable usage to select a speaker on the king's private recommenda- tion ; yet on this occasion, without the small- est appearance of discourtesy, the slavish usage, by means of the admirable organization of the popular party, was warded off. The king, taken by surprise, and obliged to name an- other member hastily, recommended Lenthall, then only known as a practising barrister. The members assembled in great crowds to hear the king's speech. All the chief leaders of the Commons were there : Pym (who had again been returned, with Lord William Rus- sel, for Tavistock), Hampden (who sat for Buckinghamshire), St. John, Denzil Hollis, Nathaniel Fiennes, the younger Vane ; and, still acting with the people, Lord Digby (the fantastically chivalrous son of the Earl of Bris- tol), Lord Falkland, and Edward Hyde. The chief popular peers were present also : Francis Russel, earl of Bedford (between whom and Pym there had been the friendship and mutual counsel of a life) ; William Fiennes and Robert Greville ; Lords Say and Brooke ; Robert Dev- ereux, earl of Essex ; the brothers Henry and Robert Rich, earls of Holland and Warwick ; and Edward Montague, lord Kimbolton, son of the Earl of Manchester. Upon the faces of almost all these men, Clarendon says, there was a " marvellous elated" expression, and he proceeds to remark of the members of the Com- mons, that " the same men who six months be- fore were observed to be of very moderate tem- pers, and to wish that gentle remedies might be applied, without opening the wound too wide and exposing it to the air, and rather to cure what was amiss than too strictly to make in- quisition into the causes and original of the malady, talked now in another dialect both of things and persons." The truth was, that as Mr. Hyde was returning from the House of Lords through Westminster, he fell into con- versation witli Pym, and that bold statesman, sounding Hyde with some distrust of his hon- esty, cared no longer to conceal his own pros- pects or his temper. The anecdote is worth giving in the words of one of the parties. " Mr. Hyde, who was returned to serve for a borough in Cornwall, met Mr. Pym in West- minster Hall, and conferring together upon the state of affairs, the other told Mr. Hyde ' that they must now be of another temper than they were the last Parliament; that they 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 afoul house hereafter ; that they had now an opportu- nity to make their country happy by removing all grievances, and pulling up the causes of them by the roots, IF ALL MEN WOULD DO THEIR DUTIES ;' and used much other sharp discourse to the same purpose ; by which it was discerned that the warmest and boldest counsels and over- tures would find a much better reception than those of a more temperate allay, which fell out accordingly." The first week was devoted to the appoint- ment of committees and the reception of peti- tions. "Troops of horsemen," says White- locke, " came from several counties with peti- tions for redress of grievances and exorbitan- cies in Church and State."* One or two sharp debates arose on the presentation of these pe- titions, but Pym took no share in them. On the 10th of November, Lord Strafford arrived in London. On the llth of November, Pym suddenly t rose in his place in the House of Commons, stated that he had matter of the highest impor- tance to lay before the House, and desired that the strangers' room should be cleared, the out- er door of the House locked, and the keys laid upon the clerk's table. What followed this om- inous announcement must be given chiefly in the words of one of the members present, since the destruction of this portion of the journals has left us without any other record of the mo- mentous scene that passed. " Mr. Pym," says Clarendon, " in a long formed discourse, lamented the miserable state and condition of the kingdom, aggravated all the particulars which had been done amiss in the government, as ' done and contrived mali- ciously and upon deliberation, to change the whole frame, and to deprive the nation of all the liberty and property which was their birth- right by the laws of the land ; which were now no more considered, but subjected to the arbi- trary power of the privy council, which govern- ed the kingdom according to their will and pleasure ; these calamities falling upon us in the reign of a pious and virtuous king, who loved his people, and was a great lover of jus- tice.' And thereupon enlarging in some spe- cious commendation of the nature and good- ness of the king, that he might wound him with less suspicion, he said, ' We must inquire from what fountain these waters of bitterness flowed ; what persons they were who had so far insinu- ated themselves into his royal affections as to be able to pervert his excellent judgment, to abuse his name, and wickedly apply his author- ity to countenance and support their own cor- rupt designs. Though he doubted there would be many found of this class who had contribu- ted their joint endeavours to bring this misery upon the nation, yet he believed there teas one * Whitelocke's Memorials. t This is Rushworth's expression. 178 BRITISH STATESMEN. more signal in that administration than the rest, being a man of great parts and contrivance, and of great industry to bring what he designed to pass ; a man who, in the memory of many present, had sate in that House an earnest vindicator of the laws, and a most zealous assertor and champion for the liberties of the people, but long since turned apostate from those good affections, and, according to the custom and nature of apostates, was become the greatest enemy to the liberties of his country, and the greatest promoter of tyranny, that any age had produced;' arid then he named 'the EARL of STRAFFORD, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and lord -president of the council established in York for the northern parts of the kingdom ; who,' he said, 'had in both places, and in all other provinces wherein his service had been used by the king, raised ample monuments of his tyrannical nature ; and that he believed, if they took a short survey of his actions and be- haviour, they would find him the principal au- thor and promoter of all those counsels which had exposed the kingdom to so much ruin ;' and to this end instanced some high and imperious actions done by him in England and in Ireland, some proud and over-confident expressions in discourse, and some passionate advices he had given in the most secret councils and debates of the affairs of state ; adding some lighter pas- sages of his vanity and amours, that they who were not inflamed with anger and detestation against him for the former, might have less esteem and rev- erence for his prudence and discretion ; and so concluded, ' that they would well consider how to provide a remedy proportionable to the dis- ease, and to prevent the farther mischiefs they were to expect from the continuance of this great man's power and credit with the king, and his influence upon his counsels.' " In this brief sketch we may trace the outlines of Pym's speech on this great occasion, and it is a fresh proof of his extraordinary powers. But the resources of a profound understanding are as inexhaustible as the human heart itself. Variously adapting to his various hearers the eloquent austerity of his invective, behold Straf- ford at one moment elevated to the alarm of every wise patriot, and in the next shrunk be- low the contempt of the meanest person pres- ent ! Passion, prejudice, patriotism, every emo- tion that can actuate the virtuous or the base, were called into existence by the orator. It may be to Pym's advantage or disadvantage to state this, but it was so. When he had ceased, there was but one flame raging through that great assembly, and the power of Strafford was blasted forever. Meanwhile, as several members from every side of the House were swelling the general outcry against the accused, a message arrived from the Lords, desiring instant conference on a treaty with the Scots. Pym, at once suspect- ing that the extraordinary precautions which had just been taken respecting the exclusion of strangers had given surprise and perhaps alarm in certain quarters, and that these messengers had a very different object from their professed one, despatched them quickly with an answer to decline the meeting, on the ground of very ! weighty and important business ; and at the same moment gave " such advertisement to some of the lords, that that House might likewise be kept from rising, which would otherwise very much have broken their measures."* " In conclusion," proceeds Clarendon, " after many hours of bitter inveighing, and ripping up the course of the Earl of Stratford's life before his coming to court, and his actions after, it was moved, according to the secret resolution taken before, ' that he might be forthwith im- peached of high treason ;' which was no sooner mentioned than it found a universal approbation and consent from the whole House ; nor was there, in all the debate, one person [not even Mr. Hyde !] who offered to stop the torrent by any favourable testimony concerning the earl's car- riage, save only that the Lord Falkland (who was very well known to be far from having any kindness for him), when the proposition was made for the present accusing him of high trea- son, modestly desired the House to consider ' whether it would not suit better with the grav- ity of their proceedings first to digest many of those particulars which had been mentioned by a committee before they sent up to accuse him, declaring himself to be abundantly satisfied that there was enough to charge bim ;' which was very ingenuously and frankly answered by Mr. Pym, ' that such a delay might probably blast all their hopes, and put it out of their power to proceed farther than they had done already ; that the earl's power and credit with the king, and with all those who had most credit with the king or queen, was so great, that when he should come to know that so much of his wick- edness was discovered, his own conscience would tell him what he was to expect, and therefore he would undoubtedly procure the Parliament to be dissolved rather than undergo the justice of it, or take some other desperate course to preserve himself, though with the hazard of the kingdom's ruin ; whereas, if they presently sent up to impeach him of high trea- son before the House of Peers, in the name and on the behalf of all the Commons of Eng- land, who were represented by them, the Lords would be obliged in justice to commit him into safe custody, and so sequester him from re- sorting to counsel, or having access to his maj- esty, and then they should proceed against him in the usual form with all necessary expedi- tion.' These reasons of the haste they made," continues Clarendon, " so clearly delivered, gave that universal satisfaction, that, without farther considering the injustice and unreason- ableness of it, they voted unanimously (for aught that appeared to the contrary by any avowed contradiction) that they would forth- with send up to the Lords, and accuse the Earl of Strafford of high treason, and several other crimes and misdemeanors, and desire that he might be presently sequestered from the coun- cil, and committed to safe custody ; and Mr. Pym was made choice of for the messenger to perform that office." After an interval of four hours, passed by many persons outside with intense and varied anxiety, the doors of the House of Commons opened at last to give way to Pym, who, issu- ing forth at the head of upward of 300 repre- sentatives of the English people, proceeded to the House of Lords, where " Mr. Pym, at the bar, and in the name of the lower House, and * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 302. Rushworth, vol. iv., p. 43. JOHN PYM. 179 of all the Commons of England, impeached Thomas, earl of Stratford, with the addition of all his other titles, of high treason."* The earl was already in the House, according to Clarendon,! when Pym appeared at the bar, and was even prepared with evidence of a cor- respondence between Pym and other popular leaders and the Scotch, supplied by the perfidy and forgery of Lord Savile, on which he de- signed at that very instant to accuse them of treason. According to the lively and graphic narrative of Baillie, however, Strafford had not yet entered the House with this view ; but, af- ter Pym's sudden appearance, the earl's is thus described : " The Lords began to consult on that strange and unexpected motion. The word goes in haste to the lord-lieutenant, where he was with the king ; with speed he comes to the House ; he calls rudely at the door ; James Maxwell, keeper of the black rod, opens ; his lordship, with a proud, glooming' countenance, makes towards his place at the board-head. But at once many bid him void the house ; so he is forced, in confusion, to go to the door till he was called. After consultation, being call- ed in, he stands, but is commanded to kneel, and on his knees to hear the sentence. Being on his knees, he is delivered to the keeper of the black rod, to be prisoner till he was cleared of those crimes the House of Commons had charged him with. He offered to speak, but was commanded to be gone without a word. In the outer room, James Maxwell required him, as prisoner, to deliver his sword. When he had got it, he cries with a loud voice for his man to carry my lord-lieutenant's sword. This done, he makes through a number of people to- wards his coach, all gazing, no man capping to him before whom, that morning the greatest of Eng- land would have stood discovered. Coming to the place where he expected his coach, it was not there ; so he behooved to return that same way, through a world of gazing people. When at last he had found his coach, and was entering, James Maxwell told him, 'Your lordship is my prisoner, and must go in my coach,' and so he behooved to do. For some days too many went to visit him ; but since, the Parliament hath commanded his keeping to be straiter."J The result proved this to have been what Pym anticipated, the master-stroke of the time. In whatever view, or with whatever sense it is regarded, whether of regret or admiration, it cannot be denied to have been, in its practical results, the greatest achievement of this great age of statesmanship. It struck instant terror into every quarter of the court, and left the king, for a time, powerless and alone. Every resolution of the House of Commons, from the hour of Slrafford's impeachment, took the shape of action. Every discussion ended in something done. Monopolists and patentees * Clarendon's Hist , vol. i., p. 305. t " It was about three of the clock in the afternoon when the Earl of Strafford (being infirm, and not well disposed in his health, and so not having stirred out of his house that morning), hearing that both Houses still sat, thought fit to go thither. It was believed by some (upon what ground was never clear enough) that he made that haste then to accuse the Lord Say and some others of having induced the Scots to invade the kingdom ; but he was scarce entered into the House of Peers when the message from the House of Commons was called in." History, vol. i., p. 350. t Baillie's Letters, vol. i., p. 217. " were at once declared incapable of serving in the House ; the tax of ship-money, and the pro- ceedings in Hampden's case, were declared sub- versive of property, of the laws, of the resolu- tions of former Parliaments, and the petition of rights ; the new Church canons issued by Laud were condemned; and, on the llth De- cember, the London petition against the prel- ates and prelacy, signed by 15,000 citizens, and praying that that episcopal government, with all its dependancies, " roots and branches," might be abolished, was received in ominous silence by the House. "William, lord-archbishop of Canterbury," was then, on the motion of Pym, accused of high treason ; and Denzil Hollis carried up the accusation to the House of Lords.* The Scotch commissioners denounced him at the same time as an " incendiary in the national differences ;" and, after ten weeks' confinement in the house of the usher of the black rod, the Tower re- ceived Laud also. Informations were now lodged against Wren, bishop of Ely, for oppression and idolatry ; and against Pierce, bishop of Bath and Wells, for corruption of religion ; and those prelates were ordered to give large securities that they would abide the judgment of Parliament. Impeach- ments of treason were next prepared against Secretary Windebanke and Lord-keeper Finch. Windebanke escaped to France, and Finch fled to Holland. " So that," says Clarendon, " within less than six weeks, for no more time was yet elapsed, these TERRIBLE REFORMERS had caused the two greatest counsellors of the kingdom, and whom they most feared and so hated, to be removed from the king, and imprisoned under an accu- sation of high treason - f and frighted away the lord-keeper of the great seal of England, and one of the principal secretaries of state, into foreign kingdoms, for fear of the like ; besides the preparing all the lords of the council, and very many of the principal gentlemen through- out England, who had been high sheriffs and deputy-lieutenants, to expect such measure of punishment from their general votes and reso- lutions as their future demeanour should draw upon them for their past offences.f These gentlemen had no cause, except in their own consciences, to tremble. The lead- ers of this great Parliament sought a severe, but a just atonement. They struck down the chief abettors of tyranny in the kingdom, but pardoned its miserable agents. Their terrible inquisition passed over the various sheriffs who had lent their influence to the enforcement of ship-money, while it fixed itself on the servile judges who had prostituted the laws to its sup- port. Bramstone, Davenport, Berkeley, Craw- ley, Trevor, and Weston were obliged to give securities in enormous sums that they would abide the judgment of Parliament ;t while Sir Robert Berkeley, as the principal supporter of the iniquitous tax, was impeached of treason, publicly arrested in the King's Bench court, " taken from off the bench where he sat, and * Whitelocke says in his Memorials (p. 39) that Pym car- ried it up ; but this is an error. See Journals. T Hist, of the Rebellion, vol. i.,p. 311. i The old clause, quamdiu se btne gesserint, was also re- stored, in place of the durante berte placito. See Old Parl. Hist., vol. ix., p. 208. 180 BRITISH STATESMEN. carried away to prison, which struck a great terror in the rest of his brethren then sitting in Westminster Hall, and in all his profession."* The speech which led to this latter startling step was delivered in the House of Commons on the 2d of December, and there is every rea- son to believe by Pym. It appears in pamphlets of the time without the speaker's name ; but in Cromwell's Parliament of 1650, Sir Robert Goodwin brought forward a precedent which, he said, " was urged by John Pym in the Long Parliament," and the only resemblance to which is in the speech alluded to.f Some passages, indeed, at the commencement, would seem to discountenance this supposition of authorship, but the general tone and manner are, emphat- ically, those of the Long Parliament's most fa- mous orator. In the sustained eloquence, the practical wisdom, the singular weight, gravity, and precision of language, and the careful pro- test it records against the hasty judgments of posterity, we feel the voice of Pym. Some passages are too remarkable to be omitted here. After a comparison of the body politic with the body natural a favourite parallel with Pym he thus proceeds : "This Commonwealth is, Mr. Speaker, or should be, but one body ; this House the great physician of all our maladies. But, alas ! sir, of what afflicted part shall we poor patients complain first 1 Or, rather, of what shall we not complain 1 Are we not heart-sick 1 Is there in us that which God requires unity, purity, and singularity of heart 1 Nay, is not religion, the soul of this body, so miserably dis- tracted, that (I speak it not without terror) 'tis to be feared there is more confusion of religion among us than there was of tongues at the sub- version of Babel 1 And is it not, then, high time that we understand one another, that we be reduced to one faith, one government] Sir, is the head whole the seat of government and justice, the fountain from whose sweet influ- ence all the inferior members of this body should receive both vigour and motion 1 Nay, hath not rather a general apoplexy, or palsy, taken or shaken all our members] Are not some dead ; others buried quick ; some dis- membered; all disordered by the diversion of the course of justice 1 Is the liver, nature's ex- chequer, open, from whose free distribution each limb may receive his proper nutriment 1 or, rather, is it not wholly obstructed our property taken from us 1 May it not justly be said of us, " ' Sic vos non vobis fertis Aratra ?' " The hard destiny which for so many years had attended upon labour, is now described with a noble pathos ; and those views respect- ing Church government are stated, which are ascribed, with the greatest justice, to Pym. " Our ancestors drank the juice of their men vines, reaped and ate the fruit of their own harvest, but now the poor man'* plough goes to furrow the seas to build ships ! We labour, not for our- selves, but to feed the excrescions of nature things grown up out of the ruins of the natural members monopolists ! Sir, these are maxima vitalia religion, justice, property the heart, the head, the liver of this great body ; and these being so distempered or obstructed, can the subordinate parts be free 1 The truth is, all is so far out of frame, that to lay open every par- ticular grievance were to drive us into despair of a cure ; in so great confusion, where to be- gin first requires not much less care than what to apply. Mr. Speaker, I know 'tis a right mo- tion to begin with setting God's house in order first. Whoever presses that moves with such advantage, that he is sure no man will gainsay him. 'Tis a well-becoming zeal to prefer reli- gion before our own affairs ; and, indeed, 'tis a duty not to be omitted, where they are in equal dan- ger ; but in cures of the body politic or natural, we must prefer the most pressing exigencies. Physi- cians know that consumptions, dropsies, and such like lingering diseases are more mortal, more difficult to cure, than slight external wounds ; yet if the least vein be cut, they must neglect their greater cures to stop that, which, if neglected, must needs exhaust the stock of nature, and produce a dissolution of the whole man. A defection from the duties of our reli- gion is a consumption to any state : no founda- tion is firm that is not laid in Christ. The de- nial of justice, the abridgment of our liberties, are such an obstruction as renders the Commonwealth leprous ; but the wounds in our property let out the life blood of the people. The reformation of Church government must necessarily be a work of much time ; and, God be thanked, the dis- ease is not desperate. We serve one God, we be- lieve in one Christ, <fnd we all acknowledge and, profess one Gospel. The stop of justice can yet injure but particulars. 'Tis true, there may be many, too many, instances of strange oppres- sions, great oppressors, but 'twill be hard to judge the conclusion : et sic de cceteris. But take from us the property of our estates, our subsistence, we are no more a people : this is that vein which hath been so deep cut, so far exhausted, that to preserve our being we must doubtless stop this current. IT WILL BE TIME ENOUGH TO SETTLE RULES TO LIVE BY WHEN WE ARE SURE TO LIVE." While this, as contrasted with Pym's tone in the Parliament of April, is a perfect illustra- tion of his present change of temper, it was also, it cannot be doubted, intended to vindi- cate himself from a charge which I find brought against him by more than one of the Puritans at the time a lukewarmness concerning the bold questions of episcopal government,* in fa- vour of the more practical strokes of policy by which he sought, first of all, to assault and take by storm the strongholds of the government of the king. The last words of the passage just quoted are a noble defence of what he had done and was about to do, with this great view. In truth, the difficulties of the period, the consid- erations which should weigh with posterity against a hasty judgment of the most startling measures, were never so weightily expressed "Known," says Clarendon, speaking- of Pym at this time, " to be inclined to the Puritan party, yet not of those furious resolutions against the Church as the other leading men were, and wholly devoted to the Earl of Bedford, who had nothing of that spirit." History, vol. i.. p. 323. Pym was, in fact, like Selden, and the majority of lawyers in the House of Commons, a disciple of Erastus in mailers of Church government. JOHN PYM. 181 as in these few words. The first aim was to 8ave the life of the republic, the next was to govern it. " Mr. Speaker," he continued, "he that well weighs this little word property, or propriety, In our estates, will find it of a large extent. The leeches that have suck'd this blood have been excise, benevolence, loans, impositions, monopolies, military taxes, ship-money, cum multis aliis all which spring from one root. And is it not high time to grub up that root that brings forth such fruit 1 Shall we first stand to lop the branches one by one, when we may down with all at once 7 He that, to correct an evil tree which brings forth bad fruit, shall begin at the master-bough, and so lop downwards, is in danger to fall himself before the tree falls. The safer and speedier way is to begin at the root ; and there, with submission, would I lay the axe. "The root of most of our present mischiefs, and the ruin of all posterity, I hold to be those extra-judicial (judgments I cannot say, but rath- er) dooms, delivered by all the judges under their hands out of court, yet recorded in all courts, to the subversion of all our fundament- al laws and liberties, and the annihilation, if not confiscation, of all our estates : ' that, in case of danger, the king may impose upon his sub- jects ; and that he is the sole judge of the danger, necessity, and proportion.' This, in brief, is to take what, when, and where he will ; which, though delivered in the time of a gracious and mer- ciful prince, who, we hope, will not wrest it be- yond our abilities, yet, when left to the interpreta- tion of a succeeding tyrant, if ever this nation be so unfortunate to fall into the hands of such, it is a record wherein every man might read himself a slave that reads it ; having nothing he can call his own, but all prostitute to the will of an- other. " What to do in such a case, we are not to seek for precedents. Our honourable ances- tors taught us, in the just and exemplary pun- ishments of Chief-justice Tresilian and his complices,* for giving their judgments out of Parliament, against the established laws of Par- liament, how tender they were of us. How careful, then, ought we to be to continue those laws, and to preserve the liberty of our poster- ity ! I am far from maligning the person, nor in my heart wish I the execution, of any man ; but certainly it shall be a justice well becoming this House to lay their heads at his majesty's mercy, who laid us under his feet who had made us but tenants at will of our liberties and our estates. And though I cannot but approve of mercy as a great virtue in any prince, yet I heartily pray it prove a precedent as safe and useful to this oppressed state as that of justice .'" The force and condensation of these passages are wonderful indeed. But what follows is yet more striking, when taken as a great appeal to the future. "Mr. Speaker, blasted may that tongue be that shall in the least degree derogate from the glory of those halcyon days our fathers enjoy- ed during the government of that ever-blessed, never-to-be-forgotten royal Elizabeth. But cer- tainly I may safely say, without detraction, it * These are the precedents alluded to by Goodwin, as having been urged " by John Pyin in the beginning of the Long Parliament." [ was much advantage to the peace and pros- 1 perity of her reign, that the great examples of j Empson and Dudley were then fresh in memo- ; ry. The civility of our law tells us that the king can do no wrong ; but then only is the state secure when judges, their ministers, dare do none. \ Since our times have found the want of such exam- | pies, J tis fit we leave some to posterity ! God for- bid all should be thought or found guilty ; there are doubtless some ringleaders ; let us sift them out. In public government, to pass by the no- cent is equal injustice as to punish the inno- cent. An omission of that duty now will be a guilt in us, render us shamed in history, and cursed by posterity. Our gracious, and, in that act of voluntary justice, most glorious king, hath giv- en up, to the satisfaction of his afflicted people, the authors of their ruins. THE POWER OF FU- TURE PRESERVATION IS NOW IN US. El qui UOU servat patriam cum potest, idem trad.it destruenti patriam. What though we cannot restore the damage of the Commonwealth, we may yet re- pair the breaches in the bounds of monarchy ; though it be with our loss and charge, we shall so leave our children's children fenced as with a wall of safety, by the restoration of our laws to their ancient vigour and lustre ! " 'Tis too true that it is to he feared the rev- enues of the crown, sold outright, would scarce remunerate the injuries or repay the losses of this suffering nation since the pronouncing of that fatal sentence. What proportionable sat- isfaction, then, can this Commonwealth receive in the punishment of a few inconsiderable de- linquents ? But 'tis a rule valid in law, and ap- proved in equity, that Qui non habcnl in crume- nd, luant in corpore ; and 'tis, without all ques- tion, so in policy, that exemplary punishments conduce more to the safety of a slate than pecuniary reparations. Hope of impunity lulls every bad great officer into security for his time ; and who would not venture to raise a fortune, when the al- lurements of honour and wealth are so prevalent, if the worst that can fall be but restitution only 1 We see the bad effects of this bold erroneous opinion. What was, at first, but corrupt law, is since, by encouragement taken from, their impuni- ty, become false doctrine. The people are taught in pulpits ' that they have no property ;' kings instructed in that destructive principle 'that all is theirs ;' and it is thence deduced into ne- cessary state policy, and whispered in council, 'that he is no monarch who is bounded by any law.' " By these bad consequences the best of kings hath been, by the infusion of such poi- sonous positions, diverted from the sweet in- clinations of his own natural equity and jus- tice ; the very essence of a king having been taken from him, which is the preservation of his people. And whereas salus populi is, or should be, suprema lex, the power of undoing us is masked under the style of royal preroga- tive. And is it not high time for us to make examples of the first authors of this subverted law bad counsel worse doctrine 1 Let no man think to divert us from the pursuit of jus- tice by poisoning the clear streams of our af- fections with jealous fears of his majesty's in- terruptions if we look too high. SHALL WE THEREFORE DOUBT OF JUSTICE, EEC AUSE WE HAVE NEED OF GREAT JUSTICE ! We may be confi- 182 BRITISH STATESMEN. dent, the king well knows, that his justice is the band of our allegiance that it is the staff, the proof of his sovereignty." Never was a finer answer given to an often- repeated fallacy than is contained in that sud- den question of the orator ; and the following peroration seems to me quite unequalled in any ancient or modern speaker for its beauty and condensation of thought. Its commencement is indeed an absolute and final vindication of such men as Pym, who, professing themselves the advocates of monarchy, were soon obliged to strip from the monarch all his abused re- sources of prerogative. " 'Tis a happy assurance, sir, of his majesty's intention of grace to us, that our loyalty hath at last won him to tender the safety of his peo- ple. And certainly (all our pressures well weigh- ed this twelve years last past) it will be found that THE PASSIVE LOYALTY OF A SUFFERING NA- TION HATH OUTDONE THE ACTIVE LOYALTY OF ALL TIMES AND STORIES. As the poet hath it, " ' Fortiter, ille facit, qui miser esse potest ;' and I may as properly say, Fideliter fccimus. We have done loyally to suffer so patiently. " Then, since our royal lord hath in mercy visited us, let us not doubt but in his justice he will redeem his people. Qui timide rogat, docet negare ! When religion is innovated, our liberties violated, our fundamental laws abrogated, our modern laics already obsolcted, the property of our estates alienated NOTHING LEFT us WE CAN CALL OUR OWN BUT OUR MISERY AND OUR PATIENCE if ever any nation might justifiably, we certainly may now now most properly, most seasonably cry out, and cry aloud, ' Vel sacra regnet justitia, vel ruat caelum !' " And in the full acceptation of the spirit of these words, Pym prosecuted the great work he had now in hand, scarcely so much, as he here explains, in the hope of achieving present happiness, as of securing the liberties and hap- piness of the future. He has been bitterly as- sailed by the enemies of freedom for urging forward the measures now in contemplation, on the ground that, their tendency being anti- monarchical, he thus, as an equally professed friend to liberty and to monarchy, gave the lie to his professions. But was this so ? Has he not placed an undeniable refutation of it on record 1 The question had been reduced, in truth, as between Pym and the popular party, and Charles the First, to a question strictly personal. The nation had been brought into such a position by the government of Charles, as to make many of the hitherto undented pre- rogatives of majesty incompatible, in the per- son of Charles, with freedom. This is not to be denied ; nor can the high and weighty con- siderations involved in it be dismissed by any affected discussion of them in the "abstract," or to the exclusion of the one grand element of the whole the insincerity and perfidy of Charles himself. In his opening speech of the session, the king had termed the Scots people " rebels." A vote was now passed by the Commons de- creeing 300,000 " for the friendly relief and aid, and towards the losses and necessities, of their brethren the Scots."* Pym's object, * Inquiries were also ordered into the losses suffered by various members of the House by fine and imprisonment after through all his measures at this time, was ap- parently to strengthen the democratic power so far above that of the prerogative as to enable the Commons to resist a dissolution, in case a dissolution should be threatened. He was so far successful in achieving it, that an open ef- fort to secure the continuance of Parliament was now thought advisable. And this in two short months ! But the final stand had doubt- less now been taken by Pym and the chief men of the party ; and, with unswerving reliance on that political and religious faith of the people to which they had been educated by the strug- gles and miseries of so many years, they moved forward with a steadiness of aim and determi- nation which bore down every opposing effort, and even every wish, against them. Claren- don, Falkland, and I)igby were carried along with the stream. Up to this time, and far be- yond it, we hear no whisper of resistance on the score of danger to the monarchy. " Truly, I am persuaded," observes Clarendon, howev- er, in a sort of self- vindication, " whatever de- sign, either of alteration or reformation, was yet formed I mean in the beginning of the Parliament was only communicated between Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Fiennes, Mr. St. John, the Earl of Bedford, the Lords Say and Kimbolton, who, together with the Earl of Rothes and the Lord Louden (the Scots com- missioners), managed and carried it on ; and that neither the Earl of Essex, Warwick, nor Brooke himself no, nor Mr. Hollis nor Strode, nor any of the rest, were otherwise trusted than upon occasion, and made use of according to their several gifts ; but there was yet no manner of difficulty in swaying and guiding the affections of men, all having brought resolution and animosity enough against the excesses and exorbitancies that had been exercised in the former government, and dislike enough to the persons guilty of the same, and not yet discern- ing that there was any other intention than of a just and regular proceeding, and reformation upon both." So far, at least, this is valuable testi- mony. It is a warrant, from the authority of the strongest professed friends to the monar- chy, for the justice of the impeachment and attainder of Strafford, and for all the measures up to the period of his death. We have seen Pym alluding, in one of his speeches, to two statutes of Edward III. for the holding of annual Parliaments. Upon this suggestion Mr. Prideaux now introduced a bill for yearly Parliaments, which, however, by the amendments received in committee,* was chan- ged into a triennial measure. The most singu- lar care and precaution were used in framing this statute. The issuing of writs was made imperative on the keeper of the great seal ; in case of his failure, upon the Lords ; on failure of the latter, upon the sheriffs ; and, in the last resort, representatives might be chosen by the people themselves. Charles made a desperate effort to elude assent to this famous bill ; but an assent was extorted from him, and the peo- the third Parliament of Charles. Among the names speci- fied I find those of Pym and Hampden : the last I take te be on the score of ship-money ; but was not aware, before, that Pym had then also been subjected to imprisonment and loss. Old Parl. Hist., vol. ix., p. 86. * See Journals of the House, 30th Dec., 1640 ; and again, Journals of 9th January. JOHN PYM. 183 pie welcomed the event with bonfires and ev- ery mark of joy.* Meanwhile Pym had abated none of his ex- ertions in preparing for the impending trial of Strafford. A masterly series of twenty-eight articles of impeachment had been drawn up by himself and St. John, in which fourteen years of Strafford's life were set forth with wonder- ful force and precision ; blending offences of various degrees, but so planned as to exhibit through them all the one grand offence charged upon the earl an attempt to subvert the funda- mental laics of the country. Information was now conveyed that Sir George Radcliffe was mainly relied upon by Strafford for the proof of his answers,! and Pym, well knowing Rad- cliffe to have been the wretched instrument of the lord-deputy's guilt throughout, instantly charged high treason upon him also. Radcliffe shortly after escaped ; but an extract from Pym's speech in presenting the articles against him will not be thought inappropriate here. " The earl," my lords, " is charged as an au- thor ; Sir George Radcliffe as an instrument and subordinate actor. The influence of supe- rior planets is often augmented and enforced, but seldom mitigated, by the concurrence of the inferior, where merit doth arise, not from well doing, but from ill. The officiousness of ministers will rather add to the malignity of their instructions than diminish it, that so they may more fully ingratiate themselves with those upon whom they depend. In the crimes com- mitted by the earl, there appears more haughti- ness and fierceness, being acted by his own principles. Those motions are ever strongest which are nearer the primum mobile. But in those of Sir George Radcliffe there seems to be more baseness and servility, having resign- ed and subjected himself to be acted upon by the corrupt will of another. The Earl of Straf- ford hath not been bred in the study and prac- tice of the law, and having stronger lusts and passions to incite, and less knowledge to restrain him, might more easily be transported from the rule. Sir George Radcliffe, in his natural tem- per and disposition being more moderate, and, by his education and profession, better ac- quainted with the grounds and directions of the law, was carried into his offences by a more immediate concurrence of will, and a more corrupt suppression of his own reason and judgment. My lords, as both these have been partners in offending, so it is the desire of the Commons they may be put under such trial and examination, and other proceedings of justice, as may bring them both to partake of a deserved punishment, for the safety and good of both kingdoms." As the trial of Strafford approached, the king made an effort to save him by a compromise with the leaders of the opposition. White- locke's account of this negotiation^ is unsatis- * See Parl. Hist., and Stat. 16, Car. I., c. i. Claren- don's Hist., vol. i., p. 367. t See Clarendon's Hist., vol. i., p. 377. i These are his words: " But there was a proposal (the subject of much discourse) to prevent all this trouble, and to restore the Earl of Strafford to his former favour and honour, if the king would prefer some of the grandees to of- fices at court, whereby Strafford's enemies should become his friends, and the king's desires he promoted. It was, that should be made lord-treasurer, the Lord Say master of the wards, Mr. Pym chancellor of the Exchequer, factory and obscure ; but it is possible that, from some extracts I shall now make from Clarendon, a just notion of the whole transac- tion may be arrived at. This is the more ne- cessary, since it has been made matter of grave accusation against the virtue of Pym and Hampden by a writer* who is not less distin- guished by his genius than his zeal. " From the time," says the noble historian, " that there was no more fear of the Archbish- op of Canterbury, nor the lord-lieutenant of Ire- land, nor of any particular men who were like to succeed them in favour, all who had been active in the court or in any service for the king being totally dispirited, and most of them to be disposed to any vile offices against him, the great patriots thought they might be able to do their country better service if they got the places and preferments in the court,] and so prevent the evil counsels which had used to spring from thence. . . . The Earl of Bedford was to be treasurer ; in order to which, the Bishop of London had already desired the king to receive the staff. And so the treasury was for the present put into commission. Mr. Pym was to be chancel- lor of the Exchequer. . . . These two were en- gaged to procure the king's revenue to be lib- erally provided for,t and honourably increased Mr. Hollis secretary of state, Mr. Hampden tutor to the prince ; others to have other places. In order whereunto, the Bishop of London resigned up his treasurer's staff, the Lord Cottington his place of the master of the wards, and the rest were easily to be voided. But whether upon the king's alteration of his mind, or by whatever means it came to pass, is uncertain, these things were not effected, and the great men baffled thereby became the more incensed and violent against the earl, joining with the Scotch com- missioners, who were implacable against him." The blank is supposed to have been left for Lord Bedford's name. * Mr. Southey, in the Quarterly Review. t In the spurious editions of Lord Clarendon that is, in every edition published before the Oxford one of 1826, this passage stands thus : " if they got the places and prefer- ments of the court for themselves." See Hist., vol. i., p. 369. t I may here quote the charge which is subsequently brought by Clarendon (vol. iv., p. 438-439) against the memory of Pym, and which I have already (p. 149) adverted to. " The king at one time intended to make Mr. Pym chancellor of the Exchequer, for which he received his majesty's promise, and made a return of a suitable profes- sion of his service and devotion ; and thereupon, the other being no secret, somewhat declined from that sharpness in the House which was more popular than any man's, and made some overtures to provide for the glory and splendour of the crown ; in which he had so ill success, that his interest and reputation then visibly abated, and he found that he was much better able to do hurt than good, which wrought very much upon him to melancholy, and complaint of the violence and discomposure of the people's affections and inclinations." If any period could have been carefully selected before an- other with a view to prove the utter falsehood of this charge, it had been this very time named by Lord Clarendon. Pym's interest and repute with the Commons was never so extraor- dinary and commanding as during and after the proceed- ings against Strafford, nor did it ever, as we shall see, in the slightest respect abate till after the disastrous reverses at the commencement of the civil war. Now observe upon what the spite of Lord Clarendon, for which truly there was natural and sufficient cause, seems, with even less reason than on the words quoted at p. 149, to have trumped up all this. In a pamphlet of the time, entitled " The Diurnall Occurrences of bjth Houses from the 3d of November, 1(540, to the 3d of November, 1641,'' I find mention made of a de- bate respecting ship-money and tonnage and poundage, which took place on the 27th of November, 1640, and in which some words spoken by Selden gave rise to the fol- lowing from Pym. The reader will recollect that the very srep he here recommends was stated by him to be on the eve of being taken when the third Parliament was dissolved. " That morning-, also. Master Pym, the great Parliament man, declared that they would make the king the richest king- in all Christendome ; and that they had no other in- tenlion, but that he should continue their king to govern them ; and pressed he might have tonnage and poundage granted him by act of Parliament, which took well in the 184 BRITISH STATESMEN. and settled ; and that this might be the bet- ter done, the Earl of Bedford prevailed with the king, upon the removals mentioned before, to make Oliver St. John his solicitor-general, which his majesty readily consented to, hoping that he would have been very useful in the present exigence to support his service in the House of Commons, where his authority was then great ; at least, that he would be ashamed ever to ap- pear in any thing that might prove prejudicial to the crown. And he became immediately possessed of that office of great trust, and was so well qualified for it at that time, by his fast and rooted malignity against the government, that he lost no credit with his party, out of any apprehension or jealousy that he would change his side ; and he made good their confidence, not in the least degree abating his malignant spirit, or dissembling it, but with the same ob- stinacy opposed every thing which might ad- vance the king's service, when he was his so- licitor, as ever he had done before. The Lord Say was to be master of the wards, and Den- /il Hollis secretary of state. Thus far the in- trigue for preferments was entirely complied with ; and it is great pity that it was not fully execu- ted, that the king might have had some able men to have advised or assisted him, which probably these very men would have done after they had been so thoroughly engaged. . . . But the Earl of Bedford was resolved that he would not en- ter into the treasury till the revenue was in some degree settled ; at least, the bill for ton- nage and poundage passed, with all decent cir- cumstances, and for life ; which both he and Mr. Pym did very heartily labour to effect, and had in their thoughts many good expedients by which they intended to raise the revenue of the crown. And none of them were very solicitous to take their promotions before some other accommo- dations were provided for some of the rest of their chief companions, who would be neither well pleased with their so hasty advancement be- fore them, nor so submissive in the future to follow their dictates. Hampden was a man they could not leave unprovided for, and there- fore there were several designs, and very far driven, for the satisfaction and promotion of him, and Essex, and Kimbolton, and others, though not so fully concluded as those before mentioned. For the king's great end was, by these compliances, to save the life of the Earl of Strafford, and to preserve the Church from ruin ; for nobody thought the archbishop in danger of his life. And there were few of the persons men- tioned before who thought their preferments would do them much good if the earl were suffered to live ; but in that of the Church, the major part even of those persons would have been willing to have sat- isfied the king, the rather because they had no reason to think the two Houses, or, indeed, either of them, could have been induced to have pursued the contrary. And so the contin- ued and renewed violence in the prosecution of the Earl of Strafford made the king well contented House ; but stood upon it to have grievances first reformed, AND so IT WAS LEFT AT LARGE." So that here, immedi- ately after Strafford and Laud had been yielded to the Tow- er, and long before any compromise of office was thought of, we find Pym simply recommending what the third Parlia- ment wished to have done, with a condition which it is even possible that Parliament would have dispensed with ; and this is twisted into the charge first quoted, to gratify the pleen aud spite of a personal and political opponent. (as the other reasons prevailed with the other persons) that the pulling of those promotions in practice should be for a time suspended."* And in a subsequent passage, Lord Clarendon, prob- ably without intending it, supplies some very singular and serviceable comments on his present account of these transactions. " If that stratagem," he says, " of winning men by places had been practised as soon as the reso- lution was taken at York to call a Parliament (in which, it was apparent, dangerous attempts would be made, and that the court could not be able to resist those attempts), and if Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, and Mr. Hollis had been then preferred with Mr. Saint John before they were desperately embarked in their desperate de- signs, and had innocence enough about them to trust the king and be trusted by him (having yet contracted no personal animosities against him), it is very possible that they might either have been made instruments to have done good service, or at least been restrained from en- deavouring to subvert the royal building, for supporting whereof they were placed as princi- pal pillars. But the rule the king gave him- self (very reasonable at another time), that they should first do service, and compass this or that thing for him, before they should receive favour, was then very unseasonable ; since, besides that they could not in truth do him that service with* out the qualification, it could not be expected they would desert that side, by the power of which they were sure to make themselves con- siderable, without an unquestionable mark of interest in the other, by which they were to keep up their power and reputation. And so, whilst the king expected they should manifest their inclinations to his service by their temper and mod- eration in those proceedings that most offended him, and they endeavoured, by doing all the hurt they could, to make evident the power they had to do him good, he grew so far disobliged and provo- ked that he could not in honour gratify them, and they so obnoxious and guilty that they could not think themselves secure in his favour ; and thence, according to the policy and method of injustice, combined to oppress that power they had injured, and to raise a security for them- selves by disenabling the king to question their transgressions. "t Now surely there cannot remain a doubt, af- ter a careful observation of these extracts, of the precise nature and conduct of the " com- promise" which Whitelocke has so imperfectly and obscurely stated. It is quite clear that Pym and Lord Bedford never for an instant contemplated the restoration of Strafford as their condition of entering office. It is here acknowledged that the thought of office was only entertained by the patriots on the under- standing that Strafford and Laud, with all theii evil counsels, were silenced forever ; and it is proved, in the case of St. John, that the great body of the opposition had sufficient faith in their leaders to see them assume office with- out the fear that they would "change sides." Doubtless, when the negotiation was first en- tered on, some pledge for what is called by Clarendon the " security of the Church " was given by Pym, since there was nothing in his * Hist., vol. i., p. 369-372. t Hist, of Rebel., vol. ii., p. 60, 61. JOHN PYM. 185 opinions on that subject* that should have rais- ed up an insurmountable obstacle. The eccle- siastical constitution of England, as it existed in that day, apart from Laud's gross adminis- tration, and as it exists now, is as nearly as possible Erastian in theory, and almost wholly Erastian in practice. But, admitting that such a pledge was given, it is to be observed, also, that neither Pym nor Lord Bedford would con- sent to treat with the king on any narrow or personal consideration the people were to have a secure guarantee for a thoroughly and completely popular ministry. "Neither of them were very solicitous to take their promotions before accommodations were provided for the rest of their chief companions." And why was the whole negotiation suddenly broken off? Because of a " continued and renewed violence in the prosecution of the Earl of Strafford," is the distinct reply of Clarendon ; because none of the popular statesmen " thought their prefer- ment would do them much good if the earl were suffered to live." It is true that the same writer, in another part of his voluminous work, has apparently a partial contradiction of this ; but its precise terms are worth notice. " The Earl of Bedford secretly undertook to his majesty that the Earl of Strafford's life should be preserved, and to procure his revenue to be settled as amply as any of his progenitors.''! Here Pym's name is omitted, and the "secre- cy" of the undertaking alluded to would seem to imply treachery on the part of Lord Bedford to his political associates. Now Clarendon is not the best authority to receive such an accusa- tion from. Laud, though he was then a pris- oner, had ample opportunity of making himself master of the state of parties and affections, and his testimony may be taken with greater confidence. He accuses the Earl of Bedford with remaining " savagely" intractable respect- ing the death of Strafford. " The earl," he says, in his diary, " being thus laid low, and his great services done in Ireland made part of his accusation, I cannot but observe two things : the one, that upon Sunday morning before, Fran- cis, earl of Bedford (having about a month before lost his second son, in whom he most joyed), died, the smallpox striking into his brain. This lord was one of the main plotters of Strafford's death ; and I know where he, with other lords, before the Parliament sat down, resolved to have his blood. But God would not let him live to take joy therein, but cut him off in the morn- ing, whereas the bill for the Earl of Strafford's death was not signed till night," &c. This, then, is the conclusion to which all im- partial men must come respecting this much-dis- puted passage of history that whatever shape or ultimate purpose these proposed changes might have assumed in the mind of Charles, they have left unsullied the motives of Pym and Hampden. With the king the negotiation may * " la the House of Commons, though of the chief lead- ers, Nathaniel Fiennes and young Sir Harry Vane, and shortly after Mr. Hampden (who had not before owned it), were believed to be for root and branch ; which grew short- ly after a common expression, and discovery of the several tempers ; yet Mr. Pym was not of that mind, nor Mr. Hol- lis,nor any of the Northern men, nor those lawyers who drove on most furiously with them : all of whom were pleased with the government itself of the Church." Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. i.., p. 410. See afterward vol. iv., p. 437. t Hist., vol. i., p. 446. A A have been merely a stratagem of despair, but with the patriots it was entertained with a sin- cere and bond fide hope of serving the cause, and possibly of saving the king. Happy would the issue, in all probability, have proved for England ; but, whether or no, little did Pym and Hampden then deserve to have it said of them, in after times, that they only "wanted places and power ; and being disappointed in their expectations, they determined upon shed- ding the blood of the man with whom, if they might have been taken into office, they were willing to have coalesced."* Granting, for an instant, that it were possible to reconcile such a charge with our impressions of virtue of the accused, how could it consist with their undis- puted genius 1 They had been shortsighted fools, and not wise statesmen, to have hazard- ed such an outrage on that people whose confi- dence had given them their power. Mr. South- ey is an able and unflinching defender of his party ; but when he sees the propriety of with- drawing this remark, he will be the last to re- fuse such a concession to truth. t The impeachment of Strafford now moved gradually forward, and at last, on the 22d of March, the trial was opened in Westminster Hall. That mighty scene has been already de- scribed,t and it is only necessary here to pre- sent some memorable passages from the speech- es of the second chief actor in it, the accuser Pym. The first day was occupied with a reca- pitulation of the charges and answers. " My lords," said Pym, rising on the morning of the second day, "we stand here by the. com- mandment of the knights, citizens, and burgess- es, now assembled for the commons in Parlia- ment. And we are ready to make good that impeachment whereby Thomas, earl of Straf- ford, stands charged in their name, and in the names of all the commons of England, with high treason. " This, my lords, is a great cause, and we might sink under the weight of it, and be as- tonished with the lustre of this noble assembly, if there were not in the cause strength and vig- our to support itself and to encourage us. It is the cause of the king ; it concerns his maj- esty in the honour of his government, in the safety of his person, in the stability of his crown. It is the cause of the kingdom ; it con- cerns not only the peace and prosperity, but even the being of the kingdom. We have that piercing eloquence, the cries and groans, and tears and prayers, of all the subjects assisting us. We have the three kingdoms, England, and Scotland, and Ireland, in travail and agita- tion with us, bowing themselves, like the hinds spoken of in Job, to cast out their sorrows. " Truth and goodness, my lords they are the beauty of the soul ; they are the protection of all created nature ; they are the image and character of God upon the creatures. This beauty evil spirits and evil men have lost ; but yet there are none so wicked but they desire to march under the show and shadow of it, though they hate the reality. * Mr. Southey, in the Quarterly Review. T I should not omit to say that Hume's view of this mat- ter (History, vol. v., p. 264, quarto ed.) does not materially differ from that which I have taken. t Life of Strafford, p. 122, 124. 186 BRITISH STATESMEN. " This unhappy earl, now the object of your lordships' justice, hath taken as much care, hath used as much cunning, to set a face and countenance of honesty and justice upon his actions, as he hath been negligent to observe the rules of honesty in the performance of all these actions. My lords, it is the greatest baseness of wickedness that it dares not look in its own colours, nor be seen in its natural countenance. But virtue, as it is amiable in all respects, so the least is not this, that it puts a nobleness, it puts a bravery upon the mind, and lifts it above hopes and fears, above favour and displeasure. It makes it always uniform and con- stant to itself. The service commanded me and my colleagues here is to take off those vizards of truth and uprightness which hath been sought to be put upon this cause, and to show you his actions and his intentions in their own natural blackness and deformity. " My lords, he hath put on a vizard of truth in these words, wherein he says ' that he should be in his defence more careful to observe truth than to gain advantage to himself He says he would endure any thing rather than be saved by falsehood. " It was a noble and brave expression if it were really true. "My lords, he hath likewise put the vizard of goodness on his actions when he desires to recite his services in a great many particulars, as if they were beneficial to the Commonwealth and state, whereas we shall prove them mis- chievous and dangerous. " It is left upon me, my lords, to take off these vizards, and appearances of truth and goodness, in that part of his answer which is the preamble ; and that I shall do with as much faithfulness and brevity as I can. " The first thing, my lords, that I shall ob- serve in the preamble, is this : That having re- cited all those great and honourable offices which he hath done under his majesty, he is bold to affirm that he hath been careful and faithful in the execution of them all. " My lords, if he might be his own witness and his own judge, I doubt not but he would be acquitted. It is said in the Proverbs of the adulterous woman, ' that she wipes her mouth,' and says ' she had done no evil.' Here is a wiping of the mouth, here is a verbal expression of honesty. But, my lords, the foulness and unjustness will never be wiped off, neither from his heart nor from his actions I mean for the time past : God may change him for the time to come !" With the same earnest gravity, and in the same confident and inflexible tone, Pym pro- ceeded to observe upon the various parts of Strafford's " apologetical preamble." Among other allegations, for instance, that in all things he had " endeavoured the honour of the king." Here the accuser exclaimed, " The honour of the king ! My lords, we say it is the honour of the king that he is the father of his people, that he is the fountain of justice ; and it can- not stand with his honour and his justice to have his government stained and polluted with tyranny and oppression !" Another of Straf- ford's allegations was, that by his means many good and wholesome laws had been made since his government in Ireland. " Truly, my lords," said Pym, " if we should consider the particu- lars of these laws, some of them will not be found without great exception. But I shall make another answer. Good laws, nay, the best laws, are no advantage when will is set above law ; when the laws have force to bind and restrain the subject, but no force to relieve and comfort him." Pym then proceeded thus : " He says he was a means of calling a Parliament not long after he came to his government. My lords, Parlia- ments without Parliamentary liberties are but a fair and plausible way into bondage. That Par- liament had not the liberties of a Parliament. Sir Pierce Crosby, for speaking against a bill in the Commons' House, was sequestered from the council-table, and committed to prison. Sir John Clotworthy, for the same cause, was threatened that he should lose a lease that he had. Mr. Barnewell, and two other gentlemen, were threatened they should have troops of horse put upon them for speaking in the House. Proxies by dozens were given by some of his favourites ; and, my lords, Parliaments coming in with these circumstances, they be grievances, mis- chiefs, and miseries ; no works of thanks or honour." Strafford had urged his having been a means to put off monopolies and other burdensome pro- jects from the subject, upon which his accuser observed thus bitterly : " If he had hated the in- justice of a monopoly or the mischief of a monop- oly, he would have hated it in himself he him- self would have been no monopolist. Certainly, my lords, it was not the love of justice, nor the common good, that moved him. And if he were moved by any living else, he had his reward. It may be it was because he would have no man gripe them in the kingdom but himself; his own harvest crop would have been less if he had had sharers. It may be it was because monopolies hinder trade ; he had the customs, and the benefit of the customs would have been less. When we know the particulars, we shall make a fit and proper answer to them. But in the mean time we are sure that, whatsoever was the reason, it was not justice, nor love of truth, that was the reason." Alluding next to Strafford's plea that he had no other commission but what his predecessors had, and that he had executed that commission with all moderation, the orator proceeded thus powerfully : " For the commission, it was no virtue of his if it were a good commission. I shall say nothing of that. But for the second part his moderation ! When you find so many imprisoned of the nobility ! so many men, some adjudged to death, some executed without law ! when you find so many public rapines on the state, soldiers sent to make good his decrees so many whippings in defence of monopolies so many gentlemen that were jurors, because they would not apply themselves to give ver- dicts on his side, to be fined in the Star Cham- ber men of quality to be disgraced, set on the pillory, and wearing papers, and such things (as it will appear through our evidence) can you, my lords, think there was any moderation] And yet truly, my lords, I can believe that if you compare his courses with other parts of the world ungoverned, he will be found beyond all tyranny and harshness ; but if you compare JOHN PYM. 187 them with his own mind and disposition, per- haps there was moderation ! Habits, we say, are more perfect than acts, because they be near- est the principle of actions. The habit of cruel- ty in himself (no doubt) is more perfect than any act of cruelty he hath committed ; but if this be his moderation, I think all men will pray to be delivered from it. I may truly say that that is verified in him, ' The mercies of the wicked are cruel!' " Then, after exposing at length, and with sin- gular precision, the fallacies respecting reve- nue in the answers of Strafford, Pym took up one of his statements, to the effect that many churches had been built since his government ; and went on, " Truly, my lords, why he should have any credit or honour if other men builded churches, I know not ; I am sure we hear of no churches he hath built himself. If, indeed, he had been careful to have set up good preachers, that would have stirred up devotion in men, and made them desirous of the knowledge of God, and by^hat means made more churches, it had been something. But I hear nothing of spiritual edification, nothing of the knowledge of God, that by his means hath been dispersed in that kingdom. And certainly they that strive not to build up men's souls in a spiritual way of edification, let them build all the material churches that can be, they will do no good : God is not worshipped with walls, but he is worshipped with hearts." It is necessary to hasten, however, through many remarkable details in this speech to the memorable words which closed it : " The earl concludes, my lords, with a desire ' that he may not be charged with errors of his understand- ing or judgment, being not bred up in the law ; or with weakness, to which human nature is subject.' Truly, my lords, it would be far from us to charge him with any such mistakes ! No, my lords, we shall charge him with nothing but what the law in every man's breast condemns the light of nature, the light of common reason, the rules of common society. And this will appear in all the articles which my colleagues will of- fer to you." It has been observed in the course of this work* that in the speeches of Pym alone will be found a real vindication of all the proceedings against Strafford up to the exaction of his life. From them alone is indeed reflected that " flow- ing and existing light of the public welfare," which discovered to virtuous statesmen then what was requisite to be done, and without which now our sight is dull and feeble. It ap- pears to me that Pym, and of all the managers Pym alone, argued the accusation and convic- tion of the earl as of the substance of eternal right, in opposition to the technical forms which the defence assumed. That crisis of danger to the public liberties had in his view already ar- rived, wherein, by every precedent of great and virtuous statesmanship, the question of JUS- TICE reared itself above the narrow limits of the law. Hence it was that, early on the morning of the thirteenth day of the trial when the elo- quence, the dignity of demeanour, and the ob- vious bodily sufferings of the noble accused had weighed as much in his favour with the lords Life of Strafford, p. 126. his judges as the commanding intellect and mournful severity of his features had prepos- sessed the lady spectators on his side Pym rose in his place in the House of Commons, and announcing a discovery of the last importance respecting Strafford, presented to the House certain weighty reasons for closing the proceed- ings against the earl by the legislative enact- ment of a bill of attainder. He then produced Vane's famous notes, in proof of advice from Strafford given to the king at the council-table, that he had an army in Ireland by which Eng- land might be reduced to obedience ; and mo- ved that the bill of attainder, which he now also produced, should be read a first time. Pym's motives to this sudden course are ob- vious. They are distinctly explained by a mo- tion which he submitted to the House six days after, when, on the bringing up the report of the bill previous to its third reading, he prevail- ed with the House to pass, unanimously, a pre- vious resolution, " That it has been sufficiently proved that Thomas, earl of Strafford, hath en- deavoured to subvert the ancient and funda- mental laws of these realms of England and Ireland, and to introduce an arbitrary and ty- rannical government against law."* In the course of the proceedings of the impeachment, and on the discovery of Vane's notes, the poli- cy, no less than the necessity, had made itself apparent to him, of fixing the case of Strafford on wider and more special grounds than were found to be involved in a very strict construc- tion of the old statute of treasons. Admitting this, however, nothing is so vain as to argue this question with a view to our present settle- ment of the laws of evidence and treason. The rules of evidence, and legal constructions of statutes, which are now clearly and intelligibly defined, were then recognised doubtfully, and frequently exceeded ; nor is it to be denied that the people at least accustomed as they were to perpetual stretchings of the statute of Ed- ward by constructive interpretation were un- able to attach any definite sense to the crime. t In Pym's refusal even to risk any arbitrary con- struction of a statute which might thereafter be turned against the people, we see only a fresh evidence of his never-ceasing care of the public freedom, which he would not consent to endanger, even in so extraordinary an emer- gency, by any possible invasion of the securi- ties of regular jurisprudence. He resolved on a bill of attainder. Bills of attainder were not then unusual, were the same in principle as the ordinary bills of pains and penalties ; and the argument against such a proceeding, as an act of retrospective punishment, was thoroughly answered in the case of Strafford by the course which Pym adopted. The histories do not mention the resolution I have just quoted, but it imbodies his grand vindication. It plainly reduced the reasoning of Strafford to this, that though to trangress a particular law is a crime, he who takes advantage of circumstances to overturn the whole established laws had no le- gal warning of his guilt, and therefore was no criminal. Pym only waited till he had reason to believe that the proofs he advanced under the fifteenth article of the impeachment did not * See Journals of 16th April, 1641. t See Uallam's (Joust. Hist., vol. ii., p. 146. 188 BRITISH STATESMEN. amount to a substantive treason under the stat- ute, when it is very clear that he at once re- solved upon this course, wisely judging it bet- ter to fix the guilt of Strafford on higher and grander considerations,* and to bring the trea- son that had been committed against the laws and liberties of the Commonwealth to the im- mediate arbitration of what he justly termed " the element and source of all laws, out of which they are derived ; the end of all laws, to which they are designed, and in which they are perfected." With this view, also, he inserted the famous proviso in the bill, that the present attainder should not be acted upon by the judg- es as a precedent in determining the crime of treason. Truly has Mr. Godwin saidt that this illustrates emphatically the clearness of his conceptions and the equality of his temper through the whole of these memorable proceed- ings. Nothing has been so little understood, not to say grossly misrepresented, as the exact course of Pym in this matter. He did not wait till "the impeachment had obviously failed;" he did not wait to see " the effect of Vane's notes upon the lords ;" he did not at last hurry the bill of attainder through the lower House " with indecent haste." Clarendon's assertions, that the bill was not introduced till after Strafford's defence was made, and that then it was " re- ceived with wonderful alacrity, and immedi- ately read the first and the second time, and so committed, which was not usual in Parlia- ments,":): are simply untruths. Pym introdu- ced the bill on the 10th of April, when it was read the first time ; Vane's notes were not read in Westminster Hall till the 13th of April, im- mediately before Strafford's defence ; on the day following (the 14th) the bill of attainder was read a second time ; and the third reading did not pass till the 21st of April. Meanwhile Pym and St. John had both stated to the House of Lords that the Commons did not seek "to decline their lordships' justice in a judicial way"|| by submitting the bill of attainder to them ; and ultimately the House of Lords did in fact vote upon each article of the bill judi- cially, and not as if they were enacting a legis- lative measure ; while the judges themselves, on a solemn reference by the Lords for their opinion whether some of the articles charged upon Strafford amounted to treason, answered unanimously that upon all which their lordships had voted to be proved, they considered the earl to be guilty of that crime. So that, in truth, there is no reason to suppose a failure of the impeachment, had it been allowed to pro- ceed. It was Pym who first refused to sanc- tion that proceeding with the weight of his au- thority in after-times ; and to him, and the great men who acted with him, be awarded the praise of having thus stamped the guilt of Strafford as a treason against the people rather than the king, and, while they guarded with profound and sagacious care the liberty of the subject and the strict authority of the law, of having written for all future ages, in the death of * See these considerations urged at greater length in the Life of Strafford, p. 126-129. t Hist, of the Commonwealth, vol. i., p. 92. t Hist., vol. i., p. 398. i; See the Journals of those days ; or the Old Parl. Hist., vol ix., p. 252. || Nalson's Collections, vol. ii., p. 163. Strafford, the terrible lesson of a nation's ret- ribution. I now return to the last day of the trial in Westminster Hall, where the Lords still pro- ceeded as if they were ignorant of the bill now pending in the lower House. On the 13th of April, after Lord Strafford had delivered the noble and affecting burst of eloquence with which his defence concluded, Pym rose, and, in the language of an honest writer* who was present, " made, in half an hour, to the confes- sion of all, one of the most eloquent, wise, free speeches that ever we heard, or I think shall ever hear."t The speech was indeed extra- ordinary. It seems, by all the accounts, to have been delivered with the evident sense that the great occasion of the speaker's life had come, and that with him it now finally rested whether or not the privileges so long contested, and the rights so long misunderstood, of the great body of the people, should win at last their assured consummation and acknowledgment. " My lords," he began, " many days have been spent in maintenance of the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford by the House of Com- mons, whereby he stands charged with high treason ; and your lordships have heard his de- fence with patience, and with as much favour as justice will allow. W r e have passed through our evidence ; and the result is, that it remains clearly proved that the Earl of Strafford hath endeavoured, by his words, actions, and counsels, to subvert the fundamental laws of England and Ireland, and to introduce an arbitrary and tyran- nical government. " This is the envenomed arrow! for which he inquired in the beginning of his replication this day, which hath infected all his blood ; this is that intoxicating cup (to use his own metaphor) which hath tainted his judgment and poisoned his heart ! From hence was infused that specifical difference which turned his speeches, his actions, his counsels into trea- son ; not cumulative, as he expressed it, as it many misdemeanors could make one treason, but formally and essentially. It is the end that doth inform actions, and doth specificate the nature of them, making not only criminal, but even indifferent words and actions to be treason when done and spoken with a treason- able intention. " That which is given to me in charge is to show the quality of the offence, how heinous it is in the nature, how mischievous in the effect of it ; which will best appear if it be examined by that law to which he himself appealed, that uni- versal, that supreme law, SALUS POPULI. This the element of all laws, out of which they are * Baillie, the principal of the Glasgow University. t " The king," Baillie adds, "never heard a lecture of so free language against that his idolized prerogative. Some of the passages, and no more but some, and these defaced, I send you in priut, as they have been taken in speaking by some hand." t In the commencement of the defence which had just closed, Strafford, observing upon the statement of his ac- cusers that separate articles in the impeachment might be no treason in themselves, and yet conduce to the proof of treason, had said, " And hence, my lords, I have all along watched to see if I could find that poisoned arrow that should envenom all the rest that deadly cup of wine that should intoxicate a few alleged inconveniences and misdemeanors, to run them up to high treason." Pym's remarks on this and other important points of the defence proves that in general management, and much of the expression, this great speech of his was delivered extempore. JOHN PYM. derived ; the end of all laws, to which they are designed, and in which they are perfected. How far it stands in opposition to this law I shall en- deavour to show, in some considerations which I shall present to your lordships, arising out of the evidence which hath been opened. " The first is this : it is an offence compre- hending all other offences. Here you shall find several treasons, murthers, rapines, op- pressions, perjuries. The earth hath a semi- nary virtue, whereby it doth produce all herbs and plants, and other vegetables : there is in this crime a seminary of all evils hurtful to a state ; and if you consider the reasons of it, it must needs be so. " The law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evil, betwixt just and unjust. If you take away the law, all things will fall into a con- fusion. Every man will become a law to him- self, which, in tht depraved condition of human na- ture, must needs produce many great enormities. Lust will become a law, and envy will become a law ; covetousness and ambition will become laws ; and what dictates, what decisions such laws will produce, may easily be discerned in the late gov- ernment of Ireland ! " The law hath a power to prevent, to re- strain, to repair evils. Without this, all kinds of mischief and distempers will break in upon a state. It is the law that doth entitle the king to the allegiance and service of his peo- ple ; it entitles the people to the protection and justice of the king. It is God alone who sub- sists by himself; all other things subsist in a mutual dependence and relation. He was a wise man that said that the king subsisted by the field that is tilled : it is the labour of the people that supports the crown. If you take away the protection of the king, the vigour and cheerfulness of allegiance will be taken away, though the obligation remain. " The law is the boundary, the measure, be- twixt the king's prerogative and the people's liberty. Whilst these move in their own orbs, they are a support and a security to one anoth- er the prerogative a cover and defence to the liberty of the people, and the people, by their liberty, enabled to be a foundation to the pre- rogative ; but if these bounds be so removed that they enter into contestation and conflict, one of these mischiefs must ensue : if the pre- rogative of the king overwhelm the liberty of the people, it will be turned into tyranny ; if liberty undermine the prerogative, it will grow into anarchy." The whole compass of our language does not contain a nobler description of law than this. It has indeed been justly pronounced, by no partial witness* to Pym's memory, to combine the splendour of one of the commonplaces of Cicero with the logical force of Lord Bacon's profound meditations. It has even greater force, philosophy, and beauty, when viewed in relation to the wider appeal which the speaker had already judged it necessary to make, not less to prevent the possibly undue stretching of a statute, than to wither and destroy the monstrous assumption of the accused that he, forsooth, was a pleader for the law, while the very principle assumed in his argument is that of having laboured to overturn all law. * Mr. D'kraeli in his Commentaries, vol. iv., p. 467. It will be observed, however, that nothing more strikingly impresses itself upon us, ia reading Rushworth's report* of this extraordi- nary speech, than the instant and impressive practical application to the defence which Straf- ford had just delivered, with which all the great principles and abstract truths on which Pym must have thought for years, now, with a state- ly vehemence, rushed forth from him. This it is, as with the greatest orators, to comprehend the whole of a subject, no matter how over- whelming in its interests and proportions, at a single glance ; and then, out of an armory of words and thoughts, collected through the unti- ring exertions of a life of observation and study, to know how to send every word and every thought to its errand, like an arrow to its mark, with unerring aim. The first of the noble pas- sages which follow has reference to what Strafford had said in his defence respecting Ireland that it was a conquered country, and that his illegal exertions there were to main- tain the king's absolute sovereignty. This was as good an argument as many that have been since advanced, with less excuse, for sub- sequent oppressions in the same quarter ; but mark with what final and unanswerable elo- quence Pym crushes every such sophism or pretension ! " The law is the safeguard, the custody of all private interests. Your honours, your lives, your liberties, and estates are all in the keep- ing of the law. Without this, every man hath a like right to any thing ; and such is the con- dition into which the Irish were brought by the Earl of Strafford. But the reason which he gave for it hath even more mischief in it than the thing itself! They were a conquered nation ! There cannot be a word more preg- nant and fruitful in treason than that word is. There are few nations in the world that have not been conquered, and no doubt but the con- queror may give what law he pleases to those that are conquered ; but if the succeeding pacts and agreements do not limit and restrain that right, what people can be secure 1 England hath been conquered, and Wales hath been conquer- ed, and by this reason will be in little better case than Ireland. If the king, by the right of a conqueror, gives laws to his people, shall not the people, by the same reason, be restored to the right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can ? What can be more hurtful, more pernicious to both, than such propositions as these 1 And in these particulars is determined the first consid- eration. " The second consideration is this : arbitra- ry power is dangerous to the king's person, and dangerous to his crown. It is apt to cherish ambition, usurpation, and oppression in great men, and to beget sedition and discontent in the people ; and both these have been, and in reason must ever be, causes of great trouble and alteration to princes and states. If the histories of those Eastern countries be pursued, where princes order their affairs according to the mischievous principles of the Earl of Straf- ford, loose and absolved from all rules of gov- ernment, they will be found to be frequent in combustions, full of massacres, and of the tragi- cal ends of princes. If any man shall look into My quotations are taken from it. 190 BRITISH STATESMEN. their own stories in the times when the laws were most neglected, he shall find them full of commotions of civil distempers, where- by the kings that then reigned were always kept in want and distress, the people consumed with civil wars ; and by such wicked counsels as these some of our princes have been brought to such a miserable end as no honest heart can remember without horror, and an earnest pray- er that it may never be so again.* " The third consideration is this the sub- version of the laws ; and this arbitrary power, as it is dangerous to the king's person and to his crown, so is it in other respects very pre- judicial to his majesty, in his honour, profit, and greatness. And yet these are the gildings and paintings that are put upon such counsels : ' these are for your honour for your service ;' whereas, in truth, they are contrary to both. But if I take off this varnish, I hope they shall then appear in their own native deformity, and therefore I desire to consider them by these rules. " It cannot be for the honour of the king that his sacred authority should be used in the prac- tice of injustice and oppression that his name should be applied to patronise such horrid crimes as have been represented in evidence against the Earl of Strafford ; and yet how fre- quently, how presumptuously his commands, his letters, have been vouched throughout the course of this defence ! Your lordships have heard that when the judges do justice it is the king's justice ; and this is for his honour, be- cause he is the fountain of justice ; but when they do injustice the offence is their own ; how these officers and ministers of the king, who are most officious in the exercise of arbitrary power, do it commonly for their own advan- tage ; and, when they are questioned for it, then they fly to the king's ' interest' to his 'direction!' Truly, my lords, this is a very unequal distribution for the king, that the dis- honour of evil courses should be cast upon him, and they to have the advantage ! "The prejudice which it brings to him in re- gard of his profit is no less apparent, since it deprives him of the most beneficial and most certain revenue of his crown ; that is, the vol- untary aids and supplies of his people. His other revenues, consisting of goodly demesnes and great manors, have by grants been vari- ously alienated from the crown, and are now exceedingly diminished and impaired. But this revenue, it cannot be sold ; it cannot be bur- dened with any pensions or annuities ; it comes entirely to the crown. It is now almost fifteen years since his majesty had any assistance from his people, and these illegal ways of sup- plying the king were never pressed with more violence and art than they have been in this time ; and yet I may, upon very good grounds, affirm, that in the last fifteen years of Queen Elizabeth she received more by the bounty and affection of her subjects than hath come to his majesty's coffers by all the inordinate and rig- orous courses which have been taken ; and as * The king- was present, the reader will recollect, though not recognised as being so. A screen of trellis-work was be- fore him. It may be supposed that now, while these mem- orable words sounded through the hall, was the moment of ' breaking down the screen with his own hand,'' as Baillie records him to have done. those supplies were more beneficial in the re- ceipt of them, so were they like in the use and employment of them. " Another way of prejudice to his majesty's profit is this : such arbitrary courses exhaust the people, and disable them, when there shall be occasion, to give such plentiful supplies as otherwise they would do. I shall need no oth- er proof of this than the Irish government un- der my Lord Strafford, where the wealth of the kingdom has been so consumed by those horri- ble exactions and burdens, that it is thought the subsidies lately granted will amount to little more than half the proportion of the last sub- sidies. The two former ways are hurtful to the king's profit in that respect which they call lu- crum ccssans, by diminishing his receipts ; but there is a third yet more full of mischief, and it is in that respect which they call damnum emcrgens, by increasing his disbursements ; for such irregular and exorbitant attempts upon the liberties of the people are apt to produce such miserable distractions and distempers, as will put the king and kingdoms to so vast expenses and losses in a short time that they will not be recovered in many years. We need not go far to seek a proof of this these two last years will be a sufficient evidence ; within which time I assure myself it may be proved, that more treasure hath been wasted, and more loss sus- tained by his majesty and his subjects, than was spent by Queen Elizabeth in all the war of Tyrone, and in those many brave attempts against the King of Spain, and the royal as- sistance which she gave to France and the Low Countries, during all her reign. " Now, as for greatness, this arbitrary pow- er is apt to hinder and impair it, not only at home, but abroad. A kingdom is a society of men conjoined under one government for the common good. The world is a society of the kingdoms and states. The king's greatness consists not only in his dominion over his sub- jects at home, but in the influence which he hath upon states abroad ; that he should be great, even among kings, and by his wisdom and authority be able so to incline and dispose the affairs of other states and nations, and those great events which fall out in the world, that they shall be for the good of mankind, and for the peculiar advantage of his own people. This is the most glorious and magnificent great- ness to be able to relieve distressed princes, to support his own friends and allies, to pre- vent the ambitious designs of other kings ; and how much this kingdom hath been impaired in this kind by the late mischievous counsels, your lordships best know, who, at a near distance, and with a more clear sight, do apprehend these public and great affairs than I can do. Yet thus much I dare boldly say, that if his majes- ty had not with great wisdom and goodness forsaken that way wherein the Earl of Strafford had put him, we should, within a short time, have been brought into that miserable condi- tion as to have been useless to our friends, con- temptible to our enemies, and incapable of un- dertaking any great design either at home or abroad. " A fourth consideration is, that this arbitra- ry and tyrannical power which the Earl of Strafford did exercise with his own person, and JOHN PYM. 191 to which he did advise his majesty, is incon- sistent with the peace, the wealth, the prosper- ity of a nation : it is destructive to justice, the mother of peace ; to industry, the spring of wealth ; to valour, which is the active virtue whereby only the prosperity of a nation can be procured, confirmed, and enlarged. It is not only apt to take away peace, and so entangle the nation with wars, but doth corrupt peace, and put such a malignity into it as produceth the effects of war. We need seek no other proofs of this but the Earl of StrafTord's gov- ernment, where the Irish, both nobility and oth- ers, had as little security of their persons or estates in this peaceable time as if the king- dom had been under the rage and fury of war. " And as for industry and valour, who will take pains for that which, when he hath gotten, is not his own 1 or who fight for that wherein he hath no other interest but such as is subject to the will of another 1 The ancient encour- agement to men that were to defend their coun- tries was this, that they were to hazard their person, pro arts et focis, for their religion and for their homes ; but by this arbitrary way which was practised in Ireland, and counselled here, no man had any certainty either of reli- gion, or of his home, or of any thing else to be his own ; and besides this, such arbitrary cour- ses have an ill operation upon the courage of a nation, by embasing the hearts of the people. A servile condition does for the most part be- get in men a slavish temper and disposition. Those that live so much under the whip, and the pillory, and such servile engines as were frequently used by the Earl of StrafFord, they may have the dregs of valour sullenness and stubbornness, which may make them prone to mutinies and discontents, but those noble and gallant affections which put men to brave de- signs and attempts for the preservation or en- largement of a kingdom they are hardly capa- ble of. SHALL IT BE TREASON TO EMBASE THE KING'S COIN, THOUGH BUT A PIECE OF TWELVE- PENCE OR SIXPENCE 1 AND MUST IT NOT NEEDS BE THE EFFECT OF A GREATER TREASON TO EMBASE THE SPIRIT OF HIS SUBJECTS, AND TO SET UP A STAMP AND CHARACTER OF SERVITUDE UPON THEM, WHEREBY THEY SHALL BE DISABLED TO DO ANY- THING FOR THE SERVICE OF THE KING AND CoM- MONWEALTH 1 " The fifth consideration is this, that the ex- ercise of this arbitrary government in times of sudden danger, by the invasion of an enemy, will disable his majesty to preserve himself and his subjects from that danger. This is the only pretence by which the Earl of Strafford, and such other mischievous counsellors, would in- duce his majesty to make use of it ; and if it be unfit for such an occasion, I know nothing that can be alleged in maintenance of it. When war threatens a kingdom by the coming of a foreign enemy, it is no time then to discontent the people, to make them weary of the present government, and more inclinable to a change. The supplies which are to come in this way will be unready uncertain ; there can be no assurance of them no dependance upon them, either for time or proportion ; and if some money be gotten in such a way, the distrac- tions, divisions, distempers which this course is apt to produce, will be more prejudicial to the public safety than the supply can be advan- tageous to it. Of this we have had sufficient ex- perience the last summer. " The sixth is, that this crime of subverting the laws, and introducing an arbitrary and ty- rannical government, is contrary to the pact and covenant betwixt the king and his people. That which was spoken of before was the legal union of allegiance and protection ; this is a personal union, by mutual agreement and stip- ulation, confirmed by oath on both sides. The king and his people are obliged to one another in the nearest relations. When Justice Thorp, in Edward III.'s time, was by the Parliament con- demned to death for bribery, the reason of that judgment is given, because he had broke the king's oath ; not that he had broke his own oath, but he had broken the king's oath, that solemn and great obligation which is the secu- rity of the whole kingdom. Now if for a judge to take a small sum in a private cause was ad- judged capital, how much greater was this of- fence, whereby the Earl of Strafford hath bro- ken the king's oath in the whole course of his government in Ireland, to the prejudice of so many of his majesty's subjects in their lives, liberties, and estates, and to the danger of all the rest !* The doctrine of the Papists, fides non est survanda cum hareticis, is an abominable doctrine ; yet that other tenet, more peculiar to the Jesuits, is more pernicious, whereby sub- jects are discharged from their oath of allegi- ance to their prince whensoever the pope pleaseth. Now, my lords, this may be added, to make the third no less mischievous and de- structive to human society than either of the rest, that the king is not bound by that oath which he hath taken to observe the laws of the kingdom, but may, when he sees cause, lay tax- es and burthens upon them without their con- sent, contrary to the laws and liberties of the kingdom. This hath been preached and publish- ed by divers ; and this is that which hath been practised in Ireland by the Earl of Strafford in his government there, and endeavoured to be brought into England by his counsel here. " The seventh is this : it is an offence that is contrary to the end of government. The end of government is to prevent oppressions, to limit and restrain the excessive power and vi- olence of great men, to open the passages of justice with indifferency towards all. This ar- bitrary power is apt to induce and encourage all kinds of insolences. Another end of the government is to preserve men in their estates, to secure them in their lives and liberties ; but if this design had taken effect, and could have been settled in England as it is practised in Ire- land, no man would have had more certainty in his own than power would have allowed him. But these two have been spoken of before ; there are two behind more important, which have not yet been touched. * This precedent, by-the-by, is likely to have been that which was in Sir R. Goodwin's mind when he referred to Pym in Cromwell's Parliament of 1658 ; but I have allowed the speech to stand, which has been attributed to Pym on the ground of its containing a similar precedent, both be- cause of its extraordinarily marked style, which, in the ab- sence of any known author, and in spite of strong opposing evidence, still seems to point to Pym as having had a sharo in its authorship, and also because, being a most striking illustration of the times, it is yet excluded from the com- mon Parliamentary histories. 192 BRITISH STATESMEN. " It is the end of government that virtue should be cherished, vice supprest ; but where this arbitrary and unlimited power is set up, a way is open not only for the security, but for the advancement and encouragement of evil. Such men as are apt for the execution and main- tenance of this power are only capable of pre- ferment ; and others who will not be instru- ments of any unjust commands, who make a conscience to do nothing against the laws of the kingdom and liberties of the subjects, are not only not. passable for employment, but sub- ject to much jealousy and danger. It is the end of government that all accidents and events, all counsels and designs, should be improved to the public good ; but this arbitrary power is apt to dispose all to the maintenance of itself. The wisdom of the council-table, the authority of the courts of justice, the industry of all the of- ficers of the crown, have been most carefully exercised in this ; the learning of our divines, the jurisdiction of our bishops, have been mould- ed and disposed to the same effect ; which, though it were begun before the Earl of Straf- ford's employment, yet hath been exceedingly furthered and advanced by him. Under this colour and pretence of maintaining the king's power and prerogative, many dangerous prac- tices against the peace and safety of the king- dom have been undertaken and promoted. The increase of popery, and the favours and encour- agement of Papists, have been, and still are, a great grievance and danger to the kingdom. The invocation, in matters of religion, upon usurpations of the clergy, the manifold burthens and taxations upon the people, have been a great cause of our present distempers and dis- orders ; and yet those who have been chief furtherers and actors of such mischiefs have had their credit and authority from this, that they were forward to maintain this power. The Earl of Strafford had the first rise of his greatness from this ; and in his apology and defence, as your lordships have heard, this hath had a main part. " The royal power and majesty of kings is only glorious in the prosperity and happiness of the people. The perfection of all things consists in the end for which they were ordain- ed. God only is his own end. All other things have a further end beyond themselves, in at- taining whereof their own happiness consists. If the means and the end be set in opposition to one another, it must needs cause an impo- tency and defect of both." These extracts carry with them their own praise. They belong, indeed, to the very high- est order of eloquence ; they imbody the truths of a sound philosophy with the great substan- tial truths of common sense, and mingle, with a power and purpose that are truly masterly, the great maxims of the old English Constitu- tion with the real interests and general feelings of mankind in every country and under every circumstance. Pym now turned to certain special excuses and justifications which Strafford had urged in his defence. " The eighth consideration is the vanity and absurdity of those excuses and jus- tifications which he made for himself, whereof divers particulars have been mentioned in the course of this defence. " 1. That he is a counselloi, and might not be questioned for any thing which he advised according to his conscience. The ground is true. There is a liberty belongs to counsellors, and nothing corrupts counsels more than fear. He that will have the privilege of a counsellor, however, must keep within the just bounds of a counsellor : those matters are the only prop- er subjects of counsel which in their times and occasions may be good or beneficial to the king or Commonwealth ; but such treasons as these the subversion of the laws, violation of liber- ties they can never be good or justifiable by any circumstance or occasion. Therefore his being a counsellor makes his fault much more heinous, as being committed against a greater trust, and in a way of much mischief and dan- ger, lest his majesty's conscience and judgment (upon which the whole course and frame of his government do much depend) should be poison- ed and infected with such wicked principles and designs. This Lord Strafford hath endeavour- ed to do, which by all laws and in all times hath in this kingdom been reckoned a crime of a high nature. " 2. He labours to interest your lordships in his cause by alleging it may be dangerous to yourselves and your posterity, who by your birth are fittest to be near his majesty, in pla- ces of trust and of authority, if you should be subject to be questioned for matters delivered in council. To this it is to be answered, that it is hoped their lordships will rather labour to secure themselves and their posterity in the exercise of their virtues than of their vices, that so they may, together with their own hon- our and greatness, preserve the honour and greatness both of the king and kingdom. " 3. Another excuse is this, that whatsoever he hath spoken was out of good intention. Sometimes, my lords, good and evil, truth and falsehood, lie so near together that they are hardly to be distinguished. Matters hurtful and dangerous may be accompanied with such circumstances as may make them appear use- ful and convenient ; and, in all such cases, good intention will justify evil counsel. But where the matters propounded are evil in their own na- ture, such as the matters are wherewith the Earl of Strafford is charged as to break a pub- lic faith, and to subvert laws and government they can never be justified by any intentions, how good soever they be pretended. "4. He allegeth it was a time of great ne- cessity and danger, when such counsels were necessary for the preservation of the state. Necessity hath been spoken of before, as it re- lates to the cause ; now it is considered as it relates to the person. If there were any ne- cessity, it was of his own making : he, by his evil counsel, had brought the king into a neces- sity ; and by no rules of justice can be allowed to gain this advantage by his own fault, as to make that a ground of his justification which is a great part of his offence. "5. He hath often insinuated this, that it was for his majesty's service, in maintenance of that sovereign power with which he is in- trusted by God for the good of his people. The answer is this : no doubt but that sovereign power wherewith his majesty is intrusted for the public good hath many glorious effects, the JOHN PYM. 193 better to enable him thereunto ; hut without doubt this is none of them, that, by his own will, he may lay any tax or imposition upon his peo- ple without their consent in Parliament. This hath now been five times adjudged by both Houses in the case of the loans, in condemn- ing commissions of the excise, in the resolu- tion upon the saving clause offered to be added to the petition of right, in the sentence against Mainwaring, and now against Lutell, in con- demning the ship-money. And, therefore, if the sovereign power of the king can produce no such effect as this, the allegation of it is an aggravation, and no diminution, of his offence, because thereby he doth labour to interest the king against the just grievance and complaint of the people. " 6. That this counsel was propounded with divers limitations and provisions for securing and repairing the liberty of the people. This implies a contradiction : to maintain an arbi- trary and absolute power, and yet to restrain it with limitations and provisions ; for even those limitations and provisions will be subject to the same absolute power, and to be dispen- sed in such manner and at such time as itself shall determine. Let the grievances and op- pressions be never so heavy, the subject is left without all remedy but at his majesty's own pleasure. " 7. He allegeth they were but words, and no effect followed : this needs no answer, but that the miserable distempers into which he hath brought all the three kingdoms will be evi- dence sufficient that his wicked counsels have had such mischievous effects, within these two or three last years, that many years' peace will hardly repair those losses and other great mischiefs which the Commonwealth hath sus- tained." Pym now offered his concluding considera- tions, which, it will be seen, bear emphatic reference to the new course which he had al- ready initiated in the House of Commons, of declaring Strafford's treason by the justice of a special enactment. " The ninth consideration, my lords, is this : that if this be treason in the nature of it, it doth exceed all other treasons in this, that in the design and endeavour of the author it was to be a constant and permanent treason. Other treasons are transient, as being confined with- in those particular actions and proportions wherein they did consist ; and those being past, the treason ceaseth. The powder trea- son was full of horror and malignity, yet it is past many years since. The murder of that magnanimous and glorious king, Henry IV. of France, was a great and horrid treason, and so were those manifold attempts against Queen Elizabeth, of blessed memory ; but they are long since past : the detestation of them only remains in histories and in the minds of men, and will ever remain. But this treason, if it had taken effect, WAS TO BE A STANDING, PER- PETUAL TREASON, WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN IN CONTINUAL ACT J NOT DETERMINED WITHIN ONE TIME OR AOE, BUT TRANSMITTED TO POSTERITY, EVEN FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER. " The last consideration is this : that as it is a crime odious in the nature of it, so it is odi- ous in the judgment and estimation of the law. BB To alter the settled frame and constitution of government is treason in any state. THE LAWS WHEREBY ALL OTHER PARTS OP A KINGDOM ARK PRESERVED WOULD BE VERY VAIN AND DEFECTIVE IF THEY HAD NOT A POWER TO SECURE AND PRE- SERVE THEMSELVES." The orator concluded with these condensed and terrible words : " The forfeitures inflicted for treason by our law are of life, honour, and estate, even all that can be forfeited ; and this prisoner having committed so many treasons, although he should pay all these forfeitures, will be still a debtor to the Commonwealth. Nothing can be more equal than that he should perish by the justice of ttiat law which he would have subverted. Neither will this be a new way of blood. There are marks enough to trace this law to the very original of this king- dom ; and if it hath not been put in execution, as he allegeth, these 240 years, it was not for want of law, but that all that time hath not bred a man bold enough to commit such crimes as these /" An interesting incident now occurred, which has already been described in this work,* but which cannot be omitted here. Through the whole of the speech Strafford is described to have been closely and earnestly watching Pym ; when the latter suddenly turning, as the above words were spoken, met the fixed and faded eyes and haggard features of his early associ- ate, and a rush of feelings from other days so fearfully contrasting the youth and friend- ship of the pastf with the love-poisoned hate of the present and the mortal agony impending in the future for a moment deprived the pa- triot of self-possession. " His papers he look- ed on," says Baillie, " but they could not help him ; so he behooved to pass them." For a moment only ! Suddenly recovering his dig- nity and self-command, he told the court that the solicitor-general, St. John, would, on a fu- ture day, and " with, learning and abilities much better for that service," argue certain points of law before them, and solicited their lord- ships, for the present, to consider the proceed- ings closed. The few eventful weeks of life which still remained to Strafford have already been detail- ed ; but some incidents connected with the plots devised for his rescue, not given before, may now be used in illustration of Pym's char- acter. While the bill of attainder was on its way to the Lords,* Mr. Hyde (Lord Clarendon) was sent up to that house with a message sta- ting that the Commons apprehended a design for the escape of Strafford, and requesting that the Irish army should be disbanded. Five days after this, and two days after the ill-advised interference of the king,$ a furious mob of up- ward of 6000 people, variously armed, throng- ed round Westminster Hall, clamoured for Strafford's blood, and placarded the names of those members of the Commons who, out of a * Life of Strafford, p. 127. t The expression conveyed in Strafford's look may be felt on reading a few of the touching words which graced his eloquent defence : " That I am charged with treason by the honourable Commons is my greatest grief: it pierces my heart, though not with guilt, yet with sorrow, that i my gray hairs I should be so misunderstood by the companions of my youth, with whom I have formerly spent to much time" t On the 28th of April. <) See Life of Strafford, p. 127. 194 BRITISH STATESMEN. house of 263,* had voted against the attainder, as " Straffordians, and betrayers of their coun- try." The Lords instantly demanded a con- ference on the subject, and were refused. The Commons were at that moment listening, in the deepest agitation, to Pym, whose sleepless vigilance had discovered a formidable and dan- gerous conspiracy, and was then denouncing it, in all its details, and with the names of all its actors. He discovered to the House va- rious desperate intrigues and dangerous de- signs, both at home and abroad (referring to France), against the Parliament and the peo- ple ; and especially a plot " to disaffect the army to the Parliament," and bring it up from the North, with the king's assent, to overawe their proceedings ; also of a design upon the Tower for Lord Strafford's escape, and of an intended descent of the French upon Ports- mouth in furtherance of these machinations. He stated farther, that "persons of eminence about the queen" appeared to be deeply impli- cated ; and moved that his majesty be request- ed to shut the ports, and to give orders that no person attending on himself, the queen, or the prince, should quit the kingdom without li- cense of his majesty, by the advice of Parlia- ment, t The immediate effects of Pym's speech were very memorable. The Commons, who remain- ed sitting on the occasion with locked doors from seven in the morning till eight at night, drew up a " protestation," at last, on Pym's motion,}: "to defend the Protestant Church, his majesty's person and power, the privileges of Parliament, and the lawful rights and liber- ties of the people ;" which was instantly sign- ed by every member present (" Edward Hyde" is the second name attached to it), subsequent- ly by the members of the House of Lords (the Catholic peers excepted, and who were in con- sequence absent during Strafford's attainder), and then circulated, in various copies, for uni- versal signature throughout the kingdom. The sensation thus created was felt everywhere, * "The question being then put for passing the bill against the eaal, it was carried in the affirmative by 204 against 59. Mr. Pym was ordered to carry this bill to the Lords, and to express to them ' that it was a bill that high- ly concerned the Commonwealth in the expediting of it.'" This was oa the 21st of April. Old Parl. Hist., vol. iz., p. 262, 263. t Subsequent discoveries have placed us in possession of the exact course and substance of Pym's present disclosures. They are thus shortly summed up in the History from Mack- intosh : " Goring, then a colonel in the army, and Percy, brother of the Earl of Northumberland, took the lead iu a consultation of officers, held under an oath of secrecy. It originated with Sir John Suckling, who was soon thrown aside from distrust of his personal courage. The Parlia- ment was to be overawed or dissolved ; and, in short, the king rendered abesVute, by the sudden march of the army to London. They addressed to the king a petition, which he received and approved, and marked with the initials C. R. : it seriously compromised him. This movement was com- bined with the escape of Strafford. Balfour, lieutenant of the Tower, was offered by the earl 22,000, the marriage of Balfour's son to his eldest daughter, and the king's war- rant for his indemnity. He received the king's command, at the same time, to receive Captain Billingsley, one of the conspirators, with 100 picked men, into the Tower. Dread- ing the vengeance of the House of Commons, he rejected the bribe, and refused obedience to the military order. The king and queen charged Jennyn, already the queen's fa- vourite, to reconcile the rival pretensions of Goring and Percy, but failed to do so ; and Goring disclosed the plot to Lord Newark, from whom, through Bedford, Say, and Kim- bolton, it reached Pym." t See the speech of Pym, as reported in Clarendon, vol. i., p. 43&-441. and the popular leaders took advantage of it to achieve a still more memorable measure. Pym pointed out the nature of the dangers that had threatened them before this discovery, and ask- ed whether they were safer now. The king had listened to and approved a proposal of ap- pealing from the House of Commons to a mili- tary force. Were they now secure from in- stant dissolution 1 and, supposing a dissolution at the present crisis, with a term of three years for prerogative measures against the people, were not the public liberties in danger of being lost forever 1 A bill to secure the existence of the present Parliament, on which depended every thing, was then named, and fervently welcomed by the House. " A rapid impulse," observes Mr. Hallam,* " rather than any con- certed resolution, appears to have dictated a hardy encroachment on the prerogative. The bill against the dissolution of the present Par- liament without its own consent was resolved in a committee on the 5th of May,t brought in the next day, and sent to the Lords on the 7th." On the 8th the bill passed. On the same day Strafford's attainder passed also, and both measures were presented to the king. He at once signed the bill for the continu- ance of Parliament ; and Mr. Hallam suggests that "his ready acquiescence in this bill, far more dangerous than any of those at which he had hitherto demurred, can only be ascribed to his own shame and the queen's consternation at the discovery of the late plot. He implored for some delay, however, before signing Straf- ford's attainder. Nothing could be more vain. The same discovery had also enmeshed him here ; for it was already obvious, into such a state had the public mind been thrown, that had the Commons even consented to a tempo- rary respite, it must have been in defiance of Imminent danger to the kingdom. The bill was signed on the 9th of May ; and on the 12th, Strafford, " the greatest subject in power, and little inferior to any in fortune that was at that time in any of the three kingdoms,":): suffered on the scaffold. Such were the instant consequences of Pym's discovery of the army plot ; and others, almost equally remarkable, will be noticed hereafter. Lord Clarendon has not failed, therefore, to assail the character of the vigilant patriot on this point ; and, treating the real plot as a very trifling affair, charges Pym in his history with having used it only to agitate the public mind, and raise terrifying tumults. Admitting, how- ever, subsequently, that what was really dis- covered "gave great credit and reputation to Mr. Pym's vigilance and activity," he takes oc- casion to add, that at this period " Mr. Pym had all tavern and ordinary discourses carried to him ;" which only leaves us to regret that the treachery of such men as " Mr. Hyde " should have rendered such vigilance necessary. Not- withstanding all this, nothing is more certain, at least, than that this same " Mr. Hyde " par- took of the terrors which Pym excited, since he carried up the first message to the Lords, was foremost in the affair of the " protesta- tion," which so effectually roused the country, * Const. Hist., vol. ii., p. 155. t That is, two days after Pym's discovery of the army plot. t Clarendon. JOHN PYM. 195 and, with his friend Lord Falkland, managed a sudden conference with the Lords respecting the bill for the continuance of Parliament.* It was only the "Earl of Clarendon " who, many years after, found it convenient to represent the conspiracy as having been exaggerated for factious purposes ; and, notwithstanding the thorough exposure of his falsehoods, careless- ness, and disingenuousness by Mr. Brodie and Mr. Hallatn,t he has found a very resolute and ingenious follower in the present day, who yet persists in saying that the only solid mischief of the army plot was worked " by the adroit management of Pym, whose vigorous concep- tions could create mighty consequences from slight events, and on whose bold designs now revolved the fate of an empire."}: It is now necessary to go back a little. Some few weeks before the death of Strafford, Pym had been specially chosen by the Commons to justify the impeachment and detention of Laud, on the occasion of their delivering to the Lords the articles that had been prepared against him. The time was well selected, in reference to measures respecting prelacy and the Star Cham- ber, then instantly depending ; and the speech is not only so remarkable in itself, but so little known, that it claims a place in his memoir.^ The articles having been read, Pym opened his task with a very striking effect. " My lords," he said, " there is an expression in the Scripture which I will not presume either to understand or to interpret ; yet, to a vulgar eye, it seemes to have an aspect something suitable to the person and cause before you. It is a description of the evill spirits, wherein they are said to bee ' spirituall wickednesses in high places.' Crimes acted by the spirituall faculties of the soule, the will, and the under- standing, exercised about spirituall matters, con- cerning God's worship and the salvation of man, seconded with power, authoritie, learning, and many other advantages, doe make the partie who commits them very suitable to that description SPIRITUALL WICKEDNESSES IN HIGH PLACES. "These crimes, my lords, are various in their nature, haynous in their qualitie, and uni- versall in their extent. If you examine them theologically, as they stand in opposition to the trueth of God, they will bee found to bee against the rule of faithe, against the power of godli- nesse, against the meanes of salvation. If you examine them morally, as they stand in opposi- tion to the light of nature, to right reason, and the principles of humane societie, you will then perceive pride without any moderation ; even such a pride as that is which 'exalts' itselfe ' above all that is called God.' Malice without any provocation, malice against vertue, against innocency, against pietie ! Injustice without any meanes of restitution ; even such injustice as doeth robbe the present times of their pos- sessions, the future of their possibilities ! If they bee examined, my lords, by legall rules, in a civill way, as they stand in opposition to the * See the Journals. Colepepper, with Falkland, Hyde, and Whitelocke, all " moderate men, 1 ' were equally warm supporters of this very " unconstitutional" measure. t Hist, of Brit. Empire, vol. iii., p. 109-114, note. Const. Hist., vol. ii., p. 154, note. t D'Israeli's Commentaries, vol. iv., p. 172. $ I give the extracts from a small quarto in my possession, printed for Ralph Mabb, 1641. publike goode, and to the lawes of the land, the accused will bee found to bee a traytour against his majestie's crowne, an incendiary against the peace of the state, the highest, the boldest, the most impudent oppressour that ever was an oppressour both of king and people. " This charge, my lords, is distributed and conveyed into fourteene severall articles, as you have hearde ; and those articles are onely generall ; it being the intention of the House of Commons (which they have commanded me to declare) to make them more certaine and particular by preparatory examinations, to bee taken with the helpe of your Lordships' House, as in the case of my Lord of Strafford. For the present I shall runne through them with a light touch, onely marking, in each of them, some speciall points of venome, virulency, and fnalignitie. " The first article, my lords, doth containe his indeavour to introduce into this kingdome an arbitrary power of government, without any limitations or rules of law. This, my lords, is against the safetie of the king's person, the honour of his crowne, and most destructive to his people. Those causes which are most per- fect have not onely a power to produce effects, but to conserve and cherish them. The sem- inary vertue, and the nutritive vertue in vege- tables, doe produce from the same principles. It was the defect of justice, the restrayning of oppression and violence, that first brought gov- ernment into the world, and set up kings, the most excellent way of government ; and by the maintenance of justice, all kindes of govern- ment receive a sure foundation and establish- ment. It is this that hath in it an abilitie to preserve and secure the royall power of kings yea, to adorn and increase it. " In the second article your lordships may observe absolute and unlimited power defended by preaching by sermons and other discours- es, printed and published upon that subject ; and truely, my lords, it seemes to bee a prodi- gious crime that the trueth of God and his holy law should bee perverted to defend the lawless- nesse of man ; that the holy and sacred func- tion of the ministery, which was ordained for instruction of men's soules in the wayes of God, should bee so abused that the ministers are become trumpets of sedition, the promoters and defenders of violence and oppression ! " In the third article, my lords, you have the judges, who, under his majestie, are the dis- pensers and distributors of justice, frequently corrupted by feare and solicitation ; you have the course of justice in the execution of it shamefully obstructed ; and, if a willful act of injustice in a judge bee so high a crime in the estimate of the law as to deserve death, under what burthen of guilt doth this man lye, who hath beene the cause of great numbers of such voluntary and willful acts of injustice 1 ? " In the fourth article hee will bee found, in his owne person, to have sold justice in causes depending before him, and by his wicked coun- sell indeavouring to make his majestie a mer- chant of the same commoditie ; onely with this difference, that the king, by taking money for places of judicature, should sell it in grosse, whereas the archbishop sold it by retaile. " In the fifth article there appeares a power 196 BRITISH STATESMEN. usurped of making canons, and of laying obli- gations on the subjects in the nature of lawes ; while this power is abused to the making of such canons, as are in the matter of them very pernicious, being directly contrarie to the pre- rogative of the king and the libertie of the peo- ple. In the manner of pressing of them may bee found fraud and shuffling ; in the conclu- sion, violence and constraint, men being forced by terrour and threatening to subscribe to all : which power, thus wickedly gotten, has beene laboured to bee established by perjurie, and the injoyning such an oathe for the maintenance of it as can neither bee taken nor kept with a goode conscience. " In the sixth article you have the king rob- bed of his supremacy ; you have a papall power exercised over his majestie's subjects, in their consciences and in their persons ; you have ecclesiasticall jurisdiction claimed by an inci- dent right, which the law declares to proceed from the crowne. And herein your lordships may observe, that those who labour in civill matters to set up the king above the lawes of the kingdome, doe yet, in ecclesiasticall matters, indeavour to set up themselves above the king. This was first procured by the archbishop to bee extra-judi- cially declared by the judges, and then to bee published in a proclamation. In doing whereof bee hath made the king's throne but a foot- stoole for his owne and their pride. " You have, my lords, in the seventh article, religion undermined and subverted ; you have poperie cherished and defended ; you have all this seconded with power and violence : by se- vere punishment upon those which have oppo- sed this mischievous intention, and by subtile and eager persecution, hath the power of eccle- siasticall commissioners, of the Star Chamber and councell-table, beene made subservient to the wicked designs. " My lords, you may observe, in the eighth article, great care taken to get into his owne hande the power of nominating to ecclesiasti- call livings and promotions. You have as much mischievous, as much wicked care taken in disposing of these preferments, to the hinder- ance and corruption of religion ; and by this meanes, my lords, it is that the king's sacred majestic, instead of sermons fit for spirituall instructours, hath often given forth invectives against his people, incouragements to injustice, or to the overthrow of the lawes ! Such chap- laines have beene brought, indeed, into his owne service, as have as much as may bee la- boured to corrupt his owne household, and beene eminent examples of corruption to oth- ers ; which hath, moreover, so farre prevailed, as that it hath exceedingly tainted the univer- sities, and beene generally disperst through all the chiefe cities, the greatest townes and au- ditories of the kingdome ; the grievous effects whereof are most manifest to the Commons' House, there being divers hundred complaints there depending against scandalous ministers, and yet I believe the hundredth part of them not yet brought in. " The ninth article sets out the like care to have chaplaines of his owne, that might bee promoters of this wicked and traytorous de- signe ; men of corrupt judgements, of corrupt practice, extreamly addicted to superstition ; and to such men's cares hath beene committed the lycensing of bookes to the presse, by meanes whereof many have beene published that are full of falshoode of scandals ; such as have beene more worthy to bee burnt by the hande of the hangman in Smithfield (as I thinke one of them was*) than to bee admitted to come into the handes of the king's people. " In the tenth article it will appeare how bee, having made these approaches to poperie, comes now to close and joyne more nearely with it. Hee confederates with priests and Jesuits ; hee, by his instruments, negotiates with the pope at Rome,\ and hath correspondence with them that hee authorized from Rome here. Hee hath permitted a Romane hierarchic to bee set up in this kingdome. And though hee hath beene so carefull that a poore man could not goe to the neighbour parish to heare a sermon when hee had none at home, could not have a sermon repeated nor prayer used in his owne family but hee was a fit subject for the High Commission court ; yet the other hath beene done in all partes of the realme, and no notice taken of it by any ecclesiasticall judges or courts. " My lords, you may perceive preaching sup- pressed in the eleventh article ; divers godly and orthodox ministers oppressed in their per- sons and estates. You have the king's loyall subjects banished out of the kingdome, not as Elimeleck, to seeke for bread in forraigne coun- tries by reason of the great scarcitie which was in Israel, but travelling abroad for the bread of life because they could not have it at home, by reason of the spirituall famine of God's word caused by this man and his partakers ; and, by this meanes, you have had the trade, the man- ufactory, the industry of many thousands of his majestie's subjects carried out of the land. It is a miserable abuse of the spirituall keyes to shut up the doors of heaven and to open the gates of hell ; to let in prophaneness, ignorance, superstition, and errour. I shall need say no more. These things are evident, and abun- dantly knowne to all. " In the twelfth article, my lords, you have a division indeavoured betweene this and the forraigne reformed churches. Now the Church of Christ is one body, and the members of Christ have a mutuall relation as members of the same body. Unity with God's true Church everywhere is not onely the bcautie, but the strength of religion ; of which beautie and strength hee hath sought to deprive this church, by his man- ifold attempts to break this union. To which purpose hee hath suppressed the priviledges granted to the Dutch and French churches ; hee hath denyed them to bee of the same faithe and religion with us ; and many other wayes hath hee declared his malice to those churches. " In the thirteenth article, as hee hath sought to make an ecclesiasticall division, or religious difference betweene us and forraigne nations, so hee hath sought to make a civill difference * An allusion to one of Mainwaring's books. t The celebrated offer from the court in Italy to make Laud a cardinal, and his doubts, hesitation, and final refu- sal "because somewhat dwelt within him which would not suffer that, till Rome was other than it was" were all recorded in Laud's diary by his own hand, and are well known. Rome still cherisht;d, in those days, the project of restoring its communion in England. JOHN PYM. 197 betweene us and his majestie's subjects of the kingdome of Scotland. And this nee hath pro- moted by many innovations, there prest by him- selfe and his owne authoritie. When they were uncapable of such alterations, hee ad- vised his majestic to use violence. Hee hath made private and publike collections towards the maintenance of that warre, which hee might justly call his owne warre ; and with an impu- dent boldnesse, hee hath struck tallies in the exchequer for divers summes of money pro- cured by himselfe, pro defensione regni ; when, by his councells, the king was drawne to under- take, not a defensive, but an offensive warre. " Hee hath lastly, my lords, thought to se- cure himselfe and his partie by seeking to un- dermine Parliaments, and thereby hath labour- ed to bereave this kingdome of the legislative power, which can onely bee used in Parlia- ments. We should then have beene left a kingdome without that which, indeed, makes and constitutes a kingdome, and is the onely meane to preserve and restore it from distem- pers and decayes. Hee hath hereby indeav- oured to bereave us of the highest judicatory; such a judicatory as is necessarie and essen- tiall to our government. Some cases cannot bee tried in any inferiour court, as divers cases of treason, and others concerning the preroga- tive of the crowne and libertie of the people. It is the supreame judicatory to which all difficult cases resort from other courts. Thus hee hath sought to deprive the king of the love and coun- sell of his people, of that assistance which hee might have from them, and likewise to deprive the people of that reliefe of grievances which they most humbly expect from his majestie. "My lords, the Parliament is the cabinet wherein the chiefest Jewells both of the crowne and kingdome are deposited. The great pre- rogative of the king and the libertie of the peo- ple are most effectually exercised and main- tained by Parliaments. Here, my lords, you cannot passe by this occasion of great thankes to God and his majestie for passing the bill whereby the frequent course of Parliaments is established ; which, I assure myselfe, hee will by experience finde to bee a strong foundation both of his honour and his crowne. "This is all, my lords, I have to say to the particulars of the charge. The Commons de- sire your lordships that they may have the same way of examination that they had in the case of the Earle of Strafford ; that is, to ex- amine members of all kindes of your Lordships' House and their owne, and others, as they shall see cause ; and those examinations to bee kept secret and private, that they may with more advantage bee made use of when the matter comes to try all." Nothing is more striking in this speech than the utter absence of any thing like sectarian in- tolerance ; and nothing, it will be admitted, af- ter reading this and other evidences of opinion to be adduced hereafter, has been so much misunderstood as the nature and influence of religion on the mind of this great speaker and statesman. It will have been observed through- out the speech just given, that he restricts him- self with singular closeness to the political influ- ence of Laud's administration ; that he chooses the plainest and most obvious illustrations of its despotic tendency ; and that he employs no language, strong as the temptation would have been to a man of bigoted persuasions, beyond what is simply necessary to carry his positions distinctly home. The leading sentiment through the whole is that of a vigorous and practical statesman. In the exposing Laud's design to set up a " Roman hierarchic" in the showing the false claim to " ecclesiasticall jurisdiction," grounded on "an incident right" which "the law declares to proceed from the crowne" in the stripping bare the pretensions of "those who labour in civill matters to set up the king above the lawes of the kingdome, and yet in ecclesiasticall matters doe indeavour to set up themselves above the king" we see nothing that is not worthy of the highest order of po- litical capacity, and, indeed, nothing that has not directly proceeded from it. It is to be sup- posed, in charity, that all the elaborate accounts in the family histories of the bigotry and intol- erance of Pym, and that all the accusations against him of " mysterious jargon" in the re- ligious matters of government, are not the off- spring of deliberate falsehood. I have found it difficult even to find many of Pym's speeches, and others may have found it equally difficult, or, at least, inconvenient, to read them. Now, however, once for all, before I proceed to resume the active course of Pym's life, after the death of Strafford, let me interpose some few remarks concerning this " mysterious jar- gon" which we have heard so much of, from so many various quarters, in reference to the speeches of Pym and the popular leaders of the day. Its utter inapplicability, practically speak- ing, has been proved already by these pages ; but there is a certain question involved in the very circumstance of the charge having been made at all, which bears a relation to the sub- ject of this memoir too important to be passed over in silence. "Mysterious jargon, "being translated, means nothing more than a frequent recurrence of the phraseology of Scripture ; and to this, in a cer- tain kind and degree, Pym may very proudly plead guilty. Something beyond this, howev- er, is to be said ; not in vindication of the prac- tice, for it needs none, but in explanation of the influences it sprang from, and of the cause of its so potent and universal action at 'this period in the atmosphere of life and thought. This is never sufficiently kept in view. Every one can think himself privileged to laugh at the too exclusive search after parallelism in the deeds of the Hebrew worthies indulged by the people generally in Pym's days ; but very few have thought it worth while to go suffi- ciently back to understand the original idea, or movement of the mind, of which these are the vestiges only. The mighty sound is gone : by the mere echo, thunder itself seems no peril- ous matter. Revert, however, to the very beginning. It is not my province or intention here to explain or reason on, but simply to state the fact, that the fountain of influence of the great influ- ence in this world has been the Bible ; that book whose first words* announce what phil- osophers have at length agreed to be the one * IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH. 193 BRITISH STATESMEN. and only truth we are capable of demonstra- ting, and which one truth seems a fit object enough to employ, and destined to employ, life. In the next place, that book is .the history of a certain race : it is meant to be the type of a nation. The nature of the institutions it re- cords is not within my present province to- dis- cuss ; suffice it to say, that whenever the gen- eral intellect of man has grown too large for its institutions, or its tyrannies of habit and custom, it has gone instinctively back to those records to renew its strength, and to take a new course by their direction,, as the enfeebled or restless man of civilization might compare himself from time to time with Plato's original type of man, to ascertain his precise situation. Afterward Christ came to " fulfil the law ;" in other words, to give this type anew in all its freshness. Then the Crusades followed ; the Reformation ; the emancipation of mind, and modern freedom of thought all of which are to be held, in an inquiry of this kind, as recur- rences to the one grand type. The graceful arts, meanwhile, constituted as they are to benefit man, must of course rise or fall with his dignity, and hence a simultaneous influence on these arts has been the effect of these recur- rences. This is not the place to pursue the in- quiry in detail ; but let the scholar, at his lei- sure, glance at the progress from Dante through all the changes till Milton from Giotto and Ghiberti to Michael Angelo, and down again to Poussin or advance from the most timid Christianism of Palestrina and Pergolesi to the pure and magnificent Hebraism of Handel. Keeping all this in view, the nature of the epoch we are considering, and the position of the men, will explain the rest. An attempt appeared to be in progress to check the impul- ses of the Reformation, when terrible energies sprang from the rebound, and imbodied them- selves in the Eliots, the Pyms, the Hampdens, and the Vanes ; and new passions and emo- tions were scattered abroad among the people, under the forms of the great original type of power and expression, to check the threatened retreat into bigoted faith and slavish obedience. It is not difficult to follow up the result. Ima- gine the great public mind overlaid and opposed by a dissolute and artificial court, consecrated and made plausible in its pretences by a litera- ture growing out of, and adapted to, the most servile court in the world (that of Augustus) : see all thoughts expressing themselves in that literature testing themselves, their worth, their approvedness by it only, and running only in such a channel and then imagine that mind recurring, in unison with the laws I have men- tioned, to the old type bursting forth into the primaeval liberty plunging itself suddenly back among the rich treasures of thought and feel- ing disclosed in the translation of the Bible the ancient manners revealed ! the lessons of the inspired teachers taught again ! the days when all were equal contrasted, to the people, with their own ! or when, in the midst of the petty kings of Moab and Edom, the free people of Israel, without a king, lived majestically ! Imagine all this, and nothing will be wanting to explain the source of the wildest fancies of the time, or the origin of the form which many of the thoughts of the greatest writers and or- ators assumed. There will be an opportunity of pursuing this into all its relations when treat- ing of the life and works of Vane. Meanwhile Pym restrained the tendency, while he guided it no less, up to the hour of his death. In him- self, in Eliot, and in Hampden, we see the grand development of one of those recurrences to the first idea or type the beginning of that move- ment of mind, of that stride in the progress of man, which had its subsequent consummation in the intellect of Vane. Pym was Vane's first friend he was his teacher, so to speak : he in- troduced him into public life.* Every accession, if the term may be used, of originality of thought, brings with it neces- sarily an accession of a certain originality of style. The one is progressive as the other, with obvious limits and restrictions. The thoughts of Pym's days, assimilating them- selves in the grandness of a common object to the first and intensest ideas of the world, clung also round the simple and sublime language of the earliest ages, and indeed sought and strug- gled not to be disconnected from the very words last used when God was before his people in the cloud and the flame. But, apart from this nat- ural consequence, where can be found such an oratorical text-book as the Bible] Not, assu- redly, in Greece or Rome ! Pym availed him- self of it with a most admirable taste, no less than the profoundest political purpose. Noth- ing, indeed, throughout this great man's life, is more observable than that in which it has been most grossly misunderstood his invariable treatment of religion as an element of political government. Let it always be recollected that, to him, a true political government was religion. Hia was that great capacity in which bad gov- ernment and good faith, or good government and bigoted faith, could not coexist. To be free in thought and in act to secure responsi- bility in government, and security in the public liberties, was, with him, to set up the true re- ligion in its purity. It was with Pym the prac- tice first began, in these days, of prosecuting the public measures on the Sabbath itself in certain crises ;t and no doubt with a view to its profound result on the minds of the people, that, in thus using the very day they were most urgent to free from the desecration of the court, they made, as it were, their business Heaven's own, and, " standing in the great hand of God," had become once again his ministers. All this it was which produced Milton also ; whose life and works are a deliberate looking forth into the world and into paradise, and a final choice of the latter. His thoughts ever aspired upward and upward to the Hebrew the- ocracy, beyond " insolent Greece and haughty Rome," and "all that they have left us." In his Paradise Regained, indeed, he has chosen to condense the whole argument in one glori- ous and triumphant passage. After bringing forward irresistibly, to all antagonists but one, and that one himself the position that "All knowledge is not coueh'd in Moses" law, The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote : The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach To admiration, led by Nature's light, And with the Gentiles much thou must converse" * Strafford Papers, vol. ii. t He did this on the occasion of the discovery of Waller's plot, as will be seen shortly. JOHN PYM. 199 aftr going to the very heart of the argument and fortifying it by a eulogium on Athens which makes even the greatest work of Sophocles written professedly to flatter Colonos, his na- tive <%/o?, wholly tame in the comparison, he calmly and forever sets the question at rest in that magnificent reply of the Saviour, the con elusion of which is indeed the true " device ' of the Pyms and Vanes. " Their orators thou then extoll'st, as those The top of eloquence ; statists indeed, And lovers of their country, as may seem ; But herein to our PROPHETS far beneath, As men divinely taught, and better teaching The solid rules of civil government, In their majestic, unaffected style, Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt, What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so !" After the death of Strafford, public affairs advanced to a crisis rapidly. The gradual dis- closures made under Pym's committee, appoint- ed to investigate the recent and still continuing conspiracies against the Parliament and peo- ple, served to keep the public mind excited and vigilant ; special measures were taken for the security of Portsmouth ; the queen's confessor and other Roman Catholic attendants were dis- missed ; and her mother, Mary de Medici, who had sought shelter in England from the power of Richelieu, was requested ("the rather, for the quieting of the jealousies in the hearts of his majesty's well-affected subjects, occasioned by some ill instruments about the queen's person") to leave the kingdom. Upon this, Henrietta herself expressed a wish and an intention to leave England, her health requiring her, she said, to take the waters of Spa. That this was not her real purpose, however, was more than suspected by the popular leaders ; and Pym conducted certain negotiations on the subject which ended in her majesty's declining the journey. It was supposed, and subsequently rendered almost certain, that Henrietta's mo- tive was to have sought foreign aid against the Parliament.* Bills had passed, meanwhile, for the abolition of the Court of Star Chamber, the High Com- mission, the Court of York, the Court of the Welsh Marches, and other horrible engines of the administration of Strafford and Laud ; and a subsidy bill was sent with them to the king to receive the royal assent. The subsidy bill received it at once, while no notice was taken of the others. Charles still madly clung to his * See Rushworth, vol. iv., p. 349, 350 ; and Parliamenta- ry History. The message of the Commons after her maj- esty's compliance with their request, and her answer, are characteristic : " That because we understand, by Sir The- odore Mayeme, that the chief cause of her majesty's sick- ness and distempers proceed from some discontent of her mind, the House of Commons have thought good to declare, ' that if any thing within the power of Parliament may give her majesty contentment, they are so tender of her health, both in due respect to his most excellent majesty and her- self, that they will be ready to further her satisfaction in all things, so far as may stand with that public duty to which they are obliged.'" Answer: " I give many thanks to both houses of Parliament for their great care of my health, and their affection to me, hoping I shall see the ef- fect of it. Truly nothing but my health could have made me to resolve of this journey ; and if I thought I could erve the king and this kingdom with the hazard of my life, I would do it. And I hope you will believe that I have so much interest in the good of this kingdom, that I shall nev. r wish any thing to the prejudice of it. You will pardon the imperfectness of my English. I had rather spoken in any other language, but I thought this would be most ac- ceptable." old ecclesiastical government, and could not, without heavy pangs, surrender the terrors of the Star Chamber. But it fared with this as with every thing else. While murmurs were not distantly heard throughout the city, and while the Commons were in hard and secret debate with closed doors, the monarch, sud- denly alarmed, hurried down to the House of Lords, and summoning the Commons, and re- buking them for their distrust, gave his assent to both the bills. It was the sad misfortune of this prince to banish every semblance of grace from his concessions. In each and all he never failed to leave a drop of bitterness that was enough to poison the whole. His conduct on the present occasion, betraying what his hope and his will still was, had the effect of driving in the current against Church government and the prelacy more strongly and violently than ever. The " root and branch " petition was revived in the House of Commons. The rise and present influence of the Repub- lican party in that house will be described in the life of Vane. It is only necessary to treat of these religious questions, in which they now especially busied themselves, in so far as they strikingly illustrate the political course of Pym, which was, in reality, as decided here as it was in every other dispute where good govern- ment lay on one side and tyranny on the other. It might serve Clarendon's purpose to secure the authority of Pym in favour of his darling Episcopacy ; but why have modern writers, without his cause to sustain, adopted his errors and misrepresentations?* A vote passed to the effect that the bishops should not sit in Parliament, and the grounds of the vote were communicated in a conference to the Lords. Their lordships at once resolved the contrary of this vote ; not in much love for the bishops, but with no little alarm for them- selves. The Commons, on this, lost no time in changing their resolution to a bill, which disabled the bishops and clergy from temporal functions. On the third reading in the upper House.t the bishops' votes were restored, and the Commons, after two conferences, refused to receive the " amended" bill. A memorable result followed. A bolder measure was pro- jected ; and a bill for the utter abolishing and ;aking away of archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, and their officers, out of the Jhurch of England, was drawn up by Saint John, and at once introduced. It was read wice on the day of its introduction,^ and went nto committee on the llth of June, fifteen days after. Now mark what Clarendon says on this sub- ect. After observing that on its first intro- * Lord Nugent says, in his Memorials of Hampden, that ' Pym was but a faint supporter of the bill to restrain the >ishops from voting ; and that, on the further measures for .bolishing Episcopacy, he was openly opposed to Hampden, 'ane, Fieanes," &c. This, as will be shown presently, is m utterly groundless assertion, in so far as the existence of Spiscopacy was ever brought in question. My former ref- rence to this subject (p. 185) was in relation to the opin- ons held by Pym on the ecclesiastical constitution of Eng- and as a human institution. t On this, as on every other matter connected with thi ill, Clarendon is guilty of the most wilful, or the most jrossly inaccurate error. He says on this that " the Lords ould not be prevailed with so much as to commit the bill, ut at the second reading utterly cast it out." t See Journals of May, 1641, and an admirable remark in iodwiu's History of the Commonwealth, vol. i., p. 61. 200 BRITISH STATESMEN. duction " the rejecting it was earnestly urged by very many," and repeating some of the re- marks to this effect, the " historian" thus pro- ceeds : " The bill was at last read, and no question being to be put upon the first reading, it was laid by, and not called upon in a long time after.* When everybody expected that nothing should be meniioned in the House but the dispatch of the treaty of the pacification, they called in a morning ' for the bill' (that had so long before been brought in by Sir Edward Deringt) ' for the extirpation of Episcopacy,' and gave it a second reading ; and resolved ' that it should be committed to a committee of the House, and that it should be proceeded upon the next morning.' It was a very long debate the next morning, after the speaker had left the chair, who should be in the chair for the committee ; they who wished well to the bill having resolved 'to put Mr. Hyde into the chair, that he might not give them trouble by frequent speaking, and so too much obstruct the expediting the bill.' In conclusion, Mr. Hyde was commanded to the chair ; they who were enemies to the bill being divided in opin- ion, many believing that he would obstruct the bill more in that place than if he remained at liberty, and they found it to be trite. . . The chairman perplexed them very much ;t for besides that at the end of his report every day to the House, before the House put the question for the concurrence in the votes, he always en- larged himself against every one of them, and so spent them much time ; when they were in the heat and passion of the debate, he often en- snared them in a question ; so that when he re- ported to the House the work of the day, he did frequently report two or three votes directly con- trary to each other. . . After near twenty days spent in that manner, they found themselves very little advanced towards a conclusion, and that they must review all that they had done ; and the king being resolved to begin his jour- ney for Scotland, they were forced to discon- tinue their beloved bill, and let it rest."|| Such and so despicable is the self-sketched character of the loyal and religious Clarendon ! Setting aside his plain falsehoods in these mem- orable extracts, what mean and pitiful petti- fogger of the law would not feel shame to be set down as a party to the tricks which are here unblushingly, and, indeed, with a self-sat- isfied chuckle, described ! And what is the worth of the testimony of such a writer on any disputed matter 1 not to speak of the present, wherein he lent himself to such despicable meanness. Another extract, from Clarendon's own life, * Vol. i., p. 418. t The only just remark I can find in Clarendon about the whole of this matter relates to this weak and silly gentle- man, to whose hands the bill was injudiciously committed, and who will be heard of soon in a very different character. Clarendon observes that the popular party " prevailed with Sir Edward Dering, a man very opposite to all their designs (but a man of levity and vanity, easily flattered by being commended), to present it to the House ; which he did from the gallery, with the two verses in Ovid, the application whereof was his greatest motive : " Cuncta prius tentanda, sed immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum est, ne pars sincera trahatur." Vol. i., p. 416. $ These words are introduced for the first time in the re- cent Oxford edition. I) These also are restored for the first time. II Vol. i., p. 484. completes the picture he has left of Jiimself at this period. " When Mr. Hyde sat in the chair, in the grand committee of the House for the extirpation of Episcopacy, all that party made great court to him, and the House keeping those disorderly hours, and seldom rising till after four of the clock in the afternoon, they frequently importuned him to dine with them at Mr. Pym's lodgings, which was at Sir Rich- ard Manly's house, in a little court behind Westminster Hall, where he and Mr. Hamp- den, Sir A. Hazlerig, 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." Ex- cept in the lively illustration it affords of the party system of the time, this statement is quite as little worth credit as the others, and, indeed, carries internal evidence of misrepre- sentation. The same writer, in his history, could say that Pym took no interest in the progress of the anti-Episcopacy measure ! The truth was, that if he was interested in any thing more than that at this particular time, it was in the evident trimming and shuffling of " Mr. Hyde" himself. Meanwhile, before turning to consider the latter, let me exhibit the feelings of Pym re- specting these questions in an unequivocal shape. When, for various reasons, this Church bill was temporarily suspended, Pym was the author of a very resolute and decisive meas- ure. Some months before, in the midst of all the threatening aspects of the time, the bish- ops had exhibited their gross love of tyranny, and their still grosser folly, in enacting a series of canons in convocation, which imposed oaths, introduced innovations, and set aside the laws of the land. Pym now pointed out the pro- priety of impeaching the thirteen prelates who had been most active in framing the canons. I will extract the result of this motion from its place in the journals. " Mr. Pym declared from the House of Com- mons that there is nothing of greater impor- tance to the safety and good of the kingdom, than that this high court of Parliament, which is the fountain of justice and government, should be kept pure and uncorrupted, free from partiality and bye respects. This will not only add lustre and reputation, but strength and au- thority, to all our actions. Herein, he said, your lordships are specially interested, as ycu are a third estate by inheritance and birth- right ; so the Commons are publicly interested by representation of the whole body of the commons of this kingdom, whose lives, for- tunes, and liberties are deposited under the custody and trust of the Parliament. " He said, the Commons have commanded him and his colleague, Mr. Solicitor General, to present to your lordships two propositions, which they thought very necessary to be ob- served and put in execution at this time. First, that the thirteen bishops, which stand accused before your lordships for making the late pre- tended canons and constitutions, may be ex- cluded from their votes in Parliament. Sec- ondly, that all the bishops may be suspended from their votes upon that bill, entitled, An Act to disable all Persons in Holy Orders to exer- cise any Jurisdiction or Authority Temporal. JOHN PYM. 201 "The first of these was committed to his charge, and he said he would support it with three reasons : First. That the thirteen bish- ops have broken that trust to which every member of Parliament is obliged ; which trust is to maintain, 1. The prerogative of the king. 2. The privilege of Parliaments. 3. The prop- erty of the subject. 4. The peace of the king- dom. These were the jewels, he said, that are deposed under the trust of Parliament ; and this trust these prelates had broken, not by one transient act, but by setting up canons in nature of laws to bind the kingdom forever. " That the canons are of this nature, appear- ed by the votes of both Houses ; and that they were all parties to the making thereof, appear- ed by the acts of that synod. The book itself the Commons cannot tender to your lordships, because they sent for it, but he that hath the book in custody was out of town ; but a mem- ber of their own House, upon view of it, is ready to depose that their names were entered among those that did subscribe to it. " Wherefore the House of Commons desire your lordships, in the first place, to consider whether they that take to themselves a legislative power, destructive to Parliaments, be Jit to exercise that power of making laws which only belongs to the Parliament. " Secondly. Whether it be safe for the Com- monwealth that they should be trusted with making laws, who, as much as in them lay, have endeavoured to deprive the subject of those good laws which are already made. " A third reason is this, That they stand ac- cused of crimes very heinous ; that is, of sedi- tion, and of subversion of the laws of the king- dom. This will easily appear in the nature of the canons themselves, as also by the votes to which your lordships and the Commons have already agreed. Standing so accused, is it fit that they should have the exercise of so great a thing as the continuing of their votes and places in Parliament 1" And, though it occurred some few months after this time, I will here present also Pym's speech at a conference with the Lords, on de- livering a charge against Lord Digby (recently raised to their Lordships' House), since it has immediate relation to the same question, is sufficiently explanatory of itself, and is a still more distinct and forcible expression than any which has yet been given of the grounds of Pym's opposition to the temporal power and authority of bishops : "My lords, the knights, citizens, and bur- gesses of the House of Commons, now assem- bled in Parliament, have commanded me to pre- sent to your lordships this information, which they have received against the Right Honour- able George, lord Digby, of such dangerous consequence, that, if not prevented, evil and troublesome events may ensue, to the great hazarding the peace of this kingdom, and the great hinderance of the happy proceedings of this Parliament. " My lords, I humbly crave your patience to declare to your lordships what I am command- ed concerning the said information, which is, that he, the said Lord Digby, should give forth report, upon reading the late petition and prot- estation of the twelve bishops, ' that the pres- Cc ent Parliament was a forced one ; and that the acts, votes, and laws that should be enacted therein, without the votes and assents of the bishops, are void and of none effect, and not binding to the subject.' " My lords, this report is of great danger to the state, if proved against the said lord, in these three respects, as I, under your lord- ships' favour, conceive. First, it is a great breach of the rights and privileges of Parlia- ment ; secondly, it intrencheth much on the prerogative of the king, and abridges his royal power ; thirdly, it is the first step to bring into this state an arbitrary and tyrannical form of government. " My lords, it is a breach of the privileges of Parliament for these reasons : It is against the votes of Parliamentary proceedings, which ought to be reserved and unquestionable during the free sitting thereof. It is against the late act of Parliament, in that case made and pro- vided, for not adjourning or abrupt breaking up of the same. This act, my lords, was freely voted by both Houses ; freely and willingly passed by his majesty, -without any force or compulsory means used by any, or private working of any of the members of either House to induce his majesty to do the same ; nay, the act was voted as well by the said lord as the rest of this honourable House. This report, therefore, of his must needs be against his knowledge and former free consent in passing that act. Besides, my lords, one privilege of Parliament, and that one of the greatest, is to accuse and freely proceed to the punishment of delinquents that have caused the troubles in this state, both in Church and Commonwealth. Lord Digby's re- port is against this privilege, since it opposeth altogether our proceedings against the bishops, accused as the greatest delinquents both in Church and State. For, my lords, if the Par- liament is forced in the absence of the bishops, how may then the Parliament proceed lawfully against them"! If the bishops sit and have their votes, although delinquents, in Parlia- ment, how can we proceed, I beseech you, against their votes 1 Then, my lords, to re- dress the grievances of the Commonwealth is a privilege of Parliament. This report is against this privilege. How, I pray you, my lords, can our grievances be redressed, when the oppressions, injustice, and vexatious troub- ling of his majesty's loyal subjects by the bish- ops may not be called in question, nor the mis- doers therein prosecuted and punished for the same 1 Lastly, my lords, under this head, the report is against divers acts of Parliament of this kingdom that have been made without the voice of bishops in Parliament, as is on record in the Parliamentary rolls. And thus, under favour, I have shown you how this report is against the privileges of Parliament. " Next, my lords, this report intrencheth on the royal power and prerogative of the king, and that in two respects : It intrencheth 'on his royal prerogative in making and enacting laws by Parliament, it resting only in his power to pass or refuse the votes of Parliament. My lords, the king of this realm has the greatest prerogative (to require the counsel and assist- ance of the whole State, upon any occasion whatsoever, when it pleaseth him) of any prince 202 BRITISH STATESMEN. in the world, except the King of France ; and, under favour, my lords, I conceive a Parliament cannot be termed forced when it is freely call- ed and willingly continued by the king. I con- ceive, my lords, a forced Parliament is when, against the free consent of a king and his lords, and without lawful calling by writ, men assem- ble themselves, and by force of arms sit in council and enact laws not tending to the wel- fare of the kingdom. The Parliament holden in the fourteenth year of the reign of Edward II. was a forced Parliament ; the barons com- ing thither with horse and arms, and compel- ling the king to pass what they thought proper to have enacted. Moreover, my lords, this re- port intrencheth on the royal power of the king in making of laws ; for, as before I have touch- ed, Parliaments have, without bishops, made and enacted laws. By this supposition, my lords, that laws made without bishops are void, bishops, be they never so vile and disaffected to the tranquillity and security of the state, yet must have votes in rectifying and setting in order such things as are amiss in the same amiss as well by their own procuring as others a 'rectifying' not then likely to take any good effect. Nay, my lords, it is too apparent they have been the greatest opposers of our pro- ceedings in (his Parliament, and the chief est cause why no more is done. " Thirdly and lastly, my lords, this report is the first step to bring in an arbitrary and tyran- nical form of government ; and that, under fa- vour, for these reasons : Free Parliaments are the securest and safest government that ever could be found for this nation, and that in re- spect of the power and wisdom thereof. It is upholden, defended, and preserved by the whole body of the kingdom ; therefore powerful : the members thereof are men elected, one out of ten thousand, by the whole state ; therefore esteemed wise. Then to oppose the proceed- ings thereof, to deny the government thereof, is to change the same ; and, if changed to an- other form (none being so secure, so powerful, and so wise), it must needs be arbitrary, and so tyrannical. Also, my lords, if no laws can be binding to the subject but such as are voted and assented to by the bishops, then none can be expected but such as are destructive to the state, their affections being altogether averted from free Parliamentary proceedings, and their designs only agitated for the opposing the government thereof ; and we cannot but daily fear the utter confu- sion of the same thereby. " Now, my lords, having, to my weak ability, fulfilled the command of the House of Commons in speaking something on this information, I am to desire your lordships, in their name, that the said George, lord Digby, may answer the said information, or otherwise be proceeded against as the Parliament shall think fit." I have remarked that Pym had already seen reason to suspect the secession of " Mr. Hyde" from the popular cause. That celebrated per- son could never have seemed very secure to the sagacious mind of the leader of the party, and he had given forth no unequivocal signs of his feeling and desires on the already noticed disagreement between the two Houses on the bill to restrain bishops' votes. Beside him, also, were a party of weak, though probably well-intentioned men, whom his influence con- trolled. The danger to the cause would ob- viously be great, if at this moment, and before the bulwarks so recently obtained for the pres- ervation of the public liberties had been firmly placed, such a desertion as Hyde could effect from the ranks of the popular members should be suddenly exhibited to the people. Nothing had been more apparent throughout all the con- cessions wrested from Charles than that they had only been yielded, subject to a good occa- sion for reclaiming them. Strafford could not be raised from the dead, and therefore, only, the concession in his case had been harder than in the rest. With a certain semblance of a popular ministry, backed by all the arts of Hyde, and the pretences of half-popular meas- ures, the king had yet the power to strike a heavy blow for the old prerogative. Moreover, the House of Lords were not to be relied on ; and there was too much reason to fear, in va- rious quarters of the country, some still undis- covered sections of the army plot. Charles himself was evidently recovering confidence, while, to save the bishops, the universities were moving heaven and earth.* The course which was, under such circumstances, propo- sed by Pym, with a view to avert these dan- gers, has no parallel for vigour and capacity, no less than a most decisive boldness, even in the records of his life. Charles had warning of it before he departed for Scotland. Doctor Hacket tells us, in his life of Archbishop Williams, that " the bishop, coming to the king, besought his majesty, that for his sake he would put off his Scotch jour- ney to another season. ' Sir,' says he, ' I would it were not true that I shall tell you : some of the Commons are preparing a declaration to make the actions of your government odious. If you gallop to Scotland, they will post as fast, to draw up this biting remonstrance. Stir not till you have mitigated the grand contrivers with some preferments.' ' But is this credi- ble 1' says the king. 'Judge you of that, sir,' says the bishop, ' when a servant of Pym's (in ichose master's house all this is moulded) came to me, to know of me in what terms I was con- tented to leave mine own case in the Star Chamber exhibited among other irregularities 1 and I had much ado to keep my name, and what concerns me, out of these quotations ; but I contrived that of the fellow, and a prom- ise to do me more service, to know all they have in contrivance, with a few sweetbreads that I gave him out of my purse.' Yet nothing was heeded. "t Charles's purpose in this journey was nar- rowly and jealously watched by the patriots. Many and various reasons had been publicly assigned for it, but the real intention the double attempts at negotiation with the dis- banded officers on the borders, with the Cov- enanters, and with those who had supplied to Lord Strafford the forged letter by which Sa- vile strove to implicate Pym and Hampden in treasonous purposes all this was kept care- fully in the back ground. One course remain- ed under these circumstances, and was at once adopted. Commissioners were deputed nomi- * May's History of the Parliament. t Hacket's Scrinia Reserata, part ii., p. 163. JOHN PYM. nally to treat with the Scots concerning the satisfaction of the treaty, but really to thwart and check the king's negotiation with the Cov- enanters, and to report upon them to the Par- liament. Charles went to Scotland, and, al the same time, a committee, openly appointee by the votes of both Houses and consisting of Lords Bedford and Howard of Escricke, of Hampden, Fiennes, Sir Philip Stapleton, and Sir William Armyne openly followed him. Soon after his departure, the two Houses, hav- ing respectively appointed committees to sit and act during the recess, and intrusted them with extraordinary powers,* adjourned over from the 9th of September to the 20th of Oc- tober. Pym was appointed chairman of the committee of the House of Commons. His fame and influence at this period were unbounded. " I think Mr. Pym was at this time," says Lord Clarendon, " the most popu- lar man, and the most able to do hurt, that hath lived in any time." His name was in the mouths of all, whether the residents of palaces or of the " huts where poor men lie." Every nook and corner of the kingdom was pervaded with his influence and renown, and the fiercest hate or the most unbounded love were equally his great reward. It is difficult to ascertain, except on the doubt- ful authority of his enemies, what his private habits were at this time. It is certain, how- ever, that they were not of the rigid or puri- tanic sort, any more than his opinions were those of the Puritans. The quaint Dr. Hacket describes him, in his peculiar style, as " homo ex argilld, et Into factus epicurao, as Tully said of Piso that is, in Christian English, a paint- ed sepulchre, a belly-god ;"t and the Royalist songs, while they charge him in still plainer terms with having been warmly devoted to Bacchus and Ceres, have left us to conclude that in other matters his habits were by no means constrained. t It is not my duty here to enlarge on a point of this kind, which I have already, perhaps, sufficiently adverted to, nor would a mention of such statements, drawn as they are from the political lampoons of the time, have been worth giving at all, were it not that graver authorities have seemed to bear them out. With such authority, even fu- gitive ballads, poignant with the bitterness of the hour so long passed away, are not among the despicable materials of history ; and to me, as illustrations of the fugitive aspects of char- acter, catching, as they recede forever, the glancing points of personal manners, they have seemed most valuable. What remains to be said rests on the authority of Sir Philip War- wick, a " grave writer," though a Royalist, as even Mr. Godwin admits, and certainly a very honourable man. The famous Lucy Percy, the countess of Carlile, now a beautiful dowager of about forty, had been for some years "entirely devoted" to Strafford, when, upon the death of her favour- ite, she suddenly transferred her affections to Pym ; and from this time, it is certain the countess still preserving appearances at court * See the instructions, Old Parl. Hist., vol. ix., p. 537. t Scrinia Reserata, part ii., p. 150, 151. t See some extracts from a curious satire of trie time, in Appendix B. $ Life of Stratford, p. 89. the interior of Whitehall was always better known to the patriot than that of the House of Commons to the king. The character of such a woman needs some explanation. Warburton calls her the " Eryn- nis" of her time, but without just authority. Her passions were certainly not extreme. The reader who is startled at the apparent contra- dictions of her life has not read rightly Sir Toby Mathew's description of her character.* " She is of too high a mind and dignity not only to seek, but almost to wish, the friendship of any creature ; they whom she is pleased to choose are such as are of the most eminent condi- tion both for power and employments, not with any design towards her own particular either of advantage or curiosity, but her nature values fortunate persons. . . She prefers the conver- sation of men to that of women ; not but she can talk on the fashions with her female friends, but she is too soon sensible that she can set them as she wills that pre-eminence shortens all equality. She converses with those who are most distinguished for their conversational powers. . . Of love freely will she discourse ; listen to all its faults, and mark all its power. . . She cannot herself love in earnest, but she will play with love . . . and will take a deep in- terest for persons of condition and celebrity." What wonder, then, if, on the fall of Straf- ford, and the sudden and most brilliant rise of Pym's fame, we find the grave Sir Philip War- wick playing the part of the scandalous chron- icle, and announcing that " Master Pym" had succeeded to the situation of the Earl of Straf- ford in the affections of my Lady Carlile If How much of politics there may have been in Pym's love, or how much love in his politics, the reader must determine. As the fact has been stated, it is presented to him with a com- mentary from Sir Toby Mathew, which seems to render it by no means improbable, on the part of the lady, at least. The wonder remains of how "Master Pym" could find leisure, in the midst of his wonderful and unwearied pub- lic labours, for such affairs of practical gallan- try as this, and others charged upon him. For the imputation of Hacket, it may remain as he has made it. " Voluptuous and wise withal" the great patriot may have been ; and, undoubt- edly, the portly and well-dressed person repre- sented in the various engravings circulated at this periodt as the " true effigies of the burgess for Tavistocke ;" the open and intelligent face, so resolute and yet so quiet ; the long hair flung negligently back from the lofty and deep- thoughted forehead ; the full mustaches upon the upper lip, and the neat arrangement of the peaked beard and dress below, present alto- gether such a picture as may be willingly re- ceived of Pym neither inconsistent with the xtraordinary intellect which every one con- ceded to him, nor bidding absolute defiance to the Royalist slanders. Of Pym's movements during this short recess of Parliament, and generally before the king's return from Scotland, I have been fortunate in * See Mathew's Letters, or the notes to Fenton's edition of Waller. t See Sir P. Warwick's Memoirs, p. 204. Several may be seen in the collection at the British Museum : that by Edward Bower is the best, and I allude to it in the text. BRITISH STATESMEN. obtaining somewhat curious intelligence (not noticed sufficiently by the histories) in the cor- respondence of Evelyn. Sir Edward Nicholas, who succeeded Windebanke in the office of secretary of state, had it left to him in charge by the king, before his departure, to furnish diligent information of what was going on in London ; and the letters in which this was done, noted and answered in the margin by Charles and posted back to the writer, ultimate- ly fell into Evelyn's hands. These shall now be used in illustration of some striking and dis- puted historical passages, and of some certain personal details. The day after the adjournment, Nicholas wrote to Charles a long account of a consoling hope he had, that there were decided differ- ences to be now expected between the two Houses, upon which the king remarks that he is " not much sorrie for it."* In another let- ter, under date of the 27th of September, men- tion is made to Charles of a certain paper, the contents of which are not named, but which he says the Lady Carlile had given to the queen, saying "she had it from the Lord Mande- ville." Taken in connexion with this, the fol- lowing is very curious : " I heare," continues Nicholas, " there are diverse meeting's in Chelsey att -f Lo. Mandeville-house and elsewhere, by Pym and others, to consult what is best to bee done at their next meeting in Parliament." Whereupon is this remark by the king : " It were not amiss that some of my servants met lykewise to countermynd their plots, to w'ch end speake w'th my wyfe, and receive her direc- tions, "t This Lord Mandeville is better known by the title of his barony, Kimbolton, in right of which he was at about this period called up to the House of Lords. He now lived at Chelsea, and Pym had taken lodgings near him. The meetings alluded to in the above extracts, the presence of Lady Carlile, the temper of the king, and his anxiety for a " plot" of his own, and the graphic touch with which his majesty's note concludes, are worth rescuing from the secret records of the time. In none of the cor- respondences do Henrietta's intrigues and the king's subjection}: appear more manifest than in this of Sir Edward Nicholas. My next ex- tracts will prove her distinct participation, and also that of the king, in Goring's army plot. In this plot Sir John Berkeley, afterward gov- ernor of Exeter, and Captain O'Neale, were deeply implicated.^ Under date of the 29th of September, Nicholas writes to the king : " Yes- terday, at Oatlands, I understood that Sir Jo. Berkeley and Capt. O'Neale were come over, and that they had beene the day before privately at Weybridge : I was bould then to deliver my opin- ion to the queene, that I did believe, if they con- * Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. ii., part ii., p. 18, quarto ed., 1819. In the two following letters there are some curious particulars respecting the crown jewels, with injunctions to peculiar secrecy, which are not a little significant of the king's purposes at this time. P. 21-23. t In a subsequent letter Nicholas tells the king that he had communicated respecting all this with her majesty, but that she " saith that cannot bee done in your majestie's ab- sence." Charles answers : " I confess, not so well, but yet so much as may do much good ; therefore be diligent in it." P. 34. t See a curious marginal note by Charles at p. 142. v See iMay's History. tinued in England, they would bee arrested [by Pym]. Her majestie seemed (when I tould it her) to appehend noe lesse, and will, I believe, take order that notice may bee given to them of y* danger." In a letter of the 5th of October he adds : " The Commons' committee met, and had before them Sir Jo. Berkeley and Capt. O'Neale, who were (as I heare) yesterday ap- prehended by the servant of the serjeant att arms."* Here the king remarks, " / hope some day they may repent their severitie ;" and at the close of the letter, Nicholas having told him of the jocund cheerfulness of Pym and his friends, Charles subjoins, " / believe, before all be done, that they will not have such great cause of joy." Again: Nicholas having written in his next letter, "Mr. Pym reports that the Earle of Arguile is chancellor of that kingdome (Scotland) ;" Charles affixes to the passage these significant words : " You may see by this that all his designes hit not ; and I hope, before all be done, that he shall miss of more." And in the despatch following this, the secretary having implored the immediate return of the king, say- ing that, " if your majestie doe not hasten to bee here some dayes before ye next meeting in Parliament, I doubt there will bee few that will dare to appeare here to oppose ye partie that now swayeth ;" Charles answered : " Though I cannot return so soon as I could wishe, yet I am confident that you willjinde there was neces- sitie for it, and I hope that manie will misse of their ends." No one in the slightest degree acquainted with the character of Charles, and with the pe- culiar intrigues he was at this very period car- rying on in Scotland, will hesitate to attach suf- ficient meaning to these covert threats against Pym and the popular leaders. There had nev- er been a time in which greater danger threat- ened the people's cause than now ; never was there a time looking at the daily defections within the House of Commons, at the falling off of the Lords without, at the rotten condi- tion of the army, and the notorious and well- proved perfidy of the king wherein a greater necessity existed for some grand appeal to the people, not simply to save the freedom of Par- liament, but even the lives of its most illus- trious members ; not simply to secure the per- manence of those provisions which had been achieved for the public liberty, but even to ward off the substitution of a naked despotism. Pym and Hampden acted with a perfect knowl- edge of these things, then, far beyond our im- perfect surmise now. Parliament reassembled, after the recess, on the day to which it stood adjourned, the 20th of October. In an able and lucid statement, t * Pym's own report of this affair, delivered on the reas- sembling of Parliament, differs from this. He said, " Next there came to me, to my lodgings at Chelsea, Sir John Berke- ley and Serjeant-major O'Neal, who said they heard they were accused, and had rashly withdrawn themselves ; but, upon better consideration, they were returned to submit to the pleasure of the House. I thought it my duty to make some privy counsellor acquainted therewith, whereupon I went to my Lord Willmot with them, who undertook they should attend the committee the next sitting, which they did accordingly ; and, in pursuance of the order and warrant of the House for the apprehending of them, they were both attached by the Serjeant's deputy : so the House may be pleased to send for them, arid to do therein as they see cause." Parl. Hist., vol. x., p. 5. t See Parl. Hist., vol. x., p. 1-6. JOHN PYM. Pym reported the proceedings of the commit- tee during the recess. While yet engaged upon this duty, news arrived in London of that cele- brated occurrence at Edinburgh which is well known in history by the name of the "Inci- dent." Through all the mystery which yet en- wraps this affair, one thing is not denied ; that Charles received from Montrose his project of assassination, and, having received it, continu- ed Montrose in his service and confidence. Montrose had indeed established a lasting hold upon Charles's favour by the proposition he coupled with his scheme of assassination to cut off the English leaders by the milder, but not less certain course of law, on evidence of a " treasonable correspondence" with the Scot- tish army. The king's every thought now bore upon the latter scheme : he had entered Scot- land with a view to conciliate the Covenant- ers, in the vain hope of effecting it in that way ; failing of this, he concerted with Mont- rose to trample upon the Covenant, only with a view to the same end. Pym, Hampden, and the rest struck down, the world of despo- tism would be once again before him where to choose ! But with the news of the " incident," letters from Hampden, still in Edinburgh with the com- mittee, were placed in Pym's hands. Their contents may be surmised from the fact that Pym instantly proposed and conducted a con- ference with the lords " concerning the securi- ty of the kingdom and Parliament ;"* denoun- ced again a branch conspiracy in London ; and demanded that all the military posts of the city should be occupied with a strong force. This was at once acceded to, and, besides this, the Westminster trainbands were brought up to guard the Houses of Parliament by night as well as day.f Secretary Nicholas, deeply alarmed, wrote to the king, " It is thought that this businesse will bee declared to bee a greater plot against the kingdome and Parliamts in Eng : and Scotl : than hath beene discovered at all. There have leene some well-affected Parliament-men here with me this morning, to know whether I had any re- lac'on of that businesse ; but rinding I had none, they seemed much troubled, as not knowing what to say to it." To this the king answers with cautious reserve. In a subsequent letter Nicholas mentions the sudden introduction of another bill for abolishing the temporal func- tions of the bishops, accompanying it with a remark, that " it is said to bee against ye an- tient order of P'liamt to bring in a bill againe ye same sessions that it was rejected ;" where- upon the king eagerly seizes this objection, and orders Nicholas to "bid his servants make as much use of it as may bee."J They did so, and were foiled by Pym. His great object at this time was to weaken the powers of mischief in the upper House ; and finding that his impeachment against the thir- teen bishops on the ground of their share in the recent canons must be quashed on some points of informality (the lords had already ad- mitted their demurrer), he counselled the rein- troduction of the first bill against the bishops ' See Rushworth, vol. iv., p. 390. t Rushworth, vol. iv., p. 392. t Evelyn, vol. ii., part ii., p. 45. as a temporary compromise for a great ulti- mate gain. I will describe the result in Clar- endon's words, as recently restored :* " Mr. Pym and his party found that they were so far from having gotten credit by their angry bill against the Church for the extirpation of bish- ops, that they had lost ground in the attempt, and therefore they seemed to decline any far- ther thought of such a violent proceeding, and to have more moderate inclinations ; and so, one morning, they brought in and desired to have a bill read for the taking away the votes of the bishops out of the House of Peers, no otherwise differing from the former than it was shorter. It was opposed by many that it should be received or read ; for it was a known rule of the House that a bill rejected could not be brought again into the House during the same session, which was an order that had never been known to be violated, which Mr. Pym con- fessed, but said, ' that our orders were not like the laws of the Medes and Persians, not to be al- tered > but that they were in our own power ; and that the receiving this bill, since it was in our power, was very necessary, and would quiet the minds of many, who, it may be, would be contented with the passing this bill, who would otherwise be importunate for more violent rem- edies ; and that there was reason to believe that the Lords, who had rejected the former bill, were very sorry for it, and would give this a better reception ; and if they did not, it would meet with the same fate the other had done, and we should have the satisfaction of having discharged our own consciences.' The con- tent many men had to see the former violence declined and more moderate counsels pursued, prevailed so far, that the bill was received and read ; and the same reasons, with some sub- sequent actions and accidents, prevailed after- ward for the passing it in the House of Com- mons, though it received a greater opposition than it had done formerly. And the Lord Falk- land then concurring with his friend Mr. Hyde in the opposing it, Mr. Hampdent said that he was sorry to find a noble lord had changed his opinion since the time the last bill to this pur- pose had passed the House ; for he then thought it a good bill, but now he thought this an ill one. To which the Lord Falkland presently replied, that he had been persuaded at that time by that worthy gentleman to believe many things which he had since found to be untrue, and therefore he had changed his opinion in many particulars, as well as to things as persons." Very true and candid was this, but not very startling, since Pym and Hampden knew it well already ; and " Mr. Hyde" had taken good care that, by this time, the king should know it too. " I may not forbeare to let your matie knowe," wrote Sir Edward Nicholas, under date of the 29th of October, " that the Lo. Falkland, Sr Jo. Strangwishe [Strangeways], Mr. Waller, Mr. Ed. Hyde, and Mr. Holborne have lately stood as champions in maintenance of your preroga- tive, whereof yr matie shall doe well to take some notice (as yor matie shall thinke best) for their incouragement.'" The king answered, eagerly and earnestly, " I command you to doe it in * Oxford ed. of 1826, vol. ii., p. 75, 76, note, t Hampden had returned from Scotland some few days before. 206 BRITISH STATESMEN. my name, telling them that I will doe it my self e at my returned From the date of this corre- spondence, at least, these men were retained on behalf of Charles. But Pym watched them more and more narrowly as the great struggle drew nigh. News of the Irish rebellion and massacre now burst upon London. Following so closely upon the Scottish " incident," and coupled with the evidence of still more striking circumstan- ces against the king, this shocking event in- creased to a fearful degree the prevailing ex- citement. The cold and laconic remark of Charles to Sir Edward Nicholas respecting it has not been noticed. " I hope," he merely wrote, " I hope this ill newes of Ireland may hinder some of theas follies in England."* The " follies" and their authors only moved more resolutely forward. A petition had been in agitation for some time in the lower House, " to be presented" (I quote Sir Edward Nich- olas's description) " to yo* matie, to receave the Parliament's approbation of such officers, councillors, &c., as yo r majtie shall choose, for better prevenc'on of the great and many mis- chiefs that may befall ye Commonwealthe, by ye choice of ill councillors, officers, amb'dors, and ministers of state." Nothing could exceed the king's alarm at this proposed measure, or the earnestness of his commands that it should by some means or other be " stopp'd." Hyde and Falkland, as may naturally be supposed, with their present prospects, opposed it bitter- ly, step by step ; but Pym and Hampden active- ly urged it on. At last, on the 10th of Novem- ber, according to the Lords' journals, Pym ap- peared at the head of the Commons, in confer- ence with the upper House, and proceeded to explain to their lordships the several steps, as they are there called, by which evil counsels had wrought such danger to the kingdom, and demanded remedy so loudly. " First. That the dangers which come to the state by ill counsels are the most pernicious of all others. Since it is usual to compare poli- tick bodies with natural, the natural body is in danger divers ways : either by outward vio- lence, that may be foreseen or prevented, or else by less appearing maladies, such as grow upon the body by distempers of the air, im- moderate exercise, or diet ; and when the causes of the disease are thus clear, the remedy is easily applied ; but diseases which proceed from the inward parts or the more noble parts it is a hard thing to apply a cure to such dis- eases. Ill counsels are of that nature ; for the mischiefs that come by evil counsel corrupt the vital parts, and overthrow the public gov- ernment. " Secondly. That there have been lately, and still are, ill counsels in this kingdom and about the king. That there have been lately, you will not doubt, when the main course of the government hath been so employed as popery thereby hath been maintained, the laws sub- verted, and no distinction kept between justice and injustice ; and that there are ill counsels still is apparent by the courses taken to advance mischievous designs : his majesty's wisdom and goodness kept them from his heart, tho' they were not kept out of his courts. So must * Evelyn, part ii., vol. ii., p. 45. principal and mischievous designs have been practised by such as had near access unto his majesty, tho' not to his heart, and the apolo- gists and promoters of ill counsels are still pre- ferred." The singular and grave caution of these dis- tinctions is not the least remarkable character- istic of Pym. No man could so thoroughly keep within the nice bounds of Parliamentary phrase while urging the bitterest things. " Thirdly. The ill counsels of this time are in their own nature more mischievous and more dangerous than the ill counsels of former times : former counsels have been to please kings in their vices, from which our king is free ; and sometimes for racking of the prerog- ative. If it had gone no farther, it had brought many miseries, but not ruin and destruction. But the ill counsels of this time are destructive to religion and laws, by altering them both, and therefore more mischievous in their own nature than those of former times. " Fourthly. That these ill counsels have pro- ceeded from a spirit and inclination to popery, and have had a dependance on popery, and all of them tend to it. The religion of the Pa- pists is a religion incompatible with any other religion ; destructive to all others, and not en- during any thing that opposeth it. Whosoever doth withstand their religion, if they have pow- er, they bring them to ruin. There are other religions that are not right, but not so destruc- tive as popery, for the principles of popery are destructive of all states and persons that op- pose it. With the progress of this mischievous system of evil counsel they provide counsel- lors, fit instruments and organs, that may exe- cute their own designs, and so turn all coun- sels to their own ends. You find now, in Ire- land, that those designs that have been upon all the three kingdoms do end in a war for the main- tenance of popery in Ireland. They would do the like here if they were able, so intent are they to turn all to their own advantage. " Fifthly. That unless these ill counsels be changed, it is impossible that any assistance, aid, or advice that the Parliament can take to reform will be effectual, for the public orders and laws are but dead if not put in execution. Those that are the ministers of state put things into action ; but if acted by evil men, and while these counsels are on foot, we can expect no good. It is like a disease that turns nutritives into poison. " Sixthly. That this is the most proper time to desire of his majesty the alteration and change of the evil counsellors, because the Commonwealth is brought into distemper by them, and so exhausted that we can endure no longer. Another reason why we cannot admit of them is to show our love and fidelity to the king in great and extraordinary contributions and aids. When God doth employ his servants, he doth give some promise to rouse up their spirits ; and we have reason now to expect the king's grace in great abundance. This is the time wherein the subjects are to save the king- dom of Ireland with the hazard of their lives and fortunes, and therefore expect it from his majesty in a more large and bountiful manner than at other times. This is a time of great agitation and action, when other states being JOHN PYM. 207 ready, by preparation, to annoy us, ill and false counsels at home may quickly bring us to ruin. As we have weakness at home, so we ought to discern the actions abroad, where great pro- visions are made ; and a carelessness and im- providence herein, when our neighbours are so provided, and have great fleets at sea, will open a way to sudden ruin and destruction, before we can be prepared ; and therefore it is now the fittest time to move the king. " Seventhly and lastly. That this alteration of counsels will bring great advantages to the king in his own designs. In all our actions, our prayers to God should be that his name may be glorified ; so our petitions to his maj- esty should bring honour, profit, and advantage to him, by a discouragement to the rebels, a great part of their confidence resting in the evil counsels at home, as by the examinations ap- peareth. It will be a great encouragement to the king's good subjects at home, who hazard their lives, and give aid and contribution, to have things governed for the public good. It will make men afraid to prefer servants to the king that are ill counsellors, when they shall come to the examination of the Parliament ; for many times servants are preferred to princes for the advantage of foreign states. This will put an answer into the king's mouth against all impor- tunities, that he is to prefer none but such as will be approved of by Parliament. Those that are honourable and most ingenuous are aptest to be troubled in this kind, and not to deny ; therefore the king may answer, ' He hath prom- ised his Parliament not to admit of any but by advice of Parliament.' This will silence them all. These are domestick advantages ; but it will also make us fitter to enter into union and treaty with foreign nations and states, and to be made partakers of the strength and assist- ance of others : it will fortify us against the designs of foreign princes. There hath been one common counsel at Rome and in Spain, to reduce us to popery : if good counsel at home, we shall be the better prepared to preserve peace and union, and better respect from Ire- land. It will also make us fit for any noble de- sign abroad." Secretary Nicholas, after describing to the king the effect of this grave and condensed statement, adds : " Yo r ma tie may perceave of what extream necessitie and importance yo r ma tie' S p ee( iy returne is, w ch I beseech y r ma tie by all meanes to hasten." Its effect in other quarters was like to have proved of immediate personal danger to Pym. Some few days af- ter he entered the House with an open letter in his hand, and told the speaker that he had just received a letter from a porter at the door of the House, and that, upon the opening of it, a covering which had come from a plague wound* dropped out of it, and that the letter itself contained many menaces, and much rail- ing against him. The porter, being examined, said " a gentleman on horseback, in a gray coat, gave him twelve pence for the speedy delivery of it." " Whatever the matter was," observes Nalson, " it made a mighty noise both in the House and out of the House, in the city and country ; for Mr. Pym was then one of the * The plague still lingered in various places in and about London. greatest idols of the faction. All the art ima- ginable was used to find out the author of this dangerous attempt to infect Mr. Pym with the plague, but to no purpose." In a curious pam- phlet published four days after Pym's death, and called " A short View of his Life and Ac- tions,"* I find a literal copy of this letter, su- perscribed " To my honoured friend John Pym, Esquire," and in-written thus : " Master Pym, do not think that a guard of men can protect you, if you persist in your courses and wicked designes. I have sent a paper messenger to you, and if this do not touch your heart, a dagger shall, so soon as I am recovered of my plague. In the mean time, you may be forborn, because no better man may be indangered for you. Re- pent, traitour." In the same pamphlet it is said, that soon after this occurrence a gentle- man, " mistaken for Mr. Pym," was stabbed in Westminster Hall by a ruffian who escaped, so that it is probable the amiable letter-writer kept his word ! Nor was this all. Sir Edward Nicholas, in the same letter which details the above at- tempts to the king, adds, that " on Monday last, in y e evening, another as desperate and dan- gerous a conspiracy against Mr. Pym was dis- covered by a poor zealous taylor." And by other conspiracies besides these against his lifet were the public virtues and services of this great person acknowledged and sought to be repaid. A series of harassing suits were commenced against him, with a view to deprive him, if possible, of his Parliamentary privilege, till at last, so eagerly were they followed, the House itself thought fit to interfere, and pro- tect him by a special order. J It was a vain persuasion that by such means as these the spirit of Pym could be broken or subdued. It rose to its duties with greater re- solvedness ; and in a subsequent conference with the Lords, who still held back from any thing like willing co-operation, he suddenly threw out a very plain and very memorable warning, which produced a deep impression at the time, and had, no doubt, the practical effect its author intended ; since, while it brought the divisions that now, under the management of Hyde and his friends, distracted the Commons themselves, to what might be called the ex- treme point of difference, it settled also the terms of the struggle, and the conditions of the victory, in the great party contest now instant- ly impending. When a great fight is to be fought for great results, it is better to take up position upon an extreme ground of certain and defined principle, than on the half covered way of policy. Pym recommended the upper House to consider that " the Commons were the rep- resentative body of the whole kingdom, while * See No. 135 of King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mus. t Clarendon alludes to them with his usual want of in- genuousness. " Men being thus disquieted, and knowing little, and so doubting much, every day seemed to them to produce a new discovery of some new treason and plot against the kingdom. One day, ' a letter from beyond seas, of great forces prepared to invade England ;' another, ' of some at- tempt upon the life of Mr. Pym.' " Vol. ii., p. 24. I " It was this day ordered that Mr. Pym, being sued for tythe wood, shall have the privilege of Parliament, and that Lewis Lushford and others, the solicitor and attorney on, the other side, be hereby enjoyned to forbear to prosecute, or further to proceed in that suit, or any other that con- cerns the said Mr. Pym." (.Yukon's Collections, vol. ii , p. 393.) 208 BRITISH STATESMEN. their lordships were but as particular persons, and present in Parliament in a particular ca- pacity."* The trimmers shrank from his side at this ; but the trimmers were held of little value by Pym and Hampden. On the 22d of November their great meas- ure was presented to the House by Pymt their final appeal to the nation on behalf of lib- erty against despotism the Grand Remon- strance" on the state of the kingdom. It was a " severely elaborate" review of Charles's mis- government in Church and State from the com- mencement of his reign ; it summed up all the grievances under which the people had suffered in language of great energy and power, and it pointed out the redress already achieved, and what still remained to be done. Great securi- ties for the people were yet to be struggled for ; and the patriots, in directing their present ap- peal emphatically to the people, exercised a wise and just policy of enlightening them, and guiding them to the future by severe reference and warning to the past. By other means their object must have failed of accomplishment. They did not scruple to declare frankly " that, without a seasonable care to disappoint some councils still entertained, all the good acts which they had obtained were in danger of be- ing lost." And stronger and plainer than this was their allusion to the Lords, that they had no hope of settling the kingdom's distractions, for want of a concurrence on the part of the upper House. " What can we the Commons do," said the words of the remonstrance itself, " without the conjunction of the House of Lords 1 And what conjunction can we expect there, where the bishops and recusant lords are so numerous and prevalent that they are able to cross and interrupt our best endeavours for reformation 1 They have already hindered the proceedings of divers good bills, passed in the Commons' House, concerning the reformation of sundry great abuses and corruptions both in Church and State." One passage, memorable for its effect upon the people, will illustrate the tone and purpose of the statement of grievances Referring to the dissolution of the third Parlia- ment, the remonstrants proceed : " The privi- leges of Parliament broken, by imprisoning di- vers members of the House, detaining them close prisoners for many months together, with- out the liberty of using books, pen, ink, or pa- per ; denying them all the comforts of life, all means of preservation of health, not permitting their wives to come unto them, even in time of their sickness ; and, for the compleating ol that cruelty, after years spent in such misera- ble durance, depriving them of the necessary means of spiritual consolation, not suffering them to go abroad to enjoy God's ordinances in God's house, or God's ministers to come to them, to administer comfort unto them in their private chambers ; and to keep them still in this oppressed condition, not admitting them to be bailed according to law, yet vexing them * Nalson's Collections, vol. ii., p. 712. t Clarendon's History, vol. ii.,p. 606, restored text. His words, though they convey a misrepresentation, are stri- king : " On Monday, the 22d oP November (the king being within two miles of London), MY. Pym brought in the re- monstrance, which was read ; having no direction to the king, or mention of the House of Peers, but being a plain declaration from the House of Commons to the people." with informations in inferior courts ; sentencing and fining some of them for matters done in Parliament, and extorting the payments of hose fines from them ; enforcing others to put n security for good behaviour before they could be released. The imprisonment of the rest, who refused to be bound, still continued (which might have been been perpetual, if necessity had not, the last year, brought another Parlia- ment to relieve them), of whom one (Sir John Eliot) died by the cruelty and harshness of his mprisonment, which would admit of no relaxation, notwithstanding the imminent danger of his life did sufficiently appear by the declaration of his thysician, and his release, or at least his refresh- ment, was sought by many humble petitions. AND HIS BLOOD STILL CRIES FOR VENGEANCE ! Or TC- jentance of those ministers of. state who at once obstructed the course both of his majes- ty's justice and mercy !" The document closed with a general petition that the bishops should 3e deprived of their votes, and that none should intrusted with the public affairs whom the Parliament might not approve of. A violent and long debate arose on its intro- duction. The House had commenced its sit- ting at eight o'clock in the morning ; at twelve at noon the debate commenced ; at twelve at midnight the remonstrance was carried by a majority of eleven. Hampden then openly dis- closed the purpose of the remonstrants by mo- ving that the remonstrance should be printed. Hyde opposed this with a counter motion ; de- nied the right of the House of Commons to print any thing without the concurrence of the Peers,* (!) and asserted for himself the right of protesting against the vote of the majority. In this he was joined by several members, and a desperate effort was made to enter a formal protest of the minority against the decision of the House. The conflict of voices and of pas- sions became tremendous, and bloodshed, Sir Philip Warwick says, was like to have ensued. " We had catched at each other's locks, and sheathed our swords in each other's bowels, had not the sagacity and great calmness of Mr. Hampden, by a short speech, prevented it, and led us to defer our angry debate until the next morning." Meanwhile, at about two o'clock, Hampden's motion for the printing had been carried, and now, at three in the morning, the House adjourned. Clarendon shall tell what occurred on the meeting of the following day. It may serve to explain one of the reasons of his personal, no less than public hatred of the memory of Pym. " About three of the clock, when the House met, Mr. Pym lamented the disorder of the night before, which, he said, might probably have engaged the House in blood, and had pro- ceeded principally from the offering a protesta- tion, which had been never before offered in that House, and was a transgression that ought to be severely examined, that mischief might not result hereafter from that precedent ; and there- fore proposed that the House would the next morning enter upon that examination, and in the mean time men might recollect themselves, and they who used to take notes might peruse their memorials, that the persons who were the * Hist., vol. ii., p. 43. The word " never" is replaced in this edition for the substituted " seldom." JOHN PYM. chief causers of the disorder might be named, and defend themselves the hest they could ; and with this resolution the House rose, the vexa- tion of the night before being very visible in the looks and countenance of many."* During this stormy and eventful scene the king was on his way from Scotland. He ar- rived on the 25th of November, " brooding in secret over his purposed vengeance on the popular leaders. "t His first act was to reward the deserters from the people. He made Falk- land secretary, and Colepepper chancellor of the Exchequer, while Hyde proposed to waive office for himself at present, on the ground that " his services would be more useful without it," or, in other words, that he had not yet lost the hope of secretly betraying the cause. Charles's next step was to remove the guards, which, since the Scotch incident and the Irish rebellion, had protected both Houses. The Commons strongly objected, and the king an- swered that his presence was a sufficient pro- tection ! On the 1st of December the grand remon- strance was presented to him at Hampton Court. He evaded an immediate answer, and promised to send one. The Commons at once published the remonstrance, " contrary," says Whitelocke,J " to the king's desire, and before his answer made to it." In a few days, how- ever, an answer, secretly drawn up by Hyde, was made public in the name of Charles. Ev- ery thing was rushing to a crisis. A bill now depended in the lower House for raising soldiers by impressment. Charles sud- denly intimated that he should pass it only with an express saving of his prerogative, and add- ed that he was " little beholding to him, who- ever at this time began this dispute." Pym at once proceeded to the House of Lords, at the head of a conference, and proposed the follow- ing resolutions : " It is our opinion, that the privileges of Parliament are broken, 1. By his majesty's taking notice of the bill for pressing, it being in agitation in both Houses, and not agreed on. 2. In that his majesty should pro- pound a limitation and provisional clause to be added to the bill before it was presented to him by the consent of both Houses. 3. In that his majesty did express his displeasure against some persons for matters moved or debated in Parliament during the debate and preparation of that bill. 4. That a declaratory protestation be entered into by both Houses for the claim of these privileges and liberties ; and that a petitionary remonstrance be drawn up and pre- sented to his majesty about them." An " hum- ble petition" was immediately presented, im- bodying the stern request that " he (the king) should take notice that the privilege of Parlia- ment was broken, and to desire him that it may not be done so any more hereafter." Charles made an " ample apology." The remonstrance, meanwhile, was doing its work among the people, and the popular dis- contents against the bishops were loudly heard. || * History, vol. ii., p. 45, 46. t History from Mackintosh, vol. v., p. 283. t Memorials, p. 48. (> Consult the restored text of the History. II Clarendon snys that the temporal peers had become equally objects of popular odium. And he proceeds to say, but without any authority of the reports or journals to bear Do Upon this Williams, who had recently made his peace with Charles, and succeeded to the arch- bishopric of York, committed that act which, considered as a rashness, was such a strange departure from his character, but, viewed as a first step to the king's cherished purpose of re- voking all that had been done in the past year, on the ground that the Parliament had not been free, was in perfect keeping with the huge in- trigue of his life. He drew up a declaration, and prevailed with eleven other prelates to join him in it, to the effect that the bishops could no longer, without danger to their lives, attend their duty in Parliament, and that they there- fore protested against the validity of any votes or resolutions of the House of Lords during their absence. This was delivered by the lord- keeper, and heard with extreme resentment. The Lords treated it as a breach of privilege, and communicated with the Commons ; when the latter, after a debate with closed doors, impeached the twelve bishops of high treason. On the 30th of December they appeared as cul- prits on their knees at the bar of the upper House. Ten were committed to the Tower, and two, on the score of age and infirmity, to the usher of the black rod. Thus closed 1641, the most eventful year of the English history, and upon the first day of 1642 blood was shed. A dissolute Royalist of- ficer drew his sword at Westminster, and, in- venting a term which afterward became very famous, threatened death to " the Roundheads who bawled against the bishops." Colonel Lunsford, too, who had been appointed to the Tower by Charles, in defiance of the wishes of the Commons, drew his sword upon the popu- lace ; several of his friends followed his exam- ple ; and some of the citizens were wounded, while one, Sir Richard Wiseman, was killed. The next scene took place in the House of Commons. The question of a guard was again debated, with halberts in the House for their defence. Pym had presented to the Lords the following condensed and most significant state- ment of reasons for the protection claimed. " The great number of disorderly, suspicious, and desperate persons, especially of the Irish nation, lurking in obscure alleys and victual- ling-houses in the suburbs, and other places near London and Westminster. The jealousy conceived upon discovery of the design in Scot- land for the surprising of the persons of divers nobility and members of the Parliament there, which had been spoken of here some few days before it broke out, not without some whispering intimation that the like was intended against di- vers persons of both Houses, which found the more credit by reason of the former attempts of bringing up the army to disturb and inforce this Parliament. The conspiracy in Ireland, him out, " Hereupon the Lords sent to the House of Com- mons, and many members of that house complained ' that they could not come with safety to Ihe House ; and that some of them had been assaulted, and very ill entreated, by those that crowded about that door.' But this conference could not be procured, the debate being still put off to some other time, after several speeches had been made in justifi- cation of them, and commendation of their affections, some saying ' they must not discourage their friends, this beinef a time they must make use of all friends ;' Mr. Pym himself saying, ' God forbid the House of Commons should proceed in any way to dishearten people to obtain their just desires in such a way.'" History of the Rebellion, vol. ii., p. 87. 210 BRITISH STATESMEN. managed with so much secrecy that, but for the happy discovery at Dublin, it had been ex- ecuted in all parts of the kingdom upon one and the same day, or soon after, and that some of the chief conspirators did profess that the like course was intended in England and Scot- land, which being found in some degree true in Scotland, seemed the more probable to be like- wise designed for England. Divers advertise- ments beyond the sea, which came over about the same time, ' 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.' Divers examinations of dangerous speeches of some of the popish and discontented party in this kingdom. The secret meetings and consultations of the Papists in several parts : their frequent devotions for the prosperity of some great design in hand. These several considerations do move the Parliament to desire a guard, which for the most part should be under the command of the Earl of Essex ; and they do conceive that there is just cause to apprehend that there is some wicked and mischievous practice to interrupt the peace- able proceedings of the Parliament still in hand ; for preventing whereof, it is fit the guard 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 themselves, they can by no means consent 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 under 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." And now Pym rose to add additional reasons, drawn from the recent practices and menaces of the English "malignant party." The House of Commons was still in debate the 3d of January, 1642 when Herbert, the attorney-general, appeared at the clerks' table of the House of Lords, and said that " the king had commanded him to tell their lordships that great and treasonable designs and practices against him and the state had come to his maj- esty's knowledge, for which the king had given him command to accuse, and he did accuse, the Lord Kimbolton, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Hollis, Sir Arthur Hazlerigge, and Mr. Strode, of high treason." He then read the articles, which sufficiently indicate how the blow would have been followed up in case it had succeeded thus far. They were couched in these words : " First. That they have traitorously endeavoured to subvert the fundamental laws and government of this kingdom, and deprive the king of his regal power, and place in the subjects an arbi- trary and tyrannical power. Second. That they have traitorously endeavoured, by many foul aspersions upon his majesty and his gov- ernment, to alienate the affections of his people, and to make his majesty odious to them. Third. That they have endeavoured to draw his maj- esty's late army to disobedience to his majes- ty's commands, and to side with them in their traitorous designs. Fourth. That they have traitorously invited and encouraged a foreign power to invade his majesty's kingdom of Eng- land. Fifth. That they have traitorously en- deavoured to subvert the rights and very being of Parliaments. Sixth. That for the comple- ting of their dangerous projects they have en- deavoured, as far as in them lay, by force and terror, to compel the Parliament to join with them in their traitorous designs ; and to that end, have actually raised and countenanced tu- mults against the king and Parliament. Sev- enth. That they have traitorously conspired to levy, and actually have levied, war against the king." Herbert added a desire on the part of his majesty, " First. That a select committee, under a command of secrecy, may be appointed to take the examination of such witnesses as the king will produce in this business, as for- merly hath been done in cases of like nature, according to the justice of this House. Sec- ond. Liberty to add and alter if there should be cause. Third. That their lordships would take care for the securing of the persons, as in justice there should be cause." Had this monstrous attempt of tyranny end- ed here, it would have stood a lasting evidence of the perfidy and folly of the king. The old- est rights of the subject were insolently viola- ted by it. The attorney-general had v not a shadow of right to impeach Pym or Hampden, any more than the House of Lords had the right to try them. The only mode of legal trial, upon such a suit preferred by the king, was by a petty jury on a bill found by a grand jury. But thus far we have only seen the be- ginning of the end ! The lower House were told of the attempt against them by a message from the Lords, and in the same moment heard that persons were sealing up the trunks, papers, and lodg- ings of the accused members. They sent the speaker's warrant on the instant to break the seals and apprehend the persons by whom they were put on ; ordered, at the same time, that any members upon whom similar seizures were attempted should stand upon their defence ; and finally desired an immediate conference with the Lords, as parties interested no less than themselves. Mr. Francis, sergeant-at-arms, having been meanwhile admitted without his mace, deliver- ed the following message to the House : " I am commanded by the king's majesty, my mas- ter, upon my allegiance, that I should come and repair to the House of Commons, where Mr. Speaker is, and there to require of Mr. Speaker five gentlemen, members of the House of Commons, and that these gentlemen being delivered, I am commanded to arrest them, in his majesty's name, of high treason. Their names are, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Hollis. Sir A. Hazlerigge, and Mr. William Strode." The House sent a deputation to the king in reply, saying that the matter was too serious to be decided without consideration, but that the accused would be ready to answer any le- gal charge. Pym and Hampden were present at the moment, and the speaker, in the name JOHN PYM. 211 of the House, formally requested them to at- tend, with the other three members, on the morning of the following day.* The scene must now change, early on the morning of the 4th of January, to the king's apartments at Whitehall, for a page of the se- cret history of this memorable event has re- cently been opened to us. The project of seizing the accused members in person from within the walls of the House was probably Charles's own, but had certainly been canvassed earnestly with the queen till late on the preceding night. From a curious manuscript account, left by Sir W. Coke of Norfolk, to Mr. Anchetil Grey, it would then appear that the king, apprehensive of the haz- ard of the attempt that had been agreed on at night, went the next morning to the queen's apartment, and finding Carlile with her majes- ty, he retired with the latter into her closet, and there discoursed with her about the con- sequence of the design, urged many reasons against it, and expressed a resolution not to put it into execution ; upon which the queen could no longer contain, but broke into these angry and passionate words : " Allez ! poltron! go, pull these rogues out by the ears, OK ne me revoycz jamais /"t The king left the room. Madame de Motteville supplies the sequel in describing the queen, while waiting with vio- lent impatience, rejoined by Lady Carlile. " She was impatiently," says that celebrated gossip and waiting-woman, " awaiting news from the House ; at length, thinking that the hour was past, and the stroke made or missed, she said to Lady Carlile, ' Rejoice ! for I hope that the kino; is now master in his states, and such and such are in custody.' Lady Carlile immediate- ly sent intelligence to Mr. Pym, where it ar- rived in time. The queen owned her indiscre- tion, with great penitence, to her husband, who forgave her."t Pym, Hampden, and the other members were in their places in the House of Commons very early on the 4th of January, and as soon as prayers were said, Pym had risen, and address- ed the speaker on the articles of impeachment presented against him the day before by the king's attorney. The clearness, force, and beau- ty of his speech will be felt by all. " What," we may say with ^Eschines, " what if we had heard him !" " Mr. Speaker, these articles of high treason, exhibited by his majesty against me, and the other gentlemen in the accusation charged with the same crime, are of great consequence and much damage to the state. The articles in themselves, if proved, are, according to the laws of the land, high treason. " First. To endeavour to subvert the fundament- al laws of tke land is, by this present Parliament, in the Earl of Stafford's case, adjudged high treason. Secondly, to endeavour to introduce into this kingdom an arbitrary and tyrannical * Journals of the Commons. In the afternoon of the 4th, there is a memorandum entered, "that all the five members aforementioned did appear in the House, according' to yes- terday's injunction." t Sir Arthur Hazlerisr himself, in an account he p^ive of this affair, in Cromwell's Parliament of 1658, uses these words in part. His account is loose, hut fair corroborating evidence on the whole. See some extracts from his speech in Appendix D. 1 Margure, p. 429. form of goverment, is likewise voted high trea- son. Thirdly, to raise an army to compel the Parliament to make and enact laws, without their free votes and willing proceedings in the same, is high treason. Fourthly, to invite a foreign force to invade this land, to favour our designs agitated against the king and state, is high treason. Fifthly, to animate and encour- age riotous assemblies and tumults about the Parliament, to compel the king to assent to votes of the House, is treason. Sixthly, to cast aspersions upon his majesty and his gov- ernment, to alienate the affections of his peo- ple, and to make his majesty odious unto them, is treason. Seventhly, to endeavour to draw his majesty's army into disobedience, and to side with us in our designs, if against the king, is treason. " I desire, Mr. Speaker, the favour of this House to clear myself concerning this charge. I shall only parallel and similize my actions since the sitting of this Parliament with these articles. " First, Mr. Speaker, if to vote with the Par- liament as a member of the House, wherein all our votes ought to be free (it being one of the greatest privileges thereof to have our debates, disputes, and arguments in the same unques- tionable), be to endeavour to subvert the fun- damental laws, then I am guilty of the first ar- ticle. " Secondly. If to agree and consent with the whole state of the kingdom, by vote, to ordain and make laws for the good government of his majesty's subjects, in peace and dutiful obedi- ence to their lawful sovereign, be to introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical form of government in the state, then am I guilty of this article. " Thirdly. If to consent, by vote with the Parliament, to raise a guard or train'd band to secure and defend the persons and the mem- bers thereof, being environed and beset with many dangers in the absence of the king ; and, by vote with the House, in willing obedience to the royal command of his majesty, at his re- turn, be actually to levy arms against the king, then am I guilty of this article. " Fourthly. If to join with the Parliament of England, by free vote, to crave brotherly as- sistance from Scotland (kingdoms both under obedience to one sovereign, both his loyal sub- jects) to suppress the rebellion in Ireland, which lies gasping every day in danger to be lost from his majesty's subjection, be to invite and en- courage a foreign power to invade this king- dom, then am I guilty of high treason. " Fifthly. If to agree with the greatest and wisest council of state to suppress unlawful tumults and riotous assemblies ; to agree with the House, by vote, to all orders, edicts, and declarations for their repelling, be to raise and countenance them in their unlawful actions, then am I guilty of this article. " Sixthly. If, by free vote, to join with the Parliament in publishing of a remonstrance ; in setting forth declarations against delinquents in the state ; against incendiaries between his majesty and his kingdom ; against ill counsel- lors which labour to avert his majesty's affec- tion from Parliament ; against those ill-affect- ed bishops that have innovated our religion oppressed painful, learned, and godly ministers 212 BRITISH STATESMEN. with vexatious suits and molestations in their unjust courts by cruel sentences of pillory and cutting off their ears by great fines, banish- ments, and perpetual imprisonments : if this, Mr. Speaker, be to cast aspersions upon his majesty and his government, and to alienate the hearts of his loyal subjects, good Protest- ants and well affected in religion, from their due obedience to his royal majesty, then am I guilty also of this article. " Seventhly. If to consent, by vote with the Parliament, to put forth proclamations, or to send declarations to his majesty's army to ani- mate and encourage the same to his loyal obe- dience ; to give so many subsidies, and raise so many great sums of money willingly for their keeping on foot to serve his majesty upon his royal command on any occasion ; to appre- hend and attack as delinquents such persons in the same as are disaffected both to his sacred person, his crown and dignity, to his wise and great counsel of Parliament, to the true and orthodox doctrine of the Church of England, and the true religion, grounded on the doctrine of Christ himself; and established and confirm- ed by many acts of Parliament in the reigns of King Henry VIII., King Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, and King James of blessed memory : if this, Mr. Speaker, be to draw his majesty's army into disobedience, and siding with us in our designs, then am I guilty of this article. " Now, Mr. Speaker, having given you a touch concerning these articles, comparing them with my actions ever since I had the honour to sit in this House as a member there- of, I humbly crave your consideration and fa- vourable judgment of them, not doubting they being weighed in the even scales of your wis- dom I shall be found innocent and clear from these crimes laid to my charge." Nor, in the triumph of this masterly self-vin- dication, did Pym forget the higher duty which then waited upon his position as leader of the House upon his virtue, and on his never-quail- ing courage. As the members expected him to resume his seat, he gravely and earnestly, amid loud cheering from various quarters, add- ed these words : " Mr. Speaker, I humbly crave your further patience to speak somewhat concerning the exhibiting of this charge, which is to offer to your consideration these questions, viz. : First, whether to exhibit articles of high treason by his majesty's own hands in tkis House agrees with the rights and privileges thereof? Secondly, whether for a guard armed to come into the Parliament to accuse any of the members thereof be not a breach of the privilege of Parliament 1 Third- ly, whether any of the members of Parliament, being so accused, may be committed upon such accusation without the whole consent 1 Fourth- ly, whether a Parliament hath not privilege to bail any member so accused 1 Fifthly and last- ly, whether, if any of the members of Parlia- ment so charged, and by the House discharged, without release from his majesty may still sit in the House as members of the same 1 " And thus, Mr. Speaker, I humbly crave par- don for my presumption in so far troubling this honourable House, desiring their favourable consideration of all my actions, and that I may have such trial as to this wise council shall seem meet, cheerfully submitting myself and actions to the righteous judgment of the same." The rest of the accused members afterward rose successively, and refuted the alleged char- ges against themselves. The dinner hour's ad- journment then took place ; and the House had scarcely resumed when, between three and four o'clock, Pym received Lady Carlile's intelli- gence, and at once stated it to the House. The five members were requested to withdraw, to avoid the bloodshed which it was felt would be the necessary consequence of their remaining, and after some difficulty they did so. Then the House, having ordered Mr. Speaker to keep his seat, with the mace lying before him, awaited in awful silence the approach of their strange and unwelcome visiter.* A loud knock threw open the door ; a rush as of many armed men was heard ; and above it the voice of Charles, commanding " upon their lives not to come in."t He entered the moment after, accompanied only by his nephew, the prince palatine ; and as he advanced up to the chair uncovering himself, and the mem- bers standing up uncovered he darted a look " on the right hand, near the bar of the House, where Mr. Pym used to sit, but not seeing him there (knowing him well), went up to the chair."J This the speaker yielded to him, but he contin- ued standing on the step. Again his eye glan- ced around, searching once more for the portly person of the popular leader. The multitude of faces that met his own, and the sullen and awful silence that prevailed, confused him. He spoke at last, but in a subdued tone, and with an abruptness which made more evident than usual the painful defect in his enunciation. He assured them hastily " that no king that ever was in England should be more careful of their privileges ; but in case of treason, he held that no person hath a privilege." He took " this occasion again to confirm, that \vhatever he had done in favour and for the good of his sub- jects, he would maintain." Then again "he called Mr. Pym by natne."$ None answered. He asked the speaker if he was in the House. Lenthall, inspired by the greatness of the oc- casion, kneeled, and desired him to excuse hia answer, for " in this place I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am." "The birds, then, are flown!" said Charles, passionately ; and, abruptly insisting that the accused members must be sent to him, or " he must take his own course," left the place where he stood, " pulling off his hat till he came to the door."|| A low and ominous murmur of " Privilege! privilege !" sounded in his ears as he retired. His hired and tumultuous bands of bravoes, who, while he was in the House, had been waiting in the lobby for " the word," cocking their pistols, and crying " Fall on,''? * The subsequent entry on the Journals is simply this : " Jan. 4, P.M. The king came into the House of Com- mons and took Mr. Speaker's chair. "Gentlemen, I am sorry to have this occasion to come unto you *** " Resolved, upon the question, that the House shall ad- journ itself till to-morrow one of the clock." t Verney's Pencil Notes. t Rushwort'i. $ Verney's Pencil Notes. HaHam, vol. ii., p. 17S. II Ibid. IT The following passage is taken from the subsequent " declaration" of the Commons. " It did fully appear that JOHN PYM. 213 now followed him shouting to Whitehall, from whence he issued a proclamation in the course of that night, directing that the ports should be stopped, and that no person should, at his peril, venture to harbour the accused members. During the whole of this extraordinary and unparalleled scene, one person only sat quiet and unmoved. This was Rushworth, the cele- brated historical collector, then assistant clerk to the Commons. I will here subjoin the ac- count which he has left, since it is remarkable for many reasons, and not least for containing the very words that were spoken by Charles and Lenthall, and which the indefatigable clerk coolly wrote down as they broke upon the ter- rible silence. The closing paragraph carries us, too, a step beyond the sketch given above, which is taken, it should be added, in the points of difference or addition to Rushworth, from the pencil notes of Sir Ralph Verney, who was also in the House at the time. " When the five accused members came this day, after dinner, into the House, they were no sooner sat in their places but the House was informed by one Captain Langrish, lately an officer in arms in France, that he came from among the officers and soldiers at Whitehall, and understanding by them that his majesty was coming with a guard of military men, com- manders and soldiers, to the House of Com- mons, he passed by them with some difficulty to get to the House before them, and sent in word how near the said officers and soldiers were come ; whereupon a certain member of the House* having also private intimation from the Countess of Carlile, sister to the Earl of Northumberland, that endeavours would be used this day to apprehend the five members, the House required the five members to depart the House forthwith, to the end to avoid com- bustion in the House if the said soldiers should use violence to pull any of them out, to which command of the House four of the said mem- many soldiers, Papists and others, to the number of about 500, came with his maj. on Tuesday, the 4th instant, to the said House of Commons, armed with swords, pistols, and other weapons ; and divers of them pressed to the door of the said House, thrust away the doorkeepers, and placed themselves between the said door and the ordinary attend- ants of his maj., holding up their swords ; and some holding op their pistols, ready cocked, near the said door, and say- ing, ' I ara a good marksman ; I can hit right, I warrant you ;' and they not suffering the said door, according to the custom of Parliament, to be shut, but said ' they would hare the door open ; and, if any opposition were against them, they made no question but they should make their party good, and that they would maintain their party.' And when several members of the House of Commons were com- ing into the House, their attendants desiring that room might be made for them, some of the said soldiers answered, ' A pox of God confound them ;' and others said, ' A pox take the House of Commons ; let them come, and be hang- ed ; what a-do is here with the House of Commons !' And some of the said soldiers did likewise violently assault, and by force disarm, some of the attendants and servants of the members of the House of Commons, waiting in the rooms next the said House ; and, upon the king's return out of the said House, many of them, by oaths and otherwise, ex- pressed much discontent, that some members of the said House, for whom they came, were not there ; and others of them said, ' When comes the word ?' and no word being given, at his majesty's coming out, they cried, ' A lane ! a lane !' Afterward, somo of them, being demanded ' what they thought the said company intended to have done,' an- swered, ' that, questionless, in the posture they were set, if the word had been given, they should have fallen upon the House of Commons.'" * There seems a sort of delicacy here implied, as if the assistant clerk did not care to announce publicly Pym's connexion with Lady Carlile. bers yielded ready obedience ; but Mr. Strode was obstinate, till Sir Walter Earle (his antient acquaintance) pulled him out by force, the king being at that time entering into the new palace- yard in Westminster. And as his majesty came through Westminster Hall, the commanders, reformadoes, &c., that attended him, made a lane on both sides the hall through which his majesty passed, and came up the stairs to the House of Commons, and stood before the guard of pensioners and halberteers, who also attend- ed the king's person ; and the door of the House of Commons being thrown open, his majesty entered the House, and as he passed up towards the chair, he cast his eye on the right hand, near the bar of the House, where Mr. Pym used to sit ; but his majesty, not seeing him there (knowing him well), went up to the chair, and said, ' By your leave, Mr. Speaker, I must bor- row your chair a little ;' whereupon the speaker came out of the chair, and his majesty stepped up into it. After he had staid in the chair a while, he cast his eye upon the members as they stood up uncovered, but could not discern any of the five members to be there ; nor, in- deed, were they easy to be discerned, had they been there, among so many bare faces all stand- ing up together. " Then his majesty made this speech. ' Gen- tlemen, I am sorry for this occasion of coming unto you. Yesterday I sent a sergeant-at-arms, upon a very important occasion, to apprehend some that, by my command, were accused of high treason, whereunto I did expect obedience, and not a message ; and I must declare unto you here, that albeit no king that ever was in England shall be more careful of your privile- ges, to maintain them to the uttermost of his power, than I shall be, yet you must know that in cases of treason no person hath a privilege, and therefore I am come to know if any of these persons that were accused are here ; for I must tell you, gentlemen, that so long as these persons that I have accused, for no slight crime, but for treason, are here, I cannot ex- pect that this House will be in the right way that I do heartily wish it ; therefore I am come . to tell you that I must have them wheresoever I find them. Well, since I see all the birds are flown, I do expect from you that you will send them unto me as soon as they return hither. But I assure you, on the word of a king, I never did intend any force, but shall proceed against them in a legal and fair way, for I never meant any other. And now, since I see I cannot do wha* I came for, I think this no unfit occasion to re- peat what I have said formerly, that whatso- ever I have done in favour and to the good of my subjects, I do mean to maintain it. I will trouble you no more, but tell you I do expect, as soon as they come to the House, you will send them to me, otherwise I must take my own course to find them.' ' When the king was looking about the House, the speaker standing below by the chair, his majesty asked him whether any of these persons were in the House whether he saw any of them and where they were. To which the speaker, falling on his knee, thus answered : ' May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, 214 BRITISH STATESMEN. whose servant I am here ; and humbly beg your majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your majesty is pleased to demand of me.' " The king, having concluded his speech, went out of the House again, which was in great disorder, and many members cried out aloud, so as he might hear them, Privilege ! privilege ! and forthwith adjourned till the next day at one o'clock. " The same evening his majesty sent James Maxwell, usher of the House of Peers, to the House of Commons, to require Mr. Rushworth, the clerk assistant, whom his majesty had ob- served to take his speech in characters at the table in the House, to come to his majesty ; and when Maxwell brought him to the king, his maj- esty commanded him to give him a copy of his speech in the House. Mr. Rushworth humbly besought his majesty (hoping for an excuse) to call to mind how Mr. Francis Nevil, a York- shire member of the House of Commons, was committed to the Tower for telling his majes- ty what words were spoken in the House by Mr. Henry Bellasis, son to the Lord Faucon- berg ; to whom his majesty smartly replied, ' I do not ask you to tell me what was said by any member of the House, but what I said myself;' whereupon he readily gave obedience to his majesty's command, and in his majesty's pres- ence, in the room called the jewel-house, he transcribed his majesty's speech out of his char- acters, his majesty staying in the room all the while, and then and there presented the same to the king, which his majesty was pleased to command to be sent speedily to the press, and the next morning it came forth in print."* Pym, Hampden, Hollis, Hazlerig, and Strode had taken refuge in Coleman-street, in the city. The city, it has been well observed, was at this time the fastness of public liberty, and " a place of at least as much importance as Paris during the French Revolution."! Instead of being, as now, a huge collection of immense warehouses and counting-houses, frequented by clerks and traders during the day, and left almost desert- ed during night, it was then " closely inhabited by 300,000 persons, to whom it was a place of constant residence," and who had as complete a civil and military organization as if it had been an independent republic. The troops they afterward furnished turned the tide of many an action at the opening of the civil war. The municipal offices were filled by the most opu- lent and respectable merchants of the king- dom, and " the pomp of the magistracy of the capital was second only to that which surround- ed the person of the sovereign." Finally, the numbers, the intelligence, the wealth of the citizens, the democratic form of their local gov- ernment, that had educated them to notions of liberty, and their vicinity to the court and to the Parliament, made them " one of the most formidable bodies in the kingdom." Into the city Charles proceeded on the fol- lowing morning in search of the five members. He was received with marked signs of discon- tent. The multitude cried aloud, " Privileges of Parliament ! privileges of Parliament !" and * Rushworth's Collections, vol. iv., p. 477, 478. t See a brilliant article on Lord Nugent's Memorials of Hampden, in the Edinburgh Review. one of them, more zealous than the rest, flung into the window of his carriage a paper, on which was written the famous words of the ten tribes when they forsook the foolish and wan- tonly tyrannical Rehoboam : " To your tents, Israel !" Meanwhile, the houses, the purses, the pikes of the citizens were freely placed at the command of the Commons. They kept themselves all night in arms, and on the fol- lowing day all signs of business were suspend- ed, the shops closed, and the streets thronged. A committee had been appointed to sit in the city for investigating the outrage ; a deputation of the common council welcomed its members ; several of the halls of the companies (then for- midable clans) were offered for its sittings ; guards were furnished in abundance ; and the sheriffs watched over the safety of Pym and his friends, and conducted them to and from the committee with every mark of honour. Nor was this all. While four thousand Buck- inghamshire men rode up from their county to watch over the safety of Hampden, an immense body of the common people assembled to " de- fend Mr. Pym." From a curious pamphlet, to which reference has already been made,* I find that a petition and defence of Pym was on this occasion drawn up by these faithful and strong friends, and meant for presentation to the king. Whether it was ever so presented I cannot as- certain ; but some extracts, which have not yet found a place in any record of the time, are ap- propriate and interesting. Waiving any allusion to the other members accused, the petitioners confine themselves to the alleged guilt of Pym. " We doe unani- mously suppose," they say, " that your majes- tie hath beene either misinformed, or else sug- gested by some malicious persons who are ill affected to the said Mr. Pym ; the man we have experimentally found to bee a chiefe pillar of religion ; who, when the pure sanctitie there- of had sunke too low into the vault of heresie in the late turbulent times, and when it almost languished in so disastrous a manner, was the chiefest supporter thereof, and did alwayes study with carefull vigilancie to erect and ele- vate the same." Again, adverting to the first article, " that Mr. Pym hath traytorously in- deavoured to subvert the fundamentall lawes and government of England," the following re- mark is made : " This seemes contrary, in re- gard that hee solely did alwayes oppose any man whom hee either found or could suspect guiltie of the same crime, and hath laboured rather to ratifie and confirme the fundamentall lawes, than either subvert or confound the same ; for in his diurnall speeches in the Par- liament was alwayes specified his reall intent in the institution, and not diminution or sub- version of any law which was not detrimentall to the safetie and prosperitie of thiskingdome." The allegations in the fourth and fifth articles are answered thus : " It is declared that hee hath traytorously invited and incouraged a forraigne power to invade his majestie's king- dome of England. To this your petitioners dare boldly say, that this nefarious invitation and incouragement of a forraigne power was never undertooke by him ; for hee hath beene * See p. 176 of the present volume, note : "The Com- mons' petition to the king." JOHN PYM. 215 very vigilant to preserve and defend this king dome, in as great fortification as possibly migh bee, to the flourishing prosperitie of this whol realme ; and therefore hee hath oftentimes ex press-ed his affection towards the safetie of this nation, and of stronger forces that should be< raised, to keepe out any forraigne enemy o power, least, peradventure, they steale upon us unawares. In the fifth article hee is impeach ed thus : That hee hath traytorously indeav oured to subvert the rights and very being of Parliaments. To this we may answer with great facilitie, Hee was the chiefe cause that thi Parliament was assembled, and it seemes very incongruous that hee should subvert the same Moreover, hee is the sole man that stands for the antient rights and liberties of the Parlia ments, and it seemes a stupendious thing tha: hee should confound the same. In this resped your petitioners dare speake with confidence that there was not one man in the Parliament House who did stand more strongly for the rights of Parliament than Mr. Pym did." What need to pursue this subject farther 1 The House of Commons, having declared the king's " warlike entrance" a gross breach of privilege, and his proclamation of the five mem- bers as traitors a " false, scandalous, and ille- gal paper," completed their open defiance of Charles by adjourning till the llth of January, and ordering the accused members on that day to attend in their places at Westminster, and resume their public duties. Charles sought to effect a compromise ; offered a " free pardon ;" and said he found now " good cause wholly to desert any prosecution ;" but it was too late. The resolute determination of the Commons, the proceedings which were afterward taken to dare the utmost investigation, and, finally, the punishment of the king's attorney, belong to history. The llth of January was a brilliant day, and the Thames appeared covered with boats, and its bridges and banks crowded with spectators. Armed vessels, and barges manned by sailors, and carrying ordnance with matches lighted, attended the embarcation of the sheriffs, with a portion of the city guard. Two brilliant lines of flags and colours ranged themselves from Lon- don Bridge to Westminster Hall, and through these Pym and Hampden, and their friends, in a vessel manned by sailors who had volunteer- ed their services, returned to the scene of their dangers and glories. A farther division of the trainbands of the city had meanwhile marched up the Strand, attended by vast crowds of shout- ing people, for the purpose of guarding the av- enues to the House of Commons ; and as the patriots landed, the enthusiastic applauses of the multitude, outringing the clattering dischar- ges of ordnance, followed them in their passage to the lobby. Pym rose immediately after ta- king his old seat, and fervently thanked the citizens of London. Hampden, Hollis, Hazle- rig, and Strode stood uncovered while Pym spoke. In conclusion, the sheriffs were thank- ed by a unanimous vote of the House, and or- ders given that a guard, selected from the train- bands of the city, "should attend daily to watch over the safety of the Parliament." Late on the night before this public triumph, , the king, his queen, and their chitfren left Lon- . don and proceeded to Hampton Court. When Charles returned again, he returned a prisoner. The crisis had now arrived, and the last ap- peal alone was waited for. Clarendon says that Pym and Hampden returned to their places in Parliament altered and fiercer men. Fiercer they probably were, but they were not altered. The times had changed, not they. Their hopes of any intermediate reconciliation were now forever blasted ; and it was clear that no mu- tual terms could be held again until one of the parties .had thoroughly subdued the other. The Commons pursued their measures with singular energy. Major-general Skippon was placed, with a sufficient guard, over the Tower ; and a memorable order was at once issued, that Lord Newport, master-general of the ordnance, and Sir John Byron, lieutenant of the Tower, should suffer no removal of ordnance or ammu- nition " without the king's authority, signified by both Houses of Parliament." Goring was sent to hold Portsmouth under the same au- thority, and Sir John Hotham to Hull. The king remained irresolute and inactive mean- while. The Commons wanted money beyond all things, and now negotiated a loan with the city. The authorities, by petition, declined lending, except upon certain conditions, which they delivered in the form of twelve specific grievances to be at once redressed. These conditions are supposed to have been the sug- gestion of Pym. The Commons instantly de- sired a conference with the Lords respecting this London petition, and divers others of a similar character from the counties of Middle- sex, Essex, and Hertford. Pym managed the conference, and the speech he delivered there is a masterpiece of eloquence ; solid, concise, and vigorous, nervous and simple. It may re- main, with the language itself, an everlasting evidence of the wisdom and courage of the orator. ' My lords, I am commanded by the knights, citizens, and burgesses, assembled for the Com- mons in Parliament, to present to your lord- ships divers petitions which they have received from several parts concerning the state of the iingdom, whereunto they are chiefly moved by that constant affection which they have always expressed, of maintaining a firm union and good :orrespondence with your lordships, wherein hey have ever found much advantage and con- entment, but never held it more important and necessary than at this time, when the wisdom and resolution of Parliament have as many reat dangers and difficulties to pass through as ever heretofore. We are united in the public trust, which is lerived from the Commonwealth, in the com- mon duty and obligation whereby God doth ind us to the discharge of that trust ; and the Commons desire to impart to your lordships whatsoever information or intelligence, what- oever encouragement or assistance, they have eceived from those several counties which hey represent, that so likewise we may be inited in the same intentions and endeavours f improving all to the service of his majesty, nd the common good of the kingdom. " The petitions which I am directed to com- municate to your lordships are four : from Lon- 216 BRITISH STATESMEN. don, Middlesex, Essex, and Hertfordshire. W have received many more, but it would take u too much time and be too great a trouble t peruse all ; and in these four you may perceiv the effect and sense of all. First, I am to de sire your lordships to hear them read ; and the I shall pursue my instructions in propoundin some observations out of them." " These petitions," the report continues, " be ing read by four several members of the House Mr. Pym resumed his discourse. " My lords, in these four petitions you ma] hear the voice, or rather the cry, of all England and you cannot wonder if fhe urgency, the ex tremity of the condition wherein we are, dc produce some earnestness and vehemence ol expression more than ordinary. The agony terror, and perplexity in which the kingdom labours are universal ; all parts are affectec with them ; and therefore in these you may observe the groans and miserable complaints of all. " Divers reasons may be given why those diseases which are epidemical are more dan gerous than others. First, The cause of such diseases is universal and supernal, and not from an evil constitution, or evil diet, or any other accident ; such causes, therefore, work with more vigour and efficacy than those which are particular and inferior. Secondly, In such dis- eases there is a communicative quality, where- by the malignity of them is multiplied and en- forced. Thirdly, They have a converting, trans- forming power, that turns other diseases and il affections of men's bodies into their own na- ture. " First, The common and epidemical disease wherein this Commonwealth now lies gasping hath a superior and universal cause from the evil counsels and designs of those who, under his majesty, bear the greatest sway in govern- ment. Secondly, It hath a contagious and in- fectious quality, whereby it is diffused and dis- persed thro' all parts of the kingdom. Thirdly, It is apt to take in the discontents, evil affec- tions, and designs of particular persons, to in- crease and fortify itself. " I shall take occasion, from several branch- es of those petitions which your lordships have heard, to observe, First, The variety of dan- gers to which this kingdom is now subject. Secondly, the manifold distempers which are the cause of those daggers. Thirdly, The mul- tiplicity of those evil influences which are the causes of those distempers. "The first danger is from enemies abroad. This may seem a causeless and impertinent observation at this time, seeing we are in peace with all nations about us. But, my lords, you may be pleased to consider that the safety of the kino-dom ought not to depend upon the will and disposition of our neighbours, but upon our own strength and provision. Betwixt states there are often sudden changes from peace to war, according to occasion and advantage. All the states of Christendom are now armed, and we have no reason to believe but that those of greatest power have an evil eye upon us in re- spect of our religion ; and if their private dif- ferences should be composed, how dangerous- ly, how speedily might those great armies, and other preparations now ready, be applied to some enterprise and attempt against us ! If there were no other cause, this were sufficient to make us stand upon our guard. But there are divers more especial symptoms of dangers of this kind^ "We may perceive by several advertisements from abroad that they did foresee our dangers many months before they broke out. They could foretell the time and manner of them, which is a clear evidence they held intelligence with those who were the contrivers and work- ers of the present troubles. " We have, in truth, many dangerous traitors and fugitives now in other parts, who can dis- cover the weakness and distemper of the king- dom, who hold intelligence with the ill-affected party here, and, by all cunning and subtle prac- tices, endeavour to incite and provoke other princes against us. " Some of the ministers of our neighbour princes, my lords, may be justly suspected to have had a yet more immediate hand and op- eration in the insurrection and rebellion in Ire- land ; many of the commanders, and most of the soldiers levied for the service of Spain, are now joined with the rebels there ; and those Irish friars which were employed by the Span- ish ambassador for the making of those levies are known to have been the chief incendiaries of this rebellion, and are still very active in the prosecution and encouragement of it. The reb- els have, moreover, a ready and speedy supply from some of our neighbours. Two convoys of munition and arms we are certainly inform- ed of one from Dunkirk, the other from Nantes in Brittany ; and certainly those that are so for- ward to enable others to hurt us, will not for- bear to hurt us themselves, as soon as they hall have means and opportunity to do it. " Another danger is from the Papists and ill- affected party at home. The Papists here are actuated by the same principles with those in freland. Many of the most active of them have ately, indeed, been there, which argues an in- ;ercourse and communication of councils. They lave still store of arms and munition at their disposing, notwithstanding all our endeavours to disarm them ; they have a free resort to the city and to the court ; they want no opportu- nity to consult together ; they have the same or greater encouragements, from above and from about them, than ever, in respect of the example and success of the rebels in Ireland, and the great confusions and divisions which, by their sunning and subtle practices, are raised and bmented amongst ourselves at home. " A third danger is of tumults and insurroc- ions of the meaner sort of people, by reason if their ill vent of cloth and other manufac- ures, whereby great multitudes are set on >vork, who live for the most part on their daily gettings, and will, in a very short time, be rought to great extremity if not employed. Nothing is more sharp and pressing than ne- essity and want ; what they cannot buy they vill take ; from them the like necessity will uickly be derived to the farmers and husband- nen, and so grow higher, and involve all in an quality of misery and distress, if it be not in- tantly prevented ! And, at this time, such tu- mlts will be more dangerous, because the king- om is full of disbanded soldiers and officers, JOHN PYM. 217 who will be ready to head and to animate the multitude to commit violence with more strength and advantage ; and if they once grow into a body, it will be much more difficult to reduce them into order again, because neces- sity and want, which are the causes of this disturbance, will still increase as the effects in- crease. " A fourth danger is from the rebels in Ire- land, not only in respect of that kingdom, but in respect of this. They have seized upon the body of that kingdom already ; they abound in men of very able persons ; they increase in arms and munition ; they have great hopes of supplies from abroad and of encouragement here, and are sure of good entertainment from the popish party, so that they begin to speak already there of transporting themselves hither, and making this kingdom the seat of the war. " The distemper, my lords, which hath pro- duced these dangers is various and exceeding violent. Whensoever Nature is hindered in her proper operations and faculties, distempers will necessarily follow. The obstructions, my lords, which have brought us into this distem- per are very many, so that we cannot wonder at the strength and malignity of it. Some of the chiefest of these obstructions I shall en- deavour to remember. " First. The obstruction of reformation in matters of religion. No grievances are sharper than those that press upon the tender consciences of men ! and there was never church or state afflicted with more grievances of this kind than we have been ; and though they are, by the wisdom of this Parliament, partly eased and diminished, yet many still remain ; and as long as the bishops and the corrupt part of the cler- gy continue in their power, there will be little hope of freedom, either from the sense of those which continue, or the fear of those which are re- moved. And of this obstruction, my lords, I must clear the Commons. We are in no part guilty of it. Some good bills have passed us, and others are in preparation, which might have been passed before this if we had not found such ill success in your Lordships' House. Whatso- ever mischief this obstruction shall produce, we are free from it : we may have our part of the misery, we can have no part in the guilt or dishonour. " Secondly. An obstruction in trade. It is trade that brings food and nourishment to the kingdom ; it is that which preserves and in- creases the stock of the whole, and distributes a convenient portion of maintenance to every part of it, therefore such an obstruction as this must needs be dangerous ; the freedom of trade being so necessary, the benefit so important, that it gives life, strength, and beauty to the whole body of the Commonwealth. But I must protest the House of Commons hath given no cause to this obstruction ; we have eased trade of many burdens and heavy taxes, which are taken off; we have freed it from many hard restraints by patents and monopolies ; we have been willing to part with our own privileges to give it encouragement ; we have sought to put the merchants into security and confidence in respect of the Tower of London, that so they might be invited to bring in their bullion to the mint, as heretofore they have done; and we are no way guilty of the troubles, the fears, Ei and public dangers which make men withdraw their stocks, and keep their money by them, to be ready for such sudden exigencies as in these great distractions we have too much cause to expect. " Thirdly. The obstruction in the relief of Ireland. It must needs be accounted a great shame and dishonour to this kingdom that our neighbours have showed themselves more for- ward to supply the rebels than we have been to relieve our distressed brethren and fellow- subjects. But I must declare we are altogether innocent of any neglect herein. As soon as the first news of the rebellion came over, we undertook the war, not by way of supply and aid, as in former rebellions the subjects have used to do, but we undertook the whole charge of it, and we suffered not twenty-four hours to pass before we agreed to a great levy of money and men, to be employed against the rebels, even in a larger proportion than the lords, jus- tices, and council there did desire ; and from time to time we have done all for the further- ance thereof, though in the midst of many dis- tractions and diversions. But the want of commissions for levying of men, for issuing arms, and divers other impediments, have been the causes of that obstruction : and I wish we had not only found impediments to ourselves ; we have found also encouragements to them. Many of the chief commanders, now at the head of the rebels, after we had, with your lordships' concurrence, stop't the ports against all Irish Papists, have been suffered to pass by his majesty's immediate warrant, much to the discouragement of the lords-justices and the council there ; and this procured, as we believe, by some evil instruments too near his royal per- son, without his majesty's knowledge and inten- tion. " Fourthly. The obstruction in prosecution of delinquents. Many we have already brought up to your lordships, divers others we have been discouraged to transmit, such difficult proceedings have we met withal, such terrors and discountenance have been cast upon our- selves and our witnesses. My lords, those who have showed themselves the friends and pa- trons of delinquents have found it the most ready way to preferment ! Yea, his majesty's own hand hath been obtained, and his majes- ty's ships employed, for the transporting of di- vers of those who have fled from the justice of Parliament ! " Fifthly. A general obstruction and interrup- tion of the proceedings in Parliament by those manifold designs of violence which, thro' God's mercy, we have escaped ; by the great and fre- quent breaches of privilege ; by the subtle en- deavours to raise parties in our House, and jealousies betwixt the two Houses. ' Sixthly. The obstruction in providing for the defence of the kingdom, that we might be enabled to resist a foreign enemy, or to sup- press all civil insurrections. What a pressing necessity there is of this, the exceeding great decays in the navy, in the forts, in the power of ordering the militia of the kingdom, and means of furnishing them with munition, are sufficient evidences, known to none better than your lordships. And what endeavours we have used to remove them, but hitherto without that 218 BRITISH STATESMEN. success and concurrence which we expected, and where the stop hath been, and upon what good grounds we may claim our own innocency and faithfulness, we desire no other witnesses but yourselves. " Lastly, I come to the evil influences which have caused this distemper ; and I shall con- tent myself with mentioning those which are most important. 1. I shall remember the evil counsels about the king, whereof we have often complained. Diseases of the brain are most dangerous, because from thence sense and mo- tion are derived to the whole body. The ma- lignity of evil counsels will quickly be infused into all parts of the state. None can doubt but we have exceedingly laboured under most dan- gerous and mischievous counsels. This evil influence hath been the cause of the prepara- tion of war with Scotland of the procuring a rebellion in Ireland of corrupting religion suppressing the liberty of this kingdom and of many fearful and horrid attempts to the sub- verting the very being of Parliaments, which was the only hopeful means of opposing and preventing all the rest. The last, indeed, doth appear to be a most predominant evil of the time, whereat we need not wonder when we consider how counsellors have been preferred and prepared ; and I appeal to your lordships' own consciences whether the giving and coun- tenancing of evil counsel hath not been almost the only way to favour and advancement. 2. The discouragement of good counsel. Divers honest and approved counsellors have been put from their places, others so discountenanced as that the way of favour hath been shut against them, and that of danger and destruction only open to them. 3. The great power that an in- terested and factious party hath in the Parlia- ment by the continuance of the votes of the bishops and popish lords in your Lordships' House, and the taking in of others, both out of the House of Commons and otherwise, to in- crease their strength. 4. The fomenting and cherishing of a malignant party throughout the whole kingdom. 5. The manifold jealousies betwixt the king, his Parliament, and good sub- jects, whereby his protection and favour hath in a great measure been withheld from them, and their inclination and resolution to serve and assist him hath been very much hindered and interrupted." The force and boldness of all this were equal to the great emergencies of the hour ; and as the orator proceeded, we may suppose him more than repaid by the expression of proud and affectionate admiration that rested on the countenances of Hampden and Fiennes, who were sitting by his side. His closing passages were simple and noble in the extreme. They condensed into a few words all the ominous warnings which, throughout his great task, he had addressed to the upper House ; and the in- spiration 'of a memorable lesson, announced not less for the present than as a precedent and example for remoter times, was stamped upon them. " We have often suffered under the misin- terpretation of good actions, and false imputa- tion of evil ones which we never intended, so that we may justly purge ourselves from all guilt of being authors of this jealousie and mis- understanding. We have been, and are still, ready to serve his majesty with our lives and fortunes, with as much chearfulness and ear- nestness of affection as ever any subjects were; and we doubt not but our proceedings will so manifest this, that we shall be as clear in the apprehension of the world as we are in the tes- timony of our own consciences. " I am now come to a conclusion. I have nothing to propound to your lordships by way of request or desire from the House of Com- mons. 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 discourage 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 COMMONS SHOULD BE ENFORCED TO SAVE THK 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. "My lords, consider what the present neces- sities and dangers of the Commonwealth re- quire, what the Commons have reason to ex- pect, to what endeavours and counsels the con- current desires of all the people do invite you ; so that, applying yourselves to the preservation of the king and kingdom, I may be bold to as- sure you, in the name of all the commons of England, that you shall be bravely seconded !" The first effect of this speech, which was en- thusiastically hailed by the Commons,* was in the passing of the bill for taking away the bish- ops' vote, with three dissentient voices only. The king refused his assent to it, but subse- quently yielded, and in this gave great offence to his party. It may be supposed, however, that some subsequent explanation was sat:r fac- tory to them, since the following notabie dis- closure has escaped from Lord Clarendon's pen : " I have some cause to believe that the argument, which was unanswerable, for the re- jecting that bill, was applied for the confirming it ; an opinion that the violence and force used in procuring it rendered it absolutely invalid and void, made the confirmation of it less con- sidered, as not being of strength to make that act good which was in itself null ; and I doubt this logic had an influence upon acts of no less moment than these." There is scarcely an act in the life of Charles I. that does not bear the stain of some such perfidy. Where were the leaders of the English people now to lean, if not upon their own strength, the wisdom of their * " The foregoing- speech of Mr. Pymme's was so agree- able to the Commons, that the same day they ordered ' that Mr. Speaker, in the name of the House, shall give thanks unto Mr. Pymme for his so well performing the service he was employed in, by the commands of this House, at this conference. And it was further ordered, that Mr. Pymrae be desired to put the speech he made at this conference into writing, and to deliver it into the House, to the end that it may be printed.' This was done accordingly." Parlia- mentary History. The copy in the text is taken from a large paper copy of this authorized version now in posses- sion, " printud for Johu Bothwell," 1641. JOHN PYM. 219 long and hard experience, and the confidence of the people who trusted them 1 The second great effect of Pym's speech wa exhibited by the king himself. He wrote to the speaker and complained of it, more especially of that passage which stated several of the Irish rebels to have passed the ports " by his majes- ty's immediate warrant." The Commons vin- dicated the speech, and the king replied ; it was again defended more strongly still ; and the many conferences and declarations that passed served to widen the breach between the Par- liament and the king.* The tributes which it had meanwhile brought pouring in, of faith and affection to the Parliament, most materially strengthened the cause. t The king now directed all his resources, whether of force or stratagem, to the acquisi- tion of the two great magazines of the king- dom, Hull and the Tower. His various at- tempts, and their thorough defeat, are told in all the histories. The result was, that Charles proclaimed Hotham a traitor by sound of trum- pet, and sent two angry messages to the House demanding reparation for the repulse he had met with. "If," he added, "we are brought into a condition so much worse than any of our subjects, that whilst you all enjoy your privileges, and may not have your possessions disturbed or your titles questioned, we only may be spoiled, thrown out of our towns, and our goods taken from us, 'tis time to examine * Charles's pertinacity about this speech was curious. Whenever, for some weeks after, the Commons sent him any message, his remark would be, " I must tell you, that I rather expected a vindication for the imputation laid on me in Mr. Pym's speech ;" and as the war approached more nearly, his reference to it grew less respectful : " Concern- ing Pym's speech you will have found by what the Lord Compton and Mr. Baynton brought from us in answer to that message they brought to us, that, as yet, we rest no- thing satisfied in that particular." t Even the London women, wives of tradesmen, became infected with the popular enthusiasm, and sent in a long petition of affection to the House of Commons, and prayers that they would redress all grievances. Butler is supposed to have alluded to this in his couplet : " The oyster-women lock'd their fish up, And trudged away to cry ' no bishop ;' " and the satire was allowable enough. The Journals of the House stale, however, that " this petition was presented by Mrs. Anne Stager, a gentlewoman and brewer's wife, and many others with her of like rank and quality ; and that, after some time spent in reading of it, the House sent them an answer by Mr. Pym, which was performed in this man- ner. Mr. Pym came to the Commons' door, and called for the women, and spake unto them in these words : ' Good women, your petition, with the reasons, hath been read in the House, and is thankfully accepted of, and is come in a seasonable time. You shall, God willing, receive from us all the satisfaction which we can possibly give to your just and lawful desires. We intreat you, therefore, to repair to your houses, and turn your petition which you have, de- livered here into prayers at home for us ; for we have been, are, and shall be, to our utmost power, ready to relieve you, your husbands, and children, and to perform the trust com- mitted unto us towards God, our king, and country, as be- Cometh faithful Christians and loyal subjects.' " This speech is no bad evidence of Pym's popular and easy address. No- thing could have been more happily turned. I should add, also, from the journals of the same period, another kind of testimony to the present influence of Pym. " Information being given to the Lords that Edw. Sundeford, a taylor, of London, had said ' that the Earl of Essex was a traitor ; that all the Parliament wore traitors ; that the Earl of War- wick was a traitor, and he wished his heart in his boots ; and that he cursed the Parliament, and wished Mr. Pym (calling him King Pym) and Sir John Hotham both hanged ;' the said Edw. Sandeford was brought to the bar, and asked what he had to alledge in his defence ; but not being able to disprove the charge, he and the witnesses against him were ordered to withdraw, and a sharp sentence of punish- ment was decreed against him." how we have lost those privileges, and to try all possible ways, by the help of God, the law of the land, and the affection of all our good subjects, to recover them, and to vindicate our- self from those injuries ; and if we shall mis- carry herein, we shall be the first prince in this kingdom that hath done so having no other end but to defend the true Protestant profes- sion, the law of the land, and the liberty of the subject. And God so deal with us as we con- tinue in those resolutions." And in a subse- quent more elaborate paper, drawn forth by an order of the Commons justifying Hotham, and " suppressing" the forces the king had raised against Hull, Charles writes, or, rather, " Mr. Hyde" writes for him, " We are not unwilling to join issue with them in this way, and to let all the world know how necessary, just, and lawful all our proceedings have been in this point ; and that the defence of these proceed- ings is the defence of the law of the land, of the liberty and property of the subject ; and that by the same rule of justice which is now offered to us, all the private interest and title of all our good subjects to all their lands and goods are confounded and destroyed. Mr. Pym himself tells you, in his speech against the Earl of Strafford (published by the order of the House of Commons), 'The law is the safeguard, the custody of all private interests ; your honours, your lives, your liberties, and estates are all in the keeping of the law : without this, every man hath a like right to any thing.' And we would fain be answered, What title any subject of our kingdom hath to his house or land, that we have not to our town of Hull 1 Or what right hath he to his money, plate, or jewels, that we have not to our magazine or munition there 1 If we had ever such a title, we would know when we lost it. . . We conclude with Mr. Pym's own words : ' If the prerogative of the king overwhelm the liberty of the people, it will be turned to tyranny ; if liberty under- mine the prerogative, it will grow into an- archy ;' and so we say into confusion." Now mark the answer of the Commons, in perhaps the boldest and most remarkable state document of the time. The hand of Pym may be traced in every line of it. The commence- ment of the extract which follows is indeed almost literally copied from one of his finest speeches. " If," say the Commons of England to their king, " if we have done more than ever our ancestors have done, we have suffered more than ever they have suffered ; and yet, in point of modesty and duty, we shall not yield to the best of former times ; and we shall put this in issue. Whether the highest and most unwar- rantable proceedings of any of his majesty's predecessors do not fall short of, and much be- low, what hath been done to us this Parlia- ment ; and, on the other side, whether, if we should make the highest precedents of other Parliaments our patterns, there would be cause to complain of ' want of modesty and duty in us,' when we have not so much as suffered such things to enter into our thoughts which all the world knows they have put in action 1 Another charge which is laid very high upon us (and which were indeed a very great crime if we were found guilty thereof) is, ' that, by avowing this act of Sir J. Hotham, we do, in 220 BRITISH STATESMEN. consequence, confound and destroy the title and interest of all his majesty's good subjects to their lands and goods ; and that, upon this grbund, that his majesty hath the same title to his own town of Hull which any of his subjects have to their houses or lands ; and the same to his magazine or munition there, that any man hath to his money, plate, or jewels ; and there- fore that they ought not to have been disposed of without or against his consent, no more than the house, land, money, plate, or jewels of any subject ought to be without or against his will.' Here that is laid down for a principle which would indeed pull up the very foundation of the liberty, property, and interest of every subject in particu- lar, and of all the subjects in general, if we should admit it for a truth ' that his majesty hath the same right and title to his towns and magazine (bought with the public moneys, as we conceive that at Hull to have been) that every particular man hath to his house, lands, and goods ;' for his majesty's towns are no more his own than his kingdom is his own ; and his kingdom is no more his own than his people are his own ; and if the king had a property in all his towns, what would become of the subjects' property in their houses therein 1 and if he had a property in his king- dom, what would become of the subjects' prop- erty in their lands throughout the kingdom 1 or of their liberties, if his majesty had the same right in their persons that every subject hath in their lands or goods 1 and what.would become of all the subjects' interest in the town and forts of the kingdom, and in the kingdom itself, if his majesty might sell, or give them away, or dispose of them at his pleasure, as a particular man may do with his lands and with his goods 1 This erroneous maxim being infused into prin- ces, that their kingdoms are their own, and that they may do with them what they will (as if their kingdoms were for them, and not they for their kingdoms'), is the root of all the subjects' 1 misery, and of all the invading of their just rights and liberties; whereas, indeed, they are only in- trusted with their kingdoms, and with their towns, and with their people, and with the pub- lic treasure of the Commonwealth, and what- soever is bought therewith. By the known law of this kingdom, the very jewels of the crown are not the king's proper goods, but are only intrusted to him for the use and ornament thereof; as the towns, forts, treasure, maga- zine, offices, and people of the kingdom, and the whole kingdom itself, are intrusted unto him for the good, and safety, and best advan- tage thereof ; and as this trust is for the use of the kingdom, so ought it to be managed by the advice of the houses of Parliament, whom the kingdom hath trusted for that purpose, it being their duty to see it be discharged according to the condition and true intent thereof, and as much as in them lies, by all possible means to prevent the contrary ; which if it hath been their chief care and only aim in the disposing of the town and magazine of Hull in such man- ner as they have done, they hope it will appear clearly to all the world that they have dischar- ged their own trust, and not invaded that of his majesty's, much less his property, which, in this ease, they could not do." A second answer was returned by the king, more weak and more elaborate than the first, and a vigorous remonstrance, recommended in an earnest and forcible speech by Pym,* was forwarded to Charles. It opened with these words : " We, your majesty's most humble and loyal subjects, the lords and commons of this present Parliament assembled, do hereby call God, this kingdom, and the whole world to witness, that we have, ever since our first meeting in this present Parliament, with fidel- ity to your majesty and the state, with much patience and constancy in respect of the great affronts and interruptions, the pernicious plots and attempts wherewith we have been encoun- tered, distracted, and opposed, employed our counsels and endeavours to maintain God's true religion, the honour and rights of your crown, the peace and safety of your royal per- son and your kingdoms, and the just liberties of your people ; that so we might ease them of their great grievances, and prevent the fears and dangers, yea, the imminent ruin and de- struction, which have been contrived and fos- tered, not only in your court, but even very near your own person ; and however our liber- ties have been invaded, many of our lives en- dangered, and such attempts made upon us as might have subverted the very being of Parlia- ment, yet have we so kept ourselves within the bounds of modesty and duty, that we have given no just occasion of your majesty's ab- sence at this time." In reference to a com- plaint in the king's last paper, the following remark is made : " And whereas his majesty saith 'he could wish that his own immediate actions, which he avows on his own honour, might not be so roughly censured under that common style of evil counsellors,' we could also heartily wish we had not cause to make that style so common ; hut, how often and un- dutifully soever these wicked counsellors fix their dishonour upon the king, by making his majesty the author of those evil actions which are the effects of their own evil counsels, we, his majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects, can use no other style, according to that maxim in the law, ' The king can do no wrong ;' but if any ill be committed in matter of state, the council must answer for it ; if in matters of justice, the judges." Every step in this paper war now brought the combatants nearer and nearer to a more real and a more fatal field. The great ques- tion on which all else depended was at last in vehement agitation the command of the mili- tia of the kingdom. The very condition of the parties between whom the discussion arose precluded from the first the possibility of agree- ment. Some idea of the labour and research which Pytn, notwithstanding, devoted to this memorable question, will be gathered from a curious document in the appendix at the end of this article, t and which is highly character- istic of the man. The disposal of the militia, however, cannot be argued, in the present case, on abstract grounds, though Pym has made out the most forcible case, even in that view, which has been yet attempted. The Parliament had been undoubtedly forced into a position to make the * See this speech in Cobbett's Parl. Hist., vol. ii., p. 11C2. t Appendix C. JOHN PYM. 221 demand they did,* when, as a ground of trust, they required that the king should place the army and navy under the command of officers possessing the confidence of both Houses. On refusal of this, he was asked whether, for a time, the militia might 'not be granted! " No, by God !" his sacred majesty, according to Rushworth,t swore ; " not for an hour ! You have asked that of me in this was never asked Of any king, and with which I will not trust my wife and children." On a subsequent motion of Pym, the Com- mons unanimously passed their ordinance for disposing the militia, and sent it up to the Lords. Meanwhile they again memorialized his majes- ty, who, in return, vapoured upon them thus : " We will propose no more particulars to you, having no luck to please or to be understood by you. Take your own time for what concerns our particular, but be sure you have an early, speedy care of the public ; that is, of the only rule that preserves the public, the law of the land : preserve the dignity and reverence due to that. It was well said in a speech made by a private person (it was Mr. Pym's speech against the Earl of Strafford, and formerly quo- ted by us), The law is that which puts a dif- ference betwixt good and evil, betwixt just and unjust. If you take away the law, all things will fall into a confusion ; every man will be- come a law unto himself, which, in the depra- ved condition of human nature, must needs produce many great enormities. Lust will be- come a law, and envy will become a law ; cov- etousness and ambition will become laws ; and what dictates, what decisions such laws will produce, may easily be discerned.' So said that gentleman, and much more, very well, in defence of the law, and against arbitrary pow- er. It is worth looking over and considering ; and if the most zealous defence of the true Protestant profession, and the most resolved protection of the law be the most necessary duty of a prince, we cannot believe this miser- able distance and misunderstanding can be long continued between us ; we have often and ear- nestly declared them to be the chiefest desires of our soul, and the end and rule of all our ac- tions." And again, in one of his subsequent productions, he returned to the same strain. " We remembered them long ago, and we can- not do it too often, of that excellent speech of Mr. Pym's : The law is that which puts a dif- ference," &c. And Mr. Hallam can say of these tedious and evasive documents that they excel the manly, earnest, and straightforward productions of the popular leaders ! The next motion of the Commons " shook Charles's throne and title to the centre."! Af- ter obtaining, by a masterly stroke of vigorous policy, possession of the fleet, they passed the three following resolutions: "1. That it ap- pears that the king, seduced by wicked coun- sel, intends to make war against the Parlia- * Even Lord Clarendon admits, on the passing of the mi- litia ordinance, that " when this bill had been, with much ado, accepted and first read, there were few men who im- agined it would ever receive farther countenance, but now there were few who did not believe it to be a very necessa- ry provision for the peace and safety of the kingdom ; so great an impression had the late proceedings made upon them." t Vol. iv., p. 533. t History from Mackintosh, vol. v., p. 304. ment, who, in all their consultations and ac- tions, have proposed no other end unto them- selves but the care of his kingdoms, and the performance of all duty and loyalty to his per- son. 2. That whensoever the king maketh war upon the Parliament, it is a breach of the trust reposed in him by his people, contrary to his oath, and tending to the dissolution of his gov- ernment. 3. That whosoever shall serve or assist him in such wars, are traitors by the fundamental laws of this kingdom, and have been so adjudged by two acts of Parliament, and ought to suffer as traitors." The king now, in his turn, denounced the militia ordinance as illegal, and began to issue his commissions of array. On the 12th of July the Commons voted the raising of an army, to be commanded in chief by the Earl of Essex. Some days after, a proclamation from the king declared Essex a traitor. At this point a temporary pause maybe made, for the purpose of introducing a speech by Pym,* of a style very different from any that has yet been given, but conceived and expressed in exactly that sort of exquisite gravity of hu- mour which such a subject was likely to call forth from such a speaker. On the publication of the militia ordinance, Sir Edward Bering whose fantastic vanity, before adverted to, had already separated him from the popular party and banished him from the House bethought himself of a new project for notoriety, and, " albeit a justice of the peace," presented him- self, with some equally dignified friends, as can- didates to serve on the grand jury of the coun- ty of Kent (which he had before represented in the Commons), which being allowed', he whee- dled all the jurors into his purpose ; or, in the words of the charge preferred against him, having drawn up the heads of a strong petition against the militia ordinance and the Housd of Commons, he "did tender the said heads to the said grand jury, and did then and there wickedly and unlawfully persuade, labour, and solicit the rest of the grand jury to agree to the same, and have them drawn into a petition to the Parliament, to be presented by the said grand jury to the judge of the said assizes and the rest of the bench there, to be by them as- sented to and approved of ; and did then and there wickedly conjure the said grand jury to secrecy, and not to discover any thing touch- ing the said petition, till it should be by them agreed upon and presented as aforesaid, false- ly persuading them that they were thereunto bound by their oath." Some of the jury con- sented, some refused ; but Sir Edward persist- ed, ultimately managed to present his petition to the judges, and was proposing to do a vast deal more, when " Mr. Pym" interfered, lodged an information against him, and supported it, before the House of Lords, in the following ad- mirable speech of grave satirical humour : " Your lordships see by this that hath been read unto you, that nondum recentis Ilii fatum stetit ; that, notwithstanding the many strange and variable attempts against the Parliament, and their wonderful and miraculous preserva- tions, yet mischief is so fruitful and generative as to produce a new brood of serpents, which * This speech appears anonymously in tin common Par- liamentary histories, but in the Journals it is given to Pym. 822 BRITISH STATESMEN. are continually hissing, maligning, and prac- tising against the pious and noble endeavours of both Houses, and against the peace, pros- perity, and happiness of this afflicted kingdom. If the evil and seducing spirit which doth ani- mate those designs were asked from whence he comes, doubtless his answer would be, ' from compassing the earth,' having removed his scene into many several parts, and found so many friends and patrons of his audacious achievements, amongst whom this gentleman, Sir Edward Bering, is one : a man of mark and eminency ; of wit, learning, and zeal, at least in show and appearance ; and yet all these miserably shipwreck'd upon the shelves and sands of the Kentish shore ! The thing itself appears to your lordships to be a manifest breach of the rules of law, justice, and reli- gion ; and yet, under the cloak of all three, a fast must be proclaimed to take away Naboth and his vineyard ! The yeomanry of Kent, heretofore in great esteem, is now become vile and contemptible ; an extraordinary grand jury must be prepared of knights, gentlemen, and justices of the peace, for some extraordinary service what it is your lordships have heard. They must descend from their places on the bench, and from themselves too, not to serve their country (for that were no disparagement), but to serve their own unworthy, ambitious, and seditious ends. " This gentleman, a ringleader, late a mem- ber of the House of Commons, the grand jury of the whole kingdom (and there so highly es- teeming of his wisdom), is contented now to descend so low as to become one of the com- mon jury of the county. Such is the mean- ness and pusillanimity of high thoughts, as, for compassing of their own ends, to stoop to any condition, how low soever it may be ! " Having set the cards, however, he plays the game very foully. He leads his fellows out of the way, and makes them, like ill hunt- ers, instead of following the chase, at the quest of one ill mouth to fall upon a flock of sheep ! Their duty was to have inquired diligently of the matters given them in charge. Surely this was out of the charge, because the judge had told them it was out of his commission. And yet they leave other matters which they were charged with as accidents and trifles, and in- sist upon this, which they had nothing to do with, as the principal business. " He obtrudes on them also, be it observed, divers monstrous and seditious heads, and by sinister suggestions, labours, and solicitations, which ought not to be used to a jury, and by a kind of violence ofTered them, seeks to enforce them to a consent, contrary to their own rea- son, judgment, and consciences, when they re- fused, opposed, and protested against it. Fail- ing of this, " Fleeter e si nequeam super os, acker onto, mo- vebo ! instead of inquiring upon the statute of witchcraft and conjuration, he useth his con- jurations and enchantments upon them to con- jure them to secrecy, falsely persuading them that they will be bound unto it by their oath. When all this would not serve, he then applies himself to the bench ; and by the enchantments and conjurations used there, prevails so far as to have it there voted and assented to by such as were present, and, to give the more strength and countenance to it, wants not the aid and concurrence of some appearing reverend di- vines, and of civilians also ; and sticks not to affirm that he can have 40,000 persons to at- tend the petition ! proclaims a meeting at Black- heath, a place fatal and ominous for actions of this nature ! and all this under colour of a pe- tition being, in truth, a challenge, an adjura- tion, and a scandal upon the Parliament, and purporting nothing else but a desperate design to put not only Kent, but, for aught is known, all Christendom into combustion, carrying sails full swollen with spite, arrogancy, and sedition. " The particular instances I forbear to trouble your lordships with, because you will find some of them upon perusal of the petition. Many arguments might be used in aggravation of them, from the eminency of the power of the person, and the arrogancy of his mind ; from the acrimony of his spirit, and from the topping place of Kent, which former ages have found obnoxious to these infelicities ;* which this gentleman, so well read in story, should have been mindful of in these troublesome times ! But all these, and other circumstances, I leave to your lordships' noble and judicious consider- ation, desiring, amongst other motives, that your lordships will be pleased to reflect upon the acts of your own justice in a case of like nature, which, being first begun here, near at hand, might have spread the flame and con- tagion over all England, had not the great wis- dom and justice of both Houses in due time prevented it. " I shall add no more at this time but what I have read of a people in Africa, who sent a challenge to the wind, whereupon, at the meet- ing, the wind blew down mountains upon them and overwhelmed them. I hope those bold and insolent adventurers, who have presumed to send a challenge or defiance to the great Houses, shall find a like stroke of their wonted power and justice, and that they shall meet with such a wind as will blow down their high thoughts upon themselves, return their votes into their own bosoms, and their mischievous designs upon their own heads ! " All which I am warranted, in the name of the House of Commons, and of all the com- mons of England, to desire of your lordships ; and that you will be pleased to make this gen- tleman, the principal author of this foul act, a spectacle and pattern of exemplary justice to present and future times." On the 22d of August, Charles I. erected his standard at Nottingham. The day was stormy and tempestuous, says Clarendon, and the king appeared more melancholic than he used to be. " The standard itself was blown down, the same night it had been set up, by a very strong and unruly wind, and could not be fixed again in a day or two, till the tempest was allayed." Essex was in the field almost equally soon ; and the green-coat regiments of Hampden, the London red-coats of Hollis, the purple of Lord Brook, the blue of Lord Say, were soon seen gathering over the English fields. Sir William Waller, the firm friend of the Parliament, wrote * Pvm here makes allusion to what has been commem- orated so nobly by our great poet Wordsworth, in his son- net beginning " Vanguard of Liberty, ye men of Kent !" JOHN PYM. 223 to his " noble friend" Sir Ralph Hopton, entire- ly devoted to the king, in these words : " My affections to you are so unchangeable, that hostility itself cannot violate my friendship to your person ; but I must be true to the cause wherein I serve. The old limitation of usque ad aras holds still. . . . The great God, who is the searcher of my heart, knows with what re- luctance I go upon this service, and with what perfect hatred I look upon a war without an enemy. But I look upon it as opus Domini, and that is enough to silence all passion in me. The God of peace in his good time send us peace, and in the mean time fit us to receive it ! We are both on the stage, and we must act the parts that are assigned us in this tra- gedy. Let us do it in a way of honour, and without personal animosities." It stands on record, to the immortal honour of the English character, that in this noble and affecting spir- it, with very rare exceptions, our great civil war was to the last fought out on both sides. None of its details, however, belong to this memoir. To Pym was intrusted the momen- tous duty of watching over and conducting the affairs of Parliament and the executive while the majority of his friends were absent in the war. The executive power had been vested in what was styled a " Committee of Safety," comprising five peers, Essex, Northumberland, Pembroke, Holland, and Say, and ten common- ers, Pym, Hampden, Hollis, Marten, Fiennes, Pierrepoint, Glyn, Sir William Waller, Sir Phil- ip Stapleton, and Sir John Meyrick. But all its most arduous duties fell upon Pym, and to their performance, with his old and unwearied en- ergy, he entirely devoted what was left of his great and useful life. With a view to that solemnity which was thought befitting the capital of a country through which civil war now raged, one of the first acts of the Houses was the issue of an or- der that, during the present period of calamity, " when humiliation and prayer better became the state of public affairs than mirth and lev- ity," all public stage-plays should cease and be forborne. There is something grand in this, with which the liveliest and most liberal ima- gination among us now need not fail to sym- pathize. The players, however, were not dis- comfited. Scorning plain prose, they sent up a rhymed petition to the Houses, and then fol- lowed the army of the king. From the petition itself a line or two may serve : * * * " We vow Not to act any thing you disallow. We will not dare at your strange votes to jeer, Or personate King Pym with his state fleer."* "King" Pym was a favourite and scarcely ob- jectionable term of Royalist reproach against one who reigned with absolute power over the * King Pym has been personated at last, however, or, if not personated, at least delineated, by Mr. Browning, with infinite force, expression, and beauty, in the recent tragedy of " Strafford." But the offences against Pym at this time were not all so harmless as that alluded to in the text. I copy from the Old Parl. Hist., vol. ii., p. 266: "Two were tried. this day at the Lords' bar; one of them, Mr. Winde- bank, for saying ' that Mr. Pym had taken a bribe of 30, sitting in the chair in Easter tirrm ; that he had as many sugarloaves given for bribes as he had sold for 6 or 700. That before he was a Parliament man he was worth little, but he had now cozened the king of as much money as he had bought a good estate, and given 10,000 of the king's money to the marriage of his daughter." affections of the great mass of the English people. As the players went out, pamphlets and news- papers, a new, and many may think a some- what less exceptionable series of " abstract and brief chronicles of the time," came in. Now " News from Hull," " Truths from York," and "Warranted Tidings from Ireland," coursed the country side ; now the " Scots' Dove" as- saulted and tore to pieces the " Parliament Kite" or the " Secret Owl ;" and the "Weekly Discoverer" suddenly found himself " The Dis- coverer stript naked." The principal regular newspapers, however, were, on the side of the Parliament, the Mercurius Britannicus, written by the famous Marchamont Needham, or " foul- mouthed Ned," as his polite opponents styled him ; and, on the king's side, the Mercurius Aulicus, published under the classic auspices of Oxford, and written, as Needham used to say, " by Birkenhead the scribe (afterward Sir John), Secretary Nicholas the informer, George Digby the contriver," and that very reverend divine, Doctor Peter Heylin. The wars of these rival journalists were carried on without much scruple on either side, though the court undoubtedly carried off the palm for indecency ; and they served to disseminate, in every pos- sible shape, the fiercest hate and malice. I have examined them all (I believe) with the ut- most care, and shall be able to illustrate the remaining part of my subject with an occasionl extract. The exertions which Pym found requisite to maintain the interest and honour of Parliament at this time are almost incredible ; and as the checkered fortunes of the Parliamentarian army darkened into positive losses, the difficulties of his position were only less extraordinary than the resources they called forth from him. " From three of the clock in the morning to the evening, and from evening to midnight," says an unimpeachable witness, Dr. Marshall,* who stood by his side, he laboured in the service of the Commonwealth. Now on the field of ac- tion, consulting with Hampden ; now in the tent of Essex, strengthening his failing pur- pose ; again at Westminster ; and then among the London citizens it was Pym, and Pym alone, who held at this awful crisis the frame of the executive together. And, what in this was probably the most ex- traordinary, his influence sustained itself in de- fiance of all the violent changes and affections of the shortsighted multitude. In the opening months of the war, for instance, a negotiation with the king was opened, and became highly unpopular. Pym acknowledged its propriety, however, and, with some of the committee, presented himself at the Guildhall, and thus addressed the authorities :f "My lord-mayor and gentlemen, I and my colleagues are here to represent to you (to you of this famous city of London, who will make it much more famous by these noble affections, which you have showed still to the public good, and by yielding so much aid and so much en- couragement as you have done to the Par- liament in maintaining it!) the state of both. * Funeral Sermon, p. 36. t This speech is not in Rushworth. I coj'yfroman edi* tion printed " for Peter Cole." 224 BRITISH STATESMEN. Houses, and the reasons and motives upon which they did desire peace ; motives, indeed, that have wrought with us from the beginning of this war to this time ; for we should never have stepped one step towards war if we might have had, or hoped for, such a peace as might have secured religion and liberty, and the pub- lic good of the kingdom. But truly ill counsel did exclude us from such hope. " We now conceive that the king, having seen the courage of his subjects, having seen the danger of his own person, and so much blood shed about him, will be more tractable to good conditions of peace than he would have been before, and that is the reason why we do think fit to try him once more, after this battle that hath been lately fought, before it come to another battle. " It is true that this may seem a resolution contrary to that which was opened to you with- in these few days ; but you will conceive that all great councils are subject to alter their res- olutions, according as matters alter, and as the apprehensions of matters alter ; for if things appear more clear and hopeful to them at one time than another, it is no dishonour for them to vary according to their appearance, judg- ments, and best reasons, so long as they do it with affections to the best purpose, which you may rest assured the Parliament hath done. And though we desire peace very much, yet a peace to betray religion or to betray our liber- ties we shall always esteem worse than war ; therefore we shall put it to a very quick issue, if the king receive the petition, to make such propositions as you may see. " First, whether you shall be secured in your religion ; in your religion with a hope of ref- ormation ; such a reformation as may maintain the power of religion, and the purity of religion, as well as the name of religion ; for we shall not be contented with the name, nor without a reformation that shall maintain the power of it. Next, we shall pursue the maintenance of our liberties liberties that may not only be in laws and statutes, but liberties that may be in practice and in execution and to take such course that you may have the effects of them in truth ; for to have printed liberties, and not to have liberties in truth and reality, is but to mock the kingdom ; and I hope we shall take care for that in the second place. Thirdly, we shall take care to maintain the dignity and the honour of Parliament, for that is what will be a lasting security to you in your liberty and re- ligion. We shall take care, in the fourth place, to answer the affections of the city of London, that we will not consent to anything that shall be prejudicial to them. We will preserve them in the highest degree of honour that ever this city of London was in ; and truly it is now in the highest degree of honour that ever it was, for you have carried yourselves in such a re- gard to the public as never any of your prede- cessors did before, and therefore we shall, in a peace, be as careful of you as of ourselves ; and you may be assured of this,, that if we have not this peace, our lives, our pains, our estates, they shall all join with you in maintaining that with the sword which we can not get in an humble way by petition. And this, I again say, we shall bring to a quick issue. " Therefore I shall only move you, as I am commanded to do from the Parliament, that you will not think there is any fainting on our parts ; that we are more cold or less affection- ate to any of these good ends than heretofore we have been, but that we would compass them with more secure advantage ; for if you can get these by peace, you will have great advantages by it : you will hinder foreign in- vasions from beyond the seas ; you will quick- ly be able to master the rebels in Ireland ; you will quickly be able to suppress the Papists that begin to rise in England : then you shall have a perpetual security that they shall never be able to hurt you more. Therefore, if we can have such a peace without further hazard and blood-shedding, we shall praise God, and es- teem it as a great blessing ; but if not, pray lay not down the same spirits, for we have the same hearts, and multitudes of spirits, and the kingdom inclinable to us. W'here the king has been, many, to save their estates and lives, have showed themselves but men, for it was not to be thought that single counties should maintain themselves against an army ; but they have hearts as they had theretofore, and no doubt but they will join with us, with more alacrity, when they see we have desired peace by all the ways we could, and cannot have it. " We shall, by this means, satisfy our own consciences ; we shall satisfy many members of Parliament that desired it might be put on this way ; we shall satisfy many of the king- dom, too, that have held themselves indiffer- ent ; but when they see there is no hope of peace in such a way without blood, certainly they will stand to us for religion and liberty, which must be destroyed if we cannot secure them without war. Therefore I shall com- mend to you that you would not let fall any part of your contributions, for it is that which must maintain the army, nor entertain ill ap- prehensions of the Parliament, but go on so as you have done. The end of all, I hope, will be such that God may have all the glory, and you all the comfort !" Two little months after, however, when \var, again less successfully resumed, was not so popular, he presented himself in the same place, and requested from the same authorities a far- ther assessment of supply upon the citizens. " My lord-mayor and gentlemen," he said, " we come not to tell your lordship and these worthy citizens only our wants and dangers, but we come to speak the thanks of the Par- liament to you for that which you have already done ; for that you have showed so much af- fection to the public, and that it hath produced so good effects throughout the whole kingdom. Now you have indeed an army raised, most out of this city, able to defend (with God's blessing) the religion and liberty of the king- dom, if it may be upheld ! And we come not only to give you thanks for that which you have done, but to stir you up to join with us in giving thanks to God that hath given such a blessing to our endeavours, that when, by let- ters sent into all parts almost, our enemies did presume beforehand to triumph in the ruin and plundering of this city, God prevented it, and hath kept you safe ; kept your houses, your walls, your suburbs, safe from that that was JOHN PYM. 225 intended against you ! And now, truly, as we have sought for this blessing by fasting and by prayer, so it is fit that we should testify our thanksgiving for it ; and this is a necessary part of our errand which we are sent about. And that we may be serviceable to God's prov- idence still, as he hath stirred up your hearts to do so much already, so that he would stir you up still to continue to do that which is fit to be done for the future, and that you will do it in such a way as may be most pleasing to yourselves. " We come not hither, that, by any consent here in public, you should bind yourselves in particular, but we come to let you know the dangers of the kingdom, with the sense the Parliament hath of it, and of the city especially, that you may not lose that which hath been already done, but that you may go on still chearfully to do the full work. And we come to tell you' that the Parliament doth intend the burden shall not lie upon you that are well af- fected and come in voluntarily, but that they have thought upon a way, and have begun it already, and I hope, within two or three days at the most, it shall be published to you, that all that are indisposed shall be forced to do that which, out of readiness and chearfulness to the public good, they will not do of themselves. Neither limit we it to the city and suburbs, but we are in a course to draw in all the counties of the kingdom, that as the burden is universal, so the aid may be universal. These are the thoughts of the Parliament. " If it please God to bless your forces that are already raised and continued, we hope you shall not only see peace again in the kingdom, and security for your religion, but see that the burden shall lie upon those who have been the engines and actors of the mischiefs and troubles that are come upon us. They shall then rec- ompense the charges you have been at already ! " This is the intention of the Parliament. Only for the present do somewhat ! Every man, as God shall enable him, do somewhat ! Thus we may meet the present necessities, and prevent the dangers that require a present sub- sistence and present supply of the army ; with- out which, what is it will follow but the dan- ger of the city, the ruin of the countries about, the stopping up of the river, which is almost taken from you, and the loss of the seacoasts ! You cannot have better hearts than you have ; God hath enabled many of you with purses. I hope it will be so readily disposed that we shall have a full joy in the recompense of it and of the retribution. This let us all pray to God to bring to pass." A supply followed this speech, which is an exquisite specimen of those " wonderful popu- lar arts" which Clarendon ascribes to Pym. It would, indeed, be difficult to imagine any thing better adapted to the occasion so forcible, yet worded with such nice subtlety, as the passa- ges which have just been quoted. Meanwhile the king, heated with his imagined successes, addressed a paper to the city of London in the highest style of a conqueror. Their recent ac- tions he represented herein as outrages of so tremendous a nature that they called down the immediate vengeance of God, unless the city would purge itself of guilt by delivering up to Fr him their pretended lord-mayor and other lead- ers, whom he had particularly marked as trai- tors in his proclamations;* he graciously of- fered pardon to the rest, and added that he would give them the honour of his presence when they should put themselves in a proper posture to receive him ; with a warning that whosoever should henceforward contribute, by the payment of tonnage and poundage, or any other tax, on what pretence or authority soev- er, to the maintenance of the army under the Earl of Essex, must expect the severest pun- ishment the law could inflict. He concluded with an express command that this his mani- festo should be read out publicly in the city of London. This command, at least, was obeyed. The Parliament was communicated with, and a committee of both Houses were present when it was read. " Methinks I see him," says Mr. Godwin, in reference to this period, " methinks I see Charles, in his principal entrance into London, surrounded by all his minions and myrmidons, his horse's hoofs wet with his country's blood." But this was not to be while Pym lived. The king's manifesto was read, and a deep silence followed, when "Mr. Pym, that worthy mem- ber of the House of Commons and patriot of his country," as Peter Cole styles him in his edition of the speech, rose and commented, elaborately, but with singular force and clear- ness, on the various allegations of Charles. He acknowledged the generous and magnani- mous conduct of the city, and their steady ad- herence to the principles of liberty ; he avowed that all those actions with which they had been reproached by the king had been done in obe- dience to the commands of Parliament ; he vindicated those commands, and showed that the king's answer was a libel, stuffed with scandalous, injurious aspersions on the two re- spectable bodies of Parliament and city ; as to the king's assertion that he was driven by tu- mults out of the city, Pym remembered the company of the king going, the day after his attempt to seize the members, into the city without a guard, and his residing divers days at Whitehall, Hampton Court, and Windsor, without any attempt which could give him ap- prehension of fear. On Charles's accusation against the two Houses of destroying the prop- erty of the subject by taking away the twen- tieth part by an arbitrary power, Pym observed that there was little reason for this objection on his majesty's behalf, when it was well known that from the subjects who were within the power of his army he did take the full yearly value of their lands, and in some cases more ; that not only particular houses, but whole towns, had been plundered by command and design ; and that by proclamations men were declared to forfeit all their estates because they would not obey arbitrary commands. To the king's declaration that he expected to be kept from tumults and affronts, Pym observed, that his majesty's expressions, in his answer, tend- ing to the making a division in the city, and to the raising a party which might make disturb- ances in the orderly government now estab- lished in it, would be more prejudicial to his * These were Yen, Foulke, and Mainwaring. 226 BRITISH STATESMEN. quiet aoode in London than any thing which had ever been acted by the houses of Parlia- ment, or the present governors of the city. In conclusion, as to the threatening part of the matter, Pym added, with a stern indifference, that the danger arising from these ill councils which influenced the king could not be kept off but by the power of arms ; and that the Lords and Commons were so far from being frighted by his menaces, that they had just de- clared farther contribution towards the main- tenance of the army ; that they hoped for the continuance of the good affections of the city, and indeed desired that they would add at once some farther contributions towards the support of the forces which were now in existence for all their safeties. ,The effect of this speech is strikingly de- scribed by the reporter. " At the end of every period the applause was so great that he was fain to rest till silence was again made ; and at last (the company ready to be dissolved), after some pause and consultation with the committee of Lords and Commons then present, silence being made, he closed all with the words following : 'Worthy citizens, you have understood the sense of both houses of Parliament concerning my lord-mayor here, and those worthy mem- bers of your city that are demanded ; you have heard the Parliament declare that they will pro- tect them in that which they have done by di- rection of both Houses ; and they expect that you should express it yourselves likewise, that if any violence be offered to them, you will se- cure and defend them with your uttermost force ; and you shall always find that this pro- tection of the Parliament shall not only extend to these, but to all others that have done any thing by their command ;' which words were no sooner uttered, but the citizens, with one joint harmony of minds and voices, gave such an acclamation as would have drowned all the former, if they had been then breathing ; which, after a long continuance, resolved itself into this more articulate and distinct voice, 'We will live and die with them ! We will live and die with them !' and the like. So that," con- cludes Mr. Peter Coles, " in the managing of this day's work, God was so pleased to mani- fest himself, that the well affected went away, not strengthened only, but rejoicing ; and the malignants (as they have been called), some convinced, others silenced, many ashamed, it fully appearing how little power they had to answer their desires of doing mischief. In- stead of dividing the city, the city were more exceedingly united ; instead of a dissipation, thousands were unexpectedly brought, as it were, into an unthought-of association, to live and die in the defence of those zealous and honourable assertors of their peace and liber- ties, all which we may sum up in that triumph of the man of God, ' In the thing wherein they dealt proudly, God was above them.'" Proud indeed was Pym's bearing through these great extremities of the cause, which, however, now threatened to deepen daily. Sir William Waller suffered a serious check from his old friend Sir Ralph Hopton, and was sub- sequently completely routed by Wilmot. Exe- ter and Bristol at about the same time surren- dered to the king. The London people began to murmur, and the danger was imminent in- deed. Again Pym saved the Commonwealth. The formidable conspiracy against the Parliament, and the life of Pym, its principal member, known by the name of Waller's Plot, was now discov- ered by the unwearied and unwinking vigilance of the patriot, and the feeling produced by its disclosure reanimated the sympathies of the people. The plot had been got up by Edmnnd Waller the poet, in concert with two associates named Challoner and Tomkins. The object was to seize the persons of Pym and the leading members of the Commons, and deliver up the city to the king. The proceedings were nearly ripe, when, says Clarendon, " a servant of Mr. Tomkins, who had often cursorily overheard his master and Mr. Waller discourse of the ar- gument, placed himself behind a hanging at a time they were together, and there, whilst either of them discoursed the language and opinion of the company they kept, overheard enough to make him believe his information and discovery would make him welcome to those whom he thought concerned, and so went to Mr. Pym, and acquainted him with all he had heard. The time when Mr. Pym was made acquainted with it is not known, but the circumstances of the publishing it were such as filled all men with apprehensions. It was on Wednesday the thirty-first of May, their solemn fast-day, when, being all at their sermon in St. Margaret's Church at Westminster, according to their custom, a letter or message is brought privately to Mr. Pym, who thereupon, with some of the most active members, rise from their seats, and, after a little whispering to- gether, remove out of the church. This could not but exceedingly affect those who stayed be, hind. Immediately they sent guards to all the prisons, as Lambeth House, Ely House, and such places where their malignants were in. custody, with directions ' to search the prison- ers,' and some other places which they thought fit should be suspected. After the sermons were ended the Houses met, and were only told ' that letters were intercepted going to the king and the court at Oxford that expressed some notable conspiracy in hand to deliver up the Parliament and the city into the hands of the Cavaliers, and that the time for the execu- tion of it drew very near.' Hereupon a com- mittee was appointed ' to examine all persons they thought fit, and to apprehend some nomi- nated at that time ;' and the same night the committee apprehended Mr. Waller and Mr. Tomkins, and the next day such others as they thought fit."* The utmost available use was made of this * Hist., vol. iv., p. 66, 67. In No. 112 of King's Pam- phlets, part xiv., p. 300, is a preposterous account of this plot, stating that it was merely a "commission issued by Charles against traitors," and that certain members of the House of Commons, assuming themselves to be the traitors, having found in whose hands the commission was, " on Wednesday, May the 31st, when the rest of their body were at church to observe the fast, some fifty of them went into the House of Commons, and delegated the whole power of the House to Master Pym, Master Glyn, Mr. St. John, Sir Harry Vane the younger, and Sir Gilbert Gerard ; who, raising the trained bands, seized upon such persons as they thought were likely to cross their purposes, and filled the town with all the noise and clamour before remembered," &c., &c. The only effect of this is to implicate the king more deeply in the treachery. JOHN PYM. 227 discovery by Pym, and the most striking was the introduction of a vow against this or any similar design, which, though nominally op- tional, served all the purposes of a test. Tom- kins and Challoner were tried and executed, and died acknowledging the justice of their punishment. Waller had disclosed so much, that on the payment of a fine of 10,000 and a year's imprisonment, he was suffered to carry his ignominy to France. The whole course and management of the plot, and its discovery, were enlarged on in the city with Pym's usual adroitness and popular power, and a copy of the elaborate speech he delivered at the Guild- hall, "corrected by his own hand," will be found in the Appendix.* Still the king's successes continued, and still the inadequacy and slackness of Essex became more and more apparent. A proclamation ap- peared from Charles, promising free pardon to all, with some few exceptions,! on the laying down of arms. The exceptions included Pym and Hampden as principal traitors. Some of the moderate PresbyteriansJ in the House showed signs of wincing. The answer of Pym was one of the boldest and most decisive measures yet adopted. He carried up an im- peachment against the queen,$ which Hollis has commemorated in his memoirs as the first great victory gained by the Independents over the Presbyterians. It is clear to me that the great patriot resorted to this as a stroke of im- mediate policy alone, and without any view to serious measures against Henrietta. (I am equally certain that, had Pym survived, poor feeble Laud would not have died upon the scaf- fold.) Any hope of compromise with the House of Commons, as a body, after the queen's im- peachment, was utterly hopeless. The abuses poured out from Oxford upon Pym were commensurate with these services to the " good old cause." " Mercurius Aulicus" * Appendix A. t See Parl. Hist., vol. xii., p. 311, 312. t By the aid of this very party, Pym was foiled more than once in a moderate and generous policy as to the conduct of the war. From one of the, newspapers of a lew months before, for instance, I take the following: " It was adver- tized from London, that upon Wednesday, May 17, at the recommendation of the Earle of Essex, a motion was made in the House of Commons that the Countesse of Rivers might have her coach-horses restored, which had before beene taken from her by some of the horse-takers for the two houses of Parliament j which, though it was a very easie courtesie, considering that she had beene rifled by them (as themselves confessed) to the value of 40, 000, and that it was proposed by Master Pym (no meane man, I hope), would bv no meanes passe." <) "A message being sent up from the lower House to desire the Lords to sit a while, for they had a matter of great importance to communicate to them ; soon after came up Mr. Pym to acquaint their lordships that the Commons had discharged their consciences by the following vote, which they had passed : ' That the queen had levied war against the Parliament and kingdom ;'and having discharged their consciences, they think it lit to discharge their duty too ; and said, he was commanded by the House of Com- mons assembled in Parliament, in the name of themselves, and of all the commons of England, to accuse and impeach, and he did accordingly now accuse and impeach, Henrietta Maria, queen of England, of high treason. And they de- sired their lordships to issue forth proclamations to summon her to appear before them, and receive a trial and due sen- tence for the same. It is observable (hat these votes were carried in the House of Commons nem. con. The queen had just before met the king at Edge Hill with a re-enforce- ment of 3000 foot, 30 troops of horse and dragoons, and six pieces of cannon, besides great store of other warlike am- munition, which made the House of Commons so exaspera- ted against her." Parl. Hist., vol. xii., p. 265. of March the 8th, 1643, observes : " It was car- ried from London by letters of the 2d of March, that in the House of Commons, the day before, there had beene a great adoe about his majes- tie's proclamation prohibiting the association projected and agreed upon by them* betweene the counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire, which was inveighed against with all possible acrimony by Mr. Pym, who spake against it no lesse than seven times, and that with so much violence and passion that hee was faine to take breath." Some passages fol- low that may not with propriety be quoted, con- cerning the " hums and plaudites" bestowed upon " this Mr. Pym." The same respectable journal of a few weeks later, after describing the shift to which the Commons had been put for want of money, and a warrant circulated by Lady Waller to arrest the deserters from her husband's army, proceeds thus : " This war- rant a gentleman of goode credit saw this weeke, which you must suppose was drawn up at the honourable she-committee, which is ever full of feares and sadnesse lest that goode fat man. Master John Pym, should lose his vote by going to Master Hampden upon some earnest businesse." " He tells us," rejoins Needham to this in the " Mercurius Britannicus," " he tells us of our she-committee again. Aulicus, let our ladies alone ; they love not to be handled like yours at Oxford." Pym's change of residence has the honour of mention in a succeeding "Auli- cus" : " It is signified in the same letters that the committee for disposing of delinquent estates have appointed the Earle of Derby's house in Westminster to bee a dwelling for Pym, with especiall directions that hee bee not too modest or reserved in the use thereof; and that others of the houses and householde staffe about the Tower are like to bee disposed by the same authoritie (to whose share, think you, will Whitehall fall in this distribution?)." On the other hand, an opposition journal states a very handsome tribute to the patriot, as paid by the court at Oxford : " It is credibly affirmed that the Cavaliers do usually drink this wicked and blasphemous health, viz., ' 1. A health to his majestie, by whom we live, move, and have our being. 2. A health to the confusion of Pym, his God, and his gospel.'" One extract more from the Oxford court journal : " From London we are certified that one Master Carle- ton hath so frequently feasted the worthy mem- bers, one whereof was Master Pym (who, the world knowes, is a man of quick dispatch), that they have eaten the said Carleton into a prettie broken fortune, and rendered him fit to bee a new common councilman; but, to make him whole againe, the worthies have preferred him to a captaine's place in his excellence's army, where, if hee thrive apace, hee may rise to bee as high as Mainwaring or Ven, at least as great as the Earle of Essex." Nor was this the only kind of attack now made upon the patriot. Clarendon boldly affirms " that his power of doing shrewd turns was ex- traordinary, and no less in doing good offices for particular persons ; and that he did preserve many from censure who were under the se- vere displeasure of the Houses, and looked * By Hampdeu and Pym. See Life of Hampden, post, P. 252. 228 BRITISH STATESMEN. upon as eminent delinquents ; and the quality of many of them made it believed that he had sold that protection for valuable considera- tions." This latter deduction may be supposed to rest on the same authority to which Lord Clarendon has confessed himself indebted for other slanders against the patriot that of " an obscure person or two."* The incident, with- out the deduction, would have better deserved mention, as an evidence of Pym's generosity and kindness ; but the wonder would have been, if such a forward and eminent person as Pym, in times of such exasperation, had escaped these fiercest slanders. They passed unnoticed by himself; but the Commons themselves in- terfered at last. When Sir John Hotham, for instance, brought to the bar of the House for desertion to the king, was asked "whether he knew of any members of that House, or of the Lords, that had conveyed any treasure beyond seas, he answered, he knew of none, if he were to die that instant. And being again asked whether he knew that Mr. Pym had conveyed any treasure in like manner, with some astonish- ment he asked if that question was asked him in- earnest ; protested he knew nothing of it, and that he had never reported any such thing." I will quote the sequel of this, as it is given in the Parliamentary History, t "In the course of these examinations, the reader may observe that Mr. Pym is mentioned as charged with some indirect practices. To do justice to that great man, on the same day, Sir Edward Bain- ton, a member of the House of Commons, was sent for, charged with saying that the Lord Say and Mr. Pym had betrayed the west and north ; and being demanded whether he had spoke those words charged upon him, answered, he did not speak them as they were there laid down. Being then demanded what he had spo- ken to that purpose, answered that he had learn- ed, since he had sat here, that he ought not to speak any thing here that reflected to the preju- dice of another member, and therefore desired to be excused, unless he were enjoined and commanded. Whereupon he was enjoined to speak the whole truth ; and then he said that he did not say that Mr. Pym had betrayed the west, but that he had betrayed his county, which he did by being a means of detaining him in prison who only was able to maintain and pre- serve that county till the said county was quite lost, notwithstanding many orders 'made for his bringing up. As for betraying the north, he knew nothing more of that than he had heard in the House, which sounded bad enough, viz., that the offer of the Lord Savile and Sir William Savile to deliver up to the Parliament's forces York and that whole county, if they might not be prejudiced in their persons and estates, was prevented ; adding, that he had heard it said and affirmed, with solemn and deep oaths and protestations, that the Lord Cottington had treated with his majesty for the pardon of the Lord Say and Mr. Pym, and that, if they had had the preferments they expected, we had not been brought to the condition we now are in. Being demanded from whom he heard this, answered, it was from the Lord Grandi- son's brother, Lieutenant-colonel Brett, and * Se the text restored in Clarendon, vol. i., p. 493. t Purl. Uit., vol xii., p 379. Sergeant-major juques, all officers in the king's army, and prisoners with him at Gloucester. Mr. Pym, in answer to the charge, protested solemnly that he never had intercourse with the Lord Cottington, by one means or other, since the difference between the king and Par- liament : that he never received but two mes- sages from him since this Parliament began; the one was by Sir Arthur Ingram, long before he died ; the other by Sir Benjamin Rudyard. Upon the whole, the Commons voted the charge laid upon Mr. Pym by Sir Edward Bainton to be false and scandalous, and that the said Sir Edward should be forthwith sent to the Tower, there to remain a prisoner during the pleasure of the House." Increasing in malignity, however, Pym's slanderers now fixed upon his religious faith and personal relation to the king, and levelled such monstrous charges against him in regard to both, that he thought it necessary at last to issue a " declaration and vindication," which will be found at length in the Appendix.* In this, with great modesty of language and feel- ing, he compares his fate with that of "the orator and patriot of his country, Cicero." " I will not," he says, " be so arrogant as to par- allel myself to that worthy ; yet my case, if we may compare lesser things with great, hath to his a very near resemblance ; the reason I am so much maligned and reproached by ill-affect- ed persons being, because I have been forward in advancing the affairs of the kingdom, and have been taken notice of for that forward- ness ; they, out of their malice, converting that to a vice which, without boast be it spoken, I esteem my greatest virtue." He concluded with affirming his continued attachment to a form of limited and constitutional monarchy in Eng- land. Such a monarchy,t had his life and that of Hampden been spared, would, in all prob- ability, have resulted from the war; and the settlement of its conditions, and of the true extent of the power and authority of the peo- ple, would doubtless have put to shame the feeble and uncertain settlement of 1688. But this hope was already vain. News of Hampden's death had reached Lon- don, and Pym felt himself sinking under a grad- ual and wearing illness. His labours had over- tasked his strength. Still he appeared in the House of Commons, however, and had still one of the greatest achievements of his life to perform.! * Appendix E. t Shortly before the death of Pym, the elector-palatine sent letters to the Parliament, declaring his satisfaction with the covenant, and bemoaning the conduct of his broth- er, Prince Rupert, in fighting against the legislative body. This very constitutional allegiance obtained, eventually, for the elector, a pension from the Parliament, more than equivalent to that which he had been accustomed to receive from the king. The elector himself arrived in England just after Pym's decease, la it possible that something more than this grant, frustrated by the patriot's death, had been secretly in agitation, and that Pym had originally contem- plated the introduction of this electoral prince as the found- er of a new royal dynasty, if it became necessary to depose Charles I. ? t In a recent compilation, entitled " Memoirs of Selden," Pym receives casual mention, at this period, as having sin- gular influence. " Mr. Baillie," says the compiler, " gives this instance of the popularity of Mr. Pym in 1643 : ' Ou Wednesday, Mr. Pym was carried from his house to West- minster on the shoulders of the chief men in the lower House, all the House going in procession before him.'" JOHN PYM. 229 Sanguine hopes prevailed at Oxford that the way to London was open at last. Waller wa routed in the west, and the strong places were in Charles's hands. Gainsborough was recap- tured, and Hull in imminent danger. The queen joined the king with a re-enforcement, and London was without an army or fortifica- tions for its defence. But Pym was there ! The Mercurius Aulicus had heard of his illness, however, and took occasion to throw out the following significant hint : " We are heare very glad to heare that the French ambassadour is most certainly arrived, and doth now reside at Sommerset House ; the king and queen doe both desire that he may be the happy meanes to settle peace in this kingdome, and that Pym, if he be sicke, for so we are certifide by letters, may live to see the king againe, and, by asking God forgivenesse, may die in his bed : a mercy which he does not deserve." This perfidious suggestion availed nothing. Pym was not yet so ill but that he retained his intellect, and, with that, his power ; and now he used them both, with a last and memorable effect, against the king. Essex, despairing, or willing to compromise, wrote to the House of Lords,* advising accom- modation. A petition was voted accordingly, and was taken into consideration by the Com- mons after a vehement struggle ; but ultimate- ly, by the unparalleled efforts of Pym and St. John, a majority of two was obtained against it. All the pulpits of London were brought into requisition, and the people wrought to the last pitch of political and religious enthusiasm. Yet the danger of the defenceless state of the capital remained unprovided against, and the discontent of Essex himself threatened the worst of dangers. Then it was that Pym nobly discharged himself of his last duty to the Com- monwealth, and, oppressed with illness as he was, presented himself, with St. John, at the tent of Essex, and there, as Clarendon says.t Poor Mr. Baillie little thought the use his description of the patriot's funeral would be put to ! It was, alas ! the dead body of Pym thus carried by his old friends to its last rest- ing-place, in testimony of their affectionate respect. * Many of the lords, originally left in the executive, were now sighing once more for the court, and several unseemly exhibitions had already taken place between them and the more resolute members of the Commons. The following is from a curious pamphlet of the time : " The committee for the House of Commons, which came from Oxford, made a relation to the House of his majestis's answer, which was much commended and extolled by all moderate men, and thought to bee both full and satisfactorie ; but that upon the other side it was so farre from pleasing the engaged malignant partie, that Master Martyn said expressly yt it was rather to bee scorned than answered ; and finally, that at a conference the same day betwixt the Houses for giving some answer to his majestie's messages, in the painted chamber, the Earle of Northumberland, standing by the fire, asked Master Martyn (whom he found there) why hee brake open certaine letters which were sent to him to Ox- ford (for such a saucy trick had been put upon him), and finding little reason for it in his reply, gave him a bastinado with his cane, and a blow with his fist ; whereupon Martyn, getting neare him, caught him by the collar of his doublet, or, as some say, by his George, which occasioned divers of the standers-by to draw their swords, amongst whom the Earle of Pembroke is said to bee one, and Master Pym an- other. And it was certified, with all, that the quarrell is so much resented, that the Commons have voted it to bee a breach of their privilege, and the Lords of theirs." t " Mr. Pym," he observes, " always opposed all over- tures of peace and accommodation ; and when the Earl of Essex was disposed, the last summer, by those lords, to an inclination towards a treaty, as is before remembered, Mr. Pym's power and dexterity wholly changed him, and wrought htm to that temper which he afterward swenred by " his power and dexterity, wholly changed him, and wrought him to that temper which he afterward swerved not from." In other words, he assured Essex of the support and confidence of the House, opened his eyes to the king's particular resentments and personal character, and confirmed him in his duty. It has been truly said, in reference to this self-possessed sagacity and courage, that "men actuated by either extreme of violent temper or vulgar prudence would have removed from the com- mand a general whom they had reason to dis- trust." Pym's nobler policy held together the army without a flaw, and, from that hour, the tide of fortune gradually turned. He did not live to see this, but the wise con- sciousness of what he had done was consola- tion sufficient for such a mind. The hand of death was now upon him. Some disgraceful riots broke out at this time, in consequence of the wants and deprivations incident to the war ; and, according to Rushworth, a great multi- tude of the wives of substantial citizens, assist- ed by a large body of men in women's clothes, came to the House of Commons with a petition for peace, and blocked up the door for two hours. " Give us the traitor Pym," they cried, " that we may tear him in pieces ! Give us the dog Pym !" but a troop of horse dispersed them. The traitor or the patriot Pym the words may be probably thought synonymous here was then lying on his deathbed. The House of Commons, anxious to give their great leader one proof of confidence more, had conferred on him, in November, the all- important office of lieutenant-general of the ordnance of the kingdom ; but from this mo- ment he sank rapidly. With gloating expecta- tion, his death was waited for by the Royalists. " From London we hear that Pym is crawling to his grave as fast as he can," writes Trevor to the Marquess of Ormonde, in a letter dated from Oxford in December.* A yet more stri- king evidence of this feeling is supplied in the following extract from the Parliament Scout, published some days before : " We have given the enemy a great and notable defeat this week, if our news hold true ; for whereas they have for many weeks expected the death of Master Pym, and horses have stood ready in several stables, and almost eaten out their heads, for those that were to go with the news to Oxford, and had promise of great reward and knighthood that brought it first, now he is like to recover, and to sit in the House of Commons again, to facilitate busi- ness there, and see an end of the miseries of England ; and this will trouble the other party more, by far, that he is mending, than the rout that Sir William Waller gave to Sir Ralph Hop- ;on on Tuesday last." Very vain was this hope ; for on the 8th of December, 1643, Pym died at Derby House. An account of the last moments of his sickness las been left by onet who knew him intimately through life, and attended his deathbed. From that we learn that he maintained the same evenness of spirit which he had in the time jot from. He was wonderfully solicitous for the Soots coming to their assistance, though his indisposition of body -7as so great that it might well have made another impres- ion upon his mind." History, vol. iv., p. 440, 441. * Carte's Letters, vol. i., p. 26. t Dr. Marshall, iu his funeral sermon, 1644. 230 BRITISH STATESMEN. of his health, professing to myself that it was to him a most indifferent thing to live or die : if he lived, he would do what service he could ; if he died, he should go to that God whom he had served, and who would carry on his work by some others ; and to others he said, that if his life and death were put into a balance, he would not willingly cast in one dram to turn the balance either way. This was his temper all the time of his sickness." The same in- teresting memorial tells us that " such of his family or friends who endeavoured to be near him (lest he should faint away in his weak- ness), have overheard him importunately pray for the king's majesty and his posterity, for the Parliament and the public cause, for him- self begging nothing. And a little before his end, having recovered out of a swound, seeing his friends weeping around him, he cheerfully told them ' he had looked death in the face, and knew, and therefore feared not, the worst it could do, assuring them that his heart was filled with more comfort and joy which he felt from God than his tongue was able to utter ;' and (whilst a reverend minister was at prayer with him) he quietly slept with his God." After reading this calm and affecting account of the last mo- ments of this immortal advocate of civil and religious freedom, no one will feel disposed to deny the justness of that prophecy in which the good and amiable Baxter has indulged in translating Pym into heaven : " Surely" (I quote from the " Saint's Everlasting Rest" of that good man), " surely Pym is now a mem- ber of a more knowing, unerring, well-ordered, right-aiming, self-denying, unanimous, honour- able, triumphant senate than that from whence he was taken !" On the news of Pym's death,* say the au- thors of the Parliamentary History, " the House of Commons showed a respect to his memory that is without precedent in the whole course of these inquiries ; for we find in the journals ' that a committee there named was appointed to consider of the estate of Mr. Pym, deceased, and to offer what they think fit to be done in consideration of it to the House ; likewise to take care to prepare a monument for him at the charge of the Commonwealth.' It was also ordered ' that the body of Mr. Pym be interred in Westminster Abbey, without any charge for breaking open the ground there ; and that the speaker, with the whole House, do accompany his body to the interment.' "t * Welcome news, of course, at Oxford. I extract from The Kingdome's Weekly Post, " with his packet of letters publishing his message to the city and country." "It is everywhere remarkably observed concerning the taking of Alton (the particulars whereof are suffy commund to the kingdome alreadie, our Post not using to relate what hath beene printed before), that the very same day there was a great feast at Oxford ; and great preparations made- for bonejires that night, which was done accordingly. The rea- son was, for that they heard that Master Pirn was dead; and it was observed that many Cavaliers at Oxford drank that day the confusion of the Roundheads, and particularly Sir William Waller." t Parl. Hist., vol. xii., p. 462. From the " Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer" 1 take the following : " The Parlia- ment so highly honours the memorie of Master Pym, that they have ordered a monument to bee erected in the Abbey at Westminster, where hee is to bee interred ; and the House of Commons have appointed themselves to accompa- nie the corpse to the grave, so highly doe they value and esteeme the merits and deservings of so goode, so excellent a patriot and Commonwealth's man. They have also taken On the 15th of December, what remained of the great patriot " was buried," says Claren- don,* " with wonderful pomp and magnificence, in that place where the bones of our English kings and princes are committed to their rest." The body, followed by Charles and Alexander Pym, was carried from Derby House to West- minster Abbey on the shoulders of the ten chief gentlemen of the House of Commons, in the deepest mourning : Denzil Hollis, Sir Ar- thur Hazlerig, Sir Henry Vane the younger, Oli- ver Saint John, Strode, Sir Gilbert Gerard, Sir John Clotworthy, Sir Nevil Poole, Sir John Wray, and Mr. Knightley ; " and was accom- panied" (says the authority I quote, the Per- fect Diurnall' of the following week) " by both houses of Lords and Commons in Parliament, all in mourning, by the Assembly of Divines, by many other gentlemen of quality, and with two heralds of armes before the corpse bearing his crest. His funeral sermon was made by Mr. Marshall, who tooke his text out of the 7th of Micah, part of the first and second verses, in these words : ' Wo is me, for the good man hath perished out of the earth.' " A few extracts from this noble and affecting sermon may fitly close this attempt to do tardy justice to the life and memory of Pym.t order, in regard Master Pym hath not onely spent his life in the service of the kingdome, but lost his estate, that a speciall care bee taken for a subsistence for his sons, who are likewise in the service of the Parliament and kingdome ; it being a thing very considerable and remarkable, that the father's care was so totally taken up for the goode of the publike, that hee even neglected a necessarie care to pro- vide for his children." * I may here subjoin one or two points from this writer's character of Pym. The main part of it has already been noticed in these pages. " No man had more to answer for the miseries of the kingdom, or had his hand or head deep- er in their contrivance. And yet, I believe, they grew much higher, even in his life, than he designed. . . Besides the exact knowledge of the forms and orders of Parliament, which few men had, he had a very comely and grave way of expressing himself, with great volubility of words, natu- ral and proper ; and understood the temper and affections of the kingdom as well as any man ; and had observed the errors and mistakes in government ; and knew well how to make them appear greater than they were. . . He seemed to all men to have the greatest influence upon the House of Commons of any man ; and, in truth, I think he was the most popular man, and the most able to do hurt, that hath lived in any time." t A volume might be rilled with the various characters of the patriot with which the various publications now, and for many weeks after, teemed. I will only quote, as a spe- cimen, an "Elegie" which appeared "in deep mourning" in. the Mercurius Britannicus. " No immature nor sullen fate Did his immortal soule translate ; Hee passed gravely hence, even Kept his old pace, from earth to heaven ! Hee had a soule did alwayes stand Open for businesse, like his hande. Hee took in so much, I could call Him more than individual! ; And so much businesse waited by, Would scarcely give him leave to die. Hee knew the bounds, and every thing Betwixt the people and the king ; Hee could the just proportions draw Betwixt prerogative and law ; Hee lived a patriot here so late, Hee knew each syllable of state, That had our charters all beene gone, In him we had them every one. Hee durst bee goode, and at that time When innocence was half a crime. Hee had seene death before hee went, Once had it as a token sent ; Hee surfeited on state affaires, Di'd on a pleurisie of caires ; Nor doth hee nowe his mourners lacke, We have few soules but goe in blacke, JOHN PYM. 231 " Our Parliament is weakened," said this eloquent and earnest preacher, " our armies wasted, our treasure exhausted, our enemies increased ; and of those few able hearts, heades, and handes who abode faithfull to this great cause and worke in hande, it might even stab us to the very heart to thinke how many of them the Lord hath even snatcht away, in the middest of their worke, and our greatest neede ! That excellent-spirited lord, the Lord Brooke ; that rare man, Master John Hampden ; that true-hearted Nathaniel, Master Arthur Good- win (pardon me, I beseeche you, though I men- tion them amongst these friends, who cannot thinke of them without bitternesse) ' How are these mighty men fallen in the middest of the battell, and the weapons of warre per- ished ! the beautie of our Israel is slaine in the high places !' . . . And nowe we meete to la- ment the fall of this choice and excellent man, in whose death the Almightie testifies against us, and even fills us with gall and worm- woode. I knowe you come hither to mourne ; so fully prepared for it, that although I am but a dull oratour to move passion, I may serve well enough to drawe out those teares wherewith your hearts and eyes are so big and full. There is no neede to call for the ' mourning women, that they may come, and for cunning women, that they may take up a wailing, to helpe your eyes to runne downe with teares, and your eyelids to gush out with waters ;' the very looking downe upon this beere, and the naming of the man whose corpes are here placed, and a very little speech of his worth, and our miserable losse, is enough to make this assembly, like Rachel, not onely to lift up a voice of mourning, but even to refuse to bee comforted. ... I am called to speake of a man so eminent and excellent, so wise and gra- cious, so goode and usefull, whose workes so praise him in every gate, that if I should alto- gether holde my tongue, the children and babes (I had almost said, the stones) would speake : upon whose herse could I scatter the sweetest flowers, the highest expressions of rhetorike and eloquence, you would thinke I fell short of his worth ; you would say, this very name, JOHN PYM, expresseth more than all my words could doe. Should I say of him, as they of Titus, that hee was ' amor et deliciae generis humani ;' should I say of his death, as once the Sicilians upon the Grecians' departure, 'Totum ver periit ex anno Siciliano ;' should I say hee was not onely as one of David's thirtie worthies, but one of the three, one of the first three, even the first and chiefe of them, the Tachmonite who sate in the seat ; should I say our whole lande groan- eth at his death, as the earth at the fall of a great mountaine, I might doe it without envie in this assembly." " I shall forbeare," Doctor Marshall contin- ued, " to speake any thing of his family, educa- And for his sake have nowe put on A solemne meditation. Teares are too narrow dropps for him, And private sighes too strait for Pym ; None can compleatcly Pym lament, But something like, a Parliament ! The publike sorrow of a state Is but a grief e commensurate. We must enacted passions have, Jind laweifor weeping at hit grave." tion, naturall endowments ; his cleare under- standing, quick apprehension, singular dexteri- tie in dispatch of businesse ; his other morall eminences, in his justice, patience, temperance, sobrietie, chastitie, liberalitie, hospitalitie ; his extreame humanitie, affabilitie, curtesie, chear- fulnesse of spirit in every condition ; and (as a just reward and sweet just fruit of all these) the high and deare esteeme and respect which hee had purchased in the hearts of all men of every ranke who were acquainted with him, such onely excepted of whom to bee loved and well reported is scarce compatible with true vertue. All men who knew him either lov'd or hated him in extremitie : such as were goode, extreamely delighted in him, as taken in a sweet captivitie with his matchlesse worth ; the bad as much hated him, out of their antip- athy against it His excellent, usefull spirit was accompanied with three admirable properties, wherein hee excelled all that ever I knew, and most that ever I read of. First, such singlenesse of heart, that no by-respect could any whit sway him ; no respect of any friend : hee regarded them in their due place, but hee knew neither brother, kinsman, nor friend, superiour nor inferiour, when they stood in the way to hinder his pursuit of the publike goode 'magis arnica respublica ;' and hee used to say, ' Such a one is my entire friend, to whom I am much obliged ; but I must not pay my private debts out of the publike stock.' Yea, no self-respect, no private ends of his owne or family, were in any degree regarded, but himselfe and his were wholly swallowed up in the care of the publike safetie ; insomuch that when friends have often put him in mind of his family and posteritie, and prest him, that although hee regarded not himselfe, yet hee ought to provide that it might bee well with his family (a thing which they thought hee might easily procure), his ordinary answer was, ' If it went well with the publike, his family was well enough.' Secondly, such constancy and reso- lution, that no feare of danger or hope of re- ward could at any time so much as unsettle him. How often was his life in danger ? What a world of threats and menaces have beene sent him from time to time 1 Yet I challenge the man that ever saw him shaken by any of them, or thereby diverted from, or retarded in, his right way of advancing the publike goode. Nor could the offers of the greatest promotions (which England could afford) in any way bee a block in his way : in that hee was as another Moses (th 1 only man whom God went about to bribe), who desired that hee and his might nev- er swim, if the cause of God and his people did ever sinke ; his spirit was not so low as to let the whole world prevaile with him so farre as to hinder his worke, much lesse to bee his wa- ges. Thirdly, such unweariablenesse, that from three of the clock in the morning to the even- ing, and from evening to midnight, this was his constant employment (except onely the time of his drawing nigh to God), to bee some way or other helpfull towards the publike goode, burning out his candle to give light to others. Who knowes not all this to bee true who knew this man's conversation 1 Not onely since the time of this Parliament, but for many yeares together, hath hee beene a great pillar to up- 232 BRITISH STATESMEN. hold our sinking frame ; a master workman, labouring to repaire our ruinous House ; and un- der the weight of this worke hath the Lord per- mitted this rare workman to bee overthrown." Allusion was now made to one of the Roy- alist fabrications* which had assailed the great statesman's memory, and which is worth ex- tracting, since it remains treasured up in the pages of Clarendon : " It may bee some of you expect I should confute the calumnies and re- proaches which that generation of men who envyed his life doe alreadie begin to spread and set up in libells concerning his death, as that hee died raving, crying out against that cause wherein hee had beene so great an in- strument ; charging him to dye of that loathe- some disease which that accursed Balsack, in his booke of slanders against Mr. Calvin, charged him to dye of. But I forbeare to spend time needlessly, to wipe off those reproaches which I knowe none of you believe. And this will satisfy the world against such slanders, that no lesse than eight doctors of physike of unsuspected integritie, and some of them stran- gers to him (if not of different religion from him), purposely requested to bee present at the opening of his body ; and well neare a thou- sand people, first and last, who came, many of them out of curiositie, and were freely permit- ted to see his corpse, can and doe abundantly testify the falshoode and foulnesse of this re- port." " Verily," concluded this fearless and virtu- ous divine, " when I consider how God hath followed us with breach upon breach, taken away all those worthy men I before mentioned, and all the other things wherein the Lord hath brought us low ; and nowe this great blow, to follow all the rest, I am readie to call for such a mourning as that of Hadadrimon in the Val- ley of Megiddon. But mistake me not ! I doe not meane that you should mourne for him, you his deare children ; you right honourable Lords and Commons, who esteeme him little lesse than a father; I meane not that you should mourne for him ! his worke is done, his warfare is accomplished ; hee is delivered from sin and sorrow, and from all the evills which we may feare are coming upon our selves : hee hath received at the Lord's hande a plentifull reward for all his labours. I be- seeche you, let not any of you have one sad thought touching him. Nor would I have you mourne out of any such apprehension as the enemies have, and for which they rejoice, as if our cause were not goode, or wee should lose it for want of handes and heades to carry it on : No, NO, BELOVED, THIS CAUSE MUST PROS- IPER ; AND ALTHOUGH WEE WERE ALL DEAD, OUR ARMIES OVERTHROWN, AND EVEN OUR PARLIA- MENTS DISSOLVED, THIS CAUSE MUST PREVAILE." Alexander Pym died some short time after his father, but Charles survived him many years ; and on the Restoration, though he had * See Clarendon, vol. iv., p. 436. An official statement, signed by the famous Sir Theodore Mayerne, subsequently appeared, and will be found in Appendix F. Whitelocke says, after a singular mistake as to the date of the death, " it was believed that the multitude of his business and cares did so break his spirit and health that it brought his death." continued in the ranks of the Parliamentarian army, was created a baronet. It may be add- ed, that, on an investigation by the committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the patriot's estate, it was found neces- sary not only to vote 10,000 for the settle- ment of the debts it was discovered to be in- volved in, but also to pension this son, Charles, upon the Parliament. No precedent existed for such votes as these, but the House justly decided that so specially eminent a case was not likely to have occurred before. In these proceedings, at least, the lie was peremptorily given to those slanders on the patriot's public virtue, which had represented him, some years before his death, privately amassing the public money for his own peculiar ends. Since the early sheets of this memoir went to press, some information respecting the fam- ily and estate of the Pyms has been kindly com- municated to me by a gentleman who was re- cently connected with their native county of Somersetshire, and whose interest in the sub- ject of these researches is another testimony to his distinguished zeal in the public cause. Mr. Leader tells me that the estate of the Pyms must originally have been very extensive, but that, of the old mansion house, a large porch, with a pointed G&thic doorway and Gothic pin- nacles, is all that remains to attest its splen- dour or picturesqueness. In addition to their estate of Brymore, which the family held, in direct issue, from the reign of Henry III. to that of Charles II., my informant acquaints me, on the authority of the present owner of Bry- more (the Hon. Mr. Bouverie, Lord Radnor's brother), that they held also the estate of Wool- lavington in the same county, which is still oc- casionally called " Woollavington Pym." From a patent of baronetcy now in Mr. Bouverie's possession, it would appear, moreover, that Charles Pym's dignity was first conferred upon him in 1658 by Richard Cromwell, immediate- ly upon the death of Oliver, and received sub- sequent confirmation from Charles II. The following detailed account of the family of the Pyms is kindly furnished to me by Mr. Leader, from Collinson's History of Somerset- shire, under the title of the " Hundred of Can- nington :" " On the west side of this parish is an an- cient estate called Brymore, formerly part of the lordship of Radway above mentioned, and held from thence by the service of the tenth part of a knight's fee. Geffrey de Bramora held it in the beginning of the reign of Henry III. ; soon after which it was possessed by Odo, son of Durand de Derleigh, who conveyed the same to William Fitchet, and he to Elias Pym. "This Elias Pym was father of several chil- dren, William, John, and Roger, his eldest son and heir, who possessed this estate 27 Ed- ward I. " The eldest son and successor of this Roger was of his own name, and bore on his seal a saltire between four quatre foils He died 23 Edward III., and was succeeded by Elias his brother ; after whose death, without children, the inheritance devolved to Philip the third son, who, 50 Edward III., being then parson of Kentisbury t in Devonshire, conveyed all his JOHN PYM. 233 right herein to Philip Pym, son of Henry his brother, and to the heirs of the said Philip. " Philip Pym was dead before 1 Henry IV. He had two sons by his first wife Emmota, daughter and coheir of Alexander de Camelis, whose names were Roger and William ; by his second wife he had also a son called Elias, to whom he gave several estates in Dulverton and Brumpton-Regis. " Roger Pym, the eldest son, married Joan, daughter and coheir of John- Trivet, of Sidbury in Devonshire, a younger branch of the family of Trivet of Durborough. This Roger was pos- sessed of Brymore from the 1st year of Henry IV. to 13 Henry VI., in which last year he was succeeded by Philip, his eldest son. The coat of this Philip was.a bull's head within a wreath. He was living 16 Edward IV., and had two sons, Roger, his successor, and Philip. Roger Pym married Joan, daughter and heir of John Gilbert, of Woollavington, by Alianor, daughter and coheir of William Doddisham. He was living the last year of Edward IV., at which time he made over all his estate lying at Go Brymore, Woollavington, and other places, to his son Alexander ; " Which Alexander married Thomasine, daughter of William Stainings, Esq., and died 8 Henry VII. He was succeeded by Reginald Pym, his eldest son, who, by Mary, daughter of Thomas Dabridgecourt, was father of Eras- mus Pym, and grandfather of the famous John Pym, Esq., member for the borough of Tavis- tock. "This John, by Anna, daughter of John Hooker, Esq., was father of several children ; the eldest of whom, Charles, was, on the Res- toration, made a baronet, and was succeeded in his honour and estates by a son of his own name ; who dying without issue, the estate fell to his sister Mary, the wife of Sir Thomas Hales, Bart., progenitor of the present Sir Phil- ip Hales, Bart." This was at the close of the last century. Since that period the estate of Brymore has passed, by will, from Miss Hales, the last de- scendant of the Pyms, to Mr. Bouverie, its pres- ent possessor. APPENDIX TO THE LIFE OF JOHN PYM. A. A THscovery of the great Plot for the utter Ruine of the Citie of London and the Parliament, as it was at large made knowne by John Pym, Esq., on Thursday, being the 8th of June, 1643, at a Common Hall, and afterward cor- rected by his owne Hande for the Presse. JOHN PYM, ESQ., HIS SPEECH. MY LORD-MAJOR, and you, worthy citizens of this famous and magnificent citie, We are sent hither to you from the House of Commons, to make knowne to you the discovery of a great and a mischievous designe, tending not onely to the ruine and destruction of the citie and of the kingdome, but which, in those ruines, would likewise have buried religion and liberiie. I might call it a strange designe, though in these late times designes of this kiude have beene very fre- quent, because it exceedes others in divers considerable cir- cumstances of it in the malice of the intention, in the sub- tletie of contrivance, in extente of mischiefe, and nearnesse of execution ; all which arose from the wickednesse of the authors. Two others may bee added, that is, the clearnesse of the discovery and proofe, and the greatnesse of the deliv- erance proceeding from the great mercies of God. 1 shall, in the opening of this designe, take this course for my owne memory and yours. Observe, first, what was in their ayms. Secondly, the yarietie of preparations. Thirdly, the degrees of proceed- ing. Fourthly, the maturitie and readinesse for execution. The Parliament, the citie, and the army seeme to bee the three vitall parts of this kingdome, wherein not onely the well-being, but the very life and being of it doth consist : this mischiefe would have seized upon all these at once. The citie should have beene put into such a combustion as to have your swordes imbrued in one another's blood ; the Parliament should have beene corrupted and betrayed by their owne members ; the army destroyed, if not by force, yet for want of supply and maintenance, that so they might have had an open and a clearer way to the rest, which they had in proposition, especially to that maine and supreame end, the extirpation of religion. I shall tell you, first, out of what principles this did rise. It was from the ashes of another designe that failed that mutinous petition which was contrived in this citie. The actors of that petition being therein disappointed, they fell presently into consultation how they might compasse their former end in another way, that is, under pretence of se- curing themselves by force against the ordinances of Par- liament. Thus, under pretence of procuring peacs, they would have made themselves masters of the citie, yea, of the whole kingdome, and they would have ruined and de- stroyed all those that should have interrupted them in their mischievous intentions. The first step in their preparation was to appointe a com- mittee that might often meete together, and consult how they might compasse this wicked end. Their next was, that they might inable that committee with intelligence from both the armies, as well those on the king's side (as they call themselves, tho' we bee of the king's side indeed) as those that are raised by the Parliament ; especially they were carefull to understand the proceedings of Parliament, that so by the advantage of this intelligence they might the better effect that which they had in project, and finde the readiest and the nearest wayes to it. After they had thus provided for intelligence, how they might procure power and countenance to this action by some appearing authoritie of his majestie was next considered ; for which purpose, they projected to get a commission from the king, whereby many of themselves, and of those that were of their owne consort, should bee established a councell of warre in Lon- don and parts adjacent, with power to raise forces, make provisions of ammunition, and of other kinde of armes, and to give authoritie for the leading and conducting of those forces, and to raise money for the maintenance of them, and, as it is express'd in the commission, for the destruction of the army under the command of Robert E. of Essex, rais- ed by authoritie from the two houses of Parliament. Having layd these grounds, I shall, in the next place, dis- cover to you those that should have beene actors and agents in this businesse, their several! qualifications and relations. The first sort was some members of the citie, whereof there were divers (you shall heare the names out of the proofe) ; and the next was (in their pretence, as they gave LUC 1111.11 auu loab uuuaisieu uui ill um; mall, lilac we yet UlS- cover, and that was the Lord of Falkland, that kept corre- spondency with them from the courte. These were to bee the actors in this mischievous designe. e acors n s mscevous esgne. They began then to thinke upon some other courses of very great advantage to themselves. And for this purpose there was devis'd a protestation of secresy, whereby, as they were Christians, they did binde themselves to keepe one another's counsell, not to reveall that which they had knowledge of, or which they were trusted with. And the second was a warinesse in discover- came ee by acquainte above two in this businesse ; that so, if it to examination, it should never goe further than three by the same partie that discovered it ; and then those two had the like power, that any one of them might discover it to two others, that so still it might bee confined within the number of three ; then there was a speciall obligation (as was pretended by Mr. Waller), which hee had made to those that hee said were members of both houses of Parliament, and consenting to this plot ; but that is yet but a pretence suotiiiie to irrnace men s minues against tne rarliament. They found out those that thought themselves most heavily burdened with the taxes ; they did cherish all that had any urbs and places adjoyning in every parish, to observe th uius auu places aujuyiiing 111 every parmn, 10 ooserve mo that were for them, whom they called right men, and others that were against them, whom they called averse men ; and then a third sort, whom they called neutralls and indifferent men ; and they appointed severall persons that were trusted with this survey and enquiry to fiude out these severall de- grees and sorts in every parish. Thus farre this designe seemes to bee but a worke of the brain to consist onely in invention and subtiltie of de- signe ; but the other steps and degrees which I shall nowe observe to you will make it to bee a worke of the hande, to bring it somewhat nearer to execution. The first step that came into action and execution was, that they procur'd this commission which they had before designed, and indeavour'd to obtaine. Nowe they had ob- tained a commission (as I told you before) to establish cer- taine men, seventeen in number ; their names are there ex- pressed, and you shall heare them read to you. They were to bee a councell of warre here within the citie. These seventeen men had power to name others to themselves to the number of twenty-one, and both were to bee inabled to appointe, not onely colonells and captaines, and other infe- riour officers of an army, but to appointe and nominate a generall ; they had power to raise men, to raise armes, am- munition, and to doe all those other things that I told you before; and to lay taxes and impositions to raise money; and to execute martiall law. When they had gone thus farre, in the next place they did obtaine a warrant from the king, and this was to Mr. JOHN PYM. Challoner, that hee might receive money and plate of all those that, either by voluntary contribution or loan, would furnish the king (a* they called it) in this necessitie of his ; and thereby the king was obliged to the repayment of it. This was obtained. By this cometh in the list, and what was before part of the designe Cometh nowe into act. The citizens that were trusted with framing of this list brought it in, except in some few parishes, under those heades of discovery that I formerly told you of; that is, in every parish, who were right, and who were indifferent and neutral!, and who were averse; and those were brought to Mr. Waller's house ; and after they had delivered that list, the citizens then declared themselves that nowe they had done their part ; they had discovered to them a foundation of strength, they did expect from them a foundation of countenance and authoritie, namely, from both houses of Parliament ; and they did de- clare that they would proceed no further till they knew the names of those members of both houses that should joyn with them, and should undertake to countenance this busi- nesse. Mr. Waller made this answer : That hee did assure them that they should have members of both Houses, both lords and commons, to joyn with them ; that hee himselfe was but their mouth ; that hee spoke not his owne wordes, but their wordes ; that hee was but their agent, and did their worke ; that they should have of the ablest, of the best, and of the greatest lords, and the greatest number nay, that they should pick and chuse ; that they could not wish for a lord whom hee doubted not but to procure them : this was the vanitie of his boasting to them to drawe them on, and to incourage them in this plot. This being done nowe, and propounded by the citizens on their part, so Mr. Waller propounded from the lords divers quaeries, questions which had beene framed (as he said) by the lords and com- mons, and in their name hee did present Ihem, that were for the removall of difficulties, of some obstructions that might hinder this worke. Those quseries were delivered upon Friday was se'eunight to some of the citizens, and upon the Saturday morning (that was Saturday se'unnight) they were returned back againe with answers. I shall now relate to you both the quaeries, and the an- swers that were returned by those of the citie. The first quaerie was, What number of men there were armed ? The answer was, That there were a third part well armed, and a third part with halberts, and another third part with what they could get, with that that came to hande. The second quaerie was, In what places the magazines were laide ? The answer to that was, At Alderman Fowks's house, at Leaden Hall, and at Guild Hall. The third quasrie was, Where the rendezvouz should bee ? The answer was, At all the gates, at the places of the mag- azines, in Cheapside, in the Exchange, and at what other places the lords should thinke fit. The fourth quaerie was, Where the place of retreat, if there should bee occasion ? The answer was, That they had Banstead Downs, they had Blackheath in proposition, but they did referre the conclusion of the place to the lords. The fifth was, What colours there should bee 7 To this it was answered, That at every rendezvouz there should bee colours. A sixth consideration was, By what markes and tokens they should bee distinguished from others, and knowe their friends from their enemies ? To that it was answered, That they should have white ribands or white tape. Then, in the seventh place, it was asked, What strength there was within the walls, and what strength without the walls ? To that it was answered, That within the walls there was, for one with them, three against them ; but with- out the walls, for one against them there was five for them. The eighth was, What was to bee done with the Tower? The answer was, That they could conclude nothing in that pointe. The ninth was, Where the chiefe commanders dwelt? To that they made this answer : That every parish could tell what new commanders and captaines they had, and who of the militia dwelt in it. The tenth and the last was, What time this should bee put in execution ? To that the answer was, That the time was wholly left to the lords. After these quaeries thus propounded and answered, Mas- ter Waller told them that hee would acquainte the lords with those answers that hee had received from them to their quaeries, and wished them not to bee troubled, though the lords did not yet declare themselves, for they could doe them as goode service in the House. Being proceeded thus farre, they came then to some prop- ositions which should bee put in execution, and they were these : First, that they would take into their custodie the king's children that were here. The second was, that they would lay hold of all those persons that they thought should bee able lo stand in their way, ur to give them any impediment, or at least of some considerable number of them. It is un- like that all were named ; bnt ome were named. Of the Lord's House there was named my Lord Say and my Lord Wharton, and besides, my lord-major, whom they took into their consideration, as the heade of the citie. There was named of the House of Commons Sir Philip Stapleton, Mas- ter Hampden, Master Strode, and they did me the honour and the favour to name me too. When they had taken into consideration the surprizall of these members of both Houses, they did further take into their further resolution, that with my lord-major should have beene seized all your committee of militia ; they would not spare one of them. They intended further, that they would release all prisoners that had beeue committed by the Par- liament, that they would seize upon the magazines, and that they would make a declaration to satisfy the people. There are no designes, bee they never so ill, but they doe put on a maske of some goode ; for betwixt that that is ab- solutely and apparently ill, there it no congruitie with the will of man, and therefore the worst of evills are undertaken under a shadow and a shew of goodnesse. Thus declarations must bee set out, to make the people beleeve that they stood up for the preservation of religion ; for the preservation of the king's prerogative, of the liberties of the subject, of the priviledges of Parliament ; and of these one thousand were to bee printed ; they were to bee set upon postes and gates in the most considerable and open places : and they were to bee dispersed as much as they could thorow the citie against the time it should bee put in execution. This was done upon Saturday last was se'eunight, in the morning. Then, in the next place, they thought fit to give intelli- gence to the courte of what proceedings they had made here, and thereupon Master Hazel hee was sent to Oxford that very Saturday in the afternoon from Master Waller's house. There were two messages sent by him, for this maine designe they would not trust in writing. The first message was from Master Waller : it was, that hee should tell my Lord of Falkland that hee would give him a more full notice of the great businesse very speedily ; the other message from Master Tomkins, and that was, that the de- signe was nowe come to goode maturitie ; that they had so- strong a partie in the citie, that, though it were discovered, yet they would bee able to put it in execution. They prom- ised also to give notice to the king of the very day, and, if it were possible, of the very hour, wherein this should bee put in execution ; and then they did desire, that when they had seized upon the outworkes, that there might some par- tie of the king's army come up within fifteen miles of the citie, who, upon knowledge of their proceedings, must bee admitted into the citie. These were the foure pointes upon which the message did consist, which was sent from Mas- ter Tomkins to my Lord of Falkland by Master Hazel. To both these messages my Lord of Falkland returned an an- swer by word of mouth. They kept themselves so closely that they durst not venture to write ; but hee bid the mes- senger lo tell Master Waller, Master Tomkins, and Master Hampden (a gentleman that was sent up with a message from the king, and remained here in towne to agitate this businesse, and made that use of his being here in lowne) that hee could not well write, but did excuse himselfe, but pray- ed them that they would use all possible haste in the maine businesse. Master Waller, having plotted it and brought it on thus farre, nowe began to thinke of putting it further ; and the Tuesday following this Saturday, which was Tuesday was se'ennight, in the evening, after hee came home to his lodg- ings, Master Tomkins and hee being together, hee told Mas- ter Tomkins that the very next morning, that was Wednes- day, the fast day, hee should goe to my Lord of Holland and acquainte him with this plot, discover so much to him as hee thought fit, that hee himselfe would goe to some other lords, and doe the like. This was the Tuesday night, in which conference they had put on that confidence in expec- tation of successe in this plot, that Master Waller broke out with a great oathe, to affirme, that if they did carry this throughout, then we will have any thing. This hee spake to Master Tomkins with a very great deall of earnestnesse and assurance. So farre they went on in hope and expec- tation ; but here they were cut short. That very night there were warrants issued (upon some discoveries that were made of this plot) to the lord-major and to the sheriffes here, which they did execute with so much diligence and care of the goode of the citie, that the next morning, when Master Tomkins and Master Waller should have gone about their businesse, they were apprehended, and the rest of the citizens, divers of them ; but some escaped. Thus farre I have discovered to you the materials and the lineaments of this michievous designe ; you shall nowe hee pleased to heare the proofes and the confessions out of whicn this narration doth arise, and that will make all this goode to you that I have said ; and after those are read, I shall then tell you what hath beene done since in the House of Commons, somewhat in the House of Lords, and what else is in proposition to bee offered to you from the House of Commons ; but I shall desire you first that you may bee BRITISH STATESMEN. fully convinced of the great goodnesse of God in discovery of this plot, and the truth of these things that 1 have spo- ken to you, that you will heare the evidence of the proofes, and then we shall goe on to those other things which we have in charge. The proofes having beene read, Mr. Pym proceeded thus : Gentlemen, we have held you long ; you are nowe almost come to the end of your trouble. I am to deliver to .you some short observations upon the whole matter, and then to acquainte you with the resolutions thereupon, taken in the House of Commons ; and to conclude with a few desires from them to you. The observations are these : First, I am to observe to you the contrarietie betwixt the pretences with which this de- signe hath beene mark'd and the truth. One of the pre- tences was peace ; the truth was blood and violence. An- other of the pretences was the preserving of proprietie ; the truth was the introducing of tyranny and slavery, which leaves no man master of any thing hee hath. A second observation is this : The unnaturall way by which they meant to compasse this wicked designe : that was to destroy the Parliament by the members of Parliament, and then, by the carcasse and shadow of a Parliament, to destroy the kingdome. What is a Parliament but a carcasse when the freedome of it is suppressed ? when those shall bee taken away by violence that can or will oppose, and stand in the way of their intentions ? The high courte of Parliament is the most certaine and constant guardian of libertie ; but if it bee deprived of its owne libertie, it is left without life or power to keepe the libertie of others. If they should bring a Parliament to bee subject to the king's pleasure, to bee correspondent (as they call it) to his will, in the middest of such evill counsells which nowe are predominant, there would little or no cure bee left ; but all things that are most mischievous would then seeme to bee done by law and au- thoritie. The third observation is this : With what an evill con- science these men undertooke this worke. They that pre- tended to take armes to defend their owne proprietie, obtain- ' ed a commission to violate the proprietie of others ; they would take the assertion of the lawes of the lande, but as- sumed to them such a power as was most contrary to that law to seize upon their persons without due processe, to impose upon their estates without consent, to take away some lives by the law martiall ; and besides all this, with- out any commission they intended to alter the government of the citie, which is nowe governed by your owne councell, and by a magistrate chosen by yourselves then to bee gov- erned by violence. The fourth observation is this : That the mischievous ef- fect of this designe would not have ceased in the first night's worke. All the godly part in the kingdome, all faithfull ministers especially, would have beene left not onely to the scorn and reproach, but to the hatred, malice, and crueltie of the Papists and malignants. The fifth and last observation I shall make to you is this : That this matter was prosecuted in part, and agitated and promoted by those that were sent from the king, and seem- ed to bee messengers of peace ; and while we should bee amazed with pretences of gracious messages to propose peace, this villanous project, which should have set you all in blood, was promoted by those messengers, and should nave beene put in execution very shortly after. This is all I shall trouble you with by way of observation. The matters resolved on in the House of Commons are these things : First, that there bee publike thanksgiving to God, both in the citie and throughout the kingdome, for this great deliverance ; that a neare day bee appointed for the citie, the Parliament, and the parts adjacent, and a convenient day for other parts of the kingdome. The next thing resolved on was, that the House of Peeres, they should bee made acquainted with these proofes, and with all this discovery, which hath beene done accordingly. It was likewise resolved that there should bee a covenant made, whereby we should both testify our detestation of this mis- chievous plot, and joyne ourselves more closely in the main- tenance of the common interest of the Church and Common- wealth, in religion and libertie, which are still in great danger, and would have beene utterly subverted if this proj- ect had taken effect. It was resolved, in the fourth place, which is nowe partly executed, that this should bee commu- nicated to you of the citie, that so, as you have a great part in the blessing, you may doe your part in the dutie of thank- fulnesse, together with us. It is further resolved, that it shall bee communicated to the armie, that they likewise take notice of this great mercy of God, and joyne with us, both in the thanksgiving, and in the protestation and covenant, as we shall likewise desire you of the citie to doe. Then we are commanded to give thankes to my lord-ma- jor, to the sheriffes, and to the rest of the officers of the citie, for their great care in the apprehending of these per- sons, in guarding the peace and the quiet of the citie. We are likewise to give thankes to those gentlemen that have had the custody of these prisoners. We knowe it can- not but bee a trouble to them ; there was no meanes to keepe them safe from messages one to another, and from speeches, but by such a way of putting them in honest men's handes. The House of Commons have commanded us to give them special! thankes that they would undertake this care, and to assure them that they will see them fully rec- ompensed for all the trouble and charge they shall undergoe by it. And we are to give you thankes, which are the citizens of this citie, for your goode affections to the publike cause, and for your continuall bountie for the support of it. Thus farre we are enjoyned by the resolution of the House. Now we are further to intreate you to heare both the cove- nants : you shall thereby knowe to what we have bound ourselves, and to what we desire you should bee bound. There are two covenants, that is, one proper for the houses of Parliament, which hath beene taken in the House of Commons by all the members, by those gentlemen that are named in those examinations to have beene privy to this plot, which they all have disavowed ; and the other cove- nant is to bee taken by all the other part of the kingdome, by the citizens, by the armie, and the rest of the people gen- erally in all places. The draught of these two covenants we shall communi- cate to you ; the House of Lords, they have had them al- ready, and have taken them into consideration ; and we heare they doe resolve that which is appointed for them shall bee taken by the members of that House. We are further to desire you that you would bee service- able to the Divine providence, to God's great mercy to this citie and the whole kingdome. God doth not onely doe goode, but thereby gives assurance that hee will doe goode. His mercies, they are comforts for the present, they are pledges for the future ; but yet our care must not cease. We are to desire that you would keepe yourguardes, and look well to your citie, and that you would finde out these evill members that are among you, as neare as may bee, that so for the time to come this plot may bee prevented, as hitherto hath beene stopped ; for out of doubt all the malig- nity is not drawne out of them, though the present oppor- tunitie is hindered for the present of putting it in execution. I am to tell you further, that in desire to winne those that shall bee taken with remorse for this wicked designe and conspiracy, it is resolved, that if any man shall come in be- fore the 15th day of this present June, and freely confesse his fault, and what hee knowes of this conspiracy, that hee shall have a full, and free, and plenary pardon for the time to come, except those that are already or fled. I say, those that come in voluntarily shall bee pardoned. Your care and our care, they will bee all little enough ; we hope God's blessing will bee so upon them both, that you shall bee restored to a full peace, and that in the mean time you shall enjoy such a degree of safetie and prosperitie as may make way to it. B. Some Extracts from THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE, or the Opinion of some Lords and Commons concerning the Lon- doners' Petition for Peace. Oxford ; printed by the Uni- versity Printer, Leonard Lichfield. " Give ear, beloved Londoners Fie ! fie ! you shame us all ! Your rising up for peace will make The Close Committee fall. Wonder you should aske for that Which they must needs deny : Here's thirtie swears they'll have no peace, And bid me tell you why." A number of lords are then represented giving reasons against peace. Thus : " ' First, I'll no peace,' says Essex, ' For my chaplin says 'tis sinne, To lose a 100 a day Just when my wife lies inn; They cry, God bless your excellence ; But if I lose my place, They'll call me rebell, popular asse, And cuckold to my face.' " &c. &c. &c. Their lordships disposed of, the leading members of tho lower House follow with similar reasons : " ' My venum swels,' quoth Hollis, ' And that his majestic knowes ;' 'And I,' quoth Hampden, 'fetch the Scots, Whence all this mischiefe growes.' ' I am an asse,' quoth Hazlerigge, ' But yet I'me deepe i' th' plot ;' ' And 1,' quoth Stroud, ' can lye as fast As Master Pym can trott.' JOHN PYM. 237 'But I,' quoth Pym, 'your hackney am, And all your drudgery dne, Have made goode speeches for myselfe, And priviledges for you : I sit, and can lonke downe on men, Whilst others bleede and fight ; I eate their lordships' meate by day, And give it their wives by night.' ' Zounds,' said Henry Martin, ' We'l have no accommodation ; D'ye not knowe 'twas I that tore His majestie's proclamation ? In the House I spake high treason ; . I've sold both lande and lease ; Nay, I shall then have but three * * *, A pox upon this peace.' * * * ' Who talks of peace,' quoth Ludlow, ' Hath neither sense nor reason, For I ne'er spake i' th" House but once, And then I spoke high treason ; Your meaning was as bad as mine You must defend my speech, Or else you'll make my mouth as fam'd As was my father's * * *.' ' You see (beloved Londoners) Your peace is out of season, For which you have the sense of th* House And every member's reason. Oh, doe not stand for peace, then, For, trust me, if you doe, Each county of the kingdome will Rise up and doe so too." C. Certain Select Observations on the several Offices and Offi- cers in the Militia of England, with the Power of the Par- liament to raise the same as they shall judge expedient, tfC. Collected and found among the Papers of the late Sir. John Pym, a member of the House of Commons. Writ in the Year 1641. MS. WHEN kings were first ordained in this realm, the king- dom was divided into forty portions, and every one of those portions or counties was committed to some earl, to govern and defend it against the enemies of the realm. Mirror of Justice, p. 8. Those earls, after they received their government in each county, divided them into centurians or hundreds ; and in every hundred was appointed a centurian or constable, who had his portion and limits assigned him to keep and defend with the power of the hundred, and were to be ready, upon all alarms, with their arms, against the common enemy. These, in some places, are called wapentakes, which, in French, doth signify taking of arms. Mirror, p. 10. 12 Henry 8, folio 16, 17. King Alfred first ordained two Parliaments to be kept every year for the government of the people, where they were to receive laws and justice. Mirror, p. 10, 11. The Peers, in Parliament, were to judge of all wrongs done by the king to any of his subjects. Mirror, p. 9. The ancient manner of choosing and appointing of officers was by those over whom their jurisdiction extended. INSTANCES. 1. Tythingman : This man was, and at this day is, chosen by the men of his own tything, and by them presented to the lect, to be sworn for the true execution of his office. 8. Constable : This officer is chosen by the inhabitants, who are to be governed by him, and those of the place where his jurisdiction lieth, and presented unto the leet to be sworn. 3. Coroner: This officer hath jurisdiction within the whole county, and therefore was chosen by the freeholders of the county in the county court. Cook's Magna Charta, p. 174, 175, 559. 4. Such as had charge to punish such as were violators of Magna Charta : These were chosen in the county court, as appeareth by stat. 28 Ed. 1, c. 1, 17. 5. Sheriffs : were in time past, and by the common law, to be chosen likewise in the county court. Lamb. Saxon Laws, fo. 136, stat. 28 Ed. 1, c. 8, 13. Cook's Magna Charta, 175, 559. Mirror, p. 8. 6. Lieutenants of counties (anciently known by the name of Heretoch} were chosen in the county court (which Cook, upon Magna Charta, p. 69, calls the Folkmote). Lamb. Saxon Laws, folio 136. Mirror, p. 8, 11, 12. 7. Majors and bailiffs, in boroughs and towns corporate, are chosen by the commonalty of the same corporation within their jurisdiction. 8. Conservators of the peace were anciently chosen by the freeholders in the county court. Cook's Magna Chart*, 558, &c. 9. Knights for the Parliament are to be chosen in the county court, stat. 7 H. 4, cap. 15 ; 1 H. 5, cap. 1 ; 8 H. 6, cap. 7 ; 10 H. 6, cap. 2. 10. Verderers of the forest are chosen within their juris- diction by the inhabitants. Cook's Magna Charta, 559. 11. Admirals, being the sheriffs of the counties, as Sel- den, in his Mare Clausum, p. 169, 188, affirms, must be chosen as the sheriffs were, viz., in the county court. But the Parliament of R. 2, folio 29, saith they are chosen in the Parliament, the representative body of the realm, be- cause they had the defence of the realm by sea committed unto them. 12. The captain of Calais, viz., Richard, earl of War- wick, in the time of Henry 6, refused to give up his cap- tainship of Calais unto the king because he received it in Parliament. Cowel's Interpreter, in the word Parliament. 13. The Lord-chancellor, to whom is committed the great seal of England, being the publick faith of the kingdom, was in former times chosen in Parliament. Lamb. Archeion, p. 48. Dan. Chronicle, p. 139, 148, 195. 14. Lord-treasurer, an officer to whom is of trust com- mitted the treasure of the kingdom, was, in like manner, chosen in Parliament. 15. Chief-justice, an officer unto whom is committed the administration of the justice of the realm, was chosen in Par- liament. Lamb. Archeion, p. 48, ut supra. Anno 15 Ed. 3d. The king was petitioned in Parliament that the high officers of the kingdom might, as in former times, be chosen in Parliament. To which the king yield- ed, that they should be sworn in Parliament. Dan. Chron- icle, p. 195. Quaere the Parliament roll and petitions. And it appeareth by a printed statute, Anno 15 Ed. 3, cap. 3, that the great officers of the kingdom were sworn to maintain Magna Charta. 16. The great council of the king and kingdom, namely, the Parliament, is chosen by the Commons ; for they choose the knights and citizens, and burgesses, or barons, for so the citizens were anciently called ; and the cinque-ports re- tain that name to this day. And this was, as I conceive, the ancientest constitution of the kingdom for choosing of their officers. In the next place, it will be requisite to inquire which of these officers are now altered, and by what authority. And, first, of sheriffs. The choice of sheriffs was first taken from the freeholders by the statute of 9 Edward 2, and the choice of them committed to the lord-chancellor, treasurer, the barons of the Exchequer, and the justices of either bench. Cook's Magna Charta, p. 559. This election is to be made the morrow after All-Souls- Day, in the Exchequer, by statute 14 Edward 3, c. 7. Quaere 1. If they choose none at that day and place, but at some other time, whether the choice be good ? Or if he be chosen by any other ? Objection. The king himself doth usually make and ap- point sheriffs in every county by his prerogative. Solution. It hath been agreed by all the judges that the king cannot nppoint any other to be sheriff than such as are named and chosen according to the statute of Lincoln Cook's Magna Charta, p. 559. If so, then it is questionable whether the making of Mr. Hastings sheriff of Leicestershire be warrantable by law or not? Quaere 2. If no sheriff be legally chosen, whether the free- holders of the county shall not choose one, as they were accustomed before the making of the stat. of 9 Ed. 2, for these reasons : 1. If there be no sheriff legally chosen, there will be a failure of justice, which the law will not permit. 2. Because the statute is In the affirmative, and therefore doth not altogether take away their power of choosing, be- cause affirmative statutes do not alter the common law. Next, let us consider the choice of justices of the peace, who, as they are commissioners of the peace, are not officers by the common law ; and therefore this case will differ in some respects from the former, it being an office created by statute. 1. I conceive that no court may be erected without the authority of Parliament ; for the court of first-fruits was erected bj stat. 32 Henry 8, cap. 45 ; the court of wards by stat. 32 Hen. 8, cap. 46 ; the court of justice in Wales by stat. 34 H. 8, c. 6 ; and power to erect courts given 1. Mar. ses. 2, cap. 10. And it was resolved in this Parliament, at the trial of the Earl of Strafford, that the court at York was against law, albeit it hath had continuance these hundred years, because it was not erected by Parliament. And justices of the peace, being judges of record, were first ordained by statute, as appeareth by 18 Ed. 3, cap. 2, and 34 Ed. 3, cap. 1 ; with such other additions of power as later statutes have given unto them. Justices of the peace, then, having their being by virtue of the statute law, they are to be ordained in the same man- ner as the statutes prescribed, and not otherwise. 238 BRITISH STATESMEN. 1. After their first institution, the statutes did leave the choice of them indefinitely in the crown, as I conceive, un- til the statute of 12 R. 2, 27 ; which statute doth instruct the chancellor, treasurer, keeper of the privy seal, steward and chamberlain of the king's house, the clerk of the rolls, The justices of both benches, barons of the Exchequer, and others, to name and make them. 2. Other statutes do appoint what persons shall be chosen to be justices of the peace ; namely, such as reside in the Fame county where they are justices of peace, as stat. 12, R. 2, c. 10. And they must be of the most sufficient knights, esquires, and gentlemen of the same county, stat. 17, Rich. 2, 10 ; and dwelling in the same county, 2 H. 5, stat. 2, cap. 1 (except lords and justices of assizes). Upon this last statute, it may be doubted if choice may be made of any lords and justices of assizes which have no residence or es- tate in the county where they are so made justices of the peace ; which, if it doth, it doth repeal all former statutes which confine them to such persons as are of the same coun- ty, which I conceive is against their meaning, for that stat- ute doth only dispense with the residence of lords and jus- tices of assize, because men of the same county, inhabiting in the county where they are justices of peace, in regard of their other employments in the Commonwealth which ne- cessarily requireth therr absence, and so it amounteth only to a dispensation for their residency. Objection. The common practice is, that the lord-keeper doth appoint whom he pleases, and that by virtue of the statute of 18 Henry 6, cap. 1. Solution. True, such is the practice ; but the doubt is, how warrantable his act is ; for the statute of 18 II. 6 doth give the lord-chancellor (alone by himself) no other power but in case there be no men of sufficiency in the county, and where none of twenty pounds per annum are to be found ; for, in such case, he hath power to appoint such as he conceives are men most fit. But, in case there are men of sufficient estates in the county to be found, he must join with the others mentioned in the statute, viz., the treasurer, privy-seal, &c., who have a joint and undivided power with him. If this be so, then it may he douhted whether the Lord- viscount Falkland, being no peer of the realm, Sir Peter Miche, Sir Edward Nichols, of late put into the commission of the peace in many counties of this kingdom, are, by the law, capable of being justices of the peace in those counties where they do not reside. Et sic de similibus. Quaere, also, whether a justice of the peace, being once legally chosen according to the statute before mentioned, nv\y be put out at the pleasure of the lord-keeper alone, without any just cause alledged ; for, being a justice of rec- ord, whether some matter of record must not appear to dis- able him ? for, being settled by law, he is to be displaced by law, and not upon displeasure or surmise. 3. A third officer is the lieutenants in every county, in former times known (for the name only is out of use) by the name of heretoch, Lamb. Saxon Laws, fol. 136. And here will fall into debate the ordinance in Parliament about the settling of the militia of the kingdom. The choice of these, as was formerly mentioned, was by the freeholders in the county court ; but of later times they have exercised the same power, being appointed by the king, under the shadow of his prerogative. First, it is to be demanded whether the king's prerogative can take away that ancient right which the subjects had by law invested in them ? If so, then the king, by his prerog- ative, may do wrong, which is contrary to a maxim in law. Fnrtesque, de Legibus, &c., fol. 25. If not, then whether the power of choosing a lieutenant, or heretoch, doth not yet remain in the subject, so as they may now choose one as well and by the same rij>ht they did in former times ! If freeholders of a county may yet choose, then I conceive the Parliament, being the representative body of the whole kingdom, may appoint lieutenants ; because they include them, or, at least, they are not excluded from such a power, no more than where the statute, giving power unto justices of peace to inquire of a riot, doth exclude the power of the King's Bench, which no man will affirm. And therefore the ordinance of the militia is legal. That the Parliament hath power to make an ordinance may be proved a minori. For, If the inhabitants of a town, without any custom to en- able them, may make an ordinance or bye-law for the rep- aration of their church, highway, or bridge in decay, or any the like thing, being for their publick good, and upon a pe- cuniary pain in case of neglect, and if it be made by the greater part, that it shall bind all within the town, as hath been agreed for law. 44 Ed. 3, fol. 19 ; Cook, lib. 5, fol. 63; the Chamberlain of London's case ; Clarke's case ; and Jefferyes's case, ibid., fol. 64, 65. If a township be amerced, and the neighbours, by assent, shall assess a certain sum upon every inhabitant, and agree that if it be not paid by such a day, that certain persons thereto assigned shall distrain ; and, in this case, the dis- tress is lawful. Doctor v. Student, fol. 74, 6, cap. 9. If a bye-law that every one that holdeth land shall pay one penny towards the reparation of a church, and, for non- payment, shall forfeit to the churchwardens twenty shillings, be good and doth bind, as the book saith, 21 H. 7, fol. 20. holdeth. If a town make bye-laws, and they shall bind every one of the town, if it be for the common good, as 11 H. 7, fol. 14, then, by the same reason, may the Parliament make or- dinances and bye-laws for the common good of the kingdom, as shall bind all. For if a town may make ordinance, much more may the knights and burgesses of the Parliament, be- cause they have their power ad faciendum et consentiendum ; as appeareth of record under their hands and seals in chan- cery, in their return of their several elections for knights and burgesses. Lastly, as every private man is by law bound to preserve the peace as, in case an affray be made by two, and a third man standing by shall not use his best endeavour to part them and preserve the peace, he may be indicted and fined for it why may not the Parliament, being entrusted with the preservation of the peace of the realm, make an ordi- nance for the preservation of the peace in case of apparent danger ? Ordinance made in Parliament, 8 Ed. 2, for the preserva- tion of the alienation of the king's laud, and fines set upon such as presume to break them. Rot. Parl., 28 H. 6, Art. 29. The judges and courts at Westminster may make an or- dinance for fees to be paid unto the clerk of their courts, and for bar fees taken by sheriff and gaolers. 21 H. 7, fol. An ordinance made in Parliament, 21 Ed. 3, fol. 60, for exemption of the Abbot of Bury from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Norwich. Selden's Titles of Honour, p. 702 ; 12 H. 7, fol. 25. Heyborne and Keylond's case, M. 14 Ed. 4, Rot. 60, in Banco. Reg. Crook, page 25, who had his money taken away from him by virtue of an ordinance, and was adjudged that the ordinance did bind him. Whether an infant may be a colonel, admiral, <fec. 1. None, by the intention of the law, can do knight's ser- vice before he be twenty-one years of age. And this is the reason of wardship. 2. It is an office of trust, which may not be executed by a deputy. 3. Such an office requires personal attendance, for other- wise the county may be overthrown unawares in the ab- sence of such a governor from his charge. D. A Sketch of English Affairs, from the Dissolution of the third Parliament to the raising of the King's Standard at Not- tingham ; from a Speech by Sir Arthur Hazlerig, on the 1th of February, 1658. THE council-table bit like a serpent, the Star Chamber like scorpions. Two or three gentlemen could not stir out for fear of being committed for a riot. Our souls and con- sciences 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. Altars were set up, and bowing to them enjoyned ; pic- tures were placed in church windows, and images set up at Durham and elsewhere ; with many other exorbitances in- troduced , both in Church and State . The archbishop would not only impose on England, but on Scotland, to bring in the Book of Common Prayer upon them. They liked it not ; and, as luck would have it, they would not bear it. He prevailed with the king to raise an army to suppress them. The king prevailed with his nobles to conquer them into it. He went to their country, and, finding himself not able to conquer them, came back. He called a Parliament, which was named the little, or broken Parliament ; disbanded not his army, but propound- ed that we should give him a great sum to maintain the war against Scotland. We debated it, but the conseque.nce of our debate made him fear we would not grant it. We had, if he had suffered us to sit. Then did Strafford and his council advise him to break us and to rule arbitrarily, and that he had an army in Ireland to make it good. For this, Strafford lost his head. The king suddenly broke that Par- liament. I rejoiced in my soul it was so. He raised the gallnntest army that ever was the flower of the gentry and nobility. The Scots raised too, and sent their declaration into England, that by the law of God and nature they might rise up for their own preservation ; and thus they came into England. At Npwliurn the armies met. We were worsted. God was pleased to disperse our army, and give them the day. The Scots passed Newburn, and advanced to New- castle. Then some of our nobles Say, Essex, and Scroop hum- bly petitioned his majesty for a Parliament. He, seeing JOHN PYM. danger, called a Parliament. This was the Long Parlia- ment. The first proposition was to raise money for the Scots. We gave them a brotherly assistance of 300,000. They showed themselves brethren and honest men, and peaceably returned. Then money was pressed for our own army. The House, considering how former Parliaments had been dealt with, was unwilling to raise money till the act was passed not to dissolve the Parliament but by their own consent. It passed freely by king, Lords, and Com- mons. This was wonderful the very hand of God that brought it to pass ; for no man could then foresee the good that act produced. The king then practised with the Scots, then with his army, to assist him against this Parliament, and to miike them sure to his particular interest. Sir John Conyers dis- covered it, to his everlasting fame. Mr. Pym acquainted the House. Divers officers of the army Lord Goring, Ash- burnham, Pollard, and others were examined here. They all absented. The House desired of the king that they might be brought to justice ; but the king sent them away beyond sea. k The king demanded five members, by his attorney-gen- eral. He then came personally to the House, with five hundred men at his heels, and sat in your chair. It pleased God to hide those members. I shall never forget the kind- ness of that great lady, the Lady Carlile, that gave timely notice. Yet some of them were in the House after the no- tice came. It was questioned if, for the safety of the House, they should be gone ; but the debate was shortened, and it was thought fit for them, in discretion, to withdraw. Mr. Hampden and myself being then in the House, withdrew. Away we went. The king immediately came in, and was in the House before we got to the water. The queen, on the king's return, raged and gave him an unhandsome name, "poltroon," for that he did not take others out ; and certain if he had, they would have been killed at the door. Next day the king went to the city. They owned the members. Thereupon he left the Parliament, and went from step to step, till he came to York, and set up his stand- ard at Nottingham, and declared the militia was in him. From the diary of Thomas Burton, Esq. E. A Declaration and Vindication of John Pym, Esq. IT is not unknown to the world (especially to the inhab- itants in and about London) with what desperate and fame- wounding aspersions my reputation, and the integrity of my intentions to God, my king, and my country, hath been in- vaded by the malice and fury of malignants, and ill-affected persons to the good of the Commonwealth;- some charging me to have been the promoter and patronizer of all the in- novations which have l>een obtruded upon the ecclesiastical government of the Church of England*; others, of more spiteful and exorbitant spirits, alledging that I have been the man who have begot and fostered all the so-lamented distractions which are now rife in this kingdom. And though such calumnies are ever more harmful to the authors than to those whom they strive to wound with them, when they arrive only to the censure of judicious persons, who can distinguish forms, and see the difference betwixt truth and falsehood ; yet, because the scandals inflicted upon my in- nocence have been obvious to people of all conditions, many of which may entertain a belief of those reproachful reports, though in my own soul I am far above such ignominies, and so was once resolved to have waved them as unworthy my notice, yet at last, for the assertion of my integrity, I con- cluded to declare myself in this matter, that all the world, but such as will not be convinced either by reason or truth, may l>ear testimony of my innocency. To pass by, there- fore, the Earl of Stratford's business, in which some have been so impudent as to charge me of too much partiality and malice, I shall declare myself fully concerning the rest of their aspersions, namely, that I have promoted and fo- mented the differences now abounding in the English Church. How unlikely this is, and improbable, shall, to every in- different man, be quickly rendered perspicuous ; for that I am, and ever was, and so will die, a faithful son of the Prot- estant religion, without having the least relation in my be- lief to those gross errors of Anahaptism, Brownism, and the like, every man that hath any acquaintance with my con- versation can bear me righteous witness ; these being but aspersions cast upon me by some of the discontented clergy, and their factors and abettors, because they might perhaps conceive that I had been a main instrument in extenuating the haughty power and ambitious pride of the bishops and prelates. As I only delivered my opinion as a member of the House of Commons, that attempt or action of mine had been justifiable both to God and a good conscience, and had no way concluded me guilty of a revolt from the orthodox doctrine of the Church of England because I sought a refor- mation of some gross abuses crept into the government by the cunning and perverseness of the bishops and their sub- stitutes ; for was it not high time to seek to regulate their power, when, instead of looking to the cure of men's souls (which is their genuine office), they inflicted punishment on men's bodies, banishing them to remote and desolate places, after stigmatizing their faces, only for the testimony of a good conscience ; when, not contented with those in- sufferable insolencies, they sought to bring in unheard-of canons into the Church Arminian or Papistical ceremonies (whether you please to term them, there is not much di (Ter- ence) imposing burdens upon men's consciences which they were not able to bear, and introducing the old abolish- ed superstition of bowing to the altar \ If it savoured either of Brownism or Anabaptism to endeavour to suppress the growth of those Romish errors, I appeal to any equal-mind- ed Protestant either for my judge or witness. Nay, had the attempts of the bishops desisted here, tolerable they had been, and their power not so much questioned as since it hath ; but when they saw the honourable the high court of Parliament had begun to look into their enormities and abuses, beholding how they wrested religion like a waxen nose to the furtherance of their ambitious purposes, then Troy was taken in then they began to despair of holding 1 any longer their usurped authority ! and therefore, as much as in them lay, both by public declarations and private coun- cils, they laboured to foment tho civil differences between his majesty and his Parliament, abetting the proceedings of the malignants with large supplies of men and money, and stirring up the people to tumults by their seditious sermons. Surely, then, no man can account me an ill son of the Com- monwealth if I delivered my opinion and passed my vote freely for their abolishment ; which may, by the same equi- ty, be put in practice by this Parliament, as the dissolution of monasteries, and their lazy inhabitants, the monks and fryars, were in Henry the Eighth's time ; for, without dis- pute, these carried as much reputation in the kingdom then, as bishops have done in it since ; and yet a Parliament then had power to put them down. Why, then, should not a Parliament have power to do the like to these, every way guilty of as many offences against the state as the former? For my own part, I attest God Almighty, the knower of all hearts, that neither envy, nor any private grudge, to all or any of the bishops, hath made me averse to their functions, but merely my zeal to religion and God's cause, which I perceived to be trampled under foot by the too extended authority of the prelates, who, according to the purity of their institution, should have been men of upright hearts and humble minds, shearing their flocks, and not flaying; them. And whereas some will alledge it is no good argument to dissolve the function of bishops, because some bishops are vitious ; to that I answer, since the vice of these bishops was derivative from the authority of their function, it is very fitting the function, which is the cause thereof, be cor- rected, and its authority divested of its borrowed feathers ; otherwise it is impossible but the same power which made these present bishops (should the episcopal and prelatical dignity continue in its ancient height and vigour) so proud and arrogant would infuse the same vices into their suc- cessors. But this is but a molehill to that mountain of scandalous reports that have been inflicted on my integrity to his majesty ; some boldly averring me for the author of the present distractions between his majesty and his Parliament, when I take God and all that know my proceedings to be my vouchers that I neither directly nor indirectly ever had a thought tending to the least disobedience or disloyalty to his majesty, whom I acknowledge my lawful king and sovereign, and would expend my blood as soon in his ser- vice as any subject he hath. 'Tis true, when I perceived my life aimed at, and heard myself proscribed a traitor merely for my intireness of heart to the service of my coun- try ; when I was informed that I, with some other honour- able and worthy members of the Parliament, were, against the priviledges thereof, demanded, even in the Parliament House, by his majesty, attended by a multitude of men-at- arms and malignants, who, I verily believe, had, for some ill ends of their own, persuaded his majesty to that excess of rigour against us ; when, for my own part (my conscience is to me a thousand witnesses in that behalf), 1 never har- boured a thought which tendered to any disservice to his majesty, nor ever had any intention prejudicial to the state ; when, I say, notwithstanding my own innocence, I saw my- self in such apparent danger, no man will think me blame- worthy in that I took a care of my own safety, and fled for refuge to the protection of the Parliament, which, making my case their own, not only purged me and the rest of ths guilt of high treason, but also secured our lives from the storm that was ready to burst out upon us. And if this hath been the occasion that hath withdrawn his majesty from the Parliament, surely the fault ran no way be imputed to me, or any proceeding of mine, which never went further, either since his majesty's departure, nor be- fore then, so far as they were warranted by the known laws 240 BRITISH STATESMEN. of the land, and authorized by the indisputable and undeni- able power of the Parliament. So long as I am secure in my own conscience that this is truth, I account myself above all their calumnies and falsehoods, which shall return upon themselves, and not wound my reputation in good and im- partial men's opinions. But in that devilish conspiracy of Catiline against the state and senate of Rome, none among the senators was so obnoxious to the envy of the conspirators, or liable to their traducements, as that orator and patriot of his country, Cicero, because by his council and zeal to the Common- wealth their plot for the ruine thereof was discovered and prevented. Though I will not be so arrogant to parallel myself with that worthy, yet my case (if we may compare lesser things with great) hath to his a very near resem- blance ; the cause that I am so much maligned and reproach- ed by ill-affected persons being because I have been forward in advancing the affairs of the kingdom, and have been taken notice of for that forwardness, they, out of their malice, converting that to a vice which, without boast be it spoken, I esteem as my principal vertue my care to the public util- ity. And since it is for that cause that I suffer these scan- dals, I shall endure them with patience, hoping that God in his great mercy will at last reconcile his majesty to his high court of Parliament, and then I doubt not but to give his royal self (though he be much incensed against me) a suf- ficient account of my integrity. In the interim, I hope the world will believe that I am not the first innocent man that hath been injured, and so will suspend their further censures of me. F. A Narrative of the Disease and Death of that noble Gentle- man, John Pym, Esquire, late a Member of the honourable House of Commons, attested under the Hands of his Phy- sicians, Chyrurgions, and Apothecary. FORASMUCH as there are divers nncertaine reportes and false suggestions spred abroad touching the disease and death of that noble gentleman, John Pym, Esquire, late a member of the honourable House of Commons, it is thought fit (for the undeceiving of some, and prevention of miscon- struction and suspitions in others) to manifest to those who desire information the true cause of his lingring disease and death, as it was discovered (while hee lived) by his physitians, and manifested to the view both of them and many others, that were present at the dissection of his body after his death ; for the skin of his body, it was without so much as any roughness, scarr, or scab, neither was there any breach either of the scarfe or true skin, much lesse any phthiriaiis or lousie disease, as was reported ; and as for that suggestion of his being poysoned, there appeared to the physitians no signe thereof upon the view of his body, nei- ther was there any exhorbitant symptome (while hee lived) either in his animal}, vitall, or -natural] parts, for hee had his intellectualls and senses very entire to the last, and his sleep for the most part very sufficient and quiet. As for the vitall parts, they were all found very sound, and (while hee lived) they were perfect in their actions and uses ; and as for the naturall parts contained in the lower belly, they did not otherwise suffer than from that large imposthume that was there contained ; the stomack being smooth and fairs in all its coates ; the liver and kidnies goode enough, onely much altered in their colour ; the spleen faire, but little. But the most ignoble part of this lower belly, the meientry, was found fundi calamitas, the shop wherein the instrument of his dissolution was forged ; there being a large abscesse or imposthume, which wrought itselfe to such a bulke as was easily discovered by the outward touch of his physitians at the beginning of his complaining, and did increase to that capacitie as (being opened) it did receive a hande contract- ed, and in its growth did so oppresse the gall and stop its vessels as occasioned the jaundice. Besides, this abscesse (by the matter contained in it) did so offend the parts adja- cent as most of them suffered by its vicinitie, yet without any such turbulent symptome as did at any time cause him to complaine of paine, being sensible onely of some sorenesse upon the touch of the region of the part affected ; and from its vapours the stomack suffered a coutinuall inappetency and frequent nauseousnesse, and it did so deprave and hin- der the concoction, distribution, and perfection of nourish- ment, that it produced an atrophy or falling of the flesh ; so that inappetency, faintnesse, and nauseousnesse were the great complaints hee usually made. At last, after a long languishment, this imposthume breaking, hee often fainted ; and soon after followed his dissolution, December the 8th, 1643, about 7 a clocke at night. Attested by the physitians that attended him in his sick- ness : Sir THEODORE MAYERS, Dr. CLERK, Dr. MEREVELL, President of the Colledge of Physi- tians. Dr. GIFFORD, "I that were present at the dis- Dr. MICKLETHWAIT, I section of his body (together Dr. MOULIN, [with two of those above men- Dr. COLLADE, J tioned). And Chyrurgions : THOMAS ALLEN, and HENRY AXTALL, his servant. Apothecary : JOHN CHAPMAN, servant to WILLIAM TAYLOE HARPER t BROTHERS JOHN HAMPDEN. 1594-1643. AN outline of the life of Hampden is all that will now be required for the purposes of this work. So little, after the most extensive re- searches, is known of the man, that all may, unfortunately, be very briefly told : his history is written in the great public actions he for- warded through life, and in the assertion and defence of which he died ; and these have al- ready been minutely recorded, in the foregoing memoir of the dearest and most intimate of his friends, and the most eminent of his great fel- low-labourers. Such are the only, though the sufficient records that permanently attest the wonderful influence of his character ; for of all the speeches he delivered in the House of Com- mons, only one remains, and even its authen- ticity is more than doubtful. John Hampden was born in London* in 1594, ten years after the birth of Pym. His family may be traced in an unbroken line from the Saxon times. It received from Edward the Confessor the grant of the estate and residence in Buckinghamshire, from which the name is derived, and which in Doomsday Book are en- tered as in the possession of Baldwyn de Hamp- den. Escaping from the rapacity of the Nor- man princes, and strengthened by rich and pow- erful alliances, it continued in direct male suc- cession, and increased in influence and wealth. Noble says, in his " Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell,"t with which, as well as with the old ancestors of Lord Say and Sele, the family of the Hampdens were allied, that few were so opulent in the fourteenth century as this family, but that one of them was then obliged to forfeit to the crown the three valu- able manors of Tring, Wing, and Ivengo, for a blow given to the Black Prince in a dispute at tennis ; and that by this only he escaped with- out losing his hand. A rude couplet, still re- membered in that part of the kingdom, sustains the tradition : " Tring, Wing, and Ivengo did go For striking the Black Prince a blow." This story, indeed, has not been suffered to pass without many doubts ; but whether true or not, it has served no mean purpose in giving a name to one of the noblest works of roman- tic fiction in these latter times. Sir Walter Scott possessed himself of the tradition, as of every other, and the shape he received it in will be thought a corroboration of it, when com- pared with the versions of Noble and Lysons : " Tring, Wing, and Ivanhoe, For striking of a blow, Ilarapden did forego, And glad he could escape so ! " Be the story true or false, however, no doubt the property of the Hampdens at this period was very extensive. They were not only rich and flourishing in their own county, but enjoy- ed considerable possessions in Essex, Berk- shire, and Oxfordshire. In Buckinghamshire they were lords of Great and Little Hampden, * This rests on the authority of Wood, who ascertained it indisputably by reference to the matriculation books at Oxford. t Vol. ii., p. 62. HH Stoke Mandeville, Kimble, Prestwood, Dunton, Hoggestone, and Hartwell, and had lands in many other parishes. They appear to have been distinguished in chivalry ; they were often intrusted with civil authority, and represented their native county in several Parliaments. We find, in the Rolls of Parliament, that some lands were escheated from the family on ac- count of their adherence to the party of Henry VI., and that they were excepted from the gen- eral act of restitution in the 1st Edward IV. Edmund Hampden was one of the esquires of the body, and privy counsellor to Henry VII. ; and in the succeeding reign we find " Sir John Hampden of the Hill" appointed, with others, to attend upon the English queen at the inter- view of the sovereigns in the Field of Cloth of Gold. It is to his daughter, Sibel Hampden, who was nurse to the Prince of Wales, after- ward Edward VI., and ancestress to William Penn, of Pennsylvania, that the monument is raised in Hampton Church, Middlesex, which records so many virtues and so much wisdom.* During the reign of Elizabeth, Griffith Hamp- den, having served as high sheriff of the county of Buckingham, represented it in the Parlia- ment of 1585. By him the queen was received with great magnificence at his mansion at Hampden, which he had in part rebuilt and much enlarged. An extensive avenue was cut for her passage through the woods to the house ; and a part of that opening, Lord Nugent says, is still to be seen on the brow of the Chilterns from many miles around, and retains the name of " The Queen's Gap," in commemoration of that visit. His eldest son, William, who suc- ceeded him in 1591, was member, in 1593, for East Looe, then a considerable borough. He married Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Hen- ry Cromwell, of Hinchinbrooke in Huntingdon- shire, and aunt to the Protector, and died in 1597, leaving two sons, John and Richard, the latter of whom, in after times, resided at Em- mington in Oxfordshire. The fact of London having been the birth- place of the patriot has been disputed, but ap- parently without reason. He was reported to have been born at the manor-house, long in the possession of his family, at Hoggestone, in the hundred of Cottlesloe, in Buckinghamshire : it was only so said, because the people of that county adored his name. Succeeding to his father's estate in his infancy, Hampden remain- ed for some years under the care of Richard Bouchier, master of the free grammar-school at Thame in Oxfordshire. t In 1609 he was See a copy in Noble's Cromwell, vol. ii., p. 64. This is an extract : " To courte she called was, to foster up a king, Whose helping hand long lingering sutcs to speedie end did bring. Twoo queenes that sceptre bore, gave cready t to the damOj Full many yeres in cowrte she dwelte, without disgrace or blame." Query Do these lingering sutes in any way allude to the royal quarrels of her ancestor ? [For the authority of this page, the reader may consult ;he admirable life of Hampden by Lord Nugent, whence it is derived, p. 4-6, vol. j. C.J t Anthony Wood. 242 BRITISH STATESMEN. entered as a commoner at Magdalen College, Oxford, where his attainments gained him reputation, and he was chosen, with others, among whom was Laud, then master of St. John's, to write the Oxford gratulations on the marriage of the Elector-palatine with the Prin- cess Elizabeth.* In 1613 he entered the Inner Temple as a student of law. And now, wheth- er, at this youthful period, he had been induced, from his cheerful habits and fascinating man- ners, to enter into the dissipations of the age, and had begun the life of " great pleasure and licence' 1 which Clarendon,! not, as it seems, unjustly, has charged upon his earlier years, we have no means of knowing ; but it is cer- tain that he never, at any period of his life, abandoned intellectual exertion, or neglected the literary labours to which his taste always inclined him. Accordingly, at the Inner Tem- ple, he did not fail to make considerable prog- ress in his new study ; and we find the courtier, Sir Philip Warwick, bearing testimony to his " great knowledge, both of scholarship and law." Nor does the next circumstance of his life to which our attention is directed indicate any taste on his part for " licence" of the more abandoned sort. He was married in the church of Pyrton, in Oxfordshire,* 1619, to Elizabeth, only daughter of Edmund Symeon, Esq., lord of that manor and estate. To this lady he was tenderly attached, and often, after her early death, paid sorrowful and affectionate tribute to her virtues, talents, and affection. Hampden entered the House of Commons the following year, having taken his seat for the borough of Grampound on the meeting of James's Parliament of 1620. He attached him- self at once to the popular party, though cer- tain of his frieftds were desirous that he should seek other means of advancement. His mother was very urgent with him to look to adding a peerage to the dignity of his family. " If ever," says this lady, in a characteristic letter pre- served in the British Museum, " if ever my sonn will seeke for his honour, tell him nowe to come ; for heare is multitudes of lords a making Vicount Mandvile, Lo. Thresorer, Vicount Dunbar, which was Sr. Ha. Con- stable, Vicount Falkland, which was Sir Har- ry Carew. These two last of Scotland ; of Ire- land divers, the deputie a vicount, and one Mr. Fitzwilliams a barron of Ingland, Mr. Vil- lers a vicount, and Sr. Will. Fielding a bar- ron I am ambitious of my sonne's hon- our, which I wish were nowe conferred upon him, that hee might not come after so many new creations." But this counsel was not fol- lowed. The discovery is due to Lord Nugent,^ * " These verses," says Lord Nugent, " published at Ox- ford, 1613, in a volume entitled ' Lusus Palatini,' contain little worth remark, unless it be the last three lines: " ' Ut surgat inde proles, Cui nulla terra, nulla Gens, sit parem datura.' Remarkable when it is remembered that from this marriage Rupert was born, who led the troops at Chalgrove, by whom Hampden was slain ; but also that from it sprang the suc- cession to which stands limited the guardianship of the free monarchy of England." t Hist., vol. iv., p. 61. t Register of Pyrton, June 24, 1019. He died on the an- niversary of that day. <l I shall have frequent occasion to refer to Lord Nugent's recent and interesting "Memorials of Hampden." It is much to be regretted, howe\er, that, with every advantage of research, his lordship should not have succeeded in com- municating more. [To this remark of Mr. Forster, I would and it is in all respects very grateful. It throws a steady light on Hampden's early character, and is a comfort and a guide to our understand- ing in following his after-exertions. Here was no personal vanity ; no private interest ; no boundless ambition ; no reckless or unsatisfied desires. He always saw a nobler dignity than was to be won in James I.'s presence chamber, and that and immortality he achieved together. In considering the character of Hampden, it will not appear strange that for many years he made no considerable figure in Parliament. In disposition he was unobtrusive ; of " rare tem- per and modesty," to use the words of Claren- don ; whilst his wonderful energy of mind was under exact discipline. He saw that the lead- ing members of the opposition were sufficient to their present task, and cared not to thrust himself unnecessarily forward. Recording his votes for freedom always, he waited a fitting opportunity for greater personal exertion. But as he was resolved wisely not to anticipate the call of the occasion, so he prepared himself not to disobey it. In the retirement of his yet pri- vate life, he earnestly investigated the great political questions of the time. It is interest- ing to be able to add, that Lord Nugent has seen a curious manuscript volume of Parlia- mentary cases and other papers, at Mr. Rus- sell's, at Checker's Court, in which Tie says there is abundant evidence of the pains which Hampden took to fortify himself in the science of precedent and privilege. A great part of that volume is filled with extracts from what are called "Mr. Hampden's notes." We may imagine the effect produced on his mind by such studies ; nor do we wonder to hear from Clarendon that at this period " he retired to a more reserved and melancholy society ;" while we feel to love him the more for it when the his- torian adds that he yet preserved his own nat- ural cheerfulness and vivacity, and, above all, a flowing courtesy to all men. In the first Parliament of Charles, however, he was by no means idle. He made himself a prominent member of the famous Glanville committee, already referred to. " The cases of the three Buckinghamshire boroughs," says Lord Nugent, " there is little reason to doubt, were in reality drawn up and put forward by Hampden, although ostensibly managed by Hakewill. This is all the more probable from its appearing, from, Hampden's correspondence,* that Hakewill had before been frequently em- ployed by him to conduct suits and arbitrations for him respecting his property in that county." In consequence of these petitions, Noy and Sel- den were ordered to make search in the record, and the committee reported that all four had the right, and ought to be admitted according- ly ; furthermore declaring it to be " the ancient privilege and power of the Commons in Parlia- ment to examine the validity of elections and returns concerning this House and Assembly," in opposition to the former decision of James add my humble opinion, that the Memorials of Hampden by his lordship afford an invaluable commentary upon the men and events of the times, and especially would I call at- tention to his most admirable estimate of the character of James I., p. 18-31, vol. i. C.] * This correspondence Lord Nugent does not adduce. Why ? It would have been an interesting addition even to his interesting " Memorials." JOHN HAMPDEN. 243 that they should be judged in ch.ancery. Wheth- er Hakewill was aware or not of the full extent of the object for which he was working, does not appear. It seems, at all events, probable that the greater number of the opposite party were not ; and that those who were, did not at the beginning think it prudent to give the alarm. King James, however, had shrewdness enough to detect the tendency of this measure ; and accordingly, notice thereof being given to him, he stated his unwillingness to have the number of the burgesses increased, " declaring," says Glanville, "he was troubled with too great a number already, and commanded his then so- licitor, Sir Robert Heath, being of the House of Commons, to oppose it what he might ; and most of the courtiers then of the House, under- standing the king's inclination, did their utmost endeavours to cross it." The report, never- theless, was in the end confirmed by the House. " Whereupon," says Glanville, " a warrant un- der the speaker's hand was made to the clerk of the crown in the chancery for the making of such a writ, which was issued out accord- ingly ; and therefore were elected and return- ed to serve in the same Parliament, for Amer- sham, Mr. Hakewill and Mr. John Crew ; for Wendover, Mr. John Hampden, who beareth the charge, and Sir Alexander Denton ; for Marlow, Mr. H. Burlace and Mr. Cotton." On the dissolution of Charles's second Par- liament, Hampden resolutely refused the loan ; and on being asked why he would not contrib- ute to the king's necessities, startled the que- rist with these memorable words : " That he could be content to lend as well as others, but feared to draw upon himself that curse in mag- na charta which should be read twice a year against those who infringe it."* The privy council, not being satisfied with his own recog- nizance to appear at the board, although an- swerable with a landed property nearly the largest possessed by any commoner of Eng- land, committed him to a close and rigorous imprisonment in the Gate-house. Being again brought before the council, and persisting in his first refusal, he was sent into private deten- tion in Hampshire. His sufferings had now made him prominent- ly known ; and in the celebrated third Parlia- ment, to which he was returned as member for the borough of Wendover, he achieved the en- tire confidence of the popular party, and took part in the preparation of the petition of right. " From this time forward," Lord Nugent says truly, " scarcely was a bill prepared or an in- quiry begun upon any subject, however remote- ly or incidentally affecting any one of the three great matters at issue privilege, religion, or the supplies, but he was thought fit to be asso- ciated with St. John, Selden, Coke, and Pym on the committee." On the 21st of March, a few days after the meeting of Parliament, he was placed upon the committee on " an act to restrain the sending away persons to be popish- ly bred beyond seas ;" and on the 28th, on one " to examine the warrants for billeting soldiers, or levying money, in the county of Surrey." On the 3d of April he was on the committee on a bill " to regulate the pressing men as am- bassadors, or on other foreign service, so as to Rushworth, vol. i., p. 428, &c. promote the good of the people as well as the service of the state ;" and during the course of the same month he was engaged in others, " for the better continuance of peace and unity in the Church and Commonwealth ;" " on the foundation of the Charter House ;" on acts against "scandalous and unworthy ministers ;" concerning " subscription, or against procuring judicial appointments for money or other re- wards ;" and "on the presentments of recu- sants made by the knights of the several shires." On the 10th of May he was put upon the committee "on the case of the Turkey merchants," whose goods were detained till they should pay the tonnage and poundage ; and afterward on the committees for " redress- ing the neglect of preaching and catechising ;" " on the petitions of Burgesse and Sparke," who had been persecuted by the Bishop of Dur- ham ; " to search for records and precedents ;" " to consider the two commissions for com- pounding with recusants ;" and " for explain- ing a branch of the statute 3d of James." On the 13th of June he closed for the season his laborious share in this sort of business with two committees, the one " to take the certifi- cates of the Trinity House merchants for the loss of ships," and the other "to meet that af- ternoon on the Exchequer business." On the reassembling of this Parliament after the prorogation, and when the disgraceful in- vasion of religion and property, committed in the interval by Laud and Charles, had inflamed the passions of the leading members in regard to both these questions, Hampden's exertions' became absorbed in the committees that were appointed to discuss them. His name is to be found on the committees for preparing bills for enlarging the liberty of " hearing the Word of God ;" and " against bribery, and procuring places for money and other rewards ;" and on the committee to prepare a bill to explain the statute 3d James "concerning the appropria- tion of vicarages. " He was also put upon com- mittees " to view the entries of the clerk's book, and to search the entry of the petition of right ;" and " to examine a person who had petitioned the king with articles against Dr. Williams, bishop of Lincoln, the keeper ;" and again, " concerning the differences in the several im- pressions of the "Thirty-nine Articles." Again, " to examine the matter and the information in the Star Chamber ;" and "concerning the par- ticulars of Sir Joseph Eppesley, and all others where commissioners are drawn to answer be- fore the Lords ;" and " to search the course and precedents in the Exchequer concerning the injunction against merchants' goods detain- ed for the non-payment of duties ;" and, lastly, " to prevent corruption in the presentation and collation to benefices, headships, fellowships, and scholarships in colleges." Hampden took no part in the stormy scene of the day of the dissolution that " most gloomy, sad, and dismal day for England," as Sir Symonds d'Ewes has termed it, " that had happened for five hundred years" and there- fore escaped the fierce vengeance under which Eliot perished. Before that brave and virtu- ous man entered his prison, he committed his two sons to Hampden's care. Upon this circumstance I have already re- 244 BRITISH STATESMEN. marked in the memoir of Eliot. It is enough | to add here, that, besides in the thought of that ' great person's sufferings having served the cause that was dearer to him than happiness or life, the sorrow with which we contemplate them has some redemption, in the delightful view which they have been the means of hand- ing down to us of the character of Hampden, and his generous and gentle feeling. We find in him, at this trying period, nothing wanting in the qualities that command respect and love for their amiable and exalted nature. He ap- pears to us the guardian of the two young Eliots, turning his great mind anxiously to their improvement, leaving nothing undone for their welfare, and disclosing, throughout his correspondence with their father, a fine fancy ; a heart of honour full, as of gentleness ; of true wisdom and scholarship, as of kindness and in- trepidity. This it was which made Hampden a patriot : his love for all men, and for all good and graceful things. In looking at his life, these letters are of the last importance ; the feelings they disclose enable us to judge his latter years by a true test, and to discover the secret of his bold endeavours then the end to which he looked in all his patriotic toils and enjoyments unbounded love and gentleness to mankind. These letters, then, I will here present to the reader, as they have been copied* from the manuscripts in Lord Eliot's possession. They follow in the order of their dates, and refer oc- casionally to circumstances which have been already explained in this work.t The first alludes to Eliot's younger son, and to the passages of the " Monarchy of Man" for- warded for Hampden's perusal. " Sir, If my affections could bee so dull as to give way to a sleepy excuse of a letter ; yet this bearer, our common friend, had power to awaken them, and commaund it : to the pub- like experience of whose worth in doing, I can nowe adde my private of his patience in suf- fering the miseryes of a rough-hewn entertain- ment, to bee tolerated by the addition of your sonne's company ; of whome, if ever you live to see a fruite answerable to the promise of the present blossoms, it will bee a blessing of that weight as will turne the scale against all worldly afflictions, and denominate your life happy. " I returne your papers with many thankes, which I have transcribed, not readd ; the dis- course, therefore, upon the subject must bee reserved to another season, when I may, with better opportunitie and freedome, communicate my thoughts to you, my friend. Till then, with my salutations of all your societie, and prayers for your health, I rest, " Your ever assured friend and servant, " JOHN HAMPDEN. " Hampden, January 4th." The son here alluded to was Hampden's fa- vourite. The character of the elder son, whose college riots are touched on with so indulgent- ly slight a hand in the next letter, has been de- scribed}: before. * With one exception, the fifth letter, which is to be found in the British Museum, aud therefore appears never to have reached Eliot. t Life of Eliot, p. 35-41. t Ibid., p. 36. Sir, I hope you will receave yor sonnea both safe, and that God will direct you to dis- pose of them as they may bee trained up for his service and to yor comfort. Some words I have had wth y r younger sonne, and given him a taste of those apprehensions hee is like to finde wth you, wch I tell him future obedience to yor pleasure, rather than justification of past passages, must remove. He professeth faire, and ye ingenuitie of his nature doth, it without words; but you knowe vertuous actions flow not infallibly fro. the flexiblest dispositions : there's onely a fit subject for admonition and government to worke on, especially that wch is paternall. I confesse my shallownesse to re- solve, and therefore unwillingnesse to say any thing concerning his course ; yet will I not give over the consideration, because I much desire to see yt spiritt rightly managed. But for yor elder, I thinke you may with securitie returne him in conuenient time, for certainly there was nothing to administer from a plott ; and in an- other action y t concerned himselfe, wch hee'll tell you of, hee receaved goode satisfaction of the vice-chancellor's faire carriage towards him. I searched my study this morning for a booke to send you of a like subject to yt of ye papers I had of you, but finde it not. As soone as I recouer it, I'll recommend it to yor view. When you haue finished ye other part, I pray thinke me as worthy of ye sight of it as ye for- mer, and in both together I'll betray my weak- nesse to my friend by declaring my sense of them. That I did see is an exquisite nosegay, composed of curious flowers, bound together with as fine a thredd. But I must in the end expect hony fro. my frend. Somewhat out of those flowers digested made his owne, and giv- ing a true taste of his owne sweetnesse, though for that I shall awaite a fitter time and place. The Lord sanctify unto you ye sowrenesse of yor present estate, and ye comforts of yor pos- ter itie. " Yor ever ye same assured frend, " Jo. HAMPDEN. "April 4th, 1631." The delicacy and beauty of the criticism at the close of this letter could scarcely be sur- passed. Eliot, in answer to the letter, proposes to send his younger son, Richard, to the Neth- erlands, to learn the art of war in the company of Sir Horace Vere. This he thinks will be the best mode of employing to a good purpose his quick and vivacious humour. He states, also, his elder son's desire to go to France, but his own wish that he should remain at Oxford till he should have obtained his "licence" or degree at that university. Hampden replies in an animated strain. Most beautiful and touch- ing is his closing allusion to their mutual friend- ship. Well did his after life "improve" and approve the " noble purchas" of Eliot's affec- tion ! " Sir, I am so perfectly acquainted with your cleare insight into the dispositions of men, and abilitie to fit them with courses suitable, that, had you bestowed sonnes of mine as you have done yor owne, judgement durst hardly have called it into question, especially when, in laying the designe, you have prevented ye ob- jections to bee made against it ; for if Mr. Rich. JOHN HAMPDEN. 245 Eliot will, in the intermissions of action, adde study to practise, and adorn that lively spiritt with flowers of contemplation, hee'll raise our expectations of another Sr Edvv. Veere, that had this character, ' All summer in the field, all winter in his study ;' in whose fall fame makes this kingdome a great loser ; and, having taken this resolution from councell, with ye highest wisdome (as I doubt not you haue), I hope and praye y e same power will crowne it with a blessing answerable to our wish. " The way you take with my other frend de- clares you to bee none of ye Bp of Exeter's converts, of whose minde neither am I super- stitiously ; but, had my opinion beene asked, I should (as vulgar conceipts use to) haue shew- ed my power rather to raise objections than to answer them. A temper between Fraunce and Oxford might have taken away his scruple, with more advantage to his yeares to visit Cambridge as a free man for varietie and de- light, and there entertaine himselfe till ye next spring, when universitie studyes and peace had beene better settled than I learne it is ; for, although hee bee one of those that, if his age were looked for in no other booke but that of the minde, would bee found no ward if you should dye to-morrow, yet 'tis a great haz- ard, methinkes, to see so sweete a disposi- tion guarded with no more, amongst a people whereof many make it their religion to bee su- perstitious in impietie, and their behaviour to bee affected in ill manners. But God, who onely knowes ye periods of life, and opportuni- ties to come, hath designed him (I hope) for his owne service betime, and stirred up yor providence to husband him so early for great affaires. Then shall hee bee sure to finde him in Fraunce, that Abraham did in Sichem, and Joseph in Egipt, under whose wing alone is perfect safetie. Concerning that lord who is nowe reported to bee as deepe in repentance as hee was pro- found in sinne, the papers, &c., I shall take leave fro. your favour, and my streight of time, to bee silent till the next weeke, when I hope for the happinesse to kisse your handes, and present you with my most humble thankes for yor letters, wch confirm ye observation I have made in the progresse of affections, that it is easier much to winne upon ingenuous natures than to meritt it. This, they tell me, I have done of your's ; and I account it a noble pur- chas, wch to improve with the best services you can commaund, and I performe. shall be ye care of " Your affectionate frend and servant, " Jo. HAMPDEN. " Hampden, May llth, 1631. ' Present my services to Mr. Long, Mr. Val- entine, &c. " Do not thinke by what I say, yt I am fully satisfied of your younger sonne's course intend- ed, for I have a crotchett out of ye ordinary way, wch I had acquainted you wth if I had spoken wth you before hee had gone, but am almost ashamed to communicate." The mention of the " lord" in this letter re- fers to Merven Touchet, the infamous Lord Audley, of whose removal from the Tower, and trial and sentence, Eliot had spoken in a pre- vious letter. The next letter is from Hampden to one of the sons, his "young friends." It is to Rich- ard, his favourite, who had been, for a time only, admitted to live with his father in the Tower : " Sir, I receaved yor commaunds by y e handes of Mr. Wian, and was glad to knowe by them that another's word had power to commaund yor faith in my readinesse to obey you, wch mine, it seemes, had not. If you yet lack an experience, I wish you had put me upon ye test of a worke more difficult and im- portant, yt yor opinion might bee changed into beliefe. That man you wrote for I will unfain- edly receave into my goode opinion, and de- clare it really when hee shall have occasion to put me to ye proofe. I cannot trouble you with many words this time. Make goode use of the booke you shall receave from me, and of yor time. Be sure you shall render a strict ac- count of both to " Yor ever assured frend and seruant, "Jo. HAMPDEN. " Present my service to Mr. Long. I would faine heare of his health. "Hampden, June 8th, 1631." All the remaining letters are to Eliot. This which follows is merely an apology for not wri- ting ; but how gracefully it is worded ! " Noble Sir, 'Tis well for me that letters cannot blush, else you would easily reade me guiltie. I am ashamed of so long a silence, and knowe not how to excuse it ; for as no- thing but businesse can speake for me, of wch kinde I have many advocates, so can I not tell how to call any businesse greater than holding an affectionate correspondence with so excel- lent a frend. My onely confidence is, I pleade at a barre of love, where absolutions are much more frequent than censures. Sure I am that conscience of neglect doth not accuse me, though evidence of fact doth. I would add more, but ye entertainment of a stranger frend calls upon me, and one other inevitable occa- sion ; hold me excused, therefore, deare frend ; and if you vouchsafe me a letter, let me beg of you to teach me some thrift of time, that I may imploy more in your service, who will ever bee " Your faithful servant and affectionate frend, "Jo. HAMPDEN. " Commend my service to ye soldier, if not gone to his colours. "Hampden, March 21."* The sweet and nervous style of the next, which is a criticism on the " Monarchy of Man," illustrates the literary taste and skill of Hamp- den : " Sir, You shall receave ye booke I prom- ised by this bearer's immediate hande ; for ye other papers I presume to take a little, and but a little, respitt. I have looked upon yt rare piece onely with a superficiall view, as at first sight to take ye aspect and proportion in ye whole ; after, with a more accurate eye, to take out ye lineaments of every part. "Twere rashnesse in me, therefore, to discover any judgement before I have ground to make one. This I discerne, that 'tis as compleate an im- * This letter is addressed " To my honnored and deare friend Sir John Eliott, at his lodging- in the Tower." I copy it, as I have said, from the British Museum. The date seems to me to be an obvious error for June. " The sol- dier" referred to is Richard Eliot, of whom he speaks ia the next letter, as fearing him to have gone. 246 BRITISH STATESMEN. age of ye patterne as can be drawne by lines ; a lively character of a large minde ; the sub- ject, method, and expressions excellent and homogeniall, and, to say truth (sweete heart), somewhat exceeding my commendations. My words cannot render them to the life ; yet <to show my ingenuitie rather than wit) would not a lease modell have given a full -representation of that subject : not by diminution, but by con- traction of parts 1 I desire to learne ; I dare not say. The variations upon each particular seeme many ; all, I confesse, excellent. The fountaine was full ; ye channell narrow ; yt may bee y e cause ; or that the author imitated Virgill, who made more verses by many than hee intended to write. To extract a just num- ber, had I seen all his, I could easily have bidd him make fewer ; but if hee had badd me tell which hee should have spared, I had beene ap- posed. So say I of these expressions ; and that to satisfy you, not myselfe, but that, by obeying you in a commaund so contrary to my owne disposition, you may measure how large a power you have ouer " Jo. HAMPDEN. . "Hampden, June 29th, 1631. " Recomend my seruice to Mr. Long ; and if Sr 01. Luke bee in towne, expresse my affection to him in these words ; ye first part of ye pa- pers you had by ye handes of B. Valentine long since. If you heare of yor sonnes, or can send to ym, let me knowe." The present of a small buck from the seat at Hampden accompanied this next very graceful note. By the postscript it appears that John Eliot, the elder son, had been permitted to go to France as he desired. " Deare Sir, I receaued a letter from you the last weeke, for wch I owe you ten, to coun- tervaile those lines by excesse in number that I cannot equall in weight. But time is not mine nowe, nor hath beene since that came to my handes ; in your favour, therefore, hold me excused. This bearer is appointed to present you wth a buck out of my paddock, wch must bee a small one to hold proportion with ye place and soyle it was bred in. Shortly I hope (if I doe well to hope) to see you ; yet durst I not prolong ye expectation of yor papers. You have concerning them layde commaundes upon me beyond my abilitie to give you satisfaction in ; but if my apology will not serve when we meete, I will not decline ye seruice to ye be- traying of my owne ignorance, which yet I hope yor love will couer. " Yor ever assured frend and seruant, "Jo. HAMPDEN. " Hampden, July 27. " I am heartily glad to learne my frend is well in Fraunce. Captaine Waller hath beene in these parts, who I have scene, but could not entertaine ; to my shame and sorrow I speake it." The next refers to the emigration schemes* * An ingenious attempt has been made by Mr. Towill Rutt to show that Hampden had interested himself so far in the " New World" as actually, in the recess between James's last two Parliaments, to visit it in person. But Hampden had recently married ; and, as no mention is made of Mrs. Hampden in the record of the visit, does Mr. Rutt think the patriot had tired so soon of her society ? The attempt is too ingenious, however, to be passed alto- gether, and therefore J present it to the reader from the pages of the Examiner journal, where it appeared some years since : " In a work printed at ' Boston N. E, 1736,' in which the patriots of the time took so great an interest. " Noble Sir, I hope this letter is conveyed to you by so safe a hande yt yo" will bee ye first yt shall open it ; or, if not, yet, since you injoy, as much as without contradiction you may, ye libertie of a prison, it shall bee no of- fence to wish you to make ye best use on't, and yt God may finde you as much his, now you injoy ye benefit of secondary helpes, as you found him yo while, by deprivation of all oth- ers, you were cast upon his immediate support. This is all I have, or am willing to say ; but yt ye paper of considerations concerning ye plantation might bee very safely conueyed to me by this hande, and, after transcribing, should bee as safely returned, if you vouchsafe to send it me. I beseeche you present my seruice to entitled, A Chronological History of ffev> England, by Thomas Prince, M. A., at p. 129, from ' Winslow's Rela- tion,' one of the earliest ' printed tracts,' I find the follow- ing narrative : ' 1623. March. News comes to Plimouth that Masassoit is like to die, and that a Dutch ship is driv- en ashore, before his house, so high, that she could not be got off til! the tide's increase. Upon which the governor sends Mr. Edward Winslow and Mr. John Hampden, a gen- tleman of London, with Hobomak, to visit and help him, and speak with the Dutch. The first night we lodge at Namasket ; next day, at one, coine to a ferry in Corbitant's country, and, three miles further, to Mattapuyst, his dwell- ing-place (though he be no friend to us), but find him gone to Pakanokik, about five or six miles off. Late within night we get thither, whence the Dutch had departed ; find Ma- sassoit extreme low, his sight gone, his teeth fixed, having swallowed nothing for two days ; but using means, he sur- prisingly revives. We stay and help him two nights and two days. At the end of the latter, taking our leave, he expresses his great thankfulness. We come and lodge with Corbitant at Mattapnyst, who wonders that we, being two, should be so venturous. Next day, on our journey, Hobo- mak tells us, that at his coming away, Masassoit privately charged him to tell Mr. Winslow there was a plot of the Massachusuks. That night we lodge at Namasket ; the next get home.* Edward Winslow, one of the fathers of New England, first appears, ' 1620, Dec. 6,' among ' ten of of the best family of any of the Plimouth planters, his fa- ther being a person of some figure at Droitwich, in Wor- cestershire.' The following entry in the Chronological History (p. 140) may fix, with great probability, in the ab- sence of any information on the subject, the date of Hamp- den's return to England : ' 1623, Sept. 10. This day the Ann sails for London, being laden with clapboards, and all the beaver and other furs we have ; with whom we send Mr. Winslow, to inform how things are, and procure what we want.' Edward Winslow printed his 'Account of N. E. to Sept. 10' during this visit to London, whence he returned in 1624. After governorships of Plimouth and missions to England, he settled there in 1646 as agent for the colony. In 1665 he was appointed by the Protector one of ' three commissioners to superintend and direct the operations of Penn and Venables,' and ' died on board the fleet, in the West Indies,' aged 60, leaving a 'name' that ' in New Eng- land will never be forgotten.' Such was the associate of John Hampden. Of the other dramatis persona:, Masassoit was a 'great sagamore,' who, 'in 1621,' had visited the governor, when, ' after salutations, the governor kissing his hand, and the king kissing him, they agree on a league of friendship,' which ' lasted to 1675.' Hobomak was ' a chief captain of Masassoit's,' and Corbitant 'a petty sachem.' Dr. Holmes, of Cambridge, N. E., in his American Annals (1808), says (i., 185), ' Mr. Hampden wintered (1623) with the Plimouth colonists, and desired much to see the coun- try, and is supposed by Dr. Belknapp (Biog,, ii., 229) to be the same who afterwards distinguished himself by his op- position to the arbitrary demands of Charles I.' From these early associations, Hampden would probably be foremost, in 1638, to promote that well-known project of emigration which Charles, so fatally for himself, interrupted by his prerogative. It appears, in the Parliamentary History, that from Feb. 1621-2 to Feb. 1623-4, Hampden's senatorial du- ties must have been entirely suspended. Thus there would be abundant leisure for the visit to America." [I see nothing to militate against Mr. Rutt's view of the case. In an aga that called for sacrifice, Hampdea would readily quit his home for public service. C.] JOHN HAMPDEN. 247 Mr. Valentine, and Mr. Long, my countryman, if with you, and let me bee honoured with the style of " Yor faithful frend and seruant, "Jo. HAMPDEN." The last letter contains a noble compliment to the genius of Eliot. " Sir, In the end of my travailes, I meate ye messengers of yor love, wch bring me a most gratefull wellcome. Yor intentions outfly mine, that thought to have prevented yo, and con- vince me of my disabilitie to keepe pace with you or the times. My imployment of late in interrogatory with like affaires hath deprived me of leisure to compliment, and ye frame of dispositions is able to justle the estyle of a let- ter. You were farre enough above my emula- tion before ; but, breathing nowe the same ayre wth an ambassador, you are out of all ayme. I believe well of his negociation for ye large testimony you have given of his parts, and I believe ye King of Sweden's sword will bee ye best of his topicks to persuade a peace. 'Tis a powerfull one nowe, if I heare aright, fame giving Tilly a late defeate in Saxony wth 20,000 losse, the truth whereof will facilitate yor worke, the Spaniard's curtesy being knowne to bee no lesse than willingly to render that which hee cannot hold. The notion of these ef- fects interrupts not or quiet, though ye reasons by wch they are gouerned do transcend or pitch. Yor apprehensions, yt ascend a region above those clouds wch shadow us, are fit to pierce such heights, and 0" to receave such notions as descend from thence ; which while you are pleased to impart, you make the demonstra- tions of yor favour to become ye rich posses- sions of " Yor ever faithful frend and seruant, "Jo. HAMPDEN. " Present my seruice to Mr. Long. " Hampden, October 3. " God, I thanke him, hath made me father of another sonne." The melancholy progress of the public affairs during this correspondence, and after it had been closed by the death of the illustrious pris- oner,* has been amply described. In retire- ment at his estate in Buckinghamshire, Hamp- den continued to improve the literary tastes and acquirements in which he already excelled so highly, and, it is said, while the crisis of af- fairs approached more nearly, began to prepare himself for the last extremity they threatened. Davila's history of the civil wars of France became his manual his vade mecum, as Sir Philip Warwick calls it ; as though in the study of that sad story of strife and bloodshed he already saw the parallel which England was to afford so soon. The bitterness of spirit with which he thought of these things may have been greatly increased by the death of his wife,t which happened at about this time. At * Eliot and Hatnpden, it is worth adding, had changed portraits some time before, and both these portraits are now in the possession of the Eliot family. That of Hampden, the only original in existence, and a portrait of noble ex- pression, has been engraved for this work, by the courteous permission of the Earl of St. Germain's. A dose and earnest look at the engraving, which is exquisitely faithful, will fur- nish an eloquent description of the face of Hampden. t She lies buried in the chaucel of great Hampdeu church, where an epitaph on a plaiu bluck stone records her merits last, however, he abandoned his retirement, dismissed the thought of a solitary and seclu- ded life, and became one of the acknowledged leaders of the people. He imitated in this the great and virtuous Coligny, described in his favourite work. In the autumn of 1635, ship-money writs were sent into Buckinghamshire. Many gen- tlemen of that county refused to pay, and among them Hampden. Accordingly, on the 25th of January, 1635-6, new sheriffs having been in the interval appointed, a writ was is- sued, directed " To Sir Peter Temple, Baronet, late high sheriff, and Heneage Proby, Esq., now appointed high sheriff for the county of Bucks," directing the one to deliver, and the other to receive, the original warrant, as well as all accounts and returns concerning the levy of the former year. This return was ac- cordingly made by the assessors of the differ- ent parishes ; and, among others where pay- ment had been delayed, a return by those of the parish of Great Kimble, a village at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, round which the principal property of John Hampden lay, and in the immediate neighbourhood of his house. The return contains the names of those who, with him, had tendered their refusal to the consta- bles and assessors, together with an account of the sums charged upon each person. Among the names of the protestors, it is to be observ- ed that the constables and assessors had the courage to return their own, and at the head of the list stands that of John Hampden, " as a passport," Lord Nugent justly says, " for the rest to an honourable memory, so long as the love of liberty shall retain a place in the hearts of the British nation." This protest, however, was not thought suf- ficient, by the then rampant tyranny of Charles, to excuse Sir Peter Temple for his default of arrears. He was summoned before the coun- cil-table : ill health prevented his instant at- tendance ; and an officer was at once sent to hold him in close custody at his own residence at Stowe. Lord Nugent found one of his let- ters, written under these circumstances, among the manuscripts there. It is worth quoting, as an illustration of the occasion and the time : " Deere Mother, In haste I write to you. I hauing my handfts full, cannot write to you with my owne handes, I hauing byne latelye ill at London, and takeing physicke. Yet must I leaue the meanes of my health to doe the kinge seruice. I was sente for on the 30th of June, by a messenger, to attend the kinge on Sun- daye, the 3d of July, about the shippe-moneye ; wherein I am blamed for the sherriffe's actions that nowe is, and am compelled wth a messen- ger, nowe wayting on me, with all the distress- es and imprisoneings that maye be imposed on the cOuntrye. But the sherriffe must answere what is done by me in the future tyme. I am to attende the kinge at Theobalde's, on the 17th daye of July, to giue an accompte to him what I haue done in the seruice, and, as he likes my proceedinges, I am to continue in the messen- ineou ui i yni mill ii.unj'ut'ii , aim niv euuim .\i afterward married to Sir Robert Pye, of Berkshire, 248 BRITISH STATESMEN. ger's hande, or be releassed, or worsse. My lyfe is nothing but toyle, and hath byne for manye yeares, to the commonwealth, and nowe to the kinge. The change is somethinge amended for the pressent, but yet released of neither. Not soe much tyme as to doe my du- tye to my deere parentes, nor to sende to them. Yett I hoped that they wolde haue sente for a bucke, or what Stowe wolde afforde, before thys tyme. But, seeinge they will not, I will spare rnyselfe soe much tyme as to pressente nowe unto them one by thys bearer. "Although I am debarred from father, moth- er, wife, and chilldren, and state though some of them farre absente wyth thys I pressente my dutye, wyth these unhappye lynes, and re- mayne " Yor sonne, that loues and honoures my father and you, " PETER TEMPLE. " Stowe, thys 8th of July, 1630. " To his deere mother, the Lady Hester Temple, at Dorsett, theis pressente." The history of Hampden's immortal trial, in which for many days, though in the midst of public dangers and disquiet, the fundamental laws of our country were contested without re- proach or passion, has been sufficiently glanced at in these pages. " The judgment," says Clarendon, "proved of more advantage and credit to the gentleman condemned than to the king's service." Then indeed Hampden "be- came the argument of all tongues, every man inquiring who and what he was, that durst at his own charge support the liberty and property of the kingdom, and rescue his country, as he thought, from being made a prey to the court."* Even courtiers and crown lawyers spoke re- spectfully of him ; for, adds Clarendon, "his carriage throughout that agitation was with that rare temper and modesty, that they who watched him narrowly to find some advantage against his person, to make him less resolute in his cause, were compelled to give him a just testimony." The court continued, after the trial, to levy the hated tax more recklessly than ever, but it soon became the recklessness of despair. The third Parliament was summoned, and Hampden whose share in the immediate caus- es which led to that memorable event has been described in the memoir of Pym having re- turned from London to his native seat, was solicited, by the grateful men of Buckingham- shire, to become their representative. In this character, and with all the new influence it gave him, he soon again left Hampden, never, except at rare intervals of some few hours' du- ration, to return to it again. " His mansion," says Lord Nugent, " still remains. It stands away from both the principal roads which pass through Buckinghamshire, at the back of that chalky range of the Chilterns which bounds, on one side, the vale of Aylesbury. The scenery which immediately surrounds it, from its seclu- sion little known, is of singular beauty, opening upon a ridge which commands a very extensive view over several counties, and diversified by dells, clothed with a natural growth of box, juniper, and beech. t What has once been the * Clarendon. t The woods of Hampden terminate to the north upon abode of such a man can never but be interest- ing from the associations which belong to it. But, even forgetting these, no one, surely, who has heart or taste for the charm of high, breezy hills, and green glades enclosed within the shadowy stillness of ancient woods, and ave- nues leading to a house on whose walls the re- mains of the different styles of architecture, from the early Norman to the Tudor, are still partly traced through the deforming innovations of the eighteenth century no one, surely, can visit the residence of Hampden, and not do justice to the love which its master bore it, and to that stronger feeling which could lead him from such a retirement to the toils and perils to which, thenceforth, he entirely devoted him- self." Hampden has left no record of his eloquence behind him, but its influence is stamped immor- tally on Clarendon's account of him at this mo- mentous period. ".Mr. Hampden," says the noble historian, describing the leading members of this Parliament, " was a man, it may be, of the most discerning spirit, and of the greatest address and insinuation to bring any thing to pass which he desired, of any man of that time, and who laid the design deepest. He was a gentleman of a good extraction and a fair for- tune, who, from a life of great pleasure and li- cense, had on a sudden retired to extraordinary sobriety and strictness, and yet retained his usual cheerfulness and affability ; which, to- gether with the opinion of his wisdom and jus- tice, and the courage he had showed in opposing the ship-money, raised his reputation to a very great height, not only in Buckinghamshire, where he lived, but generally throughout the kingdom. He \vas not a man of many words, and rarely begun the discourse, or made the first entrance upon any business that was as- sumed ; 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 craftily so stated it, that he commonly conducted it to the conclusion he desired ; and if he found he could not do that, he never was without the dexterity to divert the debate to another time, and to prevent the determining anything in the negative which might prove inconvenient in the future. He made so great a show of civility, and modesty, and humility, and always of mis- trusting his own judgment, and of esteeming his with whom he conferred for the present, that he seemed to have no opinions or resolu- tions but such as he contracted from the infor- mation and instruction he received upon the discourses of others, whom he had a wonderful art of governing and leading into his principles and inclinations, while they believed that he arils to recall their troops from the pursuit JOHN HAMPDEN. 249 wholly depended upon their counsel and advice. ; No man had ever a greater power over himself, or was less the man that he seemed to be, } which shortly after appeared to everybody, when he cared less to keep on the mask." The character of Clarendon himself is too well known to render any modification of this lan- guage necessary. The circumstances which explain the colour he always strives to give to the profound policy of the popular leaders have had abundant illustration in these pages. It is enough now to show that that policy is, even thus, confirmed by him ; and that upon him, equally with the men of their own party, the genius of its great authors impressed itself the more deeply, perhaps, that it was so obsti- nately resisted. To the business affairs of this Parliament Hampden applied himself with his accustomed zeal. On the 16th, three days after its meet- ing, he was on a committee to examine all questions relating to election returns, and other privileges ; and on the 17th, on one to report upon the state of the journals and records. On the 18th, on one concerning the violation of privilege, at the close of the last Parliament ; and on the 20th, on another to prepare an ad- dress to the king, praying " that the like in- fringement of their liberties might not be prac- tised in future, to their prejudice and his own." On the 21st he was on the committee appointed to inquire into the effect of the commission lately granted to convocation ; and on the 22d, on two others one upon the case of Smart, a prebendary of Durham, who had petitioned, as a prisoner, against Bishop Neile ; and the other to prepare the heads of a conference with the Lords concerning the petitions from the coun- try. On the 23d he was on one to expedite the matter of this conference, by stating the reasons for postponing the supplies until effect- ual means should have been taken to prevent innovations in religion, to secure the property of the subject, and the privileges of Parliament, and to prepare an answer on these heads to the king. On the 24th he was manager of that conference ; on the 25th he reported it to the House ; and on the 1st of May we find him re- porting a second conference, touching some matters which had occurred in the first. The disgrace of Williams has been alluded to : the wily prelate had long been striving to regain his position by petitions to the king ; or, by a summons before Parliament, to make an effort for it that way. Sentence, however, in- terrupted his schemes at last, suspending him from all his offices and dignities, and imposing upon him a fine of 10,000, and imprisonment during the king's pleasure. Finding the Lords not disposed to assert with spirit the question of privilege in his behalf, he endeavoured to engage Hampden, during this session, to make his case one of Parliamentary grievance. With this view, it may be sup- posed, he affected his old patriotic arts to en- gage the patriot's sympathy. Be this as it may, among the manuscripts at Lambeth is a sheet of notes in his handwriting, under the title of " Remembrances to Mr. Hampden," dated April 27th. to which the answer is found appended. The style of cold civility in which Hampden declines this business was that of a man who Ii already suspected that the public virtue of the bishop was wavering, and that he was preparing to embark again in the course of court favour, into which, on his enlargement and elevation to the archbishopric of York, he soon relapsed. Hampden's answer was as follows : " My Lord, I should be very ready to serve you in anything I conceaved good for you and fitt for mee ; but in your Ipp's present com- mands I doubt that to make overture of yor in- tentions, and be prevented by a suddaine conclu- sion of ye Parlt, w>cA many fearc, may render yor condition worse than nowe it is. To begin in or house is not ye right place ; the most im- portant businesses of the king and king<i are press'd on with such expedition yt any of a more particular nature will be but unwellcome, and hardly prosecuted wth effect ; besides that there is at this instant a tendernesse betweene ye Lords and us about priviledge ; and for my owne unfittnesse, I neede mention no more but my disability to carry through a businesse of this nature, though yr IP may easily conceave another incompetency in my person. In these regards I humbly desire yor IP to excuse mee, and thereby to lay a newe obligation upon mee of being, Your Idps most humble servant, "Jo. HAMPDEN.* " Westmr, Apr. 29, 1640." In the Long Parliament, Hampden again sat for Buckinghamshire. His exertions in the great interval of excitement before it met have been already detailed. He had married again during the present year, and now his wife join- ed him, with his family, in London, and the es- tablishment at Hampden was broken up. The lady's name was Letitia Vachell, the daughter of a gentleman of Coley, near Reading. She survived Hampden very many years, during which she again resided on her husband's old estate. Hampden discharged himself of his duties, at this the final crisis of the English liberties and laws, as became the virtue and courage of his character. He who had been formerly, though ever pursuing the strictest line of duty, yielding and gentle, was now stern and reso- lute ; he who had kept within the letter of precedents while yet serving the cause in his private capacity, now found "the eyes of all men fixed upon him as their Patrice Pater, and the pilot that must steer the vessel through the tempests and rocks which threatened it." What wonder that, with such responsibility, his views became larger and more extended 1 What wonder if, from a meek bearing, as Lord Clarendon tells us, " his nature and carriage seemed much fiercer than before 1" Thrust from the legitimate ground of warfare on which he would willingly have taken issue, he rose, by his resources of mind and heart, and shift- ing from the narrower grounds of precedent and privilege, fell back on the great rights of mankind, out of which, and for which, all laws arise. It is useless to deny that Hampden had then become (as Clarendon terms him) a "Root and Branch man." All his subsequent acts prove it. He had taken higher ground, and would no longer be contented with lopping off the branches, but was resolved to lay the axe * Nugent's Memorials, rol. i., p. 297. 250 BRITISH STATESMEN. to the root, of the tree of corruption. Why does Lord Nugent shrink from contemplating his character in this view? It would have helped him to conclusions more just, and to reflections more beneficial, than those which disfigure the latter portion of the first volume of his "Memorials," where he speaks of "the memory of Hampden not being stained by any appearance of his having been concerned in Stratford's attainder." If his name does not appear in the proceedings, neither does that of Oliver Cromwell : but what will the noble au- thor of the " Memorials" infer from that 1 That Cromwell opposed the attainder 1 Is it even pretended that Hampden opposed it] By no means !* We are simply told by Lord Nugent that, " being only doubtful as a matter of pre- cedent, but clear to him in respect of the guilt of the accused person," and knowing that, if it did not pass, " all law but that of the sceptre and the sword was at an end," he did what 1 he stood by with all his lofty thoughts of the thousands of families whose quarrel he had embraced, and left the burden of the deed ne- cessary for their happiness to his great fellow- labourer Pym, that he might himself escape the odium of having departed from a strict let- ter of precedent, and might appear graceful, to an aristocratic posterity ! And Lord Nugent thinks he is adorning the memory of Hampden while striving to inflict this stain upon it, and talks of the injustice which has been done to the great patriot on this point by Clarendon and others. Why, if it be indeed true that he retired from the division on the attainder be- fore the question was put, no doubt he had ad- mirable reasons for doing so, and rested mean- while on the surety of its passing ; for even Lord Nugent does not pretend to say that he had not its success much at heart. Why, then, blame Clarendon 1 for it seems to me that what Clarendon says (in one of his passages of cov- ert and falsely-coloured meaning) of Hamp- den's character so far bears out Lord Nugent, and that they both conspire in this instance to reflect no additional honour on the patriot. " He begot many opinions and motions," says that historian, " the education whereof he com- mitted to other men ; so far disguising his own designs, that he seemed seldom to wish more than was concluded ; and in many gross con- clusions, which would hereafter contribute to * " But why then, it is asked, if Hampden disapproved of the precedent of a bill of attainder, did he not make head Bgninst it as manfully as he had before supported the im- peachment? Plainly because, in a case doubtful to him only as a matter of precedent, but clear to him in respect of the guilt of the accused person in a case in which the accused person, in his estimation, deserved death, and in which all law but that of the sceptre and the sword was at an end if he had escaped it when all the ordinary protec- tion of law to the subject throughout the country was sus- pended, and suspended mainly by the counsels of Stratford himself, Hampden wag not prepared to heroically immolate the liberties of England in order to save the life of him who xvould have destroyed them. Hampden probably considered the bill which took away Strafford's life (and, indeed, it must in fairness be so considered) as a revolutionary act, undertaken for the defence of the Commonwealth. That in his conscience he believed it to be an act of substantial injustice to the person arraigned, no man has any right to conclude. I moreover aver, that there is not more ground for imputing a participation in that measure to him than to Lord Clarendon, and not near so much as to Lord Falk- land." Nugent's Memorials of Hampden, vol. i., p. 379, 380. Lord Clarendon supported the measure, and so, most cer- tainly, did Lord Falkland. designs not yet set on foot, when he found them sufficiently backed by majority of voices, he icould withdraw himself before the question, that he might seem not to consent to so much visible unreasonableness."* But this is merely another of Lord Claren- don's dexterous attempts to mislead, and it is to be regretted that a friend to the "good cause" should in any way countenance it. What is Lord Nugent's authority for his opin- ion that Hampden shrunk from the side of Pym during the progress of Strafford's attainder! I will quote the entire passage of the " Memo- rials." "Falkland, it appears clearly from Sir Ralph Verney's notes, on the 15th of April, spoke in answer to Digby and in favour of the bill Hampden never; and on the 16th, while Hampden was on one committee to prepare heads for a conference ' concerning their lord- ships' resolution to hear counsel in matter of law, and to desire that their lordships would use all expedition to give an end to this trial as much as in justice may be,' Falkland was on another which was appointed to prepare heads for a conference ' concerning the further proceedings,' on the report of which committee it was that the bill was passed. In debate, Hampden never alluded to the proceeding by bill but once. On the 16th of April, when it was discussed, pending the attainder, whether the Commons should continue to hear the earl's counsel at the bar of the Lords, or proceed with the bill, St. John, having said that, ' being possessed of a bill, they had made themselves judges, and being so, it were a dishonour to hear counsel anywhere but at their own bar ;' and Colepepper having said, 'if we reply to Lord Strafford's counsel before the Lords, we prejudice our cause in taking away the power of declaring treason,' Hampden, according to Sir Ralph Verney's notes, in opposition to his fellow-managers, urged that they should pro- ceed, not by bill, but by trial at the Lords' bar. 'The bill nowe depending doth not tie us to goe by bill. Our counsell hath been heard ; ergo, in justice, we must heare his. Noe more prejudice to goe to heare matter of law, than to heare counsell to matter of fact.' " Now the latter words do not bear out the previous statement of them. It has been justly observ- edf that there is good reason to question wheth- er, in this discussion, it was considered as an alternative to hear the earl's counsel at the Lords' bar or proceed with the bill, for by the result of that day's debate it appears that both were done, the committee answering, " after some deliberation with the House, that since the Lords had so resolved, they would not deny it to be there present, and to hear what his counsel could say for him ; but to reply any more in public they neither could nor would, because of the bill already past ; only if the * I have ventured to reprint these remarks on this great error, as I conceive it to be, of Lord Nugent's book, from a periodical for which they were written at the time of its publication. I have seen no reason to alter my opinion du- ring the last six years, and I again use the same expression of it, because it became the subject of remark and quotation in a subsequent controversy between Mr. Southey and Lord Nugent, and I would not be supposed to have merely stolen my present opinion from the " professor of the hip- and-thigh. school," so often referred to there. I have had no reason, hitherto to avoid avowing myself as that " hip-and-thigh. professor." t Quarterly Review, voL xlvii., p. 501. JOHN HAMPDEN. 251 Lords should take any scruple in the matter of law, they would be ready to give them sat- isfaction by a private conference." So that Harapden's opinion, it appears, prevailed, and the bill nevertheless proceeded. It has not been discovered that on any other occasion he alluded to the bill ; and it is obvious that there is no ground here for such a charge as that of Lord Nugent, or such a mere party statement as Lord Clarendon's. Very certain and unequivocal indeed must be the evidence that should so impugn Hamp- den's memory. Sufficient has been said in the progress of this work to prove that no one of that age not even Pym himself looked at the great question of resistance to tyranny on lar- ger or more extended grounds, or in a more philosophic spirit. It was Hampden who first dared to anticipate a broader field of warfare than the floor of the House of Commons, and to prepare himself for a more real struggle ; /and, constantly in communion with his friend and cousin, Oliver Cromwell, it was Hampden who advised with him great projects of free- dom ; whose penetrating spirit first pointed to that remarkable person as likely to become, " in case of a breach with the king, the greatest man in England ;" and whose virtue, at all times equal to his intellect and courage, would most surely, had not death stepped in, have prevented even Cromwell's traitorous usurpa- tion on the English Commonwealth. Hampden's course in this Parliament was given at the time the great questions of Pym's life were detailed. Hampden was second to Pym alone, and to the aid of everything which the wisdom and vigilance of that great states- man planned, he brought an influence of almost irresistible power. He was, as I have shown, an especially earnest promoter of the grand re- monstrance and of the anti-episcopal measures. In regard to the latter, it may be important here to use, as an illustration of his real opin- ions, even one of the most artful and disingen- uous statements of Clarendon. Describing the first debate on the bill for taking away the bishops' votes, and mentioning Lord Falkland's support of it, " Mr. Hyde," in the dignity of the historian Clarendon, observes : " The House was so marvellously delighted to see the two inseparable friends [Falkland and Hyde] divided in so important a point, that they could not contain from a kind of rejoicing ; and the more, because they saw Mr. Hyde was much sur- prised with the contradiction ; as in truth he was, having never discovered the least incli- nation in the other towards such a compliance ; and therefore they entertained an imagination and hope that they might work the Lord Falk- land to a farther concurrence with them. But they quickly found themselves disappointed, and that, as there was not the least interrup- tion of close friendship between the other two, so, when the same argument came again into debate, about six months after, the Lord Falk- land changed his opinion, and gave them all the opposition he could : nor was he reserved in acknowledging ' that he had been deceived, and by whom,' and confessed to his friends, with whom he would deal freely, 'that Mr. Hampden had assured him that, if that bill might pass, there would be nothing more at- tempted to the prejudice of the Church ;' which he thought, as the world then went, would be no ill composition."* And why had that bill ceased to be a " good composition 1" Because it was refused by the House of Lords when first presented there. It was the old story of the sibyl and her leaves ; and though two hundred years have passed, that story is again in the course of rehearsal. No one should have known better than Claren- don the great truth which the very distinction he himself has marked between the early and later years of Hampden so strikingly illustrates that justice deferred, and rights withheld, will always enhance the price at which safety and peace must, in the end, be purchased. Hampden's mission to Scotland to overlook and check the king is already before the read- er ; and I now approach the only speech which remains upon record with his name attached to it. It purports to have been spoken on the memorable morning already so fully described, after the impeachment of the five members, among whom Hampden's eminence and bold- ness had of course placed him. I quote it, without abridgment, from a small quarto pam- phlet of the time. "Mr. SPEAKER, It is a true saying of the wise man, ' That all things happen alike to all men, as well to the good man as to the bad." There is no state or condition whatsoever, ei- ther of prosperity or adversity, but all sorts of men are sharers in the same : no man can be discerned truly by the outward appearance, whether he be a good subject either to his God, his prince, or his country, until he be tried by the touchstone of loyalty. Give me leave, I beseech you, to parallel the lives of either sort, that we may in some measure discern truth from falsehood ; and in speaking, I shall simi- lize their lives. " I. In religion towards God. II. In loyalty and due subjection to their sovereign, in their affection towards the safety of their country. " I. Concerning religion. The best means to discern between the true and false religion is by searching the sacred writings of the Old and New Testament, which is of itself pure, indited by the Spirit of God, and written by holy men, unspotted in their lives and conversations : and by this sacred word may we prove whether our religion be of God or no ; and by looking in this glass, we may discern whether we are in the right way or no. " And looking into the same, I find by this truth of God that there is but one God, one Christ, one faith, one religion, which is the Gospel of Christ, and the doctrine of the prophets and apostles. " In these two Testaments is contained all things necessary to salvation ; if that our reli- gion doth hang upon this doctrine, and no other secondary means, then it is true ; to which comes nearest the Protestant religion, which we profess, as I really and verily believe ; and, consequently, that religion which joineth with this doctrine of Christ and his apostles, the tra- ditions and inventions of men, prayers to the Virgin Mary, angels, saints, that are used in the exercise of their religion, strange and super- * Hist., Tol. i., p. 413,414. BRITISH STATESMEN. stitious worshipping, cringing, bowing, creep- ing to the altar, using pictures, dirges, and such like, cannot be true, but erroneous, nay, devil- ish : and all this is used and maintained in the Church of Rome, as necessary as the Scripture to salvation ; therefore is a false and errone- ous church, both in doctrine and discipline, and all other sects and schisms, that lean not only on the Scripture, though never so contrary to the Church of Rome, is a false worshipping of God, and not the true religion. And thus much concerning religion, to discern the truth and falsehood thereof. " II. I come now, Mr. Speaker, to the second thing intimated unto you, which was how to discern, in a state, between good subjects and bad, by their loyalty and due subjection to their lawful sovereign ; in which I shall, under fa- vour, observe two things. " (1.) Lawful subjection to a king in his own person, and the commands, edicts, and procla- mations of the prince and his privy council. " (2.) Lawful obedience to the laws, statutes, and ordinances made, enacted by the king and the. Lords, with the free consent of his great council of state assembled in Parliament. " For the first. To deny a willing and duti- ful obedience to a lawful sovereign and his privy council (for as Camden truly saith, the commands of the Lords, privy councillors, and the edicts of the prince are all one, for they are insep- arable, the one never without the other), either to defend his royal person and kingdoms against the enemies of the same, either public or pri- vate ; or to defend the ancient privileges and prerogatives of the king, pertaining and belong- ing of right to his royal crown, and the main- tenance of his honour and dignity ; or to defend and maintain true religion, established in the land, according to the truth of God, is one sign of an evil and bad subject. " Secondly. To yield obedience to the com- mands of a king, if against the true religion, against the ancient and fundamental laws of the land, is another sign of an ill subject. " Thirdly. To resist the lawful power of the king, to raise insurrection against the king, ad- mit him adverse in his religion, to conspire against his sacred person, or any ways to rebel, though commanding things against our con- sciences in exercising religion, or against the rights and privileges of the subject, is an abso- lute sign of a disaffected and traitorous subject. " And now, having given the signs of discern- ing evil and disloyal subjects, I shall only give you, in a word or two, the signs of discerning which are loyal and good subjects, only by turn- ing these three signs already showed on the contrary side. "(1.) He that willingly and cheerfully en- deavoureth himself to obey his sovereign's commands, for the defence of his own person and kingdoms, for the defence of true religion, for the defence of the laws of his country, is a loyal and good subject. "(2.) To deny obedience to a king com- manding anything against God's true worship and religion, against the ancient and fundament- al laws of the land, in endeavouring to perform the same, is a good subject. " (3.) Not to resist the lawful and royal power of the king, to raise sedition or insurrection against his person, or to set division between the king and his good subjects, by rebellion, al- though commanding things against conscience in the exercise of religion, or against the rights and privileges of the subject, but patiently for the same to undergo his prince's displeasure, whether it be to his imprisonment, confiscation of goods, banishment, or any other punishment whatsoever, without murmuring, grudging, or reviling against his sovereign or his proceed- ings, but submitting willingly and cheerfully himself and his cause to Almighty God, is the only sign of an obedient and loyal subject. " I come now to the second means to know the difference between a good subject and a bad, by their obedience to the laws, statutes, and ordinances made by the king, with the whole consent of his Parliament. And in this I observe a twofold subjection : in the particu- lar members thereof dissenting from the general votes of the whole Parliament ; and, secondly, the whole state of the kingdom to a full Parlia- ment. " First. I confess, if any particular member of a Parliament, although his judgment and vote be contrary, do not willingly submit to the rest, he is an ill subject to the king and country. " Secondly. To resist the ordinances of the whole state of the kingdom, either by stirring up a dislike in the hearts of his majesty's sub- jects of the proceedings of Parliament ; to en- deavour, by levying of arms, to compel the king and Parliament to make such laws as seem best to them ; to deny the power, author- ity, and privileges of Parliament ; to cast asper- sions upon the same and proceedings, thereby inducing the king to think ill of the same, and to be incensed against the same ; to procure the untimely dissolution and breaking off of the Parliament before all things be settled by the same, for the safety and tranquillity both of king and state, is an apparent sign of a traitor- ous and disloyal subject against his king and country. " And thus, having troubled your patience in showing the difference between true Protest- ants and false subjects and traitors in a state or kingdom, and the means how to discern them, I humbly desire my actions may be com- pared with either, both as I am a subject, Protestant, and native in this country, and as I am a member of this present and happy Parlia- ment ; and as I shall be found guilty upon these articles exhibited against myself and the other gentlemen, either a bad or a good subject to my gracious sovereign and native country, to receive such sentence upon the same as by this honourable House shall be conceived to agree with law and justice." Mr. Southey thinks* that this speech incul- cates the "doctrine of passive obedience," and Lord Nugent thinks it a very constitutional speech. It is a matter of surprise that so emi- nent a writer as Mr. Southey, and an intellect so acute, should think it likely, or even possi- ble, for such a man as he thinks Hampden to have been (the fiercest of rebels and the most insincere), placed in the circumstances under which the above is said to have been spoken, to deliver himself of such a " doctrine." What Quarterly Review, before referred to. JOHN HAMPDEN. 1253 advantage was to be gained by it or, rather, what advantage was not to be lostl On the other hand, Lord Nugent has been wanting in candour, and, taking the argument as he was content to rest it, must be said to have been worsted by his more experienced opponent.* It occurred to neither of the disputants that the passages in dispute may have been garbled or incorrectly reported. Of this there cannot be a single doubt. The only writer who copies the speech is Doctor Nalson, whose slavish propensities are well known, and whose " col- lections" were published by Charles II. 's spe- cial command ; yet even he cautiously intro- duces it thus, " I find among the prints of that time." The editors of the old Parliamentary History, though with a strong Royalist ten- dency, were more honest ; and they have re- fused to admit the speech in its present state into their work, on the express ground that it " was judged, by some learned gentlemen, to be surreptitious."! The outline is likely to have been correct enough, and probably it was this that furnished the interpolator with the hint on which he worked. The Buckinghamshire petition has been men- tioned. It was brought up to London, seven days after the attempt upon Hampden and Pym, by upward of 4000 freeholders, who had ridden up from their county, each with a copy of the recent protestation of the Commons in his hat, to show their devotedness to the Parliament, and to Hampden, their beloved representative. They complained of the " very being of Parlia- ments endangered by a desperate and unex- ampled breach of privilege ;" and concluded, " in respect of that latter attempt upon the hon- ourable House of Commons, we are now come to offer our service to that end, and resolved in their just defence to live and die." Subse- quently a deputation of these bold brave men carried a petition in defence of Hampden to the king himself. A great effect was produced by the timely demonstration. % The war began, and Hampden was one of the first in the field. He hastened to Buckingham- shire, and " under the woody brows of his own beauteous Chilterns," published the ordinance to marshal the militia of his native county. He * I refer at present to certain pamphlets which followed the appearance of a review of the " Memorials" in the Quarterly, and in which, I think, to almost every other ad- vantage, Mr. Southey added the eminent one of temper, t Parl. Hist., vol. .t., p. 169. t Hence the Royalist falsehoods respecting- it have been numerous. They are all imbodied in one of the political lampoons of the day : " Did I for this my county bring 1 To help their knight against their king, And raise the first sedition 1 Though I the business did decline, Yet I conceived the whole design, And sent them their petition." In the same generous spirit Hampden's visits to Scotland are construed : ' Did I for this bring in the Snot ? (For 'tis no secret now) the plot Was Say's and mine together. Did I for this return again, And spend a winter there in vain t I went more to invite them hither. " Though more our money than our cause Their brotherly assistance draws, My labour was not lost ; At my return I brought you thence Necessity, their strong pretence, And this shall quit the cost." was received with enthusiasm. The only per- sons who fell from his side were some mem- bers of his own family. This is ever one of the greatest miseries of civil war, terrible as it is for every kind of misery. In a curious pamphlet of the day, a " Discovery of Mys- teries," I find the following living and mournful picture of England in her present extremity : " A most unnatural war, the son against the father, and the father against the son : the Earle of Warwicke fighteth for the Parliament, and my Lord Rich, his son, is with the king ; the Earle of Dover is with the king, and my Lord Rochford, his son, is with the Parliament : so one brother against another, as the Earle of Northumberland with the Parliament, and his brother with the king; the Earle of Bedford with the Parliament, and his brother with the king ; Master Perpoint with the Parliament, and the Earle of Newark with the king ; Dev- ereux Farmer with the Parliament, and his brother, Thomas Farmer, together with his brother-in-law, my Lord Cockain, with the king, and the like : and of cosens without num- ber, the one part with the king, and the other with the Parliament : and if they do this in subtlety, to preserve their estate, I say it is a wicked policie to undoe the kingdome, which all wise men should consider." This is indeed a fearful realization of the poet's fancy ! But Hampden himself was the first, in this great hour, to throw aside every relation save those in which he stood to his country, and upon the issue of the contest which had now arrived he cheerfully ventured all. He spared neither purse nor person. He subscribed 2000 to the wants of the Parliament, and accepted the commission of a colonel. A passage from one of Doctor Heylin's articles, however, pub- lished in the Mercurius Aulicus on his death, conveys a feeling of the time which was enter- tained on both sides. " It was advertized this day, that on the death of Mr. Hampden, whom the lower House had joyned as a coadjutor with the Earle of Essex, or rather placed as a superin- tendant over him, to give them an account of his proceedings, they had made choice of Sir Henry Vane the younger to attend that service, who, having had a good part of his breeding under the holy ministers of New-England, was thought to be provided of sufficient zeale not only to in- flame his excellence's cold affections, but to kindle a more fiery spirit of rebellion in his wavering souldiers." Be his position what it might, it is certain that he had not been many days in the field before he showed himself a thorough master of the military duties, and " performed them on all occasions most punc- tually."* The regiment of infantry with which he entered the war was soon considered to be one of the best in the service of the Parlia- ment. " The raising of troops," says Lord Nugent, " and the garrisoning and fortifying of towns, proceeded with rapidity. The new leiies were formed into regiments and brigades. Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had been sent down to assist Sir John Hotham, began, but with small success, to collect a force which was destined to make head against the Marquis of New- castle in the north. On Sir William Waller, Clarendon. 354 BRITISH STATESMEN. who had the command at Exeter, devolved a like charge in the west, where Sir Ralph Hop- ton, Slanning, and Grenvil occupied the great- er part of the country, and some of the small seaports, for the king. Lord Brooke in War- wickshire, Lord Say and his sons in Northamp- tonshire, the Earl of Bedford in Bedfordshire, Lord Kimbolton and Cromwell in Huntingdon and Cambridgeshire, and Lord Wharton, Ar- thur Goodwin, Mr. West, Mr. Bulstrode, Mr. Tyrell, and Mr. Richard Grenvil the high sher- iff, in Buckinghamshire ; Skippon, and Hollis, and Stapleton in Middlesex ; and the sheriffs of Essex, Surrey, and Berkshire in their re- spective counties, formed the militia re-enforce- ments for the army, which was placed under the chief direction of the Earl of Essex. This became soon the main army of the Parlia- ment ; and, in the course of less than a month after the raising of the king's standard, the Par- liamentarian force throughout England amount- ed to about 25,000 men. The whole was at the disposal of the committee of public safety. The divisions were generally placed under the com- mand of such of the chiefs as had served in the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, and a few French and German engineers were engaged to superintend the fortifications and the drilling of the artillery. The brigades and single regi- ments were raised and led by such of. the noble- men and country gentlemen as were found combining with their local influence, activity, courage, and genius enough for military affairs to be intrusted with commands. The regi- ments of infantry, as their clothing became more complete, assumed the colours of their respective leaders generally such as had been worn by the serving men of the families. Hol- lis's were the London red-coats ; Lord Brooke's the purple ; Hampden's the green-coats ; Lord Say's and Lord Mandeville's the blue. The orange, which had long been the colour of Lord Essex's household, and now that of his body- guard, was worn in a scarf over the armour of all the officers of the Parliament army, as the distinguishing symbol of their cause. Each regiment also carried a small standard, or cor- net, with, on one side, the device and motto of its colonel, and, on the other, the watch- word of the Parliament ' God with us.' The Earl of Essex's bore the inscription, ' Cave, adsum,' words not well chosen, as, in the course of the wars, they sometimes afforded occasion for jest among the Cavaliers, when his regiment chanced to be seen in retreat, or engaged in levying contributions, or in some such other duties which were distasteful to the parts of the country over which it was moving, and which thus gave a somewhat whimsical air to the warning."* Some of these mottoes were better chosen and better justified. In the third year of the war, the second son of the Earl of Leicester, Algernon Sidney, inscribed his stand- ard with the words, " Sanctus amor patria dat animum ;" and the motto which was borne at the head of Hampden's regiment resolutely in- dicated its great leader's course, " Vestigia nulla rctrorsum." It appears, from the returns of Lord Essex's army, that soon after the outbreak of the war, * I have found several of these jests in ths Mercurius Aulicus. it must have consisted of, in the whole, nearly 15,000 infantry and 4500 horse. Of the former there were twenty regiments : the lord-gen- eral's body-guard, and the regiments of the Earl of Peterborough, the Earl of Stamford, Viscount Say, Viscount Rochford, Viscount St. John, Lord Kimbolton, Lord Brooke, Lord Rob- erts, Lord Wharton, John Hampden, Denzil Hollis, Sir John Meyrick, Sir Henry Cholmley, Sir William Constable, Sir William Fairfax, Charles Essex, Thomas Grantham, Thomas Ballard and William Bamfield. The cavalry were in seventy-five troops. These were all raised, as were many of the infantry regiments, at the charge of their commanders. They were the lord-general's life-guard of gentlemen, and the troops of the Earls of Bedford, Peter- borough, and Stamford, Viscounts Say, St. John, and Fielding, Lords Brooke, Wharton, Willoughby of Parham, Hastings, Grey of Gro- by, Sir William Balfour, Sir William Waller, Sir Arthur Hazlerig, Sir Walter Erie, Sir Faith- ful Fortescue, Nathaniel, Francis, and John Fiennes, Oliver Cromwell, Valentine Waugh- ton, Henry Ireton, Arthur Goodwin, John Dai- bier, Adrian Scroope, Thomas Hatcher, John Hotham, Sir Robert Pye, Sir William Wray, Sir John Saunders, John Alured, Edwyn San- dys, John and Thomas Hammond, Alexander Pym, Anthony and Henry Mildmay, James and Thomas Temple, Arthur Evelyn, Robert Vi- vers, Hercules Langrishe, William Pretty, James Sheffield, John Gunter, Robert and Francis Dowett, John Bird, Matthew Draper, Henry Dimmocke, Horatio Carey, John Neale, Edward Ayscough, John and Francis Thomp- son, Edward Keighley, Alexander Douglas, Thomas Lydcott, John Fleming, Richard Gren- vil, Thomas Tyrell, John Hale, William Bal- four, George Austin, Edward Wingate, Edward Bainton, Charles Chichester, Walter Long, Ed- ward West, William Anselm, Robert Kirle, and Simon Rudgeley. Sir John Meyrick was, ac- cording to the military phrase then in use, sergeant-major-general of this army, the Earl of Peterborough general of the ordnance, and the Earl of Bedford of the horse. It was not so easy to equip the men as to raise them. Matchlocks, pikes, and poleaxes supplied, however, the greater number of the infantry ; and the cavalry were altogether bet- ter provided. The steel cap and gorget, the back and breast plates, the tassets descending to the knees, the long sword, carbine, and pis- tols and, occasionally, the long lances pre- sented an unobjectionable setting out. The completeness of the defences of Hazlerig's re- giment won them the name of the "lobsters ;" and that of " ironsides" has been immortally appropriated by Cromwell's men. Hampden's first muster of his levies was made on the fatal field of Chalgrove, where he afterward received his death wound. While engaged on this his earliest military duty, he illustrated the promptness and decision of his character. On hearing that some of the king's commissioners of array were in the neighbour- hood, he suddenly, without dissolving the meet- ing, withdrew a small detachment from it, sur- prised the commissioners, and sent them prison- ers to London. The king had found himself, meanwhile, at JOHN HAMPDEN. 255 the head of about 10,000 foot, 1500 dragoons, and 2000 ordinary horse. On first raising his standard at Nottingham he had but a " ragged array" of followers ; but, having gone back to York, and traversed Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire, commanding the attend- ance of the trained bands, levying forced loans, and gathering to his " array" all the lowest and most dependant classes of the community, he found himself, on halting at Shrewsbury, in possession of the force I have named. It has never been denied that, as opposed to the great bulk of Charles's army, that of the Parliament was infinitely more " substantial" and intelli- gent, consisting of almost all the inferior gen- try, freeholders, yeomen, and the sober and wealthy inhabitants of towns ; in a word, of men who had best reason to know the value of those rights of liberty and property for which they now prepared to shed their blood. On the other hand, Charles had the Church, or, rather, those still surviving influences which constituted its power before Pym and Hamp- den had razed the power itself to the dust ; he had all the Roman Catholic party ; he had the universities also ; and, on either wing, as it were, of his army, he held a majority of the nobility and the old gentry of England. Many of the latter, indeed almost all, had joined him from no other feeling than that subtle and del- icate sense of honour which the term loyalty implies, and out of the indescribable instinct of which misplaced surely towards any but an absolute sovereign they argued, that while their voices were their own in the great Par- liamentary struggle for the liberties and laws, their swords were the king's alone. "I am much unsatisfied with the proceedings here," wrote Lord Robert Spencer to his wife from the king's camp, in the first months of the war ; " nor is there wanting daily handsome occasion to retire, were it not for grinning honour. For, let occasion be never so handsome, unless a man were resolved to fight on the Parliament side, it will be said, without doubt, that a man is afraid to fight. If there could be an expedient found to solve the punctilio of honour, I would not continue here an hour." The writer's scruples were speedily solved, for he fell fighting under the royal standard. To the same class of ago- nizing doubts, notwithstanding all the protest- ing eloquence of Clarendon, belong those shrill and sad accents wherewith Falkland so often ingeminated the word peace, peace ! He was not less weary of the times than of the position in which he found himself, and he had his pas- sionate prayer of being " soon out of" them both. So, too, with Sir Edmund Verney, the first standard-bearer to Charles. He disap- proved of the cause in which he had engaged, as Clarendon confesses ; but " he had eaten of the king's bread," and honour bound him to the service. He fell in the first battle. But if " honour" was the bond of this section of the king's party, the faster and firmer bond of liberty held together the army of the Parlia- liament, massing, in one compact array, all the substantial yeomanry, the merchants, the men of the towns, and a very large and formidable minority of the peerage and landed gentry of England. No doubts or scruples attended upon this cause. It gave a common and elevated object to the sympathies of all. It gave " life in death" to all the owners of it and sufferere for it. The civil war had now fairly begun, and much blood was shed in occasional skirmishes on both sides. Hampden was in Northampton- shire with a small brigade of infantry and some guns, accompanied by his fellow-representative for Buckinghamshire, Arthur Goodwin, and his regiment of cavalry. News reached him that Lord Brooke, who had been threatened with a siege in his own castle, was suddenly very close pressed in Warwickshire, and he instant- ly hastened to his aid. Meanwhile the gallant Brooke, after a noble and high-spirited tri- umph,* had begun a march on Northampton- shire, and Hampden's brigade met him at Southam. A little army was thus formed acting as the right wing to Essex and the first strong division openly in action. Lord Say, Lord Grey, Denzil Hollis, and Cholmley, were in command along with Brooke and Hampden. In the middle of the night, the force of Lord Northampton, much more considerable in num- bers, approached within two miles of Sdutham, and the drums beat to arms. " Upon hearing whereof, the soldiers, possessed with joy that their enemies, the Cavaliers, were so near, gave a great shout, flinging up their hats and clattering their arms till the town rang again ; and, casting aside all desire of meat and lodg- ings provided for them, went immediately into the field adjoining to the town, ready for battle, where they continued till the morning."! The enemy appeared at daybreak on the Dunsmore road and lanes adjoining. At eight o'clock the fight began. Hampden, who had taken post with his brigade on some rising ground, charged first ; and, after a hot skirmish, the royal troops gave way, and were pursued to the river. This was the first serious skirmish of the war, and Hampden was the first to charge in it. Essex's movements were, meanwhile, waver- ing and compromising ; and irrevocable mis- chief might have been done, even thus early, to the cause, but for the wonderful energy of Hampden and Lord Brooke. The eloquence of the latter nobleman's addresses to his sol- diers pierced through the mailed bosoms of the dullest among the troops, and inspired them with an ever lively enthusiasm. " If the nobility and bravery of the cause, 1 ' he told some raw re-enforcements in the hall of his noble old for- tress at Warwick, " be not sufficient to animate cowards, and make even the meanest spirits courageous, I know not what possibly can stir up mortal men to put on undaunted. resolutions." These young troops marched to the assistance of the main army at Northampton, and were the bravest there ! Hampden's activity and unvyearied energy were surprising : now at the headquarters of Essex ; no\v leading his brigade in the general advance upon Worcester ; now present at the committee of public safety in London ; again, in a few days, at Aylesbury, near which, supported by Denzil Hollis, he gave sharp fight to a detachment of the enemy, re- * See Nugent's Memorials, vol. ii., p. 224. A most in- teresting passage. t " A true and perfect relation," &c., quoted in Lord Nugent's Memorials, vol. ii., p. 228. 256 BRITISH STATESMEN. pulsed and pursued them to Oxford, and then rejoined Essex. In every action or skirmish, Hampden, perhaps too boldly, exposed his per- son with such a daring intrepidity as, among thousands of men, raised him to a conspicuous mark above them all. The first great pitched battle now approach- ed. On a bright and cold morning, the 23d of October, 1642, the King of England found him- self, for the first time, opposite the thick and dark masses of the army of the Parliament of Eng- land. He was on the brow of a hill, and sep- arated from his enemy by a plain called the "Vale of the Red Horse," at Keynton Field, or Edge Hill, in Warwickshire. He addressed his officers in his tent eloquently and bravely : " If this day shine prosperous unto us," said he, "we shall all be happy in a glorious victory. Your king is both your cause, your quarrel, and your captain. The foe is in sight. Now show your- selves no malignant parties, but with your swords declare what courage and fidelity is within you. I have written and declared that I intended always to maintain and defend the Protestant religion, the rights and privileges of Parliament, and the liberty of the subject ; and now I must prove rny words by the convincing argument of the sword. Let Heaven show his power by this day's victory, to declare me just, and as a lawful, so a loving king to my subjects. The hest encouragement I can give you is this, that, come life or death, your king will bear you company, and ever keep this field, this place, and this day's service in his grateful remem- brance." He then rode along the lines, clad in steel armour, and wearing a black velvet man- tle over it, on which glittered his brilliant star and George. Never did Charles I. seem so respectable as when about to shed the blood of the bravest and most conscientious of his sub- jects. Old Lord Lindsey, his general-in-chief, dis- gusted with the overbearing insolence of Prince Rupert, acted as though only nominal com- mander, and put himself at the head of his regi- ment, with this fervent prayer, " Oh Lord ! thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not thou forget me. March on, boys !" When old Major-general Skippon, some days after, was in a similar position, he used language to the troops of the Parliament which was as homely, and proved more effect- ive. " Come, my boys, my brave boys, let us pray heartily, and fight heartily. I will run the same fortunes and hazards with you. Remem- ber the cause is for God, and for the defence of yourselves, your wives, and children. Come, my honest, brave boys, pray heartily, and fight heartily, and God will bless us." The armies had confronted each other 10,000 on the side of the Commons, and 12,000 on that of the king from ten o'clock in the morning, but the fight did not begin till two. The Royalists would not leave their position. The Parliamentarians were the first to advance ; and the enemy then gallantly descending into the plain, the battle soon hotly raged on both sides. In the front, with each a pike in his hand, Essex and Lindsey fought with heroic gallantry. Suddenly Prince Rupert made a desperate and impetuous charge, and broke the left wing of the Parliamentarians, who imme- diately fled. The braver regiments of the right wing and centre held their ground, charged gal- lantly in return, and took several of .the king's guns. Rupert meanwhile pushed on after the fugitives with his characteristic love of plunder, even as far as Keynton itself, a distance of three miles ; when two regiments, led by Hampden, were seen hastening across the en- closures to support the mangled squadrons of flying horse. He had left Stratford-on-Avon the night before, and pushed on with Gran- tham's regiment, his own green-coats, and five guns, which the men had dragged with difficulty through the deep roads. He formed instantly, and, opening fire on Rupert, obliged him to turn in great confusion. Hampden could not follow. The king's army were sorely pressed at the time of Rupert's re-arrival among them, and, night closing in, both parties left the field. Lord Lindsey had fallen covered with wounds. Sir Edmund Verney was also slain, and the royal standard was takn and retaken. On the side of the Parliament, two colonels, Charles Essex and Lord St. John, perished ; and the entire number of men left dead upon the field is said to have been about 5000. Charles Pym be- haved most gallantly. A Parliamentary soldier, dying of his wounds, declared that his deepest grief was having received his death from the hand of his brother. He had recognised him among the royal troops, and turned aside, but not in time to avoid the fatal carbine, which was impetuously discharged from the hand that had never before been raised but in affection.* Both sides claimed the victory. Hampden joined Essex early on the follow- ing morning, and implored him earnestly to press forward, force the king's position, relieve Banbury, and throw himself at once on the con- tested line of the road to the capital. Essex was timid and indecisive ; he marched, in pref- erence, on Coventry, while the king, taking Banbury in his way without resistance, march- ed to Oxford, where he halted. The next movement of Essex, after consid- erable sluggishness, was upon Northampton, Hampden and Arthur Goodwin leading the ad- vanced guard. Lord Nugent has produced a letter which during the inarch Hampden wrote from Northampton to the lieutenants of Buck- inghamshire to encourage them : " To my noble friends, Colonel Bulstrode, Cap- tain Grenvil, Captain Tyrell, Captain West, or any of them. "Gentlemen, The army is now at Nor- thampton, moving every day nearer to you. If you disband not, we may be a mutual succour to each other ; but if you disperse, you make yourselves and your country a prey. " You shall hear daily from your servant, "JoHN HAMPDEN. "Northampton, Oct. 31." " I wrote this enclosed letter yesterday, and thought it would have come to you then, but the messenger had occasion to stay till this morning. We cannot be ready to march till to-morrow, and then, I believe, we shall. I desire you will be pleased to send to me again as soon as you can, to the army, that we may know what posture you are in, and then you * D'Israeli's Commentaries, vol. v., p. 57. JOHN HAMPDEN. 257 will hear which way we go. You shall do me a favour to certify me what you hear of the king's forces, for I believe your intelligence is better from Oxford and those parts than ours can be. " Your humble servant, " JOHN HAMPDEN. "Northampton, Nov. 1, 1642." Brentford, meanwhile, was occupied by Hol- lis's regiment only. A numerous force of cav- alry, with some pieces of artillery, under the command of Rupert, unexpectedly fell upon them. Essex was in the House of Lords when the roaring of the cannon reached him. He mounted horse instantly, and rode to the scene of action, where he found the regiments of Hampden and Lord Brooke already to the res- cue, and the Royalists retiring, after having done some serious mischief. Five times had Hampden and Brooke charged the streets to open passage for retreat to Hollis's brave and suffering men, and five times were repulsed by overwhelming numbers and with great car- nage. A re-enforcement arrived on the following morning. Hampden proposed then to march 3000 men to Hounslow, and cut off the king's retreat on Oxford, while Essex and the main army attacked him in front. This was agreed to ; but he had not proceeded a mile on his gallant errand when he was overtaken by coun- ter orders. Here was another great error. Hampden was obliged to direct his march to Reading. Clarendon himself admits, "There had been, in the secret committee for the car- rying on the war, forming those designs, and administering to the expenses thereof, a long debate, with great difference of opinion, wheth- er they should not march directly with their army to besiege Oxford, where the king and the court was, rather than Reading ; and, if they had taken that resolution, as Mr. Hampden, and all they who desired still to strike at the root, very earnestly insisted upon, without doubt they had put the king's affairs into great con- fusion ; for, besides that the town was not tolerably fortified, nor the garrison well pro- vided for, the court, and multitude of nobility, and ladies, and gentry, with which it was in- habited, bore any kind of alarum very ill."* These words of Clarendon, " strike at the root," explain the cause of these unhappy dif- ferences. Essex remained unimpeached in honour, but he never was for " striking at the root." He had not, like Hampden, when he drew his sword, cast away the scabbard. He never saw himself near to a great victory that he did not tremble ; in defeat and disaster alone he stood erect and gallantly. Hampden, mortified and sorrowful, sat down with his forces before Reading. Some few short months before he had brought home a bride from that pleasant town ! This very fact, coupled with a knowledge that the major- ity of the inhabitants were really well affected to the cause, probably guided him in his course of only firing a few shots into the town, though commanding a view of almost every street. Colonel Lewis Kirke, the father of the infa- mous Kirke, commanded the Royalist garrison there ; and Colonel Urrie, so soon after a rene- gade, seconded Hampden with a small body of * Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. iv., p. 30, 40. KB cavalry. Kirke attempted several sallies, and was repulsed with loss ; and at daybreak on the third morning, Hampden and Urrie, judging the garrison fatigued and dispirited, determined to attempt the walls by assault. Accordingly, advancing silently from the trenches with 400 picked men, Hampden, in the gray twilight of the morning, passed the outer and second ditch, and, mounting the rampart, threw himself into the northernmost bastion. A desperate resist- ance was made, and terrible slaughter accom- panied it. Then Hampden, calling forward the reserves, placed himself at the' head of a sec- ond attack, and again, with fresh men strug- gling up the walls, renewed the fight on the breast of the main work. Kirke, upon this, drew out the whole garrison, and the " conflict came to push of pike," chief to chief, each at the head of his party, and each cheering his men by desperate achievement. Hampden, however, overpowered by force, must have re- tired, when Urrie, who had detached himself to the right, pushed between the Cavaliers and the town. The fire from the inhabitants at once ceased ; and, after four hours' terrible struggle, and 400 men of the garrison left dead in the place, Kirke abandoned the defence and escaped to Oxford. Hampden remained mas- ter of Reading, of many stores, much baggage, and a large number of prisoners.* And so closed the first year of the war brilliant successes, on a comparatively small scale, by Hampden great opportunities lost by Essex ! The king might be said to be victor, because he ought to have been, and was not, vanquished. Meanwhile Hampden had become more than ever dear to the popular party, and hateful to the court at Oxford. The filth of the " Mercu- rius Aulicus," poured out upon him by its reli- gious editors, testified to both feelings. About this time I find the following in that loyal pub- lication : " It is advertized by some who have beene curious in the observation, that Mr. Hampden, one of the five members so much talked of, hath had many great misfortunes since the beginning of these present troubles,, whereof he hath beene a principall mover, par- ticularly that he hath buried since that time- two of his daughters, one grandchild which he- had by a daughter married to Sir Robert Pye the younger, his owne eldest sonne and heir ; there being two onely sonnes surviving, where- of the one is said to be a cripple, and the other a lunatike ; of which, whatever use may be- made by others, 'tis not unfit but that the party whom it most concerns would lay it close unto his heart, and make such use thereof as the sad case invites him to."t Anything more * Lord Nugent's Memorials, vol. ii., p. 348. Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer. t Mercurius Aulicus, 15th week. The same brutal wri- ter observed, on the news of the patriot's early death: " Saturday, June 24. This day we were advertized that Master John Hampden (the principal member of the five) was dead of those wounds he received on Sunday last. If so, the reader may remember, that in the 15th weeke of this ' MercurJus,' we told the world what faire warning Master Hampden ' had received since the beginning of this rebellion (whereof he was a chiefe incendiary), how he had buried his sonne and heir and" his two daughters, two oneTy sonnes surviving, whereof one was a cripple and the other a lunatike,' which, though this desperate man was unwill- ing to make use of, yet sure it ro-xy startle the rest of his faction, especially if they consider that Chalgrove Field 258 BRITISH STATESMEN. horrible than such an attack as this (supposing it true) could scarcely be conceived. It was a gross falsehood, with only so much truth as to give bitter pain to its illustrious object. He had indeed lost his eldest son, and his favourite and beloved daughter, Mrs. Knightley. He was seldom known to smile afterward. Nothing, however not even such sorrows could quench his indomitable activity. He was now almost daily on the road between the ad- vanced posts of the army and London, and was frequently able to discharge, in the same day, his double duties at the army and with Pym in the public committee. The poet Denham, then in the king's service, thus described it, at this time, in one of the lampoons from which I have already quoted : " Have I so often passed between Windsor and Westminster unseen, And did myself divide, To keep his excellence in awe, And give the Parliament the law, For they knew none beside ?" Fortunately for Denham and his party, this was not altogether true. Hampden was not able to "keep his excellence in awe." His excellency's timidity still forced him into every kind of error ; and so manifest, especially to the Royalists, was the superiority of Hampden, that they attempted, with daring artfulness, to sow dissensions in the troops of the enemy by plain statements of a rivalry for the Parliament- arian command. I find the following in the "Mercurius Aulicus :" " It was this day report- ed exceedinglie confidently, by some who came from London lately, how it was noised in the citie that the Earle of Essex was to leave the place of generall unto Mr. Hampden, as one more active, and so, by consequence, more capable of the style of excellencie ; which, though it proved not so in the event (as it is not likely), yet shows it clearly what an ill opinion the principall maintainers of this rebellion have of this said earle, and with how little confidence the common soldiers will be brought to spend their lives under the colours and command of such a generall, of whom they have so mani- fested a distrust by their common talke, and whom they have so publikely exposed to con- tempt and scorn in abusive pictures." No doubt it was from this authority that Anthony Wood derived his statement of such an inten- tion of placing Hampden in chief command having been entertained at the commencement of the war. No good authority ever existed for it, happy as the issue might have been for England. On the occurrence and disclosure of the Waller plot, in which a cousin of Hampden was found dishonourably implicated, a base advan- tage was taken of the name by the slavish scribes at Oxford, to throw out the vilest in- sinuations against Hampden's honesty and vir- tue. I find this alluded to in one of the jour- nals of the Parliament ; and the extract is curious and valuable, since it supplies, what has more than once been questioned, the real relationship of Waller's fellow-conspirator to (where he now received this mortal wound) was the self- same place where he first mustered and drew up men in armes to rebell against the king. But whether the life and death of the Lord Brooke or Master Hampden be the better lesson against treason and rebellion, let posteritie judge." the patriot. "In this place, that I may not exceed the length of my semanicall intelligence, I should return again to speake somewhat more of the discoverie of the plot which I made men- tion of before ; the malevolents cannot endure to heare of any at all, yet some would seeme to admit of it upon condition that Coloncll Hampden might be involved as a conspirator therein ; and, therefore, hearing that one Hampden was in- trusted about it, they have reported that it was Colonell Hampden, or his brother, Mr. Richard Hampden. And lest this report should breed any mistake abroad, and so derogate from the worth of these noble and faithfull gentlemen, I will be bold to speake a word or two of their pedigree, so farre onely as will cleare the mat- ter. Mr. Alexander Hampden that is commit- ted was sonne to Sir Edward Hampden of Northamptonshire, and, travelling into the Low Countries, became cross-bearer to the Queen of Bohemia, and since the warres came over into England, and remained in the king's armie till hee was sent with a message to the Parlia- ment, and before hee was returned back with an answer the plot was discovered. It is true they were brothers' children, and it is too fre- quent, in these times especially, that those which are neare of blood are one against an- other."* Meanwhile Hampden had just achieved one of his most valuable services to the cause, in forming with Pym that celebrated association of counties to which Cromwell was afterward chiefly indebted for his most brilliant successes. At this time, suddenly, Lord Northampton at- tacked his regiment, and was repulsed with loss. The next affair he was engaged in the assisting Grenvil to recover Brill Hill, a post of great strength, between Aylesbury and Thame was unsuccessful. " Mercurius Aulicus" made much of this ; and, returning to the sub- ject a second and third time, I find every week some correction of an error he had fallen into in describing the " businesse and successe" at Brill. " For whereas, by the first intelligence which was given from thence, it was advertized that the forces brought before the towne were conducted by Mr. Arthur Goodwin, and that Captain Grenville, the last yeare's sheriff of Buckinghamshire, had been killed in the enter- prize ; it proved, on further information, that the commander of the rebells was not Colonell Goodwin, but one as goode as hee, per omnia, viz., Mr. Hampden, the other of the two exceptcd in his majestic 's pardon for the countie of Bucking- ham; and that Grenville was not killed out- right, but mortally wounded in the belly, so that it was conceived he could hardly escape it." The Royalists had now a series of successes : Lord Wentworth, the young and gallant son of the great Lord Strafford, distinguished himself; and the noble and good Lord Brooke was slain by a musket shot in the brain, fired from the Cathedral tower of Litchfield, as he was direct- ing the advance of a body of troops up a street leading towards the close. This was an ir- reparable loss ; and a loss more fatal still was now near at hand. Some serious discontents occurred about this period in the regiments which held Reading, in * King's Pamphlets, 117, 4to. JOHN HAMPDEN. 259 consequence of an ague breaking out in that town. Hampden's regiment took part in them. He hurried instantly from Westminster, where he was at the time, and, by his prompt boldness and frank courage, reduced the mutineers to perfect discipline.* His spirit wearied, how- ever, after some great enterprise, which Essex dared not attempt. Deeply sorrowful, yet quiet in obedience, as became the place he filled, he waited on in hope. The soldiers are said, and with much probability, to have now clamoured for him as their leader; but the only notice Hampden took of this was worthy of his noble and generous mind. He placed himself in more frequent communication with Essex, and seem- ed to counsel him and promote his views. But counsel from Hampden continued vain in that quarter still ; vain as when, on four different occasions after Edgehill, after Brentford, after the attack on Reading, and now after the fall of Reading its rejection had possibly baffled the immediate and final decision of the war. The time had now come when no more coun- sel could be given, and none rejected more. The renegade Urrie, thoroughly versed in the country and the habits of the Parliament- arian army, now planned the expedition which ended in the eventful fight of Chalgrove. He gave the treacherous information that two regi- ments of the forc.es he had left lay exposed to attack at Wickham. Prince Rupert, acting on this, attacked those regiments unexpectedly at Postcombe first, and then at Chinnor ; slew or took them " to a man," committed infinite cruelties, and marched back upon Oxford. Hampden had, on the preceding day, strongly represented to Essex the danger to which this part of the line was exposed, and urged the ne- cessity of strengthening it by calling in the re- mote pickets from Wycombe. It was now too late for this, but not too late, in Hampden's active and resolute thought, to prevent farther danger. " He had obtained in early life," says Lord Nugent, " from the habits of the chase, a thorough knowledge of the pass- es of this country. It is intersected in the up- per parts with woods, and deep, chalky hollows, and in the vales with brooks and green lanes, the only clear roads along the foot of the hills from east to west, and these not very good, being the two ancient Roman highways, called the Upper and Lower Ickenild Way. Over this district he had expected that some great opera- tion would be attempted on the king's part, to force the posts round Thame, and turn the whole eastern flank of the army. To this neigh- bourhood he had, the evening before, repaired, and had lain that night in Wellington.? On the first alarm of Rupert's irruption, he sent off a trooper to the lord-general at Thame, to advise moving a force of infantry and cavalry to Chis- elhampton Bridge, the only point at which Ru- pert could recross the river. Some of his friends would have dissuaded him from adven- turing his person with the cavalry on a service which did not properly belong to him, wishing him rather to leave it to those officers of lesser ' note, under whose immediate command the pickets were. But, wherever danger was, and i hope of service to the cause, there Hampden 1 ever felt that his duty lay. He instantly mount- ed, with a troop of Captain Sheffield's horse, who volunteered to follow him ; and, being joined by some of Gunter's dragoons, he en- deavoured, by several charges, to harass and ! impede the retreat, until Lord Essex should have had time to make his dispositions at the j river. Towards this point, however, Rupert , hastened, through Tetsworth, his rear-guard ! skirmishing the whole way. On Chalgrove Field the prince overtook a regiment of his in- i fantry ; and here, among the standing corn, i which covered a plain of several hundred acres (then, as now, unenclosed), he drew up in order of battle. Gunter, now joining three troops of horse and one of dragoons, who were advan- cing from Easington and Thame over Colder Hill, came down among the enclosures facing the right of the prince's line, along a hedgerow which still forms the boundary on that side of Chalgrove Field. The prince, with his life- guards and some dragoons, being in their front, the fight began with several fierce charges. And now, Colonel Neale and General Percy coming up, with the prince's left wing on their flank, Gunter was slain, and his party gave way. Yet every moment they expected the main body, with Lord Essex, to appear. Mean while Hampden, with the two troops of Sheffield and Cross, having come round the right of the Cavaliers, advanced to rally and support the beaten horse. Every effort was to be made to keep Rupert hotly engaged till the re-enforce- ments should arrive from Thame. Hampden put himself at the head of the attack ; but, in. the first charge, he received his death-wound. He was struck in the shoulder with two car- bine balls,* which, breaking the bone, entered * Lord Nugent's Memorials, vol. ii., p. 412. Coatcs's Papers, May 26. t " It is traditionally said that a military chest of money was left at the house of one Robert Parslow, where Hamp- den lay that night, and that it was never called for after, by which means Parslow was enabled to bequeath a liberal legacy to the poor of that parish. On every anniversary of his funeral, November 19th, a bell tolls in Watlington from morning till sunset, and twenty poor men are provided with coats. These particulars I derive from the intelligent Mr. John Badcock, for forty years a resident at Pyrton and its neighbourhood, but now of St. Helen's, who wrote in 1816 a very ingenious little history of VVatliugton." * " On the king's part, in this action, were lost, besides few common men, no officers of note, but some hurt : ou the enemy's side, many of the best officers, more than in any battle they fought ; and among them (which made tha news of the rest less inquired after by the one, and less la- mented by the other) Colonel Hampden, who was shot in, the shoulder with a brace of pistol bullets, of which wound, with very sharp pain, he died within ten days, to as great a consternation of all that party as if the whole army had been defeated and cut off." Clarendon's History of the Re- bellion, vol. iv., p. 81, 82, restored text. In a second pas- sage of this restored text, portions of which seem to have been struck out by Clarendon himself, there is a second al- lusion to the wounded, after which the writer proceeds : " Of which Mr. Hampden was one, who would not stay that morning till his own regiment came up, but put himself a volunteer in the head of those troops who were upon their march, and was the principal cause of their precipitation, contrary to his natural temper, which, though full of cour- age, was usually very wary; but now, carried on by his fate, he would by no means expect the general's coming up, and he was of that universal authority that no officer paused in obeying him. And so in the first charge he received a pistol shot in his shoulder, which broke the bone, and put him to great torture ; and after he had endured it about three weeks, or less time, he died, to the most universal grief of the Parliament that they could have received from any accident : and it equally increased the joy for the suc- cess at Oxford, and very reasonably ; for the loss of a man, which Would have been thought a full recompense for ft considerable defeat, could not but be looked upon as a glo- rious crowu of a victory." Is it possible, after this, to credit 260 BRITISH STATESMEN. his body, and his arm hung powerless and shattered by his side. Sheffield was severely wounded, and fell into the hands of the enemy. Overwhelmed by numbers, their best officers killed or taken, the great leader of their hopes and of their cause thus dying among them, and the day absolutely lost, the Parliamentarians no longer kept their ground. Essex came up too late ; aad Rupert, though unable to pursue, made good his retreat across the river to Ox- ford." Immediately after this melancholy day, " a true relation" of the affair was published in London. I present it, without abridgment, from the king's collection of pamphlets. When it appeared Hampden yet lived, and hope was en- tertained of his recovery : " Upon Monday last it was informed, by di- vers letters, and severall persons that came from the armie, to this effect, namely, That on Saturday last, three or four troopes of the king's forces having wheeled about from Ab- ington to Wallingford, and from thence towards Stoken Church, under the hills neare to Tets- worth, they came unto a towne three miles from Thame, called Chinner (at which place the lord-generall, with his maine forces, con- sisting, as it is credibly informed, of very neare 30,000 able fighting men, were quartered), it being upon the edge of Buckinghamshire, at which place were quartered about 400 of the Parliament's forces, the greatest part where- of were forces that lately came to assist his excellencie in the Parliament's service, which came out of Bedfordshire and Essex; and miss- ing of the Parliament's scouts, they came to the said towne, and gave a sudden assault against the Parliament's forces there, and cut off some of their sentinells, and entered the towne, and, according to their barbarous and destructive manner, fired the same in divers places. But, before I proceed in the further relation of this businesse, I may not forget the valour and courage of the Parliament's forces which were in this towne ; for they charged the enemie with as much courage and resolu- tion as could be expected or performed by men being unexpectedly assaulted, and continued fighting with them many houres. Upon this assault of the enemie, an alarm was given at the lord-generall's quarters at Thame, upon which divers troopes of horse were designed to sally forth upon this expedition ; and amongst those colonells and commanders that were, at an instant, willing to hazard their lives upon this designe, Colonell Hampden (who is a gen- tleman that hath never beene wanting to ad- venture his life and fortunes for the goode and welfare of his king and countrey) may not be forgotten, who, finding of a goode troope of horse (whose captaine was at that time will- ing), desired to know whether they would be commanded by him upon this designe ; where- upon the officers and common souldiers freely and unanimously consented, and proffered to adventure their lives with this noble gentle- man, and showed much cheerfulnesse that they could have the honour to be led by so noble a captaine. And so the said Colonell Hampden, and some other colonells and captaines, came the statement which has been made of Charles's affected sympathy, and offer to send his own surgeon to Hampden ? with a considerable partie of horse with all ex- pedition, to assist the rest of their forces, which as aforesaid were quartered at Chinner ; and as soon as the Cavaliers perceived that some of the lord-generall's forces were come in from Thame, they presently fled from Chinner backe againe towards Tetsworth, and were then pur- sued by Colonell Hampden and the rest of the lord-generall's forces that came upon this de- signe about two miles, in which pursuit there were many of the king's forces killed and ta- ken prisoners. In which retreat this is ob- servable, that the Cavaliers (as it appeared af- terwards) had plotted, in a perfidious manner, to have intrapped the Parliament's forces, and to have killed or taken them all prisoners. But it pleased God to prevent their plot ; for in the way, Prince Rupert, who, with about 1000 horse, lay in ambush readie to fall upon the Parliament's forces, as they were in pur- suit of the first victory, appeared, and gave a hot charge upon the Parliament's forces ; but, although the Earle of Essex's forces were scarce ten for one that were at this time in the battel, yet they gave them a brave volly of shot, and slew many of the enemie's forces as well at this place, which was neare Tetsworth, as at Chin- ner, and for some time, it being Sunday morn- ing, held them fight without the losse of many men ; but at last, the enemie having intelli- gence that some regiments of foot were com- ing from Thame of the lord-generall's forces, they retreated towards Abington, and durst not fight till they came in, for the foot forces are a great amazement unto them. " Having thus farre in a generall manner de- clared the truthe of this businesse, it rests, in the next place, that I enter into some particu- lars concerning the same, for the better satis- faction of the kingdome, whose expectation thirsteth after the same. I dare not delude with false and fabulous matter, and therefore I shall (being the first relater hereof) omit un- certaine reports, rather than committ that to writing which hereafter may be questionable ; and therefore I shall be more sparing therein, and write onely those things which are authen- tike ; which that I may doe, First, it is cer- taine that Colonell Hampden, that noble and valiant gentleman, received a shott with a bul- let behind in the shoulder, which stuck be- tween the bone and the flesh, but is since drawne forth, and himself very cheerfull and heartie, and is, through God's mercy, more likely to be a badge of honour than any danger of life. " Serjt. Major Gunter, a gentn. of the Par- liament's side, was slaine, and Captn. Buller (as it is thought) taken prisoner : some other prisoners were taken on the Parliament's side ; but, in regard the particulars of the fight were not knowne when the intelligence came from the armie, I shall omit to particularize any more of them. " On the enemie's side was slaine Captn. Legge (who was once taken prisoner by the Parliament's forces, and made an escape) ; and it is said that Col. Urrie, which was heretofore imployed in the Parliamts. service, and was the last weeke in London, is either killed or taken prisoner. Thomas Howard is also taken pris- oner by the Parliament's forces, with divers JOHN HAMPDEN. 261 other gent, of qualitie, besides common soul- diers. " The certaine number that were slaine on either side I shall not at this time relate, for that it was not knowne in the armie when the post that brought this tidings came from thence ; but it is reported that there was an equal losse on both sides, there being 400 slaine on both sides. " A great part of the towne of Chinner was burnt by the king's forces ; by which doings, compared with what hath beene certified out of other parts, we may see that killing, burn- ing, and destroying of all that is deare to us, is the religion, lawes, and propertie of the sub- ject they seeke for." Essex himself immediately wrote to the speaker of the House of Commons ; and, anx- ious to preserve the immediate records of this memorably mournful event, I have extracted this letter, dated the day after Hampden re- ceived his wound, from the same sources : " Sir, There being some of my horse that had an encounter with the enemie yesterday, being Sunday, I have thought fit to give the House an account of the particulars of it, know- ing howe apt many are to report things to our disadvantage. " About two of the clock on Sunday morn- ing, the enemie, with about 1200 horse, and a great bodie of dragoons, felle into a towne called Porcham [Postcombe], where one troope of horse (being Coll. Morley's) was quartered, of which they took the greatest part, and from thence went not farre to another village called Chinner, where they beate up some of the new Bedfordshire dragoons, and took some of them prisoners, and three of their colours ; and some of the officers behaving themselves very well, and defending the houses wherein they were, they set fire to the towne. These being out quarters, the alarm came where Major Gunter lay with three troopes, viz., his owne, Captaine Sheffield's, and Captaine Crosse's, whom he presently drew out, and marched towards the enemie. Colonell Hampden being abroad with Sir Samuel Luke, and onely one man, and see- ing Major Gunter's forces, they did go along with them. Col. Dalbier, the quartermaster- generall, did likewise come to them. With these they drew neare the enemie, and finding them marching away, kept still upon the reare for nearely five miles. In this time there joyned with them Captaine Sander's troope, and Captaine Buller, with fiftie commanded men, which were sent to Chinner by Sir Philip Stapleton (who had the watch here that night at Thame), when he discovered the fire there, to know the occasion of it ; he likewise sent one troope of dragoons under the command of Captn. Dundasse, who came up to them. There were likewise some of Col. Melve's dragoons that came to them. At length our men press- ed them so neare, that, being in a large pas- ture ground, they drew up, and notwithstand- ing the inequalitie of the numbers, we having not above 300 horse, our men charged them very gallantly, and slew divers of them ; but while they were in fight, the enemie, being so very strong, kept a bodie of horse for his re- serve, and with that bodie wheeled about and charged our men in the reare, so that, being incompassed and overborne with multitudes, they broke and fled, though it was not very farre ; for when I hearde that our men march- ed in the reare of the enemie, I sent to Sir Philip Stapleton, who presently marched to- wards them with his regiment, and though he came somewhat short of the skirmish, yet see- ing our men retreat in that disorder, he stopt them, caused them to draw into a bodie with him, where they stood about an houre, where- upon the enemie marched away. In this skir- mish there were slaine fortie and five on both sides, whereof the greater part were theirs. " They carried off the bodies of divers per- sons of qualitie. On our side Major Gunter was killed, but some say he is prisoner, and so hurt ; a man of much courage and fidelitie, his bravery engaging him and his small partie too farre. Col. Hampden put himselfe in Captaine Crosse his troope, where he charged with much courage, and was unfortunately shott through the shoulder. Sir Samuel Luke thrice taken prisoner, and fortunately rescued. Captn. Crosse had his horse killed under him in the middest of the enemie, and was mounted by one of his owne men, who quitted his owne horse to save his captaine. " Captn. Buller was shott in the neck, who showed very much resolution in this fight, ta- king one prisoner after he was shott. Monsieur Dalbier, with Captaine Bosa, and Captn. Ennis, did likewise carry themselves very well. Wee likewise lost two colours, Major Gunter's and Captaine Sheffield's. No prisoners of qualitie were taken by the enemie but Captn- Sheffield's brother. Prince Rupert was there in person, and the renegado Urrie. Wee took prisoner one of the Earle of Berk's sonnes ; Captn. Gar- diner, the late recorder's sonne of London ; and Captn- Smith, with some others of qualitie, and divers prisoners. " Sir, this is the true relation of what passed m this businesse. I rest " Your assured friend, "ESSEX. " Thame, 19th of June, 1643." The graphic touches of the following, taken from one of the Parliament newspapers, will complete the sad narrative : " In the late skir- mish with the Cavaliers between Thame and Oxford, my lord-generall's owne letter, in print, expresses the particulars where five troopes of the Parliament's forces charged fifteen troopes of the enemie's, and did, with their pistols and carbines, at the first charge, doe great execu- tion ; but the enemie, when they begun to close, having long rapiers and swords, a foot and halfe longer than ordinary, did therewith much annoy the Parliament souldiers, except that great-spirited little Sir Samuel Luke, who so guarded himselfe with his short sword that he escaped without hurt, though thrice taken prisoner, yet rescued, and those to whom he was prisoner slaine. The third time he was taken prisoner, one of his owne men, seeing two lead away his master a-foot, with his car- bine he killed one of them, and runne the other through with his sword, and mounted Sir Sam- uel upon one of their horses, and brought him cleare off, for which his nobletnaster gave him 100, as he well deserved it. Colonell Hamp- den and Sergeant-major Gunter_were hurt at BRITISH STATESMEN. the first charge, Colonell Urrie, that renegado, crying, 'That's Hampden,' 'That's Gunter,' ' That's Luke,' which made the enemie so fierce upon our commanders. This false-hearted Ur- rie, that hath so long served the Parliament under pretence of affection, and hath beene privy so much to the counsells of the armie, communicating from time to time to the Cava- liers at Oxford the designes of the Earle of Essex, about three or four days after he runne clergymen, he thought its doctrine in the great- er part primitive and conformable to God's word, as in Holy Scripture revealed." He was attended by Dr. Giles, the rector of Chinner, with whom he had lived in habits of close friendship, and Dr. Spurstow, an independent minister, the chaplain of his regiment. At length, being well-nigh spent, and labouring for breath, he turned himself to die in prayer. "O Lord God of hosts," said he, "great is thy away to Oxford, knowing the quarters of the I mercy, just and holy are thy dealings unto us Parliament's armie, commanded a partie of the sinful men. Save me, Lord,_if it be thy good Cavaliers, and so betrayed the Parliament's forces in the said skirmish." The Royalists soon received the welcome news of this dreadful day. " One of the pris- oners," says Lord Clarendon, " who had been will, from the jaws of death. Pardon my man- ifold transgressions. Lord, save my bleed- ing country, cial keeping. Have these realms in thy spe- Confound and level in the dust those who would rob the people of their liberty taken in the action, said 'that he was confident j and lawful prerogative. Let the king see his Mr. Hampden was hurt, for he saw him ride j error, and turn the hearts of his wicked coun- off the field before the action was done, which j sellers from the malice and wickedness of their he never used to do, and with his head hanging j designs. Lord Jesu, receive my soul !" He down, and resting his hands upon the neck of ! then mournfully uttered, " O Lord, save my his horse,' by which he concluded he was hurt." ! country. O Lord, be merciful to .... "and It is a tradition, Lord Nugent adds, in an affect- i here his speech failed him. He fell back in ing passage of his Memorials, " that he was ! the bed and expired.* seen first moving in the direction of his father- ! He was buried among the hills and woods of in-law's (Simeon's) house at Pyrton. There the Chilterns. Many troops in the neighbour- he bad in youth married the first wife of his ', hood followed the beloved body to its grave, in love, and thither he would have gone to die. I the parish church adjoining his mansion. With But Rupert's cavalry were covering the plain arms reversed, drums and ensigns muffled, and between. Turning his horse, therefore, he heads uncovered, they marched with what re- rode back across the grounds of Hazeley in his mained of the illustrious patriot to his last rest- way to Thame. At the brook which divides ing-place, singing the 90th Psalm as they went, the parishes he paused a while ; but it being and the 43d as they returned, impossible for him, in his wounded state, to re- I The "Weekly Intelligencer" published an mount, if he had alighted to turn his horse over, interesting article the week after his death, he suddenly summoned his strength, clapped which is here subjoined: "The losse of Col- spurs, and cleared the leap. In great pain, and onell Hampden goeth neare the hearte of every almost fainting, he reached Thame, and was man that loves the goode of his king and coun- conducted to the house of one Ezekiel Browne, i trey, and makes some conceive little content to be where, his wounds being dressed, the surgeons ; at the armie nowe that he is gone. It offers me an would, for a while, have given him hopes of opportunitie to present you with some more life. But he felt that his hurt was mortal ; weekly intelligence, which I intend to continue, and, indulging no weak expectations of recov- The memorie of this deceased colonell is such ery, he occupied the few days that remained to ; that in no age to come but it will more and him in dispatching letters of counsel to the ' more be had in honour and esteeme : a man so Parliament in prosecution of his favourite plan, i religious, and of that prudence, judgement, tern- While the irresolute and lazy spirit which had per, valour, and integritie, that he hath left few directed the army in the field should continue his like behind him. His bitterest enemies to preside in the council of war, Hampden had could never fasten any action of disrepute upon reason to despair of the great forward move- him, but one (as they called it), which I con- ment to which he had throughout looked for ceive was for his eternall honour, that he was the success of the cause ; and now the re-en- too zealous a Christian (as by their pamphlets at forcements which were pouring into Oxford Oxford appeares), which, if it be a sinne, then from the north, and the weakened condition of of all sinnes in this world the Cavaliers are the Parliament, made the issue of this more least guiltie of it. What man of this kingdome doubtful. His last urgent advice was to con- j deserved more of the Commonwealth (when it centrate the position of the army covering the ! was almost treason to say I will stand for my London road, and provide well for the threat- libertie) than this gent, did, when he (alone> ened safety of the metropolis, and thus to rouse i stood for the subject's libertie and propertie, the troops from the mortifying remembrance ! choosing, rather than to pay 40*. to the preju- of their late disasters to vigorous preparations, dice of the subject, to spend 1000 in the law- which yet might lead, by a happier fortune, in turn to a successful attack." But, after nearly six days of cruel suffering, his bodily powers no longer sufficed to pursue or conclude the business of his earthly work. About seven hours before his death he received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, declaring that " though he^ould not away with the gov- ernance of the Church by bishops, and did ut- terly abominate the scandalous lives of some full defence thereof, viz., in the great intoller- able tax of ship-money (in the times of peace, when there was no need of it, but that the de- signes of the times were to break the ice to drive us under an arbitrary government) ; and I appeale to the consciences of the malignants * dough's Narration. [In the Ashmole Museum is a locket of plain cornelian, which, it is said, Hampden wore on his breast. On the silver rim these words are inscribed: " Against my king I never fight, But for my king and country's right." C.] JOHN HAMPDEN. 263 if they did not honour him then above all the J And in an article of the " Weekly Accompt," subjects in the kingdome] Master Hoborne j written on the same sad occasion, some cir- (though nowe through other respects of another j cumstances are added to our previous knowl- minde) was then one of his chiefe champions ! edge of the patriot : " Speaking of the affaires to pleade his and the kingdome's case ; for his I of Buckinghamshire, it puts me in remembrance temper and prudence in the carriage of that businesse he was admired of all men, and God (contrary to the designes of man, and the countenance of great lords and courtiers nowe at Oxford, then present to awe the judges at the time of the argument of that case) produced goode effects to the kingdome, and damned ship-money in the opinion of the people, what- ever the opinion of some of the judges were. Howe hath this gentleman carried himselfe since this Parliament begun 1 Constant to de- fend our religion and libertie, for which cause alone (for no other cause yet appeares to the world) he with four others was accused of high treason by Master Herbert, first the queene's attorney, then the king's, who, being afterwards questioned for it in the presence of both houses of Parliament, did publikely declare that though he accused them of high treason, whereby their lives lay at stake, their estates might become forfeit, and their posteritie branded with infamy, yet he had no more cause, proofe, or reason to accuse Master Hampden, or any of the other four members, than to accuse the child unborne ; onely his master commanded him to do it, and the king offered to pass a bill to cleare him and them, though since refused ; and by his last proclamation of the 16th of June instant to dissolve this Parliament, passes by one of the Jive members in the particular exception, not- withstanding the said accusations. I will add onely a worde more concerning him (though too much of his worth cannot be said), that his whole indeavours since the Parliament begun was for the publike, not regarding his private in any kinde. He wisely foresaw the designes of the counsell about the king to introduce a tyrannicall government, and thereby to set up poperie, and was sensible of the corresponden- cy of counsells in the distractions of the three kingdomes (as both houses have voted) ; and that, all former plots and designes against Scot- land and this present Parliament failing, the said counsells resolved on the bloodie rebellion in Ireland, and the destroying this Parliament by the sword, as their last refuge to bring to pass their designes, which incouraged him time- ly to contribute his advice to the kingdome to be in a posture to defend themselves ; and least it should be thought to oppose the king or to in- jure him, these wordes have I seene in writing, which upon an occasion he used in Parliament, viz., ' Perish may that man and his posteritie that will not deny himselfe in the greatest part of his fortune (rather than the king shall want) to make him both potent and beloved at home, and terrible to his enemies abroad, if he will be pleased.to leave those evill counsells about him, and take the wholesome advice of his great counsell the Parliament !' And with this duti- full and loyall hearte to his prince, and indeavour to bring him to his Parliament for his countrey's goode, he sacrificed his life ; and said, before he died, that if he had twentie lives, all should goe this way, rather than the Gospell of our salvation (nowe so much fought against) should be trampled under foot." of Master Hampden, that noble patriot of his countrey, whose losse is infinitely lamented in all places ; for it is well knowne to the whole kingdome howe much he suffered for the goode of his countrey, and that he endured for a long time together (about sixteen yeares since) close imprisonment in the Gatehouse about the loane money, which indangered his life, and was a very great meanes so to impaire his health that he never after did looke like the same man he was before. And did he not spend a great summe of money out of his owne estate in de- fence of the kingdome's right in that great case of ship-money 7 And, to be briefe, as he was indued with more than ordinary parts of wis- dome, knowledge, and understanding, so was he as carefull to improve and make a right use of them, so that (like Zachary and Elizabeth) he walked unblameable in all his conversation. That very day which he received that fatall wound he was just fiftie yeares of age. During the time that he lived after, which was just a weeke, he showed a wonderfull measure of pa- tience and meaknesse, being full of divine sen- tences, speaking as if he felt no pain ; saying it was nothing but what he dayly expected, and that he had long prepared against that time ; and continued of perfect memorie, cheerful! spirit, constant in the cause, and incouraging others unto the last ; and departed without feeling any pain at all, going out of a sweet slumber into a quiet sleepe. He was carried from Thame to Hampden, and interred in his father's tomb." These extracts from the now scarce and valuable records of the time may be closed with some lines from an " elegie," not utterly unworthy of the theme, written by a friend and " fellow-soldier" of Hampden. They imbody a picture of the great soldier himself in the ex- citement of battle. " Though my malicious fate debarred my will From waiting on your valour, when the shrill And hastie trumpet bade your honour goe With disadvantage 'gainst the subtle foe ; When treacherie and odds, crowned with successe, Did triumph over our unhappinesse : Yet give me leave, Renowned Dust, to send My gratefull muse in mourning to attend, And strew some cypresse on your martial hoarse. * * * * Was he not pious, valiant, wise, and just, Loyall and temperate t Everything that must Make up a perfect harmonie ? Yee know His constant actions have declared him so. * * So was he truely valiant. J havt seene Him i' the front of 's regiment in greene, When death, about him did in ambush lye, And whizzing shatt like shoieres of arrowts flye,. Waving his coaq'ring steele, as if that he From Mars had got the sole monopolie Of never-failing courage : and so cheare His fighting men ! Farewell, beloved in Parliament and field, Farewell, thy souldier's faithfull broken shield !" And now, to complete the information which has been collected in these pages concerning one of the greatest men of the English history, the character which Clarendon has drawn of him in unfading colours may, without hesitar 264 BRITISH STATESMEN. tion, be added. No one who has glanced through this work can be at a loss to separate the just from the unjust. " He was a gentleman of a good family in Buckinghamshire, born to a fair fortune, and of a most civil and affable deportment. In his entrance into the world he indulged to himself all the license in sports, and exercise, and company which was used by men of the most jolly conversation. Afterward he retired to a more reserved and melancholy society,* yet pre- serving his own natural cheerfulness and vi- vacity, and, above all, a flowing courtesy to all men ; though they who conversed nearly with him found him growing into a dislike of the ec- clesiastical government of the Church, yet most believed it rather a dislike of some church- men and of some introducements of theirs, which he apprehended might disquiet the public peace. He was rather of reputation in his own country than of public discourse or fame in the kingdom before the business of ship-money ; but then he grew the argument of all tongues, ev- ery man inquiring who and what he was, that durst, at his own charge, support the liberty and property of the kingdom, and rescue his country, as he thought, from being made a prey to the court. His carriage throughout this agitation was with that rare temper and modesty, that they who watched him most narrowly to find some advantage against his person, to make him less resolute in his cause, were compelled to give him a just testimony, and the judgment that was given against him infinitely more advanced him than the service for which it was given. When this Parliament begun (being returned knight of the shire for the county where he lived), the eyes of all men were fixed on him as their patrice pater, and the pilot that must steer the vessel through the tempests and rocks which threatened it ; and I am persuaded his power and interest at that time were greater to do good or hurt than any man's in the kingdom, or than any man in his rank hath had in any time ; for his reputation of honesty was universal, and his affections seemed .so publicly guided, that no corrupt or private ends could bias them. " He was of that rare affability and temper in debate, and of 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 he had so subtle a way of interrogating, and, under the notion of doubts, insinuating his objections, that he left his opinions with those from whom he pretended to learn and receive them ; and even with them who were able to preserve themselves from his infusions, and discerned those opinions to be fixed in him with which they could not comply, he always left the char- acter of an ingenuous and conscientious person. He was, indeed, a very wise man, and of great parts, and possessed with the most absolute spirit of popularity that is. the most absolute faculties to govern the people of any man I ever knew. For the first vear of the Parlia- * [This has been already alluded to, and probably refers .to his devotion to legal pursuits. C.] ment he seemed rather to moderate and soften the violent and distempered humours than to inflame them ; but wise and dispassioned men plainly discerned that that moderation proceed- ed from prudence, and observation that the season was not ripe, rather than that he ap- proved of the moderation ; and that he begat many opinions and notions, the elucidation whereof he committed to other men, so far dis- guising his own designs that he seemed seldom to wish more than was concluded ; and in many gross conclusions, which would hereafter con- tribute to designs not yet set on foot, when he found them sufficiently backed by majority of voices, he would withdraw himself before the question, that he might seem not to consent to so much visible unreasonableness, which pro- duced as great a doubt in some, as it did appro- bation in others, of his integrity. What combi- nation soever had been originally with the Scots for the invasion of England, and what farther was entered into afterward in favour of them, and to advance any alteration of the government in Parliament, no man doubts was at least with the privity of this gentleman. " After he was among those members ac- cused by the king of high treason, he was much altered, his nature and carriage seeming much fiercer than it did before. And without ques- tion, when he first drew his sword, he threw away the scabbard ; for he passionately op- posed the overture made by the king for a treaty from Nottingham, and as eminently any expedients that might have produced any ac- commodations in this that was at Oxford ; and was principally relied on to prevent any infu- sions which might be made into the Earl of Essex towards peace, or to render them inef- fectual if they were made, and was, indeed, much more relied on by that party than the general himself. In the first entrance into the troubles, he undertook the command of a regi- ment of foot, and performed the duty of a col- onel on all occasions most punctually. He was very temperate in diet, and a supreme governor over all his passions and affections, and had thereby a great power over other men's. He was of an industry and vigilance not to be tired out or wearied by the most laborious, and of parts not to be imposed upon by the most subtle or sharp, and of a personal courage equal to his best parts, so that he was an enemy not to be wished wherever he might have been made a friend, and as much to be apprehended where he was so as any man could deserve to be, and therefore his death was no less con- gratulated in the one party than it was condoled in the other. In a word, what was said of Cinna might well be applied to him : ' he had a head to contrive, and a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief.' His death,, therefore, seemed to be a great deliver- ance to the nation." In other words, the death of the noble and fearless Hampden, while it plunged every hon- est English heart into the depths of sorrow, revived in the tyrant Charles and his slavish ministers their hope of being able to trample into the dust once more the laws and liberties of England. SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER. 1612-1662. HENRY VANE, the eldest son of Sir Henry Vane, of Hadlow, in Kent, was borne in the year 1612. His family could trace itself back to the earliest times of the English history.* They sprang from Howel ap Vane, of Mon- mouthshire, whose son, Griffith ap Howel Vane, married Lettice, daughter of Bledwin ap Kenwyn, lord of Powis. Six generations after this mark the date of the battle of Poictiers, where the then representative of the family, Henry Vane, received knighthood on the field as the reward of great bravery. After the lapse of five more generations, one of the branches of the family altered the name to Fane, which was retained by the descendants of his second son, while the issue of his fourth son, John, who had inherited the manor of Hadlow, and other estates in Kent and elsewhere, in con- sequence of the eldest son dying without is- sue, resumed in the second generation the old name of Vane. The eldest son of this last- named John was unwarily drawn into Sir Thomas Wyatt's insurrection, but pardoned, on the score of youth, by Mary, and afterward elected to two of Elizabeth's Parliaments. Henry Vane, the father of the subject of this memoir, was his eldest grandson, and it was by him the ancient name was resumed. Sir Henry Vane the elder is described by Clarendon as a busy and a bustling man, and a rapid glance over the chief incidents of his life will show the correctness of the description. He was born in 1589, and received knighthood from James I. in 1611. He travelled afterward for three years, and mastered many foreign languages. On his return to England, he was elected to the Parliament of 1614 by the city of Carlisle, and from this period, during many years, exerted considerable influence in the cabinets of James and Charles. James had appointed him, soon after his entry into the House of Commons, cofferer to the prince, who continued him in the same office on his own accession to the throne, and made him one of his privy council. In the Parliaments of 1620 and 1625, he continued to sit for Carlisle ; and he served in every subsequent Parliament to the time of his death, having been elected for Thetford in Norfolk, Wilton in Wiltshire, and for the county of Kent. As a diplomatist, he appears justly entitled to high praise ; in other matters, it may not be unjust to use the words of Clarendon, that he had "credit enough to do his business in all places, and cared for no man, otherwise than as he found it very con- venient for himself."! In 1631 he had been appointed ambassador extraordinary to renew the treaty of friendship and confederacy with Christian of Denmark, and also, in a similar character, to conclude on a firm peace and al- liance with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Both these treaties were of great importance to the power and the commercial interests of England, and he concluded both auspiciously. He returned home in 1632, and in 1633 gave a princely entertainment, at his castle of Raby, to Charles, then on his way to Scotland to be crowned, as he did again on a more fatal occa- sion, in 1639, when the king was marching with his melancholy " expedition to Scotland," in which Sir Henry Vane himself had the com- mand of a regiment. In the latter year he was made comptroller of the household, and some months after this appointment received the highest seat in Charles's administration, that of principal secretary of state. The latter years of his life associate themselves with the fortunes of his illustrious son. The mother of the famous Sir Henry Vane was Frances Darcy, of an old family in Essex. She bad many other children, of whom the second son, Sir George Vane, was knighted in 1640, and seated himself in retirement at Long Melton, in the county of Durham, while Charles distinguished himself as a diplomatist under the Commonwealth, when envoy to Lisbon. One of her daughters married Sir Thomas Honeywood,* of Essex, a man of learning and a good soldier ; another, Sir Francis Vincent, of Surrey ; a third married Sir Thomas Liddel, of Ravensworth, an ancestor of the present Earl of Ravensworth ; while the eldest became the wife of Sir Thomas Pelham, the ancestor of those families which are now represented by the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Chi- chester, and Lord Yarborough. It may be worth adding, that the present earldom of Westmoreland is held by the lineal descend- ant of that branch of the Vane family who re- tained the assumed name of Fane, and that the present Duke of Cleveland, William Harry Vane, is the lineal descendant of the great statesman whose life will occupy these pages. A dukedom was given, in 1632, as the reward of a disinterested advocacy of popular princi- ples rewarded, in 1662, by a scaffold !f Such were the brilliant auspices which ush- ered Henry Vane into the world. The repre- sentative of a long line of illustrious ancestors, the immediate heir to great wealth, and, as it were, to the favour of the princes whom his father served, a broad and bright path stretch- ed itself out before him, lighted by honours and enjoyments, and leading to luxury and power. * See Wood's Fasti Oxoniensis, part ii., p. 167, ed. Blisa. t It is scarcely necessary to say that allusion is here made to William Harry Vane, baron Raby of Raby Castle, and duke of Cleveland, known, before the accession of his present titles, as the Earl of Darlington, and also as the Marquis of Cleveland. He had an enormous interest at stake in the existence of the rotten boroughs, and yet voted in the House of Lords for their extinction on the memora- ble 4lh of June, 1632, when that great measure of reform was consummated which his illustrious ancestor the states- man whose life is written in these pages had been the first to propose to Parliament. He received his dukedom early in the following year, with the addition of the very barony of Raby, in appropriating which, two centuries before, Lord Stratford had given such mortal offence to the elder Sir Henry Vane. The authorities for the pedigree of the Vanes will be found in the Biog. Brit., vol. vi., p. 3989 ; and in Collins's Peerage, vol. iv., p. 290. 266 BRITISH STATESMEN. He received his education at Westminster school, under the care of Lambert Osbaldiston, and was school-fellow with Arthur Hazlerig, Thomas Scot, and others whom active partici- pation in public affairs subsequently rendered famous.* Here, yielding for a time to the im- pulses of his youth and station, he entered wildly into the gayeties of both, and they soon showed him, by the light of sudden and awful contrast, a fiery sincerity in his soul, which had nothing in common with such things, but marked its owner out for serious and great achievements, and whispered to him, even then, of the possible regeneration of mankind. He shall describe the first dawning of this change in his own words, as he described it in after years to the multitudes who had assem- bled to see him die : " I was born a gentle- man ; had the education, temper, and spirit of a gentleman, as well as others ; being, in my youthful days, inclined to the vanities of this world, and to that which they call good fellow- ship, judging it to be the only means of accom- plishing a gentleman. But, about the four- teenth or fifteenth year of my age, which was about thirty-four or five years since, God was pleased to lay the foundation or groundwork of repentance in me, for the bringing me home to himself, by his wonderful rich and free grace, revealing his Son in me, that, by the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, I might, even while here in the body, be made partaker of eternal life, in the first fruits of it."t His father appears to have remonstrated bitterly against his unworldly change. " Yea," observes Sikes, " this change and new steering of his course contracted en- mity to him in his father's house." And in the year after its occurrence he was sent as a gentleman commoner to Magdalen College, Oxford, where it is possible his father may have hoped that in such a nursery of dissipa- tion and fantastic forms the youth might be * Wood's Ath. Ox., vol. iii., p. 578, ed. Bliss. t Vane's speech on the scaffold, from a pamphlet " print- ed in the year 1662." A very extraordinary publication of the same year, to which I shall have very frequent, occasion to refer, and which was written by one of Vane's associates, thus described this change in his habits and way of life : " He was born a gentleman. My next word is so much too big for that, that it may hardly seem decorous to stand so near it. He was a chosen vessel of Christ, separated (as Paul) from his mother's womb, though not actually called till 14 or 15 years' standing in the world ('twas longer ere Paul was called) ; during which time, such was the com- plexion and constitution of his spirit, through ignorance of God and his ways, as rendered him acceptable company to those they call good fellows (yet, at his worst, restrained from that lewdness intemperance sometimes leads into, which he hath been oft heard to thank God for), and so long he found tolerable quarter amongst men. Then God did, by some signal impressions and awakening dispensations, startle him into a view of the danger of his condition. On this, he and his former jolly company came presently to a parting blow." The title-page of the very singular and val- uable book from which the above extract is taken runs in these words : " Life and Death of Sir Henry Vane, Knight ; or, a short Narration of his earthly Pilgrimage, together with a true Account of his purely Christian, peaceable, ipiritual, Gospel Principles, Doctrine, Life, and Way of worshipping God, for which he suffered Contradiction and Reproach from all sorts of Sinners, and at last a violent Death, June 14, Anno 1662. To which is added, his last Exhortation to his Children, the Day before his death. Printed in the Year 1662." The author was George Sikes, a bachelor in divinity, and fellow of Magdalen, in Oxford, where Vane studied, and, it may be supposed, their intima- cy commenced. He was a thorough enthusiast, with all the sincerity and faith, though without the knowledge and various power, of Vane himself. induced to abandon his untoward turn for se- riousness and the realities. Such a hope, if ever entertained, was doom- ed to very decisive disappointment. " At about sixteen years of age," says Anthony a Wood, " he became a gentleman commoner of Magda- len Hall, as his great creature, Henry Stubbe, hath several times informed me ; but, when he was to be matriculated as a member of the Uni- versity, and so consequently take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, he quitted his gown, put on a cloak, and studied, notwithstanding, for some time in the said hall." He then quit- ted Oxford for the Continent, and, passing through France, spent some time in Geneva,* where his strong tendency to the dispute and discussion of spiritual matters, it will readily be supposed, found little check or hinderance. He brought back with him to England, Claren- don tells us, " a full prejudice and bitterness against the Church, both against the form of the government and the liturgy, which was generally in great reverence, even with many of those who were not friends to the other." Great was the consternation, meanwhile, of the now worthy comptroller of his majesty King Charles's household, the elder Vane. The open disaffection of his son in matters of religion could be concealed no longer : useless had been all threats and persuasions on that score ; still more useless the endeavour to tame a yet stronger tendency to Republicanism, by bring- ing the youth within reach of the king. The presence chamber of Chariest had no charms for one to whom the house and heart of Pym were open. A last effort was made, and with a like result. The bishops took the matter in hand. " It was suggested," says his friend Sikes.t " by the bishops to the then king, con- cerning him, ' that the heir of a considerable family about his majesty was grown into dis- like of the discipline and ceremonies of the Church of England, and that his majesty might do well to take some course about him.' On this, the then Bishop of London took him to task, who seemed to handle him gently in the conference, but concluded harshly enough against him in the close." Such a conference, and such a close to it, may be well imagined. The supreme self-confidence of Laud, lashing itself into imperious and passionate wonder against the calm and immovable reason of the young Republican recusant, is precisely what was likely to have been, and was also an exhi- bition in no way likely to increase the Church's claims to obedience or respect in the person of her most eminent prelate. These opening passages of the life of Vane are decisive evidences of his greatness. What * Clarendon, vol. i., p. 326, Oxford edition of 1826. t A favourite story of the ribald Royalist prints against young Vane had its origin in these efforts of his father to conquer his popular and Republican tastes, by bringing him into personal contact with the king. On one occasion, the youth was left alone by his father (purposely, no doubt) in the royal presence chamber, when Charles suddenly ap- proaching, Vane as suddenly, resolute to avoid him, hid him- self behind the arras. Charles, perceiving a motion in the hangings, poked with the stick he always carried at that part of the room, till Vane was obliged to come forth, and " retired in confusion." This was an insult, say the self- ishly judging Royalist writers, which the young Republican never forgave. t In the publication referred to above Life and Death of Sir Henry Vane. SIR HENRY VANE. 267 he afterward became he had evidently willed j already. To the mind of such a man, what is Temptation, or what Chancel In no case would they seem to have gone so nearly to overrule and determine the destiny of a man as in this case of the " son and heir" of the favourite minister of Charles I. But the power of Genius is the greatest power that the world has tested yet, and this Vane had. Impelled and sustained by it, he " waved and whistled offten thousand strong and importunate tempta- tions," and dashed the " dice-box of Chance" from her jewelled hand. While his father, ignorant what course to hold with him, looked round in fear lest a hos- tile position, maintained resolutely, might ulti- mately weaken and embarrass his own influ- ence at court, young Vane suddenly announced his determination at once to leave his country, and seek the liberty of conscience denied him here in the new world that had risen beyond the waters of the wide Atlantic. Shortly after, the Rev. Mr. Garrard had a choice piece of news to write to the lord-deputy of Ireland, which he worded thus, with his usual gossiping mixture of truth and falsehood : " Mr. Comp- troller Sir Henry Vane's eldest son hath left his father, his mother, his country, and that for- tune which his father would have left him here, and is, for conscience' sake, gone into New- England, there to lead the rest of his days, being about twenty years of age. He had ab- stained two years from taking the sacrament in England, because he could get nobody to ad- minister it to him standing. He was bred up at Leyden ; and I hear that Sir Nathaniel Rich and Mr. Pym have done him much hurt in their persuasions this way. God forgive them for it, if they be guilty !"* When, twenty-seven years having passed, Sir Henry Vane addressed the English people and posterity from a scaffold, he thus described, in words never to be forgotten, the cause which moved him to this voluntary exile : " Since my early youth, through grace, I have been kept steadfast, desiring to walk in all good conscience towards God and towards man, according to the best light and understanding God gave me. For this, I was willing to turn my back upon my estate ; expose myself to hazards in foreign parts ; yea, nothing seemed difficult to me, so I might preserve faith and a good conscience, which I prefer before all things ; and do earnest- ly persuade all people rather to suffer the high- est contradictions from man, than disobey God by contradicting the light of their own con- science. In this it is I stand with so much comfort and boldness before you all this day." America then stood forward, to the imagina- tions of the enthusiastic and the young, no less than to the oppressed consciences of worn and persecuted men, in the light of a promised land. The progress of her colonization had excited the utmost interest and curiosity throughout Europe ; the fortunes of her first emigrants, glimmering back into the world they had left through the infinite wildernesses and over the vast and dismal ocean which now divided them from it, were strained after by their friends with painful earnestness and wonder ; and, at each successive ship that left with pilgrim pas- * Stafford's Lettert, vol. i., p. 463. sengers to her shores, the admiration and amazement of men increased, that not of the poor, the unfortunate, or the lowly were these voluntary exiles, but rather, in the majority of instances, the most refined and accomplished examples of the civilization of the age. Not alone the scholar and the philosopher, but the wealthy, the high born, and the nobly bred, were thus seen willingly abandoning the classic quiet, the splendour, the refinement of their homes, urged and sustained by those grand de- signs and hopes which, having told them that mankind were born for a better system of gov- ernment and a purer shape of society than ex- isted in the Old World, now pointed out to them an opportunity of testing these exalted aspira- tions in the new and strange lands which had started up so suddenly beyond the vast and dis- mal ocean. The work, thus begun by pure philanthropists, was carried out to an extra- ordinary extent by Laud's terrible system of Church government ; and, for many months before Vane so suddenly formed his resolution of exile, successive multitudes of sufferers for conscience' sake had been driven from their native country to take refuge in New-England, as the last home that was left for religion or for liberty. In glancing at the infancy of the American colonies, even thus briefly, several considera- tions of great interest suggest themselves as to the peculiar forms and habits of society which were of necessity incident to that early state, and the intellectual influences which again, as a matter of course, sprang out of these forms. It will be a matter of importance to follow them, as far as we may, in their probable or possible effects upon the mind of Vane. The extraordinary spectacle of two extreme points of human progress brought back into direct contact, which awaited his landing on the American shores, could hardly be pre- sented to such a mind without an effect scarce- ly less extraordinary. There he had to see a reunion of the city and the wilderness, a junc- tion in the same men of the habits which belong to the highest advances of refinement, and to the most rude and primitive condition of hu- manity. In log-houses he would have to seek, not vainly, the most studiously polished man- ners of civilization ; for " the same person whose evenings were spent in the studies of philosophy, learning, and religion, was engaged during the day in the midst of the forest, or floating in a bark canoe ;"* toiling in labours which were the occupations of the rudest and most barbarous ages, the employments of the period when " Nature first made man, And wild in woods the noble savage ran." Vane was not suffered to depart without many peevish remonstrances from his father ; but it is said the king interfered at last, and in- timated a wish for the absence of the young Republican. t A characteristic circumstance awaited his presence on board the passage-ship. The Pu- ritans and Noncpnformists already assembled 268 BRITISH STATESMEN. for the same distant voyage, instead of wel- coming their illustrious fellow-exile, shrank from him with coldness and suspicion. He was the son of a minister of the king ; he had a face that beamed with lustrous imagination ; and he wore long hair ! " His honourable birth," says his friend Sikes, "long hair, and other circumstances of his person, rendered his fellow-travellers jealous of him, as a spy to betray their liberty, rather than any way like to advantage their design." The old, vulgar, and never-failing resource, when we can find no better objection to a man ! Clarendon has a remark of the same kind in his history : " Sir Harry Vane had an unusual aspect, which, though it might naturally proceed both from his father and mother, neither of which were beau- tiful persons, yet made men think there was somewhat in him of extraordinary ; and his whole life made good that imagination."* A few short and pithy words out of Sikes's rhap- sody furnish no bad result to that style of ob- jection in the case of the Puritan voyagers : " But he that they thought at first sight to have too little of Christ for their company, did soon after appear to have too much for them." Vane landed at Boston, in New-England, in 1635, and was admitted to the freedom of Mas- sachusetts on the 3d of March in the same year. Whatever his first reception by the colonists may have been, his character and his powers very speedily attracted universal attention ; and it became the theme of wonder and admi- ration with them all, that such a man, so fitted by his talents and his position to sway the des- tinies of men in courts and palaces, should " choose the better part" with the remote and unfriended exiles of the obscure wildernesses of Massachusetts. In 1636, after a very short residence among them, and while he had not yet completed his twenty-fourth year, " Mr. Vane" was elected governor of the colony. Clarendon describes the population of Mas- sachusetts at this time, garbling truth with falsehood, as " a mixture of all religions, which disposed the professors to dislike the govern- ment of the Church ; who were qualified by the king's charter to choose their own government and governors, under the obligation ' that every man should take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy,' which all the first planters did, when they received their charter, before they transported themselves from hence ; nor was there, in many years after, the least scruple among them of complying with those obliga- tions : so far men were, in the infancy of their schism, from refusing to take lawful oaths." In the same passage of the history, Vane's election and government are thus described : " He was no sooner landed there but his parts made him very quickly taken notice of; and very probably his quality, being the eldest son of a privy-counsellor, might give him some ad- vantage, insomuch that, when the next season came for the election of their magistrates, he was chosen their governor, in which place he had so ill fortune (his working and unquiet fancy raising and infusing a thousand scruples of conscience, which they had not brought over with them, nor heard of before), that, he un- satisfied with them, and they with him, he * Vol. i., p. 326. transported himself into England, having sowed such seed of dissension there as grew up too prosperously, and miserably divided the colony into several factions, and divisions, and perse- cutions of each other, which still continue, to the great prejudice of that plantation ; insomuch as some of them, upon the ground of their first expedition, liberty of conscience, have with- drawn themselves from their jurisdiction, and obtained other charters from the king, by which, in other forms of government, they have en- larged their plantation, within new limits adja- cent to the other."* Nor by Clarendon alone has Vane's administration been thus spoken of, but by writers of better faith and a nobler pur- pose, whom it is difficult to imagine wilfully lending themselves to the propagation of error, t A simple detail of the short administration of Vane, derived from various sources, all of them above suspicion,:): will be the best answer to statements of this kind. It is true that that administration was in its duration brief and stormy, and not successful in its result ; but greatness, truth, and goodness are of more val- ue than length of years, than quiet, or success. Vane had many serious difficulties to contend against, even before a single act of his govern- ment was known. The principal persons in the colony had been already gravely prejudiced against him by the extraordinary enthusiasm, he had called forth among the great and gen- eral body of the settlers ; for there is no worse crime than the power of awakening the enthu- siasm of multitudes, in the eyes of those who have no such power. The day on which he assumed office saw a formidable party arrayed against him, determined, on no better grounds than this, to embarrass his government at ev- ery step. The influences which operated at that early time in the annals of Massachusetts, and particularly disposed the people, always prone to controversy, to be torn and divided by the factions and intrigues which might be set afloat in the young colony, were, of course, favourable to the success of the design. Nevertheless, in Vane's discharge of the first and most ordinary duties of the station of chief magistrate, he manifested a firmness, energy, * History of the Rebellion, vol. i., p. 327, 328. t See Mather, book iii., p. 77 ; Neale, vol. i., p. 144 ; and the works of R. Baxter, passim. Mather has the following remark : " Mr. Vane's election will remain a blemish to their judgment who did elect him while New-Eng-land re- mains a nation ; for, coming from England a young, unex- perienced gentleman, by the industry of some who thought to make a tool of him, he was elected governor ; and, before he was scarce warm in his seat, fell in with the sectaries, and sacrificed the peace of the state to them, leaving us a caveat that all good men are not fit for government." Bax- ter, in his life, after speaking of Vane in the thoughtless phrase he too often adopted towards him, indulges the fol- lowing utterly fictitious statement of his unpopularity in. New-England : " He was fain to steal away by night, and take shipping for England, before his year of government was at an end." (Abridgment, p. 98.) The entire untruth of this will be shown. t Winthrop's History of New-England, the edition by Savage ; Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers ; the second series of an extensive American work of history, called the " Massachusetts Historical Collections," and in- cluding, in its 6th and 7th volumes, Hubbard's " General History of New-England ;" and, lastly, a Life of Vane, as " fourth governor of Massachusetts," by an eloquent and accomplished American writer, Mr. Charles Wentworth Upham, published a few years since in the course of a se- ries of American biographies, and to which I feel most hap- py in confessing several important obligations. His admira- ble sketch of the Hutchinson controversy has been, in par- ticular, a great assistance to me. SIR HENRY VANE. 369 and wisdom truly remarkable in one of his early age and previous history. " He adapted him- self," says Mr. Upham, "readily to his situa- tion ; made himself acquainted with the inter- ests and relations of the colony ; and concerted the operations of the government, which, in reference to the Indians, were particularly in- teresting at that period, with promptitude, skill, and effect." Men of great learning and old experience surrounded him ; but in every measure of resource or ready practical wisdom he rose above them all ; while in the intricate and profound discussions that occurred during his administration, embracing as they did the most perplexed questions of theological meta- physics, he bore his part in a manner which at once placed him on a level with the first divines of that age, and well deserved the praise of " wisdom and godliness," which his famous competitor and successor in the government, Winthrop, unreservedly bestowed upon him.* The announcement of his election had been received with immense enthusiasm by the peo- ple ; and, to increase the demonstrations of popular satisfaction, a salute was fired by the shipping in the harbour. Fifteen large vessels were at that time in port. Some few days af- ter the firing of this salute, a deputation of the leading men of the colony waited on Vane, and represented to him that the presence of such a large force of foreign vessels was in itself a formidable and disagreeable circumstance in the condition of a feeble settlement, which could not rely on the sympathy of the mother- country any more than it could upon the friend- ship of other powers. Whatever the motives for such a representation may have been, there was justice in it, and this Vane acknowledged at once. It was at least a matter of no doubt with every reflecting person, that the influence of the manners and habits of the officers and men of these ships could not be other than in- jurious to the morals and social condition of the inhabitants of the town. A prevention of the evils, therefore, that might have sprung from such a source, was the first act of the government of Vane. With- in a week after his election, he took measures to this end, which decidedly illustrate his tact in affairs, and his " skill and success in mana- ging men." He invited all the captains of the ships to dine with him ; and, taking advantage of the generous dispositions that are born of a good dinner, laid the whole case before them. The conversation is described to have been conducted with infinite frankness and the friend- liest spirit on both sides ; and the natural re- sult was, that the captains consented, " readily and cheerfully," to the agreement proposed by Vane, and which ran thus : " First, that all in- ward-bound vessels should come to anchor be- low the fort, and wait for the governor's pass before coming up to the town ; secondly, that, before discharging their cargoes, their invoices should in all cases be submitted to the inspec- tion of the government ; and, thirdly, that none of their own crews should ever be permitted to remain on shore after sunset, except under ur- gent necessity.! * TJpham, p. 109. t Winthrop's History of New-England, Savage's ed.,vol. i., p. 187. TJpham's Life, p. 111. The very next incident of Vane's govern- ment furnishes a striking illustration of his own character, no less than the character of the men he had to deal with, and who were necessarily associated with him in the govern- ment. It was in itself of little intrinsic impor- tance, but it afforded the first occasion of ac- tive opposition to the young governor. The mate of an English ship, called the Hec- tor, then lying at anchor in Boston harbour, in an excess of loyal indignation because the king's colours were not displayed at the fort (which was not then the custom), declared, one day, on the deck of his vessel, and in the presence of many of the inhabitants of the town, then visiting her, that the colonists were all " trai- tors and rebels." The expression was quickly communicated from the ship and circulated through the town : a violent excitement against the mate was the immediate and very natural consequence ; and so high did it run at last, that it became necessary to take official cogni- zance of the offence that had provoked it. Vane accordingly sent for the captain of the ship, and', after acquainting him with the affair, despatched a marshal, accompanied by other of- ficers of the law, to arrest the offender. The crew, however,, refused to deliver up the mate in the captain's absence, upon which the cap- tain himself accompanied the marshal to the vessel, when the mate was at once surrender- ed, and made an ample and satisfactory apol- ogy to the civil authorities. But, the dignity of the colony vindicated, another care present- ed itself to the scrupulous thoughts of Govern- or Vane, scarcely less important than that call ed forth by the insult so atoned for, since it in volved what might possibly be the just and well grounded feelings of conscientious men. He had seen that some circumstances con nected with the transaction I have just descri- bed had been " taken very much to heart" by the general body of officers of British vessels in the port, and he now at once summoned them to a conference with himself and the ma- gistrates of the colony, in which he requested a free expression of whatever had occurred to them. They observed, in reply, with much courtesy and temper, that it was more than likely the circumstances of the recent dispute might be made known to the authorities in England, and represented there in such a man- ner as to create a prejudice against the colony, and bring its loyalty into suspicion ; and that, therefore, as sincere friends of the colony, it would be very agreeable to them could they te enabled to say that they had seen the king's colours flying in Boston. For the captains a courteous and fair request, but for the conscience-suffering, recusant Pu- ritans a most distressing dilemma ! On the one hand, it was clear, as Mr. Upham urges, that for a colony, holding its very being under a charter from the crown, to refuse to acknowl- edge the king's sovereignty by displaying his flag, and that, too, when it was requested for the purpose of rescuing its loyalty from mis- representation, would look like a very unrea- sonable procedure, and almost seem to justify the expressions for which the mate had been humbled and punished.* But then, on the oth- * American Biography, p. 113. 270 BRITISH STATESMAN. er hand, it would have filled the whole country with horror had the flag been hoisted, for on that flag was represented the PAPAL cross an abomination no Puritan could bear ; and En- dicott himself, one of the leading emigrants, whose daring hand had before torn it from the royal ensign,* was one of the board of magis- trates who were so politely requested to hoist that very ensign, cross and all ! A lucky accident seemed to offer the hope of escaping both horns of this dilemma ; they could not hoist the king's flag, for there were no such colours in the whole colony, t The captains, unfortunately, had a resource at hand. They offered to lend or give a set of the king's colours to the colony to be displayed on the occasion. Vane now saw that all chance of evading the question was quite shut out, and urged upon the magistrates the necessity of meeting it fairly and openly. This reasonable answer was accordingly returned : that al- though they were fully persuaded that the cross in the colours was idolatrous, yet, as the fort belonged to the king, they were willing that his own flag should fly there. The conference thus closed, however, was doomed to be reopened the following day with greater violence. The case and its result had been submitted in the evening to the consider- ation of the clergy, a practice exacted from the government on all disputed questions, and the proceedings of Vane and the magistrates did not meet their approbation. It was thought a grave error to have sanctioned, upon any terms whatever, the display of the king's flag, that badge of Romish superstition, over Puritan soil ; and the court was therefore again assem- bled, and the captains summoned to appear next morning, when the previous minute of the board was reconsidered, and, after a stormy debate, a majority of the magistrates voted to refuse what they had granted the day before. Vane now interfered with his authority as governor of the colony ; and in a temperate but earnest remonstrance, after vindicating the strength and purity of his own religious faith, pointed out to the assembled magistrates that that must be a very far-fetched and excessive scruple, not to say an absurd or capricious one, which would induce them to refuse to recognise the king's authority in his own dominions, on his own fort, by a ceremony innocent in itself, and * American Biography, p. 113. t Mr. Upham remarks, upon the curious circumstance that not a single royal ensign could be found in Massachu- setts in 1636, that it indicates the substantial independence of the colony at that early period. It did not attract the notice, and was therefore out of the reach of the royal pow- er ; and not merely of the royal power, but of the very in- signia of that power. The people would not have anything among them which would tend in the least degree to re- mind them of the hierarchy or the throne. Mr. Upham adds : " When, in the course of the present year (1834), a British vessel of war arrived in the harbour of Salem, in Massa- chusetts, and it was proposed, according to international usage, to observe the civility of displaying from the vessel the flag of the United States, and from the town the flag of Great Britain, it was found necessary to borrow colours for the occasion from the British vessel herself. This circum- stance was noticed as indicating the absence of all relations between the port of Salem and Great Britain at the time of its occurrence. A similar indication was given, as just re- lated, in 1636 ; and the inference is more than fanciful ; it is just and obvious, that the actual connexion between the colony of Massachusetts and the mother-country, at the be- ginning, was scarcely greater than that of the town of Sa- lem with England at the present day." which was requested for the avowed purpose of preserving peace and harmony, and prevent- ing a misunderstanding between the colony and the people of England, under circumstances that would certainly be highly injurious, and, it was possible, might become even ruinous to the colony. The magistrates, with one excep- tion, remained unmoved by this appeal ; the jealousy of Vane, which had for some time rankled in the breasts of the leading settlers, had now found an outlet ; and even Winthrop, the founder and patriarch of the colony, a man of eminence and excellent dispositions, was in- duced to place himself at the head of the ob- stinate objectors. Upon this, Vane, supported only by the magistrate alluded to, Mr. Dudley, announced his determination to avail himself of his privilege as governor, and, under a protest against acknowledging the idolatrous sign upon the flag, to display it from the fort on his own personal responsibility and that of Mr. Dudley.* This was the commencement of that hostil- ity to the young governor which, availing it- self not long after of the fury of a theological controversy, ultimately brought his administra- tion to a close. But will it now be doubted, in these days of reason and toleration, which of the parties were in the rights which course was the fairest, the most just, the most en- lightened 1 It appears to me, that by the light which is thrown on Vane's character, even thus early, by an incident of this sort, we may re- duce to fine and eloquent sense many passages in Sikes's tribute to his friend, which have hitherto passed for absurd and incoherent rhap- sodies. Two may be quoted here. " His principles, light, and wisdom were such, that he found the bare relation of his utmost aims among his fellow-labourers would in all probability so expose him to censure from all parties and sizes of understanding, as would disable him for doing anything at all. He was therefore for small matters rather than nothing, went hand and hand with them, step by step, their own pace, as the light of the times would permit. He was still for quitting the more gross disorders in church and state, corruptions in courts of judicature, popish and superstitious forms in religion and ways of worship, for what he found more refined and tolerable. But he ever refused to fix his foot, or take up his rest, in any form, company, or way, where he found the main bulk of profess- ors avowedly owning but such outward prin- ciples of life and holiness as to him evidently lay short of the glory, righteousness, and life hid with Christ in God. He was still for press- ing towards the mark. He was more for things than persons, spirit than forms. This carriage of his, all along in New-England and in Old, ex- posed him as a mark for the arrow from almost all sorts of people, rendering him a man of con- tention with the whole earth. Yet was he all along a true son of peace, a most industrious and blessed peacemaker to the utmost of his power, for the reconciling all sorts of conscientious men, whatever variety of persuasion or form he found them in, to one another and to Christ." Refuting again, in another passage, the com- mon report and " general reproach" that was cast upon Vane, that " he was a man of con- Savage's edition of Winthrop, i., 187. Upham's Life. SIR HENRY VANE. tention from his youth up, wherever he came or had to do, in New-England or in Old," Sikes thus continues : " He was no humoursome, conceited maintainer of any perverse or irra- tional opinions, but a most quiet, calm, com- posed speaker forth of the words of truth and soberness at all seasons, upon all occasions, and in all companies. He was full of conde- scension and forbearance, hating nothing more in his very natural temper than wrangling and contention. He would keep silence even from good (though his sorrow was stirred by it, and the fire burned within while he was musing) in case that either wicked or but shortsighted good men were before him that he perceived could not bear more spiritual and sublimated truths. He became- all things to all men, that he might by all means save some. His heart was of a right scripture latitude ; stood fair and open for any good, but no evil. All sorts of conscientious inquirers after truth found a friendly reception with him ; yea, he was in a constant readiness to perform any warrantable ci- vilities to all men. Anything that was good he owned and cherished in the honest moral heathen, legal Christian, or spiritual believer ; and he sought opportunity by honest insinuations to ' catch them with guile,' and lead them forward into more excellent truths." In such passages as these, a divinely beauti- ful character is depicted, and one which the reality will not be found to fall short of. Vane's great influence with the people of the colony enabled him for some time to withstand effectually the hostility of its chiefs ; and we find that early in July he started on a tour through the towns on the northern and eastern parts of the Bay, and made a public entrance into Salem on the 9th of that month, amid ev- ery demonstration of affection and enthusiasm. Mr. Upham states that he sought upon the spot in vain for any records of this great event, as no doubt it was considered by the people of that ancient town ; but in their absence he in- dulges a picture of the scene, as fancy and probability might delineate it.* Such a picture would have little interest for the English read- er, uninstructed in the distant locality, but the simple idea which suggests itself to the mind of the general character of a progress such as this of Vane must have been, includes many considerations of interest. We cannot refrain from speculating on the effect likely to have been produced on the extraordinary mind of the chief actor in the pageant, as he moved along the winding streets of a succession of straggling quiet villages, then for the first time, perhaps, alive and stirring with a great emo- tion all eyes gazing and all hearts excited as the son of the chief minister of the English king, self-banished from a palace to a wilder- ness, thus passed along, invested with all the power that the dwellers in his chosen exile had to give ; " old men and matrons, young women and children of every age, thronging round the door-stones and gathered at the windows," be- fore which the procession pursued its line of march ; while, through the slight breaks of the surrounding woods, might be caught glimpses of the neighbouring Indians, assembled at in- tervals to watch the passing show, and gazing * American Biography, p. 113-120. at all its strangeness with an interest and won- der but poorly concealed beneath the constrain- ed and sullen silence which resented the white men's intrusion. Soon after Vane's return to Boston, the oc- currences which led to what is called the Pe- quot war commenced, of which it is only ne- cessary to observe, that by the influence of Vane, exerted in various ways, many of the Indian tribes were withheld from joining in hostilities against the English. In nothing were Vane's wisdom and benevolence more strikingly illustrated than in the course of jus- tice and conciliation he invariably pursued to- wards that noble race of men. We find that on his invitation, on the 21st of October in this year, the sachem of the Narragansetts came to Boston, accompanied by two sons of Canon- icus, Cutshamakin, another sachem, and twen- ty other Indians, and that these gallant sons of the forest were treated by Governor Vane with marked kindness and attention. They dined in the same room and at the same table with himself, and after a long and friendly con- ference, the result was a treaty of peace an<J" amity with the English. When the object of their visit was accomplished, they marched back to their native wilds, having been attend- ed to the borders of the town, at the order of Governor Vane, by a file of soldiers, who were instructed to give them at parting the salute of a volley of musketry.* Meanwhile, the religious controversy, to which allusion has been made, raged to an ex- traordinary extent, and assumed a more and more serious aspect. Before proceeding to its description, it may be as well to state, that in the latter part of the summer letters had been received from Vane's family in England, ur- gently pressing his immediate return, and that he had laid them before the council, with a re- quest that he might be permitted to resign of- fice. He discerned then, no doubt, to what the religious controversy was fast tending. But such obstacles appear to have been thrown in his way, and especially by the remonstrances of the Boston Church, of which he was a mem- ber, that he abandoned his purpose, and con- sented to remain in the government. In describing that fierce religious dispute, the Antinomian controversy, which was now sud- denly seen raging with a passionate fury throughout the colony, that swept away every other interest from the feelings and thoughts of the people, I shall chiefly avail myself of the facts that have been collected with so much knowledge and zeal by the American biogra- pher of Vane.f The few writers who have al- luded to it, with the single exception of the latter, in despair of explaining the dispute, have been fond of passing it over as an absurd and unmeaning strife about words, altogether un- worthy of the regard of posterity. It is very true that, as the controversy grew hot, new points were developed, new aspects of the question presented, and new terms introduced, so that, to a merely superficial observer,, the * Savage's edition of Winthrop, i., 198. Upham's Life. [.This is a model book for the biography of past days. Its research, candour, and discrimination entitle it to general confidence. Mr. Upham's book should be in the hand* of every student of American and English history. C.] t American Biography, p. 122, 140. 272 BRITISH STATESMEN. whole affair might seem at last to have become enveloped in impenetrable clouds of technical phraseology and unintelligible distinctions. But to the wise and studious inquirer it is scarcely necessary to observe that there has seldom been such a dispute merely about words, or that men have not almost always meant some- thing, and understood what they meant, in mat- ters about which they have been, as in this case, deeply and zealously affected. In the case before us, Mr. Upham truly observes, " principles of the highest consequence were involved, much light was elicited, and a great progress made by some of the parties in Chris- tian knowledge ; and it is due to the fame of our ancestors to rescue this controversy from the charge of being a ridiculous and stupid war of words, and to vindicate the claim it justly presents to the character of a dignified and im- portant discussion." It is more especially due to the truth and intelligibility of the picture I am anxious to present of the character and intellect of Vane. During his administration, Mrs. Anne Hutch- fcson, a very remarkable and accomplished woman, arrived from England, and became a member of the Boston Church. Her husband was a gentleman of respectable standing ; and her brother-in-law, who accompanied her, Mr. Wheelwright, bore a highly estimable charac- ter as a Christian minister. " She was pos- sessed of extraordinary talents, information, and energy. Her mind was prone to indulge in theological speculations, and the happiness of her life consisted in religious exercises and investigations. She was perfectly familiar with the most abstruse speculations of the theology of the day. In keenness of perception and subtilty of reasoning she had no superiors, and her gifts as a leader of devotional exercises were equally rare and surprising." It was the fortune of this singular woman to kindle a re- ligious strife in the infant Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which has secured to her name a lasting memory there, and rendered her the heroine of a passage in the American history as wonderful and tragical as any it contains. It was the custom in Boston at the period of her arrival for the brethren of the church to meet every week for the purpose of impressing still more deeply upon their minds the dis- courses and other exercises of the previous Sun- day. Following out this custom, Mrs. Hutch- inson very soon instituted weekly religious meetings for females ; and so attractive and interesting did she make them, that almost all the ladies in the place attended. The exerci- ses were conducted and superintended by Mrs. Hutchinson herself, and it soon followed, as a matter of course, that she exerted a controll- ing and almost irresistible influence upon the whole community.* The clergy of the colony, startled at first, were not long in discovering the danger that threatened them. Here was a power suddenly brought to bear upon the religious feelings and views of the people, irresponsible to them, whol- ly beyond their control, and withdrawing from their reach that very portion of society which is always, perhaps, the chiefest source of such authority and influence as theirs. Of the reli- * Upham, p. 124. gious opinions which prevailed generally among these clergy, it will be enough to say that the doctrines, as professed by the Reformed church- es, were received with almost unanimous con- sent by their order throughout New-England, while they permitted themselves to regard with very great jealousy and aversion the exercise of free inquiry, whenever it in any way threat- ened to lead to results different from their own. Their views of Mrs. Hutchinson's particular case were not likely to be propitiated by tho very disagreeable comparisons, to say the least of them, which her powers and talents were likely to provoke among the people. Mrs. Hutchinson, in her turn, was neither wise nor considerate in the style and manner she adopted. To say nothing of the somewhat unbecoming position in which, as a woman, she placed herself, it soon became obvious that one of her great objects in these weekly audi- ences was to utter disparaging criticisms upon the discourses of the preceding Sunday or lec- ture-day, to circulate imputations against the learning and talents of the clergy, and even to start suspicions respecting the soundness of their preaching. Anything like moderation, where a system of personality has been once adopted, is a thing vainly looked for, and now not a day passed which did not, in the matter of these attacks, add to Mrs. Hutchinson's of- fences and indiscretions, and tend to drive be- yond all fair and reasonable ground the hos- tilities of which she had become the object. The ministers, the magistrates, all the leading men in the colony, rose in array against her, and, not confining their animosity to the point on which she was in the wrong, and might easily have been shown to be in the wrong ; not sat- isfied with proceeding against her as a conten- tious and busy calumniator and disturber of the peace, they imputed to her grossly and openly what was then considered the darkest crime in the catalogue of depravity, and demanded against her criminal penalties of the deepest dye. She was a HERETIC, they said, and must be crushed by the punishment due to heresy. At this point Vane interfered the ever gallant and generous defender of the rights of faith and conscience and a sharp religious contro- versy was soon fairly developed, which of course led to crimination and recrimination, "introduced innumerable questions of doubtful disputation, and finally wrapped the whole country in the raging and consuming flames of a moral and religious conflagration."* The real and substantial points at issue, in the discussion of the truth or falsehood of her doctrines, shall now be laid before the reader, apart from the cloud of words and (not to speak it irreverently) cant phrases which envelop- ed them. Mrs. Hutchinson's opponents were doubtless the aggrieved parties, and might as surely have kept that vantage ground ; but they surrendered it when they chose to impugn her doctrines rather than her conduct ; and it is no matter of difficulty to us, profiting by the dif- fusion of the blessed principles of religious lib erty and toleration, to determine on which side of the controversy truth and justice lay. Vane and Mrs. Hutchinson were far in advance of their age. * Upham, p. 127. SIR HENRY VANE. 273 One of her favourite topics ("whether se- lected with a design, at the beginning, of di- minishing the confidence of the people in their ministers cannot now be determined"), on which, in her weekly meetings, she dwelt very often and very largely, was the proposition that the existence of the real spirit of the Gospel in the heart of a man, even if that man should happen to be a minister of extraordinary gifts, could not be inferred with certainty from the outward displays of sanctity. She simply para- phrased, in fact, the language of the apostle, who hath told us that a man may speak with the tongue of angels, and have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have all faith so as to remove mountains, and bestow his goods to feed the poor, and give his body to be burned, and still be nothing in a religious and spiritual view. The Saviour himself hath said that men may prophesy and cast out devils, and do many more wonderful works in his name, and be re- jected and disowned by him at last. But it was soon suspected, and it is to be feared, says Mr. Upham, " upon too good grounds, that Mrs. Hutchinson was aiming at a particular object in dwelling so pointedly and so much upon this proposition. And when it once became a prevalent opinion that she was actuated by personal designs, it can be easily conceived how intolerably provoking her dis- courses must have been. It was a period of great formality and austerity in religion. The outward manifestations of piety were much greater than they have been since. Every minister and every professor of religion was expected to give evidence in his whole manner of life, in his most familiar conversation, in his movements, dress, countenance, and even in the tones of his voice, that he was not of the world. It followed of course it would have been unjust had it not that the evidence thus demanded by public opinion was very much re- lied on by the people. The praise of holiness and spirituality was freely and confidingly be- stowed upon the sanctimonious and austere. But Mrs. Hutchinson's doctrine cut up the whole matter by the roots, destroyed the very foundation upon'which her reputation had been made to rest, poisoned the fountains of confi- dence, and, in consequence of the personal and satirical design imputed to her, had a direct tendency to make men suspect of hypocrisy all whom they had before been disposed to revere for their piety." Most true is all this, and most grave and difficult of answer must have been a charge founded on improprieties of conduct which were evidently fraught with mischief to many of the best interests of the colony.* but * In such a state of society as these colonies presented, it was beyond everything expedient to impress the people with an implicit veneration and respect for their ministers, and this had beon done to a degree altogether unreasonable and excessive, and far beyond the point to which it was really and justly merited by that, on the whole, pious and excel- lent class of men. To have gone against Mrs. Hutchinson for disturbing, as it were, this necessary equilibrium in the government, would have been the wise course, and, in the main, impossible of resistance ; but the accusation of heresy, on the other hand, raised up defenders of her doctrines ev- erywhere throughout the colony, among people even who understood them least, and carried agitation and division into every church and family throughout the province. Mr. Upborn gives the following extract from a pamphlet en- titled " A short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of the MM such a charge would not satisfy her unwise op- ponents, who, eagerly seizing a remote and very false pretext for the accusation of heresy, prosecuted her for maintaining (to use the formal terms in which the complaint was laid) that " sanctijication is no evidence of justifica- tion." Never was the natural tendency of angry disputants to push each other to extremes so fully exemplified as on this occasion. From the proposition that the outward expressions of sanctity are not infallible evidences of the in- Antinomians, Familists, and Libertines that infected the Churches of New-England," and ascribed to a clergyman (the Rev. Thomas Weld, of Roxbury) of great influence at the time. It conveys some idea though, of course, a par- tial one of the form in which the controversy was conduct- ed, the origin of the difficulty, the charges alleged against Mrs. Hutchinson and her followers, and the spirit of the parties : " But the last and worst of all, which most sudden- ly diffused the venom of these opinions into the very veins and vitals of the people in the country, was Mistress Hutch- inson's double weekly lecture, which she kept under a pre- tence of repeating sermons, to which resorted sundry of Boston and other towns about, to the number of fifty, sixty, or eighty at once ; where, after she had repeated the sermon, she would make her comment upon it, vent her mischiev- ous opinions as she pleased, and wreathe the Scriptures to her own purpose ; where the custom was for her scholars to propound questions, and she (gravely sitting in the chair) did make answers thereto. The great respect she had at first in the hearts of all, and her profitable and sober car- riage of matters for a time, made this her practice less sus- pected by the godly magistrates and elders of the church there, so that it was winked at for a time (though afterward reproved by the Assembly and called into court) ; but it held so long until she had spread her leaven so far, that, had not Providence prevented, it had proved the canker of our peace and ruin of our comfort. These opinions being thus spread, and grown into their full ripeness and latitude, through the nimbleness and activity of their fomenters, began now to lift up their heads full high, to stare us in the face, and to con- front all that opposed them ; and that which added vigour and boldness to them was this, that now by this time they had some of all sorts and quality, in all places, to defend and patronize them ; some of the magistrates, some gentle- men, some scholars and men of learning, some burgesses of our General Court, some of our captains and soldiers, some chief men in towns, and some men eminent for religion, parts, and wit, so that wheresoever the case of the opinions came in agitation, there wanted not patrons to stand up to plead for them ; and if any of the opinionists were com- plained of in the courts for their misdemeanors, or brought before the churches for conviction or censure, still some or other of that party would not only suspend giving their vote against them, but would labour to justify them, to side with them, and protest against any sentence that should pas* upon them, and so be ready not only to harden the delin- quent against ail means of conviction, but to raise a mutiny, if the major part should carry it against them; so in town meetings, military trainings, and all other societies, yea r almost in every family, it was hard if that some or other were not ready to rise up in defence of them, even as of the apple of their own eye. Now, oh their boldness, pride, in- solency, and alienations from their old and dearest friends ; the disturbances, divisions, contentions they raised amen; us, both in church and state ; and in families, setting di- vision betwixt husband and wife ! Oh the sore censures against all sorts that opposed them ; and the contempt they cast upon our godly magistrates, churches, ministers, and all that were set over them, when they stood in their way ! Now the faithful ministers of Christ must have dung cast upon their faces, and be no better than legal preachers,. Bual's priests, popish factors, scribes, pharisees, and oppo- sers of Christ himself! Now they must be pointed at, as it were with the finger, and reproached by name. Such a church-officer is an ignorant man, and knows not Christ ; such a one is under a covenant of works ; such a pastor is a proud man, and would make a good persecutor, &c. Now, after our sermons were ended at our public lectures, you might have seen half a dozen pistols discharged at the face of the preacher (1 mean, so many objections made by the opinionists in the open assembly against the doctrine deliv- ered, if it suited not their new fancies), to the marvellous weakening of holy truths delivered. Now you might have seen many of the opinionists rising up, and contemptuously turning their backs upon the faithful pastor of that church, and going forth from the assembly when he began to pray or preach." See also Baxter's Life, p. 74, and Somert't Tracts, vii., 109. 274 BRITISH STATESMEN. ward residence of the Christian spirit, Mrs. Hutchinson was driven to speak disparagingly of external and visible morality, and her op- ponents, on the other hand, to assign too high a value to it ; until at last the two watchwords or countersigns of the controversy became, in theological phrase, a covenant of faith and a covenant of works.* Nor was this all. Mrs. Hutchinson availed herself of some points of difference between the two ministers of the Boston Church, Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wilson ; and either because there was a corresponding peculiarity in the preaching, or by an adroit stroke of policy aim- ed at securing the support of the most power- ful minister in the colony, this ingenious and extraordinary woman used to explain what her distinguishing principle was, by saying that Mr. Cotton preached a covenant of faith, but that Mr. Wilson and the other ministers were under a covenant of works. The result may be easily imagined. Mr. Cotton, whether from a motive of flattered vanity or sincere prefer- ence, continued Mrs. Hutchinson's faithful and zealous champion till she left the province, while Mr. Wilson and the other ministers, not caring to confine their rage within the bounds of a decent or Christian propriety, went about inflaming the people with the most dreadful in- vectives against their antagonist, and impress- ing upon them, in many instances not without success, that such blows aimed at their minis- ters inflicted a serious stain on the character of their parishioners. One other opinion fastened on Mrs. Hutchin- eon in the course of the controversy, and this the most important, as it was the most alarm- ing to the faith of the churches, remains to be explained. She was charged with entertaining the doctrine that " the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer." She held that by the expres- sion Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, as used in the Scriptures, is meant such an actual communi- cation of the Spirit of God to the believer's heart, that it becomes the abode of those sen- timents of love, truth, purity, and piety, which bear the impress of a divine source, and consti- tute those who experience them sons of God, as partakers of the divine nature, and one with God, as the Saviour was one with him. As this idea was sifted during the course of the controversy, it became apparent that it would necessarily end in the belief that the Holy Spirit was not so much a divine pftrson as a di- vine influence ; and the dread which was enter- tained of such a consequence increased very much the general impatience to bring the con- troversy to a close as speedily as possible, by putting down Mrs. Hutchinson with the strong arm of law. Winthrop, in his journal, tells us that " the question proceeded so far by dis- putation (in writing, for the peace' sake of the Church, which all were tender of), as at length they could not find the person of the Holy Ghost in Scripture, nor in the primitive churches three hundred years after Christ."! Mr. Upham very truly observes that it is im- portant to connect this latter and more formi- dable proposition with Mrs. Hutchinson's views of the worth of outward expressions of sanctity. * American Biography, p. 136. t Savg'i edition of Winthrop, i., 206. They seem to explain each other, and to inter- pret jointly that elemental system of faith which the modern term of Christianism will perhaps best comprehend, and which, however unpalat- able to a formal and sanctimonious condition of society and manners, would provoke no hos- tility from enlightened Christians now, of what- ever denomination. Mrs. Hutchinson believed, in fact, that it was the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer's heart that is, the pos- session and exercise of the pure, and genuine, and divine spirit of Christianity in the soul it- self which constituted justification, or made a person acceptable to God ; that the external and formal indications of piety, or sanctification, might appear where this inward spirit was not experienced, and that, in such cases, they were utterly worthless ; and, lastly, that the great end of the religion revealed in the Scriptures was not so much to make our conduct sancti- monious, our outward deportment correct, or to bring us under a covenant of works, as to include us under a covenant of grace, by im- parting to our souls the Holy Spirit of God. A discussion which embraced the truth or falsehood of such doctrines as these could not but be felt, of serious importance by a man of Vane's pure mind and lofty character ; for, in fact, considered thus, the questions at issue embraced the primary and essential principles of Christianity, and under one form or other, have constituted the leading topics of investi- gation and debate in every age of the Church, from the gathering of the first general councils in the primitive centuries up to the present hour. It is useless to attempt to ridicule the " Hutch- insonian or Antinomian discussion," or to ex- press astonishment that "men of sense and learning could ever have been engaged in it." Many of the doctrines it implied were the ruling principles of the life and the faith of Vane, and it is by the affected contempt of such things that his intellect and character have hitherto suffered in the shortsighted estimation of our historians. Let me pause for an instant to prove this to the reader. Sir Henry Vane the younger was, in the only true and comprehensive sense of that word, a Christian. A master of all the abstrusest points of the science of religion, his intellect and frame of mind were of that enlarged de- scription, that, while he held his own views in a high and spiritual sense, " he sought to im- bibe truth from every system of faith and every form of religion." " Christian faith was not to him a mere intellectual and barren system of speculative opinions ; not one article of faith was permitted to be of that character in his mind. But around every doctrine of Scripture his noble genius, exuberant imagination, and hallowed affections gathered a living and life- giving spirit of warmth, and love, and energy." He was a zealous man ; but knowledge regu- lated his zeal, and charity tempered it. He was called a fanatic, because he was the most strenuous advocate that religious liberty ever possessed. He was called a wild, un- intelligible visionary, because through life he never ceased to urge, with all the strength of his passions and the subtlety of his intel- lect, a UNIVERSAL TOLERATION Of S6CtS and opinions. It was his profound and all-wise SIR HENRY VANE. 275 maxim, whether in civil or religious polity, that every one should be perfectly free, and every one perfectly equal, in the eye of the law. All exclusive privileges, whether of church or state, he utterly abhorred ; and equally did he abhor every form of bigotry or persecution, whether " exercised by political or ecclesiastical institu- tions, by societies or individuals," while of all these principles he emphatically proved the sin- cerity by carrying them out into practice, " without partiality or exception, even when their operation was in favour of those whose sentiments he most disliked ;" for, dreading the power of the pope, great in that day, and opposed to the Church of Rome, he yet flung all his energies into the support of Catholic emancipation, careless of the rage of his Prot- estant contemporaries, and of the denunciations of Richard Baxter himself: nor be it ever for- gotten, that when John Biddle, the founder of the denomination of Unitarian Christians throughout England, was arraigned for publish- ing his opinions, the younger Sir Harry Vane, the enthusiastic champion of the Genevan Cal- vinists, stepped forth in his defence, and la- boured with untiring zeal to protect him from the blind intolerance of the age.* To the last hour of his life, as through all its changes and vicissitudes, he maintained the same faith which in her days of danger and persecution threw its shield before Mrs. Hutchinson. Observe the following description of the di- visions and conflicting parties in Christendom, which is quoted by Sikes from one of Vane's religious essays : " There are many churches in the world that make a profession of the name of Christ, under several forms and denomina- tions, according to the variety of judgments, and interests of the rulers and members thereof. There is a church called catholic or universal, headed by the pope, who pretends to be Christ's vicar. There are also national churches, head- ed either by a civil magistrate, as the Church of England, or by general assemblies, as the Church of Scotland hath been, with other re- formed churches. There are also particular, independent congregational churches, distin- guishing themselves into a variety of sects, and diversity of judgments and opinions, as well about the way and order of the word in matters of worship, and the service of God, as in what they hold fundamental in matters of faith. These all make up one body as to the owning and upholding a church in some out- ward visible form, who, notwithstanding all their differences, and pretestings against one another, do generally agree together in one mind as to the preferring of the church in name, show, and outward order, before what it is in spirit and truth, as it is the real and living body of Christ. Hence it is that the true Church in- deed, the very living, real, spiritual members of Christ's body, have been for many hundred years a dispersed, captivated people, under all worldly powers, civil or ecclesiastical, and * Upham's Life. Orme's Life of Baxter, i., 82. Toul- min's Life of Biddle, 33 ; and see the 13th and 18th vol- umes of that admirable periodical, the Monthly Repository, p. 257 and 347, which now, under the accomplished man- agement of Mr. Leigh Hunt, a writer of genius, and the most Christian-hearted of men, sustains the reputation it acquired under the editorship of one of the most eloquent and philosophical writers of the day, the Rev. Mr. Fox. never been suffered to use or enjoy a freedom in their communion together, and in the purity of God's service and worship, but are upon one pretence or other restrained by human laws, and suppressed as heretics, schismatics, fanat- ics, and such as turn the world upside down ; while those that have the repute and credit to be the church or churches of Christ, under some one of the forms and outward orders be- fore mentioned, have the powers of the world on their side, and are contending one with an- other who shall be uppermost, and give the rule of conformity in doctrine, worship, and church order to all the rest, by compulsion and persecu- tion ! But the days are now hastening apace wherein the living members of Christ's body shall be made manifest, in distinction from all those that have the name to live but are dead."* I have described this great statesman's faith as thatof UNIVERSAL TOLERATION. Not to Chris- tian sects and professors alone did he extend his charity, but to men of all opinions and all religions ; to the " honest moral heathen," as we have seen his friend Sikes express it, no less than to the "legal Christian." And he did this because Christianity was with him a spiritual religion, the vital essence of which can live in the hearts of its followers alone. To him the substance of true religion was moral and spiritual excellence ; and, wherever he could find that, wherever that appeared, whether in the minds and characters of Gentiles or of Jews, he recognised a fellow-Christian, al- though its possessor lived in an age or country which had not known or heard of the very name of Christ. Men enrolled in the same political struggle with himself would ask him. the meaning of such latitudinarian backsliding, and were answered by the startling but most noble question, How dared he to exclude the heathen from his charity, since in doing that he might shut out those whom Christ, the great head of the Church, would possibly, at the final day, acknowledge and welcome as his own 1 Let the reader take to his heart the following divine passage of the " Retired Man's Medita- tions," a work which will be described here- after : " But, indeed, this assertion is so far from straitening or lessening the number of those that are the true heirs of salvation, that it rather discovers how they may lie hid, as they did in Elijah's time, out of the observa- tion of visible professors (AMONG THOSE THAT THEY EXCLUDE AS HEATHENS), and be comprehcnd- ed by Christ, their spiritual head, when as yet they may not have their spiritual senses brought forth into exercise, so as to apprehend him, but may be babes in Christ, walking as men undis- tinguished from the rest of the world ; and al- though they may, in that respect, seem to be men in the flesh, yet they may live according to God in the spirit, and find acceptance in the be- * In another passage of a similar kind the same faith re- ceives emphatic illustration : " These keen concisioiiist*, that cannot afford a good word for the true circumcision, are eager about the outward circumstances of worship, time, place, and the like. Christ reproves them in his answer to the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well : ' neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father, but in spirit and in truth.' Neither in this form nor that, but excluded out of all synagogues has the true Church and spouse of Christ been worshipping God this twelve hundred years and upward, in a mourning, persecuted, wilderness condition." 276 BRITISH STATESMEN. loved one, while they themselves may either be WITHOUT LAW, EXERCISING A CHASTE NATURAL CONSCIENCE, or may be, under the law, believers so zealous of the law as to fly in the face of Paul himself for witnessing a higher light than they have yet experience of or can bear."* And as these principles guided him when his life began, and through all the hard years of his public struggles sustained him, so in the hour of death they were his comfort and ref- uge. " Whatever you do," he said to his chil- dren, on their last interview with him in the Tower, the evening before his execution, "whatever you do, be not conformed to this world in the spirit, way, principles, affections, no, nor religion thereof. Amid the great va- riety of churches and ways of worship that this world abounds with, be not by any means induced or forced to observe and become sub- ject to the ordinances of man in things pertain- ing unto God. Give unto God the things that are God's. Give also unto Caesar the things that are his. If he unlawfully require more, do you lawfully refuse to obey him. Let him then take his course ; wherein any deal proud- ly, God will be above them. If one church say, ' Lo, here is Christ ;' another, ' Lo, there !' and the trumpet that's blown in both give but an uncertain sound, look up to Christ himself with the spouse in the Canticles, and say, ' O thou, whom our souls do love, tell us where thou feedest, and makest thy flock to rest at Boon, under the scorching heat of man's per- secuting wrath.' If rightly sought to and wait- ed on, he will by his spirit infallibly direct you to the true shepherds' tents ; to those spirit- ual pastors and assemblies that walk in the footsteps of his ancient flock, even in the faith, spirit, and way of Abraham. . . And, as I would have you to quit all false churches, whatever curious dress, insinuating appearance, or re- fined form they shine forth in, so much more yet would I have you to loathe and depart from all manner of profaneness and common de- bauchery, whatever countenance or encourage- ment it may have round about you in the land of your nativity !"f Through the prison walls that then encompassed Vane, the barbarous dissonance of Bacchus and his revellers had al- ready reached, even as it pierced the blind sol- itude that compassed Milton round ! Vane's advocacy of Mrs. Hutchinson, then, was only in accordance with the principle which governed every passage in his life ; it was no " working and unquiet fancy," as Clar- endon describes it, nor humour of " young in- experience," as better friends to truth than Clarendon have been induced to urge : it was simply the result of those settled philosophical convictions which, thus early developed, re- mained with him his whole life after, that forced Vane into the front rank of this religious controversy, as the chief friend and supporter of the remarkable woman with whom it ori- ginated. He espoused her cause, and defended her with all the warmth and enthusiasm of his own character.:): * Retired Man's Meditations, 4to, 213. t I shall have to return to this affecting address, which there is reason to suppose was taken down by Sikes at the moment of its delivery. He appears to have been the only person present besides the family of Vane. t I need scarcely add, that, supposing his opinions had So supported, and with the additional aid of the Rev. Mr. Cotton's zeal, Mrs. Hutchinson for a time held equal ground with her enemies ; but as the contest proceeded, the proportion of numbers turned out heavily against her. The celebrated founder, father, and first governor of the colony, Winthrop, conducted the oppo- sition, and was supported with the hottest zeal by Mr. Wilson and all the other ministers of the country, by all the churches but that of Boston, and by a considerable and very active minority there. With every day that passed, her position, including that of her supporters, became more and more dangerous. She had provoked, in all its most fearful fires, the odium theologicum, and it burned with an equal fury against all who dared to countenance or to tol- erate the opinions she was charged with hold- ing. The crisis arrived at last. The day of the annual election came round ; and the party al- ways hostile to Vane, re-enforced in strength and numbers by the party whose hostility he had brought down in his support of Mrs. Hutch- inson, all assembled, and massed themselves together at the appointed place and time. A terrible storm of excitement was the result. Among other notable circumstances, the Rev. Mr. Wilson clambered up into a tree, and ha- rangued the electors in a speech which, as it is described, could surely never have been en- dured in those grave times, and in one of his calling, except during the prevalence of a most engrossing and almost maddening excitement. The end was, that Winthrop was elected gov- ernor, and Vane, and all Vane's friends, left out of office. The Boston people, ever devotedly attached to Vane, at once declared their unmoved con- fidence and faith in him by electing him, with others of his most zealous friends, to represent them in the general court. More passionate than discreet, the Winthrop party in the As- sembly pronounced the election void. The people of Boston, spirited and independent then as they have been ever since, with indignation at such a gross outrage on their rights of suf- frage, returned the same men back to the House by a new election the very next day. The suc- cessful party, meanwhile, once seated in the colonial government, lost not a day in begin- ning in fearful earnest to put down by main force the Hutchinsonian heresy, and to cut off been less in accordance, or even utterly at variance, with her own, he would yet have been bound, by his theory of non-interference in matters of religious belief, to take part with her against her prosecutors. " He was always," says his friend Sikes, "against the exercise of a coercive magis- tratical power in religion and worship, because of the single rule, power, and authority that Christ himself claims as his peculiar prerogative in and over the hearts and consciences of all men. How grossly inconcinnous must it needs ap- pear even to the common reason of all mankind, that such as take upon them to be magistrates and rulers, whether the people will or no (as it often falls out), yea, or though freely chosen, should give the rule to all others' conscience* in point of religion, when they many times have no religion at all in themselves, nor any other conscience but a dead or seared one, hardened in the most brutish vilenesses that the basest of men can be guilty of. But if the magistrate do plausibly pretend to something of religion, what a change- able thing will religion be at this rate ! as fickle as the ma- gistrate's judgment, at least as his person, for the next ru- ler may be of another persuasion ; as this nation hath expe- rienced off and on, between popery and the Protestant pro- fession, in Henry VIII., Edward VI., and in the two queens Mary and Elizabeth." SIR HENRY VANE. 877 forever all means of its farther growth. The first step taken with this view was a startling one no less than to prevent, by absolute means, the introduction into the colony of per- sons who were at all likely to favour Mrs. Hutchinson or her doctrines. Many such per- sons being expected to arrive from England about that time, a law was passed which im- posed a heavy penalty upon any person who should receive into his house a stranger com- ing with intent to reside, or let to such a one a lot or habitation, without, in every instance, obtaining particular permission of one of the standing council, or two of the assistant ma- gistrates ; and, by the same act, a large fine was to be levied upon any town which should, without such permission, allow strangers a residence. A grosser violation of the rights of the colo- nists, considered in the abstract, could not be imagined than under such a law as this. Vane at once declared against its injustice and enor- mity, and appealed to the people. The inhab- itants of Boston, with whom his influence al- ways bore its natural and fair proportion to their own independence, took up the matter so warmly, that they refused to meet Governor Winthrop, after the usual customs of respect, when he entered the town on his return from the session of the Legislature ; and at last the public mind generally, and in all parts of the colony, showed so much discontent on the sub- ject of the law, that Governor Winthrop was driven to the necessity of a formal public ap- peal in its behalf and his own. A warm con- troversy ensued, in which Vane was his chief and most formidable opponent. This discussion is only to be alluded to here in so far as it illustrates the character of Vane as a statesman, so long misunderstood, and, by writers of English history, so unjustly han- dled. It is in proof, during its progress, that he was the first to declare, at this early period of his life, and at the greatest personal hazard, that the theory on which New-England had been planted and was proposed to be main- tained was absolutely visionary and impracti- cable. We shall find always, in the course of this memoir, that he whose wildness and en- thusiasm are the favourite topics of the his- tory of the time, was, in strict truth, the most clear-headed and the most practical of politi- cians. He could never understand what was meant, as applied to the case of New-England, by a settlement of religious liberty in a pecu- liar sense alone, and subject to conditions which destroyed it in fact.* He held that they * The best statement of the case in that view, and the most enlightened defence of Winthrop's policy, are given by Mr. Upham. We quote it in justice to both parties : " In their own country they were oppressed and in various ways afflicted in the exercise of their consciences, and in the ex- pression and enjoyment of their own religious principles and way of worship. They saw no prospect of a remedy, be- cause it was then universally supposed that, in order to live in peace and liberty, Christians must agree in sentiment and speculation. Such an agreement was manifestly im- possible in the Old World. They were therefore led to conceive the plan of withdrawing from Christendom into a wilderness beyond the ocean, where, without disturbing others, they themselves might enjoy ' freedom to worship God.' It did not occur to their imaginations that any, be- sides those who sympathized with (hem in views and feel- ing*, would voluntarily join them in encountering the perils of the deep and the sufferings of a new settlement on a for- eign and savage shore. It was their solemn and must sa- who in a large society had contended for the rights of conscience when they were them- selves sufferers, could not, upon any pretext, in a society however small, turn against oth- ers, and, upon points of speculative difference, violate their rights of conscience because they had acquired the power and the opportunity to do it. The result proved Vane to have been right. He had hit the true principle of religious liberty, which, in its great and comprehensive wisdom, never dawned upon the minds of the first planters of New-England ; and he was the first English statesman to declare and to act upon that principle up to its very fullest ex- tent. He heralded the way for Milton, for William Penn, for Locke, for the great Fox, and for his noble kinsman (in our own time, the most generous and constant asserter of the rights of conscience) Lord Holland.* A few extracts from Vane's answers to Win- throp will satisfactorily establish this. The latter having issued an elaborate " Defence of an Order of Court made in the year 1637," ex- plaining its " intent" and illustrating its " equi- ty," Vane at once published a reply, under the title of " A brief Answer to a certain Declara- tion, made of the Intent and Equity of the Or- der of Court, that none should be received to inhabit within this Jurisdiction but such as should be allowed by some of the Magistrates." The introduction of Winthrop's argument consisted of the following definition of a " corn- ered purpose to rear up their children in the faith they cherished ; and they rejoiced in having, as they thought, devised a scheme of society, in which, far removed from all who differed from them, they might enjoy their own insti- tutions and profess their own principles, without giving or suffering molestation, and free from all division or dissent. But, without considering the difficulty of excluding persons of discordant opinions coming from abroad, it was utterly in vain to attempt to bring any system of education to bear with such complete effect upon a whole people as to pre- vent difference of opinion among their descendants. It was, however, a beautiful vision, and, upon the whole, very creditable to those who indulged it. While we cannot la- ment that it failed of being realized, it is impossible not to sympathize with our fathers in the disappointment they so bitterly experienced, when, after all their sacrifices, and toils, and privations, and sufferings, and before they had got comfortably settled in their new abode, they discovered, to their amazement, that they had not escaped the differen- ces and dissensions which they so much dreaded. It seemed hard that, after having left Christendom, country, and home itself, and effected a lodgment in a far-off wilderness, where their only hope was a peaceful harmony of opinion, beyond the reach of oppression, and rescued from all temptation to oppress it was indeed hard to be pursued and tormented by those very disputes which they had sacrificed their very all to avoid. It ought not to be wondered at, as a strange or inconsistent thing, that they used every effort to drive from their territory those who advocated discordant opin- ions, and that they employed every device to prevent their introduction. In so doing they did not violate, but, on the contrary, fully acted out the principles upon which they emigrated to America and planted the colony. The law to which we have just referred [the law described in the text] was but an expression of those principles, and indicated the only probable policy by which they could be developed and preserved." * As this volume is passing through the press, Lord Hol- land's signature again appears alone to one article of a pro- test on the subject of religious liberty, which appears to me to condense into a few words its most comprehensive prin- ciples. His lordship protests against the municipal officers' Declaration Bill (as he had ten years before protested against the bill it proposed to remedy the defects of) be- cause he "cannot directly or indirectly sanction the opinion that any particular faith in matters of religion it necessary to the proper discharge of duties purely political or tempo- ral." A collection of Lord Holland's protests would be an invaluable text-book of statesman-like reasoning, of pure constitutional doctrine, and of the most generous and enno- bling semimenti. BRITISH STATESMEN. mon weale or body politike," such as the col- ony of Massachusetts was : " the consent of a certain company of people to cohabit together under one government, for their mutual safety and welfare." To this, however, Vane deci- sively interposes a mention of the restrictions which limit so convenient a definition, and ren- der it by no means so apt a plea for the arbi- trary legislation of such a "government." He reminds Winthrop that his definition is at the best but a description of a commonwealth at large, and not such a commonwealth as this (as is pretended), which is not only CHRISTIAN, but dependant upon the grant also of our sov- ereign ; for so are the express words of that order of court to which the whole country was required to subscribe. " Now," he continues, "if you will define a Christian commonwealth, there must be included such a consent as is according to God ; a subjecting to such a gov- ernment as is according to Christ. And if you will define a corporation incorporated by virtue of the grant of our sovereign, it must be such a consent as the grant requires and permits, and in that manner and form as it prescribes, or else it will be defective. The commonwealth here described [in Winthrop's definition] may be a company of Turkish pirates as well as Christian professors, unless the consent and government be better limited than it is in this definition ; for sure it is that all pagans and infidels, even the Indians here among us, may come within this compass. And is this such a body politic as ours 1 Our Commonwealth, we fear, would be twice miserable, if Christ and the king should be shut out so. Reasons ta- ken from the nature of a commonwealth not founded upon Christ, nor by his majesty's char- ters, must needs fall to the ground, and fail those that rely upon them. Members of a com- monwealth may not seek out all means that may conduce to the welfare of the body, but all lawful and due means, according to the charter they hold by, either from God or the king, or from both ; nor may they keep out whatsoever may appear to tend to their damage (for many things appear which are not), but such as, upon right and evident grounds, do so appear and are so in truth." Winthrop had insisted very strongly on the following argument as decisive in his favour : "The churches take liberty (as lawfully they may) to receive or reject at their discretion ; yea, particular towns make orders to such ef- fect ; why, then, should the Commonwealth be denied the like liberty, and the whole more re- strained than any part 1" To this Vane replied, in the true spirit of the great founder of Chris- tianity : " Though the question be here conclu- ded, yet it is far from being soundly proved ; yea, in truth, we much wonder that any mem- ber of a church should be ignorant of the false- ness of the groundwork upon which this con- clusion is built ; for, should churches have this power, as you say they have, to receive or re- ject at their discretion, they would quickly grow corrupt enough. Churches have no liberty to re- ceive or reject at their discretions, but at the dis- cretion of Christ. Whatsoever is done in word or deed, in church or commonwealth, must be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Neither hath church nor commonwealth any other than ministerial power from Christ, who is the head of the Church, and the prince of the kings of the earth. After that Cornelius and his com- pany had received the Holy Ghost, whereby the right which they had to the covenant was evidenced, it is not now left to the discretion of the Church whether they would admit them thereunto or not. But can any man forbid them water 1 saith Peter. He commanded them to be baptized. There is the like reason of ad- mission into churches. When Christ opens a door to any, there's none may take liberty to shut them out. In one word, there is no lib- erty to be taken, neither in church nor com- monwealth, but that which Christ gives, and is according unto him." Carrying out these no- ble and exalted views, Vane thus described what ought to be, by statesmen, the 'proper treatment of heretics : " As for scribes and Pharisees, we will not plead for them ; let them do it who walk in their ways ; nor for such as are confirmed jn any way of error ; though all such arc not to be denied cohabitation, but are to be pitied and reformed. ISHMAEL SHALL DWELL IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS BRETHREN." Then, towards the conclusion of this very striking pamphlet, he sums up his argument in these words : " This law we judge to be most wicked and sinful, and that for these reasons : 1. Because this law doth leave these weighty matters of the Commonwealth, of receiving or rejecting such as come over, to the approbation of magistrates, and suspends these things upon the judgment of man, whereas the judgment is God's. This is made a groundwork of gross popery. Priests and magistrates are to judge, but it must be according to the law of God. THAT LAW WHICH GIVES THAT, WITHOUT LIMITA- TION, TO MAN WHICH IS PROPER TO GoD, CANNOT BE JUST. 2. Because here is liberty given by this law to expel and reject those which are most eminent Christians, if they suit not with the disposition of the magistrate ; whereby it will come to pass that Christ and his members will find much worse entertainment among us than the Israelites did among the Egyptians and Babylonians, than Abraham and Isaac did among the Philistines, than Jacob among the Shechemites ; yea, even than Lot among the Sodomites. These all gave leave to God's people to sit down among them, though they coukl not claim such right as the king's subjects may. Now that law, the execution whereof may make us more cruel and tyrannical over God's children than even these, must needs be most wicked and sinful." The profound and generous spirit of these passages, the force and beauty of their scrip- ture illustration, cannot be admired too highly. But Winthrop, strongly supported by the most powerful influences in the colony, was enabled to hold his ground, and Vane, baffled in his best hopes and purposes, resolved for England.* He took his passage in August, 1637; not "fain to steal away by night," as Baxter would have it, but openly, nay, with marks of honour from his friends, which even his enemies were obli- * " He had not been long in New-England," says his friend Sikes, " before he ripened into more knowledge and experience of Christ than the churches there could bear the testimony of. Even New-England could not bear all hia words, though there were no king's court or king's chapel" Then he returns for Old England." SIR HENRY VANE. 279 ged to take part in, and accompanied by the young Lord Ley, son and heir of the Earl of Marlborough, who had come over a short time before to see the country. A large concourse of the people of Boston attended him, with ev- ery form of affectionate respect, to the vessel's side, which he ascended amid the strongest demonstrations of Jove and esteem for his per- son, and admiration for his character and ser- vices. A parting salute was fired from the town, and another from the castle ; and as he sailed from the shores of New-England, he left behind him a name which, as years went on, became more and more endeared to the peo- ple ; a name which is venerated there to this day ; and gives a kind of religious interest to the small house in Boston which is still point- ed out as one of his places of residence with an honourable gratitude and pride.* Nor did Vane's interest in America, any more than the better influences of his character and name, pass away with his passage from her shores. During the remainder of his life, through all its power and all its suffering, he forgot not her. By his aid, when governor of Massachusetts, the famous Roger Williams had succeeded in obtaining a deed of Rhode Island from the native princes, and one of his first acts after his return to England was to exert himself to procure the first charter of that col- ony. " It was not price and money," says that most celebrated Puritan, "that could have pur- chased Rhode Island, but it was obtained by love that love and favour which that honoured gentleman, Sir H. Vane, and myself had with the great sachem Miantonomo, about the league which I procured between the Massachusetts English and the Narragansetts in the Pequot war. This I mention, as the truly noble Sir H. Vane had been so good an instrument in the hand of God for rescuing this island from the barbarians, as also for procuring and confirm- ing the charter, that it may be recorded with all thankfulness. "t And not in words alone did Roger Williams exhibit his gratitude ; he gave more solid and enduring proofs of it in carrying out Vane's own great principles of re- ligious liberty in the settlement of the colony of Rhode Island, which soon presented, single and alone, faithful among the faithless, the grand example of Christian toleration in its only complete and wise aspect, as applied not only to Christians, but to all men, of whatever religion or form of faith. Deep was the inter- est Vane thenceforth took in that colony ; and when, in long after years, at the very busiest and most anxious period of his public life, he had received reason to suspect that something of a contentious and intolerant spirit was steal- ing insensibly into the hearts of some of its ac- tive leaders, he at once wrote them a letter (dated the 8th of February, 1653), expressing * Mr. Upham tells us that " Governor Vane's house stood, as we are informed by Hutchinson (i., 55, note), on the side of the hill above Queen-street," between the sites of the houses of Mr. Jonathan Phillips and the late Mr. Gardiner Greene. On his departure from America he presented the estate to Mr. Cotton, in whose family he had resided, and with whom he had formed a "great friendship," founded upon sympathy of opinions and congeniality of spirit. It has been supposed that Sir Henry Vane assisted Mr. Cotton in preparing the "Abstract of the Laws of New-England," published at London in 1641. Hist. Coll., v., 172, note. t Mr. Upborn, Hist. Coll., ., 194, 2d series. his regret at the intelligence, and urging them to a more consistent practice of the great prin- ciples upon which their society was founded. An answer was drawn up by Roger Williams, and signed by the principal people of Provi- dence, which shows with what truly Christian sentiments Sir Henry's friendly and faithful re- monstrances were received. It concludes by expressing the hope " that, when we are gone and rotten, our posterity, and children after us, shall read, in our town records, your pious and favourable letters and loving kindness to us."* In these after years he wrote to Winthrop too, his old and active enemy, in the same spirit as to those who had supported him. From the high places of political influence and power, as in his young and uninfluential days, he used the same arguments to Winthrop to induce him to save the country he presided over from the de- structive effects of religious bigotry and intol- erance. He wrote to himf entreating him to * Hist. Coll., x., 20, note. t This letter will be found in Hutchinson's Collections, p. 137. I cannot refrain from adding here, while yet de- tained on the subject, an admirable sketch, which is fur- nished by Mr. Upham, of the closing passages of Mrs. Hutchinson's life, after the departure of Vane. It cannot fail to have a melancholy interest for those who are inter- ested in the great statesman her fortunes connected her with, and who, admiring, as they must, her genius, her firmness, and perseverance, must deplore her sufferings, and the bloody tragedy which brought those sufferings to a close. After Vane's departure, the controversy he had taken part in was, by the direct application of mere power, extin- guished and extirpated. Mr. Wheelwright was banished, and the same sentence was carried into execution against Mrs. Hutchinson, after an examination and trial, in which she exhibited the most extraordinary degree of talent, learn- ing, skill, and fortitude. She at once removed after this with her family to Rhode Island, where, under the protec- tion of Roger Williams, her conduct did not incur reproach, although she continued faithful to her principles ; nei- ther did any injury or inconvenience, as Williams wrote to Vane, result from her influence there. " How clearly," justly pursues Mr. Upham, " does this illustrate the impor- tant maxim, that no heresy need be regarded as dangerous to the state when the state does not meddle with it ! Upon the death of her husband she transferred her residence to Long Island, where, in the year 1643, her sufferings and persecutions were brought to an end in a manner so awful and tragical as would have softened the hearts, we might suppose, of the bitterest foes, and have buried forever all feelings of anger and bigotry in one wide-spread and pro- found sentiment of pity and sorrow. She and all her fami- ly, consisting of sixteen persons, were murdered by the In- dians, with the exception of one daughter, who was carried into captivity. Such was the fate of Anne Hutchinson, one of the most remarkable persons of her age and sex learned, accomplished, and of an heroic spirit. Her genius was as extraordinary as her history was strange and eventful. Her abilities were equalled only by her misfortunes. With I talents and graces which would have adorned and blessed the private spheres, within which they ought to have been confined, she aimed to occupy a more public position, and to act upon a more conspicuous theatre ; and the conse- quence was, that she was hated where she would otherwise have been loved ; a torrent of prejudice and calumny was made to pour over her; an entire community was thrown into disorder and convulsions for years ; a most cruel perse- cution drove her from the pale of civilization ; and she fell, at last, beneath the bloody tomahawks of murderous sava- ges. Immediately after her exile from Massachusetts, the floodgates of slander were opened against her character. Every species of abuse and defamation was resorted to, and tales of calumny were put into circulation so extravagant, disgusting, loathsome, and shocking, that nothing but the blackest malignity could have fabricated, or the most infu- riated and blinded bigotry have credited them. (Mather's " Magnalia," book vii., c. iii., <) xi.) Every mouth seemed to be open to asperse her, and every heart hardened against her ; and when the news of her tragical death arrived, it was readily believed and proclaimed that it was a judgment of God upon her sinful heresies, and the people seemed al- most to take satisfaction in reflecting upon the dreadful fate which had befallen her in the distant wilderness to which she had been driven by their intolerance. In contemplating the furious and desperate virulence of the colonists towards 280 BRITISH STATESMEN. exhort the Congregational churches in America to exhibit such an example of the spirit of peace, charity, and forbearance as would alone tend to promote the great cause of Christian liberty and truth in the older world. Winthrop himself appears by this time to have become sensible of the greatness, justice, and truth of Vane's character ; and we find him, according- ly, in speaking of a difficulty in which, in 1645, some New-England men were involved in the admiralty courts in London on account of their connexion with certain proceedings of the gov- ernment of Massachusetts, and which was of such moment that the bonds they were required to give amounted to four thousand pounds, seizing the opportunity of doing honour to cer- tain active and disinterested exertions of Sir Henry Vane in their behalf, and adding that, " although he might have taken occasion against us for some dishonour which he apprehended to have been unjustly put upon him here, yet both now and at other times he hath showed himself a true friend to New-England, and a man of a noble and generous mind."* Such is a faithful history of Vane's colonial residence and administration ; and it may be safely left thus to the impartial and just-mind- ed to determine whether, far from depreciating his powers as a public man, as hath been too rashly concluded, it does not, on the contrary, give additional interest and lustre to all that is great, or noble, or wise in the history of his life. He now appears upon a wider scene once more, and Garrard thus writes to the lord-dep- uty: "Henry Vane, the comptroller's eldest son, who hath been governor in New-England this last year, is come home ; whether he hath left his former misgrounded opinions for which he left us, I know not."t Nor could the gossiping Garrard, with all his zealous curiosity, ascertain for many months any better knowledge on this point. Vane lived in retirement for a considerable time after his return. The interval not unfitly prepares us, after the strange and turbulent scenes we have just gone through, for that resolved and deliberate strengthening of his purposes and powers which, in hours of quiet retreat and lofty study, we may suppose to have been now his principal aim, and his noblest preparation for that glorious career of suffering and of ser- vice on which he was soon to enter in his na- tive country. In this interval, too, " with his father's approbation," he married Frances, the daughter of Sir Christopher Wray, of Ashby, in Lincolnshire. Public affairs had meanwhile advanced to the crisis which forced the king once more upon the detested resource of a Parliament, in April, 1640, and in this Parliament, influenced secret- ly, it is supposed, by Pym, " young Mr. Vane" consented to sit. He was at once returned for Mrs. Hutchinson, we discern a striking illustration of the destructive influences of bigotry and persecution upon all the finer and more amiable sentiments of humanity. The very virtues which are justly lauded in our fathers serve to prove and demonstrate the lesson which it becomes us to draw from this passage of their history. Indeed, no excel- lence of nature or of principle, no strength or refinement of character, is proof against the debasing power of intoler- ance. To be bigoted ia to be cruel. To persecute another is to barbarize one's self." * Savage's Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 248. t Strafford's Letters and Despatches, ii., 116. the borough of Kingston-upon-Hull worthiest predecessor, in the representation of that place, to honest Andrew Marvel. This step appears to have given great alarm at court, both to his father and the king. Means were at once taken to propitiate the possible hostility of the young and resolute statesman. " By his father's credit with the Earl of Nor- thumberland, who was lord-high-admiral of Eng- land," says Clarendon, " he was joined pres- ently and jointly with Sir William Russel in the office of treasurer of the navy (a place of great trust and profit), which he equally shared with the other."* His father's credit may in- deed have had some share in this appointment, but the manifest purpose for which that credit had been called into request, and the eager sanction the appointment received from the king, were displayed in an additional honour conferred on him two or three months after- ward, when he received the dignity of knight- hood from the hands of Charles. From this time he generally passed by the title which he has made so famous, Sir Harry Vane the young- er, or the more formal one of Sir Henry Vane, of Raby Castle, knight, t Still no movement appeared on the part of the newly-appointed minister of co-operation in the principles of the government. He was frequent- ly observed, on the contrary, in the society of Pym and Hampden, and it is a remark of Clar- endon that at this time " nothing was concealed from him, though it is believed that he commu- nicated his own thoughts to very few." He was waiting his time, now very near. In November, 1640, again elected for the borough of Kingston-upon-Hull, Sir Henry Vane the younger sat down at Westminster, a mem- ber of the ever-memorable Long Parliament. From that instant his course was plain, and never swerved from. " In the beginning of the great Parliament," says one who had watched him well, the honest and able Ludlow, " he was elected to serve his country among them, with- out the least application on his part to that end ; and in this station, he soon made appear how ca- pable he was of managing great affairs, possess- ing, in the highest perfection, a quick and ready apprehension, a strong and tenacious memory, a profound and penetrating judgment, a just and noble eloquence, with an easy and graceful man- ner of speaking. To these were added a sin- gular zeal and affection for the good of the Commonwealth, and a resolution and courage not to be shaken or diverted from the public service."}: Soon, indeed, were these great characteristics made manifest. * Vol. i., 328. t Anthony a Wood, iii., 579. 1 I may in this place subjoin what is said of his general conduct henceforward, in the extraordinary " life" by Sikes. " This worthy patriot was freely chosen, without any seek- ing of his, to serve as a burgess for the town of Kingston- npon-Hull, in that Parliament which sat down November 3, 1640. About thirteen years did he indefatigably labour therein for his country's relief, against manifest oppressions and public grievances that were upon it, and wellnigh tea years more he hath patiently suffered, as either a useless or pernicious person, because of his destructive constitution to the peace and interest of tyranny. During the Long- Parliament, he was usually so engaged for the public, in the House and several committees, from early in the morning till very late at night, thtt he had scarce any leisure to ent his bread, converse with his nearest relations, or at all to mind his family affairs. Were I indeed furnished with the tongue of the learned, the pen of a ready writer, I should think it advisable to let the usefulness and success of his SIR HENRY VANE. His conduct in the affair of Lord Stafford's trial has been alluded to in a previous memoir.* He furnished the most material evidence against the earl. The circumstance may be stated here in the words which, according to Claren- don, were used by Pym, in describing it to the House of Commons. " That, some months be- fore the beginning of this Parliament, he had vis- ited young Sir Henry Vane, eldest son to the secretary, who was then newly recovered from an ague ; that they being together, and condoling the sad condition of the kingdom, by reason of the many illegal taxes and pressures, Sir Harry told him, if he would call upon him the next day, he would show him somewhat that would give him much trouble, and inform him what counsels were like to be followed to the ruin of the kingdom ; for that he had, in perusal of some of his father's papers, accidentally met with the result of the cabinet council upon the dissolution of the last Parliament, which com- prehended the resolutions then taken. The next day he showed him a little paper of the secretary's own writing, in which was contain- ed the day of the month, and the results of sev- eral discourses made by several counsellors, with several hieroglyphics, which sufficiently expressed the persons by whom those discour- ses were made. The matter was of so tran- scendent a nature, and the counsel so prodi- gious with reference to the Commonwealth, that he desired he might take a copy of it, which the young gentleman would by no means consent to, fearing it might prove prejudicial to his father. But when he (Mr. Pym) informed him that it was of extreme consequence to the kingdom, and that a time might probably come when the discovery of this might be a sovereign means to preserve both church and state, he was contented that Mr. Pym should take a copy of it, which he did in the presence of Sir Henry Vane, and, having examined it together, deliv- ered the original again to Sir Henry Vane."t This famous paper, it is scarcely necessary to repeat in this place, contained old Vane's notes of a council, at which Strafford had rec- ommended the introduction of the Irish army to reduce England to obedience. When they were produced by Pym in Westminster Hall, an ex- traordinary sensation was created, and the public actings all along that Parliament, till forcibly dis- solved, speak for themselves. That race of action being run, not without much struggling, contradiction, and mis- reports the while, he conies to his suffering scene. He was for several years rejected, persecuted, and imprisoned by his apostatized friends, that had gone to the house of God in company with him, who at length, to complete their per- secuting work upon him, delivered him up, to be hunted to death by his professed foes, enemies of all righteousness, God's and man's too." * Life of Strafford, p. 125. t Clarendon's History, i., 399-400, Oxford ed. of 1826. It is an extraordinary instance of Mr. D'Israeli's forgetful- ness, where his violent partialities intrude, that in charac- terizing the statement in the text as an artfully-turned par- ty tale, got up to infer that there was " no premeditated plot" in this case between the Vanes to revenge a family hatred against Strafford (a charge which the Royalist wri- ters are very fond of), he endeavours to cast doubt and re- proach upon the allegations of the " severe indisposition" of the younger Vane, and his alleged " reluctance" in suf- fering Pym to take a copy, by saying that he can find no authority for them excepting in Brodie's History of the Brit'sh Empire ! " Mr. Brodie," remarks Mr. D'Israeli, " is my sole authority for this statement !" Yet Clarendon must have been turned over, page by page, sentence by sentence, with infinite and most curious zeal by Mr. D'Israeli ! Clar- endon is the very text on which the " commentaries" are written. NN cause of Strafford was, for the first time, felt to be hopeless. It is, perhaps, worth while adding the sequel of the scene in the House of Com- mons after Pym's announcement, always bear- ing in mind that it rests on no better authority than Clarendon's. Sir Henry Vane the younger, he says, rose after Mr. Pym, corroborated his statement, and added " that his father, being in the North with the king the summer before, had sent up his keys to his secretary, then at Whitehall, and had written to him (his son) that he should take from him those keys which opened his boxes where his writings and evi- dences of his land were, to the end that he might cause an assurance to be perfected which concerned his wife ; and that he having peru- sed those evidences, and despatched what de- pended thereupon, had the curiosity to desire to see what was in a red velvet cabinet which stood with the other boxes, and thereupon re- quired the key of that cabinet from the secre- tary, as if he still wanted somewhat towards the business his father had directed ; and so, having gotten that key, he found, among other papers, that mentioned by Mr. Pym, which made that impression in him, that he thought himself bound in conscience to communicate it to some person of better judgment than him- self, who might be more able to prevent the mischiefs that were threatened therein, and so showed it to Mr. Pym, and being confirmed^y him that the seasonable discovery thereof might do no less than preserve the kingdom, had con- sented that he should take a copy thereof, which to his knowledge he had faithfully done, and thereupon had laid the original in its prop- er place again, in the red velvet cabinet. He said he knew this discovery would prove little less than his ruin in the good opinion of his father ; but, having been provoked by the ten- derness of his conscience towards his common parent, his country, to trespass against his natural father, he hoped he should find compas- sion from that House, though he had little hopes of pardon elsewhere." The elder Vane, who had, throughout the whole of this scene, shown extraordinary symptoms of pain and vexation, now rose, remarked severely on the conduct of his son, and added " that it was true, being in the North with the king, and that unfortu- nate son of his having married a virtuous gen- tlewoman, daughter to a worthy member then present, to whom there was somewhat in jus- tice and honour due, which was not sufficient- ly settled, he had sent his keys to his secretary, not well knowing in what box the material writings lay, and directed him to suffer his son to look after those evidences which were necessary; that by this occasion, it seemed, those papers had been examined and perused which had begot much of this trouble."* This scene, adds Clarendon, whose object through- out is to leave an impression that the elder Vane had secretly supplied the papers to his son for the mere purpose of revenging himself of a private spleen against Strafford, " was so well acted, with such passion and gestures be- tween the father and the son, that many speech- es were made in commendation of the con- science, integrity, and merit of the young man, and a motion made ' that the father might be * Clarendon, i., 403, 404. 282 BRITISH STATESMEN. enjoined by the House to be friends with his son ;' but for some time there was, in public, a great distance observed between them." The distance which was observed between them is spoken of by other writers, of better faith and purer purpose than Clarendon, as the result of sincere dissatisfaction on the part of the elder Vane at the course to which his son had now irrevocably pledged himself; and of the exact truth of the details given in the preceding speeches, no writer of authority has ventured to express a doubt.* The only remaining mat- ter that is in any way questionable may be safe- ly left to the judgment of the reader whether young Vane was strictly authorized in the step he took, upon discovering, by the indulgence of a pardonable curiosity, the memorable paper in question. Not only, it appears to me, was he fully justified in the course he followed, but none other was open to him, save at the peril of betraying the best interests of his country. So it was considered then by the most rigidly conscientious men,t and so all right-judging men must consider it now. The truth of the contents of that memorable paper is not dispu- ted by Clarendon himself, and was confirmed by the evidence of Northumberland and Bristol, and even of Usher and Juxon.J In every great measure of the Commons the name of the younger Vane now prominently appears ; and, pending the trial of Strafford, he had carried up the impeachment^ which dis- abled the power of Laud, the once terrible ene- my of toleration. In all matters of religious reform he more especially distinguished him- self : he was one of the greatest supporters of the famous " root and branch" petition against prelacy ; in the committee of which Hyde was chairman he spoke with masterly effect in fa- vour of the bill against episcopal government ;|| and when the famous Assembly of Divines as- sembled at Westminster to deliberate on the state of the Church and the interests of religion, being requested by the House of Commons to take upon himself the duty 6f one of its lay members, he rendered himself conspicuously eminent in the consultations of that most grave and learned body,f not only by his theological attainments, but by the singular subtlety and skill with which he addressed them to the loftier purposes of government ; and, in the * Whitelocke, who was intimately acquainted with all the circumstances, and by no means a violent enemy to Strafford, or a violent friend to the Vanes, distinctly corroborates ev- ery part of Pym's statement. " Secretary Vane being out of town, sent a letter to his son, Sir Henry Vane the younger, then in London, with the key of his study, for his son to look in his cabinet for some papers there to send to his fa- ther. The son looking over many papers, among them alighted upon these notes, which being of so great concern- ment to the public, and declaring so much against the Earl of Strafford, he held himself bound in duty and conscience to discover them. He showed them to Mr. Pym, who urged him and prevailed with him that they might be made use of in the evidence against the Earl of Strafford, as being most material and of great consequence in relation to that business." Memorials, April 12, 1641. t The old covenanter Baillie describes young Vane's con- duct throughout with fervent praise, and says his manner was remarkable, and that of a most " gracious youth." t See Hallam's Const. Hist., ii., 145 (note). I) See Laud's Diary Rushworth's Collections, iii., 1087. II The report which remains of this speech is obviously imperfect and unsatisfactory, but is given, as it stands in the pamphlets of the day, in the appendix (D) at the end of this article. IT Biog. Brit., art. Vane, vi., 3991 ; and see Scobell's Col- lection of Acts, p. 43. faith of those opinions which have already re- ceived such striking illustration in these pages, sought to impress upon his more sectarian col- leagues the necessity of associating with the popular principle in civil affairs, an extreme and universal toleration of religious differences. In this noble policy, by his powers of irresisti- ble persuasion, he eventually won over some of the most celebrated of these men.* The progress of public affairs, up to the erection of Charles's standard at Nottingham, has been discussed in detail in the memoir of Pym. The extraordinary legislative achieve- ments that had already distinguished the hither- to short existence of this immortal Parliament shed no small portion of their lustre on the name of the younger Vane. In the impeach- ments which broke down the terrible power of Strafford and of Laud, and which disabled for- ever such men as Bishop Wren, Bishop Pierce, Secretary Windebank, Lord-keeper Finch, and the slavish judges of ship-money, their meaner associates, young Vane had made his powers conspicuous. In the triennial bill, the consti- tutional settlement of taxation, the destruction of despotic courts, the abolition of the king's prerogative of dissolution, in all those potent measures which, with a terrible hand, had driven out from the English government " evil counsellors, profligate judges, arrogant bishops, and sycophant churchmen," young Vane had gone hand in hand with the man from whom he had received his first political lessons, and on whose pure and lofty principles, on whose long life devoted with unequalled fidelity and virtue to the service of his country, he desired to model his own. The period to Pym's exer- tions was fast arriving, but they had found their worthiest " supplement and completion" in the younger Sir Harry Vane.t When the final appeal to arms was made, he surrendered the patent of office he held from Charles, but he was reappointed treasurer of * Clarendon (vol. v., p. 15, 16) speaks of the growing in- fluence of the Independents in the Assembly of Divines. t In the discussions respecting the command of the mi- litia, which immediately led to the civil war, Vane showed, remarkable activity and determination ; and a curious an- ecdote is told by Echard (p. 527) on that head, which, with- out vouching for its authenticity, it may be worth while to subjoin. He took it, he says, " from an anonymous writer of noted curiosity and reputation." It occurred on the oc- casion of the last message from the Parliament respecting the militia, delivered to the king at Theobalds, and to which he returned the passionate and fiery answer which forbade all farther accommodation. Young Vane was one of the committee of the two Houses appointed to deliver the mes- sage. The answer, says Echard, " being suddenly and with unusual quickness spoken by the king, they were much daunted ; and presently retired themselves to take into con- sideration the terms of it, that, there might be no difference in the reporting it to the several houses. As soon as the committee was set, the Earl of Newport called out his brother, the Earl of Warwick, to speak with him, who speedily returned with this account from the Earl of New- port, ' That the king was then too pressed to give a more satisfactory answer ; but that he was confident they should have such a one, if they would but defer their departure for i small time.' To this the whole company seemed to assent with much cheerfulness, when suddenly young Sir Henry Vane, a dark enemy to all accommodation, declared himself to wonder at it, and said, ' Is there any person here who can undertake to know the Parliament's mind ; whether this which we have, or that which is called a more satisfac- tory answer, will be more pleasing to the Houses ? For my part, I cannot ; and if there be any that can, let him speak.' To this no man was so bold as to give an answer ; and so, saving agreed upon their report, they departed ; which shows how easily one subtle ill-disposed person may over- throw it general good intention." (P. 527, 528.) SIR HENRY VANE. 283 the navy by the Parliament ; and its duties, which he had before transacted jointly with Sir William Russel, were now committed to him alone.* Sir Gilbert Gerard, the member for Middlesex, was appointed at the same time treasurer to the army. The orderly conduct of the affairs of Parliament required these ap- pointments ; and it is not one of the least mem- orable characteristics of the time, that it was only in such cases of absolute necessity that any appointments by the Parliament were made. Those particulars only were meddled with that were indispensable to the objects they had in view, and everything else was left as it stood. A memorable circumstance is to be noted in connexion with this reappointment. The fees of Vane's office were great in the time of peace, but in war he had found them enormous. They are stated by many writers to have been little less than thirty thousand pounds per annum. t Yet now, on surrendering the patent which he had received for life from Charles I. (and for the purpose of enabling him to do so, White- locket tells us, the House passed an ordinance at his own earnest request), he stipulated, in regard to the great necessities of his country, that a thousand a year should be secured to the deputy who executed the ordinary routine of the office (" an agent he had bred up to the business"), and that the rest of its emoluments should be paid in to the public treasury. From this rare and most virtuous act of self-denial we date the method of a fixed salary, which was afterward continued in that office. Of its author, who practised many more such actions,^ most truly it has been remarked that he was no less superior to the allurements of ambition ; and it may perhaps be ascribed to the entire absence of such views that another person in the sequel (Cromwell), "fitted better for the rude intercourse and the sordid dispositions of the mass of mankind," got the start of him in the political race. In goodness, in real great- ness, Vane had the advantage still. The severe reverses suffered by the Parlia- ment during the second year of the civil war are known to the reader.il Hampden slain, the strength of Pym declining with almost every hour, the train of disasters which had followed each other upon the field everything seemed to render it not impossible to the superficial * Journals of August 8-10, 1642. t See Biographia Britannica, vi., 3991 ; Ludlow's Me- moirs, ii., Ill ; Collins's Peerage (art. Earl of Darlington), v., 303. t Memorials, p. 232. Q " In the beginning of that expensive war (as unwilling to make a prey of his country's necessities), he resigned his treasurership for the navy, causing the customary dues of that office to be converted into a salary of a thousand per annum. The bare poundage of all expenses that way, which in times of peace came to about three thousand, would have amounted to near twenty thousand by the year during the war with Holland. Were his personal circumstances, and the condition of his family affairs at that season and since, well known, it would render this piece of self-denial the more memorable. Some inconsiderable matter, without his seeking, was allotted to him by the Parliament in lieu there- of. He had also long before this, upon the self-denying or- dinance (little observed by others), refunded five-and-twen- ty hundred pounds for public uses, being the moiety of his receptions in the said office from such time as the Parlia- ment had made him sole treasurer, who, before the war, was joined with another person." Such is the mention of some of these acts nf true patriotism by Vane's intimate friend, Sikes, who had the best opportunities of knowing all the circumstances, and of appreciating the extent of the no- ble self-denial. y See Life of Fym, p. 223-229. observer that the Parliament might soon be laid prostrate at the feet of the king. Yet let it not be imagined that the men on whom the chief conduct of affairs had now devolved, the Vanes, the Cromwells, the Martens, the St. Johns, ever for an instant seemed to dread this, or lost even momentarily their presence of mind, or any of the resources which depend on that greatest endowment of statesmen. They had a glorious faith in the cause they had embarked in, and they knew the wonderful aid which, in the very last resort, might still be re- lied on in such a cause. The defence of the liberties of a country is never to be despaired of. Even at this time in question, when brill- iant successes waited on Charles, the aston- ishing power of the Parliamentarians appeared to guaranty a certainty of ultimate victory on their side. They would not be defeated. Bands and regiments of armed men sprang up in suc- cession as if out of the earth. " The fervour and determination of the adherents of the Parliament was so intense as to assume, in a great degree, the features of gayety and hilarity. The sentiments of the adverse party, arising from an implicit veneration for monarchical in- stitutions, or bent to take a prey, could not en- ter into rivalship with the emotions of men, and in some measure of women, engrossed in the cause of their religion, and fighting for everything that elevates the human heart, and makes life worth the possessing." They shrank abashed from the comparison. For the immediate necessities of the hour, however, one expedient, it was evident, must now be adopted. Scotland had been hitherto kept aloof from the English quarrel, in which it was well known she sympathized (for it was in its material features the same as that she herself had been so recently and so success- fully engaged in), and to which, indeed, she had openly manifested no slight leaning. But up to this time the pride and delicacy of the Eng- lish patriots withheld them, for obvious rea- sons, from claiming her assistance. Had it been possible, they would still have desired to engage no distant party in this great domestic struggle ; but when the present unexpected crisis arrived, which involved the possible de- feat of the liberal cause in England, and, by consequence, its imminent endangerment in the neighbour countries, these considerations were laid aside, and the chief leaders of the Parlia- ment resolved upon an embassy to the North, to bring the Scottish nation into the field. The conduct of this embassy was a matter of the highest difficulty and danger. The Scots were known to be bigoted to their own per- suasions of narrow and exclusive church gov- ernment, while the greatest men of the English Parliament had proclaimed the sacred maxim that every man who worshipped God according to the dictates of his conscience was entitled to the protection of the state. But these men, Vane, Cromwell, Marten, and St. John, though the difficulties of the common cause had brought them into the acknowledged position of leaders and directors of affairs, were in a minority in the House of Commons, and the party who were their superiors in number wero as bigoted to the most exclusive principles of Presbyteri- anism as the Scots themselves. Denzil Hollia 284 BRITISH STATESMEN. stood at the head of this inferior class of patri- ots ; Glyn, the recorder of London, and May- nard, were among its ablest supporters. Waller and Massey in the army, Sir Philip Stapleton and Sir John Clotworthy, ranged themselves under the same banners ; and the celebrated Prynne, and Clement Walker, his inseparable and not less libellous associate, were " flaming Presbyterians." The most eminent of the Par- liamentary nobility, particularly Northumber- land, Essex, and Manchester, belonged also to this body ; while the London clergy, and the metropolis itself, were almost entirely Presby- terian. These things considered, there was, indeed, great reason to apprehend that this party, backed by the Scots, and supported with a Scottish army, would be strong enough to overpower the advocates of free conscience, and " set up a tyranny not less to be deplored than that of Laud and his hierarchy, which had proved one of the main occasions of bringing on the war."* Yet, opposing to all this danger only their own high purposes and dauntless courage, the smaller party of more consummate statesmen were the first to propose the em- bassy to Scotland. " The idea of such an embassy," says Mr. Godwin, " had been brought forward in the lifetime of Hampden ; and on the 20th of July, 1643, the commissioners set out from London. They were four ; and the man principally con- fided in among them was Vane. He indeed was the individual best qualified to succeed Hampden as a counsellor in the arduous strug- gle in which the nation was at this time en- gaged. In subtlety of intellect and dexterity of negotiation he was inferior to none ; and the known disinterestedness of his character, and his superiority to the vulgar temptations of gain, gave him the greatest authority.''t It is worth notice, that on the very same day on which Vane set out for Scotland, St. John was named to be added as a member to the com- mittee of government, commonly called the committee for the safety of the kingdom, and this has suggested the idea that he was select- ed as a person on whom Vane could peculiarly depend. The shortsighted Presbyterians knew not the formidable power insensibly making head against them. Clarendon, while he eulogizes Vane's genius in describing this embassy, uses all his insidi- ous artifice to blacken its motives and its char- acter : " Sir Harry Vane," he says, " was one of the commissioners, and therefore the others need not be named, since he was all in any busi- ness where others were joined with him. He was indeed a man of extraordinary parts, a pleasant wit, a great understanding, which pierced into and discerned the purposes of other men with wonderful sagacity, while he had himself vul- tum clausum, that no man could make a guess of what he intended. He was of a temper not to be moved, and of rare dissimulation, and could comply when it was not seasonable to contra- dict, without losing ground by the condescension ; and if he were not superior to Mr. Hampden, he was inferior to no other man in all mysteri- ous artifices. There need no more be said of his ability than that he was chosen to cozen * Godwin's Hist, of Com., i., 176. t Hist, of Com., i., 121. and deceive a whole nation, who excel in craft and cunning, which he did with notable preg- nancy and dexterity, and prevailed with a peo- ple, that could not otherwise be prevailed upon, than by advancing their idol Presbytery, to sacrifice their peace, their interest, and their faith to the erecting a power and authority that resolved to persecute Presbytery to an extir- pation, and very near brought their purpose to pass.* A serious difficulty occurred in Vane's de- parture from London. He was obliged, with the other commissioners, to proceed for Scot- land by sea, probably in consequence of the defeat of Lord Fairfax, and the temporary as- cendency of the Earl of Newcastle in the north of England. He was dismissed in London on the 20th of July, and did not reach Edinburgh before the 9th of August following.t Thus for twenty days he was perhaps out of the reach of any intelligence respecting the affairs of the Commonwealth. This was the most critical period in the whole history of the war ; the period in which there was, for the moment, the greatest appearance that Charles would gain decisively the advantage over the Parliament, and be able effectually to extinguish the cause of liberty in this country. Vane had sailed to negotiate an aid for the English Legislature engaged in hostilities against their prince, and it was not certain that the first news that would reach him when he entered the harbour of Leith might not be that he had no constituents to represent. In these anxious and critical cir- cumstances, Mr. Godwin has speculated on the character of his thoughts and resolutions. " During this suspense," says that historian, " he seems to have preserved all his serenity. He did not believe that, judged as the cause of Charles had been, and condemned by the most sober and enlightened portion of the people of England, it would be possible to put down the spirit of liberty. He persuaded himself that, even if the Cavaliers gained possession of the metropolis and dispersed the Parliament, their triumph would be short. And we may be very sure that he was sustained through all by the verdict of his conscience, and the holy zeal he entertained for a cause which, as he believed, comprised in it everything that was valuable to the existence of man." Immediately on his arrival in Edinburgh the negotiation commenced, and what Vane seems to have anticipated at once occurred. The Scots offered their assistance heartily on the sole condition of an adhesion to the Scottish religious system on the part of England. Af- ter many long and very warm debates, in which Vane held to one firm policy from the first, a solemn covenant was proposed, which Vane insisted should be named " a solemn league and covenant," while certain words were inserted in it on his subsequent motion, to which he also adhered with immovable constancy.} and * Vol. iv., p. 292. t Other accounts state the 7th. See Biog. Brit., vi., 3991 ; and Rushworth, v., 466. J I subjoin an account of these debates from Echard, who never gives authorities, and is therefore seldom to be relied on. The spirit attempted to be fixed on Vane in the pres- ent account is merely a paltry imitation of Clarendon ; but the facts may be correct enough : " The main of it wa managed by the superior cunning and artifice of Sir Henry SIR HENRY VANE. 285 "which had the effect of leaving open to the great party in England, to whose interests he was devoted, that last liberty of conscience which man should never surrender, and which he had from the first resolved that nothing in this agreement should exclusively withhold them from. In the clause relating to the " preservation of the king's person," he insert- ed the words " in preservation of the laws of the land and liberty of the subject ;"* and by a simple phrase in the memorable article rela- ting to religion, effected a saving retreat for the supporters of a just toleration. The treacherous intrigues of the Duke of Hamilton were equally foiled on this remark- able occasion by Vane. He and some of his brother Royalists had secretly stimulated the more enthusiastic Covenanters to stickle for extreme conditions. They insisted, in conse- quence, according to Clarendon, on a commit- tee to be selected from the Parliament of both kingdoms, to whom was to be intrusted the conduct of the war : it was imagined that the pride of the English nation would never sub- scribe to this stipulation. The friends of Ham- ilton were completely outwitted here, as on every other point. Vane offered no objection, secure in the harmlessness of such a stipula- tion before the energy and power of his own dauntless party, which he knew, as long as the war lasted, would sustain itself in that place of supremacy which in times of danger and doubt is ever conceded to superior minds. The famous article respecting religion ran in these words : " That we shall sincerely, really, and constantly, through the grace of God, en- deavour, in our several places and callings, the preservation of the Reformed religion in the Church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, dis- cipline, and government, against our common enemies ; the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, ACCORD- ING TO THE WORD OF GOD, and the example of the best Reformed churches ; and we shall en- deavour to bring the churches of God in the three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion, confessing of faith, form of church government, directory for worship, and catechizing ; that we, and our posterity after us, may as brethren live in faith and love, and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us. That we shall, in like manner, without respect of persons, endeavour the extirpation of popery, prelacy (that is, church government by archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, deans, deans and chapters, arch- Vane, who, as Dr. Gamble tells us, was very earnest with the Scots to have the whole called a league as well as a covenant, and argued it almost all night, and at last carried it. He held another debate about Church government, which was to be according to the example of the best Re- formed Churches ; he would have it only according to the Word of God ; but after a great contest, they joined both, and the last had the precedence. CVie of his companions af- terward asking him the reason why he should put them to so much trouble with such needless trifles, he told him, 'he was mistaken, and did not see enough into that matter, for a league showed it was between two nations, and might be broken upon just reasons, but not a covenant. For the oth- er, that Church government according to the Word of God, by the difference of divines and expositors, would be long enough before it be determined, for the learned held it clearly for Episcopacy ; so that when all are agreed, we may take in the Scotch Presbytery.' " P. 585. * Ludlow's Memoirs, i., 79. deacons, and all other ecclesiastical officers de- pending on that hierarchy)." Vane, by this in- troduction of " according to the Word of God," left the interpretation of that word to the free conscience of every man. On the 17th of Au- gust the solemn league and covenant was voted by the Legislature and the assembly of the Church at Edinburgh. The king, in desperate alarm, sent his commands to the Scotch people not to take such a covenant. In reply, they " humbly advised his majesty to take the cov- enant himself."* The surpassing service rendered by Vane on this great occasion to the Parliamentary cause, exposed him to a more violent hatred from the Royalists than he had yet experienced, and Clarendon has used every artifice to depreciate his motives and his sincerity. In various pas- sages of his history he adverts to the subject. In the following, the truth is very evasively stated : " Sir Harry Vane (who equally hated Episcopacy and Presbytery, save that he wish- ed the one abolished with much impatience, be- lieving it much easier to keep the other from being established, whatever they promised, than to be rid of that which was settled in the kingdom) carefully considered the covenant, and after he had altered and changed many ex- pressions in it, and made them doubtful enough to bear many interpretations, he and his fellow- commissioners signed the whole treaty ;" but shortly after we have this distinct falsehood deliberately given : " And he who contributed most to it, the league and covenant, and, in truth, was the principal contriver of it, and the man by whom the committee in Scotland was entirely and stupidly governed, Sir Harry Vane the younger, was not afterward more known to abhor the Covenant and the Presbyterians than he was at that very time known to do, and laughed at them then as much as ever he did afterward." Vane never " abhorred" the Covenant, though he abhorred the paltry advantages and tyran- nies which were afterward, under its sanction, sought to be practised by the Presbyterians. He held the league and covenant in its only true and just acceptation, to be ever sacred a mutual guaranty between two nations, that for one great common object each should sustain the rights of the other until perfect liberty had been gained for both.f Till the very close of his life he professed a devotion he had never swerved from to all that was noble, and just, and good in that memorable league, while he never scrupled to record his impressive dissent from the numerous and desperate endeavours that were made by the Scots and the Presby- terians to wrest it to "other ends than itself warranted." " Nor will I deny," he said to his judges in the course of his melancholy trial, " nor will I deny but that, as to the manner of the prosecution of the Covenant to other ends than itself warrants, and with a rigid oppressive spirit (to bring all dissenting minds and tender consciences under one uniformity of church discipline and government), it was utterly against my judgment ; for I always esteemed it more * Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 77. t Henry Marten, it will be found, held the same opinion, though in his case perhaps the opinion was pushed to the extreme. See post, Life of Marten. BRITISH STATESMEN. agreeable to the Word of God, that the ends and work declared in the Covenant should be promoted in a spirit of love and forbearance to differing judgments and consciences, that thereby we might be approving ourselves in doing that to others which we desire they would do to us, and so, though upon different principles, be found joint and faithful advancers of the Reformation contained in the covenant, both public and personal." Beautiful, indeed, and conceived in the oply true Christian spirit, is this definition of the Covenant in that di- vine and tolerant faith it was projected and signed by Vane. Some of the last words spoken by him on the scaffold, and in which he made a most touching allusion to the Mar- quis of Argyle, show even more deeply that among the last and strongest feelings left to him in this world was the desire that, in refer- ence to this great action of his life, he should leave behind him an unstained name.* Vane did not return to London after his mission until October 26. t In the interval he had formed a very great intimacy and confi- dence with the Marquis of Argyle. Clarendon has celebrated this friendship, and makes out that their sudden attachment had its origin in the strong sympathy felt by each for a like depth and mystery of purpose he discovered in the other. It is certain that a subtler or more refined spirit than Argyle's existed only in the breast of Vane, and though the Scottish states- man was a stanch friend to Presbytery, yet he and the great English leader had soon discover- ed one point in which they fully agreed ; a re- pugnance to half measures, an aversion to the conducting the war in an irresolute and tem- porizing spirit, and " a determination to push the advantages obtained in the field as far as they would go." The solemn league and covenant remained to be adopted in England. The Scottish form of giving it authority was followed as far as possible. It was referred by the two Houses to the Assembly of Divines, which had com- menced its sittings on the 1st of the prece- ding July, being called together to be consulted with by the Parliament for the purpose of set- tling the government and form of worship of the Church of England. This assembly, al- ready referred to, consisted of 121 of the clergy ; and a number of lay assessors were joined with them, consisting of ten peers, and twenty mem- bers of the House of Commons. All these persons were named by the ordinance of the two Houses of Parliament, which gave birth to the assembly. The public taking of the Cove- nant was solemnized on the 25th of September, each member of either House attesting his ad- * " My life, estate, and all, is not so dear to me as my service to God, his cause, to the kingdom of Christ, and to the future welfare of my country ; and I am taught accord- ing to the example, as well as that most Christian saying, of a noble person that lately died after this public manner in Scotland : ' How much better is it to choose affliction and the cross, than to sin or draw back from the service of the living God into the ways of apostacy and perdition.' That noble person, whose memory t honour, was with myself at the beginning and making of the solemn league and cove- nant, the matter of which, and the holy ends therein con- tained, I fully assent unto, and have been as desirous to ob- serve ; but the rigid way of prosecuting it, and the oppress- ing uniformity that hath been endeavoured by it, I never approved." Speech upon the scaffold. t Commons' Journals. herence by oath first, and then by subscribing his name.* The name of Vane, subscribed im- mediately on his return, appears upon the list next to that of Cromwell.f The results of this masterly effort of states- manship were soon manifest. An army of 20,000 men was raised and marshalled in Scot- land, and crossed the Tweed on the 19th of January following, to act with the forces of the Parliament. The disastrous loss to the popular party of the great services of Pym (the last of which had been the introduction of the system of ex- cise into this country,}: an idea borrowed from the financial proceedings in Holland) had now devolved upon Vane the chief conduct of civil affairs. His energy was remarkable : in pub- lic and in private, on the floor of the House and in its committees, in council with the commit- tees at Derby House, or in watchful earnest- ness on the field of battle, Sir Harry Vane the younger was acknowledged the foremost man of the time. At the opening of the campaign in 1644, strengthened by the accession of the army from Scotland, 14,000 men had been raised under the Earl of Manchester, and his lieutenant-general Cromwell, for the associated counties in the eastern quarter of England. Upon these forces, Vane, distrustful of the power, if not of the sin- cerity of Essex, fixed hopes of the most san- guine kind. We find him upon the scene of action with Manchester in June, 1644, assisting him with his advice, and urging movements of policy which soon won for that division of the army the peculiar confidence of the people. Vane had already in his view an army of a " new model." An interesting remark is made by Mr. Godwin on the presence of the states- man thus in the camp of Manchester. " It gives," he says, " an additional quickness to our feelings, in the midst of these warlike pro- ceedings, to look into the camp of the Parlia- mentarians, to draw back the canvass of their tents, and contemplate the soldier and the statesman, busied as they were in anticipating the future, in providing for all occasions, and endeavouring to place the mass of yet unform- ed events under the guidance of human pru- dence and intellect. In this camp, which was now traversing Nottinghamshire and Lincoln- shire, and proceeding to York, we might see, among others, Manchester, deficient neither in the qualities of a gentleman nor the valour of a soldier, the most well-tempered and courte- ous of mankind, firm in purpose, yet ever gen- tle and conciliating in his manners ; Cromwell, the future guide and oppressor of the Common- wealth, daring everything, and accomplishing whatever he dared to desire ; and Vane, ever * Godwin, i., 181. Journals of Commons, Sept. 22. Whiteloc-ke, p. 74. t Rushworth, v., 480. Echard, p. 585. t See Journals, May 17, 1643. Dugdale, View of the Troubles, p. 120. Godwin, hi., 486. This circumstance had escaped me when engaged on the life of that great statesman. $ Essex well knew this, and that the influence of Vans was undermining his hold upon the Parliament. Clarendon remarks (iv., 524-5), " The Lord Roberts, though inferior in the army, had much greater credit in the Parliament than the Earl of Essex ; and the earl did not think him very kind to him, he being then in great conjunction with Sir Harry Vane, whom of all men the earl hated, and looked upon as an enemy." SIR HENRY VANE. 287 profound in thought and sagacious in purpose, desiring the true advantage and happiness of all within the sphere of his influence, and embra- cing in his capacious mind all the elements of public safety and substantial improvement. These men, now so cordially united, were in no long time to be shaken asunder, each actu- ated with different sentiments, each pursuing an object which the other two regarded with fixed disapprobation." Vane seldom remained long from the seat of government, however, for there his presence was daily becoming more and more essential. The Presbyterians, rallying with the better as- pect of affairs in the field, once more showed a formidable front of remonstrance and discon- tent in the debates of the House of Commons. He was not daunted by this ; he had already looked greater dangers in the face on the eve of the league and covenant, and yet dared to proceed. He knew from the first the conse- quences of that great measure which he would sooner or later have to cope with, and he was prepared for the struggle now. The Presbyterians declared their resolution to stand upon uniformity in church government. Laud and his system had passed away, and they now came forward with their own. The excommunicating canons of diocesan Episco- pacy had been driven out of England ; the pil- lories of the Archbishop of Canterbury reeked no more with human mutilations ; but now came in the Presbyterians, not less exclusive or intolerant, and impressed with no less hor- ror of the blasphemy and perniciousness of sects, than the former. Its chief distinctions were the comparative moderation of its emolu- ments, and the plainness of its garb. The clergy of the Church of Scotland were habited with something of the same unambitious sad- ness as we see in paintings of the fathers of the Inquisition. " But this," says the historian of the Commonwealth, with earnest and im- pressive eloquence, " is in certain respects a disadvantage. He that lords it over me, and would persuade me that he is not of the same- ignoble kind as myself, ought, perhaps, to be clad in robes, and covered with ermine and gold. It is some mitigation of my sufferings. I should be glad to be deluded and dazzled to the last. It seems natural that human beings should prefer, like the widow of Benares, to die amid the clangour of trumpets, and the soft breathing of recorders, to the perishing by the deformed and withering blow of undisguised cruelty." And so might Vane have thought, and Crom- well, and Milton ; for on that principle they acted, in a resolute opposition to the Presby- terian policy. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that these great men were what is called " Independents," or to be considered as belonging in themselves merely to another Christian sect ; for Vane himself, in matters appertaining to religion, was indeed, what Clarendon has striven to convert into a term of reproach, "a man above ordinances." His pure religious faith has already received illus- tration in these pages the extraordinary inci- dents of his early life must be supposed to have acted with corresponding force upon his im- agination and now, having risen with the dan- gers of the time the most eminent statesman of an age remarkable for greatness the ac- knowledged leader of the English House of Commons the sole forms of religious or intel- lectual contest or controversy that he would acknowledge were those in which the truth bade fair to be separated from falsehood, and in which a perfect and uncontrolled liberty of disquisition might possibly some day, with God's sanction, elevate men into the highest and most sublime regions of pure and perfect intellect into a station little lower than the angels. Nothing has been so misunderstood by even the most liberal thinkers, nothing has been so carefully avoided by the greatest admirers of the younger Vane, as the nature of his peculiar opinions in religion. But these shall not be avoided here, and, if possible, not misunder- stood. Nor is this an improper period for the introduction of them, since, standing thus on the threshold of the greatest events and exer- tions of his political life, each may serve to il- lustrate the other. When he retired for a time from public life, in disgust at the usurpation of Cromwell, he occupied his leisure with religious and political writing. In politics, he wrote with the clear and impressive reason, the simple and master- ly style, of a consummate statesman. In reli- gion, he indulged occasionally those wild and visionary thoughts which have seldom failed to visit all strong and fervent spirits of the earth, when they have flung themselves passionately into the profounder questions of man's exist- ence and destiny. In those moments his own divinely elevated fancies assumed to him the forms of " angels of light," and the very pres- ence of Christ himself, " coming in the clouds," was not far distant from his rapt and excited vision. In the Retired Man's Meditations he thus speaks of the Fall of Man : " In this tree of knowledge of good and evil, man had the sight of himself, in the exercise of his natural life and the operations appertaining unto him, as he became a living soul ; in the well or evil use whereof he might arrive unto the experience of the supreme good held forth to him as the end of his creation, the endless life that was to follow ; or else he might come, by the forfeit- ure of the present good he enjoyed, to know the evil of a much worse condition than at first he had ; for the avoiding of which, and to con- tinue in a posture meet to receive the other, God required him in the state of innocency to abide in a waiting frame of spirit, as a sojourn- er and stranger in the midst of his present en- joyments in the earthly paradise, that so through his patient forbearance from taking up his rest, or terminating his delight in seen things, he might preserve in himself an unengaged, un- prejudiced spirit to what was yet behind of the counsel of God to be communicated to him, as to a more excellent attainment and inheritance to be exhibited to him in the light of the ap- proaching day of the Lord, the beamings forth whereof, as considered in type, were already present." Here, it seems to me, is the expression of a sense equally subtle and noble. The pause be- fore the accession of all the divinity of intellect 288 BRITISH STATESMEN. that the Creator had designed for man the rest which was intended before its gradual ful- filment the waiting frame of spirit the pa- tient forbearance the unengaged, unpreju- diced soul conceived in that divine sense of Milton, " God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts ; who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best : his state Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest : They also serve who only stand and wait" all this, with the vision in the distance of a " more excellent attainment and inheritance" in the realization of all man's intellectual pow- ers, expresses most surely a great imaginative conception, which may be non-accordant with a simpler faith, but is neither unintelligible nor obscure. The fervent writer proceeds thus : " Now man (being furnished with a reason- able soul, and all the excellencies of its opera- tions, with freedom of will to choose the good and refuse the evil, honoured also with the sovereignty over the creatures), in this fair posture of preparation to receive more, was nevertheless seduced, ensnared, and made a prey of by Satan, sin, and death, to the render- ing (as it were) abortive all that work which was already passed upon him, and to the letting in of sin and death, with the deserved curse and wrath of God, through him, as through a door, upon all his posterity. " The occasion of this was twofold : first, the present enjoyment of good from God under the ministry of the first covenant, the fruit of which, to the eye of flesh and blood even at its best, was so glorious, and appeared so beauti- ful and desirable, that man was easily persua- ded that it was the best and highest attainment he needed to look after ; and thereby, through Satan's subtlety, rendered secure and negligent as to the use of means given by God to carry him on, pass him through, and conduct him out of this his corruptible state, as from glory to glory, into the power of an endless life (with- out the intervening of sin), to the full and per- fect securing of man's nature from all prevail- ing power of sin's assaults forever, which was not done by creation. " The second occasion of man's fall was the freedom of his will, wherein the judging and desiring faculties of his mind were entirely committed by God to his own free motion and operation, upon the terms of the covenant he was brought into with God, which was to be dealt with according unto his works to be re- warded with life or with death, as he should rightly order or abuse this liberty of action, with which God had invested him by way of trial and probation. That man had such a power of free will as this, " First, the nature and tenor of the covenant he was taken into doth demonstrate, which is conditional in reference to the works of man ; and God throughout deals with man under that covenant according to his works, strongly thereby asserting them to be man's own ; so as the very reward which comes thereby is ac- counted to him of debt, even the thing which his own action (as left alone unto himself there- in) hath brought upon him, and entitled him unto. "Secondly, without such a power of free will, man's first estate could not have been mutable, at least could never have changed into corruption ; for if it had been necessary to him to have stood, he could not have fallen ; and if it had been necessary to him to fall, God had thereby made himself the author of sin, which could not be. " That which Adam was forbidden was not simply to forbear the use of his free will, but the evil and unlawful use of it, as (through an unwise discerning, and erroneous judging be- tween the present temporary good which he saw, and the future durable excellency of the things unseen and but in hope) there did spring up an inordinate coveting and desire in him af- ter the retaining of the first, to the despising and rejecting of the second." What is the meaning of this rich vein of spiritual argument and subtlety, divested of the thin veil of theological phrase which is flung around it, if it be not only another form of those purest aspirations which should be the glory of our nature, teaching us that there is a something within us that was designed for no- bler purposes and achievements than have fall- en to it in this world, and that, having for a time forfeited these blessings, still the liberty of free will and independent action remains, which, wisely directed, and regulated by the higher uses and refinements even of our im- perfect intellect, will in the end bring Christ himself upon the earth, by raising the minds and thoughts of men up to within the level of his own 1 The reign of the saints Vane looked for was the perfection of the intellect of man. The de amendatione intellectus of Bacon might have been construed by Clarendon into another reign of saints of a similar description. For this great purpose, with an ever present view to that possible reign of wisdom upon earth, keeping constantly before him the sense that in the mission of Christ had been fulfilled the gracious purpose of the Creator of offering to man the redemption of his former shortsight- edness and error, Sir Henry Vane passed his life in one unending strife with what he be- lieved to be the temporal and the spiritual en- emy of man ; in the one case, to prevent the subjection of his powers to that tyranny of bad government which must deprave his will, and in the other, to unloose his conscience from those secular chains which must take from him eventually the liberty of thought and action by which only his spirit could aspire. This I be- lieve to have been Vane's great theory these the thoughts which, carried out into all their various and richest forms 'by the beauty and power of his genius, filled and stirred his mind when he spoke of the coming of Christ upon the earth, and his reign here in goodness and in glory. In the night before his death he prayed in his prison with his children, and this was a portion of his prayer : " The day approaches in which thou wilt de- cide this controversy, not by might nor by pow- er, but by the spirit of the living God. The spirit will make its own way, and run through the whole earth. Then shall it be said, Where is the fury of the oppressor 1 Who is he that dares or can stand before the spirit of the Lord, in the mouth of his witnesses 1 Arise, SIR HENRY VANE. O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered. Thy poor servant knows not how he shall be carried forth by thee this day, but, blessed be thy great name, that he hath whereof to speak in this great cause. When I shall be gathered to thee this day, then come thou in the min- istry of thy holy angels that excel in strength. We have seen enough of this world, and thou seest we have enough of it. Let these my friends, that are round about me, commit me to the Lord, and let them be gathered into the family of Abraham, the father of the faithful, and become faithful witnesses of those prin- ciples and truths that have been discovered to them, that it may be known that a poor weak prophet hath been among them, not by the words of his mouth only, but by the voice of his blood and death, which will speak when he is gone." Here is the same lofty spirit, the same hope of the tranquil elevation of intellect in the world above the old influences of might and power. When his friends were weeping around him on the morning of his execution, he bade them have faith and patience, for that the realization of all the Creator's promises held out for ful- filment in the world would surely come, when a sufficient number of the spirits of the just should have ascended into heaven. " Weep not," he said ; " I have not the least reluctancy or struggling in my spirit against death. I de- sire not to live ; but my will is resigned up to God in all. Why are you troubled ? I am not. You have need of faith and patience to follow the Lord's call. This ought chiefly to be in our eye, the bringing glory to our heavenly Father. Surely God hath a glorious design to carry on in the world, even the building up of David's throne to all generations ; for he is completing all his precious stones, making them heaven- proof, and then laying them together in the heavenly mansions, with the spirits of the just, till it be a complete city. When the top stone thereof is laid, then will he come in all his glory." What is the groundwork of this noble idea, but that which I have described to be his pervading philosophical sense of the Messiah's advent, the gradual perfection of the moral and intellectual powers of mankind? On the scaffold itself, these were among the latest words of his prayer :* " Let thy servant speak something on the behalf of the nation wherein he hath lived. Lord, did. we not ex- ceed other nations in our day 1 Great things have been done by thee in the midst of us. that thou wouldst look down in pity and com- passion, and pardon the sins of this whole na- tion, and lay them not to their charge ; show them what is thy good and acceptable will, and * Immediately before he prayed he had addressed the people, and expressed to the same effect, but hy a stronger paraphrase, this impression of the advent of a better day: " I shall not desire in this place to take up much time, but only, as my last words, leave this with you : ' That as the present storm we now lie under, and the dark clouds that yet hang over the Reformed churches of Christ, which are coming thicker and thicker for a season, were not unforeseen by me for many years passed, as some writings of mine de- clare ; so the coming of Christ in these clouds, in order to a speedy and sudden revival of his cause, and spreading his kingdom over the face of the whole earth, is most clear to the eye of my faith, even that faith in which I die, whereby the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Je- sus." " Oo bring them into subjection thereunto. We humbly pray thee, Lord, look down with compassion upon this great and populous city ; cleanse away the impurity, sinfulness, and de- filemerfts thereof; cause their souls to delight in thy word, that they may live. Let a spirit of reformation and purity spring up in and among them with power ; make them willing to lay down all that is dear to them for thee, that thou mayest give them a crown of life ; that they may always desire and choose afflic- tion, and to be exposed to the worst condition and hardest circumstances that can be brought upon them in this world, rather than sin against him that hath loved them and bought them with a price, that they might live to him in their bodies and in their spirits." Again, in these memorable and most touching words, the pas- sionate yearning for that perfecting of his be- loved country by the " spirit of reformation and purity" surmounts every other emotion. With such aids as these, and considering the subject, so far as we may feel it practicable, in a congenial spirit, we do not find much diffi- culty in comprehending even Vane's theology ! And this is what Baxter ridicules* Hume finds " absolutely unintelligible," and " exhibiting no traces of eloquence or common sense"t An- thony Wood foams in the mouth at, when he even mentions:): Bishop Burnet professes an utter bewilderment about Clarendon, in va- * The terms of Baxter's ridicule are worth giving. The closing passage may perhaps divest it of its sting! "His unhappiness lay in this, that his doctrines were so cloudily formed and expressed that few could understand them, and therefore he had few true disciples. The Lord Brooke was slain before he had brought him to maturity. Mr. Sterryis thought to be of his mind, as he was his intimate ; but he hath not opened himself in writing, and was so famous for obscurity in preaching (being, said Sir Benj. Rudyard, too high for this world, and too low for the other), that he there- by proved almost barren also, and vanity and sterility were never more happily conjoined. Mr. Sprig is the chief of his more open disciples (too well known by a book of his ser- mons). This obscurity by some was imputed to his not un- derstanding himself, but by others to design, because he could speak plainly when he listed : the two courses in which he had most success and spake most plainly were, his earnest plea for universal liberty of conscience, and against the magistrates' intermeddling with religion, and his teach- ing his followers to revile the ministry, calling them ordi- narily black coats, priests, and other names which then sa- voured of reproach ; and those gentlemen that adhered t the ministry, they said were priest-ridden." (Life, p. 75.) The " earnest plea for universal liberty of conscience" I re- gret to say I have not seen. No doubt it was one of the no- blest of his works. t This is Hume's deliberately recorded opinion. "This man, so celebrated for his Parliamentary talents, and for his capacity in business, has left some writings behind him. They treat, all of them, of religious subjects, and are abso- lutely unintelligible. No traces of eloquence or even of common sense appear in them." } A short specimen will serve: "In sum, he was the Proteus of the times, a mere hotchpotch of religion, chief ringleader of all the frantic sectarians, of a turbulent spirit and working brain, of a strong composition of choler and melancholy, an inventor not only of whimseys in religion, but also of crotchets in the state (as his several models tes- tify), and composed only of treason, ingratitude, and base- ness." Ath. Ox., iii., 580. (> His words are : " For though he set up a form of reli- gion in a way of his own, yet it consisted rather in a with- drawing from all other forms, than in any new or particular opinions or forms ; from which he and his party were called. Seekers, and seemed to wait for some new and clearer man- ifestations. In these meetings he preached and prayed often himself, but with so peculiar a darkness, that, though I have sometimes taken pains to see if I could find out his meaning in his works, yet I could never reach it. And since many others have said the same, it may be reasanable to believe that he hid somewhat that was a necessary key to the rest. His friends told me he leaned to Origen's notion of a uni- versal salvation of all, both of devils and the damned, and 290 BRITISH STATESMEN. rious passages, studiously endeavours to mis- represent or laugh at* and all modern writers, with one single exception, t have either studi- ously evaded, or spoken of with ingenuous pity or a wholesale contempt. The candid critic in the Spectator, who " had read Aristotle, and found him not such a fool as he thought him," showed greater ability and much more honesty than these critics of Sir Henry Vane. But this subject cannot be brought too dis- tinctly before the reader in an endeavour to do tardy justice to the memory of one of the great- est men of our history. He will bear inquiry best into the matters for which he has been the most vehemently assailed. The peculiar action of the will in Vane's ar- gument upon the fall of man receives illustra- tion from another passage in his writings upon the relation of the will to all that is noblest in man's soul. " The will only is truly man's own, and the considerable part of the reason- able soul. On it depend the issues of good or evil, life or death. All the rest of a man, his understanding, memory, imagination, may be taken from him, altered, troubled by a thousand accidents. But the will is so much in our own power that it cannot be taken away, though its action may be hindered. 'Tis our own till we knowingly and freely give it away, which may be. And he that hath once absolutely given up his will to another is no more his own man. He hath left himself nothing of his own. 'Tis by the will we are good or evil, happy or un- happy." His enthusiasm was indeed highly and pas- sionately wrought on many incidental points of faith, but the character of his mind in all the practical applications of those exalted views was infinitely sober, subtle, well regulated, and exact. No worldly failures in his own case had the power of disheartening the great reli- ance with which " to the mark" he still press- to the doctrine of pre-existence." (Hist, of his own Time, fol. 1724, i., 164.) * " Vane was a man not to be described by any character of religion, in which he had swallowed some of the fancies and extravagances of every sect or faction, and was become (which cannot be expressed by any other language than was peculiar to that time) a man above ordinances, unlimit- ed and unrestrained by any rules or bounds prescribed to other men, by reason of his perfection. He was a perfect enthusiast, and, without doubt, did believe himself inspired, which so far corrupted his reason and understanding (which, in all matters without the verge of religion, was inferior to that of few men), that he did at some time believe he was the person (!) deputed to reign over the saints upon earth for a thousand years." (Hist, of Rebellion, vi., 373.) I need not quote, as I might, fifty similar passages from his history : in charity it is right to add, that in private inter- course with his friends, even Clarendon could moderate something of the inveterate hostility with which, to the scaffold, he pursued Vane. In some remarks on " Cressy's answer to Stillingfleet" (reported in the Biog. Brit.), he thus speaks, with half candour, of one of his religious books : " Which when I had read, and found nothing of his usual -clearness and ratiocination in his discourse, in which he used much to excel the best of the company he kept, and that the style thereof was very much like that of Sancta Sophia, and that in a crowd of very easy words the sense was too hard to find out, I was of opinion that the subject-matter of it was of so delicate a nature that it required another kind of preparation of mind, and it may be another kind of diet, than men are ordinarily supplied with." This is more true than the writer intended, as applied to his own " prepara- tion of mind," and that gross "diet" which withheld the pampered chancellor from sympathy with such a spirit as that of Sir Harry Vane. t In an early number of the Westminster Review a very able notice appeared under the title of " Vane and Bunyan," which was written in the best spirit. ed forward. " The goodness of any cause i not merely to be judged by the events, wheth- er visibly prosperous or unprosperous, but by the righteousness of its principles ; nor is our faith and patience to fail under the many fears, doubts, wants, troubles, and power of adver- saries in the passage to the recovery of our long-lost freedom ; for it is the same cause with that of the Israelites of old, of which we ought not to be ashamed or distrustful." And in another most wise and tender passage of philosophy he speaks thus : " Evils themselves, through the wise over- ruling providence of God, have good fruits and effects. The world would be extinguished and perish if it were not changed, shaken, and dis- composed by a variety and interchangeable course of things, wisely ordered by God, the best physician. This ought to satisfy every honest and reasonable mind, and make it joy- fully submit to the worst of changes, how strange and wonderful soever they may seem, since they are the works of God and nature, and that which is a loss in one respect is a gain in another. " Let not a wise man disdain or ill resent anything that shall happen to him. Let him know those things that seem hurtful to him in particular, pertain to the preservation of the whole universe, and are of the nature of those things that finish and fill up the course and office of this world." Of his views in regard to the necessity of that preparation of man for his better and wiser state, which has already been explained in a former passage to imply in its results that di- vine advent which his imagination took such fervent delight in, the following most striking passage from the Retired Man's Meditations will afford a farther illustration and example : " But there is a duty of the day, a genera- tion-work, respecting the time and circum- stances of action, in which the lot of our life is cast, which calls upon us to use all lawful and righteous means that are afforded by the good hand of God, through the inward light and knowledge he vouchsafes, and outward providences and helps which he casts in, where- by to make way for, and to be hasting unto, the coming of that day of God wherein the old heavens and earth shall be rolled away as gar- ments, yea, with the works that are therein, be burned up, and the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, shall be brought forth in their room. " Our part is the same, therefore, in this, as in the practice of other righteous duties apper- taining to us, the perfection whereof we can- not expect until the redemption of the body ; and yet we are to be using all lawful means and endeavours to come as near the primitive pattern and rule as we can, in our whole prac- tice throughout. " So that when once we have well consider- ed what rule Christ himself, if he were on earth, would exercise over men in protecting those that do well, and being a terror to evil works, as also in distributing righteousness equally and impartially unto all upon the grounds of right and just (which every one, in the measure of light they have attained, are acquainted with, and do acknowledge for the SIR HENRY VANE. 291 nite which they are willing to be concluded under, as to all their outward concerns), we ought in the way of Christ, and in the use of all lawful means, to he as near this in our prac tice as possible we may, in the rule over men which we shall be either as principals or acces- sories in setting up, holding ourselves obliged in heartiness and freedom of mind to maintain. In a previous memoir in this series I spoke of the extraordinary influence which the trans- lation of the Bible had exerted in the world. To Vane it was, indeed, what Plato's " original type" may have been to the enfeebled and rest- less man of civilization, who wished, by such a comparison, to ascertain his precise position in the moral or intellectual scale. What he knew of its own original language* gave addi- tional strength to his passion for its study, and in the leisure he could abstract from public af- fairs it was seldom out of his hands. t It is no * " Hebrew words were fitted to the things they signi- fipd ; there was a certain connexion between things and words. All other words, as they come less or more near to the Hebrew, do more or less significantly represent the things meant by them. The more any language recedes from the Hebrew, the more it is confounded by human chan- ges and additions, the more obscure and difficult means are the words thereof for conveying the knowledge of things to us. Homer and other Greek poets and philosophers set themselves therefore to etymological learning, by reducing the primitive words in other languages to their Hebrew roots, and then the derivative to those principles. This they laboured in, as the most notable means conducible to the knowledge of things. Then Chrysippus, Demetrius, and abundance of others, wrote books of etymology. Then the Latins, receiving learning as well as the empire from the Greeks, steer the same course, in order to etymological discipline, as the choicest means to lead men into the knowl- edge of things. Cato, Varro, and other ancient and famous Latins, wrote many volumes to this purpose. Of later times, on the same account, did Julius Csesar, Scaliger, compose a hundred and tea books de originibus. Then Jo- seph Scaliger, son of Julius, Lipsius, Casaubon, and many others, steered the same course." Sikes's Thoughts of Vane. t Sikes thus describes one of Vane's domestic practices : " The usual practice of this sufferer was to spend an hour or two every evening with his family, or any other that were providentially there, and as much both morning and even- ing on the first day. He was of that truly bounteous, princely, communicative spirit noted in the Spouse: rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, to make manifest the favour of the knowledge of Christ, that himself had deep and large experience of, in every place. His gravity, purity, and chasteness of spirit were very ex- emplary. He held out in the midst of all the late apostacies and changes. He was steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and his labour was not in vain, as he well knew. So assiduous was he in continual searching of the Scriptures, waiting upon the Lord in faith and prayer for more full discoveries of his mind therein, that it was said of him, put him where you will, if he may have but a Bible, he is well enough ; as Jansen (of whom the Jansenists in France) reckoned himself with Austin." In a subsequent passage Sikes farther illustrates the beau- tiful toleration of Vane, in describing his views of the insti- tution of the Sabbath. They who so busily trouble them- selves in legislating for " bitter observance" of that fay, and would bestow upon mankind no portion of their care on any other, may read the passage with great advantage : " He accounted the Jewish Sabbath ceremonious and temporary, ending upon the coming of the Son of Man, who was Lord of the Sabbath day. And if he had thought that which is commonly observed in the room thereof to be rather a ma- gistratical institution among Christians in imitation of the Jewish, than that which hath any clear appointment in the Gospel, the apostle would not have him judged for it. ' One man,' says he, ' esteems one day above another ; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully per- suaded in his own mind. He that regardeth a day, regard- eth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it.' This I can say, he usually took the opportunity of spending more time in exercise and prayer in his family, or other Christian meetings, on that day than on any other. And will any yet say he was a Sabbath-breaker ? If they do, see what company we may find for him under that imputation." matter of surprise that such a mind as his should wander occasionally out of the rich treasures of thought, fancy, imagination, and feeling disclosed in that favourite study in their highest and most passionate forms, into fancies and speculations of its own on the various wonders of those primeval days when inspired teachers walked upon the earth, and angels are recorded to have sat down with men. Even in such speculations observe still the pervading sense of what has been so variously exhibited in passages already given. He speaks of the creation, the nature, and the ministry of angels : " These in their creation are described by the light which God made on the first day, Gen., i., 3, 4, when he said, ' Let there be light, and there was light ; and God saw the light, that it was good ;' approving this first work of his hands in the beginning of that day : and God, by his dividing the light from the darkness, sig- nified the heavenliness of their frame and con- stitution, as they stand exalted and separate in their beings from all sensual life, in the form of invisible spirits, whereof the material heav- ens in their creation are the first shadow ; which are called, Prov., viii., 26, the highest part of the dust of the world ;' as David also (giving account of both their creations together), Psalm civ., 2-4, saith, ' Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment ; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain ; who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters ; who maketh the clouds his chariots ; who walketh upon the wings of the wind ; who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire ;' in which posture and preparation, the Psalmist describes the word as he proceeds to the rest of the creation, vers. 5, 6, &c., intimating that as man in his bodily state was made dust of the ground, so the angels were made a flame of fire in their natural constitution." He follows this up in a passage of rapt poet- ical fervour that would have been worthy of Milton : i( As thus they are this heavenly building, they are the first heavens, the tabernacle and clouds of heaven, or the air, for the daybreak and glorious sun of God's first appearance to run his race and finish his course in, whereby to enlighten the ends of the earth, and all things under heaven. These sons of this morn- ing are the first light-bearers to the inhabitants of the first world, and therein are covering cherubs unto the Son in his own proper glory ; and that they may be enabled to bear light, or the similitude of Christ in his first appearance, unto others, they are first the receivers of that ight in themselves, in a spirituality of being and form fitted and suited thereunto, which ac- ommodates them with the exercise of senses merely spiritual and inward, exceeding high, ntuitive, and comprehensive : a manner of life, shadowing out the divine life in the name of the Father, whose voice is not heard at any time, nor shape seen, but is like a consuming ire, to burn up and slay whatever natural or- an is conversant about it, or stands before the >eams and rays of its most pure and invisible glory." And into the exercise of even such senses, spiritual and inward, high, intuitive, and com- 292 BRITISH STATESMEN. prehensive," it was the ardent hope of this great lover of his fellow-men to see even them one day conducted by the exercise of a purity of intellect and righteousness of will. Such also was the faith of Milton, expressed in later years, when of men and angels the " winged hierarch" spoke to Adam, as " More refined, more spirituous and pure, As nearer to Him placed ; or nearer tending, Each in their several active spheres assign'd, Till body up to spirit work, in bounds Proportioned to each kind. So from the root Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves More airy, last the bright consummate flower Spirits odorous breathes : flow'rs and their fruit, Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, To vital spirits aspire, to animal, To intellectual ; give both life and sense, Fancy and understanding : whence the soul Reason receives, and reason is her being, Discursive, or intuitive ; discourse Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours, Differing but in degree, of kind the same. Wonder not, then, what God for you saw good If I refuse not, but convert, as you, To proper substance : time may come when men With angels may participate, and find No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare. . . . To whom the patriarch of mankind replied : O favourable spirit ! propitious guest ! Well hast thou taught the way that might direct Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set From centre to circumference, whereon In contemplation- of created things My steps we may ascend tn God." These illustrations of the religious writings and speculations of Vane shall here be closed, for the present, with some extracts that bring us immediately back to the consideration of the subject which first led to their introduction. All Vane's enthusiasm, all his faith, only ren- dered him unboundedly tolerant of creeds the most opposed to his own.* In the "Retired Man's Meditations," one of the most rigidly theological of his works, the direct assertion of perfect liberty of conscience is a pervading doctrine throughout ; and he thus, in the chap- ter on magistracy, defines what the authority of a civil magistrate should be restricted to, as opposed to the exclusive and intolerant policy of the Presbyterians. " When the Scripture saith that the rule of magistracy is over men, we are to understand by this term the proper sphere, bounds, and limits of that office, which is not to intrude it- self into the office and proper concerns of Christ's inward government and rules in the conscience, but is to content itself with the outward man, and to intermeddle with the con- cerns thereof in reference to the converse which man ought to have with man, upon the grounds of natural justice and right, in things appertaining to this life. " Magistracy, then, is the rule which God hath ordained to be exercised over the outward man, by man himself qualified thereunto, to act in righteousness and in the fear of the Lord in discharge of this his high and great trust ; and so is an office merely respecting rule and gov- ernment over men in their outward concerns, ' " A man maybe orthodox and sound in his judgment as to the principles of religion, and yet, wanting sincere love to Christ and his people, may fall short of heaven ; and, on the contrary, another Christian may err and mistake in many points ; and yet, having sincere love to the truths of Christ, according to that measure of light which God hath vouch- safed unto him, he may be saved. Who art thou that judg- est another man's servant'? to his own master he standeth or falleth." This was ever his divine principle. which is capable to be rightly used or not, ac- cording as the persons intrusted therewith are qualified and do exercise the same, the office of itself being good, and the end for which it is set up being according to God's ordinance and institution for the ministering of punishment to them that do ill, and encouragement and pro- tection to them that do well. " And men may lawfully arrive and attain unto this office and dignity either in an ordi- nary way, through the endeavours and free choice of men, or extraordinarily, by the im- mediate call of God himself to the exercise thereof, making those that are to obey ' will- ingly subject in that day of his power.' " For the office itself, it is (as we have show- ed), in God's institution, a rule that is set up over the outward man in righteousness and in the fear of the Lord, obliging the persons in- trusted with this power to put forth righteous- ness in all their actings that appertain to their public charge." He afterward, in pursuing the subject, reverts to his old faith of the necessity of " working up to God" by constant changes, and improve- ments, and efforts to bring the institution to purity and perfection. " And as in this, the principle of natural justice and right, in their highest improvement, is to be their rule, so the fear of the Lord should oblige them, in an humble dependency upon him, and trembling posture of mind before him, to be watchful in not suffering anything to be done by them that may carry in it hinderance or opposition to the breaking in of higher dis- coveries upon them as to the very exercise of the magistratical office, in the purity and perfec- tion wherein it is promised to be brought forth in the last days by Christ himself, unto which they should always have willing and ready minds to make way and to submit, so that, con- sidered such as God requires it to be, it is man's ruling over men in righteousness, and in the true fear of the Lord. " And this Christ, in his own person, as the Son of Man, is perfectly qualified to do, whose right also it is, having all power in heaven and in earth put into his hands. And his saints, when fitted by him to sit upon the throne of the same glory with him, shall likewise be found prepared to bring forth even magistracy itself in its right exercise, exactly answering the end for which it was set up by God." Where this aim is not followed, he shows the necessary tendency to corruption inherent in the offices of magistracy ; and, as with a prophecy of some of the magistrates in these latter times, ends it thus : " We have already considered magistracy as in its corrupted, de- generated use : it is, in a manner, the throne and seat of the beast, serving to promote and advance the great design and interest of the devil in the world, whereby it doth become part of his kingdom, and hath its place and use in the government that anti-Christ keeps up, to the oppressing and keeping under the dear saints and holy ones of the true and living God." The last extract, from the same chapter of the Retired Man's Meditations, presents a view of the grand object of his whole political life, in. direct association with his religious creed. At SIR HENRY VANE. 293 the period when this was written Cromwell held the government. " For if once the Lord be pleased so far to interfere with their proceedings. Demanding toleration on these grounds, they felt that they were equally bound to concede and assert it enlighten the minds of men in these nations, ! for others ; and they preferred to see a number governors, and people, as to show them the of churches with different sentiments and insti- good of magistracy, as it is in its primitive in- tutes within the same political community, to stitution, and is held forth in promise to be re- the idea of remedying the evil and extermina- stored in the last days, it will then be their de- ; ting error by means of exclusive regulations, sire and delight to inquire and consider, in a and the menaces and severities of punishment.* way of free debate and common consent, on To this illustrious sect belonged nearly the behalf of the good people of these nations (who whole of the army of Manchester, in all these great trials have stood faithful and ! Such was the force arrayed against the Pres- unshaken as to the known cause they have byterians ; a force whose numerical weakness been engaged in), how the rule over them may in the House of Commons and the Assembly be brought nearest to its first institution and of Divinest was counterbalanced by its grow- original pattern in the exercise and practice ing influence among the common people and thereof among them (founded, as we have seen, in the army, and by the superior reason and upon the principles of natural right and just, | power of its leaders. The great and manifold and so exclusive to all private interest and per- struggles which ensued are not, therefore, to sonal concern of any singulars that shall be be considered, what the historians have been found to stand in competition with, or prefer- I fond of naming them, struggles between two ence to, the good of the whole), and how that j sects. The " Independents," as the general which is the ordinance and institution of God j body opposed to the Presbyterians suffered may become also the ordinance and statute of themselves, for party convenience, to be call- man, established in a free and natural way of ' ed, were, it is seen, manyt bound in union by common consent, to the reuniting of all good a common love of liberty of speech and of reli- men as one man in a happy union of their spirits, prayers, and counsels to resist all common danger and opposition which by devils or men may be raised against them." A wide gulf, then, it has been seen, separated gion. The Presbyterians, on the other hand, were one devoted singly and solely to half measures of popular government, and to en- tirely compulsory measures of religious intol- erance ; for in the questions of religion at this Vane from the Presbyterian party on many of period we never fail to see comprised the most the most important questions of civil policy, valuable or the most dangerous maxims of civil but on the side of toleration with him stood government. The House of Lords, and almost also Cromwell, Marten, and St. John, such men ' all the men of great wealth on the side of the as Whitelocke and Selden, and, indeed, the ma- Parliament, secretly or openly favoured the jority of the lawyers, who held with the Eras- tian doctrines. Milton, too, lent to that great cause the astonishing force of his genius ; and in furtherance of its virtuous objects of free- Presbyterians, for the very reason that such opinions in church government were most fa- vourable to their own limited political views. They were tired of the war, and anxious for a dom of speech and of the press, which were j compromise. They also showed, on various held to be the safest guarantees for a perfect occasions, an alarm lest the king should be freedom of conscience, published at this period brought too low. " They did not desire an en- his immortal " Areopagitica," and there antici- | tire victory. What they wished for was an pated, in words of fire, the defeat of the sect j accommodation between the crown and the ar- of Presbyterians : " Methinks I see in my mind j istocracy, in which each of them might secure a noble and puissant nation, rousing herself, i certain favourite objects, and be enabled to die- like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her tate to the nation." invincible locks. Methinks I see her, as an Such was the state of parties at the close of eagle, mewing her mighty youth, and kindling ; the year 1644, when the reverses, still contin- her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam ; ued, of the English Parliamentary forces, and purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at J the presence of the army of the Covenant, the fountain itself of heavenly radiance ; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their Apologetical Narration of the Independents. Godwin, as in the House of Commons, so in this assembly, the " Independent" members were by far the most able. Two of the most considerable of their adversaries have giv- en sketches of them, which will be thought authentic. Clarendon says, " The Independents were more learned and rational than the Presbyterians ; and though they had envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms." Lastly, with these great leaders were asso- ciated the Sect of the Independents. These men ! not so great congregations of the common people, yet they had arrived, by somewhat different means, at i infe fed and were followed by the most substantial and *l,o * rpsnlt the. r,,,oc,t;n f K~f~ * i wealthy citizens, as well as by others of better condition." And Baillie, one of the deputies from Scotland, sent to watch over the interests of Presbyterianism in the Assembly, 4 re- lates of them that " truly they speak much, and exceedingly well." And elsewhere, "truly, if the cause were good, the men have plenty of learning, wit, eloquence, and, above all, the same result on the question of liberty conscience. Their religious zeal was intense- ly fervid, but they disapproved equally the Pres- byterian and Episcopal systems. They held that a church was a body of Christians assem- bled in one place, appropriated for their wor- ;riin ami that pvprv vuch horlv wae nnmnlpre ba Pt'st 8 . Millennanans, Fifth Monarchy men ; individuals IMP, ana that every SUCH poay Vias complete , whoe venin these times did not borrow their creed from the in Itself; that they had a right to draw Up the country in which they were born, but thought like citizens rules by Which they thought proper to be regU- of the universe ; and sects, the very names of which have latpd and that nn man nnt a mpmhpr nf thpir perished, all embarked in the sacred cause against Presby- r terian usurpation, and a compulsory uniformity of religioui assembly, and no body of men, was entitled to , worship and belief. boldness and stiffness, to make it out." i Among them Mr. Godwin justly counts Erastians, Ana- 294 BRITISH STATESMEN. pressed hard against the great leaders of the minority in the House of Commons.* Vane called up Cromwell from the army, and with many significant expressions, " a plea for ten- der consciences" was presented at the same time to the House of Lords, the House of Com- mons, and the Assembly of Divines ; enforced in the Commons with consummate power by Vane, Cromwell, and Saint John ; in the House of Lords by Lord Say ; and in the Assembly by the leading ministers of the Independents. This proved an alarming check to the Presby- terians, who were driven, in consequence, to consent to a sort of compromise, and to estab- lish a " directory for public worship," which left much to the will or the capacity of the min- ister who practised under it. Charles seems to have been much struck at this time with the capacity and power exhibit- ed by Vane, and entered into overtures of ne- gotiation with him and Saint John. They hu- moured them only that they might the better acquaint themselves with the king's exact de- sign, taking care, meanwhile, to communicate everything that passed to the speaker, to a committee of the House of Commons to which they belonged, and to the Scots commissioners, that their conduct might be free from suspicion. But Essex, not knowing this, and getting some hint of the matter, laid a complaint against these two as traitors to the cause before the House of Lords. They were, of course, most honourably acquitted.! Essex himself, at the same time, was thanked for his vigilance and zeal. The open and acknowledged treaty of Ux- hridge followed, which need not be detailed in these pages.J The names of Sir Henry Vane the younger and Oliver Saint John we find to have been added, by a special vote, to the com- missioners for the Parliament. It is enough to show the temper of the king in entering on this treaty, to show that it was impossible success * The spirit of the four Scotch commissioners deputed to London to watch over the interests of the Covenant may be gathered from the following : " We purpose," says Baillie, one of the commissioners, "not to meddle in haste with a point of such high consequence (the establishment of uni- formity in church government), till it please God to advance our army, which we expect will much assist our arguments." t Journals, Jan. 17. Baillie, i., 426. Hist, of Com., i., 360. $ Whitelocke, who was one of the commissioners, gives a graphic sketch of this temporary reunion of the chief mem- bers of the hostile parties (all Englishmen onr.e friends !) on this mutual ground. " The commissioners for the treaty on both parts met at Uxbridge, and had their several quar- ters ; those for the Parliament and all their retinue on the north side of the town, and those for the king on the south side, and no intermixture of the one party or their attend- | ants with the other ; the best inn of the one side was the | rendezvous of the Parliament's commissioners, and the best ; inn of the other side of the street was for the king's com- missioners. The evening that they came to town, several : visits passed between particular commissioners of either party ; as Sir Edward Hyde came to visit Mr. Hollis and j Mr. Whitelocke, the Lord Culpepper visited Sir Henry Vane, I and others of the king's commissioners visited several of the Parliament's commissioners, and had long discourses about j the treaty, and to persuade one another to a compliance. Mr. Whitelocke visited Sir Edward Hyde, and Mr. Palmer, and Sir Richard Lane, and others, and several of the Par- liament's commissioners visited d ivers of the king's commis- sioners, and had discourses with them tending to the fur- therance of the business of the treaty. The town was so ex- ceeding full of company, that it was hard to get any quarter except for the commissioners and their retinue ; and some of the commissioners were forced to lie two of them in a chamber together in field-beds, only upon a quilt, in that cold weather, not coming into a bed during all the treaty." (Jan. 29, 1644, p. 122.) could have ever attended it. " As to my call- ing those at London a Parliament," he wrote I to the queen during the preliminaries for the i negotiation, " if there had been two besides myself of my opinion, I had not done it ; and , the argument that prevailed with me was, that the calling did nowise acknowledge them to be a Parliament ; upon which condition and con- struction I did it, and no otherwise ; and, ac- cordingly, it is registered in the council books, with the council's unanimous approbation." Again he writes on a subsequent day : " I as- sure thee that thou needest not doubt the issue of this treaty ; for my commissioners are so well chosen (though I say it), that they will neither be threatened nor disputed from the grounds I have given them ; which, upon my word, are such as we had formerly determined on." " Believe," he once more writes to Hen- rietta, " that I have a little more wit than to place confidence in the fidelity of perfidious rebels." Upon the king the failure of that treaty rested, and on the king's head at last fell all the penalties of that invincible spirit of treachery which nothing could cope with or subdue, so long as a vestige of power or even life remained to him so long as the narrowest loophole was still left through which he could yet catch a glimpse of the darling authority of an absolute throne. The opening of the campaign of 1645 was rendered memorable by one of the most mas- terly strokes of policy, emanating from Vane and Cromwell, that had yet distinguished the statesmanship of the times, and which proved eventually, and that very soon, decisive of the fate of the war. This was the self-denying ordinance and the new model. It had been obvious for a considerable time to Vane and Cromwell, that Essex, Waller, and Manchester himself, all evidently temporizing, and afraid to look steadily at the result of one great and uncompromised victory, must be removed from their command, and the military system of the Parliamentary forces completely renovated, be- fore anything like a perfect success could be looked for. Up to this time they had had suf- ficient proof that " their victories, so gallantly gotten, and in which they had so eminently ex- perienced the favour of Heaven, had been of no avail ;" that "a summer's triumph had proved but a winter's story, and the game, however it seemed well in autumn, was to be played over again in the spring."* They felt not less, that if things went on much longer thus, these very leaders might possibly be made instruments in the hands of the Presbyterians for the betrayal of what they held to be the most valuable con- ditions of their cause. The authorship of this great remedy now resolved upon, which should have the effect, without personal insult, of re- moving these obnoxious men, and accompany- ing with that removal a reorganization and re- enforcement of the army, is ascribed by Clar- endon to Vane. It was, no doubt, the result of deep and anxious deliberation among all the chief men of the Independents. It was opened in the House of Commons on the 9th of December, 1644. On that day the House resolved itself into a committee to con- sider of the sad condition of the kingdom in * Rushworth, vi., 3, 4. SIR HENRY VANE. 295 reference to the intolerable burdens of the war, and the little prospect there was of its being speedily brought to a conclusion. In this com- mittee there was a general silence for a good space of time, one " looking upon another to see who would break the ice,"* when it was at last broken by Cromwell. " Without," he said, " a more speedy, vigorous, and effectual prosecution of the war, casting off all lingering proceedings like soldiers of fortune beyond the sea to spin out the war, we shall make the kingdom weary of us, and hate the name of a Parliament. For what do the enemy say 1 nay, what do many say that were friends at the be- ginning of the Parliament 1 Even this : that the members of both Houses have got great places and commands, and the sword into their hands, and what by interest in Parliament, and what by power in the army, will perpetually continue themselves in grandeur, and not per- mit the war speedily to end, lest their own power should determine with it. This I speak here to our own faces is but what others do utter abroad behind our backs. I am far from reflecting on any : I know the worth of those commanders, members of both Houses, who are yet in power." Cromwell then went on to deprecate any investigation into the conduct of the commanders. He especially recommend- ed " to their prudence not to insist upon a com- plaint as to the oversight of any commander- in-chief upon any occasion whatsoever." He observed that he was himself conscious of over- sights, and well knew that they could scarcely be avoided in military affairs. Therefore, wa- ving a strict inquiry into the cause of these things, he exhorted the committee to apply it- self to some general remedy, " which, without in any way countenancing the particular cen- sure of individuals, might best in future shut out those evils under which they were at pres- ent suffering." The memorable debate which followed is unfortunately not reported. It end- ed, however, in a great discussion on the fol- lowing resolution : " That no member of either House of Parliament shall, during the war, en- joy or execute any office or command, military or civil, and that an ordinance be brought in to that purpose." Vane, who had reserved himself for this resolution, spoke at great length upon it, and with even more than his usual elo- quence, t Whitelocke, separating himself from the party he generally acted with, was its chief opponent. Hollis and the other heads of the Presbyterians seconded him, but without effect. Vane and Cromwell had selected the question with a masterly judgment and foresight ; for the errors in the conduct of the war had been so apparent, that many of the Presbyterians were obliged on this occasion to declare against their chiefs. It does not appear, indeed, that there was more than one division in the prog- ress of the ordinance through the Commons, but that involved its entire spirit ; when, on the 17th of December, a proviso was offered to be added, that the ordinance, and anything con- tained' in it, should not extend to the Earl of Essex, Lord-general. Upon this occasion the * Rushworth, vi., 4. t The report of the debate in Clarendon, including- Vane's speech, is all a gross forgery. (See Hist, of Com., i., 395-398.) numbers stood, for the clause, 93 ; against it, 100. The ordinance had been reported to the House on the llth, was passed on the 19th, and was carried up to the Lords on the 21st of De- cember. Every device was resorted to in that House to defeat by delay what they were most reluc- tant openly to propose. Three times the House of Commons sent up messages, desiring expe- dition, and representing that any delay in pass- ing the ordinance would- be dangerous might be destructive. A select committee was then nominated by the Lords to consider of altera- tions to be introduced, and it is not a little characteristic that of the committee, consist- ing of ten members, four peers, Essex, Man- chester, Warwick, and Denbigh, were persons to whose disadvantage the law would particu- larly operate. A paper of reasons originated in this committee against the substance of the ordinance. In this paper it was observed, that it deprives the peers of that honour which in all ages had been given them, since they had evermore been principally active, to the effu- sion of their blood, and the hazard of their es- tates and fortunes, in regaining and maintain- ing the fundamental laws of the land, and the rights and liberties of the subject ; nor was there ever any battle fought for these ends wherein the nobility were not employed in pla- ces of chiefest trust and command. It was added, that the proposed measure was by no means equal to the lords and commons of Eng- land, since, though some of the gentry and commons were excepted as members of Par- liament, yet that the rest might have liberty to discharge their duty, whether in civil office or the field, whereas the ordinance was proposed to operate as a universal disqualification of the whole hereditary nobility of the country. An- other objection was, that the tendency of the ordinance appeared to them to be such, that, in attempting to put it in force, everything would be thrown into confusion in the armies ; and that, therefore, till the " new model" of what was proposed to succeed was produced, they were scarcely in a position to judge the measure fairly. Finally, after repeated con- ferences between the two Houses, the ordi- nance was rejected by the Lords on the 13th of January.* The last-named objection was at once, with masterly promptitude, laid hold of by the states- men of the lower House, and the very day after the delivery of the reasons from the Lords, the committee of both kingdoms reported to the Commons a new model for the constitution of the army. This consent of the committee of both kingdoms, including the four Scotch com- missioners, is supposed to have been achieved by Vane's mastery over the Marquis of Argyle, who had just arrived in London. t It was an- other decisive advance in influence secured for the Independents. On the 19th of January the scheme of the new model was laid before the House of Commons, and the names of the principal officers who were to have command in this army were put to the vote on the 21st. The three armies of the Parliament were to be formed into one,, consisting of 14,000 foot, 6000 cavalry, and: * Hist, of Com., i., 402, 403. t Clarendon. Godwin.. 206 BRITISH STATESMEN. 1000 dragoons, under a general-in-chief, lieu- tenant-general, major-general, thirty colonels, and the due proportion of other officers. Sir Thomas Fairfax was named general-in-chief, and Skippon major-general. Among the colo- nels appears the name of Algernon Sidney, and other most eminent men. Among the inferior officers were Ireton, Desborough, and Harri- son. The name of the officer who was design- ed for the second place in the command, and the generalship of the cavalry, was kept in re- serve, to be filled up, as it afterward appeared, with the name of Cromwell. This scheme of the new model passed the Lords on the 15th of February, creating an army of 22,000 men, to be principally draughted from the old armies. A second " self-denying ordinance" was now transmitted to the Lords. Great misconcep- tion has arisen in consequence of the difference between these two ordinances in a very ma- terial point, though both called by the same name. Mr. Godwin has briefly and impress- ively stated the difference thus : " It has been commonly imagined that the Independents, af- ter having carried a measure so full of boasted disinterestedness, acted a part directly contrary to their professions, smuggled in one excep- tion after another, Cromwell the first ; enrich- ed themselves with the spoils of the nation ; and silently and imperceptibly antiquated the law which had, at the moment, been their great instrument for defeating their adversaries of the Presbyterian party. But this way of stating the question is by no means exact. The original ' self-denying ordinance,' as it was called, directed that no member of either House of Parliament should, during the present war, hold any office, civil or military, such office being conferred by the authority of both or either of the Houses. This ordinance was de- feated in the House of Lords by the machinations of the Presbyterians, and never passed into a law. A second ordinance, which was called by the same name, was brought in a short time after, and was attended with a more successful event. The enactment of this ordinance was, that every member of Parliament was hereby dis- charged from whatever office, civil or military, that had been conferred by the authority of Par- liament. The former edict was prospective, and had more of the ordinary character of a law ; the second prescribed something imme- diately to be done, and no more.* What was the cause of the striking difference between the first and the second ' self-denying ordinance,' must be a matter purely of conjecture. It is not improbable that some of the great leaders of the Independent interest began, in this inter- val, to suspect that the advantage of perma- .nently separating the legislative character and that of an officer, civil or military, was more .specious than real. Besides, as their adver- .saries had contrived to defeat their measure in -.the upper House, they felt less delicacy to- wards them, and constructed an edict which .more, plainly pointed at the individual change in ; the ; public service, which they held to be irn- , mediately required. The new law, therefore, was a temporary expedient, and the general principle was left as before."t * That is, it did not prevent the discharged officers from recovering their offices again. t Hist, ol Com., ii., 41. In the progress of this second measure through the House of Commons, it is to be re- marked, there appears to have been only one | division, which occurred on the twenty-first of January, when it was put to the vote whether Fairfax should be nominated commander-in- chief, and the numbers stood (on the question whether the nomination should be then made), for the affirmative, 101, for the negative, 69. When the ordinance came back from the Lords, however, a second division took place on an amendment that had been introduced in that House, purporting that the nomination of offi- cers, which was vested in the commander- in- chief, should be subject to the approbation of the two Houses of Parliament ; and the num- bers stood, for the affirmative, 82, for the nega- tive, 63, the majority being with the Presby- terians. This was not a point, however, of vital importance with Vane and the Independents, whose victory, in the achievement of the meas- ure as it now stood, had been triumphantly complete. Essex, Manchester, Warwick, and Denbigh had appeared in the House of Lords the day be- fore the ordinance passed, and laid down their commissions. Acknowledgments were made by the Commons of their great and faithful services, and pensions were voted to them. The army was now in the hands of the Inde- pendents. Its soldiers were nearly all members of that communion. Unadorned by rank, un- graced by any of the eminences of station, they were filled with religious zeal and an irrepressi- ble enthusiasm. Each man felt as if the cause rested with him, each man had the sense that he was qualified to be a teacher to others. They were equally stimulated by the love of liberty, and the love of that scheme of religious faith which each man espoused. "They re- spected themselves ; they believed that they were in a state of grace ; and they were in- capable of allowing themselves in anything un- worthy of the high calling with which God had honoured them. They were vessels of glory, set apart for the purposes of heaven. As they had these feelings and impulses in common among them, so these feelings and impulses served them as a bond of indissoluble union. They advanced into the field chanting the psalms contained in the Scriptures, and fought, as they expressed it, with ' the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.'"* But then they were not lords, nor had seen dozens of campaigns, and infinite was the laughter and contempt they at first inspired. It was not given to all to see with the subtle and far-piercing glance of Vane or of Cromwell. "Truly this army was no way glorious," ob- serves May, " either in the dignity of its com- manders or the antiquity of the soldiers. Never did an army go forth to war who had less the confidence of their own friends, or were more the object of contempt to their enemies, and yet who did more bravely deceive the expecta- tions of them both." Their successes he as- cribes, under God, to their moral and religious as well as military discipline. " The usual vices of camps," he adds, " were here restrain- ed. The discipline was strict. No theft, no wantonness, no oaths, no profane words, could Godwin, i., 464. SIR HENRY VANE. 297 escape without the severest castigation, by which it was brought to pass that in this camp, as in a well-ordered city, passage was safe and commerce free." To all this the king's army offered a melancholy contrast, which set off with still greater lustre the Parliamentarian virtues. " The officers took pride in the prqf- ligacy of their language and their lives ; and the common soldiers were, out of the field, a j disorderly and dissolute rabble."* What could the king's superiority in numbers, or his many other advantages, avail against this single cir- cumstance alone 1 Most wisely had Vane and Cromwell judged. The Royalists were doom- ed to fall in the first great battle. The single danger to be apprehended does not seem to have hitherto in any way occurred to Vane. To have suspected the virtue of the great soldier of the cause he had most at heart, to have doubted the reality of Cromwell's Re- publican fervour and enthusiasm, would have been equivalent to a surrender of the high faith and hope which sustained him in the mighty struggle he was engaged in. The army of the new model marched reso- lutely on against Charles. His headquarters were at Oxford ; he had a preponderance in the midland counties ; was master in almost the whole of the western districts ; had power in the north ; and was complete master of Wales. In a few short weeks he was helpless ! The new leaders in whom the power was vested struck at once against Charles himself, and kept him in pursuit. He had moved from Ox- ford in a northern direction, with a view, it is supposed, to co-operation with Montrose. The Scottish army advancing to the south, im- pelled by the English leaders, raised the siege of Carlisle, and interposed to foil his plan. Fairfax meanwhile had sat down before Oxford. Charles, upon this, at once turned back, and with considerable vigour and resolution as- saulted the garrison of Leicester. Alarmed for the safety of the eastern counties, Fairfax im- mediately raised the siege of Oxford, and re- sumed his pursuit of Charles, who had moved from Leicester, fixed his headquarters at Daven- try, and betaken himself to the pleasures of the chase, while his soldiers ravaged and plundered the neighbouring country. Fairfax gradually and silently advanced, was joined by Crom- well near Northampton, and they both together took Charles by surprise near the fatal town of Naseby. At eleven at night a council of war was summoned in the Royalist camp ; and with that careless and courageous gallantry which, whatever their other vices may have been, al- ways distinguished the aristocratic officers of Charles's army, it was resolved, notwithstand- ing their critical position, " not only to give, but to advance and offer, battle." The armies met at Naseby, upon a fallow field about a mile in breadth. The king led his centre in person, and found himself opposite to Fairfax and Skippon. Rupert commanded on the right, and (appointed at Cromwell's request, and invested with rank for the occasion) Ireton fronted him. Sir Marmaduke Langdale, on the left, was opposed by Oliver Cromwell. The word of the Cavaliers was "Queen Mary" (Henrietta Maria) of the Parliamentarians, * History from Mackintosh, v 363. PP " God our strength." The Royalists commen- ced the battle by advancing at a quick step, " with alacrity and resolution."* The van of the Parliamentary centre was broken by the charge, and the troops fell back upon the rear, as they had been commanded, in such necessi- ty, to do. Skippon was severely wounded by a shot in the side, and Fairfax desired he would leave the field ; but " the brave old man (says Rushworth) answered, ' He would not stir so long as a man would stand,' and kept the field to the end of the battle." Fairfax now advan- ced himself with a body of reserve, and the battle raged anew. Not content to exercise the functions of a captain, Fairfax grappled personally with the foe, galloped through the thickest of the fray, encouraged by dauntless example the brave, and shamed the timid, if any such were there. His helmet was beaten to pieces, but he continued to ride about bare- headed, and in this state happening to come up with his body-guard, commanded by Colonel Charles Doyley, the latter respectfully rebuked him for thus hazarding his person, " wherein lay the safety of the whole army and of the good cause, to be riding bareheaded among the showering bullets," at the same time offering him his own helmet. Fairfax put it by, saying, " 'Tis well enough, Charles."! The battle, meanwhile, had assumed a terri- ble aspect on either wing. Rupert began with his usual impetuosity, and bore down his ad- versaries in spite of the astonishing resistance of Ireton ; while Ireton himself, wounded in the thigh with a pike, in the face with a halbert, having at the same time his horse killed under him, was made prisoner, though he afterward escaped back to the Parliamentarians. But now, while Rupert pursued the flying horse of the Parliament, and afterward vainly amused himself with summoning their park of artillery, Cromwell was deciding the fortune of the day (according to his custom) on the right wing. He attacked Sir Marmaduke Langdale, first with a close fire of carbines, next at the sword's point ; broke and routed his cavalry, and drove them a mile from the field of battle, wholly be- yond the possibility of farther concert with the Royalist infantry ; then, with that consummate prudence which outshone even his extraordi- nary valour, the victorious Cromwell, unlike the victorious Rupert, returned to the aid of his struggling commander, and, falling on Charles's weary infantry, put them to instant route. One regiment alone preserved its order unbroken. " One Royalist corps," says Rushworth, " stood like a rock, and, though twice desperately charged, would not move an inch." At last, however, Fairfax, directing Doyley to make a third charge in front, simultaneously attacked them in the rear, pierced them in all directions, and, slaying an ensign with his own hand, seized the colours, and gave them to a common soldier to hold. The soldier, unable to resist the temptation, boasted among his comrades that he had seized those colours himself, and the boast went back to Fairfax. " Let him re- tain the honour*" said that great general ; " I have enough besides." * Rushworth. Hist, from Mackintosh. t Life of Fairfax, in Hartley Coleridge's Biographia Bo- realis most interesting and charmingly-written book. And Bee Whitelocke, June 14. BRITISH STATESMEN. The king behaved with his accustomed bra- very. When he saw his infantry routed and his affairs so desperate, he placed himself at the head of what remained of his cavalry, and implored them to stand the coming shock. " One charge more," he cried, " and we re- cover the day." It was vain ; they were not in a condition to do it ; Rupert had joined them too late ; they fled, and left Fairfax and Crom- well masters of the field. Two thousand men had been slain nearly an equal number on both sides ; but Charles left behind him 5000 prisoners, of whom 1000 were officers, his whole artillery, a hundred stand of colours, with the standard royal, the king's baggage, with the cabinet containing his private papers and cor- respondence with the queen, the baggage of the army, including the plunder of Leicester, the royal coaches, the whole spoil of the camp everything! The first civil war was decided by that memorable day, and the disclosure of all the treacheries and infidelities of the king's correspondence* was a weapon in the hands of the Independent leaders which, until the very termination of the struggle, they used with ter- rible effect. Such was the first memorable result of Vane's great policy in the matter of the self-denying ordinance and the new model, and for that rea- son this battle has been detailed. In the field of civil polity, he was meanwhile pursuing other objects of scarcely less importance. He had now directed his attention to the state of the representation in the House of Commons. The civil war had necessarily pur- ged that house of the Royalist members, and also of others who had selected the policy of temporizing or of observing a strict neutrality. The war itself had been attended with memor- able vicissitudes ; for, as we have seen, in the winter of 1642, and in the autumn of 1643, ex- pectations even ran strongly in favour of the success of the royal party, and it was the nat- ural consequence of these vicissitudes to cause farther desertions. The precise number of the House of Commons, according to the returns in 1640, appears to have been 506. The high- est numbers that are to be observed upon any division occur on the 1st of March following, and amount, taken together, to 383, including the tellers.f About the time of the king's dec- laration, after the war began, that only 80 of the 500 commoners, and only 15 or 16 of the 100 peers remained, the divisions certainly ran very low ; but this was accident, and " could only be used to colour a party declaration." On the 9th of February following, the numbers rose as high as 201. We have seen that the numbers were nearly as great upon a vote re- specting the self-denying ordinance in Decem. * It appeared, among other things, on the publication of this correspondence, that at the Oxford treaty he had se- cretly registered in the council book his protest that, in calling the Lords and Commons at Westminster a Parlia- ment, he did not acknowledge them as such ; that he looked upon them as banded traitors, to whom he owed neither for- giveness nor good faith ; that he termed his own followers, of both Houses, assembled at Oxford, a "base," "muti- nous," " mongrel Parliament ;" that he designed bringing into England an army of Roman Catholics from Ireland, and a foreign army under the Duke of Lorraine, a popish prince contrary to his express and solemn word. History from Mackintosh, vi., 2. And see Journals and Parliamentary History, or the 5th vol. of the Harleian Miscellany. t See Godwin's History, ii, 25, et seq. ber, 1644. At the time of assembling the mock, or, as Charles himself called it, the "mongrel" Parliament at Oxford, on the 22d of January in that year, the Commons ordered a call of the House, which took place on the same day that the king had fixed for his fol- lowers at Oxford, and the numbers appear to have been divided as follow : 280 members an- swered to their names at Westminster ; 100 were excused, as being absent in the service of Parliament in their several counties ; and 1 18 at Oxford signed the letter to Essex of the 27th of the same month, calling on him to in- terpose for the restoration of peace. There are, therefore, only eight individuals unaccount- ed for in this computation.* It is scarcely necessary to observe that one of the conditions of the civil war was to impose on the House of Commons itself the necessity, unavoidable in such a state of revolution, of declaring such persons as were most forward to engage in hostilities against them disabled from sitting thereafter in that Parliament ; and in all the earlier instances, this vote of dis- ability had been accompanied with the dnection that a new writ should be issued for filling up the place of the member thus declared incapa- ble. But here the affair stopped. Agreeably to the customary forms, the speaker issued his warrant to the clerk of the crown in chancery for the granting a new writ, to the originating of which the great seal was necessary ; but the lord-keeper had carried off the great seal to the king at York in May, 1642, therefore the order to the speaker had necessarily miscarried ; and from this time the question of introducing new members seems to have lain untouched until the 30th of September, 1644. On that day it was voted by the Commons that the House should, on a future day that was specified, take the subject into consideration. The actual de- cision on the question, however, was from time to time deferred, t and it was not till August of the following year that any progress was made. It was so managed that a petition was at that time presented from the borough of Southwark, praying that they might be authorized to elect two fresh representatives in the room of the first they had, one of whom was dead, and the other disabled by a vote of the House. This served as a signal for entering on a proceeding, which had certainly, by Vane, Saint John, and the other leaders of the Independents, been al- ready determined on. On the 21st it was de- cided by a majority of three that new writs should be issued for Southwark, Bury St. Ed- munds, and the cinque port of Hythe. This beginning was speedily pursued : 146 new mem- bers were introduced into the Parliament in the remainder of the year 1645, and 89 in the course of the following year. Among those at present introduced, we find the most honest, virtuous, and every way illustrious names of Fairfax, Blake, Ludlow, Algernon Sidney, Ireton, Skip- pon, Massey, and Hutchinson.i This, then, was another victory for the In- dependents. The Presbyterians and the Scots commissioners, however, disabled in a great * See the Journals. Whitelocke, p. 80. Rush worth, Y., 573 ; and fiodwin, ii., 27 t Godwin, ii., 36. t Ludlow, i., 169, 170 Godwin, ii., 41. Notitia Parlia- mentaria. SIR HENRY VANE. 290 part by the turn events had taken since the new modelling of the army, and astonished heyond measure at the decisive victory of Naseby, be- gan to see the necessity of resorting to some expedient of rallying their strength, which, ju- diciously managed, was still superior in num- bers. While they bethought themselves of what they must do, Cromwell's letter after the battle of Naseby was read from the chair. "Honest men," he wrote, "have served you faithfully in this action. I beseech you, in the name of God, not to discourage them. He that ventures his life for the liberty of his country should be left to trust God for the liberty of his conscience." The old question again started up ; the Presbyterians insisted on their claims of an exclusive and intolerant church discipline ; the Independents met them with all the force of conscious reason, and the accession of that reputation for it which recent military events had given them. A second sort of accommo- dation was effected, and the parties once more rested for a while. Charles, defeated and almost helpless, was now at Oxford. He felt the necessity of taking some step for personal safety ; he saw it was impossible that another army could be got to- gether, and was casting in his own mind the relative advantages of throwing himself upon London for a treaty, or of making the best of his way to the Scottish army in the north. Here the striking attitude taken by Vane and the Independents appears to have affected him once more, and he proposed to Ashburnham to sound the Independents through Vane. Two letters remain in the Clarendon state papers addressed in the king's name by Ashburnham to Sir Harry Vane the younger. In these he pledges himself that, if Presbytery were insist- ed on, he would join Vane and the Independ- ents with all his powers in " rooting out that tyrannical government." No answer on the part of Vane has been found. It is likely that he returned no answer.* It was impossible that a mind so subtle and acute could have brought itself to place confidence in the good faith of such a proposal. In the Naseby dis- closures it had been made manifest that profes- sions and protestations cost Charles nothing ; that he held everything fair that was done in negotiating with an enemy ; that he never talked of peace but with a crafty intention ; " and that he never made a concession that he was not at the time considering how he should retract it." The incident only testified to the strength of Vane's influence and party. A passage from Whitelocke's memorials of this period may be quoted for the same purpose : under the dates of October the 15th and 20th, he states, in one instance, " I lived with," in another, " I dined with, Sir Henry Vane, Mr. Solicitor (St. John), and other grandees of that party, and was kind- ly treated by them, as I used to be by the other." The cautious lawyer, though voting on questions of religious liberty with Vane and St. John, had evidently never before committed himself thus far. The king's spirit of intrigue, however, was * A misapprehension of the whole of this incident by Dr. Lin gar J is ably pointed out and corrected in the History from Mackintosh. irresistible. His object was by some means or other to force himself into London, where he trusted his presence might work some kind of miracle in support of his prostrate cause. To this end he made the following extraordi- nary proposal of a treaty : that he himself should come to London with 300 followers, under the assurance and security of the two Houses of Parliament, the commissioners for Scotland, the corporation of the metropolis, and the chief commanders of the English and Scotch armies, for forty days ; at the expiration of which he should be free to repair, at his own choice, to his garrison of Oxford, Worcester, or Newark. In the same message he repeated his Uxbridge proposition, that the military power should be vested for three years in commissioners, to be nominated half by himself and half by the Par- liament, or in any other way that might be sat- isfactory to both parties. To render the point more intelligible, the king tendered in his mes- sage the names of thirty persons for commis- sioners, and among them were the names of Vane, Fairfax, Cromwell, and Hollis. This was the falsest proposal he had yet made, and the Independent leaders at once detected its falsehood. It was merely one of the old re- sources to strive to place the Parliament, if possible, in a false position. In the very midst of the subsequent measures he took to advance the same object, it was afterward found he had written thus to Digby : " Now, for my own par- ticular resolution, I am endeavouring to get to London, so that the conditions may be such as a gentleman may own, and that the rebels may acknowledge me king, being not without hope that I shall be able so to draw either the Pres- byterians or Independents to side with me for extirpating one the other, that I shall be really king again. I will conclude with this assu- rance, that whatsoever becomes of me, by the grace of God, I will never forsake the Church, my friends, nor my crown." It would be tedious, and it is unnecessary, to follow the course of events after this period through the various changes which carried Charles to the Scotch camp, which subsequent- ly induced the Scots to surrender him to the Parliament, and which ended in the violent struggles between the Presbyterian and Inde- pendent parties in the House of Commons, as to the final disposal of his person and dignity, and the new settlement of the government of the kingdom. Clarendon has two remarks in his history which may be properly introduced here. He observes of the discomfort of the Scotch com- missioners after the decision of the first civil war : " They had long had jealousy of Crom- well and Sir Henry Vane, and all that party, which they saw increased every day, and grew powerful in the Parliament, in the council, and in the city. Their sacred vow and covenant was mentioned with less reverence and respect, and the Independents, which comprehended many sects in religion, spake publicly against it, of which party Cromwell and Vane were the leaders, with very many clergymen, who were the most popular preachers, and who in the Assembly of Divines had great authority ; so that the Scots plainly perceived that, though they had gone as far towards the destruction 300 BRITISH STATESMEN. of the Church of England as they desired, they should never be able to establish their Presby- terian government, without which they should lose all their credit in their own country, and all their interest in England."* And in a sub- sequent passage of singular incorrectness he adds : " The truth is, though that party was most prevalent in the Parliament, and compre- hended all the superior officers of the army (the general only excepted, who thought him- self a Presbyterian), yet there were only three men, Vane, Cromwell, and Ireton, who govern- ed and disposed all the rest according to their sentiments ; and without doubt they had not yet published their dark designs to many of their own party, nor would their party at that time have been so numerous and considerable if they had known, or but imagined, that they had entertained those thoughts of heart, which they grew every day less tender to conceal, and forward enough to discover.''! Upon this, it is worth while to inquire what these " dark designs" were that are here im- puted to Vane. The lesson in politics which his life illustrated and enforced cannot be stud- ied too well, and it has never yet been exhibit- ed in that most impressive form which it as- sumes when, upon the great actions of his life, the rarer political writings he left behind him throw the light of their eloquence and wisdom. The majority of historians speak of Vane as a purely theoretical Republican, with great wis- dom in the means he employed, but with the utmost absurdity in the ends he aimed at : in a word, the owner of a political faith not redu- cible to this world, and only made up of wild- ness and extravagant enthusiasm. Such are the convenient opinions, with the help of which disagreeable conclusions of another sort are sought to be kept at distance ! A theoretical Republican Vane was not, if it is attempted to be shown by this that the mo- tive of his public exertions was merely a pre- conceived idea of the abstract excellence of that form of civil society. What Vane sought was good and popular government, extensive representation, freedom of thought, freedom of the press, and perfect liberty of conscience. Because he could not find these under a mon- archy, he became a Republican -, but under a monarchy he would have been content with these. Practical and protracted experience of the utter impossibility of bringing Charles to terms of good faith was the origin of Vane's devotion to a republic. Having once embraced that faith, he pursued it with all the earnest- ness and enthusiasm of his character, but never for a single instant lost sight of the practical reasons out of which it had sprung up in his mind, nor of the wise design of preserving all its new institutions, in so far as possible, in correspondence with the fundamental laws and usages to which Englishmen had been for cen- turies accustomed, and under which, in their purer shapes, they had grown in virtue, in civ- ilization, and in power. In an Essay on Government, which was left among his papers at his death, he lays down a philosophical maxim which few will be bold enough nowadays to dispute : " Ancient found- ations, when once they become destructive to * Vol. v., p. 15, 16. t Ibid., p. 345. those very ends for which they were first or- dained, and prove hinderances to the good and enjoyment of human societies, to the true wor- ship of God. and the safety of the people, are for their sakes, and upon the same reasons, to be altered, for which they were first laid. In the way of God's justice they may be sha- ken and removed, in order to accomplish the counsels of his will upon such a state, nation, or kingdom, in order to his introducing a righ- teous government of his own framing."* When he stood in the court of King's Bench upon his trial, he laid down another proposition, on which, he said, all his actions had been ground- ed, and he challenged the judges, with eloquent and unanswerable subtlety, to contradict it if they could. It was, that the very root and or- igin of monarchical government in England was the assent of the people through their repre- sentatives, or, in other words, the so horrible and terrifying Republican principle. " However I have been misjudged and mis- understood, I can truly affirm that in the whole series of my actions, that which I have had in my eye hath been to preserve the ancient well- constituted government of England on its own basis and primitive righteous foundations, most learnedly stated by Fortescue in his book, made in praise of the English laws. And I did ac- count it the most likely means for the effecting of this to preserve it at least in its root, what- ever changes and alterations it might be ex- posed unto in its branches, through the bluster- ous and stormy times that have passed over us. " This is no new doctrine in a kingdom ac- quainted with political power, as Fortescue shows ours is, describing it to be, in effect, the common assent of the realm, the will of the people or whole body of the kingdom, repre- sented in Parliament ; nay, though this repre- sentation, as hath fallen out, be restrained for a season to the Commons' House in their sin- gle actings, into which, as we have seen, when, by the inordinate fire of the times, two of the three estates have for a season been melted down, they did but retire into their root, and were not hereby in their right destroyed, but rather preserved, though as to their exercise laid for a while asleep, till the season came of their revival and restoration." Shortly before his death, while imprisoned in one of the isles of Scilly, he made a more elab- orate statement of his views on this point, and of the justifications which he conceived the people and their leaders to have had in their attempts to alter the monarchical institutions. This remarkable treatise was entitled " The * In another passage he states, with unanswerable force, " It was ordinary among the ancients, not only to change their governors, but government also. If one race of kings be lawfully deposed, they are not wronged by change of government, and who else can be ? It is so natural and fundamental a right in people to have and to use such a liberty, that we may do well to consider whether they have any right to give it out of their hands, unless it be lawful to contradict the law of nature, the true end of all govern- ment in human societies, turn their own reason out of doors, and so turn beasts for their governors to ride on. That the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, the wisest states in the world, have over and over used this liberty of changing their gov- ernment as they saw occasion, and that often with very good success, is undeniable. Were it unlawful for a state in any case to depose and remove kings, what titles have anymon- archs now upon oath to their crowns, that are descended of those who were elected into the room of such as the peopla deposed?" SIR HENRY VANE. 301 People's Case Stated." At the commence- ment of it, he lays down, in language which bears no evidence of wildness or impatience of just restraint, the following rules : " The end of all government being for the good and wel- fare, and not for the destruction of the ruled, God, who is the institutor of government, as he is pleased to ordain the office of governors, in- trusting them with power to command the just and reasonable things which his own law com- mands, that carry their own evidence to com- mon reason and sense, at least that do not evi- dently contradict it, so he grants a liberty to the subjects, or those that by him are put un- der the rule, to refuse all such commands as are contrary to his law, or to the judgment of common reason and sense, whose trial he al- lows, by way of assent or dissent, before the commands of the ruler shall be binding or put in execution ; and this in a co-ordinacy of power with just government, and as the due balance thereof; /or," he adds, in words of deepest truth and significance, " the original impressions of just laws are in man's nature, and very constitution of being:" From the foregoing proposition, a condition of government is then established thus : " God doth allow and confer by the very law of nature, upon the community or body of the people, that are related to and concerned in the right of government placed over them, the liberty, by their common vote or suffrage duly given, to be assenters or dissenters thereunto, and to affirm and make stable, or disallow and render ineffectual, what shall apparently be found by them to be for the good or hurt of that society, whose welfare, next under the justice of God's commands and his glory, is the supreme lav/ and very end of all subordinate governing power. Sovereign power, then, comes from God, as its proper root, but the restraint or en- largement of it, in its execution over such a body, is founded in the common consent of that body. The office of chief ruler, or head over any state, commonwealth, or kingdom, hath the right of due obedience from the people insepar- ably annexed to it. It is an office not only of divine institution, but for the safety and pro-* tection of the whole body or community, and therefore justly and necessarily draws to it, and engages their subjection." The logical force of this passage is only equalled by its philo- sophic sobriety. Subsequently he carries out his premises into the following eloquent state- ment of the proper source of the best form of government, in which, it will be seen, the char- acter of his religious opinions, as I have en- deavoured to describe them, receives very stri- king illustration. " The highest judgment and will set up by God for angels and men, in their particular beings, to hold proportion with, and bear conformity unto (in the capacity of ruled, in re- lation to their chief ruler), shines forth in the person of Christ, the ingrafted Word ; and when, by the agreement or common consent of a na- tion or state, there is such a constitution and form of administration pitched upon as in a standing and ordinary way may derive and con- vey the nearest and greatest likeness in human laws, or acts of such a constitution, unto the judgment and will of the supreme legislator, as the rule and declared duty for every one in that society to observe, it is thereby that gov- ernment or supreme power comes to receive being in a nation or state, and is brought into exercise according to God's ordinance and di- vine institution. So, then, it is not so much the form of the administration as the thing administer- ed, wherein the good or evil of government doth consist ; that is to say, a greater likeness or un- likeness unto the judgment and will of the high- est Being, in all the acts or laws flowing from the fundamental constitution of the govern- ment." The legal restraints placed for these objects on the office of king are then clearly stated, after which Vane adds : " The contrary here- unto was the principle at bottom of the king's cause, which he endeavoured to uphold and maintain, in order to decline and lay aside the legal restraints as aforesaid, which the gov- ernment of England, by the fundamental Con- stitution, is subjected unto, as to the exercise and ministry of the royal office. From the ob- servation and experience which the people of England had, and made many years together, by their representatives in Parliament, of a de- sire in the king to shake off these legal re- straints in the exercise of the regal power, and on their having tried the best ways and means that occurred to their understandings to pre- vent the same, and to secure to themselves the enjoyment of their just rights and liberty, they at last pitched upon the desiring from the king the continuance of the sitting of the Parlia- ment called November 3, 1640, in such sort as is expressed in that act, 17 Car., wherein it is provided, ' that it shall not be discontinued or dissolved but by act of Parliament.' " This act, however, he proceeds to argue, did not in itself dissolve their allegiance, or give the people back their original right to erect a new govern- ment, until after, all reasonable efforts failing, war had been resorted to, and the decision given : " Such appeal answered, and the issue decided by battle, the people's delegates still sitting, and keeping together in their collective body, may of right, and according to reason, refuse the readmission or new admission of the ex- ercise of the former rulers, or any new rulers again over the whole body, till there be receiv- ed satisfaction for the former wrongs done, the expense and hazard of the war, and security for the time to come that the like be not committed again. Until this be obtained, they are bound in duty, in such manner as they judge most fit, to provide for the present government of the whole body, that the common weal receive no detriment."* He admits the sacredness of an oath of allegiance to a sovereign, and argues, with great force and eloquence, that it is only an utter abuse of the kingly trust that can re- * In another work he expresses the same doctrine thus : " All contrarient actings against the prince are not to be accounted a resisting of the power, especially when the whole state is concerned, and the business is managed by public trustees, called and authorized by law, as conservers of th state, and defenders of the public liberties and laws thereof. In such a public capacity, to stand in the gap when a breach is made, and hinder any charge or at- tempt that would ruinate the state, is duty. In such case, they ought to withstand and hinder the violent proceedings of any, either by way of justice in a legal trial, or by force ; for the prince is not master of the state, but only a guardian and defender thereof from injuries and evil." Treatise on Government. 303 BRITISH STATESMEN. lieve the subject from it ; but he will be utterly relieved in that case, he adds, " especially if, together with such breach of trust, both parties appeal to God, and put it upon the issue of bat- tle, and God give the decision ; and in conse- quence thereof, that original right be asserted, and possession thereof had and held for some years, and then not rightfully lost, but treacher- ously betrayed and given up by those in whom no power was rightfully placed." These, then, are the " dark designs" of Vane : this is the wild and visionary enthusiast ! He sought to achieve for the English people, for us, his posterity, the blessings of a government re- sponsible to the governed, the basis of which was to be security for person and property, and perfect and uncontrollable freedom in all matters appertaining to the conscience and in- tellect. Failing of this object in that day under a monarchical form, he struck for a republic. This was his only crime the sum of his " dark designs." But, alas ! for one person among the good citizens of London, at the close of the civil war, who could think with Vane, there were fifty who preferred to think, on these particular points, with Clarendon. The Presbyterians had once more rallied in this stronghold of their power. They clamoured for a Presbyterian settlement. They seemed to have altogether forgotten such things as a reform of political institutions, or an establishment of public rights and liberties. A petition had been secretly got up by the Presbyterians in the name of the city,* and was now carried into Parliament, praying for strict religious conformity, for subscription to the Covenant, and for the dissolution of the army. It was only preliminary to a more decisive movement on the part of the Presbyterians. The reduction of the army to a peace estab- lishment was proposed in the House of Com- mons on the 9th of February. The dismantling of the garrisons in England and Wales, with the exception of forty-five ; and the reduction of the army, after draughts of horse and foot for the service of Ireland, to about 5000 horse, to maintain public tranquillity, and the force of in- fantry required for the reserved garrisons, were carried after earnest and long debate, in which Vane used all his influence and eloquence against the motion, and carried, too, without due provision for arrears of pay. It was voted, also, that no member of Parliament should have a military command ; that there should be no officer of higher rank than that of colonel, with the exception of Fairfax ; and that every of- ficer should take the Covenant, and conform to the Presbyterian ordinance in religion : in other words, all security for the triumphs that had been won for the people were recklessly voted away, and the people's bravest soldiers, Cromwell, Ireton, Ludlow, Algernon Sidney, Skippon, Blake, and Hutchinson, were insolent- * A very memorable counter-petition was subsequently set afloat by the Independents, demanding some startling- reforms, which exhibited revolution and Republicanism un- masked. It remonstrated against the payment of tithes, the hardships of enforced religious conformity, the insolent con- tumely with which Presbyterians designated those who would not conform to the Presbytery ; the mischief of the House of Lords ; and was addressed to the supreme author- ity of the nation in the Commons' House of Parliament. Hist, from Mackintosh. ly dismissed from their service. Fairfax him- self was only retained on a division by 159 to 147. Mr. Godwin has, at this passage of history, given way to no inappropriate strain of melan- choly enthusiasm. " Here," he says, " we have a striking illustration of the uncertainty and versatility of human affairs. Cromwell, Ireton, St. John, and Vane were four of the ablest statesmen that ever figured upon the theatre of any nation. They were engaged to the meas- ures they undertook by the strongest motives that could animate and excite the heart of man. They, and they only, had been principally con- cerned in conducting an arduous war to a suc- cessful termination. Other men had felt deeply and fought nobly ; but it was they who created the army by which the victory was secured. Finding their influence not sufficiently triumph- ant in the House of Commons, they had recur- red to the admirable expedient of setting on foot new elections for those places in England which, in the lapse of years, and by the events of a civil war, were found unrepresented ; and this measure had, for a time, answered every purpose to them that their fondest wishes could have anticipated. Their adversaries were men of ordinary capacities ; Hollis and Sir Philip Stapleton, the nominal leaders of the Presby- terians, would probably never have been heard of in history had they lived in a more tranquil period. Yet all these advantages possessed by the heads of the Independent party proved fleeting and illusory. The very circumstance of the great success and superlative talents of these men had a tendency to render them ob- jects of jealousy to coarse and vulgar minds. Hollis says, Though the greater part of the new members came into the House with as much prejudice as possible against us, yet, when they came to sit there themselves, and see with their own eyes the carriage of things, this made them change their minds, and many of them to confess and acknowledge that they had been abused.' Such is the almost unavoid- able course of things in modern times, and among what is called a sober people. The men of the last four centuries in civilized Europe have been found capable of being strongly ex- cited, and susceptible of a tone of fervour and enthusiasm. But this is to them an unnatural state, and they speedily subside into their con- stitutional quietude. There are but few of us that can even image to ourselves an excitement and elevation that, as in the instances of Greece and Rome, lasted for centuries. Talk to the men of later times of sobriety and moderation, and they will soon show that they prefer that lore to the sublimer style of heroism and virtue, of self-sacrifice and expansive affections. We are sons of the fog and the mist. The damp and flagging element in which we breathe be- comes part of ourselves : we turn speculative men and calculators : timorous prudence and low circumspection fix their stamp on all we do. ' Our charity begins at home,' and fixes its attention emphatically on our own interests or our own firesides. We dare not mount, at least from the impulse of feeling, into an ethe- real region, lest we should break our necks with the fall. To men formed in this mould, the representation of such persons as Hollis and SIR HENRY VANE. 303 Stapleton, the moderate party,' as they loved to denominate themselves, are almost sure to prove irresistible."* Vane's position was that of the greatest dif- ficulty. He felt that he must now throw his party upon the great body of the army for sup- port, to a more absolute degree than he had contemplated hitherto. It will be worth while, before proceeding farther, to show what char- acter of men these soldiers were. Whitelocke describes thus the troops raised by Cromwell : " He had a brave regiment of horse of his countrymen, most of them freeholders and free- holders' sons, and who, upon matter of con- science, engaged in this quarrel ; and thus, being well armed within by the satisfaction of their own consciences, and without by good iron arms, they would as one man stand firmly and fight desperately." Baxter says of them in his life : " At his first entrance into the wars he had a special care to get religious men into his troop : these were of greater understanding than common soldiers, and therefore more ap- prehensive of the importance and consequence of the war ; and making, not money, but that which they took for the public felicity, to be their end, they were the more engaged to be valiant. They therefore proved such that, as far as I could learn, they never once ran away before an enemy." The fiercely Royalist Bates, in his " Elenchus Motuum," speaks of them thus : " Cromwell invited all the honest men (as he was pleased to call them) to take on with him. Wherefore Independents, Anabaptists, and the sink of fanatics, came flocking to him, who, in the beginning, were unskilful both in handling their arms and managing their horses. But he used them daily to look after, feed, and dress their horses, and, when it was needful, to lie together with them on the ground. He besides taught them to clean, and keep their arms bright, and ready for service ; to choose the best armour, and arm themselves to the best advantage. Trained up in this kind of military exercise, they excelled all their fellow- soldiers in feats of war, and obtained more vic- tories over their enemies." " And these men," observes another Royalist, Sir Philip Warwick, " habited more to spiritual pride than carnal riot and intemperance, so consequently, having been industrious and active in their former call- ings and professions, where natural courage wanted, zeal supplied its place. At first they chose rather to die than fly ; and custom re- moved the fear of danger." Of themselves, in a petition to the Parliament, these men had spoken thus : " We were not a mere mercenary army, hired to serve any arbitrary power of a state, but were called forth and conjured, by the several declarations of Parliament, to the de- fence of our own and the people's just rights and liberties. To these ends in judgment and conscience we took up arms ; and we are re- solved to assert and vindicate these rights against all arbitrary power, and all particular parties and interests whatsoever."! And last- * Godwin, Hist, of Com., ii., 218-221. t In another petition, demanding payment of the arrears attempted to be withheld by the Presbyterians, these men say, " We hope that by being soldiers we have not lost the capacity of subjects that in purchasing the freedom of our brethren we have not lost our own." They assert the jus- tice of their demand of the payment of arrears to themselves ly, when it was proposed to disband these very forces immediately after the restoration, Lord Clarendon, who could speak the truth only when the truth answered his purpose, spoke of them and their exploits in these words : " His majesty consents to the measure. Yet, let me tell you, no other prince in Europe would be willing to disband such an army ; an army to which victory is entailed, and which, humanly speaking, could hardly fail of conquest whither- soever he should lead it ; an army whose order and discipline, whose sobriety and manners, whose courage and success, have made it fa- mous and terrible over the world."* It was no common army, this : it was a band of men who had taken up arms for a great pub- lic cause, and who had a right to some influ- ence, and that not inconsiderable, in the right direction of the victories won by their own val- our for the security of their own homes. In this view, it is certain that Vane now counte- nanced the seizure of the king by Joyce, and Fairfax's march to London for the purpose of overawing the Presbyterians. Hitherto he had no distrust of Cromwell. The exertions of that great soldier in this crisis had been all Repub- lican in their tendency, since in favouring, or at least not resisting, the organization of the agitators and other military councils, he was raising up the very worst instrument of despo- tism an armed and enthusiastic democracy. The disgraceful London riots in favour of the Presbyterians completed the sorry work set on foot by that party, and determined Vane's last scruples. He took the opportunity of removing with several other members, and the speakers of both Houses, to Fairfax's camp at Hounslow, and as he afterward rode with that general along the line of the troops, was hailed and cheered with enthusiasm. A few days after, Vane and Fairfax, the two speakers, with the other seceding members, met at Holland House, Kensington, and proceeded to Westminster, where the Presbyterians, feeling themselves once more defeated by a consummate stroke of policy on the part of their adversaries, while a melancholy and mischievous effort had been made by themselves, were unprepared to offer any farther present resistance. In Hyde Park they received even the congratulations of the lord-mayor and aldermen, and at Charing Cross the common council stood ready to receive them ! Colonel Hammond's regiment of foot, and Rich's and Cromwell's regiment of horse, led the procession, which was closed by Tom- linson's regiment of horse. On the following day the whole army, with its artillery, marched through London, " but in so civil and orderly a manner that not the least offence or prejudice was expressed by them towards any man, either in words, action, or gesture." The procession had no sooner reached Palace Yard than Fair- fax alighted and retired into a private house, while the Lords and Commons proceeded to their respective places of assembly. Manches- ter and Lenthall took the chair in each House ; and the proceedings commenced with a report not as "mercenaries whose end was gain," but as men " who had abandoned their estates, trades, callings, and the contentments of a quiet life, for the perils and fatigues of war in defence of the public liberty." * In the History of the Commonwealth, ii., 152-155, the reader will find this subject treated. 304 BRITISH STATESMEN. from the commissioners of the Parliament, ap- pointed to reside with the army (that in the House of Commons was made by Vane), of the transactions of the last preceding days. Fair- fax was then successively introduced into each House, and received their thanks for what he had done. He was, at the same time, by their joint vote, made Constable of the Tower of London.* The king's ill-judged flight from Hampton Court once moVe altered the position of affairs. The first treaty at the Isle of Wight, and the treachery of Charles with the Scots commis- sioners, will be more appropriately glanced at in the memoir of Henry Marten. The day after the Parliamentary commissioners returned, the celebrated vote of non-addresses was passed, equivalent to a resolution for the settlement of the kingdom without farther recourse to the king. The events which followed, and had the effect of lifting up the Presbyterians once more ; the riots in the various English counties, and the advance and defeat of the Scotch army ; the famous petitions and proposals of Fairfax and his officers, will also have fitter illustration in the notice of Marten's important participation in these measures. Vane seems to have held himself as much as possible in the position of being able, at a crisis, to negotiate between the Commons and the army, secure that his party in the House would once more feel ascendency and power upon the final crushing of the " sec- ond civil war." The personal treaty at the Isle of Wight was now arranged ; Vane was appointed one of the chief commissioners, and represented the In- dependent or (now) Republican party. Hollis and others represented the Presbyterians. Sev- eral peers attached to the Parliament were also present, and Charles was attended by forty-two friends and advisers. The interviews and de- bates were spun out from the 18th of Septem- ber to the 27th of November, 1648. In the course of them Charles showed much ability, and Vane, who had, as he says, " believed him to be a very weak person," took occasion to acknowledge " that he had been deceived," for that he had found him " a man of great parts and abilities."! Such a feeling would be nat- urally apt to overrate itself by comparison with a previous unjust impression. The result of the treaty was a concession of the militia by Charles, with the secret reserva- tion to retract it ;J but he afterward took his stand upon two points : a claim for " the divine institution of the bishops," and for indemnity to all his friends. Hollis and the other Pres- byterians implored him on their knees, with tears in their eyes, to concede these also. He refused. " The truth is," says Clarendon, de- scribing the treaty, " there were among the commissioners many who had been carried with the violence of the stream, and would be glad of those concessions which the king would very cheerfully have granted, an act of indemnity and oblivion being what they were principally concerned in ; and of all the rest, who were more passionate for the militia and against the Church, there was no man, except Sir Harry * Hist, of Com., ii., 386-7. Rushworth. Whitelocke. t Sir Edward Walker, p. 312. t Hist, from Mackintosh, vi., 105. Vane, who did not desire that a peace might be established by that treaty ; for as all the other lords desired, in their own natures and affec- tions, no more than that their transgressions might never more be called to remembrance, so the Lord Say himself (who was as proud of his quality, and of being distinguished from other men by his title, as any man alive) well foresaw what would become of his peerage if the treaty proved ineffectual, and the army should make their own model of the government they would submit to (as undoubtedly they resolved shortly to do), and therefore he did all he could to work upon the king to yield to what was proposed to him, and afterward, upon the Parliament, to be content with what his majesty had yielded." It was well for the men who preferred their titles to their country to argue thus, but the younger Sir Henry Vane remained to the last, " among the faithless, faithful." Charles had again thought of escape and of revenge when he rejected the kneeling and weeping Presbyterians : the army now seized his person once more, and closed his hopes on that head forever. Meanwhile, a terrible re- monstrance, calling for justice on him as " the capital source of all grievances," had been car- ried into the House of Commons, where the Presbyterian majority, again mustering, strove to parry it by successive remonstrances. The army, upon this, sent in a more determined dec- laration, that unless justice were suffered to prevail, they would purge the House, and put a stop to the treaty. At this crisis, the first of December, 1648, the commissioners from the Isle of Wight reported Charles's answers, and Hollis moved that they should be declared sat- isfactory. To the astonishment of Vane, Fien- nes supported that motion, but the extract from Clarendon respecting Fiennes's father, Lord Say, explains the marvel.* The debate lasted one day, and its farther consideration was ad- journed to the next by a majority of 133 to 102. Vane saw that the crisis he had striven so long to avert had arrived at last, and he prepared himself for one great and final effort to sur- mount it. The speech he delivered on the re- sumption of the debate on the second day is un- fortunately only left to us in the equivocal pages of Clarendon. That it must have been very masterly, however, we can discern even there, and we discern in it, also, the first frank and resolute statement of the question as be- tween monarchy and a republic. " Young Sir Harry Vane," says Clarendon, " had begun the debate with the highest inso- lence and provocation, telling them ' that they should that day know and discover who were their friends and who were their foes, or, that he might speak more plainly, who were the king's party in the House and who were for the people ;' and so proceeded with his usual grave bitter- ness against the person of the king and the gov- ernment that had been too long settled ; put them in mind ' that they had been diverted from their old settled resolution and declaration that they would make no more addresses to the king, after which the kingdom had been gov- erned in great peace, and begun to taste the sweet of that republican government which they had in- * This was first pointed out in the History from Mackin- tosh, in reply to the doubts of Godwin and Lingard. SIR HENRY VANE. 305 tended and begun to establish, when, by a com- bination between the city of London and an ill- affected party in Scotland, with some small, contemptible insurrections in England, all which were fomented by the city, the Houses had, by clamour and noise, been induced and compelled to reverse their former votes and resolution, and enter into a personal treaty with the king, with whom they had not been able to prevail, notwithstanding the low condition he was in, to give them any security ; but he had still re- served a power in himself, or at least to his posterity, to exercise as tyrannical a govern- ment as he had done ; that all the insurrections which had so terrified them were now totally subdued, and the principal authors and abettors of them in custody, and ready to be brought to justice, if they pleased to direct and appoint it ; that their enemies in Scotland were reduced, and that kingdom entirely devoted to a firm and good correspondence with their brethren, the Parliament, of England, so that there was no- thing wanting but their own consent and resolu- tion to make themselves the happiest nation and people in the world ; and to that purpose de- sired that they might, without any more loss of time, return to their former resolution of making no more addresses to the king, but pro- ceed to the settling the government without him, and to the severe punishment of those who had disturbed their peace and quiet, in such an exemplary manner as might terrify all other men for the future from making the like bold attempts, which, he told them, they might see would be most grateful to their army, which had merited so much from them, by the re- monstrance they had so lately published.' This discourse appeared to be exceedingly disliked by that kind of murmur which usually shows how the House stands inclined, and by which men make their judgments there of the success that is like to be."* Some members seconded Vane with a hearty concurrence, among them Wroth, Wentworth, and Prideaux. It was urged on the other side by Prynne that the Parliament was overawed by the army, and the question should be postponed. Another adjournment took place, and the de- bate was resumed next morning with increased vehemence. Six Monarchists and twelve Re- publicans are named as having spoken. The Presbyterians, not venturing to persist in a vote that the king's answers were satisfactory, modified it into a resolution that they afforded " a ground for the House to proceed to the set- tlement of the peace of the kingdom." Prynne delivered a speech of several hours in the af- firmative, with, by his own account, wonder- ful effect. It was carried on a division by a majority of 140 to 104. The Lords readily con- curred, and Vane's last hope of preventing a grosser injustice was forever gone.t The House was purged of the Presbyterian majority on the following morning by Colonel Pride. That proceeding will be found described in the memoir of Marten. Vane alone, among all the Independents and Republicans, refused to share in a triumph obtained by such means. He had held a high sense of the claims of the army to be allowed to throw the Weight of their * Vol. vi., p. 199-201. t History from Mackintosh, vi., 109. QQ opinions into the scale at a moment like the present, and while the state was itself in pro- cess of revolution ; he had done his best in aid- ing them when on former occasions they had subdued the strength of the Presbyterians by the inspiration of a just terror ; but this forci- ble exclusion of members, this absolute intro- duction of the sword into the House of Com- mons, the scene of his best exertions for the people in the past, and the source of his best hopes for the people in the future, appeared fraught with a danger surpassing every other. He took the resolution at once to retire from public life. He could not oppose those with whom he had hitherto acted in such close union ; he knew not whether even now their motives might not be as pure as he held their conduct to be mistaken ; but* in any case, he could never lend to the act of lawless force they had committed the sanction of his character and name. He retired to Raby,* and took no farther part in public life till after the execu- tion of the king.f It is a profound proof of Vane's political sa- gacity that he disapproved the policy of that great act. Upon the question of its abstract justice he never delivered an opinion. He left his private retirement, and again joined his old friends and associates^ on the 26th of February, 1649. He had been most earnestly entreated to this step by Cromwell, and, it is likely, accepted that entreaty as a pledge of the purity of intention with which it was designed to frame and carry out the gov- ernment of the Commonwealth. Nor was the request Cromwell's alone, though his still su- perior influence with Vane was the instrument to procure compliance. There was no leading man of the party that did not hold the sanction,, of the most eminent Republican statesman to be the essential element of their new republic^ or that would not have considered the outline of proceedings sketched hitherto^ void and * This castle had suffered in the wars, for the Royalists made several attacks on it, in compliment, it might be sup- posed, to its owner. Whitelocke describes one of them: " The king's forces from Bolton Castle surprised Raby Cas- tle, belonging to Sir Henry Vane, but were again; close blocked up by forces raised by Sir George Vane." (July 7, 1645, p. 151.) t The extraordinary incidents which filled up this inter- val are detailed and discussed in the Life of Marten. t The omission of all mention of Vane's father, the elder Vane, still alive and: taking a feeble part in public affairs with the men of the Commonwealth, must not surprise the reader. He sank into a cipher beside the splendid talents of his son. It is seldom that one family has borne twin, names of eminence in it. But the truth was, that old Vane was only fit for such service as he performed under Charles he was barely tolerated among the Independents for his son's sake. I) All those proceedings are described in the Life of MaT- ten. " The truth is, this honourable gentleman, having ab- sented himself from the Parliament upon that great change and alteration of a/fairs in the year 1648, Lieutenant-gen- eral Cromwell, who sat upon the trial of the king, and en- couraged the commissioners of the high court of justice to. proceed to sentence, it being the general vote and desire of the army that the king should be put to death, wa impor- tunate with this gentleman, and used many arguments to persuade him to sit again in Parliament and in the council: of state, and did at length prevail with him to come in."' So writes Vane's friend Stubbe, in his answer to the calum- nies of Baxter.. Stubbe was one of the most eminent schol- ars of that or any other period, and was indebted for th first development of his talents to the regard and liberality of Vane. Another passage in his vindication of Vane from the attacks of Baxter is worth giving, us illustrating th contempt with which one of the "best abused" men of his time, which Vane certainly was, could afford, in the couV 306 BRITISH STATESMEN. blank, had he refused to fill it up with the au- thority of his presence, his counsel, his name ; and yet, notwithstanding all this, it was with much difficulty, and in the result of many argu- ments, that Cromwell prevailed with him to accede. He had been elected, long before his consent was ascertained, among the first mem- bers of the council of state, but he did not present himself till the 26th of February, nine days after all the council had been installed. A difficulty then occurred. On the day on which the instructions to the council of state had been voted, an engagement was drawn up and adopted, to be taken by each counsellor previ- ously to his admission, the purport of which was to express his approbation of all that had been done in the king's trial, in the abolishing of kingship, and the taking away the House of Lords and this oath was now presented to Vane. He refused to take it. He did not ap- prove, he said, of what had been done in the king's trial or the king's death. No compro- mise could meet the difficulty. An entirely new oath was eventually drawn up, for the satisfaction of Sir Henry Vane.* The first measure we find traces of, after Vane's adhesion to the Commonwealth, is the issue of several new writs to the House of Commons. I may mention that, before his ad- hesion, the first public act of the council of state had been to recommend to Parliament to vacate the appointment of the Earl of Warwick (objectionable as a Presbyterian) to the office of lord-admiral. A bill had, in consequence, been brought in and passed, for repealing Lord Warwick's ordinance, and vesting the power of lord-admiral in the council of state. The next day another act was made, appointing Robert Blako, Edward Popham, and Richard Dean to the command of the fleet, each of whom afterward made his name familiar and eminent on the seas. Finally, on the 12th of March, a committee of three was named by the council to carry on the affairs of the admiralty dence of his character and virtue, to pass unnoticed all his wretched slanderers. I may mention that one of the ten thousand doggerel libels against him is preserved as a spe- cimen in the Appendix (C) at the end of this article. " I presume," says Stubbe to Baxter, "he looks upon it as be- low him, and his great and weighty employments, to write anything in his own vindication : he hath other business to look after, and not to spend his time about the passionate and rash scribblmgs of every biased and engaged person ; and therefore I think it not amiss, having more leisure and opportunity, not so much from any private or personal re- spect which I bear to him, as my love to the Commonwealth and public interest of these nations, which is owned and asserted by him upon just and honest principles, to clear up the innocency of that worthy knight, and to vindicate him, though without his privity and knowledge, from your lies and aspersions." * In his speech on his trial he told this to his judges: " When that great violation of privileges happened to the Parliament, so as by force of arms several members thereof were debarred coming into the House and keeping their seats there, this made me forbear to come to the Parlia- ment for the space of ten weeks, to wit, from the 3d of De- cember, 1648, till towards the middle of February following, or to meddle in any public transactions ; and during that time the matter most obvious to exception, in way of alter- ation of the government, did happen. I can, therefore, truly say, that as I had neither consent nor vote, at first, in the resolutions of the Houses, concerning the non-addresses to his late majesty, so neither had I, in the least,, any consent in, or approbation to, his death ; but, on the contrary., when required by the Parliament to take an oath, to give my ap- probation, ex post facto, to what was done, I utterly re- fused, and would not accept of sitting in the council of state npon those terms, but occasioned a new oath to be drawn wherein that was omitted." and navy, and Sir Henry Vane was placed at their head : Wauton and Rowland Wilson were the other members of the committee. Thus, in the administrative genius, the vigour, and the capacity of Vane in the heroic courage, wonderful knowledge, and splendid virtues of Blake was laid the foundation of a naval su- premacy for England which she had not seen since Elizabeth's days. Bradshaw was elected president of the coun- cil on the 10th of March. Three days latter, Milton, the kinsman of Bradshaw, was made secretary to the council for foreign tongues, which office had been held by Weckerlin under the committee of both kingdoms. " It is im- possible," observes Mr. Godwin, " to consider these appointments without great respect. They laid the foundation for the illustrious figure which was made by the Commonwealth of England during the succeeding years. The admirable state of the navy is in a great degree to be ascribed to the superlative talents and eminent public virtue of Vane. The naval com- manders were such as can scarcely be equalled in any age or country. The attachment of Mil- ton is equivalent to volumes in commendation of Bradshaw. The perfect friendship of these three men, Milton, Bradshaw, and Vane, is, in itself considered, a glory to the island that gave them birth. The council, we are told, took up a resolution that they would neither write to other states, nor receive answers, but in the tongue which was common to all, and fittest to record great things, the subject of future his- tory. And they fixed on Milton, the language of whose state papers is full of energy and wis- dom, and must have impressed foreign states with a high opinion of the government from which they came. The character of the great poet of England frequently discovers itself in these productions, without detracting in the smallest degree from the graveness and sobriety which the occasions and the rank of the nation in whose name they were written demanded. On the other hand, Milton, who felt as deeply as any man that his proper destination was the quiet and sequestered paths of literature, con- ceived that he could not decline a public station when the demand came to him from such men, and was that he should devote himself to the service of that scheme of a republic which above all earthly things he loved."* The next question that came to be consider- ed in the council of state was, beyond every other question, the most important and the most difficult. It related to the dismission of the present Parliament and the summoning of another. No popular or representative gov- ernment can be said to exist without success- ive Parliaments, and the present House of Commons had sat for a period unheard of in our history, though fully warranted by the crit- ical circumstances of the time. The passages I have quoted from Vane's statement of the " Case of the People," show most clearly, as it appears to me, that the act declaring that this Parliament could not be dissolved but by their own consent, was the corner-stone of all their public services, and of all the liberty that has since existed in this island. The Legislature that had been guided in their original measures * HiitTof Com., in., 33. SIR HENRY VANE. 307 by Pym and Hampden, and that, after their early decease, had been worthily, and in an eminent degree in their spirit, conducted by their successors, is perhaps, all things consid- ered, " the most illustrious assembly whose acts are recorded in the history of the world." They had now completed all that originally they undertook. "They had conquered the determined enemy of Parliaments ; they had finished the civil war ; they had destroyed des- potism, for he that had grasped the sceptre was no more, and his family, and even the idea of government to be vested in the hands of a sin- gle person, was publicly proscribed. All that remained to complete their glory was for them to put an end to their authority, and tranquilly to deliver up their power into the hands of their successors." And this, as it appears to me, would not only have completed their glory, but, in all human probability, assured the Commonwealth's safe- ty. In such peculiar cases, in the circumstan- ces of such a change in the form of the govern- ment accomplished, be it observed, and not mere- ly struggling to its accomplishment, as we have recently seen it more would have been gained by trusting the people than by distrusting them.* It is right, at the same time, to listen to what the ablest advocates of the course they adopted have to say in its favour. " Monarchy," says Mr. Godwin, " was at an end ; the House of Lords was extinguished ; it had been solemnly decreed that the Commons of England in Par- liament assembled were the supreme authority. But all was yet in a state of convulsion and uncertainty. The tempest might be said to be over, but the atmosphere was loaded with threatening clouds, and the waves swelled this way and that with no unequivocal tokens of uneasiness and turbulence. This was the task that it fell to the present possessors of the le- gislative power to perform : to produce that calm, to adopt all those preliminary measures which might enable the present Parliament safely to deliver up the reins of political power to the next. They had advanced far to this end. They had erected a council of state, which comprised in its body much of what was most extraordinary in talents, and most un- questionable in public spirit and disinterested virtue, that was to be found in the nation."! "The great statesmen," Mr. Godwin contin- ues, " who guided the vessel of the Common- wealth at this time had established a republic without king or House of Lords, the only gov- ernment in their opinion worthy of the alle- giance and support of men arrived at the full use of their understanding. They felt in them- selves the talent and the energies to conduct this government with success. They wished to endow it with character, and gain for it re- spect. Having shown their countrymen prac- tically what a republic was, they proposed to deliver it pure, and without reserve, into their hands, to dispose of as they pleased. This was their project. The present state of England was of a memorable sort. The great mass of the community, through all its orders, was now, * Was it not proved afterward that this would have been the correct course, by the independent and spirited tone as- turned even in the Parliaments summoned by the usurper? They are glanced at in the memoir of Marten. t Hist, of Com., iii., 108. particularly after the able and successful ad- ministration of the Commonwealth in its first six months, content to submit, at least for the present, to the existing government. But prob- ably not more than a third part of the nation were sincere adherents to the Commonwealth's men and the Independents ; the other two thirds consisted of Royalists and Presbyterians. Both of these, however disposed for a time to rest on their arms, were but so much the more exasperated against their successful rivals. Both these latter parties were for a monarchy, to be established in the line of the house of Stuart. Both were averse to the endurance of any religious system but their own. Stubbe, the protege and intimate friend of Vane, says, the supporters of intolerance were five parts in seven of the inhabitants of England. The ob- jects of Vane and Cromwell were the admin- istration of a state without the intervention of a sovereign and a court, and the free and full toleration of all modes of religious worship and opinion. They would have held themselves criminal to all future ages if they supinely suf- fered the present state of things and the pres- ent operative principles to pass away, if they could be preserved. Cromwell, and Ireton, and Vane, and the rest, were intimately persuaded that, by a judicious course of proceeding, these advantages might be preserved. If things were allowed to continue in their present state, and if, by a skilful and judicious administration, the Commonwealth came by just degrees to be re- spected both abroad and at home, they believed that many of those persons who now looked upon it with an unkind and jealous eye would become its warmest friends. They felt ia themselves the ability and the virtue to effect this great purpose. The Commonwealth was now viewed with eyes askance and with feel- ings of coldness, if not of aversion ; but when once it was seen that this form of government was pregnant with blessings innumerable, that it afforded security, wealth, and a liberal treat- ment to all in its own borders, and that it suc- ceeded in putting down the hostility of Ireland and Scotland, in impressing with awe Holland, France, Spain, and the various nations of the Continent, and in gaining for England a charac- ter and a respect which she had never possess- ed under any of her kings, they believed that the whole of the people, in a manner, would become Commonwealth's men, and would hold embraced in the straitest bonds of affection a government to which now they had little par- tiality. They sanguinely anticipated that they should effect all this ; and then how glorious would be the consummation to convert their countrymen to the cause of freedom by benefits and honours, to instil into them the knowledge of their true interests by the powerful criterion of experience, and finally to deliver to them the undiminished and inestimable privileges of free- men, saying, " Exercise them boldly and with- out fear, for you are worthy to possess them."* Such, no doubt, was the process of reason- ing with the purest and loftiest minded of those men the Vanes, the Martens, the Sidneys, the Ludlows, the Iretons, the Bradshaws : it may well be disputed in the case of Cromwell ; but, admitting all this, it would seem, nevertheless, * Hist, of Com., ii., 118, 119. 308 BRITISH STATESMEN. to have been a grand mistake to suppose that any lasting beneficial impression could have been produced in the minds of the people by merely administrative talents or glories, how- ever great or triumphant. What the people wanted in the new form of government to lay its foundation deeper in their hearts, was what Vane has- so ably pointed out in the political writings I have quoted, new institutions found- ed on the principles of the old. Granting the truth of what Mr. Godwin urges, it amounts to this, in fact, that the only present guarantee of the new Commonwealth rested in the army. Where, then, was the guarantee for the virtue or fidelity of the army 1 To themselves alone, or to men who had achieved influence over them, were they accountable. Remarkable as the circumstances were which widely distin- guished them from the character of ordinary soldiers, it is yet certain that, when they found themselves the guardians of a Commonwealth in which all things were unsettled, and in which that very power which was more than ever necessary, in such a state of government, to hold together the elements of order and of liberty the power and the authority of the people was altogether excluded, the tempta- tion was too great for men of much more than ordinary virtue. " Qui gardera les gardiens ?" There is much reason to believe, in my opin- ion, that Vane was overruled upon this ques- tion, and that he afterward, for that reason, desponded of immediate success in the achieve- ment of the great part of the Republican de- sign.* Some of his speeches in Richard Crom- well's Parliament will, I think, throw some light on this, and an extract from his friend Sikes's tribute may be urged in illustration of it ; but these claim a place hereafter. One thing is quite certain, that Vane exhibited a perpetual uneasiness respecting the dissolution of the Parliament ; was constantly mooting it in some form or other ; and, as soon as he detected the traitorous design of Cromwell, distinguished himself by a memorable effort to secure those * " This prophet or seer of God, in the midst of the great- est successes in the late war, when the churches, Parlia- ment, and army reckoned their work done, thought their mountain so strong that they should never be moved, said the bitterness of death and persecution is over, and that nothing remained but (with those self-confident Corinthians) to be reigning as kings, he discovered himself to be of an- other spirit, with Paul he could not reign with them. When they thus mused and spake, ' We shall sit as a queen, we shall know no more sorrow,' he would be continually foretelling the overflowing of the finer mystical Babylon by the most grossly idolatrous Babylon, and the slaying of the true witnesses of Christ between them both, as the conse- quence of such inundation. Has not he had his share in the accomplishment of his own prediction ? Have not they, by their pride, apostacy, and treachery, been the occasion of his and their own sufferings, who would not believe him when he prophesied of such a suffering season. Have not floods of Belial judges, counsellors, witnesses, jurors, sol- diers of Belial, compassed him about 1 Did Scripture, law, or reason signify anything with them ? So the waters went over his soul ; they took away his life from the earth. Yea, the rage and violence of brutish men followed him close at the heels, to his very execution stroke. But however it was with him as to a certain foresight of particular events, yet that he could conjecture and spell out the most reserved consults and secret drifts of foreign councils against us (which they reckoned as tacita, concealed till executed), the Hollander did experience to their cost." So says Sikes in his extraordinary pamphlet, and, reduced to the ordinary language, it seems to me to express something like the feel- ing alluded to in the text. The closing allusion is to that power immortalized by Milton as having been possessed to an eminent degree by Vane of unfolding " the drift of hol- low states hard to be ipelled." rights for the people that had been so long, and, as he then at last perceived, so fatally delayed. The steps that were taken to strengthen the present House may be shortly described. The first of May is the day on which we trace the earliest mention of the subject in the journals. It was then determined that the business re- specting due elections and equal representatives should be taken into consideration on the third day following. It was mentioned again on the fourth and the fifth, and on the eleventh was revived in the shape of a debate on the ques- tion of putting a period to the present Parlia- ment, which was referred to a grand commit- tee, or committee of the whole House. This question appears to have originated with Vane ; he was chairman of all committees named re- specting it. The committee of the whole House sat on the fifteenth, and prepared a resolution, which was immediately after voted by the House, that, previously to the naming a cer- tain time for the dissolution of Parliament, a consideration should be had of the succession of future Parliaments, and the regulating their elections. This consideration was referred to a committee, consisting of Vane, Ireton, Scot, Nathaniel Rich, Algernon Sidney, and four oth- ers, who were to present to the House heads proper for their deliberation in determining on the subject. They were directed to sit every Monday and Friday. It is remarkable to no- tice the frequent mention of the sittings of this committee recorded in the journals, and the never-failing presence of Vane. The tempora- ry arrangement which dispensed with a disso- lution for the present had not dispensed with the sittings of this committee. That temporary arrangement was at last ef- fected thus : The exact numbers of the House were first ascertained. It had been determined by the act of the first of February that no per- son should be admitted to sit and vote as a member of the Legislature till he had declared his dissent from the vote of the fifth of Decem- ber, that the king's answers to the propositions were a ground to proceed on for the settlement of the kingdom. The number of those who on that day voted for the negative was eighty- three. But every member was now required to enter his dissent ; and by a careful collation of the journals, it appears that the number of these, between the twentieth of December and the thirtieth of June following, could not be less than one hundred and fifty.* There were only six writs issued during this period, and these were in the room of members deceased. The ninth of June may be considered as the day on which the government first manifested its in- tention of continuing the existence of the pres- ent Parliament. On that day it was resolved that such members of the House as had not sat since the beginning of December should state their cases by the last day of the present month to the committee for absent members, which if they neglected to do, writs should then issue for new elections in the place of those who should so neglect. The question of any far- ther new writs in the room of members deceas- ed appears to have been laid aside. The first year of the Commonwealth closed with Cromwell's reduction of the rebellion in * Hist, of Com., HI., 121. SIR HENRY VANE. 309 Ireland after terrible slaughter, and with the trial and acquittal of the notorious Lilhurne on a charge of treason against the government. Vane again took his seat in the second year's council of state. The historian of the Com- monwealth thus notices the gradual construc- tion of the naval administration over which the great statesman presided : " The committee of the admiralty and navy was first named on the 12th of March, twenty-three days from the ori- ginal instalment of the council of state, and then onsisted of only three persons, Vane, Valentine Wauton, and Alderman Rowland Wilson. Two others, Jones and Scot, were added in the course of the month, and two more, Purefoy and Stapeley, on the 6th of June. Vane was all along the principal person in the care of the navy of England : when the war broke out between the Dutch and the Eng- lish, he and two or three more were appointed commissioners to conduct it ; and to his activ- ity and skill contemporary writers principally ascribe the memorable success in which that contest issued. The committee of the admi- ralty in the second year were Vane, Wauton, Jones, Scot, Purefoy, Stapeley, the Earl of Salisbury, Lord Grey of Groby, Alexander Pop- ham, and Robert Wallop." Alderman Rowland Wilson (of whom Whitelocke says, " He was a gentleman of excellent parts and great piety, of a solid, sober temper and judgment, and very honest and just in all his actions, beloved both in the House, the city, and the army, and by all that knew him, and his death as much lament- ed") had died immediately before. In the excellence of an administrative sys- tem, nothing could surpass the arrangements of the Commonwealth. They again renewed this year five other committees in the council of state for the ordnance, Ireland, private ex- aminations, the laws, and negotiations with for- eign powers. These committees all varied in their amount, being from seven to ten or twelve members each, and the same counsellor of state being often on different committees.* Immense advantages accrued from this methodical distri- bution of the business of administration. The council at large, whose order-books are pre- served, assembled for the general affairs of government, and to them, in the first instance, were confided the powers of the state. But these different committees, when they sat apart, had their attention directed, without distrac- tion, to the special business for which they had been n-amed, and either prepared matters for the guidance and decision of the council in gen- eral, or, as appears from the articles of instruc- tions to the council, being of a certain assigned number, were authorized and empowered to give directions immediately, as from them- selves, in the departments consigned to their care.t Meanwhile young Charles Stuart was in the field against the Commonwealth in Scotland, and Fairfax had accepted the chief command of the expedition against him, when his wife * We find the name of Vane in almost all the various ad- ministrative measures of the time. And it is interesting to observe him engaged, among other things, on the measure which had last occupied the great mind of Pym. " Re- ferred," says one of VVhitelocke's notes, p. 392, " to a com- mittee to prepare an act upon Sir Henry Vane's report touching- the excise." t Hist, of Com., iii., 181. prevailed with him to resign it. By this fatal weakness Cromwell was left without a rival in the absolute command of the army, and he at once marched, "in glory and in joy," to his great Scotch campaign. The battle of Wor- cester afterward crowned his triumphs, and settled, for the present, the safety of the Com- monwealth from foreign foes. But with the opening of this second campaign by Cromwell,* Vane had manifested his suspi- cion of her danger from a more terrible treason. We observe it in the restless movements that were again resumed in the House of Commons, on the question of dissolution and a new House. We have seen that on the 15th of May, 1649, a committee had been appointed to take the subject into consideration. It consisted of Vane, Ireton, Scot, Algernon Sidney, and five other persons, among whom Vane had placed his father. Its first report, however, was not brought in till the 9th of January of the follow- ing year, some change having in the mean time taken place in the members of which it was constituted, and Ireton being on service in Ire- land. On that day " Henry Vane the younger" introduced it, and its first proposition appears to have coincided with the suggestion of the Agreement of the People, tendered by the gen- eral council of the army twelve months before, that the representation of the people of Eng- land should consist of 400 members, though with a distribution to the counties, and the towns within them, somewhat different. It re- ferred the succession of Parliaments, and the qualifications of the electors and elected, to fu- ture consideration, and recommended that all members now sitting in Parliament should be counted in the next Parliament as representa- tives for the places for which they at present sat. The first proposition, that the represent- atives should be in number 400, was voted by Parliament on the day that the report was brought up. The rest was deferred ; and Vane seems to have pressed with great anxiety for its completion, but without effect. He had consented to the provision for the continuance of the present members in the House as in some sort a necessary compromise in the ne- cessities of the case, to enable the original achievers and founders of the Commonwealth to deliver into the hands of the new represent- atives such a statement as they alone could give of their motives and reasons for the late memorable actions, and to report themselves, no less than their cause, aright to the unsat- isfied ; but still the dissolution was delayed. * Mr. Godwin, always too partial to the motives of Crom- well, 'lates his own suspicion of the intentions of the usurp- er at a somewhat later date. " It was only," he observes, "by slow degrees that he came to entertain those ambi- tious thoughts that in the sequel proved fatal to his own character and the welfare of his country. But they found entrance ; and imperceptibly they proceeded to undermine the pillars of integrity and honesty in his bosom He saw himself without a competitor. He had no equal. He began to disdain and despise those with whom he had hitherto acted. Incomparably the man of the highest genius he now met in the council-chamber at Whitehall was Sir Henry Vane. But what was Vane ? He was wholly unfit to com- mand an army. He did not possess that most glittering and striking of human accomplishments, to look through whole files and squadrons of athletic, well formed, and well armed men, and inspire them at once with confidence, submission, and awe, and make them move as if they had only one soul, and march at his word unflinching, even to the cannou'i mouth." iii., 218, 219. 310 BRITISH STATESMEN. Again the committee resumed its sittings, and through this and the following year would seem to have met upward of fifty times. Still no- thing decisive was done. At last Vane pro- cured the passing of a resolution that the sub- ject should be again discussed in the House on the 24th of September, 1651. Cromwell had arrived meanwhile from the tri- umphant field of Worcester, " brooding strange thoughts by the way."* Finding matters in the House of Commons brought to this crisis by Vane, he seems at once to have decided on practising one of his profoundest arts of decep- tion. He professed broadly his concurrence in the measure proposed, and announced his ear- nest desire for a new Parliament and a popular representation ! Whether Vane was in any way moved by this to forego his suspicions, does not with any certainty appear. The debate took place on the day appointed, and on the 25th the House voted, upon a divis- ion, Cromwell and Scot being tellers for the majority, that a bill should be brought in for fixing a certain time for closing the present Parliament and calling another ; and it was referred to Saint John, Whitelocke, Lisle, Pri- deaux, Say, Miles Corbet, and eight others, to prepare the bill. Next day the names of Vane, Cromwell, Marten, and Salway were added to this committee ; and it was ordered that all that came should have voices in their decisions. On the 1st of October it was directed that this committee should sit every afternoon till the bill was ready. At the expiration of one week the bill was brought in and read a first time, and, two days after, a second time. It was then committed to a committee of the whole House, which was ordered to sit daily from the 14th to the 28th. The committee sat with few interruptions till the 4th of November. On that day it was directed that a new chairman should take the chair ; and on the 12th it was found necessary that the sergeant-at-arms should go into Westminster Hall and summon the members, as well judges as others, to at- tend the House for the farther consideration of the bill. On the 13th the House was desired to examine the question, whether it be now a convenient time to fix the period at which the sittings of the present Parliament should cease ; and on .the 14th it was decided that this was a proper time. This decision was not adopted without two divisions, the first of fifty to forty- six, and the second of forty-nine to forty-seven ; Cromwell and Saint John being in each instance tellers for the majority. On the 18th it was voted without a division that the period should be the 3d of November, 1654.t The conquest of Scotland now led to the in- corporation of that country with the English Legislature. A union was devised on large and liberal terms, and the genius of Vane, ex- erted with such effect in Scotland on a previous most memorable occasion, was thought essen- tial to .the successful achievement of the meas- ure. He at once consented to proceed to Scot- land as one of the commissioners for the settle- ment of the union. It was a trying time for * " That man would make himself our king !" said Hugh Peters, who saw him on the road. t I ascertain these various divisions from Godwin's His- tory of the Com., p. 305, 306. such a duty ; but his country never required his services in vain. "It marks,' 1 says Mr. Godwin, " the generous and unsuspicious mind of Vane, who consented to go upon a journey to Scotland for certainly not less than two months, and to leave the military party with- out his personal opposition during that term. We may also infer from this fact the slow, de- liberate, and cautious procedure of Cromwell. Vane would scarcely have engaged in this transaction, and have withdrawn himself for so long a time from the metropolis, if Crom- well and he had not been seemingly on terms of friendship." The instructions to the commissioners were finally given on the 18th of December. They reached Scotland in the course of the following month, and opened their proceedings at Dal- keith, six miles from Edinburgh. Their pur* pose was to summon deputies from the differ- ent shires and boroughs of Scotland to meet them, and declare their assent to the proposed union. They sat during the greater part of January and the whole of February, and on the 1st of March they sent up Vane and another of the commissioners to report to Parliament the progress they had made, from whose statement it appeared that twenty shires and thirty-five boroughs had already assented to the union.* In consequence of this report the act of union was brought in, and read a first and a second time on the 13th of April. In a very remarka- ble speech in the Parliament of Richard Crom- well (reported in the recently published Diary, by Burton), in which Vane argued most sub- tilely for the exclusion of the Scotch nominees or members who would have turned the ma- jority against the Republicans, he stated that this act of union, in so far as it related to rep- resentation, had never been duly perfected. I insert the speech here, both as illustrative of his share in this famous transaction, and of those sound philosophical views of the neces- sity of " laying foundations" in matters of gov- ernment which we have been doomed to see defeated in these first years of the Common- wealth. " This gentleman's discourse about the union has called me up. I shall represent the true state of that union. Admitting the premises agreed by the whole House, I shall deny the conclusion that it is right, convenient, or pos- sible to admit them to a right, either in law or fact, to sit here. " Those that you sent to treat had their great aim to settlement and peace, and to lay aside all animosities. The difference arose about imposing a king upon us. We conquered them, and gave them the fruit of our conquest in ma- king them free denizens with us." He read the declaratory part, and acknowl- edged that to be the union, and stated the prog- ress of it. " It is the interest of this nation to own and countenance that union. None of my argu- ments shall weaken it. The ordinance for union relates to this declaration. It was thus brought back again by your members from Scot- land, that there should be one Parliament, by successive representatives. This is your union, and, when opened, none will deny it. To the Godwin, Hist, of Com., in., 320. SIR HENRY VANE. 311 completing of this, accordingly, commissioners attended the Parliament. We agreed then the number to be thirty-five to represent Scotland. The Parliament accepted the result from our and their commissioners. A bill was prepared to pass if that Parliament had not been broken up. In that respect, the public faith of the na- tion was much concerned to promote it. He that will deny it, departs from the very cause we have managed. " It is to be confessed, the union was per- fected in the time of last Parliament. It only wanted the last hand, which should have chan- ged the constitution of Parliament. There was no foundation in law in the Long Parliament to receive them from Scotland or Ireland till we had settled our own Constitution. The com- mittees that came from Scotland did not sit here, but only treated with your committee. " You must vary your own Constitution, as well to make you fit to receive them as for them to come, and therefore I moved that the writs be read. It was the true meaning of the petition and advice to distribute it so, by redu- cing their own number, to give place for Scot- land and Ireland. This the Long Parliament were about to do, to reduce themselves from 500 to 400. This was not done that Parlia- ment. I told you the reason. But this was done, by the providence of God, by the instru- ment of government a new Constitution, which reduced our own Constitution suitable to that for Scotland and Ireland and accordingly the Parliament in 54 and 56 sat. This was re- served to be done by the petition and advice, but prevented also by the providence of God. It was left to no person to declare it, but singly as that Parliament should declare. That was left imperfected. '' It is one thing for us to be united and in- corporated, another thing to be equally repre- sented in Parliament by a right constitution. There is a great difference. As soon as you are a representative of that Commonwealth, then must the thirty be called, and not before. " There being a failure in the petition and advice as to the distribution, they were fain to have recourse to the common law and the old statutes. There being no act of Parliament for another distribution, they were forced to call you as we left it in 1648. " Now the single question is, whether, by the Act of Union, any right was created to any one ehire or borough of Scotland. If they send them, you cannot receive them without over- turning your own foundation. Your being thus called upon the old bottom, when no law was afoot to call Scotland or Ireland, your commis- sion is clear ; otherwise they were brought hither upon you, that if you will see it, you may ; if you will not, you may let it pass. " I think you are bound in duty and conveni- ence to perfect this union, both as to the dis- tribution and all other defects. " I assert two things, which I would gladly have answered : 1. That those gentlemen that are chosen from those shires or boroughs have no right to sit as members of the representa- tive of England, either by statute, common law, or agreement. 2. That there is no possibility of receiving them till you agree, by act of Par- liament, on the distribution, and other things. To say the chief magistrate may do it is ex- pressly against the petition and advice. He cannot do it, it being neither in law, state, nor in the commission. " Durham had as much a possessory right ; why was not his oath broken as well in that as in this 1 Haply, he knew more what the peo- ple of Durham would say when they were ap- plied to. " Honestly and uprightly make it your first bu- siness to settle your own Constitution. It is said you go slowly on. Whose is the fault 1 If no new commission had been sent out, you might have gone on to have done a great deal of good. This is an imposing upon you. " I would have this to be your first business to lay foundations . Obstructions in the fount- ain are dangerous : that body cannot live. There is no remedy but to do that by law which cannot possibly be done without it. The single person may as well send one hundred as thirty, and all for one place, and so rule your debates as he pleases. This is the highest breach that can, be. Where are you, or posterity, upon the account of prudence ? You see how the state of your af- fairs is abroad how the Swede is, since your mighty debate. France and Spain are very likely speedily to agree ! " It is an ill time for any man to assume to rule without a Parliament. In this juncture of time, I believe the Protector does not know the state of this business. If any counsel him to the contrary, it will fall heavy upon them. I hope you will not call it an excrementitious formality : it is the very essence and being of your privilege. "Put the question, whether they have by law a right to sit, and that they may withdraw. If they do not, it is against the law of nature and nations to deny it. If they have no right by law to sit, none will insist upon it that they ought to continue." The commencement of hostilities with Hol- land furnished a great occasion for the display of the genius of Vane in affairs of government. It had already shone forth in the pre-eminent success of his naval administration in the mat- ter of Prince Rupert's expedition, and left for- eign nations, repeating the names of Vane and Blake, to wonder wherein lay the secret of English success, whether in the genius of the council-chamber of the Commonwealth, or the bravery of her sons upon the waves. During a portion of the Dutch war, Vane was not only at the head of naval affairs, but also president of the council, and his exertions were almost incredible.* When the war began, the * " The next branch of his public usefulness, in a politi- cal capacity, was his most happy dexterity at making; the best of a war. Armies are to small purpose abroad unless there be sage counsel at home. He heartily laboured to prevent a war with Holland,. but the sons of Zerviah, a mil- itary party (that too much turned war into a trade), were too many for him in that point. He therefore set himself to make the best of a war for his country's defence. In this war, after some dubious tights (while the immediate care of the fleet was in other. hands), he, with five others, wera appointed by the Parliament to attend that affair. Here- upon he became the happy and speedy contriver of that successful fleet that did our work in a very critical season, when the Hollander vapoured upon our seas, took prizes at pleasure, hovered about our ports, and was ready to spoil all. His report to the House as to the war-ships by him recruited, ordered, and sent forth in so little time, to find the enemy work, seemed a thing incredible." The forego- ing is the testimony of Sikes, an unimpeachable witness. BRITISH STATESMEN. Dutch were lords of the ocean. " They were in the full vigour of their strength, and had nev- er yet, by sea, felt the breath of a calamity. They looked with contempt and impatience on the proud style the Commonwealth had assu- med. Our navy was comparatively nothing: theirs covered the ocean with their sails." Before the war had concluded, the united pow- ers of Vane and Blake had nevertheless struck down the pride of the United Provinces, and conferred on their beloved country that glori- ous title of mistress of the seas, which, to the present day, she has so gloriously maintained. A temporary reverse, which was deeply felt at the time, only served to set off more brill- iantly the subsequent exertions of Vane, and the success which crowned them. Blake, with only thirty-seven ships under his immediate command, had encountered Van Tromp in the Downs with a fleet of eighty sail, on the 29th of November, 1652. The fleet of the English admiral, imperfect as it was in number, was not even in proper fighting order ; but it was Blake's grand creed* that the English flag should never decline the challenge of an enemy, what- ever his advantages ; and the advice of his of- ficers, it is said, coinciding with his own, de- termined him to engage. The battle was fought with the utmost gallantry on both sides for about five hours, when night came on, and en- abled Blake to abandon the fight and escape into harbour with the loss of two ships, and others in a shattered state. Blake's ship was the most forward and fiercely engaged, and he was himself wounded. t The victorious Dutch- man, drunk with his triumph, afterward para- ded his fleet up and down the English Channel, with a broom fixed to his masthead, in derision of having swept the English navy from the sea. For this he was soon punished by the unpar- alleled efforts of Vane. The difficulty was a disastrous one at the moment, but his energies rose to the occasion. On the 29th the battle bad been fought. Not many days after, Vane reported the navy estimates to the House, and it was at once resolved that 40,000 per month should be devoted to the navy. The next and most difficult point was to raise the revenue to meet such an appropriation ; but Vane's energy and capacity surmounted it. He brought in a bill, and had it at once read a first and second time, to sell Windsor Park, Hampton Court, Hyde Park, the Royal Park at Greenwich, En- field Castle, and Somerset House, the proceeds of the whole to be for the use of the navy. In the beginning of February, Blake was put to sea by Vane with eighty ships of war, and soon fell in with Tromp, at the head of a squadron of equal size, convoying 200 merchantmen. A 'battle commenced on the 18th of February, off the Isle of Portland, which, for the weight of .the armaments engaged, the determined bra- very of the combatants, the length of time du- ring which it lasted, and the brilliancy of its .results, far transcended every previous naval * Another noble article in Blake's creed may be recorded "here, in contrast to the conduct of Cromwell. He was the -etanchest of Republicans ; but it is recorded of him that, on receiving the news of the dispersion of the Long Parlia- ment, he at ouce issued an order to the men of the fleet that their duty as seamen was to defend their country against 'foreign enemies, and not to meddle with political affairs. t ilist. from Mackintosh, vi., 168. action on record, and has never, perhaps, been since surpassed. It was fought and renewed through three successive days, and at the end of the third day Blake conquered. He captured or destroyed eleven ships of war and thirty merchantmen, slew 2000 men, and took 1500 prisoners. His own ships suffered severe- ly, but only one was sunk, and after her crew had been brought away ; but his number slain is stated as nearly equal to that of his enemy. Thus splendidly did Vane and Blake close the battles of that Republican Commonwealth whose own termination was now near at hand. Vane and Cromwell were at last on the eve of an open rupture. Before it is described, an interesting circum- stance claims our notice. During the progress of Vane's brilliant administration of the gov- ernment, Milton had addressed to him his fa- mous sonnet ; and at the same time, as if with the view of composing those fatal differences between them, which threatened the state with calamity, by showing how the glories of each might be celebrated by the same impartial pen, the divine poet forwarded another and not less famous sonnet to Cromwell. That to Vane was first published in Sikes's book ; and it is a singular circumstance that it escaped the no- tice of the first editors of Milton, and was only subsequently included in his poems. It had been sent privately to Vane, who furnished the copy to Sikes. I present it precisely as it was first printed, and with the commentary I have already referred to. " The character of this deceased statesman," says Sikes, " I shall exhibit to you in a paper of verses, composed by a learned gentleman, and sent him July 3, 1652. ' VANE, young in years, but in sage council old, Than whom a better senator ne'er held The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repell'd The fierce Eperiot, and the African bold. ' Whether to settle peace or to unfold The drift of hollow states, hard to be spell'd, Then to advise how war may, best upheld, Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, ' In all her equipage : besides to know Both spiritual power and civil, what each means, What severs each, thou hast leam'd, which few have done, The bounds of either sword to thee we owe ; Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.' " The latter part of this sufferer's elegy in the above mentioned verses concerns his skill in distinguishing the two swords or powers, civil and spiritual, and the setting right bounds to each. He held that the magistrate ought to keep within the proper sphere of civil jurisdic- tion, and not intermeddle with men's conscien- ces, by way of imposition and force, in matters of religion and divine worship. In that healing question for which he was wounded by the late Protector (so called), he did sufficiently mani- fest this to be as well the magistrates' true in- terest as the people's just security. 'Tis ob- served by More and others, on various ac- counts, that the Roman emperors, owning and incorporating Christianity with the laws of the empire, strengthened the interest of the formal Christian, and drove the true spiritual wor- shipper into the wilderness. While magis- trates pretend, and, it may be, verily think they are doing Christ a high piece of service by such fawning and formal compliance, they are SIR HENRY VANE. 313 directly involved in the anti-Christian interes for the persecuting of Christ in his true spirit ual members. " This lover of his nation, and asserter of the just rights and liberties thereof unto his death, was also for limiting the civil power delegated by the people to their trustees in the supreme court of Parliament, or to any magis trates whatsoever. He held that there are certain fundamental rights and liberties of the nation, that carry such a universal and undeni- able consonancy with the light of nature, right reason, and the law of God, that they are in nowise to be abrogated or altered, but preserv- ed. What less than this can secure people's lives, liberties, and birthrights, declared in Magna Charta, and ratified by two-and-thirty Parliaments since 1 Let but once this truth be exploded and blown away, all the rights and liberties of the nation will soon go after it, and arbitrary domination and rapine may securely triumph over all. Deny that there are any fundamental irrepealable laws, and who can be secure as to life, liberty, or estate 1 For if, by an overruling stroke of abused prerogative, a majority in Parliament can be procured that will pull up all the ancient mischief by a new law, make reason and duty treason, and that postfactum too in this case, he that did things most rational and justifiable by unrepealed or irrepealable laws yesterday, may be condemned by a law made post factum, and executed to- morrow. By this means judges may be put into a most unhappy capacity of justifying the wicked and condemning the righteous, under colour of Parliamentary authority ; in both which things they are an abomination to the Lord." Vane was now using the same unparalleled exertions he had made for Blake, to avert the despotism of Cromwell. But Cromwell had completed all his plans, and was more than pre- pared for the opposition which " even his own beloved Vane" (as Clarendon expresses it) was organizing against him. It should be remark- ed that his motives for instant procedure had not been lessened by the measure Vane had in- cluded in his recent administrative plans, of the sale of Hampton Court, at that time in Crom- well's trust. Vane had also, as soon as Blake left for sea, procured a resolution of the House of Commons, appointing the 3d of November, 1653 (instead of the 3d of November, 1654, be- fore fixed on, as I have said), for the Parlia- ment's dissolution. Roger Williams, Vane's old friend of earlier years in his government of New-England, was staying at this time in Vane's country residence in Lincolnshire, and we find him writing over to his friends of New- England : " Here is great thoughts and prepar- ations for a new Parliament. Some of our friends are apt to think a new Parliament will favour us and our cause more than this has done."* Up to this moment, therefore, Vane would seem not to have despaired. Yet Cromwell's plans had left him not a single possibility of success. His instrument was the army, and his immediate agents the Republican officers. These officers had been first most thoroughly deceived ; and the silly simplicity of their en- * Baker's History of New-England, i., 287. R thusiasm appears to have deserved betrayal. They professed, and indeed felt, almost all of them, a rooted aversion to the government of a single person. Cromwell, therefore, had first to " convince them that Vane, and Bradshaw, and Marten, the great apostles of the Repub- lican school, and whom he had taught them be- fore to look upon with implicit reverence, were dishonest ;'' he had next to purge himself from the imputation of personal motives, and every alloy of the love of greatness and the love of power. All this he did ; and, as Mr. Godwin observes, " by degrees, by multiplied protesta- tions of the purity of his views and a self-de- nying temper, and by an apparent frankness, and the manifestations of a fervent zeal, he succeeded, and formed to himself a party as strong and as completely moulded to his sug- gestions and his will as the boldness of his pur- poses required." It appeared subsequently (and the circum- stance may possibly explain some of the diffi- culties of Vane's position in holding out the existence of the old Parliament so long) that Cromwell's plan had not always been that of a violent dissolution, but that, as far back as the preceding October, he had brought about vari- ous meetings between the officers of the army and certain members of the Parliament oppo- sed to Vane, for the purpose of convincing the latter of the necessity of putting a speedy end to their sittings. There were ten or twelve such meetings in all, and Cromwell's proposi- tion appears to have been that, the Parliament being dissolved, the government ad interim should be intrusted in the hands of a small number of persons of honour and integrity, and whose characters should be well known to the public. The number mentioned was forty. They were to supersede the council of state, and to consist of members of Parliament and officers of the army.* The secret object of this was to prepare the way for his own supremacy or kingship, by removing every existing legis- lative and executive body that had the appear- ance of being founded upon the customs and institutions of England. The proposed senate, or council of forty, would have been moulded in a manner agreeable to his wishes; or, at worst, he depended upon having a majority among them whom he could render subservient to his purposes. And all this the military Re- aublicans, saints of Democracy, and men of the Fifth Monarchy simply and gravely listened to, as auguring a blessed republic on the earth, while to these very men the wise and practical ounsels of Vane were denounced as visionary ! " Cromwell," says the historian of the Com- monwealth, " by calumnies, and the most in- idious suggestions, succeeded in alienating the major part of the army from the leaders of the Parliament. His first topic was, that they were talesmen who, without undergoing hardships and being exposed to dangers themselves, were willing to use the army as their tool, and felt no genuine interest in its prosperity and happi- ness. The next argument was, that these lazy nen, these ' baleful, unclean birds, perched as hey were at fortune's top,' divided all the good hings and the emoluments of the state among hem, totally insensible to the adversities and * Parl. Hist., ., 158. 314 BRITISH STATESMEN. privations which such a system inevitably en- tailed upon men of greater merit than them- selves. Vane he treated as an obscure vision- ary, whose speculations no man could under- stand, and who, while he pretended to superior sanctity and patriotism, had no bowels of com- passion for such as were not ready to engage themselves, heart and soul, in his projects. Others, agreeably to the austerity of the times, he exclaimed against as men of loose morals, and, therefore, unfit to be intrusted with the public safety. 'His own professed object was equality and a pure commonwealth, without a kingor permanent chief magistrateof any kind." All was now prepared for submission except the unquenchable resolution of Vane. On the 20th of April, 1653, he hurried down to the House of Commons, resolved to make a last effort to sustain the Republic. By his exer- tions within the last month, all the amendments from his report on the dissolution bill had al- ready been decided on in the successive sittings of the House, and all that now remained was the third reading, and that sanction of the Par- liament which should give the bill the force of a law. Vane, on his arrival in the House, at once rose, and vehemently urged the necessity of passing through these latter forms at once, imploring them, for the most pressing reasons, to hazard no farther delay. Upon this a debate arose, for Cromwell had instructed his myrmi- dons. Harrison spoke in remonstrance and ex- postulation, and was answered more warmly still. Meanwhile Cromwell and his military cabal were sitting in consultation at Whitehall. He had dismissed many who happened to be mem- bers of the House on the first announcement of its sitting, but still remained himself with a few others. At length Colonel Ingoldsby re- appeared from the House in violent haste and excitement, and told him that if he meant to do anything, he had no time to lose.* Cromwell hastily commanded a party of soldiers to be inarched round to the House of Commons, and, attended by Lambert and five or six other offi- cers, at once proceeded there himself. Some of the soldiers he stationed at the door and in the lobby, and led some files of musketeers to a situation just without the chamber where the members were seated. t " In plain black clothes, with gray worsted stockings," Cromwell quietly made his appear- ance on the floor of the House of Commons. Vane was urging passionately the necessity of proceeding to the last stage of the bill, with the omission of immaterial forms, such as the cere- mony of engrossing. Cromwell stood for a mo- ment, and then " sat down, as he used to do in an ordinary place." After a few minutes he beckoned Harrison. " Now is the time," he said ; " I must do it !" Harrison, doubtful, at the instant, of the effect of what Vane was urging, advised him to consider. " The work, sir," he added, "is very great and dangerous." "You say well," retorted Cromwell, hastily, and " sat still for another quarter of an hour." The question was now about to be put, when Cromwell suddenly rose, " nut off his hat, and spake." " At first," says Lord Leicester (on * Whitelocke, 539 ; Perfect Politician, 168. t Leicester's Journals, 192 ; Sidney Papers, by Blencowe. the information, no doubt, of Algernon Sidney), " and for a good while, he spake to the com- mendation of the Parliament for their pains and care of the public good; but afterward he chan- ged his style, told them of their injustice, delays of justice, self-interest, and other faults" in other words, he poured out, according to the re- ports of every one present, a vehement torrent of invective. Vane rose to remonstrate, when Cromwell, as if suddenly astonished himself at the extraordinary part he was playing, stopped and said, " You think, perhaps, that this is not Parliamentary language I know it '." Then, says Lord Leicester, "he put on his h at, went out of his place, and walked up and down the stage or floor in the midst of the House, with his hat on his head, and chid them soundly, looking sometimes, and pointing particularly upon some persons, as Sir R. Whitelocke, one of the com- missioners for the great seal, and Sir Henry Vane, to whom he gave very sharp language, though, he named them not, but by his gestures it was well known he meant them." One person, he said (aiming, Lord Leicester adds, at Vane), " might have prevented all this, but he was a juggler, and had not so much as common hon- esty. The Lord had done with him, however, and chosen honester and worthier instruments for carrying on his work." All this he spake, says Ludlow, "with so much passion and dis- composure, as if he had been distracted." Vane's voice was heard once more, and Sir Peter Wentworth and Marten seconded him. " Come, come," raved Cromwell, " I'll put an end to your prating. You are no Parliament. I'll put an end to your sitting. Begone ! Give way to honester men." The tyrant then stamped his foot very heav- ily upon the floor, the door opened, and he was surrounded by musketeers with their arms ready. "Then the general," says Lord Lei- cester, " pointing to the speaker in his chair, said to Harrison, ' Fetch him down !' Harri- son went to the speaker and spake to him to come down, but the speaker sat still and said nothing. ' Take him down !' said the general ; then Harrison went and pulled the speaker by the gown, and he came down. It happened that day that Algernon Sidney sat next to the speaker on the right hand. The general said to Harrison, ' Put him out !' Harrison spake to Sidney to go out, but he said he would not go out, and sat still. The general said again, ' Put him out !' then Harrison and Worsley (who commanded the general's own regiment of foot) put their hands upon Sidney's shoul- ders as if they would force him to go out. Then he rose and went towards the door. Then the general went to the table where the mace lay, which used to be carried before the speaker, and said, ' Take away these bawbles !' So the soldiers took away the mace."* Helpless in the midst of this extraordinary scene, the members had meanwhile been grad- ually withdrawing. As they passed Cromwell, he addressed the leading men with passionate bitterness. He accused Alderman Allen of embezzlement, and Whitelocke of gross injus- tice. He pointed to Challoner, and told his soldiers he was a drunkard ; he called after Sir Peter Wentworth that he was an adulterer; * Leicester's Journals, p. 140, 141. SIR HENRY VANE. 315 and as his old friend Harry Marten passed him, he asked if a whoremaster was fit to sit and govern. Vane passed him among the last, and as he did so, " said aloud, ' This is not honest ! Yea, it is against morality and common hon- esty !' " Cromwell stopped for an instant, as if to recollect what vice he could charge his great rival with, and then addressed to him, in a loud but troubled voice, the memorable words, " Sir Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane ! the Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane .'" He was now master. He " seized on the records, snatched the act of dissolution from the hand of the clerk," commanded the doors to be locked, and went away to Whitehall.* When Cromwell arrived that day at White- hall, he was the absolute dictator of three king- doms : when Vane reached his own home, he was once more a private man, with no author- ity in the state, with little fortunet left from what he had so generously devoted to his coun- try, with no remaining influence in the world save that of his genius and his virtue. Yet who would have chosen between them 1 This memorable Long Parliament had many glorious epitaphs written over it. * " It was thus," says Ludlow, " that Cromwell contrived to be rid of this Parliament, that had perform- ed such great things, having subdued their en- emies in England, Scotland, and Ireland ; es- tablished the liberty of the people ; reduced the kingdom of Portugal to such terms as they thought fit to grant ; maintained a war against the Dutch with that conduct and success, that it seemed now drawing to a happy conclusion ; recovered our reputation at sea ; secured our trade, and provided a powerful fleet for the service of the nation. And however the malice of their enemies may endeavour to deprive them of the glory which they justly merited, yet it will appear to unprejudiced posterity that they were a disinterested and impartial Parliament, who, though they had the sovereign power of the three nations in their hands for the space of ten or twelve years, did not in all that time give away among themselves so much as their forces spent in three months." " Thus it pleased God," says the cautious Whitelocke, " that this assembly, famous through the world * I have taken the various points in the foregoing account from very many authorities, all of them of the highest ve- racity. Whitelocke, Ludlow, Lord Leicester, The Perfect Politician, The Parliamentary History, and the Journals of the time. It will complete the curiosity and interest of the narrative to subjoin the " official" account of the incident published two or three days after in Cromwell's paper, the Mercurius Politicus : " Westminster, April 20. The lord- general delivered in Parliament divers reasons wherefore a present period should be put to the sitting of this Parlia- ment, and it was accordingly done, the speaker and the members all departing. The grounds of which proceedings will (it is probable) be shortly made public." t This circumstance has already been glanced at. Vane's estates had suffered in the civil war ; he had assisted the public treasury with various large sums ; he had refunded positive receipts from his office, and surrendered an income of 30,000 a year ! In point of fact, he was now a poor man he might have been the wealthiest of the wealthy. But let us hear Sikes : " Such were his abilities for despatch of a business if good, or hindering it if ill, that had his hand been as open to receive as others to offer in that kind, he might have treasured up silver as dust. Many hundreds per annum have been offered to some about him in case they could but prevail with him only not to appear against a pro- posal. On the least intimation of such a thing to him, he would conclude it to be some corrupt, self-interested de- sign, and set himself more vigilantly and industriously to oppose and quash it." for its undertakings, actions, and successes, having subdued all their enemies, were them- selves overthrown and ruined by their own ser- vants ; and those whom they had raised now pulled down their masters : an example never to be forgotten and scarcely to be paralleled in any story, by which all persons may be instruct- ed how uncertain and subject to change all worldly affairs are, and how apt to fall when we think them highest. All honest and pru- dent indifferent men were highly distasted at this unworthy action." "The Parliament," observes the accomplished Mrs. Hutchinson, " had now, by the blessing of God, restored the Commonwealth to a happy and plentiful condition ; and although the taxes were great, the people were rich and able to pay them ; they had some hundred thousand pounds in their purse, and were free from enemies in arms within and without, except the Dutch, whom they had beaten, and brought to seek peace upon honourable terms. And now they fell, because they thought "it was time to de- liver the people from their burdens, which could not be but by disbanding unnecessary of- ficers and soldiers." " When Van Tromp," says Algernon Sidney, " set upon Blake in Folkestone Bay, the Parliament had not above thirteen ships against threescore, and not a man that had ever seen any other fight at sea than between a merchant-ship' and a pirate, to oppose the best captain in the world ; but, such was the power of wisdom and integrity in those that sat at the helm, and their diligence in choosing men only for their merit was attend- ed with such success, that in two years our fleets grew to be as famous as our land-armies, and the reputation and power of our nation rose to a greater height than when we possess- ed the better half of France, and had the kings of France and Scotland for our prisoners." And these tributes may be closed with the words of one who had been a bitter and a scornful enemy. " Thus, by their own mer- cenary servants," exclaims Roger Coke, " and not a sword drawn in their defence, fell the haughty and victorious Rump, whose mighty actions will scarcely find belief in future gener- ations ; and, to say the truth, they were a race of men most indefatigable and industrious in business, always seeking for men fit for it, and never preferring any for favour nor by impor- tunity. You scarce ever heard of any revolt- ing from them ; no murmur or complaint of seamen or soldiers ; nor do I find that they ever pressed any in all their wars. And as they excelled in the management of civil af- fairs, so it must be owned they exercised in matteis ecclesiastic no such severities as either the Covenanters, or others before them, did upon such as dissented from them ; nor were they less forward in reforming the abuses of the common law." It is right, before following Vane to his re- tirement, to place the reader in possession of the exact question between Cromwell and that great statesman, which we have seen thus in- solently silenced by the application of brute force. This can only be done by stating the provisions of the bill on which Vane was con- tent to rest his case with the people and pos- terity. S16 BRITISH STATESMEN. But this bill was never afterward found ! Cromwell himself seized it from the hands of the clerk, and no copy of it remains upon rec- ord. By a careful examination of the journals, however, I have gathered sufficient information on the subject to leave no doubt of the general provisions of the bill,* or of the nature of many of its more important details. I have already mentioned that Vane was the author of the reports from the select commit- tee presented at various intervals to the House. Tracing these through the innumerable allu- sions, and votes, and divisions recorded con- cerning them in the journals, a tolerably com- plete abstract of it may be made. The number of representatives he fixed at 400. He recom- mended the abolition of the right of voting in the smallest boroughs, and proposed to throw the members into the larger counties ; to give seven members to London and the liberties thereof; and to give members to all the larger cities and towns in England theretofore unrep- resented. He presented to them the following list of the numbers of members to which he thought the counties of England and Wales, including the cities and boroughs within them, fairly entitled ; and he left the particular dis- tribution of members to each county, city, or borough, to the " pleasure of the House."t Bedfordshire, and all the pla- ces within the sa'me . 6 Buckinghamshire, &c. . 9 Berkshire, &c 6 Cornwall, <fcc 10 Cumberland, <fcc. ... 4 Cambridgeshire,. &c. . . 8 Cheshire, <fcc 5 Derbyshire, <fec. ... 5 Devonshire , <fec. ... 20 Dorsetshire, <tc. ... 8 Durham, ic 4 Essex, &c 14 Gloucestershire, &c. . . 8 Hertfordshire, <tc. . . 6 Herefordshire, <fec. . . 6 Huntingdonshire, &c. . 4 Kent. <fcc 18 Leicestershire, Arc. . . 6 Lincolnshire, <tc. ... 15 Lancashire, <tc. ... 12 Middlesex, <fcc. (except London) 6 London and the Liberties thereof 7 Norfolk, <fec 14 Northamptonshire, <fec. . 8 Northumberland, <fec. . 8 Nottinghamshire, and all the places within the same 6 Oxfordshire, &c. ... 6 Rutlandshire, &c. ... 2 Staffordshire, etc. . . 6 Salop, <kc 8 Surrey, <fec 7 Southamptonshire, &.C. . 13 Suffolk, <tc 16 Somersetshire, <tc. . . 14 Sussex, <fcc 14 Westmoreland, <fec. . . 3 Wiltshire, <fec 13 Warwickshire, &c. . . 7 Worcestershire, <Jcc. . . 7 Yorkshire, &c 24 Anglesey, &c 1 Brecknockshire, &c. . . 2 Cardiganshire, &c. . . 2 Carnarvonshire, <fec. . . 1 Denbighshire, &c. . . 2 Flintshire, <fec 1 Glamorganshire, <tc. . . 3 Merionethshire, <fec. . . 1 Monmouthshire, &c. . . 3 Montgomeryshire, <fcc. . 2 Pembrokeshire, <fec. . . 3 Radnorshire, Ac. ... 2 * Ludkro, in his Memoirs, supplies the following sketch, which is corroborative of the accuracy of what is stated in the text : " The act for putting a period to the Parliament was still before a committee of the whole House, who had made a considerable progress therein, having agreed upon a more equal distribution of the power of election throughout England. And whereas formerly some boroughs that had scarce a house upon them chose two members to be their representatives in Parliament (just as many as the greatest cities in England, London only excepted), and the single county of Cornwall elected forty-four, when Essex, and other counties bearing as great a share in the payment of taxes, sent no more than six or eight ; this unequal repre- sentation of the people the Parliament resolved to correct, and to permit only some of the principal cities and boroughs to choose, and that, for the most part, but one representa- tive, the city of London only excepted, which, on account of the great proportion of their contributions and taxes, were allowed to elect six. The rest of the 400, whereof the Par- liament was to consist (betides those that tervedfor Ireland and Scotland), were appointed to be chosen by the several counties, in as near a proportion as was possible to the sums charged upon them for the service of the state, and all men admitted to be electors who were worth 200 in lands, leases, or goods." ii., 435, 436. t It is right to state that these details were published by the present writer in some papers written during the dis- With respect to qualification, he suggested that the elective franchise in towns should be exercised by all housekeepers of a certain rental (which he left to the determination of the House), and with an earnestness rendered re- markable by events of our own day, while he pressed the necessity of extending the fran- chise in counties, he urged the danger of vest- ing it in those tenants whose tenure of estate sub' jected them to perpetual control. His plan was to give the right of voting in counties to all persons seised in an estate of freehold of lands, tenements, or other profits of the clear yearly value of~40*. ; all tenants in ancient demesne ; customary tenants ; and all copyholders of any estate of inheritance in possession, of the clear yearly value of 5 ; all tenants for life of an- cient demesne in possession, and all copyhold and customary tenants for life in possession of the clear yearly value of 5 ; all tenants in actual possession for the term of one-and-twenty years or more, in being, upon any lease granted, determinable upon life or lives, of the clear yearly value of 20 over and above the rent re- served or chargeable thereon ; and all tenants, for the term of one-and-ticcnty years or more, in being, in possession of the clear yearly value of 20 over and above any rent reserved or chargeable thereon. After explaining the various heads of his re- port, Vane moved "that they be referred to a grand committee of the House, to take into consideration and to prepare a bill to be pre- sented." The numerous sittings and delays that followed have been already described, and from the frequent divisions on the journals, some notion may be gathered of the nature of the points that came under sharpest discussion. The disfranchising and enfranchising clauses were debated at very considerable length, each town and county being put separately. One or two circumstances, taken almost at random from the journals during 1652, will intimate a startling resemblance between these debates and those of a later period. Many divisions are there recorded, which betoken hard strug- gles for condemned boroughs ; and we find that immediately after Plympton (so renowned in a certain famous schedule A.) had been consign- ed to destruction by a decisive division, the claims of Queenborough (also in that notable schedule) seem to have been stoutly debated ; for, on a division, the numbers were equal, and the half-convicted borough was suffered to con- tinue in existence only by the casting vote of the speaker. We may mention also that the proposal for uniting East and W T est Loo, in or- der to their sending one member, which was offered to and rejected by the Parliament of 1831, had been entertained and accepted by the Long Parliament. Of the enfranchising claus- es, we might refer for a specimen to the min- utes of one day's proceedings, which gave to Arundel, Honiton, and Reigate (all in schedule B.) the privilege of retaining one member, and to Penryn and Bury (in schedules D. and E.) the right of sending two members each. One circumstance farther is worthy of notice in thus slightly comparing the measures. The disas- cussion of the Reform Bill in 1831, and afterward repub- lished in the Times newspaper, then ably and earnestly adr vocating that measure. SIR HENRY VANE. 317 irons system of dividing the counties was in one instance, and in one instance only, adopted by the statesmen of the Long Parliament. On an amendment, and after long discussion, it was resolved that the members for the county of Yorkshire should be chosen separately, the elections for each riding to be made distinct. Here, however, in dividing a county already parcelled out in separate districts, none of the bad results so fairly to have been presumed, and since so deeply felt, from a general division of the counties, could be expected to accrue. Lastly, I may mention, that when Vane propo- sed to insert in the bill the county qualification clause already described, Cromwell defeated him in several divisions, and substituted a 200 qualification (real or personal) in its stead. Thus are established the popular claims of Sir Henry Vane the younger to the respect and admiration of posterity, in this his last Parlia- mentary struggle for the liberties of the Com- monwealth. One striking circumstance more in connexion with the subject should still be noticed. When Cromwell called his second and third Parliaments, he seems to have tried the experiment of the principal provisions of this famous bill. His " Instrument of Govern- ment" directed that a Parliament should be summoned once in every third year ; that all petty boroughs should be suppressed, and that the representation should be, as nearly as might be, proportioned to the amount of taxation. It fixed the number of English members at 400 ; of these, 261 were to be county members, be- sides six for London, two for the Isle of Ely, two for the Isle of Wight, and two each for Ex- eter, Plymouth, Colchester, Gloucester, Can- terbury, Leicester, Lincoln, Westminster, Nor- wich, Lynn, Yarmouth, Nottingham, Shrews- bury, Bristol, Taunton, Ipswich, Bury St. Ed- munds, Southwark, Coventry, New Sarum, Worcester, and York. It gave one each to the two Universities, and one each to all the towns and boroughs that were thought worthy to be represented, among which are Manchester, Leeds, Halifax, &c., and it fixed the amount of qualification at 200 of real or personal es- tate. And what was the result! The compi- lers of the Parliamentary History, no indiffer- ent friends to the cause of the Royalists, say that " this popular and equitable scheme had filled the House of Commons with so great a number of independent gentlemen of the best families and estates in the kingdom, that he (Cromwell) had no way to manage them but by excluding either by fraud or force those who were the true friends of the Constitution." And he scrupled not to do so. He dissolved the first of the new Parliaments because it pre- sumed to discuss the question, whether the government should be in a single person. He endeavoured strenuously, but in vain, to pack the second, by using various means to influence the elections ; and failing in that, excluded a hundred members by allowing none to enter without a certificate from the council of state. Such was the practical working of even an im- perfect copy of Vane's scheme. Whatever may be thought, then, of the mo- tives or policy of that statesman in deferring this measure, supposing, which is scarcely prob- able, that the delay was not beyond his con- trol, no doubt he fell gloriously in his unsuc- cessful struggle to achieve it at last. He was driven from the government of the Common- wealth by a traitorous usurper because he pro- posed to strengthen it with new institutions, and replenish its languid veins with the vigor- ous blood of the people. He carried with him into his retirement that glorious consolation. Some few days after the usurpation saw him quietly settled at Raby Castle. Here, or at his other seat of Belleau, in the county of Lincoln, with his family around him, he resumed the studies so inexpressibly dear to him, of learn- ing, philosophy, and religion, and waited pa- tiently for the firs.t fitting occasion of striking another stroke for the GOOD OLD CAUSE. Cromwell, meanwhile, drunk with power, was setting at naught the advice of his wisest counsellor. " Consider frequently," wrote Mil- ton to him, with noblest eloquence, and some- thing of poetic license, on his first assumption of the power, " consider in thy inmost thoughts how dear a pledge, from how dear a parent in- trusted (the gift liberty, the giver thy country), thou hast received into thy keeping. Revere the hope that is entertained of thee, the confi- dent expectation of England ; call to mind the features and the wounds of all the brave men who, under thy command, have contended for this inestimable prize ; call to mind the ashes and the image of those who fell in the bloody strife ; respect the apprehension and the dis- course that is held of us by foreign nations, how much it is they look for in the recollec- tion of our liberty, so bravely achieved, of our Commonwealth, so gloriously constructed ; which if it shall be in so short a time subvert- ed, nothing can be imagined more shameful and dishonourable ; last of all, revere thyself, so deeply bound, that that liberty, in securing which thou hast encountered such mighty hard- ships, and faced such fearful perils, shall, while in thy custody, neither be violated by thee, nor any way broken in upon by others. Recollect that thou thyself canst not be free unless we are so ; for it is fitly so provided in the nature of things, that he who conquers another's liberty, in the very act loses his own ; he becomes, and just- ly, the foremost slave. But, indeed, if thou, the patron of our liberty, should undermine the freedom which thou hadst but so lately built up, this would prove not only deadly and de- structive to thine own fame, but to the entire and universal cause of religion- and virtue. The very substance of piety and honour will be seen to have evaporated, and the most sa- cred ties and engagements will cease to have any value with our posterity ; than which a more grievous wound cannot be inflicted on human interests and happiness, since the fall of the first father of our race. Thou hast ta- ken on thyself a task which will probe thee to the very vitals, and disclose to the eyes of all how much is thy courage, thy firmness, and thy fortitude ; whether that piety, perseverance, moderation, and justice really exist in thee, in consideration of which we have believed that God hath given thee the supreme dignity over thy fellows. To govern three mighty states by thy counsels ; to recall the people from their corrupt institutions to a purer and a nobler dis- cipline ; to extend thy thoughts and send out 318 BRITISH STATESMEN. thy mind to our remotest shores ; to foresee all, and provide for all ; to shrink from no la- bour ; to trample under foot and tear to pieces all the snares of pleasure, and all the entan- gling seducements of wealth and power : these are matters so arduous, that, in comparison of them, the perils of war are but the sports of children. These will winnow thy faculties, and search thee to the very soul ; they require a man sustained by a strength that is more than human, and whose meditations and whose thoughts shall be in perpetual commerce with his Maker."* Cromwell had now decisively shown that he was not that man. He had already richly en- titled himself to the doom he had stirred against Charles the First ; for, like that unhappy prince, he had abruptly closed three Parliaments in succession because they threatened to thwart his will. " The splendid trust of foreign victories and supremacy which he had inherited from Vane's administration of the Commonwealth he indeed maintained, and the glories of his foreign administration served to conceal or patch over the ragged condition of his domes- tic government. In that government existed no single principle of stability. Plots and trea- sons shook it in every month of its existence, till at last, abandoning merely desultory acts of despotism, he was driven to organize a system of military inquisition (in his instructions to the major-generals) that should have the effect of superseding the conditions of civil government. Having accomplished this, he bethought him of getting together a more manageable Parlia- ment, and began to consider it possible that the nation, thoroughly discontented with military despotism, might possibly not be indisposed to listen to some compromise, involving the old institutions of kingship. Nothing could be at- tempted, at all events, without some shadow or form of a Parliament. Old habits were much, and the English people might still farther be de- ceived by a prudent conciliation on that score. Alas ! he was indeed teaching them all the while an indifference to the liberty they had suffered so much in achieving but not for himself the melancholy advantage ! England was at this time a scene of beggarly and disgraceful re- hearsal for the grand farce of the 29th of May, 1660. Cromwell's preparation for his present move in the game was very characteristic ; he pub- lished, on the 14th of March, 1656, a declara- tion, calling upon the people to observe a gen- eral fast, for the purpose of " applying them- selves to the Lord to discover the Achan who had so long obstructed the settlement of these distracted kingdoms." He had fixed his gloat- ing aspirations on a crown, and with admi- rable originality he therefore expressed the idea in this proclamation, that he and others associated with him in the government desired to humble themselves before God for their sins, and earnestly longed for light that they might discern their errors and faults, and therefore that it became them, with a spirit of lowliness, and mind open to conviction, to receive counsel and direction, in whatever methods Providence might adopt. Sir Henry Vane had hitherto kept aloof from * Defentio Secundapro Popalo Anglicano. public affairs, engaged in the studies I have named. In the interim he had published the " Retired Man's Meditations" (a quarto volume of 430 pages) already described and quoted from, and other works illustrative of his views in re- ligion and philosophy. With deep interest, in- deed, he watched the proceedings of the usurp- er,* but in all the conspiracies and consulta- tions of the disaffected he peremptorily refused to take part. Reason and public spirit were Aw weapons, and he left every other to the sim- ple "visionaries" and "enthusiasts" who, hav- ing stripped the Commonwealth and her great- est statesmen of their liberties to clothe Crom- well with them, now conceived the noble proj- ect of assassination by way of hastening that saints' reign which their idol had once promised them. The apples in that fool's paradise were sour at last. Now, however, Vane entered the field, after his nobler fashion, against the dictator of the Commonwealth. He wrote a political treatise, which he entitled " A Healing Question pro- pounded and resolved, upon Occasion of the late public and seasonable Call to Humiliation, in order to Love and Union among the honest Party, and with a Desire to apply Balm to the Wound before it become incurable. By Henry Vane, Knight." In this treatise he enforced his old doctrines of civil and religious liberty, and added some theories and recommendations concerning the construction of a civil govern- ment, the result, no doubt, of quiet and philo- sophical reflection on the occurrences of his political life, which are in the last degree stri- king and memorable. He here proposed, in fact, for the first time in the records of history, that expedient of organizing a government " on certain fundamentals not to be dispensed with," which was thought " visionary" and impracti- cable by the world till the world learned to ven- erate the name of Washington. Vane begins with a statement of the question thus : " The question propounded is, What pos- sibility doth yet remain (all things considered) of reconciling and uniting the dissenting judg- ments of honest men within the three nations, who still pretend to agree in the spirit, justice, and reason of the same GOOD CAUSE, and what is the means to effect this 1" Of that CAUSE he proceeds to say, that surely it " hath still the same goodness in it as ever, and is, or ought to be, as much in the hearts of all good people that have adhered to it ; it is not less to be val- ued now than when neither blood nor treasure were thought too dear to carry it out, and hold it up from sinking; and hath the same omnipo- tent God, whese great name is concerned in it, as well as his people's outward safety and wel- fare ; who knows also how to give a revival to it when secondary instruments and visible means fail or prove deceitful." And that the lat- ter had been proved, the writer added signifi- cantly, " It seemed as if God were pleased to stand still, and be as a looker-on" during the last three years, that is, during Cromwell's tyr- anny. * Clarendon not very accurately describes his conduct to have been, that he " retired quietly to his house in the country, poisoued the affections of his neighbours toward* the government, and lost nothing of his credit with the peo- ple, yet carried himself so warily that he did nothing to dis- turb the peace of the nation, or to give Cromwell any ad- vantage against him upon which to call him in question." SIR HENRY VANE. 319 In a subsequent passage this is more dis- tinctly stated, with all the dangers it was bring- ing the nation into, thus : " In the management of this war it pleased God, the righteous Judge (who was appealed to in the controversy), so to bless the counsel and forces of the persons concerned and engaged in this cause, as in the end to make them absolute and complete con- querors over their common enemy ; and by this means they had added unto the natural right which was in them before (and so declared by their representatives in Parliament assembled), the right of conquest, for the strengthening of their just claim to be governed by national councils, and successive representatives of their own election and setting up. This they once thought they had been- in possession of, when it was ratified, as it were, in the blood of the last king. But of late a great interruption having happened unto them in their former ex- pectations, and, instead thereof, something rising up that seems rather accommodated to the private and selfish interest of a particular part (in com- parison) than truly adequate to the common good and concern of the whole body engaged in this cause : hence it is that this compacted body is now falling asunder into many dissenting parts (a thing not unforeseen nor unhoped for by the common enemy all along as their last relief); and if these breaches be not timely healed, and the offences (before they take too deep root) removed, they will certainly work more to the advantage of the common enemy than any of their own unwearied endeavours and dangerous contrivances in foreign parts put altogether." Enlarging next on the universal advantages of liberty in civil and religious matters, Vane goes on to develop the method by which he thinks it might be secured to the people, and therein suggests the idea of a FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTION. He then directs the following vigorous passage against Cromwell : " The of- fence which causes such great thoughts of heart among, the honest party (if it may be freely ex- pressed, as sure it may, when the magistrate himself professes he doth but desire and wait for conviction therein), is, in short, this : that when the right and privilege is returned, nay, is restored by conquest unto the whole body (that forfeited not their interest therein), of free- ly disposing themselves in such a constitution of righteous government as may best answer the end held forth in this cause ; that, never- theless, either through delay they should be withheld as they are, or through design they should come at last to be utterly denied the ex- ercise of this their right, upon pretence that they are not in a capacity as yet to use it, which, indeed, hath some truth in it, if those that are now in power, and have the command of the arms, do not prepare all things requisite thereunto, as they may, and, like faithful guar- dians to the Commonwealth, admitted to be in its nonage, they ought. But if the bringing of true freedom into exercise among men, yea, so re- fined a party of men, be impossible, why hath this been concealed all this while 1 and why was it not thought on before so muck blood was spilt, and treasure spent 1 Surely such a thing as this was judged real and practicable, not imaginary and notional. Besides, why may it not suffice to have been thus long delayed and withheld from the whole body, at least as to its being brought by them into exercise now at last 1 Surely the longer it is withheld, the stronger jealousies do increase, that it is intended to be assumed and engrossed by a part only, to the leaving the rest of the body (who, in all reason and justice, ought to be equally participants with the other in the right and benefit of the conquest, for as much as the war was managed at the expense and for the safety of the whole) in a condition almost as much exposed, and subject to be im- posed upon, as if they had been enemies and conquered, not in any sense conquerors. If ever such an unrighteous, unkind, and deceitful dealing with brethren should happen, although it might continue above the reach of question from human judicature, yet can we think it pos- sible it should escape and go unpunished by the immediate hand of the righteous Judge of the whole world, when he ariseth out of his place to do right to the oppressed?" After this wise, solemn, and searching re- proof, Vane proceeds with masterly ingenuity to present such a view of events and affairs as, without any personal allusion, made it clear to all eyes that the ambition of Cromwell was the obstacle in the way of the establishment of a just and free government ; that he was " the Achan who obstructed the settlement of these distracted kingdoms," and that, in preferring his own aggrandizement to the common good, and seizing an unlawful power, he had taken " of the accursed thing." He then delineates, in a passage ever deserving of remembrance, the course of proceedings by which a CONSTITUTION might be agreed upon and established, in rep- aration of all these injuries. The method, the reader will perceive, is exactly that which more than a century after was adopted by Washing- ton and his immortal associates. " The most natural way for which would seem to be by a general council, or CONVENTION of faithful, honest, and discerning men, chosen for that purpose by the free consent of the whole body of adherents to this cause, in the several parts of the nation, and observing the time and place of meeting appointed to them (with other cir- cumstances concerning their election), by order from the present ruling power, but considered as general of the army ; which convention is not properly to exercise the legislative power, but only to debate freely and agree upon the particulars, that by way of FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS shall be laid and inviolably observed, as the conditions upon which the whole body so represented doth consent to cast itself into a civil and poli- tic incorporation, and under the visible form and administration of government therein de- clared, and to be by each individual member of the body subscribed in testimony of his or their particular consent given thereunto ; which conditions so agreed (and among them an act of oblivion for all) will be without danger of be- ing broken or departed from, considering of what it is they are the conditions, and the na- ture of the convention wherein they are made, which is of the people represented in their highest state of sovereignty, as they have the sword in their hands unsubjected unto the rules of civil government, but what themselves, or- derly assembled for that purpose, do think fit to 320 BRITISH STATESMEN. make. And the sword, upon these conditions, subjecting itself to the supreme judicature thus to be set up, how suddenly might harmony, righteousness, love, peace, and safety unto the whole body follow hereupon, as the happy fruit of such a settlement, if the Lord have any de- light to be among us !" More need not be given* to show the spirit and philosophy of this great political treatise, its sincere and serious admonition, its fearless and vigorous exhortation, its moderate and re- spectful tone. It was in all respects calculated to work a great sensation ; and perhaps the most striking circumstance connected with it remains to be noticed. Its author, resolved to maintain a perfect good faith even towards Cromwell, transmitted to him privately, through the hands of General Fleetwood, a copy\ before its publication, not disregardful of even the faint hope there, existed that Cromwell might be in- duced to follow his advice, and adopt some such course as he had proposed, in which event the public feeling needed not, by its publication, be exasperated unnecessarily ; but after the lapse of a month it was returned without com- ment, and Sir Henry immediately issued it from the press, with a postscript, in which allusion was made to the fact that it had previously been communicated to Cromwell. It is more than probable, however, that Fleetwood had feared to provoke the usurper by it, and there- fore purposely withheld it from him. Vane at once published it. The writs for the new Parliament came out at the same time, and a great excitement arose in many quarters. It was increased by the sudden appearance of another pamphlet, which was attributed also, though not on sufficiently good authority to render it quite certain, J to " Sir Harry Vane." It was called " England's Remembrancer," and its tone was much more violent than that of the Healing Question. Some of the Republi- cans had been scrupling to act upon Cromwell's writs, as it would be a recognition of his au- thority. This pamphlet answered the objec- tion by putting the case of a thief, who, having kept one out of his house for a time, bids him return to it. " Would any of you scruple to go home because the thief had before exercised a power to which he had no right]" "What," said the author in conclusion, "shall I say more to you, dear Christians and countrymen 1 Do not the cries of the widows and the fatherless speak 1 Do not your imprisoned friends speak 1 Do not your banished neighbours speak? Do not your infringed rights speak 1 Do not your invaded properties speak 1 Do not your af- fronted representatives, who have been trod- den upon with scorn, speak]" Cromwell is recorded to have "trembled" at last. He summoned Vane before the council. The conduct adopted by Vane in consequence, observes the historian of the Commonwealth, " is entitled to particular notice. His high spirit recoiled from the arbitrary proceeding of being summoned, absolutely, and without cause * The whole of the treatise will be found in the Appendix (A) at the end of this article. The reader is particularly referred to it. t He stated this himself, without mentioning Fleetwood's name, in a letter he wrote to the council on being questioned before them. t Thurloe' State Papers, T., 342. shown, to appear before the council. He had a short time before been second to no man in the island, and, in reality, the principal director of the councils of the Commonwealth. No man was ever more deeply imbued with a Re- publican spirit ; and his high rank and ample fortune* had not exactly prepared him to be commanded by any one. He had now spent some years in retirement, and kept aloof from all cabals and private consults and disquisitions in political matters. His principal family seat was Raby Castle, in the bishopric of Durham ; but his more favourite residence appears to have been at Belleau, in the county of Lincoln, where this summons, dated on the 29th of July, reached him on the 4th of August." The summons was of the true despotic kind. It was couched in the most unceremonious form, without the word " Sir," or any term of address at the beginning ; and the mandatory clause was expressed simply in the phrase, "you are to attend." Thursday, the 12th of August, was the day on which his presence was demanded before the council ; but in a note to the president, he stated that it would be impossible for him to be in town till some days later. On the 14th he sent a message signifying that he had that evening arrived at his house at Charing Cross, and was ready to appear when sent for. His attendance was not required till the 21st ; and he appears to have been merely questioned as to the authorship of the tract entitled " A Heal- ing Question," which he admitted to be his, and was suffered to leave the council. An order was then made in these words : " Sir Henry Vane having this day appeared before the coun- cil, and they having taken consideration of a seditious book by him written and published, entitled 'A Healing Question, &c.,' tending to the disturbance of the present government and the peace of the Commonwealth, ordered that, if he shall not give good security in bond for 5000 by Thursday next [in the warrants of September 4, entered in the council books, it stands Tuesday], to do nothing to the prejudice of the present government and the peace of the Commonwealth, he shall stand commit- ted.'^ Upon this order being sent to him, he wrote for answer that he could on no account comply with what was required, and by his own act d& that which might blemish or bring in question his innocence, and the goodness of the cause for which he suffered. He farther said, " I am well content to take this as a mark of honour from those who sent it, and as the recompense of my former services ;" and add- ed, with a terrible significance, " I cannot but observe in this proceeding with me how exactly they tread in the steps of the late king, whose design being to set the government free from all restraint of laws as to our persons and estates, and to render the monarchy absolute, thought he could employ no better means to effect it than by casting into obloquy and dis- grace all those who desired to preserve the laws and liberties of the nation." He con- cluded thus : " It is with no small grief to be * The recent death of his father had placed him in poa- session of the family estates. t " Proceeds of the Protector (so called) and Council against Sir Henry Vane," p. 1-4. SIR HENRY VANE. 321 lamented that the evil and wretched principles by which the late king aimed to work out hi design should now revive and spring' up under th hands of men professing godliness." Cromwell appears to have been brought to ? stand for some little while by this high resolu tion and courage. Fourteen days were suffer ed to elapse before a warrant was made out directing the sergeant-at-arms to apprehen Vane, and conduct him to the Isle of Wight another was sent to the governor of the island to receive him as a prisoner, and not to suffe any one to speak to him but in the presence of an officer.* No public reason, it is to be observed, was given for this step. The English people were left to suppose, when they saw this great states- man sent by the Protector's order to a dungeon that he had committed some terrible crime. In vain had Sir Henry declared himself a member of the Long Parliament, which had never been legally dissolved, and claimed the privilege of security from personal arrest. He was seized by Cromwell's officers, sent to the island on the 9th of September, and committed to Caris- brook Castle, the very prison in which Charles I. had been confined during the last year of his life. The remark of Mr. Godwin on this infa- mous proceeding may fitly close the account of it. " Henry Cromwell describes Vane as one of the most rotten members of the community.! Such was not apparently the opinion of the Pro- tector. He pays a high compliment to his vic- tim, at the same time that he casts a burning disgrace on his own government, when he fairly states the tract in question as the sole ground for taking the author into custody, and sending him into confinement in the southernmost point of England. It was clearly confessing that they had no charge against him, that his con- duct had been altogether irreproachable, and that he was placed under restraint for an un- limited time for having given his advice to his countrymen and their governors at a most crit- ical period, in a style of exemplary temperance and sobriety. What must be the government of a country when the first men in it are liable to such treatment, and no other accusation is pretended to be brought against them !" But this " conscience doth make cowards of us all," and the once brave and gallant Crom- well, driven to the cowardice of this oppression against Vane, as little dared to keep him long a prisoner. He was released from Carisbrook on the 31st of December, 1656. The Parliament which had met meanwhile will be hereafter (in the life of Marten; alluded to. Conspiracies once again surrounded Crom- well, and his anticipated crown was dashed from his hands. The " Healing Question" was read continually at private meetings,:): and dis- content and danger lodged everywhere. The Protector strove to hide his troubles in every kind of fantastic resource, and to conceal pis- tols always upon his person ; but both were pretty well ascertained^ by this time, and he had lost all pity, and sacrificed all esteem. * " Order Book" of the council of state, t Thurloe, iv., 509. t Il>., 185. I) A curious incident which occurred on the 29th of Sep- tember may illustrate the remark of the text. It is thus re- Si Still Vane remained to torture and be tortu- red. His influence perceptible everywhere. Cromwell, afraid to assault his liberty again, resolved, if he could, to strip him of his prop- erty, harass him by constant vexation, and thus compel him at last to submit to his government. With this view, measures were adopted to in- volve his estates in the meshes of the law. The attorney-general was employed to discover or invent flaws in the titles by which they were held. Bills were filed in the Exchequer, and legal proceedings of various kinds were institu- ted. At the same time, he was given to un- derstand, that if he would support the govern- ment, all these measures should be stopped. In this way the whole power of Cromwell was brought to bear upon him ; every art was used ; and it was systematically and deliberately at- tempted, by a kind of slow torture, to wring from him his great fortune, and, by reducing him to poverty, to humble and break his spirit but to no purpose. Among the faithless he was still found faithful : when all others proved false, he stood by his principles and redeemed his pledges. When hope had been driven from the heart of every other Republican, he did not despair or despond for a moment ; when the name of liberty had become a proverb, a by- word, a reproach throughout the world, and its cause seemed utterly and forever lost, his alle- giance never faltered, and his spirit was filled with a "serene and undoubting confidence in its final triumph, which neither prisons, nor chains, nor the scaffold could shake or impair." In the interval which now intervened before the death of Cromwell, he appears to have writ- ten various matters. On the appearance of Harrington's " Oceana" he addressed a letter to him, which was published, entitled, "A need- ful Corrective or Balance in popular Govern- ment." He also published a theological work, entitled, " Of the Love of God, and Union with od ;" and other learned treatises, chiefly on joints of religion, were issued by him at this ;ime. Oliver Cromwell died on the anniversary of lis great days of Worcester and Dunbar, the 3d of September, 1658, and writs for a Parlia- ment were at once issued by the council of his son and successor, Richard Cromwell, returna- )le on the 27th of the following January. The- )eople kept quiet and waited the issue. Upon, his Parliament, it was understood, it would, est to effect a settlement of the form of gov- irnment,. and so far to determine the fortunes if the nation. It was the natural consequence if this impression that the election of its mem- ated in Thurloe : " His highness, accompanied only by the ecretary, and a few of his gentlemen and servants, went to ake the air in Hyde Park, where he caused a few dishes f meat to be brought, and trade his dinner ; after dinner le thought took him to drive his own coach, to which there were harnessed six fine horses, that had been sent him as a resent by the Count of Oldenburgh. He accordingly put 'hurloe into the coach, and himself mounted the box. For ome time he drove very well ; but by-and-by, using the 'hip a little too violently, the horses set off at full speed, 'he postillion, endeavouring to hold them in, was thrown ; nd, soon after, Cromwell himself was precipitated from the ox, and fell upon the pole, and from thence to'the ground, [is foot got entangled with the harness, and he was so ear- ned along a good way, during which a pistol went off in his ocket [a proof that he was never without firearms]. At ength his foot got clear, and he escaped, the couch passing long without injuring him." He was confined with the onsequeuces of the accident for two or three weeks. 322 BRITISH STATESMEN. bers became the occasion of the highest possi- ble interest throughout the country. By the result of those elections, the struggle between the two great parties would be brought to a de- cision and a close. It is a proof of the fear which shook the residents of Whitehall, that the old and corrupt system of election was re- stored by them on this occasion. Farther, and in no less memorable proof of their fear, they held it an object of paramount importance to prevent the election of Sir Hen- ry Vane to the ensuing Parliament, and resort- ed to the most extraordinary and extreme meas- ures to keep him out. He offered himself at Kingston-upon-Hull, of which place he claimed, as of right, to be considered the lawful repre- sentative, having sat as such in the Long Par- liament. His right was confirmed by the elec- tors ; he was rechosen by a full majority of their votes ; but the managers of the election, being creatures of Richard Cromwell's party, in defiance of justice and public sentiment, gave the certificate of election to another. Vane was determined not to be defeated by such means ; he therefore proceeded to Bristol, entered a canvass, and received a majority of the votes. Here, also, the same bold and impudent out- rage was committed by the officers ; and others whose names stood below his on the poll-books were declared to be elected. He still perseve- red, and was finally returned from Whitechurch in Hampshire. On the 27th of January Vane once more took his seat in the House of Commons. The ter- ror his presence inspired among what was call- ed the "court" party was only a little counter- balanced by the " packed House" they had man- aged to get together. They had named the Scotch and Irish representatives, and com- manded the votes of actual and expectant place- men, for the most part lawyers, to the amount of 170. There were, besides, about 100 Mod- erates, Waiters upon Providence, and masked Royalists. The number of Republicans to set against all this were only 40, but they were headed by Vane, and ranked among them the names of Ludlow, Scot, and Bradshaw. There- fore the " court" trembled still. They soon found that they had good reason for trembling. It was well understood among the Republicans that the first proceeding would be to confirm the government of Richard, and to sanction the House of Peers which his fa- ther had created. Vane had organized a small but resolute opposition to these measures with masterly power and skill. Their consultations before entering the House were always held at his residence at Charing Cross ; he managed their debates in the House itself with the con- summate genius of a popular leader, and was supported with infinite resolution and energy by Scot and Ludlow. The court party had, in- deed, good reason to tremble. His first great display against Richard Crom- well was on the debate upon the question of a recognition of his " undoubted" right, founded on the " Petition and Advice" of the late Pro- tector. On the 9th of February, 1659, having reserved himself to a late day, after the usages of the more eminent and influential Parliament- ary speakers in all times, " Sir Harry Vane" rose, and spoke thus. The speech includes so many matters of importance, is so masterly an evidence of Vane's power, and embraces such an interesting sketch of his political expe- riences, that the reader will wish it longer even than it is. " I know very well the great disadvantage that any person suffers, that in this great and grave assembly shall, at this time of day, offer you anything. You have spent three days in the debate, and it is not unsuitable to your wis- dom to be yet on the threshold. The more time you have taken, the more successful, probably, it may be. " That which called me up at this time was what the last gentleman said, that is, to do things with unity. At least we shall be at greater unity, if not greater amity, by having patience to hear one another, and admitting the variety of reasons and judgments which are offered by all men. Though a large field has been led into, the thing is very short. Con- sider what it is we are upon a protector in the office of chief magistrate. But the office, of right, is in yourselves. It is in your hands, that you may have the honour of giving or not giving, as best likes you. You may confer it, if you please, for any law to the contrary brought now into your House. I shall advise you to this, as was moved : give not by wholesale, so as to beg again by retail. To give will at any time get you many friends. It therefore concerns you in this business to have your eyes in your heads, to look well about you, that it slip not from you without considering what is your right, and the right of the people. "The wise providence of God has brought things, in these our days, to the state of gov- ernment as we now find it. I observe a varie- ty of opinions as to what our state of govern- ment is. Some conceive that it is in king, Lords, and Commons ; that the principles of old foundations yet remain entire, so that all our evils, indeed, are imputed to our departure from thence. " It hath pleased God, by well-known step?, to put a period, and to bring that government to a dissolution. All the three Parliaments it> the late king's time found the state of things in slavery. I have had some experience since the two Parliaments in 1640, and remember, when the Parliament considered the state of the nations, that they found them in a grand thraldom of oppression and tyranny, endeav- ouring to carry us up even into popery. God made us see the state and condition we were then in. The consideration of these things would have made us make long sweeps to re- dress it ; but Providence led us on step by step. Therefore, having the legislative power, God saw it good that we should change the govern- ment ; but we found great difficulties in the work, as most men were willing rather to sit down by slavery than to buy themselves out of it at so great a price. " The first thing expected was, that justice should be done upon delinquents, who had so much the ear of that prince, that they told him he had power enough to protect himself and them too. He had the power of the militia. These grievances brought us to consider where the right of the militia lay ; and when we saw it was in ourselves, we thought to make use SIR HENRY VANE. 323 of it with moderation, choosing rather to use it to reduce the king by fair means than other- wise. " So well satisfied was this House then with the principles of that government, that there was then a declaration drawn in favour of it. I was one of that committee. / hear reflections AS if I changed from that. I think it now my duty to change with better reason. They did think fit to publish that which was to preserve that an- cient fabric of government, according to such qualifications as might be for the public service. I am well satisfied it was the clear intent of their hearts. But this encouraged the king, and brought it to that issue at last that he hard- ened his heart, till it was resolved to make no more addresses, but to bring him to judgment. But, in the mean time, applications were made to him, still imploring him to be reconciled ; and nothing was wanting in the House, that, if possible, he might have saved the govern- ment, and himself with it ; but God would not have it so. God knows best what that work is which he is to bring forth. When all appli- cations could not prevail, they thought fit to bring the king to judgment ; thereby the state of affairs was much altered. " This House then thought fit to apply them- selves to the Lords against the Scots' invasion, and in the great case of justice upon the king. The Lords refused both. In this juncture, they were reduced to the necessity of doing that which is now the foundation of that building upon which you must stand if you expect to be prosper- ous. When they came to look upon the delin- quency of the king, and considered him as an object of justice, it was declared by them that the taking away of kingship was the only happy way of returning to their own freedom. Their meaning thereby was, that the original of all just power was in the people, and was reserved wholly to them, the representatives. " When the Parliament, in questions as to what was just and right, had gathered up all into themselves, it was disputed in what way the king should be tried. They counted them- selves then prepared to grant out a commission to try the king. I confess I was then exceedingly to seek, in the clearness of my judgment, as to the trial of the king. I was for six weeks absent from my seat here, out of my tenderness of blood ; yet, all power being thus in the people originally, I myself was afterward in the business. " The king upon his trial denies this power to be in the Parliament : they try it, and they seal it with the blood of the king. This action of theirs was commanded by this House to be recorded in all the courts of Westminster Hall, and.in the Tower. If you be not now satisfied with this business, you will put a strange con- struction upon that action, and upon all that has been done by the general and soldiers. If you, here, will now doubt this right to be in you, you draw the guilt upon the body of the whole na- tion. You join issue with him upon that point. It will be questioned whether that was an act of justice or murder. " Brought step by step unto your natural right by an unavoidable necessity, that little remnant of the Parliament were now the rep- resentative of the nation, springing up from another root. This had a more clear founda- tion, being thus the supreme judicature, to comprehend all government in itself. Whether the death of the king caused not a dissolution of that Parliament, as to that doing it then had, and as it was taken to be, I know not : I leave that to the long robe. " It was then necessary, as the first act, to have resort to the foundation of all just power, and to create and establish a free state, to bring the people out of bondage from all pretence of superiority over them. It seemed plain to me that all offices had their rise from the people, and that all should be accountable to them. If this be monstrous, then it is monstrous to be safe and ra- tional, and to bear your own good. "It is objected that this nation could not bear that government ; but Holland bears it against the power of Orange. They keep the office of stallholder vacant to this day : so do other places. This is a principle that we may bear it, if we can bear our own liberties, or, that if we have not the importance of the people of Israel : unless, with the Israelites, we will re- turn to Egypt, weary of our journey to Canaan. " This being the case, we were declared a free state. We were after tossed upon all those billows that sunk us in the sands. Though we miscarried then, though this free state was ship- wrecked, yet you have got a liberty left to say it is now again in your possession, else I am mistaken. If it be so, I hope you will not part with it but upon grounds of wisdom and fidelity. If you were but arbitrating in the cause of a pri- vate friend, you would make the best bargain for him that you could: you would so do as not to give aicay the right of him by whom you were in- trusted but upon good grounds. That which you give, give it freely on grounds of justice : un- derstand well your terms. " This brings me to the consideration of an- other thing, which is, that the first government being dissolved, another is brought into the room. Though not perfect, yet it is said the foundations are laid, upon which we may build a superstructure of which we need not be ashamed. Now, SHALL WE BE UNDER-BUILDERS TO SUPREME STUART'! We have no need, no obligation upon us to return to that old govern- ment. I have a vote. " For the covenant with the Scots, their in- vasion did render that covenant invalid. They would have repossessed a king and imposed him upon this nation by virtue of that covenant which they had broken. The Parliament show- ed that their shackles were broken ; it did not oblige any farther. That it was famous and had power ! That was the Israelites' argu- ment for worshipping the sun and moon. If we return to an obligation by virtue of the cov- enant, by the same reason we may return to worship the sun and moon. I hope those shall not sway here. ' Lastly, at the dissolution of the Long Par- liament, you lost your . possession, not your right. The chief magistrate's place was assu- med without a law. There was assumed with it, not only the power of the crown on the terms of former kings, which hath its founda- tion and regulation by the laws, but the pos- session was assumed You were then under various forms of administration : some that had not the characters of trust upon them ; BRITISH STATESMEN. some too limited. Still, you were kept out of possession. Parliaments have been called, and as often broken. " This ' Petition and Advice,' which is now so much insisted upon, was never intended to be the settled government, but only to be a pair of stairs to ascend the throne ; a step to king, Lords, and Commons. It pleases God to let you see you have not been ill counselled to wait upon him a first day, and a second, and a third day, to see what he will hold out for your peace and safety for asserting the liberties of the people. This bill huddles up in wholesale what you have fought for, and is hasted on lest you should see it. " We have now a ' Petition and Advice' that comes in place of the ancient government, the ' instrument,' and all other forms. Yet, if this were the case, you are, notwithstanding the Petition and Advice, in the clear, rightful pos- session of this government, which cannot be disposed of but by your consent. The old Pro- tector thought it fit to have it given him from you, and had it, by your pleasure, invested upon him ; but, although it was acknowledged that he had power to get it, yet he thought fit to make it your free gift. It will not be denied now. A presenting this office by that Parlia- ment, and the open investiture of him in your chair, prove it. Yet, as to this gift of yours, I dare be bold to say, the thing given was hardly understood. By giving of this office, they gave, in the 16th article, the power of their own dis- solution ! " It being acknowledged to have been your gift, let us consider what was given, and how given. " The gift was the executive power, the ru- ling power : that is, the office of chief magis- trate. All the Legislature was then in the peo- ple. The Commonwealth would not put the executive power out of their hands. For this reason, they set up those shadows, the keepers of the liberties of England, as an executive power, to distinguish it from the Legislature. This, then, was the thing given, and this the Petition and Advice hath made a difficulty of returning ! The power of the purse, indeed, is left us, because they know not how to take it from us. There is no dispute but you have a right to open the people's purse, because kings knew they could not well take it ; but the chief magistrate ! they would not allow you that to give ! " Now this power and the office were given, it seems, by the regulation of the Petition and Advice ; the whole executive power of the late king was all given, at one clap, to the late Pro- tector for life. This being given to him, was not given absolutely to any other for life. No- thing was given him more, only the nomination and declaration of a successor, which must be according to law. So says the Petition and Advice. This nomination must first appear be- fore we can say this gentleman is the undoubt- ed Protector. Had I thought this had been said before, I should have spared both you and myself. " That which is now brought in, the bill of recognition, takes it for granted that there is no one in possession of the Protectorship ; for it requires that you acknowledge his right and title, not that we should acknowledge his per- son, and then inquire what is this right and title. It is hard we should be put upon that. Let us know what this right and title is that we must recognise. But it seems the Parliament that made the petition and advice, they gave it, and we must acknowledge it ! " If he hath any right, it must be by one of these three ways : 1 . Either by the grace of God and by God's providence, that if he hath a sword, he may take whatever is within the reach of it, and thus maintain his right. 2. Or as the son of the conqueror. He was, indeed, a conqueror on your behalf, but never of your- selves fit for you to recognise. 3. Or, lastly, by the Petition and Advice. But that cannot be urged until it doth appear that he hath it ac- cording to that. Yet that is only a nomination, which hath nothing of constitution until you have made it. He must come to you for that. I appeal, then, if this has not deserved three days' debate. Deserves it not more to set nails upon it 1 May it not deserve a grand commit- tee, to convince one another in love and unity T " Therefore I shall move that this bill may, upon the whole matter, be committed to a grand committee, where reason may prevail. " It is not a sudden recognition, a sudden obtaining of the first steps, that will direct us fairly into the room. It must be on an un- shaken foundation that you can ever hope to maintain it against the old line. If you be mind- ed to resort to the old government, you are not many steps from the old family. 'THEY WILL BE TOO HARD FOR YOU IF THAT GOVERNMENT BE RE- STORED. " Instead of the son of a conqueror by nature, make him a son by adoption. Take him into your own family, and make him such a one as the great One shall direct you. When the army see that they are yours, they will be PROTECTED by you. " I would have all names of sectaries laid aside, and righteousness go forward. Let fees and extortions be looked into, which make the laws themselves your oppressors. -I have dis- charged my conscience, and look on it as a special testimony of God's providence that I am here to speak this before you." Vane's retirement had not impaired his pow- ers ! It is impossible to imagine, from this out- line, a speech more able in itself, or better adapted to the purpose and position of the speaker ; yet history still excludes such speech- es from her consideration in treating of the questions they refer to.* The Republicans were beaten, however, upon the extreme question, and, it being resolved to have the government vested in a " single per- son," Vane was driven to make the hardest fight he could for an extreme limitation of his power. On the 18th of February he addressed the House on this point. " I would have the nature of the thing open- ed at little, that is to be the occasion of the farther debate. I shall offer you my thoughts preparatively. You are now bounding the chief magistrate. * This, and the other masterly efforts of Vane I shall shortly quote, were published about ten years ago in " Bur- ton's Diary," by Mr. Towill Rutt. They have cot been no- ticed since. SIR HENRY VANE. 325 <( The office of chief magistrate hath some- thing in it essential, and which must be invio- lably kept for him for the necessary preserva- tion of the good of the whole, and the adminis- tration of justice. " But it hath also something superfluous, and very chargeable. Such as are : 1. A thing call- ed kingly power, which implies the whole affair of monarchy and prerogative, which are great occasions of vain expenses and waste all the na- tion over. Lay aside this state of kingly power, and keep your chief magistrate. 2. The power of the chief magistrate as to the negative voice. The denying it by you to the chief magistrate as by the law of the nation now set up is fit and requisite. When all these things are in our power, must we dispute it over again between the people and the chief magistrate 1 " The chief magistrate pretends to a power, not only of executing laws, but to enact laws ; whereas it is the right of all to bind themselves, and to make those laws by which they are to be ruled. If corporations, or any society of men, have a right to make by-laws, surely much more hath this House, which is the representa- tive of the body of the nation. If the interest of the whole nation should lie at one man's- door, it were worse than in the meanest cor- poration, especially to serve a single person, or the interest of a few courtiers or flatterers. "Thus it should be, that he should not deny what you find to be for your good. This our laws have declared that the single person ought to grant : leges quas vulgus elegerit. It was urged by Lord Fiennes, who drew the dec- laration, that it was undeniable that the king should not deny laws. " This, therefore, is of so great concernment, agreeable to the law of nature and the consti- tution of the nation. It was before though, if it were not, it is now in your power. Great weight was laid upon it in all propositions of peace, and so much weight depends upon it as in the proportion of restraining or binding of power it ought to be a principal ingredient. The chief magistrate may do well without it. " On the other side, I would have him possess all things needful to his acting for the people ; all the power to draw in the public spirits of the nation to a public interest ; but not power to do them or you any hurt. This is to make him more like God him- self, who can do none. Flatterers will tell him otherwise ; but they that urish his safety and honour will agree that he shall have power to do everything that is good, and nothing that is hurtful. It is therefore necessary so to bind him as he may grow up with the public interest. " It was offered that the militia and negative voice be included in the vote of your chief magistrate. Then it was answered that the previous vote provided that nothing should be binding. It was then allowed the reason. Why is that reason denied now 1 That Parliament that made the other House surely had the legis- lative. They must either own that the legisla- tive power was in that House, else nothing passed to them. If it stand not on that Con- stitution, then it must stand on the old Con- stitution. " I shall clear it that we are going to settle that which is fallacious. It will strip you at one time and at one breath. You make void all your former expressions, which to me is as clear as day. If they can do none of those things till they have set up a co-ordinate power, then you can pass nothing here, but must have their concurrence. Pass this, and you will have that brought in upon you from the other House, that will confirm the single person in all things that concern him, and so your own lib- erties are left at loose. If you have a mind to do aught for the people, do it clearly. Pronounce your judgment, that the chief magistrate shall have no negative upon the people assembled in Parlia- ment. Do this, else I shall take it for granted that you will have no fruit of your debate, and that you intend nothing for the people." The people still the people ! for them he had struggled his whole life through, and still his hopes and objects were fixed alone on them. The next effort Vane made against Richard was aimed at him through his administration. On February 21, Secretary Thurloe moved the order of the day for going into details connect- ed with the war, and asked the immediate sanction of the House to the preparation of such shipping and forces as might be necessary to promote the success of a mediation in the affairs of the kings of Sweden and Denmark in relation to the Baltic Sea, and to the command of the Sound, wherein Sweden was to be as- sisted by England, and Denmark by the Dutch. Upon this proposition, very peremptorily urged, Vane rose and said, 1( I am yet perplexed in my thoughts ; there- fore I shall only mind you of the old order in Par- liament. Upon such reports as this, or letters, or messages from the king, we never looked upon them the same day, but had a jealousy and suspi- cion of some court design in them, to engage us in such rash designs before we knew where we were. " I do not say there is any such thing now, but it looks like some such thing. I told you, at first, that I feared matter of money was our chief concern. I fear still the same thing is now intended, in that we must not have leave to sleep so much as one night upon it. We must give a million of money by a side wind ! Sure we must find out this money, and yet we must not sleep upon it ! I dare not think of the sad consequence of this, unless your wis- doms will disintricate you in it. " It hath been the great wisdom of princes, that heretofore have had to do with the House of Commons, who see not at first the sad con- ;equences of things, to make a war, and then presently to make a peace, and then put up the money that was given them towards the pretended war. I do not say such things are now, but I desire we may sleep upon this at least forty- eight hours. ' I perceive many things are taken for grant- ed, of which I am not yet fully satisfied : 1. That the King of Denmark must be dispos- sessed. 2. That we must fit ourselves to take jossession of some part of it, like birds of prey. 3. That Holland is your enemy already. " If it be our interest that Sweden should be mperor of the Baltic Seas, I should be very glad to understand how. ' France may, perhaps, be willing to engage us in this quarrel ; and when we are engaged, he will be as fit to bridge over somebody else as any other. I move for Thursday or Friday." 326 BRITISH STATESMEN. The government were here assailed in a weak point, and were at last obliged to give way. Three days after Vane again spoke to the same question, in answer to Thurloe. He insisted on a series of gross errors that had been committed, in promoting peace with Hol- land instead of war, in stirring up war with Spain instead of settling peace, and in flinging English influence at the feet of the most de- spotic minister of Europe, the Cardinal Mazarin. " We are not yet at the bottom. Many con- siderable things have been offered in the last matter of fact by Mr. Secretary. " What is declared is to me very satisfactory. He assures us there is no engagement, nothing of any private treaty between us and the Swede, that he knows of. But may there not be an underhand, secret treaty, that he knows not of? I have heard something to that purpose, and upon very good intelligence, that there is an engagement. " If the good providence of God had not in- terrupted it, I believe the question had not now been to have been decided by you. The fleet should have gone long since, but it was pre- vented ; and if it had gone, this debate had been determined before this time. But I shall not go upon that ground, but only upon the grounds that are offered, and suit my discourse to that. " The coalition with that state, the Dutch, if it had been well pursued, you had shut out all correspondency with the Spanish interest. " I am not able to see through it, nor to un- derstand how the whole style of managing the peace with Holland, and war with Spain, hath been agreeable at all to the interest of the state, but rather very much to the interest of a single person. " The interest then used, and the endeavour- ing to bring the two nations to a coalition, which had made a great progress, would have drawn off the States wholly from the Spanish interest, which now mingles much in their counsels ; and if that had been then followed home, it would have made that state at that time wholly yours. If, when you sent ten thousand men to Jamaica, where you have left your dead men to your reproach, you had sent the same fleet to the Sound and fallen upon the Dutch, that would have done your business. You might have been a great way in Germany, and have made an emperor there yourself. " That which increases my jealousy is, that I see this affair all along managed but to sup- port the interest of a single person, and not for the public good, the people's interest. " Our counsels have been mingled with France, and taken from the cardinal, who goeth upon the most tyrannical principles of govern- ment in the world. The French put us upon this remote design ; and out of that bow, I doubt, comes this shaft, to be sent into the Sound. Looks not this like a principle of Car- dinal Mazarin, for your single person to get a fleet into his hands 1 " I know no reason you have to send a fleet indefinitely, implicitly upon this design. The Swede is absolute possessor of both sides of the Sound, and he will make sure of the pas- sage too, if you do but assist him ; and when he hath it, he must either give it you by new treaty, or you must take it out of his hands by force. " When one half was in the Dane's handa, and the other in the Swede's, it was then best for us, for we might be as necessary to the Dane as any other. And now France, when they see an opportunity, can easily resent for- mer injuries. This business is not fit to be so openly debated ; it requires more secrecy. " A twofold necessity has been thought of, and is put upon you : 1. It is not to be delayed till to-morrow. That will be too late. This is the very nick of time, and they put it upon you with so great necessity, that all other argu- ments must receive no favour. 2. You must transmit wholly to the disposal of your single person to do what he pleases. There is nothing lost in the preparations of the fleet. Your offi- cers, I believe, are all commissioned upon that presumption, that the militia is already in him. Naught will satisfy unless the militia be grant- ed in the single person within twenty-four hours. "In answer to the objection: 1. The vote will not seclude us, unless the disposal be in the single person, and by that you give away implicitly the power of the militia before you have asserted your OWD right or taken it upon yourselves. Oh ! but you make the single per- son no other than a committee-man ! " Yet, though loath to own it, lest you come to a commonwealth again, so dangerous, not so much as advice will be admitted ! "2. And as you do not assert your right in the militia, so you do not assert your interest, or take that part of it that belongs to you in the very business before you. You must have the persons' names brought in to you to be ap- proved. It is told you, you are not able here to make or manage peace or war ! your com- mander-in-chief must do it. I hope you will express your interest as well as a declaration. Assert the practice as well as the right of the militia. Be assured of the faithfulness of the Commonwealth ; first, of those persons that you send. I hope you will have an able com- mander, and one that hath given good testimo- ny of his good affection towards you. " 3. You must at one day give up all the in- terest in the militia upon the necessity that is urged upon you ; the necessity that it must be done in this manner, and no other way. " You have better methods ! 1. Assert your militia to be in you. 2. Refer it to your com- missioners to see that no delay be in it. 3. Have your officers before you, and approve of them. 4. Appoint a committee of your own to advise about disposing of this to the most pub- lic advantage." This speech produced a very great effect. Its last recommendations in especial were most subtilely and effectively aimed. They revived the old disputes between the Long Parliament and Charles, which had so many significant as- sociations connected with them, and brought back in its full force the startling question he had put to them in his previous speech of the 9th of February, " SHALL WE BE UNDER-BUILDERS TO SUPREME STUART 1" Shall we lay the found- ation of a system that must bring a " Charles the Second" back to us sooner or later! Some days after this, on the 1st of March, 1658, we accordingly find the old dispute upon SIR HENRY VANE. 327 the source of Richard's power, the famou " Petition and Advice" to bind the present Par liament, and the propriety of admitting of the title of the " other House" (as the miserable assembly of Lords was contemptuously called; again in discussion. Vane's speech ran thus . " The more I consider this, the more difficul ty I meet with. I have my eye upon the Peti tion and Advice ; and if you consider how things are left, upon the death of the late Protector by that Petition and Advice, I am sure, unles you shut your eyes, you may see that you are tht undoubted legislative power of the nation, even ii that Constitution by which you are called, and the Protector himself proclaimed. " 1. You know, when the Recognition was pressed, how much it was urged that the Pro lector should be made out to be so, according to the Petition and Advice, namely, by due nom ination, which hath never been done unto this day. The declaration of his highness appears not! " Admit that he was duly nominated himself ; yet there is no power in that Petition and Ad- vice for this Protector to nominate another House : and that power in him is defective, be- cause it was singly given to the late Protector. "I would have you first examine whether those now sitting have any foundation, as now called, by that law ; there will be no cause of complaint against you by keeping to that rule. " / understand not that objection that we are sinew-shrunk and manacled, and cannot proceed ; that we can effect nothing unless we transact with these men. You have as much power to make a House of Lords with the concurrence of the Protector as the last Parliament had. " I thought you would have gone to clear the rights and liberties of the people, and to have passed that between you and his highness, without owning the other House. " Sir, we have as much power as those that made the Petition and Advice. It is but the using of the just power. We are wandering and cannot find the door, so great and wilful blind- ness is upon us. It has pleased God to con- found us in our debates, that we cannot, in a third, come to a question, because we wander from our Constitution. " Cannot we despatch the business of this Parliament, and leave the other House alone till next Parliament 1 Why may it not be left till then! Keep but true to the things you have already. I know not how we are limited. Discourse abroad says your vote is with them. How it comes, I know not ! " It will be told you next that a House of Commons is unnecessary, and out of your ruins the Seventy shall be built up ! Consider clear- ly whether this House now sitting have any foundation, by this calling, to sit upon the Pe- tition and Advice. If they have not, I think you are as fit to advise about calling them as the council that called them." Six days later, these questions assumed a more serious shape, and a very long and ardu- ous debate was taken on the question of recog- nising this House of Lords, which Secretary Thurloe, with amazing assurance, urged was as much entitled to existence under the " Peti- tion and Advice" as the House of Commons or the protectorate. This called up Vane, who gave way to greater passion, and even fierce- ness of manner, than he had ever shown before. The terrible intensity of every word in this speech is truly astonishing. " I am very sorry to trouble you so late. Could I satisfy myself with these grounds that have been offered, I should not trouble you. " If you pass in the negative, all the power is here. If the contrary, I dare say then all the pow- er is gone hence. " I conceive, in passing this in the negative, you do bring all power into this House, but not into that way of a commonwealth. " When the power of king or House of Lords is melted dmen into this House, it is in the people by the law of nature and reason. Death, and tract of time, may melt it and bring it down, but this shall never die. Where is then the anarchy, the sneaking oligarchy 1 " The representative body never dies, who- ever die. Provision is made for it. By the law of the land, they could have come together if there had been no protector de facto. You are ever thus. " You have voted a protector de facto, and put it in a way of a bill, to put it de jure, and I hear no arguments now against it ! The question is not now whether the Peti- tion and Advice shall be a law, but whether it shall be so far as it is argued to be a law ; or whether it be not a lame law, to bring in king, Lords, and Commons, insensibly. " It was told you by Mr. Attorney, of the duchy, that this was a restitution. But it is not told you how the power came into the hands of your old servants, that turned you out of doors. As to the Petition and Advice, they decla- red here that it was made elsewhere ; and they ave you no more than they thought Jit a mere show ! " A new family ; one peer in the room of anoth- r ; and here's face about again ! " Consider the fate of that king. I wonder to icar arguments of force used. " If you pass this, you pass all. The question s as catching as that of the French king. When I consider how comprehensive this question is, I wonder how it should be thought ,o pass in the affirmative. 1. You admit this ' House' to be a rightful louse, upon the same rightful foot with your- self. You admit them to be fit and meet per- sons, and that this is for the good of the people. 2. You set up a means to perpetuate an arbitrary ower over you, to lay yourselves aside, and makt ou forever useless I may say odious forever ! "You settle 130,000 per annum, such as lever was done. You have granted the excise nd customs forever, and farmed them in such a way as to make the people cry out their gov- rnors are very unnatural. The people would lever part with customs. You can relieve no rievances. " Formerly you might have gone alone. Pos- ession you see how far it goes. " The sore is, they are afraid that you should o alone to his highness and complain of his neaking counsellors ! " God is almighty ! " Will not you trust him with the consequen- es 1 He that has unsettled a monarchy of so many 328 BRITISH STATESMEN. descents in peaceable times, and brought you to tf top of your liberties, though he drive you back f( a while into the wilderness, he will bring you baa He is a wiser workman than to reject his ow work. " Go you on to advise with his highness Advise him, in his tender years, of the mal-admin istration ! I know no hinderance but you ma transact with his highness alone, and agree o another House' in the best way for the goo of the nation." The effect of this speech was so great, tha upon an actual division of the English member it is thought the Republicans must have won the day. The Scotch and Irish nominees of th crown once more turned the balance agains them. Against these nominees Vane now directec his assaults. On the 9th of March he startled the House by telling them that in present cir- cumstances they were no House, and thai " they had been out of order ever since they sat." Upon a point of order he rose and said, " I could not attend you yesterday in your great debate. If I understand anything of or- der, you have been out of order ever since you sat. Till this was cleared, you ought to have done naught but choose your speaker. " It arises thus to me. As your question was last Parliament whether you would keep out so many members as that those that were in might make the Petition and Advice, now the ques- tion is whether you shall take in so many as are not members that may confirm it. You pro- pose to transact with those persons here that have no foundation, that you may transact with persons that have no law to be another House. By this means you have subverted your own foundation. Your wisdom will be concerned in it to part with a prize in your hands that you know not how to manage. Again, it must be considered that they should withdraw while this debate is afoot. Otherwise they will hang upon you perpetually as a negative. As you lay your foundation, so will the weight of it be. You will look for peace, and have none. " The vote for the single person passed with the greatest unanimity that ever was. When a man is asleep, he finds no hunger till he wake. / doubt the people of England will be hungry when they awake ! " A greater imposition never was by a single person upon a Parliament, to put 60 votes upon you. By this means, it shall be brought upon you insensibly to vote by Scotch and Irish mem- bers, to enforce all your votes hereafter." It is a remarkable proof of the surpassing in- fluence of Vane and the party he chiefly repre- sented in this House, that notwithstanding even these nominees, and all the scandalous re- sources which had been employed to influence the elections, the Republicans actually managed in the end to achieve a majority upon the omis- sion of the word " undoubted" from the recog- nition of the Protector's title. The last speech I shall notice in Burton's Diary of this Parliament attests Vane's impar- tial justice and humanity. A petition had been presented to the House on the part of seventy persons, Royalist prisoners, who had some _years before been sent to Barbadoes. It ap- pears that when they arrived, after much ill- treatment, at the place of their destination, they were sold in the public market. It was alleged, however, in answer to the petition, by some of the Protector's party, that their slavery was limited to five years, and that a distinction was made in favour of their condition above that of the negroes who worked in the cultivation and preparation of sugar. These face-making friends of liberty protested, besides, that these men had basely resisted the cause of the right faith, and deserved extreme punishment. Most admirably did Vane answer them. A better re- tort was never made, nor was ever the distinc- tion between hostilities, public and private, or between sincere enemies and false friends, more exquisitely given. The allusion from Lucretius, at the close, is in perfect keeping with the whole. I do not look on this business as a cavalier- ish business, but as a matter that concerns the liberty of the freeborn people of England. " To be used in this barbarous manner, put under hatches, to see no light till they came thither, and sold there for 100 such was the ase of this Thomas ! " I am glad to hear the old cause so well resent' ed ; that we have a sense and loathing of the tyran- ny of the late king, and of all that tread in his steps, to impose on liberty and property! As I hould be glad to see any discouragement upon .he Cavaliers, so I should be glad to see any dis- couragement and indignation of yours against such icrsons as tread in Charles Stuart's steps, who- ever they be. The end of the major-generals was good as to keeping down that party, but he precedent was dangerous. " Let us not be led away. Whenever the ables turn, the same will be imposed upon your >est men that is now designed to the worst. There is a fallacy and subtlety on both hands. would have you be as vigilant against that arty as you can ; but if you find the liberty and iroperty of the people of England thus violated, ake occasion from these ill precedents to make good laws. " That which makes me hate the Cavaliers is heir cause, and when I sec others hate their cause, ' shall believe them that they hate their persons. detest and abhor them as much as any. Let s not have new Cavaliers and old. Let us ate it in those that tread in their steps as well as n themselves. Be not cozened by popularity on tie one hand, in complaints of this nature, noron tie other hand swallow up your liberties and roperties. Do not that which is bonum only, ut bone." An extraordinary party, meanwhile, had been ormed without the doors of the House. It as supposed, by a large class of the more lib- ral section of Cromwell's officers, that Vane's bjects might at last prevail, such was the ir- esistible power and energy with which, unsub- ued and unrelaxing, he still urged them for- ward. They now suddenly resolved upon the olicy of hastening their achievement by forcing dissolution of the present corrupt House ; and petition had accordingly been prepared by lese men, and was forwarded through the ands of Fleetwood, the young Protector's rother-in-law, and Desborough, his uncle, to ichard, requesting him to dissolve the Parlia- ment. Richard, in alarm, accordingly despatch- SIR HENRY VANE. 329 ed the keeper of the seal, as he was bidden, to dissolve the Houses ; but, having received infor- mation of the design, the House of Commons determined not to be dissolved, ordered their doors to be closed, and the gentleman usher of the black rod to be refused the permission of entry. Some of the members abruptly quitted the House. It was voted that the fugitives should be called back, and that no member should henceforth quit his place without leave. The Protector's summons to attend him in the House of Lords was not obeyed ; and while the usher unsuccessfully pressed for admittance, it is said* that Vane, resolved to use even this last opportunity of bringing Richard into contempt, rose, and addressed the speaker in these words : " Mr. Speaker, Among all the people of the universe, I know none who have shown so much zeal for the liberty of their country as the English at this time have done : they have, by the help of divine Providence, overcome all ob- stacles, and have made themselves free. We have driven away the hereditary tyranny of the house of Stuart, at the expense of much blood and treasure, in hopes of enjoying hered- itary liberty, after having shaken off the yoke of kingship ; and there is not a man among us who could have imagined that any person would be so bold as to dare to attempt the ravishing from us that freedom, which cost us so much blood and so much labour. But so it happens, I know not by what misfortune, we are fallen into the error of those who poisoned the Em- peror Titus to make room for Domitian, who made away Augustus that they might have Tiberius, and changed Claudius for Nero. ] am sensible these examples are foreign from my subject, since the Romans in those days were buried in lewdness and luxury, whereas the people of England are now renowned all over the world for their great virtue and disci- pline, and yet suffer an idiot without courage, without sense, nay, without ambition, to have dominion in a country of liberty ! One could bear a little with Oliver Cromwell, though, con- trary to his oath of fidelity to the Parliament, contrary to his duty to the public, contrary to the respect he owed that venerable body from whom he received his authority, he usurped the government. His merit was so extraordi- nary, that our judgments, our passions, might be blinded by it. He made his way to empire by the most illustrious actions ; he had under his command an army that had made him a conqueror, and a people that had made him their general. But as for Richard Cromwell his son, who is he 1 what are his titles 1 We have seen that he had a sword by his side ; but did he ever draw it 1 And, what is of more importance in this case, is he fit to get obedi- ence from a mighty nation, who could never make a footman obey him 1 Yet we must rec- ognise this man as our king, under the style of Protector ! a man without birth, without cour- age, without conduct. For my part, I declare, sir, it shall never be said that I made such a man my master." Richard Cromwell never appeared in public again. The government continued for a short * By the authors of the Biographia Brittanica, Oldmixon, and others. The speech is not in Burton, because that di- ary abruptly closes before the day in question. TT time to be administered in his name, but he was himself " null and void." After his formal abdication, which speedily followed, an open coalition was announced be- tween the Republicans and the more liberal division of officers, by the leaders of the re- spective parties, Vane and Fleetwood. The result of this was the resuscitation of the fa- mous Long Parliament, and the administration of the government, for a short period, on Re- publican principles. But for many reasons, which need not be discussed here, the cause was soon found hopeless. Upon the subse- quent rupture between the Parliament and the officers, Vane adhered to the latter, as the last resource against Monk in favour of a republic, accepted a commission,* and was ultimately, when that inextinguishable Parliament revived itself again, carried under arrest for it into his seat in Lincolnshire. This adhesion to the officers has nevertheless been truly called " one of those acts which prove Vane a sagacious and sound politician." He saw that the Common- wealth could be saved only by union with the army. He detected earlier than any other the designs of Monk, but strove in vain to collect materials for their overthrow. Hazlerig and his silly associates of the Long Parliament were meanwhile in process of cajolement to their heart's content. Vane stayed at Belleau, now confident of the worst ; and never at any time had Oliver Cromwell's despotism struck him so with anger or with shame, as when he now re- flected on that state of indifference to liberty into which it had brought his countrymen. I will rapidly sketch the general features of his conduct before his arrest, and then proceed to the " Restoration." During his adhesion to the officers, he was appointed one of the com- mittee of safety, to whom the supreme and en- tire power of the country was intrusted, until Parliament could make farther arrangements. The authority of this committee was to con- tinue only for eight days. A council of state was subsequently agreed upon, and on the 13th of May he was nominated one of its members. He was also, at that time, chairman of a com- mittee of this council, to whom the whole mil- itary and naval force of the country was com- mitted, with power to make all appointments in each branch of the service. Soon afterward a special commission was formed to administer the affairs of the admiralty, and he was placed at its head. In September, 1659, he was made president of the council, and continued to serve in every important trust, as the leading mem- ber of committees of safety, and other execu- tive and legislative committees. Upon one of the latter committees, he discharged his last noble effort for the great cause his life had been * This was made matter of charge against him on his trial. He observed upon it thus : " That which remains of farther charge yet to me is the business of a regiment, an employment which I can in truth affirm mine own inclina- tions, nature, and breeding little fitted me for, and which was intended only as honorary and titular, with relation to volunteers who, by their application to the council of state, in a time of great commotions, did propound their own offi- cers, and, without any seeking of mine, or my considering any farther of it than as the use of my name, did, among Others, nominate me for a colonel, which the council of state 330 BRITISH STATESMEN. devoted to, by reporting a bill for the future and permanent settlement of the government, of which the following were the heads : " 1. That the supreme power, delegated by the people to their trustees, ought to be in some fundamentals not dispensed with ;" that is, that a CONSTITUTION ought to be drawn up and es- tablished, specifying the principles by which the successive " trustees," or representatives assembled under it, should be guided and re- strained in the conduct of the government, and clearly stating those particulars in which they would not be permitted to legislate or act. 2. One point, which was to be determined and fixed in this Constitution, so that no legislative power should ever be able to alter or move it, was this : " That it is destructive to the peo- ple's liberties (to which, by God's blessing, they are fully restored) to admit any earthly king, or single person, to the legislative or executive power over this nation." 3. The only other principle reported as fundamental, and to be placed at the very basis of the Constitution, was this : " That the supreme power is not in- trusted to the people's trustees, to erect mat- ters of faith and worship, so as to exercise compulsion therein." Such services as these, however, were past forever, for the people were now drunk with the orgies of the " Restoration." Upon the occurrence of this event, Vane left his seat in Lincolnshire, and came up to a favourite resi- dence he had at Hampstead, near London.* He was not " conscious of having done any- thing in relation to public affairs for which he could not willingly and cheerfully suffer." He had taken no share in the trial or death of Charles I., and the new king had graciously promised a wide and merciful indemnity. But in the early part of July, 1660, he was arrested at Hampstead and flung into the Tower. Lord Clarendon was the author of this meas- ure. A glance at the proceedings by which Vane was excepted from the indemnity shows it beyond the possibility of doubt. Long de- bates, and many conferences between the two Houses of Parliament, had taken place previ- ously to the passing of that act. The House of Commons proposed to subject to capital pun- ishments those alone who had been immediately concerned in the trial and execution of Charles I., at the same time not exempting other offend- ers from penalties and forfeitures. The king himself, in a soeech addressed to the Lords on the subject of the Act of Indemnity, assured the House that he never had entertained a thought of excepting any besides those imme- diately concerned in the murder of his father, and begged them not to exclude others from the benefit of the act. This mercy and indul- gence, the king said, would be the best way to bring them to repentance, and the safest expe- dient to prevent future mischief. The House of Lords, however, urged the necessity of ex- cluding Vane, and this was distinctly on Clar- endon's suggestion. In one of the conferen- ces, the " Lord-chancellor Hyde" advised the exclusion of Vane as " a man of mischievous activity." The Commons opposed this for some time. At length, after three conferences, they agreed to except him, on a suggestion from the Ludlow, vol. iii., p. 111. lord-chancellor that the two Houses should petition the king to spare his life. A petition of the two Houses was accordingly presented, praying the king, on behalf of Sir Henry Vane, that if he should be attainted, his execution might be re- mitted. The king received the petition and granted the request. Even Bishop Burnet ad- mits the king gave a favourable answer, though in general words. On his trial Vane pleaded the royal promise in his defence, and the fact of such a promise was not denied by the coun- sel for the prosecution. The promise itself was absolutely read in the court. During these debates the illustrious prisoner had been moved from prison to prison, and was at length immured in a solitary castle on one of the isles of Scilly. Here he was deliberately kept till a more pliant Parliament could be got together for the purposes of his murder. It is not a harsh ex- pression to use in this case. From the moment of the restoration, Charles and his chancellor had resolved upon the murder of Vane. They procured his exception from the indemnity act by a trick, and now waited till a House of Com- mons, more slavish and more zealous for roy- alty than that of the Convention Parliament, could be set on to clamour for his death. For two years, necessary to the completion of this diabolical plan, he was kept a prisoner ; and here, on Scilly, while waiting this slow ap- proach of vengeance, in the solitary and dismal recesses of a desolate castle, he lost neither his lofty spirit nor his calm philosophy. Although separated from his family and friends, and sev- ered, as it were, from the earth itself, shut out from the light of heaven and the intercourse of man, hearing no sound but the dashing of the ocean's waves against the foundation stones, and the howling of its storms among the tur- rets of his feudal prison, his soul was serene and unruffled, the abode of peace and light. Religion and philosophy, to whose service he had devoted his great faculties and pure affec- tions in the days of his ardent youth and glo- rious manhood, when power and prosperity were his lot, and the world was bright before him, now came to solace, and cheer, and bless him in the reverse of his earthly fortunes, and when the dark clouds were gathering around the close of his career. " Although," pursues an eloquent writer, speaking of him at this pe- riod, "to human eye all his efforts had failed, and the cause of liberty was utterly lost and undone, when even hope itself had fled from every other breast, he did not despond. Not a shadow of doubt passed over his spirit. His confidence was founded upon a rock, and his faith in the promises of God disclosed to his clear and heaven-illumined vision the sure prospect of the happy period when there would be no more tyranny or oppression on the earth. He felt that the hour of his final trial was rap- idly approaching ; and, although there was a constitutional delicacy and tenderness in his nature, which had even made him so sensitive to physical suffering as to lead his enemies to charge him with a want of personal courage, he contemplated death with a singular calmness and complacency of spirit. And well he might ; for when he looked back over his life, his mind rested with a just satisfaction upon the faithful SIR HENRY VANE. 331 and constant devotion of his talents to the cause of God and his people ; and when he turned towards the future, he contemplated, with a glorious hope and blessed assurance, the rewards in reserve for sincerity, benevolence, and piety, in that world where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." Some of the writings with which this im- prisonment was thus dignified and solaced hap- pily remain on record. It was here he wrote the " People's Case Stated," which I have al- ready fully described, and other religious works, in accordance with the pure faith and the ele- vated doctrine which have also received ample illustration in these pages. Other fragments of works remain, and are, many of them, of a deeply touching character. He wrote of " Gov- ernment," of" Religion,"of " Life," of" Death," of " Friends," of " Enemies," with all the calm- ness of an ancient philosopher, but in the deep- est and most generous spirit of diviner Chris- tianity. The GOOD OLD CAUSE was now appa- rently lost forever. All its greatest friends had sunk into the grave, or were wandering in exile, or immured in dungeons, or perishing on the scaffold. His own blood was, he well knew, thirsted after by powerful enemies ; yet he con- templated all things as he had ever contempla- ted them ; he saw all the objects of his glorious life as they had ever been present with him, save only that now his hope was gone of him- self surviving to witness their achievement. " The people's cause, whom God after trial hath declared free, is a righteous one, though not so prudently and righteously managed as it might and ought to have been. God's doom is therefore justly executed upon us, with what intent and jugglings soever it was prosecuted by men." In his Meditations on Death, he regarded that event not only with cheerful fortitude, but in the profoundest spirit of philosophy. " Death is the inevitable law God and nature have put upon us. Things certain should not be feared, but expected. Things doubtful only are to be feared. Death, instead of taking away anything from us, gives us all, even the perfec- tion of our natures ; sets us at liberty both from our own bodily desires and others' domination ; makes the servant free from his master. It doth not bring us into darkness, but takes dark- ness out of us, us out of darkness, and puts us into marvellous light. Nothing perishes or is dissolved by death but the veil and covering, which is wont to be done away from all ripe fruit. It brings us out of a dark dungeon, through the crannies whereof our sight of light is but weak and small, and brings us into an open liberty, an estate of light and life, unveiled and perpetual. It takes us out of that mortal- ity which began in the womb of our mother, and now ends to bring us into that life which shall never end. This day, which thou fearest as thy last, is thy birthday into eternity. "Death holds a high place in the policy and great commonwealth of the world. It is very profitable for the succession and continuance of the works of nature. " The fading corruption and loss of this life is the passage into a better. Death is no less essential to us than to live or to be born. In flying death thou flyest thyself: thy essence is equally parted into these two, life and death. It is the condition and law of thy creation. Men are not sent into the world by God but with purpose to go forth again ; which he that is not willing to do, should not come in. " The first day of thy birth bindeth thee and sets thee in the way as well to death as to life. To be unwilling therefore to die, is to be un- willing to be a man, since to be a man is to be mortal. It being therefore so serviceable to nature and the institution of it, why should it be feared or shunlted 1 Besides, it is necessary and inevitable : we must do our best endeavour in things that are not remediless, but ought to grow resolute in things past remedy. " It is most just, reasonable, and desirable to arrive at that place towards which we are al- ways walking. Why fearest thou to go whither all the world goes 1 It is the part of a valiant and generous mind to prefer some things before life, as things for which a man should not doubt nor fear to die. In such a case, however mat- ters go, a man must more account thereof than of his life. He must run his race with resolu- tion, that he may perform things profitable and exemplary. " The contempt of death is that which pro- duceth the boldest and most honourable ex- ploits. He that fears not to die, fears nothing. From hence have proceeded the commendable resolutions and free speeches of virtue, uttered by men of whom the world has not been wor- thy."* Of " Life" he had then instructed himself to think as only the passage to a place where knowledge and virtue would be better achieved after the body was in the grave : "There is a time to live and a time to die. A good death is far better and more eligible than an ill life. A wise man lives but so long as his life is more worth than his death. The longer life is not always the better. To what end serves a long life ? Simply to live, breathe, eat, drink, and see this world. What needs so long a time for all this 1 Methinks we should * Again, in another passage of this exquisite fragment, he says, " True natural wisdom pursueth the learning and practice of dying well, as the very end of life ; and, indeed, he hath not spent his life ill that hath learned to die well. It is the chiefest thing and duty of life. The knowledge o{ dying is the knowledge of liberty, the state of true freedom, the way to fear nothing, to live well, contentedly, and peace- ably. Without this there is no more pleasure in life than in tha fruition of that thing which a man feareth always to lose. In order to which, we must above all endeavour that our sins may die, and that we see them dead before our- selves, which alone can give us boldness in the day of judg- ment, and make us always ready and prepared for death. Death is not to be feared and fled from, as it is by most, but sweetly and patiently to be waited for, as a thing natural, reasonable, and inevitable." I cannot resist giving one extract more, in which we find two thoughts expressed almost literally in Shakspeare's words : " It is a good time to die, when to live is rather a burden than a blessing, and there is more ill in life than good. There are many things in life far worse than death, in respect whereof we should rather die than live. The more voluntary our death is, the more honourable. Life may be taken away from every man by every man, but not death. " It is a great point of wisdom to know the right hour and fit season to die. Many men have survived their own glory That is the best death which is well recollected in itself, quiet, solitary, and attendeth wholly to what at that time is fittest. " They that live by faith die daily. The life which faith teaches works death. It leads up the mind to things not seen, which are eternal, and takes it off, with its affection} and desires, from things seen, which are temporary." 332 BRITISH STATESMEN. soon be tired with the daily repetition of these and the like vanities. Would we live long to gain knowledge, experience, and virtue 1 This seems an honest design, but is better to be had other ways by good men, when their bodies are in the grave." In another most beautiful passage on this subject, his peculiar religious faith is strikingly shown : "The knowledge, sight, and experience of such a kind of subsisting and heavenly manner of life that man is capable of, is the best pre- parative and most powerful motive to leave the body, and surcease the use of our earthly or- gans. This, in effect, is all that bodily death, rightly known and understood, doth impart : a lawful surceasing the use and exercise of our earthly organs, and our willing and cheerful re- sorting to the use and exercise of that life with- out the body, which man is capable to subsist in when made perfect in spirit, an equal and as- sociate with angels, under the power and order of expressing what he inwardly conceives, as they do. This made Paul look upon life in the body, and life out of it, with no indifferent eye ; as accounting the being at home in the body an absence from the Lord ; and such a kind of ab- sence from the body as death causes, to be that which makes us most present with the Lord ; which, therefore, he should be most willing unto, and, with greatest longing after, desjre." Towards the close of the second year of his imprisonment, we ascertain the desperate ef- forts his enemies were making to force on his trial, in passages of a most affecting letter to his wife. " MY DEAR HEART," he begins, " the wind yet continuing contrary, makes me desirous to be as much in converse with thee (having this op- portunity) as the providence of God will per- mit, hoping these will come safe to your hand. It is no small satisfaction to me, in these sharp trials, to experience the truth of those Chris- tian principles, which God, of his grace, hath afforded you and me the knowledge, and im- boldened us to make the profession of. Have faith and hope, my dearest. God's arm is not shortened ; doubtless great and precious prom- ises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon believers here on earth, to the making of Christ admired in them. And if we cannot live in the power and actual possession of them, yet if we die in the certain foresight and embracing of them by faith, it will be our great blessing. This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his work in the midst of us, may be, for aught we know, the ground-colour to some beautiful piece that he is now exposing to the light." Dwelling next upon the trials he had been called to, with a view to the working out of this most sublime image, he expresses the good and holy influence which afflictions are intended by Providence to exert upon the Chris- tian aspects of man's character. " Nor would I have it thought that I have already attained the powerful practice of this holy duty and per- fection ; but it is much in my desire, aim, and hope. The difficult circumstances I am in, and that I am still more and more every day cast into, by God's wise-disposing providence, to the sequestering me from the world, and with- holding all sensible comforts from me, so much as he doth, make me, in some sort, confident it is for a good end, and that out of love and faithfulness I am made to drink of this bitter cup, the better to help forward that necessary work in me, and upon me, wherein consists the glorious liberty of the sons of God. " If I may have and enjoy this, it would seem a very little matter to me to be in outward bonds, banishment, want, or any other afflic- tions. Help me, then (in all your cares and solicitudes about me), to what will further and advance this work in me. The Lord grant me and mine to be content, if he deny us to live of our own, and will bring us to the daily bread of his finding, which he will have us wait for, fresh and fresh from his own table, without knowing anything of it beforehand. Peradven- ture there is a greater sweetness and blessing in such a condition than we can imagine till we have tried it. This may add to my help, even our making little haste to get out of our troub- les, patiently waiting till God's time come, wherein he will open the prison doors, either by death, or some other way, as he please, for the magnifying his own great name, not suf- fering us to be our own choosers in anything, as hitherto hath been his way with us. " And why should such a taking up sanctua- ry in God, and desiring to continue a pilgrim and solitary in this world, while I am in it, af- ford still matter of jealousy, distrust, and rage, as I see it doth to those who are unwilling that I should be buried and lie quiet in my grave, where I now am. They that press so earnestly to carry on my trial, do little know what presence of God may be afforded me in it and issue out of it, to the magnifying of Christ in my body, by life or by death. Nor can they, I am sure, imagine how much I de- sire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which of all things that can befall me I account best of all. And till then, I desire to be made faithful in my place and station, to make confession of him before men, and not deny his name, if call- ed forth to give a public testimony and witness concerning him, and to be herein nothing terri- fied. What, then, will the hurt be, that I can or shall receive by the worst that man can do unto me, who can but kill the body, and there- by open my prison door, that I may ascend into the pleasures that are at Christ's right hand 1 If the storm against us grow still higher and higher, so as to strip us of all we have, the earth is still the Lord's and the fulness thereof; he hath a good storehouse for us to live upon. God can, and (if he think fit) will chalk out some way wherein he may appear by his prov- idence to choose for us,, and not leave us to our own choice ; and being contracted into that small compass which he shall think fit to reduce us unto, we may, perhaps, meet with as true inward contentment, and see as great a mercy in such a sequestration from the world, as if we were in the greatest outward prosperity. I know nothing that remains to us but, like a tossed ship in a storm, to let ourselves be toss- ed and driven with the winds, till He that can make these storms to cease, and bring us into a safe haven, do work out our deliverance for us. I doubt not but you will accordingly en- deavour to prepare for the worst." In this letter, it will be seen, Vane's touching design is not solely to prepare his wife and SIR HENRY VANE. 333 family for his death, which he knew to be near, but also to sustain and solace them in the pov- erty to which they would be left, should hi estates suffer the forfeitures of treason. Soon after its date, which was March 7th, 1662, he was removed from Scilly to the Tower of Lon- don. The grand jury having found a bill against him as " a false traitor," &c., he was arraigned before the Court of King's Bench on the 2d of June, 1662. Vane was refused the assistance of counsel, and stood alone on the floor of the court that memorable day against the attorney-general,* the solicitor-general, and four others of the most eminent lawyers in the kingdom, among whom were men that had been agents in the affairs of the Commonwealth when Vane was its most eminent chief ! He was not permitted to see his indictment before it was now read, or to have a copy of it afterward, and he had been denied the benefit of legal advice or con- sultation out of the court as well as in ; yet he stood upon the floor of that court the most cheerful and unmoved person there. The indictment charged him with compassing and imagining the death of Charles II., and con- spiring to subvert the ancient frame of the kingly government of the realm. The overt acts laid in the indictment were, that the pris- oner, in concert with other traitors, assembled and consulted to destroy the king and the gov- ernment, and to exclude the king from the ex- ercise of his royal authority ; and that he took upon himself the government of the forces of the nation by sea and land, and appointed offi- cers to hold command in an army raised against the king ; and for the purpose of effecting his design, did actually, in the county of Middlesex, levy war against the king. This indictment, at Vane's request, was read over to him twice, in English ; he then desired that it might be read over to him in Latin, but this was refused. After taking some objections to the indictment, the most important of which was, that, as the offences charged in it were committed in his capacity as a member of Par- liament, or as acting under its commission, he could only be held to answer for them before Parliament itself, and not at the bar of any in- ferior or other tribunal, the judges peremptorily overruled them, and required him to answer to the indictment " Guilty" or "Not Guilty." Vane then urged, at great length, those rea- sons which led him to decline to put himself on trial by pleading to the indictment. Never were undeniable reasons pressed with such power and ability. He showed that it was im- possible for him to have that equal and just trial which was his right as an Englishman. He argued that, contrary to all the authorities and principles of English law which he cited, he was * This was the eccentric Sir Geoffrey Palmer, of whom Roger North gives a very graphic sketch. He was distin- guished by his ability and masterly knowledge in his pro- fession, and his wisdom and generosity are said to have been incomparable. During all the troubles of the age, he lived quiet in the Temple, a professed and known Cavalier ; and no temptation of fear or profit could ever shake his principles He had great business in conveyancing, and would not keep a clerk who was not a, strict Cavalier. One of his clerks was said to be so rigid that he would never write the word Oliver with a great O, and the attorney-general himself was reported to have purchased the manor of Charlton from its resemblance to the name of his royal master. arraigned before judges who, in another place, had prejudged his case and recorded their votes against him. He dwelt upon the months and years that had been occupied in contriving and collecting secret evidence to sustain the prose- cution, while he had all the time been kept a close prisoner.* He entered upon a particu- lar examination of the specifications brought against him, and showed that they were vague and general, and such as did not bear against him individually, but as a member of a Parlia- ment to which he was lawfully elected, and in which he had acted in concurrence with the nation from time to time. In conclusion, he addressed his judges in this nervous and solemn strain : " Unto this, unless some remedy be afforded by the justice, candour, and favour of this court, it may be better for the prisoner (for aught he yet knows) to be immediately destroy- ed by special command (if nothing else will sat- isfy), without any form of law, as one to whom quarter, after at least two years' cool blood, is thought fit to be denied in relation to the late wars. This may seem better than under a colour and form of justice to pretend to give him the benefit of the law and the king's courts, whose part it is to set free the innocent, upon an equal and indifferent trial had before them, * "It is observable how early hard measure appeared in the way wherein the prisoner became excepted out of the Act of Indemnity, when the Commons, his proper judges, declared him in their thoughts not fit to be endangered in the point of life ; yet unto the judgment of the Lords (that ought not to judge commoners unbrought before them by the Commons, much less in opposite judgment to the Commons) the Commons were necessitated to yield, lest otherwise the Act of Indemnity to the whole nation should stop upon this dispute ami essential difference between the two Houses ; a competition easily overruled ; although, as it proves by the sequel, that act of indemnity is like to become felo de se, or a. destroyer of itself, if your lordships should conceive your- selves at liberty, notwithstanding that act, not only to bring anew into memory upon the stage the state of all the past differences from first to last, but to try and judge the merit of them in my person, and therein call in question the valid- ity of that whole act, and make void the benefit intended by it, in case the war undertaken and managed by both or ei- ther of the houses of Parliament be judged unlawful, and within the statute of 25 Edward HI. ; for this adjudges all the people of England morally guilty of the evil of a sin and offence against the law of nature, which once done, what- ever promised indemnity be granted for the present, the evil of the action remaineth upon record, not only to the infamy of the whole people of England, but their future danger, upon pretence that they have forfeited the very indemnity granted. " The length of time taken to search out matter against the prisoner, and the undue practices and courses to find out witnesses, do farther evidence how unlike the prisoner is to have an equal and indifferent trial. He doubts not this will appear in his two years' close imprisonment (six months whereof was banishment), during which time he was never so much as once examined, or had any question put to him whereby he might conjecture wherefore he was committed to prison, any farther than was expressed in the warrants of commitment. Now these were so general that nothing certain or particular could be gathered out of them. But upon the received opinion that he was excepted out of the Act of Indemnity, and, in the sense of both Houses, a great delinquent, his estate was attempted to be inventoried, his rentals demanded, his rents were actully seized in the ten- ants' hands, and they forbidden to pay them. His very courts were prohibited by officers of great personages, claim- ing the grant of the estate, and threatening his officers from doing their duty. By these kind of undue proceedings, the prisoner had not wherewithal to maintain himself in prison, and his debts, to the value of above 10,000, were undis- charged, either principal or interest. The hopes of private lucre and profit hereby was such in the tenants and other persons sought out for far and near to be witnesses, that it is no wonder at last something by way of charge comes to be exhibited." The foregoing is from a paper he left be- hind him in his prison, endorsed " Memorandums pleadable on my arraignment." 334 BRITISH STATESMEN. if their cause will bear it ; but it is very visible beforehand that all possible means of defence are taken and withheld from him, and laws are made ex post facto to forejudge the merit of the cause, the party being unheard. " And when he hath said all this, that, as a rational man, does occur to him, and is fit for him to represent in all humility to the court, he craves leave farther to add, that he stands at this bar not only as a man, and a man clothed with the privileges of the most sovereign court, but as a Christian that hath faith and reliance in God, through whose gracious and wise ap- pointment he is brought into these circum- stances, and unto this place at this time, whose will he desires to be found resigned up into, as well in what he now calls him to suffer, as in what he hath called him formerly to act, for the good of his country, and of the people of God in it. Upon this bottom, he blesses the name of his God, he is fearless, and knows the issue will be good, whatever it prove. God's strength may appear in the prisoner's weakness ; and the more all things carry the face of certain ruin and destruction unto all that is near and dear to him in this world, the more will divine deliverance and salvation appear, to the making good of that Scripture, that he that is content to lose his life in God s cause and way, shall save it, and he that, instead thereof, goes about to save his life upon undue terms, shall lose it. " Far be it, therefore, from me to have know- ingly, maliciously, or wittingly offended the law, rightly understood and asserted, much less to have done anything that is malum per se, or that is morally evil. This is what I allow not, as I am a man, and what I desire with steadfastness to resist, as I am a Christian. If I can judge anything of my own case, the true reason of the present difficulties and straits I am in is because I have desired to walk by a just and righteous rule in all my actions, and not to serve the lusts and passions of men, but rather to die than wittingly and deliberately sin against God and transgress his holy laws, or prefer my own private interest before the good of the whole community I relate unto, in the kingdom where the lot of my residence is cast." Before resuming his seat, Vane once more claimed the benefit of council. The court told him that if he would plead, and put himself on the issue, he should then have counsel assign- ed. After considerable urging, and with evi- dent reluctance and distrust of the sincerity of the court and its promise, he was prevailed upon to comply, and to plead not guilty. He was at once remanded to prison, and, four days after, was brought up to trial. Upon taking his place in the court, he claim- ed the promise of his judges, and was told that they would be his counsel ! So went on this deliberate murder. Since the first promise was made, Chief-justice Forster (who presided at the trial) had been to Hampton Court and re- ceived instructions. He and his associates throughout were merely the instruments of the murderers behind the scene, Charles and Clar- endon. Chief-justice Forster had even been overheard to say on the day of arraignment, when the convincing arguments of the prisoner had left the prosecuting officers without the power of answering them, " Though we know not what to say to him, we know what to do with him." The attorney-general, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, now stated the nature of the overt acts charged against the prisoner, and the particulars of the proofs. " We shall prove," he said, " that the prisoner sat with others in several councils, or rather confederacies, encroached the govern- ment, levied forces, appointed officers, and at last levied open and actual war at the head of a regiment ; and though he be chargeable for any crime of treason since the beginning of the late war, yet we shall confine the facts of which we charge him to the reign of his present maj- esty." The first piece of evidence was a war- rant under the hand and seal of the prisoner, directed to the officers of the navy, and com- manding them to issue out stores for the ser- vice of the government. The signature of the prisoner was proved by two witnesses acquaint- ed with the general character of his handwri- ting. Several entries in the journals of the House of Commons were then read. One of them, dated the 1st of February, 1649, purport- ed to be an order for establishing a council of state. Another entry, of the date of the 13th of February in the same year, contained in- structions to the council of state, requiring them to suppress the attempts of any who should pretend title to the kingly government, from the late king, or from his son, or from any other person. The attorney-general insisted that the former part of these instructions showed an in- terest to destroy the person of the king, and that the latter part showed an interest to de- stroy the kingly government. It appeared from another entry in the journals of the 14th of February, 1649, that the prisoner had been chosen a member of the council of state, and had acted upon the instructions before men- tioned, and usually sat in the council ; and that he had also acted as treasurer of the navy. The fact of his sitting as member in a committee of council was also proved by witnesses. It was farther proved that in 1651 he was appointed president of the council of state, and as such signed orders for military equipments. An- other entry was read, dated 7th of May, 1659, from which it appeared that a committee of safety had been appointed for the care of the Commonwealth, and that the prisoner was one of its members, and, as such, had acted in con- ference with foreign ambassadors, and nomina- ted officers to commands in the army, and had made several orders, and acted in various other ways in the service of the Commonwealth. A witness of the name of Marsh proved that the prisoner proposed a new model of the govern- ment, Whitelocke presiding in the chair ; and that one of the particulars proposed was a reso- lution declaring it destructive to the people's liberty to admit any king into power. Another witness stated that he believed Sir Henry Vane had proposed this resolution to the chairman, and affirmed positively that he gave reasons in its support. A third proved that Sir Henry Vane had been at the head of a company of soldiers in Southwark.* Such was the substance of the evidence in support of the prosecution. Sir Henry Vane was now called upon for his defence. He ar- Phillips's State Trials. SIR HENRY VANE. 335 gued, first, in point oflaw, that the word " king," in the statute of treasons, could only be under- stood to mean a king regnant, one in the actual possession of the crown, and not a king merely such de jure, who is not in possession of the throne ; that the Parliament was the only pow- er regnant at the time alleged, consequently that no treason could be committed against the king. He was proceeding in this argument, when the court observed that, previous to en- tering into his defence in matters of law, it would be proper for him to call witnesses, if he had any. Upon this, he said that, not having been informed of the nature of the charges, nor of the evidence to be brought against him, he had not been able to provide witnesses, and he therefore desired process of the court to sum- mon witnesses, and a farther time to answer the charge ; but the court declared that such a delay could not be allowed. Undaunted, he then, with infinite learning and ability, grappled with all the evidence against him, and justified every particular of his conduct. The learning, the eloquence, the lofty courage with which he did this, will appear in the following masterly passages : " The causes that did happen to move his late majesty to depart from his Parliament, and continue for many years, not only at a distance and in a disjunction from them, but at last in a declared posture of enmity and war against them, are so well known and fully stated in print, not to say written in characters of blood on both parts, that I shall only mention it, and re- fer to it, " This matter was not done in a corner. The appeals were solemn, and the decision, by the sword, was given by that God who, being the judge of the whole world, does right, and cannot do otherwise. " By occasion of these unhappy differences, thus happening, most great and unusual changes and revolutions, like an irresistible torrent, did break in upon us, not only to the disjointing that Parliamentary assembly among themselves (the head from the members, the co-ordinates from each other, and the Houses within them- selves), but to the creating such formed divis- ions among the people, and to the producing such a general state of confusion and disorder, that hardly any were able to know their duty, and with certainty to discern who were to com- mand and who to obey. All things seemed to be reduced, and in a manner resolved into their first elements and principles. " Nevertheless, as dark as such a state may be, the law of England leaves not the subjects thereof, as I humbly conceive, without some glimpses of direction what to do, in the cleav- ing to, and pursuing of which, I hope I shall not be accounted nor judged an offender, or if I am, I shall have the comfort and peace of my actions to support me in and under my greatest sufferings. " The king is acknowledged to have two ca- pacities in him : one a natural, as he is descend- ed of the blood royal of the realm ; and the body natural he hath in this capacity is of the crea- tion of almighty God, and mortal : the other is a politic capacity, in respect of which he is a body politic or mystical, framed by the policy of man, which is immortal and invisible. To the king, in both these capacities conjoined, al- legiance is due ; that is to say, to the natural person of the king, accompanied with his politic capacity, or the politic appropriated to the nat- ural. " The politic capacity of the king hath prop- erly no body nor soul, for it is framed by the policy of man. " In all indictments of treason, when any one does intend the death and destruction of the king, it must needs be understood of his natu- ral body, the other being immortal. The in- dictment therefore concludes, contra legiantia sua, debitum, against the duty of his allegiance, so that allegiance is due to the natural body. " Admitting, then, that thus by law allegiance is due to the king (as before recited), yet it is always to be presumed that it is to the king in conjunction with the Parliament, the law, and the kingdom, and not in disjunction from or opposition to them ; and that while a Parlia- ment is in being and cannot be dissolved but by the consent of the three estates. " This is therefore that which makes the mat- ter in question a new case, that never before happened in the kingdom, nor was possible to happen, unless there had been a Parliament constituted, as this was, unsubjected to ad- journment, prorogation, or dissolution, by the king's will. Where such a power is granted, and the co-ordinates thereupon disagree and fall out, such effects and consequents as these that have happened will but too probably fol- low ; and if either the law of nature or Eng- land inform not in such case, it will be impos- sible for the subjects to know their duty, when that power and command which ought to flow from three in conjunction comes to be exercised by all or either of them, singly and apart, or by two of them against one. " When new and never-heard-of changes do fall out in the kingdom, it is not like that the known and written laws of the land should be the exact rule, but the grounds and rules of jus- tice, contained and declared in the law of nature, are and ought to be a sanctuary in such cases, even by the very common law of England ; for thence originally spring the unerring rules that are set by the divine and eternal law for rule and subjection in all states and kingdoms." In a subsequent passage of this immortal de- fence he illustrated the emphatic differences which separated his case from that of almost every other, though he avowed the same devo- tion to the good cause common to all who had suffered for it, and proudly appealed to his vir- tuous and unstained conduct in his days of power. " The resolutions and votes for changing the government into a Commonwealth or free state were passed some weeks before my return to Parliament ; yet afterward, so far as I judg- ed the same consonant to the principles and grounds, declared in the laws of England, for upholding that political power which hath given the rise and introduction in this nation to mon- archy itself, by the account of ancient writers, I conceived it my duty, as the state of things did then appear to me, notwithstanding the said alteration made, to keep my station in Parlia- ment, and to perform my allegiance therein to king and kingdom, under the powers then reg- 336 BRITISH STATESMEN. nant, upon my principles before declared, yield- ing obedience to their authority and commands ; and having received trust, in reference to the safety and preservation of the kingdom, in those times of imminent danger both within and with- out, I did conscientiously hold myself obliged to be true and faithful therein. This I did upon a public account, not daring to quit my station in Parliament by virtue of my first writ. Nor was it for any private or gainful ends to profit myself or enrich my relations. This may ap- pear as well by the great debt I have contract- ed, as by the destitute condition my many chil- dren are in as to any provision made for them ; and I do publicly challenge all persons whatso- ever that can give information of any bribes or covert ways used by me during the whole time of my public acting. Therefore I hope it will be evident to the consciences of the jury that what I have done hath been upon principles of integ- rity, honour, justice, reason, and conscience, and not, as is suggested in the indictment, by instigation of the devil, or want of the fear of God. " A second great change that happened upon the constitution of the Parliament, and in them, of the very kingdom itself and the laws there- of, to the plucking up the liberties of it by the very roots, and the introducing of an arbitrary regal power, under the name of Protector, by force and the law of the sword, was the usur- pation of Cromwell, which I opposed from the beginning to the end, to that degree of suffer- ing, and with that constancy, that well near had cost me not only the loss of my estate, but of my very life, if he might have had his will, which a higher than he hindered ; yet I did re- main a prisoner, under great hardship, four months, in an island, by his orders. " Hereby that which I have asserted is most undeniably evident, as to the true grounds and ends of my actions all along, that were against usurpation on the one hand, or such extraordi- nary actings on the other as I doubted the laws might not warrant or indemnify, unless I were enforced thereunto by an overruling and inev- itable necessity." In conclusion, he put in these questions to the court : " 1. Whether the collective body of the Par- liament can be impeached of high treason 1 " 2. Whether any person acting by authority of Parliament can, so long as he acteth by that authority, commit treason 1 " 3. Whether matters acted by that authority can be called in question in an inferior court 1 " 4. Whether a king de jure, and out of pos- session, can have treason committed against him, he not being king de facto, and in actual possession 1 And prayed it might be argued by counsel. " 5. Whether matters done in Southwark, in another county, may be given in evidence to a Middlesex jury V All these masterly arguments to law and ap- peals to simplest reason were of course una- vailing. The court held that the Parliament was determined and dissolved by the death of Charles I. ; that the proceedings subsequent to that event, though conducted in the name of Parliament, were without any legal authority, and absolutely void ; that Charles II. became king de facto as well as de jure from the moment of his father's death ; and that all acts done with intent to exclude him from the exercise of his kingly office were overt acts of high trea- son. As to the objection respecting the coun- ties, the court held that any overt act tending to prove the compassing of the death of the king might be given in evidence, in whatever county that overt act had been committed. Vane, resolute and undaunted, still prayed the benefit of a bill of exceptions upon these points ; but this the court refused, being of opinion that the statute of Westminster 2, chap. 31, which allows of bills of exceptions, does not apply to a criminal case, but only to actions between party and party. He then proved, by a few witnesses, the utter falsehood of much of the crown evidence, and so closed his de- fence. The solicitor-general now rose, and made a most brutal speech. He openly declared " that the prisoner must be made a public sacrifice ;" and, in allusion to his urgent demands for the benefit of counsel, held this indecent language : " What counsel, does he think, would dare to speak for him in such a manifest case of trea- son, unless he could call down the heads of his fellow-traitors, Bradshaw or Cook, from the top of Westminster Hall ]" When the solicitor had ended, the court sent out the jury without saying a word on the merits of the case, in order that the effect of his harangue might not be impaired, and he was even permitted to hold a secret consultation with the foreman as they were leaving the box. After an absence of half an hour, the jury returned into court with a ver- dict of guilty, and Vane was carried back to the Tower. Some friends visited him in his cell immedi- ately after his return to it, and they were sur- prised to find him in cheerful spirits. Although he had been in court for more than ten hours, without any refreshment, and engaged for a large part of the time in the most earnest and energetic efforts of argument and oratory, he seemed, at the conclusion, to be clothed with new strength and animation of soul. They questioned him, and he explained the feeling thus : " He had all along," he said, " foreseen the prosecution which had then been consum- mated. He knew that the offences to be char- ged upon him would be such as would equally involve the whole nation, and that, in defend- ing himself, he might, therefore, be considered as defending the liberty and life of every Eng- lishman who had acted in the cause of the Com- monwealth. He had been deeply impressed with a sense of the obligation that rested upon him to make a defence worthy of the importance and magnitude of the occasion, and he had formed the resolution to avail himself of every security which the Constitution and laws of the country had provided to protect the subject against injustice and oppression. Actuated by these views, he had refused to plead to the in- dictment until he was assured he should have the benefit of counsel. When, on the morning of that day, he found that he had been deceived and betrayed, and was without counsel to ad- vise with him, aid him, and speak for him, and that the great cause of liberty and right was left for him alone to vindicate, he was oppress- SIR HENRY VANE. 337 ed with a sense of his incompetency to do it justice ; but in looking back, at the close of the day, upon the defence he had been enabled to make, his heart overflowed with devout grat- itude and joy. He blessed the Lord that he had been strengthened to maintain himself at the post which Providence had assigned him ; that arguments had been suggested to his mind ; that he had not been left to overlook any means of defence ; that his lips had been clothed with more than their usual eloquence, and that, by his gracious help, he had been enabled to dis- charge, to his own entire satisfaction, the duty he owed to his country and to the liberty of his countrymen. He had spoken that day, as he told the judges, ' not for his own sake only, but for theirs and for posterity.' He had done his best and his utmost for himself and for his fel- low-men ; his conscience was discharged, his obligations to society were fulfilled, and his mind was therefore at peace with itself, at peace with the world, and full of satisfaction, comfort, and joy."* The real murderers now appear upon the scene. We are able to uplift the curtain which has concealed them hitherto, and show them to the execration of posterity. The time had come for the redemption of the king's solemn promise that he would remit Vane's sentence should he be proved guilty. Instead of interfering to redeem, he interfered to whet the zeal of Clarendon. He thus wrote, the day after the trial, to his pious chancellor : " Hampton Court, Saturday, j Two in the afternoon. j " The relation that has been made to me of Sir Henry Vane's carriage yesterday in the Hall is the occasion of this letter, which, if I am rightly informed, was so insolent as to jus- tify all he had done, acknowledging no su- preme power in England but a Parliament, and many things to that purpose. You have had a true account of all ; and if he has given new occasion to be hanged, certainly he is too dan- gtrous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way. Think of this, and give me some account of it to-morrow, till when I have no more to say to you. C. R." On Wednesday, the llth of June, Vane was brought up to receive his sentence. After the usual formalities, he was called upon to answer " whether he had anything to say why sentence * I will subjoin a few details from Sikes : " On this day, liberty being given to friends to visit him in the Tower, he received them with very great cheerfulness and with a com- posed frame of spirit, having wholly given up himself to the will of God. It being told him by a friend that his death would be a loss to the people of God, he answered, that God would raise up other instruments to serve him and his people." And as to the king's promise : " Upon friends persuading him to make some submission to the king, and to endeavour the obtaining of his life, he said, if the king did not think himself more concerned for his honour and word than he did for his life, he was very willing- they should take it. ' Nay, I declare,' said he, ' that I value my life less in a good cause than the king can do his promise. I think the king himself is so sufficiently obliged to spare my life, that it is fitter for him to do it than myself to seek it.'" The following is extremely touching: " Mention be- ing made to him of the cruel proceedings against him, ' Alas !' said he, ' what ado they keep to make a poor crea- ture like his Saviour!' In discourse he said, ' If the shed- ding of my blood may prove an occasion of gathering to- gether in one the dispersed interests and remnant of the adherers to this cause, of whatever differing persuasions, I should think ten thousand lives, if I had them, well spent in such a service.' " of dtath should not be passed upon him." Vane rose upon this, " with an air which sufficiently indicated that he not only had something, but a good deal, to say, why sentence of death should not be passed upon him." He com- menced by observing that he had not yet heard the indictment read in Latin, and he claimed it as a right undeniable. This led to a sharp de- bate between him and the judges and lawyers, in which he finally prevailed. When the in- dictment had been read in Latin, he next claimed counsel to make exceptions to the in- dictment, according to law. After much dis- cussion this was overruled ; but he would not relinquish his claim until the court had dis- tinctly assumed the responsibility of refusing it. The next thing he offered was a bill of exceptions, which, in the want of counsel, he had framed himself. It had been offered on the day of his trial, and the judges had then refused to sign it. He now showed that the statute of Edward had never been repealed, and he adduced passages from Sir Edward Coke to prove that, if the justices should re- fuse to sign a bill of exceptions, they might be compelled by a writ to sign it, and other- wise proceeded against. This bold measure on the part of the prisoner confounded and staggered the court. " The statute was ex- plicit, the law clear, the right certain." But, after much evasion and disputation, the court refused to sign or receive it ; and on this point also Vane would not relinquish his claim, until the judges had, one by one, assumed the re- sponsibility of the refusal. The bill of exceptions prepared by Vane has been preserved. It is a paper of great ability, learning, and interest, setting forth all the par- ticulars in which he had been unjustly used, and the law violated in his person. In the course of it, he mentions several interesting circumstances, implying the baseness of Monk, and other matters.* * " On the day of my arraignment, an eminent person was heard to say I had forfeited my head by what I said. that day before ever 1 came to my defence. What that should be I know not, except my saying in open court,. ' sovereign power of Parliament,' which the attorney-gen- eral wrote down, after he had promised at my request no exception should be taken at words ; and whole volumes of lawyers' books pass up and down the nation with that title, 'sovereign power of Parliament.' Six moderate men, that were like to consider what they did before they would throw away my life, were summoned to be of my petty jury, which 1 the king's counsel hearing, wrote a letter to one of the sheriffs to unsummou them ; and a new list was made the night immediately before the day of verdict, on purpose that the prisoner might not have any knowledge of them till presented to his view and choice in Westminster Hall. Yet one of the forty-eight of this list (who said he would have starved himself before he would have found Sir Henry Vane guilty of treason) was never called, though he walked in,> the hall all the while. And in that hurry of those that compassed about, I being alone, stripped of all assistance, Sir William Roberts foreman, and Sir Christopher Alxly, were sworn by the court before I was aware ; so my chal- lenging them might seem a personal disobliging and exas- peration of them against me, after they were sworn and fixed. The solicitor also had a long whisper with the fore- man of the jury, in the court, before they went to verdict, telling him the prisoner must be a sacrifice for the nation, &c. ; suddenly after which I am here called to receive my sentence. After the day of my trial, the judges went to Hampton Court." The foregoing is from a paper he had prepared in arrest of judgment. This also is an extract from his most able and: convincing argument on the law of treason : " The law is made for the benefit and security of the sub- ject, whom the law requires not to examine the right of tovereignty. Nor is the danger less under one government BRITISH STATESMEN. Vane's next step was to request the reading of the petition of the Parliament in favour of his life, and the king's promise, in reply, not to take it away. After much dispute he prevailed on this point, and the proceedings in reference to that petition were read in open court. He then reminded the court, who had begun to show signs of impatience under his searching and effectual management of his cause, that there were certain questions of law which must be settled before sentence could be passed upon him. He wished to argue them, by counsel if permitted, if not in person, before their lord- ships. He proceeded to instance them: " 1. Whether a Parliament were accountable to any inferior court. 2. Whether the king, being out of possession " The court suddenly broke in upon him at this point, and, with considerable vehemence, declared that " the king was never out of pos- session." Sir Henry instantly replied, with great coolness, that if the king was never out of possession, the indictment against him must inev- itably fall to the ground ; for the charge it alleged was, " that he endeavoured to keep out his maj- esty." The judges now showed themselves highly excited ; and Vane, after again demanding to be heard in assigning his reasons for an arrest of judgment, and after having exhausted the various provisions of the English law in favour of the security of the subject, desisted from all farther attempts. As he folded up his papers, he appealed from that tribunal to the righteous judgment of God, who, he reminded his judges, would judge them as well as him, and he con- cluded by expressing his willingness to die upon the testimony he had borne.* As he uttered these last words, Sergeant than another. The statute is, for securing the subjects from all dormant titles, that they may safely pay their allegiance when they receive protection, and that they may not be in danger of being destroyed by two powers at the same time. For that power which is supreme and de facto will be obeyed, and make it treason to do otherwise, be it right or wrong And if the subject be at the same time in danger of commit- ting treason against the power de jure, then is he in a mis- erable condition and state of unavoidable necessity, which is provided against by the laws of the land. Otherwise, if he be loyal to the king de jure, he shall be hanged by the king de facto ; and if he be faithful to the king de facto, he shall die by the king de jure, when he recovers possession. .Against this it was that the statute of 11 Henry VII. was provided, in the difference betwixt the two houses of York .and Lancaster. My case is either the same with that, and then I desire the benefit of that statute ; or else it is new, and then I desire, as is provided 25 Edward III., that it be .referred to the Parliament." And lastly (one of these points respecting the indictment 'he subsequently, as I have said, achieved) : " I have not been permitted to have a copy or sight of the indictment, nor so much as to hear it read in Latin, which is the original record of the court, and ought to be the foundation of their whole proceeding with me. I often de- sired these things of the court. I was put (after two years' close imprisonment) to answer for my life to a long indict- ment, read in English, which, whether it were rightly trans- Jated, how should I know, that might not hear the original irecord in Latin ? Counsel also, learned in the law, were denied me, though pressed for by me again and again before I pleaded. And had they been granted, what could they have said as to defects of law in the indictment, unless they might have had a copy of it beforehand ? My trial for .life was huddled up. The jury, as was told me, must not eat or drink till they had done their work: but why such haste and precipitancy for a man's life, that is more than meat or estate, when you can let civil causes about men's estates depend many years t If an erroneous judgment be passed in such matters, it is reversible ; but if innocent blood be spilled, it cannot be gathered up again." * Upham'a Life. Keeling, who had manifested great passion du- ring the trial, exclaimed, " So you may, sir, in good time, by the grace of God." This lawyer had been very abusive on several occasions, and Vane had rebuked his rudeness. Once, for instance, while the latter was reading a passage from a volume of the statutes, Keeling, wish- ing to look at the book, attempted rather rudely to snatch it from his hands. Vane withheld the volume, remarking, "When I employ you as my counsel, sir, I will find you books." I close the account of this most memorable trial with one portion of the grand appeal which Vane had taken occasion to make on this last day, not to his judges, but to posterity. The first has reference to the old charge of having violated the Covenant. " And in the asserting and adhering unto the right of this highest sovereign, as stated in the Covenant before mentioned, the Lords and Commons jointly before the year 1648, and the Commons alone afterward, to the very times charged in the indictment, did manage the war and late differences within these kingdoms. And whatever defections did happen by apostates, hypocrites, and time-serving worldlings, there was a party among them that continued firm, sincere, and chaste unto that cause to the last, and loved it better than their very lives, of which number I am not ashamed to profess myself to be ; not so much admiring the form and words of the Covenant, as the righteous and holy ends therein express- ed, and the true sense and meaning thereof, which I have reason to know. " This general and public case of the king- dom is so well known by the declarations and actions that have passed on both sides, that I need but name it, since this matter was not done in a corner, but frequently contended for in the high places of the field, and written even with characters of blood. And out of the bowels of these public differences and disputes doth my particular case arise, for which I arn called into question ; but, admitting it come to my lot to stand single in the witness I am to give to this glorious cause, and to be left alone, as in a sort I am, yet, being upheld with the authority be- fore asserted, and keeping myself in union and conjunction therewith, I am not afraid to bear my witness to it in this great presence, nor to seal it with my blood, if called thereunto ; and I am so far satisfied in my conscience and un- derstanding, that it neither is nor can be trea- son, either against the law of nature or the law of the land, either malum per se or malum pro- hibitum ; that, on the contrary, it was the duty I owed to God the universal king, and to his majesty that now is, and to the Church and people of God in these nations, and to the in- nocent blood of all that have been slain in this quarrel. Nothing, it seems, will now serve, unless by the condemnation passed upon my person they be rendered to posterity murderers and rebels, and that upon record in a court of justice in Westminster Hall. And this would inevitably have followed, if I had voluntarily given up this cause without asserting their and my innocency, by which I should have pulled that blood upon my own head, which now I am sure must lie at the door of others, and, in par- ticular, of those that knowingly and precipi- tately shall imbrue their hands in my innocent SIR HENRY VANE. 339 Wood, under whatever form or pretext of jus- tice. " My lords, if I have been free and plain with you in this matter, I beg your pardon ; for it concerns me to be so, and something more than ordinarily urgent, where both my estate and life are in such imminent peril ; nay, more than my life the concerns of thousands of lives are in it, not only of those that are in their graves al- ready, but of all posterity in time to come. Had nothing been in it but the care to preserve my own life, I needed not have stayed in England, but might have taken my opportunity to have withdrawn myself into foreign parts, to provide for my own safety ; nor needed I to have been put upon pleading, as now I am, for an arrest of judgment, but might have watched upon ad- vantages that were visible enough to me in the managing of my trial, if I had consulted only the preservation of my life or estate. " No, my lords, I have otherwise /earned Christ than to fear them that can but kill the body, and have no more that they can do. I have also taken notice, in the little reading that I have had of history, how glorious the very heathens have rendered their names to posterity in the con- tempt they have showed of death (when the laying down of their life has appeared to be their duty), from the love which they have owed to their country." The appropriate answer of the judges was judgment of death." They sentenced him to execution on Tower Hill.* The space between Wednesday and Satur- day was granted to him wherein to prepare for death. He passed it chiefly in exhortations and prayers with his wife and children, who were * It is worth subjoining here the opinions of two of the most eminent of English lawyers on this infamous judg- ment. " When," says Blackstone, " a usurper is in pos- session, the subject is excused and justified in obeying and giving him assistance ; otherwise, under a usurpation, no man could be safe, if the lawful prince had a right to hang him for obedience to the powers in being, as the usurper would certainly do for disobedience. Nay, far- ther, as the mass of the people are imperfect judges of title (of which, in all cases, possession is primd facie evidence), the law compels no man to yield obedience to that prince whose right is, by want of possession, rendered uncertain and disputable, till Providence shall think fit to interpose in his favour, and decide the ambiguous claim ; and, there- fore, till he is entitled to such allegiance by possession, no treason can be committed against him." Mr. Justice Foster takes- the same view of the statute, and maintains that when the throne is full, any person out of possession, but claiming title, be his pretensions what they may, is no king within the statute of treason. " I am aware," he adds, " of the judgment of the court of King's Bench in the case of Sir Henry Vane : that King Charles II., though kept out of the exercise of the kingly office, yet was still a king, both de facto and de jure, and that all acts done to the keeping him out were high treason." The case of Sir Henry Vane, he then remarks, was u very singular case ; and he concludes with these words, which are, in truth, conclusive on the question : " I will therefore say nothing on the merits of the question more than this, that the rule laid down by the court involved in the guilt of treason every man in the king- dom who had acted in a public situation under a govern dictated." It is an historical fact, that Lord-chief-justice Hale, when of high rank at the bar, took the engagement " to be true to the Commonwealth of England without a king or House of Lords." This, as Mr. Justice Foster re- marks, was plainly, in the sense of those who imposed it, an engagement for abolishing kingly government, or at least for supporting the abolition of it ; and with regard to those who took it, it might, upon the principles of Sir Henry Vane's case, have been easily improved into on overt act of treason against King Charles II. allowed to remain with him.* At the hour of midnight previous to the day of his execution, the sheriff's chaplain came to his cell with the warrant for his execution. He related the cir- cumstance to his friends in the morning, and said, " There was no dismalness at all in it. After the receipt of the message I slept four hours so soundly, that the Lord hath made it sufficient for me ; and now I am going to sleep my last, after which I shall need sleep no more." Early that forenoon his wife, children, and friends were all assembled in the prison. Many and most impressive were his entreaties to them all that they should not mourn for him. " I know a day of deliverance for Sion will come. Some may think the manner of it may be as before, with confused noise of the war- rior, and garments rolled in blood ; but I rather think it will be with burning and fuel of fire. The Lord will send a fire that shall burn in the consciences of his enemies, a worm that shall not die, and a fire that shall not go out. Man they may fight against, but this they cannot fight against. And why," said he, speaking before all the company, " should we be frighted with death 1 I bless the Lord I am so far from be- ing affrighted with death, that I find it rather shrink from me than I from it." Then, kissing his children, he said, " The Lord bless you he will be a better Father to you I must now forget that ever I knew you. I can willingly leave this place and outward enjoyments for those I shall meet with hereafter in a better country. I have made it my business to ac- quaint myself with the society of heaven. Be not you troubled, for I am going home to my Father." Subsequently he prayed with them ; and these were passages of his prayer : " I die in the certain faith and foresight that this cause, shall have its resurrection in my death. My blood will be the seed sown, by which this glo- rious cause will spring up, which God will speed- ily raise. Then, laying down this earthly tab- ernacle is no more but throwing down the man- tle, by which a double portion of the Spirit will fall on the rest of God's people. And if by my being offered up, the faith of many be confirm- ed, and others convinced and brought to the knowledge of the truth, how can I desire great- er honour and matter of rejoicing 1 As for that glorious cause, which God hath owned in these nations and will own, in which so many righteous souls have lost their lives, and so many have been engaged by my countenance and encouragement, shall I now give it up, and so declare them all rebels and murderers 1 No, I will never do it ; that precious blood shall never lie at my door. As a testimony and seal to the justness of that quarrel, I leave now my life upon it, as a legacy to all the honest in- * From his exhortations to his children I may take the following : " Live in the spirit and walk in the faith of our father Abraham. Listen to the experiences of your father in this dying hour and season of darkness, who can and doth here give a good report of that heavenly and better country he is now going to the more free and full enjoyment of. In the midst of these his dark circumstances, his enjoyments and refreshings from the presence of the Lord do more abound than ever." " Regard not the reproaches that are fallen on your father. Say or do men what they will, Abraham's faith will find the blessing Abraham found, in whomsoever it is." 340 BRITISH STATESMEN. terest in these three nations. Ten thousand deaths rather than defile my conscience, the chastity and purity of which I value beyond all this world ! I would not for ten thousand lives part with this peace and satisfaction I have in my own heart, both in holding to the purity of my principles and to the righteousness of this good cause, and to the assurance I have that God is now fulfilling all these great and pre- cious promises in order to what he is bringing forth. Although I see it not, yet I die in the faith and assured expectation of it." Again : "Thou hast promised that thou wilt be a mouth to thy people in the hour of trial ; for thou hast required us to forbear the preparatory agitations of our own minds, because it is not we that are to speak, but the Spirit of our heav- enly Father that speaketh in us, in such sea- sons. In what seasons more, Lord, than when thou callest for the testimony of thy servants to be writ in characters of blood 1 Show thy- self in a poor weak worm, by enabling him to stand against all the power of thy enemies. There hath been a battle fought with garments rolled in blood, in which (upon solemn appeals on both sides) thou didst own thy servants, though, through the spirit of hypocrisy and apostacy that hath sprung up among us, these nations have been thought unworthy any longer to en- joy the fruits of that deliverance. THOU HAST THEREFORE ANOTHER DAY OF DECISION YET TO COME ! Such a battle is to begin, and be carri- ed on by the faith of thy people ; yea, is in some sort begun by the faith of thy poor ser- vant, that is now going to seal thy cause with his blood. Oh that this decision of thine may remarkably show itself in thy servant at this time, by his bold testimony while sealing it with his blood ! We know not what interrup- tions may attend thy servant ; but, Lord, let thy power carry him in a holy triumph over all difficulties." He concluded thus : " My hourglass is now turned up, the sand runs out apace, and it is my happiness that death doth not surprise me. It is grace and love thou dost show thy poor servant, that thou hastenest put his time, and lettest him see it runs out with joy and peace. Little do my en- emies know (as eager as they are to have me gone). how soon their breaths may be drawn in But let thy Servant see death shrink under him. "What a glorious sight will this be, in the pres- ence of many witnesses, to have death shrink under him, which he acknowledgeth to be only by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, whom the bands of death could not hold down ! Let that spirit enter into us that will set us again upon our feet, and let us be led into that way that the enemies may not know how to deal with us. Oh, what abjuring- of light, what treachery, what meanness of spirit has appeared in this day ! What is the matter 1 Oh ! death is the matter. Lord, strengthen the faith and heart of thy poor servant to undergo this day's work with joy and gladness, and bear it on the heart and consciences of his friends that have known and seen him, that they also may say, the Lord is in him of a truth. Oh that thy ser- vant could speak any blessing to these three nations ! Let thy remnant be gathered to thee. Prosper and relieve that poor handful that are in prisons and bonds, that they may be raised up and trample death under foot. Let my poor family that is left desolate let my dear wife and children be taken into thy care ; be thou a husband, father, and master to them ; let the spirit of those that love me be drawn out to- wards them. Let a blessing be upon these friends that are here at this time ; strengthen them ; let them find love and grace in thine eyes, and be increased with the increasings of God t Show thyself a loving Father to us all, and do for us abundantly above and beyond all that we can ask or think, for Jesus Christ his sake." Sikes was present at the last scene of all, and has described the triumphal progress (for such it was) from the Tower to the scaffold. " Then one of the sheriff's men came in and told him there was no sled to come, but he was to walk-on foot. "Then Mr. Sheriff coming into the room, was friendly saluted by him, and after a little pause communicated a prohibition that he said he had received, which was, that he must not speak anything against his majesty or the gov- ernment. His answer to this he himself re- lates on the scaffold. He farther told Mr. Sher- iff he was ready; but the sheriff said he was not, nor could be this half hour yet. ' Then, sir, it rests on you, not on me (said Sir Henry), for I have been ready this half hour.' Then the sheriff, at his request, promised him his ser- vants should attend him on the scaffold and be civilly dealt with, neither of which was per- formed ; for (notwithstanding this promise) they were beaten and kept off the scaffold, till he said, ' What ! have I never a servant here 1' " After this, one of the sheriff's men came and told him there must be a sled ; to which Sir Henry replied, ' Any way, how they please, for I long to be at home, to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is best of all.' He went very cheerfully and readily down the stairs from his chamber, and seated himself on the sled (friends and servants standing about him) ; then he was forthwith drawn away towards the scaffold. As he went, some in the Tower (prisoners as well as others) spake to him, pray- ing the Lord to go with him. And after he was out of the Tower, from the tops of houses and out of windows, the people used such means and ges- tures as might best discover, at a distance, their re- spects and love to him, crying aloud, 'The Lord go with you ; the great God of heaven and earth appear in you and for you ;' whereof he took what notice he was capable in those cir- cumstances, in a cheerful manner accepting their respect, putting off his hat and bowing to them. Being asked several times how he did by some about him, he answered, ' Never bet- ter in all my life.' Another replied, ' How should he do ill that suffers for so glorious a cause T To which a tall black man said, ' Many suffered for a better cause.' ' And many for a worse,' said Sir Henry; wishing 'that when they came to seal their better cause,' as he call- ed it, ' with their blood, as he was now going to seal his, they might not find themselves de- ceived. And as to this cause,' said he, * it hath given life in death to all the owners of it, and suf- ferers for it.' SIR HENRY VANE. 341 " Being passed within the rails on Towe Hill, there were many loud acclamations of th people, crying out, ' The Lord Jesus go wit your dear soul,' &c. One told him that wa the most glorious seat he ever sat on. He an swered, ' It is so indeed,' and rejoiced exceed ingly. " Being come to the scaffold, he cheerfullj ascends; and being up, after the crowd on th scaffold was broken in two pieces to make waj for him, he showed himself to the people on th front of the scaffold with that noble and Chris tian-like deportment, that he rather seemed a looker-on than the person concerned in the ex ecution, insomuch that it was difficult to per suade many of the people that he was the pris oner. But when they knew that the gentleman in the black suit and cloak, with a scarlet silk waistcoat (the victorious colour) showing itself at the breast, was the prisoner, they generallj admired that noble and great presence he ap peared with. ' How cheerful he is !' said some 4 He does not look like a dying man !' sai( others ; with many like speeches, as astonishec with that strange appearance he shined forth in " Then, silence being commanded by the sheriff, lifting up his hands and his eyes towards Heaven, and afterward resting his hand on the rails, and taking a very serious, composed, and majestic view of the great multitude before and around him, he spake." His address was a vigorous statement of all he had urged on his trial, and all the injustice he had suffered. When he was describing the conduct of the judges, however, in refusing to seal his bill of exceptions, Sir John Robinson, lieutenant of the Tower, who attended the exe- cution for no other purpose than to prevent any dangerous impression being made by the pris- oner, interrupted him, saying, in a most furious manner, which gave great dissatisfaction even to the Loyalists who were present, " Sir, you must not go on thus you must not rail at the judges ; it is a lie, and I am here to testify that it is a lie." Vane replied, " God will judge be- tween you and me in this matter. I speak but matter of fact, and cannot you bear that ? 'Tis evident the judges have refused to sign my bill of exceptions." The trumpeters were then or- dered to approach nearer to the prisoner and blow in his face, to prevent his being heard ; at which Sir Henry, lifting up his hand, and then laying it on his breast, said, " What mean you, gentlemen 1 Is this your usage of me ? Did you use all the rest so 1 I had even done (as to that), could you have been patient ; but, see- ing you cannot bear it, I shall only say this, that, whereas the judges have refused to seal that with their hands that they have done, I am come to seal that with my blood that I have done." He then resumed his address to the people, and proceeded to detail some of the circum- stances of his life. Sikes's * report,' with its interruptions, is too striking to be omitted. He was himself present on the scaffold, and held one of the " note books" referred to : " ' Gentlemen, Fellow-countrymen, and Chris- tians, When Mr. Sheriff came to me this morn- ing, and told me he had received a command from the king that I should say nothing reflect- ing upon his majesty or the government, I an- swered, I should confine and order my speech, as near as I could, so as to be least offen- sive, saving my faithfulness to the trust re- posed in me, which I must ever discharge with a good conscience unto death ; for I ever valued a man according to his faithfulness to the trust re- posed in him, even on his majesty's behalf, in the late controversy. A nd if you dare trust my dis- cretion, Mr. Sheriff, I shall do nothing but what becomes a good Christian and an Englishman ; and so I hope I shall be hereafter civilly dealt with. 44 ' I stand here this day to resign up my spirit into the hands of that God that gave it me. Death is but a little word ; but 'tis a great work to die. It is to be but once done ; and after this cometh the judgment, even the judgment of the great God, which it concerns us all to prepare for. And by this act I do receive a discharge, once for all, out of prison, even the prison of the mortal body. In all respects wherein I have been concerned and engaged as to the public, my design hath been to accomplish good things for these nations.' Then, lifting up his eyes and spreading his hands, he said, 4 1 do here ap- peal to the great God of heaven and all this as- sembly, or any other persons, to show wherein I have defiled my hands with any man's blood or estate, or that I have sought myself in any public capacity or place I have been in." 41 ' The cause was three times stated : 44 4 1. In the Remonstrance of the House of Commons. ;< ' II. In the Covenant, the Solemn League and Covenant ' ;< Upon this the trumpets again sounded, the sheriff catched at the paper in his hand, and Sir John Robinson, who at first had acknowl- edged that he had nothing to do there, wishing the sheriff to see to it, yet found himself some- thing to do now, furiously calling for the wri- ter's books, and saying, ' He treats of rebellion, and you write it.' Hereupon six note-books were delivered up. "The prisoner was very patient and com- josed under all these injuries and soundings of .he trumpets several times in his face, only saying, ' 'Twas hard he might not be suffered to speak ; but,' says he, ' my usage from man is no harder than was my Lord and Master's ; and all that will live his life this day must ex- >ect hard dealing from the worldly spirit.' The rumpets sounded again to hinder his being heard. Then again Robinson and two or three others endeavoured to snatch the paper out of ir Henry's hand, but he kept it for a while, now and then reading part of it ; afterward, earing it in pieces, he delivered it to a friend ehind him, who was presently forced to deliver t to the sheriff. Then they put their hands into 'is pockets for papers, as was pretended, which red great confusion and dissatisfaction to the pectators, seeing a prisoner so strangely han- led in his dying words. This was exceeding- y remarkable, that in the midst of all this dis- rder, the prisoner himself was observed to be f the most constant composed spirit and coun- nance, which he throughout so excellently manifested, that a Royalist swore ' he died like prince.' " What the feelings of the people may have een at this instant, an eloquent writer has at- 343 BRITISH STATESMEN. tempted to describe. " As might have been expected, and as the government had most seriously apprehended, a great impression had by this time been made by the prisoner upon the vast multitude that surrounded him. The people remembered his career of inflexible vir- tue and patriotism. They had been roused to indignation by the treatment he had received at the hands of Cromwell and of the restored monarch. His trial had revived the memory of his services and sufferings. The fame of his glorious defence had rung far and wide through the city and nation. The enthusiasm with which he had been welcomed by weeping and admiring thousands as he passed from prison to Tower Hill ; the sight of that noble countenance ; the serene, and calm, and almost divine composure of his deportment ; his visi- ble triumph over the fear of death and the mal- ice of his enemies all these influences, brought at once to bear upon their minds, and concen- trated and heightened by the powers of an elo- quence that was the wonder of his contempora- ries, had produced an effect which, it was evi- dent, could not, with safety to the government, be permitted to be wrought any higher." Vane, meanwhile, had turned aside, and sim- ply observing, " It is a bad cause which cannot bear the words of a dying man," knelt upon the scaffold, and for a few minutes busied himself in prayer. Sikes resumes his description : " Before the stroke, he spake to this effect : ' I bless the Lord, who hath accounted me wor- thy to suffer for his name. Blessed be the Lord that I have kept a conscience void of of- fence to this day. 1 bless the Lord I have not deserted the righteous cause for which I suffer.' But his very last words of all at the block were as follows : ' Father, glorify thy servant in the sight of men, that he may glorify thee in the discharge of his duty to thee and to his coun- try.' " In an instant, as Vane stretched out his arms, the executioner, at a single blow, discharged his dreadful office ; and one of the greatest and purest of men that ever walked the earth, to adorn and elevate his kind, had left the world, which was not worthy of him. Sikes has a remark on the result of this infa- mous murder, which is as striking as it is true : " Cromwell's victories are swallowed up of death : Vane has swallowed up death itself into victory. Hevlet fall his mantle, left his body behind him, that he had worn nine-and-forty years, and is gone to keep his everlasting jubi- lee in God's rest. It is all day with him now no night or sorrow more no prisons or death. He is gone from a place where so much as the righteousness of man cannot be endured. He is gone to a place where the righteousness of God is the universal garb of all the inhabitants. He is gone to that better city, the New Jerusa- lem. He had served his generation in his mor- tal body, done his work, and was glad to fall asleep, and go look for his reward somewhere else. You see what this ungrateful world has afforded him for all his kindness reproach, prisons, and death : he had need have other returns somewhere. Great is his reward iu heaven. " Well ! they have done all they can do to this lover of his country and the laws thereof. But I would willingly have their understand- ings disabused in one point. Let them not think they have conquered him. They knew him not. He judged his judges at the bar. He triumphed over his executioners on the scaf- fold, R. and the rest. Such a public execution was more eligible than to have lingered out some small time in a prison, as a condemned person, liable to any arbitrary after-claps, on any future motion or pretence of motion in our troubled sea. He had more ease ; God more glory ; the honest party of the nation and their just cause more advantage ; and, why may I not say, his most intimate friends and dearest relations more comfort, in this way of his de- liverance, once for all !" That "just cause" was indeed once more el- evated by the death of Vane, and his own sub- lime hopes abundantly realized. The govern- ment of Charles II. scarcely ever recovered the shock his genius and his sufferings had given them. Burnet says " that it was generally thought the government had lost more than it gained by his death." Pepys, a thorough-paced Loyalist, witnessed the execution, and says that the people regarded it as a " miracle," and that it was a most impressive spectacle. He re- marks farther, " that the king lost more by that man's death than he will get again for a good while ;" and expresses the opinion that it had given the bishops a blow from which they would never recover. Vane's eldest son, who bore his name, and had been reinstated in his inheritance and hon- ours, was sworn into William's privy council at that revolution of 1688 which banished for- ever from England the detested family of the Stuarts^ APPENDIX TO THE LIFE OF SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER. A. A Heating Question propounded and resolved, upon Occasion of the late public and seasonable Call to Humiliation, in order to Love and Union among the honest Party, and with a Desire to apply Balm to the \Vound before it become in- curable. THE question propounded is, What possibility doth yet remain (all things considered) of reconciling and uniting the dissenting judgments of honest men within the three na- tions, who still pretend to agree in the spirit, justice, and reason of the same good cause, and what is the means to effect this? Answ. If it be taken for granted (as, on the magistrate's part, from the ground inviting the people of England and Wales to a solemn day of fasting and humiliation, may not be despaired of) that all the dissenting parties agree still in the spirit and reason of the same righteous cause, the reso- lution seems very clear in the affirmative ; arguing not only for a possibility, but a great probability hereof; nay, a ne- cessity daily approaching nearer and nearer to compel it, if any or all of the dissenting parties intend or desire to be safe from the danger of the common enemy, who is not out of work, though at present much out of sight and observation. The grounds of this are briefly these : First, the cause hath still the same goodness in it as ever, and is, or ought to be, as much in the hearts of all good people that have ad- hered to it: it is not less to be valued now, than when nei- ther blood nor treasure were thought too dear to carry it on, and hold rt up from sinking ; and hath the same omnipotent God, whose great name is concerned in it, as well as his people's outward safety and welfare ; who knows, also, how to give a revival to it when secondary instruments and vis- ible means fail or prove deceitful. Secondly, The persons concerned and engaged in this cause are still the same as before, with the advantage of being more tried, more inured to danger and hardship, and more endeared to one another, by their various and great experiences, as well of their own hearts as their fellow- brethren. These are the same still in heart and desire after the same thing, which is, that, being freed out of the hands of their enemies, they may serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life. As they have had this great good finally in their aims (if in the maintenance of a war, when all other means, first es- sayed, proved ineffectual. In the management of this war, it pleased God, the righteous Judge (who was appealed to in the controversy), so to bless the counsel and forces of the persons concerned and engaged in this cause, as in the end to make them absolute and complete conquerors over their common enemy ; and by this means they had added unto the natural right which was in them before (and so declared by their representatives in Parliament assembled), the right of conquest, for the strengthening of their just claim to be governed by national councils, and successive representa- tives of their own election and setting up. This they once thought they had been in possession of, when it was rati- fied, as it were, in the blood of the last king. But of late a great interruption having happened unto them in their for- mer expectations, and, instead thereof, something rising up that seems rather accommodated to the private and selfish in- terest of a particular part (in comparison) than truly ade- quate to the common good and concern of the whole body engaged in this cause : hence it is that this compacted body is now falling asunder into many dissenting parts (a thing not unforeseen nor unhoped for by the common enemy all along as their last relief) ; and if these breaches be not timely healed, and the offences (before they take too deep root) re- moved, they will certainly work more to the advantage of the common enemy than any of their own unwearied endeav- ours and dangerous contrivances in foreign parts put all to- gether. A serious discussion and sober enlarging upon these grounds will quickly give an insight into the state of the question, and naturally tend to a plain and familiar resolu- tion thereof. That which is first to be opened is the nature and good- ness of the cause ; which, had it not carried in it its own evi- dence, would scarce have found so many of the people of God adherers to it within the three nations, contributing either their counsels, their purses, their bodily pains, or their affections and prayers, as a combined strength ; with- out which, the military force alone would have been little available to subdue the common enemy, and restore to this whole body their just natural rights in civil things, and true freedom in matters of conscience. The two last-mentioned particulars, rightly stated, will evidence sufficiently the nature and goodness of this cause. For the first of these, that is to say, the natural right, which the whole party of honest men adhering to this cause are by success of their arms restored unto, fortified in, and may claim as their undeniable privilege, that righteously cannot be taken from them, nor they debarred from bringing into exercise, it lies in this : They are to have and enjoy the freedom (by way of duti- ful compliance and condescension from all the parts and members of this society) to set up meet persons in the place of supreme judicature and authority among them, whereby they may have the use and benefit of the choicest light and wisdom of the nation that they are capable to call forth, for the rule and government under which they will live ; and through the orderly exercise of such measure of wisdom and counsel as the Lord in this way shall please to give unto them, to shape and form all subordinate actings and admin- istrations of rule and government so as shall best answer the public welfare and safety of the whole. This, in substance, is the right and freedom contained in the nature and goodness of the cause wherein the honest party have been engaged ; for in this all the particulars of our civil right and freedom are comprehended, conserved in, and derived from their proper root ; in which, while they grow, they will ever thrive, flourish, and increase ; where- as, on the contrary, if there be never so many fair branchei of liberty planted on the root of a private and selfish inter- est, they will not long prosper, but must, within a little time, wither and degenerate into the nature of that where- into they are planted ; and hence, indeed, sprung the evil of that government which rose in and with the Norman Conquest. The root and bottom upon which it stood was not public interest, but the private lust and will of the conqueror, who by force of arms did at first detain the right and freedom which was and is due to the whole body of the people ; for whose safety and good, government itself is ordained by God, not for the particular benefit of the rulers, as a distinct and private interest of their own ; which yet, for the most part, is not only preferred before the common good, but up- held in opposition thereunto. And as at first the conqueror did, by violence and force, deny this freedom to the people, which was their natural right and privilege, so he and his successors all along lay as bars and impediments to the true national interest and public good, in the very national coun- cils and assemblies themselves, which were constituted m such a manner as most served for the upholding of the pri- vate interest of their families ; and this being challenged by them as their prerogative, was found by the people assem- bled in Parliament most unrighteous, burdensome, and de- structive to their liberty. And when they once perceived that by this engine all their just rights were like to be de- stroyed especially (being backed, as it was, with the power of the militia, which the late king, for that purpose, had assumed into his hands, and would not, upon the people's application to him in Parliament, part with into the hands of that great council, who were best to be intrusted with the nation's safety), this was the ground of the quarrel, upon a civil account between the king and his party, and the whole body of adherents to the cause of the people's true liberty ; whereof this short touch hath been given, and shall suffice for the opening of the first branch of this clause. The second branch which remains briefly to be handled is that which also upon the grounds of natural right is to be laid claim unto, but distinguishes itself from the former as it respects a more heavenly and excellent object wherein, the freedom is to be exercised and enjoyed, that is to say, matters of religion, or that concern the service and worship of God. Unto this freedom the nations of the world have right and title by the purchase of Christ's blood, who, by virtue of his. death and resurrection, is become the sole Lord and Ruler 344 BRITISH STATESMEN. in and over the conscience ; for to this end Christ died, rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living, and that every one might give an account of him- self, in all matters of God's worship, unto God and Christ alone, as their own Master, unto whom they stand or fall in judgment, and are not in these things to be oppressed, or brought before the judgment-seats of men. For why shouldst thou set at naught thy brother in matters of his faith and conscience, and herein intrude into the proper office of Christ, since we are all to stand at the judgment-seat of Christ, whether governors or governed, and by his decision only are capable of being declared with certainty to be in the right or in the wrong ? By virtue, then, of this supreme law, sealed and confirmed in the blood of Christ unto all men (whose souls he chal- lenges a propriety in, to bring under his inward rule in the service and worship of God), it is that all magistrates are to fear and forbear intermeddling with giving rule or imposing in those matters. They are to content themselves with what is plain in their commission, as ordained of God to be his minister unto men for good, while they approve themselves the doers of that which is good in the sight of men, and whereof earthly and worldly judicatures are capable to make a clear and perfect judgment : in which case the magistrate is to be for praise and protection to them. In like manner, he is to be a minister of terror and revenge to those that do evil in matters of outward practice, converse, and dealings in the things of this life between man and man, forthe cause whereof the judicatures of men are appointed and set up. But to exceed these limits, as it is not safe nor warrantable for the magistrate (in that he who is higher than the high- est, regards, and will show himself displeased at it), go neither is it good for the people, who hereby are nourished up in a biting, devouring, wrathful spirit one against an- other, and are found transgressors of that royal law which forbids us to do that unto another which we would not have them do unto us, were we in their condition. This freedom, then, is of high concern to be had and en- joyed, as well for the magistrate's sake as for the people's common good ; and it consists, as hath been said, in the magistrate forbearing to put forth the power of rule and co- ercion in things that God hath exempted out of his com- mission : so that all care requisite for the people's obtaining this may be exercised with great ease, if it be taken in its proper season, and that this restraint he laid upon the su- preme power before it be erected, as a fundamental consti- tution, among others, upon which the free consent of the people is given, to have the persons brought into the exer- cise of supreme authority over them and on their behalf; and if, besides, as a farther confirmation hereunto, it be ac- knowledged the voluntary act of the ruling power, when once brought into a capacity of acting legislatively, that herein they are bound up, and judge it their duty so to be (both in reference to God, the institutor of magistracy, and in reference to the whole body by whom they are intrusted), this great blessing will hereby be so well provided for that we shall have no cause to fear, as it may be ordered. By this means a great part of the outward exercise of anti- Christian tyranny and bondage will be plucked up by the Yery roots, which, till some such course be held in it, will be always apt to renew and sprout out afresh, under some new form or refined appearances, as by late years' experi- ence we have been taught : for, since the fall of the bishops and persecuting presbyteries, the same spirit is apt to arise in the next sort of clergy that can get the ear of the magis- trate, and pretend to the keeping and ruling the conscience of the governors, although this spirit and practice hath been all along decried by the faithful adherents to this cause as a most sore oppression and insufferable yoke of bondage, most unrighteously kept up overthe consciences of the peo- ple, and therefore judged by them most needful to be taken out of the way; and in this matter the present governors have been willing very eminently to give their testimony in their public declarations, however in practice there is much of grievance yet found among us, though more, in probabil- ity, from the officiousness of subordinate ministers than any clear purpose or design of the chief in power. Having thus showed what the true freedom is, in both the branches of it, that shines forth in the righteous cause, wherein the good people of these nations have so deeply en- gaged, it will not be improper, in the next place, to consider two particnlars more that give still farther light into the matter in-question, as, first, the qualifications of the persons that have adhered to this cause ; secondly, the capacity wherein they have been found from time to time carrying it on. As to their qualification, they have, in the general, dis- tinguished themselves and been made known by a forward- ness to assist and own the public welfare and good of the nation, for the attaining and preserving the just rights and lilwrties thereof, asserted and witnessed unto in the true stating of this cause, according to the two branches thereof already spoken to. They have showed themselves, upon all occasions, desirers and lovers of true freedom, either in civils or in spirituals, or in both. To express their value thereof, and faithfulness to the same, they have largely contributed, in one kind or other, what was proper to each in his place to do ; which actions of theirs, proceeding from hearts sin- cerely affected to the cause, created in them a right to be of an incorporation and society by themselves, under the name of the good party, having been from the beginning unto this day publicly and commonly so acknowledged, by way of dis- tinction from all neuters, close and open enemies, and de- ceitful friends or apostates. These, in order to the main- taining of this cause, have stood by the army, in defence and support thereof, against all opposition whatever, as those that, by the growing light of these times, have been taught and led forth in their experiences to look above and beyond the letter, form, and outward circumstances of government, into the inward reason and spirit thereof, herein only to fix and terminate, to the leaving behind all empty shadows that would obtrude themselves in the place of true freedom. Secondly, as to the capacity wherein these persons, thus qualified, have acted, it hath been very variable, and subject to great changes : sometimes in one form, and sometimes in another, and very seldom, if ever at all, so exactly and in all points consonant to the rule of former laws and consti- tutions of government as to be clearly and fully justified by them any longer than the law of success and conquest did uphold them who had the inward warrant of justice and righteousness to encourage them in such their actings. The utmost and last reserve, therefore, which they have had, in case all other failed, hath been their military ca- pacity, not only strictly taken for the standing army, but in the largest sense, wherein the whole party may (with the army, and under that military constitution and conduct which, by the providence of God, they shall then be found in) associate themselves in the best order they can for the common defence and safety of the whole ; as not ignorant that when once imbodied in this their military posture, in such manner as by common consent shall be found requisite for the safety of the body, they are most irresistible, abso- lute, and comprehensive in their power, having that wherein the substance of all government is contained, and under the protection whereof, and safety that may be maintained there- by, they can contrive and determine in what manner this 1 irresistible, absolute, and boundless power, unto which they are now arrived in this their military capacity, shall have just and due limits set unto it, and be drawn out in a meet and orderly way of exercise for the commonweal and safety of the whole body, under the rule and oversight of a supreme judicature, unto the wisdom of whose laws and orders the sword is to become most entirely subject and subservient ; and this without the least cause of jealousy or unsafely, either to the standing army, or any member thereof, or unto the good people adhering to this cause, or any of them, since the interest of both, by this mutual action of either, will be so combined together in one (even in that wherein before they were distinct), that all just cause of difference, fear, animosity, emulation, jealousy, or the like, will be wholly- abolished and removed. For when once the whole body of the good people find that the military interest and capacity is their own, and that into which necessity at the last may bring the whole party (whereof, of right, a place is to be reserved for them), and that herein they are so far from being in subjection or sla- very, that in this posture they are most properly sovereign, and possess their right of natural sovereignty, they will presently see a necessity of continuing ever one with their army, raised and maintained by them for the promoting this cause against the common enemy, who in his next attempt will put for all with greater desperateness and rage than ever. Again, when once the standing army and their governors shall also find that, by setting and keeping up themselves in a divided interest from the rest of the body of honest men, they withhold from themselves those contributions in all voluntary and cheerful assistances, by the affections and prayers, by the persons and purses of the good party, to the weakening themselves thereby, as to any vigorous support from them, in the times of most imminent danger (whereof the late king had an experience, that will not suddenly be out of memory, when he undertook the war, in the beginning of these troubles, against the Scots, and was, in a manner, therein deserted by all the good party in England), they will then find (if they stay not till it be too late) that, by espousing the interest of the people, in submitting them- selves with their fellow-adherents to the cause, under the rule, and authority of their own supreme judicature, they lose not their power or sovereignty, but, becoming one civil or politic incorporation with the whole party of honest men, they do therein keep the sovereignty, as originally seated in themselves, and part with it only but ns by deputation and representation of themselves, when it is brought into an or- derly way of exercise, by being put into the hands of per- sons chosen and intrusted by themselves to that purpose. By this mutual and happy transition, which may be made between the party of honest men in the three nations virtu- SIR HENRY VANE. 345 ally in arms, and those actually so now in power at the head of the army, how suddenly would the union of the whole body be consolidated, and made so firm as it will not need to tear all the designs and attempts of the common enemy, especially if herein (hey unite themselves in the first place to the Lord, as willing to follow his providence, and observe his will in the way and manner of bringing this to pass ! in which case we shall not need to fear what all the gates of hell are able to do in opposition thereunto. It is not, then, the standing and being of the present array and military forces in the three nations that is liable to ex- ception of offence from any dissenting judgments at this time among the honest, well-affected party. In and with them, under God, stand the welfare and outward safety of the whole body ; and to be enemies to them, or wish them hurt, were to do it to themselves ; and, by trying such con- clusions, to play the game of the common enemy, to the utter ruin and destruction, not only of the true freedom aimed at and contended for in the late wars, but of the very persons themselves that have been in any sort active or em- inent promoters thereof. The army, considered as it is in the hands of an honest and wise general, and sober, faithful officers, imbodied with the rest of the party of honest men, and espousing still the same cause, and acting in their primitive simplicity, humil- ity, and trust, in reference to the welfare and safety of the whole body, is the only justifiable and most advantageous posture and capacity that the good party at present can find themselves in, in order to the obtaining that true freedom they have fought for, and possessing of it in the establish- ment thereof upon the true basis and foundation, as hath been showed, of right government. That wherein the offence lies, and which causes such great thoughts of heart among the honest party (if it may be freely expressed, as sure it may, when the magistrate himself professes he doth but desire and wait for conviction therein), is, in short, this : That when the right and privilege is returned, nay, is restored by conquest unto the whole body (that forfeited not their interest therein), of freely disposing themselves in such a constitution of righteous government as may best answer the ends held forth in this cause ; that, nevertheless, either through delay they should be withheld as they are, or through design they should come at last to be utterly denied the exercise of this their right, upon pretence that they are not in capacity as yet to use it, which, indeed, hath some truth in it, if those that are now in power, and have the command of the arms, do not prepare all things requisite thereunto, as they may, and, like faithful guardians to the Commonwealth, admitted to be in its nonage, they ought. But if the bringing of true freedom into exercise among men, yea, so refined a party of men, be impossible, why hath this been concealed all this while * and why was it not thought on before so much blood was spilt, and treasure spent ! Surely such a thing as this was judged real and practicable, not imaginary and notional. Besides, why may it not suffice to have been thus long delayed and withheld from the whole body, at least as to its being brought by them into exercise now at last? Surely the longer it is withheld, the stronger jealousies do increase, that it is intended to be assumed and engrossed by a part only, to the leaving the rest of the body (who, in all reason and justice, ought to be equally participants with the other in the right and benefit of the conquest, for as much as the war was managed at the expense and for the safety of the whole) in a condition almost as much exposed, and subject to be imposed upon, as if they had been enemies and con- quered, not in any sense conquerors. If ever such an unrighteous, unkind, and deceitful deal- ing with brethren should happen, although it might continue above the reach of question from human judicature, yet can we think it possible it should escape and go unpunished by the immediate hand of the righteous Judge of the whole world, when he ariseth out of his place to do right to the oppressed ? Nay, if, instead of favouring and promoting the people's common good and welfare, self-interest and private gain should evidently appear to be the things we have aimed at all along; if those very tyrannical principles and anti- j Christian relics, which God by us hath punished in our pre- decessors, should again revive, spring up afresh, and show themselves lodged also and retained in our bosoms, render- ing us of the number of those that have forgot they were purged from their old sins, and declaring us to be such as, to please a covetous mind, do withhold from destruction that which God hath designed to the curse of his vengeance : if all those great advantages of serving the Lord's will and design in procuring and advancing his people's true welfare and outward safety, which (as the fruit of his blessing upon our armies) have so miraculously fallen into our hands, shall at last be wrested and misimproved to the enriching and greatening of ourselves if these things should ever be found among us (which the Lord in mercy forbid!), shall we need to look any farther for the accursed thing ? will not our con- Xx sciences show us, from the light of the Word and Spirit of God, how near a confonnity these actions would hold there- with ? which sin (Josh., vii.) became a curse to the camp, and withheld the Lord from being any more among them, or going out with their forces. And did the action of Achan import any more than these two things : First, he saved and kept from destruction the goodly Babylonish garment, which was devoted by God thereunto ; secondly, he brought not in the fruit and gain of the conquest into the Lord's treasury, but covetously went about to convert it to his own proper use ? To do this is to take of the accursed thing, which (Josh., vii.) all Israel was said to do in the sin of Achan, and to have stolen and dissembled likewise, and put it among their own stuff. This caused the anger of the Lord to kin- dle against Israel, and made them unable to stand before their enemies, but their hearts melted as water. And thus far the Lord is concerned, if such an evil as this shall lie hid in the midst of us. But to return to what we were upon before. The matter which is in question among the dissenting parts of the whole body of honest men is not so trivial and of such small consequence as some would make it. 'Tis, in effect, the main and whole of the cause ; without which all the freedom which the people have or can have is in com- parison but shadow and in name only, and therefore can never give that peace and satisfaction to the body which is requisite unto a durable and solid settlement. This is that which makes all sound and safe at the root, and gives the right balance necessary to be held up between sovereignty and subjection in the exercise of all righteous government ; applying the use of the sword to the promoting and uphold- ing the public safety and welfare of the whole body, in pref- erence, and, if need be, in opposition unto any of the parts ; while yet, by its equal and impartial administration in ref- erence unto each, it doth withal maintain the whole body in a most delightful harmony, welfare, and correspondency. The sword never can, nor is it to be expected ever will do this, while the sovereignty is admitted and placed any- where else than in the whole body of the people that have adhered to the cause, and by them be derived unto their successive representatives, as the most equal and impartial judicature for the effecting hereof. Where there is, then, a righteous and good constitution of government, there is, first, an orderly union of many un- derstandings together, as the public and common supreme judicature or visible sovereignty, set in a way of free and orderly exercise, for the directing and applying the use of the ruling power or the sword, to promote the interest and common welfare of the whole, without any disturbance or annoyance from within or from without ; and then, sec- ondly, there is a like union and readiness of will in all the individuals, in their private capacities, to execute and obey (by all the power requisite, and that they are able to put forth) those sovereign laws and orders issued out by their own deputies and trustees. A supreme judicature, thus made the representative of the whole, is that which, we say, will most naturally care, and most equally provide for the common good and safety. Though by this it is not denied but that the supreme power, when by free consent 'tis placed in a single person or in some few persons, may be capable also to administer righteous government ; at least, the body that gives this liberty, when they need not, are to thank themselves if it prove otherwise. But when this free and natural access unto government is interrupted and declined, so as a liberty is taken by any par- ticular member, or number of them, that are to be reputed but a part in comparison of the whole, to assume and en- gross the office of sovereign rule and power, and to impose themselves as the competent public judge of the safety and good of the whole, without their free and due consent, and to lay claim unto this, as those that find themselves pos- sessed of the sword (and that so advantageously as it can- not be recovered again out of their hands without more ap- parent danger and damage to the whole body than such at- tempts are worth), this is that anarchy that is the first rise and step to tyranny, and lays grounds of manifest confusion and disorder, exposing the ruling power to the next hand that on the next opportunity can lay hold on the sword, and so, by a kind of necessity, introduces the highest imposition and bondage upon the whole body, in compelling all the parts, though never so much against the true public interest, to serve and obey, as their sovereign rule and supreme au- thority, the arbitrary will and judgment of those that bringf themselves into rule by the power of the sword, in the right only of a part that sets up itself in preference before, or at least in competition with, the welfare of the whole. And if this, which is so essential to the wellbeing and right constitution of government, were once obtained, the disputes about the form would not prove so difficult, nor find such opposition, as to keeping the bone of contention and disunion, with much danger to the whole ; for if, as the found- ation of all, the sovereignty be acknowledged to reside ori- ginally in the whole body of adherents to this cause (whose natural and inherent right thereunto is of a far ancienter 3i6 BRITISH STATESMEN. date than what is obtained by success of their arms, and so cannot be abrogated even by conquest itself, if that were the case), aud then if, in consequence hereof, a supreme ju- dicature be set up and orderly constituted, as naturally arising and resulting from the free choice and consent of the whole body taken out from among themselves, as flesh of their flosh and bone of their bone, of the same public spirit and nature with themselves, and the main be by this means secured, what could be propounded afterward as to the form of administration that would much stick? Would a standing council of state, settled for life, in ref- erence to the safety of the Commonwealth, and for the main- taining intercourse and commerce with foreign states, under the inspection and oversight of the supreme judicature, but of the same fundamental constitution with themselves would this be disliked? admitting their orders were binding, in the intervals of supreme national assemblies, so far only as consonant to the settled laws of the Commonwealth, the vacancy of any of which, by death or otherwise, might be supplied by the vote of the major part of themselves : nay, would there be any just exception to be taken if (besides both these) it should be agreed (as another part of the fun- damental constitution of the government) to place that branch of sovereignty which chiefly respects the execution of laws in a distinct office from that of the legislative power (and yet subordinate to them and to the laws), capable to be in- trusted into the hands of one single person, if need require, or in a greater number, as the legislative power should think fit : and, for the greater strength and honour unto this office, that the execution of all laws and orders (that are binding) may go forth in his or their name, and all disobedience there- unto, or contempt thereof, be taken as done to the people's sovereignty, whereof he or they bear the image or represent- ation, subordinate to the legislative power, and at their will to be kept up and continued in the hands of a single person or more, as the experience of the future good or evil of it shall require ? Would such an office as this, thus stated, carry in it any inconsistency with a free state ? Nay, if it be well consid- ered, would it not rather be found of excellent use to the wellbe ing of magistracy, founded upon this righteous bot- tom, that such a lieutenancy of the people's sovereignty in these three nations may always reside in some one or more person, in whose administration that which is reward aud punishment may shine forth ? And if now it shall be objected that (notwithstanding all these cautions), should onoe this sovereignty be acknowl- edged to be in the diffused body of the people (though the adherents to this cause, not only as their natural, but as their acquired right by conquest), they would suddenly put the use and exercise of the legislative power into such hands as would, through their ill qualifiedness to the work, spoil all by mill-administration thereof, and hereby lose the cause instead of upholding and maintaining it, The answer unto this is, first, that God, by his providence, hath eased our minds much in this solicitude by the course he hath already taken to fit and prepare a choice and se- lected number of the people unto this work, that are tried and refined by their inward and outward experiences in this great quarrel, and the many changes they have passed through ; in respect whereof well qualified persons are to be found, if due care be but taken in the choice of them. And if herein this people of the Lord shall be waiting upon him for his guidance and presence with them, we may have grounds and hope that God (whose name hath all along been called upon in the maintaining of this cause) will pour out so abundantly of his spirit upon his people attending on him in righteous ways, and will also so move their hearts to choose persons bearing his image into the magistracy, that a more glorious product may spring up out of this than at first we can expect, to the setting up of the Lord himself as chief judge and lawgiver among us. And unto this the wis- dom and honesty of the persons now in power may have an opportunity eminently to come into discovery ; for in this case, and upon the grounds already laid, the very persons now in power are they unto whose lot it would fall to set about this preparatory work, and by their orders and direc- tions to dispose the whole body, and bring them into the jneetest capacity to effect the same, the most natural way for which would seem to be by a general council, or con- vention of faithful, honest, and discerning men, chosen for that purpose by the free consent of the whole body of ad- herents to this cause in the several parts of the nations, and observing the time and place of meeting appointed to them (with other circumstances concerning their election) by or- der from the present ruling power, but considered as gen- eral of the army : Which convention is not properly to exercise the legisla- tive power, but only to debate freely, and agree upon the particulars that by way of fundamental constitutions shall be laiu and inviolably observed as the conditions upon which the whole body so represented doth consent to cast itself into a civil and politic incorporation, and under the visible '"rin and administration of government therein declared, and to be by each individual member of the body subscribed in testimony of his or their particular consent given thereunto : which conditions so agreed (and among them an Act of Ob- livion for one) will be without danger of being broken or departed from, considering of what it is they are the condi- tions, and the nature of the convention wherein they are made, which is of the people represented in their highest state of sovereignty, as they have the sword in their hands unsubjected unto the rules of civil government, but what themselves orderly assembled for that purpose do think fit to make. And the sword, upon these conditions, subjecting itself to the supreme judicature thus to be set up, how sud- denly might harmony, righteousness, love, peace, and safety unto the whole body follow hereupon, as the happy fruit of such a settlement, if the Lord have any delight to be among And this once put in a way, and declared for by the gen- eral and army (as that which they are clearly convinced, in the sight of God, is their duty to bring about, and which they engage accordingly to see done) how firmly and freely would this oblige the hearts and persons, the counsels and purses, the affections and prayers, with all that is in the power of this whole party to do, in way of assistance and strengthening the hands of those now in power, whatever straits and difficulties they may meet with in the mainte- nance of the public safety and peace ! This, then, being the state of our present affairs and dif- ferences, let it be acknowledged on all hands, and let all be convinced that are concerned, that there is not only a pos- sibility, but a probability, yea, a compelling necessity, of a firm union in this great body, the setting of which in joint and tune again, by a spirit of meekness and fear of the Lord, is the work of the present day, aud will prove the only rem- edy under God to uphold and carry on this blessed Cause and work of the Lord in the three nations, that is already come thus far onward in its progress to its desired and expected end of bringing in Christ, the desire of all nations, as the chief Ruler among us. Now unto this reuniting work let there be a readiness in all the dissenting parts from the highest to the lowest, by cheerfully coming forth to one another in a spirit of self-de- nial and love instead of war and wrath, and to cast down themselves before the Lord, who is the father of all their spirits, in self-abasement and humiliation, for the mutual offence they have been in, for some time past, one unto an- other, and great provocation unto God, and reproach unto his most glorious name, who expected to have been served by them with reverence and godly fear ; for our God is a consuming fire. And, as an inducement unto this, let us assure ourselves the means of effecting it will not prove so difficult as other things that have been brought about in the late war, if the minds and spirits of all concerned were once well and duly prepared hereunto by a kindly work of self-denial and self- abasement, set home by the spirit of the Lord upon their consciences, which, if he please, he may do we know not how soon : nay, we shall behold with a discerning eye the inside of that work which God hath been doing among us the three years last past : it would seem chiefly to have been his aim to bring his people into such a frame as this ; for in this tract of time there hath been (as we may say) a great silence in heaven, as if God were pleased to stand still and be as a looker on, to see what his people would be in their latter end, and what work they would make of it, if left to their own wisdom and politic contrivances. And as God hath had the silent part, so men, and that good men too, have had the active and busy part, and have, like them- selves, made a great sound and noise, like the shout of a king in a mighty host ; which, while it hath been a sound only and no more, hath not done much hurt as yet ; but the fear and jealousy thereby caused hath put the whole body out of frame, and made them apt to fall into great confusions and disorder. And if there be thus arisen a general dissent and disa- greement of parts (which is not, nor ought to be, accounted the less considerable because it lies hid and kept in under a patient silence), why should there not be as general a cm.- fession and acknowledgment of what each may find them- selves overtaken in, and cannot but judge themselves faulty for? this kind of vent being much better than to have it break out in flames of a forward and untimely wrathful spirit, which never works the righteousness of God, espe- cially since what hath been done among us may probably have been more the effect of temptation than the product of any malicious design ; and this sort of temptation is very common and incident to men in power (how good soever they may be) to be overtaken in, and thereupon do sudden unadvised actions, which the Lord pardons and overrules for the best, evidently making appear that it is the work of the weak and fleshly part, which his own people carry about with them too much unsubdued ; and therefore the Lord thinks fit, by this means, to show them the need of beinjf beholden to their spiritual part to restore them again. ;ind bring them into their right temper aud healthful constitution,. SIR HENRY VANE. 347 And thus, while each dissenting part is aggravating upon it self-faultmess and blame, and none excusing, but all con- fessing they deserve, in one sort or other, reproof, if not be- fore men, yet in God's sight, who knows how soon it may please God to come into this broken, contrite, and self-de- nying frame of spirit in the good people within the three na- tions, and own them, thus truly humbled and abased, for his temple and the place of his habitation and rest, wherein he shall abide forever? of whom it may be said, God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved ; God shall help her, and that right early, or with his morning appearance ; at which time he will sit silent no longer, but Heaven will speak again, and become active and powerful in the spirits and hearts of honest men, and in the works of his provi- dences, when either they go out to fight by sea or by land, or remain in council and debates at home for the public weal, and again hear the prayers of his people, and visibly own them as a flock of holy men, as Jerusalem in her solemn feasts : " I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, saith the Lord, to do it for them : and then they shall know that 1 the Lord their God am with them, and that they are my people, and that ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men that have showed yourselves weak, sinful men, and I am your God, that have declared myself an all-wise and powerful God, saith the Lord God." POSTSCRIPT. READER, Upon the perusal of this discourse, thou wilt quickly perceive that these two things are principally aimed at in it by the author : First, to answer in some measure that which is called for by those in power, when they pub- licly profess they desire nothing more than conviction, and to find out the hidden provocations which either have or yet may bring forth the Lord against these nations, in the way which at present they are in. Secondly, to remove out of the minds and spirits of the honest party, that still agree in the reason and justice of the good old cause, all things of a private nature and selfish con- cern (the tendency whereof serves but to foment and strengthen wrath and divisions among them), and in place thereof to set before them that common and public interest, which, if with sincerity embraced, may be the means of not only procuring a firm union among them, but also of con- serving them herein. In order to this, the author hath not been willing so much to declare his own opinion, or deliver any positive conclu- sions, as to discuss the business by way of question and answer, and thereby make as near a conjecture as he can of that wherein the several dissenting parts may with better satisfaction meet together, and agree upon a safe and righ- teous bottom., than to remain at the distance they do, to the apparent advantage of the common enemy, the approaching ruin of themselves, and needless hazard, if not loss, of the cause they have been so deeply engaged in ; especially con- sidering that, when once they shall be found beginning to come forth to one another in such a condescending, self- denying spirit, cleansed from the stain of hypocrisy and de- ceit, they may be well assured that light will spring up among them more and more unto a perfect day ; and then those things which at present we have next in view, will prove as shadows ready to flee away before the morning brightness of Christ's heavenly appearance and second com- ing, through which they will be heightened and improved to their full maturity, to the bringing in that kingdom of his that shall never be moved. And because an essay hath been already made in a private way to obtain the first thing, that is to say, conviction, which chiefly is in the hand of the Lord to give, the same obliga- tion lies upon the author, with respect to the second, for the exposing of it as now it is unto public view, and therein leaving it also with tha Lord for his blessing thereunto. B. The People's Case stated. He in whom is the right of sovereign, and to give law, is either so of himself, or in the right of another, that may de- rive the same unto him ; which shows that there are two sorts of sovereigns. A sovereign in the first sense none is nor can be but God, who is of himself most absolute ; and he that is first of all others in the second sense is the man Christ Jesus, to whom the power of sovereign, in the right of the Father, is com- mitted, over all the works of God's hands. Christ exercised the same in the capacity of David's root from before the be vorld. H personal union with the Word, David saw and acknowledg- ed, Psal. ex.., I. Thus Christ may be called God's lieuten- ant sovereign, or general vicegerent of his supremacy over all in heaven and in earth. He therefore is the true univer- sal king and root of all sovereign and just governing power, whether in heaven or on earth. His sovereignty is unquestionable and unaccountable, be- cause of the perfection of his person, carrying in it an apti- tude and sufficiency to govern, without possibility of error or defect of any kind. Sovereign and governing power doth, necessarily relate to subjects that are to be the ruled, and subjects capable of such government ; therefore, when God limself purposes within himself to be supreme legislator and governor, he doth withal purpose the being and creation of rath worlds, as the subject matter of his kingdom. He pro- pounds to govern his subjects by and with their own consent md good liking ; or without and against it, in the way of lis revenging justice ; governing by laws, clearly stating and ascertaining the duty or the offence, as also the rewards and penalties. Herein just government consists, or the justice of govern- ment ; for he that rules over others must be just, and, in- deed, should be seen to be so in all his commands ; so seen, as to render the consciences of the ruled, and those whose duty it is to obey, inexcusable before God and before men. if they dissent or resist. Inexcusable they are before God, because the matter com- manded is the matter of God's law, and therefore just to be obeyed. They are also inexcusable before men, that which is required of them being generally acknowledged and af- firmed (by those in whom the common consent of the sub- jects is intrusted to that end) to be just and reasonable, and therefore to be obeyed ; for the end of all government, being for the good and welfare, and not for the destruction of th ruled, God, who is the institutor of government, as he is pleased to ordain the office of governors, intrusting them with power to command the just and reasonable things which his own law commands, that carry their own evidence to common reason and sense, at least, that do not evidently contradict it, so he grants a liberty to the subjects, or those that by him are put under the rule, to refuse all such com- mands as are contrary to his law, or to the judgment of com- mon reason and sense, whose trial he allows, by way of as- sent or dissent, before the commands of the ruler shall ba binding or put in execution ; and this in a co-ordinacy of power with just government, and as the due balance there- of. The original impressions of just laws are in man's na- ture and very constitution of being. Man hath the law in his mind (or the superior and intellectual pan of him), con- vincing and bringing that into obedience and subjection to the law -of God, in Christ himself. He hath also that which is a law in his members that are on the earth (or his earthly and sensual part), whose power is co-ordinate with the oth- er, but such, that if it be not gained into a harmony and conjunction with its head, the spirit or mind of man, hath ability to let and hinder his mind or ruling part from per- forming and putting in execution that which is good, just, fit, and to be acknowledged as the righteous dictates of the mind, which ought to be the ruling power, or law to the man : so, in the outward government over man, the second- ary or co-ordinate power, concurring with that which is the chief ruling power, is essential to just government, and is acknowledged to be so by the fundamental constitution of the government of England, as well as in the legal being and constitution of Parliaments, whether that which hath been usual and ordinary, according to the common law, or that which of late hath been extraordinary, by express stat- ute, for the continuance of the Parliament (17 Cor.), until dissolved by act of Parliament : For, together with the legal being which is given to regal power and the prerogative of the crown, there is the legal power and being reserved also unto that body, which is the people's or kingdom's representative, who are the hands wherein that which is called power politic is seated, and are intrusted with giving or withholding the common consent of the whole nation, according to the best of their understand- ings, in all matters coming before them, and are to keep this liberty inviolate and entire, against all invasions or encroach- ments upon it whatsoever. This second power, in the very writ of summons for call- ing a Parliament, is declared to be of that nature, that what the first doth without obtaining the consent and approbation of the second, in Parliament, is not binding, but ineffectual, and when the representative body of the kingdom (in and with whom this power is intrusted, as the due and legal bal- ance and boundary to the regal power, set and fixed by tlio fundamental constitution) is made a standing court, and of that continuance as not to be dissolvable but by its own con- sent ; during such its continuance, it hath right to preserve itself from all violent and undue dissolution, and to maintain and defend its own just privileges, a chief of which is to bind or loose the people, in all matters good or hurtful to them, according to their best judgment and discretion. In the exercise of this their trust, they are indemnified by law, and no hurt ought to come unto them ; that governiiyg power, which is originally in God, and flows at first from him, as the sole and proper fountain thereof, is brought into exercise among men, upon a differing and distinct account. First, As it is a trust and right derived conditionally from God to his officers and ministers (which therefore may be 348 BRITISH STATESMEN. lost), who, being called by him, and in the course of his providence, to the exercise of it, are to hold it of him the universal King, and to own themselves, in the exercise thereof, as his vicegerents, to cut off by the sword of justice evil-doers, and to be a protection and encouragement to them that do well. But, because it is part of God's call of any person to this high trust to bring him into the possession and free exercise thereof by the common consent of the body of the people, where such sovereign power is set up, unless they have forfeited this liberty ; therefore, Secondly, God doth allow mid confer, by the very law of nature, upon the community or body of the people that are related to and concerned in the right of government placed over them, the liberty, by their common vote or suffrage duly given, to be assenters or dissenters thereunto, and to affirm and make stable, or disallow and render ineffectual, what shall apparently be found by them to be for the good or hurt of that society, whose welfare, next under the justice of God's commands and his glory, is the supreme law and very end of all subordinate governing power. Sovereign power, then, comes from God as its proper root, but the restraint or enlargement of it, in its execution over such or such a body, is founded in the common consent of that body. The office of chief ruler, or head over any state, common- wealth, or kingdom, hath the right of due obedience from the people inseparably annexed to it. It is an office, not only of divine institution, but for the safety and protection of the whole body or community, and therefore justly and neces- sarily draws to it, and engages their subjection. This office of the sovereign, according to the laws and fun- damental constitution of the government of England, is min- istered by the king in a twofold capacity as his will and personal command is in conjunction and agreement with his people in Parliament during the session thereof, or as it is in conjunction and agreement with the law, the Parliament not sitting. But his will and personal command single, in disjunction and disagreement from the Parliament or the laws, hath not the force of a law, saith Fortescue, and gives the reason of it, because this is a limited monarchy, where the king's power (as to the exercise of it) is only a power politic. The obedience, then, which from the subject is due to the king, and which they are sworn to perform by the oath of allegiance, is to him, in the ministry of the royal office, ac- cording to the reason and intent of the fundamental compact and Constitution, and according to his own oath, which is to govern by law ; that is, to exercise his rule or royal com- manding power in conjunction and agreement with the Par- liament when sitting, and in conjunction and agreement with the laws of the land, they not sitting. To exercise his power otherwise is and hath been always judged a grievance to the people, and a going against that which is the original right and just liberty of the community, who are not to be bound to such personal commands at will and pleasure, nor compelled to yield obedience thereunto. The contrary hereunto was the principle at bottom of the king's cause, which he endeavoured to uphold and maintain, in order to decline and lay aside the legal restraints as afore- said, which the government of England, by the fundamental constitution, is subjected unto, as to the exercise and min- istry of the royal office. From the observation and experience which the people of England had, and made many years together, by their rep- resentatives in Parliament, of a desire in the king to shake off these legal restraints in the exercise of the regal power, and on their having tried the best ways and means that oc- curred to their understandings to prevent the same, and to secure to themselves the enjoyment of their just rights and liberty, they at last" pitched upon the desiring from the king the continuance of the sitting of the Parliament called No- vember 3d, 1640, in such sort as is expressed in that act, 17 Car., wherein it is provided that it shall not be discontinued or dissolved but by act of Parliament. This was judged by them the greatest security imaginable for keeping the ministry of the royal office Within its due bounds, and for quieting the people in the enjoyment of their rights ; but experience hath showed that this yet could not be done without a war, the worst and last of remedies. For although their continuance as the representative body of the kingdom, with the right to exercise the power arid privileges inherent in and inseparable from that supreme court and chief senate (whereof the king is head, both ma- king but one person or politic body in law), yet they them- selves, as well as the king, were bound by the fundamental constitution or compact upon which the government was at first built, containing the condition upon which the king ac- cepted of the royal office, and on which the people granted to him the tribute of their obedience and due allegiance. This condition (as the laws and experience declare) is, that the king shall exercise his office of rule over them according to the laws, as hath been showed, and as he and his people shall from time to time agree in common council in Parlia- ment, for that end assembled. In respect hereof, the laws go made are called the concords or agreements passed be- tween the king and the subject, in the third part of Cook's Institutes. These agreements, then, are the standard unto the king's rule and the people's obedience, signifying the justice of his commands and the dueness of their allegiance. But. the case so happening that tins conjunction and agree- ment, which ought to be found between the personal will of the king and representative will of the kingdom, failing, and these two wills declaring themselves in contrariety and op- position, both of them becoming standing powers, co-ordi- nate and distinct parts of the supremacy, as the two chan- nels wherein the supremacy is placed and appointed to run, as to its exercise by the fundamental constitution, hence sprang the war, each asserting and endeavouring to defend and maintain their own part and right, which ought not to be kept up in disjunction and contrariety, but in unity and agreement each with other. These two parties, with their adherents, in this case, may be, according to the law, con- trarients one towards another, as the law affords an exam- ple in the preamble of Cook's fourth part of his Institutes (not properly traitors), being co-ordinate powers, parts of the supremacy, that are the heads to each party, and, by conse- quence, have a right of making a war, as their last appeal, if they cannot otherwise agree. Being once entered thus into a state of war and actual en- mity, they do, as it were, become two nations, and cease to be under the obligations they were in before ; for during this state of war and enmity, the standing laws (in a sort) cease, and a new way of rule each party forms to himself and his adherents, as may best consist for each of their safeties and preservations. Upon this disjunction of the two wills, in the harmony and agreement whereof the supremacy is placed, these follow- ng queries do naturally arise : First, To which or whether of these by law is the alle- giance required as due is it to be yielded to the personal will of the king single, in disjunction from the will of the representative body of the kingdom, or to the will of the peo- ple, in disjunction from the will of the king ? Or is it to the personal will of the king, in conjunction with the laws, though in opposition and contrariety to the will of the king- dom's representative in Parliament assembled ? Or is it to the will of the kingdom's representative, in conjunction with the laws, though in opposition to the personal will of the king? The Second Querie is, In whose judgment in this case are the people by law to acquiesce as to the declaring with whom the laws are whether the personal judgment of the king single, or the vote of the senate, that is, the kingdom's rep- resentative body t The Third Querie is, With whom will the laws be found to go in this case, so rare, unusual, and never happening before ; and who is the proper and competent judge 1 Also, whether the laws be not perfectly silent, as never suppo- sing such a case possible to happen, by reason that the pow- er used by the one for dissolving the other never before suf- fered the opposition to rise so high? The Fourth Querie is. Whether he, in this case, that keeps his station and place of trust, wherein God and the law did set him, with care to demean himself according to the best of his understanding, agreeably to the law and cus- toms of Parliament, and pursuant to their votes and direc- tions (so long as they sit and affirm themselves to be a Par- liament), and uses his best endeavours in the exercise of that public trust, that no detriment in the general come onto the Commonwealth by the failure of justice, and the neces- sary protection due from government, without any designing or intending the subversion of the Constitution, but only the securing more fully the people's liberties and just rights from all future invasions and oppressions, be not so far from de- serving to be judged criminal in respect of any law of God, or man, that he ought rather to be affirmed one that hath done his duty, even the next best that was left to him, or possible for him to do in such a dark, stormy season, and such difficult circumstances ? As to the right of the cause itself, it ariseth out of the matter of fact that hath happened, and, by the just and wise providence of God, hath been suffered to state itself, in the contest between the personal will and declared pleasure of the king on the one hand, and the public will or vote of the people in Parliament on the other, declaring itself either in orders or ordinances of both Houses, or in the single act of the House of Commons asserting itself a Parliament, upon the grounds of the act 17 Car., providing against its disso- lution. This will appear with the more evidence and certainty by considering wherein either part had a wrong cause, or did or might do that which was not their duty ; taking the measure of their duty from what as well the king as the people's representative are obliged unto, by the fundamen- tal constitution of the government, which binds them in each of their capacities and distinct exercises of their trust SIR HENRY VANE. 349 to intend and pursue the true good and welfare of the whole body or community as their end. This, in effect, is to de- tain the people in obedience and subjection to the law of God, and to guide them in the ways of righteousness unto God's well-pleasing, and to avoid falling out or disagreeing about the way or means leading to that end. Hence that party which in his or their actings was at the greatest distance from, or opposition unto, this end, and wil- fully and unnecessarily disagreed and divided from the other in the ways and means that were most likely to attain this end, they were assuredly in the fault, and had a wrong cause to manage, under whatever name or face of authority it was beaded and upheld. And such a wrong cause was capable of being espoused and managed under the face of authority, as might be pretended unto by either part ; for as the king, insisting upon his prerogative, and the binding force which his personal will and pleasure ought to have, though in dis- tinction from and opposition to his Parliament, might de- part from the end of government, answerable to his trust, and yet urge his right to be obeyed, so the public will of the people, exercised in and by the vote of their representative in Parliament, asserting itself to be of a binding force also, and to have the place of a law, though in distinction from the king and laws also (as saith the king), whatever other- wise by them is pretended, might also depart from the true end of government answerable to their trust, and yet insist upon their right to be obeyed and submitted unto, and, hav- ing power in their hands, might unduly go about also to compel obedience. It is not lawful either for king or Par- liament to urge authority and compel obedience as of right in any such cases, where, according to the law of nature, the people are at liberty, and ought to have a freedom from yielding obedience, as they are and ought to have when- ever any would compel them to disobey God, or to do things that evidently in the eye of reason and common sense are to their hurt and destruction. Such things nature forbids the doing of, having for that very purpose armed man with the defensive weapon of refusing to consent and obey, as that privilege whereby man is distinguished from a beast ; which when he is deprived of he is made a beast, and brought into a state of perfect servitude and bondage. Such a state of servitude and bondage may by God's just judgment be inflicted upon man for sin and the abuse of his liberty, when by God restored. The liberty which man was at first created in is that privilege and right which is allow- ed to him by the law of nature, of not being compelled under any pretence whatsoever to sin against God, or to go against the true good and welfare of his own being that is to say, of his inward or outward man but in both these cases to have and to use his just liberty to dissent and refuse to obey. For this every man hath that in himself which by God is made a proper and competent judge ; for as to all sin against God and the righteousness of his law, the light of conscience, that is to say, the work of the law, in and upon the mind or inward sense, and in conjunction with it, doth lighten every one that Cometh into the world, accusing or excusing, if it be but hearkened unto and kept awake. And for all such actings as tend to the ruin and destruction of man in his out- ward and bodily concerns, and as he is the object of ruagis- tratical power and jurisdiction, every man hath a judgment of common sense, or a way of discerning and being sensible thereof, common to brute beasts, that take in their knowl- edge by the door of their senses, but is much heightened and ennobled in man by the personal union it is taken into with his intellectual part and intuitive way of discerning things, through the inward reflectings of the mind, compared with the law of God. This inferior judgment in man, when it is conjoined with and confirmed by the judgment of his supe- rior part, is that which we call rational, or the dictates of right reason, that man hath a natural right to adhere unto, as the ordinary certain rule which is given him by God to walk by, and against which he ought not to be compelled, or be forced to depart from it by the mere will and power of another, without better evidence ; that is, a higher, a great- er, or more certain way of discerning. This, therefore, in Scripture, is called man's judgment or man's day, in dis- tinction from the Lord' s judgment and the Lord's day ; and this is that in every individual man, which in the collective body of the people, and meeting of head and members in Parliament, is called the supreme authority, and is the pub- lic reason and will of the whole kingdom, the going against which is, in nature as well as by the law of nations, an of- fence of the highest rank among men ; for it must be pre- sumed that there is more of the wisdom and will of God in that public suffrage of the whole nation, than of any private person or lesser collective body whatsoever, not better qual- ified and principled ; for man is made in God's image, or in a likeness, in judgment and will, unto God himself, accord- ing to the measure that in his nature he is proportioned and made capable to be the receiver and bearer thereof. There- fore it is that the resisting and opposing either of that judg- ment or will which is in itself supreme, and the law to all others (or which bears so much proportion and likeness to the supreme will as is possible for a society and community of men agreeing together for that end to contrive and set up for an administration thereof unto them), is against the duty of any member of that society, as well as it is against the duty of the body of the whole society to oppose its judgment and will to that of the supreme Lawgiver, their highest Sov- ereign, God himself. The highest judgment and will set up by God for angels and men, in their particular beings, to hold proportion with and bear conformity unto (in the capacity of ruled in rela- tion to their chief ruler), shines forth in the person of Christ, the ingrafted Word ; and when, by the agreement or com- mon consent of a nation or state, there is such a constitution and form of administration pitched upon as, in a standing and ordinary way, may derive and convey the nearest and greatest likeness in human laws, or acts of such a constitu- tion, unto the judgment and will of the supreme Legislator, as the rule and declared duty for every one in that society to observe, it is thereby that government or supreme power comes to receive being in a nation or state, and is brought into exercise according to God's ordinance and divine insti- tution. So, then, it is not so much the form of the admin- istration as the thing administered wherein the good or evil of government doth consist ; that is to say, a greater like- ness or unlikeness unto judgment and will of the highest Being in all the acts or laws flowing from the fundamental constitution of the government. Hence it is that common consent, lawfully and rightfully given by the body of a nation, and intrusted with delegates of their own free choice, to be exercised by them as their representatives (as well for the welfare and good of the body that trusts them, as to the honour and well- pleasing of God, the supreme Legislator), is the principle and means, war- ranted by the law of nature and nations, to give constitution and admission to the exercise of government and supreme authority over them and among them : agreeable hereunto, we are to suppose that our ancestors in this kingdom did proceed, when they constituted the government thereof, in that form of administration which hath been- derived to us in the course and channel of our customs and laws ; among which, the law and customs in and of the Parliaments are to be accounted as chief. For, Hereby, First, The directive or legislative power (having the right to state and give the rule for the governor's duty and the subject's obedience) is continued in our laws, which as well the king as people are under the observation of; witness the coronation oath, and the oath of allegiance. Secondly, The coercive or executive power is placed in one person, under the name and style of a king, to be put forth, not by his own single personal command, but by the signifi- cation of his will and pleasure, as the will of the whole state, in and by his courts of justice, and stated public coun- sels and judicatures, agreed on for that purpose between him and his people in their Parliamentary assemblies. The will of the whole state, thus signified, the law itself prefers before the personal will of the king, in distinction from the law, and makes the one binding, the other not ; so that the public will of the state, signified and declared by the public suffrage and vote of the people or kingdom in Par- liament assembled, is a legal and warrantable ground for the subject's obedience in the things commanded by it, for the good and welfare of the whole body, according to the best understanding of such their representative body, by it put forth during the time of its sitting. The body with whom the delegated vote and public suf- frage of the whole nation is intrusted being once assembled, with power not to be dissolved but by their own consent, in that capacity the highest vote and trust that can be is exer- cised, and this, by authority of Parliament, unto ex officio, or by way of office, are the keepers of the liberties of Eng- land, or of the people, by the said authority, for which they are accountable if they do not faithfully discharge that their duty. This office of keeping the liberty, which by the law of God and nature is due to the community or whole body of the people, is, by way of trust, committed by themselves to their own delegates, and in effect amounts unto this : 1. That they may of right keep out and refuse any to ex- ercise rule and command over them except God himself, who is the supreme and universal king and governor, or such as shall agree in their actings to bear his image, which is to be just, and show, for the warrant of their exercise of sov- ereignty, both a likeness in judgment and will unto Him who is wisdom and righteousness itself ; and the approbation and common consent of the whole body, rationally reposing that trust in them, from what is with visible and apparent characters manifest to them, of an aptness and sufficiency in them to give forth such public acts of government that may bear the stamp of God's impression upon them in the judgments they do and execute, especially being therein helped with a national council of the people's own choosing from time to time. 2. They may of right keep, hold, and restrain him or them with whom the coercive or executive power is intrusted, unto a punctual performance of duty, according to the fun- damental constitution, the oath of the ruler, and the laws 350 BRITISH STATESMEN. of the land ; and if they shall refuse to be so held and re- strained by the humble desires, advice, and common consent in Parliament, and the people's delegates be invaded and EtDempted upon by force to deter them from the faithful dis- charge of this their duty, they may, in asserting their right, and in a way of their own just defence, raise armies, put the issue upon battle, and appeal unto God. 3. Such appeal answered, and the issue decided by battle, the people's delegates still sitting, and keeping together in their collective body, may of right, and according to reason, refuse the readmission or new admission of the exercise of the former rulers, or any new rulers again over the whole body, till there be received satisfaction for the former wrongs done, the expense and hazard of the war, and security for the time to come, that the like be not committed again. Until this be obtained, they are bound in duty, in such man- lier as they judge most fit, to provide for the present govern- ment of the whole body, that the commonweal receive no detriment. 4. In this, which is the proper office of the people's dele- gates, and concerns the keeping and defending the liberty and right of the whole people and nation, they may and ought, during their sitting, to exercise their own proper power and authority, the exigencies of the kingdom requi- ring it, although the other two estates, jointly instructed with them in the exercise of the legislative authority, should de- sert their station, or otherwise fail in the execution of their trusts ; yea, or though many or most of their own members, so long as a lawful quorum remains, shall either voluntarily withdraw from them, or for just cause become excluded. In this discharge of their trust for the common welfare and safe- ty of the whole, their actings, though extraordinary and contrarient to the right of the other two, cannot be treason- able or criminal, though they may be tortuous and errone- ous, seeing they are equals and co-ordinate in the exercise of the legislative power, and have the right of their own proper trust and office to discharge and defend, though their fellow-trustees should fail in theirs ; nor can nor ought the people, as adherents to their own delegates and representa- tives, to be reputed criminal or blameworthy by the law. In the exercise of one and the same legislative power, ac- cording to the fundamental constitution of the government of England, there are three distinct public votes allowed for assent or dissent in all matters coming before them, the agreement of which is essential and necessary to the pass- ing of a law : the personal vote of the king ; the personal votes of the Lords in a house or distinct body ; and the del- egated vote and suffrage of the whole people in their repre- sentative body, or the House of Commons. Unto each of these appertains a distinct office and privilege proper to them. 1. The regal office, and the prerogative thereof, to the king. 2. The judicial office, to the Lords, as the highest judi- cature and court of justice under the king, for the exercising coercive power and punishing of malefactors. 3. The office of the keepers of the liberties and rights of the people, as they are the whole nation incorporated under one head, by their own free and common consent. The regal office is the fountain of all coercive and execu- tive power, pursuant to the rule set to the same by law, or the agreement of the three estates in Parliament. The rule which is set is that of immutable just and right, according to which penalties are applicable and become due, and is first stated and ascertained in the declared law of God, which is the signification or making known by some sign the will of the supreme Legislator, proceeding from a perfect judgment and understanding, that is without all er- ror or defect. The will that flows from such a judgment is in its nature legislative and binding, and of right to be obeyed for its own sake, and the perfection it carries in it and with it in all its actings. This will is declared by word or works, or both. By word we are to understand either the immediate breath and spirit of God's mouth or mind, or the inspiration of the Almighty, ministered by the Holy Ghost, in and by some creature as his vessel and instrument, through which the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were com- posed. By works that declare God's will, we are to under- stand the whole book of the creature, but more eminently and especially the particular beings and natures of angels and men, who bear the name and likeness of God in and upon their"judgments and their wills ; their directing pow- er, and their executive power of mind, which are essential to their being, life, and motion. When these direct and execute, in conjunction and har- mony with God's judgment and will, made known in his law, they do that which is right ; and by adhering and conform- ing themselves unto this their certain and unerring guide, do become guides and rulers unto others, and are the objects of right choice, where rulers are wanting in church or state. The rule, then, to all action of angels or men, is that of moral or immutable just and right, which is stated and declared in the will and law of God. The first and highest imitation of this rule is the creature-being in the person of Christ. The next is the bride, the Lamb's wife. The next is the innumerable society of the holy angels. The next i* the company of just men, fixed in their natural obedience and duty through faith, manifesting itself, not only in their spirits, but in their outward man, redeemed, even in this world, from the body of corruption, as far as is here attain- able. The power which is directive, and states and ascer- tains the morality of the rule for obedience, is in the law of God ; but the original, whence all just executive power arises, which is magistratical and coercive, is from the will or free gift of the people, who may either keep the power in themselves, or give up their subjection into the hands and will of another as their leader and guide, if they shall judge that thereby they shall better answer the end of government, to wit, the welfare and safety of the whole, than if they still kept the power in themselves ; and when they part with it, they may do it conditionally or absolutely ; and while they keep it, they are bound to the right use of it. In this lib- erty every man is created, and it is the privilege and just right which is granted unto man by the supreme Lawgiver, even by the law of nature under which man was made. God himself leaves man to the free exercise of this his liberty when he tenders to him his safety and immutability, upon the well or ill use of this his liberty, allowing him the choice either to be his own guide and self-ruler in the abil- ity communicated to him to know and execute God's will, and so to keep the liberty he is possessed of in giving away his subjection or not, or else upon God's call and promise to give up himself in way of subjection to God as his guide and ruler, either absolutely or conditionally. To himself he expects absolute subjection ; to all subordinate rulers, conditional. While man's subjection is his own, and in his own keep- ing, unbestowed and ungiven out of himself, he is not, nor cannot be, accountable by way of crime or offence against his ruler and sovereign, but may do with his own what he please, but. still at his peril if he use not this his liberty as he should, to the end for which it is given him, which is by voluntary and entire resignation to become an obedient sub- ject unto Him who is the supreme Lawgiver and rightful King, without possibility of change or defection. Unto this right, and the lawful exercise and possession of it, this nation did arrive by the good providence and gift of God, in calling and assembling the Parliament, November 3d, 1640, and then continuing their session by an express act (17 Car.), with power not to be dissolved but by their own consent ; which was not so much the introducing of a new law, as declaratory of what was law before, according' to man's natural right, in which he was created, and of which he was possessed by God, the sovereign Giver of all things. But the passing that said act of Parliament alone was not that which restored the nation to their original right and just natural liberty, but only put them in the capacity and possibility of it. That which was wanted to make out to the nation a clearness in having and obtaining this their right, was the obligation they had put upon themselves and their posterities to their present sovereign and his authority, which in justice and by the oaths of allegiance they were solemnly bound to, in the sight of God as well as of man ; and therefore, unless by the abuse of that office of trust (to that degree as on his part to break the fundamental compact and constitution of government), they could not be set free nor restored to their original right and first liberty, especial- ly if, together with such breach of trust, both parties appeal to God, and put it upon the issue of battle, and God give the decision ; and in consequence thereof, that original right be asserted, and possession thereof had and held for some years, and then not rightfully lost, but treacherously betrayed and given up by those in whom no power was rightfully placed to give up the subjection of the nation again unto any what- soever. Unto which is to be added, that how and when the disso- lution of the said Parliament, according to law, hath been made, is yet unascertained, and not particularly declared ; by reason whereof, and by what hath been before showed, the state of the case on the subject's part is much altered as to the matter of right, and the usurpation is now on the other hand, there being, as is well known, two sorts of usurpers : either such as have no right of consent at all unto the rule they exercise over the subject, or such who, under pretence of a right and title, do claim, not by consent, but by conquest and power, or else hold themselves not obliged to the fundamental compact and constitution of government, but gain unduly from the subject, by advantages taken through deceit and violence, that which is not their own by law. For a rational man to give up his reason and will unto the judgment and will of another, without which no outward coercive power can be, whose judgment and will is not per- fectly and unchangeably good and right, is unwise and un- safe, and by the law of nature forbidden ; and therefore all such gift, made by rational men, must be conditional, either SIR HENRY VANE. 351 implied or explicit, to be followers of their rulers, so far as they are followers of that good and right which is contained in the law of the supreme Lawgiver, and no farther ; re- serving to themselves, in case of such defection and decli- ning of the ruler's actings from the rule, their primitive and original freedom to resort unto, that so they may, in such case, be as they were before they gave away their subjec- tion unto the will of another ; and reserving also the power to have this judged by a meet and competent judge, which is the reason of the king and kingdom, declared by their rep- resentatives in Parliament ; that is to say, the delegates of the people in the House of Commons assembled, and the commissioners on the king's behalf, by his own letters pat- ent in the House of Peers ; which two concurring, do very far bind the king, if not wholly. And when these cannot agree, but break one from another, the Commons in Parliament assembled are ex officio the keepers of the liberties of the nation, and righteous possess- ors and defenders of it against all usurpers and usurpations whatsoever, by the laws of England. C. Vanity of Vanities, or Sir Henry Vane's Picture. (To the Tune of the Jews' Corant.) Have you not seen a Bartholomew baby, A pageant of policy as fine as may be, That's gone to be shown at the manor of Raby, Which nobody can deny t There was never such a prostitute sight, That ere profaned this purer light, A hocus pocus juggling knight, Which nobody can deny. He was taken for a Delphic Tripus, Quite another doubt-solving CEdipus, But the Parliament made him a very quibus, Which nobody can deny. His cunning state tricks and oracles, His lying wonders and miracles, Are turned at last into Parliament shackles, Which nobody can deny. He sat late in the House so discontent, With his arms folded and his brows bent, Like Achitophel to the Parliament, Which nobody can deny. * * * * When first the English war began, His father was a court trepan, And rose to be a Parliament man, Which nobody can deny. + * * * The devil ne'er see such two Sir Harrys ; Such a pest'lent pair nor near nor far is, No, not at the Jesuits' Sorbon of Paris, Which nobody can deny * * * * His dainty project of a select senate, Is damned for a blasphemous tenet ; 'Twas found in the budget ('tis said) of monk Bennet, Which nobody can deny. Of this state and kingdoms he is the bane, He shall have the reward of Judas and Cain, And 'twas he that overthrew Charles his wain, Which nobody can deny. Should he sit where he did with his mischievous brain, Or if any his counsels behind do remain, The House may be called the labour in Vain, Which nobody can deny. D. Sir Henry Vane's Speech at a Committee for the Bill against Episcopal Government, June 11, 1641. Mr. Hyde sitting in the chair. MASTER HYDE, The debate we are now upon is, wheth- er the government by archbishops, bishops, chancellors, <fec., should be taken away out of the Church and kingdom of England; for the right stating whereof, we must remember the vote which passed yesterday, not only by this com- mittee, but the House, which was to this effect : That this government hath been found, by long experience, to be a great impediment to the perfect reformation and growth of religion, and very prejudicial to the civil state. So that, then, the question will lie thus before us : Wheth- er a government, which long experience hath set so ill a character' upon, importing danger, not only to our religion, but the civil state, should be any longer continued among us, or be utterly abolished ! For my own part, I am of the opinion of those who con- ceive that the strength of reason already set down in the preamble to this bill by yesterday's vote is a necessary de- cision of this question ; for one of the main ends for which church government is set up is to advance and further the perfect reformation and growth of religion, which we have already voted this government doth contradict ; so that it is destructive to the very end for which it should be, and is most necessary and desirable ; in which respect, certainly, we have cause enough to lay it aside, not only as useless, in that it attains not its end, but as dangerous, in that it destroys and contradicts it. In the second place, we have voted it prejudicial to the civil state, as having so powerful and ill an influence upon our laws, the prerogative of the king, and liberties of the subject, that it is like a spreading leprosy, which leaves nothing untainted and uninfected which it comes near. May we not, therefore, well say of this government, as our Saviour, in the fifth of Matthew, speaks of salt (give me leave upon this occasion to make use of Scripture, as well as others have done in this debate), where it is said that salt is good : " But if the salt hath lost its savour, wherewith will you season it ? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men." So church government, in the general, is good, and that which is ne- cessary, and which we all desire ; but when any particular form of it hath once lost its savour, by being destructive to its own ends, for which it is set up (as by our vote already passed we say this hath), then surely, sir, we have no more, to do but to cast it out, and endeavour, the best we can, to provide ourselves a better. But to this it hath been said that the government now in question may be so amended and reformed, that it needs not be pulled quite down or abolished, because it is conceived it hath no original sin or evil in it ; or if it have, it is said, regeneration will take that away. Unto which I answer, I do consent that we should do with this government as we are done by in regeneration, in which all old things are to pass a way, and all things are to become new ; and this we must do if we desire a perfect reforma- tion and growth of our religion, or good to our civil state. For the whole fabric of this building is so rotten and cor- rupt, from the very foundation of it to the top, that if we pull it not down now, it will fall about the ears of all those that endeavour it within a very few years. The universal rottenness or corruption of this government will most evidently appear by a disquisition into these en- suing particulars. First, let us consider in what soil this root grows : Is it not in the pope's paradise ? do not one and the same prin- ciples and grounds- maintain the papacy, or universal bish- op, as do our diocesan or metropolitan bishops ? All those authorities which have been brought us out of the fathers and antiquity, will they not as well, if not better, support the popedom as the order of our bishops ? So, likewise, all these arguments for its agreeableness to monarchy and cure of schism, do they not much more strongly hold for the ac- knowledgment of the pope than for our bishops ? And yet have monarchies been ever a whit the more absolute for the pope's universal monarchy, or their kingdoms less subject to schisms and seditions ? Whatsoever other kingdoms have been, I am sure our histories can tell us this kingdom hath not ; and therefore we have cast him off long since, as he is foreign, though we have not been without one in our own bowels. For the difference between a metropolitan, or dio- cesan, or universal bishop, is not of kinds, but of degrees ; and a metropolitan or diocesan bishop is as ill able to per- form the duty of a pastor to his diocese or province, as the universal bishop is able to do it to the whole world ; for the one cannot do but by deputies, and no more can the other ; and therefore, since we all confess the grounds upon which the papacy stands are rotten, how can we deny but these that maintain our bishops are so too, since they are one and the same ? In the second place, let us consider by what hand this root of episcopacy was planted, and how it came into the Church. It is no difficult matter to find this out ; for is not the very spirit of this order a spirit of pride, exalting itself in the temple of God over all that is called God ? First, exalting itself above its fellow-presbyters, under the form of a bish- op; then over its fellow-bishops, under the title of arch- bishops ; and so still mounting over those of its own profes- sion, till it come to be pope ; and then it sticks not to tread upon the necks of princes, kings, and emperors, and trample them under its feet. Also thus you may trace it from its first rise, and discern by what spirit this order came into the Church, and by what door, even by the back door of pride and ambition, not by Christ Jesus. It is not a plant which God's right hand hath planted, but is full of rotten- ness and corruption ; that mystery of iniquity which hath wrought thus long, and so fit to be plucked up, and removed out of the way. Thirdly, let us consider the very nature and quality of 353 BRITISH STATESMEN. this tree or root in itself, whether it be good or corrupt in its own nature : we all know where it is said, " A good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit, nor a corrupt tree good fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?" By its fruit, therefore, we shall be sure to know it ; and according as the fruits of the government have been among us, either in Church or Commonwealth, so let it stand or Tall with us. And of government in the Church : First, as itself came in by the back door into the Church, and was brought in by the spirit of anti-Christ, so itself hath been the back door and inlet of all superstition and corruption into the worship and doctrine of this Church, and the means of hastening us buck again to Rome. For proof of this, I appeal to all our knowledge in late years past, the memory whereof is so fresh, I need enter into no particulars. A second fruit of this government in the Church hath been the displacing of the most godly and conscientious minis- ters ; the vexing, punishing, and banishing out of the king- dom the most religious of all sorts and conditions, that would not comply with their superstitious inventions and ceremo- nies ; in one word, the turning the edge and power of their government against the very life and power of godliness, and the favour and protection of it unto all profane, scandalous, and superstitious persons that would uphold their party : thousands of examples might be given of this, if it were not most notorious. A third fruit hath been schisms and fractions within our- selves, and alienation from all the Reformed Churches abroad. And, lastly, the prodigious monster of the late canons, whereby they had designed the whole nation to a perpetual slavery and bondage to themselves and their superstitious inventions. These are the fruits of the government in the Church. Now let us consider these in the civil state ; as, 1. The countenancing all illegal projects and proceedings, by teaching in their pulpits the lawfulness of an arbitrary power. 2. The overthrowing all process at common law that re- flected never so little upon their courts. 3. The kindling a war between these two nations, and blowing up the flame, as much as in them lay, by their coun- sels, canons, and subsidies they granted to that end. 4. The plots, practices, and combinations during this Par- liament, iu all which they seem to have been interested more or less. Thus have they not contented themselves with encroach- ments upon our spiritual privileges, but have envied us our civil freedom, desiring to make us grind iu their mill, as the Philistines did Samson, and to put out both our eyes : O let us be avenged of these Philistines for Qur two eyes ! If, then, the tree be to l>e known by its fruits, I hope you see by this time plainly the nature and quality of this tree. In the last place, give me leave, for a close of all, to pre- sent to your consideration the mischiefs which the contin- uance of this government doth threaten us with, if by the wisdom of this committee they be not prevented. First, the danger our religion must ever be in, so long as it is in the hands of such governors as can stand firmly in nothing more than its ruin, and whose affinity with the pope's hierarchy makes them more confident of the papists, than the professors of the Reformed religion for their safety and subsistence. Secondly, the unhappy condition our civil state is in, while the bishops have vote in the Lords' House, being there as so many obstructions in our body politic to all good and wholesome laws tending to salvation. Thirdly, the improbability of settling any firm or durable peace so long as the cause of the war yet continues, and the bellows that blow up this flame. Lastly, and that which I will assure you goes nearest to my heart, is the check which we seem to give to Divine Providence if we do not at this time pull down this govern- ment. For hath not this Parliament been called, continued, pre- served, and secured by the immediate finger of God, as it were, for this work ? Had we not else been swallowed up in many inevitable dangers by the practices and designs of these men and their party ? Hath not God left them to themselves, as well in these things as in the evil adminis- tration of their government, that he might lay them open unto us, and lead us, as it were, by the hand, from the find- ing them to be the causes of our evil, to discern that their rooting up must be our only cure ? Let us not, then, halt any longer between two opinions, but with one heart and resolution give glory to God in complying with his provi- dence, and with the good safety and peace of this church, and state, which is by passing this bill we are now upon. A Letter from a Person of Quality to a Relation of Sir Henry Vane, about a Week after the Execution. MADAM, If I do later than others give you an account of the share I have in the loss of your generous kinsman, it is because I would not rudely disturb the motions of so just a sorrow ; but I hope that you are assured I have so real a con- cern in all that relates to you, that it was not necessary, by an early haste, to send you an information of it. I have, madam, while I own a love to my country, a deep interest in the public loss, which so many worthy persons lament. The world is robbed of an unparalleled example of virtue and piety. Hit great abilities made hit enemies persuade them- selvet that all the revolutions in the last age were wrought by his influence, as if the world were only moved by his en- gine. In him they lodged all the dying hopes of his party. There was no opportunity that he did not improve for the advantage of his country. And when he was in his last and much-deplored scene, he strove to make the people in love with that freedom they had so lavishly and foolishly thrown away. He was great in all his actions, but to me he seemed great- est in his sufferings, when his enemies seem to fear that he alone should be able to acquaint them with a change of for- tune. In his lowest condition, you have seen him the ter- ror of a great prince, strengthened by many potent confed- erates and armies ; you have seen him live in high estima- tion and honour, and certainly he died with it. Men ar- rive at honours by several ways. The martyrs, though they wanted the glittering crowns the princes of those ages dis- pensed, have rich ones in every just man's esteem. Virtue, though unfortunate, shines in spite of all its enemies ; nor is it in any power to deface those lasting monuments your friend hath raised of his, in every heart that either knew him, or held any intelligence with fame. But, madam, I trespass too long upon your patience. This is a subject I am apt to dwell on, because I can never say enough of it. I shall now only desire you to make use of that fortitude and virtue that raised your friend above the malice and power of his enemies ; and do not, by an immoderate sor- row, destroy that which was so dear to him yourself, but live the lively representation of his virtue, the exercise of which that made you always the admiration of Your humble servant, &c. The 22d Jane, 1662. HENRY MARTEN. 1602-1680. HENRY MARTEN, or, as he was more gener- ally called, Harry Marten, was born in Oxford (" particularly, as I conceive," says Anthony & Wood, " in the parish of St. John Baptist, in a house opposite to Merton College Church, then lately built by Harry Sherburne, gentleman, and possessed at the time of Harry's birth by Sir Henry his father") in the year 1602. His father. Sir Henry Marten, LL.D., was the most emi- nent civilian of his time. Educated also at Oxford, he had carried off all the honours of the University, and, after leaving it, became successively judge of the admiralty, and twice dean of the arches, received knighthood, and in 1624 the appointment of judge of the prerog- ative. In the Parliament of 1628 he represent- ed the University of Oxford, and in the Long Parliament sat for the borough of St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire. He acted generally with the liberal party, but his temper was moderate, and he strove to conciliate to the last. Shortly after the birth of Harry Marten, we find Sir Henry in London. " When a lad," said one of the libellers of the famous Republican in after years, " you lived in Aldersgate-street, under the tuition of the then called ' blue-nosed Romanist' your father, who was the best civil- ian of our horizon, and a ' six-swinger,' as they termed him ; he had but 40 per annum of his own."* Whatever his condition was then, it is quite certain that, some short time before his death, which took place in 1641, he had pur- chased " a fair estate, mostly lying in Berks," which Anthony & Wood adds, " his ungodly son Harry squandered away."t Young Harry Marten was sent while yet in his boyhood to a grammar-school in Oxford, and afterward, in his fifteenth year, became a gentleman commoner of University College ;t " where," says the author of the Athenae, " and in public, giving a manifestation of his preg- nant parts," he had the degree of bachelor of arts conferred upon him in the latter end of 1619. He then travelled for some time in France, and at his return was prevailed on by his father to consent to one of those marriages of convenience which carry in their train all kinds of misery and social wrong. " His father found out a rich wife for him," says Aubrey, "whom he married something unwillingly." After the birth of a daughter they rarely met again ; but it is a touching circumstance to record, that in the last lonely years of his wretched imprisonment, this wife and daughter were the only persons in the world that seemed to recollect his existence, or that, to his own mind, gave him still some interest in life. He offered himself for Parliament on the * A letter prefixed to a libellous publication (by a reck- less and notorious libertine named Gayton) called " Colonel Harry Marten's Familiar Letters to his Lady of Delight." IThere is also a small quarto with the date of 1685, entitled "the Familiar Epistles of Col. Henry Martin, found in his Mistress's Cabinet," second edition. It is impossible that so much nonsense was ever penned by the colonel. C.] t Ath. Ox., iii., 17. t He was matriculated, according to the Oxford records, on the 31st of October, 1617 : " Henricus Marten, Oxonien- sis militis Jilius, annos natus 15." Y Y great election in April, 1640, to the electors for the county of Berkshire. His name had already become known as that of a man of eloquence and wit, and as the adviser of some of the most eminent public men of the time. He had con- tracted friendships with Hyde (Lord Claren- don), with Nathaniel Fiennes, with Hampden, and with Pym. He had also, in 1639, spiritedly refused to contribute a single sixpence towards the maintenance of a war against his fellow- countrymen in Scotland. These were his claims, and an immense majority of the Berk- shire electors at once cheerfully acknowledged them. Marten's life, up to this time, had been one of extreme gayety. " He was a great lover of pretty girls," says Aubrey, "to whom he was so liberal, that he spent the greatest part of his* estate." Men wondered at first, therefore, in those times of solemnity and precision, when they saw a man so free in living, and so liberal in speech, admitted to the intimacy of the gra- vest and most religious men of the age. They had yet to learn, what to the penetrating glance of the leaders of this Parliament had been al- ready revealed, that under the condemned hab- its of recklessness and dissipation lurked in this case one of the most active and useful dis- positions, one of the most frank, liberal, and benevolent spirits in a word, one of the best and most serviceable politicians that the coun- try had produced. Nor were they long in learning this. Marten at once took an active part in the proceedings of Parliament, and everybody saw that if he was the wittiest and most pleasant, he was also one of the most ardent and uncompromising of the opponents of Charles. " He was a great and faithful lover of his country," says Aubrey : " his speeches were not long, but wondrous poignant, pertinent, and witty. He was of an incomparable wit for repartees ; not at all cov- etous ; humble, not at all arrogant, as most of them were ; a great observer of justice, and did always, in the House, take the part of the op- pressed."* The shafts he shot at Charles struck deeper for the very reason that, in other circumstances, might have turned them aside comparatively harmless ; and the name of Har- ry Marten, once a signal for laughter only, be- came a terror in Whitehall. In the short interval between the Parliaments of April and November, Charles, ever childishly forward in showing his resentments, found an opportunity to insult this new and formidable assailant. Marten happened to be walking in. Hyde Park one day as his majesty's carriage passed, when the king himself, speaking very loud, and in the hearing of many people, applied a gross expression to him. " Harry went away patiently," says Aubrey, who relates the anec- dote, " sed manebat alta mente repdstum. That sarcasm raised the whole county of Berks against him." In other words, Marten was re- turned to the House of Commons by the elect- ors of that county, on the summoning of the Letters and Lives, ii., 435, 436. 354 BRITISH STATESMEN. famous Parliament of 1640, with greater enthu- siasm than before. The rise of the Republican party in the House of Commons has been described in the life of Vane, and Marten's statesmanship has received occasional illustration there. It was natural that, in entering on a decisive course in the House of Commons, he should choose his part with the Independents, then laying with so much energy and resolution the secret and solid foundations of their power. He had most need, his enemies said (and his friends need not deny the imputation), of the divine principle of tol- eration which distinguished that great party. " Henry Marten," says Bishop Burnet, " was all his life a most violent enemy to monarchy, but all that he moved for was upon Roman and Greek principles. He never entered into mat- ters of religion." The charge the bishop would imply in this passage is not a serious one. Vane and Cromwell, penetrated with all the fervours of a most earnest religious zeal, could see no purer end of government than the laughing Harry Marten proposed that of elevating in the social scale every individual man in Eng- land, until the time might come when no Eng- lishman should have a master, and in every corner of the island should be realized that lofty and soaring spirit which made Rome, so long as Rome remained uncorrupted and un- poisoned, a mark for the admiration of all suc- ceeding ages. " Some persons," Hume ob- serves, in his character of this Parliament of 1640, " partial to the leaders who now defend- ed public liberty, have ventured to put them in the balance with the most illustrious charac- ters of antiquity, and mention the names of Pym, Hampden, Vane, as a just parallel to those of Cato, Brutus, Cassius. Profound capacity, indeed, undaunted courage, extensive enter- prise in these particulars, perhaps, the Roman do not much surpass the English patriots ; but what a difference when the discourse, conduct, conversation, and private as well as public be- haviour of both are inspected ! Compare only one circumstance, and consider its consequen- ces. The leisure of those noble ancients was totally employed in the study of Grecian elo- quence and philosophy, in the cultivation of po- lite letters and civilized society ; the whole discourse and language of the moderns were polluted with mysterious jargon, and full of the lowest and most vulgar hypocrisy."* The falsehood of the pretence on which this charge was raised in the case of Pym and Vane has been shown in the course of these biographies ; but as against Marten, no such pretence could even be attempted by his worst opponents. Every one admitted him to be a man of real wit, and of the most mirthful and jovial pro- pensities " as far from a Puritan (to use Au- brey's expression) as light from darkness." Nor was his great learning ever questioned ; for it was a perpetual theme of wonder with people that he had found time for so many and such various accomplishments, living the life he had led. Holding Republican opinions, it is the dis- tinction of Harry Marten to have been the first who is reported to have avowed them. This is not said in praise of his wisdom, which on * Hume's History, v., 260, 4to. that point was perhaps questionable, but mere- ly as a statement of a fact. The anecdote is told in a very interesting way in a passage of Clarendon's own life. Hyde, Pym, Hampden, Marten, and Nathaniel Fiennes had been dining together one day, du- ring the progress of the Episcopacy Bill, at Pym's lodgings in Westminster, when, after dinner, " Nathaniel Fiennes asked Mr. Hyde whether he would ride into the fields and take a little air, it being a fine evening ; which the other consenting to, they sent for their horses, and riding together in the fields between West- minster and Chelsea, Mr. Fiennes asked him 'what it was that inclined him to adhere so passionately to the Church, which could not possibly be supported.' He answered, that ' he could have no other obligation than that of his own conscience and his reason, that could move with him, for he had no relation, or de- pendance upon any churchman that could dis- pose him to it ; that he could not conceive how religion could be preserved without bishops, nor how the government of the state could well subsist if the government of the Church were altered ;' and asked him what government they meant to introduce in its place. To which he (Fiennes) answered that 'there would be time enough to think of that ; but assured him, and wished him to remember what he said, that if the king resolved to defend the bishops, it would cost the kingdom much blood, and would be the occasion of as sharp a war as had ever been in England ; for that there was a great number of good men who resolved to lose their lives before they would ever submit to that gov- ernment,' which," continues Hyde, "was the first positive declaration he had ever heard from any particular man of that party." This is a good introduction to the anecdote of Mar- ten, which follows immediately after. " Within two days after this discourse from Mr. Fiennes," pursues Clarendon, " Mr. Hyde, walking between the Parliament House and Westminster, in the churchyard met with Harry Marten, with whom he lived very familiarly, and speaking together about the proceedings of the Houses, Marten told him that ' he (Hyde) would undo himself by his adhering to the court ;' to which he (Hyde) replied, that ' he had no rela- tion to the court, and was only concerned to maintain the government and preserve the law ;' and then told him ' he could not conceive what he (Marten) proposed to himself, for he did not think him to be of the opinion or nature with those men who governed the House ;' and asked him ' what he thought of such and such men ;' and he (Marten) very frankly answered that ' he thought them knaves ; and that when they had done as much as they intended to do, they should be used as they had used others.' The other pressed him then to say what he desired, to which, after a little pause, he (Marten) very roundly answered, ' I DO NOT THINK ONE MAN WISE ENOUGH TO GOVERN us ALL,' which was the first word he (Hyde) had ever heard any man speak to that purpose ; and would, without doubt, if it had been then communicated or at- tempted, been the most abhorred by the whole nation of any design that could be mentioned ; and yet it appears it had even so early entered into the hearts of some desperate persons, that HENRY MARTEN. 355 gentleman being at that lime possessed of a very great fortune, and having great credit in his coun- try."* Taking all this with the proper allowances, it would seem perfectly clear that Marten was now and then too free of speech, nor sufficient- ly accommodated his opinions to times and places. Whatever the secret conclusions might be to which Vane, and Ludlow, and Cromwell had already in their own minds arrived, it was surely most unwise to hazard any public dis- cfosure of them before the general intellect and moral feeling had become sufficiently ripe for the attempt, or before the perfidy and bad faith of Charles had received its utmost extent of illustration among the great body of the people. Clarendon's imputations on Marten's good faith respecting his great political associates have no warrant or authority. He was in all things sincere to a fault, it might be added, were it right to associate such a reproach with any order of sincerity. In all the consultations of the liberal leaders, and in all their most mem- orable actions during 1640 and 1641, he took a most prominent part ; and though the prudence of his conduct and counsel was sometimes brought in question, he never lost his influence with the House, or the warmest friendship of its leaders ; nor, it may be added, rarely failed to be justified by the event, in what seemed to more careful and cautious men the very height even of his imprudence. In a curious pamphlet by Dudley, third Lord North, then a member of the House of Commons, this receives inci- dental illustration in a passage which, though not correct as a statement of facts, serves to show the feeling of the House. " Businesses," the writer observes, " were not always carried on in the House according to the mind and in- tended order of the leading persons ; for the business of that protestation made in the year 1641 had been taken into consideration at a private meeting of the grandees, and was then concluded to be unseasonable. Yet Henry Marten, being unsatisfied with their determina- tion, moved it the next day in Parliament, and found the House so disposed as a vote was presently passed for a protestation, which was afterward worded by a select committee, and approved of in both Houses ; and to this the leaders would not oppose themselves, though they considered it improper at that time."t On the 4th of July, 1642, when Charles had retired from London, and was on the eve of set- ting up his standard at Nottingham, Marten was appointed one of those fifteen eminent and trusted persons, lords and commoners, to whom Parliament deputed the powers of a " commit- tee of safety," " to take into consideration whatever might concern the safety of the king- dom, the defence of the Parliament, the preser- vation of the peace of the kingdom, and the opposing any force which might be raised against the Parliament : this committee to meet when and where they pleased." Such was the sim- ple frame of the first executive government of the Parliament ; the members receiving no in- auguration no attendance given to them not ,* Clarendon's Life, 41, 42, folio ed., 1759. t From a curious and interesting pamphlet, called " A Narrative of some Passages in or relating to the Long Par- liament, by a Person of Honour." Horace Walpole states the author to have been Dudley, the fourth Lord North. even a stated place of meeting assigned. It is a circumstance worthy of remark, that in all the proceedings taken by the House of Com- mons while the question of the king's suprem- acy may be said to have been yet undecided, nothing was done that was not wholly indis- pensable ; while, in the creation of any new powers or agencies of government, which the vicissitudes of public affairs might render fugi- tive ana ephemeral, we never fail to see that their creators were most careful to give them no incidents or inducements that might unne- cessarily afford the members in whom they were vested a temptation to protract their ex- istence. When the civil war began, and Charles is- sued his proclamation against the members of both Houses, Marten's name received the hon- our of a special exception, in common with those of Hampden and Pym, from the offer of kingly pardon. This only redoubled his exertions in the " committee of safety," and his zeal in dis- charging its duties involved him in many per- sonal contentionsof great warmth and passion.* Among the earliest commissions of colonels of horse granted by order of the Parliament, we find the name of Harry Marten. His active, light-hearted, and mercurial spirit, not content with all the labours and duties imposed on him in London, sought employment also at the scene of war. The House of Commons, as an additional proof of their confidence, bestowed upon him the military governorship of Reading. He was subsequently obliged to abandon this city at the king's approach, t but under circum- stances which left no imputation on his cour- age. No imputations, such as too deservedly fell on the virtuous and highly-gifted, but timid Nathaniel Fiennes, for his unfortunate abandon- ment of Bristol, sullied the name of Marten. Elated by his temporary successes, Charles again addressed his misguided Commons, tell- ing them that " his quarrel was not against the Parliament, but against particular men, who first made the wounds, and would not now suf- fer them to be healed, but made them deeper and wider by continuing, fostering, and foment- ing mistakes and jealousies betwixt body and head, his majesty and his two Houses of Par- liament ; which persons he would name, and was ready to prove them guilty of high treason." He then proceeded to name Pym, Hampden, Marten, and Hollis as the chief traitors, and desired that " they might be delivered into the hands of justice, to be tried by then, peers, ac- cording to the known laws of the land."}: These gallant "traitors" were not relaxing any of their exertions meanwhile, and Marten, more successful as a civilian than a soldier, was once more at Westminster, engaged in fierce contests and disputes with the House of Lords. To that House he never at any time affected any attachment ; and, whenever it threatened the slightest interruption to the proceedings of the Commons, he prepared himself with some- what ostentatious glee for an encounter with their lordships. I find upon the journals of this * See the case of the Earl of Northumberland, which led to abortive proceedings between the two Houses. Purl. Hist., xii., 238-240 ; and Clarendon's History, iv., 17-51. t Clarendon, iii., 318. ? Clarendon's Hist, of the Reb., iii., 618, restored text , Appendix E. 356 BRITISH STATESMEN. period a very grave complaint from the upper to the lower House, respecting some certain expressions used against the Lords in a con- ference by Marten, " because they were not so forward in passing ordinances for seizing the estates of delinquents" as the Commons de- sired them to be. The expressions were these : " I have something to deliver to your lordships in the behalf of the House of Commons. It is true, my lords, there are some privileges be- longing to the House of Peers, and others to the House of Commons ; and this of raising moneys you have ever solely attributed to them, since your lordships have never refused to join with them when they have brought up anything that concerns the raising of money ; and there- fore they expect you would not now refuse to pass this ordinance, without giving them some very good reasons for it." On turning to the Parliamentary History, we see that " the Lords debated this matter for some time, and after- ward appointed a committee of ten lords to con- sider of a fit way how to vindicate the privi- lege of their House in this particular; but it is probable this matter was dropped, as the for- mer [a previous contest with Marten of the same description], for we find nothing more of it in the journals."* Some few days after, however, the journals present another dispute between the same par- ties respecting " two young horses" which had been taken out of the king's stables by a per- son of the name of De Luke. " The Lords or- dered the horses to be restored, and De Luke to attend them to answer it. This man produ- ced his warrant to the messenger from Mr. Marten, and Mr. Marten himself refused to re- turn the horses, saying, ' We have taken the king's ships and forts, and may as well take his horses, lest they might be employed against us ; but, however,' he added, 'he would acquaint the House of Commons therewith the next morning, who would satisfy the Lords at a con- ference.' This the Lords took very ill, and at the conference they told the Commons that they had resolved to write to the lord-general to re- call Mr. Marten's commission ; but for himself they had done nothing, in regard he was a mem- ber of their House, adding that they did apply themselves unto the Commons in all respect and civility, and did look for reparation in this business ; instead of which, the Commons, on their return to the House, voted that Mr. Mar- ten did well in not delivering the two horses till he had made them acquainted with it ; that these two horses should be kept by Mr. Marten till this House gives farther order ; and that the lord-general should be desired not to do any- thing in the business concerning Mr. Marten till he heard farther from that House."t The dispute in this case is far from assuming a dig- nified shape on either side, but its result surely exhibits the great folly, considering the incapa- city, of their lordships. " To so low an ebb," is the pathetic remark of the compilers of the Parliamentary History, " was the authority of the House of Peers already reduced !" They had themselves to thank for it. An anecdote of Marten, said to belong to this period, has been told by Doctor Peter Heylin.t * Part. Hist-, xii., 240. t Ibid., xii., 251. t In his History of the Presbyterians, 452, ed. 1672. I present it with more than a doubt of its au- thenticity, since no concurrent testimonies bear it out, and it is in its character very improba- ble. The Commons, according to Heylin's ac- count, were always glad to avail themselves of Harry Marten's great fertility of resource in de- vising means of raising supplies during the dif- ficulties that beset the opening of the war, and gave him almost unlimited power to this end. Secretly indulging, on one occasion, a particu- lar malicious humour of his own, it occurred to him that there would be no farther use for the regalia, and that they might as well be sold for what they would bring ; " whereupon," contin- ues Heylin, " Marten, then member for Berks, having commanded the sub-dean of Westmin- ster to bring him to the place where the regalia were kept, made himself master of the spoil ; and having forced open a great iron chest, took out the crown, the robes, the sword, the scep- tre, belonging anciently to King Edward the Confessor, and used by all our kings at their inaugurations ; then, with a scorn greater than his lusts and the rest of his vices, he openly declares that there would be no farther use of these toys and trifles, and in the folly of that humour invests George Withers (an old Puri- tan satirist*) in the royal habiliments, who, be- ing thus crowned and royally arrayed (as right well became him), first marched about the room with a stately garb, and afterward, with a thou- sand apish and ridiculous actions, exposed these sacred ornaments to contempt and laughter." In declining to admit the truth of this story, it would be unjust to withhold from its learned and very reverend author the praise of a skilful invention and a quick perception of the ludi- crous. Marten's indulgence of his wit and humour on all possible occasions, and his well-known careless avowals of his preference for Republi- can government, gave currency and plausibility to such anecdotes. The latter characteristic, indulged freely almost everywhere, at last heed- lessly escaped him from his place in the House of Commons. Such avowals must always wait for their proper place and season, and in this instance both were forgotten. The incident occurred on the 16th of August, 1643. The pages which related it are torn from the journals of the House, but White- locke has supplied the omission in his Memori- als.! It occurred in the course of a debate on what were thought the scandalous expressions of a work published by one Saltmarsh, a Puri- tan minister, in which he urged, among other things, that " all means should be used to keep the king and his people from a sudden union ; that the war ought to be cherished under the notion of popery, as the surest means to en- gage the people ; and that if the king would not grant their demands, then to root him out and the royal line, and to collate the crown upon somebody else." Several members having strongly condemned such advice, Marten sud- denly rose, and said that " he saw no reason to condemn Mr. Saltmarsh so strongly, and that it were better one family should be destroyed than many." This called up Sir Nevil Poole, who moved that " Mr. Marten should explain what one family he meant." Marten interrupted him And a very fine old poet. t Page 68, ed. 1682 HENRY MARTEN. 357 with the remark that such a motion was need- less, and boldly and bluntly answered, " The king and his children !" Upon this there was a storm in the House, and many of the mem- bers urged loudly "against the lewdness of Mr. Marten's life, and the height and danger of these words, and spoke sharply against him." Pym, then within a few short months of his death, interfered on behalf of his friend, but at the same time, on public grounds, condemned his expressions. Marten was in the end expelled the House, and committed to the Tower.* A fortnight afterward he was " ordered to be forth- with discharged, without paying any fees for his imprisonment," but he did not, till after the lapse of a year and a half, resume his seat in the House. Nevertheless, he continued unremittingly to labour in the cause. His father had died two years before, and left him in possession of prop- erty to the amount of 3000 a year. From the moment of his accession to it, he appears to have indulged to excess his liberal tastes and " elegant desires ;" the whole county of Berk- shire rang with the festivities of the Vale of the White Horse ;t and his personal courtesies to all classes of men gave him unprecedented pop- ularity there. After his expulsion from the House of Commons he continued to hold his colonel's commission, and was present in sev- eral skirmishes and engagements. He also contributed, I find, out of his own resources, upward of 3000 to the Parliamentary com- missioners for the maintenance of the war.J During its progress, it may be added, he lost estates to much larger amounts, and at its close found himself in fortune a ruined man. That ruin was ascribed (by slanderers who could never forgive him the cheerful accomplish- * The same occurrence is told with a difference in Lord North's pamphlet : " Henry Marten," says his lordship, " exalted in mind by various successes, adventured to cast himself upon a rock, and thus it was : When it had been some ways expressed in the House that the good and happi- ness of this nation depended upon his majesty's safety, and the continuance of the royal line, Henry Marten stood up and affirmed it to he a mistake ; for (as he conceived) this nation might be very happy though the royal line were ex- tinct. Upon those words he was presently questioned, and after some debate, voted out of the House." I may add a characteristic anecdote of Pym from the same authority. It shows that on an occasion somewhat similar to the pres- ent, his address and skill were exerted with greater success on the behalf of an injudicious friend. "The House had newly received a message from his majesty, which was so far from being satisfactory as many persons spoke against it with much vehemence, and among the rest Sir Henry Lud- low (father of the great Republican), who very resolutely used these terms : ' He who sent this message is not worthy to be King of England.' Upon saying this he was immedi- ately interrupted, and the words that were spoke agreed upon preparatory to a charge ; but before his withdrawing, in order to a censure, Mr. Pym arose and said, ' That those words contained nothing of dishonour to the king,' which being found very strange, he thus cleared his meaning : 'If these words be such as a fair conclusion is naturally dedu- cible from them, then they cannot be evil in themselves. Now that a fair conclusion naturally ariseth from them may be proved by syllogism. He who sent this message is not worthy to be King of England ; but King Charles is worthy to be King of England, therefore King Charles sent not this message. Now,' saith Mr. Pym, ' I leave it to judgment whether or no this syllogism comprise anything in it worthy of censure.' This argument was so ingenious as Sir Henry Ludlow (with his ill meaning) came freely off without pun- ishment." t Where his principal mansion was situate. " Becket," says Aubrey, " in the parish of Shrineham, was his chief seate in the Vale of the White Horse, now Major Wild- man'g where he was very hospitable and exceeding pop- ular." J Whitelocke's Memorials, 385, ed. 1682. ments with which he graced a great and seri- ous cause) to other and less worthy reasons, which these pages shall not be polluted by any farther reference to. A memoir of his life, composed as this has been with a scrupulous attention to the truth, will be in itself the best and most particular answer that can be given to all such statements. During Marten's absence from the House, the self-denying ordinance was debated and passed. Clarendon can say, nevertheless, that Nathaniel Fiennes and Henry Marten were among those " who spoke more and warmer in favour of the self-denying ordinance than those spoke who opposed it." Marten did not re- sume his place in the House of Commons till nine months after that famous measure was passed ;* and Nathaniel Fiennes was still in France during its discussion, whither he had retired in deep mortification at the affair of Bristol. The truth is, that the whole of the debate on this ordinance as reported in Claren- don's History is an absolute and unmitigated forgery, made for his own purposes by Claren- don, and adopted in philosophical indolence by Hume. How much history has been written in this way ! The resolution for Marten's reinstatement in the House was passed on the 6th of January, 1645-G, and, Whitelocke says, "gave occasion to some to believe that the House began to be more averse from the king." It was certainly a proof, among others, of the growing strength of the quiet and wise party of the Independents, and it is most gratifying to discover that it was proposed by Vane. Dudley Lord North, in the curious pamphlet already adverted to, describes it thus : " It was conceived now that Henry Marten might do good service as a member, and so his restitution was moved for ; but an- swer was soon made that he was a person dead civilly, and could not be restored to life. Here- upon young Sir Harry Vane (one of the ora- cles of those times) arose and said, ' That the matter was very easy to be effected, by expun- ging out of the journal-book that order where- by he had been cast out ; and that the House was ever understood to be mistress of her own orders.' This was found so ready a way as the matter was presently determined ; and Henry Marten, having notice, came into the House again, disposed to do farther mischief." This is simply an exaggerated account of a course adopted to save Marten the necessity of a new election. It is not difficult to imagine the welcome Harry Marten received on entering the House once more. His wit had been the ornament and relief of almost every debate ; his graceful manner, and never-failing good-humour, had been perforce made acceptable to the sourest Puritan there ; and by his gallant and unflinch- ing adherence to Republican principles, by the respect his intellect and genius inspired, he had bound himself in the fastest friendship to Crom- well, to St. John, and to Vane. From the in- stant he resumed his seat until his old friend's traitorous usurpation on the Commonwealth, his name appears most prominently in every * See Whitelocke, 135 and 192. Also Journals of April 3, 1645, and January 6, 1645 (old style). 358 BRITISH STATESMEN. transaction of importance,* and, above all, when mercy is to be shown, or an act of lib- eral and kind-hearted justice done, the name of Henry Marten, and the record of his best exertions, are sure to be found not wanting. When John Lilburne's intemperance had de- livered him over into the fangs of Prynne, Mar- ten interfered in his behalf. When he after- ward sought redress from the House of Com- mons, it was Marten who moved his committee and sat as its chairman. If it had been possi- ble to have saved a man of such a temper, so grossly fond of quarrel, so self-conceited of his own honesty as to suppose he absorbed all of it himself that had been left in the world, so credulous and so suspicious, Marten would have saved him. And when it was obvious at the last that he must be left to his own wild and irreclaimable courses, it was Marten's wit which suggested that excuse for him which has passed into a familiar saying. " This very John Lilburne," says Rushworth, " after his trial, persisted in writing many books against those then in power and authority, and some particular members thereof; insomuch as it was said by Henry Marten in favour of him, 'That if there were none living but himself, John would be against Lilburne, and Lilburne against John.' "t Nor as his attachment to Cromwell with- held him not from these kind-hearted efforts in behalf of one who, but for a superabundance of conceit and bile, might have been one of the stanchest friends to the great cause, as he had already proved one of its most courageous soldiers did his friendship for Vane prevent his protesting on many occasions against the conduct of Vane's father. A good anecdote is told by Aubrey on this point. Having spoken somewhat sharply for some time against old Vane, and seeing some marks of pain and vex- ation on the countenance of his son, he suddenly interposed, " But for young Sir Harry Vane " Fifty voices interrupted him, " What have you to say to young Sir Harry!" Marten quietly sat down. From all parts of the House (the members were in committee) the question again broke out, " What to young Sir Harry 1" The wit rose with very great gravity, and observed, " Why, if young Sir Harry lives to be old, he will be old Sir Harry F" and so, says Aubrey, " sat down, and set the whole House a laughing, aa he oftentimes did ;" and the invective against old Vane was forgotten for that time, and some mortification saved to young Sir Henry. And not alone for men belonging to his own party, and generally acting with it, were these happy resources called in aid by Harry Marten. " He did always," as Aubrey says in his char- acter of him, " take in the House the part of the oppressed," no matter what their politics. The relation I am now about to give is taken from a curious pamphlet, republished in Lord Somers's tracts, and called, " A true and just Account of what was transacted in the Com- mons' House, when that House voted David Jenkins, Esq., a Welsh Judge, and Sir Francis * He was a great favourite with the citizens of London, and spoke in the common hall very often. Some of these speeches, as that concerning Sir William Waller, are to be found among the pamphlets of the time, and are good speci- mens of close reasoning and a most happy style. t Rushworth, ii., 468. Butler, to be guilty of High Treason against themselves ; and likewise an Account of an excellent Speech that the said Judge intended to have spoken at the Place of his Execution, taken from the Mouth and Notes of the said Sir Fran- cis Butler." This Judge Jenkins was justly famous in his day as a fervent and intrepid Royalist. The offence he was now brought before the Com- mons to answer, among others, was that of having, in 1642, in some Welsh counties, con- demned to death persons charged with being in arms against the king. On being conducted to the bar with Butler, the latter knelt as he was instructed, but the old judge peremptorily re- fused to do so. In the reprimand which fol- lowed, the speaker adverted in especial to this mark of contumacy, as the greater fault in him, " seeing he pretended to be knowing in the laws of the land." The relation then proceeds : " Sir Francis said during this speech of Len- thall's, Judge Jenkins had prayed him softly not to speak much ; so to let all their malice fall on him only, since he was in years, and Sir Francis but young in respect to him. And when the speaker's speech was ended, Judge Jenkins asked whether they would now give him liberty to speak. ' Yes,' answered Len- thall, ' so you be not very long.' ' No,' said the judge, ' I will not trouble either myself or you with many words. In your speech, Mr. Speak- er, you said the House was offended at my behaviour, in not making any obeisance to you at my coming here, and this was the more won- dered at, because I pretended to be knowing in the laws of the land. In answer to which, Mr. Speaker, I say, that I thank God I not only pretend to be, but am knowing in the laws of the land (having made it my study for these five-and-forty years) ; and because I am so, that was the reason of such my behaviour ; for as long as you had the king's arms engraven on your mace, and acted under his authority, had I come here I would have bowed my body in obedience to his writ and authority, by which you were first called ; bat, Mr. Speaker, since you and this House have renounced all your duty and allegiance to your sovereign and nat- ural liege lord the king, and are become a den of thieves, should I bow myself in this house of Rimmon, the Lord would not pardon me in this thing.' " The amazement and confusion excited by this courageous burst broke forth on all sides. " The whole House," says the narration, " fell into such an uproar and confusion, that for half an hour they could not be reduced into any order, for sometimes ten, sometimes twenty, would be speaking together ; but at length the fury abated, and the House voted they were both guilty of high treason (without any trial at all), and should suffer as in cases condemned for treason. So they called for the keeper of Newgate, to know the usual days for execution in such cases. He told them it was usually on Wednesdays or Fridays ; and then was debated whether it should be done on next Wednes- day or Friday. Then stood up Harry Mar- ten (the droll of that House), who had not spoken before. He said he would not go about to meddle in their vote, but as to the time of ex- ecution he had something to say, especially as HENRY MARTEN. to Judge Jenkins. ' Mr. Speaker,' says he, | ' every one must believe that this old gentle- man here is fully possessed in his head that he is pro aris et focis mori that he shall die a martyr for this cause ; for otherwise he never would have provoked the House by such biting expressions ; whereby it is apparent that if you execute him, you do what he hopes for and desires, and whose execution might have a great influence upon the people, since not condemned by a jury : wherefore my motion is, that this House would suspend the day of execution, and in the mean time force him to live in spite of his teeth;' which mo- tion of his put the House into a fit of good- humour, and they cried, ' Suspend the day of execution.' So they were returned back to Newgate." Anything more exquisite than this, wiser in fact, more benevolent or humane in purpose, more happy in its turn of wit, is not even re- corded among the sayings of Harry Marten. The conclusion of the incident is well worth giving, not less for its interest in itself, than as a proof and confirmation of the sound sagacity which guided Marten in his interference on this as on every similar occasion of the wisdom which was the undercurrent of his wit. On their return to prison, Sir Francis Butler " asked the judge whether he had not been too hardy in his expressions to the House. ' Not at all,' said he ; ' for things of a rebellious na- ture have been so successful in this kingdom, and have gotten such a head, that they will al- most allure the weak loyal man to comply there- with, if some vigorous and brave resistance is not made against them, and to their faces ; and this was the cause why I said such home things to them yesterday. And although I have op- posed rebels and traitors all my life hitherto, yet I persuade myself that at the time of my execution, on the day of my death, I shall be like to Samson, and destroy more Philistines than I ever did in all my life that is, confound their rebellious assertions ; and in this thought of mine I am so wrapped up, that I hope they won't totally suspend my execution.' " His companion's wonder may be conceived by this time to have reached an intense pitch. The brave old judge soon satisfied it : "I will now," said the judge, " tell you all that I intend to do and say at that time : first, I will eat much liquerish and gingerbread, thereby to strengthen my lungs, that I may extend my voice far and near, for no doubt there will be great multitudes at the place ; and then / will come with Bracton's book hung upon my left shoulder, with the statutes at large hung upon my right shoulder, and the Bible with a riband put round my neck, and hang- ing on my breast. Then I will tell the people that I was brought there to die for being a traitor ; and in the words of a dying man, I will tell them that I wish that all the traitors in the kingdom would come to my fate. But the House of Commons, I will then tell them, never thought me a traitor, else they would have tried me for such, in a legal manner, by a jury, ac- cording to the custom of this kingdom for a thousand years. They have indeed debarred me from my birthright, a trial by my peers, that is, a jury ; but they knew, and that is it, that I am not guilty according to law. But since they will have me a traitor, right or wrong, I thought it was just to bring my counsellors with me, for they ought to be hanged as well as I, for they all along advised me in what I have done. Then shall I open Bracton to show them that the supreme power is in the king,* the statute-book to read the oath of allegiance, and the Bible to show them their duties. All these were my civil counsellors, and they must be hanged with me ! So when they shall see me die," concluded the old man, " thousands will inquire into these mat- ters, and having found all I told them to be true, they will come to loath and detest the present tyranny." Alas for this romantic project, not unlikely to have proved a wise one ! The wit of Mar- ten proved wiser still, and the imaginative old judge was left merely to indulge in anticipa- tions of his day of execution, which proved as vain as they were fond. The next service of humanity in which we find Harry Marten's wit engaged was a service to literature no less. He preserved the life of the author of Gondibert. Taking advantage of that misfortune of the poet, which the pleas- ant doggerel of Suckling has commemorated (no less than the questionable taste of the poet's wife, in the portrait prefixed to her edi- tion of his works) " Will Davenant, ashamed of a foolish mischance That he had got lately, traveling into France, Modestly hoped the handsomeness of his muse Might any deformity about him excuse taking advantage of this, when the proposition for his death was in agitation, Marten rose, and infused mercy and good-humour into the House by observing that really Will Davenant was but a rotten and imperfect subject, and that sac- rifices " by the Mosaic law" were always re- quired to be pure and without blemish. The question was deferred, and the ultimate inter- position of Milton and Whitelocke completed the act of mercy, t Merciful and kind-hearted as Marten was, however, no one had a firmer or more immove- able temper when in his own view of the pub- lic interests they seemed to demand its exer- cise. He was the most violent and unyielding of Republicans, the first to avow that faith, and the first to pursue unflinching, and at all haz- ards, the great object of its realization. After the reverses of Charles had thrown him into the power of the Parliament, Marten was the resolute opponent of all accommodation that had' for its basis the restoration of a limited mon- archy ; and in the course of one of the debates on this subject after the battle of Naseby when one of the members had been urging on the House the still surviving reverence of the people for their monarch, as exemplified in the account of the passage of Charles (under the conduct of the Parliamentary commissioners) from Newcastle to the palace of Holmby, where, as was alleged, multitudes had thrown * The fervid old gentleman still more fortified his friend and his own purpose at this point by reading at full length all the original passages from these authorities: it is not necessary to give them here. t Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. of Bodleian Letters, p. 308. The first half of the third book of Gondibert was written while in the prisons of the Commonwealth ; and he quitted it thus imperfect, alleging, in ever-memorable and lofty words, that " even in so worthy a design he should ask leave to desist, when he was interrupted by so great an ex- periment ai dying." 360 BRITISH STATESMEN. themselves in his way, to show him their rev- erence and their pity Marten observed that he had heard of it ; that the majority of the people had been afflicted with the king's evil, and sought his majesty's touch to cure them ; but he was very sure, for his own part, that a touch of the great seal of the Parliament would be found to possess precisely the same virtue, and he added his preference for that. In the long strife which followed between the Independents and the Presbyterians, and in- volved the fate of Charles and of the monarchy, Marten was the most active and persevering of the opponents of the king. He held that it was impossible to treat with such perfidy, con- stant insincerity, and bad faith as the whole of Charles's public life had exhibited, and which was now crowned by the disclosure of the con- tents of the cabinet left on the field of Naseby. He urged the immediate and firm settlement of a new frame of government, without present relation to the person of the king, or to ques- tions that would be best disposed of afterward ; and when, upon the refusal given by Charles to the first propositions voted him by the influence of the Presbyterians, the commissioners depu- ted to treat having brought back that refusal from the captive monarch, and received the thanks of the House of Commons for the way in which they had conducted themselves, Mar- ten startled the majority of members present by suddenly getting up and asking, " Nay, are not our thanks rather due to the king, who has rejected our offers 1 " He had not overrated the importance of that rejection. The day that succeeded was a day of stormy debate, and in the midst of it Marten moved,* and Hazlerig seconded, that no more addresses should be made to the king ; that his person should be demanded, and that Fairfax's army should march into the North, to enforce the applica- tion. " We know not," says Baillie, in a letter written at the moment, " we know not at what hour they will close their doors, and declare the king fallen from his throne." The Independents and Republicans had in- deed the advantage now, and through many difficulties and dangerous struggles (which they surmounted with the true genius of statesmen, by strength of character and elevation of aims) they pursued it home. The last thing that re- mained for them to subdue was the treachery of the Sco'ttish people, or, rather, the treachery of the Scots commissioners, supported by the religious bigotry of the mass of the Scottish people. In the questions which this involved, Marten took part with an infinite zeal ; and when the commissioners, in pursuance of their plan, claimed the right of interference and dic- tation in the terms of peace proposed at the close of 1647 to the royal prisoner, a strain of wit and eloquence, of the happiest ridicule as of the most exquisite reasoning, was poured out against them with irresistible effect by the genius of Harry Marten. The readers will be grateful for having this masterly production laid before them, which is richly entitled to that notice it would no doubt have received from the historians, if it had happened to be made up, not of wisdom and of wit, but of dulness and falsehood. * See Hollis, p. 58. He begins in a very clear, startling, and de- cisive tone ; the force of plain expression is, indeed, strongly illustrated throughout, and heightened not a little by occasional dashes of humour. " To RECTIFY, NOT TO UPBRAID YOU ! YOU have, for divers years together, been very well entreated by us of this nation, and that from a willingness we ever had, as upon all occasions, so particularly in your persons, to manifest the brotherly respect we bear towards them who sent you. Upon the same account, many for- mer boldnesses and provocations of yours have been winked at by the Parliament, as, I ana confident, your last answer would likewise be, did you not therein seem to have remained here so long as to have quite forgotten why you came. " You may therefore please to remember that it was no part of your first business (whatever supplemental commissions may have since been procured for a farther exercise of our patience since you came among us) to settle religion, nor to make a peace in England ; so as all those devout-like and amicable endeavours, for which you think to be thanked, were not only intru- sions into matters unconcerning you, but so many diversions from performing, as you ought, what was properly committed to you. " As for our religion : since the zeal of your countrymen would needs carry their care there- of so far from home, methinks their divines, now sitting with ours at Westminster, might excuse your trouble in this particular, or at least might teach you, by their practice, that your advice therein to the Pailiament is to be but an advice, and that an humble one. " As for the other particular of peace : it is true that, about three years ago, here were am- bassadors from our neighbours of the Low Countries, who, having found the king almost weary of fighting, made use of their privilege, and did his errand instead of their masters' ; which was with big words to beg a peace. After that, when the king's cause had nothing left to lean upon but the treachery of our false friends and servants, an ambassador from our neighbours of France did, en passant, make a certain overture of accord betwixt the crown and the head ; but your employment here from our neighbours of Scotland had so little rela- tion to peace, that your only work was to join counsels with a committee of ours in ordering and disposing such auxiliary forces as that king- dom should send into this for carrying on the war. " As to the delays you charge upon the Par- liament, in that they answer your papers some- times late, and sometimes not at all, yet re- quire peremptory and speedy resolutions from you, as if their dealings were unequal towards you : I hope you will give over making such constructions when you shall consider how much more busines lies upon their hands than upon yours, and how much slower progress the same affairs must needs find in passing both Houses than if they were to be despatched only by four or five commissioners. Were not I conscious to this truth, and to the abundant civility they have always shown for you in their undelayed reading, present referring, and de- sire of complying with what you send them, so far as might consist with their duty to this HENRY MARTEN. 361 Commonwealth, and that they want nothing but time to say so, I should never have pre- sumed to trust so great a cause upon the pat- ronage of so rude a pen ; neither, indeed, is it left there, my design being to let the world ima- gine how strong a stream of justice runs on our side, when I dare oppose the reasons of my single lark against all the advantages of number, abilities, and countenance that you can meet me with." The reader needs not be told, after what I have said in the life of Vane, that the positions taken up by the Scots commissioners, backed as they were, for the most part, by the Pres- byterian party in England, rendered it neces- sary that this decisive tone should be adopted against them. The great party, of which Mar- ten was so eminent a member, had, indeed, rea- son to hate the Presbyterians nearly as much as they hated the Royalists. What the Inde- pendents had fought for through the whole of the struggle with Charles, was liberty ; not lib- erty in one sense only, but in a sense that should pervade all things. The seven years that had been passed in toil and battle would indeed have been passed to little puroose in their view, and all the miseries of ctvil war been rushed into wickedly and in vain, were it all now to end in the restoration of a perfidious king, in the persecution or extirpation of sects, and in the establishment of a form of govern- ment in the Church not less exclusive and in- tolerant than the old. These were the objects now plainly driven at by the Scots commission- ers ; and in these objects the Presbyterian party in Parliament entirely sympathized, though the character they had to lose as friends to political freedom and the earliest instigators of the war made them necessarily wary and cautious in declaring their sympathy too boldly. Marten takes advantage of the latter circumstance throughout the whole of this paper with great adroitness and skill. The severity of the following passage is much increased and strengthened by its happy homeliness : " For order's sake, I shall take the pains to set the body of your discourse as upright as I may (its prolixity and perplexity considered) upon two feet : one is, the claim you make in behalf of the king- dom of Scotland to the inspection of, and conjunc- tion in, the matter of our laws and the condi- tions of our peace ; the other, mistaking the first for evinced, is your telling us what you think fit, and what unfit, for us to establish in our Church and state, and what way you conceive most proper for obtaining of a peace betwixt the king and us, together with the proofs where- with you seek to fortify your several opinions. " It would give your first foot too much ground to hold dispute with you upon the sec- ond ; therefore, since a man may see by your forwardness in printing and publishing both these and other your transactions with the Houses, that your arguments, like the king's in his messages, are not framed so much to satis- fy the Parliament as to beget in the people a dis- satisfaction towards the Parliament, I will, God enabling me, take a time apart to undeceive my countrymen concerning both the king and you, by laying the hook as open as the bait in all your lines ; and, for the present, apply myself only to the showing you, that when you shall Zz have offered your counsel to the Parliament of England (as for aught I know any one man may do unto another) in matters concerning this kingdom only, though the most wholesome counsel that ever was or can be given, and the Parliament shall not approve of it, nor have so much as a conference upon it, it is no more man- ners in you than it would be in the same number of Spaniards, Indians, or of the most remote re- gion of the earth, to press it again, to insist upon it, and to proclaim your unsatisfaction in it." The pretences of the Scots, and the serious invasions they implied on the newly-achieved freedom of England, are next ably exposed. The introduction of the subject of the army is aimed not less at the Parliamentary Presby- terians. " Let us, with your favour, consider your pretences : you do not aim, as yourselves pro- fess, at sharing in our rights, laws, nor liberties, but in other matters, viz., such as either in their own nature, or by compact, are common to both kingdoms ; which I take the more no- tice of, because one would suppose you to be grown kinder now than you were the other day, when you went about to make us believe that nothing in our laws did properly belong to us but the form and manner of proceeding therein, the matter of them being held in common with the kingdom of Scotland ; and therefore, and for their possibility of containing something prejudicial to that kingdom, to be revised by you before they receive their perfection. " But the truth is, you are still where you were, only the people's ears are, by this time, so habituated to the doctrines you frequently sow among them those doctrines so improved by your seminaries, who find their own inter- est interwoven with yours, and the Parliament seeming but a looker on that you persuade, yourselves anything will pass that you shall set your stamp on ; otherwise you would certainly have been ashamed to disavow the busying yourselves with our rights, laws, and liberties, and, with the same breath, to dispute our rights, correct our laws, and infringe our liberties. " Nay, contrary to that moderate concession of yours, you do, in this answer, intrench upon the very form and manner of our bills and propo- sitions ; and, as if the marshalling them, the put- ting them into rank and file, were to be by your order, you take upon you to appoint which of our desires shall have the van, and which the rear, in this expedition. " And (which is the most pleasant part of the story, if it would take, as truly such a thing might have done, when you and we were first acquainted), though the Parliament of England, as I told you even now, would not order the motions of the Scots army that served us in our country and for our pay but by conjunction of councils with commissioners of that kingdom, yet you (as you could not forbear meddling with our army when it was in modelling) so do in this paper continue the office you put yourselves into, of disposing, disbanding, dismembering, catechizing, and re- viling this army of ours, the greatest bulwark, under God, of our liberties, and which yet had proved ineffectual if your councils had been follow- ed or your importunities regarded. " Since, then, your way of advising us is not in a modest or submitting manner, but as if you 363 BRITISH STATESMEN. meant to pin your advice upon us whether we will or no, give me leave, I pray you, to exam- ine qua fiducid, promising you faithfully for my part that whensoever you shall bring the mat- ters contested for within the rules of your own setting down, that is, ' either in nature or by covenant, or by treaty, to be of a mixed con- cernment,' I will either not deny you a 'joint interest' in them, or acknowledge myself to have no more honour nor conscience in me than he may be said to have who, being in- trusted for his country, gives up their dearest rights to the next stranger that demands them without so much as arguing the point." Great earnestness, zeal, and force are singu- larly united in this remarkable paper with a certain studied and cold tone of temperance, and downright homeliness of manner. The al- tered position of the Scots since the conclusion of the war is exquisitely illustrated in the an- swer to their first argument. " Your arguments, by my computation, are five, and, if I understand them, speak thus : "AEG. 1. ' The same common interest upon which Scotland was invited and engaged in the war, ought to be continued (so I read you, and not ' improved,' (hat being a wild expression, and reaching neither you nor I know whither) in ma- king the peace.' For answer thereunto, should I admit it, the word ' invited' put you in mind that your countrymen came not to the war be- fore they were called : keep you the same method in accedendo ad consilium, and we shall still be friends. But I cannot subscribe to this position, for I believe it was a duty that the people of Scotland did owe unto themselves to give us their assistance in the late war, though they had not been invited ; yet doth it not fol- low from thence that when the war is ended (a* you often say it is, and yet most riddingly take huge pains for peace) they are bound to mingle with us in our councils, nor help us to settle our own kingdom, which we think our- selves able to settle well enough without them at least without their prejudice, to whom a good peace or a bad, so as it be a peace, is the same thing : for instance, the law of this land that gives me leave to pull down my -neighbour's house when it is on fire, in order to the quenching of it for the securing of my own, will not author- ize me, against his will, to set my foot within his threshold when the fire is out, even though I make it my errand to direct him in the rebuilding of his house, and pretend the teaching him so to contrive his chimneys as may, in all probability, prevent, for the future, a like loss to him, a like danger to myself. " ARG. 2. You demand the same conjunction of interests to be given you that was had of you. There I join issue with you, and profess, that if ever the Parliament of England, or any authority derived therefrom, did offer to put a finger into the proper affairs of Scotland, or into the government, civil, ecclesiastical, or military, oT that kingdom, and being once required to de- sist, did, notwithstanding, prosecute their title of advising, volentibus nolenlibus, I shall readily, BO far as in me lies, grant you to have a hand with us in the managing of this kingdom and the government thereof." The next extract is of great importance, as a protest on the part of a leader of the Inde- pendents declaratory of the nature and force of the obligation of the covenant. The passage in itself is most masterly. It strengthens and establishes, it will be seen, Vane's own view of that league of which he was the author, and which, were every other record of his life de- stroyed, would yet permanently attest the great- ness of his genius and the force of his charac- ter. With what a careless yet noble simplicity Marten describes the wise and tolerant faith of the Independents ! "ARG. 3. You affirm that the covenant en- tered into betwixt us makes you copartners with us in everything there mentioned ; by which reckoning, neither this nation nor that of Scotland hath any right, law, or liberty which either can properly and distinctly call its own, but both interests are jumbled together, and the two kingdoms are not confederate, but in- corporated. " Concerning the Covenant, therefore, which myself, among others, considering it first as well as I could, have taken, I shall shortly give you my sense in relation to the point before us : " First, I do not conceive the parties to that league intended thereby to be everlastingly bound each to the other ; the grounds of stri- king it being merely occasional, for the joining in a war to suppress a common enemy ; ac- cordingly, we did join ; the enemy is, if we be wise, suppressed, and the war, as you say, end- ed ; what should the Covenant do, but, like an al- manac of the last year, show us rather what we have already done than what we be now to do ? " Secondly, What would it do were it re- newed and made perpetual 1 Thus much it saith, in my opinion, and no more : whensoever you shall be violently hindered in the exercise of that religion you had among you at the time of the engagement, and shall require our as- sistance, we must afford it you for the removal of that violence. In like manner, whensoever we shall be so hindered in the exercise of that religion which we, according to that Covenant, shall establish here, upon request to you made for that effect, you are tied to assist us ; and so throughout all the other clauses respectively and equally ; carrying this along with you, we are hereby obliged to the reciprocal defence of one another, according to the declaration of the party wronged in any of the particulars there compromised, without being cavilled at, or scrupled by the party invoked ; whether your religion be the same it was, or ours the same it should be ; whether the bounds of your liberties or ours be not enlarged beyond their then line ; whether your delinquents or ours be justly so or no : for the native rights of both people being the principal, if not the only thing we looked on when we swore, we do not keep our oath in preserving those rights if we do not allow this master-right to each several people, namely, to be sole judges within themselves, what religion they will set up, what kind of laws they will have, what size, what number of magistrates they hold fit to execute those laws, and what offend- ers to be tried by them. Hereupon you know we did not inquire at all how orthodox your re- ligion was before we vowed to maintain you in it ; that is, in the quiet professing of it, not in the theological truth of it, which last were a business for a University perhaps, not for a kingdom, be- HENRY MARTEN. 363 ing well assured it was established by them who had all the authority that is visible to choose for themselves, and could not, without apparent breach of order, and injury to fundamentals, be disturbed in the exercise of what they had so chosen. " So far is the plain text of this Covenant from confounding interests, that it clearly set- tles and confirms them upon the several bases where it found them. And it would not be un- worthy of you to take heed lest this Covenant, upon which you seem to set so high a rate, be not as easily violated as slandered, since the most deadly wars have been said at least to begin with misunderstandings." The rationale of the famous eighth article of this treaty is now given, in a passage which, for closeness of reasoning, familiar wit of illus- tration, and a vigorous conciseness of style, is quite worthy of Swift. The general case of the Independents is here stated against all their opponents, whether of England or Scotland, with inimitable ease and clearness. " ARG. 4. Your entitling yourselves to a cog- nizance in the conditions of our peace, and, con- sequently, in the matter of our laws, when they relate to an agreement, as I confess the four bills do which were sent, is grounded upon a very great mistake of the eighth article in the treaty, the words whereof are indeed very rightly reci- ted by you, and the article itself so rational, so ordinary, so necessary, in all wars joined in by two states, that I do almost wonder as much what need there was to have inserted it, as I do how it is possible for you to mistake it. It stands briefly thus : one of you (for the purpose), and I (pardon, if you please, the familiarity of the instance), have solemnly engaged ourselves each to the other for our mutual aid against a third person, because we conceived him too strong for either of us single, or because one of us doubted he might have drawn the other of us to his party if not pre-engaged against him ; but whichsoever of us was 1 first in the quarrel, or whatever was the reason of the other's coming in, we are en- gaged ; and, though there were no writings drawn betwixt us, no terms expressed, were not I the veriest skellum that ever looked man in the face if I should shake hands with the common adversary and leave you fighting 1 Against such a piece of baseness, supposing it be like to be in nature, this article provides, and says, that since these two kingdoms were content to join in a war, which, without God's great mercy, might have proved fatal to them both, neither of them shall be suffered to make its peace apart ; so as if the Parliament of Scotland, upon consideration of reasons occur- ring to themselves, should offer to readmit the king into that kingdom, I say, not with honour, freedom, and safety, but in peace, the Parlia- ment of England might step in and forbid the banns, telling them we are not satisfied that an agreement should yet be made ; similiter, if this Parliament would come to any peace with him by bills or propositions, or by what other name soever they call their plasters, you may, being so authorized in name of that kingdom, or the Parliament thereof, intervene and op- pose, telling us that you, who are our fellow- surgeons merely in lancing of the sore, are not satisfied in the time for healing of it up ; but for you to read a lecture to us upon our medi- caments and their ingredients, to take measure of wounds, and to prefer your measure before that of our own taking, was never dreamed on by the framers of this article. " Here it may perhaps be demanded, though not by you, whether, according to my sense of the treaty, tying up both kingdoms to a consent in the fiat, not in the qualisfuerit of peace, if one should be obstinately bent to hang off", the other be necessitated to welter evei lastingly in blood for want of such a concurrence 1 I answer, yes, for these reasons : " First, A wise man will foresee inconveniences before he makes his bargain, and an honest man will stand to his bargain, notwithstanding all in- conveniences. " Secondly, There will be no great encour- agement for any obstinacy of that kind when it shall he remembered that the party obstructing the peace must continue to join in the war, and is liable to all the consequences thereof. " Thirdly, There is another and a more nat- ural way to peace and to the ending of a war than by agreement, namely, by conquest. / think he that plays out his set at tennis till he wins it makes as sure an end of it, and more fair, than he that throws up his racket when he wants but a stroke of up, having no other way to rook those of their money that bet on his side. If I am trust- ed to follow a suit in law for friends concerned therein, together with myself, and daub up a rotten compromise with my adversary, my fel- lows not consulted, but desiring the suit should still go on, it is not fit they should be bound thereby ; but if I continue to do my duty, and bring the cause to a hearing, to a verdict thereupon, and to judgment upon that, such an end of the quarrel I hope I may make with- out their leave, and, if the trial went with me, certainly without their offence. " To return to the nature of confederacies. Is the war wherein we are joined an invasion from without 1 Any one man of either side, if he have strength enough, hath authority enough to end it by repelling the invader. Is it a rebellion from within 1 It were strange to think that any law or engagement should hin- der a single man from ending it, if he be able, by suppressing of the rebels. The unworthy friend in the fable, when his companion and he met a bear in the wood, might have been allowed to kill her himself, but he should not have sought his safety in a tree without taking his friend along with him. " One thing more I shall add to justify the reason of this eighth article, such as might, for its clearness of being implied, have excused its being listed among the rest. Never did any people that joined in arms with a neighbour nation patch up a peace apart with more dis- honour to itself, than either of us should do if we could imagine ourselves to be so vile ; for the common enemy in this war is not a stran- ger unto either kingdom, but the king of both ; so as whichsoever of the two closeth with him by itself, before consent that there shall be at all a closure, doth not only withdraw from the other those aids it should contribute, but of a sworn brother becomes an open enemy. " Here I must observe, that as you put an interpretation upon this article which it will 364 BRITISH STATESMEN. not. bear, and, from the power you have thereby of hindering us from agreeing with the king at all, would enable yourselves to pry into the particulars of our agreement, so you do not on.ce glance at the point which was the true, genuine scope of the article : you do not protest against our making peace with this man, and give such reasons as Jehu did upon a less occasion : you do not wonder what confidence we can repose in him, after all this experience of him, and before so much as a promise of any amendment from him : you do not warn us, by the example of your coun- trymen, what a broken reed we shall lean upon when we make a pacification with him : you do not remember us with what horror the Assem- bly of your Church did look upon his mis- doings, nor what sense both kingdoms had (not of a reconcilement with him, but) of even suffering him to come near the Parliament of England until satisfaction were given for the blood which he had then caused to be shed in the three kingdoms. In fine, you do not say, for you need not give us your reasons, that you will make no peace with the king, therefore we ought not ; but you do as bad as say that you have made your peace already, and that not only without our consent (in despite of the article which you urge against us), but without our privity ; that you are come to a degree be- yond being friends with him, to be advocates for him ; not in meditating that his submission might be accepted, his crimes obliterated, and their salary remitted, but in asserting the same cause which we have been all this while con- futing with our swords the same cause which, what Englishman or Scotsman soever shall endeavour to maintain in arms, is a declared traitor to his country ; and if by his tongue or pen, in that kingdom of the two where he is no native, a manifest incendiary. But there will be time enough to do your errand into Scotland after I have proved England to be a noun sub- stantive, against which you have the shadow of one argument left still." The same soundness and sagacity of view, the same vigour of understanding, at once original and practical, equal force and familiar- ity of illustration, and alike plainness and strength of style, are observable in his treat- ment of the fifth and last argument of these Scots commissioners. " AEQ. 5. The strength of your last reason is this : ' Our Parliament hath formerly com- municated unto you the matter of their propo- sitions and of their bills in order to peace, and generally, indeed, whatever hath passed be- twixt the king and us since the conjunction of the two kingdoms against him ;' thereupon you have offered us your advice concerning the particulars so communicated, and we have reconsidered them upon your advice, some- times complying therewith, at other times making it appear to you why we could not. You say, ' That communication of councils we would never have suffered, if we had not been bound to it, which if we ever were, we still are.' " Custom and constant usage, I acknowledge, doth commonly obtain the name of law ; but the late practice of some four or five years hath not an aspect reverend enough to deserve the name of custom. It is as old, you will say, as a usage can be that is grounded upon a treaty of the same age, and shall be sufficient to sig- nify how the parties to the treaty did under- stand their own meaning. I should not deny this pretence of yours to be more than colour- able, if you could prove that our transactions with the king were imparted to you in relation to that engagement ; nay, if I could not show you upon what other ground we did, and that we could not reasonably be imagined to do it upon that. " First. To prove what the Parliament had in their intentions when they advised with you, I believe you will not undertake ; especially this being the first time, to my remembrance, that this point came in question betwixt us. I shall therefore endeavour to tell you, as near as I can, having been an attentive witness to most of their debates upon that subject, what it was that moved them to give your challenge so much probability of advantage as this amounts unto : you ask that now without being answer- ed, which you were not to have without asking. You were so, and that from these two roots : one was the extraordinary care the Parliament had to omit no act, no circumstance of civility towards you, which might express or preserve the amity and correspondence betwixt them and your masters, though they were not igno- rant what extreme prejudice courteous and good-natured men have often drawn upon them- selves in their dealing with persons of a con- trary disposition ; another was, since both king- doms have been embarked in the same cause, as men of war, and were afterward resolved to trade for peace since the commodities of both were to be stowed in the same bottom, and bound for the same port, we thought it but an ordinary piece of friendship for us, who could make no markets when we should be arrived without your allowance, to open and let you see, before we launched, our several parcels and instructions concerning what we would ex- port and what bring home ; not that we meant to consult you what kind of merchandise you thought fittest for us to deal in (which, ques- tionless, is better known at the Exchange than at Edinburgh), nor to follow such advice there- in as you should give us without asking, any farther than we liked it (and so far the best mer- chant in London is content to be ruled by the swabber of his ship), but merely to the end you might, if you pleased, from our example, and from your approbation of the wares we were resolved to deal in, furnish that kingdom whose factors you were with merchandise of the same kind ; and for evidence that the freedom we used towards you was no otherwise understood by you ; you did actually underwrite divers of our bills of lading in these syllables, ' The like for the kingdom of Scot- land.' " It remains to be showed how little reason there is you should fancy to yourselves such a ground of the Parliament's former openness to you as you strive to father upon them ; for, first, if they had communicated their proposi- tions to you, as conceiving the word agreement in the eighth article to comprehend all the preparations to, materials of, and circumstances in, an agreement, they would not have adhered, as many times they did, unto their own reso- lutions, notwithstanding your reiterated dissat- isfaction. HENRY MARTEN. 365 " Again : If they had conceived themselves bound to any such thing by this article, would they not have thought the kingdom of Scotland as much bound for their parts 1 Should we not have been as diligent inspectors and castigators of your propositions as you have made your- selves of ours 1 " When you shall ask me (setting the point of duty aside, and granting all that hath been done by us in this kind to have been voluntary) why we do not observe the same forwardness in communicating our matters to you, the same patience in expecting your concurrence with us, and the same easiness of admitting your ha- rangues and disputations among us, which you have heretofore tasted at our hands, and how we are become less friendly than we were 1 I have this to say, there is some alteration in the condition of affairs: so long as we needed the assistance of your countrymen in the field, we might have occasion to give you meetings at Derby House, and now and then in the Painted Chamber, it being likely that the kingdom of Scotland might then have a fellow-feeling with us for the wholesomeness or perniciousness of your counsels ; whereas now, since we are able, by God's blessing, to protect ourselves, we may surely, with his holy direction, be sufficient to teach ourselves how to go about our own busi- ness, at least without your tutoring, who have nothing in your consideration to look upon but either your particular advantage, or that of the kingdom whence you are ; and as there is some alteration in affairs, so there is very much in persons, I mean in yourselves, unless, being in- deed the same at first which now we find you, you only wanted an opportunity to appear ; but, whether you be changed or discovered, what Englishman soever shall peruse the papers that you have shot into both Houses of Parliament, especially into the House of Commons, these last two years, but would as lief take advice from the king as from you 1 And if a stranger should read them, he would little suspect the writers for friends or counsellors, but for plead- ers, for expostulators, for seekers of a quarrel ; and that (which is the most bitter weed in the pot) in the behalf, not so much of them who did employ you, as of him against whom you were employed, and against whom, if you were Scots- men, nature would teach you to employ your- selves. " By this time / hope you see we have greater cause to repent that we have kept such thorns thus long in our sides, than to return with the dog to the same vomit, and with the lazy sow, scarce cleansed of her former wallowing, to bemire ourselves again. I bestow a little the more ink upon this point, because I would prevent like claim hereafter, and have it left to the liberty of this nation, next time they shall be invaded or oppressed, though they did once call in all their brethren of Scotland to their aid, whether they will do so any more or no." The bitter severity, the supreme scorn of these masterly sentences, were long remember- ed and referred to. An entire and perfect con- tempt scorneth nicer phrase. The close of the paper, so remarkable in every way, illustrates with almost superior force the Republican fer- vour of Marten's views, the various wit of his illustrations, and the Republican plainness and strength of his style. " Having gone through your five arguments, at the end of your dozen commandments (so I call desires that must not be slighted on pain of incurring the guilt of violating engagements, and of such dangers as may ensue thereupon), I observe one engine you use, whereon you lay more weight than upon all you say besides : it begins with a flourish of oratory, bespeaking a fair interpretation of your meaning, though your motion be to take the right eye out of every one of our heads ; then you think to make your desires legitimate with fathering them upon a kingdom, and put us in mind how well that kingdom hath deserved to reign over this ; for to the offering of desires, as desires, there needs no merit, sure ; but since your opinion (that the advan- tages of honour lie all on that side, and that obligations of this sort have not been as recip- rocal between both nations as those of leagues and treaties) will force my pen upon this sub- ject, I shall let you know that somewhat may be said, when modesty gives leave, on this side too ; and yet all the kindnesses we have received from Scotland shall, by my consent, not only be paid for, but acknowledged ; and I can be con- tent to believe that our neighbours did not know how ill we were till we were almost past cure, and therefore came slowly to us ; that they did not know how well we were in a year after we had nothing for them to do, and there- fore went slowly from us ; only I would have it confessed that the fire we talk of was of your countrymen's kindling, began to burn at your house, to be quenched at ours, and by our hands. " But admit this nation had been merely passive in this war, and did owe their deliver- ance out of the king's talons wholly to the Scots nation : if the rescuer become a ravisher, if they have protected their own prey, they have merited only from themselves, and have their reward in their own hands. What have we got- ten by the bargain 1 What have we saved 1 What have we not lost 1 For if once you come to fetch away my liberty from me, I shall not ask you what other thing you will leave me ; and the liberty of a people governed by laws consists in living under such laws as themselves, or those whom they depute for that purpose, shall make choice of. To give out orders is the part of a commander ; to give laws, of a conqueror ; although our Norman did not think fit so to exercise his right of con- quest ; nay, our condition would be lower and more contemptible if we should suffer you to have your will of us in this particular, than if we had let the king have his ; for, " First, A king is but one master, and therefore likely to sit lighter upon our shoulders than a whole kingdom ; and if he should grow so heavy as can- not well be borne, he may be sooner gotten off than they. You shall see a Monsieur's horse go very proudly under a single man, but to be charge en croupe is that which nature made a mule for, if nature made a mule at all. '' Secondly, The king never pretended to the framing and imposing of laws upon us, as you do : he would have been content with such a negative voice therein as we allow you in the making of our peace with him. Did we fight rather than afford him so much, though seem- ingly derived unto him from his predecessors ; and shall we tamely give you more give you 368 BRITISH STATESMEN. that which your ancestors never yet durst ask of ours 1 " Thirdly, It had been far more tolerable for the king than for any foreign nation to have a share in the making of our laws, because he was likely to partake, and that largely, in the benefit of them, if good ; in the inconveniences, if bad ; which strangers are not ; nay, contra- rily, it is matter of envy and jealousy betwixt neighbours to see each other in a flourishing estate : so as the proper end of laws being to advance the people for whom they are made in wealth and strength to the uttermost, they are the most incompetent judges of those laws in the world whose interest it is to hinder that people from growing extremely rich or strong. " But what hath been already said, and by a word or two of close, it will, I hope, appear, that the claim you make to the voting with us in the matter of our laws and the conditions of our peace, as a thing whereunto we should be obliged by agreement, is, " 1. Mistaken in matter of fact, there being no such engagement on either side. " 2. Unreasonable, for the considerations above mentioned, and for being destructive to the very principles of property. " 3. Unequal (notwithstanding the reciproca- tion), more than Cyrus's childish judgment was, in making the little boy change coats with the great one, because his was long and the other short ; for our coats are not only longer than yours, but as Jit for us that do wear them as for you that would. 11 4. Unusual, there being no precedent for it that I could ever read or hear of; and yet there have been leagues betwixt states of a stricter union than this betwixt us, as offensive and de- fensive, ours only defensive. " 5. Unsafe, for the keeping up of hedges, boundaries, and distinctions (I mean real and jurisdictive ones, not personal and titulary) is a surer way to preserve peace among neigh- bours than the throwing all open. And if every man be not admitted wise enough to do his own business, whoever hath the longest sword will quickly be the wisest man, and disinherit all his neighbours for fools. "6. Impossible to be made good to you, if it had been agreed ; for the Parliament itself, from whom you claim, hath not, in my humble opinion, authority enough to erect another au- thority equal to itself. " As for your exhortations to piety and loy- alty, wherewith you conclude : when you have a mind to offer sacrifice to your God and tribute to your emperor (since the one will not be mocked, and the other should not), you may do well to do it of your own ; and to remember THAT THE LATE UNNATURAL WAR, WITH ALL THE CALAMITIES THAT HAVE ENSUED THEREON, TOOK ITS RISE FROM UNNATURAL ENCROACHMENTS UPON THE SEVERAL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF TWO NA- TIONS, RESOLVED, IT SEEMS, TO HOLD THEIR OWN WITH THE HAZARD OF A WAR, AND ALL THE CA- LAMITIES THAT CAN ENSUE THEREON." The result of these exertions against the Scots by Marten and his friends was to estab- lish the irreparable breach so long desired, and prepare the way for the last victory of the In- dependents. The four bills imbodying the con- ditions of treaty were sent to the king for his assent.* The Scots commissioners arrived at the Isle of Wight exactly one day later than the commissioners of the Parliament, and with much formality delivered to the king a protest against the bills, but with the secret object of pressing an alliance with Charles that should put an end to the ascendency of Cromwell, of Vane, and their bitter assailant Marten. The weak and perfidious king rejected the bills of the Parliament, and at the same instant signed a secret treaty with the Scots, by which he bound himself to renounce Episcopacy, and ac- cept the Covenant in solemn Parliament of both kingdoms. By this act he renounced also forever the character which has so long and so idly been ascribed to him, of the Church of England's martyr. They who say he died for the Church of England cannot say also that he refused to set his hand to the surrender of it. After the treaty the Scots left the Isle of Wight to prepare for war with their brethren of Eng- land, and the Parliamentary commissioners re- turned to London with that news which Vane, Cromwell, Marten, and Ireton were only wait- ing for to induce them to begin their operations at once for changing the form of government of this country from a monarchy into a republic. Marten drew up a resolution, which was sup- ported with startling force by Ireton and Crom- well in a short debate recorded by Clement Walker, t The resolution declared " that they would offer no farther addresses or applications to the king ; that no addresses or applications should be made by any one without leave of the two Houses ; and that whoever contra- vened this order should be liable to the penal- ties of treason." After a violent speech from Sir Thomas Wroth in support of the resolution, according to Clement Walker, Ireton rose, and spoke with calm but fatal moderation. He said" that " the king had denied that protection to the people which was the condition of obe- dience to him ; that after long patience they should now at last show themselves resolute ; that they should not desert the brave men who had fought for them beyond the possibility of retreat or forgiveness, and who would never forsake the Parliament unless the Parliament first forsook them." After some farther de- bate, Walker adds, " Cromwell brought up the rear." It was time, he said, to answer the public expectation, that they were able and re- solved to govern and defend the kingdom by * Clarendon has altogether misrepresented the nature of these bills, and directly and unequivocally falsified the de- scription of the last two of them. See Godwin's History of the Commonwealth, ii , 474, note. t Hist, of Independency, p. 70. Walker's account is borne out by this very striking passage of a pamphlet by May on the " Origin and Progress of the Second Civil War." It is to be found in Masere's Select Tracts, vol. i., 108. "On the third of January, the House of Commons debated of this denial of the king : the dispute was sharp, vehement, and high about the state and government of the Commonwealth ; and many plain speeches made of the king's obstinate averse- ness, and the people's too long patience. It was there af- firmed that the king, by his denial, had denied his protec- tion to the people of England, for which only subjection is due from them ; that, one being taken away, the other falls to the ground ; that it is very unjust and absurd that the Parliament (having so often tried the king's affections) should now betray to an implacable enemy both themselves and all those friends who, in a most just cause, had valiantly adventured their lives and fortunes ; that nothing was now left for them to do but to take care for the safety of them- selves and their friends, and settle the Commonwealth (since otherwise it could not be) without the king. HENRY MARTEN. 367 their own power, and teach the people that they had nothing to hope from a man whose heart God hardened in obstinacy. " Do not," he concluded, " let the army think themselves betrayed to the rage and malice of an irrecon- cilable enemy, whom they have subdued for your sake, from whom they should meet re- venge and justice ; do not drive them to de- spair, lest they seek safety by other means than adhering to you, who will not stick to yourselves ; and (laying his hand on his sword) how destructive such a resolution in them would be to you all, I tremble to think, and leave you to judge." A division after this debate, in- volving the principle of the resolution, was carried by a majority of 141 to 92, and estab- lished beyond question the power of the Inde- pendent or (now) Republican party. The Lords, after two days' delay, concurred with the Com- mons, and a declaration from the Republican officers attested with opportune force the gal- lant devotion of the army. Charles's last rea- sonable chance had now disappeared forever ! In all the subsequent proceedings against him Marten acted a foremost and distinguished part. Relying on the good faith of Oliver Cromwell, at this time the most intimate of his friends, he assisted him to the utmost, in common with the other Republicans, in strengthening the civil influences and power of the army. Sup- posing Cromwell to have already formed to himself his secret projects of ambition, it must nevertheless be admitted that the measures in which Vane and Marten now co-operated with him were not such as seemed likely to conduce to a scheme of personal usurpation. These measures had become absolutely necessary to meet the determined and fierce hostility of two great parties, the Presbyterians and the Royal- ists (still strong even in their defeat, because the known prejudices and habits of a great majority of the English people in favour of a monarchical executive secretly sustained some of the weakest points of their cause) ; and Vane and Marten could scarcely have supposed that in promoting the organization of an armed and enthusiastic democracy with a view to sur- mount these potent obstacles, they were not doing everything within their then limited means to advance the cherished project of a pure republic. But this question, so far as Vane is concerned in it, has already been dis- cussed. Marten's belief in Cromwell's sincerity lasted longer than Vane's, not less, perhaps, because of a less subtle and more relying tem- per, than that he was, by reason of his com- mission in the army, more mixed up with the absolute personal interests of that great body. When Fairfax began his ominous advance upon London, after the famous rendezvous at Newmarket, Marten joined him in his capacity as colonel, and was understood not only to have taken an active share in the various consulta- tions of the officers, but to have assisted Ireton in his famous papers and representations to the House of Commons, drawn up on behalf of the army. Let those who imagine such conduct to have directly favoured the subsequent es- tablishment of military despotism first under- stand what these representations were. " We are not," says the preamble of one of them, " a mercenary army, hired to serve any arbi- trary power of state, but called forth and con- jured by the several declarations of Parliament to the defence of our own and the people's just rights and liberties ; and so we took up arms in judgment and conscience to those ends, and are resolved according to your first just de- sires and declarations, and such principles as we have received from your frequent informa- tions and our own common sense concerning these our fundamental rights and liberties to assert and vindicate them against all arbitrary power, violence, and oppression, and all par- ticular interests and parties whatsoever." This consideration should, indeed, never be lost sight of in pronouncing upon the events of this memorable crisis. When these men saw that all they had fought and bled for in fields where their courage and genius for command had re- vived memories of the men of Cressy and of Poictiers when they saw the dearly-won liberty at last within their grasp, endangered by the exclusive and intolerant views of the Presbyterians, they merely stepped out of the ranks wherein they had not fought for hire, but for the interests of their children and their homes, and, as citizens, threw their weight into the scale of parties, with a demand that those interests might not be sacrificed again to the predominance of bigotry or intolerance, no matter what the form they might assume. A subsequent passage in the paper already quoted will illustrate farther the exact sympa- thy of Marten and the officers, up to this period and beyond it, with the views of Vane and with the purest doctrines of popular govern- ment. " And because," they said, " the present distribution of elections for Parliament mem- bers is so very unequal, and the multitude of burgesses for decayed or inconsiderable towns (whose interest in the kingdom would in many not exceed, or in others not equal, ordinary villages) doth give too much and too evident opportunity for men of power to frame parties in Parliament to serve particular interests, and thereby the common interest of the whole is not so minded, or not so equally provided for, we therefore farther desire, That some pro- vision may be now made for such distribution of elections for future Parliaments as may stand with some rule of equality or proportion, as near as may be, to render the Parliament a more equal representative of the whole ; as, for instance, that all counties, or divisions and parts of the kingdom (involving inconsiderable towns), may have a number of Parliament-men allowed to their choice proportion ably to the respective rates they bear in the common charges and burdens of the kingdom, and not to have more, or some other such like rule. And thus a firm foundation being laid, in the author- ity and constitution of Parliaments, for the hopes at least of common and equal right and freedom to ourselves and all the freeborn peo- ple of this land, we shall, for our parts, freely and cheerfully commit our stock or share of interest in this kingdom into this common bot- tom of Parliaments ; and though it may, for our particulars, go ill with us in one voyage, yet we shall thus hope, if right be with us, to fare better in another." Two centuries were allowed to pass, and a new settlement of the Constitution and the crown was suffered to be 368 BRITISH STATESMEN. made, before the simple, wise, and manly claims of these Republican officers, headed by the mild and modest Fairfax, the resolute Cromwell, the pure and lofty-minded Ireton, the witty, light-hearted, and so-called mercurial Harry Marten, were conceded to the English people ! Some months after the date of this repre- sentation from the army, when the Presby- terians, assisted by some disturbances among the people, and certain desperate intrigues on the part of the king and the Cavaliers, had rallied once again and held momentary sway in the capital, another and a final body of " pro- posals" was issued from the council of officers. It had been prepared by Ireton and Marten. Its sincerity has been doubted by shrewd and well-judging writers, on the ground that these men were too stanch Republicans to entertain seriously any project that should have for its basis the restoration of the king. This reason, however, is scarcely admissible. Undoubtedly Ireton and Marten were stanchest Republi- cans ; Republicans in theory no less than prac- tically convinced Republicans ; Republicans because they held, with the better spirits of Greece and Rome, that man in civil subjection to his fellow-man is incapable of being all that man in the abstract is qualified to be ; and Re- publicans also, because of their practical expe- rience of the utter insincerity, falsehood, and perfidy of the present monarch ; but yet, ad- mitting all this, it should not have withheld ! them from negotiating, under the present dis- tracted circumstances of the kingdom, a certain and immediate purchase of liberty and good government, on behalf and for the advantage of the great mass of their fellow-citizens, even at the sacrifice of the form and the name they loved. And this was what they did in drawing up these memorable proposals. They imbodied under them the immortal design of what has been called in modern days, " a monarchy sur- rounded- with Republican institutions," or what Montesquieu would have better called " a re- public in disguise." Had Charles accepted these proposals, and with sincerity redeemed them, his throne and his life would have been saved. He rejected them with infatuated scorn,* and both were lost. He placed secret reliance still upon the divisions in the city and the Parliament, and, clinging to his detested fondness for intrigue, abandoned himself to the worst fate that await- ed him. Some extracts from these proposals will startle the reader. They present a system of , civil and religious reform so entire and perfect, and condense, in a series of compact proposals, * See Memoirs of Sir John Berkeley in Masere's Select Tracts, i., p. 366-369. Mr. Hallam most justly remarks of the general character of the proposal, that " the terms were surely as good as Charles had any reason to hope. The se- verities against his party were mitigated. The grand ob- stacles to all accommodation, the Covenant and Presbyterian establishment, were at onee.removed ; or, if some difficulty might occur as to the latter, in consequence of the actual possession of benefices by the Presbyterian clergy, it seemed not absolutely insuperable ; for the changes projected in the constitution of Parliament, they were not necessarily inju- rious to the monarchy. That Parliament shall not be dis- solved until it had sat a certain time, was so salutary a pro- vision that the triennial act was hardly complete without it. It is, however, probable, from the king's extreme tenacious- ness of his prerogative, that those were the conditions that he found it most difficult to endure." Const. Hist. i. 286 such a mass of philosophical legislation, as, after a two centuries' march of intellect over the English nation, her liberal ministers and representatives are still only struggling to at- tain to. In the very Parliament which now sits at Westminster, the same propositions are actually under discussion which formed the major part of these proposals from the council of officers drawn up by Ireton and Marten, and laid upon the table of the House of Commons at the close of 1649 by the younger Vane !* The paper opens with a stipulation that the " things hereafter proposed," having been pro- vided for by the Long Parliament, that famous assembly should be dissolved " within a year at most." A plan for reform in the represent- ation is then propounded thus : 1. " That Parliaments may biennially be call- ed, and meet at a certain day, with such pro- visions for the certainty thereof as in the late act was made for triennial Parliaments, and what farther or other provision shall be found needful by the Parliament to reduce it to more certainty ; and upon the passing of this, the said act for triennial Parliaments to be repealed. 2. " Each biennial Parliament to sit one hun- dred and twenty days certain, unless adjounicd or dissolved sooner by their own consent ; afterward to be adjournable or dissolvable by the king : and no Parliament to sit past two hundred and forty days from their first meeting, or some other limited number of days now to be agreed on ; upon the expiration whereof, each Parlia- ment to dissolve of course, if not otherwise dis- solved sooner. 3. " The king, upon advice of the council of state, in the intervals betwixt biennial Parlia- ments, to call a Parliament extraordinary, pro- vided it meet above seventy days before the next biennial day, and be dissolved at least sixty days before the same, so as the course of biennial elections may never be interrupted. 4. " That this Parliament and each succeed- ing biennial Parliament, at or before adjourn- ment or dissolution thereof, may appoint com- mittees to continue during the interval, for such purposes as are, in any of these proposals, re- ferred to such committees. 5. " That the elections of the Commons for succeeding Parliaments may be distributed to all counties, or other parts or divisions of the kingdom, according to some rule of equality or proportion, so as all counties may have a num- ber of Parliament members allowed to their choice proportionable to the respective rates they bear in the common charges and burdens of the kingdom, or, according to some other rule of equality or proportion, to render the House of Commons, as near as may be, an equal representative of the whole ; and in order thereunto, that a present consideration be had to take off the elections for burgesses for poor, decayed, or inconsiderable towns, and to give some present addition to the number of Parlia- ment members for great counties that have now less than their due proportion, to bring all, at present as near as may be, to such a rule of proportion as aforesaid. 6. " That effectual provision be made for future freedom of elections and certainty of due returns. 7. " That the House of Commons alone have * Parl. Hist., xvi., 210. HENRY MARTEN. 3G the power, from time to time, to set down far- ther orders and rules for the ends expressed in the two last preceding articles, so as to reduce the election of members of that House to more and more perfection of equality in the distri- bution, freedom in the election, order in the proceeding thereto, and certainty in the re- turns ; which orders and rules, in that case, to be as laws. 8. " That there be a liberty for entertaining dissents in the House of Commons, with a pro- vision that no member be censurable for aught said or voted in the House, farther than to ex- clusion from that trust, and that only by the judgment of the House itself." In the succeeding passages it is proposed that the judicial power of both Houses should be strictly limited and defined, and that the for- mation and attributes of grand juries, the ma- gistracy, and the sheriffs should be better and more justly regulated. How little modern re- formers have discovered ! how much less they have achieved ! 9. " That the judicial power, or power affinal judgment in the Lords and Commons, and their power of exposition and application of law, without farther appeal, may be cleared ; and that no officer of justice, minister of state, or other person adjudged by them, may be capable of protection or pardon from the king without their advice and consent. 10. " That the right and liberty of the Com- mons of England may be cleared and vindicated as to a due exemption from any judgment, trial, or other proceeding against them by the House of Peers, without the concurring judgment of the House of Commons ; as also from any other judgment, sentence, or proceeding against them other than by their equals, or according to the law of the land. 11. " The same act to provide that grand-jury- men may be chosen by and for several parts or di- visions of each county respectively, in some equal way, and not remain, as now, at the discretion of an under-sheriff, to be put on or off; and that such grand-jurymen for their respective counties may, at each assize, present the names of persons to be made justices of peace, from time to time, as the country hath need for any to be added to the com- mission ; and at the summer assize to present the names of three persons, out of whom, the king may prick one to be sheriff for the next year." This most masterly evidence of statesman- like genius stipulates next, that the king's power over the militia be subject to the advice of Parliament, and a council for ten years ; that the disqualifications for civil privilege, and com- positions for estates incurred by delinquents (adherents to the royal standard), should be settled by a mitigated scale of remarkable mod- eration and magnanimity ; and that for the lib- erty, security, happiness, and peace of the king- dom, there should be passed acts respectively of confirmation, indemnity, and oblivion. Then came the following noble conditions : " An act to be passed to take away all co- ercive power, authority, and jurisdiction of bishops, and all other ecclesiastical officers whatsoever, extending to any civil penalties upon any ; and to repeal all laws whereby the civil magistracy hath been or is bound, upon any ecclesiastical censure, to proceed, ex officio, unto ! any civil penalties against any persons so cen- | sured. " That there be a repeal of all acts or clauses in any act enjoining the use of the Book of Com- mon Prayer, and imposing any penalties for neglect thereof ; as also of all acts, or clauses in any act, imposing any penalty for not coming to church, or for meetings elsewhere for prayer or other religious duties, exercises, or ordinan- ces ; and some other provision to be made for dis- covering of Papists and Popish recusants, and for disabling of them, and of all Jesuits or priests, from disturbing the state." In other words, that tests, and penalties, and obligations of force upon the conscience were not the means. It is a pity that this valuable discovery in morals and in legislation is so grievously wanting of universal application, even now ! The next propositions are these : " That the taking of the Covenant be not en- forced upon any, nor any penalties imposed upon the refusers, whereby men might be constrain^ ed to take it against their judgments or con- sciences ; but all orders or ordinances tending to that purpose to be repealed. "That (the. things here before proposed be- ing provided for settling and securing the rights, liberties, peace, and safety of the kingdom) his majesty's person, his queen, and royal issue, may be restored to a condition of safety, hon- our, and freedom in this nation, without dimi- nution to their personal rights, or farther limi- tation to the exercise of the legal power than according to the particulars aforegoing." A supplement of residuary matters followed, which it was desired no time should be lost by the Parliament in despatch of, since they would tend, " in a special manner, to the welfare, ease, and just satisfaction of the kingdom." Some of these are striking to the last degree in their application to the present day, to its wants and claims. They begin by demanding " that the just and necessary liberty of the people to rep- resent their grievances and desires by way of petition may be cleared and vindicated," and that, " in pursuance of the same, the common grievances of the people may be speedily con- sidered of and effectually redressed." Several are thus particularized, and the majority of them still wait redress ! They ask, for in- stance, that "the excise may be taken off from such commodities whereon the poor people of the land do ordinarily live, and a certain time to be limited for taking off the whole." They de- mand that "the oppressions and encroachments of forest laws may be prevented for the future," and that " all monopolies, old or new, and restraint* to the freedom of trade, be taken off." They stip- ulate next that " a course may be taken, and commissioners appointed, to remedy and rectify the inequality of rates, being upon several coun- ties, and several parts of each county, in re- spect of others, and to settle the proportions for land-rales to more equality throughout the kingdom ; in order to which, we shall offer some farther particulars, which we hope may be useful." And they require, in words of sad and significant import at this time, that "the present unequal^ troubleseme, and contentious tray of ministers' maintenance by tithes be considered of, and some remedy applied." They proceed to claim, afterward, that simple reform of the law 370 BRITISH STATESMEN. in ordinary processes, which is wanted still, in asking that " the rules and course of law, and the officers of it. may be so reduced and reform- ed, as that all suits and questions of right may be more clear and certain in the issues, and not so te- dious nor chargeable in the proceedings as now; in order to which, we shall offer some farther particulars hereafter." I transcribe the demand which follows with a mingled feeling of astonishment, of regret, and shame. What miseries miseries more frightful, because hidden from the universal gaze, and borne in secrecy and silence have since flowed from the injustice for which this demand suggested a simple and effectual rem- edy that very remedy which is at this moment, with a melancholy and almost hopeless earnest- ness, prayed for by the thousands of heart- broken men who are the last victims to that ac- cursed principle of the infamy of poverty which is here condemned by the statesmen of the sev- enteenth century, and which, with the passage of two hundred years, has not yet ceased its disgrace and reproach to the English character and name. They require " that prisoners for debt, or other debtors, who have estates to dis- charge them, may not, by embracing imprisonment or any other ways, have advantage to defraud their creditors, but that the estates of all men may be some way made liable to their debts (as well as tradesmen are by commissions of bankrupt), whether they be imprisoned for it or not ; and that such prisoners for debt, who have not where- with to pay, or at least do yield up what they have to their creditors, may be freed from imprisonment, or some way provided for, so as neither they nor] their families may perish by their imprisonments." The stipulations which succeed are dictated by the same noble spirit of justice and humanity. " Some provisions to be made that none may be compelled, by penalties or otherwise, to an- swer unto questions tending to the accusing of themselves or their nearest relations in crimi- nal causes, and no man's life to be taken away under two witnesses. That consideration may be had of all statutes, and the laws and cus- toms of corporations, imposing any oaths, either to repeal, or else to qualify and provide against the same, so far as they may extend or be con- strued to the molestation or ensnaring of reli- gious and peaceable people merely for noncon- formity in religion." Such were the views and sentiments, and such the genius for government, of the men who now (to resume the narrative), upon another temporary ascendency of the Presbyterians after the vote of non-addresses upon seeing the former solemn resolution of the House mocked by the commencement of another per- sonal treaty with the king upon a melancholy conviction of the absolute insincerity and in- veterate perfidy of Charles's friends, prepared themselves for the last decisive steps that should overthrow the English monarchy. Fair- fax and his officers, in a body, presented a re- monstrance to the House, calling for the im- mediate breaking up of the treaty, and for jus- tice on the king as the "capital source of all grievances."* At about the same instant they seized once more the person of the king, and ^Colonel Harry Marten," Rushworth tells us,t ~ Rush., vii., 1331. Parl. Hist.,xvT rVo " went hence to Lieutenant-general Cromwell." He left London suddenly and joined that leader, still engaged against the Scots. His purpose, no doubt, was to consult with him respecting the menacing attitude taken by the Presbyterians. After some days' absence, he returned to Lon- don as suddenly as he had quitted it. The Presbyterians had been warding off the army remonstrance by successive adjourn- ments. The remonstrance was now followed up by the more startling announcement of the resolve of the army " to purge the House," since by that means only they could stop the treaty. The Presbyterians, plucking up an unwonted courage on the eve of their last defeat, at once determined, by a division of 133 to 102, to go into discussion of the treaty. In this discussion Vane was defeated on his famous motion for a return to the vote of non-addresses, after a speech in which he stated the question openly as between a monarchy and a republic, by a di- vision of 140 to 104. There had been, accord- ing to Prynne, upward of 340 members present during this discussion ; but many, from age and infirmity, had been unequal to the fatigue of sitting through the whole day and night till nine next morning, the period of the duration of the adjourned debate. Next morning (the army having advanced meanwhile from Windsor upon London) the city guard was withdrawn from Westminster by its commander Skippon, and the posts were occupied by three regiments under the com mand of Sir Hardress Waller, Colonel Hewson, and Colonel Pride. The latter officer, with a list in his hand, took his station at the door of the House of Commons, and as the members entered and were identified by the doorkeeper and Lord Grey of Groby, who stood near Pride for the purpose, arrested in succession, and during a period of three days, the Presbyterian majority, in all upward of a hundred and fifty members, several of whom were afterward un- conditionally restored. The little that need be urged respecting this measure has been glanced at in the Life of Vane. That great statesman at once withdrew from a scene in which such an outrage on the foundation of all that had been done for the past seven years of war, and of all that he yet hoped to do for the people a popular and representative body had become fatally necessary in the views of those with whom he had heretofore acted. It is probable he at once saw the mischievous purposes such a precedent might suggest in the breast of Crom- well a thought which does not seem to have yet occurred to any of the other trusted leaders of the Independents. Marten's faith in Crom- well was certainly still undisturbed. Cromwell arrived in London the second day after the purge ; and it was Henry Marten, who, having entered the House of Commons with him that day, " arm in arm," afterward rose from his place and moved that the speaker should return him thanks for his great and eminent services performed in the course of the campaign.* This was done with acclama- tion ; and the day after, the two Houses ad- journed to the 12th of the then month, Decem- 1161^1648-9. * Wood's Ath. Ox., iii., 1239. Journals. Clement Walk- er, 34. HENRY MARTEN. 371 Several meetings of the council of the army took place in the interval of this adjournment, at which the treatment of the king was of course Warmly debated. " At this consultation of the first commanders in the army," says a Royalist writer, " Marten, as a colonel, attended, and he cut the matter short by telling them ' they should serve his majesty as the English did his Scotch grandmother cut off his head.' This horrid advice was adopted, and he was the first to dispose of everything for the completion of the villany." This must be taken with allow- ance ; but it may be admitted that he was the first to utter openly, at this great crisis, as he had done on occasions less important, the thoughts that lay lurking in the breasts of the majority of his associates. The first step against the life of the king at- tempted in the House of Commons was taken on the 23d of December, when, in the discus- sion of one of the proposals of the army that "justice should be done upon delinquents," Charles the First was mentioned by name as the capital delinquent, and a committee of thirty- eight appointed to prepare charges against him. The most prominent members of this committee were Henry Marten and Thomas Scot, the latter a man of genius and courage, variously accomplished, a masterly orator, and an ardent Republican. Widdrington and White- Jocke, the keepers of the seal, were also on the committee, but on being sent for on the second or third day of its deliberations, they "went out of town together, that they might have no concern in the business." * Another anecdote of Marten's share in these deliberations rests also on Royalist authority. A witness (Sir Purbeck Temple) swore against him on his trial that he overheard from a place of concealment one of the consultations pre- vious to the king's trial, at which Cromwell and Marten, and many others, were present, in the course of which much doubt and anxiety were expressed ; and he overheard Cromwell ask the others, " ' I desire you to let us resolve here what answer we shall give the king when he comes before us ; for the first question that he will ask us will be, By what authority and commission do we try himl' to which none answered presently ; then, after a little space, Henry Marten, the prisoner at the bar, rose up and said, ' In the name of the Commons and Parliament assembled, and all the good people of England/ which none contradicted." Charles had meanwhile arrived at Windsor, and on the 28th received an ominous order from the council of war that he should no longer be served by cupbearer or carver on bended knee, and that the other ceremonials of regal state had been ordered to be discon- tinued. The end was now in view, and Charles prepared to meet it with becoming firmness. The last scene of all, once bounded with hope- lessness, is no longer a difficult scene to act ; and from this instant, in the heroic sufferings of the man, we are only too much inclined to forget the part he had played as king. "Is there anything more contemptible," he asked of his faithful Herbert, " than a despised prince?" But over that character he threw a * Whitelocke, Jourual of 26th of December. pathetic lustre, which we seek for in vain throughout his high and palmy days. On the same ominous 28th of December, an ordinance for the king's trial was carried into the House of Commons. Some days before, Marten, Ireton, and Ludlbw had been added to the committee of executive government at Derby House, and measures were now in prog- ress there for the alteration of all the insignia of government into symbols of a republic. On the 1st of January, the committee of thirty-eight, having sat and examined witness- es, reported to the House of Commons a charge against the king, beginning with the terrible words, " That the said Charles Stuart, being admitted King of England, and therein trusted with a limited power to govern by and according to the laws of the land, and not otherwise ; and", by his trust, oath, and office, being obliged to use the power committed to him for the good and benefit of the people, and for the preservation of their rights and liber- ties ; yet, nevertheless, out of a wicked design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power, to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people ; yea, to take away and make void the foundations thereof, and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment, which, by the fun- damental constitutions of this kingdom, were reserved, on the people's behalf, in the right and power of frequent and successive Parlia- ments, or national meetings in council : he, the said Charles Stuart, for accomplishing of such his designs, and for the protecting of himself and his adherents in his and their wicked prac- tices to the same ends, hath traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present Par- liament and the people therein represented." In support of this, various overt acts are re- cited, including the battles of Edge Hill, New- bury, and Naseby. The ordinance and the charge were sent up to the Lords on the 2d of January (with a reso- lution from the Commons that it is treason for the king to levy war against the Parliament and kingdom), and at once unanimously reject- ed. It is curious, however, that their lordships at the same time " adjourned for a week,'* which, in the circumstances of the country, was tantamount to a declaration that they would take no farther part in the conduct of its affairs. In the light of an abdication the Com- mons certainly seem to have considered it ; for on the 3d of January Marten went up to " examine the journal-book of the House of Peers, to see how the business stood as to the resolution and ordinance." On his return, the ordinance was at once directed to be brought in anew ; six lords and three judges before named were ordered to be omitted, and an ad- dition made of two sergeants, Bradshaw and Nicholas. The ordinance, with these altera- tions, was immediately read a first and second time, and the resolution revoted of treason against the king in the name of the Commons only, it having before been voted with a blank for the Lords. On the day following this, they passed, with closed doors, these three moment- ous resolutions : " That the Commons of Eng- land, in Parliament assembled, do declare, That the people are, under God, the original 372 BRITISH STATESMEN. of all just power ; and do also declare, That the Commons of England, in Parliament as- sembled, being chosen by representing the people, have the supreme power in this nation ; and do also declare, That whatsoever is enact- ed or declared for law by the Commons in Par- liament assembled, hath the force of a law ; and all the people of this nation are concluded thereby, although the consent and concurrence of king or House of Peers be not had there- unto." On the 6th, the ordinance was read a third time and passed. The number of commission- ers named in it was 135.* Of these there were Viscount Lisle, son to the Earl of Leicester ; Lord Grey of Groby, son to the Earl of Stamford ; Lord Monson, of the kingdom of Ireland ; Gen- eral Lord- viscount Fairfax ; Lieutenant-gener- al Cromwell, Major-general Skippon, Commis- sary-general Ireton, Colonel Marten, and all the colonels of the army ; with three sergeants- at-law, John Bradshaw, Robert Nicholas, and Francis Thorpe ; the speaker of the House of Commons and five barristers, Alexander Rigby, Roger Hill, Miles Corbet, John Lisle, and Will- iam Say ; five aldermen of London, one knight of the Bath, eleven baronets, and ten knights. Of these commissioners, eighty-two were mem- bers of the House of Commons.! The only great name of the time absent from the list was the name of Sir Henry Vane the younger.t On the 8th of January, the commissioners sat for the first time in the Painted Chamber in Westminster Hall. Fifty-three were pres- ent, including Fairfax, who never appeared again. Counsel and the officers of the court were nominated at this sitting ; due proclama- tion was made in Westminster Hall by the ser- geant-at-arms of the coming trial ; and a simi- lar proclamation was demanded of the House * In the original ordinance the names are said to have been 150. If from this number we take away nine, and then add two, the result ought to be 143. There were, therefore, other omissions and variations. t Of these 135, seventy-one was the largest number ever present at the trial. Sixty-seven were present on the day when sentence was pronounced. Forty-three only appeared the next day, when the execution was ordered. Fifty-nine signed the death-warrant. Some few of the commissioners attended the preliminary meetings in the Painted Chamber, but never sat as judges. From forty to fifty of the com- missioners appear never to have taken any part in the pro- ceedings, notwithstanding the summonses ordered by the court, and the exertions of the sergeant-at-arms. t The name of Algernon Sidney appears in it, but he only attended the preliminary meetings in the Painted Chamber, and never attended the court after the trial commenced. His own allusion to the trial remains, and he is too distin- guished a person to have his opinion omitted on an occasion so memorable. He says, " I was at Penshurst when the act for the king's trial passed, and, coming up to town, I heard that my name was put in. I presently went to the Painted Chamber, where those who were nominated for judges were assembled. A debate was raised, and I posi- tively opposed the proceeding. Cromwell using these formal ' hand in this business ;' and saying thus, I immediately left them, and never returned. This is all that passed publicly. I had indeed an intention, which is not very fit for a letter." Blencowe, p. 237. It is not, perhaps, difficult to fix what this intention was. Clarendon says that, among the more violent party against the king, there were three opinions : one was for deposing him, another for secret assassination, and a third for bringing him to public trial as a malefactor. It was the last of these opinions that Sidney states himself to have opposed. The mode of secret assassination we well know to have been most alien to his nature. There cannot be a question but that, with Vane, he would have preferred the deposition of Charles. of Commons to be made at the old Exchange and in Cheapside, which was made accordingly. On the 9th of January, the report of the com- mittee for the construction of a new great seal was carried into the House of Commons by Henry Marten.* It recommended that on the one side there should be engraved the map of England and Ireland, with the inscription, " the Great Seal of England," and on the other, a representation of the House of Commons, with the inscription, " In the first year of freedom, by God's blessing RESTORED." The instruc- tions of the committee were at once adopted, and the new seal ordered to be prepared with all convenient despatch.! Marten used on another and more memora- ble occasion this word of remarkable import, RESTORED. Mr. D'Israeli has related the anec- dote in his ingenious memorials of Charles the First,t and I subjoin it in his words : " In drawing up the remonstrances of the army, which changed the monarchy into a common- wealth, this Sheridan of his day had said, ' RE- STORED to its ancient government of Common- wealth.' A member rose to reprimand, and to wonder at the impudence of Harry Marten, as- serting the antiquity of Commonwealth, of which he had never before heard. The wit re- joined by a whimsical illustration of the pro- priety of the term, and the peculiar condition of the man who had now heard it for the first time. ' There was,' said Harry, ' a text which had often troubled his spirit concerning the man who was blind from his mother's womb, but at length whose sight was restored to the sight which he should have had.' The witticism was keen, though almost as abstruse as the antiquity of an English commonwealth." This illustration was keen indeed, and by no means so abstruse as Mr. D'Israeli supposes. On the 10th the commissioners again met, and chose the president of their court in the person of John Bradshaw, sergeant-at-law and chief justice of Chester. To preside on so ex- * " To Mr. H. Marten," says one of the Royalist writers, " was referred all the alterations in the public arms, in the great seal, and the legends upon the money. It was singu- ! lar that the cross made a part of the first. Upon the money was a shield, bearing the cross of St. George, encircled with a palm and olive-branch, inscribed, ' The Commonwealth of i England ;' and on the reverse, ' God with us, 1648,' which gave occasion to some to remark that God and the Common- wealth were not on the same side." t In Whitelocke's Memorials the vote is thus recorded: " Votes that the present great seal shall be broken, and a new one forthwith made ; and, in the mean time, all pro- ceedings under the present great seal to be good till the new one be confirmed. That the arms of England and of Ireland shall be engraven on one side of the new great seal, w>ih this inscription, ' the Great Seal of England.' That on the other side of the seal shall be the sculpture, or map of the House of Commons sitting, with these words engraven on that side : ' In the first year of freedom, by God's blessing restored, 1648.' This was, for the most part," adds White- locke, " the fancy of Mr. Henry Marten, a noted member of the House of Commons, more particularly the inscriptions." It is, perhaps, worth adding, that on the very day of these votes, Whitelocke and Widdrington, by mutual agreements, made their appearance in the House, that they might not, by inference, be included among the members who refused all concern with the present government. Whitelocke, in a very curious, and certainly ingenuous passage of his me- morials, remarks: "January 12, we heard demurrers, fore- noon and afternoon, in the queen's court : the counsel were more peremptory and unsatisfied than ordinary, and used us ' like declining officers." The next day he says, " Some told us, for news, that new commissioners of the great seal were to be appointed, Sergeants Bradshaw, Thorpe, and Nicholas. This was supposed to be discourse only, as some would 1 havi it." t Vol. v., 428. HENRY MARTEN. 373 traordinary an occasion, it is most justly ob- served,* demanded from the man who was appointed to the office great courage, great presence of mind, sound judgment, a composed and impressive carriage, and a character un- stained with reproach or the imputation of any vice. And such a man was Bradshaw. " Be- ing of a distinguished family," says' Milton, in his Defensio sccunda pro populo Anglicano,i " he devoted the early part of his life to the study of the laws of his country. Thence he became an able and an eloquent pleader, and subse- quently discharged all the duties of an uncor- rupt judge. In temper neither gloomy nor se- vere, but gentle and placid, he exercised in his own house the rites of hospitality in an exem- plary manner, and proved himself on all occa- sions a faithful and unfailing friend. Ever ea- ger to acknowledge merit, he assisted the de- serving to the utmost of his power. Forward at all times to publish the talents and worth of others, he was always silent respecting his own. No one more ready to forgive, he was yet im- pressive and terrible when it fell to his lot to pour shame on the enemies of his country. If the cause of the oppressed was to be defended, if the favour or the violence of the great was to be withstood, it was impossible, in that case, to find an advocate more intrepid or more elo- quent, whom no threats, no terrors, and no re- wards could seduce from the plain path of rec- titude." The counsel for the prosecution were next fixed upon, and the choice fell on Steele, Coke, Dr. Dorislaus, and Aske. Steele was named * Godwin, Hist, of Com. t Milton was Bradshaw's kinsman by the mother's side. The whole of the original passage in which Bradshaw is delineated is too noble and too appropriate for omission here. " Est Joannes Bradscianus (quod nomen libertas ipsa, quacunque gentium colitur, memorise sempiternse celebran- dum commeiidavit), nobili familia, ut satis notum est, ortus ; unde patriis legibus addiscendis, primam omnem as ta tern aedulo impendit ; dein consultissimus cans-arum ac disertis- sinius patronus, libertatis et populi vindex acerrimus, et magriis reipublicse uegotiis est adhibitus, et incorrupt! judi- cis munere aliquoties perfunctus. Tandem uti regis judicio priesidere vellet, a senatu rogatus, provinciam sane pericu- losissimam non recusavit. Attulerat enim ad legum scien- tJam ingenium liberate, aninium excelsum, mores integros ac nemini obnoxins ; unde illud munus oiuni prope exemplo jnajus ac formidabilius, tot sicariorum pugionibus ac minis petitus, ita constanter, ita graviter, tanta anirni cum prae- i'iiitia ac dignitate gossit atque iiuplevit, ut ad hoc ipsum opus, quod jam olim Deus edcndum in hoc populo mirabili providentia decreverat, ab ipso numine designatus atque factus videretur, et tyrannicidarum omnium gloriam tantum superaveril, quanto est humanius, quaiito justius, ac majes- ta:e plenius, tyrannum judtcare,quam injudicatum occidere. AHo<jui nee tristis, nee severus, sed comis ac placidus, per- sonain tamen qu&m susoepit tantam, squalls ubique sibi, ac veluti .consul u<m unias anni, pari gravitate sustiuet: ut non de tribunal! tantum, sed per omnem vitam judicare re- gem diceres. In consiliis ac laboribus publicis maxime om- nium indefessus, multisqne par uims; domi, si quis alius, pro suis facultatibus hospitalis ac splendidus, amicus longe fidelissimus, atque in oimii fortund certissimus, bene nie- rentes quoscunque nemo citius aut libentius agnoscit, neque niajorc benevolentia prosequitur; nunc pios, nunc doctos, aut quavis ingenii laude cognitos, nunc militares etiam et fortes viros ad inopiam redactor suis opibus sublevat ; iis si non indigent, colit tamen libens atque amplectitur; alierias iaudes perpetub pradicare, suas tacere, solitus ; hostium quoque civilian!, si quis ad sanitatem redtit, quod experti cunt plurimi, nemo ignoscentior. Qubd si causa oppress! cujuspiam defendenda palam, si gratia aut vis potentiorum oppuguanda, si in quenquam bene meritum, ingratitudo pub- lica objurganda sit, turn quidem in illo viro, vel facundiam vel cunsUntiam nemo desideret, non patronum, non amicum, vel idoneum magis et intrepidam, vel disertiorem alium quisquam sibi aptet; habet, quern non mine dimovere recto, son nietus aut munera proposito bono atque offir.io, vultus- >jue ac mentis firmissimo statu dejicere valeant." attorney to the court, and Coke solicitor. Steele being prevented from attending the court by real or pretended sickness, the task princi- pally fell upon Coke. It is somewhat singular, as Mr. Godwin remarks, that this person, in his travels in early life, trod almost exactly upon the steps of Milton. At Rome he spoke so openly against the corruptions of the Catholic Church, that it was not judged safe for him to continue any longer in that place ; and at Geneva he re- sided some months in the house of Diodati, the professor of theology, with whom Milton also formed an intimate friendship. His skill as a lawyer was acknowledged by his enemies ; and, indeed, it is impossible to read the speech he drew up for the trial without admiring its strength and acuteness. These awful preliminaries having been com- pleted with that solemn publicity which befitted such an occasion, the king was brought private- ly from Windsor to St. James's^ and on the fol- lowing morning* the 20th of January, 1649, con- ducted by Colonel Harrison from St. James's to Westminster. A scene awaited him there, which called, and not in vain, for an exercise of dignity and firmness unsurpassed in the his- tory of kings. Westminster Hall, fitted up as a " high court of justice," received him. In the centre of the court, on a crimson velvet chair, sat Bradshaw, dressed in a scarlet robe, and covered by his famous " broad-brimmed hat,"* with a desk and velvet cushion before him, Say and Lisle on each side of him, and the two clerks of the court sitting below him at a table, covered with a rich Turkey carpet, on which were laid the sword of state and a mace. The rest of the court, with their hats on, and, according to Rush- worth, " in their best habits," took their seats on side benches hung with scarlet. A numer- ous guard of gentlemen carrying partisans di- vided themselves on each side. Such was the simple appearance in itself of this memorable court. When its members had all taken their seats, the great gates of the Hall were thrown open, and the vast area below was at once fill- ed with crowds of the English people, eager to witness the astonishing spectacle of a monarch brought to account for crimes committed in the period of his delegated authority. This pres- ence of the people was the grandest feature of the scene. Surrounding galleries were also fill- ed with spectators. Charles entered, and advanced up the side of the Hall next the Thames, from the house of Sir Robert Cotton. He was attended by Colonels Tomlinson and Hacker, by thirty two officers holding partisans, and by his own ser- vants. The sergeant-at-arms, with his mace, received him and conducted him to the bar, where a crimson velvet chair was placed for him, facing the court. After a stern and stead- fast gaze on the court, and on the people in the galleries on each side of him, Charles placed himself in the chair, and the moment after, as if recollecting something, rose up and turned about, looking down the vast hall, first on the guards which were ranged on its left or west- ern side, and then on the eager waving mul- titude of the people which filled the space on * This wa a thick, high-crowned beaver, lined with pla- ted steel. It is to this day preserved at Oxford. 374 BRITISH STATESMEN. the right. No visible emotion escaped him ; but as he turned again, his eye fell upon the es- cutcheon which bore the newly-designed arms of the Commonwealth, on each side of which sat Oliver Cromwell and Henry Marten,* and he sank into his seat. The guard attending him divided on each side of the court, and the servants who followed him to the bar stood on the left of their master. Bradshaw now addressed the king, and told him that the Commons of England, assembled in Parliament, being deeply sensible of the evils and calamities which had been brought on the nation, and the innocent blood that had been spilled, and having fixed on him as the principal author, had resolved to make inquisition for this blood, and to bring him to trial and judgment ; and had therefore constituted this court, before which he was brought to hear his charge, after which the court would proceed according to justice. Coke, the solicitor, then delivered in, in writing, the charge, which the clerk read. The king endeavoured to interrupt the reading, but the president commanded the clerk to go on, and told Charles that if he had anything to say after, the court would hear him. The charge stated that he, the king, had been in- trusted with a limited power to govern accord- ing to law, being obliged to use that power for the benefit of the people, and the preservation of their rights and liberties ; but that he had designed to erect in himself an unlimited power, and to take away the remedy of misgovern- ment, reserved in the fundamental Constitu- tion, in the right and power of frequent and successive Parliaments. It then proceeded to enumerate the principal occasions on which, in execution of his purpose of levying war on the present Parliament, he had caused the blood of many thousands of the free people of this nation to be shed ; and it affirmed all these purposes and this war to have been carried on for the upholding a personal interest of will and power, and a pretended prerogative to himself and his family, against the public interest, and common right, liberty, justice, and peace of the people of this nation. The charge being read, the president demanded Charles's answer. During the reading Charles is said to have smiled at the words " tyrant" and " traitor" which occurred in the course of it ; but, two or three minutes after, a trivial incident changed the current of his thoughts, and gave him a more awful sense of the situation in which he stood. " In touching Coke gently on the shoul- der with his cane, and bidding him ' Hold !' its gold head dropped off, and he who was accus- tomed to be served with eager anticipation and slavish genuflexion, was left to take it up him- self. This omen is said to have waked his superstition. It was no less calculated to affect him through his reason."t He had rallied, however, before the demand of Bradshaw for his answer, and replied to it with great ability, and in a very grave and col- lected manner. He observed that, not long before, in the Isle of Wight, he had been en- * D'Israeli, v., 429. t History from Mackintosh, vi., 119 ; in which volume, I may add, the principal incidents of the Commonwealth are most ably, and in a philosophic spirit and temper, related by the historian. gaged in a treaty with both Houses of Parlia- ment, and that the treaty had been very near a conclusion. He knew not, therefore, by what authority he had been brought there, other than the authority of thieves and robbers. He saw no House of Lords in that court, and he affirmed that a king also was necessary to con- stitute a Parliament. He said that he had a tmst committed to him by God, and derived to him by old and lawful descent, and that he would not betray it by answering to a new and unlawful authority. He concluded that, when he was satisfied of the authority by which he was brought there to answer, he would proceed farther. Bradshaw at once, and in a speech of much subtlety, overruled the objection to the competency of the court, and ordered the coun- sel to proceed. The second and third days of the trial were consumed in similar discourses. The court would not allow the authority by which they sat there to be disputed, and the king desired that he might give his reasons. This pro- duced interruption and altercation. The presi- dent informed him that the court was satisfied of the authority by which they sat there, and that they overruled his demurrer. They then caused the king's contumacy to be recorded, by which he refused to plead before them.* The fourth and fifth days of the trial were employed in hearing witnesses, the court hav- ing determined that, though the king refused to plead, they would proceed to this examina- tion ex abundant* only, for the farther satisfac- tion of themselves. The court sat during these days in the Painted Chamber. On the sixth day the commissioners were engaged in de- termining and voting the sentence with which the trial was to be completed. The duty of " preparing the draught of a final sentence, with a blank for the manner of death," was now intrusted to Henry Marten (who had attended every day of the trial), to Thomas Scot, to Henry Ireton, to Harrison, Say, Lisle, and Love. The next day (the 26th of January) this sentence was engrossed at a private meet- ing, and the 27th appointed for the last sitting of the court. On that memorable and most melancholy day, the king was brought for the last time to Westminster Hall. As he proceeded along the passages to the court, some of the soldiers and of the rabble set up a cry of " Justice !" "Justice, and execution !" This, Mr. Godwin justly remarks, exactly corresponds with the spirit of the mutiny which took place in the army in November, 1647. These men distrust- ed the good faith of their leaders ; and, seeing that six days had now passed without any con- clusion, suspected, as the manner of rude and ignorant men is, that there was some foul play and treachery. One of the soldiers upon guard said, " God bless you, sir." The king thanked him ; but his officer struck him with his cane. "The punishment," said Charles, "methinks, exceeds the offence." The king, when he had retired, asked Herbert, who attended him, whether he had heard the cry for justice, who answered he did, and wondered at it. " So did not I," said Charles : " the cry was no doubt * Godwin, ii., 673. HENRY MARTEN. 375 given by their officers, for whom the soldiers would do the like, were there occasion."* Placed for the last time at the bar, Charles, without waiting for the address of Bradshaw, whose appearance betokened judgment, desired of the court that, before an " ugly sentence" was pronounced upon him, he might be heard before the two Houses of Parliament, he having something to suggest which nearly concerned the peace and liberty of the kingdom. The court would at once have rejected this proposal (which was, in effect, tantamount to a demand for the reversal of all that had been done, and a revocation of the vote that had been passed, declaring the people, under God, the original of all just power, and that the Commons' House in Parliament, as representing the people, were the supreme power) but for the expressed dis- satisfaction of Commissioner Downes, a timid and insincere man, in consequence of which the sitting was broken up, and the court retired to deliberate in private. They returned in half an hour with a unanimous refusal of the request. It is supposed by many writers that Charles purposed, in case they had assented, to resign the crown in favour of his son ; but if so, it has been fairly asked,* Why did he not make the offer known in some other way 1 It would have produced its effect as certainly if promul- gated in any other mode, and would, at all events, have bequeathed to posterity the full knowledge " to what extremity he was willing to advance for the welfare of his people, and to save his country from the stain of regicide." The supposition of that intention does scarcely, in fact, seem probable. Charles had wedded himself to his kingly office, and had now accus- tomed himself to look on death as the seal that should stamp their union and the fame of mar- tyrdom indelibly and forever. His real purpose in making the request must remain a secret, equally with the well-considered motives of the commissioners in refusing it. Bradshaw now rose to pronounce the sen- tence. " What sentence," he said, " the law affirms to a tyrant, traitor, and public enemy, that sentence you are now to hear read unto you, and that is the sentence of the court. '' The clerk then read it at large from a scroll of vellum. After reciting the appointment and purpose of the high court, the refusal of the king to acknowledge it, and the charges proved upon * Other and more brutal outrages, such as the soldiers puffing the smoke of their tobacco in his face, have been re- peated and reiterated in print, and are yet gross fabrica- tions. (See Brodie, iv., 199, note.) Clarendon and War- wick say that one or more of the soldiers gpit in Charles's face. But both Clarendon and Warwick were at a distance from the scene ; Herbert, who was constantly near the king, says no such thing. Whitelocke also, an unexceptionable witness, is silent. In Rushworth, p. 1425, we find the words put into Charles'g mouth, on tho cry of the soldiers, " Poor souls ! for a piece of money they would do as much for their commanders." But it is not denied that several of the lat- ter parts of Rushworth's Collections were tampered with after his death, and before their publication. The words in question are, in fact, copied from Sanderson, p. 1132. Mil- ton (Defensio Secunda) has given himself the trouble to con- tradict the tale, that one of the soldiers was destroyed for saying God bless you, sir. The passion of succeeding times was to run a parallel between the last days of Charles and the crucifixion of Christ. " Suffering many things like to Christ" is Sanderson's expression. [The 80th of January is still regarded as a. fast-day in the English Church, and a service for morning and.evening, in commemoration of KING CHAULES THEMAOTYK, is to be found in the Prayer Book. It has not yet been used on this side the Atlantic. C.J t Godwin, Hist, of Commonwealth, ii., 677. him, it concluded thus : " for all which treasons and crimes, this court doth adjudge that he, the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, mur- derer, and public enemy, shall be put to death by severing his head from his body." Then Bradshaw again rose and said, "The sentence now read and published is the act, sentence, judgment, and resolution of the whole court ;" upon which, all the commissioners stood up by way of declaring their assent. The unhappy king now solicited permission to speak, but was refused. The words which passed between him and Bradshaw are worthy of record, as a most pathetic consummation of the melancholy scene. The fortitude and dignity which had sustained Charles throughout appears at last to have somewhat given way, but in its place we recog- nise a human suffering and agony of heart to the last degree affecting. " Will you hear me a word, sir?" he asked. "Sir," replied Brad- shaw, " you are not to be heard after the sen- tence." " No, sir?" exclaimed the king. "No, sir, by your favour," retorted the president. " Guards, withdraw your prisoner." Charles then exclaimed, with a touching struggle of deep emotion, " I may speak after the sentence ! By your favour, sir ! I may speak after the sen- tence ! EVER ! By your favour " A stern monosyllable from Bradshaw interrupted him, " Hold !" and signs were given to the guards. With passionate entreaty the king again in- terfered. " The sentence, sir ! I say, sir, I do " Again Bradshaw said " Hold !" and the king was taken out of court as these words broke from him : "I am not suffered to speak. Expect what justice other people will have !" In the short interval that remained to him, every consolation of spiritual advisers, or of the society of Friends, was granted by the gov- ernors of the Commonwealth. He passed the 28th of January, which was Sunday, alone with Doctor Juxon, engaged in exercises of devotion. On the Monday he received the farewell visit of his children. At this moment he might him- self have said, with his old and betrayed friend Strafford, " Put not your trust in princes !" None of the princes of Europe had offered an intercession in his favour. A republic alone, that of the United Provinces, interposed with a desire that his life might he spared.* The warrant for his execution the " bloody warrant," as history calls it had meanwhile (on the 29th) been signed by the fifty-nine com- missioners, who have by that act made their names memorable forever, t A scene of an Journals of Lords, Jan. 29 and Feb. 2 ; of Commons, Jan. 29, 30. t It was in these words : " Whereas Charles Stuart, king of England, is and standeth convicted, attainted, and con- demned of high treason and other high crimes ; and sen- tence upon Saturday last was pronounced against him by this court, to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body, of which sentence execution yet remaineth to be done. These are, therefore, to will and require you to see the said sentence executed in the open street, before Whitehall, upon the morrow, being the 30th day of this in- stant month of January, between the hours of ten in the morning and five in the afternoon of the same day, with full effect. And for so doing this shall be your sufficient war- rant. And these are to require all officers, soldiers, and others, the good people of this nat:uirof England, to be as- sisting unto you in this service. "To Col. Francis Hacker, Col. Huncks, and Lieut. -col. Phray, and to every of them. " Given under our hands and seals. (Sealed and subscribed by) "John Bradshaw, Thomas Grey, Oliver Cromwell, Ed- 376 BRITISH STATESMEN. extraordinary character between Marten and Cromwell is said to have occurred on the sign ing of this warrant. As Cromwell advanced to the table with the pen, he laughingly marked Marten's face with the ink, and the same prac tical jest was returned with interest by Marten The anecdote rests on the authority of a de- testable collection of slanders, " The Trials o the Regicides ;" but I give it, because, on its being sworn to at his trial, Marten himself without denying it, simply remarked that the circumstance did not imply malice. He hac been pleading his utter want of malice against the king personally in all he did, when the crown counsel observed, " We shall prove against the prisoner at the bar (because he would wipe ofl malice) that he did this merrily, and was in great sport at the time of the signing the war- rant for the king's execution." " That does not imply malice," remarked Marten. An old servant of his, named Ewer, was upon this put into the witness box, and the follow- ing examination took place : " Counsel. Come, sir, you are here upon your oath ; speak to my lords and the jury ; you know the prisoner at the bar very well ; you have sometimes served him : were you present in the Painted Cham- ber, January 29th, 1648, at the signing the war- rant the parchment against the king 1" " Ewer. The day I do not remember, but I was in that chamber to attend a gentleman there ; I followed that gentleman (looking at Mr. Mar- ten) I followed that gentleman into that cham- ber." " Lord-Chief-baron. After what gentle- man 1" " Ewer. Mr. Marten. My lord, I was pressing to come near, but I was put off by an officer or soldier there ; I told him I was order- ed to be by that gentleman. My lord, I did see a pen in Mr. Cromwell's hand, and he marked Mr. Marten in the face with it, and Mr. Marten did the like to him ; but I did not see any one set his hand, though I did see a parchment there with a great many seals to it." If the occurrence really took place, it is yet unworthy of such a philosophical historian as Hume to quote it as an evidence of barbarous or " rustic" buffoonery.* No doubt, if Marten and Cromwell did this, they did it as a despe- rate momentary relief from over-excited nerves, and because they felt more acutely than their more sober brethren all that was involved in the dark duty they were then engaged in. Such " toys of desperation" commonly bubble up from a deep-flowing stream below. Downes, a weak man, is said to have been obliged to go out into the speaker's chamber " to ease his heart with tears." Marten and Cromwell were not weak men, and it was not in tears, at such ward Whaley, Michael Livesey, John Okey, John Danvers, John Bourcher, Henry Ireton, Thomas Maleverer, John Blackiston, John Hutchinson, William Goffe, Thomas Pride, Peter Temple, Thomas Harrison, John Huson, Henry Smith, Peregrine Pelham, Simon Meyn, Thomas Horton, John Jones, John More, Hardress Waller, Gilbert Millington, (George Fleetwood, John Alured, Robert Lilburn, William Say, Anthony Stapely, Richard Deane, Robert Tichburne, Humphrey Edwards, Daniel Blagrave, Owen Roe, William Purefoy, Adrian Scroope, James Temple, Augustine Gar- land, Edmund Ludlow, Henry Marten, Vincent Potter, William Constable, Richard Ingoldsby, William Cawley, John Barslead, Isaac Ewers, John Dixwell, Valentine Wai ton, Gregory Norton, Thomas Chaloner, Thomas Wogan John Ven, Gregory Clement, John Downs, Thomas Wayte, Thomas Scot, John Carew, Miles Corbet." Rush., vii., 1420. * Hume, Hist,, Y,, 75. a time as this, that they could have eased their hearts ! The mournful and tragic scene that was en- acted on the 30th of January, 1649, in the open street fronting Whitehall,* is familiar to every reader of history, and need not be described here. Through the whole of that scene Charles bore himself with a dignified composure, and was to the last undisturbed, self-possessed, and serene. He addressed the crowd from the scaffold, forgave all his enemies, protested that the war was not begun by him, declared that the people's right was only to have their life and goods their own, " a share in the govern- ment being nothing pertaining to them," and concluded with words which, perhaps, express- ed a sincere delusion, that " he died the martyr of the people." When his head fell, severed by the executioner at one blow, " a dismal, uni- versal groan issued from the crowd. " He nothing common did, or mean, Upon that memorable scene ; But with his keener eye The axe's edge did try : Nor called the gods, with vulgar spite, To vindicate his helpless right : But bowed his comely head Down as upon a bed '." So in a lew years after wrote a most generous adversary, whose name is dear to every lover of literature or of liberty, Andrew Marvel, and in an ode to Oliver Cromwell himself! The lapse of two centuries has confirmed the po- et's praise. In pronouncing upon this great event as a mere act of statesmanship an opinion called for in this memoir of one of the king's most ardent and inflexible judges it needs no hesi- tation to declare it at once a most melancholy and disastrous error. The result proved that, through long years of political sufferings and distractions. But as surely as it was an error, so surely was it committed in good faith com- mitted as an awful act of justice, and to exhib- it to the kings of the earth, and, through them, ;o all succeeding generations of men, " a terri- example." It cannot be denied by any just and unbiased inquirer into history (for histories are so written that it is not sufficient to read them alone), that Charles I. had, " to a degree which can scarcely be exceeded, conspired against the liberty of his country."t It was to this he died a martyr ; not to the Church or to the people, but to his intense desire for abso- ute power and authority. For this he laid aside, for upward of twelve years, all use of Parliaments ; for this, when driven to them again, he negotiated for an army both in Eng- and and in Scotland to overawe their sittings ; "or this, he most daringly violated their most sacred privileges, at last commenced war against them, and for four years desolated ~ngland with the blood of her bravest children. Nor, when conquered, did he surrender the desperate hope which was still sustained for his. In every quarter he sought for the mate- rials of a new war ; and at last, after an inter- al of twenty months, " and from the depths of his prison," he found them. Nor should it * The scaffold was erected immediately before the Ban- ueting House, now Whitehall Chapel, and Charles is said o have entered upon the scaffold through the centre win* ;ow of the latter building. t Godwin, Hist, of Com., ii., 689. HENRY MARTEN. 377 be forgotten that all hope of compromise at last was rendered doubly vain by the most consum- mate insincerity on the part of Charles : " He could never be reconciled ; he coukl never be disarmed ; he could never be convinced. His was a war to the death, and therefore had the utmost aggravation that can belong to a war against the liberty of a nation."* Such was the character and conduct of Charles I., and herein the justification of the motives of his judges. What farther is to be said on this point shall be said in this memoir by themselves. What can be better urged for those who held that a simple deposition of. Charles was the wiser course, has been said in the Life of Vane. A distinction, however, has been made by the historian of the Commonwealth, t which should not be omitted here. Speaking of the critical complexion of Parliamentary proceed- ings at the time of the king's death, he ob- serves, " In the beginning of the year the Inde- pendents had had the superiority ; but their au- thority, so far as depended on the number of votes, hung by a thread. How long was that state of things likely to continue 1 By what- ever party they were displaced, they well knew that the crime of sitting in judgment on Charles, and signing the warrant for his execution, would be visited with the severest vengeance.f They knew that they held their lives in their hands. When they gave judgment against the king, they at the same time pronounced sentence on themselves. They could not, with any securi- ty, calculate on the impunity of eleven years and four months, which they ultimately reaped. But they had engaged in a great cause, and they would not draw back. Their cause might triumph forever ; but they could not be so in- fatuated and so blind as not to perceive the many probabilities there were that the business would have a different issue. In that case they consented to sacrifice their lives on the altar of their country. But we must not be so un- reasonable as to imagine that the judges who sat on the life of the king were all men of hero- ic resolution. There were certain men among them by whom the business was planned ; there were others who had no part in framing the measure, but who willingly devoted them- selves in the affair ; but there was also a por- tion of the king's judges who co-operated from timidity had no will to the business, but had not the courage to refuse those by whom they were pressed into it." Upon the whole, the subject may be safely left with the opinion of the greatest statesman of modern times, and a high and unblemished authority on all points of constitutional doc- trine. " If," observes Charles James Fox, in his " Fragment of History," " if we consider this question of example in a more extended view, and look to the general effect produced upon the minds of men, it cannot be doubted but the opportunity thus given to Charles to display his firmness and piety has created more respect for his memory than it could otherwise have obtained. It has been thought dangerous * Godwin, Hist, of the Com., ii., 689. t Mr. Godwin. t Nor was this the only danger. Assassination must have been present to their imaginations, as likely to have been resorted to against them. Dorislaus and Rainsborough were assassinated soon alter. (See Brodie, Brit. Emp., iv., 264 ; and Godwin, iv., 693.) BIB to the morals bf mankind, even in romance, to make us sympathize with characters whose general conduct is blameable ; but how much greater must the effect be when, in real history, our feelings are interested in favour of a mon- arch with whom, to say the least, his subjects were obliged to contend in arms for their liberty I After all, however, notwithstanding what the more reasonable part of mankind may think upon this question, it is much to be doubted whether this singular proceeding has not, as much as any other circumstance, served to raise the character of the English nation in the opinion of Europe in general. The truth is, that the guilt of the action that is to say, the taking away of the life of the king is what most men in the place of Cromwell and his associates would have incurred ; what there is of splendour and of magnanimity in it, I mean the publicity and solemnity of the act, is what few would be ca~ fable of displaying.' 1 '' The business of the Commonwealth was now resumed with quiet and resolved deliberation. On the Commons' journals of the day of exe- cution there is a remarkable entry : " Ordered, That the common post be stayed until to-morrow morning, 10 o'clock ;" but on the day following, ordinary matters were proceeded with ; and on the 1st of February the House of Lords sent a message to the House of Commons, desiring a conference on the new settlement. The Com- mons allowed the messengers to wait at the door without the slightest notice of them or of their message. The patience of the messen- gers was exhausted, but not that of the Lords, who sent again and again, with as little suc- cess.* At last 'the Commons took notice of their existence indeed ! On the 6th of February it was moved in the House of Commons " that the House of Peers in Parliament is useless, dangerous, and ought to be abolished, and that an act be brought in to that purpose." Upon this Mr. D'Israeli re- marks,t " Harry Marten, as reckless in his wit as in his life, with the same tolerant good- humour which he had evinced on a former oc- casion with Judge Jenkins, proposed an amend- ment in favour of the Lords, that ' they were useless, but not dangerous.' By this felicitous humour, this Commonwealth-man had often relieved the Royalists in their most critical circumstances." Mr. D'Israeli here falls into an unaccountable error. Marten's amendment was merely as to the terms of the motion, and, far from being "in favour" of the Lords, is perhaps the most exquisite sarcasm that has ever been levelled against them. His dislike of that House was always, it has been shown, most eagerly manifested, and the present op- portunity was not to be resisted. Some graver members having objected, he withdrew the amendment ; and, on the subsequent division of forty-four to twenty-nine, which took place on the motion for the abolition, was one of the tellers * for the majority against the Lords. When the motion passed their lordships were sitting. It was communicated to them ; they heard prayers ; disposed of a rectory ; ad- * History from Mackintosh, vi., 134. t Commentaries, v., 418. t Journals. Lord Grey of Groby was the other teller, and for the minority the tellers were Colonels Purefoy and Sydenham. 378 BRITISH STATESMEN. journed to the next morning as if nothing had happened, and did not sit again till the Res- toration.* A more memorable vote was passed next day : " That kingship in this nation hath been found by experience to be unnecessary, bur- densome, and dangerous to the liberty, safety, and public interest of the people, and ought therefore to be abolished." This was followed up by Marten, who proposed that the king's statues at the Old Royal Exchange and other places should be taken down, and the following inscriptions placed on the several sites : " Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus Anno libertatis An- gli<z restitute primo Anno Domini 1648-9, Jan. 30." This was agreed to, and at once done. Two acts in pursuance of the votes were pass- ed ; and the House of Commons published a declaration of its " late proceedings, and set- tling the government in the way of a free state," which was widely circulated in the English, Latin, French, and Dutch languages. In all these proceedings Marten was the most prominent actor. He now introduced a bill for the sale of the royal property in lands and houses, of those trappings of royalty which are called the regalia, of the king's furniture, jew- els, paintings, and other works of art.t The courts of France, Spain, the Spanish Nether- lands, and Sweden, were the chief purchasers. The indifference with which they looked on while Charles was tried and executed, has been contrasted reproachfully, and not unjustly, by Royalists, with their avidity to possess his spoils. $ And now the 9th of February was the first day of term, or sitting in the courts of law ; and this circumstance rendered it neces- sary that certain preliminary steps should im- mediately be taken. In these Marten also took active part. Of the twelve judges, the two chief justices, the chief baron, with Jermyn for the King's Bench, Pheasant for the Common Pleas, and Gates for the Exchequer, signified their willingness to continue in the exercise of their offices, provided the House of Commons passed a declaration that they were resolved to maintain the fundamental laws of the nation, and passed an act for repealing the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. This was accord- ingly done without delay. One of the acts was introduced by Marten. An oath well and truly to serve the Parliament and people was then substituted ; and, the name of King's Bench being taken away, that of Upper Bench was substituted in its place. The other six judges declined taking commissions under the Com- monwealth. The great seal was at the same time brought into the House and broken in pieces ; and a new seal being ready, and Wid- drington declining to continue in office, it was intrusted to Whitelocke, Sergeant Richard Keble, and John Lisle. At the same time the office of commissioner was rendered more im- portant and honourable by its being enacted that it should thenceforth be held by the tenure quamdiu se bene gesserint.f) The most important change remained to be made the substitution of an executive council * History from Mackintosh, vi., 134. t Whitelocke, p. 403. t History from Mackintosh, vi., 135. 4 Journal*, Feb. 8 and 9. of state for the committee of government at Derby House. To this end, five members of the House of Commons were appointed as a committee to select the names of forty persona fit to compose this council, whose power was to continue for one year. The five persons were John Lisle, Cornelius Holland, Luke Rob- inson, Thomas Scot, and Edmund Ludlow ; and it has been remarked very truly that their ap- pointment was an instance of " remarkable delicacy," since certainly none of them had yet been habitually concerned in the conduct of public affairs, though two of them, Scot and Ludlow, were known for their integrity, their great devotion to the public welfare, and the ardour of their Republican sentiments. On the 17th of February the council of state was installed. Henry Marten took his seat in it with Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ludlow. Vane's subsequent adhesion has been described. Most truly does Mr. Godwin exclaim, " Never did any governors enter upon their functions under more formidable difficulties than the men who now undertook to steer and direct the ves- sel of the new Commonwealth. They were, in a certain sense, a handful of men, with the whole people of England against them.* Their hold on the community was, by their religious sentiments (those of the Independents), by the rooted aversion of many to the late king and his family, by the sincere terror that was felt of the ascendency either of the Episcopal or Presbyterian party, and the devout adherence of a respectable set of men to the principle of religious toleration. The character also of the leaders did wonders. Scarcely has there existed a body of more eminent statesmen than Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, Marten, and Vane." On the 10th of March, the council, which had theretofore had a different praeses for each day of sitting, appointed Bradshaw their official president ; and, three days later, Milton, Bradshaw's kinsman, was made secre- tary to the council for foreign tongues an office held by Weckerlin under the committee of both kingdoms. One of their first steps was to settle the re- ligious government, which was not left to wild theories, or merely loose and voluntary ar- rangement. The Presbyterian form was main- tained, but stripped of all coercive power and temporal pretensions in short, restricted to conferring licenses and ordination. A provis- ion was made out of the tithes for the Epis- copalian clergy, and there was a decided re- laxation even towards Catholics. During the debates on these important matters, Henry Marten signalized himself by the first expres- sion of opinions which should be remembered to his lasting honour. He proposed the repeal of the statute of banishment against the Jews.t That community had been banished from Eng- land in the year 1290 ; and from that time no body of Jews, formed into a community, could be found within our dominions. Now, after the lapse of three hundred and fifty-nine years, it was Henry Marten who proposed, in a noble spirit of justice, to put an end to this proscrip- * This must not be understood literally. The people had trusted them in all their struggles against the king, but for the experiment of a republic, now about to be tried, they were merely unprepared. t Wood's Ath. Oxon., iii., 1239. HENRY MARTEN. 379 tion. He was unsuccessful, and the reform was left for Cromwell to achieve in his day of abso- lute power. But the eloquent praise which Mr. Godwin bestows upon Cromwell for the act should have been written of Marten. " It was an enterprise worthy of his character. His com- prehensive mind enabled him to take in all its recommendations and all its advantages. The liberality of his disposition, and his avowed at- tachment to the cause of toleration, rendered it an adventure becoming him to achieve. As a man, he held that no human being should be proscribed among his fellow-men for the acci- dent of his birth ; as a Christian, who looked forward in the faith of prophecy for the con- version of these our elder brethren in the rejec- tion of polytheism, he knew that kind treatment and impartial justice supplied our best instru- ment for subduing their prejudices ; and as a statesman, he was aware how useful the Jews might be made to the nation as the medium of commerce, and to the government as the means of correspondence, the communicators of valu- able information, and the divulgers of secrets with which it might be important for them to be acquainted." It has been with some justice reproached to these great founders and fathers of the Com- monwealth, that they failed at this time, with all the power in their hands, to reform the rep- resentation, the municipal institutions, and the law, according to the admirable outline given in the " Declaration of the Army" and the " Agreement of the People," and to make this the basis of the new settlement. The matter has been discussed in the Life of Vane. The only answer to the reproach is, that to have dissolved Parliament at this crisis would have been to expose the nation, very possibly, to the return of kingship, with its power and passions, and possibly with the bigot vengeance of the Presbyterians in its train. The new rulers, however, recruited the House by relaxation in favour of excluded and retired members, and by new writs to fill up vacancies.* The difficulties which beset the young Com- monwealth in relation to the question of a dis- solution of the Parliament were great indeed. In justice to the leading statesmen of the time, they should never be lost sight of. " The gov- ernment of the country," Mr. Godwin truly says, " was at this time in a very artificial and unnatural condition. The existing power and organization rested in three bodies of men. The council of war, who had purged the Par- liament on the 6th of December ; the Parlia- ment, or House of Commons, such as it re- mained after that reduction of its members ; and the council of state, which had been ap- pointed by the mutual understanding and con- cord of the other two. These three bodies of men were in perfect harmony : the majority of the House of Commons, since the event of the 6th of December, had espoused and approved the ideas of the council of war ; and the council of state, which was, in reality, a selection of the ablest and fittest members from the other two, was employed, with assiduity, sagacity, and energy, in carrying on the executive gov- ernment in a way corresponding with the de- signs and conceptions of their creators. The * History from Mackintosh, vi., 137. whole of these, in their authority over the na- tion and they retained for the present the ac- quiescence or submission of the great body of the people hung by a single thread. The council of war and of state were arbitrary combinations of men ; but the Parliament had been chosen by the people. It is true, they were reduced by the compulsory absence of many of their members, and by other circum- stances, to a small number, and were styled by Lilburne, and other audacious and incon- siderate men, a mock Parliament. Still they bore the magic name, a Parliament : the laws of England, by old prescription, were accus- tomed to emanate from the Parliament of Eng- land. Constituted as they were, they could not be despised. The abilities of Cromwell, Ireton, and Vane, countenanced by the virtues of Fairfax, Ludlow, Bradshaw, and Scot, ne- cessarily commanded respect. They had in their service the professional talents of White- locke, St. John, Rolle, and the gallant Blake. They were recommended to public favour by the wit of Marten and the literature of Milton. They included in their council the Earls of Pembroke, Salisbury, Denbigh, and Mulgrave, with Viscount Lisle, son of the Earl of Leices- ter, and brother to Algernon Sidney. Such were the present House of Commons, such the present administrative government." The best argument used for the retention of this government undisturbed for the present, was, however, afterward used in a debate upon the subject in the House of Commons by Henry Marten himself, in a happy and apposite simile. He told the House, "that he thought they might find the best advice from the Scripture what they were to do in this particular : that when Moses was found upon the river, and brought to Pharaoh's daughter, she took care that the mother might be found out, to whose care he might be committed to be nursed ; which suc- ceeded very happily." Applying this, he ob- served, " Their Commonwealth was yet an in- fant of a weak growth and a very tender con- stitution ; and therefore his opinion was, that nobody could be so fit to nurse it as the mother who brought it forth, and that they should not think of putting it under any other hands until it had obtained more years and vigour." To which he added, " that they had another infant too under their hands, the war with Holland, which had thrived wonderfully under their con- duct ; but he much doubted that it would be quickly strangled if it were taken out of their care who had hitherto governed it."* But to describe the course of government, and Marten's share in it in farther detail, would be to retrace much of the ground already gone over in the Memoir of Vane. It will be suffi- cient to observe upon, and to sketch, a few of the more personal points of his conduct merely. Soon after the installation of the council of state, the indefatigable and untameable Lilburne began his agitations once more. He promoted dissensions in the army ; abused Cromwell, Fairfax, Marten, and all the leaders ; reanima- ted the hopes of the Levellers ; and, in reward for it all, was shut up once more in the Tower. This had no effect, however ; for, while Crom- well's terrible campaign against the Irish re- * Clarendon, vii., 4, 5. 380 BRITISH STATESMEN'. bellion was spreading slaughter and desolation through that unhappy country, the fearless and brawling John issued from his residence in the Tower all manner of denunciations of the Par- liament and council of state, as a " company of pickpockets," " thieves," " robbers," " murder- ers," and " brother beasts of Nebuchadnezzar the tyrant ;" challenged them to a debate by two champions on each side, and an umpire, upon the issue of which he staked his life ; and declared that if his challenge were not accepted within five days, he should hold himself free "to anatomize them publicly and privately." Proceedings were again instituted against him, but after they had advanced a little, the au- dacity and obstinacy even of Lilburne were shaken by domestic troubles, and he longed for a short release from imprisonment. A most eminent tribute is it to the fame of a generous character, that the person at once thought of by the demagogue as likely to procure him this favour was Henry Marten. With wonderful faith in the kind and forgiving temper of a man he had always so heartily abused for having often before befriended him, Lilburne wrote a letter to Marten, stating that his son had died of the smallpox the day before, and that his wife and two other children were ill, and ex- pressing his desire, under these circumstances, that he might be allowed a few days' liberty to visit them.* The next day Henry Marten moved the House of Commons that he should be liberated on security, which was granted. Nor was this all ; for, on finding subsequently that Lilburne's propertyt had been much har- assed in the Star Chamber, and it had left him miserably poor, Marten exerted himself success- fully to satisfy him for what was due by a grant of the dean and chapter's lands, at ten years' purchase, t But ever, as it has been shown, Marten was on the humane side, excepting in the one mem- orable instance, where a sense of duty commit- ted violence on his kinder dispositions. A Royalist writer^ relates an occurrence of this time, on the bill having been passed in the House of Commons " to punish the crimes of incest, adultery, and fornication with death Mr. Hen- ry Marten would not let it be carried, without observing ' that the severity of the punishment by this act being death, would cause these sins to be more frequently committed, because peo- ple would be more cautious in committing them for fear of the punishment, and being undiscov- ered, would be imboldened the more in the com- mitment of them ;' and the following year, chiefly by his procurement, it was abrogated." The losses endured by Marten in the public service, and the absolute pecuniary assistance he had rendered to the popular cause in very critical times, which have been already referred to, were now taken into consideration by the House of Commons. Bradshaw's case was considered at the same time. The votes may be related from Mr. Godwin's history. " They resolved to settle on Bradshaw lands to the amount of two thousand pounds per annum. The act for that purpose was passed on the 15th of August. And farther to compensate him for * Preparative to Hue and Cry, 38. t Journals. + Just Reproof, 6. Journals of the Commons, t Mr. Noble. the loss of a lucrative profession, it was resolv- ed to bestow on him the office of chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. It is reasonable to infer from these measures that neither he nor any other member enjoyed any salary in the capacity of councillor of state. Bradshaw, by his orfice, was in some measure the first man in the nation. He was to receive foreign am- bassadors, and to represent in his person, upon occasions of public solemnity, the executive government of the Commonwealth of England. Another distinguished statesman, whose case went hand in hand with that of Bradshaw, was Henry Marten. He presented a petition to the Parliament representing the arrears due to him as a colonel in the army, and the losses he had otherwise sustained in the service of the pub- lic, as well as the sums of money disbursed by him in that service. It was in consequence resolved that lands to the amount of one thou- sand pounds per annum should be settled on him, and the act to that effect was passed on the same day with the act in favour of Brad- shaw. The provision not being found to reach the value proposed, a supplemental act in behalf of Marten was passed the 28th of September."* Marten's regiment of horse was also establish- ed for him. In the second year of the Commonwealth Marten had again been elected into the council of state. At the close of this year he appears to have strongly suspected Cromwell's designs. It was time, indeed, that the more sagacious Republicans should have begun to do so. The double conquests of Ireland and of Scotland had now universally established his influence over the nation, and placed temptations within his reach almost irresistible. Marten was the first to throw out open hints of the possible conse- quence. He used some memorable words in the House of Commons, to the effect that " if they were to be governed by a single person, their last king would have been as proper a gentleman for it as any in England, for he found no fault with his person, but his office only."t On another occasion he vented the same omin- ous allusion in a sally of humour. Cromwell, in the heat of some debate in the House of Commons, called his old friend " Sir Harry Marten ;" when, says Aubrey, with infinite gravity, " Mr. Henry Marten rises and bows : ' / thank your majesty ! I always thought, when you were king, that I should be knighted.' "f At about the date, too, of these disputes, we find them alluded to in this outrageous way by a Royalist newspaper : " Division in the army grows great ; superiority is the thing looked upon, and Cromwell thinks he deserves it best, which Henry Marten is impatient to suffer ; and Pryde, stepping between them, makes great words to fly ; insomuch that Ruby Nose (Crom- well) drew his dagger in the House on Satur- day, and clapping it on the seat by him, ex- pressed great anger against Harry and his lev- elling crew." This, of course, is a preposter- ous exaggeration, but it illustrates the fact of the difference. It was soon illustrated, however, much more decidedly. In electing the council of state for ~* Hist, of Com., iii., 185, 186. t Wood's Ath. Ox., iii., 1240. Clement Walker, Hiit, oflndep. t Bodleian Letters. $ Mercurius Pragmaticus, March, 1650, 1651, HENRY MARTEN. 381 the third year a new mode of proceeding was adopted. In the re-election of February, 1650, the names of the preceding council were regu- larly called over and put to the vote ; and, in consequence, one having died in the interval, thirty-seven were rechosen, and three only re- jected. It had heen felt, and by Marten among others, that this was giving to the executive government too much the air of a standing council. The Parliament had been, of neces- sity, and was likely to continue for some time to come, a fixed and unvaried body. For this there were potent reasons, as it has already been shown ; but there could be no such reason for making the council of state permanent. It had been decided in the beginning that this mem- ber of the government should be a body holding its office for twelve months only. " One of the most essential features of a free state," as Mr. Godwin justly remarks in relating these circum- stances, " is rotation, and that those men who are intrusted for the public good with high and comprehensive powers should be subjected to the purification of new and frequently-repeated elections. All offices in such a state should, as far as is practicable, be thrown open to all. No man should be allowed to consider the pow- ers he holds in trust for the nation a sinecure and an inheritance. It is good that men qual- ified for office should feel that at certain stated intervals they are not unlikely to be invited to accept it. It is good that a certain portion of fresh and unworn understanding and enterprise, not trained in the shackles of an unvaried rou- tine, should from time to time be introduced into the national councils." In accordance, it may be fairly supposed, with some such reason- ing as this, Parliament now decided that the council of state for the ensuing year should con- sist of forty-one persons, and that only twenty- one of those who were now of the council should be allowed to be re-elected. " The ablest and most highly-endowed of the individuals," ob- serves Mr. Godwin, " who were excluded by the operation of this rule on the present occa- sion, was Henry Marten." Mr. Godwin has omitted to state, however, by whose exertions he was excluded. It was the work of Oliver Cromwell, now brooding over his projects of ab- solute power.* In the House of Commons, however, Marten still remained. The power was not yet matured for what Cromwell had in purpose there. In the House of Commons, during the period of his exclusion from the executive, Marten only laboured the more, with all his wit, his elo- quence, and his humanity, in behalf of the lib- erties of the Commonwealth. He supported Vane in the noble projects described in the memoir of that great person, and pursued at this time with an anxiety and zeal proportion- ate to the chance there yet remained by an infusion of new popular power into the House of Commons, and an establishment of new and strong institutions for freedom, on the basis of the "Army Proposals" to save the country from the usurpation that impended. A few instances of the humour that he nev- ertheless gave way to in the midst of the se- ' rious debates of this period, may be recorded here. * Wood's Ath. Oxon., iii., 1840. Having let fall some phrases in the course of one of the discussions which gave offence to a Puritan member, the latter suggested that it would be well to have a motion to expel all " profane and unsanctified persons" from the House. Upon this, Marten gravely got up and observed, " That he should take the liberty to move, before the motion alluded to, that ' all fools might be put out likewise,' and then," he added, "the House might probably be found thin enough." Aubrey tells us that H. M. (as he usually calls Marten) " was wont to sleep much in the House," and afterward explains this by saying that it was " dog-sleep," or, in other words, a means resorted to on the occasion of any very prosy oration from an alderman or a Puritan to intimate his fatigue, and hint the propriety either of liveliness or a conclusion on the part of the speaker. On one of these occasions, when Marten seems not only to have been " sleeping," but nodding his head rather ve- hemently, and breaking into occasional inter- ruptions, "Alderman Atkins made a motion that such scandalous members as slept, and minded not the business of the House, should be put out." H. M. starts up: "Mr. Speaker, a motion has been made to turn out the nod- ders ; I desire the noddees (noddies) may also be turned out." Poor Alderman Atkins never fairly recovered this. On a different occasion, in referring to his own case, then unsettled, and to some recent and questionable appointments, he is said to have observed, in a manner that provoked pe- culiar laughter, " That he had seen, at last, the Scripture fulfilled : ' Thou hast exalted the humble and meek ; thou hast filled the empty with good things, and the rich hast thou sent empty away!' " More serious matters now claim attention. In the council of state installed for the fourth year of the Commonwealth the name of Henry Marten had again appeared, but whether the opposition of Cromwell had relented or proved ineffectual, does not appear ; most probably, however, the latter, since in the election for the fifth year he was again excluded, and it is said by Cromwell's means. The victory of Worcester had given the " crowning mercy" to the general ; Fairfax's resignation had left him alone in power with the army ; the death of Ireton had removed the last restraint which withheld his meditated assault on the liberties of his country. The memorable scene of the forcible dissolution of the Long Parliament immediately followed, and on that day, already described, Marten received the reproach of li- centiousness and a dissolute life from his old friend Cromwell. The last scene of the council of state has been described in such a strain of melancholy enthusiasm by Mr. Godwin, that the passage will be interesting here. From breaking up the Parliament Cromwell had joined the coun- cil of officers, and now, in the afternoon, at- tended by Lambert and Harrison, repaired to the council of state. Bradshaw was in the chair. "It required," says Mr. Godwin, "a man of his nerve, his deep sense of religion, and his immoveable spirit, to discharge the du- ties of that day. It must have been sufficiently BRITISH STATESMEN. known what was about to happen ; and since the fate of the Commonwealth could not be averted, all that remained was that it should so die as was most worthy of the days it had lived. Cromwell was to be met and confronted by a man who in his person should represent the freedom and the majesty of the Republic, which had now entered far into its fifth year ; and amid all the heroes of that hour in England, it is not too much to say that there was no other person from whose lips the accidents of a dying state, not unmeet to be numbered with ancient Athens or Rome, could so worthily have been pronounced. Perhaps no man was ever placed in so illustrious a situation as that which Brad- shaw occupied at this moment. He was to face one, in that age, so far as related to an ascendency over the minds of his fellow-crea- tures either in war or in peace, the foremost man in the world. By an extraordinary coin- cidence, the same individual who had presided at the trial of a legitimate king, and who had pronounced sentence of death upon him for his multiplied delinquencies against his people, was now called upon from another chair to address a usurper in the most critical moment of his career, and to set before him, in firm and impressive terms, the deed he had perpe- trated and was now perpetrating. Cromwell was backed by all his guards, and by an army of the highest discipline, and the most un- daunted and prosperous character. Bradshaw appeared before him in the simple robe of in- tegrity. The lord-general was the most reso- lute of men, and who could least endure an idle show of opposition. The parade of con- tradiction and the pomp of declamation would have been useless. A few words (a brief and concentrated remonstrance) were enough. They were uttered, and Cromwell ventured on no reply. Abashed the traitor stood. Crom- well, having entered the council-chamber, thus addressed the members who were present : ' Gentlemen, if you are met here as private persons, you shall not be disturbed ; but if as a council of state, this is no place for you ; and, since you cannot but know what was done in the morning, so take notice that the Parliament is dissolved.' To this Bradshaw answered, ' Sir, we have heard what you did at the House in the morning, and before many hours all England will hear it ; but, sir, you are mistaken to think that the Parliament is dissolved, for no power under heaven can dissolve them but themselves ; therefore take you notice of that.' With this protest the council rose and with- drew." It is unnecessary to pursue the subject of Cromwell's usurpation on the Commonwealth ; sufficient has been said in the Life of Vane. Marten invariably refused to acknowledge his authority, and was excluded from all the Par- liaments that met under the Protectorate. We find him at last in prison, and learn that he was thrown there by the power of Cromwell ; but for what reason, save on the general ground of his great talents and still fearless Republi- canism, does not distinctly appear. It is stated, indeed,* that he had sometimes attended the meetings of the discontented Republican offi- cers, who joined with Wildman, Overton, and *~By~Mr7Godwin, Hiit. of Com., iv. others in their conspiracy against Cromwell ; but no satisfactory proof of this is offered. Yet, though Marten was kept from his place by the strong arm of tyranny, there were not wanting men, even in those Parliaments, to de- clare his sentiments and vindicate the old cause. At the very moment the usurper's power seem- ed greatest, and he was on the eve of clutch- ing the object of all his hopes and ambitious toils, these men dashed it from him. In none of his Parliaments not even in that composed of his own nominees could he command a majority ; the sentiment of liberty was still too strong for him ; and thousands were found res- olute enough to echo the remarkable words of a speaker in the Parliament of 1654, that, " hav- ing cut down tyranny in one person, they would not see the nation enslaved by another, whose right could be measured only by the length of his sword." The leaders of these men were Bradshaw and Scot, and most ably did they represent the opinions and the hopes of Marten and of Vane. Their speeches, Ludlow says, in the Parliament, of 1654, " were very instru- mental in opening the eyes of many young members, who had never before heard the pub- lie interest so clearly stated and asserted ; so that the Commonwealth party increased every day, and that of the sword lost ground propor- tionally." Never did a splendid foreign ad- ministration so effectually conceal the innate rottenness of the entire domestic scheme and policy as in the case of the government of Cromwell. It is much to be lamented that the speeches referred to by Ludlow have perished ; but his- tory has lately received a rich accession, which in some sort compensates* the loss, from the publication of Burton's admirable diary, by a writer who is worthy in all respects to have been associated with such a work, by his great talents, his masterly research, his unaffected simplicity and sincerity, and the disinterested zeal which has distinguished a long life devoted to the popular cause. We find in this diary Scot's speeches in Oliver Cromwell's last Parliament, and it is to these (unused hitherto in the his- tories), and to the speeches of the same stanch Republican in the Parliament that followed, that the case of such a statesman as Marten, in the judgment and trial of Charles I., must be referred, for the satisfaction of those who desire, after a lapse of two centuries, to sit in judgment on the motives that prompted that great event. Some extracts from these most striking assertions of Republican statesman- ship are therefore necessary here. That Parliament met, pursuant to adjourn- ment, on the 28th of January, 1657-1658. Two changes had been made in the interim, in ac- cordance with the famous " Petition and Ad- vice" of the officers, namely, the readmission of the greater portion of the excluded mem- bers, and the creation of a miserable " House of Lords." After three days' preliminary sit- ting, a message " from the Lords" desired the concurrence of the Commons in an address to the Protector for a fast. The Commons pro- * " Diary of Thomas Burton, Esq., member in the Parlia- ments of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, from 1656 to 1659. Edited and illustrated with notes historical and biographical, by JOHN TOWILL RUTT." HENRY MARTEN. 383 tested against the title would admit no other than that of " the other House." It was even maintained that the new House was not a co- ordinate legislative assembly, but invested only with certain functions of judicature.* To this all Scot's arguments tended, and he resolutely refused, on any other terms, to recognise Crom- well's House of Lords. In vain they urged the " Petition and Advice" against him. His great speech on the occasion was a most masterly effort, and, in a subtle vindication of the Re- publican party, included a terrible assault on the despotism of Cromwell. Scot began by saying that the " ancientness" of the institution of a House of Lords had no- thing now to do with the question, for that that House had " been justly cast out by their being clogs upon passing of many good laws." He proceeded to state : " The Scots, when the king was at Carisbrooke Castle, invaded Eng- land, not as brethren, but to impose a king upon you. The Lords were then desired that they would declare this invasion of the Scots enmity, and as enemies to the nation, which, for affec- tion to the king, they would not do. You know afterward what happened. By the virtue of two or three hundred thousand pounds the Scots were persuaded to give over, and leave their king at Carisbrooke Castle. After the House of Commons had declared all this of non- addresses and the like, yet the Lords voted ad- dresses notwithstanding. The major part of this House voted the like. The army foresaw that their liberties were likely to be betrayed. I am for trusting the people with their liberties as soon as any ; but when they come to irregulari- ties, and the major part grow corrupt, they must be regulated by miracle, or otherwise perish. The soldiers see their cause betrayed ; the city and apprentices all discontented ; and if the army had not then appeared, where had then our cause been 1 " The Lords would not join in the trial of the king. We must lay things bare and naked. We were either to lay all that blood of ten years' war upon ourselves, or upon some other object. We called the King of England to our bar, and ar- raigned him. He was, for his obstinacy and guilt, condemned and executed ; and so let all the enemies of God perish ! The House of Com- mons had a good conscience in it. Upon this the Lords' House adjourned and never again met, and hereby came a farewell of all those peers, and it was hoped the people of England should never again have a negative upon them." This is surely interesting. The orator next proceeded, after some allusions to the argu- ments of members of the House, to insinuate bitter sarcasms against Cromwell : " I shall now say," he exclaimed, " why they are not, why they ought not to be, a House of Lords. You have not called them so. In all your Pe- tition and Advice you have not said a Word of it. Oh, but you intended it, said he. It ap- pears to me you never intended it, because you never said it ; and it is reason enough for me to say it. Once this House said king, and yet you never said lords ; and if ever you had said it, it would have been then. He (Cromwell) refused it upon a pious account, and I hope he will still do so. * History from Mackintosh, vi., 237. ' Shall I, that sat in a Parliament that brought a king to the bar and to the block, not speak my mind freely here? " Those that now sit in that House that would be lords, did they, or not, advise you to make them lords 1 Let me argue in a dilemma. Did they think to be lords 1 Then it was their modesty. Did they not think to be lords 1 Then they voted like Englishmen ; just, entire, like choosing the Roman general. I think you have not yet meant to put a negative upon the people of England. I suppose you would not call them lords for tenderness of the conscien- ces of the people of England. They are un- der an engagement, and I hope you will be as tender as you were to the point of a king ; and you will not come under the crime of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which caused Israel to sin. " I come to show why you now should not make a House ; I should say, a House of Lords. I cry you mercy ! If there be a House of Lords, it is more reason to call the old peerage ; and there is not one of them there, as I am inform- ed. But you cannot call them for impossibility. You have not a quorum, not half a quorum, of persons qualified. Those that be, fail in the very formalis causa, estates and interest. An- ciently the bishops, abbots, and lords, their ten- ants, and relations, could engage half England. The providence of God has so ordered it that Eng- land is turned a commonwealth, and do what you can, you cannot make it otherwise ; and if you join any with them in the Legislature, it will not do your work. " The administrations of God's dealings are against you. Is not God staining the glory and pride of the world 1 Is there anything but a commonwealth that flourishes 1 Venice against the pride of the Ottoman family! All their mountains are pulled down. God governs the world as he governs his Church, by plain things and low things. It was this that led your Long Parliament the providence of God, that vir- tue and honesty should govern the world not that I am for a Fifth Monarchy." In subsequent very striking passages, Scot undertakes to show, not only that they should not be considered a House of Lords, but that they could not be so considered. " Why not, thenl" he asks. "Why 1 because they are but commoners, and were yesterday here. It is not agreeable to the qualification of common- ers. For aught that appears to you, they sit as a part of the Commons in another place. They have not the reason of the quality of lords. They have not interest not the forty thou- sandth part of England. Have they an inter- est 1 Why, had they such an interest, why not sit here 1 The interest follows the persons. As they have none by sitting there, they loso interest by it. The old nobility will not, do not sit there. They lose that interest. You lose the people of England by it. Thej were, by the providence of God, set free from any negative. Will they thank you if you bring such a nega- tive upon them 1 The people that have bled for you ! that have not gained by you, but you by them ! What was fought for but to arrive at that capacity to make their own laws 1 " The unhandsome posture you bring your- selves into by it ! To stand here to that House, not like a Parliament of England ! Consider 384 BRITISH STATESMEN. the consequences, that you charge not all th blood upon the great Parliament. The bloo that shut out a negative stands at your dooi I have heard of some motion for a day of hu miliation for this blood. Why, you should pu on the king's head again, which was surely take without his consent, and without the Lords' 1 too Let not the people of England petition to hav fetters upon them. Let it be your patience and not your desires. It is not noble for th people of England to seek this." That expression, " let it be your patience and not your desires," is of significant import Scot's conclusion was worthy of the whole speech. He took the possible answers to hi objections in succession ; among them, the as sertion that " they had been made" lords tha they who had made them " another House,' made them lords. " I will not say," remarkec Scot on this, " but his highness has power ol honour, but not to set up courts. / would at soon be knighted under his sword in the camp, as under any man that ever gave honour. The ar gument is sophistry : you made them anothe: House ; his highness made them lords ; there fore they are a House of Lords. You have settled them only as a high court of justice but if you make them a co-ordinate power with you, you give them the power of your purses of peace and war, of making laws, and magis trates to execute them. " The people of Israel were governed by themselves by the people. The people met saith the text, and went to Hebron. The peo- ple have power of all these things. God sub- mits all his administrations to the people, with reverence may I say it. God left to Adam to name all creatures : God did not say this is a lion, this is a bear ; but Adam gave names to every creature. So he did to the woman, be- cause a rib out of his side gave her a name. This House is a rib out of your side. You have given it a name. My motion is, that you would not alter it !"* Three days after, the same question being in discussion among the members under another form, submitted to them as to the " Commons" by the " other House," Scot took occasion to throw out a somewhat ominous hint of the present resolution of the Republicans. After impressing the necessity of returning an an- swer to these quasi lordlings as to " the other House," he went on to remark : " It is not enough that they christen themselves, but they christen you that you are ' Commons.' I am not ashamed of the title, it being the greatest honour under heaven to serve the people in the meanest capacity in this House ; all power being originally in the people. I observed this was used as an argument the other day, that you had received a message from them by that ti- * It is worth subjoining, from a debate in the Parliament of Richard Cromwell, Scot's deliberate opinion of Oliver's administration. He was arguing against trusting the whole power of war to Richard and his council : " I look upon his father," said Scot, " as of much more experience and coun- sel than himself; yet he was never so successful as when he was a servant to the Commonwealth. What a dishonourable peace he made, and what an unprofitable and dangerous war. Was not the effect of the peace with Holland, and the war with Spain, the most disadvantageous and deplora- ble that ever were ? Therefore, if he that was a man qf war and of counsel miscarried, why should I trust a single person, the most unfit to refer it to ? Yet you do implicitly commit the whole charge upon his highness." tie. He that deceives me once, it is my fault if he deceive me twice.. Modesty (it is Tertullian) may bring a man to misery. The Greeks were de- stroyed, many of them, because they could not say no. They are at best but originally from you." The result of this plain speaking was anoth- er dissolution by Cromwell. Hartlib, Milton's correspondent, describing the necessity for this step, after mentioning the danger to be appre- hended from the Royalists, adds : " Besides, there was another petition set on foot in the city for a commonwealth, which would have gathered like a snowball ; but by the resolute, sudden dissolving of Parliament, both these dangerous designs were mercifully prevented." Mrs. Hutchinson herself says, that such had been the influence of these sentiments of Vane, Marten, and Scot upon the minds of men at this period, that a third party was actually " ready both with arms and men, when there was opportunity, to have fallen in, with swords in their hands, for the settlement of the rights and liberties of the good people." The resumption of power by the Republicans on the death of Oliver Cromwell has been de- scribed in the Life of Vane. It is necessary here, however, in order to place on record the only authentic vindication of the motives of the Republican leaders in their execution of Charles I. with a view to the establishment of a com- monwealth, to resort once more to the speech- es of Scot, Marten's intimate friend and asso- ciate in those memorable actions. Most true is what Mr. Godwin has remarked of the way in which these men have to this day been re- ferred to by a large class of writers, as though they were raking out the records of a " New- gate Calendar." Party rage began this ; indo- lence has suffered it to continue ; and even Mr. Godwin, admirable for many of the greatest qualities of an historian, and, above all, admira- ile for that pursuit of truth which is his unfail- ing characteristic, has failed to quote these only just statements of the real matters at is- sue between the Royalists and the Republican regicides. In reading even the imperfect rec- ords of Scot's speeches which yet remain, we find ourselves at once emerged from the foul atmosphere of falsehood and exaggeration, as of the meaner and baser sophistries, and breath- ng the clear air of honest, fearless, conscien- ious, and determined men. Whatever may have been their errors in judgment, their ac- ions, we must feel, belonged to the highest or- der of just and honourable motive. It was the ause the good old cause which they ventu- ed everything to sustain. Upon Thurloe's proposition, in Richard Crom- well's first Parliament, for " recognising" the ' undoubted" right of Richard as Protector, cot spoke with Vane for the substitution of he word " agnise" for recognise, and the total mission of the phrase " undoubted." The de- ate, as we have already seen in the Memoir of lane, was taken on these points for the pur- ose of trying the question of a pure republic n the least offensive shape. The declared ob- ct at the same time was the rejection of the ill. Scot rose, after a speech of a very hot resbyterian (Mr. Bulkley), in favour of Rich- rd ; and after referring to the events which HENRY MARTEN. 385 first led' to the agitation of questions agains monarchy in England naming the Stewarts a " that family, that cursed family ! I may call i so yet !" he proceeded to allude to the neces sities which drove them to the execution o: Charles. " Had he been quiet," he said, " af ter he was delivered up to us hy the Scots knowing him to be our king " A blank in the diary occurs here, but it is not difficult to ima gine what the close of the sentence woul have been, when we find it followed thus: "Si long as he was above ground, in view, then were daily revoltings among the army, and ri sings in all places ; creating us all mischief more than a thousand kings could do us good It icas impossible to continue him alive. I wist all had heard the grounds of our resolutions in tha particular. I would have had all our consult ings in foro, as anything else was. It was re sorted unto as the last refuge. The representa lives, in their aggregate body, have power to alter or change any government, being thus conducted by Providence. The question was whose [i. e., on whom] was that blood that was shed 1 It could not be ours. Was it not the king's, by keeping delinquents from punish- ment, and raising armies 1 The vindictive jus tice must have his sacrifice somewhere. Thi king was called to a bar below, to answer for that blood. WE DID NOT ASSASSINATE, OR DO IT IN A CORNER. WE DID IT IN THE FACE OP GoD AND OF ALL MEN. If this be not a precept, THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE, I know not what is to pre- serve the good cause, a defence to religion and tender consciences. I will not patronise or jus- tify all proceedings that then were." This is a memorable passage. It was nol the language of self-vindication only, but of awful and impressive warning to all the gener- ations of men that were to follow after the vi- olent death of the ardent and honest speaker. How poorly it has been often imitated in mod- ern times ! Scot now vindicated the intentions of the Long Parliament on the eve of its dissolution, and asserted the regrets which followed it, and the respect due to its memory. " The Dutch war came on. If it had pleased God and his highness to have let that little power of a Par- liament sit a little longer when Hannibal is ad portas, something must be done extra leges we intended to have gone off with a good sa- vour, and provided for a succession of Parlia- ments ; but we stayed to end the Dutch war. We might have brought them to oneness with us. Their ambassadors did desire a coalition. This we might have done in four or five months. We never bid fairer for being masters of the whole world not that I desire to extend our own bounds. We are well if we can pre- serve peace at home. If you, be fain to fight Holland over again, it is vain to conceal it. That gentleman says the Parliament went out, and no complaining in the streets, nor inquiry after them. That is according to the company men keep. Men suit the letter to their lips. It is as men converse. I never met a zealous assertor of that cause, but lamented it, to see faith broken, and somewhat else. I will say no more. It was as much bewailed as the instru- ment of government. A petition, the day after the Parliament was dissolved, from forty of the C c c chief officers, the aldermen of the city of Lon- don, and many godly divines (except the rigid Presbyters, too well-wishers to Mr. Love's treason*), besought to have that Parliament restored ; but the Protector, being resolved to carry on his work, threatened, terrified, and displaced them ; and who would, for such a shattered thing, venture their all 1 You have had five changes. This is the fifth, and yet the people have not rest. It may be the people may think of returning to that again, or it may be to another government. The Romans continued consuls 100 years. There were endeavours to bring in kingship, and many lost their heads for it. Brutus's own sons died under the axe, rather than their father would suffer kingship. Then came the decemviri, to collect the best laws in all nations, still jussu populi ; to make peace and war ; to make laws ; to make magis- trates ; to frame twelve tables to be standing laws. I would not hazard a hair of his present highness's head. Yet I would trust no man with more power than what is good for him and for the people. / had rather have 100 per annum clear, than 200 accountable. He is yet at the door. If you think of a single person, I would have him sooner than any man alive. Make your body, and then jit your head if you please, one head ; else we must debate all the limbs over again, either in a grand co.mmittee, or by twenty or thirty gentlemen. In the mean time, lay this bill aside." The question being again driven back upon the words " agnise" and " undoubted,." Scot took an opportunity to declare, with respect to the latter phrase, that force was used to pass the " Petition and Advice," and that he could never recognise a title under it alone. He ob- served, in some passages of remarkable consti- tutional doctrine, that he might acknowledge that person as chief magistrate ; but he added, the word ' undoubted ' is a doubt with me. The argument used against those that say fire does not burn, is, put your fingers in. Were not pikes at the door to keep us out 1 It was proved. I cannot admit that a free Parliament. The Petition and Advice was not pursued. If the nomination appear not to you, you cannot go upon that. The Parliament have suffered en- tails upon the crown ; but this has been done before 'he judges and council, and publicly. This gov- ernment is but de bene esse. The kingdom of England was not always hereditary. Of twen- y-five or twenty-six kings, fifteen or sixteen of them came in by the choice of the Parlia- ment, and not by descent ; among the rest. King Stephen, Richard II., Edward I. The ^'arliament has always power to make or empower he chief magistrate, and they changed the gov- rnment as often as they thought it good for the eople. As to the instance, the last king, I as at his coronation. At every corner, every ociety was asked, Will you have this person or your king 1 This implies a power of the eople ; though he was king before, by succes- ion. As to the oath made without doors, I nd myself free here. You may remove the hief magistrate, and make whom you please o. In Henry VI. and Henry IV.'s time, the lection was from the people." After some * A Presbyterian minister tried and executed in 1051 for reason against the Commonwealth. 386 BRITISH STATESMEN. farther precedents of this sort, Scot, referring to an argument used in the debate, that the people had really acquiesced in the selection of Richard, laid down in another form Vane's principle of a convention of the people. " You say you have a people that have declared this honourable and very precious person, with the acclamations of towns and villages. If the whole body had done this in a collective aggregate body, met in anyplace, you ought not to question it ; but this is but from some parts, in their several scattered bodies, I would have some persons to withdraw and word a question, though it would come better from another House than from us, that are bargainers for the people. We must consider as well what a man he may be. A young lion's teeth and claws may grow. I speak not of him, God knows ! Yet we are not to trust too far. If we were assured that through his life he would not err, no man can tell who is to come after. Can you retrench that power you are making for perpetuity 1 St. Austin and Pelagius were born both in a day. The antidote and poison were both of an age. Make the provision for the safety of the people's liberties, and your magistrate's power and prerog- ative, contemporary. Let them be twins. Let them justify one another. Let not one precede the other. Whom would you have the Protector thank for his power the people 1 the army 1 the council 1 Let him own YOU for it ! Amor et delicicz populi Anglice, let him be so, when made your creature, not ad extra. It is a hu- man institution ; only own him as your author- ity. The Parliament will be said to be either fools or madmen, that know not what is fit for them so well as another. Why should we think ourselves more unfit to provide for ourselves, and for our own good, than any other 1 If we be so, let us set up the court of wards again, not for our children, but for ourselves. Why may not we be as well intrusted as any single per- son 1 Who better judges than the heads of the tribes 1 Name a committee to form a question that may take in both. You will then despatch more in an hour than you have done in all this .time." The omission of the word " undoubted" was eventually agreed to. Scot again gave battle on the question of the substitution of " agnise" for "recognise." The famous Henry Neville (the author of Plato Redivivus, and other works, remarkable for their soundness of doctrine and purity of style) had observed, that the word " recognise" gave away the question, or that it betokened slavery, and was answered by a re- .rnark from Mr. Goodrick, that "we were not slaves in Elizabeth's time, and it was the lan- guage then," when Soot rose. " The grounds -of the word ' recognise' then," he said, " and in the times of Henry VIII. and Henry IV., were different from ours. The reason for Hen- ry IV.'s recognition was because Richard II. was alive, and his competitor. It was in con- tradiction to competitors only to distinguish persons. An act of Parliament passed to legit- imate Queen Elizabeth, because it was ques- tioned whether she were fit to reign or no. King James came from another kingdom and another family. There was no recognition to King Charles, and no need of it. He had no competitor. I can deeognise Charles Stuart and that family, but recognise I cannot. It comprehends the merits of the question. We must now speak, or ever hold our peace. It was told that the great seal was sent for two or three times, and either his highness was not so well, or I know not what ; it was sent back again. The privy council made him. I would have him to be your creature, and he will be more tender of your liberties and privileges. If I recognise, I must be satisfied how he was de- clared, according to the Petition and Advice. We are not ingenuously dealt withal, for this is but a wing of the debate, and the wing will be out of your reach. If this pass, you will take a little breath between that and caring for the liberties of the people ; and then money must be had for this Protector. I was saying I would be a slave, but I would not either, till I needs must. If I could have lived safely in any other part, I would not have lived here. / would be content it should be set upon my monument if it were my last act, I own it* / wag one of the king's judges. I hope it shall not be said of us, as of the Romans once, homines, ad servitu- tem parati .'" It need not be repeated here, that Richard Cromwell was soon driven from the Protector- ate by Vane and Scot, and their gallant asso- ciates, who, in Marten's absence from the House, so resolutely maintained the opinions they held in common. With the recall of the Long Parliament after that event, Harry Mar- ten once more took his seat in the House of Commons. The intrigues of the traitor Monk need not be detailed here ; it is sufficient to siy that, before their consummation, they had been seen through by the fine sense of Marten, and ridiculed by his wit. While the protestations of devotion to a commonwealth, made by that " scoundrel of fortune," were duping Hazlerig and the less reflecting Republicans ; while ho " called God to witness that the asserting of a commonwealth was the only intent of his heart," and was believed, we have had occasion to no- tice the subtle detection of the trick by Vane, and the masterly though unsuccessful effort he made to avert its consequences. We have now to add, that Marten took occasion to say, in his place in Parliament, that, although he doubted not General Monk's real design was a common- wealth, it yet befitted the House to consider the very remarkable inaptitude of the means he was providing for that object. " Why, sir,' 1 he continued, " he is like a person sent to make a suit of clothes, who brings with him a budget * It was Scot's last act to own this. When some of tlie mean-spirited Presbyterians, who were among the Inst left in the reassembled Long Parliament, before its final ilisptr- sion by Monk, proposed that before the;? separated they should bear their witness against the horrid murder of the king, and the motion was followed l<y the protestation of one of the members that he had neither hand nor heart in that affair, Scot at once rose and said, " Though I know not where to hide my head at this time, yet I dare not refuse to own, that not only my hand, but my heart also, was in it." This was his last word in Parliament. Before his judges he manifested the same lofty and resolved temper, pleading nothing but his privilege of Parliament, and the unques- tionable character of the great office he had borne, as depu- ted by the people to adjudge the king. The last words he pronounced upon the scaffold were a blessing to God " that of his free grace he had engaged him in a causo not to be repented of / say in a cause not to be repented of '' Here the sheriff interposed, and the executioner did his dreadful office. This was indeed a CAUSE which, in Vane's immor- tal words, "gave life in death to all the owners of it and ufferers for it." HENRY MARTEN. 387 full of carpenter's tools ; and being told that such things are not at all fit for the work he has been desired to do, answers, ' Oh, it mat- ters not ! I will do your work well enough, I warrant you.' "* Upon the Restoration, the name of Henry Marten was " absolutely excepted, both as to life and property," from the act miscalled of oblivion and indemnity ; but he surrendered, with, Scot and others, resolved to take his trial. Trial, however, it should not be called, for all the proceedings against the regicides were made up of the bloodiest and most savage cruelty, the basest falsehoods, the most shock- ing perfidy. The first determination taken by the treacherous lawyers who directed the pro- ceedings was the settlement of six notable rules, among which we find these : That the indictment should be for compassing the death of the late king, under the 25th of Edward III., and that his death should be one of the overt acts to prove the compassing ; that overt acts not in the indictment might be given in evi- dence ; that two witnesses should not be re- quired to each particular overt act. As a far- ther precaution, the commission was delayed until the appointment of new sheriffs more sla- vishly ready than their predecessors to pack a jury. Bills were sent up and found against twenty-nine persons, t and their trials began before thirty-four commissioners,}: on the 9th of October, 1660, at the Old Bailey. * Ludlow. t Marten, Waller (Sit H.), Harrison, Carew, Cook, Pe- ters, Scot, Clement, Scroop, Jones, Hacker, Axtel, Heven- iugham, Millington, Tiehborn, Roe, Kilburn, Harvey, Pen- nington, Smith, Downs. Potter, Garland, Fleetwood, Meyn, i. Tempte, P. Temple, Hewlet, and Waite. t The commissioners who by these proceedings damned themselves to fame were Sir Thomas Allen, lord-mayor of London, Lord-chancellor Hyde, the Earl of Southampton, the Duke of Somerset, the Duke of Albemarle (Monk), the Marquis of Ormond, the Earl of Lindsay, the Earl of Man- chester, the Earl of Dorset, the Earl of Berkshire, the Earl of Sandwich, the Lord Say and Sele, the Lord Roberts, the Lord Finch, Mr.Denzil Hollis, Sir Frederic Cornwallis, Sir Charles Berkeley, Mr. Secretary Nicholas, Mr. Secretary Morrice, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Mr. Arthur Annesley, Sir Orlando Bridgman, lord-chief-baron, Mr. Justice Forster, Mr. Justice Mallet, Mr. Justice Hyde, Mr. Baron Atkins, Mr. Justice Twisden, Mr. Justice Tyrrel, Mr. Baron Turner, Sir Harbottle Grimston, Sir William Wild, recorder of Lon- d"ii. Mr. Sergeant Brown, Mr. Sergeant Hale, and Mr. John Hnwel. The prosecutors in behalf of the king- were Sir Jeffery Palmer, attorney-general ; Sir Heneage Finch, so- licit-T-general ; Sir Edward Turner, attorney to the Duke of York ; Sergeant Keeling, Mr. Wadham Wyndham. A great portion of these men, it has been well pointed out (Hist, from Mackintosh), who thus sat as judges, were as guilty of treason under the 26th Edward III. and the charge of the chief-baron, as those whom they tried. The judge de- clared it to be the law that " no authority, no single person or community of men, nor the people collectively or repre- sentatively, have any coercive power over the King of Eng- land, "and that to imprison the king was "a horrid treason" by two statutes of Parliament. But of these commissioners, fifteen, according to Ludlow, had levied war against the king by their votes in Parliament, or by force of arms in the field, and several of them still sat in Parliament when Charks for the first time became its prisoner at Holmby. Lords Manchester and Say were excepted from a general pardon in one of the proclamations of the late king. Hollis at-ted the most violent part in Parliament, and in the civil war, or, as it was now called, the rebellion, with the far- ther disqualification for the ends of justice of bringing to the trial of Independents and Republicans the vindictive passions of a partisan and a Presbyterian. Monk, in sitting as a commissioner, but finished the part played by him in the recent transactions. The palm of transcendent infamy may be given to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who, having purchased his pardon by his perfidy, now sat as the judge of men with whom he had sat in council, for whose safety, to the touching of a hair of their head, he had bbund him- I On the 10th of October, after some months ' of imprisonment, Marten was placed at the bar ! of the Old Bailey, and required to plead. " I desire," he said, " the benefit of the act of ob- livion " Here he was interrupted, and told he must plead guilty or not guilty ; and that if j he demanded the benefit of the act of oblivion, i it was a confession of being guilty ! Upon this i Marten resumed earnestly, " I humbly conceive the act of indemnity" Again he was inter- rupted coarsely, and told he must plead. The following is a report of what followed, in which Marten's quiet and resolute self-possession ap- pears very striking. " The Court. ' You must plead guilty or not guilty.' Marten. " If I plead, I lose the benefit of that act.' Court. You are totally excepted out of the act.' Marten. ' If it were so I would plead. My name is not in that act.' Court. * Henry Marten is there.' Mr. Solicitor-general. 1 Surely he hath been kept a close prisoner in- deed, if he hath not seen the Act of Indemnity. Show it him.' Mr. Skelton opened the act. Court. ' How is it written ]' Clerk. ' It is Hen- ry Marten.' The act being shown him, he said, ' HENRY MARTEN ; my name is not so it is Harry Marten.' Court. 'The difference of the sound is very little. You are known by that name of Marten.' Marten. ' I humbly conceive all penal statutes ought to be understood liter- ally.' Clerk. 'Are you guilty or not guilty ?' Marten. ' I am not Henry Marten.' The clerk again asked him as before, and the court said, ' Be advised ; the effect of this plea will be judgment ;' and the solicitor-general cited some- what parallel to this, in a case formerly of Baxter, where the name was Bagster, with an s, and adjudged all one, being the same sound. The clerk then put the question to him again, when, instead of answering, he said, ' My lord, I desire counsel.* Theje will arise matter of law as well as fact.' The court then told him, ' You are indicted for treason for a malicious, traitorous compassing and imagining the king's death ; if you have anything of justification, plead not guilty, and you shall be heard ; for if it be justifiable, it is not treason. The rule is, either you must plead guilty, and so confess, or not guilty, and put yourself upon your trial ; there is no medium.' Marten. ' May I give any- thing in evidence before a verdict 1' Court. ' Yes ; upon your trial you may give any evi- dence that the law warrants to be lawful evi- dence.' The clerk here again put the question of guilty or not guilty ; and the court said, ' Understand one thing, because I would not have you mistaken ; you cannot give in evi- dence the misnomer.' Marten. ' I submit, and plead not guilty.' Clerk. ' How will you be tried V Marten. 'By God and my country.' Clerk. ' God send you a good deliverance.' " The crown counsel then opened the case, and observed that Marten had " both signed and sealed the precept for summoning the court and the warrant for execution," and that he had sat every day, and " particularly the day of sentence." Here Marten interrupted the prosecutor, and said that he did not decline self in the penalty of " damnation body and soul," and with whom he might have ben tried as an accessary. (Vol. vi., p. 342.) * He had before demanded the assistance of counsel, and been refuged. 388 BRITISH STATESMEN. a confession so as to matter of fact, provided the malice were set aside. He had, he said, with others, judged Charles I. to death, but neither " maliciously, murderously, nor traitor- ously." The crown counsel here laughed, and promised to prove malice very easily ; and the lord-chief-baron informed the prisoner that " there is malice implied by law malice in the act itself. That," he continued, " which you call malice that you had no particular inten- tion or design against the king's person, but in relation to the government that will not be to this present business. If it should extenu- ate anything, that would be between God and your own soul ; but as to that which is alleged in the indictment, maliciously, murderously, and traitorously, they are the consequences of law. If a man meet another in the street, and run him through, in this case the law implies malice ; though but to an ordinary watchman, there is malice by the law in the fact ; if there was no such expressed personal malice, yet the fact done implies malice in law." The solicitor- general now interfered, and showed the mean- ness of his thoughts, and his incapacity for judging the actions of great-souled men, by this piece of vulgar pleasantry : " My lord, he does think a man may sit upon the death of the king, sentence him to death, sign a warrant for his execution, meekly, innocently, charitably, and honestly!" Marten answered to this quietly and with dignity : " I shall not presume to compare my knowledge in the law with that of that learned gentleman ; but, according to that poor understanding of the law of England that I was capable of, there is no fact that he can name that is a crime in itself, but as it is cir- cumstantiated. Of killing a watchman, as your lordship instanced, a watchman may be killed in not doing his office, and yet no murder." The lord-chief-baron retorted : " I instanced that of a watchman, to show there may be a malice by law, though not expressed ; though a man kill a watchman, intending to kill another man, in that case it is malice in law against him ; so in this case, if you went to kill the king when he was not doing his office, because he was in prison, and you hindered him from it, the law implies malice in this. It is true, all actions are circumstantiated, but the killing of the king is treason of all treasons." And was reinforced by a sage remark of Mr. Justice Forster : "If a Watchman be killed, it is mur- der ; it is in contempt of magistracy of the powers above : the law says that contempt adds to the malice." The crown counsel now stood up with a triumphant air, and told their lordships : " We shall now prove against the prisoner at the bar (because he would wipe off malice) that he did this very merrily, and was in great sport at the time of signing the war- rant for the king's execution." " That," qui- etly answered Marten, " does not imply mal- ice." Ewer's evidence was then given, as al- ready related.* Sir Purbeck Temple was now called as a witness, and the counsel asked him what he knew " of that gentleman (the prisoner), in his carriage of this business." Sir Purbeck Tem- ple gave the following evidence in answer : " My lords, I being present in town when that * See ante, p. 376. horrid murder was contrived against the late king, there came some persons of honour, ser- vants of the late king, to my father's house, Sir Edward Partridge, to engage me to join with them to attempt the king's escape. In order whereunto, they told me nothing would tend so much to his majesty's service as to endeav- our to discover some parts of their counsels ; for that it was resolved by Cromwell to have the king tried at the high court of justice, as they called it, the next day, and desired me (if possible) to be there to discover their coun- sels, whereby the king might have notice, and those that were to attempt his escape. In order whereunto, the next day, by giving money to the officer of the Painted Chamber, I got in by daylight in the lobby of the Lords' House. I espied a hole in the wall under the hangings, where I placed myself till the council came, where they were contriving the manner of try- ing the king when he should come before them. After the manner of praying and private con- sults among themselves, when their prayer was over, there came news that the king was landed at Sir Robert Cotton's stairs ; at which Cromwell ran to a window, and, looking on the king as he came up the garden, he returned as white as the wall. Returning to the board, he speaks to Bradshaw and Sir Henry Mildmay how they and Sir William Brereton had con- cluded on such a business ; then turning to the hoard, said thus : ' My masters, he is come, he is come, and now we are doing that great work that the whole nation will be full of; therefore I desire you to let us resolve here what answer we shall give the king when he comes before us, for the first question that he will ask us will be, By what authority and commission do we try him"!' To which none answered presently. Then, after a little space, Henry Marten, the prisoner at the bar, rose up and said, ' In the name of the Commons and Parliament assembled, and all the good people of England,' which none contradicted ; so all rose up, and then I saw every officer that waited in the room sent out by Cromwell to call away my lord such a one (whose name I have forgot), who was in the Court of Wards chamber, that he should send away the instru- ment, which came not, and so they adjourned themselves to Westminster Hall, going into the Court of Wards themselves as they went thither. When they came to the court in Westminster Hall, I heard the king ask them the very same question that Cromwell had said to them." The solicitor-general then addressed the jury, interrupting the last witness, to desire them to place the correct interpretation on what the prisoner had said about want of malice. " You see, gentlemen," he said, " the prisoner at the bar confesses his hand to the warrant for exe- cuting the king ; you see, by his servant, how merry he was at the sport ; you see, by this witness, how serious he was at it, and gave the foundation of that advice upon which they all proceeded ; and now, gentlemen, he says he did it not traitorously. / humbly conceive he means it was justifiable /" To this Marten, without any emotion, observed to the chief-baron : "My lord, the commission went in the name of the Com- mons assembled in Parliament, and the good HENRY MARTEN. 389 people of England ; and what a matter is it for one of the commissioners to say, Let it be acted by the good people of England 1" To this the solicitor retorted, " You know all good people did abhor it. I am sorry to see so little repent- ance," Being called upon for his defence, Marten ad- dressed the court in these words. The touch- ing effect of their quiet earnestness is not less- ened by the consideration they show to the place and position in which the speaker now stood. " My lord, I hope that which is urged by the learned counsel will not have that im- pression upon the court and jury that it seems to have, that I am so obstinate in a thing so ap- parently ill ; my lord, if it were possible for that blood to be in the body again, and every drop that was shed in the late wars, I could wish it with all my heart ; but, my lord, I hope it is lawful to offer in my own defence that which, when I did it, I thought I might do. My lord, there was the House of Commons, as I under- stood it (perhaps your lordships think it was not a House of Commons) ; then it was the supreme authority of England : it was so re- puted both at home and abroad. My lord, I suppose he that gives obedience to the authority in being de facto, whether de jure or no I think he is of a peaceable disposition, and far from a traitor. My lord, I think there was a statute made in Henry VII. 's time, whereby it was provided that whosoever was in arms for the king de facto, he should be indemnified, though that king de facto was not de jure ; and if su- preme officers de facto can justify a war (the most pernicious remedy that was ever adjudg- ed by mankind, be the cause what it will), I presume the supreme authority of England may justify a judicature, though it be not an author- ity de facto. My lord, if it be said that it is but a third estate, and a small parcel of that my lord, it was all that was extant. I have heard lawyers say, that if there be commons ap- purtenant to a tenement, and that tenement all burn- ed down except a small stick, the commons belong to that one small piece, as it did to the tenement when all standing. My lord, I shall humbly of- fer to consideration whether the king were the king indeed such a one whose peace, crowns, and dignities were concerned in public matters. My lord, he was not in execution of his offices he was a prisoner." Marten then made allusion to King Charles II., and said that, so long as the representative body of England " supported him, he (Marten) should pay obedience to him." "Be- sides, my lord," he concluded, " I do owe my life to him, if I am acquitted for this. I do con- fess / did adhere to the Parliament's army heartily. My life is at his mercy; now if his grace be pleased to grant it, I shall have a double obli- gation to him." The solicitor-general followed in aggravation of the case. " My lord," he said, " this gentle- man, the prisoner at the bar, hath entered into a discourse, that I am afraid he must have an answer in Parliament for it. He' hath owned the king, but thinks his best title is the acknowl- edgment of the people ; and he that hath that, let him be who he will, hath the best title." Marten here interrupted the solicitor with these few words : " I have one word more, my lord. I humbly desire that the jury would take notice, that, though I am accused in the name of the king, that if I be acquitted, the king is not cast. It doth not concern the king that the prisoner be condemned ; it concerns him that the pris- oner be tried. It is as much to his interest, crown, and dignity, that the innocent be acquit- ted, as that the nocent be condemned." The lord-chief-baron delivered his charge, in which he took occasion to observe : " Marten hath done that which looks forward more than backward ; that is, to repentance of that which is past, than obedience of that which is to come. It is a trouble to repeat those things which ho said himself, and truly, I hope in charity he meant better than his words were." A verdict of guilty was returned by the jury " after a lit- tle consultation." It has been said that Henry Marten sought to save his life upon his trial by professions of re- pentance and contrition. The reader has the means of judging the utter falsehood of such a charge. No late-found loyalty was his. His conduct in that hour was what it had been his whole life through easy, self-possessed, and firm. He offered no uncalled-for offence to the court, it is true, or to the powers once more in possession of the kingdom. There was about Harry Marten, in all circumstances, as there generally is with men of wit or various accom- plishment, that habitual grace, that continual sense of the proprieties in manner, which no- thing could interrupt, ever varying and adapt- ing itself to all circumstances alike ; but when he left the bar that day, after receiving sentence (and he left it with a step that betokened a light heart still, though a firm one), no one entertained a doubt but that the next display of his accomplishments and his courage would be made upon a scaffold. And yet his life was spared. Some of the Royalists visited him in prison, and requested him to petition Parliament for mercy. Bishop Burnet says, upon this, that his " vices" had procured him such friends. Mr. Disraeli says, with greater truth, that the news of his im- pending execution had roused the grateful me- diation of the numerous friends of the opposite party to his own, whom in his own days of power " his facetious genius had so timely served."* He acceded to their request, and sent a petition to the two Houses. In this pe- tition he observed, with the careless wit which no misfortune could subdue, that he had sur- rendered himself upon the Restoration in con- sequence of the king's " declaration of Breda," and that, " since he had never obeyed any royal proclamation before this, he hoped that he should not be hanged for taking the king's word now." On the discussion of the matter in the House of Commons, a Royalist writerf tells us, " the grave and sober members were generally for having him pay his forfeited life ; but he had many advocates in those who had partook of the pleasures of his conviviality, both within and without the House." Notwithstanding the * Commentaries, vol. v., p. 418. The men of his own party, with whom he had ever contracted friendships, ex- hibited on all occasions a singular attachment to him ; and Ludlow relates of his lather, Sir Henry Ludlow, that he be- lieved his death was chiefly occasioned by his deep grief nt the expulsion of Marten from the House ot Commons in 1643 t Noble. Echard. 390 BRITISH STATESMEN. latter circumstance, however, the Commons took no step upon the petition. The Lords af- terward took it into consideration, and sum- moned Marten before them. Here his conduct was still as it had ever been. Worn with im- prisonment, and distracted with hopes deferred (for three months had now passed since his sentence), he confessed no fault, extenuated no- thing of that for which his life was sought in j penalty, but, making a half-pleasant allusion to the past, besought their lordships to give him more time to live. We find from the Lords' Journals (7th February, 1661) that "Mr. Mar- ten being demanded what he could say for him- self why the aforesaid act for his execution should not pass," he replied, that his hope was in the great mercy of their lordships, greater here than it could be in any other case, since "the honourable House of Commons, that he did so idolize, had given him up to death, and now this honourable House of Peers, which he had so much opposed, especially in their power of judicature, had suddenly been made the sanc- tuary to flee to for life." Lord Falkland and other peers spoke very warmly in his behalf, and the sentence of death was remitted. Yet the mercy, after all, was more than question- able. He was ordered to be imprisoned for life. A blank, then, suddenly falls here on the gay- ety, the grace, the high purposes, the wit of Harry Marten ! a blank even felt by the most prejudiced advocates of the men it had been the business of his life to oppose. " Such," says one of them, " was the last sad doom of this man, whose quickness of thought, elegance of manners, vivacity, wit, and charming gayety had often fascinated, not only the convivial board, but the grave, austere, sour Republican chiefs in the House of Commons, who so often chose him their manager and director !"* His first prison was the Tower ; he was af- terward ordered to Windsor, from which Aubrey says he was removed, " because he was an eie- sore to majestic ;" his final place of imprison- ment was the Castle of Chepstow, in Mon- mouthshire. It would seem that this place was selected with some view to a former and prouder connexion with it, that might render his present humiliation deeper, for Wood tells us that at the period of his greatest influence in the country, " the Welsh counties desired Henry Marten for their commander-in-chief." In Chepstow he lingered out twenty long years of imprisonment. " For twenty years," ex- claimed a great living writer, in his early days of hope and of enthusiasm, standing in the very room that had been occupied by the illustrious prisoner, " For twenty years, secluded from mankind, Here MARTEN lingered. Often have these walls Echo'd his footsteps, as with even tread He paced around his prison ; not to him Did nature's fair varieties exist ! He never saw the sun's delightful beams, Save when through yon high bars it pour'd a sad * Even old Anthony i Wood, after exhausting every va- riety of abuse on Marten, is obliged to finish with the fol- lowing admissions, qualified a little at the close. " He was a man of good natural parts, was a boon familiar, witty, and quick with repartees, was exceeding happy in apt instances, pertinent and very biting, so that his company being es- teemed incomparable by many, would have been acceptable to the greatest persons, only he would be drunk too soon, and so put an end to all the mirth for the present." Ath. Oxon., vol. hi., p. 1241. And broken splendour. Dost thoa ask Tiis crime 1 He h:td rebeli'd against a king, and sat In judgment on him for his ardent mind Shaped goodliest plans of happiness on earth, And peace and liberty. Wild dreams ! but such As Plato loved ; such as, with holy zeal, Our Milton worshipp'd. Bless'd hopes ! awhile From man withheld, even to the latter days When Christ shall come, and all things be fulfill'd !"* And through all the early, and, indeed, solitary years of his imprisonment, those ardent hopes and goodliest plans may well be thought to have still remained, his refuge and sustainment. He had other consolations in his misery, which were named before. It brought back the long- estranged affection of earlier days his wife's sympathy, and his daughter's affectionate zeal. His own estate confiscated by the crown, ev- erything he could need in the narrow circuit of his prison he received out of the jointure that had been reserved to his wife on their mar- riage ; and when, in the latter years of his im- prisonment, the severities commemorated by the poet had been in some respects relaxed, the visits of his daughter relieved the loneliness and infirmity of age. His wife had died some little time before. t One anecdote of Marten remains to be told. It is the only anecdote we have of his impris- onment, the single gleam which breaks through the now impenetrable obscurity of those melan- choly years, to reveal the man ; and with its aid we see the man unchanged. He is firm, frank, fearless as ever. He had been suffered, during the last few years of his life, in consideration of the harmlessness, no less than the infirmi- ties, of his great age, to walk out of his prison occasionally, under the strict conduct of a keep- er, into the neighbouring village of St. Pierre. A person of the name of Lewis lived here, and when he saw him, would ask him into his house. It grew into a habit at last ; and a visit to this house, and a conversation with its owner, were the old man's last remaining comforts. Some unlucky day, however, this Lewis, who was a slavish Royalist (as people who lived in the neighbourhood of royal castles in those days generally were), happened to ask his visiter if, supposing the deed were to be done over again, he would again sign the warrant for Charles * This inscription for the apartment in which Marten was confined was composed by ROBERT SOUTHEY, LL.D., when he was the Laureate of Wat Tyler, and before he had the remotest idea of Incoming the Laureate of George the Fourth! GEORGE CANNING, the literary Robespierre of his day, sharpened his axe to a razor's keenness for the ex- ecution of the distinguished victim. The inscription of Southey led Canning to compose the following unrivalled parody: Inscription for the door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs. Brovtnrigge, the 'Prentice-ride, was confined previous to her Execution. " For one long term, or e'er her trial came, Here Brownrigge linger'd. Often have these cells Echo'd her blasphemies, as with shrill voice She scream'd for fresh Geneva. Not to her Did the blithe fields of Tothill, or thy streets, St. Giles', its. fair varieties expand, Till at the last, in slow-drawn cart, she went To execution. Dost thou ask her crime ? She whipp'd two female 'prentices to death, And hid them in the coal-hole for her mind Shaped strictest place of discipline. Sage schemes, Such as Lycurgus taught, when at the shrine Of the Orythian goddess he bade flog The little Spartans ; such as erst chastised Our Milton when at college. For this act Did Brownrigge swing. Harsh laws ! but time shall com* When France shall reign, and laws be all repeal'd !" t Aubrey, Bodleian Letters. Ath. Oxon., vol. iii., p. 1243. HENRY MARTEN. 391 the First's execution. Marten told him " Yes ;" and was never after received into the house of Mr. Lewis.* The end, however, which he must surely now have prayed for, was rapidly approaching, and at last, in 1681, enfeebled with the weight of seventy-eight years, and the suf- ferings of a long imprisonment, against which his strong natural health had wonderfully borne him up, he was suddenly, while sitting at din- ner, struck with apoplexy, and fell dead from his chair. A paper containing the following verses was found in the room where he died.f They ap- pear to have expressed the very latest of his thoughts before death, and he had formed the opening letters, it will be seen, into his own * I have not the original authority for this anecdote near me, but I transcribe one version of it from a French work by the accomplished M. Guizot. " Henri Marten conserva jusqu'di la fin de sa vie la mime opinion sur la mort du roi. Un M. Lewis, habitant a Saint Pierre, aux environs de Chepstow, le recevait souvent chezlui, lorsqu'il sortait avec son garde. II lui demanda un jour si, dans le cas oula chose serait 4 recommsncer, il signerait de noveau 1'ordre de l'6x- 6cution de son souverain, Marten repondit affirmativement ; sur quoi M. Lewis cessa de la recevoir." M. Guizofi Notet to Ludlmo. t Wood's Ath. Oxoij., iii., 1242. Aubrey also mentions this circumstance. name an old, fantastic resource from the wea- rying length of lonely hours. " Here or elsewhere (all's one to you to me !), Earth, air, or water gripes my ghostless dust, None knowing when brave fire shall set it free. Reader, if you an oft-tried rule will trust, You'll gladly do and suffer what you must ! " My life was worn with serving you and you, And death is my reward, and welcome too : Revenge destroying but itself; while I To birds of prey leave my old cage, and fly : Examples preach to th' eye care, then, mine says, Not how you end, but how you spend your days." Thus, to the Very last hour, a sense of the great matters in which his early years had been engaged was present with this eminent person, and the last lesson he desired to leave to pos- terity was in the spirit of those ancients on whose actions he had modelled his own that the most miserable or the most painful of deaths was nothing in the memory of a well-spent life. He had earned the glorious privilege of be- queathing such a lesson, for never was a cause more just or honourable, or in its result more fraught with blessings, felt to the present hour, than that which among the bravest of its advo- cates exalting it by his generous purpose as he graced it by his wit counts with pride the name of HENRY MARTEN. OLIVER CROMWELL. 1599-1658. OLIVER CROMWELL was born at Huntingdon, in the large Gothic house to which his father's brewery was attached,* on the 25th of April, 1599.t The name he bore had not infrequent- ly been heard of in English history, but it was destined to become immortal in his person by the deeds with which he connected it whether for good or evil, these pages, undertaken in no spirit of unjust detraction or of blind admira- tion, may possibly help to determine. Milton, in his " Defensio Secunda," thus al- ludes to the family of Cromwell : " Est Olive- rius Cromwellus genere nobili atque illustri or- tua : nomen republica olim sub regibus bene administrata clarum, religione simul orthodoxa vel restituta turn primum apud nos vel stabilita clarius."t The noble and illustrious race here pointed at was that of Thomas Cromwell, earl of Essex ; a man of humble birth, $ but who * A friend of Cromwell's last biographer, Dr. Russell, thus describes the building and its present state : " That it was not," as stated by Mr. Noble, " out of the ruins of St. John's Hospital that Mr. Robert Cromwell's mansion was erected, is manifest from the fact that the said institution is still existing and flourishing, and from its funds is sup- ported the grammar-school of the town in which Oliver himself was educated. As Cromwell's ancestor, Sir Rich- ard, obtained a rich dowry of the old abbey possessions from Henry VIII., it has been supposed that the house and lands of the Augustine friars came into the family in this way. But it is stated in the Valor Ecclesiasticus that they were granted to Thomas Andern on the suppression of the monas- teries ; and I ascertained, from an inspection of the ancient wills, registered in the office of the Archdeacon of Hunting- don, that the house was occupied as a brewery by a Mr. Philip Clam before it came into the possession of Robert Cromwell, the Protector's father. The latter must there- fore have obtained the property by purchase ; and as his fortune was but small, we find that he continued to carry on the brewery formerly established on the premises. The house was built of stone, with Gothic windows and pro- jecting attics, and must have been one of the most consider- able in the borough. It had extensive back premises, in which the brewery was carried on, and a fine garden. In the year 1810, the estate was purchased by James Rust, Esq., whose extensive improvements have entirely obliter- ated every trace of the Cromwell mansion. Previous to this date, the chamber in which Oliver was born, and the room under it, remained as they were at the time when that event took place ; and an outbuilding, noticed by Noble, in which Cromwell was said to have held forth to the Puri- tans, was pointed out to strangers.'' [I regard Russell's wprk as partaking strongly of the age of Charles II., and by no means affording just views of the Protector. No man, however, who wishes to obtain a just and comprehensive view of this greatest of England's great men, will fail to consult that admirable work just published by Carlyle, " The Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell." It un- folds the sturdy heart of Cromwell, and, though he may be denied a place in the collection of the great men whose statues are to adorn the British Parliament House, this la- bour of Carlyle's will disabuse the public mind, and en- throne him in the grateful recollections of the lovers of lib- erty. I omit many notes which I had prepared to affix to this ar- ticle, in consequence of the publication of this very satisfac- tory work, lately issued by Messrs. Wiley <fc Putnam. C.] t I can subjoin the entry of the parish register : " Olive- rus filius Robert! Cromwell, gent., et Elizabeths uxoris ejus, natus 25 die Aprilis, et baptizatus 29" ejusdem men- sis, 1599. E registro ecclesise paroch. sti Johannis, infra oppidum Huntingdon." i Milton's Prose Works, by Birch, folio edition, vol. ii., p. 344. " Oliver Cromwell was sprung from a noble and illustrious family ; the name was formerly famous in the state when well governed by kings ; more famous, at the same time, for orthodox religion, then either first restored or established among- us." t> The reader need not be told that this was the famous Thomas Cromwell of the Reformation rthe .son of Walter had risen to be Henry VIII.'s prime minister and vicar-general of England, and whose sister had married into the family of Oliver's ances- tors. The latter were Welsh, and bore the name of Williams,* until Sir Richard Williams the issue of this marriage between the sister of Essex and Mr. Morgan Williams, " of Llan- ishen in the county of Glamorgan" having risen into favour and knighthood at Henry VIII.'s court by his own gallant prowess and the influence of his uncle, and having obtained, among other extensive grants of nunneries and monasteries at that time dissolved, the nunnery of Hinchinbrook and the abbey of Ramsey, in the county of Huntingdon, fixed his seat at the former place, and assumed thenceforward the name of Cromwell, in honour of the chief archi- tect of his princely fortunes. Thus from the chivalrous son of a Glamor- ganshire squire the worldly power and splen- dour of the family of the Cromwells took its rise, as from the farmer son of a brewer of Huntingdon it afterward dated its immortality. This Richard Cromwell was one of the few favourites and servants of Henry VIII. whom he did not send to the scaffold ; and when, in the old Chronicles of Stow.t we catch the dawn Cromwell, a blacksmith of Putney who rose to power on the wreck of Wolsey's fortunes, and fell suddenly down by disregarding Wolsey's fate. Doubtless he was not free from error, but his memory claims a larger share of our respect than is generally due to such men. * The pedigree of this family, from whom Oliver Crom- well directly sprung, commences, according to the indus- trious and satisfactory researches of Mr. Noble, with Glo- thyan, lord of Powis, who, about the middle of the eleventh century, married Morveth, the daughter and heiress of Ed- win ap Tydwell, lord of Cardigan. William ap Yevan, the representative of the family in the fifteenth century, was first in tlve service of Caspar, duke of Bedford, Henry VIII.'s uncle, and afterward in that of Henry himself. Morgan Williams, or, rather, Morgan ap Williams (he gare up the latter name in obedience to Henry VIII.'s policy of mingling together, as much as possible, the English and Welsh names and families), who married Essex's sister, was William ap Yevan's son. [I am not quite willing to join Mr. Carlyle in his contempt for Noble, who really has deserved the grati- tude of posterity for his laborious researches. C.] t Stow thus describes the tournament ; the incident at its close is given in Fuller's Church History. Here are Stow's words: "On May-day was a great triumph of just- ing at Westminster, which justs had been proclaimed in France, Flanders, Scotland, and Spain, for all commers that would, against the challengers of England, which were Sir John Dudley, Sir T. Seymour, Sir T. Poynings, Sir George Carew, knights ; Anthony Kingston, and Richard Crom- well, esquires: which said challengers came into the listes that day, richly apparelled, and their horses tra;i'0tl all in white, gentlemen riding afore them, apparelled all with velvet and white sarsnet, and all their servants in white doublets, and hosen cut all in the Burgonion fashion ; and there came to just against them the said day, of defendants forty-six, the Earl of Surry being the foremost ; Lord Will- iame Howard, Lord Clinton, and Lord Cromwell, son and heir to T. Cromwell, earle of Essex, and chamberlaine of England, with other, which were all richly apparelled : and that day Sir John Dudley was overthrown in the field, by mischance of his horse, by one Andrew Breme ; never- theless, he brake divers spears valiantly after that ; and af- ter the said justs done, the said challengers rode to Durham Place, where they kept open household, and feasted the king and queen, with their ladies, and all the court. The 2d of May, Anthony Kingstone and Richard Cromwell were made knights of the same place. The 3d of May, the said challengers did tourney on horseback, with swords ; there came against them twenty-nine defendants : Sir John Dud- ley and the Earl of Surrey running first, which, the first CX // t- T '/V//AV 7 *RPtR KND BROTHEBS NEW YOR OLIVER CROMWELL. 393 of his loyal fortunes, it is as though it gleamed reproachfully down upon the terrible act which laid the foundation of the mightier fortunes of his great-grandson Oliver. On May-day, 1540, a brilliant tournament at Westminster opens its lists before us, in which Richard Cromwell and others had proclaimed themselves to France, Flanders, and Scotland the defenders of the honour and rights of their English king. Henry VIII. looks on, and when Sir Richard Cromwell has struck down challenger after chal- lenger with undaunted arm, forth from his deep broad chest rolls out the royal laugh of Henry : " Formerly thou wast my Dick, but hereafter thou shall be my diamond." Then from the finger of majesty drops a diamond ring, which Sir Richard picks up and again presents to Henry, who laughingly places it on his finger, and bids him ever after bear such a one in the fore gamb of the demi-lion in his crest ; and such a ring did Oliver Cromwell wear there* when he left his farm at Ely to bear more formidable arms at the challenge of a king ! The sudden and violent fall of Essex had no disastrous effect on his kinsman's fortunes, which shone brightly to the last. Enriched to an almost unprecedented extent by the plunder of the religious houses, he left to his son, Henry Cromwell, the inheritance of a most noble fortune. t Nor was this Henry less for- course, lost their gauntlets, and that day Sir Richard Crom- well overthrew M. Palmer in the field off his horse, to the great honour of the challengers. The 5th of May, the said challengers fought on foot, at the barriers, and against thorn came thirty defendants, which fought valiantly, but Sirjlichard Cromwell overthrew that day, at the barriers, M. Culpepper in the field ; and the sixth of May the said challengers brake up their household: in the which time of their house-keeping they had not only feasted the king, queen, ladies, and the whole court, as was aforesaid, but on the Tuesday in the Rogation Weeke they feasted all the knights and burgesses of the Common House in the Parlia- ment ; and on the morrow after, they had the mayor of London, the aldermen, and all their wives to dinner ; and on the Friday they brake it up as is aforesaid." Sir Richard and the five challengers had then each of them, as a reward of their valour, 100 marks annually, with a house to live in, to them and to their heirs forever, granted out of the mon- astery of the friars of St. Francis, in Stamford, which was dissolved October 8, 1538 ; and his majesty was the better enabled to do this, as Sir Will. Weston, the last prior, who had an annuity out of the monastery, died two days after the justs. Fortunate king and fortunate knights, to have a prior die so opportunely ! But to break a heart is not a bad recipe for death at any time. * See Noble's Protectoral House, vol. i., p. 11, and Ful- ler's Church History. t In his will (which is dated as early as June, 1545), it appears, he styled himself by the alias Williams, a custom observed by all the Cromwells up to and even past the time of Oliver. An extract of this will, in which Sir Richard describes himself as of " the privy chamber of the king," is given by Mr. Noble. " He directs that his body shall be buried in the place where he should die ; and devises his estates in the counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Lincoln, and Bedford, to his eldest sou Henry, with the sum of 500 to purchase him necessary furniture, when he shall come of age : his estates in Glamorganshire he devises to his son Francis (his only other son), and bequeaths 300 to each of his nieces, Joan and Ann, daughters of his brother, Wal- ter Cromwell ; and directs, that if Tho. Wingfield, then in ward to him, should choose to marry either of them, he shall have his wardship remitted to him, otherwise that the same should be sold ; he also leaves three of his best great horses to the king, and one other great horse to Lord Crom- well, after the king has chosen : legacies are also left to Sir John Williams, knt., and Sir Edw. North, kut., chan- cellor of the court of augmentation, and to several other persons, who seem to have been servants. Gab. Donne, clerk; Andr. Judde, Will. Coke, Phil. Lenthall, and Rich. Servin<fton, were appointed executors. This will was proved Nov. 28th, 1546. Sir Richard," Mr. Noble adds, "must have left a prodigious fortune to his family, by what he possessed by descent, grants and purchases of church lauds, DDD tunate than his father. Elizabeth esteemed him highly, knighted him in 1563, and in the following year honoured him by a visit at his family seat of Hinchinbrook, on her return from the University of Cambridge. His memory still lived in the neighbourhood of his estates some century since, for he had associated it with generous actions in the hearts of the poor of the district, and, to the poor, long memories for benefits belong. They called him in his lifetime the Golden Knight, for he never entered any of the towns or villages around him with- out bestowing some money on the needy and distressed ; and that honourable title survived him.* He lived to a good old age, and left behind him six sons and five daughters, of whom the second daughter, Elizabeth, gave birth to the patriot Hampden, and of whom the second son, Robert, the meanest in fortune, was des- tined to exert an influence on the destinies of the world unapproached by the most illustrious of his ancestors, or the most powerful of their patron princes, for he was the father of Oliver Cromwell. Mr. Robert Cromwell, but for this memorable circumstance, would have lived and died un- known in Huntingdon, since his tastes were humble as his fortunes.* He was sent, indeed, to one of Elizabeth's Parliaments by the elec- tors of that borough, but he appears to have experienced only enough of that sort of public life to conceive disgust to it, since all the duties he afterward discharged were confined to his native town, in which he served as one of the bailiffs,^ sat as justice of the peace, and, when and from the sums he must have acquired by filling very lucrative employments, with the liberal donations of his sovereign, King Henry VIII. This is evident from his pos- sessions in Huntingdonshire, the annual amount of which, at an easy rent, were worth at least 3000 perann. ; these estates only, in Fuller's time, were, he says, valued by some at 20,000, and by others at 30,000 annually, and upward ; and from what these estates now let for, in and near Ramsey and Huntingdon (which are only a part of them), I should presume that Sir Richard's estates in that county only would now bring in as large a revenue as any peer at this time enjoys ; and yet it is evident that he had considerable property in several other counties." * See Noble's Memoirs of the Cromwell Family, vol. i., p. 22. t These fortunes are thus described by Noble : " Rob. Cromwell, Esq., second son of Sir Henry Cromwell, knt., had, by the will of his father, an estate in and near the town of Huntingdon, consisting chiefly, if not wholly, of possessions belonging formerly to the monastery of St. Mary for Augustine friars, amounting, with the great tithes of Hartford, to about 300 per ann." t His name as bailiff is to be found at this day in the nave of a church in Huntingdon. Dr. Russell's friend, before referred to, says : " In the nave of St. Mary's Church, Huntingdon, the following notice is to be seen on one of the pillars : ' Cromwell. Turpin. Bailiffs. The church was not built till 1620, and Robert Crom- well, the Protector's father, who must be the person here meant, died in 1617. The inscription was probably made by some curious person, after the name of Cromwell had 4 gathered all its fame,' and drawn public attention and in- quiry to the ancestors of the Protector." That he took great interest in the .concerns of his native county, and was con- sulted respecting its improvements by its leading proprie- tors', is, however, indisputable, from a passage in Sir Will- iam Dugdale's History of the Fens, where his signature is found attached to a certificate addressed to the privy coun- cil in 1605, stating that the draining of the fens in North- ampton, Lincoln, Huntingdon, and Cambridge (a work which his son afterward resolutely opposed), was practicable, and might bo accomplished " without peril to any haven or county." In recommending this great improvement, he wa joined by sixteen of the principal persons in the four con <. 394 BRITISH STATESMEN. his family had outgrown his income, betook himself to the occupation of a brewer. He had married in early life Elizabeth, the daughter of William Steward, of the city of Ely, an un- doubted descendant of the royal family of the Stuarts.* This lady had already been the wife of "Will. Lynne, gent., son and heir-apparent of John Lynne of Bassingborne, Esq.,"t when, in the second year of her widowhood, with a jointure of only 60 a year,} she married Mr. Robert Cromwell. Thus allied to a self-ennobled family on the one hand, and on the other to royalty itself, Mr. Robert Cromwell and his wife were never- theless brewers of Huntingdon. It is strange, indeed, that this should ever have been dispu- ted, since not the remotest shade of doubt, and as little of discredit, can possibly be thrown upon the fact. The records of the purchase of the brewery, and of its management, are in existence still ; and from the unimpeachable testimony of many witnesses, that of Roger Coke may be selected, whose father, being asked whether he knew the Protector, answer- ed, " Yes, and his father too, when he kept his brewhouse in Huntingdon." A contemporary writer tells us something more : " Both Mr. Cromwell and his wife were persons of great worth, and no way inclined to disaffection, either in their civil or religious principles, but remark- able for living upon a small fortune with de- cency, and maintaining a large family by their frugal circumspection. "|| In subjoining the statement of Sir William Dugdale, we may, perhaps, discover the ridiculous pretence with which the scrupulous asserters of Mr. Robert Cromwell's " pure gentility" satisfy their ten- der consciences, and lay the burden of the brewery on his wife. " Robert Cromwell," says Dugdale.T " though he was, by the coun- tenance of his elder brother, Sir Oliver, made a justice of the peace in Huntingdonshire, had but a slender estate ; much of his support be- ing a brewhouse in Huntingdon, chiefly man- aged by his wife." The Royalist chronicler, Heath,** is still more explicit on the latter point. " The brewhouse," he says, " was kept in his father's time, and managed by his mother and his father's servants, without any concernment of his father therein, the accounts being al- ways given to the mistress, who, after her hus- tles most immediately interested, and among them by his brother Sir Oliver. * See Appendix A. t The following inscription rests on a tombstone in the Cathedral of Ely : " Hie iuhumatus jacet optima: spei ado- lescens Gulielmus Lynne, generosus, filius & haeres appa- rens Johannis Lyniie de Bassingborne in Co. Cantab. Arm. qui quidem Gulielmus immatura morte peremptus in ipsius .^Etate flore 27 agens Annum, 27 die Julij A.D. 1589, non sine summo omnium dolore, ex hac Vita placide migravit ; uniquam relinquens filiam Catherinam scilicet, quam etiam 17 die Martij sequeutis praepropera mors eadem Naturae lege natam sustulit, simulque jam cum Patre aeterno fruiturgau- dio Posuit amoris ergd moestissima illius Conjux Eliza- betha filia Gulielrni Steward de Ely Armigeri." t The smallness of this jointure (for the family fortune that remained to the Stewards rested solely with her broth- er. Sir Thomas, of whom mention will be made hereafter) was a favourite subject of lampoon with the. Cavaliers up to the period of his death. ' It is hoped," I find in one of their scurrilous papers, " that now our enormous taxes will be eased, as the Protector's highness, by the death of his mother, is freed from her dowry, which amounted to the prodigious sum of 60 annually." $ See Detection, vol. ii., p. 57. I! Noble, vol. i., p. 84. T See Short View of the Recent Troubles, p. 459. ** In his Flagellum, p. 15. band's death, did continue in the same employ- ment and calling of a brewer, and thought it no disparagement to sustain the estate and port of a younger brother, as Mr. Robert Crom- well was, by those lawful means ; however, not so reputable as other gains and trades are accounted." True, not so reputable as Mr. Heath would have accounted the trade and gain of a servile follower of courts, of a mean flatterer of kings, of a base tool of incapable favourites or ministers. Had Mr. Cromwell been all this, and lent out his wife in further- ance of the calling, loud should have been the praises of the apostles of the Restoration ! Scarcely less contemptible do they seem to us, however, who foolishly imagine they exalt the claims of Robert Cromwell's son, in making out his father an idle "gentleman," and his mother a laborious drudge. That the wife as- sisted the husband in his pursuits is yet indis- putable, as it was natural, for the fashion of fine ladyism in a tradesman's wife had not then " come up" in the world ; while of her own more homely fashion, she proved the superior advantage, when her husband's death had left her the sole protectress of a young and numer- ous family. An interesting person, indeed, was this mother of Oliver Cromwell a woman with the glorious faculty of self-help when oth- er assistance failed her : ready for the demands of fortune in its extremest adverse time of spirit and energy equal to her mildness and pa- tience ; who, with the labour of her own hands, gave dowries to five daughters sufficient to marry them into families as honourable, but more wealthy than their own ; whose single pride was honesty, and whose passion love ; who preserved in the gorgeous palace at White- hall the simple tastes that distinguished her in the old brewery at Huntingdon ; whose only care, amid all her splendours, was for the safe- ty of her beloved son in his dangerous emi- nence ; finally, whose closing wish, when that anxious care had outworn her strength, accord- ed with her whole modest and tender history, for it implored a simple burial in some country churchyard, rather than those ill-suited trap- pings of state and ceremony wherewith she feared, and with reason feared, that his high- ness, the Lord Protector of England, would have her carried to some royal tomb ! There is a portrait of her at Hinchinbrook, which, if that were possible, would increase the interest she inspires and the respect she claims. The mouth, so small and sweet, yet full and firm as the mouth of a hero ; the large, melancholy eyes ; the light, pretty hair ; the expression of quiet affectionateness suffused over the face, which is so modestly enveloped in a white sat- in hood ; the simple beauty of the velvet car- dinal she wears, and the richness of the small jewel that clasps it, seem to present before the gazer her living and breathing character.* * Out of the profits of her trade," says a writer in the Biographica Britannica, " and her own small jointure of sixty pounds a year, she provided fortunes for her daughters, suf- ficient to marry them into good families. The eldest was the wife of Mr. John Desborough, afterward one of the Protector's major-generals ; another married, first, Roger Whetstone, Esq., and afterward Colonel John Jones, who was executed for being one of the king's judges ; the third espoused Colonel Valentine Walton, who died in exile ; the fourth, Mrs. Robina Cromwell, married, first, Dr. Peter French, and afterward Dr. John Wilkins, bishop of Chester, OLIVER CROMWELL. 395 On the 25th of April, in the year 1599, this excellent woman gave birth to Oliver Crom- well. He was her second son, and the only one of three who lived to manhood ; one of her daughters had also died in youth, and the names of the survivers were Elizabeth, Catharine, Margaret, Anna, Jane, and Robina, who, with Oliver, formed the family of Mr. Robert Crom- well. Four days after his birth, Oliver Cromwell was baptized in the parish church of St. John's, in his native place : his uncle, Sir Oliver, after whom he was named,* standing for him at the font. Of his extreme youth, marvellous stories were recollected in his days of power, not for this, however, to be rejected, since what has once been believed should in all future time be matter of just concern. When Milton under- took a history of England, he began it with a large collection of traditional fables, because he well knew that to whatever has been truly believed, however false or fabulous, belong some of the most sacred privileges of truth it- self, and that the imagination can never be strongly influenced without a corresponding and enduring action upon the opinions and the char- acter. The fables of biography may show us, at all events, in what various ways the celeb- rity of their object has wrought upon his coun- trymen. From the instant of his birth, according to the traditions of Huntingdon, the peculiar des- tiny which had marked the infant for its own saved him from all meaner chances, t A non- juror, who afterward purchased and inhabited his father's house, used to assert this destiny to have been nothing less than the devil ; and, in proof of the connexion, would show, behind the door of the room that Oliver was born in, a curious figure of that personage wrought in a famous preacher and a celebrated mathematician. It may not be amiss to add, that an aunt of Cromwell's married Francis Barrington, Esq. ; another aunt, John Hampden, Esq., of Buckinghamshire, by whom she was mother to the famous John Hampden ; a third aunt was the wife of Mr. Whaley, and the mother of Colonel Whaley, in whose cus- tody the king was while he remained at Hampton Court. He had two other aunts, but of their marriages we have no account." There are some errors and some omissions in this account. The wife of Desborough was Jane, the fifth daughter (the eldest, Elizabeth, dying unmarried) ; Catha- rine, the second, married Jones ; Margaret, the third, mar- ried Walton ; Anna, the fourth, who is omitted by the writer, married John Sewster, of Wistow, in Huntingdon- shire, Esq. ; and the sixth and youngest, Robina, married as stated. [This article was written by Kipper, and is a very satisfactory narrative ; perhaps it affords as clear a representation of the Protector as can be found in the same compass. C ] * See Appendix D., Sir Oliver Cromwell. t In the very curious little volume which I have already had occasion to quote, Heath's Flagellum, it is made mat- ter of reproach against nature that no portentous omens had ushered the lad into the world. "Fate," he says, "when it had decreed and ordained the unhappy birth of this famo- so, by her most secret and hidden malice, brought him into the world without any terrible remark of his portentous life, neither comets, nor earthquakes, nor such like violences of nature, ushering or accompanying him, to the declaring and pointing out that the scourge of the English empire and nation was now born. Thus also she did, by indiscernible methods, train him up to the possession of the throne, and as secretly and cunningly, after all his bloody and most ne- farious actions, shift him out of it, and with a blast of her spent fury turned him into his wished-for grave." The lat- ter sentence is somewhat obscure, unless " the blast of her spent fury" is taken to indicate the storm, which actually, on the day of his death, unroofed the houses in London, and tore up trees in the park*. the hangings. On the same authority rests the version of one of Oliver's escapes, wonderful as Gulliver's at Brobdignag. " His grandfather, Sir Henry Cromwell," so goes the story, " haV- ing sent for him to Hinchinbrook, when an in- fant in arms, a monkey took him from the cra- dle, and ran with him upon the lead that cov- ered the roofing of the house. Alarmed at the danger Oliver was in, the family brought beds to catch him upon, fearing the creature's drop- ping him ; but the sagacious animal brought the ' fortune of England' down in safety : so narrow an escape had he, who was doomed to be the conqueror and sovereign magistrate of three mighty nations, from the paws of a mon- key,"* The tradition which saves the daring and reckless young lad from drowning by the providential interference of the curate of Cun- nington,t is, perhaps, better worthy of belief, though it might be difficult to say so much of the Royalist addition to the story, tagged on after the Restoration that this same worthy curate, at a future period, when kindly called upon by Oliver, in a march at the head of his troops through Huntingdon, and asked if he recollected the service he had done, answer- ed, " Yes, I do ; but I wish I had put you in, rather than see you here in arms against your king." The child's temper, it seems admitted on all hands, was wayward and violent,! and is said to have broken out on one occasion, when he was yet only five years old, with an ominous forecast of times and deeds to come. The anecdote is told by Noble. " They have a tra- dition at Huntingdon," says that industrious collector, "that when King Charles I., then Duke of York, in his journey from Scotland to London, in 1604, called, in his way, at Hinchin- brook, the seat of Sir Oliver Cromwell, that knight, to divert the young prince, sent for his nephew Oliver, that he, with his own sons, might play with his royal highness ; but they had not been long together before Charles and Oliver disagreed ; and as the former was then as weakly as the latter was strong, it was no wonder that the royal visitant was worsted ; and Oliver, even at this age, so little regarded dignity, that he made the royal blood flow in copious streams from the prince's nose. This was looked upon as a bad presage for that king when the civil wars commenced. I give this only as the report of the place : thus far is cer- tain, that Hinchinbrook, as being near Hunting- don, was generally one of the resting-places when any of the royal family were going to or returning from the north of England, or into or from Scotland." An anecdote, which somehow bears upon it the stamp and greatness of real- ity ! If these boys ever met (and when King James's frequent visits to Hinchinbrook are borne in mind,$ it is difficult to suppose they did not), what occurrence so likely as a quarrel, and what result so plain as that the anecdote tells us 1 The nervous, feeble, tottering infan- * The Rev. Dr. Lort's MSS., quoted in Noble, vol. i., p. 92. t Then a Mr. Johnson. t " From his infancy," says Heath, " to his childhood, he was of a cross and peevish disposition, which, being hu- moured by the fondness of his mother, made that rough and intractable temper more robust and outrageous in his juvenile years, and adult and masterless at man's estate." fr See Appendix D., Sir Oliver Cromwell. 396 BRITISH STATESMEN. cy* of the shambling king's son, unequally matched against the sturdy little limbs and da- ring young soul of the man-child of the Hunting- don brewer yet foolish obstinacy urging the weakness of the one, and a reckless ambition of superiority overcoming the kindness and gen- erosity of the other. The curtain of the future was surely for an instant upraised here ! Nor here alone. More signal and direct manifestations were avouched, if still stronger and more widely-believed traditions are re- ceived. Nor will they be rejected hastily by such as care to penetrate beneath the surface of the character which had lain, as it were, wrapped up even in the very cradle of this child. The supernatural, as it seems to the vulgar, is not always what it seems. The nat- ural, when denied for a time its proper vent, will force itself into the light in many various shapes, which assume a fearful aspect from their intensity alone. The tame and common medium of dull and feeble minds is not what the world has distributed among all her sons. Thoughts, as their sufferer has himself descri- bed them, "like masterless hell-hounds," roar- ed and bellowed round the cradle of Bunyan ; round that of Vane the forms of angels of light seemed to vision the everlasting reign of peace which his virtuous labours would have realized ; and now, round the bed of the youthful Crom- well played an awful yet delicious dream of personal aggrandizement and power. He had laid himself down one day, it is said, too fatigued with his youthful sports to hope for sleep, when suddenly the curtains of his bed were slowly withdrawn by a gigantic figure which bore the aspect of a woman, and which, gazing at him silently for a while, told him that he should, before his death, be the greatest man in England. He remembered when he told the story and the recollection marked the current of his thoughts that the figure had not made mention of the word king. The tradition of Huntingdon adds, that although the " folly and wickedness" of such a notion was strongly pointed out to him, the lad persisted in the as- sertion of its truth, for which, " at the partic- ular desire of his father,"' he was soundly flogged by his schoolmaster. The flogging only impressed the fact more deeply on the young day-dreamer ; and betaking himself immedi- ately to his Uncle Steward, t for the purpose of unburdening himself once more respecting it, he was told by that worthy kinsman of roy- alty that it was il traitorous to entertain such thoughts.":): * It is unnecessary to inform the reader that in the in- Fancy of Charles I. he was unable to stand firmly, owing to the weakness and distortion of the legs which he had inher- ited from his father, and that in his most vigorous manhood the infirmity was never entirely corrected. Even in the fine equestrian portrait by Vandyke, now at Hampton Court, a curvature at the knee is distinctly visible. t Sir Thomas Steward. See Appendix A. t Mention of this matter is thus made in th Flagellum. All the other accounts give the story as in the text. " 'Twas at this time of his adolescency that he dreamed, or a familiar rather instructed him and put it into his head, that he should be king of England ; for it cannot be con- ceived that now there should be any such near resemblance of truth in dreams and divinations (besides, the confidence with which he repeated it, and the difficulty to make him forget the arrogant conceit and opinionated pride he had of himself, seem to evince it was some impulse of a spirit), since they had ceased long ago. However the vision came, must certain it is, that his father was exceedingly troubled This incident in Cromwell's youth was not forgotten in his obscurity to be remembered only in his eminence ; for Clarendon distinctly tells us that " it was generally spoken of, even from the beginning of the troubles, and when he was not in a posture that promised such exaltation." In the height of his glory, we have also good authority for saying, Cromwell himself mentioned it often ; and when the farce of deliberation took place on the offer of the crown to the Protector, it is remarked by Lord Clarendon, that " they who were very near to him said, that in this perplexity he revolved his former dream or apparition, that had first in- formed and promised him the high fortune to which he was already arrived, and which was generally spoken of, even from the beginning of the troubles, and when he was not in a pos- ture that promised such exaltation ; and that he then observed that it had only declared that he should be the greatest man in England, and that he should be near to be king, which seemed to imply that he should be only near, and never actually attain, the crown." Another incident, not, perhaps, unconnected with the foregoing, and as singular, if less aw- ful, connected the childhood of Cromwell with the mighty future that awaited it. I shall de- tail it in the words of the Royalist Heath,* be- cause, of the many accounts that exist of this happily undisputed anecdote, they appear to be the most characteristic. " Now," observes that writer, " to confirm a royal humour the more in his ambitious and vain-glorious brain, it hap- pened (as it was then generally the custome in all great free-schools) that a play called ' The Five Senses' was to be acted by the schollars of this school,t and Oliver Cromwell, as a con- fident youth, was named to act the part of Tac- tus, the sense of feeling ; in the personation of which, as he came out of the tyring-room upon the stage, his head encircled with a chap- let of lawrel, he stumbled at a crown, pur- posely laid there, which, stooping down, he took up, and crowned himself therewithal, adding, beyond his cue, some majestical mighty words ; and with this passage the event of his life held good analogy and proportion, when he changed the lawrel of his victories (in the late unnatu- ral war) to all the power, authority, and splen- dour that can be imagined within the compass of a crown." 'The extemporization of the " mighty majes- tical words" is an addition of the zealous nar- rator : the reader will observe, when the scene is before him, that the exact speeches of Tac- tus are mighty and majestical enough to effect the strange coincidences of the story without other aid. The comedy is well known to the lovers of old English dramatic literature by the at it ; and having angerly rebuked him for the vanity, idle- ness, and impudence thereof, and seeing him yet persist in tha same presumption, caused Dr. Beard to whip him for it ; which was done to no more purpose than the rest of his chastisements, his scholar growing insolent and incorrigible from those results and suasions within him, to which all other dictates and instructions were useless, and as a dead letter." * The author of the Flagellum, which I have already quoted the first biographer of Cromwell after the Restora- tion. He was, I believe, the son of Charles l.'s cutler, an exiled Loyalist, and was, moreover, a needy scribe, who wrote pamphlets of all sorts to order, and corrected manu- scripts for a maintenance. t Huntingdon Free-school, where Oliver then was. OLIVER CROMWELL. 397 name of Lingua, as a highly ingenious and pleasant work, with more than the usual share of that strong good sense which distinguishes its otherwise fantastic author, Anthony Brew- er.* It is in the nature of an allegory, cele- brating the contention of the five senses for the crown of superiority, and discussing the pretensions of Lingua, or the tongue, to be ad- mitted as a sixth sense ; ending, as far as the latter is concerned, with the allotment of " the sense of speaking" to women only. Now let the reader imagine little Master Oli- ver Cromwell entering, " his head encircled with a chaplet of lawrel," and gazing up so high above him as to be utterly unconscious of the plotter at his side, and, till he stumbles on it, of the crown at his feet. "TACTUS. The blushing childhood of the cheerful morn Is almost grown a youth, and overclimbs Yonder gilt eastern hills, about which time Gustus most earnestly importuned me To meet him hereabouts ; what cause I know not. MENDACIO. You shall do shortly, to your cost, I hope. TACT. Sure, by the sun, it should be nine o'clock ! MEN. What a star-gazer ! will you ne'er look down 1 TACT. Clear is the sun, and the blue firma- Methinks the heavens do smile [ ment : [TACTUS sncezeth. MEN. At thy mishap, To look so high, and stumble in a trap ! [TACTUS stumbleth at the robe and crown. TACT. High thoughts have slippery feet ; I had wellnigh fallen. MEN. Well doth he fall that riseth with a fall. TACT. What's this 1 MEN. ! are you taken ? 'tis in vain to strive. TACT. How now ! MEN. You'll be so entangled straight TACT. A crown ! MEN. that it will be hard TACT. And a robe ! MEN. to loose yourself! TACT. A crown and robe ! * It contains, among other striking things, that fine enu- neration of the characteristics of different languages ''The Chaldee wise, the Arabian physical," &c. given in Charles Lamb's Specimens, and also the following masterly discrimination of Tragedy and Comedy in all their orna- ments and uses, which the reader will not object to my quoting : " These two, my lord, Comedies and Tragedies, My fellows both, both twins, but so alike As birth to death, wedding to funeral. For this that rears himself in buskins quaint Is pleasant at the first, proud in the midst, Stately in all, and bitter death at end. That in the pumps doth frown at first acquaintance, Trouble in the midst, but at the end concludes, Closing up all with a sweet catastrophe. This grave and sad, distain'd with brinish tears: That light and quick, with wrinkled laughter painted. This deals with nobles, kings, and emperors, Full of great hopes, great fears, great enterprises : This other trades with men of mean condition, His projects small, small hopes, and dangers little. This gorgeous, broider'd with rich sentences : That fair arid purllrd round with merriments. Both vice detect and virtue beautify, Uy being death's mirror, and life's looking-glass." The comedy was first acted, we learn from the preface to its first impression, at Cambridge, and next at this Hunt- ingdon Free-school. MEN. It had been fitter for you to have found a fool's coat and a bauble hey ! hey ! TACT. Jupiter ! Jupiter ! how came this here ! MEN. O ! sir, Jupiter is making thunder ; he hears you not ; here's one knows better. TACT. 'Tis wond'rous rich : ha ! but sure it is not so : ho ! Do I not sleep, and dream of this good luck, ha 1 No, I am awake, and feel it now. Whose should it be 1 [He takes it up. MEN. Set up a si quis for it. TACT. Mercury! all's mine own ; here's none to cry half's mine. MEN. When I am gone. [Exit. TACTUS, alone, soliloquizeth. TACT. Tactus, thy sneezing somewhat did Was ever man so fortunate as I? [portend. To break his shins at such a stumbling-block ! Roses and bays pack hence : this crown and My brows and body circles and invests ! [robe How gallantly it fits me ! sure the slave Measured my head that wrought this coronet. They lie that say complexions cannot change ; My blood's ennobled, and I am transformed Unto the sacred temper of a king. Methinks I hear my noble parasites Styling me Caesar or great Alexander, Licking my feet, and wond'ring where I got This precious ointment. How my pace is mended! How princely do I speak ! How sharp I threaten ! Peasants, I'll curb your headstrong impudence, And make you tremble when the Lion roars. Ye earth-bred worms ! for a looking-glass ! Poets will write whole volumes of this change : Where's my attendants 1 Come hither, sirrahs, Or by the wings of Hermes " [quickly, It is not difficult to picture to the imagination the strut of democratic contempt with which the reckless young actor delivered some of these lines : " How my pace is mended ! How princely do I speak ! How sharp I threaten !" The whole scene is curious, and was, no doubt, remembered with emotion in after years, when state had indeed seemed to ennoble blood ; when epithets of Caesar or Alexander were as nothing in the mouths of parasites ; when the clownish soldier had been mended into the comely prince ; and the voice that sounded sharp and untunable through the House of Commons in 1640, sent forth accents at White- hall, some very few years later, of the sweet- est grace and majesty. Such scanty records as may be now collected of young Cromwell's school-days realize what it does not tax the imagination to receive as a not unfair impression of them. He was active and resolute ; capable of tremendous study, but by no means always inclined to it ; with a vast quantity of youthful energy, which explo- ded in vast varieties of youthful mischief; and, finally, not at all improved by an unlimited sys- tem of flogging adopted by his schoolmaster. How easily, in such cases, are the lessons of tyranny taught ; and, when they have failed to subdue, how long and bitterly remembered ! Dr. Beard, then at the head of the Huntingdon free-school, had made himself notorious for his severity,* even in that age of barbarous disci- * The frontispiece to a well-known book of the time, " The Theatre of God's Judgments," is said to be a portrait 398 BRITISH STATESMEN. pline ; and in young Cromwell he seems to have found a favourite object for its exercise. A biographer, already quoted, describes these school-days with characteristic force ; and, re- membering the writer's prejudice, we have lit- tle difficulty in separating false from true. " From ABC discipline," he says, " and the slighted governance of a mistress, his father re- moved him to the tuition of Dr. Beard, school- master of the free-school of that town, where his book began to persecute him, and learning to commence his great and irreconcilable ene- my ; for his master, honestly and severely ob- serving that and others his faults (which, like weeds, sprung out of his rank and uncultivable nature), did, by correction, hope to better his manners, and with a diligent hand and careful eye, to hinder the thick growth of those vices which were so predominant and visible in him. Yet, though herein he trespassed upon that re- spect and lenity due and usual to children of his birth and quality, he prevailed nothing against his obstinate and perverse inclination. The learning and civility he had, coming upon him like Jits of enlhusiasme, now a hard student for a week or two, and then a truant or otioso for twice as many months- of no settled constancy. " Amongst the rest of those ill qualities," continues this impartial biographer, " which fructuated in him at this age, he was very noto- rious for robbing of orchards ; a puerile crime and an ordinary trespass, but grown so scan- dalous and injurious by the frequent spoyles and damages of trees, breaking of hedges and inclosures, committed by this apple-dragon, that many solemn complaints were made, both to his father and master, for redress thereof, which missed not their satisfaction and expiation out of his hide ; on which so much pains were lost that that very offence ripened in him after- wards to the throwing down of all boundaries of law or conscience. From this he passed into another more manly theft, the robbing of dove-houses, stealing the young pidgeons, and eat- ing and merchandizing of them, and that so pub- liquely, that he became dreadfully suspect to all the adjacent country." Nor are his offences of youth limited by charges of this kind. Other gross imputations against his good taste and refinement such as the boy-days of Louis XIV. were not altogether free from received general acceptation before his eminence, and were not altogether contra- dicted by his occasional practices after it. The diligent Mr. Noble thus supplies one of those stories from various writers : " Sir Oliver was a worthy knight, loved hospitality, and always kept up old customs. Accordingly, at Christ- mas, his doors were thrown open to all, who were not only feasted, but entertained with music, dancing, and the usual sports of the age and place. Among the relations and friends of Sir Oliver came his nephew and godson, by invitation, to partake of the festivity of one of those seasons; but he so far forgot himself, that, to humour a depraved taste, he besmear- ed his clothes and gloves with the most nau- seous filth, and accosts the Master of Misrule in the frequent turnings of a frisking dance, as of this pain-inflicting pedagogue. It represents him with rod in his hand, two scholars standing behind, aud As in Prtescnti issuing from his mouth. well as every other person that came in his way, so that the company could scarce bear the room. The Master of Misrule, discovering that our young Oliver was the offender, seized, and ordered him to undergo a severe ducking in a pond adjoining to the house ; Sir Oliver, his uncle, permitting the sentence to be carried into full execution, as a punishment for his dirty jehaviour. Perhaps I ought to apologize for relating so filthy a tale ; but, as this was the occasion of Oliver's losing his uncle's good opinion, I thought its particular relation could not be dispensed with."* There is possibly great exaggeration in the story, but, in after years, the Protector's turn for pleasantry was now and then oddly developed, as we shall have occasion to show ; and what, in those youthful days, might have equally deserved a ducking in a horsepond on a cold Christmas night, was received as the greatest favour and condescension by ladies of birth and breeding. From the grammar-school of Huntingdon, on the 23d of April, 1616, when Cromwell was within two days of completing his seventeenth year, he was entered a fellow-commoner of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, t and seems to have carried all his school propensities, in the most lively and flourishing state, along with him to the University. "In his youth," says Sir William Dugdale, " he was for some time bred up in Cambridge, where he made no pro- ficiency in any kind of learning ; but then and afterwards sorting himself with drinking com- panions, and the under sort of people (being of a rough and blustering disposition), he had the name of a ROYSTER amongst most that knew him." This is borne out by Heath, who ac- companies it with other details. "The rela- tion of a father," he observes, " and one so stcrne and strict an examiner of him (he being in his nature of a difficult disposition and great * The learned Dr. Bates, who attended the Protector in his last illness, has given his authority to this incident (Elenchi. Mot., pars, prima). And Heath, in his " Flagel- lum," relates it thus : " By these lewd actions he had so alienated the affections of his uncle aud godfather Sir Oli- ver Cromwell, that he could not endure the sight of him, having, in his own presence, in the great hall of his house, where he magnificently treated King James at his assump- tion to the crown of England, in a Christmas time (which was always highly observed by him by feasting and keeping open house), played this unhandsome and unseemly trick or frolick, with the relation of which the reader will be pleased to indulge me, because I have seen it raccounted by a wor- thy and learned hand. It was Sir Oliver's custome in that festival to entertain in his house a Master of Misrule, or the Revels, to make mirth for the guests, and to direct the dances and the music, and generally all manner of sports and gambols ; this fellow Cromwell, having besmeared his own clothes and hands with surreverence, accosts in the midst of a frolicking dance, and so grimed him and others upon every turn, that such a stink was raised, that the spectators could hardly endure the room ; whereupon the said Master of Misrule, perceiving the matter, caused him to be laid hold on, and by his command to be thrown into a pond adjoyning to the house, and there to be sous'd over head and ears, and rinced of that filth and pollution sticking to him ; which was accordingly executed, Sir Oliver suffer- ing his nephew to undergo the punishment of his unman- nerly folly." t "The following is an extract from the register of Sidney Sussex: "A festo Anunciationis, 1616. Oliverius Crom- well Huntingdonieusis admissus ad commeatum Sociorum Apriliovicessimotertio; Tutore Mr". Ricardo Huwlett." Be- tween this entry, however, and the next, it is amusing to ob- serve that there is crowded in, in a smaller hand or letter, the underwritten character. "Hicfuitgrandis ille impostor, carnifex perditissimus, <jui pientissirao rege Carolo Pnefa- ria csede sublato, ipsum usurpavit thronum, et tria regna, per 5 ferme annorum spatium, sub protectoris nomine iudo- rnita tyrannide vexavit." OLIVER CROMWELL. 399 spirit, and one that would have due distances ob- served towards him from all persons, which begat him reverence from the country people), kept him in some awe and subjection till his trans- lation to Cambridge, where he was placed in Sidney College, more to satisfy his father's cu- riosity and desire than out of any hopes of com- pleating him in his studies, which never reach- ed any good knowledge of the Latine tongue. During his short residence here, where he was more famous for his exercises in the fields than in the schools (in which he never had the hon- our of, because no worth and merit to, a de- gree), being one of the chief match-makers and players at foot-ball, cudgells, or any other boys- terous sport or game, his father, Mr. Robert Cromwell, died, leaving him to the scope of his own inordinate and irregular will, swayed by the bent of very violent and strong pas- sions." It is significant of much to discover, in these notices of Cromwell's boyish irreg- ularities, that his father was as strict and stern to the lad as his mother was affectionate and indulging.* There is no reason to question the irregular- ities themselves. They are such as thousands committed even in those times, and tens of thousands have committed since, whom obscu- rity in after life has dismissed, with all their vices and all their virtues, to a happy oblivion. It is worth while to observe, however, that the supposition of Cromwell's having left the Uni- versity only as wise, in point of learning, as he went there, is by no means so credible. Cromwell's learning in after years, which there is no reason to doubt he acquired at this time, was of a fair average character. His sin- cere respect for men of greater learning, and his anxious desire to elevate and promote the claims of literature at all times, has never been questioned save by the meanest and least scru- pulous of his detractors. A good knowledge of Latin it is quite certain he possessed, though Bishop Burnet tells us of it with a sneer. " He had no foreign language but the little Latin that stuck to him from his education, which he spoke very vitiously and scantily." The most learn- ed of the ambassadors he received during the Protectorate do not, on the other hand, seem to have discovered these defects in his Latin. Beveringe writes to Jongstall at the Hague,f that " last Saturday I had a discourse with his Excellency Cromwell above two hours, without any body being present with us. His excel- lency spoke his own language so distinctly that I could answer him. He (Cromwell) answered again in Latin." In various incidents of a sim- ilar sort, related in the records of the Common- wealth, it is difficult to discover any grounds of truth for Burnet's reproach ; and it is worth adding, that the Royalist friend of Waller, who prefixed a life of the poet to the first edition of his works, takes occasion to tell his readers that " Cromwell loved, or affected to love, men * Heath begins his narrative with a statement that " from his infancy to his childhood he was of a cross and peevish disposition, which being humoured by the fondness of his mother, made that rough and intractable temper more robust and outrageous in his juvenile years." [It may be well to say that Heath was his first biographer, who has been gen- erally copied as an authority, and the discreditable stories affecting his early life are introduced by him. C.] t 12th of August, 1653. of wit : Mr. Waller frequently waited on him. being his kinsman ; and, as he often declared to me, observed him to be very well read in the Greek and Roman story."* Other opportuni- ties may occur for adverting to this subject ; but there exists, in one of the ambassadorial addresses to Cromwell, a passage of eloquence bearing upon it, and now known to have pro- ceeded from Milton's hand, which seems to me to decide the question completely, and to say all that need be said concerning it in the finest possible manner. Don Juan Roderiguez de SaaMeneses, Con- de de Penaguaia, addressed to Cromwell in Lat- in an idea of a perfect hero Milton having dis- charged himself of a portion of his ever-lofty admiration of Cromwell by composing it at the request of that illustrious foreigner. Having named various imaginary qualities, he proceed- ed thus : " To these I added a study of letters, by which nature should be cultivated, the mind polished and subdued, and reason sharpened ; yet this, in a person instructed for the Com- monwealth, and trained up for political affairs, / wished might be moderate; for as the art of governing a commonwealth, for the most part, is active and practical, it should rather consist of counsel and prudence than of speculative and theoretical knowledge and wisdom. It is ne- cessary, therefore, for him who is brought up to the art of ruling and commanding, to be tin- ged indeed with a study of letters, which may rea- sonably inform him, and banish ignorance and unskilfulness from his mind, yet not to be so deeply tutored as to comprehend them absolute- ly and exactly in every point ; for I know not by what means this thorough knowledge of the sciences, at the same time that it sharpens the intellect, dulls the soul, and interrupts its close attention to the administration of public affairs : perhaps because it wastes the spirits necessa- ry for action, and, by gradually consuming them, causes the mind, in proportion as it is deprived of them, to grow languid. These applications of the wit and mind are tender things ; they do not fancy the sun and the crowd, but delight in shade and retirement ; noise and business dis- turb them ; they shrink up at the horror of arms, and are even affrighted at the bawling of the forum. Like noble and delicate maidens, they * It is certain, too, that he had made it his care in life to become master of a noble library. An authority exists for saying this than which no better could be urged in the life of the famous and most learned Dr. Manton. " When Cromwell took on him the Protectorship, in the year 1653, the very morning the ceremony was to be performed, a mes- senger came to Dr. Manton to acquaint him that he must immediately come to Whitehall : th doctor asked him the occasion ; he told him he should know that when he came there. The Protector himself, without any previous no- tice, told him what he was to do, i. e., to pray upon that occasion. The doctor laboured all he could to be excused, and told him it was a work of that nature which required some time to consider arid prepare for it. The Protector replied that he knew he was not at a loss to perform the service he expected from him, and opening his study door, put him in with his hand, and bid him consider there, which was not above half an hour. The doctor employed that time in looking over his books, which he said was a noble collection." Manton, as Dr. Harris emphatically says, teat a judge. Let us add here, that in his days of power, Crom- well showed an invariable regard and respect for the Alma Hater of his boyhood. We find an order of his, dated July 1, 1652, directed to all officers and soldiers under his com- mand, forbidding them to quarter any officer or soldier in any of the colleges, halls, or other houses belonging to Cam- bridge University, or to offer any injury or violence to any of the students, or members of it ; and this at their peril. 400 BRITISH STATESMEN. must rather be kept safe at home than brought forth into engagements and perils ; wherefore the most celebrated generals of antiquity have so addicted themselves to the instructions of their preceptors, as rather to adorn than to pro- fess those studies ; they have applied themselves just so much to them as might serve to nourish, not to overwhelm, their minds. It was this course that the hero Achilles held under Chiron and Phoenix ; Alexander under Aristotle ; Epam- inondas under Lysias ; Scipio under Pancetius. And though Pericles among the Greeks, and Julius Caesar among the Romans, may have passed for scholars, yet certainly their praise (whereof both obtained a very great share) is comprised chiefly in their eloquence, which con- sists more in force and nature than in art and precept. For this reason it is delivered down to us, that the one thundered when he spoke, and that the other pronounced everything with the same spirit he fought with. You, O most excellent Cromwell ! have applied your mind to the study of letters in this manner, copying ex- actly what I had observed in these and other famous captains of antiquity. You have gath- ered up the literary dust at Cambridge, without deepening the tracks of learning. You have gar- nished your understanding with those arts which become a liberal nature ; you have rub- bed off the rust of your mind ; you have sharp- ened the edge of your wit ; you have gained such a character as not to be reckoned an ill schol- ar, and fitted yourself, by the rudiments of the sciences, to manage the highest offices of the Commonwealth. You have given us, in fact, such a specimen of your capacity, that you may make it appear, if you were disposed to go on in the pursuit of learning, how very able you are to equal the greatest masters ; just as Ju- lius Caesar did, whose steps you so nearly tread in, according to the testimony of Cicero him- self, that prince in every kind of learning. And in conducting the Commonwealth, you have chose to imitate that Caesar rather than Cicero, by preferring the harsh, incessant, and labori- ous employment of a general, to the delicate and sedentary office of a senator. It did not be- come that hand to wax soft in literary case, which was to be inured to the use of arms, and hardened with asperity ; that right hand to be wrapped up in down among the nocturnal birds of Athens, by which thunderbolts were soon after to be hurled among the eagles which emulate the sun." In June, 1617, Robert Cromwell died, and it is probable, since his widow found herself obliged to continue the brewery after his de- cease, that a consideration of family circum- stances (for the disagreement with Sir Oliver appears to have still continued) withdrew her son from the University immediately after- ward. It is certain that, before half his college term had expired, he returned to Huntingdon, and was passed from thence to London, where, in accordance with the almost universal prac- tice with young men of any family in that age, he was entered as a member of Lincoln's Inn.* * His name does not appear now in the books of that so- ciety, but his having entered of it was a fact notorious to his contemporaries, and no doubt, therefore, the name was erased in the new and base-born loyalties of the Restoration. Anthony Wood tells us distinctly, "his father dying while he was at Cambridge, he was taken home and sent to Lin- coln's Inn to study the common law ; but making nothing But, if the general tradition is trustworthy, he now utterly rejected every habit of study ; car- ried his practices of school and college to the very highest pitch of dissolute recklessness ; and, after some little time, returned to Hunting- don a finished London rake, with a strong ten- dency in his rakishness to the coarse and the low. Heath's account of this cannot possibly be omitted. " It was not long after his father's death ere Oliver, weary of the Muses, and that strict course of life (though he gave latitude enough to it in his wild salleys and flyings out), abandoned the University, and returned home, saluted with the name of young Mr. Cromwell, now in the room and place of his father ; which how he became, his uncontrouled debaucheries did publickly declare. For drinking, wenching, and the like outrages of licentious youth, none so inflamed as this young Tarquin, who would not be contraried in his lust, in the very strain and to the excess of that regal ravisher. . . . These pranks made his mother advise with her- selfe and his friends what she should do with him, to remove the scandal which had been cast upon the family by his means ; and therefore it was concluded to send him to one of the inns of court, under pretence of his studying the laws, where, among the mass of people in Lon- don, and frequency of vices of all sorts, his might pass in the throng without that particu- lar neer reflection upon his relations, and at worst the infamy should stick only on himself. . . . Lincoln's Inn was the place pitched upon, and thither Mr. Cromwell, in a suitable garb to his fortunes, was sent, where but for a little while he continued ; for the nature of the place, and the studies there, were so far regretful be- yond all his tedious apprentiship to the more facile academick sciences, that he had a kind of antipathy to his company and converse there, and so spent his time in an inward spight, which for that space superseded the enormous extravagancy of former vitiousness his vices having a certain kind of intermission, success- ion, or transmigration, like a compleat revolu- tion of wickedness into one another, so that few of his feats were practised here. And it is some kind of good luck for that honourable society that he hath left so small and so innocent a me- morial of his membership therein. . . . His next traverse was back again into the country to his mother, and there he fell to his old trade, and frequented his old haunts, consumed his mon- ey in tipling, and then run on score per force. In his drink he used to be so quarrelsome as few (unless as mad as himself) durst keep him company. His chief weapon, in which he de- lighted, and at which he fought several times with tinkers, pedlers, and the like (who most an end go armed therewith), was a quarter- staff, in which he was so skilful that seldom did any overmatch him. A boysterous discipline and rudiment of his martial skill and valour, which with so much fierceness he manifested after- ward in the ensuing war ! . . . These and the like strange, wild, and dishonest actions made him everywhere a shame or a terrour, insomuch that the alewivcs of Huntingdon and other places, of it, he was sent for home by his mother, became a debau- chee, and a boisterous and rude fellow." This is corrobo- rated, too, by almost every contemporaneous record. II. 101 OLIVER CROMWELL. 401 when they saw him a coming, would use to cry ovt to one another, ' Here comes young Cromwell ; shut tip your dores :' for he made it no punctilio to invite his roysters to a barrel of drink, and give it them at the charge of his host, and in satis- faction thereof either beat him, or break his windows, if he offered any shew, or gave any look or sign of refusal or discontent. . . . His lustful wantonnesses were no less predominant than the other unruly appetites of his mind, it being now his rude custom to seize upon all women he met in his way on the road, and per- force ravish a kiss, or some lewder satisfaction from them ; and if any resistance were made by their company, then to vindicate and allay this violence and heat of his blood with the let- ting out of theirs, whose defence of their friend's honour and chastity innocently ingaged them. And the same riots was he guilty of against any who would not give him the way, so that he was a rebel in manners long before he was a Belial in policy. ... I am loath to be too large in such particulars, which may render me sus- pect of belying him, out of prejudice or re- venge ; but I have heard it confirmed so often from knowing persons, and the stories made use of by his party, who did thereby magnify his conversion, making him thus dear and pre- cious unto God, that I was obliged to mention them. " These coarse details are given here in the persuasion that they may represent, making al- lowance for the natural exaggeration of the writer, the wild course and current of Crom- well's irregular youth a youth how common in that age, how common in every age, but how seldom followed by those wonderful for- tunes which have burned into these records of this life things that are held of no account in the lesser fortunes of meaner men, yet are in truth less pardonable in them than here, where they must be taken to express some portion of that amazing energy of temperament which is afterward destined to force out for itself a no- bler outlet on a grander theatre of action. Nor will the reflecting reader hold that even such experiences, so wild and so unworthy, were al- together without their use in the after-chances of a career like Cromwell's, wherein power was to be achieved by practising upon the weak- ness, no less than by guiding the strength, of all classes of the humanity around him. It is said of him by a professed panegyrist, who sought to explain, and not unsuccessfully, the sort of life he led at this time in London, that " he came to Lincoln's Inn, where he associa- ted himself with those of the best rank and quality, and the most ingenious persons ; for though he were of a nature not adverse to study and contemplation, yet he seemed rather addicted to conversation, and the reading of men and their several tempers, than to a continual poring upon authors."* Men of a large soul have no need reader. For instance, M. Gregorio Leti makes Cromwell prodigy of learning at the University, exceedingly admired by the bishops, a great favourite with King James. H then sends him over to France upon hit travels, gives us EBB of all those studies that are necessary to the education of other men. Nature offers herself to be studied by them, without the spectacles of books to read her by. They have only to look inward, as Dryden finely says, and they will observe her, in all her strength and all her weakness, there. There is only one incident in these early and irregular practices which, if true, leaves a se- rious stain on that portion of the life of Crom- well. Sir William Dugdale originated it in his " Short View of the Late Troubles,"* where we find this remark : " By his exorbitances, at last he so wasted his patrimony, that, having attempted his uncle Steward t for a supply of his wants, and finding that on a smooth way of application to him he could not prevail, he endeavoured, by colour of law, to lay hold of his estate, representing him as a person not able to govern it. But therein he failed." The dil- igent researches of Mr. Noble, it must be ad- mitted, seem to confirm this serious charge, while they are more explicit in detailing the grounds of it. From them it would seem that, soon after his return to Huntingdon from Lon- don, he " endeavoured to reinstate his fortune by annexing the estate of his maternal uncle, Sir Thomas Steward, to his own, even in the lifetime of Sir Thomas. It was not unlikely that he had asked of that gentleman a liberal supply, and ' finding that by a smooth way of application to him he could not prevail, he en- deavoured to lay hold of his estate, representing him as a person not able to govern it ;' which he did by petitioning his majesty to grant him a commission of lunacy ; but the king dismissed the petition as ill founded." With a strong re- luctance to entertain this story, I am neverthe- less bound to subjoin what strikes me to be farther evidence in support of it evidence which some may even take to be incontrovert- ible. Hacket, in his life of Archbishop Will- iams (Scrinia Reserata), gives it as an eminent proof of that wily bishop's penetration, that, at the very outset of Cromwell's career, he thor- oughly detected his character. In a council held in 1645, Hacket represents Williams thus speaking of Cromwell to the king: "I knew him at Buckden, but never knew his religion, being a common spokesman for sectaries, and maintaining their part with stubbornness. He never discoursed as if he were pleased with your majesty and your officers, and, indeed, he loves none that are more than his equals. Your majesty did him but justice in refusing his petition against Sir Thomas Steward of the Isle of Ely; but he takes them all for his enemies particular account of his gallantries, introduces him to an a'udience of the French king, and an intimacy with Cardinal Richelieu. Upon his return he assures us that Cromwell; was highly in the good graces of Dr. Williams, bishop of Lincoln, to whom he says he was nearly related ; and, what is still more extraordinary than all this, Mr. Leti lets us into the secret that the bishop had an amour with Crom- well's wife ; and in the same ingenious style, and with equally scrupulous attention to truth, he perseveres through the whole work, assuring us that he wrote it during his stay in England, and that he took care to be perfectly well informed as to everything which he relates. It is bare justice to Mr. Leti, however, to add, that he names the Earl of Anglesea, the Earl of Aylesbury, and several other per- sons of distinction, as the authors of the various matters he acquaints us with, and it is just possible that' they were the somewhat stupid but successful jokes of those distinguished, persons. * P. 459. t See Appendix.A, 402 BRITISH STATESMEN. that would not let him undo his best friend, and, above all that live, I think him the most mindful of an injury. He talks openly that it is fit some one should act more vigorously against your forces, and bring your person into the power of the Parliament. He hates the Earl of Essex, because he says he is but half an enemy to your majesty, and has done you more favour than harm. His fortunes are bro- ken, that it is impossible for him to subsist (much less satisfy his ambition) but by your majesty's bounty, or by the ruin of us all in one common confusion. In short, every beast has some evil properties, but Cromwell has the properties of all evil beasts." One consideration remains, involving a dif- ferent and less injurious view of the charge it- self. It is indisputable that this Sir Thomas Steward, at his death, which occurred not many years afterward, left the whole of his fortune to his nephew to the young man at whose hands he had suffered so recently such a cruel and insulting wrong. Is it possible to imagine that intercession on the part of rela- tives, which is alleged to have brought this re- sult about, would have sufficed in any way to that end, if the old man had not now, in reality, proved somewhat wavering in his wits. Giv- ing Oliver Cromwell the advantage (to which he is fairly entitled) of the doubt so started, it is surely not difficult to imagine that, when he petitioned the king to the effect stated by Dug- dale and Noble, and apparently corroborated by Archbishop Williams himself, he may really have believed his kinsman to be labouring un- der the malady alleged. The time now arrived, however, when the wild days were to close, and with them the im- putations they gave birth to ; when higher pur- poses and objects were to wake out of their early sleep in Cromwell's heart, and thence- forth sleep no more ; when his fellow-towns- men were to ask with wonder among each other how such a reformation could have risen, " Since his addiction was to courses vain ; His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow ; His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports ; And never noted in him any study, Any retirement, any sequestration From open haunts :" and possibly some one, more intelligent and ac- complished than the rest, was to answer in that counter-quotation from the prince of poets and philosophers, whose death should just then iiave plunged the world in mourning, if the world had known his value : " The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality : And so this man obscured his contemplation Under the veil of wildness ; which, no doubt, Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty." "Whereat might the questioner have rejoined, with the strongest confidence that he had in- deed attained in this the secret of Cromwell's mental progress, " It must be so ; for miracles are ceased." On the 22d of August, 1620, four months af- ter the completion of his twenty-first year, Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier, daugh- ter of Sir James Bourchier, of Felsted, in Es- sex, a kinswoman of the Hampdens, a woman of high spirit, of an ancient and honourable [ family, and whose irreproachable life and unob- i trusive manners should indeed have protected j her from the insults and obloquies of the time, if any thing could have been held sacred from them. The marriage took place at St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate, London ; and three days afterward, we discover from a deed still in ex- istence, Cromwell (described in the document as Oliver Cromwell, alias Williams, of Hun- tingdon, Esq.) entered into a defeasance of stat- ute staple to Thomas Morley, citizen and leath- er-seller, of London, in 4000, conditioned that he should, before the 20th of November following, convey and assure unto Elizabeth his wife, " for the term of her life, for her joint- ure, all that parsonage house of Hartford, with all the glebe lands and tythes," in the county of Huntingdon.* It is interesting to find that, some years afterward, when Cromwell's wants appeared to require it, this amiable and excel- lent woman surrendered this jointure, which, with the fortune she had brought her husband, is reported to have gone in satisfaction of the debts contracted by early extravagance. Nor, through all the wonderful changes she was doomed to experience, did she ever lose the simplicity and modesty of her youth. She is said to have borne what f^w women can pa- tiently bear, with only such complaints as the most sweet and generous nature would give utterance to and in this was more influenced by love than restrained by awe.t Her hus- band's elevation she rather endured than re- joiced in ; for even the stern Ludlow, when telling us that " he (the Protector) removed * See Noble's "Memoirs of the Protectoral House." t I have already ventured to say all that, perhaps, need be said in a question of this kind in my Life of Straffbrd, p. 88, 89, to which the reader is referred ; but one of the notes in Noble's book bears too close a reference to this subject to be omitted here ; and the writer was too candid as well as industrious not to have a right to claim fair at- tention to what he supposes himself to have had reason to believe in a case of this kind. " The Protector Oliver," he says, " though a great devotee, is known to have indulged himself, after he arrived at power, with the company of la- dies, and that not in the most innocent manner. Lady Dy- sert, afterward Duchess of Lauderdale, and Mrs. Lambert, have been frequently given as his mistresses. They were ladies of very different accomplishments ; the former was beautiful, witty, learned, and full of intrigue ; Mrs. Lam- bert employed herself only in praying and singing hymns. It was a court jest, that the Protector's instrument (of gov- ernment) was found under my Lady Lambert's petticoat. His acquaintance with the gay Lady Dysert gave such of- fence to the godly, that he was obliged to decline his visits to her; and it was thought that General Tollemache owed his birth to Oliver; but there could no hurt arise in holding heavenly meditation with Mrs. Lambert. Heath, in his ' Flagellum,' says, Mrs. Lambert was a woman of good birth and good parts, and of pleasing attractions, both for mind and body. There is a history printed of a pretended natu- ral son of the Protector's, but it is too marvellous to be true. Probably, however, Oliver had natural children, one of whom might be Dr. Millington, after whose name, in the register of Strensham, in Worcestershire (the birthplace of the humorous Butler), is, ' Query: was not he a bastard of Oliver Cromwell?' and I am the more inclined to think this true, because in the postscript of a letter from Ursula Hornyhold, dated from London, Dec. 4, 1744, to a gentle- man in the vicinity of that place, is, ' Did you ever hear it said that Dr. Millington was illegitimate? Here has been talk that Dr. Millington was a bastard of Oliver Cromwell.' The scandal it would have given, had the Puritans known of his amours, and the advantages the Cavaliers would have made of it, would be sufficient reasons for his keeping mat- ters of this kind from the eyes of the public. Besides, though her highness was an obedient wife, she was not without spirit and sensibility ; but, though she might know that she had reason to suspect the Protector, we cannot suppose she carried it to such unreasonable lengths as to be jealous of Christina, queen of Sweden, as some pretend." OLIVER CROMWELL. 403 from the Cockpit, which house the Parliament had assigned to him, to take possession of Whitehall, which he assigned to himself," adds, that " his wife seemed at first unwilling to re- move thither, though afterwards she became better satisfied with her grandeur."* This " satisfaction" will, perhaps, be more truly ex- pressed in saying that, while the wife of Crom- well had good sense enough to be contented with an humble station, she had yet spirit and dignity sufficient for the loftiest. " She was, indeed," says an impartial witness, " an ex- cellent housewife, and as capable of descend- ing to the kitchen with propriety as she was of acting in her exalted station with dignity. Cer- tain it is, that she acted a much more prudent part as protectress than Henrietta did as queen, and that she educated her children with as much ability as she governed her family with address. Such a woman would, by a natural transition, have filled a throne." This pleasing picture of a virtuous and able woman's charac- ter seems to me to be completed by the fact her biographer should be proud to subjoin, that she was the only one of the relatives of Crom- well whose kinsmen received no place of profit or emolument under the protectorate of Crom- welLt * " Ludlow's Memoirs." The Royalist writers, I may observe, were so deficient in materials of accusation against her, that they made as much as they could of an alleged plainness of person ; and Cowley, meaning to ridicule this in his " Cutter of Coleman-street," has put the following into Cutter's mouth, as part of his description of his friend Worm : " He would have been my Lady Protectress's poet : he writ once a copy in praise of her beauty ; but her high- ness gave for it but an old half-crown piece in gold, which she had hoarded up before these troubles, and that discour- aged him from any farther applications to court." The portraits of Mrs. Cromwell now in existence give the lie to this, nevertheless, and represent a pretty and comely per- son, with just such an expression on the face as is borne out by her quiet and unoffending character. t The name of Bourchier appears in some of the ap- pointments. Yet, in a MS. of the Suffolk gentry during the usurpation, now existing in the handwriting of Sir John Cullum, is to be found the following entry : " In 1055, Bourchier, Esq., and Bourchier, gent., brothers of Oliver Cromwell's wife, and sons of Sir Ja. Bourchier, knt., in the parish of Whepsted, within about four miles of Bury. Sir John found in the registers these items : ' Mr. James Bour- chier buried the 15th of March, 1656 ; Mr. Henry Young nnd Mrs. Susan Bourchier were married the 8th of April, 1656.' " No doubt, therefore, these were claimants for of- fice, had their sister countenanced the claims. It will not, perhaps, be out of place here to append a sketch of the few incidents in the life of the Protectress, after her great hus- band's death ; what other mention she receives in these pages will be in the ordinary course of my narrative. On the revival of the council of officers after Cromwell's death, they showed themselves not insensible to her merit ; they obliged the Parliament to make a suitable settlement upon her, at a time when the Cromwellian interest was no more. It was grateful in them, and honourable to her. " Perceiv- ing the return of the king," however, Noble tells us, " would take place, she conveyed a great quantity of gold, and some of the best and most portable valuables belonging [as was alleged, but by a fiction of royalty alonej to the royal fam- ily, to a fruiterer's warehouse, near the sign of the Three Cranes, in Thames-street, with an intention to export them out of the kingdom ; but it being discovered, the council, May 16, 1660, ordered persons to view them, who reported that some pictures, and other things belonging to his maj- esty, were found ; the remainder was attached in the cus- tody of Lieutenant-general Cox ; and June 9 following, in- formation was given to the House of Lords that she, her son Richard, and Henry, Lord Herbert, had many deeds, evi- dences, and writings belonging to the Lord-marquis of Wor- cester [whose estates Cromwell had received from Parlia- ment in payment of his military services], all of which they were ordered to deliver up. She had, until about this time, resided at the Cockpit and at Whitehall ; but, leaving these places, she went from London and retired into Wales. Mr. Granger says he was credibly informed that she was a considerable time in Switzerland ; but probably she never Such was the partner for life's journey whom Cromwell had the good fortune to obtain, and from his union with whom his useful life began. He fixed his residence in his native town of Huntingdon, and having reconciled all old differences with his wealthy kinsmen the Barringtons, the Hampdens, his uncle Sir Oli- ver, and all whom his early courses had of- fended he addressed himself to those studies and pursuits which were to pave his way to greatness. Then was seen the same vehemence of tem- per in the rigid duties of life which had so re- cently transported its owner into the extremes of pleasure. Cromwell's house became noto- rious as the refuge of Nonconformist ministers, or of such as suffered in any way for con- science' sake : nor was he content with offer- ing them this refuge merely ; he encouraged th !m to opposition ; he stimulated his fellow- townsmen to support them in it ; he attended the Bishop of Lincoln in person (afterward the famous Archbishop Williams) to press their suits ; he preached for them ; he prayed with them ;* he proclaimed in every place the wrongs they were exposed to, and urged at every sea- son, and by every allowable means, the neces- sity of redress.f was there. Finding that no inquiries were made after her, she returned into England, and found an asylum in the house of her son-in-law, Mr. Claypole, at Norborough, iu Lincolnshire, where she continued unto her death, courting obscurity. She had, as I have before mentioned, had the tithes of Hartford settled upon her: these she gave up. Oliver some years afterward gave her a grant of 2000 per ann. ; but probably she never received any part of it, as it was, I think, issuing out of estates which were given to him by the Parliament, and belonged to the delinquent Loyal- ists, who, at the Restoration, would naturally reclaim what had been illegally and forcibly taken from them. The 8000 per ann., settled upon her by the Parliament, was never paid to her, nor perhaps any part of it ; so that we must suppose she had but trifling means to support herself upon during her widowhood, and that arising chiefly from ! the sale of those valuables that she retained after the Pro- tector's death. She survived her husband seven years ; and, dying at Norborough, was buried in a vault in the chancel of that church, but no memorial whatever is to be found to her memory." * " His house," stys a writer in the " Biographica Britan- i nica," " became the retreat of the persecuted Nonconformist teachers ; and they show a building behind it which, they i say, he erected for a chapel, where many of the disaffected had their religious rites performed, and in which Mr. Crom- well himself sometimes gave them some edifying sermons. From his strenuousness in their cause, he was soon looked upon as the head of that party in the county ; and he often interested himself warmly in their behalf, by attending Dr. Williams, bishop of Lincoln, and importunately desiring some mitigation for such of the Nonconformist preachers as had fallen into trouble, he regarding them as suffering per- secution for conscience' sake." t Having satisfied himself with the venerable divines of the Church, says Heath, " he fell in with some of the pre- ciser sort ; began to show himself at lectures, to entertain such preachers at his house, to countenance that way, and be very zealous in all meetings of such people, which then befjan to be frequent and numerous, and to exercise with them by praying and the like ; to estrange himself from those his benefactors, and at last to appear a publique dissenter from the discipline of the Church of England." The same writer gives, in tho way of a sneer, a noble instance of the truth and sincerity of Cromwell's new way of life. " And now," he says, " he was grown (that is, he pretended to be) so just, and of so scrupulous a conscience, that, having some years before won 30 of one Mr. Gallon at play, meeting him accidentally, he desired him to come home with him, and to receive his money, telling him that he had got it by indirect and unlawful means, and that it would be a sin in him to detain it any longer ; and did really pay the gentle- men the said 30 back again." Mr. Noble, too, in the course of his zealous researches, discovered, in one of the manuscripts submitted to him, a similar anecdote, which he thus relates : " Dr. Hutton, in his MS. book, says that Oli- ver won some money from Mr, Rob. Compton, a genteel lad, 404 BRITISH STATESMEN. Herein was shown, by this extraordinary man, his aptitude for the great claims and questions of the age. Of all the discontents that then muttered at a distance of the coming change ; of all the grievances that were push- ing on the stumbling and shambling govern- ment of the first Stuart to the inevitable preci- pice awaiting it; of all the mighty motives that were likely, while they stirred masses of men to generous suffering and great action, to consolidate in the end one tremendous party, irresistible and unyielding for life or death, the questions of religion and the conscience not only stood the first, but might be said to hold every other within their mighty embrace ; for what the Church was then immortal language has depicted, in describing all that aspired to dignity in her service, from the curate to the bishop, as " Such as for their bellies' sake Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold. Of other care they little reck'ning make, Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast, And shove away the worthy bidden guest. Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook ; or have learn'd aught else the least That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs ! What recks it them ? What need they ? They are sped ; And when they list, their lean and hashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw: The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, But, swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread : Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing said." So great was the influence acquired by Crom- well in his masterly seizure of such grievances as these, that the chiefs of his fellow-towns- men offered to return him for the borough in the next Parliament that should be summoned. The effort was made in 1625, and failed ; but in 1628 Oliver Cromwell went up to Westmin- ster, and took his seat in the third Parliament of Charles I., as member for the borough of Huntingdon.* A question has been raised as to the nature of his employment at Huntingdon in the inter- val after his marriage, since there is little doubt that his own private resources were insuffi- cient to his support. It scarcely admits of a doubt, as it seems to me, that he took an active share in the business of his mother's brewery. The universal attempts of the Royalists of his day, both before and after the usurpation, to cast ridicule upon his having once followed son of a draper, or some such trade, in London ; and it be- ing by unfair play, he was determined to repay it him, which he did most opportunely, for the messenger founc him at an ordinary, surrounded by bailiffs, so that he couk not venture to leave the room ; but he satisfied the debt which was 20, and took away with him 100." Sir Philij Warwick, too, distinctly tells us that " he used a gooc method upon his conversion, for he declared he was ready to make restitution unto any man who would accuse him or whom he could accuse himself to have wronged. To his honour I speak this, for I think the public acknowledgments men make of the public evils they have done to be the mosf glorious trophies they can have assigned to them." * An impression has prevailed that he sat in the 1625 Parliament as alleged by various writers, and even by the plodding and curious Mr. Noble. A friend of one of his la ter biographers, however, Dr. Russell, supplies the follow ing decisive note on this point : " A few years since there was 8 disputed election case in the borough, which was car ried to a committee of the House, and it became necessary that authenticated copies of the returns should be procure from the originals in the town. I examined these, and foun that Cromwell sat only once for Huntingdon, namely, in the third Parliament of Charles I., as stated above. In the firs Parliament of that monarch, the former members, Sir Hear) St. John and Sir Henry Mainwaring, were returned." he occupation of a brewer,* are surely enough o raise a strong presumpton of the fact (how- 3ver justly the ridicule may be despised), in he absence of any counter statement on the )art of his friends or dependants. And there s a passage in Milton's noble panegyric of him, applying to a somewhat later period, which is not without a certain strong bearing on the [uestion : " Is matura jam atque firmata aetate, [uam et privatus traduxit, nulla re magis quam religionis cultu purioris, et integritate vjtae cog- nitus, domi in occulto CREVERAT ; et ad summa quaeque tempora fiduciam Deo fretam et ingen- em animum tacito pectore aluerat." " Being now arrived to a ripe and mature age, all which time he spent as a private person, noted for nothing so much as the culture of pure religion and an integrity of life, he was GROWN rich at home ; and enlarging his hopes with reliance in 3od for any the most exalted times, he nursed lis great soul in silence." The expression grown rich," in this magnificent passage, seems undoubtedly to warrant the inference that it was by some pursuit he had thus grown rich, for it is well ascertained that at that time tie had found out no easier method of achieving wealth or substance, t A family, too, had meanwhile grown up around him. On the 13th of October, 1621, fourteen months after his marriage, his first son was baptized at St. John's Church, in Hun- tingdon. He was named Robert, after his grandfather, but died in his childhood. A sec- ond son, named Oliver, was baptized in the same church on the 6th of February, 1623, and subsequently received his education at the Fel- sted free grammar-school, in Essex, where he had been placed by means of the influence of his maternal grandfather (Sir James Bourchier) * See Appendix C. A thousand other instances might be given as in Hudibras, where the knight's dagger is spoken of: " It had been 'prentice to a brewer. Where this and more it did endure , But left the trade, as many more Have lately done on the same score." Again, in a description of the House of Commons " 'Tis Noll's old brewhouse now, I swear, The speaker's but his skinker. Their members are like th' council of war, Carmen, pedlers, tinkers." And in another description of the Protector's court . " Who, fickler than the city ruff, Can change his brewer's coat to buff, His dray-cart to a coach, the beast Into two Flanders mares at least : Nay, hath the art to murder kings, Like David, only with his slings." And, finally, for it is unnecessary to give more, in a song called " The Sale of Religious Household Stuff:" " And here are Old Noll's brewing vessels, And here are his dray and his slings." With prose writers such allusions are scarcely less abun- dant. Walker, who wrote the " History of Independency," and prophesied that Cromwell (then lieutenant-general to Fairfax) would assume the supreme sway, added to his prediction, " Then let all true faints and subjects cry out with me, ' God save King Oliver and his brewing vessels.'" And, speaking of Harry Parker, under the name of Ob- servator, he notices his return from Hamborough, and that " he is highly preferred to be a brewer's clerk (alias secre- tary to Cromwell)." Cowley's " Cutter of Coleman-street" has also an allusion to the business of Cromwell, when Worm, in derision of Cutter's learning, is made to ask, " What parts hast thou ? Hast thou scholarship enough to make a brewer's clerk ?" t See, for an argument in favour of this, Mr. Thomas Cromwell's " Lifa and Times of Oliver Cromwell," p. 44. OLIVER CROMWELL. 405 with the Earl of Warwick. At the breaking out of .the civil war, this boy, then nineteen, procured a commission by his father's interest, and, when the strife had wellnigh closed, fell in battle. His name, in touching allusion to that death, was one of the last words that rose to the Lord Protector's lips in this world.* The first daughter born to Cromwell was baptized at St. John's, in Huntingdon, on the 5th of August, 1624. She will find subsequent mention in these pages for her uncompromising spirit and love of freedom. She married the famous Ireton ; and, after the death of that most eminent soldier and statesman, took, as her second husband, Lieutenant-general Charles Fleetwood, in obedience, as was supposed, rather to the Protector's earnest entreaty than the selection of her own desire. Cromwell's next child was his successor Richard, who was born at Huntingdon on the 4th, and baptized at St. John's on the 19th of October, 1626 ; and this was followed, on the 20th of January, 1628, by the birth of Henry, afterward lord- lieutenant of Ireland, who was baptized on the 29th of that month, in the Church of All Saints, in Huntingdon. The education of both these boys was finished, along with that of their eld- est brother, at the Felsted school, where they were taught by a man of well-known accom- plishment, Mr. Holbeach ; and had the advan- tage of the strict superintendence of their grandfather, Sir James Bourchier. A letter from Cromwell to one of his son Richard's sponsors was found among some Cambridge manuscripts a few years ago. It is dated from Huntingdon on the 14th of October, 1626, and addressed to one of the tutors in St. John's College, Cambridge, whose friendship he had probably formed during his own stay at the University. " Loving sir," the letter runs, " make me so much your servant by being god- father unto my child ; I would myself have come over to have made a formall invitation, but my occasions would not permit me ; and therefore hold me in that excused. The day of your trouble is Thursday next. Let me in- treate your company on Wednesday. By this time it appears I am more apt to encroch upon you for new favours, than to show my thank- fullness for the love I have already found ; but I know your patience and your goodness can- nott be exhausted by your friend and servant, OLIVER CROMWELL. Hunt., this 14 October, 1626 to my approved good friend, Mr. Hen. Downtell, at his chambers in St. John's College theire." This short and simple letter is inter- esting, because it is characteristic of Crom- well's mind at the period ; and, notwithstand- ing the subject it relates to, contains not a cloudy or fanatic phrase. It shows, also, the sort of connexion he continued to keep up with Cambridge, and which, no doubt, was thus ear- ly preparing the way for his subsequent repre- sentation of that borough. But it is time to return to the newly-elected representative for Huntingdon, on his way to take hig seat at Westminster, in the month of March, 1628. Let us suppose that he and Hampden entered the House together, at the momentous opening of that famous Parliament * This has not been noticed by any writer, but will ap- pear in an extract of one of the Journals from the time. two men already linked to each other by the bonds of counsel and of friendship yet more than by those of family, but presenting how strange a contrast to each other in all things, save the greatness of their genius ! The one of exquisitely mild deportment, of ever civil and affable manners, with a countenance that at once expressed the dignity of his intellect and the sweetness of his nature ; and even in his dress, arranged with scrupulous nicety and care, announcing the refinement of his mind ; the other, a figure of no mean mark, but oh, how unlike that ! His gait clownish, his dress ill made and slovenly, his manners coarse and abrupt, and his face such as men look on with a vague feeling of admiration and dislike ! The features cut, at it were, out of a piece of gnarl- ed and knotty oak ; the nose large and red ; the cheeks, coarse, warted, wrinkled, and sallow ; the eyebrows huge and shaggy, but, glistening from beneath them, eyes full of depth and mean- ing, and, when turned to the gaze, piercing through and through the gazer ; above these, again, a noble forehead, whence, on either side, an open flow of hair " round from his parted forelock manly hangs," clustering ; and over all, and pervading all, that undefinable aspect of greatness alluded to by the poet,* when he spoke of the face of Cromwell as one that " Did imprint an awe, And naturally all souls to his did bow, \s wands of divination downward draw, And point to beds where sovereign gold doth grow."t * Dryden. t Other opportunities will occur for adverting to Crom- well's appearance, but I may here subjoin the chief author- ities for the above slight sketch. First, let the reader turn to the careful engraving, after Lely's portrait, prefixed to this volume : the only portrait I ever met with, among the hundreds that are in existence, which, to my mind, ex- presses Cromwell. It represents him on the eve of his as- sumption of the Protectorate ; and a story is told of Crom- well's instructions to the " young man" who painted it, that he was not to inflict any " nonsense" on the canvass, but paint wrinkles, warts, and all. There is an air about it (which we may suppose gathered there by the wonderful events that had already declared themselves to the success- ful soldier) of calm and unalterable superiority. The firm- set lips, the fair, large front, the threatening brow and nose, all " declare absolute rule ;" and yet to gaze upon it for a time is to understand the worst libels of the Royalists. Clarendon describes Cromwell as having something singu- lar and ungracious in his look and appearance. The author of Hudibras says, " Cromwell wants neither wardrobe nor armour ; his face was naturally buff, and his skin inay fur- nish you with a rusty coat of mail ; you would think he had been christened in a lime-pit, and tanned alive." When Major-general Massey was introduced into the presence- chamber at the Hague, after his escape from England, im- mediately after the execution of Charles I., the Marquis of Montrose (who had seen Cromwell often in battle) asked him, by way of drollery but a very misplaced drollery at such a lime " how Oliver's nose did." Clement Walker says, that when Cromwell ordered the soldiers to fire, in the insurrection of the London apprentices, " his nose looked as prodigiously upon you as a comet ;" and, speaking of the government making treason no treason, he adds, that, should the House vote that " Oliver's nose is a ruby, they would expect you to swear it, and fight for it." These scurrilous jests, which yet have a certain character of truth, might be multiplied infinitely from the journals and records of the time. The " Mercurius Pragmaticus" of January, 1648, tells us, " Then Mr. Cromwell, to show that this was no time to speak sense and reason, stood up, and the glow- worm glistening in his beak, he began to spit fire ; and, as the devil quoted Scripture against our Saviour, so did he against his sovereign, and told the House, it is written, ' Thou shalt not suffer a hypocrite to live ;' and what then, I pray you, will become of himself?" The "Parliament Porter" of the following August is not less complimentary : " Nothing is heard now among the brethren but triumph and fury, singing and mirth, for their happy success (thanks to the devil first, and next to Noll Cromwell's nose) against the Scots, whom they vaunt to have beaten to dust. Mon- TO, one of the best soldiers in Christendom, u coming on. 406 BRITISH STATESMEN. Imagine, then, these two extraordinary men, now for the first time together,* passing along the crowded lobbies of that most famous as- sembly Hampden greeting his friends as he passes, stopping now and then, perhaps, to in- troduce his country kinsman to the few whose curiosity had mastered the first emotion in- spired by the singular stranger, but pushing di- rectly forward towards a knot of active and eager faces that are clustered round a little spot near the bar of the House, on the right of the speaker's chair,t in the midst of which stand Sir John Eliot, Sir Robert Philips, and Pym. The crowd make way for Hampden ; the cen- tral figures of that group receive him among them with deference and gladness ; he introdu- ces his cousin Cromwell; and, among the great spirits whom that little spot contains, the clown- ish figure, the awkward gait, the slovenly dress, pass utterly unheeded, for, in his first few words, they have discovered the fervour, and, perhaps, suspected the greatness, of this acces- sion to their cause. Pym is soon seen to draw the new member for Huntingdon aside, and, with a forecast of his favourite sphere of ac- tion, initiates him into the case against Main- waring.J Meanwhile, let a passage from one of Dr. South's sermons hint to us what may, at that in- stant, have occupied the more vulgar thoughts of the Royalist portion of the assembly. " Who," said that zealous candidate for a bishopric, " who that had beheld such a bankrupt, beggarly fellow as Cromwell first entering the Parlia- ment House, with a threadbare torn coat, and a greasy hat (and perhaps neither of them paid for), could have suspected that, in the course of so few years, he should, by the murder of one king, and the banishment of another, as- cend the throne, be invested in the royal robes, and want rfothing of the state of a king but the changing of his hat into a crown 1" "Odds fish, Lory !" exclaimed the laughing Charles, when he heard this from the divine who had panegyrized the living lord-protector, " Odds fish, man ! your chaplain must be a bishop. Put me in mind of him at the next vacancy." with a powerful army to give Noll another field fight : he will find hard play here, for these will not be laughed out of their loyalty, nor frightened out of themselves with the blazing of his beacon nose." Nor, in the " Mercurius Elencticus" of the February following the king's execution, is there any lack of characteristic forgery : " Sure Crom- well intends to set up his trade of brewing again, for the other day, being in the presence of the Duke of Gloucester, he stroked him on the head, and, like a merciful protector, said, ' Sirrah, what trade do you like best ? Would not a shoemaker be a good trade fnr you, or a brewer? And for that little gentlewoman, your sister (meaning the Lady Elizabeth), if she will be ruled, I will provide her a hus- band ; one of Colonel Pride's sons, or one of my own, if either of them like her, or can love her.' The duke told him that, 'being a king's son, he hoped the Parliament would allow him some means out of his father's revenue to maintain him like a gentleman, and not put him an appren- tice like a slave.' Nose Al ty makes answer, ' Boy, you must be apprentice, for all your father's revenue will not make half satisfaction for the wrong he hath done the king- dom ;' and so Nose went blowing out." This long note may be closed by a short notice from the " Annual Regis- ter," where an old lady sets down her recollections of Crom- well, and says, among other things, that, when she saw him, his face was very pale, and his nose a deep red. * Nothing \B surely so probable, since Cromwell would most likely, in any case, have come up to town with Hamp- den, but, considering that this was his first session, must almost of necessity have availed himself of the present in- troduction of his influential cousin. 1 See Life of Pym, p. 212. t Ibid, p. 150. Oh, glorious time for the Church ! Oh, golden age for the profligate and the slave ! Not so the days before us now : the month of June has come, and Pym has risen, in this third Parliament, the accuser of the royal chap- lain, Mainwaring. The various assertions of manly thought and elevated courage that rang through the great assembly after that memora- ble exposure have been celebrated in other por- tions of this work. Mainwaring, given up by Charles and by Laud, received severe judg- ment. Cromwell sat silently, earnestly watch- ing all, and patiently waiting all. The House reassembled, smarting with the gross events of the recess. A debate soon fol- lowed ; and in the course of it were heard the mild, yet potent accents of the voice of Hamp- den, insinuating deadly objections under the notion of modest doubts, and, almost insensi- bly to themselves, influencing in his behalf the most violent of his opponents. The charm of that exquisite orator hangs yet over the House, when it is suddenly dispelled by a harsh and broken voice of astonishing fervour, whose un- tunable but piercing tones announce to the Roy- alists a foe to grapple with, and to the patriots a strong arm of help : it is Cromwell. Among other things, he accuses Dr. Alabaster of hav- ing preached fiat popery at St. Paul's Cross ; and more, that his diocesan, the Bishop of Winchester, had ordered him to do it ! By this same bishop's means, he adds, that Main- waring, so nobly and justly punished here for his sermons, has been recently recently, within a month, preferred to a rich living. If these are steps to Church preferments, what may we not expect 1* Cromwell resumed his seat, and was followed by Sir Robert Philips, a veteran in debate, and one of the acknowledged authorities of the House, whose tone, in the few words he ad- dressed to the speaker, bore evidence to the striking effect which the new member had cre- ated. Then followed the singular scene which closed in the adoption of Pym's religious vow the heaviest blow yet aimed at the Church of Laud ; and then, the dissolution. After that disastrous termination of this Par- liament, Cromwell returned to Huntingdon, but thenceforward kept himself in frequent inter- course with Hampden and the celebrated St. John, the latter of whom had married his un- cle's eldest daughter.-f- He had now openly chosen his part with that mighty body of able and resolute men, who were pledged to the death against a continuance of the old, the vile, and irresponsible government of England ; and, though having merely set his hand to the plough, every idea and purpose of his mind seemed, in that very instant, to have stretched forward to some prospect of a harvest-time. Hampden's vade mecum was "Davila's History of the Civil Wars ;" Cromwell's was the already unceasing thought of the great motives that might be in- fused into mean men by the simple use of one tremendous passion, in whose presence pleas- ure should avail not, and suffering be as noth- ing : a glorious and elevating thought of all the possible vices and follies in even the basest, * See Parl. Hist., vol. viii., p. 289. t Elizabeth, daughter of Heury Cromwell, Esq., of Up wood. OLIVER CROMWELL. 407 the weakest, and the most low-born, which might thus be entirely overmastered or subdu- ed. In other words, Hampden studied how best to manage an army; Cromwell, how best to raise one. From this time it was notorious he carried religious exercises to an infinitely higher pitch than he had yet attempted ; and now it was that Sir Philip Warwiek was told by his physi- cian, Dr. Simcott, of the splenetic man his pa- tient was ; and how he had " phansyes about the cross in that town ;" and how that he, the doctor, had been " called up to him at midnight, and such unseasonable hours," so very many times, upon a " strong phansy, which made him believe he was then dying." No doubt the good Dr. Simcott knew about as much of the disease his patient laboured under as the grave Sir Philip Warwick himself. The thoughts that shook Oliver Cromwell then were far beyond the reaches of their souls ; it is possible, nay, almost certain, that they were even " beyond the reach" of the thinker's own ; for therein consists, as our noblest philosopher has in a single line defined it, the whole pain of hypo- chondriacal metaphysics. Cromwell had al- ready projected himself too far into the future. And the process, thus commenced, seems to have gone regularly on during the brief interval he remained in Huntingdon. Had Shakspeare personally undergone the precise disease, he could not more finely have defined it, as by a prophetic forecast, in Cromwell's case, than by the description Polonius gives of Hamlet's suf- fering. For the young prince, observes that fine, politic specimen of the Burleigh school, Fell into a sadness ; thence into a fast ; Thence to a watch; thence into a weakness; Thence to a lightness ; and this was the very movement of hypochon- driacal disease now traced in Cromwell. At one time plunged in sorrow ; now still more alarming the affectionate solicitude around him by refusing support that nature cried for ; then starting from his bed in the dead of night with fits of painful watching ; troubled strangely af- terward with " phansies about the cross" of Huntingdon ; and then, after an interval, sud denly plunging into fantastic shapes of mer- riment, that showed most painful and danger- ous of all : thus did Cromwell, according to the traditions and records of the time, pass the three years that followed his return to Hunting- don from the Parliament of 1628. At last (perhaps moved to it by some desire to seek refuge in a change of scene) he resolv- ed to leave that town. I should observe that, some days after his return from his Parliament- ary duties, he had been appointed, in conjunc- tion with his old tutor, Dr. Beard, and one Rob- ert Bernard, a justice of the peace, under the new charter granted about that time to the Huntingdon corporation ; but this appointment, made with a probable view of softening the as- perity of the late formidable member of Par- liament, had grown irksome to him from cir- cumstances recently named, and his discom- forts were thought to have been increased by the neighbourhood of his very violent Royalist uncle, Sir Oliver, whose influence had already rendered hopeless his re-election for Hunting- don. Be this as it may, there is no doubt that, in 1631, he prevailed with that uncle, his wife, and his mother,* to concur with him in the sale of certain lands and tithes of the family, out of which his small patrimony was at pres- ent derived. By this sale he realized 1800 ; and having stocked a little farm at St. Ives with the money, he at once, leaving his mother at Huntingdon, in the midst of old associations too dear to her to be resigned, removed to St. Ives with his wife and children. Nearly every local memorial of the residence of the Cromwells at Huntingdon has perished. The great old family are extinct ; their manor- houses and lands have passed to other propri- etors ; but, though no trace remains to tell of the old knightly fortunes and splendours of the chief representatives of the name, the memory of the self-raised brewer has clung fast to the soil even to fragments of it and will cling there immortally. A portion of land near God- manchester is still called Oliver Cromwell's Swath ; and two acres in the manor of Bramp- ton still bear the name of Oliver Cromwell's Acres. In the care of the St. Ives farm he now not only sought employment for some portion of the ill-subdued energy which always craved in him for action, but also put to the proof the value of those thoughts we have attributed to him after the disastrous dissolution of 1628. In the tenants that rented from him in the la- * The industry of Mr. Noble furnishes us with an ab- stract of the conveyance, which I shall give (as probably interesting to the reader), premising that " the reason of Sir Oliver and Mrs. Robert Cromwell joining in the deed is, that the latter had a small jointure out of it, and that, with reference to the former, Sir Henry Cromwell had merely given or devised these premises to his son, Rob. Oliv., the Protector's father, for a long term of years, as it was usual anciently." The following is Mr. Noble's abstract and de- scription of the property: "On the 7th of May, 1631, he obtained that his uncle, Sir Oliver Cromwell, alias Williams, of Ramsey, in the county of Huntingdon, knt., bis mother, Eliz. Williams, alias Cromwell, of Huntingdon, widow, should join with himself and his wife (who are described, Oliver Williams, alias Cromwell, of Huntingdon, Esq., and Elizabeth, his now wife), to convey his estates in and near Huntingdon, and at Hartford, to Richard Oakeley, of the city of Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, Esq., and Rich. Owen, also of the county of Middlesex, Esq. As it may be very acceptable to many of my readers, especially those of Huntingdon and its vicinity, I will give the parcels as they stand in the deed, omitting only the general words. All the capital messuage, called the Augustine Fryers, alias Augustine Friers, within the borough or town of Hunting- don, and the messuages, &c., belonging to it, and one close, called the Dove-house close, and also all those three cot- tages or tenements, with a malt-house, and a little close, by estimation one acre, lying together in Huntingdon, afore- said, theretofore of Edm. Goodwyns ; and also all those seven leas of pasture, containing by estimation two acres, called Toothill Leas, lying in Huntingdon ; and also all those two acres and three roods of meadow, lying and being in Brampton, in the said county of Huntingdon, in a mead- ow there called Portholme ; and also all those two acres of meadow, in Godmanchester, in the said county of Hunting- don ; all the above premises are called either late, or now or late, in the possession of the said Eliz. Cromwell, widow ; and all other the lands and tenements of the said Eliz. Crom- well, widow, Oliv. Cromwell, Esq., or either of them, in Huntingdon, Godmanchester, or Brampton aforesaid, or any of them. And also all the rectory and parsonage of Hart- ford, in the said county, and the tithes both great and small of the same, with all and singular the rights, members, and appurtenances thereof, to the late dissolved priory or monas- tery of the blessed Virgin Mary, in Huntingdon aforesaid, heretofore belonging or appertaining, and being some time parcel of the possessions thereof. The sum," Mr. Noble adds, " that these estates were sold for was only 1600 ; with this he did not think it beneath him to stock a grazing farm at St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire, whither he weut upon leaving the place of his birth." 408 BRITISH STATESMEN. bourers that took service under him he sought to sow the seeds of his after-troop of Ironsides. He achieved an influence through the neigh- bourhood all around him, unequalled for piety and self-denying virtue. The greater part of his time, even upon his farm, was passed in devotional exercises, and expositions, and pray- er. Who prays best will work best ; who preaches best will fight best : all the famous doctrines of his later and more celebrated years were tried and tested on the little farm at St. Ives. His servants were taught that, however inferior to the lords of the earth they might be in worldly circumstances, there were yet claims of loftier concern in which they had equal share, and in the right understanding of which their humanity might exalt itself to the level of the proudest. He did not drudge them from rising to setting sun, as if they had been merely beasts of burden ; he left them time, at intervals, to ponder on the momentous fact that even they had immortal souls. Before going to their field-work in the morning they knelt down with their master in the touching equality of prayer ; in the evening they shared with him again the comfort and exaltation of divine precepts, and were taught the inexpressible value of the re- ligion that is practical, and tends to elevate, not to depress, the soul. In St. Ives, to this day, significant memori- als of Cromwell exist, which strangely and deeply connect themselves, even at this dis- tance of time, with those solemn scenes. A vast number of swords are scattered round the neighbourhood, bearing on their hilts the ini- tials 0. C. They have descended from the farmers and labourers of the times we are re- tracing, to the possession of their present own- ers ; for in 1641, when the sky foretold the imminent storm, a large supply of swords was sent to the district of St. Ives, marked with those initials, for which, some few months af- ter, the sum of 100 was voted to Cromwell, in acknowledgment of the outlay and the zeal. With the Bible he had before given them in one hand, .and the sword he then gave them in the other, those old tenants and labourers of St. Ives afterward formed part of that immortal phalanx which was never known to yield or be beaten in battle.* Meanwhile the farm itself was anything but prosperous. It was probably, however, the last part of Cromwell's care, and therefore the sneers of the Royalist biographers and histori- ans on this point fall harmlessly enough. " The long prayers," writes Hume, " which he said to his family in the morning, and again in the afternoon, consumed his own time and that of his ploughmen ; and he reserved no leisure for the care of his temporal affairs. "t His health, * We owe this curious fact respecting the swords to Mr. Noble, who incidentally mentions the discovery, in some doubt of their origin. Mr. Noble tells us, also, that, at the time he wrote, a large barn which Cromwell built still went by his name, and that the farmer who then rented the lands which he occupied marked his sheep with the identical irons which Oliver used, and which have upon them the tetters O. C. t The ingenious Mr. Heath also gives his usual scurril version of these incidents, in Cromwell's History. " Bat his estate still decaying, he betook himself at last to a farm, being parcel of the royalty of St. Ives, where he intended to husband it, and try what could be done by endeavour, since nothing (as ye f .) succeeded by design ; and accordingly took .servants, and bought him all utensils and materials, as more than his temporal affairs, troubled him at this time. The cold and damp air of St. Ives never thoroughly agreed with him ; and his ap- pearance almost every Sunday in the parish church was long remembered and adverted to by the inhabitants of that place, after his fame had directed all eyes towards him, and made him the argument of every tongue. They de- scribed him walking up the aisle in an ill-ar- ranged dress, and with a piece of red flannel* fastened round his throat to protect him from the frequent inflammations to which the sharp cold and excessive moisture of the air had pain- fully exposed him. Other memories, too, Cromwell left behind him among the people of St. Ives. More friend- ly to the true religion than to its professed min- isters in whose communion he nevertheless seems up to this time to have remained he was remembered as the friend of the poor or the oppressed in conscience ; as a man of won- derfully fervent piety, ever zealous to promote good works and to reward good men. One of his letters, written during his residence at St. Ives, is fortunately preserved in the British Mu- seum, and corroborates in all respects this re- port of his character. It is addressed to his " very lovinge friend Mr. Storie, at the sign of the Dogg in the Royal Exchange, London." The object of it appears to have been to secure the continuance of " a man of goodnesse, and Industrie, and abilitie every way," in a lecture- ship which Mr. Storie and others had instituted in St. Ives. Its spirit is that of a generous and disinterested earnestness, and it is not without its characteristic touches. "MR. STORIE, Amongst the catalogue of those good workes which your fellow-citycenes and our countriemen have donn, this will not be reckoned for the least, that they have pro- vided for the feedinge of soules. Buildinge of hospitals provides for men's bodyes ; to build materiall temples is indyed a worke of pietye ; butt they that procure spirituall food, they that build up spirituall temples, they are the men trulye charitable, trulye pious. Such a worke as this was your erectinge the lecture in our ploughs, carts, &c. ; and the better to prosper his own and his men's labour, every morning, before they stirred out, the family was called together to prayer, at which exercise, very often, they continued so long, that it was nine of the clock in the morning before they began their work ; which awk- ward beginning of their labour sorted with a very sorry is- sue ; for the effect of those prayers was, that the himU and ploughmen, seeing the zeal of their master, which dispensed with the profitable and most commodious part of the day for their labour, thought they might borrow the other part for their pleasure, and therefore commonly they went to plough with a pack of cards in their pockets, anil having turned up two or three furrows, set themselves down to game till dinner-time, when they returned to the second part of their devotion, and measured out a good part of the afternoon with dinner, and a repetition of some market-lec- ture that had been preached the day before. And that lit- tle work that was done was done so negligently and by halves, that scarce half a crop ever reared itself upon his grounds, so that he was (after five years time) glad to aban- don it, and get a friend of his to be the tenant for the re- mainder of his time." * " The clerk of the parish of St. Ives, who is a very in- telligent old man, and much superior to his station (having been bred an attorney), told me, that he had been informed by old persons who knew Mr. Cromwell when he resided at St. Ives, that he usually frequented divine service at church, and that he generally came with a piece of red flannel round his neck, as he was subject to an inflammation in his throat It appears by Mereurius Elencticus that Olivor'sneck was awry ; surely it was a disorder incident to heroes." Noble't Memoirs of the Protectoral House. OLIVER CROMWELL. 409 cuiitne, in the which you placed Dr. Welles, a man of goodnesse, and Industrie, and abilitie every way, not short of any I knowe in Eng- land ; and I am perswaded that sithence his cominge, the Lord by him hath wrought much good amongst us. It only remains now that he whoe first moved you to this, putt you for- ward to the continewance thereof : it was the Lord, and therefore to him lift we up our harts that he would perfect it. And surely, Mr. Sto- rie, it were a piteous thinge to see a lecture fall in the handes of so manie able and godly men, as I am perswaded the founders of this are, in these times wherein we see they are suppressed with too much hast and violence by the enemies of God his truth ; far be it that soe much guilt should sticke to your hands, who live in a citye so renowned for the clere shi- ninge light of the Gospell. You knowe, Mr. Storie, to withdrawe the pay is to Ictt fall the lec- ture, for whoe goeth to warfare at his own cost 1 I beseech you, therefore, in the bowells of Christ Jesus, putt it forward, and lett the good man have his pay. The soules of God his children will bless you for it ; and so shall I, and ever rest your lovinge friend in the Lord, OLIVER CROM- WELL. Commende my harty love," he adds in a postscript, " to Mr. Busse, Mr. Beadley, and my other good friends. I would have written to Mr. Busse, but I was loath to trouble him with a longe letter, and I feared I should not receive an answer from him : from you I expect one soe soon as conveniently you may. Vale." This letter is dated "St. Ives, llth of Jan- uary, 1635 ;" and in the following year he left that place to take possession of a property of some little value in and near Ely, which just then fell to him by the will of his maternal un- cle, Sir Thomas Steward.* In the month of June, 1636, we find him domiciled at the glebe- house, near St. Mary's Churchyard, in the city of Ely. His property here, though respectable in amount, was not very considerable, for it consisted less of any extensive freehold or in- dependent possession, than of long leases and tithes held under the dean and chapter, whom he found, however, not unwilling to accommo- date his wishes, and so, as they may have fan- cied, purchase his forbearance or esteem, by renewing the greater part of his leases for one- and-twenty years. t They appointed him, also, * See antt, p. 402. t " After a residence of between four and five years at St. Ives, by the death of his maternal uncle, Sir Tho. Stew- ard, in the beginning of Jan., 1635-6, without issue, he be- came possessed of very considerable estates in and near Ely, part of which consisted of a lease of land and tithes belong- ing to the parishes of Trinity and St. Mary, in Ely, held under the dean and chapter : this caused him to seat him- self in that city. He resided in the glebe-house, near to St. Mary's Churchyard, now occupied by Mr. Page, the pres- ent lessee : he certainly had removed to Ely so early as June 7, in that year, as he had then signed an acquittance for 10 given by the Attorney-general Noy, and received of the executors of Sir Tho. Steward. He was chosen, Aug. 30 in this year, a trustee in Parson's Charity, together with the right reverend father in God, Fra. lord-bishop of Ely, Will. Fuller, D.D., and dean of Ely, Anth. Page, of Ely, gent., and Will. Austin, of Ely, yeoman ; and by the char- ter of incorporation granted by King Charles I., Jan. 16, 1633, no one could be a feoffee unless he was actually an inhabitant of that city. The dean and chapter of Ely, Oct. 20 following, renewed his lease for 21 years of the tithes of the parishes of Trinity and St. Mary in that city. The dean and chapter of Ely, Oct. 27, 1637, granted to him, jointly with the bishop of that see, Will. March, John Goodricke, Anth. Page, Esqrs., Henry Goodricke, and others, feoffees, therein named, a lease of Denver's Hult, near Stuntney. FTP to the trusteeship of some important charities in the city. Here it was, however while living, as he told his own Parliament in 1654, neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity* that one of his worst hypochondriacal distem- pers is reported to have seized him. It was natural that it should have done so, even as on those melancholy days we have described, following the dissolution of the Parliament he first sat in. The threatening thunder of the impending political tempest was now again heard along the sky, louder and more immi- nent than ever. The outrages on the people on life, on liberty, on conscience, on all that gave life value, or could endear it even to its native land those horrible outrages which had now for nearly twelve long and dreary years been endured, without an apparent prospect of redress, were at last approaching their fearful hour of consummation and retribution. All this, in its minute detail, has already been de- scribed^ and need not be repeated here. Now, with the sure sense of what such events were swiftly urging on, they must have struck with their deepest force on Cromwell. His most melancholy and distempered state of religious metaphysics would as surely descend with them. If he had horrible visions of the slit no- ses, and earless heads, and bloody human muti- lations going on in the pillories of Laud, be sure that he had visions too, which pressed yet more terribly upon him, of the oceans of blood that lay between these days and the days of liberty, and that were nevertheless to be passed, amid the singing of psalms and expoundings of prayer, without a thought for suffering or sor- row. Cromwell's most intense manifestations of religion, it is to be invariably observed, pre- ceded his greatest resolves, and went hand in hand with his greatest deeds. No wonder, then, they pressed fearfully upon him in these three years at Ely. No wonder, when he saw, as he described it in after years,! thousands of his " brethren forsake their native country to seek their bread from strangers, or to live in howling wildernesses," that he thought, with flushed cheek and agitated heart, of those no- ble uses of the most despised life he had taught to his tenants and labourers at his little farm at St. Ives, of the better and braver resource that should have yet remained even to lowest and most oppressed humanity. I do not pause to tell the reader that the idea of Cromwell himself having ever entertained the notion of leaving England to seek a safer lome in America is utterly incredible, and sup- jorted by no worthy evidence. Elsewhere, in ;hese lives, it has been refuted Such was During the following year, there are several memorandum* reserved respecting Parson's Charity, in which his name s mentioned ; and Oct. 29 in this year, he received from the dean and chapter of Ely two leases, one of Muilicourt nanor, the other of Beele closes, each for 21 years." jYo- >le's Memoirs of the Protectoral House. * " I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any con- siderable height, nor yet in obscurity." Words spoken to his Parliament, Sept. 12, 1654. t In Lives of Eliot and Pym. J To the Parliament of 1654 in dissolving it. $ See Life of Pym. The reader will recollect the inci- dent referred to. Yet it way be as well to subjoin it, for overs of the marvellous. "Lord Brooke, Lord Say and 5ele and his sons, Pym, and other distinguished men of the anie sentiments, were about to remove to a settlement in 410 BRITISH STATESMEN. not the cast of his mind or temper. To leave England, where everything heaved with the anticipation of such a future when the name of Hampden filled all mouths, and his quiet at- titude of immovable resolution during the great trial of shipTmoney had made grateful all hearts when the harvest of what had been sown by suffering approached to be reaped in triumph nay, when the very corn was ripe and only waiting for the glancing sickle ! The bare thought is of ridiculous unlikelihood. In Thurloe's State Papers is presei ved a let- ter of deep interest from Cromwell to his cous- in, the wife of Oliver St. John, written at this period from Ely. It is addressed to " My be- loved Cozen Mrs. St. John, att Sir William Mashamhie house called Dates in Essex," and bears the date of " Ely, 13th of October, 1638." It seems to me not only to point to the thought- less past, but to cherish the hope of the great and thoughtful future. " DEERE COZEN, I thankfully acknowledge your love in your kind remembrance of mee upon this oportunitye. Alas, you doe too high- lye prize my lines and my Companie. I may bee ashamed to owne your expressions, con- sideringe how unprofitable I am, and the meane improvement of my tallent. Yett to honour my God by declaringe what hee hath done for my soule, in this I am confident, and I will bee soe. Trulye then this I finde, that hee giveth springes in a drye and barren wildernesse, where no water is. I live (you know where) in Mesheck, which they say signifies prolonginge ; in Kedar. which signifieth blacknesse ; yet the Lord foi* saketh mee not. Though hee doe prolonge, yett he will (I trust) bringe mee to his Taber- nacle, to his resting-place. My soule is with the congregation of the first-borne, my body rests in hope ; and if heere I may honour my God either by doeinge or sufferinge, I shall be. most glad. Trulye noe poore creture hath more cause to putt forth himself e in the Cause of his God than I. I have had plentifull wadges beforehand ; and I am sure I shall never earne the least mite. The Lord accept mee in his Sonn, and give mee to walke in the light, and give us to walke in the light, as hee is in the light. Hee it is that inlighteneth our blacknesse, our darknesse. / dare not say he hydeth his face from mee. He giveth mee to see light in this light. One beame in a darke place hath exceedinge much refreshment in it ; blessed bee his name for shininge upon soe dark a hart as mine. You knowe what my manner of life hath bin. 0, I lived in, and loved darknesse, and hated the light ; I was a chicfe the chiefs, of Sinners. This is true, I hated Godlinesse, yett God had mercy on mee. the riches of his mercy ! praise him for mee, pray for mee, that hee, whoe hath be- New-England, where the name of Saybrooke, in honour of the two noble leaders, had already been given to a township in which they were expected. Eight vessels with emigrants on board were ready to sail from the Thames, when the king, by an order of council, forbade their departure, and compelled the intended passengers to come on shore, fatally for himself ; for among those passengers Hazlerig and Hamp- den, and Cromwell, with all his family, had actually em- barked. There are few facts in history which have so much the appearance of fatality as this." I have shown the worth- lessness of the authority on which this story rests ; and also, if it depends on the actual occurrence of the ships' having been stopped by an order of council, the patriots ought to have left after all, for the embargo was speedily taken off the ships, and they left with all their passengers. gunn a good worke, would perfect it to the day of Christ. Salute all my good friends in that Family whereof you are yett a member. I am much bound unto them for theyr love. I blesse the Lord for them, and that my Sonn by theyr procurement is soe well. Lett him have your prayers, your Councell ; lett mee have them. Salute your Husband and sister from mee. He is not a man of his word ; hee promised to write about Mr. Wrath of Epinge, butt as yett I re- ceaved noe letters. Putt him in minde to doe what with conveniency may bee donn for the poore cozen I did sollicit him about. Once more farewell ; the Lord bee with you : soe prayeth your trulye lovinge Cozen, OLIVER CROMWELL. . . . My wife's service and love presented to all her friends." This letter has been strangely remarked upon by the only other biographer of Cromwell, who quotes it thus : " It expresses," says Dr. Rus- sell, " the strong feeling of remorse and self- abasement with which he was then agitated. Nor were his views of the future more cheer- ful than his retrospect of the past. He brooded over the evils which his diseased imagination created, and saw no recovery for his affairs, spiritual or temporal, in the distant perspective which opened up before him." No recovery for his affairs spiritual ! Why, the purpose of the letter is to reflect back upon his dear cous- in some portion of the spiritual light that had then shone in so graciously upon himself. No hope for his temporal affairs ! Why, his body, he tells his correspondent, rests in hope ; he is looking forward with gladness to some nearly approaching time when he may possibly honour his God " either by doeing or sufferinge ;" and in the very next sentence to that, repeats the idea which evidently occupies him so as almost to exclude every other, of " putting himself forth in the cause of his God." The tone of the letter is any thing but despondent or cast down. Even its reference to his early days of dissolute wildness is rather made with a joyous sense of a blessed change, than with a still exacting or self-accusatory grudge. When Cromwell wrote that letter he was rather think- ing, be sure, of the Parliament that must be summoned soon, and the place he was likely to succeed in standing for, than with any re- morseful or despondent dread of either tempo- ral or spiritual thing. Before proceeding to that great subject of all his present thoughts, a slight allusion in the letter should detain us briefly with his domes- tic concerns. His son Richard was then stay- ing at Sir William Masham's ; and truly it may be supposed to have become a matter of some moment with him now, to clear his house, when he could, of a few of its numerous little inmates, for his family had increased around him. On the 2d of July, 1629, a second daugh- ter had been christened at the old Huntingdon church of St. John's. She was called Elizabeth, after his mother, and will have mention in these pages hereafter as the favourite daughter of Cromwell. On the 8th of January, 1632, a boy, born at St. Ives, had been baptized in the same church of Huntingdon, and received the name of James, after that of his maternal grandfather; but some few days afterward he appears to have died, and to have been buried there. OLIVER CROMWELL. 411 Then, in February, 1637, the gentle Mary, so handsome, and yet so like her father, afterward wife to Earl Faulconberg, had been born in Ely, and subsequently, as with the rest, bapti- zed in Huntingdon. Lastly, Frances, the fourth and youngest daughter, swiftly followed, and was baptized on the 6th of December, 1638, at St. Mary's Church in Ely. The motive for send- ing all these children, except this last (when some accident or illness, no doubt, intervened to make her an exception), to receive baptism in Huntingdon, must have been a kind defer- ence to the wishes of their grandmother and to her prejudice in favour of that place, since their father had yet had no open quarrel or difference with the churchmen of St. Ives or Ely.* This supposition is farther borne out by a fact which surprised Mr. Noble in the course of his research- es, that the children of her daughters, the Wau- tons, the Disbrowes, and the Sewsters, were also nearly all of them brought for baptism to the same old church in Huntingdon. She was equally fond of, and interested in them all. It increases our admiration for that true affection which, with all its weakness and with all its strength, char- acterized the noble-hearted mother of Oliver Cromwell. But his name recalls the thoughts with which he was at this time eagerly watching the prog- * The late good old Oliver Cromwell, Esquire, in his ter- rifically stupid quarto about his great progenitor, is always anxious to exhibit Cromwell, with a singular weakness, as on the best possible terras to the last moment with Church and aristocracy. " In the books of Record of a Charitable Institution in Ely," he observes, " the members whereof are styled Ely Feoffees, is the following entry, so late as 1641 (whereof the Writer has been permitted to take a Copy), he then being an active member of the Long Parliament : 1 1641. Gave to divers poor people, in the presence of Mr. Archdeacon and Mr. Oliver Cromwell, 16 14*.' This shows that he had not then ceased to associate with the clergy of the Establishment." Indeed, worthy old gentleman, it proves nothing of the sort, but is merely a necessary act of duty on the part of Cromwell, as one of the charitable trus- tees as aforesaid. What would Mr. Cromwell make of this anecdote told by Mr. Noble 1 "It will be proper to observe, that Oliver was probably neither pleased with the clergy, nor the manner that the Cathedral service was performed in Ely; for in Jan., 1643-4, he wrote to the Rev. Will. Hitch, the clergy-vicar, to desire he would desist using the choir service, as unedifying and offensive ; but advised him to catechize, read, and expound the Scriptures, and have more frequent preaching than had been usual ; and this, for fear the soldiers should tumultuously attempt a reforma- tion ; subjoining, that he must answer it if he did not com- ply ; which he not choosing to do, both the soldiers and the rabble broke into the Cathedral during divine service, and Oliver addressing himself to Mr. Hitch, said, 'I am a man under authority, and am commanded to dismiss this assem- bly.' Mr. Hitch made a pause ; when, finding that Oliver, and the people with him, proceeded up to the communion table, he began to discharge the office of his function ; at which Cromwell returned with great displeasure, and lay- ing his hand upon his sword, in a passion, bid the clergyman leave off 'his fooling,' and come down ; and then drove the whole congregation from the Cathedral." " There is also," pursues old Mr. Cromwell, furnishing us with some little facts connected with Cromwell's residence in Ely that may be worth subjoining, " a Petition at Ely, addressed to Mat- thew Wren, bishop of Ely, by the inhabitants of the Isle of Ely, in the reigu of King Charles I., stating that Aldreth was a great market for fat cattle, but that it had been dis- continued in consequence of the decay of Aldreth bridge, which should be kept in repair by the Earl of Suffolk as lord of the manor of Haddenham. The object of this Peti- tion is to request the Bishop to lay their case before the King for redress. This Petition is signed by Cromwell and many others. With these Records is also a letter of Crom- well 8, of which the following is a copy : ' Mr. Hand, I doubt not but I shall be as good as my word for your monie. I desier you to deliver 40s. of the Town monie to this bearer, to pay for the phisicke for Benson's Cure. If the Gentlemen will not allow it at the tyme of account, keep this boat, and I will pay it out of my own purse. Soe I rest, your loveinge friend, OLIVER CROMWELL.' Sept. 13, 1638." ress of events towards the now inevitable Long Parliament. And now an occasion arose, whereof he most skilfully availed himself, in furtherance of these eager hopes and wishes. The Earl of Bedford and other noblemen of the day had, some seven or eight years before, proposed a scheme for draining the extensive fens which in those days covered some millions of acres of the finest plains in the counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Lincoln. The good work had now advanced to a certain extent that part of it, in fact, properly called the Bedford Level, and contain- ing nearly 400,000 acres, had been completed when it was found necessary to call in other aid to the project, and a proposition was made to the crown, offering a fair proportion of the land for its countenance, assistance, and au- thority in the completion of the whole. Up to this point all had gone 011 well : the scheme included in itself unquestionably a large share of public advantage, and its chief project- or was a nobleman of wide and deserved pop- ularity ; but, from the instant of the royal in- terference, all kinds of difficulties and conten- tions were introduced. A parcel of court com- missioners officers ever hateful in that day, and with reason, to the wretched and oppressed commonalty arrived in the districts, held courts for the adjudication of claims connected in any way with the property, decided all the questions in the king's favour of course, and, it is even said, proposed to dispute with Lord Bedford and the other originators of the under- taking their retention of 95,000 acres of the land already recovered, in compensation of the venture they had undergone.* Whether the latter allegations are true or false, it is not doubted that the occasion was at once seized by the king's officers as an admirable one for enriching the then most needy Exchequer, and that, with this view, several acts of injustice were threatened. The common people began to murmur to complain loudly to clamour for justice to threaten in their turn. Meetings were held ; and at one of them a powerful auxiliary sud- denly appeared in the person of Oliver Crom- well. From that instant the scheme became thoroughly hopeless. With such desperate de- termination he followed up his purpose so ac- tively traversed the district and inflamed the people everywhere so passionately described the greedy claims of royalty, the gross exac- tions of the commission, nay, the very ques- tionable character of the improvement itself, even could it have gone on unaccompanied by incidents of tyranny to the small proprietors insisting that their poor claims would be mere- ly scorned in the new distribution of the prop- erty reclaimed to the labouring peasants, that all the profit and amusement they had derived from commoning in those extensive wastes were about to be snatched forever from them that, before his almost single individual energy, king, commissioners, noblemen-projectors, all were forced to retire, and the great project, even in the state it then was, fell to the ground. This matter has been variously described; but in the account just given, an attempt has * Life and Times of Cromwell, by Thomas Cromwell, p. 68. 412 BRITISH STATESMEN. been made to reconcile the discrepancies that have appeared in other descriptions of it. It seems clear to me, from all the documents that afford us information,* that the scheme had proceeded, entirely unopposed by the peo- ple, till, on the completion of the Bedford Lev- el, the name and interest of the king became involved in it ; that Cromwell then saw the ad- vantage which might be taken of the popular discontent awakened by the latter circumstance, and availed himself of it accordingly ; that when he moved in it first, it might merely have been with a view to support and protect the threat- ened rights of the popular nobleman who was the chief projector, but that, in the course of his opposition, he saw an irresistible opportuni- ty of impressing with a sense of his influence not only large masses of the small proprietors, and of the lower orders of discontented men whose rights and pleasures were now found to be endangered by the scheme, but also of ex- hibiting that influence to the country at large in the defeat not only of king and commission- ers, but of the entire scheme itself; and that, before this temptation, every consideration of the real utility and the many beneficial tenden- cies of the undertaking involved, vanished al- together. A pure motive of good may have engaged him first, but it was certainly a mixed motive of evil and good that shaped his ultimate course. Let the facts which I shall now state prove this, if farther proof is wanted. In the year 1649 the Long Parliament passed an act for " draining the great level of the Fens," and in the preamble of that act it is stated, " that whereas the said great level, by reason of fre- quent overflowings of the rivers . . . has been of small and uncertain profit, but (if drained) may be improved and made profitable, and of great advantage to the Commonwealth, and the particular owners, &c. . . . And whereas Francis, late Earl of Bedford, did undertake the said work, and had 95,000 acres* parcel of the said great level, decreed and set forth, in Octo- ber, in the thirteenth year of the reign of the late King Charles, in recompense thereof ; and he and his participants, and their heirs and as- * Even Sir P. Warwick's account, though for many rea- sons coloured to the author's purpose, offers no violent con- tradiction to it. He writes : " The Earl of Bedford, and divers of the principal gentlemen, whose habitations con- fined upon the fens, and who, in the heat of summer, saw vast quantities of lands which the fresh waters overflowed in the winter, lie dry and green, or drainable whether it was public spirit or private advantage which led them thereunto, a stranger cannot determine they make propositions unto the king to issue out commissions of sewers to drain those lands, and offer a proportion freely to be given to the crown for its countenance and authority therein : and as all these great and public works must necessarily concern multitudes of persons, who will never think they have exact justice done to them for that small pretence of right they have unto some commons, so the commissioners, let them do what they can, could never satisfy such a body of men. And now the king is declared the principal undertaker for the draining ; and by this time the vulgar are grown clamorous against these first popular lords and undertakers, who had joined with the king in the second undertaking, though they had much bet- ter provisions for them than their interest was ever before ; and the commissioners must by multitudes and clamours be withstood ; and, as a head of this faction, Mr. Cromwell, in the year 1639, at Huntingdon, appears, which made his ac- tivity so well known to his friend and kinsman, Mr. Hamp- den, that he gave a character of Cromwell of being an active person, and one that would sit well at the mark." See, also, Camden's Britannia, by Gibson, i., 469, 490 ; also Dugdale, p. 460. signs, have made a good progress therein, with expense of great and vast sums of money ; but by reason of some late interruptions, the works there made have fallen into decay : be it there- fore enacted and ordained, that William, now Earl of Bedford, dec., in recompense of the afore- said charge and adventure, and for bearing the charge of draining, and maintaining the works from time to time, shall have and enjoy the said whole 95,000 acres." Now the chief ad- vocate of this measure in the House was no other than " Lieutenant-general Cromwell," whose name afterward appears as a commis- sioner " to hear, determine, order, adjudge, and execute all such things as are prescribed by this act." Circumstances had changed a little ! It was not undeserving of praise in Cromwell, however, to seek thus to repair* the temporary obstruction he had offered to an undertaking of general advantage, and in his former opposition to which he had supposed himself sanctioned by the consideration of higher objects and efforts that then claimed the influence such opposition gave him. For his influence in all the districts around Huntingdon and Ely was now indeed supreme. The " Lord of the Fens" was the name the common people worshipped him by.t Some of the Parliamentary chiefs congratulated Hamp- den on the great position of popularity his kins- man had achieved, and suggested various pla- ces he might offer himself for in the ensuing Parliament, if, as was then generally supposed, his uncle's influence was too strong for his suc- cess in Huntingdon. He is indeed, returned the sagacious Hampden, an active man, a man " to sit well to the mark ;" for the other mat- ter, he and bis kinsman had already taken council. The writs appeared, returnable in November, 1640, and Cromwell offered himself at once for Cambridge. He was encountered by a formi- dable opposition, headed by John Cleaveland, the well-known poet, who was at that time a tutor of St. John's, and a man of considerable influ- ence, all of which he levelled in every possible way against Cromwell. The contest was ob- stinately fierce, and ended in Cromwell's return at last, by the majority of a single vote. That vote, exclaimed Cleaveland or at least his friends affirm he exclaimed this " that vote, that single vote, hath ruined both Church and kingdom." Cromwell remembered the disservice in after years, and paid it back with interest by means of his major-generals of the Protectorate. Cleaveland was arrested by those worthies un- der Haynes, and sent to prison in Yarmouth. I cannot resist inserting here the reasons which were given by them for this step, from the state documents of the time. The first was, that he lived in utter obscurity in the house of a Roy- alist, very few persons in the neighbourhood knowing that there was such a man resident among them ! the second was, that he possessed great abilities, and was able to do considerable disservice ; and a third reason for his impris- onment was, that he wore good clothes, though, as he confessed, he had no estate but 20 per * He passed another act for the same purpose on the 26th of May, 1654, during his own Protectorate, t Mercurius Aulicus, November 5, 1643. OLIVER CROMWELL. 413 annum, allowed him by two gentlemen, and 30 by the person in whose house he resided, and whom he assisted in his studies ! He would, it is said, have been released, had he possessed any property upon which the commissioners could have fixed an assessment. Yet Cleaveland had possibly the advantage after all, for his good spirits never forsook him, and there was light enough in his prison to ena- ble him to write out that definition of a protect- or, which not uncharacteristically illustrates, as we shall find, some passages in Cromwell's history. " What's a Protector? He's a stately thing, That apes it in the nonage of a king. He's a brass farthing, stamped with a crown, A tragic actor, Casar in a clown ! A bladder blown with others' breath puffM full Not the Penllus, but Perillus' Bull ! jEsop's proud Ass vail'd in the Lion's skin, An outward Saint lined with a Devil within. An echo whence the royal sound doth come, But just as a barrel head sounds like a drum. Fantastic image of the royal head, The Brewer's with the King's arms quartered. He is a counterfeited piece, that shows Charles his effigies with a copper nose. In fine, he's one we must Protector call, From whom the King of kings protect us all." In November, 1640 that month never to be named but with honour by the well-informed student of English history this " Caesar in a clown" once more entered the House of Com- mons. The world-amazing scenes that follow- ed up to the time when Charles, on an inauspi- cious day of wind and storm, erected his stand- ard at Nottingham, and proclaimed the chief representatives of the English people to be a parcel of rebels and robbers, have been already placed before the reader in the lives of Pym, of Hampden, and of Strafford. Such incidental points only remain to be noticed here as may serve in any way to illustrate the character of Oliver Cromwell, before it blazed forth all over the land in the splendour of military achieve- ment. The morning of the llth of November, 1640, saw anxious crowds assembled in the neigh- bourhood of Westminster. A great business was afoot. Crowds of members poured into the House from all quarters. Some, as Hyde remarked, were observed to have sad and mel- ancholy faces ; and others, as if flushed by a stern and " unnatural" joy, to be " marvellous elated" in step and aspect. Such was, indeed, the natural difference between the men who saw a crisis impending that would overtax their strength, and the greater men, who, in the sure terrors of the future, that were to be born ol the miseries of the past, only recognised and welcomed the stormy yet not impassable sea which rolled between slavery and freedom. Other thoughts, deeper in his heart of hearts, lurking there even unknown to himself, may have agitated Cromwell. His friends said, in after years, that even now he would startle them by sudden and gratuitous graspings of his sword, and by fits of the same abrupt and im- moderate laughter which were noted on the eve of Worcester and Dunbar. The members are now all within the House and upon the crowd outside an anxious silence has fallen, such as anticipates great events Hour passes after hour, yet the door of the Commons is still locked, and within may be leard, by such as stand in the adjoining lob- >y, not the confused and wrangling noise of a various debate, but the single continuous sound of one ominous voice, interrupted at in- ervals, not by a broken cheer, but by a tre- mendous shout of universal sympathy. Sud- denly a stir is seen outside, the crowd grows ight with uncovered heads, and the carriage of the great lord-lieutenant of Ireland dashes up to the House of Lords. Ten minutes more have passed the door of the Commons' House is abruptly thrown wide open and forth issues Pym, followed by up- ward of three hundred representatives of the English people, in that day the first men of the world in birth, in wealth, in talents. Their great leader crosses to the House of Lords, and ,he bar is in an instant filled with that immor- tal crowd. What, meanwhile, was the suspense lately ndured by the meaner masses outside, to the agitation which now heaved them to and fro, ike the sullen waves of an advancing storm. But the interval is happily shorter. It is closed jy the appearance of Maxwell, the usher of the House of Lords, at whose side staggers Strafford himself a prisoner ! The storm which had threatened fell into a frightful still- ness. They make " through a world of staring people," as old Baillie the Covenanter wrote to his friends in Scotland, towards the carriage of the Earl, " all gazing, no man capping to him, before whom that morning the greatest of Eng- land would have stood discovered." States- manship had achieved its master-stroke. The power of the greatest and proudest minister that ever ruled a nation of the only minister of genius that Charles I. possessed lay grov- elling in the dust beneath the feet of the mean- est person in that assembled populace. An act worthy of the lofty praise of Milton. Thus," says that great writer, having noticed the high birth of this famous assembly, their singular attainments, and their astonishing pub- lic virtue in having for the most part passed the ordeal, not only of courtly vengeance, but of courtly temptation " thus, in the midst of all disadvantages and disrespects, having given proof of themselves to be better made and fra- med by nature to the love and practice of vir- tue than others, under the holiest precepts and best examples, have been headstrong and prone to vice ; and having, in all the trials of a firm, ingrafted honesty, not oftener buckled in the conflict than given every opposition the foil ; this, moreover, was added, by favour from heaven, as an ornament and happiness to their virtue, that it should be neither obscure in the opinion of men, nor eclipsed for want of matter equal to illustrate itself; God and man consent- ing, in joint approbation, to choose them out, as worthiest above others, to be both the great re- formers of the Church and the restorers of the Commonwealth. Nor did they deceive that expectation, which, with the eyes and desires of their country, was fixed upon them ; for no sooner did the force of so much united excel- lence meet in one globe of brightness and effi- cacy, but, encountering the dazzled resistance of tyranny, they gave not over, though their ene- mies were strong and subtle, till they had laid her grovelling upon the fatal block : with one stroke 414 BRITISH STATESMEN. winning again our lost liberties and charters, which our forefathers, after so many battles, could scarce maintain." In that true master-stroke Oliver Cromwell bore his part with the foremost men of the time. He did not often speak in the House, but he was full of action. In at least twenty out of the forty committees that were appointed with- in the first week to consider of various griev- ances, we find his name. And he could speak, too, as we have already seen, and when he spoke, it was something much to the purpose. " The first time I ever took notice of him," writes the grave and trustworthy Royalist, Sir Philip Warwick, " was in the beginning of the Parliament held in November, 1640, when I vainly thought myself a courtly young gentle- man, for we courtiers valued ourselves much upon our good clothes. I came into the House one morning, well clad, and perceived a gentle- man speaking, whom I knew not, very ordina- rily apparelled ; for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed to have been made by an ill coun- try tailor : his linen was plain, and not very clean ; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band, which was not much larger than his collar : his hat was without a hatband. His stature was of a good size ; his sword stuck close to his side ; his countenance swoln and reddish ; his voice sharp and untunable ; and his eloquence full of fervour for the subject-mat- ter would not bear much of reason, it being in behalf of a servant of Mr. Prynne's, who had dispersed libels against the queen for her dan- cing, and such like innocent and courtly sports ; and he aggravated the imprisonment of this man by the council-table unto that height, that one would have believed the very government itself had been in great danger by it. I sin- cerely profess it lessened much my reverence unto that great council, for he was very much hearkened unto. And yet I lived to see this very gentleman, whom, out of no ill-will to him, I thus describe, by multiplied good successes, and by real, but usurped power (having had a better tailor, and more converse among good company), in my own eye, when for six weeks together I was a prisoner in his sergeant's hands, and daily waited at Whitehall, appear of a great and majestic deportment, and comely presence. Of him, therefore, I will say no more, but that verily 1 believe he was extraordinarily designed for those extraordinary things which one while most wickedly and facinorously he acted, and at another so successfully and greatly per- formed."* * Warwick's Memoirs. Lord Clarendon, in his life, has described similar earnestness, rudeness, and passionate fervour on the part of Cromwell, in a private committee of the House. The account, however, is not so credible as Warwick's there are many errors in it which the reader will at once perceive and it is deeply ting-ed with that vanity and gross egotism which characterized Clarendon not less than his wonderful talents : " Mr. Hyde," the pass- age runs, "was often heard to mention one private com- mittee, in which he was put accidentally into the chair, upon an enclosure which had been made of great wastes, be- longing to the queen's manors, without the consent of the tenants, the benefit whereof had been given by the queen to a servant of near trust, who forthwith sold the lands en- closed to the Earl of Manchester, lord- privy- seal ; who, to- gether with his son Mandevil, were now most concemed to maintain the enclosure ; against which, as well as the in- habitants of other manors, who claimed common in those wastes, as the queen's tenants of the same, made loud com- plaints, as a great oppression, carried upon them with a It was not the tailor, good Sir Philip, who had wrought any portion of this change. A great man had achieved greatness, and had fallen into its state with the ease of one who merely assumes his natural place in the human family. The genius which could achieve Crom- well's aims included in itself all the faculties, tempers, and tastes which they might require to establish or assert them.* At present, in- deed, all these were in tumult and confusion. His mind was as yet the chaos only, from which order and majesty were to spring. But there, even then visible to penetrating minds, their great elements lay heaped, massed, crowded together. As Hampden left the House on the day Sir Philip Warwick witnessed what he has descri- bed so well, Lord Digby, who had himself in that Parliament just entered public life, was seen to hurry after him, " Pray, Mr. Hampden," he asked, overtaking the patriot as he descend- ed the stairs, " pray, Mr. Hampden, who is that man that sloven who spoke just now? for I see he is on our side, by his speaking so warm- ly." Hampden answered, in ever-memorable language, " That sloven whom you see before you hath no ornament in his speech ; that sloven, I say, if we should ever come to a breach with the king, which God forbid ! in such a case, I say, that sloven will be the greatest man in England." Yet the " breach with the king" was approach- ing fast ! Strafford had expiated on the scaf- fold his mighty guilt, and the wretched master who had deserted him was now on all sides himself deserted. Ominous questions then passed between men, and strangers asked of each other what was very high hand, and supported by power. The committee sat in the queen's court ; and Oliver Cromwell being one of them, appeared much concerned to countenance the peti- tioners, who were numerous, together with their witnesses ; the Lord Mandevil being likewise present as a party, and by the direction of the committee, sitting covered. Cromwell (who had never before been heard to speak in the House of Commons) ordered the witnesses and petitioners in the method of the proceeding, and seconded and enlarged upon what they said with great passion ; and the witnesses and persons concerned, who were a very rude kind of people, in- terrupted the council and witnesses on the other side with great clamour when they said anything that did not please them, so that Mr. Hyde (whose office it was to oblige men of all sorts to keep order) was compelled to use some sharp reproofs and some threats to reduce them to such a temper that the business might be quietly heard. Cromwell, in great fury, reproached the chairman for being partial, and that he discountenanced the witnesses by threatening them ; the other appealed to the committee, who justified him, and declared that he behaved as he ought to do ; which more inflamed him who was already too much angry. When, upon any mention of matter of fact, or the proceeding be- fore and at the enclosure, the Lord Mandevil desired to be heard, and with great modesty related what had been done, or explained what had been said, Mr. Cromwell did answer and reply upon him with so much indecency and rudeness, and in language so contrary and offensive, that every man would have thought, that as their natures and their man- ners were as opposite as it is possible, so their interest could never have been the same. In the end, his whole carriage was so tempestuous, and his behaviour so insolent, that the chairman found himself obliged to reprehend him, and to tell him if he proceeded in the same manner he would presently adjourn the committee, and the next morn- ing complain to the House of him, which he never forgave, and took all occasions afterward to pursue him with the ut- most malice and revenge to his death." * Even Clarendon himself spoke thus of him in after years: "As he grew into place and authority, his parts seemed to be raised, as if he had concealed his faculties till he had occasion to use them ; and when he was to act the part of a great man, he did it without any indecency, not- withstanding the want of custom." OLIVER CROMWELL. 415 likely next to happen. Sir Philip Warwick, walking with Sir Thomas Chicheley into the House, met Cromwell unexpectedly, and, una- ble to .resist an impulse which prompted him at the moment, went up to him and desired honestly to know what the real objects of his party were. " I can tell you, sirs," answered Cromwell, abruptly, as he passed on, " I can tell you what I would not have, if I cannot what I would." The words, no doubt, in truth ex- pressed at that particular time the condition of the speaker's mind, but this perhaps, I would add, less from the real uncertainty that then prevailed there than from the control exerted over it by men of wisdom as great as his own, and of experience more enlarged in Parliaments, whose plans were of a different cast, and had already taken shape and substance. Pym and Hampden, I firmly believe, had it in their design from the first to rest contented with a strong and decided limitation of the monarch- ical government : not with such a settlement as that of 1688, but with one wherein the pop- ular substance should have had place no less than the popular form, and in securing which they would have taken care to recognise, by something better than a quibble, those rights and privileges of the people that were the source of all to be attempted and the object of all to be achieved, at once the means and the end of every constitutional settlement. In the life of Pym I have accordingly offered some rea- son for supposing that when Charles had en- tered the field of civil war, and his hopeless in- sincerity left any ultimate arrangement with himself almost as hopeless, these great leaders cast their thoughts towards Charles Louis, the young prince-elector of the Palatinate a wan- derer from his kingdom by the tyrannical en- croachment of Austria the elder brother of Prince Rupert, and the next heir to the Eng- lish crown in case the family of Charles I. were set aside. I afterward found that the conclu- sion I then arrived at had been anticipated by one of Bishop Warburton's most acute notes on Clarendon. Since the publication of that memoir, howev- er, Lord Nugent has intrusted me with the loan of some valuable family papers, hitherto unpub- lished, with a courteous permission to make all necessary use of them. Among them are sev- eral letters from this young prince to his moth- er the sister of Charles I., the beautiful and unhappy Queen of Bohemia, " the eclipse and glory of her kind."* Some extracts may be valuable here, and will not be thought uninter- esting, since they illustrate, in some striking points, the character and events of the time. The prince not only lived with his uncle at this time, but, according to Clarendon, enjoyed a pension from him of" twelve thousand pounds sterling yearly." This pension may have been nominally due, but it seems certain, from some of the letters which I shall quote, that it was not regularly paid. That Charles treated his nephew with extreme kindness is, however, in- disputable ; what Henrietta's conduct towards him may have been admits, perhaps, of some doubt. From Whitehall " this if of May, 1641," he thus writes in the course of one of his letters to the Queen of Bohemia : Sir Henry Wotton. " I did not writte to y r Maf by the last post, not knowing whether the same might not be stopped as the former was, whereof I doubt but by this y r Mtf doth know the occasion, wh uf h my L d of Stafford's death hath putt the queene in an ill humour.* In this the king hath shewed himselfe a good master & a good Christian, & att last a good king, for the day afore he should give the howses of parlament an answer con- cerning the Bill of Attainder against the Earll of Strafford, the bishops, after a whole daye's debate, had much to doe to perswade him that he might give way unto it w'h a safe conscience, because the judges did declare, upon the voting of the two houses of the fact, that it was trea- son, though the king could not be satisfied of it in his conscience, & that w'hall the people stood upon it w'h such violence, that he would have putt himselfe & his in a great danger by deny- ing execution. Therefore, att last, the king protested att the councell table, that if his per- sone were onely in danger, he would gladly venture it to save L d Strafford's life ; butt see- inge his wife, children, & all his kingdome were concerned in it, he was forced to give way unto it ; w c h he did not expresse without teares. This bearer will tell y r Ma 1 * the circumstance of my L d of Strafford's execution, for he sayth he was close by. What passed since in par- lament, y r Ma'y will understand from others ; that of greatest note is, that w'h the Bill of my L d of Strafford, the king passed another, that the parlament should not be adjourned nor broken w'hout the consent of the two how- ses. Concerning the king's manifest, my frends advise me to stay as yet some few dayes w'h it untill the Scotts treaty come to an end, butt they assure me w'hall that it shall not want ap- plause in the howses. The king intends to make a posting journey for Scottland, as he doth declare openly, butt whether it will hold, God knoweth, since resolutions are apt to be changed aft this court." The prince's .definition of a good master, a good Christian, and a good king, is scarcely sat- isfactory. The letter offers some proof, how- ever, of an implied intercourse held even thus early with the popular leaders. The next let- ter I shall quote (dated " this 28th of July, 1641") still farther confirms this, and presents some characteristic points besides. Its open- ing sketch of the widowed Lady Strafford is ex- tremely touching. " I have done y r Ma tis comaunds to my Lady Strafford, who did expresse a great deal of hum- bio devotion to y r service, & to be very sensi- ble of the favour you did her ; She hath promis- ed me to send Mrs. Kirch's picture inameled to y' Ma'y. If I gett it soone enough I will send it by this bearer. She also desired me to make hir humble excuse to you, that she doth not write to y Maty because this great affliction hath made a shaking in her limbs, soe that she is not able to rule a penn. By my former y r Ma ty hath under- stood how the queen's journey was broken, & by Cave the change of the L d Chamberlaine. It was a thing my L d of Essex did not att all sue for, 4- would not have accepted it, butt that he saw the king was resolved the other should not keepe it, & that if he had refused that also, after soe many other things wh were put upon him, the * This seems to dispose altogether of Bishop Burnet's assertion of the queen's indifference to that act. 416 BRITISH STATESMEN. I World might have thought that the high hand he carried in parlament was not soe much for to main- taine the liberties of the subjects as out of a spleene to the court. He [L d Essex] hath done what y Ma'y desired in y ra of the ijj. of July in the house of peeres, <f by Mr. Hambden in the howse of commons, & is alwayes very forward in any- thing that concernes y r Ma l - v & y re . There hath offered itselfe an oportunity w c h doth discover how much y r Ma^ is bound to M r Treasurer Vane, w c h you may see if you compare the print- ed order of the howse of commons concerning the manifest, wth the written coppie w c h was sent you, for in that is left out THE QUEENE of BOHEMIA by his expresse order to Weckerlin, though it was inserted in this when it was read publiquely by the speaker afore the king ; Ma- dame, I could not indure this insolent, ungrate- full, & base trick of his, butt have complained of it to some of the howse of commons <$ my L d of Essex, w'hout naming Vane, but onely desiring them to question the printer, & then it will be scene from whence it came ; it was Vane also that pressed me most about the ceremonies w'h the Prince of Orange, & I doubt not butt he did as much w l h the king. I shall know to-day or to-morrow what will become of it. Just now my L d of Essex told me that he moved it in the howse of the peeres, & that the printer is to come to-morrow to the barre to answer for it. S r Henry Vane puts it from himselfe upon the king, when I spoke to the king in it & argued it w l h him, as that it did not att all ingage him that it was only an honnour w c h the 2 how- ses intended to y r Ma^ : he said nothing else, butt that since it was printed it could not be al- tered. S r Tom Beringhton was going to speake of it in the howse, & S r Raph Hopton, butt some other businesse that came betweene hinder'd it, & afterwards they were spoken to by Vaire & L d Say not to meddle in it, butt what they have done since I doe not know." There cannot be a doubt, from the tone and style of these extracts, that the writer was playing a double game at this moment between the court and the people's party. It is observ- able as much in his hatred to old Vane and the queen's set of courtiers, as in his more distinct assertions. Another letter is written from "Newmarket, this 10th of March, 1642. "while staying there with the king, after the attempted arrest of the five members (when the prince- elector, it will be recollected, accompanied his uncle to the House) had led to the ill-fated flight from London. This letter paints a mis- erable picture, and is here printed entire. "MADAME, I have done what y r Ma'* did therein comaund me towards the king, who tooke it very well, & sayd, / doubt not butt my wife <f my sister will be very good f rends. As for my brother Rupert's imployment in the Irish warres, the king is enough inclined to it, butt I beleeve the parlament will imploy none there butt those that they may be sure of. I shall speake w'h some of them about it, either for him or br. Maurice. This last I thinke might w'h honnour have a reg- iment under Lesly, butt to be under any other odd or sencelesse officer, as some are propo- sed, I shall not advise it. ... The L ds Pembroke, Holland, Dunsmow, Seymor, & 8 of the howse of commons, have presented the king yesterday w l h a new declaration from both bowses to shew the causes of theyr feares & jealousies, & againe to presse the king to putt the militia into their hands, & to come nearer unto them, for to give the lesse cause of feare, & that it would make a clearer understanding betweene him & his people ; & if his Ma l >' did refuse this, they would be forced to publish the said decla- ration, and take the militia into their hands of themselves. This is the effect of it, for the thing itselfe hath not beene suffered to be print- ed, nor any coppies to be taken as yett ; butt now I doubt not butt it will be published, because I heare the king's answear this morning con- cerning the militia was a plaine deniall, and concerning his coming nearer to London, that he would doe it when the parlament would give him cause for it, butt would not farther ex- plaine himselfe upon this last. I doubt not butt the weeke wee shall remouve from hence, butt whither, God hwwes ! Some say to Yorke, oth- ers to Norwich (w c h I cannot beleeve), others into Scottland ; in the mean time 1 have noe monie, <$ if I had not pawned my diamond garter (for the plate was pawned already) for a hundred pound, I could not have got monie for to have gone this journey, for the comissioners of the treas- ury could give me none ; butt they cf- some of the howse of commons have assured me to mouve the howse for some present supply for me. Thus businesse goe heere, & I rest y Ma Us most hum- ble and obedient sonn and servant, " CHARLES L." Here indeed was a change, sudden as it was miserable, yet pursuing in the order of a natu- ral effect a miserable cause foregone. For the first twelve years of the reign of Charles, the people had never dared to call their property their own ; scarcely a new morning ever rose on an English family that was not dreaded as the usher of some new oppression ; new faces were never seen in town or village that did not inspire the terror of some new exaction, in sup- port of the ever-craving and ever-impoverished Exchequer. These frightful scenes have al- ready been minutely detailed by the writer of these pages. And what is the unfailing answer urged by the apologists of the court 1 that its wants were for the state, and that all its per- sonal expenses were singularly moderate and economical. This poor answer has been as often refuted, yet scarcely a new record of the time is opened by the historical inquirer which does not make the refutation even more com- plete. A most striking instance of this has very recently appeared. Several interesting extracts from the " Pell Records" have been made public by a gentleman in the service of the government, Mr. Devon, in the shape of " issues of the Exchequer" in various reigns. Nothing could more vividly illustrate the spirit of the several courts the superstition of one, the public spirit and usefulness of another, the brilliant and lavish gayety of a third. The pub- lication was unfortunately discontinued on the eve of oui admission to the Exchequer of Charles I. and II., but a sufficient quantity of the materials collected in. these reigns has nev- ertheless been given to the public in another form : and what do we discover in those of Charles 1. 1 Profusion of the most reckless sort squandered on mere personal vanities. While the people were starving while the OLIVER CROMWELL. 417 terrors of the Spanish Inquisition were more than realized by the GENERAL FORCED LOAN in- quisitors, let the reader observe the entries, during a short eighteen months of the time, made for the purchase of jewelry alone, and wonder, if he can, at the retribution which fol- lowed. " On the 25th of March, 1626, there is an or- der to pay Sir John Eyre 2000, ' the price of a diamond of the weight of twelve carrates,' given by his late majesty to the French ambas- sador. On the 17th of April, to John Aston, his majesty's goldsmith, 110, in part of 3053, 6s. U. [on the 26th of July, 1628, this debt had increased, or another been incurred, to the amount of 6866 16*. OJrf.], for gold and silver plate bought for his majesty's use, and for chains of gold, medals, and other things given to ambassadors. On the 19th of May, 200 to the Duke of Buckingham ' for a chain of gold provided by his majesty's direction, and sent by his majesty as a present to a Dutch captain.' On the 25th of May, to ' the Lady Theodocia Dudley, wife to Edward lord Dudley, 500, in part of 1700, due unto her for a ricfi diamond, sold and delivered for his majesty's use.' On the 3d of June, to Dame Elizabeth Moreton, widow of Sir Albert Moreton, ' the sum of 800, in part of 2000, in full satisfaction of and for a fair diamond ring, bought by his majesty of her, and bestowed upon the ambassador lately em- ployed from the King of Sweden ; as also the sum of 400, in full satisfaction of and for a fair jewel, set with many diamonds, bought of her, and bestowed upon the ambassador lately employed from the Elector of Brandenburg.' On the 20th of September, ' to Sir Maurice Ab- bott, 2000, in part of 4000, in full payment and satisfaction of the sum of 8000, due to him for a diamond cut in fassets, and set in a collett,' for his majesty's use ; the remaining 4000 ' to be paid out of the money of the sec- ond payment of the portion of his majesty's dearest consort.' On the 29th of December, to Henry Garway, Esq., 2000, for 'one large, thick table diamond, set in a collett of gold, which he sold and delivered to his majesty.' On the 16th of January, to the Earl of Pem- broke, late lord-chamberlain, 6400, in full of 8400, ' for sundry jewels, disposed of by him for his majesty's service, according to such di- rections as he hath received from his majesty.' On the 12th of June, 1627, to Robert Hooke, goldsmith, 900, ' for a garter and two Georges, which his majesty hath sent to the Prince of Orange.' On the 28th of August, to Charles Herbert 1000, 'for a fair George, set full of diamonds, lately sold unto his majesty.' On the third of September, to Sir Maurice Abbott, 4000, in further payment of the 8000 due for the diamond cut in fassets, and set in a collett, before mentioned ; and on the 4th of Septem- ber 2000 in full payment. On the 6th of Oc- tober, to Philip Jacobson, 300, ' for a diamond hatband, bought of him by his majesty;' and a further sum of 100, in full of 2100, for a jew- el, bought of him by his majesty, the same be- ing a picture case of gold, set with seven great and fourteen small diamonds, cut in fassets ;' and on the same day, to Edward Sewster, goldsmith, 1500, being 'the price of a ring, with a fair table diamond,' 'which his majesty Goo did bestow upon his majesty's clear consort Queen Mary's bishop ;' and to Philip Jacohson, jeweller, 3480, ' due unto him for jewels, by him delivered for his late majesty's service, and for a George set with diamonds, and for a dia- mond set in a ring of gold, likewise delivered for his said late majesty's service, and for one great jewel bought of him by his majesty.' And on the 27th of October, to the Earl of Pembroke, 400, in part of 2000, residue of the sum of 10,000, in full satisfaction of a ring, bought by his majesty of the Earl of Hol- land, and of other jewels, bought of Philip Ja- cobson, jeweller, and a jewel, bought of William Rogers, goldsmith, amounting in the whole to the sum of 10,400.' The following entry, though of a later date, has reference to jewels bought during this period : ' By order, 1st of July, 1628, to Henry Ellowes, 1300, for a bracelet which his majesty bought of him, and bestowed upon his dearest consort the queen, for a new-year's gift, at Xmas, 1626.' "* The imagination of the poet was not a fiction ! " Ay, there they are, Nobles and sons of nobles, patentees," Monopolists, and stewards of this poor farm, On whose lean sheep sit the prophetic crows. Here is the pomp that strips the houseless orphan, Here it the pride that breaks the desolate heart. These are the lilies glorious as Solomon, Who toil not, neither do they spin unless It be the webs they catch poor rogues withal. Here is the surfeit which to them who earn The niggard wages of the earth, scarce leaves The tithe that will support them till they crawl Back to its cold, hard bosom. Here is health Follow'd by grim disease, glory by shame, Waste by lean famine, wealth by squalid want, And England's sin by England's punishment. The punishment followed hard indeed. Our next extract from these letters exhibits the writer's royal uncle not only a beggar, but a prisoner. I print the letters out of their order in time, because it is of importance, in regard to the connexion I believe to have been once meditated by the popular leaders with this young prince, to complete the view which is presented of him in these valuable and very interesting documents. But first let the reader observe this passage from Clarendon. It refers to the latter part of the year 1643. "The arrival of the prince- elector at London," says the noble historian, " was now no less the discourse of all tongues than the death of Mr. Pym. He had been in England before the troubles, and received and cherished by the king with great demonstration of grace and kindness, and supplied with a pen- sion of twelve thousand pounds sterling yearly. When the king left London, he attended his majesty to York, and resided there with him till the differences grew so high that his majesty found it necessary to resolve to raise an army for his defence. Then, on a sudden, without giving the king many days' notice of his reso- lution, that prince-elector left the court; and taking the opportunity of an ordinary vessel, embarked himself for Holland, to the wonder of all men, who thought it an unseasonable declaration of his fear at least of the Parliament, and his de- sire of being well esteemed by them, when it was evident they esteemed not the king as they should. And this was the more spoken of, when it was afterward known that the Parlia- The Athenaeum, No. 573. 418 BRITISH STATESMEN. ment expressed a good sense of his having deserted the king, and imputed it to his con- science, that he knew of some such designs of his majesty as he could not comply with.'' At this time, after many loud discourses of his coming (which were derived to Oxford, as somewhat that might have an influence upon his majesty's counsels, there being then several whispers of some high proceedings they intended against the king), he arrived at London, and was received with ceremony ; lodged in Whitehall, and order taken for the payment of that pension which had been formerly assigned to him by his majesty ; and a particular direction given by both Houses 'that he should be admitted to sit in the As- sembly of Divines,' where, after he had taken the covenants, he was contented to be often present : of all which the king took no other notice than sometimes to express that he was sorry, on his nephew's behalf, that he thought fit to declare such a compliance." Whatever the prince's hopes were, however, all events now took an inauspicious turn re- specting them. Pym and Hampden the lead- ers of what might be called the Constitutional party of the Parliament, and the controllers of the Parliament itself so long as they lived were now no more, Lord Essex was powerless, and their successors in influence were declared Republicans. Not that the hopes of the young prince ever perished altogether till the section of Presbyterians who still continued to encour- age them had also undergone most merited po- litical death : they were still, it will be seen, retained ; and from the style and character of the extracts which I now give in support of this, another and a not ungrateful fact appears that the English people lost little by losing any closer connexion with this prince-elector. His feel- ings seem to have been really mean and sordid as his wants. He here details an interview, interesting, yet very painful in its character, with his now imprisoned and deserted uncle. The letter is dated from Whitehall, the 12th of Nov-ember, 1647 : " MADAME, I waitted all the last weeke on the king my uncle att Hampton Court, whither I intend to return on Munday next, since there is very few w l h him, & there is a rumour of his remouvall, though I cannot give much credit to it, untill the army receive some satisfaction for their pay, w*hout w c h they will hardly goe farre from the citty or par! 1 . His Ma*> upon oc- casion doth still blame the way I have bin in all this while, & I doe deffend it as the only shelter I have, when my publique businesse & my person have received soe many neglects (I will not say worse) att court, <k by those that had relation to him, & noe lesse by himselfe since the queene hath had any hand in busi- nesse ; butt 1 entred upon noe particulars, butt wished that, whatsoever opinion he had of me, he might in a happy aggreement w'h his parl'. be reestablished, wherein I could not butt also comprehend the safety of my friends, & leave what concernes myselfe to the venture. Ma- dame, I would not have renewed that sore of his ill usage of me since the queene hath had power w'h him, butt that he urged me to it, in saying / should rather have lived upon bread and u-atcr than have complyd w'h the parl c , w c h he s d I did to have only one chickin more in my dish (w c h was his phrase, & I doe guesse who made ue of it in another occasion afore this warre be- gunne), and that he would have thought it a dcs- seign more icorthy his neveu if I had sonne about to have taken his crowne from his head ; w'h, & such like expressions, would have mooved a sainct; neither doe I know of any butt our Sav- iour that would have ruined himselfe for those that hate one. The king used me else civily & w'h enough kindnesse (att least in appear- ance), neither seemed he displeased att the freedome I used in replying to him, w^h I did w'h all the respect I could conceive, if it were otherwayes I should hope to heare of it by y r Ma ty . As I am writing of this, I am told that divers coming from Hampton Court this morn- ing say that the king is gone from thence this night, & that six horses were heard in the night gallopping over Kingstone Bridge, w c h is sup- posed to have beene his Ma'*, & that it was not against his will, since there was noe bussell att all heard in the night, & it is likely his Ma'* went away afore the guards were sett, w l h used to be about 9 of the clock att night, yes- terday having been his writing day, in w h he little came abroad, & soone retired after sup- per. Afore I close this I shall acquaint y r Ma'? w'h what I doe farthe r heare concerning his Ma'*. . . I heare since that S r John Cooke, one of the com" w'h the king hath made relation to the howse of peeres of hislVIa tis departure yes- ternight about seven of the clock through the garden alone, having left two letters upon the table in his bed-chamber, one to the comis- sioners, & another to Coll. Whaley that guard- ed him, giving them thankes for their civilities towards him, desiring the com" to present such papers as he had left there to the parl 1 (the con- tents whereof I do not yett know), & desires Coll. Whaley to give his saddle horses to the D. of Yorke. This is all what for the present I can acquaint y r Ma'>' concerning this busi- nesse, not doubting butt you will heare more particulars from others, since I have not beene abroad to day, in w c h & for ever I rest y Ma 1 " most humble & obedient sonn & servant, " CHARLES." In a 'subsequent letter to his mother,* dated from the same place six months later, he refers in the same tone of indifferent concern to the "cloud the king lies under ;" observes that it is " more unusuall for kings $ queenes ever to con- fesse themselves to be in the wrong, than for suck smaler potentates as myselfe ;" protests that he is " not to ansicear for all the proceedings of a dis- tempered state ;" and adds : " as for my credit w'h the parlament, I beleeve y r Ma'*' nor any bodie else ever heard me brag" of it, though I thinke myself as well used by them as their pres- ent condition <$ the state of a fair es doth pcrnutt ; neither doe I know (considering w'hall how much those that are nearest to me are against them) all this time where I should be better, for I would rather be beholding to those who * His royal cousins are in other letters a frequent sub- ject of remark between the prince and his mother. In one, dated from Somerset House, the 20th of Oct., 1648, is the following : " I beleeve your MaW would nott be of my L I Stafford's opinion if you saw the Duke of Gloster, for my brother Edward had ever a round face from his youth, & the Duke of Glocesterhath a long one allready : <fc his eyes, though browne yet, in my opinion are of another shape than my s<l brothers, but indeed he hath hjs fatt cheekes, as most children of that age have." OLIVER CROMWELL. 419 never have disobliged me (to whom I have some relation) for my maintenance, than to France, or any others that have wronged me." Finally, in a letter written within a month of his uncle's execution, and when that terrible course of policy was well known to have been decided on, this prince writes to his mother, the sister of Charles I., in this cold, unfeeling strain : " You did not faile in your judgement of the treaty w'h the king, though I beleeve y Ma'y nor noebody else could have imagined the issue thereof altogether soe ill, as there is suf- ficient cause to feare it will prouve. Many that were well wishers to it did ever apprehend that the king's too long husbanding his concessions, and losse of oportunity, would produce those effects that are followed, & God knowes where they will end, for w cU those that have had or have still the manadging of those great affaires are to an- swear ; others that are butt remotely concern- ed in the effects thereof, cannot be blamed if they doe not intermeddle ; neither is it in their power to mend any thing ; For it hath been seen in all governments that strength will still preraile, be it right or wrong." And so our candidate-king waited quietly by till the execution of his uncle, and then he found that other objects were entertained by its pro- moters, which could fairly dispense at last with his presence altogether. Certainly Cromwell had better claims than Charles Louis ! That extraordinary man to resume the his- tory of his fortunes has spoken little in the House of late, but since the death of Strafford he has even increased in fervid activity. The remonstrance is now on foot in the House of Commons, and he is one of its most ardent pro- moters ; for with every act of policy that had in view the separation of the moderate from the decided party, his excitement and zeal increas- ed. And, even thus early in his public career, we can observe that affectation of indifference to objects on which he had set his soul, which he converted in after life into one great means of achieving them. Thus Clarendon, speaking of the remon- strance, tells us, " They [the leading men in the House of Commons] promised themselves they should easily carry it : so that the day it was to be resumed, they entertained the House all the morning with other debates, and towards noon called for the remonstrance ; and it being urged by some that it was too late to enter upon it, with much difficulty they consented that it should be entered upon next morning at nine of the clock ; and every clause should be debated ; for they would not have the House resolved into a committee, which they believed would spend too much time. Oliver Cromwell asked the Lord Falkland why he would not have it put off, for that day would quickly have deter- mined it. He answered, there would not have been time enough, for sure it would take some debate. The other replied, A very sorry one : they supposing, by the computation they had made, that very few would oppose it. But he quickly found he was mistaken." It is not possible to suppose that Cromwell could have believed this, even if he said it, since none knew better than Pym, Hampden. and himself, that one of the great objects of the re- monstrance was to act as a touchstone of par- ties both in the House of Commons and through- out the nation. Clarendon's addition to the story, also, is utterly incredible, unless it is to be taken as another evidence of Cromwell's wily deceit, which it is difficult to take in that light, seeing so little motive for it. For the debate having been renewed the following day, and having ended in the stormy scene so vividly de- scribed by Sir Philip Warwick" (at three of the clock in the morning, when [by a majority of eleven] they voted it, I thought we had all sat in the valley of the shadow of death ; for we, like Joab's and Abner's young men, had catched at each other's locks, and sheathed our swords in each other's bowels, had not the sa- gacity and great calmness of Mr. Hampden, by a short speech, prevented it, and led us to de- fer our angry debate until the next morning)" the noble historian tells us, " that as the mem- bers at that late hour were hurrying out of the House, the Lord Falkland asked Oliver Crom- well whether there had been a debate. To which he answered, he would take his word an- other time ; and whispered him in the ear, with some asseveration, that if the remonstrance had been rejected, he would have sold all he had the next morning, and never have seen England more ; and he knew there were many other hon- est men of the same resolution. So near," adds Clarendon, " was the poor kingdom at that time to its deliverance." The story, if taken as a piece of sincerity on the part of Cromwell, is not to be believed for an instant. That, as I have before remarked, was not his temper. It was not his temper to despair of any achieve- ment on which he had fixed his determination and his hopes, so long as life, and his good strong arm, remained to him. Civil war became inevitable, and it is char- acteristic of Cromwell that he was the first man absolutely in the field. Acting under no regu- lar commission, he performed some pieces of daring and important service in his native dis- tricts. When the later declaration by the king* respecting the question of the militia had left no doubt of the speedy unfurling of the royal standard, he suddenly left London for the old vicinity of Huntingdon, whither a supply of arms* sent at his own private charge, had prece- ded him, and where a large body of dauntless men awaited him, inspired to the coming con- flict by no mercenary or mean motives, but by the great old lessons they had learned under the farmer of Ely and St. Ives. His striking determination, too, at this period, to venture every thing on the result of the contest, is far- ther shown by his having recklessly devoted large sums out of his dwindled private patri- mony to the promotion of public designs. He had given 500 to the fund raised by Parlia- ment for assistance to crush the Irish rebellion ; he had purchased the weapons I have else- where named ;* and when, some few months * Given in the Life of Pym. t The following are extracts from the journals of the House: "Whereas Mr. Cromwell hath sent down arms into the county of Cambridge for the defence of that coun- ty ; it is this day ordered that Sir Dudley North shall forth- with pay to Mr. Cromwell 100, which he hath received from Mr. Crane, late high-sheriff of the county of Cam- bridge ; which said 100 the said Mr. Crane had remain- ing in his hands for coat and conduct money." " Ordered, that Mr. Cromwell do move the lord-lieutenant for the county of Cambridge to grant his deputation to some of the 420 BRITISH STATESMEN. later, a difficulty arose respecting some hired wagons provided to put Lord Manchester's army in motion against the king, he at once got rid of the difficulty by paying out of his own purse 100 for the hire. Having arrived and picked out his men a solid foundation for his famous regiment of Ironsides he appears at once to have bent his chief exertions to the organization of some system among the chief popular men of the dis- trict, whereby they might have the inhabitants immediately trained to military service, the eastern counties associated for mutual defence, and the movements of the Royalists watched with unsparing vigilance. In the Commons' Journals of a very little later date, an order is observed, that " Mr. Cromwell do move the lord-lieutenant for the county of Cambridge to grant his deputation to some of the inhabitants of the town of Cambridge to train and exercise the inhabitants of that town." And a more obvious piece of daring service more important it could not be while the royal standard still remained unfurled, commemo- rated Cromwell's resolved zeal. Taking along with him his brother-in-law Valentine Wauton (member for the county of Huntingdon), he suc- ceeded in stopping the plate of the University of Cambridge, a spoil of inestimable value, which was then on the point of being sent to the king, to be melted down for the purposes of the war.* We find from the Journals, that on the 15th of August, 1642, Sir Philip Stapleton gave an ac- count in the lower House, from the committee for the defence of the kingdom, that " Mr. Cromwell, in Cambridgeshire, had seized the magazine in the castle of Cambridge, and had hindered the carrying of the plate from that university." And on the 18th of August, we find from the same authorities, a committee was appointed to prepare an order for the " in- demnity of Mr. Cromwell and Mr. Walton, and those that have or shall assist them in the stop- ping of the plate that was going from Cambridge to York."t Nor, in these first decisive movements, did Cromwell forget his uncle Sir Oliver's powers of mischief and aptitude to use them. He marched over to Ramsey, found his uncle at home, and having treated him personally with inhabitants of the town of Cambridge to train and exercise the inhabitants. of that town. 1642." * Various accounts have been given of this transaction, which, though disputed in various ways, is correctly stated in the text ; but perhaps the most comical version is that which follows, from, a* tract entitled " Querela Cantabrigi- ensis," in which certainly, while the writer disputes the seizure of the plate, he concedes a seizure of a different sort, as prompt and more amusing. " Master Cromwell, burgess for the town of Cambridge, and then newly turned a man of war, was sent down, as himself confessed, by his masters above, at the invitation of his masters below, to gather what strength he could, and stop all passages, that no plate might be sent ; but his designs being frustrated, and-' his character as an active, subtle man thereby some- what shaken, he hath ever since bent himself to work what revenge and mischief he could against us. In pursuit whereof, before that month was expired, down he comes again, in a terrible manner, with what forces he. could draw together, and surrounds divers colleges while we were at our devotion in our several chapels, taking away prisoners several doctors of divinity, heads of colleges, and these he carries with him to London in triumph." t See, also, May's History of the Long Parliament, 3d book, p. 79. The booty must have been very large indeed, since we find that the particular pieces sent from St. John's College alone amounted to 2065J ounces. See Berwick's Life, p. 24. every demonstration of studied kindness am! respect, resolvedly took from him all his means of at that instant assisting the king. The scene must have been strange on both sides, but it illustrates in Cromwell, with singular force, one of the most remarkable qualities of his char- acter. The reader will require nothing more to assist his imagination in the matter, after he has read the delightfully characteristic version of the anecdote given by Sir Philip Warwick. " While I was about Huntingdon," he says, " visiting old Sir Oliver Cromwell, his uncle and godfather, at his house at Ramsey, he told me this story of his successful nephew and godson : that he visited him with a good strong party of horse, and that he had asked him his blessing, and that the few hours he was there he would not keep on his hat in his presence ; but, at the same time, he not only disarmed, but plunder' ed him, for he took away all his plate." At last the king took the field, and the regu- lar levies commenced on both sides, as they have been described in the memoirs of Pym and Hampden. It only remains here to notice, in particular detail, the practical result of all those great thoughts which I have heretofore shown in the course of partial realization at the various stages of Cromwell's history in the final organization of that immortal troop of horse, which became the after wonder and ad- miration of the world. Had his history closed with the raising and disciplining of these men, it would have left a sufficient warrant of his greatness to posterity. Having accepted the commission under Es- sex of a colonel of a cavalry regiment, he pro- ceeded to enrol a body of a thousand men. And on this point let us first quote the cele- brated Baxter's words : " I think," says that generally well-intentioned person, " that, hav- ing been a prodigal in his youth, and afterward changed to a zealous religiousness, he meant honestly in the main, and was pious and con- scionable in the main course of his life, till prosperity and success corrupted him; that at his first entrance into the wars, being but a cap- tain of horse, he had a special care to get reli- gious men into his troop : these men were of greater understanding than common soldiers, and therefore were more apprehensive of the im- portance and consequence of the wars ; and making not money, but that which they took for the public felicity, to be their end, they were the more engaged to be valiant ; for he that maketh money his end, doth esteem his life above his pay, and therefore is like enough to save it by flight when danger comes, if possibly he ran ; but he that maketh the felicity of church and state his end, esteemeth it above his life, and therefore will the sooner lay down his life for it. And men of parts and understanding know how to manage their business, and know that flying is the surest way to death, and that standing to it is the likeliest way to escape ; there being many usually that fall in the flight for one that falleth in valiant fight. These things it's probable that Cromwell understood, ~and that none would be such engaged valiant men as the religious ; but yet I conjecture, that at his first choosing such men into his troop, it was the very esteem and lore of religious men that principally moved him, and the avoiding of those OLIVER CROMWELL. 421 disorders, mutinies, plunderings, and grievances of the country, which debosht men in armies are commonly guilty of: by this means he in- deed sped better than he expected. Aires, Desborough, Berry, Evanson, and the rest of that troop did prove so valiant, that, as far as I could learn, they never once ran away before an enemy. Hereupon he got a commission to take some care of the associated counties, where he brought this troop into a double regiment of fourteen full troops ; and all these as full of re- ligious men as he could get : these having more than ordinary wit and resolution, had more than ordinary success." In this passage the writer touches on a question of some interest in al- luding to the first motives that are likely to have prompted Cromwell in the selection of such men as these. There cannot be a doubt, I think, as it has been the purpose of these pages hitherto to illustrate, that the religious tendencies were seized by his genius first as a means rather than an end ; yet it might have been in his thoughts as strongly that the end to be achieved was that of the best interests of religion no less. Nor will the reader who has accompanied me thus far suppose that this Republican cap- tain held religion to be the sole necessary ac- complishment of a soldier. While he held, in- deed, that bravery unaccompanied by lofty mo- tives was a mere brutisn. faculty, he held as strongly that the noblest and least mercenary motives required yet the most faithful disci- pline. His regiment is thus described by White- locke. " He had a brave regiment of horse of his countrymen, most of them freeholders and freeholders' sons, who upon matter of con- science engaged in this quarrel, and under Crom- well. And thus, being well armed within by the satisfaction of their own consciences, and without by good iron arms, they would as one man charge firmly and fight desperately." A political ene- my to Cromwell writes still more strongly of the excellence of his military discipline. " His men," says the writer, " who, in the beginning, were unskilful both in handling their arms and managing their horses, by diligence and indus- try became excellent soldiers ; for Cromwell used them daily to look after, feed, and dress their horses, and, when it was needful, to lie to- gether with them on the ground ; and, besides, taught them to dean and keep their arms bright, and have them ready for service ; to choose the best armour, and to arm themselves to the best advantage. Trained up in this kind of military exercise, they excelled all their fellow- soldiers in feats of war, and obtained more vic- tories over their enemies."* But the most striking and characteristic evi- dence on these minor points of discipline re- mains to be quoted from a still more inveterate enemy. " Cromwell," says Heath,t " well knowing the nature of the quarrel (which was * " Hi autem initio nee arma tractandi nee equog gnari, diligentii solertiaque bellatores acerrirai evaserunt ; equis etenim curandis, nutriendis ac detergendis indies assuefacti sunt, et si opus foret simul humicubando; arma insuper polire, nitida et usui expedita servare, loriras optimas in- duere, seque csetero armaturae genere communire condoce- fecerat eos Cromwellius. Atque hoc exercitit mihtaris geuere, prae reliquis commilitonum omnibus emicufire vir- tute bellica, pleuresque ab hoste palmas reportftruiit." Bate's Elenchi, &c., part ii., p. 270. t Flagrellum, p. 31-33. pretended for religion), resolved and advised that there were no men so likely to oppose the conquering gallantry of those gentlemen on the king's side as such who were or should be en- gaged upon account of conscience and zeal, which would spirit them with the same mag- nanimous fortitude, and make them also to en- dure the difficulties and hardships of the war with a more pertinacious constancy, as having bodies better able, and minds more finely sub- limed upon that score, pro aris et focis, than the mixed and most rascally herd of loose and vicious people. But yet, prudently considering that in so long an interval and vacancy of war, from which this nation had been blessed, the most forwardest Hotspurs on the account of zeal might quale and shrink at the noise of the battel, and their spiritual proud courage abate at the encounter, and never dene a Cavalier again after one dismal alarum and fright of a discomfiture, he would first proee and try his troopers how they could endure a sudden terrour, and by that grow hardy to the constancy of danger (as eagles certifie themselves of the gen- uine race of their young ones by their experi- encing how they can outstare and brave the sun, and imitate them with a bold and passive fortitude, the hardy rudiments of their fighting, predatory life) ; for as he relied on one hand upon their religious resolution and spiritual val- our, so did he not reject the arm of flesh, which should actuate those inward impulses, and by a just temprament of both to a true metal, conduct and manage their sober and well-governed bra- very to an assurance of success and victory ; and such whose hearts failed, he resolved to dis- mount them, and give their horses to more courage- ous riders. This he did by a stratagen upon the first muster of his troop ; when having privily placed twelve men in an ambuscado (it being neer some of the king's garrisons), upon a signal or the appointed time, the said ambush, with a trump- et sounding a charge, galloped furiously to the body, out of which some 20 instantly fled out of fear and dismay, and were glad the forfeiture was so cheap and easie, and, ashamed of their childish and disgraceful deserting of their sta- tion and colours, had not the confidence to re- quest their continuance in his service, or deny or scruple the rendring their horses to them who should fight the Lord's battel in their stead." Some shades there are in the account I have next to quote of this remarkable regiment, but it has also characteristic touches of happiest truth which may not be denied. " All Crom- well's men," says Sir Philip, " had either natu- rally the fanatic humour, or soon imbibed it. A herd of this sort of men being by him drawn together, he himself, like Mohammed, having transports of fancy, and, withal, a crafty un- derstanding, knowing that natural principles, though not morally good, will conduce to the attainment of natural and politic ends, made use of the zeal and credulity of those persons ; teaching them, as they too readily taught them- selves, that they engaged for God when he led them against the king ; and where this opinion met with a natural courage, it made them the bolder, and too often the crueller ; for it was such a sort of men as killed brave young Cavendish and many others, after quarter given, in cold blood. And these men, habituated more to spir- 422 BRITISH STATESMEN. itual pride than carnal riot or intemperance, so, consequently, having been industrious and ac- tive in their former callings and professions, where natural courage wanted, zeal supplied its place ; and at first they chose rather to die than fly ; and custom removed fear of danger ; and af- terward, finding the sweet of good pay and of opulent plunder and preferment, the lucrative part made gain seem to them a natural member of godliness."* Finally, and most interesting evidence of all, Cromwell himself, in one of his conferences during the Protectorate, thus described, in memorable and characteristic words, his own proceedings at the present period of his history. " I was," he said, " a person that from my first employment was suddenly preferred and lifted up from lesser trusts to greater, from my first being a captain of a troop of horse ; and I did labour (as well as I could) to discharge my trust ; and God blessed me as it pleased him ; and I did truly and plainly, and then, in a way of foolish simplicity (as it was judged by very great and wise men, and good men too), de- sired to make my instruments to help me in this work ; and I will deal plainly with you. I had a very worthy friend then, and he was a very noble person, and I know his memory was very grateful to all, Mr. John Hampdcn. At my first going out into this engagement (I saw), their men were beaten at every hand; I did, indeed, and desired him that he would make some ad- ditions to my Lord Essex's army of some new regiments ; and I told him I would be service- able to him in bringing such men as I thought had a spirit that would do something in the work. This is very true that I tell you ; God knows I lye not.- 'Your troops,' said I, 'are most of them old, decayed serving-men and tap- sters, and such kind of fellows ;' and said I, ' their troops are gentlemen's sons, younger sons, and persons of quality : do you think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows will be ever able to en- counter gentlemen, that have honour, and courage, and resolution in them ?' Truly, I presented him * Not disputing these shrewd hints by Sir Philip War- wick, the evidence of an eyewitness may be quoted here, in support of the continued mildness, modesty, religion, and goodness of Cromwell's special regiments : " Quicquid effu- ciunt in te dementes Olivari, nauci non facio, religiosissi- mum imperatorem, religionis mediis in exercitibus defen- sorem, protectorem, propagatorem, nemo nisi laudum tuarum supra modum invidus hie reperitur, qui te non suspexerit, admiratus fuerit, observantia summa non coluerit. Enini vero ubinara terrarum lam religiosus visus est imperator, tamque religiosus exercitus? Miratus ego sum, varias An- glise provincias tune pro negotiormn meorum, vel principis met Serenissimi Duds Gveldrice Conilis Hccrmvnda neces- sitate peragrans, easqui militibus tuis refertas, ita quietas, tranquillas, pacatas, quasi ne uuus quidem in illis miles esset, sic addictas pietati, quasi monachorum non militum legiones in pagis ipsarum disperse degerent. Ita certa singulis diebus turn fundendis Deo precibus, turn audiendis dei prsconiis, erant assignata tempora, milites ipsos adeb modestos, nihilque nisi Deum, pietatem, roligionem, virtu- tern respirantes, ut ingenue fatear cum stupore non raedi- ocri s;epe suspexi. Atque ne putet hie aliquis velle me Wandiri, oleum Olivario divendere, vel in illius aures instil- lare, testem Deum adhibeo, quod stepissime priesidiarios Olivarii, modA supra diet* militea adiens, nevel invereouu- dum verbulum unquam ab ullius ex illis ore perceperim, jusjurandumque nullum, sfd meram humauitatRm, urbaut- tatem, pietatem, verecundiam, modestiam animadverterim. Unde nequaquam in Olivarii militibus locum habere potest quod de omnibus aliis jampridem decantatum est, Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur; sed de illis dicendum potius est, Multa fides pietasqui viris qui castra sequuntur." in this manner conscientiously, and truly I did tell him, you must get men of a spirit ; and take it not ill what I say (I know you will not) of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentlemen will go, or else I am sure you will be beaten still. I told him so ; I did truly. He was a wise and worthy person, and he did think that I talked a good notion, but an impracticable one ; truly I told him I could do somewhat in it ; I did so ; and truly I must needs say that to you (impart it to what you please), I raised such men as had the fear of God before them, and made some con- science of what they did ; and from that day forward, I must say to you, they were never beaten, and wherever they were engaged against the enemy, they beat continually; and truly this is matter of praise to God ; and it hath some in- struction in it, to own men that are religious and godly, and so many of them as are peace- ably, and honestly, and quietly disposed to live reithin government,* as will be subject to those Gospel rules of obeying magistrates, and living under authority. I reckon no godliness with- out this circle ; but without this spirit, let it pretend what it will, it is diabolical, it is devil- ish, it is from diabolical spirits, from the height of Jotham's wickedness." And now, in leading forth into the field these thousand warriors, Oliver Cromwell gave them their last instruction in a piece of fiery sincer- ity, which, better than the cold hypocrisy he had equally at command, availed him for his present purposes. He told them that he would not seek to perplex them (since other officers he had heard instructed their troops in the nice legal fictions of their civil superiors in Parlia- ment) with any such phrases as fighting for king and Parliament :t it was for the Parliament alone they were now marching into military service ; for himself, he declared, that if he met King Charles in the body of the enemy, he would as soon discharge his pistol upon him as upon any private man ; and for any soldier present, therefore, who was troubled with a conscience that might not let him do the like, he advised him even now to quit the service he was engaged in. A terrible shout of de- termined zeal announced no deserter on thai score, and on marched Cromwell and his Iron- sidesthen the seed, and soon after the flower, of that astonishing army, which evea Lord Clarendon could describe as one to which vic- tory was entailed, and which, humanly speak- ing, could hardly fail of conquest whithersoever led ; an army whose order and discipline, * This was said, the reader will rscollcct, under the Pro- tectorate, in a conference on the advantages of monarchy. t A few months later he is said, on the authority of a Royalist journal of the time, the " Mercurius Politicus," to have used a very different style. When the associated counties, says the writer, were threatened by Lord Capel, Cromwell invited the principal gentry in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, and Hertford to a conference, whero he urged upon them the propriety of uniting all the forces they could raise, in order to repulse the common enemy. " He entreated them to consider seriously how acceptable a servico they should render to the king by keeping five whole counties in his obedience ; and concluded by drawing their attention to the honours and other rewards which they might justly expect from his majesty, in return for so signal a proof of their loyalty !" " Such excellent arts hare they," he continues, " to abuse the people, and make them think they do good service to the king, when they endeavour ta destroy him." It will he observed that here Cromw.ell was dealing with the gentry not the commonalty of t,h.e- Par* Uameutary force. OLIVER CROMWELL. 423 whose sobriety and manners, whose courage and success, made it famous and terrible all over the world. " On went Noll Cromwell," said the reckless Royalist Marchmont Need- ham " forth went Noll in the might of his spirit, with his swords and Bibles, and with all his train of disciples ; every one of whom is as a David, a man of war and a prophet ; gifted men all, that have resolved to their work better than any of the sons of Levi, and are rushing through England with their two-edged swords and Bibles, to convert the Gentiles." Cromwell styles himself a captain of a troop in the characteristic piece of autobiography quoted in these descriptions of his men, but I cannot discover that he ever held such a com- mission under Essex. It possibly refers merely to the period of his first daring excursions be- fore the king's standard was in the field, and which, without any regular commission, he seems to have pursued also some few days after, for one of his exploits before all the Parlia- mentary commissions of array had been issued was to seize the person of Sir Thomas Conisby, high sheriff of the county of Herts, who had come to St. Alban's on the market-day for the purpose of proclaiming the Earl of Essex, and : all who should he his followers, traitors. The self-important, knight had arrived in the market- place, and gravely unfolded his momentous proclamation, when suddenly he was pounced upon by Cromwell and his troop, and carried off a captive to London. Then it was Cromwell received his colonel's commission, with an in- struction to increase his followers to a regiment j of a thousand men ; and how he did this the reader has seen. Meanwhile, the commissions of array are out on all sides, and every town, every village, every hamlet in England is a muster-place for armed men, who are to fight against their own coun- trymen, their friends, perhaps their kindred. The causes which suddenly raised up for the king a larger levy of partisans and soldiers than could possibly have been anticipated by the Par- liament, have been already placed before the reader.* " I thought," says the enthusiastic and honest Ludlow, in describing his adhesion to the army of Essex, t " I thought the justice of that cause I had engaged in to be so evident, that I could not imagine it to he attended with much difficulty ; for though I supposed that many of the clergy, who had been the principal * la the Life of Hampden. t " Soon after my engagement in this cause, I met with Mr. Richard Fiennes, son to the Lord Say, and Mr. Charles Fleetwood, son to Sir Miles Fleetwood, then a member of the House of Commons, with whom consulting, it was re- solved by us to assemble as many young gentlemen of th Inns of Court, of which we then were, and others, as shoul be found disposed to this service, in order to be instructe ild icted military affairs to instruct us in the use of arms, and for dime time we frequently met to exercise at the Artillery Ground in London. And being 1 informed that the Parlia- ment had resolved to raise a life-guard fur the Earl of Es- sex, to consist of a hundred gentlemen, under the command of Sir Philip Stapleton, a member of Parliament, most of our company entered themselves therein, and made up the greatest part of the said guard ; among whom were Mr. Richard Fiennes, Mr. Charles Fleetwood. afterward lieu- tenant-general. Major-general Harrison, Colonel Nathaniel Rich, Colonel Thomlinson, Colonel Twisleton, Colonel Bos- well, Major Whitby, and myself, with divers others." Lud- low's Memoirs, vol. i., p. 42. authors of our miseries, together with some cf the courtiers, and such as absolutely depended on the king for their subsistence, as also some foreigners, would adhere to him, yet I could not think that many of the people, who had been long oppressed with heavy burdens, and now, with great difficulty, had obtained a Par- liament, composed of such persons as were willing to run all hazards to procure a lasting settlement for the nation, would be either such enemies to themselves, or so ungrateful to those they had trusted, as not to stand by them to the utmost of their power ; at least (though some might not have so much resolution and courage as to venture all with them, yet), that they would not be so treacherous and unworthy as to strengthen the hands of the enemy against those who had the laws of God, nature, and reason, as well as those of the land, of their side." But not the common people alone, whom many causes may be supposed to have influenced, deserted, at this trying hour, the Parliament which had risen to assert their rights of property, of labour, and of conscience : men of rank, who had hitherto acted firmly and resolutely against the king, now fairly deserted the principles they had avowed, and went over to the royal banner. Nothing but that subtle and delicate sense of honour, which the term loyalty implies, could have actuated these men to such a course. It was no love for Charles or for his cause : but that " grinning honour" stood in the way, they had fought against both. Their voices had been their own in the struggle for liberty and law, but their swords were the king's alone. " I would not continue here an hour," wrote Lord Robert Spencer from the royal camp to his wife, " if there could be an expedient found to solve the punctilio of hon- our." And thousands were agitated hy the same melancholy reflection, till the welcome death they sought in battle solved every punc- tilio at last. Had such men as these seen the crown of England "on a hedge-stake," they would have remained to the death beside it. A man of this sort, for instance, was Sir Bevill Grenville, who, when the king's affairs were in miserable plight at the first from the difficulty of collecting men, suddenly declared himself for Charles, published a commission of array, raised troops, and occupied a line of posts in the western counties. " I go," he said, " with joy and comfort, to venture my life in as good a cause, and in as good compa- ny, as ever Englishman did ; and I do take God to witness, if I were to choose a death, it would be no other than this." Here there appeared no " grinning" doubts, but they existed notwith- standing. In Grenville they took the shape of that sort of melancholy foreboding touching his own fate, which also so strongly affected Falk- land. In his active exertions in the field, in the more general business of the strife, in fierce and passionate resolution against the foe, Grenville yielded to none. Here he had no doubts, no scruples, nothing that stood in the way of ser- vice. Deeper in his heart of hearts the meianT choly lay. Among the manuscripts intrusted to me by Lord Nugent, I have found some interesting letters before and during the first year of the war, written to his wife "to his best frLend, 424 BRITISH STATESMEN. the Lady Grace Grenville" by this gallant man. I shall quote one, dated from Bodmyn, the 12th of October, 1642, which illustrates a striking difference between the levy of the common troops for the king's service, and such levies as we have noticed in the case of Crom- well. It illustrates, too, the change which these distressing times could work in the gen- tlest natures. The mild and gentlemanly Gren- ville now threatens his neighbours and his ten- ants, and flings out insulting epithets against his old friend and associate, the Earl of Essex. LOVE, I will detaine Sym. Cottle noe longer, nor can he bring you much more newes than I sent you yesterday. Wee found men enough at the place appointed well arm'd, & for my part I am impatient (as all my honest frends else are) that wee did not march pres- ently, to fetch those traitors out of their neast at Lanceston, or fire them in it, butt som of our faynter bretheren have prevailed soe farr w th the sherriff as there is a conference agreed on this day between 6 of a side, to see if they can compose matters. But we will march on neverthelesse, to be before hand if they agree not. My neighbours did ill that they came not out, $ are punishable by the lawe in a high degree ; <f though I will doe the best I can to save some of the honester sort, yet others shall smart. They were not in this to have comands from me ; it is a legall course w ch the sherriff is directed to by the statute, & he is the comander in the buis- nes, and not the collonells, butt he may take to his assistance whom he pleases. My neigh- bours did perchance looke to heare from me, <f if wee proceed I shall expect they should yett come forth, or they shall suffer, & they shall have farther direction from me. The gallant Prince Rupert goes on gloriously in his uncle's ser- vice ; he hath given another blow to the eni- my greater than the former, & hath well nye cutt off all their cavallry w th his ; soe as the great cuckhold is forced to shutt himself up w' h his foote w th in the icalls of Worcester, & not being able to keepe the field, witherward the king is moving w th his army to give the last blow, be- ing able to barre him from all reliefe, and his army is mightily encreased. Cottle hath a note. Publish it to y r frends. I have sent it already to my Cos. Gary. I hope wee shall shortly see good daies againe. My 'noble frend the brave Wilmott had a shrewd wound, & the prince himselfe slightly hurt, butt they killed 2000 of the enimy w th little losse. Your owne " B. GRENVILLE." What a change from a few years before, when bonds of love no less than sympathy con- nected the writer with men of thoughts as lof- ty, and hearts as generous, and fame as pure as his own, but for whom -he cannot find better words now than traitor or than cuckold ! How different from the days when his only care was for the domestic charities he is now forced to thrust aside ; when the sanctities of social life occupied the thoughts that are now only bent on the tragic scenes of civil strife, on plunder- ed towns, on flaming' villages, on ravaged home- steads. The reader will not, perhaps, object to my introducing here, from the same valuable manuscripts, a picture of Sir Bevill Grenville, as he was, in one of his letters of .that former time, to the same " best friend, Mrs. Grace Grenville." Such touching memorials, illustra- ting so vividly the changes of the period, be- long peculiarly to a personal history of the time, arid are used too scantily to be withheld when found. The matter of these letters contrasts not more strongly than their appearance : that which has been quoted, so worn and soiled as though it had travelled across a wide country in some trooper's pocket ; these, almost as fresh and clean as letters written yesterday. The date of the first is London, May 18, 1626; that of the second only two days later. "Mv DEAREST, Since myne by Stanburie I have receaved yrs by my Co : Trevillian's man, wherin you say you have not heard from me, w ch I wonder at, for surely I have written often unto you, both by way of Exeter and otherwise. Butt you doe much amaze me to tell me you are soe much distress'd for want of a midwife ; for God's sake be sure to have one under hand, whatever it cost, and you cannot excuse your fault in neglecting it soe long. Howsoever, have myne Abbott by, if all else faille ; shee, I hope, will doe her best, & I assure myselfe can doe well enough. There is little hope of hav- ing any of the Plate home as yett, butt all that can be don shall be. I am glad you have fetcht some of the Timber, to keepe Allen aworke ; for I desire the worke should goe on w th all pos- sible speed. If my co : Arundell be at Efford when you have Child, it will be verrie fitting shee should be a God-mother too ; therefore, though it be a boy, intreat both her & my sis- ter too ; it is no more than wee have don for- merly. My bro. Hen : is the man, whether it be boy or girl ; 4" I hope S r Jo : Eliot shall be there too if it be a boy, though the King hath lately sent him to the Tower for some wordes spo- ken in the Parlm' ; but wee are all resolv'd to have him out againe, or will proceed in noe busincsse ; & if y* Child chance to be borne before my com- ing downe, stay the Christning till wee can heare from one another. I will write shortly to you againe ; in the mean time, doe rest y r owne BEVILL GRENVILLE. . . . Reme'ber my du- ty to y mother, & forgett me not to my sister." Again : " MY DEAREST, How all the things, that at severall times I have & shall send to you from hence, will nowe come unto you, I knowe not, because they are to passe thorough so many hands ; butt I will hope the best. I have this weeke sent you a boxe of .... Sweet Meats, ass many sortes & the best I can gett, saving only apricots, whereof there are butt one pound, & those not verrie good, though the best y l can be gotten too ; there were fewe or none don the last yeare, because of the sicknes, & that makes the scarsety. The note of perticu- lars is heerinclosed, wanting only one boxe of the Quidiniock, w ch I have eaten. I hope my Lady be now w th you, therfore reme'ber my duty to her. Wee have S r Jo : Eliot at liberty againe ; the House was never quiet till the King released him. If God send us a boye, I have a good minde to have him called John, for my poore brother John's sake ; if it be a Girle, Grace. But I would faine perswade myselfo that I could be there at it, though I am now in some doubt, & therfore will heartely pray for you, if I canot be present. Keepe my aunts and my sister by any meanes with you, & re- OLIVER CROMWELL. 4-25 member me to them. Soe I hasteley comend you to God, resting your own ever " SEVILLE GRENVILE." Since the levying of his regiment, Cromwell has, meanwhile, already greatly distinguished himself. His first service \vas sudden and complete as his seizure of the unlucky Sir Thomas Conisby. Having received intelli- gence of a meeting of gentlemen of the king's party at Lowestoft in Suffolk, for the purpose of concerting means for making a stand in that quarter, he came upon them by surprise, and made the whole body, consisting of about thir- ty persons of opulence and distinction, his pris- oners. It was mentioned in the journals of the day as " the best piece of service that hath been done for a long time."* The historian of the Parliament, May, tells us that the ammu- nition and engines of war secured on this oc- casion by Cromwell were "enough to have serv- ed a considerable force." And certain it was, pursues that historian, that " if Cromwell had not surprised them in the nick of time, it had proved a matter of great danger to the coun- try ; for within one day after, as many more knights and gentlemen that were listed before, would have met at the same place." The first pitched battle between Charles and his subjects has been described in the life of Hampden. But while these early occurrences of the war left every one doubtful to which side success had fallen, the resolute cavalry of Cromwell were achieving remarkable and un- questioned advantages in every direction of their march. t At the head of twelve troops, their colonel had penetrated into Lincolnshire, disarming the disaffected as he passed, taking Stamford and Burleigh House by his way, and scattering all opposition before him. Not far from Grantham they were met by double their number a flying corps of cavalry belonging to a light army levied by young General Caven- dish, and with which he strove to recover Lin- colnshire to the king. Cromwell's men, though many of them harassed and fatigued, stood firm ; and the front they presented, few in num- bers as they were, would seem to have been not at all inviting to the enemy, for the firing on both sides for upward of half an hour ap- pears to have been confined to the skirmishers that covered each line, till at last Cromwell himself gave the word, and his men advanced * " By letters from Suffolk of the 15th present, it was in- formed that on Tuesday last, Colonel Cromwell, with about 1000 horse, having notice of a great confederacy held amongst the malignants at a town called Lowestoft, in that county, being a place of great consequence, came upon them unawares, and gained the town with small difficulty and no shot ; took prisoners Sir Thomas Barker and his brother Sir John Pettus, Mr. Thomas Knevet, two of the younger Catlings, Captain Hammond, Mr. Corey, Mr. Tur- vill, Mr. Preston, and about twenty others of good worth. This was the best piece of service that hath been done for a lonjj time, for both the counties will now be freed of their fears of the malignants. There were also taken in the said town divers clergymen of the confederacy, good store of ammunition, excellent saddles, great store of pistols, pow- der, shot, and other engines for war, sufficient for a great force. This hath set the whole country right, so that now they are all up in aims, and would feign be inaction for the Parliament." Per/. Diur., 18th Mar.. 1642. t " And now," writes Mrs. Hutchinson, " were all the countreyes iu England noe longer idle spectators, but sev- erall stages, whereon the tragedie of the civill warre was acted ; except the easterne association, where Mr. Oliver Cromwell, by his diligence, prevented the designes of the rojall party." HHH with an irresistible shock. The result may be described in the letter which Cromwell ad- dressed to the speaker the instant after the event : " God hath given us this evening a glo- rious victory over our enemies. They were, as wee are informed, one-and-twentie colours of horse troops, and three or foure of dragoons. It was late in the evening when wee drew out. They came and faced us within two miles of the town. Soe soon as wee had the alarum, wee drew out our forces, consisting of about twelve troops, whereof some of them soe poore and broken that you shall seldome have seen worse ; with this handfull it pleased God to cast the scale ; for after wee had stood, a little above musket shot the one body from the other, and the dragoons having fired on both sides for the space of halfe an houre or more, they not ad- vancing towards us, wee agreed to charge them, and advancing the body after many shots on both sides, came with our troops a pretty round trot, they standing firme to receive us, and our men charging fiercely upon them, they were immediately routed and ran all away, and wee had the execution of them two or three miles. I believe some of our souldiers did kill two or three men a pece. Wee have also got- ten some of their officers and some of their colours ; butt what the number of dead is, or what the prisoners, for the present wee have not time to inquire into."* Cromwell's 'next important service was the relief of Gainsborough, which, having been ta- ken by Lord Willoughby, and garrisoned with. Parliamentary soldiers, would have surrender- ed before the army of Lord Newcastle, return- ing victorious from Atherton Moor, but for the interposition of Cromwell, who, with sudden and astonishing bravery, threw himself and his regiment between the town and the first divis- ion of the advancing Royalist force, commanded by Lord Newcastle's brother, young General Cavendish. It was a fearful position. On the summit of an acclivity before them were ran- ged numbers in the proportion of at least three to one, while along the base of the hill ran a lofty fence, accessible only through a single gateway. On this quarter the enemy poured a heavy fire ; yet Cromwell, having himself reso- lutely and safely passed, filed his men through, inspired by his own courage to deeds of as lofty daring, formed them as they passed, section by section, and then at once made a furious charge up hill, which overbore the enemy as much by the wonder the act inspired as by any real shock of arms. The major part of the Royal- ists fled in broken confusion. Cromwell, still holding his men together, plunged back on that part of the enemy which alone had been able to stand, drove them pellmell into a bog, and there, it is melancholy to be obliged to add, butchered them, including poor Cavendish him- self without mercy. It was the first great ad- vantage these resolute soldiers had gained : their leader had inspired them to it by daring which might well have carried them beyond the common limits of soldierly forbearance, and it is charitable to suppose that this act was com- mitted at a time when they were scarcely re- sponsible agents.t * Perfect Diurnal, 25th of May, 1643. t The Perfect Diurnal writes of the result : " Gen. Cav- 426 BRITISH STATESMEN. This achievement, Whitelocke tells us, was " the beginning of Cromwell's great fortunes, and now he began to appear in the world." It was the beginning, too, of his close and extra- ordinary intimacy with Ireton. This famous man was at the time a captain in " Col. Thorn- haugh's regiment ;" but hearing of Cromwell's brave intentions in this matter, solicited leave to join him in the enterprise, and a lasting bond of friendship was thereafter sealed between them. Cromwell had perhaps the most sur- prising faculty in selecting his friends or agents of any man that ever played a great part in the world ; and it might possibly be taken as in some sort an evidence of the purity of his present motives that he now selected Ireton. Eleven years the junior of Cromwell, this gal- lant and virtuous man had been bred to the bar, and had distinguished himself thus early by the projection of various legal and constitu- tional reforms of a very striking and philosoph- ical character. His opinions, however, were all Republican, and his integrity so stern and uncompromising,* that no worldly motives or advantages ever changed or modified those con- victions of his mind. Nor did military services ever transport him out of philosophical or med- itative habits, since he was able with amazing facility, as Hume has with a misplaced sneer observed, " to graft the soldier on the lawyer, the statesman on the saint." Three years after the relief of Gainsborough, this 'excellent per- son married Cromwell's eldest daughter, Bridg- et, then in her twenty-first year, having, in- stantly upon the former action, Mrs. Hutchin- son tells us, " quite left Colonel Thornhaugh's regiment," to join that of the greater colonel whose conduct and genius had "charmed him." These individual successes, meanwhile, avail- ed little against serious reverses lately under- gone by the Parliament. Even after relieving Gainsborough, Cromwell was obliged to draw off towards Boston, which he did in masterly order, slowly retreating before the overwhelm- ing force of the main body of Newcastle's army, yet presenting at every step of his retreat " a bold front to his pursuers, and appearing to in- vite rather than shun an encounter." New- castle, however, marched; straight on to Gains- borough, recovered that place, and made him- self master of Lincoln. In the west it was, however, that the king's forces were at this time chiefly successful. The letter already quoted from the Grenville manuscripts referred to some of these success- es ; and the fight of Bradock Down, where Sir Ralph Hopton commanded the royal troops, was endish, and another person of note, much like to Gen. King, one colonel, lieutenant-colonel, sergeant-major, and a cap- tain, with above 100 others, were found dead upon the place, near upon twice as many killed in the pursuit, and prison- ers above 150. Upon their retreat they relieved the town with powder and other provisions ; after which they jkir- mished with a new supply of Newcastle's army that came against them, brought off* their foot, which was engaged with great disadvantage, and made a fair retreat into the- town, with little loss." * Ludlow says of him. in after years, that "when he heard of a bill brought into Parliament in his absence, to settle upon him two thousand a year in land, in his charac- ter of lord-deputy of Ireland, he expressed his displeasure, and said they had many just debts, which he wished they would pay before they made such presents ; that, for their land, he had no need of it, and therefore would not have it." a decided victory. In this Grenville greatly distinguished himself, and the rout of the Par- liamentarians was complete. Shortly after, however, I find from these manuscripts, Gren- ville wrote from Okehampton to " his best friend" thus: "DEARE LOVE, I will write a hasty line by my cos. Parker. Wee march'd w th some foote and horse from Plimpton to pre- vent the enimy from gathering power at Tavis- tock, where he forbare to come for feare of us. Wee then marcht to Okehampton to finde him, wee being sure they were there w th 5000 men, butt they ran away before wee came. There were sent some horse and dragoons to Chag- ford to pursue them in the night, butt for want of good foote, & the approach to the towne be- ing very hard, our men were forct to retire againe after they were in, cf- one losse wee have sustained that is unvalluable, to wilt, SIDNEY GODOJ.PHIN is slaine in the attempt, who was as gallant a gent. as the world had. I have time for no more. Y M ever, B. GRENVILE." Godolphin* was indeed a loss ; and it is more- over clear from the tone of the letter, that the western Parliamentary men were rallying once more. They had, in fact, been elevated by the news of assistance providing for them by the Parliament, and Sir Ralph Hopton now foolishly offered siege to the unimportant garrison of Plymouth, dividing his army for that purpose, instead of concentrating it on one point towards Tavistock, to clear the country to the eastward, where the Parliamentarians were collecting strength. The latter had been the advice of Grenville, whose next communications to his wife, crumpled, soiled, and torn as his fortunes, are accordingly most melancholy and despond- ing. The first is dated from Plympton, and presents several characteristic points. " MY DEARE LOVE, Y r great care & good af- fection, as they are very remarkable, soe they * Of this accomplished man, Clarendon speaks in a pass- age of his own life, which should not be omitted here : " There was never so great a mind and spirit contained in so little room ; so large an understanding and so unrestrained a fancy in so very small a body ; so that the Lord Falkland used to say merrily, that he thought it was a great ingre- dient into his friendship for Mr. Godolphin that he was pleased to be found in his company, where he was the properer man ; and it may be, the very remarkableness of his little person made the sharpness of his wit and the com- posed quickness of his judgment and understanding the more notable.. He had spent some years in France and in the Low Countries, and accompanied the Earl of Leicester in his ambassage into Denmark, before he resolved to be quiet, and attend some promotion in the court, where his excellent disposition and manners, and extraordinary quali- fications, made him very acceptable. Though everybody loved his company very well, yet he- loved very much to be alone, being in his constitution inclined somewhat lomelan cholv, and to retirement amongst his books ; and was so far from being active, that he was contented to be re- proached by his friends with laziness ; and was of so nice and tender a composition, that a little rain or wind would disorder him, and divert him from any short journey he had most willingly proposed to himself; insomuch as when he rid abroad with those in whose company he most delighted, if the wind chanced to be in his face, he would (after a little pleasant murmuring) suddenly turn his horse and go home : yet the civil war no sooner began (the first approaches to- wards which he discovered as soon as any man, by the pro- ceedings in Parliament, where he was a member, and op- posed with great indignation) than he put himself into the first troops which were raised in the west for the king, and bore the uneasiness and fatigue of winter marches with an exemplar courage and alacrity, until, by too brave a pursuit of the enemy into an obscure village in Devonshire, he was shot with a musket, with which (without sayiag any word more than, O God, I am hurt) he fell dead from his horse, to the excessive grief of his friends, who were all that knew him, and the irreparable damage of the public." OLIVER CROMWELL. 427 deserve my best thankes, & I could wish that the subject w ch you bestowe them upon could better requite you. I shall returne your Mes- senger w lh butt little certainty concerning our pres- ent Condition. Our Army lyes still in severall quarters. S r Ra. Hopton, w th my Lo : Mohun, is upon the north side of Plimouth vt^ two Regim* ; Collo : Ashbourn : S r Js : Bark : & I, are on the east side w th two Regim 1 ", & S' Ni : Glan : with Jack Trevan : & their two Regim", were sent the last weeke to Modbury, to pos- sesse that quarter before the enimy came, be- ing the richest part of this Countrey, whence most of our provision and victualls does come. If it were taken from us, wee might be starv'd in our quarters. Modbury lyes 6 miles to the Eastward of us, & now the Enimy w th all the power y c they can gather of those that wee dis- persed at Okeham : & Chag : & other aydes advanc'd w th in two mile of ou .... at Modbu : they are many thousand as the report goes, and wee are like to have speedy worke. Wee have sent more ayde to them both of horse and foote. Gud speed us well. Plirnouth is still supplied w" 1 men & all sorts of provision by sea, w cl1 wee cannot hinder, & therfore, for my part, I see no hope of taking it. Soe now the most danger that hangs over the Kg's side is in these parts, for he hath had great successe in those parts where he is. Cissiter, w ch Prince Rupert tooke, hath drawne in all Glocestershire. The Citties of Glocester & Bristoll do offer to render them- selves w^out force, & they are places of great importance. The Earle of Newcastle hath given the Parl 18 power a great defeate in York- shire. The Queene is cominge w"> good Ayde to the King. The Parl : did attempt to force severall quarters where the Kg's Army lay, &, were beaten off w th great losse to themselves in all places. Wee have advertizm 1 : that some ayde is coming from his Ma tie to us, butt it is soe slowe as wee shall need it before wee see it. But God's will be done ; I am satisfied I canot expire in a better cause. I have given some di- rections to Jack for his study ; pray cause him to putt them in execution, & to make some ex- ercise in verse or prose every day. Intreat my Cos. ... & Bar : Geal : to take a little paines with him. I have releas'd the Prisoners that Bar : Geal : wrote for. Lett Cap : Stanb : know, it is all one to me whither he goe by Byd : or Pads : soe he make haste : & now to conclude, I beseech you take care of y r health ; I have nothing soe much in my prayers. Y r Phisition Jennings is turned a Traytor w jA the rest, wherby he hath lost my love, 3? I am doubtfull to trust you w' h him. Present my humble duety & thanks to y r moth r ; & I beseech God to blesse y r young people. I rest y owne ever, SEVILLE GKEN- VILE. . . . My new cap is a little too straight. . . . I know not what forme of a Certifficate it is that Jo : Geal : desires, butt if he will send it to me drawne, I will gett it sign'd." At last Hopton abandoned the siege of Ply- mouth, and joined his forces once more at Ta- Tistock. Grenville immediately after writes thus to the Lady Grace : " DEARE LOVE, There have been some changes since I wrote last ; wee have raised our seige of Plimouth, w cl> , for my part, I never expected could have been success- full, yet in submission to better judgm 18 I gave way, & wee are now at Tavistock, united againe j in one boddy. The party of ours w<* was at Modbury' indur'd a cruell assault for 12 huwers against many thousand men, & kill'd many of them, w th the losse of fewe and some hurt, butt ours at last were forced to retire to Plimpton for want of Amunition, having spent all their stock. Wee are still threatned, butt I hope God's favour will not forsake vs. Y r Neighbour of Gouldon, I heare, is one of the dead at Modbury, <$ will not now plunder y r Countrey if it be true. If my Soldier Hugh Ching continue sick, pray lett there be care had of him, & lett him not want what you can helpe him. Bidd Tom Ansley have speeiall care of the busines I have now writt to him. Give my duety to y r mother, & I beseech God to keepe and blesse you all, <$ if it be his will to send us a happie meeting, so prayeth y r faithfull BEVILLE GKENVILE. ... I have sent home some peare grafts ; lett them be carefully grafted, some by Brute & some by Jo. Skiner. I beseech you make Jack to pursue the directions I have given him. ... I did send home some Peare grafts from Truroe about Michaelmas ; lett them be carefully grafted also, & note w cl1 is one & w cb the other." The happy meeting prayed for in this touch- ing letter was doomed never to take place. After some important successes gained by Hopton, Waller entered the western counties with a small but well-appointed army, and fought the disputed battle of Lansdowne, the result of which, let the victory be disputed as it may, certainly was to leave the Parliamentary general quartered that night in Bath, at the foot of the contested hill, while Hopton was borne off the field with heavy wounds, his army retreating at the same time towards Oxford, and leaving behind them, among the dead bodies of their chief officers, that of the brave and honourable Sir Bevill Grenville. A very short time elapsed, however, before the Royalists rallied, and in an action near Devizes totally routed and dispersed the army of Sir William Waller. Waller, on his return to London, mortified, deserted, and defeated, was yet received with honour, " as if," says Clarendon, with wonder, " he had brought the king prisoner with him." Yet here admiration would be better timed than wonder. The feeling that inspired the Parlia- ment in such a policy was that of the Roman Senate in congratulating the general who was defeated at Cannae, that he had not despaired of his country. It was only by such noble and elevated disregard of all petty jealousies that these great statesmen held their forces togeth- er, and subdued the jealousies of their chiefs, till fortune flung upon their side once more the chances of battle. Never was the cause of the Parliament in such danger as now. The divisions and jeal- ousies that had sprung up ; the fatal imbecility and suspected treachery of Essex ; the crown- ing disaster of the death of Hampden, with the yet unshrinking decision and fortitude of Pym, applied with success to the healing even of such wounds as these, have already been placed before the reader by the writer of this memoir.* In the life of Vane, the masterly act of states- manship resolved on at this time has also been commemorated. The commissioners for the * In the Live* of Pym and Hampden. 428 BRITISH STATESMEN. Solemn League and Covenant were now set- tling their great act in Edinburgh. Exertions were not, meanwhile, wanting in England, while the Scottish supply was waited for. May, the historian of the Long Parlia- ment, has described in a memorable passage the resolution shown by the Londoners when their great stronghold was threatened. " London," he says, " was at this time unfortified ; nor could she, if the enemy, then master of the field, had come upon her, have opposed any walls but such as those old Sparta used, the hearts of her courageous citizens. But now was begun the large intrenchment, which en- compassed not only the city, but the suburbs on every side, containing about twelve miles in circuit. That great work was by many hands completed in a short time, it being then the prac- tice for thousands to go out every day to dig, all professions, trades, and occupations talcing their turns ; not the inferior tradesmen only, but gentle- men of the best quality, knights, and ladies, for the Encouragement of others, resorted to the works daily, not as spectators, but assisfers, carrying themselves spades, mattocks, and other suitable im- plements, so that it became a pleasant spectacle at London to see them going out in such order and numbers, with drums beating before them, which put life into the drooping people, being taken for a happy omen, that in so low a condi- tion they yet seemed not to despair." The cause was one which admitted not of despair, which, in the words of one of its noblest advocates, gave life in death to all the owners of it and all the sufferers for it. Essex, with his army re-enforced and his jealousies compromised, was now active in the field once more ; while jealousies, worse than any that had affected the Parliament's success, ravaged the victorious forces of the king. Charles's original commander in chief, Lord Lindsey, had fallen in the Edgehill fight, and the chief command had then been given to the king's nephew, Prince Rupert, a young man only twenty-three years of age, brave, but rash, impetuous, and with all the headstrong and plundering propensities of a mere soldier of for- tune. He received the appointment of gener- al of the Royal horse, with a fatal clause in his commission, exempting him from receiving any orders but from Charles himself. The first ef- fect of this was disastrous in the extreme ; for if the high-spirited and chivalrous Newcastle had joined Charles and Rupert in the south af- ter the victory of Atherton Moor, instead of marching back to the north to avoid the morti- fication of receiving orders and perhaps inso- lence from Rupert, the result might have been hard to tell. In the same way, Prince Maurice a youth of only twenty-two, with all the bad qualities of his brother Rupert, and none of his talent harassed Hertford, whose lieutenant- general in the command of the west he was, so as to render almost of no avail Fiennes' ill-fa- ted surrender of Bristol. And now, instead of co-operating upon one great point, Charles was at Gloucester, and Newcastle sat down before Hull. To Gloucester, therefore, Essex directed a movement with his re-enforced army, and so well did he perform it that the sound of his cannon was Charles's first .announcement of his approach. The Royalists broke up in some confusion, and retired with the view of dispu- ting the London road. Essex relieved and sup- plied Gloucester, and, anxious to avoid a battle with the king's superior cavalry, resolved to manoeuvre his way back to London. He first marched to Tewkesbury, where he lay five days, and made demonstrations as if he had intended to proceed northward to Worcester. But, by a forced march during the night, he reached Cirencester, obtaining the double advantage of passing unmolested through an open country, and of surprising a convoy of provisions which lay in that town, where he also took upward of 400 prisoners. Having marched hence into Wiltshire, and now advancing towards the Au- burn hills with the view of proceeding through an enclosed country to Newbury, Prince Ru- pert suddenly molested him with some divis- ions of horse, and in a skirmish some short dis- tance from Hungerford nearly 2000 men were killed or wounded. In this skirmish an inci- dent occurred, so characteristic yet so little known, that the reader will excuse its inser- tion from a rare tract entitled the " Life and Death of Robert Earl of Essex," by an officer who served under him. " Our horse," he says, " here made a great impression upon the queen's regiment of horse, and charged them again and again, and cut in pieces many of her life-guard. In this service the Marquis of Vivile was taken prisoner : it seems he would not be knoicn who he was ; but endeavouring to rescue himself from a, lieutenant that took him prisoner, and thereupon, having his head almost cloven asunder with a pole- axe, he acknowledged himself, in the last words he spoke, which were, Vous VOYEZ UN GRAND MAR- QUIS MOURANT ! that is, you see a great marquis dying. His dead body was carried to Hunger- ford by the lord-general's command. It had not been long there, when the king did send a trumpet to his excellency, conceiving that the marquis had been wounded only and taken pris- oner, and desired that his chirurgeons and doc- tors might have free access unto him for his recovery. His excellency certified the trumpet that he was dead, and returned his body to the king, to receive those funeral rites as his maj- esty would give it. Some say that his body was ransomed for 300 pieces of gold." Essex arrived at Newbury at last, but, to his surprise, found that Charles and the Royalist army had been there two hours before him. An action was unavoidable now, and Essex met the crisis gallantly. He accepted the king's chal- lenge for battle on the morning of the follow- ing day. "All that night," says the officer I have just quoted, in a fine description, which appears in none of the histories, and therefore may be welcomed by the reader here, "all that night our army lay in the fields, impatient of the sloth of darkness, and wishing for the morning's light, to exercise their valour ; and the rather, because the king had sent a challenge over night to the lord-general to give him battle the next morning. A great part of the enemy's army continued also in the field, incapable of sleep, their enemy being so nigh ; and, sometimes looking on the ground, they thought upon the mel- ancholy element of which they were composed, and to which they must return ; and sometimes looking OLIVER CROMWELL. 429 up, they observed the silent marches of the stars, and the moving scene of heaven. The day no sooner did appear, but they were marshalled into order, and advanced to the brow of the hill ; and not long after, the ordnance was planted, and the whole body of their horse and foot stood in battalia. The officers and command- ers of their foot did many of them leave off their doublets, and with daring resolution did bring on their men ; and, as if they came rather to triumph than to fight, they, in their shirts, did lead them up to the battle. The first that gave the charge was the most noble Lord Roberts, whose ac- tions speak him higher than our epithets. He performed it with great resolution, and by his own example showed excellent demonstrations of valour to his regiment. The cavalry of the enemy performed also their charge most brave- ly, and gave in with a mighty impression upon him. A prepared body of our army made haste to relieve him. Upon this, two regiments of the king's horse, with a fierce charge, saluted the blue regiment of the London trained-bands, who gallantly discharged upon them, and did beat them back ; but they, being no whit daunted at it, wheeled about, and on a sudden charged them. Our mnsketeers did again discharge, and that with so much violence and success, that they sent them now, not wheeling, but reeling from them ; and yet, for all that, they made a third assault, and coming in full squadrons, they did the utmost of their endeavour to break through our ranks ; but a cloud of bullets came at once so thick from our muskets, and made such a havoc among them, both of men and horse, that in a fear, full of confused speed, they did fly before us, and did no more adventure upon so warm a service " In the mean time, Sir Philip Stapleton per- formed excellent service with the lord-general's regiment of horse, and five times together did charge the enemy ; but, above all, the renown and glory of this day is most justly due unto the resolution and conduct of our general ; for, before the battle was begun, he did ride from ono regiment to another, and did inflame them with courage, and perceiving in them all an eager desire to battle with their enemies, he collected to himself a sure presage of victory to come. I have heard, that when, in the heat and tem- pest of the fight, some friends of his did advise him to leave off his white hat, because it ren- dered him an object too remarkable to the ene- my : No, replied the earl, it is not the hat, but the heart. The hat is not capable either of fear or honour. He himself, being foremost in person, did lead up the city regiment, and when a vast body of the enemy's horse had given so violent a charge that they had broken quite through it, he quickly rallied his men together, and with undaunted courage did lead them up the hill. In his way he did beat the infantry of the king from hedge to hedge, and did so scatter them, that hardly any of the enemy's foot ap- peared at that present to him to keep together in a body. After six hours' long fight, with the assistance of his horse, he gained those ad- vantages which the enemy possessed in the morning, which were the hill, the hedges, and the river. " In the mean time, a party of the enemy's horse, in a great body, wheeled about, and about three quarters of a mile below the hill they did fall upon the rear of our army, where our car- riages were placed ; to relieve which, his ex- cellency sent a selected party from the hill to assist their friends, who were deeply engaged in the fight. These forces marching down the hill, did meet a regiment of horse of the ene- my's, who in their hats had branches of fur z and broom, which our army did that day wear, for dis- tinction sake, to be known by one another from their adversaries, and they cried out to our men, Friends, friends ; but they being discovered to be enemies, our men gave fire upon them, and having some horse to second the execution, they did force them farther from them. Our men being now marched to the bottom of the hill, they increased the courage of their friends, and after a sharp conflict they forced the king's horse to fly with remarkable loss, having left the ground strewed with the carcasses of their horses and riders. " And now his excellency, having planted his ordnance on the top of the hill, did thunder against the enemy where he found their num- bers to be thickest, and the king's ordnance (being yet on the same hill) did play with the like fury against the forces of his excellency. The cannon on each side did dispute with one another, as if the battle was but new begun. The trained-bands of the city of London en- dured the chiefest heat of the day, and had the honour to win it ; for, being now upon the brow of the hill, they lay not only open to the horse, but the cannon of the enemy ; yet they stood undaunted, and conquerors against all ; and, like a grove of pines in a day of wind and tempest, they only moved their heads or arms, but kept their footing- sure, unless, by an improvement of honour, they advanced forward to pursue their advantage on their enemies. " Although the night did now draw on, yet neither of the armies did draw ofF. The ene- my's horse, in a great body, did stand on the farthest side of the hill, and the broken re- mainders of their foot behind them ; and having made some pillage, about the middle of the night they drew off their ordnance, and re- treated unto Newbury. On the next morning, his excellency, being absolute master of the field, did marshal again his soldiers into order to receive the enemy, if he had any stomach to the field, and to that purpose discharged a piece of ordnance ; but no enemy appearing, he marched towards Reading. The loss which the king's forces re- ceived in this memorable battle is remarkable for, besides the multitudes that were carried away in carts, there were divers found that were buried in pits and ditches. There were many personages of note and honour slain, as the Earl of Carnarvon, the Earl of Sunderland, the Lord of Falkland, more famous for his pen than for his sword, Colonel Morgan, Lieuten- ant-colonel Fielding, Mr. Strode, and others : there were hurt the Lord Andover, Sir Charles Lucas, Colonel Charles Gerard, Colonel Ewers, the Earl of Carlisle, the Earl of Peterborough, Lieutenant-colonel George Lisle, Sir John Rus- sell, Mr. Edward Sackville, Mr. Henry Howard, Mr. George Porter, Mr. Progers, Col. Darcy, Lieutenant-colonel Edward Villars, and many more of note and eminence, whose names are unknown unto us. ... On the Parliament side, 430 BRITISH STATESMEN. there were slain, Colonel Tucker, Captain George Massey, and Captain Hunt, and not any more of quality that I can learn." In this very striking and beautiful description are presented all the more memorahle charac- teristics of this fatal civil strife. We see the daring and impetuous dash of the Royalists, touched with something of unnecessary brava- do, and met by the steady and immovable de- termination of the Parliamentarians. In vain, yet in vain, and again in vain, the impetuous Rupert dashes on the rampart of invincible pikes held by the raw recruits of London : men as Lord Clarendon observes in speaking of this action, " of whose inexperience of danger, or any kind of service beyond the easy practice of their postures in the artillery garden, men had, till then, too cheap an estimation. 1 '* We have before us, too, the most terrible feature of all, in those expedients to distinguish friends and foes, which had become so fearfully neces- sary among men whose faces were familiar as those of brother to brother, who owned the same country, who spoke the same language. The result of the battle has been disputed, but surely they must be supposed to have been the victors who gained possession of the town, and were suffered to proceed next morning, unmo- lested, on their march to London. This fight of Newbury cannot be left without a word to the eminent men who fell there. Four earls perished on that field, and of them were the youthful and beloved Sunderland, and the travelled and accomplished Carnarvon. But the loss to the Royalist party most deeply deplored "a loss which no time would suffer to be forgotten, and no success or good fortune could repair" was that of Charles's secretary of state, Lord Falkland ; a person, exclaims Lord Clarendon, in all the fervour of a true af- fection, "of such prodigious learning and knowl- edge, of such inimitable sweetness and delight in conversation, of so obliging a humanity and goodness to mankind, and of that primitive sim- plicity and integrity of life, that, if there were no other brand upon this odious and accursed civil war than that single loss, it must be most infamous and execrable to all posterity He was a great cherisher," his friend contin- ues, " of wit and fancy and good parts in any man ; and if he found them clouded with pov- erty or want, a most liberal and bountiful pa- tron towards them, even above his fortune. . . . His house being within ten miles of Oxford, he contracted familiarity and friendship with the most polite and accurate men of that Univer- sity, who found such an immenseness of wit and such a solidity of judgment in him ; so in- finite a fancy, bound in by a most logical rati- ocination ; such a vast knowledge that he was not ignorant in any thing, yet such an excess- ive humility as if he had known nothing, that they frequently resorted and dwelt with him, as in a college situated in a purer air ; so that his house was a university in a less volume, whither they came not so much for repose as study, and to examine and refine those grosser * His lordship adds that " they behaved themselves to wonder" standing as a bulwark and rampire to defend the rest enduring without a shock the charges of Rupert and his choicest horse, " who could make no impression on their stand of pikes, but was forced to wheel about." Vol. iv., p. 236. propositions which laziness and consent made current in vulgar conversation. . . . From the entrance into this unnatural war, his natural cheerfulness and vivacity grew clouded, and a kind of sadness and dejection of spirit stole upon him which he had never been used to. ... He who had been so exactly unreserved and affable to all men, that his face and counte- nance was always present, and vacant to his company, and held any cloudiness and less pleasantness of the visage a kind of rudeness or incivility, became, on a sudden, less com- municable, and thence very sad, pale, and ex- ceedingly affected with the spleen. In his clothes and habit, which he had intended be- fore always with more neatness, and industry, and expense than is usual to so great a mind, he was now not only incurious, but too negli- gent ; and in his reception of suitors, and the necessary or casual addresses to his place, so quick, and sharp, and severe, that there wanted not some men (who were strangers to his na- ture and disposition) who believed him proud and imperious, from which no mortal man was ever more free. . . . When there was any over- ture or hope of peace, he would be more erect and vigorous, and exceedingly solicitous to press any thing which he thought might pro- mote it ; and silting among his friends, often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs, would, with a, shriek and sad acr.cnt, ingeminate the. word PEACE, PEACE, and would passionately profess ' that the very agony of the war, and the view of the calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, took his sleep from him, and would shortly break his heart.' ... In the morning before the battle, as always upon ac- tion, he was very cheerful, and put himself into the first rank of the Lord Byron's regiment, who was then advancing upon the enemy, who had lined the hedges on both sides with mus- keteers, from whence he was shot with a mus- ket in the lower part of his belly, and in the instant falling from his horse, his body was not found till the next morning ; till when, there was some hope he might have been a prisoner, though his nearest friends, who knew his tem- per, received small comfort from that imagina- tion. Thus fell that incomparable young man, in the four-ajid-thirtieth year of his age, having so much despatched the business of life that the oldest rarely attain to that immense knowl- edge, and the youngest enter not into the world with more innocence : whosoever leads such a life, need not care upon how short warning it be taken from him."* In the presence of such * Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. iv., p. 240- 257. From Lord Clarendon's life, I take a most graphic and singular description, little known, of Lord Falkland's person : " With those advantages, he had one great disad- vantage (which in the first entrance into the world is at- tended with too much prejudice) in his person and presence, which was in no degree attractive or promising : his stature was low, and smaller than most men; his motinn not grace- ful, and his aspect so far from inviting, that it had some- what in it of simplicity ; and his voice the worst of the three, and so untuned, that instead of reconciling, it offended the ear, so that nobody would have expected 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 con- tain a great heart, a courage so keen, and a nature so fear- less, that no composition of the strongest limbs, and most harmonious and proportioned presence and strength, ever more disposed any man to the greatest enterprise, it beijoj OLIVER CROMWELL. 431 a eulogium, which in itself renders its object sacred, the faults or errors of Lord Falkland may not be remembered. Whitelocke and Rushworth have detailed in a similar strain the circumstances of his death. On the morn- ing of the fight, they tell us, he called for a clean shirt, and told his friends gayly that if he were slain in the battle, they should not find his body in foul linen. In answer to their serious and passionate entreaty to him not to engage, " as not being a military man," he more seri- ously and with an air of inexpressible sadness replied that he was weary of his country's mis- ery, and " did believe he should be out of it ere night." During these eventful occurrences Cromwell remained in Lincolnshire, and performed so many signal acts of service in that and the neighbouring counties, that the Commons or- dered a levy of an additional 2000 men* to be his greatest weakness to be too solicitous for such adven- tures ; and that untuned tongue and voice easily discovered itself to be supplied and governed by a mind and under- standing 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 reasonably promise it- self, or is usually attended with ; and his disposition and nature was so gentle and obliging, so much delighted in courtesy, kindness, and generosity, that all mankind could not but admire and love him. ... In a short time after he had possession of the estate his grandfather had left him, and before he was of age, he committed a fault against his father, in marrying a young lady whom he passionately lov- ed, without any considerable portion. . . . He seemed to have his estate in trust for all worthy persons who stood in want of supplies and encouragement, as Hen Jonson, and many others of that lime, whose fortunes required, and whose spirits made them superior to, ordinary obligations ; which yet they were contented to receive from HIM, because his bounties were so generously distributed, and so much with- out vanity and ostentation, that except from those few per- sons from whom he sometimes received the characters of fit objects for his benefits, or whom he intrusted for the 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 from it." Nor can I conclude this note without other stri- king ;uid characteristic anecdotes from the history. "He wus so ill a dissembler of his dislike and disinclination to ill men, that it was not possible for such not to disceni it. There was once, in the House of Commons, such a declared acceptation of the good service an eminent member had done to them, and, as they said, to the whole kingdom, that it was moved, he bein<f present, ' that the speaker might, in the name of the whole House, give hitn thanks; and then, that every member might, as a testimony of his particular acknowledgment, stir or move his hat towards him:' the which (though not ordered), when very many did, the Lord Falkland (who believed the service itself not to be of that moment, and that an honourable and generous person woulc] not have stooped toil for any recompense), instead of mov- ing his hat, stretched both his arms out and clasped his hands together upon the crown of his hat, and held it close down 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. ... At the leaguer before Gloucester, when his friends passionately reprehended hin for exposing his person unnecessarily to danger (as he de lighted to visit the trenches and nearest approaches, and t discover what the enemy did), as being so much beside thi duty of his place that it might be understood against it, he would say merrily, ' that his office could not take away the privileges of his age, and that a secretary in war might be present at the greatest secret of danger ;' but withal allege( seriously, ' that it concerned him to be more active in enter- prises of hazard than any other men, that all might see tha his impatiency for peace proceeded not from pusillanimity or fear to adventure his own person.' " * We find by a journal of the day that this new levy wa at once placed under his peculiar discipline : " Now all tin Lincolnshire forces are joined with Colonel Cromwell, Go< grant they manage the business they go about better tha it was at Newark in their former action. As for Colon< placed under his command, and he was joined with Manchester (formerly Lord Kimbolton, but now raised to the peerage by his father's death) in the command of the six associated counties of Norfork, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Hunting- don, and Hertford. The ill-advised separation of Newcastle and the king, among other disas- trous effects of the royal cause, of course open- d Manchester's passage from London to Lin- ;olnshire, where, with upward of 7000 infantry, ie at once joined Cromwell. At the same mo- ment, Newcastle's advance against Hull releas- ed Sir Thomas Fairfax and his horse of no ervice in a beleaguered town and Cromwell vas also joined in Lincolnshire by that already amous as modest soldier. It was now ver- ing to the close of the fighting season of 1643. On the 9th of October the junction was effect- d at Boston, and on the llth, the command >eing nominally Manchester's,, but in reality Cromwell's, the campaign began. On marching against Hull, Lord Newcastle, n addition to strong garrisons left in Lincoln and Gainsborough, had committed the royal )osts of the county to a brave and veteran of- icer, Sir John Henderson, who earnestly desi- red and eagerly watched for an opportunity to measure swords with Cromwell. The oppor- tunity occurred on the 12th, when, by a capital manoeuvre, Henderson came up with Fairfax, romwell, and their cavalry at Waisby field, near Horncastle, while Manchester was yet with his infantry a long day's march in the rear, and threatened destruction to them with a force almost thrice as numerous as their own. Cromwell paused for a moment, drew up his men, and resolved to give battle. " Come," said the gallant Fairfax, with inspiration scarce- ly second to his own, " let us fall on ! I never prospered better than when I fought against the enemy three or four to one."* Then was seen the secret of Cromwell's ex- traordinary influence over his determined Iron- sides. In an instant he circulated through, their ranks the watchword TRUTH and PEACE gave out a psalm, which the officers and men at once, as the Greek soldiers took up their song of freedom, uplifted with united voices, and then rushed, on Cromwell's word to charge in the name of the MOST HIGH, on the aston- ished enemy. A volley struck them in mid- charge, but did little execution : they clapped spurs to their horses with more furious zeal, and receiving another volley as they fell upon the advancing Royalist column, it struck down the horse of Cromwell. His rider was in fright- Cromwell, he hath 2000 more brave men, well disciplined. No man swears but he pays his twelve pence ; if he be drunk, he is set in the stocks, or worse; if one calls the other Roundhead, he is cashiered : insomuch that the coun- tries where they corne leap for joy of them, and come in and join with them. How happy were it if all the forces were thus disciplined. Some say that the Lord Gray and Sir John Gell will join with them : they could not do a bet- ter work than to go and relieve that thrice noble and valiant Lord Fairfax, whose condition in Leeds is such as it wants relief." Spec. Pas., May 9-16, 1643. * The Scottish Dove, Oct. 13-20, 1643. The same jour- nal closes its account thus: "There were slain in the pur- suit (which was full six miles) about 600 ; and many drowned in the chase: 114 were found dead in the water and mires the next day : there was also about 700 or 800 taken prisoners, and 18 colours at the least; these were brought in the first night : also their wagons : many more colours, it is like, were lost in the chase ; the horse and arms that were taken were more than the men doubled." 433 BRITISH STATESMEN. ful danger for a while, and as he rose from the ground was again struck down by the hand (as it was thought) of Sir Ingram Hopton. For some moments he lay unconscious among the slain. Again recovering, he seized a " sorry horse" from one of his troopers, and joined the hand to hand meUe, with terrible fierceness. The Royalists, broken, astonished, and dismay- ed, had never recovered the first shock. They now gave way in all directions, and did not stop their flight till, after suffering terrible slaughter, they had reached the gates of Lin- coln.* This engagement had a striking effect. It closed the disastrous campaign of 1643 with a gleam of brightest hope for the Parliamentary cause. It so startled Charles that he is re- ported to have exclaimed to his friends, " I would that some would do me the good for- tune to bring Qromwell to me, alive or dead!" It moved Newcastle from his position, for, as soon as he heard of it, having also, just before, suffered from a gallant sortie out of Hull, con- ducted by Fairfax's father, he raised the siege and disposed his forces into winter-quarters. Not so Cromwell and Manchester. They had yet some work to do. Castles and fortified towns were taken by them, money raised, Roy- alists kept in check, garrisons strengthened, and the entire borders of the eastern associa- tion placed in a state of security. Not till all this had been completely done, and the in- creasing severity of the weather left no oppor- tunity for such exertions farther, were their forces disposed for the winter. Yet not even this put a stop, however tem- porary, to the exertions of Cromwell. Under a commission from the Parliament, he was ap- pointed lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Ely ("with the like power of levying money there for his forces as the Earl of Manchester had in the associated counties"), and he chiefly employed the winter in raising funds, by means allowable or otherwise, from the colleges in Cambridge and the cathedrals of Peterborough! and Ely, for the purposes of the ensuing campaign. * Ludlow's account will be found to bear out this descrip- tion. " At the words ' Truth and Peace,' Cromwell's ' thir- ty-seven troops of horse and dragoons,' " he observes, " him- self at their head, advanced, singing psalms ; reserving their charge, however, until Sir John Henderson's ' eighty- seven,' who were seen coming down upon them, had fired ; for these latter," says Ludlow, " hearing that Col. Crom- well was drawn out with the horse, made haste to engage him before the foot could march up." t The Royalist Mercurius Aulicus tells us that in " Cam- bridge the Lord Grey of Warke and Master Cromwell did the last week deal very earnestly with the heads of colleges to lend 6000 for the public use, and that the motion not being hearkened to, they kept them all in custody till mid- night, except Dr. Brownrigge, the bishop of Exeter, and Dr. Love ; that the said heads being advised to assemble the next day about it, and refusing to do so, were called to the Lord Grey's lodging, and being asked the reason of their refusal, made answer by the Bishop of Exeter, whom they nad chosen for their speaker, that they had before consult- ed the whole University, who had resolved that they could not comply with their desires in that particular, as being directly against their consciences ; that Cromwell, when he found them stick to their resolution, said to a friend of his who was then in the place, they would have been content with a 1000 or less for the present turn ; not that so little money could have done them good, but that the people might have thought that one of the two universities had been on their side. And it was also certified, that when they failed to get money by that means, in a fair and volun- tary way, they took by violence from the bursars of diverse colleges such moneys as were already brought in unto them, and from the tenants of such colleges as dwelt near at hand, His exertions in Cambridge, however, had ! another and more important object in addition j to this. The tendencies of both universities, j it is almost needless to say, were of the strong- est possible kind towards the cause of Charles, since the cause of the Church was supposed to | be identified with his person. Their means of j disseminating those opinions were also great, ; and their influence, in proportion, of a kind and degree which it was most necessary, if possi- ble, to reduce. Oxford was in the power of the Royalists, and therefore out of the question, but Cambridge was happily in that part of the kingdom where the military strength of the Parliament lay. Cromwell accordingly, to pre- pare the way for the changes contemplated, gar- risoned the town, and when, some short time after, Manchester visited the University with the Parliament's commission for effecting its reform, Cromwell was his chief adviser and agent in all that was done. Matters had chan- ged a little now since the wild days of his stu- dentship there ! The reform may be briefly described. It be- gan by a recognition and confirmation of the foundation and revenues of the University, in the shape of an order issued by the two Houses, and declaring that whereas doubts had been suggested, upon the ordinance for the seques- tration of the estates of delinquents, whether the estates of the different bodies in that Uni- versity came within the operation of the ordi- nance the meaning of Parliament was, that these estates and revenues should be in no wise sequestrable, but that the sequestration should fall merely upon the individual who had been pronounced delinquent, and that no longer than during the time that he would otherwise have received or enjoyed those revenues. Another ordinance was then passed, empowering the Earl of Manchester to appoint committees, who were entitled to call before them all provosts, masters, fellows, and students of the Universi- ty, and to hear complaints against such as were scandalous in their lives, ill affected to the Par- liament, fomenters of the present unnatural war, or who had deserted the ordinary places of their residence, and to examine witnesses in support of these complaints. The committees were to make their report to the sergeant-ma- jor-general, who had power to eject such as he should judge unfit for their offices, and to put in their places persons whom he should nomi- nate, and who should be approved by the As- sembly of Divines sitting at Westminster. Accordingly, immediately on Manchester's arrival, he issued his warrants to the different colleges and halls in the University forthwith to send to him their statutes, with the names such moneys as they had in readiness to pay their rents ; and well we know what they were counted in the former times, when law and justice were in fashion, who, when a man refused to deliver his purse, used to take it from him. . . . It was advertised," says a subsequent number of the journal quoted above, " this day from Peterborough that Colonel Cromwell had bestowed a visit upon that little city, and put them to the charge of his entertainment, plunder- ing a great part thereof to discharge the reckoning ; and further, that in pursuance of the thorough reformation, he did most miserably deface the Cathedral Church, breakdown the organs, and destroy the glass windows, committing many outrages on the house of God, which were not acted by the Goths in the sack of Rome, and are most commonly for- borne by the Turks wheii they possess themselves by force of a Christian city." OLIVER CROMWELL. 433 of Iheir members, and to certify to him who were present and who absent, with the express time of their discontinuance. Two days later, he sent to the officers of the different colleges, requiring them to appear before him within a certain limited time, to answer such inquiries as he or his commissioners might judge fit to make. Three days after this stipulated period the great reform took place, and is thus descri- bed by Mr. Godwin : " The number of the col- leges was sixteen, and of these, the heads of six were allowed, and gave their consent, to retain their former stations. Ten new heads of colleges were appointed, and these appear to have been selected with great propriety and judgment. Twoof them were Benjamin Which- cote and Ralph Cudworth, men of unquestion- able literary eminence, but particularly the lat- ter, qualified to do honour to any seminary for education in the world. Another was Thomas Young, the preceptor and friend of Milton. The remainder, though their names are not so fa- miliar to our ears, were men of great learning, high respectability, and tmblemished life. A few days later, sixty-five fellows were ejected from the different colleges, and their places filled by others, nominated by Manchester, and approved by the Assembly of Divines. The ordinance of Parliament empowered the ser- geant-major-general to dispose of a fifth part of all the estates or revenues he should sequester for the benefit of the relatives of the persons ejected." The tremendous campaign of 1644 now be- gan. On the 19th of January, 1644, 20,000 Scotchmen, for the most part veteran soldiers and under the guidance of experienced officers, crossed the Tweed to co-operate with the Par- liamentary forces. Such was the opportune fruit borne by that solemn League and Cove- nant which the genius of Vane had achieved.* Charles, meanwhile, had made truce with the rebels! in Ireland, and thousands at this time joining the royal standard from that ill-fated country, enlarged and exasperated the now in- curable and deadly division between Charles and his more determined subjects. The forces of the Parliament were at the opening of this campaign distributed in four great divisions. Essex and Waller had each 10,000 men for the midland counties and the west : under Manchester and Cromwell (who now held the superior commission of lieutenant- general), 14,000 men, chiefly of Cromwell's in- vincible model, were enrolled for the associated counties of the east ; and Fairfax and his father were ordered to co-operate with the Scots. * See Life of Vane, p. 283-266. t Mr. Godwin hag selected, from Wood, an anecdote of the king singularly illustrative of his feelings on the subject of Ireland. It appears that a manuscript copy was found, after the battle of Naseby, of Sir Edward Walker's Dis- courses of the events of the civil war, in which, among sev- eral corrections in the king's own handwriting, it was ob- served that in one place, where the writer had occasion to ipeak of these insurgents, and had styled them " rebels," the king had drawn his pen through the word "rebels," and had substituted the term " Irish" in its stead. In re- ality, Charles felt an unconquerable repugnance to the classing the Catholics of Ireland with the men who in Eng- land and Scotland had sought to curtail his prerogatives. The Catholics, however he might disapprove nf much of their conduct, he still regarded as hi friends, and still ex- pected (which was realized at last) that they would furnish an army to support his claims against hi* rebel subjects in England. Ill harles, on the other hand, held a force of 10,000 at Oxford, and in the north, under New- castle, a force of 14,000. Ireland poured him forth auxiliaries also as from an inexhaustible e, and in various quarters of the land garri- sons and flying bands supplied him at his need. With the obstinate weakness of his character, tiowever, while the rising genius of such men as Cromwell and Fairfax threatened an oppo- sition in which even numbers should be as nothing, he named for his commander-in-chief, in the teeth of much remonstrance, Ruthven, a Scot, now created Earl of Brentford, of whom Lord Clarendon says, " he was much decayed in his parts, which had never been vigorous, being now dozed with the custom of immod- erate drinking. He was illiterate to the great- est degree that can be imagined, and very deaf; a man of few words, but who usually delivered that at his opinion which he foresaw would be grate- ful to the king." Herein was the secret of his appointment. Fairfax made the first movement of the cam- paign in marching from Lincolnshire, through the depths of a terrible winter, against Lord Byron, who, with an army of Irish, was then besieging Nantwich in Cheshire. Here Byron was routed with severe loss ; of the 3000 foot he commanded, only 1000 having escaped death or capture. Fairfax was deficient in horse, and thereby the enemy's horse escaped. The notorious George Monk was taken prisoner in this action, and after some imprisonment in the Tower, entered the Parliament's service, be- came an active and influential general, and in the end the vile and appropriate instrument of the Restoration. Answering the orders of the Parliament, Fairfax now marched back to Yorkshire, joined his father Lord Fairfax, with whom he defeated at Selby the Royalist governor of York, Colonel Bellasis, who had striven to interpose between the junction, and, once more master of the mid- land Yorkshire districts, prepared to march to the relief of the army of the Covenant. The latter, under the command of Lord Levan, were at this time much distressed in Northumberland by the force of the Marquis of Newcastle ; they had crossed the Tyne, vainly threatened the town of Newcastle, and, as much harassed by want of provisions and forage as by the enemy's constant skirmishes and the weather, continu- ed in face of the marquis's army without ven- turing to advance against him. At this critical moment, when some resolu- tion on the part of the Royalist chief might have put a sudden and premature period to our old friends of the Covenant, Fairfax's victory at Selby created a panic at York, and the Mar- quis of Newcastle, at the earnest entreaty of his friends in that city (now so fearfully ex- posed), fell back on York, and opened for his enemies their most desired position. Fairfax and Leven met with their forces at Wetherby on the 20th of April, and at once proceeded to invest York, into which the marquis had retired with his Cavaliers. And now, by a most op- portune movement, Manchester and Cromwell' (young Vane at this time travelled with them), joined their splendid forces to those of the be- siegers, broke off at once an armistice into which Newcastle, seriously alarmed for hia 434 BRITISH STATESMEN. safety, had contrived to inveigle Fairfax, and pushed their combined batteries against York with all necessary vigour. The attack of a town in those days, however, was not the mat- ter of science it has since become ; the forces, combined as they were, were yet insufficient for any regular investment of such a wide ex- tent of walls divided by a river; and the siege of York was nothing more than an irregular blockade, diversified with furious sorties, and now and then some desperate assaults on the outworks. Meanwhile the movements of the midland and western forces claim our attention. Essex and Waller, with their 20,000 men, had march- ed against Charles in two divisions, with the intention of shutting him up in Oxford. His situation became even more critical than that of Newcastle at York. The Isis was crossed by Waller, the Charwell by Essex, and the two armies seemed to hold in the forces of Charles, to be driven at will within the walls of the city. In this extremity it was that one of the very ablest manoeuvres of the whole war was ac- complished by this unfortunate prince. A body of foot, with cannon, was ordered out at the south entrance of the city, as if for Abingdon, lor the purpose of drawing Waller's attention on that side ; and then the king, with all the cavalry, and 2500 chosen foot, quitted Oxford in silence at the north gate as soon as night set in on the 3d of June, and, marching between the two armies of the enemy, arrived at Han- borough by daybreak of the 4th, and in the af- ternoon halted for a short time at Burford. By quick and secret marches thus he arrived at Worcester, and from Worcester at Bewdley. While at Tickenhall (then called Ticknill), near Bewdley, news reached him from York of the dangerous position of the Marquis of New- castle, who had written that he could not hold out more than six weeks or two months with- out being relieved. The fate of the city and its besieged then at once struck Charles to be the imminent crisis of his cause, since, suppo- sing York surrendered, or the army of New- castle were beaten or dispersed, Essex and Waller, already strong enough for him in the south and west, would become altogether irre- sistible by the accession of the northern armies. Flinging aside, therefore, his first project of ef- fecting an ultimate and speedy junction in the south with Rupert (whose impetuosity had just effected some daring successes and diversions in Cheshire and Lancashire), and thus, at least, securing the probable safety of the midland counties, he at once sat down and wrote the following letter (dated Ticknill, 14 June, 1644) to his aephew. I copy it from the original, among the papers with which the kindness of Lord Nugent has intrusted me.* The writing is shaken and unsteady. The hand of the wri- ter, almost,always unusually firm and beautiful, had been unable to hold its precision in that anxious and fatiguing moment. The letter presents a singular contrast in this respect to a short note to Rupert in the same collection, written from Newport, with extreme beauty and most exquisite firmness, within a few months of his execution.* " NEPUEU, First I must congratulat with you for your good successes, asseuring you that the things themselfes ar noe more welcome to me than that you ar the meanes : I know the im- portance of the supplying you with powder, for vv ch I have taken all possible wais, having sent both to Ireland & Bristow ; as from Oxford, this bearer is well satisfied that it is impossible to have att present ; butt if he tell you that I may spare them from hence, I leave you to judge, having butt 36 left ; butt what I can gett from Bristow (of w ch there is not much cer- taintie, it being threatened to be besieged) you shall have. . . . Butt now I must give you the trew stat of my affaires, w cb , if their condition be such as enforses me to give you more pcr- emptorie cnrnands than I would willingly doe, you must not take it ill. If Yorke be lust, I shall cs- tecme my Croicne little lessc, unlesse supported by your suddaine Marche to me, & a Miraculous Conquest in the South, before the effects of the Northeren power can be found heere ; butt if Yorke be relived, you beate the Rebelles Armies of bothe Kingdomes w dl ar before it, then, butt olhciwais not, I may possiblce make a shift (upon the defensive) to spinn out tyme unti/l you come to assist me : Wherefor / comand 4- conjure you, by the deicly 4" affection tef H I know you bcare me, that (all new enterpryses laide asyde) you imalialcly march (according to your first intention) with all your force to the rclife of Yorke ; butt if that be eather lost, or have fried themselfes from the beseigers, or that, for want of powder, you cannot undertake that worke, that you imediately march, with your whole slrenth, directly to Woster, to assist me & my Army, without w c ii, or your having relived Yorke by beating the Scots, all the Successes yurt can af- terwards have most iftjallibly will be uselcsse unto me. You may belive that nothing butt an ex- treame necessety could make me wryte thus unto you ; wherfor, in this case, I can no wayes dout of your punctuall complyance with your louing Oncle & most faithful frend, CHARLES R. ... I comanded this bearer to speake to you concerning Vavisor." This letter, no doubt, completely vindicates Rupert in the course he adopted or. receiving it, though it does not excuse his haughty pride in concealing the fact of his having received such a letter.* But I am anticipating. When * It was, however, in a slightly incorrect state, printed from some copy taken at the time (and preserved among Sir Edward Nicholas's manuscripts) in the Evelyn Memoirs a few years ago. * The mere, style and manner of writing to his nephew in this note is also very touching, li is written on small note paper, and looks as if it had undergone much trouble and many adventures before it reached its destination : " Newport, Saterday : 28 of Oct., 1648. DEAREST NE- PUEU, For want of a cypher, I have chosen this most | trusty messenger, Will. I.ysle, to acquaint you with a busi- ness wd> is of great importance for my service ; for w'> I have comanded him todesyre, in my name, both your advise & assistance ; of wh^' 1 , knowing your affection to me, 1 am soe confident, that I will say nc.e more, but only todesyre you to give full credit to this bearer ; <fe to give him a quick dispach for his sake who is your loving Oncle and most faithfull friend, CHARIES R." t In the absence of this evidence of his own complete ex- culpation, he has been made the subject of attack by almost every Royalist historian, for the unfortunate result of Mars- ton Moor. Clarendon thus alludes to him and Newcastle : " The times afterward grew so bad, and the king's affairs succeeded so ill, that there was noopportunily to call either of those two great persons to account for what they had done or what they had left undone. Nor did either of thew ever think fit to make any particular relation of the ground. > of their proceeding, or the causes of their misadventures OLIVER CROMWELL. 435 his uncle's commands reached him, he made at once for York. Some time before, he had re- lieved Newark, taken Stockport, Bolton, and Liverpool, and raised the siege of Latham House, after its gallant defence by the famous Countess of Derby. He was therefore moved with the elation of a victor, added to his natu- ral rashness. He look with him some newly- arrived Irish regiments, picked up Newcastle's cavalry by the way, captured several posts as he went along, and penetrated into Yorkshire. During the progress of this march the king was executing another admirable movement. Essex and Waller look for granted that his pre- vious forced march must be for Liverpool to join Rupert, and therefore Waller threw him- self at once between Charles and Shrewsbury to intercept his passage. Essex, in the mean time, having the greater ordnance and the heav- ier carriages, felt these quick marches to be too much for his men, and, setting out for the west, left Waller to harass Charles. This was the very object the king had sought to accom- plish the two armies were separated. He at once hastened back to Oxford by marches as quick as those of his masterly egress from it ; and Waller, smarting with the additional de- ceit thus practised on him, again returned to the banks of the Charwell, and, somewhat hotly and indiscreetly offering battle there, was defeated with considerable loss. Rupert was now wiUiia sight of York with an army of 20,000 men. The besiegers broke up on his approach, and after an attempt to in- tercept him, which was well conducted by Fair- fax, but which Rupert evaded by fetching a mas- terly compass with his army, they withdrew to Hessey Moor. Here, in a council of war, a difference of opinion arose the Scots were for retreating, the English for fighting and by some considerations that do not appear, the council for retreat prevailed for a time (amid jealousies which already shook the confederacy to the centre, and warned Cromwell and Fair- fax of what they had next to do !), and they fell back on Tadcaster. A discussion as painful, but with results more fatal, was at the same instant going on within the walls of York. What the chivalrous and somewhat fantastic* marquis had dreaded, was now at hand. The young, rough, proud, by way of excuse to the king, or for their own vindication. Prince Rupert, only io hit friends, and after the murder of the king, produced a letter in the king's oten hand, which he received when he was upon his march from Lancashire to- wards York, in which his majesty said ' that his affairs were in so very ill a state, that it would not be enough, though his highness raised the siege from Y or k, if he had not likewise beaten the Scotch army ;' which he understood to amount to no less than a peremptory order to fight, ' upon what disadvantage soever ;' and added, ' tha.t the Disadvan- tage was so great, the enemy being so much superior in number, it was no wonder he lost the day.' But as the king't letter would, not bear that sense, so the greatest cause of the misfortune was the precipitate entering upon the battle as soon as the enemy drew; off, and without consult- ing; at all with the Marquis of Newcastle and his officers, who must needs know more of the enemy, and, consequent^ ly, how they were best to be dealt with, than his highness could do." The noble histotian had evidently neither seen the letter in the text, nor been correctly informed of its contents. * Somewhat fantastic in some things, certainly, but not deserving of Warburton's nickname, " the fantastic virtuoso on horseback." See what a lovely character his. noble- hearted duchess (Charles Lamb's favourite '.) left of him in one of her pleasant folios. overbearing, fiery Rupert was in contact with the ceremonious, courteous, refined, and high- minded Newcastle ; and a quarrel directly fol- lowed. Newcastle had wisely counselled de- lay ; pointed out the advantage already gained by the prince's arrival alone ; described the dif- ferences which he had reason to suspect al- ready distracted the councils of the enemy, and the enormous benefit of merely leaving their dissensions to ripen ; and closed with an ear- nest entreaty to Rupert, that, having thrown merely a fresh supply of men and provisions into York, he would at once march back to the king's assistance at Oxford. Rupert, in an- swer, pleaded orders from the king, which (be- ing too haughty to produce them) Newcastle is supposed to have disbelieved ; but, more strong- ly than on these orders, the prince stood out on his own conviction of the necessity of some daring achievement that should " disperse and annihilate 1 ' the enemy. Newcastle smiled in scorn, but submitted. Some of his friends im- plored him not to take part in the battle, since it seemed his command was taken from him ; to which he answered that, happen what would, he would not shun fight, for he had no other ambition than to live and die a loyal subject.* On Marston Moor the rival armies met. The Parliamentarians were in retreat on the Tad- caster Road, when a cloud of Rupert's horse threatened their rear. Orders ran along the lino at once to countermand the march ; the troops of the van were recalled, and a position taken up for battle as favourable as the time allowed. So many contradictory statements have been published of the memorable fight which followed, that it requires no little care to present it fairly and intelligibly to the reader. Across a portion of the Parliamentary front ran a broad and deep drain. To the right the ground was broken, and intrenched, as it were, with natural fences and lanes, though far be- yond the flank was the open moor. To the left the ground was entirely barren, unencum- bered, and unprotected, terminating also in the moor. In the centre Lords Fairfax and Leven formed, with a reserve of horse for the second line of infantry : on either wing (an advanta- geous position, it will be at once observed) the cavalry was brought up and planted. Sir Thom- as Fairfax held the right, Cromwell and Man- chester the left. Rupert gazed at a distance while these thick and dark masses were forming before him. His customary haste had far outstripped his own glittering thousands behind, but they now came rapidly up and formed at his command. At the drain he planted four infantry brigades, supporting them with Goring's horse against the enemy's left ; he disposed with great skill large masses of troops against the right of the combined armies,- and took up a position there with his own cavalry opposite the horse of Fairfax. And now, on the 2d of July, 1643, gazing with silent and inveterate determination at each other, these 46,000 subjects of one king stood upon Marston Moor, eight miles from a city wherein every boom of the distant cannon would strike upon the inhabitants as the death- knell of a friend or brother. The lines of the * The Life of Ncwcaitle, p. 47. BRITISH STATESMEN. Parliamentarians had begun to form as early as ten in the morning ; the Royalist prepara- tions were complete at five o'clock in the after- noon : it was now within a quarter of seven, yet there still stood those formidable armies, each awaiting from the other, with a silent and awful suspense, the signal of battle. A stir was seen at last in the dark quarter of Manchester's and Cromwell's Independents, and a part of their infantry moved upon the drain. Secure from behind the ditch, Rupert's musketeers at once poured out upon this advan- cing column a heavy and murderous fire, and it was in vain the Parliamentarians attempted to form under the plunging batteries directed against them simultaneously from the rear. At that moment was seen the genius of Crom- well. With a passionate exclamation to his Ironsides, he ordered them to sweep round the ditch to their right, clear the broken ground, and fall in with himself upon the cavalry of the dissolute Goring. The movement occupied some time, and fearful slaughter was mean- while suffered by Manchester's infantry ; but, having once emerged, these inveterate Repub- licans stood, for an instant, to receive, like a rock, the onset of Goring's horse, and then, " like a rock tumbled from its basis by an earth- quake," rolled back upon them. Nothing could withstand that astonishing charge. The Cava- liers who survived offered no farther resist- ance, but wheeled off to join the horse of Ru- pert. Cromwell and hie men next struck the guns and sabred the artillerymen beside them, and then, with as much leisurely order as at parade, rode towards the drain, was deserted as they advanced. Every place One spot of ground only still held upon it, for an instant, the Marquis of Newcastle's unflinching regi- ment of old tenants and retainers, and was covered the instant after with an "unbroken line" of honourable dead. Their victory was complete., and the right wing of the Royalists irrecoverably broken. Rupert and his cavalry had meanwhile ob- tained as great a victory on the left. The en- cumbered ground on which Fairfax stood was most unfavourable to an advancing movement. Rupert accordingly stood keenly by till he saw the Parliamentary forees stagger under the heavy charges poured apon them as they emer- ged in narrow columns through ditches and lanes, and then, with his characteristic impet- uosity, charged, overthrew, routed, and dispers- ed both foot and cavalry, with tremendous slaughter. The after meeting of the two victors decided the day. While the centres were unsteadily engaged, Cromwell, who had held his triumph- ant Ironsides steadily in hand, and checked their pursuit in the very nick of time, ordered them suddenly to face round and wheel upon their centre to the left. Rupert had given a similar order to his conquering cavalry to wheel round on their centre to the right ; and now, with a shock more terrible than any of this ter- rible day, these desperate leaders, each suppo- sing himself the victor, dashed each in front ol a victorious foe ! Cromwell received a wound in the neck, and the alarm for his safety gave a slight appearance of momentary unsteadines even to his gallant Ironsides ; but they rallied with redoubled fury, and in conjunction with Lesly, an accomplished Scotch officer, who led up at the moment a brilliant attack, fairly swept Rupert off the field.* It was now ten o'clock, and by the melancholy dusk which enveloped the moor might be seen This description is founded on a careful perusal of the various accounts of the time. 1 subjoin a few points in illustration or addition, from the gazettes of the day : There was a great ditch between the enemy and us, hich ran along the front of the battle, only between the Earl of Manchester's foot and the enemy there was a plain. In this ditch the enemy had placed four brigades of their best foot, which, upon the advance of our battle, were forced to give ground. The right wing of our foot had several misfortunes, for betwixt them and the enemy there was no passage but at a narrow lane, where they could not march ibove three or four in front ; upon the one side of the lane was a ditch, and on the other a hedge, both whereof were lined with musketeers, notwithstanding Sir Thomas Fair- fax charged gallantly, but the enemy keeping themselves in a body, and receiving them by threes and fours, as they inarched out of the lane ; and (by what mistake 1 know not) Sir Thomas Fairfax, his new-levied regiments being in the van, they wheeled about, and being hotly pursued by the enemy, came back upon the Lord Fairfax's foot and the re- serve of the Scottish foot, broke them wholly, and trod the most part of them under foot. Lieut.-gen. Cromwell charged Prince Rupert's horse with exceeding great reso- lution, and maintained his charge with no less valonr. Gen. -major Lesly charged the Earl of Newcastle's brigade of White Coats, and cut them wholly off, forty excepted, who were taken prisoners ; and after them charged a brig- ade of Green Coats, whereof they cut off a great number, and put the rest tothe rout ; which service being performed, he charged the enemy's horse (with whom Lient. -general Cromwell was engaged) upon the flank, and in a rery short space the enemy's whole cavalry was routed, on whom our fore troops did execution to the walls of York, bat our body of horse kept their ground. Lieut. -gen. Cromwell and Major-gen. Lesly being joined, and receiving advertisement that our fnot were engaged with the enemy's horse and foot, marched to their assistance, and met with the enemy's horse (being retreated upon the repulse they had from the Scottish foot) at the same place of disadvantage where they had routed onr horse formerly ; and, indeed, their success was answerable, if not much worse, for we routed them wholly, killed and took their chief officers, and most part of their standards. After which we set upon the rear of their foot, and with the assistance of our main battle, which all this time stood firm, we put them wholly to the rout, killed many, and took their officers and colours, and by this time we had no enemy in the field. We took all their ordnance, being in number 25, near 130 barrels of powder, besides what was blown up by the common soldiers, above a hun- dred colours, and 10,000 arms, besides two wagons of car- bines and pistols of spare arms. There were killed upon the place 3000, whereof, upon a judicious view of the dead bodies, two parts appeared to be gentlemen and officers. There were 1500 prisoners taken, whereof Sir Charles Lu- cas, lieut.-gen. of the Earl of Newcastle's horse. Major-gen. Porter, and Major-gen. Tillier, besides divers colonels, lieu- tenant-colonels, and majors. The loss upon our part, bless- ed be God, is not great, being only one lieutenant-colonel, some few captains, and not 300 common soldiers." ( Brit., 6 July. 1644.) ' The battle being begun, at taa first some of our horse were put into disorder, but rallying again, we fell on with our whole body, killed and took their chief officers, and took most part of their standards and col- ours, 25 pieces of ordnance, near 130 ban-els of powder, 10,000 arms, two wagons of carbines and pistols, killed 3000, and 1500 prisoners taken." (Per/. Diur., 9 July, 1644.) . . . . . . " It will not be amiss, therefore, to insert something which came not before now to our knowledge, which is, that there were slain of the enemy's side the Lord Carew, son to the Earl of Monmouth, Sir William Lampton, Davenant the poet, and many others also ; that the councils of the prince and others designed the most valiant of the popish party to encounter the wing commanded by Lieut.-gen. Cromwell ; and, in particular, Prince Rupert had designed certain troops of horse, all Irish and all papists, to give the first charge to that brigade or party in which Col Cromwell was ; and that they did confidently believe there was not a man of them but would die ratherthan fly ; but they missed their expectations, for many of them being slain in the place, the rest fled." (Port. Scout, 18 July, 1644.) . . . "Col. Cromwell finding the passages strait, and musketeers lining the hedges, thought it not fit to advance any farther after the prince, but is returned to York with his horse, not worn to skin and bone, but only breathed a little." (Port Scout, 19 July, 1644.) OLIVER CROMWELL. 437 a fearful sight. Five thousand dead bodies of Englishmen lay heaped upon that fatal ground. The distinctions which separated in life these sons of a common country seemed trifling now ! The plumed helmet embraced the strong steel cap as they rolled on the heath together, and the loose love-lock of the careless Cavalier lay drenched in the dark blood of the enthusiastic Republican. But it is not with such thoughts the victors trouble themselves now. They have achieved the greatest conquest of the war, and the whole of the northern counties of England are open to the Parliament's sway. The headstrong Rupert has received a memorable lesson, and retreats in calamity and disgrace towards Ches- ter. The Marquis of Newcastle, weary of a strife never suited to his taste, but hateful to him now, crosses the sea an exile.* Fifteen hundred prisoners remain with Manchester, Fairfax, Leven, and Cromwell ; the valuable ordnance of the vanquished ; artillery, small arms, tents, baggage, and military chest, all has been left in their victorious hands. Nearly half of his entire kingdom was now hopelessly lost to Charles I. Was it possible he should ever be able to recover it? The question was one which no doubt rose again and again in the breast of Cromwell, as he lay in his tent the night after this memorable bat- tle. By one of two means he might recover * He remained abroad till the Restoration. I subjoin portions of Clarendon's character of htm, which, if not fair in all things, is in all things graphic and amusing : " It was a greater wonder that he sustained the vexation and fatigue of war so long, than that he broke from it with so little cir- cumspection. He was a very fine gentleman, active and full of courage, and most accomplished in those qualities of horsemanship, dancing, and fencing, which accompany a good breeding, in which his delight was. Besides that, he was amorous in poetry and music, in which he indulged the greatest part of his time ; and nothing could have tempted him out of those paths of pleasure which he enjoyed in a full and ample fortune, but honour and ambition to serve the king when he saw him in distress, and abandoned by most of those who were in the highest degree obliged to him and by him. He loved monarchy, as it was the foundation and support of his own greatness ; and the Church, as it was well constituted fur the splendour and security of the crown ; and religion, as it cherished and maintained that order and oliedience that was necessary to both ; without any other passion for the particular opinions which were grown up in it, and distinguished it into parties, than as he detested whatsoever was like to disturb the public peace. He had a particular reverence for the person of the king, and the more extraordinary devotion for that of the prince, as he had had the honour to be trusted with his education as his governor. ... He liked the pomp and absolute au- thority of a general well, and preserved the dignity of it to the full ; and for the discharge of the outward state, and circumstances of it, in acts of courtesy, affability, bounty, and generosity, he abounded ; which in the infancy of a war became him, and made him. for some time, very accept- able to men of all conditions. But the substantial part, and fatigue of a general, he did not in any degree understand (being utterly unacquainted with war), nor could submit to it, but referred all matters of that nature to the discretion of his lieutenant-general, King, who, no doubt, was an officer of great experience and ability, yet, being- a Scotch- man, was in that conjuncture upon more disadvantage than he would have been if the general himself had been more intent upon his command. In all actions of the field he was still present, and never absent in any battle ; in all which he gave instance* of an invincible courage and fearlessness in danger; in which the exposing himself notoriously did sometimes change the fortune of the day, when his troops begun to give ground. Such articles of action were no sooner over, than he retired to his delightful company, mu- sic, or his softer pleasures, to all which ha was so indul- gent, and to his ease, that he would not be interrupted upon what occasion soever, insomuch as he sometimes denied admission to the chiefest officers of the army, even to Gen- eral King himself, for two days together, from whence many inconveniences fell out." all. The succession of necessary victories to achieve it by force could hardly be hoped for ; but there was such a thing as treachery ; such a thing as success afraid of the slight shadow it cast before its mighty shape ; such a thing as imbecility, worse than treachery as bigotry, worse than all ; and unless these vile forces could be conquered, of what avail had been all other victories of what avail would be all the sufferings, and sacrifices, and triumphs yet to come? No doubt these thoughts, far more than the fatigues and anxieties of the day, or the wound he had received in the last decisive charge, made that night a sleepless night for Cromwell. The wound, however, was certainly slight, since it neither prevented his second rally for the final charge, nor withheld him from dis- charging a sacred office of friendship to one of his brothers-in-law, by communicating, in the following letter (dated July 5, 1644), the mel- ancholy tidings of a son's death. How well it is adapted to its purpose ! The exaltation of the victory which opens the letter, and which, in those days of public enthusiasm, might pos- sibly assist in alleviating even such a private sorrow then the affectionate praise of the dead, which so tenderly embalms his memory. It is strange that such letters as these have not before enriched the records of Crom well's character or history. "DEERE SIR, It's our duty to sympathyze in all mercies ; that wee praise the Lorde to- gether, in Chastisements or Tryalls, that soe wee may sorrowe together. Truely England, and the Church of God, hath had a great fa- vour from the Lorde in this great Victorie given unto us, such as the like never was since this War begunn. It had all the evidences of an absolute Victorie obtained by the Lord's bless- Wee The lefte Winge which I commanded, being our owne horse, saving a few Scottes in our reere, beat all the Prince's Horse. God made them as stub- ble to our Sords. Wee. charged their regiments of /note with our horse, and routed all wee charged. The particulars I cannot relate now ; butt I be- lieve of twenty thousand, the Prince hath not four thousand left. Give Glory, all the Glory to God. . .Sir, God hath taken away your eldest Sonn by a Cannon Shott. It brake his legge. Wee were necessitated to have it cutt off, whereof he died Sir, you knowe my tryalls this way, butt the Lorde supported me with this, that the Lorde tooke him into the happiness wee all pant after and live for. There is your pre- cious Child, full of Glory, to knowe sinn nor sor- row any more. He was a gallant younge man, exceedinge gracious. God give you his comfort. Before his death he was soe full of comfort, that to Frank Russell and myselfe he could not expresse it, it was soe great above his paine. This he sayd to us. Indeed it was admirable. A little after he sayd, one thinge lay upon his spiritt ; I asked him what that was ; he told me that it was that God had not suffered him to be noe more the executioner of his Enimies. At this fall, his horse beinge killed with the bul- lett, and, as I am informed, three horses more, I am told he bid them open to the right and left, that he might tee the rogues run. Truely he was inge upon the Godly partie principally. never charged but wee routed the enimic. 438 BRITISH STATESMEN. exceedingly beloved in the Army of all that knew him. Butt few knew him ; for he was a pre- cious younge man, fitt for God. You have cause to blesse the Lord. He is a glorious Sainct in Heaven, wherein you ought exceedingly to re- joyce. Lett this drinke up your sorrowe. See- inge theise are not fayned words to comfort you ; butt the thinge is soe real and undoubt- ed a truth. You may doe all thinges by the strength of Christ. Seeke that, and you shall easily beare your tryall. Lett this pnblique mercy to the Church of God make you to for- gett your private sorrowe. The Lord be your strength ; soe. prayes Your truely faythfull and Lovinge Brother, OLIVER CROMWELL. . . . My love to your daughter and my Cozen Perceval, sister Desbrowe, and all friends with you." In the life of Vane, the rise of the Independ- ents, as a great civil power in the state, has been minutely detailed. Its influence in the army is included in the simple fact that its sim- ple, tolerant, and enlarged views of liberty were shared by Cromwell's troops. At this moment its disputes with the Presbyterians were rife in London. The services rendered by the army of Scots had strengthened the Presbyterian claims. The formidable mass of the Assembly of Divines seconded them with Laud-like zeal.* With appalling vehemence, a bigoted uniformity in Church government was pressed for, and a restriction of what was call- ed the licentiousness of the press in its open- ing freedom of thought. In vain the immortal voice of Milton was heard in his famous " Are- opagitica" in vain, that is, so far as the as- sembly to which it was addressed moved to an- swer the appeal ; but not in vain on at least one of the victors of Marston Moor. Nor were the threatenings from London all that might be considered formidable. In the aristocratic leaders of the army itself, elements of danger existed more fearful still. They had already more than once shown an indisposi- tion to look steadily in the face that triumph- ant result of the war which the Cromwells, Vanes, and Fairfaxes were now bent upon achieving ; and in the tent of almost every offi- cer pitched on that northern moor were jeal- ousies, discussions, and heartburnings that, even in such an hour of present victory, augur- ed a gloomy close. In the southern and west- ern counties what was meanwhile the condi- tion of affairs 1 At Copredy Bridge, we have seen, Waller * To recall the reader's attention to the crisis already described in Vane's Memoir, it may be only necessary to remind him that at this time the Presbyterians infinitely outnumbered their opponents in the Assembly : a great e genera consen o e cos naton. e cotts Parliament and General Assembly had entered into the re mmssoners e commssoners o e cotts ara- ment arrived on the 5th of February) to watch that the League should be executed in the strictest construction which their party put upon it, by establishing an entire uniformity of church g-overnment. A Scots army of more than twenty thousand men had entered England in the commencement of the year ; and one of the Scottish divines sent up on the occasion very frankly acknowledged, "We purpose not to meddle in haste with a point of so high con- sequence, till it please God to advance our army, which we expect will much assist our arguments." Godwin's Com- monwealth. had sustained defeat by Charles, who after- ward, pursuing his successes, turned upon Es- sex, and, by a series of masterly military man- oeuvres, cooped him up in Cornwall. That well-intentioned but fretful general had, like a spoiled child, moved into the west in jealousy of Waller. The west was Charles's strong- hold. The principle of this has been admirably explained by the Royalist historian, Walker, whose history had the honour to be corrected and interlined by the king. It is a principle which in some sort explains, too, the character of the war. *' The gentry of this country," he remarks, " retain their old possessions, their old tenants, and expect from them their ancient reverence and obedience. And, give me leave to say, if many of the nobility and gentry of this unhappy kingdom had not fallen from the lustre, virtue, and honour of their ancestors, and by their luxury been necessitated to manu- mise their villains, but had paid that awfnl rev- erence to the majesty and greatness of their sovereign as they ought, they might have ex- pected the same proportionably from their in- feriors and tenants ; and, instead of having them their companions, or, rather, masters (as they now are), they might have had them their servants ; and then I believe this war, which, under pretence of religion and liberties, is to introduce heresy in doctrine, parity in condi- tions, and to destroy the king, nobility, and gentry, in probability had not been." Essex, cooped up in the west, expected re- lief from Waller, but Waller felt no inclination to move to the relief of Essex. Such was the present condition of the Parliamentary army and its chiefs '. The men, meanwhile, burning to fight, could neither fight nor escape. In this state of things, Charles wrote to Essex with his own hand, and told him that the season was now arrived when he had it in his power to re- deem his country and the crown, and to confer the highest obligation on his king. He pro- posed a frank negotiation, and that they should join their two armies without delay. He con- cluded with engaging that " word of a king" he was fated to engage and break so often, that he would confer unequivocal marks of his es- teem on both him and his army, and remain ever their faithful friend. Essex, without a moment's hesitation, rejected the offer. He was weak, but not a traitor. In a former day of triumph he had hesitated, but in his adver- sity he stood firm. He enclosed Charles's let- ter to the Parliament, and thus concluded his letter. " If succour comes not speedily, we shall be put to great extremity. If we were in a country where we could force the enemy to fight, it would be some comfort ; but this place consists so much of passes, that he who can subsist longest must have the better of it ; which is a great grief to me, who have the command of so many gallant men." No suc- cour arrived ; but some days after this letter, he managed, by a well-directed movement, to pass his horse between two divisions of the royal army ; he himself then took sea for Ply- mouth ; and his main army surrendered on condition of delivering up their arms, and of being passed to the ports of their nearest friends. Thus, as was remarked, " the king obtained what he stood extremely in need of ; OLIVER CROMWELL. 439 and the Parliament, having preserved the men, lost what they could easily repair." The Commons met their unsuccessful gen- eral, too, with their usual high-minded policy. They assured him that the Parliament's good affections to his person, and opinion of his fidel- ity and merit, were no wise lessened by this reverse, and that they resolved not to be want- ing in their best endeavours for repairing the loss they had sustained, and placing such a force under his command as might best con- duce to the successful termination of the war. To this end they actively moved accordingly. His army was reassembled in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth and Southampton. Waller was directed to co-operate with it, and the conquer- ors of Marston Moor were summoned to the same service. York had surrendered, and Manchester, with Cromwell, at once obeyed this summons. The Scots army were in Northumberland, where the town of Newcastle subsequently surrender- ed. Manchester and Cromwell, Essex and Waller, marched against the king. Cromwell commanded the horse. The royal position was a strong one a for- midable alignement in and about the town of Newbury, where Falkland had fallen the year before. To this spot the king, whose genius appears to have fitted him for such manoeuvres in war, had conducted his march out of Corn- wall with consummate skill, relieving by the way the garrisons of Basing House, Banbury, and Dennington Castle. The River Kennett pro- tected him here on one flank, the guns of Den- nington Castle covered him in some sort on the other, and his front was strengthened by throw- ing up a breastwork, and by occupying in force several villas and gardens " which extended conveniently beyond the town."* One house in especial, called Doleman's house, stood in good position, notwithstanding its being expo- sed to a raking fire on all sides, since it was a little in advance of the breastwork and of a row of lesser houses. This house was filled with troops ; the gardens attached to it were strengthened by thick embankments ; skirmish- ers swarmed among all the neighbouring hedges and ditches ; artillery threatened from every mound about. But, with all these advantages, there was one assailable point, which none bet- ter than Cromwell knew how to seize. Within distance of a musket-shot in the enemy's front stood a fatal hill, behind which, secure and un- discovered, columns of attack had every facility to form. The open meadows, again, between the castle and the town, were sadly exposed, and the reserve, which should have supported the scattered infantry, was every way deficient. The more serious fight began on the 27th of October. During the two previous days a smart cannonading had been kept up, from the hill on one side and the town on the other. Little ef- fect, however, was produced, till towards the evening of the 26th, when the Royalists trans- ported a couple of cannon across the river, and enfiladed the line of the Parliamentarians as far as a bend in the eminence exposed it, doing * See vol. i., p. 245, of Lives of Eminent Military Com- manders in this series : a work I may be allowed to refer to as a very able one, since 1 have enjoyed the advantage of many of its suggestions. dreadful damage to Ludlow's regiment of cav- alry. The night passed in awful uncertainty of the morrow. Then, on that morrow of the 27th, the genius of Cromwell poured down the fatal hill. Two heavy columns suddenly ap- jeared upon its summit and descended, while along the whole line one tremendous cannon- ade distracted attention from the spot where the terrible blow was about to fall. The col- umns as suddenly divided ; one fell upon the open space between Dennington and the town, and with the shattering speed of lightning pierced and routed the line of the Cavaliers, some of whom rushed within the works at Den- nington, while the others fell back in precipitate confusion on the town. Cromwell and his Iron- sides weie here. The other column had paused an instant, but now apparently urged by that astonishing success to venture a desperate ac- tion, fell upon the quarter of Doleman's house, [n an instant every spot around was covered with dead Republicans. Party after party clear- id the hedges and ditches, even the garden wall, nay, to the very lawn of the house ; but there such as escaped so far the deadly shot of the concealed musketeers struck them down. The contest lasted four hours in this quarter, and the loss was terrible. It would have been annihilation but for the heroic devotion of Lud- low's cavalry, who moved forward and consent- ed to sacrifice themselves to cover the retro- gression. It was a moonlight night which followed, and anxious thoughts occupied both camps of the desperate strife that must decide the morrow. Suddenly the penetrating and sleepless eye of Cromwell saw the Royalists move. It was so. Charles, having utterly lost his left position, had despaired of the poor chance that remained to him in face of such a foe. His army were now busy, in that moonlight, conveying into the castle, by a circuitous route, their guns and heavy stores, while behind, battalion after bat- talion was noiselessly quitting its ground, and marching off as silently in the direction of Ox- ford. Over and over again Cromwell entreated Manchester to suffer him to execute a forward movement with his cavalry : at that critical moment he would have prostrated Charles. Manchester refused. A show was made next morning of pursuit, but of course without effect : Charles, with all his materiel and prisoners, had effected a clear escape. Nor was this all. While the castle of Dennington remained un- molested amid the dreadful dissensions which after this event raged through the Parliament- arian camp, the king, having been re-enforced by Rupert, and an excellent troop of horse, re- turned twelve days after, assumed the offensive in the face of his now inactive conquerors, car- ried off all his cannon and heavy stores from out of the castle, coolly and uninterruptedly fell back again, and marched unmolested into Ox- ford. So disastrously closed that campaign in which the victory of Marston Moor had been won. The army of Essex and Manchester went into winter cantonments in and about Reading. Cromwell, bent upon resolute changes, repaired to London. All was now lost, he clearly saw, without a rapidly decisive movement, and he sought 440 BRITISH STATESMEN. counsel and co-operation from the genius of the younger Vane. His faith in the Earl of Manchester had been shaken before the affair of Dennington ; even under the walls of York, the intrigues of an extremely paltry person, a Scot and Presbyterian of the name of Craw- ford, who had been passed from the Scotch host to a major-generalship in Manchester's army,* had been suffered to prevail against him. Manchester, though on the whole an amiable, generous, and honest man, was in truth a very weak one, and when he found himself on the eve of great results, such as stimulated a man like Cromwell only to deeds of greater daring, was struck with hesitation, fear, irresolution. Hence, in those moments, Crawford offered more agreeable advice than Cromwell, and the end had been, in short, to place even the wretch- ed and fawning major-general in that position of confidence with Manchester which once be- longed only to the great and gallant leader of the Ironsides. But, secure in the hearts of those men no less than in their strength, Cromwell had now resolved to venture a decisive stroke against the Presbyterian councils and their favourers, no matter of what degree, in the Parliamentary army. He had, before the affair of Denning- ton, suddenly shown himself in London from York, and by a masterly piece of policy, already illustrated in the life of Vane, had, with the help of that statesman, moved and carried a Tote in the House of Commons, that the Com- mittee of Lords and Commons appointed to treat with the commissioners from Scotland, and the committee of the Assembly, should take into consideration the differences in opin- ion of the members of the Assembly in point of Church government, and endeavour a union if it were possible ; and, in case that could not be done, that they should essay to find out some methods by which tender consciences, who could not in all things submit to the common rule which might be established, might be borne with, consist- ently with Scripture and the public peace, that so the proceedings of the Assembly might not * The name of Crawford is rendered in some degree memorable from the circumstance of his being the true and original authority for fastening OB Cromwell the imputation of cowardice ! The accusation is given at large in Hollis'i Memoirs, and turns on the assertion that Cromwell, with his body of horse, stood still without making any charge, while the battle of Marston Moor was deciding, and that, when they did advance, Cromwell was no longer among them ! ! The reader has seen, in a faithful account of the battle, what imputation could rest for this monstrous charge. It requires no other notice than a word of scorn. Why, Cromwell's enemies, Royalist and Republican, admit that his astonishing bravery won that battle ! Warwick says that he and his Ironsides " mowed down" the enemy " like a meadow ;" and Mrs. Hutchinson says in her account that the day had been " lost, but that Cromwell, with five thou- sand men which he commanded, routed Prince Rupert, re- stored the other routed Parliamentarians, and gained the most compleate victory that had been obtained in the whole warre." Very characteristic of Hollis, and the mean, poor nature of the man, is his notice of the matter. Observe how he seems to have delighted in the recital : " I have teveral times heard it from Crawford's own mouth, and 1 think I shall not be mistaken if I say Cromwell himself has heard it from him, for he once said it aloud in West- minster Hall, when Cromwell passed by him, with a design 5ie might hear him." A corporal or colonel of the name of Dalbier was Crawford's seconder. The matter is really *caroely worth laughing at. " How," exclaims Horace "Walpoie, " how a judicatory in the Temple of Fame would laugh at such witnesses as Major-general Crawford and a (Colonel Dalbier ! Caesar and Cromwell are not amenable i c*f oyer and tormiuer.'' be so much retarded. This was the first start- ling exhibition of the legislative influence of the Independents. Cromwell and Vane were now in London to- gether, devising the great scheme by which fu- ture victories should not be surrendered as soon as gotten, but made serviceable to some decisive end ; by which the summer's triumph should become something more than the mere winter's story, and the lives of gallant men be no longer wasted in vain. They consulted, in a word, how best to rid the army of men who had shown a miserable nnfitness for the posts they held ; who had, besides, peculiar personal motives for checking its career at some pohrt short of a final victory ; and who, thinking lib- erty a good thing, could not forget that they had privileges of their own, and that monarchy had honours of its own, which were good things also. Here, it is to be observed, the best friends of freedom had at this time perfect faith in Crom- well. Ireton bore him the most entire affec- tion ; young Lndlow looked up to him with im- plicit zeal and admiration ; Marten laughed with, him and loved him ; Vane was to him as a broth- er. Yet on all these men not a breath of sus- picion in the matter of political sincerity rests not a stain. Fairfax, again, though a weak man, was the very soul of sincerity and honour ; and the honesty of Milton was unimpeachable as his genius. By what means, then, shall we suppose that Cromwell deceived these men? for he deceived them all. Was he sincere now, and only tempted from sincerity in after years by the temptation of too large a power suddenly sprung up within his hands? or was he from the first a deliberate and grand impos- tor? The difficulty which a friend of the prin- ciples of freedom and just government (which throughout sincerely actuated such men as Vane) has to encounter in deckling on the char- acter of Cromwell, is this that up to the vic- tories of Worcester and Dunbar, it would be difficult to say in what respect he had sinned against those very principles, of which, on the sudden, he then declared himself the most de- liberate foe. Was he, in truth, that compound he seemed to be of profound policy, and of the most wild and undisciplined rashness ? When he went down to Westminster to play the mil- itary tyrant over the Assembly which had giv- en him power and assisted even him to great- ness, did he really "not think to hare done that 1" Was his tyranny the deliberate plot of a life the rash impulse of a repented hour, or the result of sincerely wild and ungovernable fancies, which had rendered him at last, in his own mind, a selected instrument of destiny 1 A better opportunity thaa this to which we have arrived will probably not exist for offering some materials to the reader on which be may revolve these questions. We stand OB the eve of the origin of Cromwell's greatness and influ- ence as a politician, and to seek in any way to unfold intelligibly the means by which he hence- forward trode steadily on to the Protectorate, it will be necessary to bring events together which, in the ordinary course of narrative, long^ years would separate, but the combination of which is yet most necessary to a right under- standing of each or of all. OLIVER CROMWELL. 441 " What can be more extraordinary," says the poet Cowley, " than that a person of mean birth, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, which have sometimes, or of mind, which have often, raised men to the highest dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the happiness to succeed in, so improbable a design as the de- struction of one of the most ancient and most solidly-founded monarchies upon earth ; that he should have the power or boldness to put his prince and master to an open and infamous death ; to banish that numerous and strongly- allied family ; to do all this under the name and wages of a Parliament ; to trample upon them, too, as he pleased, and spurn them out of doors when he grew weary of them ; to raise up a new and unheard-of monster out of their ashes ; to stifle that in the very infancy, and to setup himself above all things that ever were called sovereign in England ; to oppress all his enemies by arms, and all his friends afterward by artifice ; to serve all parties patiently for a while, and to command them victoriously at last ; to overrun each corner of the three nations, and overcome with equal facility both the rich- es of the south and the poverty of the north ; to be pleased and courted by all foreign princes, and adopted a brother to the gods of the earth ; to call together Parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter them again with the breath of his mouth ; to be humbly and daily petitioned that he would please to be hired at the rate of two millions a year, to be the master of those that hired him before to be their servant ; to have the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal as was the little inher- itance of his father, and to be as noble and lib- eral in the spending of them ; and, lastly (for there is no end of all the particulars of his glo- ry), to bequeath all these with one word to his posterity ; to die with pence at home and triumph abroad ; to be buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity ; and to leave a name behind him not to be extinguished but with the whole world, which, as it is not too little for his praises, so might have been too for his conquests, if the short line of his human life could have been stretched out to the extent of his immortal designs'!" This is magnificent, but most untrue. The very expression that he served all parties pa- tiently for a while, implies that others, and not himself, laid the most solid foundations of his power. And this was true. What has accu- ' mulated round the memory of Cromwell such an image of vastness in the power he wielded, was not simply his own greatness, but the great- ! ness of the men to whose victories of states- ! manship he had succeeded. This should never be lost sight of. Cromwell was associated with ! a band of the most accomplished statesmen the world has known, and to swell those individual ' glories which were already, for one man, aston- ishing enough, he appropriated theirs. To say j this, it will be alleged, is merely to transfer ad- miration or praise from one set of characteris- tics to another : true ; but not less should that be done. We may possibly find some diminu- tion in the quality of praise that is due. The first great point in Cromwell's character and history dates back to Huntingdon and St. Ives. It was there, as we have seen, he began KKK the organization of that wonderful body of men which was the glorious agent by which he as- serted liberty, and the fatal instrument with I which he inflicted her mortal wound. He made ' his soldiers moral and sober ; he gave them the I elevation of religion, and that nervous strength j of mind which a knowledge of the value of freedom teaches ; inspired by his lessons, they trampled on all thought of danger in the grand- er thought of liberty ; and then he created himself their despot. We have scarcely fairly grappled with Cromwell's greatness, before what seems to an honest and generous mind his meanness and his vice intrude themselves forcibly upon us. In another passage of his " Vision," the poet Cowley thus speaks of Cromwell. " If craft be wisdom, and dissimulation wit (assisted both and improved with hypocrisies and perjuries), I must not deny him to have been singular in I both ; but so gross was the manner in which he made use of them, that as wise men ought not to have believed him at first, so no man was fool enough to believe him at last ; neither did any man seem to do it, but those who thought they gained as much by that dissembling as he did by his. His very actings of godliness grew at last as ridiculous, as if a player, by putting on a gown, should think he represented excellent- ly a woman, though his beard at the same time were seen by all the spectators. If you ask I me why they did not hiss, and explode him off | the stage, I can only answer, that they durst not do so, because the actors and doorkeepers were too strong for the company. I must con- fess that by these arts (how grossly soever man- aged, as by hypocritical praying and silly preach- ing; by unmanly tears and whinings, by falsehoods and perjuries even diabolical) he had at first the good fortune (as men call it, that is, the ill for- tune) to attain his ends, but it was because his ends were so unreasonable that no human wisdom could foresee them, which made them who had to do with him believe that he was rather a well-meaning and deluded bigot than a crafty and malicious impostor." Cowley's division of the men whom Crom- well deceived into two classes is a striking and important consideration. There were men, he says, who suffered themselves to be deceived by him in his latter years, because the deceit at the same time answered their own ends ; and there were " wise men," whom he de- ceived in earlier life, because of their utter ig- norance of his objects, and their then belief in his sincerity. The consideration of the craft and dissimulation charged upon him will there- fore imply, in relation to this passage, the oth- er and equally important consideration of the possibility of his having been, in many cases of the latter sort of men, really and sincerely him- self the victim of the delusion he practised upon them. For the first-named class of dupes, they may be surrendered, without scruple, to what- ever imputations rest upon them. , The first thing to be noted in Cromwell as a striking aid towards the belief of his sincerity, was a certain extraordinary fluxional faculty of tears with which his constitution was happily endowed. " Had not his highness," says the author of the terrible pamphlet entitled " Kill- ing no Murder," " had a faculty to be fluent in. 442 BRITISH STATESMEN. his tears and eloquent in his execrations ; had he not had spongie eyes and a supple con- science ; and besides, to do with people of great faith, but little wit, his courage and the rest of his moral virtues, with the help of his janizaries, had never been able so far to ad- vance him out of the reach of justice that we should have need to call for any other hand to remove him but that of the hangman. . . . He hath found, indeed, that in godliness there is great gain ; and that preaching and praying, well managed, will obtain other kingdoms as well as that of heaven. His, indeed, have been pious arms ; for he hath conquered most by those of the Church by prayers and tears. But the truth is, were it not for our honour to be governed by one that can manage both the spir- itual and temporal sword, and, Roman like, to have our emperor our high priest, we might have had preaching at a much cheaper rate, and it would have cost us but our tithes, which now costs us all." One scene will be perhaps enough to show this faculty in action. Bishop Burnet relates it on the authority of Sir Harbottle Grimston. It dates at the time of the purge, when he first showed that disregard of the representative privileges which was only excusable in consid- eration of the quasi rebellion into which the Presbyterians had cast the kingdom ; a con- sideration satisfactory even to Ludlow and Ire- ton, and which prevented the opposition, though it did not secure the co-operation, of Vane. " When," says Burnet, " the House of Com- mons and the army were quarrelling, at a meet- ing of the officers it was proposed to purge the army better, that they might know whom to depend on. Cromwell upon that said, he was sure of the army ; but there was another body that had more need of purging (naming the House of Commons), and he thought the army only could do that. Two officers that were present brought an account of this to Grimston, who carried them with him to the lobby of the House of Commons, they being resolved to jus- tify it to the House. There was another de- bate then on foot ; but Grimston diverted it, and said he had a matter of privilege of the highest sort to lay before them : it was about the being and freedom of the House. So he charged Cromwell with the design of putting a force on the House. He had his witnesses at the door, and desired they might be examined. They were brought to the bar, and justified all that they had said to him, and gave a full rela- tion of all that had passed at their meetings. When they withdrew, Cromwell fell down on his knees, and made a solemn prayer to God, attesting his innocence, and his zeal for the service of the House : he submitted himself to the providence of God, who, it seems, thought fit to exercise him with calumny and slander, but he submitted his cause to him. This he did with great vehemence and with many tears. After this strange and bold preamble, he made so long a speech, justifying both himself and the rest of the officers, except a few that seemed in- clined to return back to Egypt, that he wearied out the House, and wrought, so much on his party, that what the witnesses had said was so little believed, that, had it been moved, Grim- aton thought that both he [Grimston] and they would have been sent to the Tower. But wheth- er their guilt made them modest, or that they had no mind to have the matter much talked of, they let it fall, and there was no strength in the other side to carry it farther. To com- plete the scene, as soon as ever Cromwell got out of the House, he resolved to trust himself no more among them, but went to the army, and in a few days he brought them up, and forced a great many from the House." It is strange that such a scene as this should have occurred and left no trace of itself on the jour- nals of the House. It is yet borne out by oth- er events of that period. This, indeed, is the time from which the ex- traordinary powers of duplicity in the man were gradually developed, and it is surprising that the means he must have declared with so little scruple to his Republican friends should not have put them on theit guard more clearly as to the character, or, at least, possible tendency of his individual designs. But we are to take into consideration, at the same time, that the contest then going on between the Presbyteri- ans and Independents was a matter of life and death, and that the struggle for existence is a question which, during its progress, is apt to exclude every other. Certain it is that there was Cromwell, at this period in the confidence of men the most sincere, acting with an insin- cerity as desperate as it was subtle ; now in the country with the agitators of the army, whose rise and objects have been described in my last volume ; now at Westminster on the benches of the House of Commons, he played off with unceasing and wonderful dexterity the power and claims of the one against the influ- ence and position of the other. There is a passage in Hollis's Memoirs which gives us a lively idea of the rapidity of movement required in such a game. The first ground of mutiny with the agitators, it will be recollected, was the announced determination of the Presbyte- rian majority to reduce the power of the army by draughting off sundry regiments to Ireland. Hollis positively declares that it was Cromwell who upon this set the agitators in motion, though he concealed himself so artfully in the back ground, and employed instruments so sin- gularly and well adapted to his purpose, that, according to other Presbyterian writers, not even Fairfax suspected his second in command of in any way favouring the acts of insubordi- nation which no discipline could now suppress. In his memoirs, indeed, Fairfax afterward de- clared, with a reference not to be mistaken, that the success of his army in 1646 "was soon clouded with abominable hypocrisy and deceit, even in those men who had been instrumental in bringing the war to a conclusion. Here was the vertical point on which the army's reputa- tion and honour turned into a reproach and scandal. Here the power of the army I once had was usurped by the agitators, the forerun- ners of confusion and anarchy." This is the passage from Hollis : " In the mean while disclaiming it [the mutiny], bla- ming the soldiers at that distance (as Crom- well did openly in the House, protesting, for his part, he would stick to the Parliament), un- der-hand he sent them encouragements and di- rections ; for nothing was done there but by OLIVER CROMWELL. 443 advice and countenance from London, where the whole business was so laid, the rehellion resolved upon, and the officers that were in town so deeply engaged, that when the full time was come for putting things in execution, my friend Cromwell, who had been sent down by the Parliament to do good offices, was come up again without doing any ; and he who had made those solemn protestations, with some great imprecations on himself if he failed in his performance, did, notwithstanding, privily con- vey thence his goods (which many of the Inde- pendents did likewise, leaving city and Parlia- ment as marked out for destruction), and then, without leave of the House (after some mem- bers missing him, and fearing him gone, had moved to have him sent for ; whereupon he being, as it seems, not yet gone, and having no- tice of it, came and showed himself a little in the House,), did steal away that evening, I may say run away post down to the army, and presently join in the subscription of a rebellious letter." Nor did any of the difficulties into which such duplicity cast him find him ever unprepared. Between all the suspicions of the Presbyterians, and all the headlong precipitancy of the agita- tors, Cromwell stood immovable and still tri- umphant in his stratagems. When Skippon, for instance, who had received the mutinous letter of the agitators,* suddenly (for he knew nothing of Cromwell's intrigues) produced it in the House, and being asked from whom he re- ceived it, answered, from three men of no com- mand in the army, who were, he believed, at the door of the House, their names Edward Sexby, William Allen, and Thomas Shepperd, great ex- citement instantly followed. Some were for vo- ting the letter seditious, and at once committing the messengers to prison ; some were para- lyzed by alarm, and threw hesitation on that course. In the midst of much confusion, Cromwell at last arose, and brought forward what has been called his master-piece of dis- simulation. He solemnly protested that to his knowledge the army was greatly misunderstood and calumniated. They willingly put them- selves into the hands of the national represent- ative, and would conform to anything Parlia- ment should please to ordain. If the House of Commons commanded them to disband, they would obey without a murmur, and pile up their arms at the door of that assembly. For himself, he entreated them to accept his assurance of his entire submission and obedience. He sup- plicated them, therefore, to bear in mind the long services, and the pure and entire loyalty * The purport of this letter was to complain of the treat- ment the army had lately experienced, and in particular, that they had heen proclaimed enemies. They said, they knew well how to deal with adversaries with swords in their hands, but that the foes with whom they had now to encounter were far mure dangerous, being protected by per- sons intrusted with the government of the kingdom. They designated them as men who had lately tasted of sovereign- ty, and, being lifted above their ordinary sphere of servants, Bought to become masters, and were degenerating into ty- rants. Lastly, they plainly said, that, however cordially otherwise they were disposed to the expedition of Ireland, they must express themselves averse to that service until their desires were granted, and the just rights and liberties of the subject were vindicated and maintained. In partic- ular, they complained of the want of a legal indemnity for what they had done in the prosecution of the war, and that the Irish expedition, in the shape in which it was now pro- posed, was nothing less than a plan for ruining the army uud breaking it to pieces. Godwin. I of that meritorious body, and to do nothing re- | specting them in anger, or under false and mis- | taken notions of resentment. The craft suc- ceeded. The wiliest of the Presbyterians were disarmed of their suspicions, the most fearful relieved from their alarms. Cromwell was im- plored to go down and compromise matters with the agitators : he went down and fostered the mutiny. Clarendon confirms these evidences of the dark power of intrigue in Cromwell. He tells us that he was moved to the highest pitch of grief and anger whenever any intelligence was received from the mutinous regiments. He wept bitterly ; he lamented the misfortunes of his country ; and he advised the most violent measures for checking the insubordination of the troops. At the same time, he called heav- en and earth to witness that his devoted at- tachment to the Parliament had rendered him so odious to the army, that his life, while among them, was in the utmost danger. The duplici- ty could not, however, go on continually ; it was not Cromwell's purpose that it should. It was discovered, and the Presbyterians arran- ged a plot they thought as subtle, to have their deceiver moved into the Tower. But his af- fairs were ripe at last for action. He left Lon- don suddenly ; was received by the great body of the army with acclamations ; suppressed a really dangerous mutiny that threatened for the instant to thwart his plans, by riding up in the face of the mutineers, selecting twelve of the ringleaders, and shooting one on the instant ; brought up some regiments afterward within reach of Westminster, purged the Parliament, and seized the king. The imminent danger threatened by the Presbyterians to all those best interests of lib- erty for which so much blood had been shed, supplied Cromwell's excuse for even such du- plicity as this in the breasts of the friends of liberty. Nor should it be lost sight of, in re- gard to them, that they may well have supposed the organization of an armed and enthusiastic democracy like this of the agitators, the last thing in the world thai could have favoured the ultimate design of a tyrannical usurpation. Is such a consideration sufficient to cast a doubt on even the existence of such a design at this stage of Cromwell's career 1 Ludlow would answer in the negative, and offer evidence of the present existence of the design. " Walking one day," he says, about this time, " with Lieutenant-general Cromwell in Sir Robert Cotton's garden, he inveighed bitterly against them (the Commons), saying, I in a familiar way to me, ' If thy father were : alive, he would let some of them hear what they | deserved ;' adding farther, ' that it was a mis- erable thing to serve a Parliament, to whom, let a man be never so faithful, if one pragmat- ical fellow rise up and asperse him, he shall ! never wipe it off; whereas,' said he, 'when one serves under a general, he may do as much service, and yet be free from all envy and blame.' This text, together with the comment which his after actions put upon it, hath since persuaded me that he had already conceived the design of destroying the civil authority and setting up of himself , and that he took that opportunity to feel my pulse, whether I were a fit instru- 444 BRITISH STATESMEN. ment to be employed by him to those ends. But having replied to his discourse that we ought to perform the duty of our stations, and trust God with our honour, power, and all that is dear to us, not permitting any such consid- erations to discourage us from the prosecution of our duty, I never heard anything more from him upon that point." Again, in reference to Cromwell's affected negotiations with the king, his entertainment of Charles's proposal to give him the garter and the earldom of Essex, and his consequent seeming hostility to the course of bringing him to trial, as proposed by the Commonwealth's army men, Ludlow speaks in a subsequent passage of a dialogue which also occurred about this time. " Lieutenant- general Cromwell, who had made it his usual practice to gratify enemies, even by the op- pression of those who were by principle his friends, began again to court the Common- wealth party, inviting some of them to confer with him at his chamber ; with which acquaint- ing me, the next time he came to the House of Commons I took the freedom to tell him that he knew how to cajole and give them good words when he had occasion to make use of them ; where- at, breaking out into a rage, he said, they were a proud sort of people, and only considerable in their own conceits. But when, on tumults at- tending the petitions from Surrey, Essex, and Kent, the preparations in Scotland and the ri- sing at Pembroke, he perceived the clouds to gather on every side, he complained to me, as we were walking in the Palace Yard, of the un- happiness of his condition, having made the greatest part of the nation his enemies by adhering to a just cause ; but that which he pretended to be his greatest trouble was, that many who were engaged in the same cause with him had entertained a jealousy and suspicion of him, which he assured me was a great discouragement to him, asking my advice what method was best for him to take. 1 could not but acknowledge that he had many enemies for the sake of the cause in which he stood engaged, and also that many who were friends to that cause had conceived suspicions of him; but I observed to him that he could never oblige the former without be- traying that cause wherein he was engaged, which if he should do, upon the account of an empty title, riches, or any other advantages, how those contracts would be kept with him wat un~ certain ; but most certain it was, that his name would be abominated by all good men, and his memory abhorred by posterity. On the other side, if he persisted in the prosecution of our just intentions, it was the most probable way to subdue his enemies, to rectify the mistakes of those who had conceived a jealousy of him, and to convince his friends of his integrity ; that if he should fall in the attempt, yet his loss would be lamented by all good men, and his name be transmitted to future ages with hon- our." If Ludlow's strong indignation after the event had occurred did not deceive him in all this, Cromwell certainly held his after designs even now, and was even now suspected of holding them. The meeting which Ludlow alludes to in the latter quotation I have made soon after took place. Before it, however, Cromwell, then on the eve of starting from. London to quell the | second civil war, invited to dinner a number of : the leading men of the Independents, and such j of the Presbyterians as he was yet on terms ! with, for it was shortly before the purge, and ! strove hard to ascertain, during a personal con- ' ference, the points upon which they differed, I and whether there were any common ground | whereon they could meet to accomplish a hearty reconciliation. This at least, according to Lud- I low, was the pretext under which he called i them together ; but the real object, he insinu- ates, was only to obtain such information as I might enable him to direct his course with safe- ty and success through the difficulties with which recent events had surrounded him. Whatever the object, however, it signally fail- ed. The differences offered no chance of rec- onciliation or submission. He next brought about the other conference alluded to by Lud- low, consisting of the grandees, as they were called, of the House and army, on the one hand, and of a deputation of the Republicans on the other. At this conference, Ludlow proceeds to tell us, " the grandees, of whom Lieutenant- general Cromwell was the head, kept themselves i I'M the clouds, and would not declare their judg- ; ments either for a monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical government, maintaining that any of them might be good in themselves or for us, I according as Providence should direct us. The | Commonwealth's-men declared that monarchy was neither good in itself nor for us : that it was not desirable in itself, they urged from the 8th chapter and 8th verse of the first book of Samuel, with divers more texts of Scripture to the same effect ; and that it was no way con- ducing to the interests of this nation, was en- deavoured to be proved by the infinite mischiefs and oppressions we had suffered under it and by it : that, indeed, our ancestors had consent- i ed to be governed by a single person, but with this proviso, that he should govern according to the direction of the law, which he always bound himself by oath to perform : that the king had broken this oath, and thereby dissolv- i ed our allegiance ; protection and obedience being reciprocal : that, having appealed to the I sword for the decision of things in dispute, and thereby caused the effusion of a deluge of the people's blood, it seemed to be a duty incum- bent upon the representatives of the people to call him to an account for the same, more es- pecially since the controversy was determined by the same means which he had chosen, and then to proceed to the establishment of an equal commonwealth, founded upon the consent of the people, and providing for the rights and lib- erties of all men, that we might have the hearts and hands of the nation to support it, as being most just, and in all respects most conducing to the happiness and prosperity thereof. Not- withstanding what was said, Lieutenant-gen- eral Cromwell, not for want of conviction, but in hopes of making a better bargain with an- other party, professed himself unresolved ; and having learned what he could of the principles and inclinations of those present at the confer- ence, took up a cushion and flung it at my head, and then ran down the stairs ; but I overtook him with another, which made him hasten down faster than he desired. The next day, passing by me : in the House, he told me he was convinced of OLIVER CROMWELL. 445 the desirableness of what was proposed, but not of the feasibleness of it ; thereby, as I sup- pose, designing to encourage me to hope that he was willing to join with us, though unwill- ing to publish his opinion, lest the grandees should be informed of it, to whom, I presume, he professed himself to be of another judg- ment." The extraordinary action incidentally men- tioned by Ludlow shows better than any of the zealous Republican's suspicions what was go- ing on in the mind of Cromwell. No doubt he flung the cushion at Ludlow's head, either be- cause of something passing at the instant in his own heart which required relief, or of some- thing he might have incautiously uttered that required diversion. It was not mere idle buf- foonery here ; of that we may be quite sure. Another action, however, which was noted shortly after this, is not so easily explicable. While the conquered and deserted king lay a prisoner at the inhospitable castle of Caris- hrooke, Cromwell flung himself upon one of Charles's rich beds at Whitehall, and in that posture so managed a series of conferences with the subtlest lawyers of the day, as to in- duce them to lend their countenance and co- operation in a great degree to the new plan of government in meditation, although they had hesitated before to attend even their Parlia- mentary duties. This would seem to have been a piece of mean and low-thoughted osten- tation, unless it could be shown it was design- ed, which is just possible, to strike at a weak point in the learned but commonplace minds of the grave lawyers in council. Thus practising upon each set of men in turn, and selecting from each new accessions of pow- er and influence thus waiting, with wily pa- tience, to divert from the favourable current of each man's thoughts something that would serve to swell that ocean of power on which he hoped to sail to sovereignty, is it possible to view in any other light than that of a deliberate usurper the character of Cromwell] Let us not fail to observe and admire the greatness of his genius, and the wonderful advantages which, in his way to usurpation, he no doubt effected for his country. Had he left them in that shape they first assumed, no gratification or affection too largely given could have been bestowed on his immortal name. But is it possible, in the midst of all these evidences, to suppose, with Mr. Godwin, that his purposes were honest still ? Ludlow's evidence, however, is not yet com- plete. That which I have now to quote is in- deed the most important part of it, since it throws some question over his former asser- tions as to the suspicion with which Cromwell was viewed by the friends of liberty, even be- fore the death of the king. The time of the following extract is on the return of Cromwell from his government, or rather his slaughter, in Ireland, when he was anxious that Ludlow should be despatched into service there, and when Fairfax's suicidal announcement of his resignation of the chief command was just open- ing the way to a consummation of all the wild- est hopes or purposes entertained by Cromwell. Nevertheless, that subtle chief affected a de- sire for the continuance of Fairfax. " Lieuten- ant-general Cromwell," says Ludlow, " pressed that, notwithstanding the unwillingness of the Lord Fairfax to command upon this occasion, they would yet continue him to be general of the army ; professing for himself that he would rather choose to serve under him in his post, than to command the greatest army in Europe. But the council of slate not approving that advice, appointed a committee of some of themselves to confer farther with the general in order to his satisfaction. This committee was appoint- ed upon the motion of the lieutenant-general, who acted his part so to the life that I really thought him in earnest, which obliged me to step to him as he was withdrawing with the rest of the committee out of the council chamber, and to desire him that he would not, in compliment and humility, obstruct the service of the nation by his refusal ; but the consequence made it sufficient- ly evident that he had no such intention. The committee having spent some time in debate with the Lord Fairfax without any success, re- turned to the council of state, whereupon they ordered the report of this affair to be made to the Parliament ; which being done, and some of the general's friends informing them that, though he had showed some unwillingness to be employed in this expedition himself, yet be- ing more unwilling to hinder the undertaking of it by another, he had sent his secretary, who attended at the door, to surrender his commis- sion, if they thought fit to receive it. The sec- retary was called in, and delivered the commis- sion, which the Parliament having received, they proceeded to settle an annual revenue of 5000 upon the Lord Fairfax, in consideration of his former services, and then voted Lieu- tenant-general Cromwell to be captain-general of all their land forces, ordering a commission forthwith to be drawn up to that effect, and re- ferred to the council of state to hasten the preparations for the northern expedition. A little after, as I sat in the House near General Cromwell, he told me that, having observed an alteration in my looks and carriage towards him, he apprehended that I entertained some sus- picions of him ; and that, being persuaded of the tendency of the designs of us both to the ad- vancement of the public service, he desired that a meeting might be appointed, wherein with freedom we might discover the grounds of our mistakes and misapprehensions, and create a good understanding between us for the fu- ture. I answered, that he discovered in me what I had never perceived in myself; and that, if I troubled him not so frequently as formerly, it was either because I was conscious of that weight of business that lay upon him, or that I had nothing to importune him withal upon my own or any other account ; yet since he was pleased to do me the honour to desire a free conversation with me, I assured him of my readiness therein ; whereupon we resolved to meet that afternoon in the council of state, and from thence to withdraw to a private room, which we did accordingly in the queen's guard- chamber, where he endeavoured to persuade me of the necessity incumbent upon him to do sev- eral things that appeared extraordinary in the judgment of some men, who, in opposition to him, took such courses as would bring ruin upon themselves, as well as him and the public 446 BRITISH STATESMEN. cause, affirming his intentions to be directed entirely to the good of the people, and profess- ing his readiness to sacrifice his life in their service. I freely acknowledged my former dis- satisfaction with him and the rest of the army when they were in treaty with the king, whom I looked upon as the only obstruction to the settlement of the nation, and with their actions at the rendezvous at Ware, where they shot a soldier to death, and imprisoned divers others upon the account of that treaty, which I con- ceived to have been done without authority and for sinister ends ; yet, since they had manifest- ed themselves convinced of those errors, and declared their adherence to the commonwealth, though too partial a hand was carried both by the Parliament and themselves in the distribu- tion of preferments and gratuities, and too much severity exercised against some who had for- merly been their friends, and, as I hoped, would be so still, with other things that I could not entirely approve, I was contented patiently to wait for the accomplishment of those good things which I expected, till they had overcome the difficulties they now laboured under, and suppressed their enemies that appeared both abroad and at home against them, hoping that then their principles and interest should lead them to do what was most agreeable to the constitution of a commonwealth and the good of mankind. He owned my dissatisfaction with the army while they were in treaty with the king to be founded upon good reasons, and ex- cused the execution done upon the soldier at the rendezvous as absolutely necessary to keep things from falling into confusion, which must have ensued upon that division if it had not been timely prevented. He professed to desire nothing more than that the government of the na- tion might be settled in a free and equal common- wealth, acknowledging that there was no other probable means to keep out the old family and government from returning upon us ; declaring that he looked upon the design of the Lord in this day to be the freeing of his people from ev-. ery burden, and that he was now accomplishing what was prophesied in the \\QthPsalm; from the consideration of which, he was often en- couraged to attend the effecting those ends, spending at least an hour in the exposition of that psalm." And so Ludlow, satisfied, or at least unable to express distrust of the honesty of Cromwell, went off to Ireland. It will not do to judge those friends of freedom too hastily who still held to the side of this man ! Then, having completed the conquests of the Commonwealth having freed himself of Ludlow's presence, and Ireton being removed by death, nothing stood in the way of the daring adventurer save the enthusiastic democracy of the army and its fiercely Republican officers. Yet this would have sufficed to check no ordinary man ! Crom- well knew, however, that if he could propitiate the officers up to a certain point, he was sure of the great body of the army, and with this he could effect all. The army was now the first power of the state. It had become the result of their masterly discipline, as it must be in ev- ery army, being, in fact, the very condition of military existence to acknowledge and look up to a great controlling chief. To place himself, therefore, in the position of receiving this, in a political sense, from the first power of the state, was to become himself the first man of the state. The transition was easy to a throne ; that is, he thought so. The circle of his rea- soning was now vvellnigh complete : the work begun at St. Ives promised a successful issue. But then those Republican enthusiasts ! A different mode was necessary here from that which had succeeded hitherto with Ludlow, and in part with Vane. His own enthusiasm must be called into play: an enthusiasm he possessed to such an extent as to qualify it fairly for all the effects of a real inspiration. Upon this, then, the question may occur, as to whether he had ever laboured in fact, in mat- ters of religion, under a sincere self-delusion. " Though now," says our honest and zealous Ludlow, he eagerly coveted his own advance- ment, he thought it not convenient yet to un- mask himself, but rather to make higher pretences to honesty than ever he had done before, there- by to engage Major-general Harrison, Colonel Rich, and their party to himself. To this end, he took all occasions in their presence to as- perse the Parliament, as not designing to do those good things they pretended to, but rather intending to support the corrupt interests of the clergy and lawyers ; and though he was con- vinced they were hastening with all expedition to put a period to their sitting, having passed a vote that they would do it within the space of a year, and that they were making all possible preparations in order to it, yet did he industri- ously publish that they were so in love with their seats that they would use all means to perpet- uate themselves. These and other calumnies he had with so much art insinuated into the be- lief of many honest and well-meaning people, that they began to wish him prosperity in his undertaking. Divers of the clergy, from their pulpits, began to prophesy the destruction of the Parliament, and to propose It openly as a thing desirable; insomuch that the general, who had all along concurred with this spirit in them, hypocritically complained to Quartermaster Vernon, that he was pushed on by two parties to do that, the consideration of the issue whereof made his hair to stand on end. One of these, said he, is headed by Major-general Lambert, who, in revenge of that injury the Parliament did him in not permitting him to go into Ireland with a character and conditions suitable to his merit, will be contented with nothing less than their dissolution ; of the other, Major-general Harri- son is the chief, who is an honest man, and aims at good things, yet, from the impatience of his spirit, will not wait the Lord's leisure, but hurries me on to do that which he and all hon- est men will have cause to repent. Thus," adds Ludlow, " did he craftily feel the pulse of men towards this work, endeavouring to cast the infamy of it on others, reserving to himself the appearance of tenderness to civil and religious liberty, and of screening the nation from the fury of the parties before mentioned." The mention of Harrison subsequently draws from the Republican memorialist the following singular statement : " I went afterward (during Cromwell's usurpation) to make him a visit ; and having told him that I was very desirous to be informed by him of the reasons that moved OLIVER CROMWELL. 447 him to join with Cromwell in the interruption of the civil authority, he answered that he had done it because he was fully persuaded they had not a heart to do any more good for the Lord and his people. Then, said I, are you not now con- vinced of your error in entertaining such thoughts, especially since it has been seen what use has been made of the usurped power] To which he replied, upon their heads be the guilt who have made a wrong use of it ; for my own part, my heart was upright and sincere in the thing. . . . His second reason for joining with Cromwell was because he pretended to love and favour a sort of men who acted upon higher principles than those of civil liberty. I replied, that I thought him mistaken in that also, since it had not appeared that he ever approved of any persons or things farther than he might make them subservient to his own ambitious designs. . . . The major-general then cited a passage of the Prophet Daniel, where it is said that the saints shall take the kingdom and possess it. To which he added another to the same effect, that the kingdom shall not be left to another people I answered, that the same prophet says in another place, that the kingdom shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High ; and that I conceived, if they should presume to take it before it was given, they would, at the best, be guilty of doing evil that good might come from it." The reign of the saints, then, was the ground Cromwell took with these men. And did he believe a word of it] It is worth considering. " I had much discourse on this head," says Bishop Burnet, " with one who knew Cromwell well and all that set of men, and asked him how they could excuse all the prevarications and other ill things of which they were visibly guilty in the conduct of their affairs. He told me they believed there were great, occasions in which some men were called to great services, and in the doing of which they were excused, from the common rules of morality : such were the prac- tices of Ehud and Jael, Samson and David ; and by this they fancied they had a privilege from observing the standing rules. It is very obvious how far this principle may be carried, and how all justice and mercy may be laid aside on this pretence by every bold enthusiast." True : and it does not seem that Cromwell is unfairly charged in this, or his dupes unfairly represented. Some, indeed, suspected him ; and it is related, that on the eve of this great scheme, from which the present illustrations of his character are derived his project of thrusting out the Long Parliament by the sol- diery, and so flinging down the final obstacle to usurpation Major Streater declared openly that he was sure " the general designed to set up for himself." To this the enthusiastic Har- rison rejoined, that he did not believe it, but that " the general's aim was only to make way for the kingdom of Jesus." " Unless Jesus comes very suddenly, then," replied Streater, ' he will come too late." For even the Streater party, however, Crom- well had his resources. It would seem that up to the very time when he was driving out the members, and the council of officers sat in sus- pense at Whitehall, several of them had, in re- ality, no notion of what was going on, until Cromwell suddenly reappeared among them flushed and agitated with an extreme excite- ment, the keys of the House of Commons in liis pocket, the " bawble" of its authority care- lessly flung into an anteroom, Vane's celebrated act as carefully concealed told them all that be had done ; and added, that he did not think to have done it, but, " perceiving the Spirit of God so strong upon me, I could, no longer consult flesh and blood." It would be within the bounds of probability that Cromwell had for an instant for an instant only actually experienced this emotion. While on the point of being tempted to believe it, the sequel of the scene checks every such temptation. Some of the recusant officers, having recovered their first wonder and uncertainty, went with a strong and decisive remonstrance to Cromwell, re- quired an explanation of his extraordinary pro- ceedings, and told him he was apparently pro- viding ruin and confusion for the best interests of all. Upon this, we are informed, he stilled their murmurs with an assurance that he would do much more good to the country than could ever be expected from the Parliament ; and made so many professions of patriotic feeling, that they resolved to wait the course of events rather than come to a downright quarrel with him, be- fore his intentions could be fully known. Colonel Okey, however, suspecting that the end would be bad, as the means were so hypocritical, asked Desborough what could be passing in the mind of Cromwell when he praised the Parlia- ment so highly to the council of officers, and yet proceeded almost immediately afterward to eject them with so much scorn and contempt. The other replied, "That if ever the general drolled in his life, he had drolled then." Yet are there considerations still, connected with Cromwell's claims to be considered in many points a sincere enthusiast, which cannot be omitted in an inquiry of this kind. Do not let the character and tendency of the great age in which he lived be forgotten or treated lightly. It was, indeed, an age of wonders, in which majesty had been thrown prostrate and poverty exalted in which wonderful declarations had seemed to issue from Heaven itself in favour of the cause he had engaged in. It is by sup- posing some such assurance as this pervading himself and his army that their singular mixture of real pride and apparent self-abasement meets with its best solution. What was a king in the presence of the King of kings] What was temporary suffering in the hope of eternal bliss ] What even the/orm of a despotism over the disordered land, if it was merely to open out a passage to immortal freedom for God's own people ? In a very striking letter to the governor of the Castle of Edinburgh, dated September the 9th, 1650, Cromwell thus wrote: "We have said in our papers with what hearts and upon what account we came [into Scotland] ; and the Lord hath heard us, though you would not, upon as solemn an appeal as any experience can parallel. And although they [the Scots] seem to comfort themselves with being the sons of Jacob, from whom (they say) God hath hid his face for a time, yet it's no wonder, when the Lord hath lift up his hand so eminent- ly against a family, as he hath done so often 448 BRITISH STATESMEN. against this [the Stuart], and men will not see his hand, if the Lord hide his face from such, putting them to shame, both for it and their hatred at his people, as it is this day. When they purely trust to the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God ; which is powerful to bring down strong holds, and every imagina- tion that exalts itself: which alone is able to square and Jit the stones for the new Jerusalem, then, and not before, and by that means and no other, shall Jerusalem (which is to be the praise of the whole earth), the city of the Lord, be built, the Sion of the Holy One of Israel." In reply to this, the governor wrote to the Eng- lish chief that the Scotch ministers directed him to say " that they had not so learned Christ as to hang the equity of their cause upon events." Cromwell at once answered, " In answer to the witness of God upon our solemn appeal, you say you have not so learned Christ to hang the equity of your cause upon events. We could wish blindness hath not been upon your eyes to all those marvellous dispensations which God hath wrought lately in England. But did not you solemnly appeal and pray 1 Did not we do so too 1 And ought not you and we to think with fear and trembling of the hand of the great God in this mighty and strange ap- pearance of his ! But can you slightly call it an event ! Were not both yours and our expecta- tions renewed from time to time, while we waited upon God, to see which way he would manifest himself upon our appeals 1 And shall we, after all these our prayers, fastings, tears, expectations, and solemn appeals, call these bare events ? The Lord pity you. Surely we fear, because it hath been a merciful and gra- cious deliverance to us. I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, search after the mind of the Lord in it towards you, and we shall help you by our prayers that you may find it out, for yet (if we know our hearts at all) our bowels do in Christ Jesus yearn after the godly in Scotland." This looks like earnestness and sincerity. In the very same correspondence, however, there is something that contradicts it a little. Crom- well having invited, with an air of noble toler- ance, the Presbyterian ministers, who had ta- ken refuge in the castle, to resume their du- ties in the various chapels of the city, the gov- ernor intimates, in answer, that those reverend { gentlemen have not been able to conquer some alarm of the preaching cuirassiers of the Eng- lish army, and that " they are ready to be spent in their Master's service, and to refuse no suffer- ing," yet, "finding nothing exprest in yours whereupon to build any security for their per- sons," they "are resolved to reserve themselves for better times, and to wait upon Him who hath hidden his face for a while from the sons of Jacob." To this, with something of an in- considerate plainness, the impetuous English general, deserting his Bible phraseology, at once rejoins : " The kindness offered to the ministers with you was done with ingenuity, thinking it might have met with the like ; but I am satisfied to tell those with you, that if their Master's service (as they call it) were chiefly in ' their eye, imagination of suffering would not [ have caused such a return, much less the prac- tice by our party (as they are pleased to say), upon the ministers of Christ in England, have been an argument of personal prosecution. The ministers in England are supported, and have liberty to preach the Gospel, though not to raile, nor under pretence thereof to overtop the civil pow- er, or debase it as they please.'" This certainly looks amazingly like a sudden burst of laughter at the mutual affectation of phrase kept up by our biblical professors. It calls to mind the merry meeting of the brother -augurs in the streets of Rome. But now let us observe, from other sources, what sort of style was adopted towards Crom- well by indifferent persons whom he had obli- ged, or who hoped for favours from him. They may suggest the sort of deliberate plan or sys- tem which his enthusiasm and religious repute served to or assumed. A Mr. Walter Cradock thus writes to the lord-general : " My heart is readie to burst oft in the weeke, not with jeal- ousies, swellings, suspitions, or querulousness, as perhaps you may be tempted to think, but with a flood of affections, a conjunction of love, joy, delight, and earnest desire to salute you with a few unfeigned lines; all which, by three or four considerations or, it may be, temptations are damm'd up, as having no vent but in prayer and praises, which sometimes I make my businesse in a ditch, wood, or under a hay-mow, in your behalfe. I pray believe not any that shall say that you are lesse beloved, honoured, or remembered by the Welsh saints than ever you were, or any man is. Let not, I beseech you, your catholique projects (though otherwise fun- damentally good) seem to excuse your con- science for letting slip any particular present opportunity to serve the least saint. That re- nowned auncient saint, Mr. Rice Williams, of Newport, being one who hath served the state in many places, but not gained a penny there- from, is pitched upon by the saints here a year agoe for that place of registering deeds ; your fa- vourable assistance is much desired therein by the godly of this country, in whose names I sa- lute you in the Lord." And in another letter, a female friend of Mr. Cradock, Mrs. Mary Netheway, thus opens a budget of prayers and praises to the great lord-general. " Dere and honnoured sur in the Lord, Having travelled with the pepel of God in spretual labore, and haveing now bine a letel refreshed with God's renewed power and presents amongs the gold- en candelsticks, I have med bould to writ this few lynes to you, wherin I desier to bless God for his marsy to your poore soule, that was so much compost about with gret temtalions. This is one thing I desier of you, to demolish thos monstres wich arr set up as ornaments in Privy - garden. Truly, sur, we stand on the sea of glase : O that we may have the harps of God in our hands, and may be in readiness when our Lord shall apear, for his apearing is near. Blessed is he that is sealed, and hath oyle in his vessel. Re- member me to dere Mr. Cradock." In such letters as these we may behold Crom- well in his intercourse with the humblest. They are all his equals. He shares their temptations, and humiliates himself to their own vilest con- dition. The imagination pictures him passing from tent to tent among his soldiers, with a prayer for one, a jest for another, equality and brotherhood for all. And having thus exhibited what some may OLIVER CROMWELL. 449 consider the meaner uses of his enthusiasm, observe it next on a grander theatre. Bishop Burnet, speaking of the straits to which he was reduced on the eve of the battle of Dunbar, pro- ceeds thus : " The Scots drew near Cromwell, who, being pressed by them, retired towards Dunbar, where his ships and provisions lay. The Scots followed him, and were posted on a hill about a mile from thence, where there was no attacking them. Cromwell was then in great distress, and looked on himself as undone. There was no marching towards Berwick, the ground was too narrow ; nor could he come back into the country without being separated from his ships and starving his army. The least evil seemed to be to kill his horses, and put his army on board, and sail back to Newcastle, which, in the disposition that England was in at that time, would have been all their destruc- tion, for it would have occasioned a universal insurrection for the king. They had not above three days' forage for their horses : so Crom- well called his officers to a day of seeking the Lord, in their style. He loved to talk much of that matter all his life long afterward : he said he felt such an enlargement of heart in prayer, and such quiet upon it, that he bade all about him take heart, for God had certainly heard them, and would appear for them. After prayer, they walked in the Earl of Roxburgh's gardens, that lay under the hill, and by prospective glasses Glorie of a resurrection which will answear all. . . . Sir, I must thankfully confesse your favour in your last letter. I see I am not forgotten ; and truely, to be kept in your remembrance is very great satisfaction to me, for I can say in the simplicitie of my harte, I putt a high and true valew upon your love, which when Iforgett, I shall cease to be a gratefull and an honest man. I most humblie begg my service may be pre- sented to your Ladie, to whome I wish all hap- pinesse and establishment in the truth. Sir, my prayers are for you, as becomes your ex- cellencie's most humble servant, OLIVER CROM- WELL. . . . Sir, Mr. Rushworth will write to you about the quarteringe and the letter lately sent you, and therefore I forbeare." To the Lord Wharton, a year after the fore- going date, we find him writing, less sensibly, indeed, than to the sensible Fairfax, but in a tone of still more striking humility and even passionate self-abasement. " MY LORDE, You knowe how untoward I am at this businessc of writinge ; yett a word. ... I beseeche the Lorde make us sensible of this great mercie heere, which surelie was much more than the House expresseth. I trust (. . . . the goodnesse of our God) time and oportunitie to speak of it with you face to face. When wee thinke of our God, what are wee ! Oh ! his mercie to the whole societie of Saincts, despised, jeered saincts ! Lett them mocke on. Would wee discerned a great motion in the Scottish camp ; were all saincts ; the best of us are (Godknowes) upon which Cromwell suddenly said, ' God is de- poore weake saincts, yett saincts ; if not sheepe, livering them into our hands ; they are coming : yett lambes, and must be fedd. Wee have daylie down to us.' " That battle will be described bread, and shall have it, in despite of all eni- hereafter, and another act of sudden enthusiasm noted, which had, even more than this, the as- pect of real inspiration. Nor was it on great public occasions, or to mies. There's enough in our Father's house, and he disparseth it as our eyes .... behinde, then wee can wee for him. I thinke thorough theise outward mercies (as we call public persons, or to the common soldiers of , them), fayth, patience, love, hope, all are exer- his army, or to the mere private tools of his in- cised and perfected, yea, Christ formed, and trigues, that this remarkable intercourse of en- ! growes to a perfect man within us. I knowe thusiasm restricted itself in Cromwell. I shall ! not how well to distinguish ; the difference is hereafter show it, the same in kind, though in a less degree, among the most intimate mem- bers of his family; and to the officers with whom his daily life was passed, and to whom only in the subject : to a worldly man they are outward ; to a Saint, Christian : but I dispute not, my lorde, I rejoyce in your perticular mer- cie. I hope that is soe to you ; if soe, it shall he could have scarcely written aught with ! not hurt you, not make you plott or shift for which that daily life corresponded not, he held ! the younge baron to make him great. You will the same enthusiastic tone. Some of these say, he is God's to dispose of, and guide for, letters I am able to produce. To the mild and : and there you will leave him. My love to the sensible Fairfax, shortly after an illness which deare little ladie, better than the child. The had moved the sympathy and concern of the Lorde blesse you both. My love and service to latter, he thus writes on the 7th of March, 1647: all friends high and low; if you will, my Lorde " SIR, It hath pleased God to raise me out and Ladie Moulgrave and Will. Hill. I am of a dangerous sicknesse ; and I doe most will- j truely your faythfull friend and humblest ser- ingly acknowledge that the Lord hath (in this vant, O. CROMWELL." Visitation) exercised the bowells of a Father Three years afterward, when he had con- towards me. I receaved in myselfe the sen- quered at Worcester, and was on the very eve tence of death, that I might learn to trust in | of his usurpation, he thus, in preparation for Him that rayseth from the dead, and have noe | the latter event, writes to his "esteemed friend confidence in the flesh. It's a blessed thinge j Mr. Cotton, pastor at Boston," one of the early to dye daylie : for what is there in this Worlde j and famous ministers of New-England. This to be accounted of the best Men according toe ' letter offers the most striking illustration that the flesh, and thinges are lighter than vanitie. j could be found of certain eminent peculiarities I finde this onely good : to love the Lorde, and , which lay at the very root of all the strength his poore despised people; to doe for them, | and all the weakness of his character. " WOR- and to be readie to suffer with them ; and he ' THY SIR AND MY CHRISTIAN FRIEND, I receaved that is found worthy of this hath obteyned great yours a few days sithence ; it was wellcome favour from the Lorde ; and he that is estab- j to me, because signed by you, whome I love lished in this shall (beinge conformed to Christ and honour in the Lorde ; butt more to see some and the reste of the bodie) participate in the of the same grounds of our actinges stirrings L L L 450 BRITISH STATESMEN. in you, that have in us to quiet us in our worke, and support us therein, which hath had great- est difficultie in our engagement with Scotland, by reason wee have had to doe with some whoe were (I verilie thinke) godly, butt through weak- nesse and the subtiltie of Sathan, involved in interest against the Lord and his people. With what tendernesse wee have proceeded with such, and that in sinceritie, our papers (which I suppose you have seen) will in part manifest, and I give you some comfortable assu- rance of. The Lorde hath marvelously appear- ed even against them. And now againe, when all the power was devolved into the Scottish Kinge and the malignant partie, they invadinge England, the Lorde rayned upon them such snares as the enclosed will shew, only the nar- rative is short in this, that of their whole armie when the narrative was framed, not five of their whole armie returned. Surely, S r , the Lorde is greatly to be feared, as to be praised. Wee need your prayers in this as much as ever : how shall wee behave ourselves after such mer- cies 1 What is the Lord a doeinge 1 What proph- esies are now fulfillinge 1 Who is a God like ', ours 1 To knowe his will, to doe his will, are | both of him. ... I tooke this libertie from busi- nesse to salute you thus in a word. Truely I am ready to serve you, and the rest of our brethren and the churches with you. I am a poore weake creature, and not worthy the name of a worme, yett accepted to serve the Lord and his people. Indeed, my dear friend, between you and me, you knowe not me ; my weaknesses, my inordinate passions, my unskilfulnesse, and . every way unfitnesse to my worke ; yell, yett, the Lord, whoe will have mercie on whome he will, does as you see. Pray for me : salute all Christian friends, though unknown. I rest your affec- tionate friend to serve you, O. CROMWELL." In the year 1646, after his mere military ex- ertions had for a time been closed by the vic- tory of Naseby, and his thoughts were busied with the important question of the person of the king, and all the strange and even fearful considerations it may well be supposed to have involved, we find him writing in a somewhat similar strain to his eldest daughter, whose Re- publican tendencies, cherished and strengthen- ed by her husband Ireton, had even thus early declared themselves. The letter (which is da- ted the 25th of October, and addressed to " hys beloved daughter Bridget Ireton, at Cornbury, the General's quarters") contains several char- acteristic points, and not least among them is that sort of appeal to her from the defection of his younger daughter Elizabeth, who had Roy- alist tastes and predilections, and whose very weakness in that point seems, by a process of love not difficult to follow, to have endeared her even more than her other sisters to this al- ways affectionate father. " DEERE DAUGHTER, I write not to thy husband, partly to avoid trouble, for one line of mine begilts many of his, which I doubt makes him sitt up loo late ; partly because I am myselfe indisposed at this tyme, havinge some other considerations. Your friends at Ely are well : your sister Claypole is (I trust in mercie) exercised with some perplex- ed thoughts. She sees her owne vanitie and car- nal minde. Bewaillinge it, she seekes after (as I hope alsoe) that w ch will satisfie. And thus to be a seeker is to be of the best sect next a finder, and such an one shall every faythfull humble seeker be at the end. Happie seeker, happie finder. Whoe ever tasted that the Lord is gracious, without some sence of self-vanitie and badnesse? Whoe ever tasted that gra- ciousnesse of his, and could goe lesse in desier, and lesse than pressinge after full enjoyment * Deere harte, presse on ; lett not hnsband, lett not anythinge, coole thy affections after Christ. I hope he will be an occasion to enflame them. That w ch is best worthy of love in thy husband is that of the image of Christ hebeares. Looke on that, and love it best, and all the rest for that. I pray for thee and him ; doe so for me. My service and deere affections to the Generall and Generallesse. I hearc she is very kind to thee ; it adds to all nther obligations. My love to all. I am thy deere Father, "O. CROMWELL." The view which these letters present to us will be completed by two extracts from the letters of two very influential men of the time, unlike each other in all things save this, that both were zealous Republicans. They bear date at the commencement of the Worcester campaign. Even so late as this Cromwell had sustained appearances with the stern and in- flexible Bradshaw ; even in his present glory and power he had chiefly impressed the enthu- siastic Harrison with the sense of his humility, and his desire to bear the burden of his great- ness only by help of that comfort and grace which the meanest might share along with him. "My dear lord," exhorts Harrison, "lett wait- ing upon Jehovah bee the greatest and most considerable business yow have every daie ; reckon itt soe more than to eate, sleepe, or councell together. Run aside sometimes from your companie, and gett a word with the Lord. Why should not yow have three or four precious soules allwaies standing att your elbow, with whom yow might now and then turne into a corner. I have found refreshment and mercie in such a waie. Ah, the Lord of compassion owne, pittie your burdens, care for yow, stand by and re- fresh your harte each moment. I would I could in anie kind doc yow good ; my harte is with yow, and my poore praiers to my God for yme. The Allmightie Father carrie yow in his very bo- some, and deliver yow (if itt bee his will) from touching a very haire of anie for whom Jesus hath bled. I expect a very gracious returne in this particular." The more sober and manly tone of Brad- shaw's letter yet intimates the strongest faith in the sincerity of Cromwell, and his just claim, to assistance in his great work from the very hand of God : " MY LORD, By the hands of this trustie bearer, accept, I pray you, of this paper remembrance and salutation from him who both upon the publique and his owne pry- vate account is verie much your dettor, and with other your poore friends here prayes for and adores the manifestation of God's gracious presence with you in all your weyghty affaires ; which, as they are undertaken in z'iale to God's glory and his people's good, will, thioughcontyn- uance of the same dy vine presence and mercy, be crowned with answerable successe ; and who- soever belongs to God in the nation where you are, will in the close of all have cause to say OLIVER CROMWELL. 451 periissemus nisi periissemus. In the mean tyme, God can and will tame those stubborn spirits, and convince them of their hypocrysy who create you all this trouble, ami give a mercifull testimony to the sinceritie of his poo re servants hearts who have appealed unto him. . . . My Lord, I forbeare particularizing things here only this, God is gracious to us in dyscovery o many of our enemies' desygnes (which thereby have proved abortive), and delyvering their coonceHs in a good measure into our hands ; and in watching over the common safetie, there is much acknowledgement due to the indefati- gable industry of M. Generall Harrison, your faithfull servant and substitute in that worke here. Your Lordship will shortly heare ol some numbers of godly persons in a regimental! forme here in London, whose example will be followed by others of like good mynd in Nor- wich, Kent, and other places, who have sent for Commissions to us for that purpose, and our resolution is they shall not want incouragement. .... My Lord, I will trespasse no further upon your tyme. The Lord of Hosts be with you ; the God of Jacob be your refuge. The hum- blest of your welwillers, fryends, and servants, "Jo. BRADSHAWE." Is it possible, however, the reader will ask, to penetrate into the habits of Cromwell, such as they were, apart from the restraint imposed on them by letters, over which, however free or familiar the object to which they were ad- dressed, the character of the age could not but cast, as it were insensibly and as a matter of course, its own air of elevation and enthusi- asm ? Can we view Cromwell in his own home, or the homes of his friends, in the free- dom and the abandonment of social intercourse 1 If we might see him there, perhaps these strange discordances would in some sort vanish, and expose to view the natural man beneath them. The reader shall see him there, in so far as those private scenes or familiar habits have been happily handed down to us. Whitelocke, in his " Memorials," relates the following anecdote. " From the council of state Cromwell and his son Ireton went home with me to supper, where they were very cheerful, and seemed extremely well pleased. We dis- coursed together till twelve o'clock at night, and they told me wonderful observations of God's providence in the affairs of the war, and in the business of the army's coming to London, and seizing the members of the House, in all which were miraculous passages." We find an air of reality and sincerity, at last, about this little supper. Here was the cheerful spirit of the men. unclouded by strange delusions or fanatic professions, and yet, slyly, though perhaps sin- cerely, lurking beneath it the materials for both. In the next anecdote the picture is not so favourable, yet natural withal, and not, on the whole, unpleasing. 1 take it from the Life of Waller, written by the poet's intimate friend. " Mr. Waller," he says, speaking of his intimacy with Cromwell, who was, as formerly stated, his kinsman by marriage, " often took notice, that in the midst of their discourse a servant has come in to tell them such and such attend- ed, upon which Cromwell would rise and stop them, talking at the door, where he could over- hear them say, The Lord will reveal, The Lord will help, and several such expressions ; which, when he returned to Mr. Waller, he excused, saying, Cousin Waller, / must talk to these men after their own way ; and would then go on where they led off. This created in Mr. Waller an opinion that he secretly despised those whom he seemed to court." The opinion was surely a non sequitur. We may respect a man sincere- ly, whose style of speaking or of thinking we may yet as sincerely differ from. Were this anecdote unaccompanied with other evidence to show an unworthy condescension in Crom- well to the use of a like style of speaking for wicked and unworthy ends, it might stand merely as an excellent and sufficing proof of the courtesy and gentility of his spirit. The worst imputation in the anecdote, however, has been confirmed, on the authority of a friend of Oliver St. John, by an anonymous writer of repute. " The enthusiasm of Cromwell," says the author of a " Political History of the Age," " was entirely assumed and politic. Oliver St. John declared that Cromwell, being one day at table with his friends, and looking for the cork of a bottle of Champagne which he had opened, on being informed that some person attended for admittance to see him, Tell him,' says Cromwell, ' we are in search of the holy spirit.' " If this was really said, it must have been in an incautious moment indeed, or for some hys- terical relief from irritating or painful thought as the cushion supplied which he flung at Lud- low. In the general affairs of his household, in so far as religion and religious observances were concerned, he was strict, and even, in some cases, exacting. An unimpeachable wit- ness, Calamy, in his Life of Howe, has the fol- lowing statement. " I had heard from several (and it had been confirmed to me by Mr. Jeremy White, who lived at Whitehall at the very same time with Mr. Howe) that the notion of a par- ticular faith in prayer prevailed much in Crom- well's court, and that it was a common opinion among them, that such as were in a special man- ner favoured of God, when they offered up prayers and supplications to him for his mercies, either for themselves or others, often had such impressions made on their minds and spirits by a divine hand, as signified to them, not only in the general, that their prayers would be heard and graciously answered, but that the particular mercies that were sought for would be certainly bestowed, nay, and sometimes also intimated to them in what way and manner they would be afforded ; and pointed out to them future events beforehand, which in reality is the same as in- spiration. Having heard of mischief done by the prevalence of this notion, I took the oppor- unity that offered, when there was nothing to linder the utmost freedom, to inquire of Mr. rlowe what he had known about this matter, and what were his apprehensions concerning t. He told me the prevalence of the notion hat I mentioned at Whitehall, at the time when IB lived there, was too notorious to be called in mestion, and that not a little pains was taken o cultivate and support it ; and that he once icard a sermon there (from a person of note), he avowed design of which was to maintain and defend it. He said he was so fully con- inced of the ill tendency of such a principle, hat after the hearing this sermon, he thought 452 BRITISH STATESMEN. himself bound in conscience, when it came next to his turn to preach before Cromwell, to set him- self industriously to oppose it, and to beat down that spiritual pride and confidence which such fancied impulses and impressions were apt to produce and cherish. He told me he observed, that while he was in the pulpit, Cromwell heara him with great attention, but would sometimes knit his brows and discover great uneasiness. When the sermon was over, he told me a person of distinction came to him, and asked him if he knew what he had done, and signified it to him as his apprehension that Cromwell would be so incensed upon that discourse, that he would find it very difficult ever to make his peace with him, or secure his favour for the future. Mr. Howe replied that he had but discharged his conscience, and could leave the event with God. He told me he afterward observed Cromwell was cooler in his carriage to him than before, and some- times thought he would have spoken to him of the matter, but he never did, and rather chose to forbear." The wilderness of doubt which every inqui- rer into the life or character of this extraordi- nary man (however deeply his researches en- able him, as he supposes, to penetrate beneath the surface) must yet find himself in, at the last, in regard to many of his motives and his aims, does not seem to receive any clew even from this striking and well-authenticated de- tail. Cromwell still appears in it rather as the politic than the fanatic person. The very selection of his chaplains seems to countenance the notion that with him religion was rather a matter of policy than persuasion, and a matter, therefore, over which he prefer- red to have such placed in authority as he could himself in turn influence or rule. Thus he was ill at ease with Howe. His favourites were Hugh Peters, who savoured much of a mad- man ;* Sterry, who appears to have been half madman and half fool ; John Goodwin, who looked forward to the millennium ; Thomas Goodwin, who raved about the five points ; and Jeremy White but a little anecdote connected with Cromwell will show what Jeremy White was. Oldmixon relates it, and if, with others that need not be repeated here, it is received with belief, there can be little doubt that Cromwell, in engaging White as his chaplain, secured in him also a buffoon gratis. The Lady Frances, one of the parties to the anecdote, was the youngest and most beautiful of Cromwell's daughters, and had been set apart by the gos- sip of Europe for the queen of Charles II., be- ing thus destined, it was said, to serve as the bond of union between the decaying Common- wealth and the renewing royalty of England. Charles II. had found a rival, however, in Mr. Jeremy White. " One of the Protector's domes- tic chaplains," says the historian of the Stuarts, "Mr. Jeremy White, a sprightly man, and a top wit of his court, was so ambitious as to make * This reverend person sent a huge dog to Sweden with Whitelocke, by way of a present to Queen Christina. See Appendix F. : an article to which the reader's attention -is asked, as it introduces, from a rare work by Lord White- locke, a series of dialogues illustrative of striking points in Cromwell's character, and of the interest or opinion inspired by the various scenes of his history, as well as of the Eng- lish civil wars, in the greatest foreign minister of the time. his addresses to Lady Frances, the Protector's youngest daughter. The young lady did not disencourage him ; and this piece of innocent gallantry, in such a court, cou'd not be carried on without spies. Oliver was told of it, and he was much concerned at it, obliging the per- son who told him to be on the watch ; and if he could give him any substantial proof, he should be well rewarded, and White severely punish'd. The spy follow'd the matter so close, that he hunted Jerry White, as he was gener- ally termed, to the lady's chamber, and ran im- mediately to the Protector with this news. Oli- ver, in a rage, hasten'd thither himself, and go- ing in hastily, found Jerry on his knees, kissing the lady's hand, or having just kiss'd it. Crom- well, in a fury, ask'd what was the meaning of that posture before his daughter Frank. White, with a great deal of presence of mind, said, 'May it please your highness, I have a long time courted that young gentlewoman there, my lady's woman, and cannot prevail ; 1 was therefore humbly praying her ladyship to inter- cede for me.' The Protector, turning to the young woman, cry'd, 'What's the meaning of this, hussy 1 Why do you refuse the honour Mr. White wou'd do you T He is my friend, and I expect you shou'd treat him as such.' My lady's woman, who desired nothing more, with a very low courtesy reply'd, If Mr. White intends me that honour, I shall not be against him.' Say'st thou so, my lass !' cry'd Crom- well ; ' call Goodwyn ; this business shall be done presently, before I go out of the room.' Mr. White was gone too far to go back. The parson came. Jerry and my lady's woman were marry 'd in presence of the Protector, who gave her 500 for her portion ; and that, with the money she had sav'd before, made Mr. White easy in his circumstances, except in one thing, which was, that he never lov'd his wife, nor she him, tho' they liv'd together near fifty years afterward. I knew them both, and heard this story told when Mrs. White was present, who did not contradict it, but own'd there was something in it." Supposing the religions pretensions to have been very much a matter of assumption with Cromwell, it would seem at once to explain the source of his remarkable fondness for buffoonery. It had become a necessary relief from the pain of so much insincerity, to fling himself, when he could, headlong into the other extreme. He kept four buffoons at Whitehall, and generally, when inclined to sport, made himself, a fifth. Here was the reality of his nature vindicating itself somehow ! Dr. Hutton has preserved the record* of a very remarkable scene of this sort. " At the marriage of the Lady Frances Crom- well," he says, "to Mr. Rich, the grandson and leir of the Earl of Warwick, the Protector, whose mind at that moment was far from being at ease, amused himself by throwing about the sack-posset among the ladies to spoil their clothes, which they took as a favour, as also wet sweetmeats ; and daubed all the stools where they were to sit with wet sweetmeats ; and put off Rich's wig, and would have thrown it 'nto the fire, but did not, yet he sat upon it. An old formal courtier, Sir Thomas Billingsley, that was gentleman usher to the Queen of Dohe- Harleian Miscellany. OLIVER CROMWELL. 453 mia, was entertained amongst them, and he danced before them with his cloak and sword, and one of the four of the Protector's buffoons made his lip black like a beard, whereat the knight drew his knife, missing very little of killing the fel- low." A scene not unlike this the merriment of a mind "ill at ease" plunging recklessly into a thoughtless coarseness is described in a Roy- alist pamphlet, entitled " The Court and Kitch- en of Mrs. Joan Cromwell." The reader will make allowance, however, for the scurrilous tone of the writer. " His feasts were none of the liberallest, and far from magnificence ; even those two he gave the French ambassador and the Parliament in 1656, upon their gratulation of his Syndercombe deliverance, which last amounted not to above 1000, and she [the Protectress] saved 200 of it in the banquet. For a big-bellied woman, a spectator near Crom- well's table, upon the serving thereof with sweetmeats, desiring a few dry candies of ap- ricocks, Colonel Pride, sitting at the same, in- stantly threw into her apron a conserve of wet, with both his hands, and stained it all over ; when, as if that had been the sign, Oliver catch- es up his napkin, and throws it at Pride, he at him again, while all the table were engaged in the scuffle, the noise whereof made the members rise before the sweetmeats were set down, and, believing dinner was done, go to this pastime of gambols, and be spectators of his highnesse's frol- icks. Were it worth a description, I could give the reader a just and particular account of that Ahab festival, as it was solemnized in the banquetting-house of Whitehall." The story of Ludlow and the cushion has been told ; that of Marten and Cromwell, on the eve of the king's execution, is given in the life of that statesman. It is also on record, that when Hugh Peters urged the execution of Charles from the pulpit, Cromwell suddenly burst into a loud laugh, to the scandal of all present, and was only excused on the score of an " infirmity." Waller's friend, whom I have before quoted, tells us : "Mr. Waller lived most- ly at Beaconsfield, where his mother dwelt in her widowhood, and often entertained Oliver Cromwell there during his usurpation, he being related to her. But, notwithstanding her rela- tion to the usurper and Colonel Hampden, she was a Royalist in her principles ; and when Oliver visited her at Beaconsfield, she would frankly tell him how his pretensions would end. The usurper used merrily to throw a napkin at her in return, and said he would not enter into fur- ther disputes with his aunt for so he used to call her, though not quite so nearly related." Cowley, in his " Vision," too, speaks of his " flinging of cushions and playing at snowballs with his servants" as a thing of familiar report.* * The entire passage in the " Vision," where these words occur, i well worth subjoining: "This man was wanton and merry, unwittily and ungracefully merry, with our suf- ferings ; he loved to say and do senseless and fantastical things, only to show his power of doing or saying anything. It would ill befit mine, or any civil mouth, to repeat those words which he spoke concerning the most sacred of our English laws the Petition of Right, and Magna Charta. [Clarendon mentions the same coarse jest.] To-day you should see him ranting so wildly that nobody durst come near him ; the morrow, flinging of cushions and playing at snowballs with his servants. This month he assembles a Parliament, and professes himself, with bumble tears, to be But the most extraordinary evidence that exists of the extent to which these propensities were occasionally carried, is given by the learn- ed Doctor Bates. " Minores ductores," says that writer, who was Cromwell's physician, " congiariis frequentius devincire, nonnunquain in media cibatione, fame nondum pacata gre- garios milites pulsatis tympanis intromittere ut semesas raptarent reliquias. Robustos ac vere militares nocivis & validis exercitiis tractare, veluti pruna candente nonnunquam ocreis in- jecta, vel culcitris hinc inde in capita vibratis. Semel autem praeludiis hujusmodi probe lassos &. risu laxatos praefectos ad cordis apertionem provocavit ; eoque modo ab incautis elicuit ar- cana quaedam, quae perpetuis tenebris optabant postmodum involuta ; dum ipse, sententias om- nium scrutatus, celaret suam." " He would or- der (that is) great feasts for the inferior officers, and whilst they were feeding, and before they had satisfied their hunger, cause the drums to beat, and let in the private soldiers to fall on, and snatch away the half-eaten dishes. The robust and sturdy soldiers he loved to divert with vi- olent and hazardous exercises, as by making them sometimes throw a burning coal into one another's boots, or cushions at one another' 1 s heads. When the officers had sufficiently laughed, and tired themselves with these preludes, he would wheedle them to open their hearts freely, and by that means he drew some secrets from the unwary which afterward they wished might have been wrapped up in everlasting darkness, while he, in the mean time, pumping the opin- ion of all others, concealed his own." I close these notices of Cromwell's more fa- miliar habits with two anecdotes of a pleasant- er kind, related in Whitelocke's Memorials. The first refers to Cromwell and Ireton. " As they," says the lord-commissioner, " went home from my house, their coach was stopped and they examined by the guards, to whom they told their names ; but the captain of the guards would not believe them, and threatened to car- ry these two great officers to the court of guard. Ireton grew a little angry, but Cromwell was cheer- ful with the soldiers, gave them twenty shillings, and. commended them and their captain for doing their duty." Again Whitelocke tells us : " The only their servant and their minister ; the next month he swears by the living God that he will turn them out of doors, and he does so, in his princely way nf threatening, bidding them turn the buckles of their girdles behind them. The representative of a whole nay, of three whole nations, was in his esteem so contemptible a meeting, that he thought the affronting and expelling of them to be a thing of so lit- tle consequence as not to deserve that he should advise with any mortal man about it. What shall we call this bold- ness or brutishness, rashness or phrensy ? There is no name can come up to it, and therefore we must leave it without one. Now a Parliament must be chosen in the new manner, next time in the old form, but all cashiered still after the newest mode. Now he will govern by major- generals, now by one House, now by another House, now by no House ; now the freak takes him, and he makes sev- enty peers of the land at one clap (extempore, and stans pede in uno) ; and, to manifest the absolute power of the potter, he chose not only the worst clay he could find, but picks up even the dirt and mire, to form out of it his vessels of honour. It was said anciently of Fortune, that when she had a mind to be merry and to divert herself, she was wont to raise up such kind of people to the highest digni- ties. This son of Fortune, Cromwell, who was himself one of the primest of her jests, found out the true hautgoust of this pleasure, and rejoiced in the extravagance of his ways as the fullest demonstration of his uncontrollable sover- eignty. Good God! what have we seen? and what have we suffered ?" 454 BRITISH STATESMEN. Protector often advised about this [the Petition and Advice] and other great businesses with the Lord Broghill, Pierrepoint, myself, Sir Charles Wolseley, and Thurloe, and would be shut up three or four hours together in private discourse, and none were admitted to come in to him ; he would sometimes be very cheerful with us, and laying aside his greatness, he would be exceeding familiar with us, and by way of diversion, would make verses with us, and every one must try his fancy ; he commonly call"d curse that lay in his nature deeper than them all, and, when they sought to identify them- selves with settled and lasting projects, that at once dispersed them to the winds 1 That curse was his WANT OF TRUTH, and could only have been implanted in such a na- ture by some early scheme of the fatal ambition which he realized in later life. " Explica atque excute intelligentiam tuam," says the great Roman philosopher ; " ut videas, quse sit in ea species, forma, et notio viri boni. Cadit ergo for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would now in virum bonum mentiri cmolumenti sui ctiusci, and then take tobacco himself; then he would fall \ criminari praripere, fallere 7 Nihil profecto mi- again to his serious and great business, and ad- vise with us in those affairs ; and this he did often with us, and our counsel was accepted and followed by him in most of his greatest af- fairs." The writer of these pages has no favourite mis. Est ergo ulla res tanti, aut commodum ullum tarn expetendum, ut viri boni et splendo- rem et nomen amittas 1 Quid est, quod afferre tantum utilitas ista, quse dicitur, possit, quan- tum auferre, si boni viri nomen eripuerit, fidem justitiamque detraxeritl" Oh no, nothing can theory to establish out of his records of the life | supply its place ; " utility" or profit without it of Cromwell : it is simply his aim to attempt to arrive at as fair and impartial a ground for judgment as the circumstances "will enable him to attain. Therefore, standing at the threshold of that astonishing person's political greatness, he has thought it advisable to present to the reader thus, from every various quarter, the possible means and resources by the use of which he achieved it in the end. Out of these the reader will possibly have already formed his own judgment ; yet let it for the present be suspended, till the progress of Cromwell's life has advanced some years with the light of these researches and inquiries cast upon it. Thus much, meanwhile, the writer may be allowed to say, in vindication of the somewhat unusual have never yet made out their case in this world. The discovery of its absence here WES fatal at once. The parties who had in turn trusted, and been in tarn betrayed, fled all from Cromwell's side at last, and left him alone ; and the vast designs he had hoped to leave per- manently impressed upon the genius of the English people and the character of the Eng- lish Constitution, sunk with him into his grave. But not these alone. He dragged there, too, in so far as it was possible for him to do so for a good as well as great thought, once born in the world, can never wholly die the more virtuous and more able designs of the yet im- mortal statesmen he supplanted, and left the path altogether clear for the base, the wicked, course he has taken, that the notion which i the licentious slavery of the restored monarch seems to be held by many eminent writers, that who succeeded him. Cromwell was, after all, perhaps, only the in- strument of Fate, working its own wild will in Still must some portion of the reality of that enthusiasm with which he wrought his unwor- the wild and changing humours of the army, is ' thiest aims be permitted to remain with him. one which, however feasible in the main, could j On his death-bed, we shall see, it shone snd- only have been arrived at by the course hith- denly forth, when all the insincerity and the erto taken in the multitudinous accounts that ' trick of life and its designs had passed forever. exist of him, of judging by itself each separate I Then broke forth that almost fierce sincerity incident of his extraordinary career in its sin- j and belief of inspiration with which his first ex- gle shape as it arose. This seemed to be pro- \ ertions in the Republican cause began, and ductive of much error. He was too great a i which, if grosser objects had not crossed it, man, intellectually, to have worked without a ! would probably have realized the greatest ca- plan, and yet was deficient in the element of I reer for Cromwell that had ever been flung moral greatness, which would, in itself, have [ open to mortal man. It is by leaving with him withheld him from the plan he assumed. View- j a portion of this true enthusiasm, even in his ed in his separate qualities, a greater man has j works of greatest insincerity ; it is by suppo- probably never lived ; a man with more emi- sing l h at one so accomplished in deluding oth- nent abilities for statesmanship ; a more mas- ers, might also, and that most deeply, have de- terly soldier, judging him by the age in which ! luded himself, that the extraordinary incon- he lived, and the objects he accomplished ; a sistencies which have been noted in him wifl person more wonderfully gifted in all the attri- find their sole solution at the last. With this, butes of subtlest thought, and of an intellect ! these suggestions towards his character may the most piercing and profound. The moral now be left, for the resumption of the story of elevation, too, of his courage should be admit- : his fortunes. The difficulties th;it stood in the ted by all, since in the days of his greatest dan- ; wa y of a direct and simple narration of the lat- ger, when assassins beset him round his bed ter, as they shaped their course from the open- and at his board, he gave way to no base thought ing of his political influence in the matter of of mere personal fear. His eminent and thought- ' the self-denying ordinance, have now been in a ful sagacity has never been disputed, nor the ! measure dispersed, and the reader may follow vastness of his comprehension, nor the marvel- ! " the g reat P oints of their track dearly and lous intrepidity of his purposes, nor the inex- haustible expedients and powers of his mind. Is it possible to suppose, then, that all these amazing faculties failed in their mission on uninterruptedly. At the pause in our narrative Cromwell was left in consultation with Vane. Shortly after- earth for they did fail without some rooted [ ward, namely, on the 23d of November, the OLIVER CROMWELL. 455 House of Commons professed itself greatly dis- contented with the affair of Dennington Castle, and made an order that on the following Mon- day, Waller and Cromwell, two of the principal officers who were members of that House, should declare their whole knowledge and in- formation respecting the late proceedings of the conjoined armies. What was the sum of Waller's declaration does not appear ; but Cromwell at once seized the occasion to bring all matters in dispute between himself and the Earl of Manchester to a decision, in which oth- er matters, not less important, would not less be involved. He at once rose from his place, therefore, and alleged, according to Rushworth, that Man- chester had always been backward to engage- ments in battle, and against ending the war with the sword, and had been the advocate of suck a peace to which a victory in the field would have been an obstacle ; that, since the taking of York (as if he thought the king was now low enough, and the Parliament too high), he had declined and shifted off whatever tended to further advantage upon the enemy, and espe- cially at Dennington Castle ; " for here," pur- sued Cromwell, " I showed him evidently how this success might be obtained, and only desired leave, with my own brigade of horse, to charge the Icing's army in their retreat, leaving it in the earl's choice, if he thought proper, to remain neu- tral with the rest of his forces ; but, notwith- standing my importunity, he positively refused his consent, and gave no other reason but that, if we met with a defeat, there was an end of our pretensions : we should all be rebels and traitors, and be executed and forfeited by law." In continuation of his charges, Cromwell then added, that, before his conjunction with the oth- er armies, he had drawn his army into, and de- tained it in, such situations as were favourable to the enemy's designs, against many com- mands of the committee of both kingdoms, and with contempt and vilifying of those commands; and since, sometimes against the council of war, and sometimes deluding the council, had neglected one opportunity with pretence of an- other, and that again of a third, and at last per- suading them that it was better not to fight at all. In the details of his statement, White- locke observes, Cromwell seemed (but cautious- ly enough) to lay more blame upon the officers of Essex's army than upon any other. He adds, that Cromwell's narrative " gave great satisfaction to the assembly to which it was addressed." Lord Manchester himself rose in the House of Lords the day after, and observed to their lordships that he had lately been in employment in the armies, and that certain proceedings of those armies had elsewhere been made a sub- ject of censure : he therefore begged the House would appoint a day on which he might give an account of those transactions. The House at once acceded, and fixed the next day but one. Manchester's narrative, delivered on the lat- ter day, is said to have been fabricated by the united (and ever most worthily united) pens of Skeldon Crawford and Denzil Hollis. No doubt, however, there was a foundation of truth in it, or the earl would not have been prevailed upon to sign it. In some moment of greater faith in Manchester's political creed than the result warranted, Cromwell had spoken out rather too plainly ; and in after annoyance with his generals after intrigues, had as inconsid- erately given way to rage. Perhaps there was no inoonsiderateness, however, either in the one or the other, for the charge, involving both, did no harm to Cromwell in the English army or with the English people ! It was to this effect. He first accused Cromwell, by his tardiness and disaffection, of being more than any other person the cause that the king had carried off his ordnance from Dennington Castle without molestation. This was tantamount to saying that Cromwell's ser- vices not having been taken when they could avail, they were, when utterly useless, only tardily offered. Not contented, however, with thus defending himself, Manchester added a separate statement of certain speeches of Crom- well, of deep concern to the peerage of Eng- land, and to the good understanding subsisting between England and Scotland. The sum of these speeches appears to have been, that it would never be well with England till the Earl of Manchester was made plain Mr. Montague ;* that the Scots had crossed the Tweed for no other purpose than to establish Presbyterianism, and that in that cause he would as soon draw his sword against them as against the king ; and lastly, that it was his purpose to form an army of sectaries, which might dictate to both king and Parliament such conditions as they should think proper. t Manchester delivered both these narratives in writing to the House on the 2d of December, and a formidable party appear- ed to be getting up to defend them. Essex suddenly arrived in London after his Cornish exploits, and attended several days to his " du- ty" in the House of Lords. Meanwhile, measures of a stronger kind were in contemplation against Cromwell, in other places than in the House of Lords. These are graphically related by Whitelocke : "One evening very late," he tells us, "Maynard and I were sent for by the lord-general to Es- sex House, and there was no excuse to be ad- mitted, nor did we know beforehand the occa- sion of our being sent for : when we came to Essex House, we were brought to the lord- general, and with him were the Scots commis- sioners, Mr. Hollis, Sir Philip Stapylton, Sir John Meyrick, and divers others of his special friends. After compliments, and that all were set down in council, the lord-general, in general terms having mentioned his having sent for them on important business, desired the lord- chancellor of Scotland to enter into the detail, which he did in the following manner : ' Master Maynard and Master Whitlock, I can assure you of the great opinion both my brethren and myself have of your worth and abilities, else we should not have desired this meeting with you ; and since it is his excellency's pleasure * These are the earl's words: " I knew the lieutenant- general to be a man of very deep designs ; and he has even, ventured to tell me, that it never would be well with Eng- land till I were Mr. Montague, and there were ne'er a lord or peer in the kingdom." t That advice was given thus: "My lord, if you will stick firm to honest men, you shall soon find yourself at the head of an army which shall give law to both king and Parliament." 456 BRITISH STATESMEN. that I should acquaint you with the matter upon whilke your counsel is desired, I shall obey his commands, and briefly recite the business to you. You ken very weel that Lieutenant-gen- eral Cromwell is no friend of ours, and since the advance of our army into England, he hath used all underhand and cunning means to take off from our honour and merit in this kingdom : an evil requital of all our hazards and services ; but so it is, and we are nevertheless fully sat- isfied of the affections and gratitude of the gude people of this nation in the general. It is thought requisite for us, and for the carrying on of the cause of the twa kingdoms, that this obstacle or remora may be removed out of the way, whom we foresee will otherwise be no small impediment to us, and the gude design we have undertaken. He not only is no friend to us and the government of our Church, but he is also no well-wilier to his excellency, whom you and we all have cause to love and honour ; and if he be permitted to go on in his ways, it may, I fear, endanger the whole business ; therefore we are to advise of some course to be taken for prevention of that mischief. You ken very weel the accord 'twixt the twa kingdoms, and the union by the Solemn League and Covenant, and if any be an incendiary between the twa na- tions, how is he to be proceeded against 1 now the matter is, wherein we desire your opinions, what you tak the meaning of this word incen- diary to be, and whether Lieutenant-general Crom- well be not sicke an incendiary as is meant there- by, and whilke way wud be best to tak to pro- ceed against him, if he be proved to be sicke an incendiary, and that will clcpe his wings from soaring to the prejudice of our cause. Now you may ken that by our law in Scotland we clepe him an incendiary wha kindleth coals of contention, and raiseth differences in the state to the publick damage, and he is tanquam pub- licus hostis patriie ; whether your law be the same or not, you ken best who are mickle learned therein, and therefore, with the favour of his excellency, we desire your judgments in these points.' Whitelocke, in answer, having been also desired by Essex to deliver his opin- ion, observed, ' that the sense of the word in- cendiary was the same in both nations ; but whether Cromwell was one, depended on proofs ; if proofs were wanting, he was none ; if such were at hand, he might be proceeded against in Parliament.' " After farther advice on the necessity of having solid grounds for going upon any such charge, the cautious law- yer added : " Next, as to the person of him who is to be accused as an incendiary, it will be fit, in my humble opinion, to consider his present condition, and parts, and interest in the Parliament (wherein Mr. Maynard and myself, by our constant attendance in the House of Commons, are the more capable to give an ac- count to your lordships), and for his interest in the army, some honourable persons here pres- ent, his excellency's officers, are best able to inform your lordships. / take Lieutenant-gen- eral Cromwell to be a gentleman of quick and sub- tle parts, and one who hath, especially of late, gained no small interest in the House of Commons, nor is wanting of friends in the House of Peers, nor of abilities in himself to manage his own part, or defence, to the best advantage. If this be so, my lords, it will be more requisite to be well prepared against him before he be brought upon the stage, lest the issue of the business be not answerable to your expectations." Maynard having concurred in this opinion, the affair was brought to a stand, and nothing came of it, " though Mr. Hollis, and Sir Philip Stapylton, and some others, spake smartly to the business, and mentioned some particular passages, and words of Cromwell's, tending to prove him to be an incendiary ; and they did not apprehend his interest in the House of Commons to be so much as was supposed ; and they would will- ingly have been upon the accusation of him. . . . I had some cause to believe," Whitelocke concludes. " that at this debate, some who were present were false brethren, and informed Cromwell of all that passed among us, and after that Cromwell, though he took no notice of any particular passages at that time, yet he seemed more kind to me and Mr. Maynard than he had been formerly, and carried on his design more actively of making way for his own advance- ment." Such was the perilous condition of affairs among the principal leaders of the Parliament- ary armies at the close of the year 1644, when, to the amazement and dismay of the Presby- terians, the project of the Self-denying Ordi- nance was, on the 9th of December, suddenly brought forward in the House of Commons. The circumstances attending this have been minutely detailed in the life of Vane, and it only remains to exhibit Cromwell as he ap- peared in public connexion with them. The House having resolved itself into a com- mittee to consider of the sad condition of the kingdom, in reference to the intolerable bur- dens of the war, and the little prospect there was of its being speedily brought to a conclu- sion, there was " a general silence for a good space of time," when Cromwell rose to address them. His speech, even in the faint records now alone preserved of it, appears to have been masterly in the extreme. He began by observing that " it was now a time to speak, or forever to hold the tongue ; the important oc- casion being no less than to save a nation out of a bleeding, nay, almost dying condition, which the long continuance of the war had al- ready brought it into ; so that, without a more speedy, vigorous, and effectual prosecution of the war, casting off all lingering proceedings, like soldiers of fortune beyond sea, to spin out a war, we shall make the kingdom weary of us, and hate the name of a Parliament. For what," continued Cromwell, "do the enemy say 1 Nay, what do many say that were friends at the be- ginning of the Parliament 1 Even this, that the members of both Houses have got places and commands, and the sword into their hands ; and, what by interest in Parliament, and what by power in the army, will perpetually continue themselves in grandeur, and not permit the war speedily to end, lest their own power should determine with it. This I speak here to our own faces, it is but what others do utter abroad behind our backs. I am far from reflecting on any. I know the worth of those commanders, members of both Houses, who are yet in pow- er ; but if I may speak my conscience, without reflection upon any, I do conceive, if the army OLIVER CROMWELL. 457 be not put into another method, and the war more vigorously prosecuted, the people can bear the war no longer, and will enforce you to a dishonourable peace. But this," added Cromwell, with consummate wisdom, " I would recommend to your prudence, not to insist upon any complaint or oversight of any commander-in- chief, upon any occasion whatsoever ; for as I must acknowledge myself guilty of oversights, so I know they can rarely be avoided in mili- tary affairs ; therefore, waving a strict inquiry into the causes of these things, let us apply ourselves to the remedy which is most neces- sary. And I hope we have such true English hearts and zealous affections towards the gen- eral weal of our mother-country, as no mem- bers of either House will scruple to deny them- selves and their own private interests for the public good, nor account it to be a dishonour done to them, whatever the Parliament shall resolve upon in this weighty matter." Subse- quently, on the same question, Cromwell took an occasion to enforce his views, and reply to the difficulties urged against them yet more strongly. " The Parliament had," he said, " done very wisely, in the entrance into the war, to engage many members of their own in the most dangerous parts of it, that the nation might see that they did not intend to embark them in perils of war, while themselves sat securely at home out of gunshot, but would march with them where the danger most threatened ; and those honourable persons, who had exposed themselves this way, had merited so much of their country, that their memories should be held in perpetual venera- tion ; and whatsoever should be well done af- ter them, would be always imputed to their example ; but God had so blessed their army, that there had grown up with it, and under it, very many excellent officers, who were fit for much greater charges than they were now possessed of; and he desired them not to be terrified with an imagination, that if the high- est offices were vacant, they would not be able to put as fit men into them ; for, besides that it was not good to put so much trust in any arm of flesh as to think such a cause as this de- pended upon any one man, he did take upon him to assure them that they had officers in their army who were fit to be generals in any enterprise in Christendom." For himself, he added, he was quite ready to lay down his commission of command in the army, since there was noth- ing he so anxiously desired as that " an ordi- nance might be prepared, by which it might be made unlawful for any member of either House of Parliament to hold any office or command in the army, or any place or employment of profit in the state." He concluded with an enlargement upon " the vices and corruptions which were gotten into the army ; the profane- ness, and impiety, and absence of all religion ; the drinking and gaming, and all manner of license and laziness;" and said plainly, "that till the whole army were new modelled, and gov- erned under a stricter discipline, they must not expect any notable success in anything they went about." The progress of this measure its defeat by the Lords and the introduction of a second measure with a similar object, but a less exten- M M H sive range, has been described in Vane's me- moir. The first ordinance forbade any member of either House of Parliament from bearing any office, civil or military, during the war. The second did not carry its prospect into the fu- ture, but contented itself with merely dischar- ging members of Parliament from the offices they now held. This variation has been sup- posed to have had reference to Cromwell, as the law thus modified did not expressly forbid the reappointment of officers so discharged. It subsequently admitted into the House a body of able and determined Republicans the Lud- lows, Iretons, Sidneys, and Blakes, even be- fore the effect of the purge had required an in- fusion of new blood into that quarter on the formation of the Commonwealth. Exceptions were also voted, as in the first Self-denying Ordinance, in favour of the commissioners of the great seal, the commissioners of the ad- miralty and navy, and of the revenue. This ordinance passed into a law on the 3d of April ; and the day before its introduction into the Upper House, Essex, Manchester, and Denbigh presented themselves in their places, and re- signed their commissions. The " new model" had meanwhile passed the Lower House. It proposed that the mili- tary force should consist of 7600 horse and 14,400 infantry, and be placed under the com- mand of Sir Thomas Fairfax as lord-general, assisted by Skippon in the quality of major- general. Its arrangements had not been com- pleted without much difficulty. Three armies of 10,000 men each were reduced to one army of 22,000. This could not be done without considerable derangements of detail ; a number of officers were withdrawn from the service, because they were members of Parliament ; a number, probably greater, were dismissed, be- cause one army did not require so many as three before had required. The men dismissed were selected chiefly as dissolute or least de- serving men. The soldiers were draughted out of old regiments into new ; every thing, in a manner, was changed. This could not be without exciting singular discontents, and the dismissed officers got up a party called Refor- mados. One circumstance, however, in the project of the new model, provoked remark beyond every other. The lord-general was named,* and a man better qualified than Fairfax, not less by his singular military talents than by the circumstance (which even in the new model had its weight, since it propitiated the preju- dices of some, and offended the feelings of none) of his immediate connexion with an old aristocratic family, could not be found. A major-general was named also Skippon, an excellent and faithful soldier. Twenty-four colonels were also specified, in the charge of as many regiments. But a blank was left for * I may add, that under this new model Sir Thomas Fair- fax was not only appointed commander-in-chief, but also invested with the power of nominating all the officers under him, and with the execution of martial law. No mention is made of the king's authority, nor is any clause for the preservation of his person inserted in the ordinance; but the general is directed to " lead his armies against all and singular enemies, rebels, traitors, and other like offenders, and every of their adherents, and with them to fight ; and them to invade, resist, repress, subdue, pursue, slay, kill, and put in execution of death, by all ways and means." 458 BRITISH STATESMEN. the name of the new lieutenant-general. That the blank was left for the after insertion of the name of Cromwell, no one can reasonably doubt. Happy had it been, in all human prob- ability, for the Commonwealth if the blank had never been filled, supposing Cromwell's genius still to have remained in aid and counsel of the cause ; but the fatal result he aimed at was not dreamed of then, and to have surrendered the services of the hero of Marston Moor, at such a crisis as the present, would have been to throw an irrecoverable damp over this new and grand undertaking which his genius had in- spired, and only his genius, it was thought, could conduct to a glorious issue. The question of Cromwell's own sincerity in proposing to resign his command under the measure is surely not worth discussing. It seems quite certain that he never contemplated the possibility of his being called on however ready he might profess himself to answer the call in such a case to do any such thing. It is not worth disguising the fact, that this or- dinance was adopted less from its direct and professed tendency, than from the collateral and overpowering advantages that were to ac- crue from it in the removal of the aristocratic commanders, and in the reorganization, on the plan of Cromwell's own regiments, of the en- tire body of the army. Yet the observations of two able, and, on such a question, impartial historians, should not be withheld. Mr. Brodie argues that Cromwell, when he proposed the Self-denying Ordinance, must have acted from disinterested motives, both because he was himself to be subject to the operation of the new law, and also because, if it had passed when he first brought it forward, as he was not at the moment engaged in any military em- ployment, he could not have found a pretext for continuing in the army. It was as late as the 27th of February, this historian remarks, that he was ordered by the Parliament, which he had till then attended, to join Sir William Waller (who had moved into the west), that he might assist him in carrying relief to Melcombe, as well as prevent levies from being made in that neighbourhood for the service of the king ; hence, had the Self-denying Ordinance and that for the new model been passed as soon as was expected, both these officers, before the date just mentioned, must have been deprived of their commands, and even rendered incapable of any similar appointment. The conclusion which Mr. Brodie would draw is of course this : that in subsequently acting merely on suc- cessive indulgences of leave from the House, Cromwell obeyed an unforeseen difficulty from which he could not escape. Dr. Lingard ar- gues in the same strain, to the effect that his continuation in the command was caused by a succession of events which he could not pos- sibly have foreseen, and could not in honour escape from. " He had been sent," says that historian, " with Waller to oppose the progress of the Royalists in the west : on his return he was ordered to prevent the junction of the royal cavalry with their forces under the king, and he then received a commission to protect the associated counties from insult. While he was employed in this service, the term ap- pointed by the ordinance approached ; but Fair- fax expressed his unwillingness to part with so experienced an officer at such a crisis, and the two Houses consented that he should re- main forty days longer with the army. Before they expired, the great battle of Naseby had been fought : in consequence of the victory, the ordinance was suspended three months in his favour, and ever afterward the same indul- gence was reiterated as often as it became ne- cessary. Be this as it may, "on the 10th of June, 1645," according to the journals of the House of Commons, a letter was read in the Commons from Sir Thomas Fairfax, and divers of the chief officers of his army, dated at Sherrington two days before, " desiring that Lieutenant- general Cromwell might command the horse in chief in Sir Thomas Fairfax his army." Where- upon it was resolved that Sir Thomas Fairfax be desired, if he thinks fit, " to appoint Lieu- tenant-general Cromwell to command the horse under Sir Thomas Fairfax as lieutenant-gen- eral, during such time as this House shall please to dispense with his attendance ; and that Sir Thomas Widdrington prepare a letter to be signed by Mr. Speaker, and forthwith sent to Sir Thomas Fairfax, to acquaint him of this vote." Fairfax's letter ran in these words. " Upon serious consideration how the horse of this army may be managed to the best advantage of the publique, which are at present without any generall officer to command them, though as considerable a body as any you have had since the beginning of these unhappy troubles, we have taken the boldnes humbly to desire that this House would be pleased to appoint Lieut.- gen. Cromwell to this service, while this hon. House shall think fit to spare him from his at- tendance in Parliament ; the generall esteem and affection which he hath both with the officers and souldiers of this whole army, his own personall worth and ability for the employment, his great care, diligence, courage, and faithfulnesse in the services you have already employed him, with the constant presence and blessing of God that have accompanied him, make us look upon it as the duty we owe to you and the publique, to make it our humble and earnest suite (if it may seem good to you) to appoint him unto this employ- ment, which shall be received by us with that thankfulness and acknowledgment of your fa- vour which may best expresse how sensible we are of so great an obligation, and how much devoted to your and the kingdome's service."* The new model had meanwhile been pro- ceeding under Cromwell's direction. The men who composed it belonged chiefly to the Inde- pendents, and were selected after the rules Cromwell had originally laid down. The char- acter of this army, so constituted, has been in other portions of this work placed before the reader. They were, perhaps, the most remark- able men who had ever, in any nation, taken up arms for liberty. Each individual soldier marched into battle with the sense of a glorious martyrdom in case of death, and of divine se- lection in case of life and triumph. One hand * Merc. Brit., June 9 to 16, 1645. " This desire," adds the journalist, was " assented to with all readiness by the House of Commons, and no doubt but he is exercising tha office already." OLIVER CROMWELL. 459 held the Bible, the other the sword. For them death had ceased his terrors, and by one over- powering emotion, the sense of pain, of suffer- ing, or fatigue had been in them completely subdued. Not one of them but was a " vessel of glory," set apart for the purposes of heaven. And these soul-elevating thoughts, which gave them a common hope of glory, gave them, too, the united resolution to achieve it. No differ- ences or jealousies struck between them on the eve of a day of battle. Each man's voice rose to heaven with that of his comrade in the same words of hymn and praise : their united swords were as one sword, "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon." Charles at this time was master of nearly the whole of the west of England, had a pre- ponderance in the midland counties, held power even in the north, and was complete master of Wales. In a few short weeks he knew not where to turn ! On the failure of the treaty of Uxbridge the campaign of 1645 had commenced in earnest, and Cromwell had already, in virtue of his first dispensation from the House of Commons, and before he received his commission under Fair- fax, performed some important services in it. The first was his interception of a body of troops at Islip Bridge, proceeding from the west towards Oxford, with the intention, it was thought, of re-enforcing the king, and of en- abling him to march with his artillery against some of the garrisons held by the Parliamentary forces on the banks of the Severn. Having received secret intelligence of this, Cromwell at once put himself at the head of a few chosen squadrons, attacked and defeated the Royalists with great slaughter, took several prisoners, and made himself master of a standard which the queen had recently presented to her own regiment. Happening, too, at this time, to be in the neighbourhood of Blessingdon House, then a fortified place commanded by Colonel Windebank, Cromwell suddenly made an as- sault upon it while a number of ladies were within its walls on a visit to the governor's young wife. The terror of the women com- pelled the colonel to listen to terms, and finally to surrender the garrison, for which imbecility he was soon afterward tried by a court-martial at Oxford, and condemned to be shot. Nor was the energetic soldier less successful in a skirmish with Sir William Vaughan in the same vicinity, whom, with the greater part of his infantry, he is reported to have taken prisoner. In truth, wherever he led the way, victory fol- lowed. A reverse his regiment met with about this time was suffered in his absence. He had temporarily left his command on a mission of some importance, when Goring, ordered to that service by the king, executed a sudden and masterly movement against a portion of his troops, fell upon them while crossing the Isis, near Woodstock, and routed them with some loss and much confusion. This enabled the king and Rupert to join their forces ; and hav- ing done so, they marched in a northerly di- rection. Cromwell suspected his design, and commu nicated with the House of Commons. Orders were at once transmitted to the Scottish army, then before Carlisle. They raised the siege, advanced to the south, intercepted Charles, and foiled his plan. The policy resolved on at the constitution of the new model, and openly de- clared by Cromwell, was to strike at the king, and keep him constantly in pursuit Fairfax, in the mean while, had sat down before Oxford. Charles suddenly turned back, with great vigour and resolution surprised and assaulted Leices- ter, and carried it the very same day he sat down before it. The garrison, to the amount of 1500 men, immediately surrendered them- selves prisoners, and the town was given up to all the horrors of a place taken by storm, ag- gravated by the extreme licentiousness that then prevailed among the royal troops, who, as if in daring defiance and scorn of the men of the new model, had now become infinitely more reckless and dissolute than before.* Fairfax, never accustomed to rely solely upon himself, began now to feel serious alarm for the safety of the eastern counties, mingled with a responsibility too heavy for himself to bear. He wrote to the House of Commons, as we have seen, to solicit the appointment and co-operation of Cromwell ; then, having raised the siege of Oxford, he directed a pursuit against Charles, who had moved from Leices- ter, fixed his headquarters at Daventry, and there, while his soldiers ravaged and plundered the adjoining country, betaken himself to the pleasures of the chase. As Fairfax pursued his silent march, he received from London the welcome vote for which he had written, and without an instant's delay, thus wrote to Crom- well : " SIR, You will find, by the enclosed vote of the House of Commons, a liberty given me to appoint you lieutenant-general of the horse of this army, during such time as that House shall be pleased to dispense with your attendance. You cannot expect but that I should make use of so good an advantage, as I apprehend this to be, to the public good, and therefore I desire you to make speedy repair to this army, and give order that the troops of horse you had from hence, and what other horse or dragoons can be spared from the at- tendance of your foot in their coming up r march hither with convenient speed ; and as for any other forces you have there, I shall not need to desire you to dispose of them as you shall find most for the public advantage, which we here apprehend to be, that they march towards us by the way of Bedford. We are now quar- tered at Wilton, two miles from Northampton, the enemy still at Daventry. Our intelligence is, that they intend to move on Friday, but which way we cannot yet tell. There are, as we hear, more horse than foot, and make their horse their confidence : ours shall be in God. I pray all possible haste towards your affection- ate friend to serve you, THOMAS FAIRFAX." This letter bore the date of the llth of June. With astonishing promptitude, Cromwell, who had evidently not been taken unawares by his commission, drew together about 6000 chosen horse, marched after Fairfax, and on the even- ing of the 13th of June, came up with him at * Charles was evidently much elated by these successes. In a letter of June the 9th, he writes to the queen : " I may (without being much too sanguine) affirm that, since this rebellion, my affairs were never in so fair and hopeful a way "King Charles'* Works, Letters, No. 37. '460 BRITISH STATESMEN. Northampton, where he lay within six miles of Charles. The presence of Cromwell at once carried life and energy into the camp of Fairfax. He found the general still uncertain of the move- ments of the king, and, without hesitation, sug- gested the propriety of sending out a detach- ment of horse to ascertain the exact position of the Royalists, and to attack their rear should they persist in retiring from the scene of ac- tion. Cromwell, resolved to bring on a battle, intrusted this service to Ireton, on whom he could best rely, and who well justified his selec- tion. The night had scarcely fallen, when Ireton moved silently out with a choice party of men, charged and drove in the king's outposts, and brought back with him several prisoners, from whom all necessary intelligence as to the num- ber and disposition of the enemy was immedi- ately obtained. Cromwell, in great excite- ment, declared for a " decisive action" on the morrow. Fairfax acquiesced, and about an hour before dawn on the morning of the 14th of June, thQ whole army formed, and in deep si- lence and admirable order began its march. A strange and agitated scene had meanwhile been acting in the camp of Charles. Ireton's assault upon the outposts spread alarm with the rapidity of wildfire ; officers, summoned out of their beds to attend a council of war, were seen hurrying towards the king's tent in abrupt ex- citement and disordered dress, and after an hour's consultation, the whole camp was order- ed into motion. With that careless and char- acteristic gallantry which, whatever their other failings, never failed the Cavaliers, the officers had resolved, notwithstanding their critical po- sition, not only to risk, but to advance and of- fer battle.* This resolution taken, the army was at once drawn up on a rising ground about a mile south from Harborough, a position of a most advan- tageous nature both for the foot, cavalry, and ordnance. The main body of the infantry, amounting to about 25,000, was put under the command of Lord Ashley ; the right wing of horse, being somewhat less numerous, was led by Prince Rupert ; while the left wing, consist- ing of cavalry from the northern counties, and of some detachments from Newark, in all not exceeding 1600, was intrusted to the charge of Sir Marmaduke Langdale. In the reserve were the king's life-guards, commanded by the Earl of Lindsey, Prince Rupert's regiment of foot, and the royal horse-guards, under Lord Bernard Stuart, recently created Earl of Litch- field. Here, after remaining in order of battle till eight o'clock (still the busy and fatal morn- ing of the 14th of June !), Charles began to doubt the intelligence on which they had mo- ved, when suddenly Prince Rupert, who had dashed forward with his characteristic impetu- osity upward of two miles in front of his men to ascertain the intentions of Fairfax, galloped back, and sent word throughout the line that the enemy were about to turn their backs, and * The rule of avoiding repetition of the same events in these biographies has been throughout carefully observed. It was necessary to transgress it in this instance, however, gince the battle of Naseby, as described in the Life of Vane, was merely general, and had no relation to the pecial ser- vices of Cromwell. that one fierce attack in pursuit would utterly disperse them. The word was given ; Charles put his army in motion ; and, relinquishing the favourable ground he had originally occupied, led his battalions into the plain, or fallow field, about a mile in breadth, which separated Har- borough from a village called Naseby. Here, with no thought of retreat, the men of the new model had been drawn up by their great leaders. Here, at dawn in the morning, having sung a psalm in praise of their God, they had sat down composedly and in rank with their arms in their hands. Some few troops merely had been set in motion by Cromwell, and miserably had Rupert, self-deceived, de- ceived his unfortunate master ! The position, a remarkably strong one, had been selected by Cromwell, who, being satisfied early in the march (from catching a glimpse of a corps of Rupert's cavalry in motion) that the king had doubled back on his pursuers, and de- termined to give rather than receive battle, sug- gested to Fairfax the fallow field near Naseby. Along the ridge of a gentle eminence the men were drawn up, the infantry in the centre, the cavalry on either flank, and some twenty pieces of artillery so well planted as to cover every avenue of approach. Fairfax and Skippon com- manded the main battle, Cromwell took the right wing, and at his request, Fairfax gave Ireton upon the field the rank of commissary- general, and the command of the horse on the left. The forces were nearly equal, and might amount altogether to about 36,000 men. Rupert began the battle, and charged Ireton with such furious force that even the astonish- ing resistance of that lion-like soldier opposed the shock in vain. Again and again he strove to rally his men, but Rupert hewed down every thing before him. At the head of the last few troops who had kept their ground, Ireton then threw himself, with the terrible courage of despair, on a body of the royal infantry ; their pikes pierced him in the face and thigh, he fell senseless from his horse, was taken prisoner, and only in the subsequent rout re- covered by his friends. His division was now utterly dispersed, and Rupert, regardless, after his impetuous fashion, of the fate of the main body of the men engaged, rushed on after the fugitives, drove them through their reserves with the gay excitement that belonged to the hunting-field rather than the collected resolu- tion and foresight necessary in such a moment- ous battle, and having reached the enemy's cannon and baggage in the rear, only turned round his jaded horsemen when they had lost all farther opportunity of service. Fairfax, meanwhile, maintained in the cen- tre an unequal fight. Abandoning the privile- ges of a captain, he grappled personally with the foe, galloped through the thickest of the fray, and, his helmet having been beaten to pie- ces, still, bareheaded as he was, flamed resolu- tion and courage everywhere among his men, when the colonel of his body-guard, Charles D'Oyley, threw himself before him with his own helmet, entreating him not to hazard unduly so rich a life. " 'Tis well enough, Charles," said Fairfax, putting the proffered helmet by.* * Whitelocke. This is possibly the same anecdote on which the author of the " Flagellum" has got up a joke OLIVER CROMWELL. 461 But, with total rout upon the left wing, and fearful uncertainty in the centre, Cromwell and hie Ironsides now singly decided the battle. Langdale had charged after Rupert's example, but might as well have charged against a rock. Recoiling from the steady shock of that iron wall, Cromwell charged him in his turn, first with a heavy fire of carbines, next at the sword's point, routed the whole of his cavalry, sent three squadrons after them to prevent their rallying, and with the remaining four, which he had held steadily in hand, wheeled furiously round, and with loosened rein and spur in his horse's flanks, led them on with overpowering shock against the weary infantry engaged with Fairfax. Not for an instant could the Royalists resist that fell attack. They wavered, gave way, were cut through and through, and fled in all directions. One regiment alone preserved its ground, and scarcely a man of it survived to tell his courageous story. Charles behaved with the bravery which nev- er deserted him in war. At the head of the cavalry that remained joined in the instant by Rupert's weary stragglers he implored them to follow their king, and stand the coming shock. A terrible conviction of his hopeless ruin no doubt then flashed upon him. " One charge more," he exclaimed, " and we recover the day." It was too late ; Rupert's cavalry were already worn out by their chase, and the rest had been panic-struck by the charge of the Ironsides. Never was rout so triumphantly complete. Two thousand men were left dead upon the field. The Royalists who were made prisoners were five thousand foot and three thousand horse. There were also captured the whole of Charles's artillery, eight thousand stand of arms, above one hundred pair of col- ours, the royal standard, the king's cabinet of letters, his coaches, and the whole spoil of his camp.* against Cromwell. "A commander of the king's," says that ingenious writer, " knowing Cromwell, advanced smartly from the head of his troops to exchange a bullet singly with him, and was with the like gallantry encoun- tered by him, both sides forbearing to come in, till, their pistols being discharged, the cavalier, with a slanting back- blow of a broadsword, luckily cut the riband which tied his murrion, and with a draw threw it off his head, and now ready to repeat his stroke, his party came in and rescued him, and one of them alighting, threw up his headpiece into his saddle, which Oliver hastily catching, as being affright- ed with the chance, clapped it the wrong way on his head, and so fought with it the rest of the day." * It may interest the reader to give the first account 6f this memorable battle, which was published in the journals of the time. The supplementary notices, too, from other journals, are curious and interesting : " It hath pleased God to engage our men with the enemy in a pitched battle (as was then expected). We marched from Naseby early on Saturday morning, June the 14th, and hearing the king's army was near, we drew up into a body a mile or two from Naseby, expecting to be engaged with the king, whose horse suddenly after faced us till their foot drew up into battalia. There never was such rejoicing and courageous expressions used by soldiers as was then on both sides, both seeming willing to put an end to these differences. After we had recommended ourselves to the Almighty's protec- tion, and gave the word (which was, on our tide, God is our strength; on the king's side, Queen Mary), our warning piece shot off, upon which Prince Rupert, who then com- manded the right wing of the king's horse, rode with a full career up towards our men, but went back. Our forlorn hope and theirs in the mean time met, and played very hot one upon the other, each seeking to gain the hill and wind, which was, at length, equally divided betwixt both parties. One of the Dutch princes (which we all suppose to be Ru- pert) led up their right wing, and put our left to a shame- ful retreat, though I confess two things may somewhat ex- The first civil war was decided by this victo- ry ; and so, it is evident, Cromwell at once perceived, for nothing could equal his excite- ment after the day was won. He led the pur- suit for upward of twelve miles, returned to Harborough (Haverbrowe it was then called), and, before taking rest or refreshment after toils that would have worn down the strength of a score of ordinary men, took up his pen and wrote news of the victory to the speaker of the House of Commons. The letter of the second officer in command reached Parliament a day before the letter of the lord-general. The cir- cumstance created some sensation, and no doubt Cromwell intended that it should. The news which was to dismay the Presbyterians more than intelligence of a defeat would have dismayed them, the victory which was to el- evate Vane and the Independents into enthu- siastic strength and joy, should fitly issue first from him. And how the letter is written with what an ill-subdued effort from exultation in what curt regal sentences with what res- olute purpose against his political adversaries in the House ! It is addressed to the speaker, and bears date from " Haverbrowe, June the 14th, 1645. " SIR, Being commanded by you to this ser- vice, I think myself bound to acquainte you with the good hand of God towards you and us. Wee marched yesterday after the kinge, whoe went before us from Daventree to Hav- erbroue, and quartered about six miles from him. cuse them: First, the king's men had some marks to know each other by in the fight, and so they knew them not till they were upon them ; secondly, in that they were new raised men out of the associated counties, better armed than hearted. Prince Rupert charged on them with such gallantry (as few in the army ever saw the like), and beat them down the hill to the very train, where Col. Bartlett's regiment and the firelocks that guarded the train beat them from it, and won the ground our horse had lost with as much resolution as the enemy gained it. In the meaa while, the general who commanded the body of foot behaved himself very courageously in the front of the army ; and Major-general Skippon, who is wounded in the side, but hopes of recovery, fell upon the enemy's foot ; Lieut. -gen. Cromwell charging before them, with his horse broke into the king's body, routed them, seized upon all their train and cannon, took 4000 foot and horse prisoners, their stand- ard, ensigns, 70 carriages, 12 pieces of ordnance, two of them being demy-cannon, took the king's own wagons, and in one of them a cabinet of letters, supposed to be of great consequence. Four hundred of their men slain in the field, besides many others, which were found dead in the way, and 7000 arms. Lieut.-gen. Cromwell pursued them to Lei- cester-towns-end, and still remains near it. On our side, we lost at most not above 100 men, whereof one Col. Fran- cis, and two captains ; all which, as near as I can guess, was done in the space of an hour and a half." Extract from a Letter, signed Henry Maud, Harborough, June 15. Week- ly Account, June 11 to 18, 1645. ..." A list of the pris- oners, ordnance, ammunition, <fec., taken by Sir Thomas Fairfax, near Naseby, the 14th of June, 1645. 4000 pris- oners, 600 slain, 4 colonels, 7 lieut.-colonels, 12 majors, 60 captains, 8000 arms, 40 barrels of powder, 12 pieces of ord- nance, 200 carriages, 4 coaches, 2 sumpters, one of the king's, the other Prince Rupert's ; all the king's plate, and good store of money. Ordered, that the messenger that brought the first intelligence from the general shall have 40 ; that a messenger from Lieut.-gen. Cromwell shall have 20." Weekly Account, June 11 to 18, 1645. . . . "Or- dered, that Lieut.-general Cromwell continue with the ar- my three months after the 50 days assigned him are ex- pired. / cannot believe that any will repine at so necessary an order." Merc. Brit., June 16 to 23, 1645. . . . "We hear Cromwell's sometime regiment are grown wiser, if it may be so called, for having helped to beat the enemy out of the field ; they did not, as at Marston Moor, leave them that fovght least to get most, but fell upon the good booty a* well as others : some had jewels, others diamond rings, oth- ers gold, some were content with silver, good apparel, horses, and what else they could get." Mod. Intel., 19 to 26, 1645. 462 BRITISH STATESMEN. This day wee marched towards him. He drew out to meet us. Both armies engaged. Wee, after three howers fight, very doubtful!, at last routed his armie ; killed and tooke about 5000, very many officers, butt of what quallitie wee yett know not. Wee took also about 200 car- rag all he had, and all hisgunnes, beinge 12 in number, whereof 2 were demie-cannon, 2 de- mie culveringes, and (I thinke) the rest sacers. Wee pursued enemie from 3 miles short of Ha to nine beyond, even to sight of Lei- ces , whither the kinge fled. Sir, this is none other butt the hand of God, and to him alone belongs the glorie, wherein none are to share with him. The general served you with all faithfulnesse and honour ; and the best com- mendations I can give him is, that I d say he attributes all to God, and would rather peiish than assume to himselfe ; which is an honest and a thrivinge way, and yett as much for brave- ry may be given to him in this action as to a man. Honest men served you faiihfully in this action. Sir, they are trustie. I besceche you, in the name of God, not to discourage them. I wish this action may begett thankfulnesse and hu- militie in all that are concerned in it. He that venters life for the libertie of his countrie, I wish he trust God for the libertie of his conscience, and you for the libertie he fights for. In this he rests whoe is your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL."* But not in the affairs of battle does the writer rest till all his work is done. After Naseby he overspread the land with his victorious forces, as with a devastating torrent. Leicester was immediately retaken ; Taunton, besieged by the dissolute Goring and defended by the valiant Blake, was relieved ; Goring himself was beat- en, and obliged to retreat to Bridgewater. Here the prudence, not less than the valour, of Crom- well, shone forth most eminently. An advanced party of horse, with inconsiderate rashness, rushed forward to charge the enemy, when, with consummate presence of mind, he checked them until the whole of the cavalry had come up, and then putting himself at their head, at- tacked the Royalists with such vigour and suc- cess, that nearly their whole body of foot be- came his prisoners, while he captured also the greater part of their ordnance. From this he pushed on against the town itself, which he car- ried by storm against a heavy garrison. While engaged in this gallant work, be had a very nar- row escape from a musket-ball of the enemy.f * This letter is taken from the MS. in the British Muse- um. As a matter of course, Cromwell's power was visibly impressed on the people more strongly than ever by the circiinistanr.es of this victory. On the 16th of June, the very day the news of their great success reached Parlia- ment, it was resolved that his services should be continued in the army under Sir Thomas Fairfax during the pleasure of both Houses. The Lords restricted it to three months. On the 8th of August, this dispensation was renewed for four months longer ; and on the 23d of January following, it was extended to six months additional. After this there were no more resolutions about Cromwell's absence from the lower House. He took it for granted that he had leave ; " no one offered to move for recalling him ; and he soon at- tained so great a power, that no one with safety could have dared to make such a motion." t "On Friday last, Lieut.-gen. Cromwell, with some of his officers, made within twice pistol-shot of Bridgewater, to view the town ; where, making some stay upon a dig- course, the enemy shot a brace of musket bullets, which killed a cornet of his regiment near him, but the lieut.-gen. was preserved." Merc. Civ., July 10 to 17, 1645. Nothing at this period could exceed his vigi- lance. With every energy apparently taxed by the war, he yet held a careful watch equally on friends and foes, and such as professed themselves to be neither the one nor the other. A kind of third army had recently sprung up in the western counties, calling themselves club- men, ostensibly with the purpose to defend themselves from the rapine and violence of the Royalists, but whose operations were found to be, in reality, as oppressive to the peacefully disposed as those of the Cavaliers had ever been. It was the peculiar interest of the Par- liament at this moment to seem equally and eminently regardful of the comfort and welfare of all, and this escaped not Cromwell. By a masterly union of moderation and firmness he at once dispersed these club-men, and thus, in an animated letter to his general in chief (dated August 4, 1645), described the action : " SIR, I marched this morninge towards Shaftsburie ; in my way I found a partie of club-men gather- ed together, about two miles of this side of the towne towards you, and one Mr. Newman in the head of them, whoe was one of those that did attend you at Dorchester with Mr. Hollis : I sent to them to knowe the cause of their meetinge ; Mr. Newman came to me, and told me that the club-men in Dorset and Wilts, to the number of ten thousand, were to meet about their men which were taken away at Shafts- burie, and that their intendment was to secure themselves from plunderinge. To the first, I told them, that although noe account was due to them, yett I knew the men were taken by your authoritie to be tried judicially for raisinge a third partie in the kingdome, and if they should be found guiltie, they must suffer accordinge to the nature of their offence ; if innocent, I as- sured them you would acquit them. Upon this they said, if they have deserved punishment, they would not have anythinge to doe with them, and soe were quieted as to that point. . . . For the other, I assured them that it was your great care not to suffer them in the least to be plundered, and that they should defend them- selves from violence, and bring to your armie such as did them any wrong, where they should be punished with all severitie ; upon this, very quietlie and peaceably they marched away to their houses, being very well satisfied and con- tented. Wee marched on to Shaftsburie, where wee heard a great bodie of them was drawn together about Hamilton Hill, where indeed neer two thousand were gathered ; I sent a forlorne hope of about fifty horse, whoe com- ming very civilie to them, they fired upon them, and they desiringe some of them to come to me, were refused with disdain. They were drawn into one of the old Camps, upon a very high Hill. I sent one Mr. Lee to them, to certifie the peaceableness of my intentions, and to de- sire them to peaceableness, and to submit to the Parliament ; they refused, and fired at us. I sent him a second time, to lett them know that if they would lay downe their Armes, noe wrong should be done them. They still (through the animation of their leaders, and especially two vile Ministers) refused. I commanded your Captain-Lieutenant to draw up to them, to be in readinesse to charge, and if upon his fallings on they would lay downe armes, to OLIVER CROMWELL. 463 accept them, and spare them. When wee came neer, they refused his offer, and lett flie at him ; killed about two of his men, and at least foure horses. The passage, not to be for above three abreast, kept them out, whereupon Major De- burgh wheeled about, got in the rear of them, beat them from the work, and did some small execution upon them I believe, killed not twelve of them, butt cutt very many and have taken about 300, many of which are poor sillie creatures, whom if you please to lett me send home, they promise to be very du-tifull for time to come, and will be hanged before they come out againc. The ringleaders which we have I intend to bring to you: they had taken divers of the Par- liament Souldiers Prisoners, besides Col. Fines his Men, and used them most barbarouslie, bragginge they hoped to see my Lord Hoptons that he is to command them. They expected from Wilts great store, and gave out they meant to raise the siege at Sherburne when they were all mett. Wee have gotten great store of their armes, and they carried few or none home. Wee quarter about ten miles off, and purpose to draw our quarters neer to you to-morrow. Your most humble servant, OLIVER CROMWELL." After this Sherburne Castle surrendered, and before we have time to admire the bravery and rapidity of the movement which effected it, the lieutenant-general has sat down before Bristol, in company with Fairfax, whom he advises to storm a place of such importance, if other methods are not of speedy avail. Prince Ru- pert, who held it with about 5000 horse and foot, had declared that nothing should induce him to surrender, unless, as he had reason to fear, the inhabitants proved disaffected. Crom- well's counsel having been suddenly taken, however, by Fairfax, the attack was made with so much fury, that, though Rupert repelled it for a while, he feared to run the hazard of a second assault, and delivered up the city, and with it a large proportion of the king's mag- azines and warlike stores.* * Cromwell's graphic account of this siege is given in the journals of the time : " A letter from Lieut. -gen. Cromwell to the Parliament, dated at Bristol, the 14th of September, was to this effect : That about one of the clock in the morning, Thursday, the llth instant, Sir Thomas Fairfax stormed the city. The general's signal when to fall on was the burning straw, U|>on which the men went on with great resolution, and very presently recovered the. line, making way for the horse to enter. Col. Montague and Col. Pickering, who stormed at Lawford's Gate, where was a double work well filled with men and cannon, presently entered, and with great resolution beat the enemy from their works, and possessed their cannon without any con- siderable loss, and laid down the bridges for the horse to enter. Major Uesborough commanded the horse, who very gallantly seconded the foot ; then our foot advanced to the city walls; there they possessed the great gate against the Castle Street, wherein were put 100 men, who made it good. Sir Hardress Waller, witli his and the general's regiment, with no less resolution, entered on the other side of Lawford's Gate towards Avon River, and put themselves into an immediate conjunction with the rest of the brigade. During this, Col. Rainsborough and Col. Hammond attempt- ed Prior's Hill Fort and the line downward towards Froume, Col. Birch and the major-general's regiment being to storm towards Froorne River. Col. Hammond possessed the line immediately, and beat the enemy from it, and made way for our horse to enter. Cul. Rainsborough, who h:id the hardest task of all at Prior Fort, attempted it, and fought very near three hours for it ; and, indeed, there was great despair of carrying the place, it being exceeding high, a ladder of thirty rounds scarce reaching to the top thereof; but his resolution was such that he would not give it over. The enemy had four pieces of cannon upon it, which they played with round and case shot upon our men. His Lieut.- col. Bowen and others were two hours at push of pike, Here, during the parley which preceded the capitulation, Cromwell, with Fairfax, again had a marvellous escape from the enemy. They were sitting together on the top of Prior's Hill Fort (which had been taken in the storming at- tempt), when a piece of ordnance in the castle being directed against that point, the ball gra- zed the fort within two hands' breadth of them, without doing the slightest injury to either. These were incidents Cromwell well knew how to turn to account, and the word therefore soon ran along the camp of the besiegers that none but an atheist could doubt that such a capture, attended with circumstances so remarkable, must have been the work of the Lord. So also he wrote to the speaker : " It may be thought that some praises are due to these gallant men, of whose valour so much mention is made. Their humble suit to you, and all that have an interest in this blessing, is, that in the remem- brances of God's praises they may be forgotten. It is their joy that they are instruments of God's glory and their country's good ; it is their honour that God vouchsafes to use them. Sir, they that have been employed in this service know that faith and prayer obtained this city for you ; I do not say ours only, but of the people of God with you, and all England over, who have wrestled with God for a blessing in this very thing. Our desires are, that God may be glorified by the same spirit of faith, by which we ask all our sufficiency, and having received it. it's meet that he have all the praise."* Round every portion of this country, like a tempest, he now swept with his victorious army. Passing from Bristol to Devizes, he summoned that town to surrender. " Win it and wear it," was the answer of Sir Charles Lloyd, the gov- ernor. Cromwell did both. The place was carried by assault, and the greatest moderation shown towards its gallant defenders. After this he stormed Berkeley Castle, and threw himself before Winchester, which surrendered by capitulation. t And now, so severely strict standing upon the pallisadoes, but nevertheless they could not enter. Col. Hammond being entered the line, Capt. Ireton, with a forlorn of Col. Birch's regiment, interposed with his horse between the enemy's horse, and Col. Ham- mond received a shot with two pistol bullets, which broke his arm, but the entrance of Col. Hammond did storm the fort on that part which was inward ; by which meant. Col. Riinsborough and Col. Hammond's men entered the fort, and immediately put to the sword almost all in it. And as this was the place of most difficulty, so of most loss to us on that siile, and of very great honour to the undertaker. Be- ing thus far possessed of the enemy's works, the town was fired in three places by the enemy, wh;ch we could not put out, which began to be a great trouble to the general and all his officers, that so famous a city should be wasted ; but, whilst they were viewing that sad spectacle, the prince sent a trumpet to the general, desiring a treaty for the sur- render, and so the fire was quenched, and articles agreed on, as you have formerly heard." Merc. Vivid., Sept. 17-20, 1045. ' * In the Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer we find the following, which strikingly illustrates the use and value of such letters as this : " On the Lord's day, Sept. 21, accord- ing to order of Parliament, Lieut.-gen. Cromwell's letter of the taking of Bristol was read in several congregations about London, and thanks returned to Almighty God for the admirable and wonderful reducing of that city. The letter of that renowned commander is well worth observation, and especially these pious and self-denying expressions therein are very remarkable." t A characteristic incident of this surrender is thus no- ticed in one of the journals : " We this day received intel- ligence that Lieut. -gen. Cromwell was come before Win- chester with a resolution not to depart from it until he had reduced both town and castle to the obedience of the Par- liament. The city made some opposition, contrary to his 464 BRITISH STATESMEN. was Cromwell in exacting compliance from his castle was well manned with 680 horse and own army with its articles, that, when infor- foot, there beinge neer 200 Gentlemen, Officers, mation was laid before him by the vanquished ; and their Servants ; well victualled with 15,000 that some of his soldiers had plundered them 1 wait of Cheese, very great store of wheat and on leaving the city, contrary to the terms grant- j beer, near 20 barrels of powder, 7 peeces of ed them, he ordered the offenders to be tried by ! Cannon ; the workes were exceedinge good and court-martial, at which they were sentenced to death ; whereupon he directed the unfortunate men, who were six in number, to cast lots for the first sufferer, and, after his execution, sent the remaining five, with a suitable explanation of the matter, to Sir Thomas Glenham, gov- ernor of Oxford, requesting him to deal with them as he thought fit : a piece of conduct which so charmed the Royalist officer, that he immediately returned the men to Cromwell, with a grateful compliment and expressions of much respect.* In his account of the surrender of this city, again Cromwell wrote in his old and service- able strain. " SIR," he said, " I came to Win- chester on the Lord's day, the 28th of Septem- ber, with Col. Pickering, commandinge his own, Col. Montague's, and Sir Hardresse Wal- ler's Regiments ; after some dispute with the Governour, wee entered the towne. I sum- moned the Castle, was denyed ; whereupon wee fell to prepare batteries, which wee could not perfect (some of our Gunnes beinge out of strong. It is very likely it would have cost much blood to have gained it by storme ; wee have not lost 12 men. This is repeated to you, that God may have all the praise, for it is all his due. Sir, I rest your most humble Servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." After Winchester, Basing fell before him. This was the seat of the Marquis of Winches- ter, one of the castellated mansions of those days which had been thought impregnable, hav- ing been previously assaulted in vain by Colonels Norton and Harvey and Sir William Waller. To Cromwell, however, " who never failed in any enterprise he undertook," even Basing surren- dered, and with its master, the marquis himself, became his own. As soon as he had ascer- tained his complete success, he thus graphical- ly described it (in a letter dated Basingstoke, 14th October, 1645) to the speaker : " SIR, I thanke God I can give you a good account ol Bazinge. After our Batteries were placed, wee setled the several! posts for the storme ; Col. Dalbeire was to be on the north side of the Order) untill Friday followinge. Our batterie | House next the Grange ; Col. Pickering on his was six gunnes, which beinge finished, after j left hande, and Sir Hardresse Waller's and one fireinge round, I sent him a second Sum- mons for a treaty, which they refused, where- upon wee went on with our Worke, and made a breach in the Wall neer the Blacke Tower, which after about 200 shot wee thought storm- able, and purposed on Munday morninge to at- tempt it. On Sunday night, about ten of the Clocke, the Governour beat a parley, desiringe to treat. I agreed unto it, and sent Col. Ham- mond and Major Harrison in to him, whoe agreed upon these enclosed Articles. Sir, this is the addition of another mercie ; you see God is not weary in doinge you good. I confesse, sir, his favour to you is as visible, when he comes by his power upon the hearts of your Enimies, makinge them quitt places of strength to you, as when he gives courage to your Soul- diers to attempt hard thinges. His goodnesse in this is much to be acknowledged ; for the expectation ; but, having fire 1 the bridge, he quickly found a means to enter the city and subdue it. We hear that he did send unto the Bishop of Winchester, and offered him a guard to secure his person, but the bishop, flying into the castle, refused the courtesy. Afterward, the castle being begun to be battered by two pieces of ordnance, he sent to the lieut.-gen., giving him thanks for the great favour of- fered to him, and being now more sensible what it was, he desired the enjoyment of it; to whom the wise lieut.-gen. replied, that since he made not use of the courtesy, but wil- fully did run away from it, he must partake of the same con- dition as the others who are with him in the castle, and if he were taken, he must expect to be used as a prisoner of war." Diary or ex. Jour., Oct. 2-29, 1645. * A mistake in regard to the place was committed re- specting this incident in the newspaper notices of it : " Cromwell inclines to move no faster than his brigade : he went from Blandford to Cerne the 22d. At Blandford he had a council of war, at which was condemned six troopers to die : one was the next morning (to whose lot it fell) to be hanged in the head of the army ; the other five are to be sent to the enemy, with a protestation against a detestation of the fact from the Gen. Excellency : when they come there, they may do their pleasure with them. Their of- fences were the violation of a convoy, wherein the Lord Ogle suffered, and likewise of the articles at Langford ; yet the goods were restored to the owners." Mod. Int.. Oct. 23-30, 1645. Col. Montague's regiments next him. Wee stormed this morninge after six of the Clocke. The signall for fallinge on was the fireinge foure of our Cannon, which being done, our men fell on with great resolution and cheerful- nesse. Wee tooke the two houses without any considerable losse to ourselves. Col. Pickering stormed the new House, passed through, and got the gate of the old House, whereupon they summoned a parley, which our men would not heare. In the mean time, Col. Montague's and Sir Hardresse Waller's Regiments assaulted the strongest worke, where the enimy kept his Court of Guard, wh ich with great resolution they recov- ered, beating the enimy from a whole culverin, and from that worke : which havinge done, they drew their ladders after them, and got over an- could enter. In this Sir Hardresse Waner, performinge his duty with honour and dilligence, was shott on the arme, butt not dangerous ; wee have had little losse ; many of the enimies our men put to the Sword, and some officers of quallitie. Most of the rest wee have Prison- ers, amongst which the Marquisse, and Sir Robert Peake, with divers other Officers, whom I have ordered to be sent up to you. Wee have taken about ten peeces of Ordnance, with much Ammunition, and our Souldiers a good encouragement. I humblie offer to you to have this place utterly slighted, for these fol- lowinge reasons : It will aske about eight hun- dred men to manage it ; it is no frontier ; the Country is poore about it ; the place exceedingly ruined by our batteries and morter pieces, and a fire which, fell upon the place since our takings it. If you please to take the garizon at Farnham, some out of Chichester, and a good part of the foot which were here under Dalbeire, and make a strong quarter at Newberry with three or foure troupes of horse, I dare be confident it OLIVER CROMWELL. 465 would not only be a curb to Dennington, but a security and a frontier to all these parts, inas- much as Newbery lyes upon the River, and will prevent any incurtion from Dennington, Wallingford, or Farringdon into these parts, and by lyinge there, will make the trade most secure betweene Bristol and London for all car- riages ; and I believe the Gentlemen of Sussex and Hampshire will with more cheerfulnesse contribute to maintaine a garizon on the fron- tier than in their Bowells, which will have lesse safety in it. Sir, I hope not to delay, butt inarch towards the west to-morrow, and to be as diligent as I may in my expedition thither. I must speake my Judgement to you, that if you intend to have your worke carried on, Recruits of foote must be had, and a course taken to pay your Armie, else believe me, Sir, it may not be able to answear the worke you have for it to doe. I intrusted Col. Hammond to wait upon you, whoe was taken by a mistake whilst wee lay before this Garizon, whome God safely de- livered to us to our great joy, but to his losse of almost all he had, which the Enimy tooke from him. The Lorde grant that these mercies may be acknowledged with all thankfulnesse. God exceedingly abounds in his goodnesse to us, and wilt not be weary until righteousnesse and peace meet, and that he hath brought forth a glo- rious worke for the happinesse of this poore king- dome; wherein desires to serve God and you with a faithfull hand, your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." Still victoriously sweeping on, the irresistible commander of horse next set himself down before Langford House, near Salisbury, which at the first summons surrendered to him. Post- ing then beyond Exeter, he fought Lord Went- worth at Bovey Tracy, and took from him 500 prisoners, horse and foot, with six standards, of which one was the king's. Next, uniting with Fairfax, they in conjunction took Dart- mouth by storm, and defeated Lord Hopton, after a very gallant resistance, at Torrington ; whence, pursuing the last remains of the Roy- alist army into Cornwall, mutiny and licentious- ness did the work of victory, their commander being obliged to break them up, with the ex- ception of a few who retired with him into Pendinnis Castle. Prince Charles, from whom Lord Hopton's forlorn charge had been dele- gated, had previously fled for safety, with sev- eral noblemen of his party, to the isles of Scil- ly. Sir Jacob Astley held the king's last re- maining force of 3000 cavalry. But Sir Jacob also being defeated and made a prisoner, there remained not an enemy to the Parliament in the open field. " Now," said Astley, when his captors carried him off to their headquarters, " you have done your work, and may go to play ; unless [but how prophetical was the reservation !] you choose to fall out among your- selves." Charles had meanwhile, hopeless of another rally before these astonishing successes, shut himself up in Oxford. But even against Oxford itself was the triumphant army of the west, under Fairfax and Cromwell, now approaching. The unhappy king, in his misery, saw only one resource. With clipped beard and in the dis- guise of his attendant's groom, he escaped out of Oxford at three o'clock in a sharp morning N N N of spring, and took his way to the Scottish camp. Cromwell had meanwhile been received in London with extraordinary honours. The in- stant he entered the House the members rose and welcomed him, and the speaker, in their name, after an elaborate eulogium, delivered " the hearty thanks of the House for his great and many services." But the gratitude of Par- liament was not confined to such demonstra- tions of their confidence and esteem. In the latter end of the year 1645, an annuity of 2500 appears to have been granted to Cromwell and his family for the services which he had per- formed to the public ; and soon afterward it was ordered by the House of Commons, " that all the lands of the Earl of Worcester, Lord Herbert, and Sir John Somerset, his sons, in the county of Southampton, be settled upon Lieutenant-general Cromwell and his heirs, to be accounted as part of the 2500 per annum formerly appointed him by this House." To secure the full return of the stipulated income, it was further ordered, on the 31st of January, 1646, "that Mr. Lisle do bring in an ordinance for the full granting unto and settling upon Lieu- tenant-gen. Cromwell and his heirs the manors of Abberston and Itchell, with the rights, mem- bers, and appurtenances thereof, in the county of Southampton, being the lands of John, lord- marquis of Winchester, a delinquent that hath been in arms against the Parliament, and a papist." Oliver St. John's letter, communicating to his great kinsman these accessions to his for- tune, is too characteristic of what the writer must have known to be pleasing to Cromwell to be omitted here. " Deere sir," he wrote, " I have herewithall sente you the order of the House of Commons for settlinge 2500 per an- num upon you and your heires, and the ordi- nance of Parliament in pursuance thereof, in part, whereby the landes therein mentioned, being all the landes of the Earle of Worcester in that county, are settled upon you. I have likewise sent you a rent-roll of the quit-rents. The manors consist most of old rents. There are the advowsons. I am told by Col. Norton and Mr. W r heeler, whoe knowe the landes, that they are accounted 100 per annum. . . . len- deavoured to passe this for the present, rather than to have stayed longer to make up the whole. Your patent was speedily prepared, and is this day passed the great seal. I have not sente it downe, but will keepe it for you, until I receive your direction to whome to deliver it. The charges of passing the ordinances to the clerkes, and of the scale, my clerke of the patents hath sat- isfied ; you shall hereafter knowe what they come to. I delivered a copy of the ordinance to Mr. Lisle, to send it to the committee of sequestrations, whoe hath, together with a let- ter to them, desyred that the sequestrators take care that noe wrong bee done to the landes. That which principally moved mee to it was because I heard there were goodly woods, and tho' much had been formerly cutt, that for the future a stop might be made. By the ordi- nance sent you, you will be auctorized to send some bayliffe of your owne to husband the landes to your best advantage, which would bee done speedilie. There is another order 466 BRITISH STATESMEN. of the House for preparing^ an ordinance for a goodly house and other landes in Hampshire, of the Marquisse of Winchester's. Wee had thought to have had them in the ordinance already passed, but by absence of some, when I brought in the other, that fayled. Perhaps it is better as it is, and that the addition might have stayed this. You know to whome the marquisse hath rela- tion ;* and in regard that our commission for the scale ends with this month, I desyred rather for the presente to passe this, than to hazard the delay. Mr. Lisle was ordered to hring in the other ordinance : it is not yet done. Sir, Mr. Wallop, Mr. Lisle, Sir Thomas Gcrmaync, have been real friends to you in this businessc, and heartilie desire to hare you seated, if possible, in their countric. Remember by the next to take notice hereof by letter unto them." The patent alluded to in this letter by St. John is no doubt explained by a previous resolution of the House, dated the 1st of December, 1645, and to be found in these words on the jour- nals : " Resolved, that the title and dignity of a baron of the kingdom of England, with all rights, privileges, pre-emfnencies, and prece- dencies to the said title and dignity belonging or appertaining, be conferred and settled on Lieutenant-general Oliver CromweH, and the heirs male of his body ; and that his majesty be desired in these propositions (for a piece) to grant and confer the said title and dignity upon him, and the heirs male of his body according- ly ; and that it be referred to the former com- mittee to consider of a fit way and manner for the perfecting thereof." It does not fall within my purpose here to de- scribe the long, the intricate, and not very in- teresting struggles which now took place be- tween the Presbyterians and Independents for the custody of the person of the king, after the Scots had delivered him up once more into the power of the English commissioners. The civ- il strength of the Independents increased by the elections of Ireton, Ludlow, Sidney, Skip- pon, Hutchinson, and Blake the wily advan- tage taken by Cromwell in the organization of the agitators the scenes at Ware, and the seizure of the king by force, have already re- ceived incidental notice in the discussion of Cromwell's character and resources. It will be sufficient to observe that, while Cromwell and Fairfax held Charles at Hampton Court, a vast variety of negotiations were open- ed with Cromwell by the king, and in the man- agement of all he acted with the close counsel and assistance of his son-in-law Ireton. That a treaty was entered into by Charles with these generals having for its basis his reinstatement on the throne, his surrender of his chief friends, his concession of every popular right, his wide and universal toleration in all matters of con- science, with, among other incidental condi- tions, the earldom of Essex, the garter, and the government of Ireland for Cromwell is not disputed by any one ; whether with any sin- cere purpose on the part of Cromwell, admits of most serious question ; whether with any on the part of Charles, certainly admits of none. Here, as in all matters where what he suppo- sed the prerogatives of his crown came in ques- tion, Charles was hopelessly insincere. Mrs. Hutchinson would have us suppose that Crom- well and Ireton acted throughout in good faith, and were only turned against the king at last by the discovery of bad faith in him. "To speak the truth," she says, " of all, Cromwell was at this period so uncorruptly faithful to his trust and to the people's interest, that he could not be drawn into the practice of his own usu- al and natural dissimulations in this occasion. His son-in-law Ireton, that was as faithful as he, was not so fully of the opinion (till he found the contrary) but that the king might be man- aged to comply with the public good of his peo- ple after he could no longer uphold his own vi- olent will - r but upon some discourses, the king ' uttering these words to him, ' I shall play my game as well as I can,' Ireton replied, ' If your majesty have a game to play, you must give us also the liberty to play ours.' " This would lead us to conclude, however, that Cromwell had never very favourably listened to the pro- posed treaty. Ominous symptoms of distrust in both Crom- well and Ireton were speedily detected by the king's attendants. li Being commanded," says Ashburnham, " by his majesty to desire from Cromwell and Ireton that hee might remoove Stoake to one of his owne houses, they told mee (with verie severe countenances) hee should go if hee pleased to Oatlands ; but that they had mett with sufficient proof that the king had not only abetted and fomented the dif- ferences betweene them and their enemies, by commanding all his partie to take conditions under the (then) Parliament and citty, but that likewise hee had (at that instant) a treatie with the Scots, when hee made greatest profession to close with them ; for the justification of which, they affirmed that they had both his and the queene's letters to make it good, which were greate allaycs to their thoughts of serveing him, and did verie much justifie the generall mis- fortune hee lived under of haceing the reputation of little faith in his dealings." And again, Ash- burnham (whose intercourse with both Crora- well and the king was more free and unreserv- ed than that of the other royal attendant Berke- | ley) teHs us, that Cromwell, after the rejection j of the proposals, professed himself still favour- ' able to the king's restoration, but became more | reserved and private, and that " he and Ireton withdrew themselves by degrees from the free- dom of their wonted discourses of his majesty's recovery." Those proposals* noble, and liberal, and tolerant as they were have been amply de- scribed and illustrated in the memoir of Mar- * Winchester had married the half-sister of the Earl of Essex. pn> " the dren. The Dukes of York and Gloucester, aged respect- ively fourteen and seven, and the Princess Elizabeth,! we !vo years, met their father at Maidstone, and passed two days with him at Caversham. " The interview was so affecting that Cromwell, who was present, is said to hare shed tears in describing it, and to have declared his conversion to the most implicit faith in the goodness of the king." Crom- well's tears, as we have seen, were on every occasion ready and serviceable, and it is not possible to suppuse real emo- tion here. Our masterly painter, Maclise, has hit the truer thought in his noble expression, upon the face of Cromwell, of bold and resolute sagacity, touched with a forecast of the future, in his recent fine treatment of this extraordinary see ue. OLIVER CROMWELL. 467 ten. After their rejection, no doubt Cromwell and Iretoa felt the pressure of the army. From the memoirs of Berkeley, indeed, we distinctly learn that now the lieutenant-general absolute- ly affected to consider himself in danger, and requested that Berkely and Ashburnham would not repair so frequently and with so little dis- guise to his quarters. He still, indeed, declared his undiminished anxiety for an adjustment of all differences, imprecating on himself and his posterity the vengeance of heaven if he were not sincere in his endeavours to serve the king in that particular, but, at the same time, did not conceal his apprehensions in regard to the inconstancy of the army. Our former remarks on the character of the future lord-protector may possibly, in some sort, explain these ap- parent crafts and subtleties. But now a decisive movement approached, which is thus curiously accounted for in the memoir prefixed to the State Letters of Orrery, better known by the name of Lord Broghill. It is a truly remarkable piece of secret history. " One time, particularly," says the writer, " in the year 1649, when Lord Broghill was riding, with Cromwell on one side of him, and Ireton on the other, at the head of their army, they fell into discourse about the late king's death. Cromwell declared, that if the king had follow- ed his own mind, and had had trusty servants about him, he had fooled them all. And fur- ther said, that once they had a mind to have closed with him ; but, upon something that hap- 4 pened, they fell off from their design again. My lord, finding Cromwell and Ireton in good humour* and no other person being within hear- ing, asked them if he might be so bold as to de- sire an account* 1st. Why they once would have closed w.th the king! and, 2dly. Why they did not ! Cromwell very freely told him he would satisfy him in both his queries. The reason, says he, why we would once have closed with the king, was this : we found that the Scots and the Presbyterians began to be more pow- erful than we ; and if they had made up mat- ters with the king, we should have been left in the lurch ; therefore, we thought it best to prevent them, by offering first to come in upon any reasonable conditions. But while we were busied with these thoughts, there came a let- ter from one of our spies, who was of the kite's bedchamber, which acquainted us that on that day our doom was decreed ; that he could not possibly tell what it was, but we might find it out if we could intercept a let- ter from the king to the queen, wherein he de- clared what he would do. The letter, he said, was sewed up in the skirt of a saddle, and the bearer of it would come with the saddle upon his head, about ten o'clock that night, to the Blue Boar inn in Holborn, for there he was to take horse and go to Dover with it. This messenger knew nothing of the letter in the saddle, but some persons in Dover did. We were at Windsor when we received the letter ; and immediately upon the receipt of it, Ireton and I resolved to take one trusty fellow with us, and with troopers' habits to go to the inn in Holborn, which accordingly we did, and set our man at the gate of the inn, where the wick- et only was open, to let people in and out. Our man was to give us notice when a person came there with a saddle, while we, in the disguise of common troopers, called for cans of beer, and continued drinking till about ten o'clock: the sen- tinel at the gate then gave notice that the man with the saddle was come in. Upon this we immediately rose, and, as the man was leading out his horse saddled, came up to him with drawn swords, and told him we were there to search all that went in and out ; but as he look- ed like an honest man, we would only search his saddle, and so dismiss him. Upon that we ungirt the saddle, and carried it into the stall where we had been drinking, and left the horse- man with our sentinel ; then, ripping up one of the skirts of the saddle, we there found the letter of which we had been informed ; and having got it into our hands, we delivered the saddle again to the man, telling him he was an honest man, and oidding him go about his bu- siness. The man, not knowing what had been done, went away to Dover. As soon as we had the letter we opened it, in which we found the king had acquainted the queen that he was now courted by both factions, the Scotch Pres- byterians and the army, and which bid fairest for him should have him ; but he thought he should close with the Scots sooner than the other, &c. Upon this, added Cromwell, we took horse and went to Windsor ; and, finding we were not likely to have any tolerable terms from the king, we immediately, from that time forward, resolved his ruin." This fatal letter, which, if this account is be- lieved, may be said to have decided Charles's fate, is thus curiously described to us by the author of a work called Richardsoniana. " Lord Bolingbroke," he says, "told us [Mr. Pope, Lord Marchmont, and himself] that Lord Oxford had often told him that he had seen, and had in his hands, an original letter that King Charles I. wrote to the queen, in answer to one of hers that had been intercepted, and then forwarded to him, wherein she had reproached him for having made those villains too great conces- sions (viz., that Cromwell should be lord-lieu- tenant of Ireland for life without account ; that that kingdom should be in the hands of the party, with an army there kept which should know no head but the lieutenant ; that Crom- well should have a garter, &c.). That in this letter of the king's it was said that she should leave him to manage, who was better informed of all circumstances than she could be ; but she might be entirely easy as to whatever con- cessions he should make them, for that he should know in due time how to deal with the rogues, who, instead of a silken garter, should be fitted with a hempen cord. So the letter ended : which answer, as they waited for, so they intercepted accordingly ; and it determin- ed his fate. This letter Lord Oxford said he had offered 500 for." Whatever the actuating motives may have been and perhaps, after all that has been said, the reader will have little difficulty in forming his conclusions of them it is certain that af- fairs now took a gloomy turn for the king. In- fluenced by their own despair of Charles, or by the formidable attitude of the agitators (en- couraged secretly, however, in their commence- ment by Cromwell), the great lieutenant-general and his son-in-law embarked with the extreme 468 BRITISH STATESMEN. Republicanism of the army. Ashburnham has noted it down as a memorable circumstance, that at this time it was that Cromwelf dis- coursed earnestly and elaborately with Colonel Rich of the happiness which would be the lot of the people of England with such a government as the Netherland States-General and no doubt with such a protector, or Prince of Orange, as Lieutenant-general Cromwell himself could have furnished ! Charles's last fatal step was his flight to Carisbrooke. But let him not be censured too harshly for this, since there is strong ground for supposing that Cromwell secretly instigated him to a movement of some kind. There is no doubt the flight was made in consequence of a letter he received, hinting that his life was in danger from the army agitators ; and that Crom- well had written to the officer in command at Hampton Court, is manifest from what trans- pired during the examination of the latter at the bar of the House of Commons. Addressing the speaker, Colonel Whaley says, "You de- mand of me what that letter was that I showed the king the day he went away. The letter I shall show you ; but, with your leave, I shall first acquaint you with the author, and the ground of my showing it to the king. The author is Lieutenant-general Cromwell ; the ground of my showing it was this : the letter intimates some murderous design, or at least some fear of it, against his majesty. When I read the letter, I was much astonished, ab- horring that such a thing should be done, or so much as thought of by any that bear the name of Christians. When I had shown the letter to his majesty, I told him I was sent to safe- guard him, and not to murther him ; I wished him to be confident no such thing should be done ; I would first die at his feet in his de- fence ; and therefore I showed it to him, that he might be assured, though menacing speech- es came frequently to his ear, our general offi- cers abhorred so bloody and so villanous an act." While this is admitted, however, let us add, that there is no reason for supposing Hammond in any way suborned by Cromwell or Ireton to the part he played with his royal prisoner, though when they found their kinsman in pos- session of such a prize, is seems certain they resolved to make the best of it. Ashburnham has given a very curious letter from Cromwell to " Colonel Robert Hammond," evidently de- signed to overweigh some objections entertain- ed by the latter to the justice of any resistance on the part of the army to the power of the ma- jority in Parliament. The wily lieutenant- general resorts to his stronghold of providence and the providential, and justifies such a re- sistance in a particular case. " Was there not," he asks, " a little of this [the providential] when Robert Hammond, through dissatisfac- tion too, desired retirement from the army, and thought of quiet in the Isle of Wight]" He proceeds: "You say 'God had appointed au- thorities among the nations, to which active or passive obedience is to be yielded. This re- sides in England in the Parliament. Therefore, active or passive, &e.' Authorities and powers are the ordinance of God. This or that species is of human institution, and limited, some with larger, others with stricter bonds, each one ac- cording to its constitution. I do not, therefore, think the authorities may do any thing, and yet ' such obedience due ; but all agree, there are cases in which it is lawful to resist. If so, your ground fails, and so likewise the infer- ence. Indeed, dear Robin, not to multiply words, the query is, whether ours be such a easel This ingenuously is the true question. To this I shall say nothing, though I could say very much ; but only desire thee to see what thou findest in thy own heart as to two or three plain considerations : 1st, Whether salus populi be a sound position 1 2dly, Whether, in the way in hand, really and before the Lord, before whom conscience must stand, this be provided for ; or the whole fruit of the war like to be frustrated, and all most like to turn to what it was, and worse 1 And this contrary to engage- ments, declarations, implicit covenants with those who ventured their lives upon those cov- enants and engagements, without whom, per- haps, in equity, relaxation ought not to be. 3dly. Whether this army be not a lawful power, called by God to oppose and fight against the king upon some stated grounds ; and being in power to such ends, may not oppose one name of authority for those ends as well as another, the outward authority that called them not by their power making the quarrel lawful, but it being so in itself? If so, it may be, acting will be justi- fied in foro humano." Dear Robin's scruples, however, were likely to be better satisfied by a succeeding letter, announcing glorious news, and every way most characteristic of the writer. " DEEREST ROBIN, Now (blessed be God) I can write, and thou receave freely. I never in my life sawe more deepe sense, and less will to shewe it unchris- tianly, than in that w ch thou diddest write to us at Windsor, and though in the middest of thy tentation, w ch indeed (by what wee understood of it) was a great one, and occasioned the great- er by the letter the generall sent thee, of w ch thou wast not mistaken when thou diddest chal- lenge me to be the penner. How good has God beene to dispose all to mercie ; and although it was trouble for the present, yett Glorie is come out of it, for w ch wee praise the Lorde with thee and for thee ; and truely the carriage has beene | such as occasions much honour to -the name of j God and to religion. Goe on in the strength 1 of the Lord, and the Lorde be still with tlee. j But (deere Robin) this businesse hath been (I trust) a mightie providence to this poore King- dome, and to us all. The House of Comons is very sensible of the K> s dealings, and of our Brethrens, in this late transaction. You should ' doe well (if you have anythinge that may discover ! juglinge) to search it out and lett us knowe it ; it may be of admirable use at this time, because wee shall (I hope) instantly goe upon businesses in relation to them, tendingeto prevent danger. The House of Comons has this day voted as follows : First, that they will make noe more addresses to the K. 2dly. None shall applie to him w th out leave of the two Houses, upon paine of beinge guiltie of high treason. 3dly. They will receive nothinge from the Kinge, nor shall any other bringe anythinge to them from him, nor receave anythinge from the Kinge. Lastly, the Members of both Houses, who were of the Committee of both Kingdomes, are established OLIVER CROMWELL. 469 in all that power in themselves for England and Ireland w ch they had to act with both King- domes, and Sr. John Evelin of Wilts is added in the roome of Mr. Recorder, and Rath. F. Fiennis in the roome of Sir Phillip Stapleton, and my Lorde of Kent in the roome of the Earl of Essex. / think it good you take notice of this, the sooner the better. . . . Lett us knowe how it's with you in point of strength, and what you neede from us : some of us thinke the Kinge well with you, and that it concerns us to keep that Island in great securitie, because of the French, &C. And if soe, where can the kinge be better 1 If you have more force, you will suer of full provision for them. The Lorde blesse thee : pray for thy deere friend and servant, <( O. CROMWELL." The debate referred to here had been a mo- mentous one indeed, declaring openly the pur- pose of a republic, and the fate that impended over the king. Ireton spoke with a calm and deadly resolution. He said, " The king had denied the protection to the people which was the condition of obedience to him ; that, after long patience, they should now, at last, show themselves resolute ; that they should not de- sert the brave men the many thousand godly men who had fought for them beyond all pos- sibility of retreat or forgiveness, and who would never forsake the Parliament, unless the Par- liament first forsook them." " After some farther debate," says the author who has re- corded these speeches, " Cromwell brought up the rear. ' It was time,' he said, ' to answer the public expectatipn, that they were able and resolved to govern and defend the kingdom by their own power, and teach the people they had nothing to hope from a man whose heart God hardened in obstinacy.' 1 ' Do not,' said he, after giving a flattering character of the army, whose valour and godliness he extolled in the highest degree, let the army think themselves betrayed to the rage and malice of an irreconcilable enemy, whom they have subdued for your sake, from whom they should meet revenge and justice ; do not drive them to despair, lest they seek safety by other means than adhering to you, who will not stick to yourselves ; and (laying his hand on his sword) how destructive such a resolution in them will be to you all, I tremble to think, and leave you to judge.' " The resolutions for holding no more treaties with the king in other words, for establishing a republic in England passed by a majority of 141 to 92. The immediate effect of this outside the House was startling, and considerable agitation appeared in various quarters. An alarming tumult in the city, in which the apprentices forced the guard, and ventured to engage the military under the command of the general, was quickly followed by simijar disturbances in Norwich, Canterbury, Exeter, and several other places. At the same time, petitions from dif- ferent public bodies poured into the two Houses, all concurring in the same prayer, that the army should be disbanded, and the king brought back. Even now some project of a despotism seemed dreaded.. Cromwell and his friends ; aware that it would not be in their power to control the city while their forces were em- ployed in the field, withdrew their opposition in the lower chamber so far as to permit the Presbyterian party to carry a vote that no change should be made in the fundameetal government of the realm by king, Lords, and Commons ; and on this ground the citizens de- clared themselves engaged to live and to die with the Parliament.* The " men of Kent," under Hales and Gor- ing, had, meanwhile, encouraged by these city tumults, flown to arms, and engaged the troops commanded by Fairfax and Major-general Skip- pon. They were defeated, but the resolution with which they fought at Maidstone startled Cromwell into personal exertion once again on the field of battle. The Welsh had, at the same time, assembled under the banners of their chiefs ; and Colonel Poyer, the governor of Pembroke Castle, an officer in the service of the Parliament, joined by Colonels Lang- home and Powell, had proclaimed Charles, and defied his enemies. Several towns followed the example with which they were thus supplied, and in some skirmishes which followed, the advantage was on the side of the Royalists ; but the approach of Cromwell at the head of a few regiments of veterans crushed the hopes of the insurgents. Having driven them within their walls, the lieutenant-general immediately invested Pem- broke, resolved to carry the fortress in his usual manner by a spirited assault. His men, cheered by the presence of their invincible leader, and inflamed by the fanatical discourses of Hugh Peters, " dashed into the ditch, as- cended the ramparts, and were about to throw themselves upon the garrison," whom they had hoped to find unprepared, when, on a sud- den, they were attacked with the utmost fury, and, after a sanguinary conflict amid the dark- ness and confusion of night, compelled to re- turn to their camp considerably diminished in number. For two months the castle held out, and then surrendered under circumstances which left no hope of mercy. Yet Cromwell was not unmerciful. Langhorne, Poyer, and Powell were condemned to death as traitors. After several months' imprisonment, it was or- dered that one only, to be determined by lot, should suffer. The lot fell upon Poyer, and he was executed. Cromwell's amazingly watchful activity at this time may be well illustrated by a letter of his (in the British Museum), addressed to some officers in the Welsh counties. It tells its own story : " I send," he says, " this en- closed by itselfe. because it's of greater mo- ment. The other you may communicate to Mr. Rumsey as far as you thinke fitt, and I have written. I would not have him or other honest men be discouraged that I thinke it not fitt at present to enter into contests ; it will be good to yeeild a little for publique advantage, and truely that is my end, wherein I desire you to satisfie them. ... I have sent, as my letter mentions, to have you remove out of Breck- noksheire, indeed into that part of Glamorgan- sheire w ch lyeth next Munmouthsheire, for this end. . . Wee have plaine discoveries that Sir Trevor Williams, of Langevie, about two miles from Uske, in the countie of Munmouth, was * Lingard, vol. z. 470 BRITISH STATESMEN. very deepe in the plott of betrayinge Chep- stowe Castle, soe that wee are out of doubt of liis^uiltinesse thereof. . . I doe hereby author- ize you to seize him, as also the high sherifTe of Munmouth, Mr. Morgan, whoe was in the same plott. . . But because Sir Trevor Williams is the more dangerous man by farr, I would have you to seize him first, and the other will easilie be had. To the end you may not be frustrated, and that you be not deceaved, I thinke fitt to give you some caracters of the man, and some intimations how thinges stand. He is a man (as I am informed) full of craft and subtiltie, very bould and resolute, hath a house at Langevie well stored with armes, and very stronge, his neighbours about him very malignant and much for him, whoe are apt to rescue him if apprehended, much more to discover anythinge wh ch may prevent it. He is full of iealosie, partly out of guilt, butt much more because he doubts some that were in the businesse have discovered him, which indeed they hare, and alsoe because he knowes that his servant is brought hither, and a minis- ter to be examined here, whoe are able to dis- cover the whole plott. If you should march directly into that countie and neer him, it's odds he either fortefies his house, or gives you the slip, soe alsoe if you should goe to his house and not finde him there, or if you attempt to take him and misse to effect it, or if you make any knowen enquirie after him, it will be discovered. . . Wherefore to the first you have a faire pretence of goinge out of Brecknoksheire to quarter about Newport and Carleon, which is not above 4 or 5 miles from his house. You may send to Col. Herbert, whose house lyeth in Munmouthsheire, whoe will certainlie ac- quainte you where he is. You are alsoe to send to Capt. Nicolas, whoe is at Chepstowe, to require him to assiste you if he should gett into his house, and stand upon his guard. Sam Jones, whoe is quarterm* to Col. Herbert's troupe, will be very assistinge to you if you send to him to meete you at your quarters, both by lettinge you knowe where he is, and alsoe in all matters of intelligence. If theire shall be neede, Capt. Burge his troupe, now quarteringe in Glamorgansheire, shall be di- rected to receaye orders from you. You per- ceave by all this that wee are (it may be) a lit- tle too much sollicitous in this businesse ; it's our fault ; and, indeed, such a temper causeth ! us often to overact businesse, wherefore with- | out more adoe wee leave it to you, and you to [ the guidance of God herein, and rest yours, i O. CROMWELL. . . If you seize him, bring &lett ; him be brought with a strong guard to me. If j Capt. Nicolas should light on him at Chep- | stowe, doe you strengthen him with a good \ guard to bring him. . . If you seize his person, ! disarme his house, butt lett not his armes be imbeziled. ... If you need Capt. Burge his i troupe, it quarters betweene Newport and Car- ! diffe." Then followed the Presbyterian invasion by ] the Covenanters' army of the Scots, and the , regular commencement of the second civil war. ! Cromwell, advised of this, at once put his forces in motion to join Lambert in the north, and give the Covenanters battle. He did this, it , may be supposed, with especial zeal, and the i [battle of Preston, fought August 17th, 1648, threw both kingdoms into the hands of the Re- publicans. The Scots, " who found some dif- ficulty in comprehending that Cromwell was not still in Wales" (with such rapidity had he approached), even by this their decisive over- throw in Lancashire, were commanded by Duke Hamilton ; the English, who sided with them, by the same Sir Marmaduke Langdale whom Cromwell had beaten at Naseby. Their armies together numbered 21,000 ; the force under Cromwell, including Lambert's, which had ef- fected a junction with him on his approach, did not in all, according to Whitelocke, exceed 8600. Nothing but the event could have justi- fied the instant assault of the Royalists with this vast disparity of force. But the bigotry of the Scots gave Cromwell an advantage which, he had no doubt well calculated on : " their sectarian hatred of the Cavalier army, not- withstanding their engagement in the same cause, leading them to withhold their support from their English allies, when the latter were separately attacked ;"* and their own perfect overthrow justly and most retributively follow- ed. As to the north countrymen under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Cromwell confessed that never had he seen foot fight so desperately as they. But nothing could withstand the furi- ous charges of Cromwell and his old gallant Ironsides. Two thousand men were slain in the battle, and as many prisoners taken by the Republicans (including the Duke of Hamilton himself, the leader of the confederates) as ex- ceeded in number their own entire army. On the 20th of August, Cromwell wrote to the speaker of the House of Commons a most striking despatch of this battle. " After the conjunction of that party," he begins, " which I brought with me out of Wales with the north- ern forces about Knaresborough and Wetherby, hearing that the enemy was advanced with their army into Lancashire, we came the 6th instant to Hodder Bridge, over Kibble, where we had a council of war, and upon advertise- ment the enemy intended southward, and since * This is alleged in various authorities. Tl*e rage of tho Cavaliers knew no bounds, as may be seen in the following extract from the Parliament Porter: "Nothing is heard now among the brethren bat triumph and joy, singing and mirth, for their happy success (thanks i the devil first, and next to Noll Cromwell's nose) against the Scots, whom they vaunt they have beaten to dust. The truth is, even Duke Hamilton himself was corrupted with money : why else did he deliver 5000 foot and 2000 horse unto the commund of Major-gen. Baily, a sworn servant nf the Kirkxten of Scot- load, who surrendered them all up into the hands of Crom- well, without striking one stroke? The truth is, the Scots army is totally routed (so great are our sins, and so fierce is the wrath of the Almighty against us). Duke Hamilton being besieged in the town of Uttoxeter, was forced to yield himself and the small handful with him ; and as if the devil had got to himself th sole sway of mundane affairs, the most valiant and heroic knight, Sir Marmaduke, was un- luckily surprised, with some other worthy Loyalists, as they were sitting in ablind alehouse, where they supposed themselves secure, and carried prisoners to Nottingham Castle. But Monro, one of the best soldiers in Christen- dom, is coming on with a powerful army, to give Noll Crom- well another field fight. He hath sent to the esiates of Scotland, imploring them for a recruit both of men and money, which they have ordered him : the renowned Earl of Callender, with some troops of horse, is escaped to him, with whom he hath united his remnant : if Cromuell can shatter this army also, he will prove himself one of the most fortunate villains that ever acted mischief. He will find hard play here, for these will not be laughed out of their loyalty, nor frightened out nf themselves with the blazing of his beacon nosc. n Pftrl. Port., Aug. 28 to S*pt. 4, 164IJ. OLIVER CROMWELL. 471 confirmed that they resolved for London itself, and information that the Irish forces, under Monro, lately come out of Ireland, which con- sisted of 1200 horse and 1500 foot, were on their march towards Lancaster, to join with them, it was thought that to engage the ene- my to fight was our business, and accordingly we marched over the bridge that night, and quartered the whole army in the fields. Next morning we marched towards Preston, having intelligence that the enemy was drawing to- gether thereabouts from all his out-quarters. We drew out a forlorn of about 200 horse and 400 foot : these gallantly engaged the enemy's scouts and outguards until we had opportunity to bring up our u-hole army. So soon as our foot and horse were come up, we resolved that night to engage them if we could, and therefore advan- cing with our forlorns, and putting the rest of the army into as good a posture as the ground would bear (which was totally inconvenient for our horse, being all enclosure, and miry ground), we pressed upon them through a lane, forced them from their ground after four hours' dispute, until we came to the town, into which four troops of my regiment first entered, and being well second- ed by Col. Harrison's regiment, charged the enemy in the town, and cleared the streets. At the last the enemy was put into disorder, many men slain, many prisoners taken ; the duke, with most of the Scots horse and foot, retreated over the bridge, where, after a very hot dispute betwixt the Lancashire regiments, part of my lord-general 's and them being at push of pike, they were beaten from the bridge, and our horse and foot following them, killed many, and took divers prisoners, and we possessed the bridge over Darwent, and a few houses there ; the enemy being drawn up within mus- ket shot of us, where we lay that night, we not being able to attempt further upon the enemy, the night preventing us. In tliis posture did the enemy and we lie the most part of that night. Upon our entering the town, many of the enemy's horse fled towards Lancaster, in the chase of whom went divers of our horse, who pursued them near ten miles, and had ex- ecution of them, and took about 500 horse, and many prisoners. We possessed in the fight very much of the enemy's ammunition. I be- lieve they lost 4 or 5000 arms ; the number of slain we judge to he about 1000 ; the prison- ers we took were about 4000. In the night they marched away 7 or 8000 foot, and about 4000 horse ; we followed them with about 3000 foot, and about 2500 horse and dragoons ; and in this prosecution, that worthy gentleman, Col. Thornhaugh, pressing too boldly, was slain, being run into the body, and thigh, and head by the enemy's lancers. Our horse still prosecu- ted the enemy, killing and taking divers all the way ; but by that time our army was come up, they recovered Wiggon, before we could at- tempt anything upon them. We lay that night in the field, close by the enemy, being very dirty and weary, where we had some skirmishing, &c. We took Major-general Van Uruske, Col. Hurrey, and Lieut. -col. Ennis. The next morning the enemy marched towards Warring- ton, made a stand at a pass near Winwick ; we held them in some dispute until our army was come up, they maintaining the pass with great resolution for many hours, but our men, by the blessing of God, charged very home upon them, beat them from their standing, where we killed about 1000 of them, and took (as we believe) about 2000 prisoners, and prosecuted them home to Warrington town, where they possess- ed the bridge. As soon as we came thither, I received a message from Lieut.-gen. Baily, de- siring some capitulation, to which I yielded ; gave him these terms : That he should sur- render himself, and all his officers, and prison- ers of war, with all his arms, and ammunition, and horses, upon quarter for life, which accord- ingly is done. Here we took about 4000 com- plete arms, and as many prisoners, and thus you have their infantry ruined. The duke is marched with his remaining horse, which are about 3000, towards Namptvvhich, where the gentlemen of the country have taken about 500 of them ; the country will scarce suffer any of my men to pass, but bring them in and kill di- vers, as they light upon them. I have sent post to my Lord Grey, to Sir Henry Cholmeley, and Sir Edward Roads, to gather all together with speed for their prosecution. Monro is about Cumberland, with the horse that ran away, and his Irish horse and foot, but I have left a considerable strength I hope to make re- sistance till we can come up to them. Thus you have the narrative of the particulars of the success. / could hardly tell how to say less, there being so much of God, and I was not willing' to say more, lest there should seem to be anything of man. Only give me leave to add one word, showing the disparity of the forces on both sides, that so you may see, and all the world acknowledge, the great hand of God in this business. The Scots army could not be less than 12,000 foot, well armed, and 5000 horse ; Langdale not less than 2500 foot and 1500 horse ; in all, 21,000. Ours, in all, about 8600. And by computation, about 2000 of the enemy slain, betwixt 8000 and 9000 prisoners, besides what are lurking in hedges and private places, which the country daily bring in or destroy !" The force, precision, and graphic beauty of this description could not possibly be excelled. And now Cromwell, following up his blow, marched on for Scotland* to extinguish all tra- * On the eve of marching from Berwick, he wrote again to the House : "A letter was this day read in the House from Lieut.-gen. Cromwell, out of Scotland, the most ma- terial part we will give you as followeth : ' Upon Friday, Sept. 29, came an order from the Earl of Lanerick, and di- vers Lords of his partie, requiringe the Governour of Ber- wick to marche out of the Town, which accordingly he did on Saturday, Sept. 30, at which time I entered, havinge placed a garizon there for your use. The Governour would faiue have capitulated for the English, but wee havinge this advantage upon him, would not hear of it.soe that they are submitted to your mercie, and are under the considera- tion of Sir Arthur Haslerigge, whoe (I believe) will give you a good accompt of them, and whoe hath already turned out the malignant Major, and putt an honest man in his roome. I have also receaved an Order for Carlisle, and have sent Col. Bright, with Horse and Foot, to receave it ; Sir Andrew Car and Col. Scot beinge gone with him to re- quire an observance of the Order, there haviuge beene a treaty and an agreement betwixt the two parties in Scot- land to disband all forces, except fifteen hundred horse and foot, under the Eurl of Leven, which are to be kept to see all remaininge forces disbanded : and havinge some other thinge to desire from the Committee of estates at Edinburgh for your service, I am myselfr. going thitherward this day, and soe soon as 1 shall be able to give you a further Accompt thereof, I shall doe it. In the mean time, I make it my de- sire that the Garizon of Berwick (into which I have placed a Regiment of foot, and shall be attended alsoe by a Regi- 472 BRITISH STATESMEN. ces of Hamilton's party, and on his march pre- served such remarkable discipline, that never, according to the Scotch, had they " seen such a civil people in all their days." Better evi- dence of this, however, will not be asked than what is offered by the following truly admirable proclamation : " Whereas wee are marchinge with the Parliament's Armie into the Kingdome of Scotland, in pursuance of the remaininge part of the Enimy whoe lately invaded the Kingdome of England, and for the recoverie of the Gari- zons of Berwick and Carlisle, these are to de- clare, that if any officer or souldicr under my Command shall take, or demand any monie, or shall violently take any horses, goods, or victua.ll without Order, or shall abuse the People in any sort, He shall be tryed by a Councell of War, and the said person so offendinge shall be pun- ished accordinge to the Articles of War, made for the Government of the Armie in the King- dome of England, which is death. Each Colo- nel, or other chiefe Officer in every Regiment, is to transcribe the Copie of this, and to cause the same to be delivered to each Captain of his regiment ; and every said Captain of each re- spective troupe and companie is to publish the same to his Troupe or Companie, and to take a strict course that nothinge be done contrary hereunto. Given under my hand, this 20th Sept., 1638. CROMWELL." Arrived at Edinburgh, the victorious general who held a commission of captain in the regi- ment of horse commanded by Harrison. This young man appears to have possessed, with Henry, the greatest share of his father's re- spect and confidence all his children had his love and was remembered by him in his dy- ing hour, when his mind seemed wandering for the Protectorate's successor. Richard was now Cromwell's eldest son. He was not in the army, though he accepted a nominal commission under the Protectorate. If it is within the limit of probability that the triumphant soldier meditated, even thus early, any seizure of the supreme power, it must have added to his grief in losing the first-born of his children, to reflect that his heir now was an idle youth, given to somewhat dissolute gaye- ties, suspected, moreover, of Royalist prejudi- ces, and without a particle of vigour or firm- ness about him. A negotiation for the marriage of Richard with the daughter of a Mr. Major (the repre- sentative of an old and wealthy family of Hamp- shire, and himself high sheriff of that county in 1640) had been broken off, for some unex- plained reason, before the campaign of the sec- ond civil war, resumed after its close, again broken off on a question of pecuniary settle- ment, and again, within a year of the present time, renewed. I have found Cromwell's own letters relating to it, and they exhibit this ex- was received with enthusiasm, and even called j traordinary man in so striking and characteris- " the deliverer of the kirk." He conferred tic an attitude among his family, that it is dif- with commissioners, had visits from the pro- j ficult to understand why they should hitherto vost and Scottish nobles, and received gorgeous ] have been so strangely neglected by his biog- entertainments at the public cost. General Leven, the Lord Argyle, and several other no- blemen, invited him and his suite to a sumptu- ous banquet in the castle just before his depar- ture ; and, adds Whitelocke, when he left the raphers. The first of these letters is dated on the 26th of February, 1647, and addressed to a friend, " idle Dick Norton," a colonel in his army, and a man evidently endeared to him by many af- place, the majestic fortress saluted him with j fectionate ties, notwithstanding idleness and its great guns, and numerous lords convoyed him beyond the city precincts. Cromwell's return to the capital settled the fate of Charles. Yet he had not returned with- apparently reckless habits. " DEERE NORTON, I have sent my sonn over to thee, beinge willinge to answear Providence, and although I confesse / have had an offer of a very great out one frightful dash of gloom pervading all proposition from a father of his daughter, yett his glory. In one of the closing skirmishes of \ truely I rather encline to this in my thoughts, the campaign he had lost his eldest son, Oliver,* . because, though the other be very farr greater, yett I see different tycs, and not that assurance of god- ment of Horse) may be provided for, and that Sir Arthur ' linesse, yett indeed faimesse. I COnfeSSC that Haslerigge may receive commands to supplie it with guns which IS tould me COnceminge the estate of and ammunition Irom Newcastle, and be otherwise enabled , . .IT i r by you to furnish this Garizon with all other necessaries, Mr. M. is more than I can looke for as thmges accordinge as a place of that importance will require. De- ! HOW Stand. ... If God please to bring it about, siringe that these mercies may begett trust and thankful- j t ne consideration of pietie in the parents, and Tnt oah G em^sl!^ U and 0r the SSf^fiSS^ ! su f h P e ^ the gentlewoman in that respect, dome, I rest your most humble Servant, o. CROMWELL, make the busmesse to me a great mercie, con- Berwick, 2d October, 1648.' "Perf. Diur., Oct. 9-16, 1648. cerning w ch I desier to waite upon God. ... I * " This young man," says Noble, in his Memoirs of the onnfidpnt of thv Invp anH Hptsipr t hino-ps mav Protectorai House, "was, at the breaking out of the civil ; * m continent oi tny love, ana desier thinges may war, about nineteen, soon after which, by his father's in- , be Carried With pnvacie. 1 he Lorde doe his terest, he procured a commission in the Parliament army ; | and it is certain that this Oliver was a captain eo early as j in Col. Harrison's regiment ; both, says Lilburne, raw and April, 1643, for a soldier going to burn a MS. relating to . unexperienced soldiers. It is well known that Rich., his the antiquities of Peterborough, where the soldiers, under : then second son, was not designed for the sword, but the his father, were making great devastation, especially in the , bar, and had no commission in the army until long after his painted glass in the Cathedral, at which the elder Oliver father had been declared Protector, so that the sons of Oli- assisted, Mr. Hustin redeemed the MS. for ten shillings, and persuaded the soldier to write the following acknowl- edgment : ' I pray let this scripture book alone, for he hath ver then in the army must be this gentleman and Henry his brother : but it is observable that Henry, who certainly was captain of the life-guard, is mentioned first. Scarce paid me for it ; and therefore I would desire you to let it j any author notices this son Oliver at all, and none, that I alone, by me Henry Topclyffe, souldier under Captain I know of, has given us any account of what became of him.. Cromwell, Colonel Cromwell's son, therefore I pray let it He was killed in July, 1648, in attempting to repulse the alone, Henry Topclyffe, April 22, 1C43.' As a further Scotch army that invaded England under the Duke of Ham- proof of this, Lilburne, the factious, accuses Oliver, his ilton, at which time Col. Harrison was wounded : the latter father, in 1647, with having several relations in the army ; circumstance clearly evinces that it was him who was and among others, two of his own sons, one a captain of the ' killed, as he is just above mentioned as being a captain in general's life-guard, the other a captain of a. troop of hotse i Harrison's regiment." OLIVER CROMWELL. 473 will, that's best, to \v ch submittinge, I rest your humble servant, O. CROMWELL." This refers to the opening of the negotiation. Mr. Major appears to have broken it off, how- ever, for some secret reason of objection. A year after overtures began again, " Mr. Robin- son, a preacher at Southampton," having been apparently selected for the purpose, either by the still love-sick Richard, or by the second and wiser thoughts of Mr. Major himself. To Mr. Robinson, Cromwell thus writes on the 1st of February, 1648. " S B , I thanke you for your kinde letter. As to the businesse you mention, I desire to use this plainnesse with you. When the last over- ture was betweene me and Mr. Major, by the mediation of Coll. Norton, after the meetinge I had with Mr. Major at Farnham, I desired the Coll. (findinge, as I thought, some scruples and hesitation in Mr. Major) to knowe of him wheth- er his minde was free to the thinge or not. Coll. Norton gave me this accompt, that Mr. Major, by reason of some matters as they then stood, was not very free thereunto, whereupon I did acquiesce, submittinge to the providence of God. Upon your revivinge of the businesse to me, & your letter, I thinke fitt to returne you this answear, & to say in plainnesse of spirit to you, That upon your testimonie of the gentlewoman's worth & the common reporte of the pietie of the familie, I shall be willinge to entertaine the renewinge of the motion upon such considerations as maybe to mutuall satis- faction, only I thinke that a speedie resolution will be very convenient to both parties. The Lorde direct all to his glory. I desier your prayers therein, and rest your very affection- ate friend, 0. CROMWELL." And eleven days after, I find the following letter written to Mr. Major himself, describing passages of the interval. " S B , I receaved some intimations formerly, & by the last re- turne from Southampton a letter from Mr. Rob- inson, concerninge the revivinge the last yeare's motion touchinge my sonn and your daughter. Mr. Robinson was alsoe pleased to send inclo- sed in his a letter from you to him, bearinge date the 5 tL of this instant February, wherein I finde your willingnesse to entertaine any good meanes for the compleatinge of that businesse. From whence I take encouragement to send my sonn to wayte upon you, & by him to lett you knowe that my desiers are (if Providence soe dispose) very full & free to the thinge, if upon an interview theire prove alsoe a freedom in the younge persons thereunto. What h'bertie you will give heerein I wholly submit to you. I thought fitt, in my letter to Mr. Robinson, to mention somewhat of expedition, because indeed I knowe not how soone I may be called into thefeild, or other occasions may remove me from hence, havinge for the present some libertie of stay in London. The Lord direct all to his glorie. I rest, S r , y r very humble servant, O. CROMWELL." Again, to his " very worthie friend" Mr. Ma- jor, on the 26th of February, the lieutenant-gen- eral writes yet more characteristically. " S B , I receaved yours by Mr. Stapleton, together with an account of the kinde reception & the many civilities afforded them, especially to my sonn in the libertie given him to waite upon your worthie daughter, the report of whose oo vertue and godlinesse has soe great a place in my harte that I thinke fitt not to neglect any- thinge on my parte which may conduce to con- summate a close of the businesse, if God please to dispose the younge ones' hartes thereunto, & other suitable orderinge affaires towards mutuall satisfaction appeare in the dispensation of Providence. For which purpose, and to the end matters may be brought to as neer an issue as they are capable of (not being at libertie, by reason of publique occasions, to waite upon you, nor, as I understand, your health permittinge), I thought fitt to send this gentleman, Mr. Sta- pleton, instructed with my minde to see how neer wee may come to an understandinge one of another therein ; & although I could have wished the consideration of thinges had beene between us two, it beinge of soe neer concerne- ment, yet Providence for the present not allow- inge, I desier you to give him credence on my behalfe. S r , all thinges which yourselfe & I had in conference at Farnham doe not occur to my memorie thorough multiplicitie of businesse interveninge, I hope I shall, with a very free harte, testifie my readinesse to that which may be expected from me. I have noe more at present, butt desiringe the Lorde to order this affair to his glory & the comfort of his servants, I rest, S r , your humble servant, O. CROMWELL." Negotiations thicken, and Cromwell appears somewhat shrewd and calculating, and con- veniently forgetful, in his next missive, dated the 8th of March, 1648, to his " worthie friend" Mr. Major. " S, Yours I have receaved, & have given further instructions to this bearer, Mr. Staple- ton, to treate with you about the businesse in agitation betweene your daughter and my sonn. I am ingag'd to you for all your civilities, & respects already manifested. I trust there will he a right understandinge betweene us and a good conclusion ; and though I cannot particu- larly remember the thinges spoken off at Farn- ham, to which your letter seemes to referre me, yett I doubt not butt I have sent the offer of such thinges now, which will give mutuall sat- isfaction to us both. My attendance upon pub- lique affairs will not give me leave to come downe unto yotr myselfe. I have sent unto you this gentleman with my mind. I salute M. Major, though unknowne, with the rest of your family. I commit you, with the progresse of the businesse, to the Lorde, and rest, S r , your assured friend to serve you, O. CROMWELL." The next letter, after an interval of eight days, is a long one, and shows that the lieu- tenant-general arranged a marriage for his son as he would have manoeuvred a battle for the Commonwealth. It is scrawled over, in what seems to be Mr. Major's handwriting, " L. G. Cromwell's letter of exceptions," and truly very formidable exceptions they are, and put with an air of probably unconscious egotism, as though his conveniences should, as a matter of course, be paramount. " S B , I receaved your paper by the handes of Mr. Stapleton. I desier your leave to returne my dissatisfaction therewith. I shall not neede to premise how much I have desired (I hope upon the best groundes) to match with you ; the same desier still continues in me, if Provi- dence see it fitt. Butt I may not be soe much 474 BRITISH STATESMEN. wantinge to myselfe nor familie as not to have some equalitie of consideration towards it. 7 have two younge daughters to bestows, if God give them life and oportunitie.* Accordinge to your offer, I have nothinge for them, nothinge at all in hand. If my sonn dye, what consideration is there to me '.' And yett a jouncture parted with, if she dye there is little, if you have an heire male then butt 3000 without tyme as- sertained. Butt for theise thinges, I douht not butt one interview betweene you and myselfe they might be accomodated to mutual satis- faction, and in relation to theise I thinke wee should hardlie part, or have many wordes, soe much doe I desier a closure with you. Butt, to cleale freely with you, the setlinge of the manor of Hursley, as you propose, it stickes soe much with me, that either I understand you not, or else it much failes my expectation. As you offer it here is 400 per annum charged upon it. For the 150 to your ladie for a life as jouncture I stick not at that, butt the 250 per annum until Mr. Ludlow's lease expires, the tenure wherof I knowe not, and soe much of the 250 per annum as exceeds that lease in annual valew for some time alsoe after the ex- piration of the s d lease, gives such a maime to the manor of Hursley as indeed renders the rest of the manor very inconsiderable. S r , if I con- cur to denie myselfe in point of present monies, as alsoe in the other thinges mentioned as afore- said. I may and I doe expect the manor of Hursley to be setled without any charge upon it after your decease, savinge your ladie's jouncture of 150 per annum, which if you should thinke fitt to increase I should not stand upon it. Your own estate is best known to you ; but surelie your personall estate beinge free for you to dispose, will, with some small matter of addition, begett a neernesse of equal- litie, if I heare well from others ; and if the dif- ference in that were not very considerable, I should not insist upon it. What you demand of me is very high in all pointes. I am willinge to settle as you desier in everythinge, savinge for present maintenance 400 per annum. 300 per annum I would have somewhat free to be thanked by them for. The 300 per an- num of my ould land, for a jolmcture after my wife's decease, I shall settle, and in the mean time, out of other landes at your election, and truely, S r , if that be not good, nor will any landes I doubt. I doe not much distrust your princi- ples in other thinges have acted you towards confidence. You demand, in case my sonn have. none issue male, butt only daughters, then the lands in Hantsheire, Munrnouth, and Glou- cestersheire to descend to the daughters, or 3000 apeice. The first would be most une- quall, the latter is too high. They will be well provided for by beinge inheritrixes to their mother, and I am willinge to 2000 apeice to be charged upon those landes. S r , I cannot butt with very many thankes acknowledge your good opinion of me and of my sonn, as alsoe your great civilities towards him, and your daughter's good respects (whose goodnesse, though known to me only at such a distance by the report of others) I much valew, and, in- deed, that causeth me soe cheerfully to denie * His second daughter, Elizabeth, had recently married Claypule, a man of Royalist prepossessions. myselfe as I doe in the point of monies, and soe willinglie to complie in other thinges. Butt if I should not insist as before, I should in a greater measure denie both my owne reason and the advise of my friends than were meete ; which I may not doe. Indeed, S r , / have not closed with a farr greater offer of estate, butt rath- er chose to fix heere. I hope I have not beene wanting to Providence in this. I have made myselfe plaine to you, desiringe you will make my sonn the messenger of your pleasure and resolution herein as speedilie as with conve- niency you may. I take leave, and rest, your affectionate servant, 0. CROMWELL. I desier my service may be presented to your ladie and daughters." The interview followed, Mr. Major no douht supposing that anything would be preferable to letters of this sort. The interview seems to have been only partially satisfactory, however, and in the next letter of the series, to his friend Norton, there is a curious allusion to some personal objections to himself which Mr. Major would appear to have urged. The date of this is the 28th of March, 1648. " DKERE DICK, It had beene a favour indeed to have mett you heere at Farnham, butt I heare you are a man of great businesse ! . . . Therefore I say noc more. If it be a favour to the House of Comons to enjoy you, what is it to me ? Butt, in good earnest, when wi . . . you and your brother Russell be a lit ... hon- est, and attend your charge surelie so ... ex- pect it, especially the good fellowes wh . . . chose you ... I have mett w th M r - Major ; we spent two or 3 bowers together last night. I per- ceave the gentleman is very wise and honest, aTid, indeed, much to be valewed. Some thinges of common fame did a little sticke. I gladlie heard his doubts, and gave such answear as was next at hand, I beleive to some satisfaction. Neverthe- lesse, I exceedingly liked the gentleman's plain- ne.sse and free dealinge w' H me. I knowe God has beene above all ill reports, and will in his own time vindicate me. I have noe cause to complaine. I see nothinge butt that this particular busi- nesse betweene him and me may goe on. The Lorde's will be donn. For newes out of the north there is little, only the Mai. partie is pre- vailinge in the Par lnt of S. They are earnest for a warr ; the ministers oppose, as yett. . . . Mr. Marshall is returned, whoe says soe ; and soe doe many of our letters. Their great com- mittee of dangers have 2 malig. for one right. It's sayd they have voted an armie of 40,000 in Par lat : soe some of yesterday's letters. Butt I account my newes ill bestowed, because upon an idle person. . . I shall take speedy course in the businesse concerninge my tenants, for w ch thankes, my service to your ladie, I am really your affectionate servant, 0. CROMWELL." A second letter to Norton, dated the 3d of April, 1648, put a second period to these labo- rious negotiations. A supplementary inter- view, less successful than the first, is here de- scribed, with various points of an extremely in- teresting kind. Never, surely, did the ministers of a crowned head look so carefully about them in diplomatizing an affair of marriage. There is again in this letter a tone of strong personal exaction, of which the writer might or might not have been conscious. " DEERE NORTON, I OLIVER CROMWELL. 475 could not in my last give you a perfect accompt of what passed betweene me and Mr. M., be- cause wee were to have a conclusion of our speed that morninge after I wrote my letter to you, which wee had, and havinge had a full in- terview of one another's mindes, wee parted with this, that both would consider with our re- lations, and accordinge to satisfactions given there, acquaint each other with our mindes. . . I cannot tell how better to doe it, to receave or give satisfaction, than by you, whoe (as I remember) in your last sayd that if thinges did stick betweene us, you would use your endeav- our towards a close. . . The thinges insisted upon were theise (as I take it). Mr. Major de- sired 400 p. annum of inheritance lyinge in Cambridgesheire and Norfolk, to be praesently setled, and to be for maintenance, wherein I desired to be advised by my wife. . . I offered the land in Hampshire for present maintenance, w th , I dare say, with copses and ordinarie fells, will be communibus annis 500 p. annum, be- sides 500 per annum in tenant's handes hold- inge butt for one life, and about 300 p. ann., some for two lives, some for three lives. Butt as to this, if the latter be not liked of, I shall be willing a farther conference he had in the first. . . In point of jouncture I shall give satis- faction. And as to the settlement of landes given me by the Par 1 " 1 , satisfaction to be given in like manner, accordinge as wee discoursed. . . Jn what else was demanded of me, I am will- ing (so farr as I remember any demand was) to give satisfaction. . . Only I havinge beene informed by Mr. Robinson that Mr. Major did upon a former match offer to settle the manor wherein he lived, and to give 2000 in monie, I did insist upon that, and doe desire it may not be with difficultie. The monie I shall necdc for my two little wenches, and therby I shall free my sonn from bcinge charged with them. Mr. Major parts w th nothing in praesent but that monie, savinge their board, w ch I shoulde not be.unWillinge to give them to enjoy the comfort of thcirc societie, w dl it's reason he smarte for, if he will robb me altogether of them. Truely the land to be settled, both what the Par lnt gives me and my owne, is very little lesse than 3000 per annum, all thinges considered, if I be rightly informed. And a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn havinge searched all the Marquisse of Wor- cester's writinges w d > were taken at Ragland and sent for by the Par lnt , and this gentleman appointed by the committee to search the sayd writinges, assures me there is noe scruple con- cerninge the title ; and it soc fell out that this gentleman whoe searched was my owne lawyer, a very godly, able man, and my deere friend, w c/l I reckon noe small mcrcie. He is also possest of the writinges for me. . . I thought fitt to give you this account, desiringe you to make such use of it as God shall direct you, and I doubt not butt you will doe the part of a friend be- tweene two friends. I account myselfe one, and I have heard you say Mr. Major was en- tirely soe to you. What the good pleasure of God is I shall waite ; there is onely rest. Pre- sent my service to your ladie, to Mr. Major, et. I rest your affectionate servant, O. CROMWELL. I desier you to carrie this businesse with all privacie. I beseeche you to doe soe, as you love me. Let me entreat you not to lose a day herein, that I may knowe Mr. Major's minde, for I thinke I may be at leisure for a weeke to attende this businesse to give and take satis- faction, from w ch , perhaps, I may be shutt up afterwards by employment. I knowe thou art an idle fellowe, butt prithee neglect me not now. De- lay may be very inconvenient to me. I much relie upon you. Lett me heare from you in two or 3 days. I confesse the principall considera- tion as to me is the absolute settlement of the manor where he lives, w ch he would doe butt conditionally in case he prove to have noe sonn, and but 3000 in case he have a sonn. Butt as to this I hope farther reason may worke him to more." But now, on the return from the second civil war, the young people appear to have lost none of their liking for each other, and Mr. Major has opened negotiations once more. Cromwell answers on the 25th of March, 1649, and though his words are fair, not less distressingly minute than ever does Mr. Major find him in the reali- ties. " S a , You will pardon the brevitie of theise lines ; the haste I am in by reason of bu- sinesses occasions it. To testifie the earnest desier I have to see a happy period to this treatie betweene us, I give you to understand that I agree to 150 pr. annum out of the 300 pr. annum of my ould land for your daughter's jouncture over the 150 where you please. . . 400 pr. annum for present maintenance where you shall choose, either in Hantsheire, Glouces- ter, or Munmouthsheire. . . . Those landes set- led upon my sonn and his heires male by your daughter, and in case of daughters only 2000 apeice charged upon those landes. . . . 400 per annum free to raise portions for my two daugh- ters. I expect the manor of Hursley to he set- led upon your eldest daughter and her heires, the heires of her bodie. . . . Your ladie a jounc- ture of 150 per annum out of it. ... For com- pensation to your younger daughter, I agree to leave it in your power, after your decease, to charge it with as much as will buye in the lease of the Farme at Allington by a just computa- tion. ... I expect, soe long as they live with you, their diet as you expressed, or, in case of voluntarie partinge, 150 pr. annum ; 3000 in case you have a sonn, to be payed in two yeares next follovvinge. ... In case your daugh- ter die without issue, 1000 within six months. S r , if this satisfie, I desier a speedie resolution; I should the rather desier soe, because of what your kinsman can satisfie you in. The Lorde blesse you and your familie, to whome I desier my affections and service may be presented. I rest your humble servant, " 0. CROMWELL." On the 28th, Mr. Major solicits an alteration in one point. On the 30th Cromwell refuses it. " S H , I receaved yours of the 28 th instant. I desier the matter of compensation may be as in my last to you ; you propose another way, which truely seemes to me very inconvenient. I have agreed to all other thinges as you take me (and that rightly), repeating particulars in your paper. The Lorde dispose this great bu- sinesse (great betweene you <$ me) for good. You mention to send by the post on Tuesday. I shall speede thinges heere as I may ; I am de- signed for Ireland, which will be speedie. I should be very glad to see thinges setled before 476 BRITISH STATESMEN. I goe, if the Lorde will. My service to all your familie. I rest, sir, your affectionate "OLIVER CROMWELL." Some hope for the poor young lovers appears at last, and they do not seern, from this pretty allusion in the lord-lieutenant's letter (for Crom- well was now lord-lieutenant of Ireland), to have been quite tired out with waitinge for it. The date is April the 6th, 1649. " S", I re- ceaved your papers enclosed in your letter, al- though I knowe not howe to make soe good use of them as otherwise might have beene to have saved expence of tyme, if the arrest of your lawyer had not fallen out at this time. I conceave a draught to your satisfaction by your owne lawyer would have saved much time, which to me is precious. I hope you will send some up perfectlie instructed. I shall endeav- our to speed what is to be donn on my part, not knowing how soone I may be sent downe towards my charge for Ireland. And I hope to perform punctually with you. S r , my sonn had a great desier to come down & waite upon your daughter. I perceave he minds that more than to attend businesses heere. I should be glad to see him setled and all thinges finished be- fore I goe. I trust not to be wantinge therein. The Lorde direct all our hartes into his good pleasure. I rest, S r , your affectionate servant, O. CROMWELL. . . . My service to your ladie & family." Most characteristically, however, does one letter of exception more close this very singu- lar series. It is addressed to Mr. Major, nine days later than the last. " S B , Your kinsman Mr. Barton and myselfe repayringe to our coun- cell for the perfectinge this businesse soe much concerninge us, did upon Saturday, this 15 th of April, drawe our councell to a meetinge, where- upon consideration had of my letter to your- selfe expressinge my consent to particulars which Mr. Barton brought to your councell, Mr. Hales of Lincoln's Inn. Upon the read- inge that which expresseth the way of your setlinge Hursley, your kinsman expressed a sence of yours contrarie to the paper under my hand, as alsoe to that under your hand of the 28 th of March, which was the same with mine as to that perticular, and I knowe riothinge of doubt in that which / am to doe, butt doe agree it all to your kinsman his satisfaction. Nor is there much materiall difference save in this, wherein both my paper sent by you to your councell and yours of the 28 th doe in all literall and all equitable construction agree, viz., to settle an estate in fee simple upon your daugh- ter after your decease, which Mr. Barton af- firmes not to be your meaninge, although he has not (as to me) formerlie made this any ob- jection, nor can the words beare it, nor have I anythinge more considerable in levve of what I part with than this. And I have appealed to yours or any councell in England whether it be not just and equal that I insist thereupon. And this misunderstandinge (if it be yours as it is your kinsman's) putt a stop to the businesse, so that our councell could not proceed untill your pleasure herein were known, wherefore it was thought fitt to desier Mr. Barton to have recourse to you to knowe your minde, he al- ledginge he had noe authoritie to understand that expression soe, butt the contrarie, which was thought not a little strange even by your own councell. I confesse I did apprehend wee should be incident to mistakes, treatinge at such a distance, although I may take the bold- nesse to say there is nothinge expected from me, butt I agree it to your kinsman's sense to a tittle. S r , I desired to knowe what commission your kinsman had to helpe this doubt by an ex- pedient, who denied to have any, butt did thinke it were better for you to part with some monie, and keepe the power in your owne handes as to the lande, to dispose thereof as you should see cause. Wherupon an overture was made, and himselfe and your councell desired to draw it up ; the effect whereof this enclosed paper con- teynes ; and although I should not like change of agreements, yett to shew how much I de- sier the perfectinge of this businesse, if you like thereof (though this be farr the worse bar- gain), I shall submitt thereunto : your councell thinkinge that thinges may be setled this way with more clearnesse & lesse intricasie. There is mention made of 900 pr. annum to be re- served, butt it comes to butt about 800. My landes in Glamorgansheire being butt little above 400 pr. annum, and the 400 pr. an- num out of my manor in Gloucester & Mun- mouthsheire. I wish a cleere understandinge may be betweene us. Truely I would not will- inglie mistake, desiringe to waite upon Provi- dence in this businesse. I rest, S r , your affec- tionate friend & servant, O. CROMWELL I de-sier my service may be presented to your ladie & daughters." Very probably Mr. Major now conceded every- thing without farther dispute, for in a fortnight after, on the 1st of May, 1649, Richard Crom- well was married to Dorothy Major, in Hursley Church, Hampshire. She was a modest, un- obtrusive, kind-hearted woman, and bore her husband nine children.* The reader might suppose, from the charac- ter of these most elaborate arrangements, that Cromwell had been a " family man," with much time on his hands, and no business save what he couid ingeniously, and with much pains, fashion out of his private affairs to attend to. Yet, in the interval comprised by these letters, what mighty events he had created and con- trolled ! The trial and execution of Charles I., with * In article B.of the Appendix I have sketched the lir.sal descendants of Cromwell to the present time. Of Richard's wife Mr. Noble observes: "It is extraordinary that we know so little of her, considering that she was, at one time, the second person in the kingdom : there is every reason to suppose that she was scarce ever at court during Oliver's Protectorate. She felt the reverse of fortune in the most poignant manner, and wanted the comforts of the clergy to reconcile her to what she judged the greatest misfortune. Among all the illiberal things that were levelled against the protectorate house of Cromwell, her character is almost the only one that scandal has left untouched ; she never (it is most reasonable to think) saw her husband after he re- tired to France in 1660; she died Jan. 5, 1675-6, in the forty-ninth year of her age, and was buried in the chancel of Ilursley Church. The only character of her that I have ever met with is that given by Mr. John Maidstone, who says, 'she was a prudent, godly, practical Christian.' She was certainly once at court during the government of her father-in-law, from the following item in Mr. Major, her father's memorandum-book, still preserved : ' 1657, May 21, Daughter Cromwell went to London,' but as she had a child baptized at Hursley in September following, her stay must have been short ; and from an item of her father's discard- ed reeve, it appears, she was at Whitehall when her hus- band lost his power, after which she retired to ' Hursley Lodge, and lived upon her own lands.' " OLIVER CROMWELL. 477 all their attendant circumstances, and their vast result in the establishment of the Com- monwealth, have been treated in the life of Henry Marten. Cromwell did not appear more openly in them than any of the other statesmen or officers perhaps he was even less seen in them than any but it was well known that the majority of the men concerned in the deed con- fessed to his extraordinary influence and con- trol, while he, in his turn, if Bishop Burnet may be believed, was not without his controller also. " Ireton," says the bishop, " was the person that drove it on, for Cromwell was all the while in some suspense about it. Ireton had the principles and the temper of a Cassius in him : he stuck at nothing that might have turn- ed England to a commonwealth." The scur- rilous falsehoods of the period, contained in that disgusting book which goes by the name of " The Trials of the Regicides," are scouted now by all well-informed persons, but two anec- dotes of the time personally relating to Crom- well may properly find a place here. " I know nothing in particular," says Bishop Burnet, " of the sequel of the war, nor of all the confusions that happened till the murder of King Charles the First : only one passage I had from Lieutenant-general Drummond, afterward Lord Strathallan. He served on the king's side ; but he had many friends among those who were for the Covenant : so the king's affairs being now ruined, he was recommended to Cromwell, being then in a treaty with the Spanish ambassador, who was negotiating for some regiments to be levied and sent over from Scotland to Flanders. He happened to be with Cromwell when the commissioners sent from Scot- land to protest against the putting' the king to death came to argue the matter with him. Crom- well bade Drummond stay and hear the confer- ence, which he did. They began in a heavy, languid style, to lay, indeed, great load on the king ; but they still insisted on that clause in the Covenant by which they swore they would be faithful in the preservation of his majesty's person. With this they showed upon what terms Scotland, as well as the two Houses, had engaged in the war, and what solemn declara- tions of their zeal and duty to the king they all along published ; which would now appear, to the scandal and reproach of the Christian name, to have been false pretences, if, when the king was in their power, they should proceed to ex- tremities. Upon this, Cromwell entered into a long discourse on the nature of the regal power, according to the principles of Mariana and Bu- chanan : he thought a breach of trust in a king ought to be punished more than any other crime whatsoever : he said, as to their cove- nant, they swore to the preservation of the king's person in defence of the true religion ; if, then, it appeared that the settlement of the true religion was obstructed by the king, so that they could not come at it but by putting him out of the way, then their oath could not bind them to the preserving him any longer. He said also, their covenant did bind them to bring all malignants, incendiaries, and enemies to the cause to condign punishment ; and was not this to be executed impartially 1 What were all those on whom public justice had been done, especially those who suffered for joining with Montrose, but small offenders, acting by com- mission from the king, who was, therefore, the principal, and so the most guilty 1 Drummond said, Cromwell had plainly the better of them at their own weapon and upon their own principles. At this time Presbytery was at its height in Scotland." The other anecdote has reference to a cousin of Cromwell's, who, on the eve of Charles I.'s execution, was commissioned to grant any con- ditions which the lieutenant-general might de- mand, if he would consent to preserve the life of Charles. Colonel John Cromwell is said to have been encouraged to undertake this mis- sion by the recollection of an assurance given to him some time before by his great cousin, that he would rather draw his sword in favour of the king than allow the Republicans to make any attempt on his person. Upon his arrival in the metropolis, however, he found that his kinsman had shut himself up so closely in his chamber, and issued such strict orders that no one should be admitted to him, that it was not without some difficulty he obtained an inter- view. The envoy having performed his mis- sion with undaunted zeal and earnestness, Cromwell, says Heath, fell to his old shifts, telling him that it was not he, but the army, who were about to inflict justice on the king ; that it is true he did once use such words as those which the colonel had repeated, but times were now altered, and Providence seemed to dispose things otherwise. He added, that he had prayed and fasted for the king, but no re- turn that way was yet made to him. Upon this the visiter fastened the door, which till then had continued open, and going close up to Cromwell, said, " Cousin, it is no time to dally with words in this matter ; look you here" showing his credentials, and a carte blanche with which he had been supplied " it is in your power not only to make yourself, but your posterity, family, and relations, happy and hon- ourable forever : otherwise, as they have chan- ged their name before from Williams to Crom- well, so now they must be forced to change it again ; for this fact will bring such an igno- miny upon the whole generation of them, that no time will be able to wipe it away." Here Cromwell seemed to be shaken in his resolu- tion, and to ponder on the communication which had just been made to him. After a lit- tle space, he replied, " Cousin, I desire you will give me till night to consider of it ; and do you go to your inn, but go not to bed till you hear from me : I will confer and consider far- ther about the business." The colonel did so ; and about one o'clock a messenger came to him, and told him he might go to bed, and ex- pect no other answer to carry to the prince ; for the council of officers had been seeking God, as Cromwell himself had also done, and it was resolved by them all that the king must die. The execution followed. Some have said that Cromwell was praying when the axe fell, and some that he was indulging an ill-consid- ered act of buffoonery. It is hard to say which was most likely. It seems to be confessed, however, that he sought from the guard to whom the body was intrusted permission to view it as it lay. Bowtell, a private soldier, who stood by at the time, said " that Cromwell could not 478 BRITISH STATESMEN. open the coffin with his staff, but, taking the j other's sword, effected it with the hilt of it." He then stood and gazed at it steadily, till, Dowtell asking him what government they should have now, he said hastily, turning round, " The same that then was ;" and turning again to the body of the king, calmly observed, that it appeared sound and well made for a long life. The Commonwealth had scarcely been es- tablished, and the Levellers, with Lilburne, temporarily quelled by Cromwell, when the council of state offered him the lord-lieuten- ancy of Ireland. The affairs of that kingdom were now in such a miserable condition of re- bellion and disorder, that in no services but his could they entertain the slightest hope of re- trieving them. Ormond had proclaimed Charles II., and that prince was about to start for Dublin. Cromwell was prepared for the offer, yet on presenting himself in the House of Commons to accept his new office, affected surprise at the nomination, and made his acknowledgments with much hesitation and perplexity. He spoke of his great unworthiness, and even of his ina- bility to undertake so weighty a charge ; but yet he professed " that the difficulty which ap- peared in the expedition was his chief motive for engaging in it ;" and that, though he could hardly expect to prevail over the rebels, he hoped, nevertheless, to preserve to the Com- monwealth some footing in that kingdom. We have it farther, on the authority of Whitelocke and the Journals, that when the appointment was offered to Cromwell, he hesitated, and re- quested that two officers from each corps might meet him at Whitehall, and seek the Lord in prayer. After a delay of two weeks, he con- descended to submit his shoulders to the bur- den, because he had learned it was the will of Heaven. He next made his demand for men and means. He asked from the House 12,000 horse and foot, selected by himself from those veterans whom he had taught to conquer every enemy ; a plentiful supply of provisions and ammuni- tion ; and a military chest containing 100,000 in ready money. He received, in the name of outfit, 3000 ; 10 a day as general while he remained in England ; and 2000 per quarter in Ireland, besides his pay in his new office. He demanded also that Ireton should accom- pany him with the second command. His title was Lord-lieutenant-general and General Gov- ernor of Ireland. In the morning of the 10th of July, a large number of his friends were assembled at White- hall, and three ministers invoked a blessing on his banners, as about to fight the battle of the Lord against the blinded Roman Catholics of Ireland. These functionaries were succeeded by three officers, Goffe, Harrison, and Crom- well himself, who expounded the Scriptures " excellently well, and pertinently to the occa- sion." This strange scene over, the lieutenant- general mounted his splendid carriage, drawn by " six Flanders mares of whitish gray." He was accompanied by the great officers of state and of the army. His life-guard, consisting of eighty young men, all of quality, and several of them holding commissions as majors and col- onels, surprised the spectators by their splendid uniforms and gallant bearing. The streets of the metropolis resounded, as he drove towards Windsor, with the acclamations of the populace and the clangour of military music.* He was met at Bristol with great pomp and ceremony, but found time, when the fatigue of his reception was over, to write a very delight- ful letter to the father of Richard's wife, with whom, by the arrangement of the marriage, the young couple were now domiciled. "LOVINGE BROTHER, I receaved your Letter by Major Longe, and doe in answear thereunto accord- inge to my best understandinge, with a due con- sideration of those Gentlemen whoe have ah id the brunt of the service. I am very glad {o heare of your welfare, and that our Children have soe good leizure to make a journie to eate cherries. It's very excuseable in my daughter ; / hope she may have a very good pretence for it. I assure you, S r , I wish her very well, and I believe she knowes it. I pray you tell her from me, / ex- pect she writes often to me, by which I shall un- derstand how all your Familie doth, and she will be kept in some exercise. I have deliver- ed my sonn up to you, and I hope you will councell him. He will necde it. And, indeed, I believe he likes well what you say, and will be advised by you. / wish he may be serious ; the times requier it. I hope my Sister is in health, to whome I desire my very heartie af- fections and service may be presented, as also to my Cozen Ann,t to whome I wish a good hus- band. I desier my affections may be presented to all your Familie, to which I wish a blessinge from the Lorde. I hope I shall have your pray- ers in the businesse to which I am called. My Wife, I trust, will be with you before it be longe, in her way towards Bristoll. S r , discompose not your thoughts nor estate for what you are to pay me. . . . Lett me knowe wherein I may complye with your occasions and minde, and be confi- dent you will finde me to you as your owne harte. Wishinge your prosperitie and contentment very sincerelie, with the remembrance of my love I rest your affectionate brother and servant, " 0. CROMWELL." In this letter (dated July 19th, 1649) begin a series of entreaties respecting Richard, which may afford curious matter for consideration. Under ordinary circumstances, it was some- what too late to have set this married young gentleman to his studies again, yet if a certain new necessity had risen in Cromwell's mind, it was even now not yet too late, for at least an effort, to infuse some spirit, and energy, and knowledge into the mind of Richard Cromwell, At all events, it was worth the trial A year * Whitelocke. An extract from a journal of the day is very graphic: "This evening (July 10), about five of the clock, the Lord-lieutenant of Ireland began his journey by the way of Windsor and so to Bristol. He went forth in that state and equipage as the like hath hardly been seen, himself in a coach with six gallant Flanders mares, whitish gray, divers coaches accompanying him, and very many great officers of the army ; his life-guard consisting of eighty gallant men, the meanest whereof a commander or esquire in stately habit, with trumpets sounding almost to the shaking of Charing Cross had it been now standing. Of his life-guard many are colonels, and believe it, it's such a guard as is hardly to be paralleled in the world : and now have at you, my Lord of Ormond ; you will have men of gallantry to encounter, who to overcome will be honour sufficient, and .to be beaten by them will be no great blem- ish to their reputation ; if you say, C^sar or nothing : they say, a republic or nothing. The lord-lieutenant's colourt are white." Mod. Intel, July 5-12, 1649. t Mrs. Richard Cromwell's youngest sister. OLIVER CROMWELL. 479 ago, Oliver would have succeeded to whatever trusts he might have it in his power to bequeath ; but now, in the ordinary course of things, it must be Richard. And what a trust he might possibly have to bequeath to him ! Among Lord Nugent's manuscripts, I have found a letter written just before his entrance into Dublin to this same Mr. Major. It suggests these considerations again, with more shape and likelihood. How striking is that passage, wherein, having implored his brother-in-law to lay down certain rules of study for his son, he adds, that " these fit for public services for which a man is born." The letter is dated " the 13th of August, 1649, from aboard the John," and runs thus : " I could not satisfie myselfe to omit this oportunitie by my Sonn of writinge to you, especially there beinge soe late and great an occasion of acquaintinge you with the happy newes I receaved from L nt . Gen 1 . Jones yester- day. The Marquisse of Ormond besieged Dub- lin with 19,000 men or therabouts. 7000 Scotts and 3000 more were cominge to that worke. Jones issued out of Dublin w th 4000 foote and 1200 horse, routed his whole armie, killed about 4000 upon the place, and tooke 2517 Prisoners, aboue 300 Officers, some of great quallitie. This is an astonishinge mercie, soe great and seasonable, as indeed wee are like Item that dreamed. What can wee say 1 The Lorde fill our souls with thankfullnesse that our mouths may be full of his praise, and our lines too, and graunt wee neuer forgett his goodnesse to vs. Theise thinges seeme to strengthen our faith and loue against more difficult times. S r , pray for me, that I may walke worthy of the Lorde in all that He hath called me vnto. I have com- mitted my Sonn to you ; pray give him advise : I envie him not his contents, butt I feare he\ should te swallowed vp of them. I would have j him minde arid understand businesse, reade a little historic, studie the mathematicks and cosmografie ; thcise are good w' 1 ' subordination to the (hinges of God ; better than idlenesse, or more outward world- ly contents ; theise jilt for publick services for uf^ a man is borne. Pardon this trouble ; I am thus bould, because I knowe you loue me as indeed I doe you and yours. My loue to my deere Sis- ter, and my Cozen Ann your Daughter, and all friends. I rest, S r , youre louinge Brother, 0. CROMWELL. Aug. 13th, 1649, from aboard the John. S r , I desire you not to discomodate your- selfe because of the monie due to me ; lett not that trouble you ; your welfare is as mine, and therfore lett me knowe from time to time what will convenience you in any forbearance ; I shall answear you in it, and be readie to accom- odate you, and therfore doe your other busi- nesse ; lett not this hinder." The same packet, too, which conveyed that letter, conveyed anotherwith the same date to " his beloved daughter Dorothy Cromwell at Hursley," eminently characteristic of the wri* tcr. " MY DEERE DAUGHTER, Your letter was very welcome to me. I like to see anythinge from your hande, because indeed I sticke not to saye 7 doe intyrelie love you, and therfore I hope a word of advise will not be unwelcome nor unacceptable to thee. I desier you both to make it above all thinges your businesse to seeke the Lorde, to be frequently callinge upon him that He would manifest himselfe to you in his Sonn, and be listninge what returnes He makes to you, for He will be speakinge in your eare and in your harte, if you attend thereun- to. 1 desire you to provoke your Husband like- wise thereunto. As for the pleasures of this life and outward businesse, lett that be upon the by. Be above all these thinges by faith in Christ, and then you shall have the true use and comfort of them, and not otherwise. I have much satisfaction in hope your spirit is this way sett, and I desier you may growe in grace and in the knowledge of our Lorde and Saviour Jesus Christ, and that I may heare thereof. The Lorde is very neer, w ch wee see by his wonderfull workes ; and therfore He lookes fhat wee of this generation draw neer him. This late great mercie of Ireland is a great manifestation thereof. Your Husband will acquaint you with it. Wee should be much stirred up in our spirits to thankfullnesse. Wee much need the spirit of Christ to enable us to praise God for so admirable a mercie. The Lorde bless thee, my deere daughter. I rest thy lovinge father, 0. CROMWELL I heare thou didst lately miscarrie ; prithee take heede of a coach by all meanes ; borrow thy father's nagg when thou intendest to goe abroad.''' Of the same character, and suggestive of the same thoughts, is a note to Mr. Major, written exactly three months afterward, but which, as it completes my collection of his pri- vate letters from Ireland, may be inserted, though somewhat prematurely, here. " DEERE BROTHER, I am not often at leizure, nor now, to salute my friendes, yett unwillinglie to lose this oportunitie, I take it ouely to lett you knowe that you and your familie are often in my prayers. I wish the younge ones well, though they vouchsafe not to write to me. As for Dick, I doe not much expect it from him, know- inge his idlcncsse ; butt I am angry with my daughter as a promise breaker. Pray you tell her soe ; butt I hope she will redeeme her- selfe. ... It has pleased the Lorde to give us (since the takinge of Wexford and Rosse) a good interest in Munster by the access of Cork and Youghall, which are both submitted. Their Commissioners are now with me. Diverse other lesser garizons are come in alsoe. The Lorde is wonderful in these thinges ; it's his hand alone does them. O that all the praise might be ascribed to Him. I have been crazie in my health, butt the Lorde is pleased to sus- tain me. I begg your prayers ; I desier you to call upon my Sonn to minde the thinges of God more and more ; Alas ! what profit is there in the thinges of this Worlde T except they be. enjoyed in Christ, they are snares. I wish he may enjoy his Wife soe, and she him ; I wish I may enjoy them both soe. My service to my deere Sister, Cozen Ann, my blessinge to my Children, and love to my Cozen Barton and the rest. Sir, I am your affectionate Brother and Servant, 0. CROMWELL." On the 15th of August Cromwell reached Dublin. He allowed his men two weeks to prepare for the labours of the campaign. Three fourths of the island acknowledged at this time Ormond's sway. In the course of the cam- paign of the past year, he had reduced Droghe- da, Dundalk, Newry, Carlingford, and Trim, and had expelled Monk out of Ireland. Dublin 480 BRITISH STATESMEN. the capital, and Derry in the north, held out against him alone. For his first object of at- tack, Cromwell selected Drogheda. Ormond had placed it in a good state of de- fence, and furnished it with a garrison of two or three thousand of his best troops. On the 3d of September Cromwell had completed his batteries. On the 10th, he sent in a summons to the governor to surrender. It was rejected. The next day he effected a breach, and set about taking the place by storm. This was on the 10th of September. Twice Cromwell's forces mounted the breach, and twice they were repelled. Observing this, he led himself the third assault, and was victorious. The enemy had thrown up three intrenchments within the walls. They defended every inch of ground, and fought bravely and desperately at the corner of every street. The blood re- coils from the horror that remains to be told. The reader would disbelieve it, unless he heard it, as it were, from Cromwell's own lips. Let him take it, then, from them. After de- scribing, in a despatch written on the spot, the desperate resistance of the enemy, admitting that " through the advantages of the place, and the courage God was pleased to give the de- fenders, our men were forced to retreat quite out of the breach, not without some consid- erable loss," he adds that his veterans were induced to make a second attempt, "wherein," says he, " God was pleased to animate them so that they got ground of the enemy, and by the goodness of God forced him to quit his in- trenchments, and after a very hot dispute, the enemy having both horse and foot, and we foot only within the walls, the enemy gave ground, and our men became masters." Then he adds, having effected a passage for his cavalry into the town, " the enemy retreated, divers into the Mill Mount, a place very strong and of dif- ficult access, being exceeding high, having a good graft, and strongly palisadoed ; the gov- ernor, Sir Arthur Ashton, and divers consid- erable officers being there, our men getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword ; and indeed, being in the heat, of ac- tion, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town, and I think that night they put to the sword about two thousand men. Divers of the officers and soldiers being fled over the bridge into the other part of the town, where about one hundred of them possessed St. Peter's Church steeple, some the west gate, and others a strong round tower next the gate, called St. Sunday these being summoned to yield to mercy, refused ; whereupon I ordered the stee- ple of St. Peter's Church to be fired. The next day the other two towers were summoned, in one of which was about six or seven score, but they refused to yield themselves ; and we, knowing that hunger must compel them, set only good guards to secure them from running away, till their stomachs were come down. From one of the said towers, notwithstanding their condition, they killed and wounded some of our men ; when they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head, and every tenth man of the soldiers killed, and the rest shipped for the Barbadocs ; the soldiers in the other tower were all spared, as to their lives only, and shipped likewise for the Barbadoes. I believe all the friars were knocked on the head promiscuously but two, the one of which was Father Peter Taaf, broth- er to the Lord Taaf, whom the soldiers took the next day and made an end of; the other was ta- ken in the round tower, under the repute of lieutenant, and when he understood that the officers in that town had no quarter, he con- fessed he was a friar, but that did not save him." In a subsequent passage of the same de- spatch, he offers, in apparent extenuation of this horrible deed, the fact that the barbarous wretches whom he put to the sword had im- brued their hands in much innocent blood, al- luding to the massacres which disgraced the insurrection of 1641. But had infants or wom- en done this? for infants and women perished now in Drogheda. Nor is it true that the de- fenders of Drogheda were chiefly Irish. Lud- low, on the contrary, assures us that, when Cromwell arrived at Dublin, the Royalists "put most of their army into their garrisons, having placed three or four thousand of the best of their men, being mostly English, in the town of Tredagh [so Drogheda was then called], and made Sir Arthur Ashton governor thereof." The same author mentions, that when the place was taken, " the slaughter continued all that day and the next, which extraordinary severity, I presume, was used to discourage others from ma- king opposition." This was the real secret of Cromwell's pres- ent policy. It had no relation to the future con- dition of Ireland as a civil state, but purely and solely to a matter of convenience of his own. He wished to reduce the country with all pos- sible despatch, avoid unnecessary delays and trouble, and get back as soon as he could to his great designs in England. In a subsequent letter on the same subject, indeed, he confesses this. " I am persuaded," he says, " that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches wiio have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood, and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood, for the future, which are the satisfactory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret. And now give me leave to say how it comes to pass that this work is wrought. It was set upon some of our hearts that a great thing should be done, not by power or might, but by the Spirit of God ; and is it not clearly that, which caused your men to storm so courageously 1 It was the Spirit of God who gave your men courage and took it away again, and gave the enemy courage and took it away again, and gave your men courage again, and therewith this happy success ; and therefore it is good that God alone have all the glory." Well had it been for Cromwell and his fame if of such deeds as these he could have handed over from himself the glory ! His anticipations were well founded as to the result. He passed on from town to castle in a species of grim and bloody triumph, each and all opening their gates before him. At last he reached Wexford, and here opposition having been made, another deluge of blood* was offer- * The same rule precisely was followed here as at Drog- heda. No distinction was made between the armed soldier and the defenceless townsman. Even women were put to the edge of the sword. Three hundred of the latter flocked round the great cross which' stood in the street, hoping that Christian soldiers would be so far softened by sight of that OLIVER CROMWELL. 481 ed up to the convenience of the governor, and the barbarous anti-Catholic passions of his sol- diers. In his despatch he reckons that there were lost of the enemy not many less than 2000, while of the besiegers not twenty were killed. "This," he adds, "is not without cause deeply set to our hearts, we having intended better to this place than so great a ruin." From Wexford he passed to Rosse, which surrender- ed to him after three days.* Cork, "Kinsale, and Youghal had surrendered to his officers. On the 24th of November he set himself down before Waterford, but on the eighth day found himself obliged to break up the siege. He was more successful at Dungarvan ; but at this place had the misfortune to lose by sudden sickness his lieutenant-general, Michael Jones, to whom Ireton, with admirable modesty, had given way on observing his greater knowledge of the country and the service. The manner in which Cromwell expresses himself on this occasion is worthy of record. " The noble lieutenant-general, whose finger, to our knowl- edge, never ached in all these expeditions, fell sick, upon a cold taken in our late wet march and ill accommodation, and went to Dungarvan, where, struggling some four or five days with a fever, he died, having run his course with so much honour, courage, and fidelity, as his ac- tions better speak than my pen. What Eng- land lost hereby is above me to speak ; I am sure I lost a noble friend and companion in la- bours. You see how God mingles out the cup to us." Cromwell did not enter winter-quarters in Ireland till late, and he left them early. At the end of January he reopened the campaign. Its horrors have no interest, and can teach no les- son. Suffice it to say, that Fethard, Callen, Gowran, and Kilkenny surrendered in quick succession. His last undertaking was against Clonmel, and here he met with a gallant re- sistance, t Eager, however, to return to Eng- land, he listened to a parley, granted an hon- ourable capitulation, appointed Ireton lord-dep- uty, and sailed for England. Some extracts from Cromwell's despatches will fitly close this brief sketch of this terrible Irish government. They are, in the main, mas- terly documents, and should not be lost sight of in any attempt to illustrate his character. He thus describes the march from Dublin to Wexford : " The army marched from Dublin emblem of mercy as to spare the lives of unresisting wom- en ; but the victors, enraged at such superstition, and re- garding it, perhaps, as a proof that they were Roman Cath- olics, and therefore fit objects of military fury, rushed for- ward and put them all to death. * A circumstance claims our notice in the terms of this surrender, which proves how thoroughly Cromwell had now entered into rehearsal for the Protectorate. He con- sented to give up the town on condition of being permitted to march out with the honours of war, and to assure the inhabitants that their private property would be respected. An attempt was made to secure the free exercise ,i( religion on the usual plea of liberty of conscience. Cromwell re- plied, " I meddle not with any man's conscience, but if by liberty of conscience you mean a liberty to exercise the mass, I judge it best to use plain dealing, and to let you know, where the Parliament of England have power, that will not be allowed of." t An eminent commander, who assisted in the action, reported : " We found in Clonmel the stoutest enemy that our army has encountered in Ireland ; and it is my opinion, and that of many more, that no storm of so long continu- ance, and so gallanfly contended, has been seen in these wars, either in England or Ireland." PPP about the 23d of September, into the county of Wicklow, where the enemy had a garrison about fourteen miles from Dublin, called Kill- ingkerick, which they quitting, a company of the army was put therein. From thence the army marched through almost a desolated coun- try, until it came to a passage over the River Doro, about a mile above the castle of Arklow, the first seat and honour of the Marquis of Or- mond's family, which he had strongly fortified, but was, upon the approach of the army, quit- ted. Herein we left another company of foot. From thence the army marched towards Wex- ford, where in the way was a strong and large castle, at a town called Limerick, the ancient seat of the Esmonds, where the enemy had a strong garrison, which they burned and quitted the day before our corning thither. From thence we marched towards Ferns, an episcopal seat, where was a castle, to which I sent Col. Rey- nolds with a party to summon it, which accord- ingly he did, and it was surrendered to him ; where we hawing put a company, advanced the army to a passage over the River Slaney, which, runs down to Wexford, and that night marched into the fields of a village called Eniscorfy, be- longing to Mr. Robert Wallop, where was a strong castle very well manned and provided for by the enemy, and close under it a very fair house belonging to the same worthy person. A monastery of Franciscan Friars, the consid- erables! in all Ireland, run away the night be- fore we came. We summoned the castle, and they refused to yield at the first, but upon bet- ter consideration they were willing to deliver the place to us, which accordingly they did, leaving their guns, arms, ammunition, and pro- visions behind them." The siege and massacre of Wexford are giv- en under his strong and rough hand, thus. Af- ter repeating the demand for surrender and the governor's refusal, the despatch proceeds : " While these papers were passing between us, I sent the lieut.-gen. with a party of dragoons, horse and foot, to endeavour to reduce their fort, which lay at the mouth of their harbour, about ten miles distant from us, to which he sent a troop of dragoons ; but the enemy quit their fort, leaving behind them about seven great guns, betook themselves by the help of their boat to a frigate of 12 guns lying in the harbour, within cannon shot of the fort. The dragoons possessed the fort, and some seamen belonging to your fleet coming happily in at the same time, they bent their guns at the frigate, and she immediately yielded to mercy, both herself, the soldiers that had been in the fort, and the seamen that manned her ; and while our men were in her, the town, not knowing what had happened, sent another vessel to her, which our men also took. The governor of the town having obtained from me a safe-conduct for the four persons (mentioned in one of the papers) to come and treat with me about the surrender of the town, I expected they should have done so ; but instead thereof, the Earl of Castlehaven brought to their relief on the north side of the river about five hundred foot, which occasioned their refusal to send out any to treat, and caused me to revoke my safe-conduct, not thinking it fit to leave it for them to make use of it when they pleased. Our cannon being 482 BRITISH STATESMEN. landed, and we having removed all our quarters to the southeast end of the town, near the cas- tle, it was generally agreed that we should bend the whole strength of our artillery upon the castle, being persuaded that if we got the cas- tle, the town would easily follow. Upon Thurs- day the 1 1th instant (our batteries being finished the night before) we began to play betimes in the morning, and having spent near a hundred shot, the governor's stomach came down, and he sent to me to give leave for four persons in- trusted by him to come unto me, and offer terms of surrender, which I condescending to, two field officers, with an alderman of the town, and the captain of the castle, brought out the prop- ositions enclosed, which for their abominable- ness, manifesting also the impudency of the men, I thought fit to present to your view, to- gether with my answer, which, indeed, had no effect ; for while I was preparing of it, study- ing to preserve the town from plunder, that it might be of the more use to you and your army, the captain, who was one of the Commission- ers, being fairly treated, yielded up the castle to us ; upon the top of which our men no sooner appeared, but the enemy quitted the walls of the town, which our men perceiving, ran violently upon the town with their ladders, and stormed it ; and when they were come into the market- place, the enemy making a stiff resistance, our forces brake them, and then put all to the sword that came in their may. Two boatfuls of the ene- my attempting to escape, being overpressed with numbers, sunk, whereby were drowned near three hundred of them. I believe in all there was lost of the enemy not many less than two thousand, and I believe not twenty of yours killed from first to last of the siege ; and indeed it hath not with- out cause been deeply set upon our hearts, that we intending better to this place than so great a ruin, hoping the town might be of more use to you and your army, yet God would not have it so, but by an unexpected providence, in his righte- ous justice, brought a just judgment upon them, causing them to become a prey to the soldier, who in their piracies had made preys of so many families, and made with their bloods to answer the cruelties which they had exercised upon the lives of divers poor Protestants, two of which I have been lately acquainted with. About seven or eight score poor Protestants were by them put into an old vessel, which be- ing, as some say, bulged by them, the vessel sunk, and they were all presently drowned in the harbour. The other was thus : they put divers poor Protestants into a chapel, which since they have used for a mass house, and in which one or more of their priests were now killed, where they were famished to death. . . . The soldiers got a very good booty in this place, and had they had opportunity to carry their goods over the river while we besieged it, it would have been much more. I could have wished, for their own good and the good of the garrison, they had been more moderate. Some things which were not easily portable we hope we shall make use of to your behoof. There are great quantities of iron, hides, tallow, salt, pipe and barrel staves, which are under com- missioner's hands to be secured. We believe there are near a hundred cannon in the fort, and elsewhere in and about the town : here is likewise some very good shipping ; here arc three vessels, one of them of 34 guns, which a week's time would fit to sea ; there is another of about 20 guns, very near ready likewise ; and one other frigate of 20 guns, upon the stocks, made for sailing, which is built up to the uppermost deck ; for her handsomeness sake, I have appointed the workmen to finish her, here, being materials to do it, if you or the council of state shall approve thereof The frigate also taken by the fort is a most excellent vessel for sailing, besides divers other ships and vessels in the harbour. This town is now so in your power, that the former inhabitants, I believe scarce one in twenty, can challenge any property in their houses. Most of them are run away, and many of them killed in this service ; and it were to be wished that an honest people would come and plant here, where are very good houses and other accommodations fitted to their hands, and may by your favour be made of encouragement to them ; as also a scat of good trade, both inward and outward, and of marvellous great advantage in the point of the herring and other fishing. The town is pleasantly seated and strong, having a rampart of earth within the wall near fifteen foot thick. Thus it hath pleased God to give into your hands this other mercy, for which, as for all, we pray, God may have all the glory. Indeed, your instruments are poor and weak, and can do nothing but through believing, and that is the gift of God also." In that despatch we see some glimpses of Cromwell's wiser policy ; but the mind revolts from the price at which he would have pur- chased the advantages of such a scheme. In the following he describes very forcibly the rare occurrence of an incidental engagement with the enemy. " Wee havinge left diverse sicke men, both horse and foote, at Dublin, hearinge many of them were recovered, sent them orders to march up to us, which accordinglie they did. Cominge to Arckloe on Munday, the first of this instant, being about 350 horse and about 800 foote, the enimy hearinge of them (through the great advantage they have in point of intelli- gence), drew together a bodie of horse and foote, neer 3000, which Inchequeen command- ed. There went alsoe with this party Sir Tho 8 Armstrong, Col. Trevor, and most of their great Rantors. Wee sent 15 or 16 Troupes to their rescue neer eight houres too late. It pleased God wee sent them worde by a neerer way, to march close, and be circumspect, and to make what haste they could to Wexford, by the Seaside. They had marched neer 18 miles, and were come within 7 miles of Wexford (the foote beinge miserablie wearied), when the Eni- my gave the scouts of the rear guarde an alar- um ; whereupon they immediatelie drew up in the best order they could upon the sands, the sea on the one hand, and the rocks on the oth- er, where the enimy made a very furious charge, overbearinge our horse with their numbers (which, as some of their Prisoners confesse, was 1500 of their best horse), and forcinge them in some disorder backe to the foote. Our foote stood, forbearinge their firinge till the enimy was come almost within pistoll shot, and then lett fly very full in the faces of them, whereby some of them began to tumble, the rest run- OLIVER CROMWELL. 483 ninge off in a very great disorder, and faced not about untill they got above musket shot off. Upon this our horse tooke incouragement, drawinge up againe, bringinge up some foote to flanke them. And a Gentleman of ours, that had charged through before, beinge amongst them undiscerned, havinge put his signall into his hat, as they did, tooke his oportunitie and came off, lettinge our men knowe that fhe eni- my was in great, confusion and disorder, and that if they could attempt another Charge, he was confident good might he done on them. It pleased God to give our Men courage ; they advanced, and fallinge upon the enimy, totally routed them, took two colours and diverse Prisoners, and killed diverse upon the place and in the pursuite. I doe not heare that wee have two Men killed, and butt one mortally wounded, and not five that are taken prison- ers." In a subsequent letter, having described oth- er overwhelming successes, the lord - lieuten- ant, who had probably, at the instant, a strong conception upon him of the purposes for which he already panted to be in England, subjoins these extraordinary reflections : " Sir, what can be said in these things 1 Is it an arme of flesh that hath done these things 1 Is it the wis- dorne, and councell, or strength of men] It is Che Ltirde oncly. God will curse that man and his house that dares to thinke otherwise. Sir, you see the worke is done by a divine leadinge. God gctls into the hartcs of men, and perswades them to come unto you. I tell you a consider- able part of your armie is Jitter for an hospital than the field : if the enimy did not know it, I should have held it impolilicke to liave writ this ; they knowe it, yett they knowe not what to doe. I Lumblie begg leave to offer a word or two. I begg of those that are faithfull that they give Glorie to God. I wish it may have influence upon the hartes and spirits of all those that are now in place of government, in the greatest trust, that they may all in harte draw neer to God, givinge him glorie by holinesse of life and conversation ; that these unspeakable mercies may teach dissentinge Brethren on all sides to agree, at least in praisinge God. And if the Father of the Familie be so kinde, why should there be such jarringes and harte-burninges amongst the Children t And if it will not be received that these are the seales of God's ap- probation of your great change of Government, which indeed was noc more yours than these victo- ries and successes are ours, yett lett them with us say (even the most unsatisfied harte amongst them) that both are the righteous judgements and injghtie workes of God ; that he hath pull- ed the mightie from his seat, who calls to an account innocent blood ; that he thus breakes the enimies of his Church in pieces ; and lett them not be sullen, butt praise the Lorde, and thinke of us as they please, and wee shall be satisfied ; and pray for them, and waite upon our God ; and wee hope wee shall seeke the welfare and peace of our native country; and the Lorde give them hartes to doe soe too. In- deed, Sir, I was constrained in my Bowells to write this much." Our last extract shall be taken from a very elaborate despatch, descriptive of some of the later incidents in the campaign : " I marched from Roghill Castle over the Shewer with very much difficultie, and from thence to Fethard, almost in the harte of the county of Tipperary, where was a garizon of the enimy. The towne is most pleasantlie seated, havinge a very good wall with round and square bulwarks, after the old manner of fortifications. Wee came thiih- er in the night, and indeed were very much dis- tressed by sore and tempestuous wind and raine. After a long marche, wee knew not well how to dispose of ourselves, but findinge an old ab- bey in the suburbs, and some cabbins, and poore houses, wee got into them, and had oportuni- tie to send them a summons. They shott at my Trumpet, and would not listen to him for an hour's space ; butt havinge some officers in our partie which they knewe, I sent them, to lett them knowe I was there with a good part of the armie. We shott not a shott at them, butt they were very angry, and fired very earnest- lie upon us, tellinge us that it was not a time of night to send a summons ; butt yett, in the end, the governor was willinge to send out two com- missioners, I think rather to see whether there was a force sufficient to force him than to any other end. After almost a whole night spent in treatie, the towne was delivered to me the next morninge upon terras which wee usually call honourable, which I was the willinger to give, because I had little above 200 foote, and neither ladders nor gunnes, nor anythinge else to force them that night. There beinge about seventeen companies of the Ulster foote in Cashel, above five miles from thence, they quit it in some disorder, and the sovereigne and the aldermen since sent to me a petition, desiringe that I would protect them, which I have also made a quarter. From thence I marched to- wards Callen, hearinge that Col. Reynolds was there with the partie before mentioned. When I came thither I found he had fallen upon the enimy's horse and routed them, beinge about 100, with his forlorne, took my Lorde of Osso- ry's capt.-lieutenant, and another lieutenant of horse, prisoners ; and one of those who betray- ed our garizon of Eniscorfy, whom we hanged. The enimy had possessed three castles in the towne, one of them belonginge to one Butler, very considerable ; the other two had about 100 or 120 men in them, which he attempted, and they refusingc conditions seasonably offer- ed, were put all to the sword. Indeed, some of your souldiers did attempt very notably in this service ; I doe not hear there were 6 men of ours lost. Butler's castle was delivered upon conditions for all to march away, leavinge their armes behinde them, wherein I have placed a companie of foote and a troupe of horse, under the command of my Lorde Colvil, the place be- inge six miles from Kilkenny. From hence Col. Reynolds was sent with his regiment to remove a garizon of the enimy's from Knock- tofer (beinge the way of our communication to Rosse), which accordinglie he did. Wee march- ed back with the rest of the body to Fethard and Cashel, where wee are now quartered, hav- inge good plentie both of horse meat and man's meat for a time ; and beinge indeed, wee may say, even almost in the harte and bowells of the enimy, ready to attempt what God shall next direct. And blessed be his name onely for this good successe ; and for this, that wee doe 484 BRITISH STATESMEN. not finde that our men are at all considerably sicke upon this expedition, though indeed it hath been very blustering weather. " I had almost forgot one businesse. The major-general was very desirous to gaine a passe over the Shevver, where, indeed, wee had none butt by boat, or when the weather served ; wherefore, on Saturday in the eveninge, he marched with a partie of horse and foote to Arsinom, where was a bridge, and at the foote of it a stronge castle, which he, about four o'clocke the next morning, attempted, killed about thirteen of the enimy's outguard, lost butt two men, and eight or ten wounded. The en- imy yeelded the place to him, and wee are pos- sessed of it, beinge a very considerable passe, and the nearest to our passe at Cappoquin over the Black Water, whither wee can bringe gunnes, ammunition, or other thinges from Youghall by water, and over this passe to the armie. The countie of Tipperary have submitted to 1500 a month contribution, although they have six or seven of the enimy's garizons yet upon them. . . . Sir, I desier the charge of England as to this w r ar may be abated as much as may be, and as wee knowe you doe desier out of your care to the Commonwealth ; butt if you expect your worke to be done (if the marchinge armie be not constantly paid, and the course taken that hath been humbly represented), indeed it will not be for the thrift of England, as far as England is concerned in the speedie reduction of Ireland. The monie we raise upon the coun- ties maintains the garizon forces, and hardlie that ; if the active force be not maintained, and all contingencies defrayed, how can you expect butt to have a lingeringe businesse of it 1 Sure- lie we desier not to spend a shillinge of your treasurie wherein our consciences do not prompt us. Wee serve you, wee are willinge to be out of our trade of war, and shall hasten (by God's assistance and grace) to the end of our worke, as the labourer doth to be at his rest. This makes us bolde to be earnest with you for neces- sarie supplies ; that of monie is one ; and there be some other thinges which indeed I doe not thinlte for your service to speak of publique- ly, which I shall humbly represent to the coun- eell of state, wherewith I desier wee may be accomodated. Sir, the Lorde, who doth all these thinges, gives hopes of a speedie is- sue to this businesse, and I am persuaded will graciously appear in it ; and truely there is no feare of the strength and combination of eni- mies round about, nor of slanderous tongues at home : God hath hitherto fenced you against all those, to wonder and amazement ; they are tokens of your prosperitie and successe : onely it will be good for you, and us that serve you, to fear the Lorde, to fear unbeleef, self seekinge, confidence in an arm of flesh, and opinion of any instruments that they are other than as dry bones." Cromwell is now in England once more. On his arrival, the last obstacle to his mighty hopes were removed by Fairfax's ill-fated sur- render of the command of the army ; he was appointed general in chief, and at the same in- stant directed to proceed to Scotland to reduce rebellion there. Now again was seen a singular change in his manner, such as has been noticed in the course of this work at various momentous periods of his history. The consummation of all his hopes and aims was at last approaching. I have already observed upon the alterations of look and manner noticed by Ludlow. Others noticed them with deeper sympathy than that enthusiastic Republican, and listened, as to one indeed inspired, when he stated his conviction that it was the design of the Lord, in their days, to deliver his people from every burden, and that he was now bringing to pass what was prophesied in the hundred and tenth psalm ; from the consideration of which, he was often encouraged to promote by himself the accom- plishment of those ends which were indicated by the finger of Providence. It was to this psalm Ludlow listened impatiently. But ima- gine Harrison and Cromwell expounding these passages together ! " The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. ... He shall fill the places with the dead bodies ; he shall wound the heads over many countries. . . . The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of his Zion ; rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. . . . The people shall be willing in the day of thy power ; thou art a priest forever /" On the 23d of July, Cromwell entered Scot- land with 11,000 horse and foot, commanded under him by Generals Fleetwood, Lambert, and Whaley, Colonels Pride, Overton, and Monk. He found before him "solitude and devastation." The Scotch clergy had descri- bed the English as monsters, delighting in the murder or mutilation of women and children ; and the peasantry having destroyed what they must have left, fled with whatever they could remove. Cromwell's proclamations and severe discipline soon readjusted their notions, and they either returned to their habitations or waited his approach.* The enemy made the first attack with a party of 800 horse on the headquarters near Musselburgh. After some sharp fighting, these were repulsed with much loss. " The enemy came on," said Cromwell, in a despatch to the president of the council, " with a great deal of resolution, beat in our guards, and put a regi- ment of horse in some disorder ; but our men speedily taking the alarm, charged the enemy, routed them, took many prisoners, killed a great many of them, and did execution within a quarter of a mile of Edinburgh. Indeed this is a sweet beginning of your business, or rather of the Lord's, and I believe it is not very satis- factory to the enemy, especially to the Kirk party : and I trust this work, which is the Lord's, will prosper in the hands of hj^ ser- vants." David Leslie, a gallant and highly-accom- plished soldier, was the commander-in-chief of the Scottish army. No man of that day, per- haps, could have been so well matched against Cromwell. This the latter general soon felt and acknowledged. Leslie, in a strong posi- tion between Edinburgh and Leith, and with an army double that of Cromwell, harassed him, withdrew from the districts attempted on his march all possibility of procuring corn or cattle for his soldiery, and, in fact, by a series of skil- ful movements, obliged him at last to fall back History from Mackintosh, vol. vi., p. 148. OLIVER CROMWELL. 485 upon Dunbar. A variety of movements suc- ceeded this, the object of which, on the part of Cromwell, was to bring on a battle, which Leslie had resolved, if possible, to avoid, while he meanwhile protected Edinburgh and destroy- ed Cromwell's resources. At one place, where the small river Leith separated the camps, the English pushed on their lines with the intention of making an attack. The word given out was *' Rise, Lord !" The body of foot advanced within 300 yards, when they discovered such a bog on both their wings of horse that they could not pass over. " Thus," says Hodgson, who was there, " by this very unexpected hand of Providence were we prevented, and had only liberty to play with our cannon that evening and part of the next morning, which did good execution, as we believe, upon them. We had very strange and remarkable deliverances from theirs, though they played very hard upon us, and that with much art ; but the Lord suffered them not to do us much hurt , we had not slain and wounded above five-and-twenty men." Cromwell was present in person on this occa- sion. He even headed the advanced party, and approached so near to the Scottish lines that one of the enemy fired a carbine at him with the view of checking his progress. Crom- well, upon this, shouted out in sport to the trooper, " that if he were one of his soldiers, he would cashier him for discharging his piece at such a distance." The man, who had for- merly served in England under Lieutenant- general Lesley, instantly recognised the leader of the Ironsides, and spread the information that the officer at whom he had aimed was no other than Cromwell himself, whom he had often seen in company with Lord Leven when the army was in Yorkshire.* Again Cromwell retreated to Musselburgh, and had nearly approached that place, when a body of Leslie's cavalry fell upon his rear, and left him only a narrow outlet of escape. " By the time," wrote Cromwell, " we had got the van-brigade of our horse, and our foot and train into their quarters, the enemy was marched with that expedition, that they fell upon the rear forlorn of our horse, and put it in some disorder ; and, indeed, had like to have engaged our rear-brigade of horse with their whole army, had not the Lord, by his providence, put a cloud over the moon, thereby giving us an opportunity to draw off those horse to the rest of the army, which accordingly was done without any loss." Leslie, thus far, had achieved an unquestion- able success. Cromwell, again defeated in his great object of the campaign, once more fell back upon Dunbar, which he entered on the 1st of September. Nothing, under the circumstances, could have been more dangerous than this position. Dun- bar, a seaport town, lies in a valley surrounded on three sides by an amphitheatre of hills, in which there are two narrow openings, one on the north, the other on the south, where the road passes from Berwick to Edinburgh. Of these hills, as well as of both the passes, the Scots were in actual possession ; and the labour of a few hours would have sufficed to throw up such works as, with their superior numbers, might have defied the utmost exertions of their Dr. Rustell's able Life of Cromwell. enemies.* Instead of this, however, Leslie yielded, as it is said, to the fanaticism of the ministers in his camp, who, being apprehensive lest the sectaries should escape from their hands, are said to have compelled the general to descend from the high ground of which he had taken possession, in order to intercept their retreat along the coast. Cromwell himself, in his after despatch, justifies this statement. " I hear," he wrote, " that when the enemy march- ed last up to us, the ministers pressed their army to interpose between us and home, the chief officers desiring rather that we should have way made, though it were by a golden bridge ; but the clergy's counsel prevailed, to their no great comfort, through the goodness of God." While these fatal counsels were being urged in the Scottish camp, Cromwell, in deep anx- iety, had his men all under arms, ready to take advantage of the slightest move in Leslie's po- sition. His own feelings at the moment he has himself described : " Their [the Scots] whole army was in march after us ; and, indeed, our drawing back in this mannner, with the addi- tion of three new regiments added to them, did much heighten their confidence, if not presump- tion and arrogancy. The enemy that night we perceived gathered towards the hills, labouring to make a perfect interposition between us and Berwick (having in his posture a great advan- tage, through his better knowledge of the coun- try), which he effected by sending a considera- ble party to the strait pass at Copperspath, where ten men to hinder are belter than forty to make their way. And truly this was an exigent to us, whereby the enemy reproached us with that condition the Parliament's army was in when it made its hard conditions with the king in Cornwall. By some reports that have come to us, they had disposed of us and of their busi- ness, in sufficient revenge and wrath towards our persons, and had swallowed up the poor in- terest of England, believing that their army and their king would have marched to London without any interruption, it being told us, we know not how truly, by a prisoner we took the night before the fight, that their king was very suddenly to come among them, with those English they allowed to be about him. But in what they were thus lifted up, the Lord was above them. The enemy lying in the posture before mentioned, having those advantages, we lay very near him, being sensible of our disadvan- tages, having some weakness of flesh, but yet con- solation and, support from the Lord himself to our poor weak faith, wherein I believe not a few among us shared, that because of their numbers, because of their advantages, because of their confidence, be- cause of our weakness, because of our strait, WE WEEE IN THE MOUNT, and in the mount the Lord would be seen, and that he would Jind out a way of deliverance and salvation for us ; and, indeed, we had our consolations and our hopes." On the night of the 2d Cromwell held a coun- cil of war. Here various schemes were urged, which showed the extremity more than aught else could. The propriety of embarking the foot, and striving to force a passage for the horse, was debated ; but the wind being bois- terous, and the surf running high, the project * Lives of Eminent Commanders, vol. i,, p. 282. 486 BRITISH STATESMEN. was pronounced altogether inadmissible. It was next suggested, as a sort of forlorn hope, that a strong reconnoissance should be pushed, a little before dawn, in the direction of the right, and that according to the result of this movement future operations should be guided. This masterly thought was of course the sug- gestion of Cromwell. He had, in the course of the afternoon, observed the Scottish gener- al bring his main strength of horse and artillery towards his right wing, and, with the wonder- ful foresight that almost justified the inspira- tion attributed to him, he at once anticipated some false movement hy which they might be able to " attempt" the enemy. We could not well imagine," he wrote, " but that the enemy intended to attempt upon us, or to place them- selves in a more exact condition of interposi- tion. Major-general Lambert and myself com- ing to the Earl of Roxburgh's house and ob- serving this posture, I told him I thought it did give us an opportunity and advantage to at- tempt upon the enemy, to which he immediate- ly replied that he had thought to have said the same thing to me : so that it pleased the Lord to set this apprehension upon our hearts at the same moment. We called for Colonel Monk, and showed him the thing ; and, coming to our quarters at night, and demonstrating our appre- hensions to some of the colonels, they also cheerfully concurred." At three o'clock on the morning of the 3d of September, Cromwell was examining closely with his glass every quarter of the enemy's po- sition, with a view to the resolution he had taken. Suddenly he saw a column in motion down the southern pass, and, at the instant, tossing his arms in the air, exclaimed, with phrensied joy, "THE LORD HATH DELIVERED THEM INTO OUR HANDS !" He gave the word to his men, and the ar- mies met midway between the hills and the sea, not far from Roxburgh House. The word issued by Leslie was the " Covenant ;" that on the side of the Parliamentarians was " the Lord of Hosts." The conflict, which began with the horse, was obstinate and bloody a ; fierce and terrible dispute at the point of the ! sword. The first division of the English foot I was overpowered and driven back, when Crom- j well ordered up his own regiment, under Lieu- j tenant-colonel Gofle, who made their way i against all opposition. " At the point of pike," wrote Cromwell, proudly, " they did repel the stoutest regiment the enemy had there, merely with the courage the Lord was pleased to give, which proved a great amazement to the residue of their foot." The cavalry followed up this advantage, charged the infantry, who were al- ready outflanked and deprived of their usual support, and carried confusion into the whole line. Hodgson says, " One of the Scots bri- gades of foot would not yield, though at point of pike and butt-end of the musket, until a troop of our horse charged from the one end to the other of them, and so left them to the mercy of the foot." In truth, after the right wing was broken, the Scots, to use the language of the same writer, " routed one another," and fell into the most shameful disorder.* The cause of this was obvious enough. Their superiority of Russell's Life of Cromwell. numbers was now changed from a gain to a grievous loss. Their front once broken, the fugitives, in rushing over the uneven ground, trampled down the men that would in other cir- cumstances have supported them. A thick fog had hitherto enveloped the scene of action. It was just before the moment of vic- tory that the sun suddenly appeared upon the sea, and the voice of Cromwell was heard in the accent and with the manner of one indeed in- spired inspired by the thought of a triumph so mighty and resistless " Now L.ET THE LORD ARISE, AND HIS ENEMIES SHALL BE SCATTERED!"* At this, a shout broke forth from the English soldiers which seemed to rend the sky, and the rout of the enemy was complete and frightful. "The horse," says Hodgson, " fled what way they could get ; ours pursued towards Hadding- ton ; and the general made a halt, and sung the hundred and seventeenth psalm ; and by the time they had done, their party was increased and advancing ; the Scots ran, and were no more heard of that fight. The commander of our army was busy in securing prisoners, and the whole bag and baggage ; and afterward we re- turned to bless God in our tents like Issachar, for the great salvation afforded to us that day." Cromwell, in his despatch, written the day after the fight, estimated the amount of killed on the part of his antagonists at 3000. The prisoners were rated at 10,000 ; while the whole baggage and train, all the artillery, amounting to thirty guns, 200 colours, with 15,000 stand of arms, which fell into the hands of the English, contributed to attest the extent of their triumph. Cromwell boasted also that his soldiers had the "chace and execution" of the fugitives near eight miles ; and there is lit- tle doubt that more men were slain in the flight than in the brief struggle of the battle. This despatch partook of the extraordinary excite- ment of the writer after this memorable battle, and closed with a sort of spiritual admonition to the Parliament, well calculated to advance his aims. " May it please you,'' he said, " to give me the leave of a few words : it is easy to say the Lord hath done this : it would do you good to see and hear our poor foot go up and down making their boast of God. But, sir, it is in your hands, and by these eminent mer- cies God puts it more into your hands, to give glory to him, to improve your power and his blessings to his praise. We that serve you beg of you not to own us, but God alone ; we pray you own his people more and more, for they are the chariots and horsemen of Israel. Disown yourselves, but own your authority, and im- prove it to curb the proud and the insolent, such as would disturb the tranquillity of England, though under what specious pretences soever. Relieve the oppressed, hear the groans of poor pris- oners in England ; be pleased to reform the abuses * This anecdote is told by Captain Hodgson. The Eng- lish cavalry had charged and shaken the Scots, when " the general himself conies in the rear of our regiment, and commands to incline to the left, that is, to take more ground to be clear of all bodies : and we did so ; and horse and foot were engaged all over the field, and the Scots all in con- fusion. And the sun appearing upon the sea, I heard Noll say, ' Now let God arise, and his enemies shall be scat- tered ;' and he following us, as we slowly marched, I heard him say, '1 profess they run;' and there was the Scots army all in disorder and 'running, both right wing awl left, aud main buttle." OLIVER CROMWELL. 487 of all professions ; and if there be any one that makr.s many poor to make a few rich, that suits not a commonwealth. Since we came into Scotland, it hath been our desire and longing to have avoided blood in this business, by reason that God hath a people here fearing his name, though deceived : and to that end have we offered much love unto such in the bowels of Christ, and concerning the truth of our hearts therein have we appealed unto the Lord. The minis- ters of Scotland have hindered the passage of these things to the hearts of those to whom we intended them ; and now we hear that not only the deceived people, but some of the ministers, are also fallen in the battle. This is the great hand of the Lord, and worthy of the considera- tion of all those who, taking into their hands the instruments of a foolish shepherd, to wit, med- dling with worldly policies and mixtures of earthly power, to set up that which they call the kingdom of Christ which is neither it, nor if it were, would such means be found effectual to that end neglect or trust not to the word of God, the sword of the spirit, which is alone powerful and able for the setting up of that kingdom ; and when trusted to, will be found effectually able for that end, and will also do it. This is humbly offered for their sakes, who have lately too much turned aside, that they might return again to preach Jesus Christ ac- cording to the simplicity of the Gospel, and then, no doubt, they will discover and find your protection and encouragement." It was in a different and more pleasing spirit he wrote, on the same day as to the Parlia- ment, to his " lovinge brother Richard Major at Hursley." " DEERE BROTHER, Havinge soe good an occasion as the impartinge soe great a mercie as the Lorde hath voutchsafed unto us in Scotland, I would not omitt the im- partinge thereof to you, though I be full of businesse. Upon Wednesd. wee fought the Scottish Armie. They were in number, ac- cordinge to all computation, above twentie thousand, wee hardly eleven thousand, hav- inge great sicknesses upon our Armie. After much appealinge to God, the fight lasted above an hower. Wee killed (as most thinke) three thousand, tooke neer ten thousand prisoners, all their traine, about thirtie gunnes, great and smale, besides bullett, match, and powder, very considerable officers, about two hundred col- ours, above ten thousand armes. Lost not thirtie men. This is the Lorde's doinge, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Good S r , give God all the glorie ; stir up all yours, and all about you, to doe soe : pray for your affectionate Brother, O. CROMWELL I desier my love may be presented to my deere sister and to all your familie. I pray tell Doll I doe not forget her nor her little bratt. She writes very cunning- lie and comple mentally to me ; I expect a letter of plaine dealinge from her. She is too modest to tell me whether she bretd.es or not. I wish a hlessinge upon her and her husband. The Lord make them fruitfull in all that's good. They are at leizure to write often, butt indeed they are both idle and worthic of blame." Nor should the opportunity be lost of pre- senting here, in connexion with Cromwell's greatest triumph, and on the eve of his great- est crime, some farther evidence from these private sources of his gentle and affectionate relations with the members of his family. Shortly after the battle, his wife wrote to him thus. The allusions to the great officers of state whom she fears he is about to estrange himself from, possess much interest, and the entire wording of the letter is in accordance with the writer's modest and amiable history. "Mv DEARIST, I wonder you should blame me for writing noe oftnir, when I have sent thre for one. I canenot but think they are mis- carid. Truly if I knog my one hart, I should ase soune neglect myself ase to ... the least thought towards you. In doing of it, I must doe it to myself. But when I do writ, my dear, I seldome have any satisfactore answer, which, makse me think my writling is slitcd, as well it mae ; but yctt I cannot but think your love coverse my weaknisis and infi.rm.etcs. I should rejoyse to hear your desire in seeing mee, but I desire to submit to the providens of God, howping the Lord, houe hath separated us, and hath oftune brought us together agane, will in heis good time bring us agane, to the praise of his name. Truly my lif is but half a lif in your abseince did not the Lord make it up in heimself, which I must acknoleg to the prase of heis grace. / would you would think to writ sometimes to your deare frend me Lord Chef Justes, of hom I have oftune put you in mind : and truly, my deare, if you would think of what I put you in mind of sume, it might be of ase much purpose ase others, writling sumetimes a letter to the President, and sumetimes to the Speikcr. Indeid, my deare, you cannot think the rong you doe yourself in the whant of a letter, though it wer but seldome. I pray think of, and soe rest yours in all faith- fulnise, ELIZABETH CROMWELL." The same tender and gentle tone pervades Cromwell's letters to her. " MY DEEREST, I could not satisfie myselfe to omitt this poast, although I have not much to write, yett indeed. I love to write to my deere, who is very much in my harte. It joys me to heare thy soule pros- pereth ; the Lorde increase his favours to thee more and more. The great good thy soule can wish is that the Lorde lift upon thee the light of his Countenance, which is better than life. The Lorde blesse all thy good councell and example to those about thee, and heare all thy prayers, and accept thee alwayes. I am glad to heare thy Sonn and Daughter ar with thee. / hope thou wilt have some good oportunitie of good advise to him. Present my duty to my mother, my love to all the Familie. Still pray for thine, O. CROMWELL." Other letters belong also to this date, which, while they let in light upon the kindest and most private corner of Cromwell's heart, bring out into still more distinct shape the suggestion I have ventured concerning his son. The first is to Richard himself. " DICK CROMWELL, I take your letters kind- lie. / like expressions when they come plainlie from the hartc, and are not strayned nor affected. I am perswaded it's the Lorde's mercie to place you where you ar ; I wish you may owne it and be thankefull, fulfillinge all relations to the Glorie of God. Seeke the Lorde and his face continually; lett this be the businesse of your life and strength. And lett all thinges be subservient and in order to this. You cannot 488 BRITISH STATESMEN. find, nor behold the face of God butt in Christ, therfore labour to knowe God in Christ, w cl > the Scripture makes to be the sum of all, even life externall. Because the true knowledge is not literati or speculative, butt inward, transforminge the minde to it, its unitinge to, and participa- tinge of the Divine nature (2 Pet., i., 4). It's such a knowledge as Paul speakes of (Philip., iii., 8, 9, 10). How little of this knowledge of Christ is there amongst us ! My weake prayers shall be for you. Take heede of an unactive vaine spirit. Recreate yourself io' A S r Walter Raugh- leye's Historic ; it's a bodie of historic, and will add muck more to your understandinge than frag- ments of storie. Intend to understand the es- tate I have setled : it's your concernment to knowe it all, and how it stands. I have hereto- fore suffered much by too much trustinge others. I know my Brother Major will be helpfull to you in all this. You will thinke (perhaps) I need not advise you to love your Wife. The Lorde teach you how to doe it, or else it will be done illfavouredly. Though Marriage be noe institu- ted Sacrament, yett where the undcfiled bed is, and love, this Union aptly resembles Christ and his Church. If you can truely love your Wife, what doeth Christ beare to his Church and ev- ery poore soule therein, whoe gave himselfe for it and to it. Comend me to your Wife : tell her I entyrely love her, and rejoyce in the good- nesse of the Lorde to her. I wish her every way fruitfull. I thanke her for her lovinge let- ter. I have presented my love to my Sister and Cozen Ann, etc., in my letter to my Broth- er Major. I would not have him alter his af- faires because of my debt. My purse is as his ; my present thoughts are butt to lodge such a sum for my two little gyrl.es : it's in his hand as well as anywhere. I shall not be wantinge to ac- comodate him to his minde. I would not have him sollicitous. Dick, the Lorde blesse you every way. I rest, your loving Father, " O. CROMWELL." To Mr. Major he again writes in the old mingled strain. " DEERE BROTHER, The ex- ceedinge croude of businesse I had at London is the best excuse I can make for my silence this way. Indeed, Sir, my harte beareth me witnesse, I want noe affection to you or yours ; you are all often in my poore prayers. I should be glad to heare how the little bratt doth. I could chide both father and mother for theire neglects of me : I knowe my sonn is idle, butt I had better thoughts of Doll ; I doubt now her husband hath spoyled her ^ I pray tell her soe from me. If I had as good leisure as they, I should write some- times. If my daughter be breedinge, I will ex- cuse her, butt not for her nurserie ; the Lorde blesse them. I hope you give my Sonn good councell ; I believe he needes it. He is in the dangerous time of his age, and it's a very vaine worlde. how good it is to close with Christ betimes ; there is nothinge else worth the look- ing after. I beseech you call upon him. I hope you will discharge my dutie and your owne love : you see how I am employed. I neede pittye. / knowe what Ifeele. Great place and businesse in the worlde is not worth the look- inge after : I should have no comfort in mine butt that my hope is in the Lorde's presence. .7 have not sought these thinges ; truely I have bccnc called to them by the Lorde, and therfore am not without some good assurance that he will inable his poore worme and weake servant to doe his will and to fulfill my generation. In this I begg your prayers : desiringe to be lov- inglie remembred to my deere Sister, to our Sonn and Daughter, my Cozen Ann, and the good familie. I rest your affectionate brother, " 0. CROMWELL." The last I shall quote, however, is the most striking and earnest of all. " DEERE BROTHER, I was glad to receave a letter from you, for indeed anythinge that cornes from you is very wellcome to me. I believe your expectation of my sonn's cominge is deferred. I wish he may see a happie deliverie of his wife first, for whom I frequently pray. ... I heare rny sonn hath ex- ceeded his allowance, and is in debt ; truely I cannot comend him therein, wisdom requi- ringe his livinge within compasse, and callings for it at his handes. And in my judgement, the reputation arisinge from thence would have been more real honour than what is attained the other way. I believe vaine men will speake well of him that does ill. / desicr to be understood that I grudge him not laudable recreations, nor an hon- ourable carriage of himselfe in them, nor it any matter of charge like to fall to my share a stick with me. Truely I can finde in my harte to al- low him not only a sufficiency, butt more for his good; butt if pleasure and self-satisfaction be made the businesse of a mail's life, soe much cost layed out upon it, soe much time spent in it, as rather answers appetite than the will of God, or is comely before his Saints, I scruple to feed this humour, and God forbid that his be- inge my sonn should be his allowance to lire not pleasinglie to onr heavenlie Father, who hath raised me out of the dust to what I am. I desier your faithfulnesse (he being alsoe your concernment as well as mine) to advise him to approve himselfe to the Lorde in his course of life, and to search his statutes for a rule to con- science, and to seeke grace from Christ to en- able him to walke therein. This hath life in it, and will come to somewhat. What is a poore creature without this? This will not abridge of lawfull pleasures, but teach snch an use of them as will have the peace of a good conscience goinge alonge with it. S r , I write what is in my harte ; I pray you comunicate my mind herein to my sonn, and be his Re- membrancer in these thinges. Truely I love him ; he is deerc to me ; soe is his Wife ; and for their sakes doe I thus write. They shall not want comfort nor incouragement from me, so far as I may afford it ; butt indeed I cannot thinke I doe well to feede a voluptuous humour in my sonn, if he should make pleasures the businesse of his life in a time when some precious saincts are bleed- inge and breathinge out their last for the good and safetie of the rest. Memorable is the speech of Urijah to David, 2 Chron., xi., 11. ... S r , I be- seech you believe I heare say not this to save my pvrse, for I shall willinglie doe what is con- venient to satisfie his occasions as I have op- ortunitie ; butt as I pray he may not walke in a course not pleasinge to the Lorde, so thinke it lyeth upon me to give him (in love) the best Councell I may, and knowe not how better to conveigh it to him than by soe good a hand as yours. . . . S r , I pray you acquaint him with these thoughts of mine, and remember my love OLIVER CROMWELL. 489 to my daughter, for whose sake I shall be in- duced to doe any reasonable thinge. I pray for her happie deliverance frequently and ear- nestly. ... I am sorry to heare my baylie in Hantshire should doe to my sonn as is intima- ted by your letter. I assure you I shall not al- lowe any such thinge. If there be any suspi- tion of his abuse of the woode, I desier jt may be looked after and inquired into, that soe if thinges appear true he may be removed, al- though indeed I must needs say he had the re- port of a godlie man by diverse that knewe him when I placed him there. . . . Sir, I desier my hartie affection may be presented to my Sister, my Cozen Ann and her husband,* though unknovvne. ... I praise the Lorde I have ob- teyned much rnercie in respect of my health ; the Lorde give me a truely thankfull harte. I desier your prayers, and rest your very affec- tionate brother and servant, 0. CROMWELL." After the victory of Dunbar Cromwell occu- pied Glasgow and Edinburgh (in which latter city the castle soon submitted), and spent the winter in polemical discussions, in correspond- ence with various ministers, in regulating the affairs of the army, in reducing certain small fortresses on the shores of the Pirth, and in at- tempts to gain over to his cause the more vio- lent members of the Scottish assembly. Mean- while the Parliament poured honours and fa- vours on him, and I observe a letter, with one or two interesting touches in it, wherein he re- plies to their application that he would suffer an artist to take a sketch of his head for a med- al in honour of his last victory. The modest request the general sends back was not, it would seem, granted, since the Dunbar medal by the artist in question presents a very fine face of Cromwell. " GENTI,., It was not a little wonder to me to see that you should send Mr. Symonds so great a journie about a busi- nesse importinge so little, as far as it relates to me ; wheras, if my poore opinion may not be rejected by you, I have to offer to that w ch I thinke the most noble end to witt, the cora- memoracon of that great mercie at Dunbar, and the gratuitie to the Armie that it might better be expressed upon the meddallby engra- vinge, as on the one side the Parliam 1 (w cb I heare was intended and will do singularly well), soe on the other side an Armie, w th this inscrip- tion over the head of it, ' The Lord of Hosts,' w ch was o r word that day. Wherfore, if I may begg it as a favour from you, I most earnestly beseech you, if I may doe it w th out offence, that it may be soe ; and if you thinke not fitt to have it as I offer, you may alter it as you see cause ; only I doe thinke I may truely say it will be very thankfully acknowledged by me if you will spare the hacinge my effigies in it. . . . The gentleman's paynes and trouble hither have been very great ; and I shall make it my second suite unto you, that you will please to conferr upon him that imploym 1 in yo r service w ch Nicholas Briott had before him. Indeed, the man is ingenious, and worthie of inc.ouragem'. I may not presume much, butt if at my request and for my sake he may obteyn this favour, I shall put it upon the accompt of my obligacons, w ch are not a * John Dunch, Esq., of Pusey, in Berkshire ; where the original of this letter was fuund and transcribed by Horace Walpole. QQQ few, and I hope shall be found readie gratefully to acknowledge, and to approve myselfe, Gentl., Yo r most reall serv't, O. CROMWELL." With the advance of winter an attack of ague seized Cromwell, but after severe suffering he rallied, and in time for that ill-judged move- ment of the young king of Scots which brought on the battle of Worcester. The Presbyterian army, restored to a nu- merous and most effective force, now held a strong position near Stirling. Charles II. com- manded it in person. Taught by the fatal ex- perience of Dunbar, however, they kept acting on the defensive, and could not be drawn from their well-selected ground. As a last effort with this view, Cromwell, with singular daring, transported his army into Fife, and proceeded towards Perth, which he captured after a siege of two days. The stratagem succeeded in one sense, but, besides moving the Scots from their stronghold, it had also induced Charles to adopt the plan of marching into England. It is said that in this he yielded to the advice of his Eng- lish followers, who overruled the more prudent Argyle, looked with contempt upon the Parlia- ment, and counted upon the numerical majority of the English nation as unquestionably in his favour. On the 31st of July he broke up his camp near the Torwood, and on the 6th of August reached Carlisle. Cromwell was engaged in the superintend- ence of a new citadel by means of which he de- signed to hold Perth in subjection, when the news reached him of the movement of the Presbyterians and the king. His spirit rose to that crisis with a renewal of the excitement which men noted in him at Dunbar. He wrote at once to London to give all necessary courage and confidence to the council and citizens. After informing them of the meditated invasion hanging over them, he observed that it " wa3 not out of choice on our part ;" and did not con- ceal his fear that it would trouble some men's thoughts, and occasion some inconvenience. But, he adds, " this is our comfort, that in sim- plicitie of harte as to God, wee have done to the best of our judgements, knowing that, if some issue were not putt to this businesse, it would occasion another winter's war, to the ruin of your soldiery, for whom the Scotts are too hard in respect of enduring the winter dif- ficulties of this countrie, and have been under the endless expense of the treasurie of England in prosecuting this war. It may be supposed wee might have kept the enimy from this by interposinge between him and England, which truely I believe wee might ; but how to remove him out of this place without doinge what we have done, unlesse wee had a comanding armie on both sides of the River of Forth, is not clear to us, or how to answer the inconveniences afore mentioned, wee understand not." He then en- treats that the council of state would collect what forces they could without loss of time, to give the enemy some check until he should be able to overtake them. Meantime, he sent Lambert at the head of the cavalry, who, upon joining with Harrison, whose forces were at Newcastle, was ordered to advance through the western parts of Northumberland, to intercept the Scots in their progress through Lancashire, to watch their motions, straiten their quarters, 490 BRITISH STATESMEN. impede their progress in every way, but not to risk a battle. Charles, meanwhile, with but sorry success, had pushed on by Kendal and Preston to War- rington, where, at the bridge, he received a momentary check from Lambert and Harrison. He still forced his way, summoned Shrewsbury in passing, but without effect, and at last made for Worcester, where he was proclaimed, ac- cording to Clarendon, King of England, Scot- land, France, and Ireland. London, anticipating his entry almost every hour, gave way to fearful alarms. Even Brad- shaw himself, it is said, lion-hearted as he was, could not, among his private friends, conceal his fears. Some raged against Cromwell, and uttered deep suspicions of his fidelity. No one could understand his intentions, nor where he was, nor why he had allowed an enemy to en- ter the land, when there were no troops to op- pose them. Both the city and the country, says Mrs. Hutchinson (by the angry Presbyters wavering in their constancy to them and the liberties they had purchased), were all amazed, and doubtful of their own and the Common- wealth's safety. Some could not hide very pale and unmanly fears, and were in such distrac- tion of spirit as much disturbed their counsels. Yet truly there was little need. The genius of Cromwell had already saved them. He had collected a tremendous force nearly 30,000 men and on the 28th of August had them all in position within two miles of Worcester. The Presbyterian force was greatly inferior, but the almost impregnable site of the city of Worcester was an ample set-off against that circumstance. Built along the right bank of the Severn, it defied immediate assault, and Charles's officers had of course done their best to increase its al- ready splendid resources of resistance and de- fence. Cromwell found the bridges broken above and below ; every boat removed ; not even a punt to be seen ; and in the extensive line of fires above, saw how strongly the heights of the place were occupied. But not for a mo- ment did he hesitate. Inspired by the genius which had served him so often, and never failed him yet, he took the sudden and daring resolve of throwing his army astride upon two rivers of forcing at their higher transits a passage across both the Severn and the Team and of coming down at once upon the enemy from the eastern and western heights overlooking Wor- cester ! The preparations for this daring exploit were completed on the 2d of September; for Crom- well had, moreover, determined to fight this decisive battle for the possession of three dis- puted kingdoms on what he called his FORTU- NATE DAY his day of Dunbar. Skirmishes meanwhile took place between the outposts on both sides of the river, and, before the morning of the 3d, a desperate struggle had passed at the half-broken Upton Bridge, between Lambert and its gallant defender Massey. Lambert car- ried it at last, repaired the broken arch, and conducted across 10,000 men, who took their ground along the course of the Team. It was now the morning of the 3d. The Presbyterians had the day before, in alarm at Lambert's movement, destroyed every bridge upon that river. Yet Cromwell not caring to husband life at any time, and still less now, when his superior numbers gave him so many lives to play with sent out an order to Fleet- wood to force, at any loss, his detached corps across the Team. Cromwell, at the same mo- ment, threw a bridge of boats over the Severn at Bunshill, near the confluence of the two riv- ers, and restored the communication that had been partially cut off. A hot fire near Powick so sudden were these movements was the first thing that attracted the attention of Charles, who, from one of the towers of the Cathedral, was examining the positions of the enemy ; when, finding that an attack was begun in that quarter, he instantly despatched a re- enforcement of horse and foot to the spot, and gave instructions to the commanding officer to prevent, if possible, the formation of the bridge. But a similar addition had been made to the detachment under Fleetwood, who again out- numbered his opponents, and pressed them with great vivacity towards Worcester. " The Scots, in the hope that, by occupying so large a force, they might afford to their countrymen on the other side of the Severn an opportunity of breaking the regiments under Cromwell, maintained the most obstinate resistance." They disputed every inch of ground which pre- sented the slightest advantage ; fought from hedge to hedge ; and frequently charged with the pike, to check the advance of the enemy. For an instant this rolled the tide of battle back towards the Team ; but fresh battalion after battalion arrived to the support of Fleet- wood, who then bore the Scots by fair force of numbers even across the bridge. Cromwell was meanwhile deciding the battle under the walls of the town ; and here, or on both sides of the river, from two o'clock in the morning till nightfall, had this terrible contest raged with unceasing fury. The main body of the enemy's infantry had advanced out of the city against the renowned chief of the Ironsides, and the conflict upon one spot in this quarter, Crom- well wrote in his despatch, lasted three hours. It was closed by the veteran regiment which had so often closed the battles of the Parliament, and which now, for the last time, advanced at the word of Cromwell. The victory was com- plete gloriously complete, as the lord-general exultingly wrote, and " gained after as stiff a contest for many hours including both sides of the river" as he had ever seen. The fort having been summoned, and Colonel Drum- mond still refusing to surrender it, it was car- ried, in all the wild triumph of the victory, by a furious storm, wherein fifteen hundred men were put to the sword. Charles, flying through the streets in piteous despair, in vain attempted to rally his troops, and finding they would no longer move, is said to have cried out, with a burst of passionate tears, " Then shoot me dead, rather than let me live to see the sad con- sequences of this day !" A crown had vanish- ed from his grasp. On another man who still stood upon that field a crown was now descending. He stood there, some time after the day was won, in a state of uncontrollable emotion ; then calling Fleetwood and Lambert to his side, he told them, with a fit of boisterous laughter, that he OLIVER CROMWELL. 491 would knight them, as heroes of old were knight- ed (he did not say by kings), on the field where they had achieved their glory. The excitement subdued, he retired to his tent, and there, at " 10 o'clock at night," " weary and scarce able to write," he yet wrote to the Parliament of England these memorable words: " The dimen- sions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy." A CROWNING MERCY indeed! AFTER the defeat of Worcester, it is remark- ed by Lord Clarendon, all the royal and loyal party lay grovelling and prostrate, under deso- late apprehensions.* A glance at the position of the Republican leaders will show that never were such apprehensions so justly grounded or so little overcharged. Resistance to the great design of a republic was now at an end in England, Ireland, and Scotland. In England, the avowed hostility of the Levellers had become as harmless as the secret machinations of the Loyalists. In Ire- land, submission and solitude had been substi- tuted, by an awful and unsparing hand, for tur- bulence and rebellion. In Scotland, the sturdi- est Presbyterian had at last surrendered to the victorious soldiers of Independency even the sectarian loveliness and supremacy of his dar- ling kirk. Scarcely a spot of British ground remained on which, in right of a triumphant conquest, the banner of the English Common- wealth did not stand firmly planted. Nor had its champions won less consideration for it in distant lands. Through every country in Europe they had proclaimed their purpose, and vanquished enemies on all sides bore tes- timony to their power. The proud Don John of Portugal lay like the humblest vassal at the feet of Blake ; the haughty insolence of Spain had crawled into subservient alliance ; the Dutch had surrendered their cherished title of sovereigns of the sea ; and, held down by the vigour and genius of our Republican statesmen, the remaining potentates of Europe " stood still with aweful eye." But at the very root of such vast strength there lurked a mortal weakness. The govern- ment under which these results had been achiev- ed, and by which alone the frame of things was now kept together, was avowedly a provisional government. It rested on no direct authority from the people. The men who were at the head of affairs had, by sublime talents and un- conquerable energy, placed themselves there ; but in continuing to hold to office by no other bond, they seemed to confess that the people were against them. Daring and resolute in all things else, they fell short of their own high souls in this. It was because in other things they held their personal safety to be risked alone, while in this they saw some peril to that grand design by which, as they fondly hoped, they were destined to secure the happiness of unborn generations of their countrymen. We alone, they reasoned, to whom this glorious re- public owes its birth, are fit to watch over its tender years. Our duty cannot be done till we have taught England the practical blessings of the new system we have wrought. Under a History, vol. vi., p. 557. republic she shall find herself greater than under any of her kings. Wealthy and secure, re- spected and honoured, she will recognise the value and the potency of the government we have formed ; and, by her gratitude well repaid, we may then with safety deliver back into the hands of the people the authority we have wield- ed throughout for their benefit alone. The reasoning, up to a certain point, must possibly be conceded as just, and worthy of the men.* There cannot be a doubt, that at the day when the axe descended on the neck of Charles I., a majority of the people were still strongly attached to the forms of monarchical government. But on the other side were a most formidable minority, comprising within itself the greatest amount of energy, genius, and moral force that had yet been exhibited upon the stage of public affairs in England. To elevate the whole nation to that standard was a design at once grand and simple, worthy of the age, and of the deeds already done in it ; for, be it kept in mind, Republicanism was of recent growth even in the breasts of these founders of the new republic. The most in- fluential of them had not played the lofty part they did from any preconceived notion of the abstract excellence of that form of civil society. It has been abundantly shown in this work that what such men as VANE sought was popular and good government, embracing extensive rep- resentation, security for person and property, freedom of thought, freedom of the press, and entire liberty of conscience. It was only be- cause they could not find these under a mon- archy that they became Republicans ; but un- der a monarchy they would have been con- tent with these. From the head of no Jupiter sprang the armed republic of England, but even from the weak and faithless head of her own Charles Stuart. Practical and most protracted experience of the utter impossibility of bring- ing that monarch to terms of good faith, destroy- ed, in the breasts of a formidable minority of the nation, all farther faith in monarchy itself. It only remained, by means as powerful, to wean the rest from that old allegiance and long-de- scended love, by exhibiting to them in enlarged prosperity, safety, and honour, the superior forces that were inherent in the Republican form. Hence it came to be urged, as no less a matter of necessity than duty, to hold fast by the act which Englishmen who have read the history of their country aright know to be the corner-stone of all the freedom that now exists in it, and which declared the Parliament that assembled in 1640 indissoluble save by its own consent. By such a course only, in the midst of the clouds that hung over the minds of men after the memorable action of the 30th of Jan- uary, was it felt that even the common frame of society could be held together. Only so could the chance, however distant, of another trial of the family of Stuart, be averted from the land which they had cursed so heavily. By this alone could that calm be cast upon the troubled waters out of which order and happi- ness must ever rise. But it was a course which * I have already treated this subject in the "Life of Vane," with less consideration, probably, for the part that statesman took in it, than I have felt it only due to the general body of Republicans to concede in this place. 492 BRITISH STATESMEN. in any case carried along with it one most per- emptory condition. Justified by necessity alone, the limits of necessity sternly bound it in. The day that saw it no longer essential to safety, saw it the most fatal instrument of danger. That day had now, at least, arrived. The first act of the statesmen of Westminster, after the Worcester victory, should have been the passing of their bill for an amended representa- tion, and the dissolution of the Parliament in which they sat. In the restless anxiety of the thoughtful Vane, which followed close upon that event, might be detected the fear that there had already been a delay too long. No merely administrative glory, however great and brilliant, can be expected to produce a lasting beneficial impression on the minds or the con- dition of a people. The government of the new form had now brought to a successful issue its struggle for existence : scattered or prostrate enemies on all sides bore witness to the solid foundations it had laid. The next, the great- est, and most serviceable stone of the super- structure, should have been a fearless appeal to the people. More was to be gained, as events will show hereafter, by trusting than by distrusting them. They had now, moreover, the indisputable right to demand what such a course was only the first step to new political institutions, such as Vane's later experience inculcated, to be founded on the principles of the old, and in which should be kept, as far as it was possible, the spirit of those fundamental laws and usages to which they had been for centuries accustomed, and under which, in their purer shapes, they had grown in civiliza- tion and in virtue. Assuming, on the other hand, the injustice of such demands, and the inexpediency of granting them, what was the single security left to the new commonwealth, even in the midst of all its triumphs 1 Nothing but the sword that had struck for them ; noth- ing but the force which, obedient to an impulse from without, might as readily answer to a bid- ding from within. Here lurked the danger that was mightiest, because least seen. The ser- pent that had the deadliest sting for the new commonwealth lay coiled and cherished within its own bosom. Every man in that army, which now rested, after its loftiest and last triumph, within a few days' march of London, should have been made, in his very first hour of con- sciousness of victory, to feel that his sword had at length become useless, for that higher duties awaited its gallant owner. The great invita- tion of citizenship should have pierced like a trumpet into every tent : You have won the priv- ileges of freemen. Come now, and actively parti- cipate in them ! The course of events to which our narrative turns will present, towards the just apprecia- tion of the various great questions involved in this momentous subject, a series of sad, though salutary illustrations. Within a few hours after the news from Worcester reached London, soul-stirring de- spatches from Cromwell were read from the speaker's chair to the assembled Commons, and from every chapel in the vast city to its crowded and excited congregation. " We beat the enemy," they said, " from hedge to hedge, till we beat them into Worcester. The dispute | was long and very near at hand, and often at ! push of pike from one defence to another . . . We fought in the streets of the town together for three hours' space ; but in the end we beat the enemy totally. . . We pursued him to his royal fort, which we took, and have beaten in- deed his whole army. . . When we took his fort, we turned his own guns upon him . . . This hath been a very glorious mercy, and as stiff a con- test for four or five hours as ever I have seen. Both your old forces, and those new raised, have behaved themselves with very great cour- | age ; and He that made them come out, made them willing to fight for you. . . We have seven thousand prisoners, many of them officers and noblemen of quality. . . If this provoke those that are concerned in it to thankfulness, and the Parliament to do the will of Him who had done his will for it and for the nation whose good pleasure is to establish the nation and the change of the government, by making the peo- ple so willing to the defence thereof, and so signally to bless the endeavours of your ser- vants in this late great work I am bold hum- bly to beg that all thoughts may tend to the pro- moting of His honour who hath wrought so great salvation ; and that the fatness of these continued mercies may not occasion pride and wantonness, as formerly the like hath done to a chosen nation, but that the fear of the Lord, even for his mercies, may keep an authority and a people so prospered and blessed, and witnessed unto, humble and faithful, and that justice and righteousness, mercy and truth, may flow from you as a thankful return to our gracious God."* The earnest and loud amens which these characteristic phrases and adjurings drew forth from crowded congregations of the faithful, were echoed along the less crowded benches of the Commons ; and well had it been for the members assembled there, as in all probability for posterity to come, if upon such fervent thanks, so simply and honestly given to their great general, they had been content to rest their gratitude to him (already laden as he was with more worldly testimonies of the richness of their bounty), and on the instant proceeded to offer to the Providence that had again bless- ed with victory the cause which engaged his arms, the fittest and most "thankful return" which free men could make, by inviting their fellow-countrymen to partake of the blessings so triumphantly won, and by fixing on the broad and strong basis of popular consent, sympathy, and regard, their new fabric of Republican gov- ernment. For the servants of that govern- ment, it should have been enough in any case to know that they had done their duty, and de- served well of their country. Anything beyond this could indeed serve the purposes of " pride * From a newspaper of the time. Sev. Proc. in Parlia- ment, Sept. 4th to Sept. llth. This last despatch was de- livered to the House by Major Cobbet, a man of much spirit and resolution, who produced with it a collar of SS., be- longing to young Charles, and his garter, both which he had taken in the royal tent. A characteristic postscript at the close of the despatch he bore, evidenced at once Crom- well's regard for the interests of his officers, and the legiti- mate means by which he achieved influence with them. " Your officers," it ran, " behaved themselves with much honour in this service ; and the person who is the bearer hereof was equal in the performance of his duty to most that served you that day." An estate of a hundred a year was on this voted to Cobbet. OLIVER CROMWELL. 493 and wantonness" alone. The writer, whose duty it is to record the proceedings of the time, can only mention the vote of the House at this memorable crisis with a feeling of reluctance akin to shame. To the Lord-general Cromwell an estate in land of four thousand a year was voted,* and a royal residence, the palace of Hampton Court, was ordered to be prepared for his future abode. Nor these alone. The honour of the chancel- lorship of the University of Oxford was at the same time conferred upon him ; and a deputa- tion of four of the first members of the govern- ment of that government which should have held its least powerful member of higher digni- ty and account than its most successful soldier- servant were appointed to meet and congrat- ulate the lord-general at Aylesbury, on his way to the capital, with every form of honour and subservience. By the same votes, a series of estates, descending in value from 2000 to 300 a year, were voted respectively to Ireton, Lambert, Monk, Whaley, Okey, and Alured.* The instructions given to the commissioners of congratulation complete this unworthy pic- ture. Whitelock and Lisle, the lord-keepers of the seal ; Oliver St. John, chief-justice of England ; and Sir Gilbert Pickering, a coun- celler of state, having been named for the ser- vice, were thus addressed from the speaker's chair :f " You are, in the name of Parliament, to congratulate his lordship's^ good recovery of health after his dangerous sickness, and to take notice of his unwearied labours and pains in the late expedition into Scotland for the ser- vice of this Commonwealth ; of his diligence in prosecution of the enemy when he fled into England ; of the great hardships and hazards he hath exposed himself to, and particularly at the late fight at Worcester ; of the prudent and faithful managing and conducting throughout this great and important affair, which the Lord from heaven hath so signally blessed, and crown- ed with so complete and glorious an issue : of all which you are to make known to his lord- ship that the Parliament hath thought fit by you to certify their good acceptance and great sat- isfaction therein, and for the same you are to return, in the name of the Parliament and Com- mon wealth of England, their most hearty thanks, as also to the rest of the officers and soldiers, for their great and gallant services done to the Commonwealth. You are likewise to let his lordship know, that since, by the great blessing of God upon his lordship's and the army's en- deavours, the enemy is so totally defeated, and the state of affairs, as well in England as in * Ludlow urges, in extenuation of this vote, that the present income, in addition to his old grant of 2500 a year, was meant to keep Cromwell steady (a difficult matter, re- quiring heavy ballast) in obligation to his duty, or to "leave him without excuse if he should depart from it" (vol. i. , p. 371). If this was the motive, it adds to the short- sightedness of the entire proceeding. History and human nature, to say nothing of common justice to the common people, should have dictated a different method. t To Ireton, two thousand a year was voted ; Lambert had a thousand a year j Monk and Whaley, five hundred ; Okey, three hundred ; and Alured, two. In the following year, Harrison received five hundred a year; Lord Grey of Groby, a thousand ; Reynolds, five hundred ; and Joice, a aundred. Journals. t The vote bears date the 9th Sept., 1651-2. t) Cromwell, as 1 have before stated, held a patent of peerage, though he never availed himself of it. The pres- ent title was one of courtesy. Scotland, such as may very well dispense with his lordship's continuance in the field, they do desire his lordship, for the better settlement of his health, to take such rest and repose as he shall find most requisite and conducing there- unto ; and for that purpose, to make his repair to and residence at or within some few miles of this place, whereby also 'he Parliament may have the assistance of his presence in the great and important consultations for the farther set- tlement of this commonwealth which they are now upon."* In farther testimony of a thank- ful acceptance by the government of the great and faithful services performed by the lord-gen- eral, the commissioners had to acquaint him that an act had been passed, not only to do hon- our to this victory of Worcester on one special and early day throughout the three kingdoms,! but also to appoint an annual commemoration of the victory on the 3d of September " for all time to come."f The triumphant soldier for whom all these honours were designed was meanwhile in slow progress with his army towards London. The excitement of the battle was still strong upon him. " That Cromwell," said Hugh Peters,* * Journals ; and see Parliamentary Hist., vol. xx., p. 48. t To render this practicable everywhere on the same day, the 24th of September was named. Journal}. e o eptemer was name. ourna}. t The treatment of the Royalists captured in this great battle deserves mention. Among the prisoners were the ue o amon ; e ars o ery, auerae Cleveland ; Sir Timothy Featherstonehaugh, Gen. Massey, Captain Benbow, and the mayor and sheriff of Worcester Derby. Featherstonehaugh, and Benbow were tried by court- martial at Chester, and suffered in October. Benbow was bleeding wounds, had led the distracted Charles, after thi fatal fight, to the outlet of escape he won ; and when the axe descended, prayers were on his lips for God's blessing 1 to his king, to his wife (the famous countess in " Peveril of the Peak"), his " dear Mall, and Ned, and Billy" the chil- ren who were left to mourn him. His scaffold bad been rected in his own town of Bolton-le-Moors. Of his fellow- prisoners, so selected as above, I may add brief mention. Nine days after the victory, the Duke of Hamilton died of his wounds. Massey and Middleton escaped from the Tow- er, and reached France. Lauderdale was kept in prison till the Restoration; and Rothes was not liberated till the the exceptions in Cromwell's Act of Oblivion for Scotland in 1654. The first-named earl, however, was suffered to go to the Continent. This detail is, on the whole, most favourable to the spirit of clemency and forbearance which generally distinguished the government of the Common- wealth; and however much we may deplore what seems a partial and unjust severity in the first cases referred to, it is only fair to presume (in the absence of any of the details of their court-martials) that a special reason existed for it. I grieve to have to state that the spirit of mercy is by no means equally apparent in the treatment of the inferior prisoners. The greater part of the common soldiers taken were sent to the Plantations, and fifteen hundred were granted to the Guinea merchants, and employed to work in the mines of Africa. This had been the policy of Crom- well in Ireland, and he followed it up in like manner at . tectorate shared the same fate. s> At this time Cromwell's chaplain. See Ludlow, vol. ii., p. 447. 494 BRITISH STATESMEN. " would make himself KING." That such was the great conception with which the mind of Cromwell heaved at last, no reasonable doubt can be entertained. Whether, till now, such sovereign aspirations had descended on him whether, before this period, his vast position as the chief director of one of the mightiest move- ments the world had known, contented him is perhaps a problem forever hopeless of en- tire solution. There is one thing certain, that it contented him no longer. The great prize hung glittering within his reach the tempta- tion of it had entered his soul and the only restraint or check that could have been laid on his power of seizing it was already wellnigh neutralized by the statesmen at Whitehall. At the head of thousands of armed men, whose zeal had been always guided to victory by his genius who looked up to him with implicit faith and unbounded admiration, and by whom his ears were saluted with loftier and more rev- erent adulation* than ever charmed the sense of a descendant of a hundred kings he was now on his way to where more than the hon- ours of royalty itself awaited him : the splen- dours of a regal palace, the subservience of the mightiest in the land, the thanks and blessings of the low. It ceases to be a matter of won- der that he should have shown unusual exulta- tion ; that in his steps were uncontrollable buoyancy and eagerness of anticipation ; that the "golden round'' which at last played visi- bly above his brows, should have betrayed him into forgetfulness of his profounder habits of concealment and self-control ; and that his Re- publican chaplain, watching all signs and por- tents as he moved along, should have exclaim- ed to wondering companions, " That man would make himself our KING !"t The Parliamentary commissioners met the conqueror at a short distance from Aylesbury. His excitement had been brought under some subduement ; but yet the air of courtesy and condescension with which he received these carriers of honours had a regal stamp upon it. "VVhitelocke has himself unconsciously de- scribed it. On the llth of September, he tells us in his " Memorials,'':): " the four members went from Aylesbury on the way the general was to come, and met him, and delivered their message to him from the Parliament. The general received them with all kindness and respect, and after salutations and ceremonials past, he rode with them 'cross the fields, where Mr. Winwood's hawks met them ; and the gen- eral, with them and many officers, went a little out of the way a hawking, and came that night to Aylesbury. There they had much discourse * Despatches from the general officers conclude after this fashion : " We humbly lay ourselves with these thoughts, in this emergency, at your excellency's feet." The minis- ters of Newcastle make their humble addresses to his "godly wisdom," and submit their "suits to God and his excellency." Petitioners from different counties solicit him to mediate for them to the Parliament, "because God had not put the sword in his hand iu vain." t Ludlow distinctly tells us that, among other actions denoting his treacherous purpose at this period, instead of acknowledging the services of those who came from all parts to assist against the common enemy, though he knew they had deserved as much honour as himself and the standing army, " he frowned upon them," and the very next day af- ter the fight, dismissed and sent them home, well knowing that an experienced militia was more likely to obstruct than to second him in his ambitious designs t P. 448. (and my Lord-chief-justice St. John more than all the rest*) with the general, and they sup- ped together. The general gave to each of them that were sent to him a horse and two Scots prisoners, for a present and token of his thank- ful reception of the Parliament's respect to him in sending them to meet and congratu- late him." Our grave memorialist adds, that his horse was a very handsome, gallant young nag of good breed, and one of his prisoners a gentleman of quality. He gave their lib- erty to both prisoners, and passes to return to Scotland. The day following this the lord-general en- tered London. " He came," says Whitelocke, " in great solemnity and triumph, accompanied with the four commissioners of Parliament, many chief officers of the army, and others of quality. There met him in the fields the speak- er of Parliament, the lord-president, and many members of Parliament and of the council of state ; the lord-mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen of London ; the militia, and many thousand others of quality. There was a great guard of soldiers, horse and foot, and multitudes of peo- ple in the fields and in the streets. He was entertained all the way as he passed to his house with volleys of great and small shot, and loud acclamations and shouts of the people."! All which, observes Ludlow in his memoirs, tended not a little to heighten the spirit of this haughty gentleman. Heightened his spirit might be ; but he had again, with inimitable craft and skill, assumed the old garb of sanctity and patience. His de- sign was complete and safely planned, but the machinery for its action was not ready yet. Accordingly, in these triumphant passages of his entry into the capital, we learn from White- locke that " he carried himself with great affa- bility and seeming humility, and, in all his dis- courses about the business of Worcester, would seldom mention anything of himself, but of the gallantry of the officers and soldiers, and gave (as was due) all the glory of the action unto God." In the same apparently unselfish spirit, but in reality shaped and fashioned for his most selfish ends, was the conduct of this crafty soldier on taking his seat in Parliament for the first time after his return. It is marked in a memorable note by Whitelocke, referring to the 16th of September. " Cromwell sat in the House, and the speaker made a speech to him, and gave him the thanks of the House for his great services. . . . Cromwell and most of the members of Parliament, and divers command- ers of the army, were feasted by the lord-may- or in London. . . . The Parliament resumed the debate touching- a new representative. t" This " new representative," the reader need not be told,$ was the act which was to put a period to the sittings of this famous assembly, and to call * St. John, it is unnecessary 1o remind the reader, was Cromwell's kinsman, and deeper in his confidence than any other man of the time. t A journalist of the time (Nouvelles Ordinaires de Lon- dres, published in French, by authority of the council of state) adds, that it was at Acton the speaker and the au- thorities swelled the conqueror's train ; and that it was in a " coach of state" that Cromwell entered the city, where he " was received with alt possible acclamations of joy." t Memorials, p. 485. $ See Life of Vane, p. 309. OLIVER CROMWELL. 495 together a new Parliament, on the improved basis of an extended and popular suffrage. Cromwell, in resuming his Parliamentary du- ties by a revival of this debate, at once fixed public attention on the weak point of the pres- ent government, and diverted it from any sus- picion of his own designs. The wily blow had been in some sort warded off by the previous ! movements of Vane ;* but it fell heavily still. There was another measure which he forced ! upon the House, with a like dishonest aim, and j which finds mention by Whitelocke in the rec- ord of the same day's proceedings : " Debate of an act of oblivion and general pardon, with some expedients for satisfaction of the soldiery and the ease of the people."! In other words, the all-powerful conqueror, out of the first ex- citement of gratitude in the midst of which he stood, forced from the reluctant statesmen their | assent to a resolution of amnesty so wide, that it almost struck at the root of the Common- wealth. $ It was, in effect, resolved, that all political offences committed before the battle of Worcester should be forgiven, with the ex- ception of certain cases, which seemed to de- mand the visitation of public justice : a decis- ion which, though it implied a gross injustice to those who had already been mulcted heavily, relieved the Royalists from all apprehension of farther penalties. Cromwell, in this, served a twofold purpose. He largely increased the number of his personal friends, and, taking ad- vantage of the opposition of the chief members of the government, he was able to increase the number of their personal enemies. Proscrip- tion and confiscation are at al! times admirable charges to build a prejudice upon. It was not the least of his incidental advantages, more- over, that he considerably weakened the re- sources of the Republican exchequer. At this crisis, too, it was, that a higher than human power gave still greater impulse and practical efficacy to his vast design. On the 8th of December the fatal news reached Lon- don of the sudden death of the gallant and vir- tuous Ireton. It snapped the last bond which could, in the last extremity, have bound Crom- well to his duty, or imposed restraint on his parricide ambition. Mrs. Hutchinson tells us, that on the very eve of this calamity, "Ireton had determined to come over to England, in order to divert Cromwell from his destructive course." Whatever truth or error there may be in this assertion, it indicates at least the in- flexible sentiments of this famous person. His last public action in regard to the Common- wealth was worthy of his entire life. When the vote was transmitted to him, immediately after the Worcester victory, by which he re- ceived an estate of two thousand a year, he * See the detail of them in the Memoir of Vane, where the present subject is treated at much greater length. t Memorials, p. 485. t They assented, Ludlow observes, "the Parliament be- ing unwilling to deny Cromwell anything for which there was the least colour of reason." Vol. ii., p. 448. 4 Whitelocke says of him that he was " very stiff in his ways and purposes ;" a quality our supple lawyer could scarcely understand or appreciate the value of. ""lie was," he ymiceeiis, "of good abilities for council as well as action, and made much use of his pen. . . Cromwell had a great opinion of him, and no man could prevail so much, or order him so far, as Ireton could. . . He was stout in the field, and wary and prudent in his counsel, and exceedingly for- ward as to the business of a commonwealth." alone, of all whom such grants enriched, refu- sed acceptance. In the spirit of the antique days of Roman virtue,* he answered to the Par- liament that their gift was unacceptable to him. " They had many just debts," he added, " which he desired they would pay before they made any such presents ; that he had no need of their land, and therefore would not have it ; and that he should be more contented to see them doing the service of the nation than so liberal in dis- posing of the public treasure."! His death, Whitelocke afterward tells us, struck a sadness into Cromwell. This may well be doubted. The first momentary grief which such tidings must have caused, appears to have been ab- sorbed at once in those projects of ambition from which the single remaining check had been thus suddenly and opportunely snatched away. His next thought, after the mournful ti- dings, was not of grief, but glory. The body of Ireton was ordered in deference to the wish- es of "the lord-general and of some of his re- lations," who, according to Ludlow, " were not ignorant of his vast designs now on foot" to he brought over to England, and to be laid, af- ter a magnificent funeral at the public charge, among the tombs of kings, in the Abbey of Westminster. And, detailing this, Ludlow ex- claims, with affectionate and high-souled enthu- siasm, that if the great deceased could have foreseen what was thus done, he would cer- tainly have made it his desire that his body might have found a grave where his soul left it, so much did he despise those pompous and expensive vanities, having erected for himself a more glorious monument in the hearts of good men by his affection to his country, his abilities of mind, his impartial justice, his dili- gence in the public service, and his other vir- tues, which were a far greater honour to his memory than a dormitory among the ashes of kings. But if any doubt remained that grief at this event held no supremacy in the breast of Crom- well, and that the event itself did not rather clear the great path before him, it is set at rest by a remarkable incident, which dates on the second day after the news reached London. On the 10th of December, Cromwell summoned and held a meeting at the speaker's house, of those friends, military and civil, who were sup- posed to be well affected towards his own po- litical views. The two or three honest men who attended must have been startled at the question first propounded there, but the major- ity of the meeting had few natural emotions to thrust in the way of anything that either hon- esty or dishonesty might propose. They were lawyers chiefly ; and Whitelocke, one of them, has happily left on record some detail of what passed. The ground which Cromwell took in address- ing these assembled gentlemen was, " that now the old king being dead, and his son being de- feated, he held it necessary to come to a set- tlement of the nation," and, in order thereunto, " he had requested this meeting, that they to- * Bishop Burnet likened him to Cassius. t Biog. Britt., 3109. Ludlow adds, " And truly I believe he was in earnest ; for as he was always careful to husband those things that belonged to the state to the best advan- tage, so was he most liberal in employing his owu purse and person in the public service." Memoirs, vol. i., p. 371. 496 BRITISH STATESMEN. gether might consider and advise what was fit to be done, and presented to the Parliament." By what pretension, it may be asked, could a servant of the Republic thus presume to call its stability in question 1 It is clear that, in the mere act of doing it, he was guilty of treason to the government then existing, and of which he was himself a member. Whitelocke tells us that a " great many" were at the meeting ..." divers members of Parliament, and some chief officers of the army." But Bradshaw would not attend, nor Vane, nor Marten, nor Scot, nor Blake, nor Harrington. Ludlow, by the wily craft of Cromwell, was in a sort of honourable banishment in Ireland, and what once was the soul of Ireton lay a senseless clod on that distant shore. The meeting was obvi- ously summoned in defiance of the council of the Commonwealth ; only the lawyers who be- longed to it, and who would as readily belong to anything else, attended. It is clear that all who were emphatically called the statesmen held aloof from it ; and it would be an instance of their forgetfulness of duty, at once mar- vellous and irreconcilable with their previous character and actions, to have suffered such a meeting to go on, presuming that they knew its object, were it not a proof more certain still, that in a sudden and general, and now, for the first time, visible and declared defection of the army from their cause, they had lost all pres- ent power of prevention. To the PEOPLE re- mained their last appeal, and this they had now resolved to make ; too late, alas ! for present success, but not too late for a lesson to poster- ity. The speaker of the House of Commons open- ed the conference. " My lord," he said, ad- dressing Cromwell, " this company were very ready to attend your excellency, and the busi- ness you are pleased to propound to us is very necessary to be considered. God hath given marvellous success to our forces under your command ; and if we do not improve these mercies to some settlement, such as may be to God's honour and the good of this Common- wealth, we shall be very much blameworthy." Hereupon, one of the few honest men who were present, but who was not more honest than gullible, Major-general Harrison, interposed a few words, which are enough to express the delusions already widely spread among the Re- publican officers as to the possibility of erecting a democracy of saints on the ruins of civil au- thority.* " I think," he remarked, " that which my lord-general hath propounded is to advise as to a settlement both of our civil and spiritual liberties, and so that the mercies which the Lord hath given unto us may not be cast away. How this may be done is the great question." And now much might have arisen from this of a very awkward bearing on the designs of Cromwell, had it not been for the lucky inter- position of that most grave and accomplished lawyer, the Lord-commissioner Whitelocke. " It is a great question, indeed," he observes, " and not suddenly to be resolved ; yet it were pity that a meeting of so many able and worthy persons as I see here should be fruitless. I should humbly offer, in the first place, whether it be not requisite to be understood in what way this settlement is desired, whether of an ab- solute republic, or with any mixture of monarchy ?" This was, to use a homely expression, hitting the nail on the right head, and accordingly, with equal force and promptitude, Cromwell follow- ed up the blow. "My Lord-commissioner Whitelocke," he exclaimed, " hath put us upon the right point. It is, indeed, my meaning that we should consider whether a republic, or a mixed monarchical government, will be best to be settled ; and," he added, with that careless air which so often veiled the profoundest work- ings of ambition in him, "if anything monarchi- cal, then in whom that power shall be placed ?" The discussion thus fairly launched, the various speakers embarked in it without farther hesitation. Sir Thomas Widdrington (who was in so far honestly disposed to monarchy that he had resigned the commission of the great seal upon the passing of that memorable vote* which should have brought these ingeni- ous gentlemen debaters within the penalties of treason) at once, with much candour a great deal too much for Cromwell thus tendered his opinion : " I think a mixed monarchical gov- ernment will be most suitable to the laws and people of the nation ; and if anything monarchi- cal, I suppose we shall hold it most just to place that power in one of the sons of the late king." Cromwell betraying some uneasiness at this, his friend Colonel Fleetwood, who afterward married the widow of Ireton, and was a man of reasonable, but not very strong inclinations to a republic, advanced to his relief, and again generalized the discussion after this vague fash- ion : " I think that the question whether an ab- solute republic or a mixed monarchy is best to be settled in this nation will not be very easy to be determined." Upon this, the lord-chief- justice, Oliver Saint John, offered a remark of much general force and no particular applica- tion, which was all the better for his great cousin and confidant Cromwell : " It will be found," he said, " that the government of this nation, without something of monarchical power, will be very difficult to be so settled as not to shake the foundation of our laws and the liber- ties of the people." The speaker chimed in with this : " It will breed a strange confusion," he remarked, " to settle a government of this ' nation without something of a monarchy." He had scarcely made the remark, however, when a thoroughly honest man, of short-sighted zeal, but most sincere purpose, turned round to St. John, and put this startling question : " I be- seech you, my lord, why may not this, as well as other nations, be governed in the way of a republic?" The Lord-commissioner White- locke made reply to it : " The laws of England are so interwoven with the power and practice of monarchy, that to settle a government with- out something of monarchy would make so great an alteration in the proceedings of our laws, that you have scarce time to rectify, nor can we well foresee, the inconveniences which * Harrison's faith in Cromwell was (and the other Re- publican enthusiasts in the army shared it), that he " pre- tended to love and favour a sort of men mho acted upon high- tr principles than those of civil liberty." * " THAT THE OFFICE OF KINO IN THIS NATION, OR TO HAVE THE POWER IN A SINGLE PERSON, IS UNNECESSARY, BURDENSOME, AND DANGEROUS TO THE LIBERTY, SAFE- TY, AND PUBLIC INTEREST OF THE PEOPLE." OLIVER CROMWELL. 497 will arise thereby." Most shallow, learned, and lawyer-like reply ! The only other man who seems to have spoken with an appearance of honesty, rose after it had been delivered, and frankly observ- ed that it was unintelligible to him. " I do not," added Colonel Whaley, "well understand matters of law, but it seems to me the best way not to have anything of monarchical power in the settlement of our government ; and if we should resolve upon any, whom have we to pitch upon 1 The king's eldest son hath been in arms against us, and his second son is likewise our enemy." If Whaley here intended, however (for his close relationship to Cromwell and his subsequent crawling subservience to him cannot fail to in- duce suspicion), merely to narrow the question of a kingly successor to some great man taken from the people as it is clear that Cromwell throughout the meeting desired Widdrington foiled the attempt by this earnest and honest proposition : " But the late king's third son, the Duke of Gloucester, is still among us, and too young to have been in arms against us, or infected with the principles of our enemies." Whitelocke, upon this, as if to shift the ques- tion once more to some point of general disa- greement, and so relieve the uneasiness of Cromwell, revived one of the old proposals. " There may," he said, " be a day given for the king's eldest son, or for the Duke of York, his brother, to come into the Parliament, and, upon such terms as shall be thought fit and agreeable, both to our civil and spiritual liberties, a settle- ment may be made with them." Cromwell, however, who had been restless and dissatisfied as these latter views were ur- ged, here interposed with a statement of some force and brevity, and obviously designed to wind up the conference. " That" he said, in reference to Whitelocke's last remark, " will be a business of more than ordinary difficulty ; but really, I think, if it may be done with safety and preservation of our rights, both as English- men and Christians, THAT A SETTLEMENT WITH SOMEWHAT OF MONARCHICAL POWER IN IT WOULD BE VERY EFFECTUAL." The memorialist concludes his account by saying that " much other discourse was by divers gentlemen then present held upon other points, and too large to be here inserted. Gen- erally, the soldiers were against anything of monarchy, though every one of them was a monarch in his own regiment or company ; the lawyers were generally for a mixed monarchical government, and many were for the Duke of Gloucester to be made king ; but Cromwell still put off that debate, and came off to some other point ; and in conclusion, after a long debate, the com- pany parted without coming to any result at all ; only Cromwell discovered by this meeting the inclinations of the persons that spake, for which hejished, and made use of what he then discerned." But, if words bear any meaning, he had also, while doing this, revealed his own inclinations. No man who attended that meeting could there- after doubt that he was for a " settlement with somewhat of monarchical power in it." The guardians of the Republic had not been idle meanwhile. On the 18th of the preceding month,* after a long and severe struggle, the * See Parl. Hist., vol. n., p. 78. RR R details of which have found a more appropriate place in another portion of this work,* a bill was passed to limit the duration of the Parlia- ment then sitting at Westminster to the 3d of November, 1654. Numerous and close divis- ions attested the energy and excitement of both parties in the House at this memorable crisis. Each alternately triumphed. Cromwell pro- fessed to have achieved his desire by forcing on the House a defined period for its dissolution ; the statesmen had most assuredly achieved theirs in accompanying the act with a proviso, that, for a certain period at least, the new elec- tions should not interfere with the right of the present members to retain their privileges and seats. This was made the bitterest charge against them afterward, and Cromwell relied upon it for the main justification of his subse- quent disgraceful dissolution of them. But they were entitled, as events well proved, to have reasoned on the matter as they did. The first occasion for trusting the people having been lost, it became a duty of deep and deliberate caution how best to select or shape the second. The suspected intrigues of Cromwell and his orBcers the half-declared discontents which pervaded the great body of the army the birth of the venomous reptiles that had only started into power from the warmth of the bosoms against which they now traitorously turned these warned the founders and guardians of the Commonwealth that, the first opportunity of entire faith in the people having been lost, the second had not yet arrived. Marten's simile here came again to their aid.f When " Moses was found upon the river, and brought to Pha- raoh's daughter, she took care that the mother might be found out, to Whose care he might be committed to be nursed. . . . Their common- wealth was yet an infant, of a weak growth, and a very tender constitution ; and, therefore, his opinion was, that nobody could be so fit to nurse it as the mother who brought it forth ; and that they should not think of putting it in any other hands until it had obtained more years and vigour." Arguing from this, they held, that to leave the cradle of the Republic unwatched by some stanch and reliable friends, at a time when the sword flashed danger above it, and safety was not altogether discernible in the features or attitude of the great mass of the people, would be a danger to its life and growth little short of the treason that threatened it more openly. In all this Vane does' not seem to have thoroughly concurred. He would now have acted in manly reparation of what he felt to have been the first error of the fathers of the Commonwealth, and would have trusted with a faith that was honourable to his high spirit and pure soul to the beneficial result of some general convention of the people or of the people's just representatives. Beyond a doubt he was overruled ; but whether wisely or not, in the present instance, admits of ques- tion, since every day that had passed since the Worcester victory had served to accumulate greater dangers and difficulties around the paths and policy of the statesmen. The bill they passed instead was at least a generous and (if the expression is allowed) a fearless com- promise. Reserving for the councils of the Life of Vane. t See Life of Marten, p. 379. 493 BRITISH STATESMEN. Commonwealth the wisdom and experience of I the men who had framed them first, it threw, at the same time, into the hands of the people the power of sending into the House a large majority of their own. The lofty motives and services of its leading advocates should be a warrant for the justice of all else which they designed to accomplish hy it ; and in proof of these lofty motives, little is necessary to the readers of this work beyond a mention of their names. Besides Vane, there were Bradshaw, Marten, Harrington, Scot, Sidney, Hazlerig, Neville, and Blake. On the opposite side were ranged Cromwell, all his military myrmidons, and a decided majority of the lawyers. The next grand question taken up by the statesmen struck at the root of Cromwell's pow- er. This was a reduction of the army. Never had the number of men in arms r under the direc- tion of the English government, been so great as at the period of the battle of Worcester.* The number of the land forces amounted to up- ward of fifty thousand men, and the monthly as- sessment necessary for their support amounted to a hundred and twenty thousand pounds. With- in six days after the battle of Worcester, Vane had commenced the agitation of this question, on a motion that Parliament should instantly take into consideration how to decrease the charge of the Commonwealth ; and within a few weeks he had, to a certain extent, achiev- ed his point. The forces were then diminished, we find, by upward of a fourth, and the amount of assessment stood at ninety thousand pounds. Five months passed, and the subject was again in discussion. It appears, however, to have been brought to a temporary pause by a letter from Cromwell to the speaker, the mention of which, without any detail of its contents, is to be found in the journals of the time. With the lapse of two months more, we find the ques- tion once more revived ; and on the 12th of August, 1652, there is a resolution on the jour- nals that it be referred to the council of state to give an account, with all convenient speed, of the former vote respecting the retrenchment of the forces. * Exclusively of the forces on actual service in Ireland, Cromwell had at this time under his command thirty regi- ments of horse, one of dragoons, and eighteen of foot, which, computing by the standard of February, 1648, amounted to 10,440 horse and 24,000 foot : they certainly rather exceeded than fell short of this number. The insti- tution of the militia had fallen into disuse during the civil war, the militia regiments having been merged in the regu- lars. This institution had been handed down to us from our Saxon ancestors, and consisted of a certain number of the inhabitants of every county, chosen by lot for three years, officered by the lord-lieutenant, the deputy lieuten- ants, and principal landholders, who were exercised for a few days in each year, and were not compellable to march out of their own counties, except in cases of invasion or re- bellion. On the ceasing of the civil war, this institution was revived by an act of the llth of July, 1650, and again of the 28th of January, 1651. Each of these acts was in force for six months, and the last appears to have been suf- fered to expire. In contemplation, however, of the Scottish invasion, 3000 horse and 1000 dragoons, for six months, were voted to be added to the forces in lieu of the militia on the 8th of April ; and 4000 foot, for three months, on the 1st of August. On the 12th, intelligence of an actual inva- sion being received, an act passed through all its stages in that one day, for reviving and renewing the expired act concerning the militia, to continue in force till the 1st of December ; and it appears that the regiments of militia, being everywhere in arms, hindered the king's friends from assembling to support him. Three regiments of volunteers were also raised, to be employed on the present emergence. Godwin' t History. This seems to have decided Cromwell. Upon one burning purpose he instantly concen- trated all his energies and all his power. He declared open war upon the Parliament. He harangued his officers on the infirmities and self-seekings of its leading members. His own object, he declared, was equality, and a pure commonwealth, without a king, or permanent chief magistrate of any kind. He had sought the Lord, and divine symbols of grace had been manifested to him ! Their present governors were lazy, baleful, unclean men : ungrateful to the army, which had perilled all for them ; in- sensible to their God, who had Himself decla- red for England ! The kingdom of Christ was near, if the saints would only strike for it ! The same excitement which had descended on him at the eves of Worcester and Dunbar, promised him now no less a victory. On the 12th of August the very day on which, as I have stated, the fatal subject of military retrenchment was resumed in the House of Commons a council of officers was held at Whitehall.* On the 13th of August, a petition was presented to the Parliament by them, which no longerf limited its view to their own particular concerns, but comprehended a general survey of the affairs of the nation, and dictated, as from master to servant, what would be best and most wisely done. This petition is of too much importance in every sense to be omitted here. It began with stating that, having had divers meetings to seek the Lord, and to speak of the great things God had done for the Commonwealth, it had been set on their hearts as their duty to offer such things on behalf of their country as in their judgments and consciences might tend to its peace and well-being. In pursuance of this design, they therefore had, with one consent, thought fit humbly to present to the House the following particulars, desiring they might be ta- ken into early and serious consideration. First, that speedy and effectual means might be taken for the propagation of the Gospel ; that profane, scandalous, and ignorant ministers might be ejected, and men approved for godliness and gifts encouraged ; that a convenient mainte- nance might be provided for them ; and the une- qual, troublesome, and contentious way of tithes be taken away. Secondly, that a speedy and ef- fectual course might be pursued for the regula- tion of law, in matter, form, and administration, in all particulars in which it was needlessly vexatious, or burdensome to the people : for this purpose, they recommended that the re- sults already agreed on by the committee ap- pointed for that end might be without delay ta- ken into consideration, and that the committee might be encouraged to proceed. Thirdly, * Several Proceedings, No. 151. t Journals. Whitelocke, p. 516. I should mention, that on the 27th of the preceding January a petition had been presented from the council of war to the Parliament, a thing of ill example from officers with swords in their hands. But this related merely to arrears due to the army in Scot- land. It was referred to the committee of Parliament for military affairs ; and, by their recommendation, a bill was passed on tho 7th of April, directing the application of 150,000 to the discharge of those arrears. And, while on this subject, I may mention here, that in the following month Cromwell declined the prolongation of his commis- sion of lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and that, on the 9th of July, Fleetwood was appointed to the chief command of the forces in that country. OLIVER CROMWELL. 499 that a speedy and effectual course might be ta- ken, by act of Parliament or otherwise, that such as were profane, scandalous, or disaffect- ed in all places of authority and public trust, might be removed, and their places filled with men of good public affections and blameless lives, it being the desire of all good men that the magistrates, and such as have public trust, might be men of truth, fearing God, and hating covetousness. Fourthly, that a committee might be appointed in each county to redress the abuses of the excise. Fifthly, that such as had freely lent on the public faith, or deeply suffered for their constant and good affections to the public, might he considered, and a way found out to give them satisfaction ; and, first of all, the poorer sort, who were not able to subsist without it ; and this to be chiefly re- garded, before any more of the revenue should be given to particular persons. The sixth and that instant in the consideration of the House. The officers here would separate themselves from the common mass of popular petitioners. They set themselves up as a party in the state. They put forward their petition as a leader of opposition in Parliament puts forth an anti- ministerial resolution. Nor is it difficult to de- tect in it that anxiety for the predominance of " higher principles than those of civil liberty" in the councils of the state, which Harrison af- terward avowed to Ludlow had been the staple of Cromwell's eloquence and persuasion at the meetings of the military enthusiasts. It was carried into the House by a deputa- tion of six, every one of whom was Cromwell's creature : Commissary-general Whaley, Colo- nels Hacker, Barkstead, Okey, and Goffe, and Lieutenant-colonel Worsley. The authorities of the House received it with a prudent respect and consideration, which did not restrain, in seventh articles related to the arrears of the various quarters, the expression of widely dif- soldier, and the articles of war granted to the | ferent views. " Many," according to the sober enemy, which were by all means to be made good. Eighthly, that the whole revenue of the state might be brought into one treasury, and the account of receipts and disbursements be published yearly or half yearly. Ninthly, that, in regard of the present great affairs of the Par- liament, a committee might be appointed of persons not members, to consider of the charge and inconvenience that arose to the Common- wealth from monopolies, pluralities of places and profits, unnecessary places, and large sal- aries. Tenthly, that a way might be consider- ed of for a thorough and effectual suppressing of all vagabonds arid common beggars, by set- ting to work such as were capable, and provi- ding for the subsistence of such as through age and decrepitude were unable to relieve them- selves. Eleventhly, that effectual provision might be made that such as had served the Par- liament in the late wars should not be bereaved of the fruits of their industry by the exclusive nature of several corporations. Twelfthly, that, for the public satisfaction of the good people of this nation, speedy consideration might be had of such qualifications for future and successive Parliaments as should tend to the election only of such as were pious, and faithful to the inter- ests of the Commonwealth.* Insincerity and selfishness are most apparent in this petition. It bears very impressively upon it, in all its main features, the character of the source from which it issued. It is not that the requests urged in it are unjust, but that they are partial, and leave unsolicited, save by the most general phrase, those claims which only two months before had been urged in de- tail upon Parliament by thousands of the com- mon people,t and which were known to be at * This is taken from Several Proceedings, No. 151 ; and see Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. iii., p. 421. t In a most striking document which I find among the records of the time. Far different was this prayer from that of the discontented officers. It was " signed by many thou- sands," and began by setting forth, the " miseries of the war," which they had cheerfully endured, in the hope that " their rights and the fundamental laws (formerly corrupted by the king, with his instruments, the clergy, lawyers, and statesmen) would be restored, as was promised, by the Par- liament and army." The first section then asks for the res- toration of the " old law of the land" in all matters of at- tachment and trial, and that "whatsoever hath been done contrary thereunto, by committees, courts martial, high courts of justice, or the like, may be abolished." The sec- Whitelocke, who, it is to be observed, gener- ally limits his disapproval of Cromwell's acts to the mere desire that he had chosen other methods of advancing them, " many were un- satisfied with this petition, looking upon it as improper, if not arrogant, from the officers of the army to the Parliament their masters ; and ond solicits the jury trials in every case ; and the third, that " no man be compelled by oath to answer against him- self." The fourth requires, what is, after upward of two centuries, only feebly advancing in the House of Commons of our own day, the establishment of county courts. The words employed are memorable : " That all suits may be de- termined without appeal, by a prefixed time, in the hundred, or county courts by juries ; and no more tedious travelling to London ; nor vexation, and consumption of men's estates, by the chancery and other courts of Westminster ; nor fur- ther attendance upon committees ; nor long imprisonments ; that malefactors may have speedy trials ; that bail may not be denied where it ought to be taken ; that food and neces- saries may be provided for prisoners at the common charge, and no fees taken by jailers ; that all proceedings in law may be free from the parties to the officers." The fifth sec- tion remonstrates against various inequalities and absurdi- ties in punishments and in the administration of law ; and the sixth and seventh run in these memorable words : " That none be questioned or molested for matter of con- science or religion, the grounds of implacable trouble, and the very spawn of tyranny and superstition ; and that tithes sprung from the same root and tending to the same ends, and to the obstruction of tillage and industry, may also cease, and no enforced maintenance imposed in the place thereof ; and that copyholds and the like, and the Court of Wards, and unjust descents to the eldest son only, the prin- cipal remaining badges of the Norman Conquest, and main support of regal tyranny, may be taken away." Nor are the closing passages of this remarkable document less wor- thy of most attentive consideration. They express, with condensed wisdom and force, many of the worst grievances under which, to the shame of all the Parliaments that have since sat at Westminster be it spoken, the common people of England labour still, and the wiser and more prudent of their representatives still vainly struggle for. " That there be no imprisonment for debt" requires the eighth section, " but all estates be made liable to make satisfaction, NOR THE RICH TURN PRISONS INTO PLACES OF PROTECTION." The ninth and tenth solicit thus : " That none be pressed for war, the power of countries being sufficient to suppress all insurrections and foreign invasions. That TRADE BE FREE, and exempt from monopolies, and disburdening cus- toms, excise, and all charges ; and all public moneys to be equally raised." The last three sections are in these words: "That all sheriffs, justices, coroners, constables, and the like, be annually chosen by those of the place ; that all laws contrary to these fundamentals be repealed ; that Parliaments or common councils of England may be re- turned to the old course to be annually elected ; and satis- faction given to the nation in point of accounts ; and the public faith satisfied ; arrears of soldiers paid ; juries duly chosen ; registers appointed to ascertain all mortgages ami sale of lands ; care taken of the poor, and waste places as- signed for them ; the printing presset set at liberty." 500 BRITISH STATESMEN. Cromwell was advised* to stop this way of their petitioning by the officers of the army, with their swords in their hands, lest in lime it may come too home to himself. But he seemed to slight, or, rather, to have some design by it, in order to which he put them to prepare the way for him." Waiving all sense of any such pos- sible projects or designs, the authorities of the House acted with greater dignity. They re- solved to refer the petition to a committee con- sisting of Cromwell himself, Whitelocke, Lisle, the Earl of Pembroke, Marten, Scot, Harrison, and twenty-five other members, who were di- rected to inquire how many of the particulars in the petition were already under consideration ; how far they had been proceeded in ; and whether any new powers were necessary to enable the persons commissioned to proceed more effect- ually ; and to report accordingly. The speaker also, by the direction of the House, gave thanks to the petitioners, both for their good affections formerly displayed, and their care of the public expressed on the present occasion : and so ended the first act of the war between the Par- liament and the army, leaving with the states- men, beyond a possibility of doubt, the praise of superior generalship. Not for this did Cromwell relax in his efforts. It is, however, an indisputable test of the vio- lent, gratuitous, and most unjust character of the deed he had resolved, that we find every step in his course towards it beset with diffi- culties which in no other object of his life he had encountered, and which, if Parliament had been brave enough a little earlier to have placed con- fidence in the people, he would have found al- together insurmountable. It is not thus that historians have generally written thi-s history, or the details might scarcely have claimed a place here. The poor Rump, according to them, was merely contemptible. One kick, however careless or feeble, was the sufficient warrant for its disappearance, its dispersion, its death, its utter and final oblivion ! The first step taken in the House after the business of the military petition had reference to the bill for the dissolution of the Parliament, and the provision for future Parliaments in succession. A report was made by Vane from the committee to whom it had been intrusted, and the result was a dissolution of the grand committee, or committee of the whole House, which had sat on the bill at intervals for the last eleven months, and the sending back the measure itself to be perfected to the committee from whom they received the present report. The tendency of this was to simplify future proceedings on this important subject, and to bring them as speedily as possible to a close. And hardly was it done, before the question of military retrenchments again reared its formi- dable head. Vane and his friends rightly judg- ed, in thus striking through the army, power- ful as it was, for support in the sympathies of the people. It at least, if too late now for more immediate advantage, unfitted them for Crom- well's tyranny. On no subject did they feel with the statesmen so strongly as on this. And with reason ! Taxes had ground them to the earth, and without some instant diminu- tion of the military establishments, it was * By Whitelocke himself! ' vain even to talk of a fit remission of their burdens. It marks still the doubt, the anxiety, the fear of Cromwell, that the next step he took in his great game argues a new distrust of the ma- chinery he had been so long providing to work the designs of his ambition with. His project of usurpation upon the supreme power is un- swerving throughout ; but the extreme agita- tion with which, from side to side, he seeks differing means of achieving it, betrays the ut- ter falsehood of the pretence of public acqui- escence and desire to which tie afterward at- tempted to resort. At one instant we behold him trying the temper of the swords of his vet- eran Ironsides, at another exploring the quality of mettle that lurked beneath the gowns and wigs of the lawyers of the state. Thus the incident which awaits us now is a conference that passed between Cromwell and the Lord-commissioner Whitelocke. They met, by accident or design, on the evening of the 8th '. of November, in the present year, in a retired part of St. James's Park. The lord-general, on seeing the lord-commissioner, " saluted him with more than ordinary courtesy, and desired him to walk aside with him, that they might have some private discourse together." This private discourse Whitelocke set down in his diary, and after the Restoration it was given to the world. "My Lord Whitelocke," Cromwell began, " I know your faithfulness and engagement in the same good cause with myself and the rest of our friends, and I know your ability in judg- ment, and your particular friendship and affec- tion for me ; indeed, I am sufficiently satisfied in these things, and therefore I desire to advise with you in the main and most important affairs relating to our present condition. ... I have cause to be, and am, without the least scruple of your faithfulness ; and I know your kind- ness to me your old friend, and your abilities to serve the Commonwealth ; and there are enough besides me that can testify it. And I believe our engagements for this Common- wealth have been and are as deep as most men's ; and there never was more need of ad- vice, and solid, hearty counsel, than the present state of our affairs doth require." To this invitation for " solid, hearty counsel" in the specious name of the good cause, the pru- ' dent lawyer responded in general terms of cau- tion, and then added, " The goodnessof your own j nature and personal knowledge of me will keep you from any jealousy of my faithfulness." To this Cromwell, with many protestations of belief I and trust, discreetly rejoined. " I wish there was no more ground of suspicion of others than of you. I can trust you with my life, and the most secret matters relating to our business ; and to that end I have now desired a little pri- vate discourse with you ; and really, my lord, there is very great cause for us to consider the dangerous condition we are all in, and how to make good our station, to improve the mercies and successes which God hath given us, and not to be fooled out of them again, nor to be bro- ken in pieces by our particular jarrings and an- imosities one against another, but to unite our counsels, and hands, and hearts, to make good what we have so dearly bought, with so much OLIVER CROMWELL. 501 hazard, blood, and treasure ; and that, the Lori having given us an entire conquest over ou enemies, we should not now hazard all again by our private janglings, and bring those mis chiefs upon ourselves which our enemies coul never do." The lord-commissioner, flattered by this cor dial look of confidence, appears to have shown an instant disposition to enter into the heart o the business. " My lord," he said, " I look upon our present danger as greater than ever it was in the field, and (as your excellency truly ob serves) our proneness to destroy ourselves when our enemies could not do it. It is no strange thing for a gallant army as yours is, af ter full conquest of their enemies, to grow into factions and ambitious designs." " I have used," interposed Cromwell, " and shall use the utmost of my poor endeavours to keep them all in order and obedience." " Your excellen- cy," admitted Whitelocke, courteously, "hath done it hitherto even to admiration." Taking advantage of this, the lord-genera' proceeded to observe with much fervour, and a marvellous lack of shame, on the discontents he had himself cherished, for his own purposes, in the military councils. " Truly," he said, first answering to the lord-commissioner's com- pliment, " God hath blessed me in it exceed- ingly, and I hope will do so still. Your lord- ship hath observed most truly the inclinations of the officers of the army to particular factions, and to murmurings that they are not rewarded according to their deserts ; that others, who have adventured least, have gained most ; and they have neither profit, nor preferment, nor place in government, which others hold, who have undergone no hardships nor hazards for the Commonwealth ; and herein they have too much of truth ; yet their insolency is very great, and their influence upon the private sol- diers works them to the like discontent and murmurings. Then, as for the members of Parliament, the army begins to have a strange dis- taste against them, and I wish there were not too much cause for it ; and really their pride, ambi- tion, and self-seeking, engrossing all places of hon- our and profit to themselves and their friends, and their daily breaking forth into new and vi- olent parties and factions ; their delays of bu- siness, and designs to perpetuate themselves, and to continue the power in their own hands ; their meddling in private matters between par- ty and party, contrary to the institution of Par- liaments, and their unjustness and partiality in these matters, and the scandalous lives of some of the chief of them these things, my lord, do give too much ground for people to open their mouths against them, and to dislike them. Nor can they be kept within the bounds of justice, law, or reason, they themselves being the su- preme power of the nation, liable to no account to any, nor to be controlled or regulated by any other power, there being none superior, or co- ordinate with them : so that, unless there be some authority and power so full and so high as to re- strain and keep things in better order, and that may lie a check to these exorbitances, it will be impossi- ble, in human reason, to prevent our ruin." But the wily lawyer was not to be caught so fast. He admitted much, but kept more in re- serve. " I confess," he said, " the danger we are all in by these extravagances and inordi- nate powers is more than, I doubt, is generally apprehended. ... As to the members of Parlia- ment, I confess the greatest difficulty lies there ; your commission being from them, and they be- ing acknowledged the supreme power of the nation, subject to no control, nor allowing any appeal from them. Yet I am sure your excellen- cy will not look upon them as generally depraved ; too many of them are much to blame in those things you have mentioned, and many unfit things have passed among them ; but I hope well of the major part of them, when great matters come to a decision." Cromwell, upon this, with well-painted passion, made the show of an earn- est appeal to his lawyer - friend. "My lord, my lord, there is little hopes of a settlement to be made by them really there is not ; but a great deal of fear that they will destroy again what the Lord hath done graciously for them and us. We all forget God, and God will forget us, and give us up to confusion ; and these men will help it on, if they be suffered to proceed in their ways. Some course must be thought on to curb and restrain them, or we shall be ruined by them." Whitelocke quietly remarked to this, " We ourselves have acknowledged them the supreme power, and taken our commissions and authority in the highest concernments from them ; and how to curb them, after this, it will be hard to find out a way for it." This was the very point to which the ener- getic captain desired to bring his learned and most meditative associate. Flinging offall far- ther reserve, he frankly, boldly, and abruptly asked, " WHAT IF A MAV SHOULD TAKE UPON HIM TO BE KINOl" This question, be it observed, was addressed to one who stood high in the confidence of the leaders of the Republic, and who himself, in- deed, was one of its chief administrators. But no shadow of anger or remonstrance fell upon the treasonable thought. Most quiet and civil was the lord-commissioner's reply : "I think that remedy would be worse than the disease." Crom- well subjoined quickly, " Why do you think so 1" In his answer, most memorable for that, the thorough-paced master of law and stratagem soothed the excitement of the great soldier by pointing out to him all he MIGHT do, while he affected to advise him as to what should not be done. He " settled" on the instant a " draught" of the Protectorate ! " As to your own person, the title of king would be of no advantage, be- ause you have the full kingly power in you al- ready concerning the militia, as you are gener- al. As to the nomination of civil officers, those whom you think fittest are seldom refused ; and although you have no negative vote in the pass- ng of laws, yet what you dislike will not easily )e carried ; and the taxes are already settled, and in your power to dispose the money raised. And as to foreign affairs, though the ceremoni- al application be made to the Parliament, yet he expectation of good or bad success in it is rom your excellency, and particular solicita- ions of foreign ministers are made to you only ; so that I apprehend, indeed, less envy, and dan- ger, and pomp, but not less power, and real op- >ortunities of doing good, in your being gener- 1, than would be if you had assumed the title fking." 502 BRITISH STATESMEN. It is clear that the only sensible difference between the interlocutors in this famous dia- logue was one of time. Whitelocke's protec- torate would scarcely have been so sudden. But such a difference was more than enough for Cromwell. His active share in the conference ended at this point ; and in all that followed he was simply unrolling, for self-guidance on mi- nor matters, the entire map of the lord-com- missioner's plan. First meeting him with his own weapons, he fathomed the lawyer's view of the popular feel- ing of the nation. " I have heard," said Crom- well, " some of your profession observe, that he who is actually king, whether by election or descent, yet being once king, all acts done by him as king are as lawful and justifiable as by any king who hath the crown by inheritance from his forefathers ; and that, by an act of Parliament in Henry the Seventh's time, it is safer for those who act under a king, be his ti- tle what it will, than for those who act under any other power. And surely the power of a king is so great and high, and so universally un- derstood and reverenced by the people of this na- tion, that the title of it might not only indemni- fy, in a great measure, those that act under it, but likewise be of great use and advantage, in such times as these, to curb the insolence of those whom the present powers cannot control, or, at least, are the persons themselves who are thus insolent." Whitelocke, in answering this, more plainly insinuated his doubts as to time. "I agree in the general with what you are pleased to observe as to this title of king ; but whether for your excellency to take this title upon you as things now are, will be for the good and advantage either of yourself and friends, or of the Commonwealth, I do very much doubt, notwithstanding that act of Par- liament, 11 Hen. VII., which will be little re- garded, or observed to us by our enemies, if they should come to get the upper hand of us." Upon this the lord - general fairly asked, " What do you apprehend would be the danger of taking this title 1" And Whitelocke as fair- ly answered, " The danger, I think, would be this : One of the main points of controversy be- twixt us and our adversaries is, whether the government of this .nation shall be established in monarchy, or in a free state or common- wealth. And most of our friends have engaged with us upon the hopes of having the govern- ment settled in a free state ; and to effect that, have undergone all their hazards and difficul- ties, they being persuaded, though I think much mistaken, that under the government of a com- monwealth they shall enjoy more liberty and right, both as to their spiritual and civil con- cernments, than they shall under a monarchy, the pressures and dislike whereof are so fresh in their memories and sufferings. Now, if your excellency should take upon you the title of king, this state of your cause will be there- by wholly determined, and monarchy establish- ed in your person ; and the question will be no more, whether our government shall be by a monarch or by a free state, hut whether Crom- well or Stuart shall be our king and monarch. And that question, whereinbefore so great par- ties of the nation w-ere engaged, and which was universal, will by this means become, in effect, a private controversy only. Before it was national, What kind of government we should have 1 Now it will become particular, Who shall be our govern- or, whether of the family of the Stuarts, or of the family of the Cromicells 1 Thus the state of our controversy being totally changed, all those who were for a commonwealth (and they are a very great and considerable party), having their hopes therein frustrated, will desert you ; your hands will be weakened, your interests strait- ened, and your cause in apparent danger to be ruined." Here, however, all semblance of sincerity or fairness seems to vanish from the worthy lord- commissioner, and we are irresistibly called upon to remember the significant fact that the conference was not published till after the Res- toration. A slight preliminary interchange of compliment and courtesy first claims record. It ran thus : "CROMWELL. I confess you speak reason in this; but what other things can you propound that may obviate the present dangers and difficul- ties wherein we are all engaged 1 WHITE- LOCKE. It will be the greateat difficulty to find out such an expedient. I have had many things in my private thoughts upon this business, some of which, perhaps, are not fit or safe for me to communicate. CROMWELL. I pray, my lord, what are they 1 You may trust me with them ; there shall no prejudice come to you by any private discourse betwixt us. I shall never betray my friend ; you may be as free with me as with. your own heart, and shall never suffer by it. WHITELOCKE. I make no scruple to put my life and fortune into your excellency's hand ; and so I shall, if I impart these fancies to you, which are weak, and perhaps may prove offensive to your excellency ; therefore my best way will be to smother them. CROMWELL. Nay, I prithee, my Lorde Whitelocke, let me know them : be they what they will, they cannot be offensive to me, but I shall take it kindly from you ; there- fore, I pray, do not conceal those thoughts of yours from your faithful friend. WHITELOCKE. Your excellency honours me with a title far above me ; and since you are pleased to com- mand it, I shall discover to you my thoughts herein, and humbly desire you not to take in ill part what I shall say to you. CROMWELL. Indeed I shall not ; but I shall take it, as I said, very kindly from you. WHITELOCKE. Give me leave, then, first to consider your excellency's condition. You are environed with secret en- emies. Upon your subduing of the public en- emy, the officers of your army account them- selves all victors, and to have had an equal share in the conquest with you. The success which God hath given us hath not a little elated their minds ; and many of them are busy and of tur- bulent spirits, and are not without their designs how they may dismount your excellency, and some of themselves get up into the saddle ; how they may bring you down, and set up them- selves. They want not counsel and encourage- ment herein ; it may be from some members of the Parliament, who may be jealous of your power and greatness, lest you should grow too high for them, and in time overmaster them ; and they will plot to bring you down first, or to clip your wings. CROMWELL. I thank you that you so fully consider my condition ; it is a tes- OLIVER CROMWELL. 503 timony of your love to me, and care of me, and you have rightly considered it ; and I may say, without vanity, that in my condition yours is involved, and all our friends ; and those that plot my ruin will hardly bear your continuance in any condition worthy of you. Besides this, the cause itself may possibly receive some dis- advantage by the strugglings and contentions among ourselves. But what, -sir, are your thoughts for prevention of those mischiefs that hang over our heads 1" Those thoughts are then recorded thus ; and when they first saw the light, Charles II. had pardoned the safe rebellion of Whitelocke, and was revelling and rejoicing on his pensioned throne. " Pardon me, sir, in the next place, a little to consider the condition of the King of Scots. This prince being now by your valour, and the success which God hath given to the Parliament, and to the army under your com- mand, reduced to a very low condition, both he, and all about him, cannot but be very inclinable to hearken to any terms whereby their lost hopes may be revived of his being restored to the crown, and they to their fortunes and native country. By a private treaty with him you may secure yourself, and your friends and their fortunes ; you may make yourself and your posterity as great and perma- nent, to all human probability, as ever any subject was, and provide for your friends ; you may put such limits to monarchical power as will se- cure our spiritual and civil liberties, and you may secure the cause in which we are all en- gaged ; and this may be effectually done by having the power of the militia continued in yourself, and whom you shall agree upon after you. I propound, therefore, for you excellency to send to the King of Scots, and to have a pri- vate treaty with him for this purpose ; and I beseech you to pardon what I have said upon the occasion. It is out of my affection and service to your excellency and to all honest men ; and I humbly pray you not to have any jealousy thereupon of my approved faithfulness to your excellency and to this Commonwealth." If anything like this were really said, there is much pleasant contempt in the tone of Crom- well's reply ! " I have not," he remarked, " I assure you, the least distrust of your faithful- ness and friendship to me, and to the cause of this Commonwealth, and I think you have much reason for what you propound ; but it is a mat- ter of so high importance and difficulty, that it deserves more time of consideration and de- bate than is at present allowed us. We shall therefore take a further time to discourse of it." "And with this," adds our memorialist, "the general brake off, and went to other company, and so into Whitehall, seeming, by his coun- tenance and carriage, displeased with what had been said ; yet he never objected it against Mr. Whitelocke in any public meeting afterward; only his carriage towards him, from that time, was altered, and his advising with him not so frequent and intimate as before ; and it was not long after that he found an occasion, by an honourable employment, to send him out of the way (as some of his nearest relations, particu- larly his daughter Claypole, confessed), that he might be no obstacle or impediment to his am- bitious designs." Making every due concession to Whitelocke's amusing self-conceit, and to Lady Claypole's womanly good- humour in flattering it, it is in- cumbent upon us to state our strong impres- sion that Cromwell never at any time proposed to himself the unnecessary trouble of erecting the pliant lord-commissioner into anything like an obstacle or impediment, and also to subjoin the fact that the " honourable employment" for sending our state lawyer " out of the way"* was not even thought of, till, by a most atro- cious act of usurpation, Cromwell had not only declared his ambitious designs, but proved the innocent helplessness of any obstacle that Whitelocke could possibly oppose to them. It was merely to prevent the intrusion of need- less and impertinent forms into the detailed project of the Protectorate that, on the eve of the regular instalment of that mode of despo- tism, the Swedish embassyt was devised for the meddling man of law. Of the conference itself, it is only needful to remark farther, that it was chiefly useful to Cromwell in proving the aid of Whitelocke useless. He turned back to his military council. Lambert's influence he had already won over to his project ; a vain and weak man, influential with the army, and not ill inclined towards the civil authorities, till the craft of Cromwell worked his vanity and revolt against them, and his very ambition into aid towards himself. For Ireton's office, which was voted to Lam- bert on the death of that virtuous soldier, hav- ing been subsequently deprived of its accom- panying title of lord-deputy (an omission render- ed necessary by Cromwell's own intimation that he desired no longer to continue in his own person the rank of lord-lieutenantj), Lam- * Another person of somewhat greater importance was also, within three months of this time, sent out of the way by Cromwell's influence. Henry, duke of Gloucester, and the Princess Elizabeth, children of Charles I., were in Eng- land at their father's death. The council of the Common- wealth had proposed, in 1650, to send the duke to his broth- er in Scotland, and the princess to her sister in Holland, allowing a thousand a year to each quamdiu se bene gessc- rint. (See Journals, July 24 and Sept. 11 in that year.) But on the 8th of Sept. Elizabeth suddenly died, and the young brother remained under the charge of the governor of Carisbrook till wjthin three months of the period I am now describing. Then it was that Cromwell advised the young 1 prince's tutor, Lovel, whom Clarendon speaks of highly, to ask permission from the government for his safe removal to his sister, the Princess of Orange. This the high-minded Republicans granted at once, and accompanied the concession with the sum of 500 to defray the expense of his voyage, and the promise of an annual stipend if he would not join the rebellious scheme of his elder brothers. This act of magnanimity, not a singular act with these high-souled men, has been commonly attributed to the in- fluence of Cromwell, who thus sought to remove a rival from his path. Perhaps it may, in one sense, have been so ; for Widdrington and the lawyers, it will be recollected, had urged the claims of this youthful Henry Stuart to the throne, under a new settlement, as the only member of the royal family unspotted with the blood of Englishmen. Not the less, however, was the concession to such a request evi- dence of high generosity on the part of the then rulers of the state. And not the less, let me add, is it a proof how the greatest men are dwarfed by mean and unworthy de- signs, when we behold the powerful Cromwell, the veteran of a hundred victories, reduced to the wretched need of recognising a rival in a powerless lad of twelve yeurs old ! t See Appendix E., CROMWELL AND CHRISTINA. t The title of general-in-chief of all the forces there was substituted. The " lord-deputy," in consequence, became " lieutenant-general" merely. Ludlow thus adverts to the new appointment. After observing on Cromwell's reluc- tance to continue Aim in the military command of Ireland, in consequence of " the jealousy which General Cromwell had conceived of me, that I might prove an obstruction to the design he was carrying on, to advance himself by the ruin of the Commonwealth," he adds, " and therefore, sines 504 BRITISH STATESMEN. bert's vanity was easily moved to believe that an empty title, omitted for the purpose of avoid- ing a practical absurdity, was omitted for the purpose of slighting him. He rejected the ap- pointment in disgust.* More easily still was his ambition played with, since the lord-general threw out obscure hints of the necessity that would arise of fixing some order of succession in case of any recasting of the supreme power ; and who so fit to succeed the first man of the army as he who was indisputably the second It Major-general Lambert refused to go over with any charac- ter less than that of deputy, he resolved by any means to place Lieutenant-general Fleetwood at the head of affairs in Ireland ; by which conduct he procured two great advan- tages to himself, thereby putting the army in Ireland into the hands of a person secured to his interest by the mar- riage of his daughter, and, drawing Major-general Lambert into an enmity towards the Parliament, prepared him to join with him in opposition to them, when he should find it convenient to put his design in execution." * Mrs. Hutchinson, in her memoirs, gives the following account of this transaction, and of an incident of Royalist report, which is mentioned in my next paragraph. The ac- count is only correct in the general impression it conveys. " After the death of Ireton," says Mrs. Hutchinson, " Lam- bert was voted deputy of Ireland, and Commander-in-chief there, who, being at that- time in the north, was exceedingly elevated with the honour, and courted all Fairfax's old com- manders, and' other gentlemen, who, upon his promises of preferment, quitted their places, and many of them came to London and made him up there a very proud train, which still exalted him, so that too soon he put on the prince, im- mediately laying out 5000 for his own particular equi- page, and looking upon all the Parliament men, who had conferred this honour upon him, as underlings, and scarce worth the great man's nod. This untimely declaration of his pride gave great offence to the Parliament, who, having only given him a commission for six months for his deputy- ship, made a vote that, after the expiration of that time, the presidency of the civil and military power of that nation should no more be in his nor any one man's hands again. This vote was upon Cromwell's procurement, who hereby designed to make way for his new son-in-law, Col. Fleet- wood, who had married the widow of the late deputy, Ire- ton. There went a story, that as my Lady Ireton was walking in St. James's Park, the Lady Lambert, as proud as her husband, came by where she was, and as .the present princess always had precedency of the relict of the dead prince, so she put my Lady Ireton, below, who, notwith- standing her piety and humility, was a little grieved at the affront. Col. Fleetwood being then present, in mourning for his wife, who died at the same time her lord did, took occasion to introduce himself, and was immediately accept- ed by the lady and her father, who designed thus to restore his daughter to the honour she was fallen from. His plot took as himself could wish ; for Lambert, who saw himself thus cut off from half his exaltation, sent, the House an in- solent message, ' that if they found him so unworthy of the honour they had given him as so soon to repent it, he would not retard their remedy for six months, but was ready to surrender their commission before he entered into his of- fice.' They took him at his word, and made Fleetwood deputy, and Ludlow commander of the horse ; whereupon Lambert, with a heart full of spite, malice, and revenge, retreated to his palace at Wimbledon, and sat there watch- ing an opportunity to destroy the Parliament. Cromwell, although he chiefly wrought this business in the House, yet flattered with Lambert, and having another reach of ambi- tion in his breast, helped to inflame Lambert against those of the Parliament who were not his creatures, and to cast the odium of his disgrace upon them, and profess his own clearness in it, ami pity of him, that should be drawn into such an inconvenience as the charge of putting himself into equipage,, and the loss of all that provision ; which Crom- well, pretending generosity, took all upon his own account, and delivered him of the debt." t I may quote on this point a. curious passage from the Flagellum : ' Major-general Lambert, nevertheless, did con- cur with him (Cromwell) in every particular, the whole de- sign being secretly imparted to him, and he promised, as a reward for his assistance, the succession to the supreme power. This intimacy of Lambert was of a long standing, ever since Preston fight, and was cemented the faster by that complacency Oliver took in his wife, a woman of good birth and parts, and of pleasing attractions both for mind uud body. The voice of the people was, that she was more I familiar with him than the honour of her sex would allow, | and that she had some extraordinary kindnesses for him ' which, she had not for. her husband; and that, being the j The result of this intrigue was beneficial in another shape. Cromwell had designed the command in Ireland for an instrument of his own, Charles Fleetwood, to whom he at this time also induced his daughter Bridget, who had not yet put off her mourning for Ireton, to consent to give her hand. The Royalist wri- ters have a story about this marriage which may be worth mentioning, though it is refuted by the proofs already offered in this work of the high spirit and masculine good sense of Crom- well's eldest daughter. They say that Charles Fleetwood one day met Bridget Ireton in tears, and on inquiring the cause, found she was giving way to a fit of feminine spleen in consequence of having just before been forced to give way to the wife of Lambert, in St. James's Park. They were both at this instant in mourning, one for a wife, the other for a husband. An offer of the widower's hand was made and ac- cepted on the spot, and the widow found her- self speedily restored to precedency as the wife of the Lieutenant-general of Ireland ! The story is amusing, but not credible. The wife of Ireton might possibly have consented to sac- rifice her affections to the state policy of her father, but she would not have betrayed a mind of superior virtue and character to the miser- able satisfaction of her own wounded vanity. But now the contest between the chiefs of the Commonwealth and their too powerful ser- vant, though in full career towards its memor- able and miserable close, received temporary check in two directions. On the one hand, dis- sension reared its head suddenly in the minds of Cromwell's military cabal ; while, on the other, the grand position assumed by the Re- publican leaders in closing their war with the Dutch seems to have suspended for a brief space, whether in prudence or in awe, even the sacrilegious purposes of Cromwell himself. Both events are marked beyond a doubt in a Royalist production of the time, and they re- flect considerations of the utmost importance and interest on the view of the last days of the English Commonwealth, which is here sought to be impartially conveyed. The first, descrip- tive of the meetings and dissensions of the military cabal, is thus given. The writer, be it recollected, contemplating both parties in the struggle with equal hatred, may here lay claim to some of the best privileges of impartiality. " Every other day almost, more fasts, or some such religious exercise, was managed by^Crom- well and Harrison, who promoted the proposals for a new representative, in order to the per- sonal reign of Christ, and that therefore it was high time the government was placed in the hands of his saints, for all the glorious prophe- cies thereof were now ready to be fulfilled ; and this was cried up as the doctrine of the times. Cromwell seemed to be of the same judgment, and of that millenary principle, designing (as he said) nothing of those mutations of govern- ment which were agitating but in tendency to that great revolution ; so that he had absolutely fooled Harrison into a confidence of his good intentions, and that he aimed not at his own medium of reciprocation of intelligence between them, she did communicate all her husband's designs, and conceal some of the others ; though she needed not to have been so squeamish or reserved, for one whose depths were never fathomed or discovered to any mortal, Ireton excepted." OLIVER CROMWELL. 605 greatness ; and thereupon all the party Harri- son could make, which was Feaks's, Rogers's, and Sympson's congregations, were impatient to have the Parliament ousted, and their fine module to take place, wherein righteousness and holiness should be exalted in the kingdoms of the world. And now the Tqrk and the Pope were horribly threatened, and Oliver looked upon as the great instrument that should con- found anti-Christ. But, though most of the officers were thus bewitched and besotted, yet a great many of them had just and strong suspi- cions what his dissolution of the Parliament would end in, and therefore secret consuha tions were held how to oppose these practices upon the Parliament, in whose authority conserved and secured, they were so wise as to think them- selves safe and defended from the after-claps of the rebellion. Among the rest, several officers of note came voluntarily out of Ireland (as some out of Scotland), who had, by their general fasts, perceived the drift of their general, to withstand him, and publicly protest against the conduct of this business, as directly tending to the overthrow and undoing all, for which so much blood had been spilled, and giving up the most glorious cause in the world to its van- quished enemies Noll's own argument. ... Of those that thus opposed him, Colonel Venables, scout-master General Downing, and Major Streater, were the most eminent, who to that purpose, as above said, came out of Ireland ; but Colonel Venables was soon wrought upon ; and Mr. Downing offering to speak against it in the council of officers, and getting upon the table for better audience, was bid to come down by Cromwell, asking him what he did there. Only Colonel Streater persisted in his resolution of giving reasons against it, and be- ing flamm'd by Harrison with Christ's personal reign, and that he was assured the lord-general sought not himself, but that King Jesus might take the sceptre, he presently replied that Christ must come before Christmas, or else he would come too late. For this opportune op- position, and ten queries then published by him in the army, he was afterward committed to the Gate House, and looked upon by Cromwell as his mortal enemy." On the other, and, to our present purpose, the more important matter of consideration ad- verted to, the Royalist writer uses language even stronger and more significant. Having spoken of the last great effort of the Dutch to recover the supremacy of the sea, he proceeds to characterize it as a grave stumbling-block to the designs of Cromwell. " It was a haz- ardous enterprise," he says, "to be fighting with two commonwealths together, and to which his confidence and resolution could not raise him, without a surer interest in the people who were to undergo his tyranny. This now reprieved the members from his decree of dis- solution, while they had tried the fortune of war with the Dutch, and had put things into such a posture and certainty that no home altera- tion could discompose or disorder it, the treasury for the support of the war being now a filling, a naval force rigging and equipping, and the honour and glory of the nation engaged and con- cerned."* * Flagellum, by Heath. S S 8 It would be difficult to bear better testimony than this to a statesmanlike fitness for power in the men who at present held it, or to a gross falsehood in the pretence on which it was so soon to be wrested from them. And they fully justified these demands upon their last exertions. With unexampled capacity and en- ergy they refilled the drained exchequer, re- fitted their naval power, sent Blake to sea with the noblest squadron he had yet commanded, and finally shattered to pieces the last resour- ces of the Dutch. Again, therefore, but for the last time now, had this great administrative genius averted mortal danger from the Com- monwealth. Men's homes were safe, the hon- our of the Republic safe, and every enemy to England beaten back with ignominy to his own shore. " We never," said an illustrious agent in the work,* as he proudly recalled the history of the despised Rump under Richard Crom- well's Protectorate, " we never bid fairer to be masters of the whole world." From the high- est point of elevation indeed were they doomed to hasten to their setting ; in its ripest season was the pear fated to be plucked by Cromwell ; and (least merited of all !) the fame which his- tory should surely have awarded, in some sort, to the men beneath the light and warmth of whose genius it had attained so full a richness, she exclusively bestowed, without reserve or stint, on the successful usurper ! Very ominous warnings were thickening around him when he ventured his final move. In renovating the exchequer for the war, Vane had proposed a sale of the estate of Hampton Court, then held in trust by the great soldier ;t and the first act of the same statesman, after Blake was fairly at sea, and while the contest was of course undecided, had been to procure a vote from the House, appointing the 3d of November, 1653, instead of that day in the year 1654, for the dissolution of Parliament. What, indeed, were the exact views and prospects to which that true friend of freedom still clung in hope, even so late as this, may be gathered without much difficulty from what Roger Will- iams, a stanch Republican, and his associate of early years in the government of New-Eng- land (who was now staying at our English statesman's country residence in Lincolnshire), wrote to his transatlantic friends. " Here," he says, " is great thoughts and preparations for a new Parliament. Some of our friends are apt to think a new Parliament will favour us and our cause." Certain it was that the time had now arrived for Cromwell's usurpation, if it was to arrive ever. Each day that passed over the statesmen in their new and well-won safety from foreign attack, promised to be laden with events that must tend to establish far more de- cisively than ever their internal power. It is very curious, and highly instructive, to note down exact dates at the various points in * Thomas Scot. See Life of Marten, p. 385. t Ludlow thus speaks of " two ways" by which Vane and his associates sought to " countermine" Cromwell. " First, by balancing his interest in the army with that of the fleet, procuring an order from the Parliament, by reason of the importance of the war with the Dutch, to send some regi- ments of the army to strengthen the fleet ; and, secondly, by recommending, as an easy way to raise money in that emergency, the sale of Hampton Court and other places, that were esteemed as baits to tempt some ambitious man to ascend the throne." Vol. ii., p. 451. 506 BRITISH STATESMEN. this famous struggle. For example, in the memorials of even the cautious and Cromwell- serving Whitelocke, we find that the same note which records the last great victory of Blake and the " Parliament's forces at sea," contains also these significant allusions to Cromwell and his officers: "And they now began to- assume to themselves all the honour of the past actions, and of the conquests by them achieved, scarce owning the Parliament, and their assistance and provision for them ; but taxing and censur- ing the members of Parliament for injustice and delay of business, and for seeking to pro- long their power, and promote their private interest, and satisfy their own ambition. With these and many others the like censures, they endeavoured to calumniate the Parliament, and judge them guilty of those crimes whereof themselves were faulty ; not looking into their own actions, nor perceiving their own defaults, yet censuring the actions and proceedings of the Parliament very opprobriously." The op- probrium must have been sharp indeed which startled even this considerate and compliant lawyer into so decided a sense of it. In the next record of his diary he thus proceeds : " The drift of Cromwell and his officers was to put an end to this Parliament, which many wondered at, and sought to dissuade him from, upon all opportunities, as far as was thought convenient, and that they might not appear de- sirous to continue their own powers and sitting in Parliament, whereof they had cause to be suffi- ciently weary." In this passage Whitelocke seems to me to describe, with sufficient accuracy, one of those great sources of danger to a political cause which seldom rise to the surface of history, but which evidently now beset with very formidable obstructions that strenuous and determined policy by which the statesmen struggled to maintain their ground. All great parties, since the world began, have had to complain of their too moderate or over-sensitive men ; men over- stocked W 7 ith delicacies ; who are more apt to regulate their course by the derision of oppo- nents than by the approval of conscience or of friend ; who will shape hostility according to the convenience of the party to whom they are hostile ; and who are, above all things, fond to talk of being weary of the burden their own virtues or their own party may have imposed upon them. We now behold such, by the help of Whitelocke, among the members of the House who supported Vane ; and can we doubt that that statesman, w r ho would have thought it treason to his country to consult the conve- nience of her enemies, and have sunk lifeless in his place before he indulged the luxury of being " weary" in her service can we doubt that he suffered, far more than by the worst difficulties, dangers, or toils of the cause, from the holyday sensibilities and delicate indifference of such gentlemen as these 1 It matters seldom that they happen to be few. The example goes forth to the great body of the people, who find it hard to discriminate, in such circumstances, between service and betrayal. More treacherous enemies, at the same time, beset Vane and his party, even among the civil members of that House for whose independence they were now perilling all that makes life dear to man. Whitelocke describes them also, in the same passage of apparent self-reference already quoted. "Neither," he continues, as if to excuse the views of the moderate men, " neither could it clearly be foreseen that the design of Cromwell and his officers was to rout the present power, and so set up themselves ; against the which they were advised, as pull- ing down the foundation of their own interest and power, and the way to weaken themselves, and to hazard both their cause and persons. Yet still they seemed zealous, upon their com- mon pretensions of 'right,' and 'justice,' and ' public liberty,' to put a period to this Parlia- ment, and that if the Parliament would not short- ly do it themselves, that then the soldiers must do it. Some who earnestly declared their judg- ment against this, as 'the most dangerous and the most ungrateful thing that could be prac- tised,' by this freedom gained no favour with Cromwell and his officers. But there wanted not some Parliament men, perhaps to flatter with them, who soothed them in this unhand- some design, and were complotting with them to ruin themselves, as by the consequence will appear." One of Cromwell's falsest pretences is shad- owed forth in this extract, but it is a pretence which has unhappily passed into history, and claims, therefore, serious disproof. This, it may be here remarked, is the first time that the testimonies of living witnesses as to these memorable occurrences have been brought face to face ; and it is not an ungratifying cir- cumstance to note what a perfect agreement there is as to all the main considerations they suggest, in the relations of men of such differ- ent parties, writing at such different times, and only alike in the fact of having themselves wit- nessed what they thus record. The result will show, among other things, that the only rea- sonable pretext by which history has attempted to justify the usurpation of Cromwell is based upon a falsehood. The question of dissolution is stated by Whitelocke to have been urged by the soldiers as of " right," " justice," and " public liberty," and to have left a reasonable alternative to those friends of freedom who had not lost faith in that sacred thing. " You must put a period to this Parliament," urge the soldiers. " If, however, you do not shortly do this yourselves, then the soldiers must do it." Now it is quite true that this tone was for a time adopted in the councils of Cromwell, but only for such a time as might render feasible a subsequent mean perversion of the truth to the English people. Ludlow states some singular facts on this head. While Cromwell, he says, was " making the most solemn professions of fidel- ity to the Parliament, assuring them that, if they would command the army to break their swords over their heads, and to throw them into the sea, he would undertake they should do it, he privately engaged the officers of the army to draw up a petition to the Parliament, that,, for the satisfaction of the nation, they would put that vote which they had made for fixing a period to their sitting into an act ; which, while the officers were forming and de- bating, the general having, it seems, for that time altered his counsels, sent Colonel Desborough, OLIVER CROMWELL. 507 one of his instruments, to the council of offi- cers, who told them they were a sort of men whom nothing could satisfy ; that the Parlia- ment were more ready to do any good than they to desire it ; that they ought to rely upon their word and promise to dissolve themselves by the time prefixed ; and that to petition them to put tneir vote into an act would manifest a diffidence of them, and lessen their authority, which was so necessary to the army. The general, coming into the council while Des- borough was speaking, seconded him ; to which some of the officers took the liberty to reply that they had the same opinion of the Parlia- ment and petition with them, and that the chief argument that moved them to take this matter into consideration was the intimation they had received that it was according- to the desires of those who had now spoken against it, and whose latter motion they were much more ready to comply with than their former." Quite true it was that it had once been, for good reasons, according to the desires of those who now, for better reasons, spoke against it. In such curious details we behold each fluctu- ation of the struggle ; for at this moment, the very crisis of all, Vane had baffled Cromwell upon his own ground and with his own weap- ons, and it was nothing more nor less than a sudden discovery of that circumstance which " altered the counsels of the general." Lud- low describes what Vane had done in a general remark on the sudden change in the policy of the Parliament. " Now, perceiving to what kind of excesses the madness of the army was like to carry them, the Parliament resolved to leave as a legacy to the people the government of a commonwealth by their representatives when assembled in Parliament, and in the intervals thereof by a council of state chosen by them, and to continue till the meeting of the next succeeding Parliament, to whom they were to give an account of their conduct and management. To this end they resolved, without any farther delay, to pass the act for their own dissolution." Vane had within the last few days, in fact, by his own individual and almost unaided exer- tions, hastened to its latter stages the memora- ble bill for a " new representative." Thus, as the sharp crisis approached, there appeared even an activity and energy that could cope with Cromwell's own. Silently but resolutely Vane had achieved the major part of the amend- ments recommended in his own report,* and little now remained save the final sanction of the House to give to the measure the force of law. Cromwell then, for the first time, while in absolute triumphal progress on the strongest position of the war he had engaged in, looked up and saw it in firm possession of the enemy. The aspect of the contest between the Par- liament and their general changes from this in- stant. It loses, on the side of Cromwell, every element, or even pretence, of fairness. It at once became evident that the musket could ar- bitrate it only, and even Cromwell's most plau- sible craft was unmasked suddenly into a bare image of tyranny and force. Up to this point he had a certain hollow case to rest upon with the people, and was at least going forward to his aim with a stealthier step and the help of * See Life of Vane, p. 314-317. a less startling falsehood. The very circum- stances which had justified to the statesmen even their share in the existence of that popu- lar discontent, now spread in various directions (and which clamoured in its less scrupulous quarters of the " despotism" of many), would have served to justify, in some sort also, Crom- well's subtle measures for the substitution of a despotism of one. All that was now at an end. Truth took its stand on one side, falsehood fronted it on the other, and the most moment- ous interests of humanity, present and future, trembled in the impending issue. Religion and liberty, the right of action and of thought, hon- ours won upon earth, deliverances vouchsafed from heaven all that had rendered the English people a praise and wonder to the earth during their contest with their king, were now com- mitted in this struggle for the existence of rep- resentation in our country. The example of the rulers of England had, during all that time, been the life of virtue in her people. It was by the Eliots, the Pyms, the Hampdens, and the Vanes, that an enlightening influence, as from heaven itself, had pierced into the humblest and remotest corners of the land. To blight this as suddenly as it had risen, and to promote a second growth of ignorance and of slavery, only less bad because less enduring than the first, it was simply necessary to exhibit once more in the high places of England that very oppression, coercion, and arbitrary rule from which she had been freed so lately. And this was the miserable work which Cromwell had now in hand, and for which he was content to peril greater and purer fame than had fallen within the grasp of Englishman before him. The first thing to be noted in the closing scenes of the struggle, so far as we are able to penetrate the obscurity which unhappily has veiled them too long, is the fierce contempt ex- hibited by Cromwell for the popular pretences on which he rested first. As soon as he saw that Vane had resolved to test them, he flung them scornfully to the wind. In the life of Henry Neville, for example, a virtuous and ex- emplary man, a scene of this exact time is given as from Neville's lips. " Cromwell upon this great occasion sent for some of the chief city divines, as if he made it a matter of con- science to be determined by their advice. Among these was the leading Mr. Calamy, who very boldly opposed Mr. Cromwell's project, and offered to prove it both unlawful and im- practicable. Cromwell answered readily upon the first head of unlawful, and appealed to the safety of the nation being the supreme law. ' But,' says he, ' pray, Mr. Calamy, why im- practicable?' Calamy replied, 'Oh ! 'tis against the voice of the nation ; there will be nine in ten against you.' 'Very well,' says Cromwell; ' but what if I should disarm the nine, and put a sword into the tenth man's hand, would not that do the business ?' "* The next scene, with the same moral, took place on a different theatre, with actors somewhat different, and is told by an anti-Republican of uncompromising fierceness. "The next scene of this applauded comedy," he writes, so characterizing a tragedy fraught with the lives of thousands of living men, and with the liberties of unborn millions, " was laid * Life of Henry Neville, p. 35. 508 BRITISH STATESMEN. at the Cockpit by Whitehall, where Cromwell, concealing the nurnherof the heast in his apoc- alypse, declared to his council of officers ' that if they should trust the people in an election of a new Parliament according to the old Constitu- tion, it would be a tempting of God ; and that his confidence. was, that God did intend to save and deliver this nation by few, as he had done in former times ; and that five or six men, and some few more, setting themselves to the work, might do more in one day than the Parliament had or would do in a hundred, as far as he could perceive ; and that such unbiased men were like to be the only.instruments of the peo- ple's happiness.' " Not succeeding with this proposal, it is to be presumed, to the extent of his desire, we find it somewhat enlarged and modified in the next council held ; for the chosen few, who were to be heaven-selected for supreme power, are there suddenly extended to the significant num- ber of forty. This was the revival of a project which had occupied the mind of Cromwell pre- viously.* Its plain object was to pave as smooth a way to tyranny as possible, by first removing every existing legislative and execu- tive body that had the appearance of being founded upon English institutions, or in any way based on English customs. To that end the design was admirably shaped. The Parlia- ment having been dissolved, the sovereign power of government was to be placed for a time in commission, consisting of forty persons, chosen from the defunct House of Commons, the council of state, and the army. The mere proposed constitution of this body exhibits the kind of difficulties that Cromwell had to en- counter in every stage of these extraordinary intrigues, and is in itself an implied refutation of the historical slander which treats the whole body of statesmen, the council of the Common- wealth, and the poor Rump of their once great House, with measureless scorn. Supposing the proposition sincere or insincere, which would have composed out of these various elements the new Council of Forty for England, it car- ries with it, not the less, an undoubted conces- sion to the claims of the subsisting government for no little consideration at even the hands of those who had thus resolved its downfall. The people were obviously to be induced to believe that members of that famous House which had conducted the contest to its suc- cessful close were still to govern them ; that power was yet to remain with at least the heads of that great body which, as council of the state, had established the Commonwealth in the respect of surrounding nations. Crom- well was at the same time quite safe in making such a project the basis of his tyranny. It was a sop for all parties, and a satisfaction for none. The Harrisons and Okeys, who looked for a reign of saints, saw, in near prospect already, the mystic number of those sacred rulers ; the Streaters, Lamberts, and Salways viewed with much complacency themselves in power, and their own peculiar crotchets in advanced realization ; the moderate and indifferent men, the waiters upon Providence and upon Crom- well, were content with it, as they would have been contented with anything that promised * See Life of Vane, p. 313. them as much ease with as little responsibility ; and the only prominent dissenter or objector would seem to have been Whitelocke himself, who, in his secret and subtle love for all that was old, venerable, or like law, saw little good in forty, and much virtue in one. But Crom- well could have eased his mind on that score with an exercise of little candour. Secretly laughing down these various hopes, he stood triumphant in the security of his own. His creatures, he knew, or creatures he could mould into his, should pack that convenient council ; and for the result, what would be easier or more natural than a " manifestation of Provi- dence 1" The grand preliminary difficulty was the mode in which the first step was to be achieved the dissolution of the Parliament. A section of the officers, backed by a section of the law- yers, argued that this should be the voluntary act of the House itself; but Vane had baffled this, so far as it could have tended to serve the views of Cromwell, by provisions* with which he had accompanied the act of dissolu- tion, securing to the people a new and enlarged system of representation, and enlisting on the side of liberal and popular government their best sympathies and most enduring affections. The other and larger section of negotiators, or conspirators (for here there can be little choice between the words), were in favour of a com- pulsory dissolution, but never seem to have contemplated the extreme of that desperate course which was already working darkly in Cromwell's mind. As yet, darkly ; but never, through his whole career, had the mind of that extraordinary person appeared wrapped in what looked like a helpless or chaotic confusion, that there did not lie coiled and hidden beneath it more energy and quick-sighted resolve, more rigid and straightforward determination, a pur- pose more sharply shaped, and readier to start into instant life and action, than have ever yet shone forth in guise the most nimble, or with an address the most accomplished. And what he now gazed at, in that internal mind of his, calmly and resolvedly involving, as it did, not only an act without precedent in nations, but the very existence of rights, thereafter to be sports for children, which had once been watch- words of the greatest fight for liberty yet fought in the world he at the same time as coolly designed to prepare in some sort the minds of the common people for, by the use of his fa- vourite engine of fanaticism. The suddenness of the shock to be apprehended in some would thus at least be broken. Ludlow is the evidence on this point. At this time, he says, " divers of the clergy, from their pulpits, began to prophesy the destruction of the Parliament, and to propose it openly as a thing desirable ; insomuch that the general, who had all along concurred with this spirit in them, hypocritically complained to Quarter- master-general Vernon, ' that he was pushed on by two parties to do that, the consideration of the issue whereof made his hair to stand on end. One of these,' said he, ' is headed by Major- general Lambert, who, in revenge of that in- jury the Parliament did him, in not permitting him to go into Ireland with a character and * See Life of Vaue, p. 316, 317. OLIVER CROMWELL. 509 conditions suitable to his merit, will be con- tented with nothing less than their dissolution. Of the other, Major-general Harrison is the chief, who is an honest man, and aims at good things, yet from the impatience of his spirit will not wait the Lord's leisure, but hurries me on to that which he and all honest men will have cause to repent.' " The final scene in this extraordinary and most memorable series of intrigues against liberty, carried on by men who had fought for the fame of her best and bravest champions, now draws nigh. On the 19th of April, 1653, the traitorous council, framed by Cromwell, held their famous and last meeting. About twenty members of Parliament are said to have been present, of the character already attrib- uted to these gentlemen " negotiators." The proposition offered by Cromwell's creatures has been already described, and will farther appear in a celebrated note taken at the time by Whitelocke (who was present), of the oc- currences of the meeting. " Yesterday," says the lord-commissioner, writing on the fatal 20th of April, " there hav- ing been a great meeting, at Cromwell's lodg- ings in Whitehall, of Parliament-men and sev- eral officers of the army, sent to by Cromwell to be there, and a large discourse and debate having been among them touching some expe- dient to be found out for the present carrying on of the government of the Commonwealth, and putting a period to this present Parliament, it was offered by divers as a most dangerous thing to dissolve the present Parliament, and to set up any other government, and that it wouldn either be warrantable in conscience nor wisdom so to do ; yet none of them expressed themselves so freely to that purpose as Sir Thomas Widdrington and Whitelocke then did. Of the other opinion, as to putting an end forth- with to this Parliament, St. John was one of the chief, and many more with him ; and gen- erally all the officers of the army, who stuck close in this likewise to their general ; and the better to make way for themselves, and their ambitious design of advancing them to the civil government as well as they were in the mili- tary power, they and their party declared their opinions ' that it was necessary the same should be done one way or other, and the members of Parliament not permitted to prolong their own power :' at which expression Cromwell seemed to reprove some of them ; and this conference lasted till late at night, when Widdrington and Whitelocke went home weary, and troubled to see the indiscretion and ingratitude of those men, and the way they designed to ruin them- selves." The reader will have an opportunity of con- trasting this account with that which Crom- well subsequently gave of the same transaction, and in the course of which he grounded a com- plaint of insincerity against Whitelocke and his friends, on the alleged circumstance of their having left the meeting on this famous night with an express understanding that the leaders of the House of Commons would suspend all farther proceedings on the act for dissolution and a new representative till the result of the conference of next day. But if Whitelocke gave such a pledge, which his entire silence on that head renders at least doubtful, he did so without authority, and in the absence of any means of redeeming it. The course which Vane held at present had been deliberately cho- sen by that determined man, and it would have demanded a more than human power to induce him, for any consideration left upon the earth, to peril by another hour's delay the popular claim to popular rights delayed already to the endangerment of liberty. The whole of the 19th of April, so spent, as we have seen, at Whitehall, in consultation between the lawyers, temporizers, and traitors,* was passed by Vane at Westminster, in resolute amendment of the details of the bill which was at once to close the existence of the greatest Parliament that had ever sat within the walls of the old chapel of St. Stephen's, and to call into life through- out England the greatest amount of represent- ative freedom that had yet been enjoyed by her people : and never, surely, did sun rise on a loftier or more honourable strength of purpose in the breast of any man, than that which, ear- ly on the morning on the 20th of April, sus- tained Sir Henry Vane as he passed into the House of Commons to strike his last blow for the sacred cause to which, from earliest youth, and in resistance to all temptations, his life had been devoted with a touching constancy. The same hour of the same ever-memorable morn- ing saw Whitelocke and his friends on their way to Cromwell's house. Therefore, proceeds the memorialist, in con- tinuation of the passage already quoted, " these came early again this morning, according to ap- pointment, to Cromwell's lodging, where there were but few Parliament-men and a few offii cers of the army. A point was again stirred, which had been debated the last night, ' Wheth- er forty persons, or about that number of Par- liament-men and officers of the army, should be nominated by the Parliament, and empow- ered for the managing the affairs of the Com- monwealth till a new Parliament should meet, and so the present Parliament to be forthwith dissolved.' Whitelocke was against this pro- posal, and the more, fearing lest he might be one of these forty, who, he thought, would be in a desperate condition after the Parliament should be dissolved ; but others were very am- bitious to be of this number and council, and to be invested with this exorbitant power in them. Cromwell being informed during this debate that the Parliament was sitting, and that it was hoped they would put a period to themselves, which would be the most honoura- ble dissolution for them, hereupon he broke off the meeting, and the members of the Parlia- ment left him at his lodging and went to the House." Vane, Marten, Algernon Sidney, and others of the chief men had been there some time, and The only sincere (however wrong-headed) Republican, of whose attendance at these councils I can find any evi- dence, is Sir Arthur Hazlerig. That he did so is clear from a manuscript report of a speech delivered by him in Richard Cromwell's Parliament. " I heard, being seventy miles off, that it was propounded that we should dissolve our trust, and devolve it into a few hands. I came up and found it so ; that it was resolved in a junto at the Cockpit. I trembled at it, and was, after, there, and bore my testimo- ny against it. I told them the work they went about was accursed. I told them it was impossible to devolve this trust." 510 BRITISH STATESMEN. had succeeded in forcing to its final stage the act for the new representative. Some of Crom- well's creatures had also shown themselves early in their places, with a view to watch the proceedings for him, and to interpose the forms of the House, if necessary, for the purpose of giving time and room to his designs. Thus, when Vane rose to urge the necessity of pass- ing the bill into a law at once, one of these convenient gentlemen was despatched, as we have seen, to interrupt the debate at Crom- well's lodgings ; while another, no less than Major-general Harrison himself, rose with the dignified purpose of talking against time, and " most sweetly and humbly" conjured the mem- bers assembled to pause before they took so im- portant a step as that which Vane recommend- ed. The warmth and earnestness of Vane's reply were the signal for a second messenger to Cromwell, and Ingoldsby was observed to leave the House in some haste and excitement. The Cromwell section of officers were still in consultation with Cromwell himself at the lodging of the lord-general. The first news of the morning had " broken off" what might be called the negotiatory part of the meeting ; but the military cabal had resumed their private councils, when Ingoldsby's sudden appearance in the room, with the excitement upon him of the great scene he had left, again interrupted their discussions. " If you mean to do any- thing decisive," he exclaimed to Cromwell, " you have no time to lose." Cromwell rose hastily, commanded a party of soldiers to be marched round to the House of Commons, and left the room without another word. Lam- bert and " five or six" of the more determined officers followed him. The rest remained sit- ting where they were, in wonder, uncertainty, and dread. Cromwell made no pause till he stood before the door of the House of Commons. Here he planted a body of soldiers, stationed another in the lobby, and led round some files of muske- teers to a position without the chamber where the members were seated. His manner, at this momentous instant, was observed to be calm, and his very dress was noted for its peace- ful contrast to his purposes. Vane had again risen, and was speaking on the dissolution bill in a passionate strain, when he quietly appear- ed at the door, "clad in plain black clothes, with gray worsted stockings,"* quite unattend- ed and alone. About a hundred members were at this time present.f He stood for a moment on the spot at which he entered, and then " sat down as he used to do in an ordinary place." Here he was instantly joined by his kinsman Saint John, to whom he said, with inexpressi- ble humility of manner, that " he was come to do that which grieved him to the very soul, and that he had earnestly, with tears, prayed to God against : nay, that he had rather be torn in pie- ces than do it ; but there was a necessity laid upon him therein, in order to the glory of God and the good of the nation." Saint John an- swered that " he knew not what he meant ; but did pray that what it was which must be done might have a happy issue for the general good." With this, that crafty lawyer went back to his * Lord Leicester's Journal, p. 139. t Ludlow, vol. ii., p. 455. own seat, to wait the issue of all those dark in- trigues in which he had himself played so prom- inent a part. Vane still held on unflinchingly to his great purpose. He urged, with increased earnest- ness, the necessity of proceeding at once to the last stage of the bill, and with that view adjured them to dispense with even the cere- mony of engrossing, and other immaterial forms. Cromwell, at this, beckoned Harrison. "Now is the time," he said to that enthusiast ; "I must do it !" Harrison's answer would im- ply that he knew the meditated outrage,* but felt the force of the eloquence of Vane. " The work, sir," he said, after advising him to con- sider, "is very great and dangerous." "You say well," hastily retorted Cromwell, and " sat still for another quarter of an hour." It would then seem that Vane had succeeded in his pur- pose, for the speaker had actually risen to put the question,! when Cromwell started up, " put off his^ hat," and began to speak. " At first," Lord Leicester tells us, " and for a good while, he spoke in commendation of the Parliament for their pains and care of the public good ; but afterward he changed his style ; told them of their injustice, delays of justice, self-interest, and other faults ;" charging them, according to Ludlow, with " not having a heart to do any- thing for the public good," and accusing them " of an intention to perpetuate themselves in power, had they not been forced to the passing of this act, which he affirmed they designed never to observe." But, he added, with a vio- lent and harsh abruptness, " Your time is come ! The Lord has done with you ! He has chosen other instruments for the carrying on His work that are more worthy." All this seemed no- thing less than inspiration to his fanatical fol- lowers. They marked the extraordinary chan- ges in his voice and manner as new births of Providence within him, and exclaimed that it was the Lord had taken him by the hand, and set him on to do that thing. Plainer men saw the tyrant only, the slave within the grasp of tyrannous ambition. " He spoke," says Lud- low, " with so much passion and discomposure of mind, as if he had been distracted." Meanwhile Vane had risen, Wentworth and Marten too, " but he would suffer none to speak but himself."! At the same time, as if himself astonished at the unprecedented part he was playing, he cried out to those who had risen, " You think, perhaps, that this is not Parlia- mentary language; I know it." In spite oJ'all resistance, however, the voice of Sir Peter Wentworth, who stood up by the side of Vane, forced itself at last upon the House. He de- * It was believed at the time that Sir Gilbert Pickering, and some few other members (out of those that had attend- ed the Whitehall councils), were also acquainted with what Cromwell purposed. It is certain, according to the author of the Flagellum, that Sir Gilbert was privy to it, since " he had held consultation the night before with him, and was up armed in his chamber till the very time." t Ludlow, Lord Leicester (who received his information from Algernon Sidney), and Sir Arthur Hazlerig (who was present) agree on this point. " We were labouring here in the House," says Hazlerig, in that speech in Richard Crom- well's Parliament to which I have already adverted, " on an act to put an end to that Parliament, and to call another. I desired the passing of it with all my soul. The question was putting for it, when our general stood up and stopped the Question, and called in his lieutenant, with two files of musketeers, with their hats on their heads, and their guns leaden with bullets." Whitelocke, p 529. OLIVER CROMWELL. 511 clared that this was indeed " the first time that he had ever heard such unbecoming language given to the Parliament, and that it was the more horrid in that it came from their servant, and their servant whom they had so highly trusted and obliged, and whom, by their unpre- cedented bounty, they had made what he was."* Whether these words really transported Crom- well, on the instant, beyond the bounds of even his self-command, or merely rendered necessa- ry a farther display of what his deluded follow- ers might take to be genuine inspiration, the reader will best judge from what actually fol- lowed, as an honest eyewitness has delivered it to us. Cromwell instantly thrust his hat down upon his head, sprang from his seat into the centre of the floor of the House, and shouted out, " Come, come, I'll put an end to your prating." Then, adds Lord Leicester, on the relation of Algernon Sidney, " he walked up and down the stage or floor in the midst of the House, with his hat on his head, and chid the members soundly, looking sometimes, and pointing par- ticularly, upon some persons, as Sir B. White- locke, one of the commissioners for. the great seal, and Sir Henry Vane, to whom he gave very sharp language, though he named them not, but by his gestures it was well known he meant them." But even while he raved and chafed in this desperate fashion (" walking up and down," Ludlow tells us, 'Mike a madman, and kicking the ground with his feet"), Vane succeeded in making himself heard once more. At this Cromwell stopped and called Vane by his name. "You," he said, "might have prevented this extraordinary course ; but you are a juggler, and have not so much as common honesty."t " I have been forced to this," he continued. " I have sought the Lord, night and day, that he would rather slay me than put me upon the doing of this work. But now begone. You are no Parliament. I say, you are no Parliament ! I'll put an end to your sitting. Begone ! Give way to honester men."t Stamping his foot, as he spoke thus, very heavily on the floor, the door was flung open suddenly, and he stood in the midst of " five or six files of musketeers," with their arms ready ! In that moment perished, for a time, the rights in whose name twelve years of the mis- eries of civil war had been unrepiningly en- countered, " making vain and viler than dirt the blood of so many faithful and valiant Eng- lishmen, who had left their countrymen in this liberty of Parliament, bought with their lives." It is needless to say that resistance, to any suc- cessful end, was idle ; yet not without such re- sistance as might serve to enter their immortal protest with posterity did these lion-hearted Republicans leave the scene (now degraded and profaned) of their yet glorious and undying tri- umphs. " Then the general," pursues Lord Leicester, " pointing to the speaker in his chair, said to Harrison, ' Fetch him down.' Harrison went to the speaker, and spoke to him to come down ; but the speaker sat still and said nothing. ' Take him down !' said the general ; then Har- rison went and pulled the speaker by the gown, * Ludlow, vol. ii., p. 456; and see Lin vol. ii., p. 171. t * ;->''>*'" '" , II., p. 1/1. T J Perfect Politician, p. 169. ; and see Lingard's History, Leicester's Journal, p. 141. HI and he came down.* It happened that day that Algernon Sidney sat next to the speaker on the right hand. The general said to Harrison, ' Put him out !' Harrison spake to Sidney to go out ; hut he said he would not go out, and sat still. The general said again, ' Put him out !' Then Harrison and Worsley (who commanded the general's own regiment of foot) put their hands upon Sidney's shoulders, as if they would force him to go out. Then he rose and went to- wards the door. Then the general went to the table where the mace lay, which used to be car- ried before the speaker, and said, ' Take away these bawbles !' so the soldiers took away the mace." While this extraordinary scene of violence proceeded thus, the majority of the members had gradually withdrawn ; and now, as the more eminent men, who had waited to the last, moved slowly towards the door, through files of musketeers drawn up on either side, they received to the last, in passionate insults from Cromwell, the tribute which their defence of the Commonwealth had well merited from the lips of its destroyer. Nicknames were flung in the face of each. Challoner was pointed to as a drunkard ;t Sir Peter Wentworth was accu- sed of adultery ; Alderman Allen of public em- bezzlements ; even poor Whitelocke of gross injustice ; and as the lord-general's old friend, Harry Marten, passed, he was asked if a whore- master was fit to sit and govern.! Among the latest of all came Vane ; and as he came, he once again protested " in a loud voice" against the fatal scene which had been acted. "This is not honest," he said. "Yea, it is against morality and common honesty." At that in- stant, it is possible Cromwell felt some shame. He paused, as though to rally himself with the recollection of some personal or private vice he might fling against his great rival, but when he spoke, his harsh voice had a troubled tone, and he merely uttered the few words that have become so memorable, " Sir Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane ! the Lord deliver me from Sir Har- ry Vane /" No vice would stick, even as a lie, against the virtue and simplicity of the most spotless statesman in our annals. Vane passed on, and no nickname followed him. Cromwell was now virtually lord of England, and stood with a heavier and more daring foot upon her neck than had ever been placed there by any of her kings. " He seized," says Lud- low, " on the records that were in the House * Lenthall was by no means a man of gallantry or hero- ism. On many occasions, indeed, he showed himself defi- cient in the most ordinary spirit ; hut there were two inci- dents in his life, when the very extent of the outrage com- mitted on the authority with which he was invested seems to have positively lifted him far above the strain of common men. These incidents were Charles's attempted arrest of the five members, and Cromwell's present and greater crime. Sir Arthur Hazlerig corroborates the account of the text in his speech already quoted. " The speaker," he said, " a stout man, was not willing to go. lie was so noble, that he frowned, and said he would not go out of the chair till he was plucked out, which was quickly done, without much compliment, by two soldiers." Ludlow also tells us, that when Harrison went up to move the speaker from his chair, Lenthall at once told him " that he would not coins down unless he were forced. 'Sir,' said Harrison, ' I will lend you my hand ;' and thereupon, putting his hand with- in his, the speaker came down." One matter of considera- tion should, however, not be omitted : Lenthall had good reason to expect being brought to a severe account, if he had not shown resistance thus. t Drysdale, p. 405 t Perfect Politician, p. 168. 512 BRITISH STATESMEN. and at Mr. Scobell's ;* after which he went to the clerk, and snatching the act of dissolution, which was ready to pass, out of his hand, he put it under his cloak, and having commanded the doors to be locked up, went away to Whitehall."! The officers he had left were still sitting to- gether when Cromwell reappeared, flushed and excited as they had always seen him after vic- tory, and, flinging on the table before them the key of the House of Commons (the " baw- ble" had been tossed into the outer room), told them all that he had done. " When I went there," he added, " 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." Yet even in that cabal there were found some voices to question the justice of an act, no matter by what pretence defended, of unparal- leled and awful outrage. Colonel Okey and others, it would seem, spoke out in condem- nation of it, " conceiving that the way they were now going tended to ruin and confusion. To these, having not yet taken off his mask, but pretending to more honesty and self-denial than ever, he professed himself resolved to do much more good, and with more expedition, than could be expected from the Parliament, which professions from him put most of them to silence, and moved them to a resolution of waiting for a farther discovery of his design before they would proceed to a breach and di- vision from him. But Colonel Okey, being jealous that the end would be bad, because the means were such as made them justly suspect- ed of hypocrisy, inquired of Col. Desborough what his meaning was, to give such high com- mendations to the Parliament when he endeav- oured to dissuade the officers of the army from petitioning them for a dissolution, and so short a time after to eject them with so much scorn and contempt ; who had no other answer to make but that, if ever he drolled in his life, he had drolled thcn."$ It is a pity that, in proportion * At that time clerk of the House. t Unable to omit this remarkable scene in a memoir of Cromwell, I have endeavoured to justify its repetition (in transgression of a rule, which has been strictly observed in this series of biographies) by certain new elements of char- acter and interest that have occurred to me since the notice of Vane was written. A curious circumstance may be added, illustrative of the stern and undying spirit of the leaders of this famous Long Parliament. Treating Crom- well's act of violence as though it had never disgraced our annals, that Parliament, entitled, if any ever was, to boast itself indestructible, resuscitated itself, as the reader knows, on the death of Cromwell ; and, in looking over the journals of the 7th of January, 1659, I find this character- istic passage : " Whereas this House do find an entry in the Journal Book of the 20th of April, 1653, in these words, ' This day his excellency the lord-general dissolved this Parliament;' which was done without consent of Parlia- ment ; which this House doth accordingly declare to be a forgery ; and do order Mr. Scobell to be sent for to the bar to answer it." From other minutes in the same journal, I find farther that Mr. Scobell appeared before the House duly to answer this offence, and that the obnoxious entry having been shown him, he was asked who made it. He acknowledged upon this that it was his own handwriting, and that he did it without the direction of any person what- ever. The House immediately ordered the entry to be ex- punged out of the journals, and referred it to a committee to consider " whether the then late act of indemnity ex- tended to pardon that offence, and report their opinion of it to the House." I find nothing more of it, however ; mat- ters of greater moment had meanwhile occurred for consid- eration ! t Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 460. The memorialist (who then held command in Ireland) adds, "We who were in. Ireland, being not so well informed of these clandestine as these Republican officers admitted glimmer- ings of conscience or fair intention into their plans, they seem to have lost altogether what could alone effectually serve them in the pecu- liar policy they favoured their craft and cun- ning. It is wonderful to contemplate the sim- plicity they exhibit ; amusing it might be, no less, were it not for the serious mischief it in- flicted on our country. A far different scene, however, from that which he encountered at the military cabal, awaited Cromwell at the council of state. In the afternoon of this still eventful day, the tri- umphant usurper, attended by Lambert and Harrison, entered the chamber of the council. The famous Bradshaw had that morning taken his seat on his fresh election to the presidency, and it thus fitly devolved upon him, from whose lips had issued the sentence which doomed a legitimate king to death for crimes committed against the people, to rebuke a traitorous usurper upon the threshold of his ill-gotten power. Cromwell broke the silence which fol- lowed his sudden appearance in the chamber : " Gentlemen," he said, " if you are met here as private persons, you shall not be disturbed ; but if as a council of state, this is no place for you ; and, since you can't but know what was done at the House in the morning, so take no- tice that the Parliament is dissolved." To this Bradshaw rose and at once replied : " Sir, we have heard what you did at the House in the morning, and before many hours all England will hear it. But, sir, you are mistaken to think that the Parliament is dissolved, for no power under heaven can dissolve them but themselves : therefore take you notice of that." With these words fell the Commonwealth of England, leaving behind it a memory which is immortal, and results that are destined to live and bear fruit forever. Each member present in council at once rose and withdrew, Scot, Hazlerig, and Love briefly and emphatically repeating, as they went, the solemn protest of Bradshaw.* Cromwell made no reply. At early dawn of the 21st of April, a large placard was seen pasted on the door of the House of Commons " This house to be let, un~ furnished" the work of some Royalist wit of the preceding night, after orgies which had no doubt worthily celebrated the downfall of the only sufficient or lasting barrier between Eng- land and the Stuarts.t On the morning of the same day a sort of government gazette was issued from Whitehall to the following effect: "The lord-general delivered yesterday in Parliament divers reasons wherefore a present period should be put to the sitting of this Parlia- ment, and it was accordingly done, the speaker and the members all departing ; the grounds of which proceedings will ('tis probable) be practices, and no less confident that the principles of some men who joined in this attempt were directed to the good, of the nation ; and that, though some might be such arrant knaves as to have other designs, yet, trusting that an impos- sibility of accomplishing the same would oblige them to fall in with the public interest, and not to be so very foolish to attempt the setting up for themselves though we could not but have some doubts of the ill consequences of these things, yet thought ourselves, by the rules of charity, obliged to hope the best, and therefore continued to act in our places and stations as before." * Ludlow, vol. ii., p. 461. t For the rejoicings of Charles Stuart himself, see Eve- lyn's Correspondence, vol. ii., p. 215. OLIVER CROMWELL. 513 shortly made public." In speedy redemption of this pledge, a declaration of the " grounds and reasons for dissolving the Parliament," in the name of the lord-general and his council of officers, came forth, in English and French, on the 22d of April. It is due to candour and to truth, wherein will be always found a solid vindication of the Commonwealth against its betrayer, to give the essential part of this declaration, and of what other defence Cromwell may have sought to place on record, in the dread of a verdict by posterity against his action of the 20th of April. To bring such a document as this declaration, for example, to the light of the truth which is here attempted to be cast, for the first time, into every corner of these strange transactions, is to unravel at once its cunning and false pre- tences. And much more than this will neces- sarily receive illustration from any careful en- deavour to show in detail what various influ- ences were in action at that time upon the peo- ple ; what miserable self-delusions or wretched vanities held spellbound even Cromwell's agents in his tyrannous work ; and for what consider- ations of dignity, prudence, or superior and un- selfish care for the general safety, the baffled and slandered statesmen were content to " bide their time." The declaration opens with a well-devised allusion to the grounds which had first moved the undersigned officers to take up arms, and engage their lives and all that was dear to them in the cause ; to the various and signal dispensations through which Divine Providence had led them ; and to the witness the Lord himself had borne to their unwearied efforts. They have been necessitated, they then with apparent frankness state, " for the defence of the same cause they first asserted, to have re- course unto extraordinary actions," which they thus proceed to describe and defend. " After it had pleased God not only to re- duce Ireland and give in Scotland, but so mar- vellously to appear for his people at Worcester that these nations were reduced to a great de- gree of peace and England to perfect quiet, and thereby the Parliament had opportunity to give the people the harvest of their labour, blood, and treasure, and to settle a due liberty both in reference to civil and spiritual things, whereunto they were obliged by their duty, their engage- ments, as also the great and wonderful things which God had wrought for them, it was a matter of much grief to the good and well-af- fected of the land to observe the little progress which was made therein, who thereupon ap- plied to the army, expecting redress by their means ; notwithstanding which, the army, be- ing unwilling to meddle with the civil authority in matters so properly appertaining to it, it was agreed that his excellency, and officers of the army which were members of Parliament, should be desired to move the Parliament to proceed vigorously in performing what was amiss in government, and to the settling of the Commonwealth upon a foundation of justice and righteousness ; which having done, we hoped that the Parliament would seasonably have an- swered our expectation. But finding (to our grief) delays therein, we renewed our desires in an humble petition to them, which was pre- TTT sented in August last ; and although they at that time, signifying their good acceptance thereof, returned us thanks, and referred the particulars thereof to a committee of the House, yet no considerable effect was produced, nor any such progress made as might imply their real intentions to accomplish what was peti- tioned for ; but, on the contrary, there more and more appeared among them an aversion to the things themselves, with much bitterness and opposition to the people of God, and his Spirit acting in them ; which grew so prevalent, that those persons of honour and integrity among them who had eminently appeared for God and the pub- lic good both before and throughout this war, were rendered of no farther use in Parliament, than, by meeting with a corrupt party, to give them coun- tenance to carry on their ends, and for effecting the desire they had of perpetuating themselves in the supreme government. For which pur- pose the said party long opposed, and frequently declared themselves against having, a new rep- resentative ; and when they saw themselves necessitated to take that bill into consideration, they resolved to make use of it to recruit the House icith persons of the same spirit and temper, there- by to perpetuate their own sitting, which intention divers of the activest among them did mani- fest, labouring to persuade others to a consent therein : and the better to effect this, divers pe- titions, preparing from several counties for the continuance of this Parliament, were encouraged, if not set on foot, by many of them. " For obviating of these evils, the officers of the army obtained several meetings with some of the Parliament to considerwhat fittingmeans and remedy might be applied to prevent the same ; but such endeavours proving altogether ineffectual, it became most evident to the army, as they doubt not it also is to all considering per- sons, that this Parliament, through the corrup- tion of some, the jealousy of others, the non- attendance and negligence of many, would never answer those ends which God, his people, and the whole nation expected from them, but that this cause, which the Lord hath so greatly blessed, and bore witness to, should languish under their hands, and by degrees be wholly lost, and the lives, liberties, and comforts of his people delivered into their enemies' hands. "All which being sadly and seriously con- sidered by the honest people of this nation, as well as by the army, and wisdom and direction being sought from the Lord, it seemed to be a duty in- cumbent upon us, who had seen so much of the power and presence of God going along with us, to consider of some more effectual means to secure the cause which the good peo- ple of this Commonwealth had been so long engaged in, and to establish righteousness and peace in these nations. " After much debate, it was judged necessa- ry, and agreed upon, that the supreme authority should be by the Parliament devolved upon known persons men fearing God and of approved in- tegrity and the government of the Common- wealth committed unto them for a time, as the most hopeful way to encourage and countenance all God's people, reform the laws, and administer justice impartially ; hoping thereby the people may forget monarchy, and, understanding their true election of successive Parliaments, may have the 514 BRITISH STATESMEN. government settled upon a true basis, without haz- ard to this glorious cause, or necessitating to keep up armies for the. defence of the same. And being still resolved to use all means possible to avoid extraordinary courses, we prevailed with about twenty members of Parliament to give us a conference, with whom we freely and plainly debated the necessity and justness of our pro- posals on that behalf, and did evidence that those, and not the act under their considera- tion, would most probably bring forth some- thing answerable to that work, the foundation whereof God himself hath laid, and is now carry- ing on in the world ; the which, notwithstanding, found no acceptance ; but instead thereof, it was offered, that the way was to continue still this present Parliament, as being that from which we might reasonably expect all good things ; and this, being vehemently insisted upon, did much confirm us in our apprehen- sions, that not any love to a representative, but the making use thereof to recruit and so per- petuate themselves, was their aim. "They being plainly dealt with about this, and told that neither the nation, the honest in- terest, nor we ourselves would be deluded by such dealings, they did agree to meet again the next day in the afternoon for mutual satisfac- tion, it being consented to by the members present, that endeavours should be used that no- thing in the mean time should be done in Par- liament that might exclude or frustrate the proposals before mentioned. " Notwithstanding this, the next morning the Parliament did make more haste than usual in carrying on their said act, being helped on therein by some of the persons engaged to us the night before, none of them which were then present endeavouring to oppose the same ; and being ready to put the main question for con- summating the said act, whereby our aforesaid proposals would have been rendered void, and the way of bringing them into a fair and full debate of Parliament obstructed; for preventing thereof, and all the sad and evil consequences which must, upon the grounds aforesaid, have ensued, and whereby, at one blow, the interest of all honest men, and of this glorious cause, had been in danger to be laid in the dust, and these nations embroiled in new troubles, at a time when our enemies abroad are watching all advantages against us, and some of them actually engaged in war with us, we have been necessitated, though with much reluctance, to put an end to this Parliament ; which yet we have done (we hope) out of an honest heart, preferring this cause above our names, lives, families, or in- terests, how dear soever, with clear intention and real purposes of heart to call to the government persons of approved fidelity and honesty, believing that, as no wise men will expect to gather grapes of thorns, so good men will hope that, if persons so qualified be chosen, the fruits of a just and righteous reformation, so long prayed and wished for, will, by the blessing of God, be in due time obtained, to the refreshing of all those good hearts who have been panting after these things. " Much more might have been said," the declaration proceeded, " if it had been our desire to justify ourselves by aspersing others, and raking into the misgovernment of affairs ; but we shall conclude with this : that as we have been led by necessity and Providence to act as we have done, even beyond and above our own thoughts and desires, so we shall, and do, in that part of this great work which is behind, put our- selves wholly upon the Lord for a blessing, professing we look not to stand one day with- out his support, much less to bring to pass all the things mentioned and desired without his assistance ; and therefore do solemnly desire and expect that all men, as they would not pro- voke the Lord to their own destruction, should wait for such issue as He should bring forthi. and to follow their business with peaceable spirits, wherein we promise them protection^, by his- assistance. "And for those who profess their fear and : love to the name of God, .that, seeing in great measure for their sakes, and for righteousness' sake, we have taken our lives in our hands to do these things, they VTOuld be constant with the Lord day and night on our behalf, that we may obtain grace from him ; and seeing we have made so often mention of his name, that we may not do the least dishonour thereunto which, indeed, would be our confusion, and a stain to the whole profession of godliness we beseech them also to live in all humility, meek- ness, righteousness, and love one towards an- other and towards all men, that so they may put to silence the ignorance of the foolish who falsely accuse them, and to know that the late great and glorious dispensations, wherein the Lord hath so wonderfully appeared in bringing forth these things by the travail and blood of his children, ought to oblige them so to walk in the wisdom and love of Christ as may cause others to honour their holy profession, because they see Christ to be in them of a truth." With these words the declaration closed : "We do farther purpose, before it be long, more particularly to show the grounds of our pro- ceedmgs, and the reasons of this late great ac- tion and change, which in this we have but hint- ed at. And we do lastly declare, that all judges, ; sheriffs, justices of the peace, mayors, baliffs, j committees, and commissioners, and all other civil officers and public ministers whatsoever, within this Commonwealth or any part thereof, do proceed in their respective places and offi- ces ; and all persons whatsoever are to give obedience to them, as fully as when the Parlia- ment was sitting."* After an unholy act, there is nothing so nat- ural as holy profession. Through no gaps have spiritual ebullitions of this sort vented themselves so freely as thru'igh those of un- righteousness. In the whole of this declara- tion there is nothing tangible or substantial ; it is profession throughout ; and in professing too much, as these officers are made to do, they : declare a conscious deficiency. What they al- lege respecting the purpose of the statesmen not to dissolve of their own accord, is flatly disproved by the scenes of debate and council , which preceded, and were even interrupted by, the outrage of the 20th of April ; and this con- i tradiction is indeed so fit/grant, that in a later part of the declaration it is not nought to be concealed, but an attempt is raudu to compro- * Copied from the original edi'ior in the British Museum published by Hills and BrewsU r, prnuers to the army. OLIVER CROMWELL. 515 mise it by an assertion that when they dis- covered that sudden change of the policy of the statesmen, they had good reason to " appre- hend" that its aim was not " any love to a new representative, but the making use thereof to recruit and so perpetuate themselves." The disingenuous sophism carries its own refutation with it. Not by its result in that sense was such a measure to be tested, but by the just- ness and fairness of its own provisions. Would these officers have dared to publish a copy of the bill in question 1 Cromwell had seized the only one in existence (it had not been printed, or even engrossed) on the day of the dissolu- tion ; had carried it himself, under his cloak, to his own house at Whitehall, and was never af- terward known to refer to it in any way. An attempt has already been made in this work, however, to recover the substance of its main provisions,* which there is every reason to be- lieve, as I shall hereafter show, were tried and found too popular in the issue of writs for cer- tain Parliaments of the Protectorate. Too popular for the purposes of despotism they might be expected to have proved. They im- bodied, in truth, a fair, a reasonable, a perfectly honest appeal to the intelligent classes of the people. The measure was worthy of such a statesman as Sir Henry Vane, and was, in all respects, what he might fearlessly have rested his case upon with the people and with pos- terity. The officers expose, unconsciously, their weakness and insecurity alone, when they confess that the result of such a measure would have been to restore the statesmen to power with additional strength for the realiza- tion of their wise purposes. These hundred and thirty men were at once to be re-enforced by three hundred and thirty supporters, who should speak, not their sentiments only, but also those of the people ! What else is said in this declaration and de- fence 1 A few things, which may be well to remember. It is declared that the new gov- ernment had been specially called into exist- ence in order to "settle the Commonwealth on a foundation of justice and righteousness ;" that the people of God, and his Spirit acting in them, were to be the main agents of the work; that a new interest of that kind had arisen, which the nation was now to look to chiefly, namely, that of the people of God in question, or, in other words, the honest people, the hon- est interest ; that, in accordance with this, per- sons of that class, and of approved fidelity and honesty, would instantly be called into the government. In short, it is plainly sought to be conveyed that the reign of saints was about to begin ; and, to do them justice, some of the officers believed in the delusion which the rest thus skilfully practised. It is deserving of re- mark, also, that the very statesmen who on the day of dissolution had been covered with foulest epithets of insult, are here in shame ad- mitted to be persons of honour and integrity, who had eminently appeared for God and the public good both before and throughout the war. Be it remembered, too, that the declara- tion confesses the existence of considerable sympathy with the last Parliament in the minds of the people (though it would imply its having *~See~Life of "Vane, p. 316, 317. been unfairly obtained), and plainly dreads the outbreak of more. It refers uneasily to divers petitions from several counties for the Parlia- ment's continuance, and finds it needful to im- plore " all men," as they would not provoke the Lord to their own destruction, to wait patient- ly for such issue as He should bring forth, and to follow their business meanwhile with peace- able spirits. Finally, the authors of this dec- laration, as if in betrayal of even their own sense of the inadequacy of all the reasons they had attempted for the late mischievous outrage, declare it to be their purpose, "before it be long," to show more particularly the grounds of their proceedings, and the reasons of the late great action and change. And it was not long, it may be confessed a day or two only had elapsed when a second declaration appeared accordingly. It was brief, however ; contained nothing that had not been said in even greater detail in the first ;* was merely a compromise for additional delay ; and may fairly be taken to imply a farther doubt, on the part of Cromwell and his officers,, of the quiet or patience of the people in the new and strange order of things. It was followed by a third and more memorable declaration, which appeared significantly in the name of "Oliver Cromwell, captain-general," only. This was published on the last day of April ; was com- prised in about twenty lines ; and stated, that whereas it had been promised, in the declara- tion of the 22d, that persons of approved fidelity and honesty should be called from the several parts of the Commonwealth to the supreme authority, it now appeared that some time must necessarily elapse before such an assembly could be brought to- gether. It was therefore judged proper, to pre- vent the mischief and inconveniences which might in the mean time arise to the Common- wealth, that a council of state should be con- stituted, to take care of and superintend the peace, safety, and present management of pub- lic affairs, f. It is a very remarkable circumstance, how- ever, as the reader will at once perceive, if he glances a page or two back, that no such pledge as this, which plainly implies a Parliament, had been given in the declaration of the 22d. The words there used were, that it was the inten- tion "to call' to the government persons of ap- proved fidelity and honesty." The only infer- ence undoubtedly was that of an election of a council of state, and most certainly not of any " assembly'* from "several parts of the Com- monwealth." Whence, then, had arisen this so sudden change ? Whence could it possibly have arisen, but from some paramount neces- sity, as suddenly made apparent in the nation, and which declared to Cromwell the expedien- cy of rendering that military council of his somewhat more palatable to the people, even separated and distracted as they were, by a certain show of civil countenance and concur- rence 1 Such facts as these, and the consider- ations they carry with them, are of singular importance towards a due estimate of this mo- mentous crisis. It was clearly by steps the * It would be useless to quote it here, as there is not a single new point in it. It may be found in Several Pro- ceedings, No. 187, British Museum Library. t Moderate Publisher, 131. Perfect Politician, 173 Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. iii., p. 520. 516 BRITISH STATESMEN. most gradual our Cromwell was mounting his throne. From the body of the king, he had stepped upon the ruins of the Parliament of statesmen ; and from the carcass of a second Parliament of saints, he proposed to vault into the Protector's throne. It is instructive to know that any instant declaration of his despotic purpose, after his action of the 20th of April, might still have been fatal to the scheme. It argues much for the germs of good that were in the people yet, deluded as they had been by their enemies, mistaken by their friends, and now on the eve of a consummation of delusion and mistake at once fatal and never to be redeemed. We see that they had been accustomed to associate for so many years their security and rights with the great thought of Parliament, that its very name was to prove a sufficient veil to hide from them the darkest designs ; and a merest shad- ow and pretence of its great significance to all that was held valuable in England was to en- able Cromwell to pass for something less than the usurper his precipitate deed of the 20th was calculated to declare him, and indeed to wipe out no small or indifferent portion of the very crime of that deed, forced on him, as it was, be- fore his plans were ripe, by the intrepid and self- possessed resolution of Vane and his friends. Sympathies were thus to be divided between the old and new Parliaments ; the expectation of the new birth would greatly suspend any violent workings of judgment against the old murder ; the troublesome honesty of the few officers who might happen to stick to the saints' reign would be more easily dealt with ; and, finally, explanations might be much better giv- en to an assembly of that description, and through them to the country, by some speech which the captain-general could at once deliv- er, on his own ground, supported by the pres- tige of his name and influence, and without control from any possible quarter, than any such farther declaration as had been promised from the military council could in any case supply. And in this way, it happened accordingly, such explanations were actually given. They shall be noticed in this place, because, though they do not thus occur in order of time, the subject to which they relate is under discussion here, and could never be disposed of in any de- gree fairly or conclusively without listening to all that Cromwell himself, coolly and cautious- ly meditating the matter, may at any time, or under any circumstances, have either divulged or sought to conceal respecting it. After various striking allusions (which will more properly find insertion in another place) to the commencement of the war, following its progress up to the settlement of the govern- ment in "the name, at least, of a common- wealth," and specially developing what he called " God's mercies" in it, the captain-general thus proceeded : " I shall now begin a little to re- member you of the passages that have been transacted since Worcester fight ; whence coming with my fellow-officers and soldiers, we expected and had some reasonable confidence that our expectations should not be frustrated that the authority that then was, having such a history to look back unto, such a God that appeared for them so eminently, so visibly, that even our enemies many times confessed that God himself was engaged against them, or they should never have been brought so low, nor disappointed in every undertaking for that may be said, by the way, had we miscarried but once, where had we been ? I say, we did think, and had some reasonable confidence, that, com- ing up then, the mercies that God had showed, the expectations that were in the hearts of all good men, would have prompted those that were in authority to have done those good things which might, by honest men, have been judged a return fit for such a God and worthy of such mercies, and, indeed, a discharge of duty to those for whom all these mercies have been showed, that is, the interest of the three nations the true interest of the three nations. " And if I should now labour to be particular in enumerating some businesses that have been transacted from that time till the dissolution of the late Parliament, indeed I should be upon a theme that would be very troublesome to my- self; for I must say for myself and fellow-offi- cers, we have rather desired and studied heal- ing, than to rake into sores and look backward, to render things in those colours that would not be very well pleasing to any good eye to look upon. Only this we must say, for our own exoneration, and as thereby laying some found- ation for the making evident the necessity and duty that was incumbent upon us to make this last great change, I think it will not be amiss to offer a word or two in that, not taking pleasure to rake into the business, were there not some kind of necessity so to do. "Indeed we may say, without commending ourselves I mean myself, and those gentlemen that have been engaged in the military affairs that, upon our return, we came fully bent in our hearts and thoughts to desire and use all fair and lawful means we could to have had the nation to reap the fruit of all that blood and treasure that had been expended in this cause; and we have had many desires and thirstings in our spirits to find out ways and means where- in we might any ways be instrumental to help it forward; and we were very tender, for a long time, so much as to petition, till August last or thereabouts ; we never offered to peti- tion ; but some of our then members, and oth- ers, having good acquaintance and relation to divers members of the Parliament, we did, from time to time, solicit that which we thought (if there had been nobody to prompt them, nobody to call upon them) would have been listened to, out of ingenuity and integrity in them, that had opportunity to have answered our expectations ; and truly, when we saw nothing would be done, we did, as we thought, according to our duty, remind them by a petition which petition I sup- pose the most of you have seen which we de- livered either in July or August last : what ef- fect that had is likewise very well known. The truth is, we had no return at all that was satis- faction for us, but a few words given us. The businesses petitioned for, most of them, we were told, were under consideration ; and those that were not had Very little or no considera- tion at all." Up to this point nothing is to be observed but a vague repetition of the declaration of the of- OLIVER CROMWELL. 517 ficers on the 22d of April. Some remarkable passages follow, however, in which much that is most worthy of attention will be found. Pretences of the dissatisfaction of the people, "in every corner of the land," are set forth ; the meetings of the cabal of soldiers and mod- erate or dishonest members are craftily descri- bed as of authority from the Parliament ; the principle of the bill prepared by Vane is ac- knowledged to be just, though a want of " in- tegrity and caution" is alleged against its de- tails ; the absolute intention of the Parliament to dissolve themselves is not sought to be de- nied ; and the whole is wrapped up in a cloud of words, implying communications with " the Lord," which is certainly well adapted to mys- tify whatever glimmerings or professions of substantial or honest meaning might, without it, have hoped to settle upon the minds of the assembly. It is worth remark, moreover, that the motives of reserving these explanations to such an occasion is fairly avowed. " Finding the people dissatisfied in every cor- ner of the nation, and bringing home to our doors the non-performance of those things that had beea promised, and were of due to be perform- ed, we did think ourselves concerned ; we en- deavoured, as became honest men, to keep up the reputation of honest men in the world, and therefore we had, divers times, endeavoured to obtain a meeting with divers members of Par- liament ; and truly we did not begin this till October last, and in those meetings did, in all faithfulness and sincerity, beseech them that they would be mindful of their duty to God and man, and of the discharge of their trust to God and man. I believe these gentlemen that are many of them here can tell that we had, at the least, ten or twelve meetings, most humbly begging and beseeching them that, of their own accords, they would da those good things that had been promised, that so it might appear they did not do them by any suggestion from the army, but of their own inge- nuity, so tender were wt to preserve them in the reputation and opinion of the people to the uttermost. And having had many of those meetings, and declaring plainly that the issue would be the judgment and displeasure of God against them, the dissatisfaction of the people, and the put- ting things into a confusion, yet how little we did prevail we well know, and, we believe, is not unknown to you. At the last, when we saw, indeed, that things would not be laid to heart, we had a serious consideration among ourselves what other way to have recourse unto ; and when, indeed, we came to those close considerations, they began to take the act of the new representative to heart, and seemed exceeding willing to put it on ; the which, had it been done, or would it have been done with that integrity, with that caution, that would have saved this cause and the interest we have been so long en- gaged in, there could nothing have happened to our judgmcnti more welcome than that would have been ; but finding plainly that the intendment of it was not to give the people that right of choice, al- though it had been but a ceding right, or the seeming to give the people that choice, intend- ed and designed to recruit the House, the better to perpetuate themselves. And truly divers of us, being spoken to to that end that we should give way to it, a thing to which we had a perpetual aversion, which we did abominate the thoughts of, we always declared our judgments against it, and our dissatisfaction ; but yet they would not hear of a representative before it lay three years before them, without proceeding with one line considerably in it. They that could not endure to hear of it, then, when we came to our close considerations, then, instead of protracting, they did make as much preposterous haste on the other hand, and ran into that extremity ; and find- ing that this spirit was not according to God, and that the whole weight of this cause, which must needs have been very dear unto us, who have so often adventured our lives for it, and we believe is so to you when we saw plainly that there was not so much consideration how to assert it or to provide security for it, and, indeed, to cross those that they reckoned the most troublesome people they had to deal with, which was the army, which by this time was sufficiently their displeasure when we saw this, truly, that had power in our hands, to let the business go to such an issue as this was to throw back the cause into the hands of them we first fought with, we came to this first conclusion among ourselves, that if we had been fought out of it, necessity would have taught us pa- tience ; but to be taken from us so unworthily, we should be rendered the worst people in the world, and should become traitors both to God and man ; and when God had laid this to our hearts, and that we found the interest of his people was grown cheap, and not laid to heart, and, if we came to competition of things, the cause even among themselves would even, al- most in everything, go to the ground, this did add more consideration to us, that there was a duty incumbent upon us ; and truly I speak it in the presence of some that are here, that were at the close consultations I may say, as before the Lord, the thinking of an act of violence was, to us, worse than any engagement that ever we were in yet, and worse to us than the utmost hazard of our lives that could be ; so unwilling were we, so tender were we, so desirous were we, if it were pos- sible, that these men might have quit their places with honour. And, truly, this I am the longer upon, because it hath been, in our hearts and consciences, our justification, and hath never yet been imparted thorough to the nation; and we had rather begin with you to do it than to have done it before ; and do think, indeed, that these transac- tions be more proper for a verbal communication than to have put it into writing. I doubt, whoso- ever had put it on would have been tempted to have dipped his pen in anger and wrath; but affairs being at this posture, that we saw plainly and evidently, in some critical things, that the cause of the people of God was a despised thing, truly then we did believe that the hands of other men must be the hands that must be trusted with it ; and then we thought it high time for us to look about us, and to be sensible of our duty." This extraordinary narrative, or "justifica- tion," not until now " imparted thorough to the nation," is afterward continued in a still more singular, involved, and wellnigh incomprehen- sible style. The entire passage demands quota- tion, since it is a fair test of the essential char- acter of the justification itself, that it was found necessary to multiply into such a rhapsody of 518 BRITISH STATESMEN. words the few bare pretences on which alone it rests. How widely different from the state documents under the hand of Cromwell that have elsewhere been quoted in this work, when truth clothes him in her own language, and better sustained by that simple and homely in- spiration within his soul, than by any tawdry affectation of those superior judgments, or "births of providence," which are never called in but in aid of miserable pretence, or to prop up shattered conviction his arguments are as clear and bright to the eyes of men, as to their minds they are solid, masterly, convincing ! There is a memorable lesson to be read in this contrast alone. In continuation of the assertions already given, Cromwell thus went on : " If I should take up your time to tell you what instances we have to satisfy our judgments and con- sciences that these things were not vain ima- ginations and things that were petitioned for, but that fell within the compass of our certain knowledge and sense should I repeat these things to you, I should do that which I would avoid, to rake into these things too much ; only this : if anybody were in competition for any place of real and signal trust, how hard and diffi- cult a thing it was to get anything to be carried without making parties without things, in- deed, unworthy of a Parliament 1 And when things must be carried so in a supreme author- ity, indeed, I think it is not as it ought to be ; but when it came to other trials, in that case of Wales,* which I must confess, for my own part, I set myself upon if I should inform you what discountenance that business of the poor people of God there had, who had watch- ings over them, men like so many wolves ready to catch, the lamb as soon as it was brought out into the world! how signally they threw that busi- ness under foot, to the discountenancing of the honest people there, and to the countenancing of the malignant party of this Commonwealth ! I need but say it was so ; many have felt, by sad experience, it was so, who will better impart that business to you ; which, for myself and fellow-officers, I think it was as perfect a trial of our spirits as anything ; it being known to many of us that God kindles a seed there, in- deed, hardly to be paralleled since the primitive times. I would this had been all the instan- ces ; but finding which way their spirits went, and finding that good was never intended to the people of God I mean, ichen I say so, that large comprehension of them under the several forms of godliness in this nation when I saw that ten- derness was forgotten to them all (though it was very true that, by their hands and means, through the blessing of God, they sat where they did), and affairs, not to speak it boasting- ly, had been instrumentally brought to that is- sue they were brought to by the hands of those * I cannot exactly make out the allusion here ; but it seems to have been some complaint of too impartial an ad- ministration of the law in Wales (impartiality, at this time, is generally well defined by the expression of countenancing the malignant party), since one of the first acts of Cromwell, before the summoning of this saintly Parliament, had been to suspend (by the affected authority of the new council of state) four judges of South Wales Eltonhead, Norbury, Powel, and Clerke, and to appoint two new judges, Corbet and Hag-git, for that district. An extraordinary stretch of power, indeed, in a government that did not even arrogate to itself the shadow of a final or sufficient authority ! poor creatures, we thought this an evil reqn> tal. I will not say they were at the uttermost pitch of reformation, although I could say that one thing, the regulation of the law, so much groaned under in that posture it now is in, there were many words spoken for it, yet we know many months together was not time enough to pass over one word called incum- brances ; I say, finding that this was the spirit and complexion of them, that though these were faults for which no man should have dared to lift his hand, simply for faults and failings, when yet we saw their intendment was to perpetu- ate themselves and men of this spirit, for some had it from their own mouths, from their own designs, who could not endure to hear of being dissolved this was a high breach of trust ; if they had been a Parliament never violated, sit- ting as free and as clear as ever any sat in England, yet, if they would go about to perpet- uate themselves, we did think this so great a breach of trust as greater could not be. And we did not go by guess in this ; and to be out of doubt in it, we did (having that conference among ourselves whereof we gave account) de- sire once more, the night before the dissolution, and it had been in our desires some two or three days before, that we might speak with some of the principal persons of the House, that we might, with ingenuity, open our ears to them, to the end we might be either convin- ced of the ground of their principles and inten- tions to the good of the nation, or, if we could not be convinced, they would hear our offer or expedient to prevent this mischief; and, in- deed, we could not prevail for two or three days till the night before the dissolution. There is a touch of this in that our declaration : we had often desired it. At that time vie attained it, there were above twenty of them who were members, not of the least consideration for interest and abil- ity, with whom we desired to discourse those things, and had discourse with them ; and it pleased the gentlemen-officers ol the army to desire me to offer their sense to them, and, in- deed, it was shortly carried thus. We told them that the reason of our desire to wait upon them was, that we might know from them what security lay in the way of their proceeding so hastily with their representative, wherein they had made a few qualifications, such as they were ; and how the whole business should be executed we had no account of; and we de- sired them they would be pleased, and we thought we had an interest in our lives, estates, and families, as well as the worst people of the nation, and that we might be bold to ask satis- faction in that ; and if they did proceed in hon- est ways, as might be safe to the nation, we might acquiesce therein. When we pressed them to give satisfaction in this, the answer was made that nothing could be good to the nation but the continuance of this Parliament. We won- dered that we should have such a return ; we said little to that ; but, seeing they would not give us that which might satisfy us that their way was honest and safe, they would give us leave to make our objections. " We did tell them that we thought that way they were going in would be impracticable : we could not tell them how it would be brought to pass to send out an act of Parliament into the OLIVER CROMWELL. 519 country, to have qualifications in an act to be the rules of electors and elected, and not to know who should execute this. Desired to know whether the next Parliament were not like to be all Presbyters 1 Whether those qualifications would hinder them, or neuters! And though it be our desire to value and esteem persons of that judgment, only they having been as we know, having deserted this cause and interest upon the king's account, and upon that closure be- tween them and the neighbour nation, we do think we must profess we had as good have de- livered up our cause into the hands of any as into the hands of interested and biased men ; for it is one thing to live friendly and brotherly, to bear with, and love, a person of another judgment in religion, another thing to have any so far set into the saddle upon that account as it should be in them to have all the rest of their brethren at mercy. Having had this discourse, making these ob- jections of bringing in neuters, or such as should impose upon their brethren, or such as had given testimony to the king's party, and objecting to the danger of it in drawing the concourse of all people to arraign every indi- vidual person which indeed did fall obviously in, and the issue would certainly have been the putting it into the hands of men that had little affection to this cause, the answer again was made, and it was confessed by some, that these objections did lie ; but answer teas made by a very eminent person, at the same time as before, that nothing would save the nation but the contin- uance of this Parliament. This being so, we humbly proposed an expedient of ours, which was, indeed, to desire, that the government be- ing in that condition it was, and things being under so much ill sense abroad, and so likely to come to confusion in every respect if it went on so we desired they would devolve the trust over to persons of honour and integrity, that were well known, men well affected to religion and the interest of the nation, which we told them, and was confessed, had been no new thing when these nations had been under the like hurly- burly and distractions ; and it was confessed by them it had been no new thing. We had been at labour to get precedents to convince them of it, and we told them these things we offer- ed out of that deep sense we had of the good of the nation and the cause of Christ ; and were answered to that, nothing would save the nation but the continuance of the Parliament, although they would not say they would perpetuate it, at that time least of all. " But, finding their endeavours did directly tend to it, they gave us this answer, that the things we had offered were of a tender and very weighty consideration. They did make ob- jections how we should raise money, and some other objections. We told them that that we offered as an expedient, because we thought better than that for which no reason was or thought would be given. We desired them to lay the thing seriously to heart. They told us they would take consideration of these things till the morning that they would sleep upon them ; and I think tha there was scarce any day that there sat above fifty, or fifty-two, or fifty-three. At the parting, two or three of the chief ones the very chiefest of them did tell us that they would endeavour the -suspending the pro- ceedings of the representative the next day till they had a further conference; and we did acquiesce, and had hope, if our expedient would take up a loving debate, the next day we should have some such issue of our debate as would have given a satisfaction to all. They went away late at night ; and the next morning, we consider- ing how to order that which we had to offer to them, when they were to meet in the evening, word was brought they were proceeding with a representative with all the eagerness they could : we did not be- lieve persons of such quality could do it. A second and third messenger told us they had almost fin- ished it, and had brought it to that issue with that haste that had never been known before ; leaving out the things that did necessarily relate to due qualifications, as we have heard since ; resolved to make it a paper bill, not to engross it, that they might make the quicker despatch of it, thtis to have thrown all the liberties of the nation into the hands that never bled for it : upon this account, we thought it our duty nol to suffer it, and upon this the House was dissolved."* In all this fanfaronade of words, it appears to me that there are only two substantial state- ments worthy of special remark beyond those adverted to already. The first is, that a dispo- sition against the farther existence of the Par- liament had been manifested in u every corner of the land ;" and the second, that, if they had been permitted to pass the act of self-dissolu- tion, its immediate result would have been to " throw all the liberties of the nation into the hands that never had hied for it," by return- ing a majority of Presbyterians to recruit the forces of the old members. In other words, the statesmen were to be recruited by the help of their bitterest foes. The lion was to lie down with the fox. The Independent and the Presbyterian were to rush into sudden embrace. The thick, the sordid, and uahealthy atmosphere of arrogant and intolerant bigotry was to melt suddenly into the clear and generous air of per- fect religious freedom. Ridiculous as such pre- tences are for everything that is devoid of truth must, some time or other, become a thing ridiculous history has not chosen to reject them. Both are sanctioned, for example, by one of the ablest, and (taking all things into consider- ation) the most impartial of modern historians. Doctor Lingard tells us that this Long Parlia- ment " fell without a struggle or a groan, un- pitied and uaregretted.f The members slunk * I have copied these passages from the original edition, which is thus entitled : "The Lord-general's Speech, de- livered in the council-chamber upon the 4th of July, 1653, to the persons then assembled and intrusted with the su- preme authority of the nation. This is a true copy, pub- lished for information and to prevent mistakes." It has the date of 1654. t Mr. Hallam has done still greater injustice (in Const. Hist., vol. ii., p. 324-5) to these celebrated men. "The Parliament," he takes occasion to say, in one passage, " in its present wreck, contained few leaders of superior ability." Why, it contained Vane, Scot, Algernon Sidney, Plenties, Blake, Ludlow, Brndshaw, Marten, Harrington, Neville, Whitelocke, Hazlerig ! all the leaders that had ever sat in it to the advantage of their own fame or of the public good, save the great dead, Pym and Hampden. Cromwell, too, Oliver St. John, and the chief of the army officers, were member* still, though traitors. If Mr. Hallam would imply that the Long Parliament lost its character and virtue when it lost the crafty Hyde, the venomous Prynne, the mean and arrogant Hollis, the nervous and fearful Rudyard, and all those other men whose names have happily perished, but whose votes declare then of the same poor aud pitiful BRITISH STATESMEN. away to their homes, where they sought by sub- mission to purchase the forbearance of their new master ; and their partisans, if partisans they had, reserved themselves in silence for a day of retribution, which came not before Crom- well slept in his grave." It is a pity that in such a history should be copied the mere ribald slander of the time. " The news of this Luci- ferian fall," says a contemporary libel, " was quietly spread throughout the city, and from thence into the kingdom, being related and re- ceived with all imaginable gladness, while the members slunk away, muttering to themselves the affront they had received, and laying their heads together how to retrieve themselves ; for loth they were to suffer this violence, or ac- knowledge their dissolution, which they would by no means hear of. But, whatever they fancied to the contrary, raving at this boldness and au- daciousness of their servant, as they styled Crom- well, he minded it not, but went on in his work." The manifest contradiction in all this need not be remarked upon. Their righteous and brave denial of the legality of the act that had dis- persed them is not compatible with the coward- ly slinking away ; the alleged submission to their new master is flatly disproved by their open and loud " raving" against the audacious- ness and boldness of their old servant. What, then, was the simple fact 1 In what regard did their memory really stand, after their dispersion, with the people they had served so well 1 Cromwell has charged upon them the popu- lar hatred and indifference, and a desire to strengthen themselves by the help of Presbyte- rianism. It most fortunately happens that an answer on both these charges is left to us, from the lips of one who sealed his truthfulness with his blood. Thomas Scot, who was Vane's equal in virtue, and only second to him in in- tellect, and whose last utterance, before he sur- rendered his neck to the executioner, was a blessing to God that he had "devoted his life to a cause that was not to be repented of,"* spoke these words in the first Parliament of Richard Cromwell.t Mr. Bulkeley, a fierce Presbyterian, had repeated Cromwell's first charge of the popular indifference, characteri- zing the government of the Commonwealth as " a monster" that was suddenly dissolved, " without either coroner or inquest upon it ;" when Scot answered him thus : " That gentle- man says the Parliament went out, and no com- plaining in the streets, no inquiry after them. That is according to the company men keep. Men suit the letter to their lips. It is as men con- verse. I never met a zealous asserter of that cause, but lamented it, to see faith broken, and somewhat else. I will say no more. It was as much bewailed as the instrument of government. A petition, the day after the Parliament was stamp, then only what he says is intelligible, and will re- ceive the consideration due to it. He proceeds to call the statesmen " the creatures of military force :" an ill-consid- ered and unwise phrase to apply to the men who alone gave efficacy to that force, who were its authors to all good ends, who pointed the road to victory, and who consolidated its advantages when gained. " Their claim to a legal au- thority," Mr. Ilallum continues, "and to the name of repre- sentatives of a people who rejected and abhorred them, was perfectly impudent." Of the probable truth of such a deci- sive assertion, founded as it is on pure surmise, the reader will perhaps receive some means of judging, if he reads a few pages onward. * See Life jf Marten, p. 386. t Reported in the Diary of Thomas Burtou. dissolved, from forty of the chief officers, the al- dermen of the city of London, and many godly divines (except the rigid Presbyters, too well wish- ers to Mr. Love's treason), besought to have that Parliament restored. But the Protector, being resolved to carry on his work, threatened, terri- fied, and displaced them : and who would, for such a shattered thing, venture their all ? You have had five changes this is the fifth ; and yet the people have not rest." Rest rest : there is much in that word which is significant at all times ; nor, since the world began, have greater sacrifices been made for freedom by the conscientious and the bold, than have been made for rest by even the vir- tuous and the well-intentioned. It is scarcely unnatural that it should be so. Political strug- gles of a great character are for the future rath- er than the present, as the petty squabbles of party politicians are for the present and never for the future. The people who have suffered most in these great struggles are precisely those who reap the least, and who have the fewest resources of imagination against a failure in the realities. They have fought and bled, they have toiled, suffered, been plundered and taxed, and, after twelve years of the horrors of a war of brother against brother, and homestead against homestead, they discover that they are, in all worldly advantages, to appearance where they first began. They know not of the seed they have planted for posterity ; they see not long lines of their children's children better and hap- pier for them ; they know only that bread is as dear as it was, that the state has its exactions still ; and that, though they have won the free- dom to follow the dictates of their conscience, and worship their Maker as they please though they have pushed from before their daily path the public robber, the rack, the pestilential jail yet life is not to them less laden with toil, or redeemed by comfort or rest. The wages of the earth have become even more niggard than they were by the claims of these long years of contest the tithe for their fair sup- port less freely yielded from its " cold, hard bosom." The enthusiasm which first sustain- ed them, too, has gradually worn itself down ; and they are suddenly made sensible of wretch- ed discords and divisions, where they should still have been able to recognise a bond of union, one and indivisible, between every act- or or sufferer in the cause. These things should be remembered in judging what is called the fickleness of the people, and then it may be freely and fairly admitted that they did not sup- port the statesmen by all the means that were in their power. In other words, they made no demonstration for them. They could scarcely be expected to know the importance of all that was at stake. It is not till we have retired to a distance from the actual scene of such a po- litical conflict as this was, that the men and things engaged in it assume their due propor- tions. Not till then is the good that has been bravely done estimated in connexion with the difficulty of doing it, or the tyranny that has been strangely suffered in connexion with the plausible pretences it was based on. And in speaking of the people in these terms, let me be understood to include, not only the lower orders of men in the labouring districts OLIVER CROMWELL. 521 and the towns, but the smaller tenants and householders, the industrious workmen, the penniless students, even the Levellers and the Diggers* all who had borne arms or supplied materials, or in action or patience suffered, in behalf of the Parliament against the king. To all of these, in a greater or less degree, it must have occurred to undergo what I have descri- bed. The enthusiast saw too great a pref- erence for civil over spiritual freedom ; there was too much protection for property to please the Leveller ; too great a latitude for con- science to please the bigot ; and, of all to be most regretted, an unwise dread of the power and purposes of the bad, had worked to the dis- advantage and dissatisfaction of the good and well-intentioned. None could have estimated rightly the position of the statesmen during the difficulties that beset the Commonwealth in its early years ; few could be other than unjust in a natural resentment of the continued reser- vation of those rights of citizenship and priv- ileges of representation which had been won as worthily as they seemed to be undeservedly withheld. And hence it was. that when a new party had risen, with these words ever on their lips, and -with still loftier promises there for sudden and sublime realization, it was found too late to redress the errors of the old. The force of habit in those sections of the people I have named, who still continued to bear arms under Cromwell's command, induced an in- stinctive reverence for his movements strong- er than any that could be set up against them. His voice was the trumpet that preceded vic- tory to them, and to follow any other would be to challenge disaster or defeat. Others there were among those classes, some Anabaptists, some Fifth Monarchy-men, some Levellers even,t in sincere delusion as to the wonderful things to be done in the reign of sanctity upon earth, in the person of Harrison and his friends. * These Diggers (not a very large, but a very curious sect, and very expressive of the hope and the despondency of this strange and memorable time) were something in the nature of the Spcncean philosophers, who made themselves notorious some twenty years since. The names of two of their leaders have come down to us, Gerrard Winstanley and Everard. Winstanley wrote numerous tracts in sup- port of their tenets ; and from these we learn that their principles were, that God gave all things in common, and that every man has a right to the fruits of the earth. They professed an intention not to disturb any one in his posses- sions ; but they asserted that the time was come when the whole world would shortly espouse their principles. They made their appearance at St. George's Hill, near Walton, in Surry, Winstanley and Everard being at their head, with about thirty followers ; and, resorting to an open common, they began to dig the earth, and deposite in it seeds and roots. They were not. however, permitted to proceed in this very innocent and primitive occupation ; for, alas ! Fairfax sent two troops of horse to disperse them, who de- stroyed some of their implements and tools, and conducted a few of the more obstinate and petulant of themselves to prison. See Whitelocke, Pamphlets by Winstanley. Cause of the Diggers, $. Godwin, vol. ii., p. 82. t There were undoubtedly some sincere men among the Levellers, though they were more rare in this than in any other section or party of the time. Nearly all of them par- took, in a greater or less degree, of the violent, self-willed, and intemperate character of their leader, John Lilburne, who was a Cobbett without his intellect : altogether a most rain, vulgar, and irrational person. Confusion was his panacea for everything. At once the most credulous and the most suspicious of men, he fancied that all the honesty left in the world had suddenly taken up its abode in the breast of John Lilburne, and his atrocious and abominable detraction was accordingly poured out in never-ceasing suc- cession upon every party in the state. He could live only in the heated and disordered air of abuse and quarrel. Even stronger than his self-love was his love of this, and hence arose that famous saying of the great wit of the Com- monwealth, that, if only he were left upon the earth, John Uuu would quarrel with Lilburne, and Lilburne with John. Every act of kindness shown him in his life (see the Memoir of Marten, p. 358 and p. 380) was only the signal for a pouring down of fresh abuse on the indiscreet generosity that performed it. Even when he had received compensa- tion for his sufferings in the Star Chjmber, he at once turned fiercely round on the men who gave it, as if, in ta- king from him the privilege of being considered an ill-used person, they had abridged his means of livelihood. This was the style of his conduct throughout his life. His whole being was made up of violent, selfish passions, the nature of which, and, indeed, the general temperament of the man, may be gathered from a short passage in his pam- phlet called " A Just Reproof to Haberdashers' Hall," oue of those thousand paper trumpets through which he was continually pouring the bad breath of his ridiculous self- conceit. He had some supposed claim on Hazlerig for money, and thus (in 1651) refers to it. " Meeting Mr. Pear- son at the' George, in Channel Row, I told him, if his mas- ter thought to keep my money while I sued him at law, it was a vain thought ; for he was too great for me to encoun- ter him that way, and I had neither money nor time to spend upon him : therefore I entreated him, as he loved Sir Arthur's life and welfare, to say to him that I wore a good dagger by my right side, and a good rapier by my left side, and if within eight days he did not send me all my money, and give me some rational satisfaction, let him look to him- self; for after that day, wherever I met him, I would pay him for all together, though I were cut into a thousand pieces on the very place." That such a man could have any sincere political object in view is not for an instant con- ceivable. He merely sought about, in some day's new fit of wilful discontent, for mean jealousies and violent passions among the lower sections of the army, and had little diffi- culty in finding them. The mutinies which followed, and which, though always promptly suppressed, have given the Levellers (for such was the name assumed by these Lil- burne factions, though they disclaimed any levelling designs on property) a place in history, had never any defined ob- ject, unless the promotion of disorder and confusion can be so designated. It is quite impossible to discern at any time a steady purpose in Lilburne, save that at all times he would seem to have looked with a keen eye to his own profit and loss. It is equally clear that his intemperate followers de- rived all their importance from the great stock of which they were the paltry offshoot, or, rather, refuse the army, on the theretofore unsullied brightness of whose military discipline they cast an unexpected stain. Still, as in every movement of this kind during a period of general unrest, honest men were deluded into their body, and to these allu- sion is made in the text. So far as the object of such can j be ascertained, through the extraordinary clouds of selfish i pretension that envelop all Lilburne's writings, it would : seem to have been much of the same sort as that of Harri- I son and the Anabaptists, or Fifth Monarchy-men, making I allowance for the religious peculiarities of the latter. They demanded annual Parliaments, and a sort of universal rep- 1 resentation of the " universal elect" among the people. 1 They held, not only that Christianity forbade the rule of a ! single person on the earth, but that it was irreconcilable with many civil institutions which Vane and the statesmen considered to be essential to the liberties of England. They desired an almost entire alteration of the common law, and , were clamorous for the total abolition of tithes, and, indeed, i of all regular stipends to the ministry. The chief men | among the more honest were Thomas Prince, Richard Over- ton, and William Walwyn ; and it is a very curious and ! memorable circumstance, that in certain writings of the last two men, which are to be found among the pamphlets of the ', time, decided avowals ol disbelief (almost the only instances 1 of such, perhaps, in these pious days) are to be found. ! Overton, for example, wrote a tract, entitled " Man's Mor- tality ; or, a Treatise proving Man (quatenus animal ration- ale) a Compound wholly Mortal." His proofs are drawn from reason and Scripture ; and his ostensible doctrine is, that "condemnation in hell is not properly, but remotely, the reward of Adam's fall, and is the wages of infidelity, or unbelief in Christ, as salvation is of belief;" and that the whole human species, to whom the Christian faith has not been proposed, are merely mortal. But, as the purpose of his entire treatise is to establish man's mortality, and the immortality of those to whom Christianity is proposed is dismissed in a few lines, it is not unreasonable to conclude, with a writer who notices the subject, that this is intro- duced only as a palliation, to take off the general odium to which the author might otherwise have been exposed, and also to retain the particular influence with those Levellers and mutineers which to an infidel or scoffer would have been indignantly refused. Walwyn did not publish his pe- culiar sentiments himself, but they were placarded for him in " Walwyn's Wiles, or the Manifestators Manifested." 522 BRITISH STATESMEN. Moderate Royalists there were, too, even in these popular divisions, who had gone out upon the question of a limited monarchy ; who had re- mained constant to that throughout ; and who, in fact, turned the scale of the entire popula- tion in decided favour of a monarchical sys- tem. Then there were the indifferent, and the restless, and the conceited men, who were in favour of themselves chiefly, and the five senses that composed them, and to whom anything new, which could gratify one of these, had a merit at once admirable and indescribable. For all such, five years of a commonwealth were quite enough of one thing. These are the men that play the fashionable host in politics ; who " slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, but with his arms outstretched, as he would fly, grasps in the comer."* Finally and be they still and ever remembered with peculiar honour, as they were remembered by Vane when he addressed the crowd who surrounded his scaffold, in words which all England, as England then was, should have blushed to hear there were men who, " whatever defections did happen by apostates, hypocrites, and time- serving worldlings, continued firm, sincere, and chaste unto the cause to the last, and loved it better than their very lives." Of such were the men just named by Scot, as threatened, terrified, displaced, oppressed by Cromwell, and trampled on by his creatures, for their love to that "shattered thing," the self-governed Com- monwealth of England. That the effect produced on all these sec- tions of men by the forcible dispersion of the Long Parliament and the government of states- men was most fatal and disastrous, there can- not be a reasonable doubt. The bond which had hitherto held such various elements to- gether was by that act violently broken. Men might disagree on every variety of minor mat- ter which did not compromise the virtue and good faith of the leaders under whose banners they had fought, and by whose example they had conquered. So long as these remained entire, a great common agreement, for the sake of a cause in which all had already staked so much in common, could neither be hopeless, nor even distant far. But this potent charm once gone, all else went with it. There lay the crime of Cromwell, still more than in his disregard of truth, or of his own so solemnly sworn assertions. Whatever for twelve mem- orable years had been thought sacred, he made profane ; whatever men had begun to think most durable, he scattered to the winds. While Vane was struggling to seize advantage of the dawn of a better day, which had more or less arisen to the minds of all his countrymen, and use it to the elevation of each in the social and intellectual scale, Cromwell only worked in the night that still hung about the dawn, and, by studying old prejudices and habits not yet past, sought first to elevate himself upon a * Of these, it is needless to say, after the preceding note, John Lilburne is the great and most restless type. Baffled and banished, in, the plenitude of the power of the Parliament, he opened a negotiation in Holland with Charles Stuart; in the midst of it, suddenly made aware of the dispersion of the Parliament by Cromwell, he reappeared in London to attempt conciliation with the usurper. It was very vain, as we shall see, but not the less significant of the man and his faction. ! throne. What Vane proposed to have done, in I general amelioration of the minds and habits of Englishmen, was flung back for an indefinite and almost hopeless time by the act of the 20th of April ; what Cromwell resolved to achieve for himself was half accomplished by that act alone. Let this determine its character. The people throughout the country saw suddenly the most venerated and illustrious names in the land covered with ribaldry and insult; and they beheld the grave assembly which had built up the Commonwealth, which had scourged its enemies into the dust, and held its false friends cowering and crouching down that assembly, so learned, so valiant, and so powerful, under which the English people at least enjoyed what liberties they then had, and from which they would have patiently waited still, in expecta- tion of new and unknown blessings they be- held it one day receiving homage, in the name of a free people, from ambassadors of princes, and in the next they saw it hooted out of its place, in the name of jugglers, drunkards, adulterers, and cheats, by the muskets of its own servant. The moral effect of that deed was never to be recalled. Honour was a pre- tence, piety a pretence, and the substance of all things good evaporated into air. It would oc- cur to few among the ordinary masses of the people to ask the reason or the justice. Enough for them that what had been was no more. It would least of all occur to the state of society or of parties I have attempted to describe, to cling for support, in this common want or com- mon sorrow, to faith in the still superior virtue of the cause, under the very name and pretence of which these strange outrages had been com- mitted. It had been tried already, and found wanting. It had held together for upward of twelve years, and through every kind of doubt, defection, toil, dread, and triumph, the soul of the Parliament and the struggle, bound as with links of adament ; and now, in one little in- stant, these had broken like a rope of sand. Nothing of a permanent or substantial charac- ter could ever hope thereafter to belong to it. It no longer implied a solid truth, against which the giddy factions, the minor differences and divisions of the hour, might dash themselves in vain ; it held forth nothing now that was de- fined or certain ; there was never more to be included in it a general and common object which all might pursue ; no longer a quiet ha- ven which, through what different passages soever, all could still hope to reach ; it was resolved suddenly into no more than one of the indifferent chances or casualties of the world, and had become a trick for the luckiest man to make the most of, a stake for the best gambler to win. And meanwhile, in the vari- ous uncertainties of the present, what offered most fairly would be of course most greedily taken ; whatever looked like rest, or held up convenience of any kind, would doubtless gath- er round it for the time the parties who were capable of greatest zeal, and had the largest amount of activity in them. Cromwell and his reign of saints were worth a trial. Such, then, with the masses of the people at large, was the position of the statesmen after the action of the 20th of April, 1653. In the midst of neither hatred nor contempt they fell, OLIVER CROMWELL. 523 but in general wonder, some indifference, and some sorrow. They did not slink away to their homes, nor by undignified submission pur- chase safety or forbearance. They were con- tent to retire, indeed, without empty brawling, or a vain show of braggart passion. They had left deeds behind them which, though but im- perfectly developed as yet in direct action upon the personal comforts of the people, were the immortal seed of all the blessings of liberty, personal and political, which that people have since enjoyed. With such deeds on record, never to be denied or undone, they required no other defence ; and, wisely satisfied to wait till the bubble of this saint's reign had burst, and the apples of its fools' paradise had turned to their inevitable and most bitter sour, they of- fered none. They found generous defenders, notwith- standing, whose voices ought to have utterance here, in connexion with the actions they com- memorated. For it is surely just that, by a fair exhibition of the case of this dispersed and insulted body of statesmen, the claims of Crom- well and the Protectorate should be tested and understood. Necessity was a favourite plea with the partisans of Cromwell ; it can thus only be made apparent whether that necessity existed. Granting that the government of the Long Parliament was as anomalous and un- authorized as that of the Protectorate confess- edly was, the important question remains of the relative superiority of either in regard to bene- fits conferred, or proposed to be conferred, upon the people governed. This is a question which admits of one mode of solution only. The measures that were in either case pursued, recommended, or adopted, must be impartially judged together by their tendencies and results. A present glance at the past rule of the states- men will be the only fair and sufficient light that can guide us through the Protectorate. Mrs. Hutchinson thus generally describes the condition of the Commonwealth on the eve of its fall. The whole passage is worth con- sideration, though it includes some points de- scribed already. It is the evidence of as gentle and brave-hearted a woman as ever suffered for truth or love. " The Parliament," she says, " had now, by the blessing of God, restored the Commonwealth to such a happy, rich, and plenti- ful condition as it was not so flourishing before the war ; and although the taxes that were paid were great, yet the people were rich and able to pay them: they (the Parliament) were in a way of paying all the soldiers' arrears, had some hundred thousand pounds in their purses, and were free from enemies in arms within and without, except the Dutch, whom they had beaten, and brought to seek peace upon honourable terms to the English ; and now they thought it was time to sweeten the peo- ple, and deliver them from their burdens. This could not be but by disbanding the unnecessary officers and soldiers ; and, when things were thus settled, they had prepared a bill to put a period to their own sitting, and provide for new successors. But when the great officers un- derstood that they were to resign their honours, and no more triumph in the burdens of the people, they easily induced the inferior officers and soldiers to set up for themselves with them ; and, while these things were passing, Cromwell, with an armed force, assisted by Lambert and Harrison, came into the House and dissolved the Parliament, pulling out the members, foaming and raging, and calling them undeserved and base names ; and when the speaker refused to come out of his chair, Har- rison plucked him out. These gentlemen, hav- ing done this, took to themselves the adminis- tration of all things : and a few slaves of the House consulted with them, and would have truck- led under them, but not many. Meanwhile they and their soldiers could no way palliate their rebellion but by making false criminations of the Parliament-men, as that they meant to perpetu- ate themselves in honour and office, that they had gotten vast estates, and perverted justice for gain, and were imposing upon men for con- science, and a thousand such like things, which time manifested to be false, and truth retorted all upon themselves that they had injuriously cast at the others."* Mrs. Hutchinson has here con- siderably underrated, as will be shown here- after, the financial resources of the Common- wealth. Edmund Ludlow, a witness whose interest in the matters he describes, great as it was, was not too great for his honesty, and whose au- thority has been sanctioned by even his bitter- est adversaries, thus, at a distance from the scene of the dispersion of his old associates, described and mourned them. A Parliament, he calls them, " that had performed such great things, having subdued their enemies in England, Scotland, and Ireland ; established the liberty of the people ; reduced the kingdom of Portugal to such terms as they thought Jit to grant ; maintain- ed a war against the Dutch with that conduct and success that it seemed now drawing to a happy conclusion ; recovered our reputation at sea ; secured our trade ; and provided a powerful fleet for the service of the nation : and however the malice of their enemies may endeavour to deprive them of the glory which they justly merited, yet it will appear to unprejudiced posterity that they were a disinterested and impartial Parliament, who, though they had the sovereign power of the three nations in their hands for the space of ten or twelve years, did not in all that time give away among themselves so much as their forces spent in three months no, not so much as they spent in one from the time that the Par- liament consisted hut of one House, and the government was formed into a common wealth. To which ought to be added, that after so many toils and hazards, so much trouble and loss for the public good, they were not unwilling to put an end to their power, and to content them- selves with an equal share with the others for the whole reward of their labours. "t In like manner, the sincere and gallant Sid- ney set apart, in his noble discourses of gov- ernment, a niche for the government of the Commonwealth. " When Van Tromp," he says, in his high strain of chivalrous pride " when Van Tromp set upon Blake in Folkestone Bay, the Parliament had not above thirteen ships against threescore, and not a man that had ever seen any other fight at sea than between * Life <>r Colonel Hutchinson, vol. ii., p. 197, 198. t Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. fi., p. 452, 453. Portions of gome of these " Epitaphs" on the Parliament have been given in the Life of Vane; but the present statement of them, in a less mutilated shape, seemed necessary here. 524 BRITISH STATESMEN. a merchant ship and a pirate, to oppose the best captain in the world, attended with many others in valour and experience not much in- ferior to him. Many other difficulties were ob- served in the unsettled state : few ships, want of money, several factions, and some who, to advance particular interests, betrayed the public. But, such was the power of wisdom and in- tegrity in those that sat at the helm, and their diligence in choosing men only for their merit was blessed with such success, that in two years our fleets grew to be as famous as our land armies ; the reputation and power of our nation rose to a greater height than when we possessed the better half of France, and the kings of Fance and Scotland were our prison- ers. All the states, kings, and potentates of Eu- rope most respectfully, not to say submissively, sought our friendship ; and Rome was more afraid of Blake and his fleet than they had been of the great King of Sweden, when he was ready to invade Italy with a hundred thousand men."* Nor is the tone of even the cautious White- locke less enthusiastic than this. Writing with Cromwell's personal influence strong upon him, and with the additional restraint of an of- ficial relation to Cromwell, he yet writes in these words. " Thus was this great Parlia- ment, which had done so great things, wholly at this time routed by those whom they had set up, and that took their commissions and authority from them ; nor could they in the least justify any action they had done, or one drop of blood they had spilled, but by this au- thority. Yet now the servants rose against their masters, and most ungratefully and disin- genuously, as well as rashly and imprudently, they dissolved that power by which themselves were created officers and soldiers ; and now they took what they designed, all power into their own hands. All honest and prudent indifferent men were highly distasted at this unworthy action, which occasioned much rejoicing in the king's party. t . . . Thus it pleased God," he continues, ' that this assembly, famous through the world for its undertakings, actions, and successes, having subdued all their enemies, were them- selves overthrown and ruined by their own ser- vants, and those whom they had raised now pulled down their masters : an example never to be forgotten, and scarcely to be paralleled in any story, by which all persons may be in- structed how uncertain and subject to change all worldly affairs are ; how apt to fall when we think them highest ; and how God makes use of strange and unexpected means to bring his purposes to pass."t At a distance, too, from the scene of their great exertions, and uninfluenced by any of the passions which mingled with them, the politi- * Algernon Sidney on Government, cap. ii., sect. 28. t This is farther corroborated by even a member of the Lord Protector's household, and one of his enthusiastic partisans. Mr. John Maidstone (whose very striking letter to a friend, descriptive of the popular struggles from their commencement to the eve of the Restoration, will be found in Appendix A.) remarks upon the dissolution thus : " Great dissatisfaction sprung from this action, and such as is not yet forgotten among good men." In another part of the same interesting sketch he observes, emphatically, that the English people of that day were wont "to deify their repre- tentatives." t Memorials, p. 529, 530. cian who was thought wisest of his age with- held not his approbation and esteem. Basnage tells us, in his "Annals of the United Prov- inces," that the famous Swedish chancellor, Oxenstierne, "blamed, indeed, the extreme bar- barity commitied on the person of the late King of England, but commended and admired almost every part of the plan of that great de- sign which Parliament had formed." It was a design, Oxenstierne added, " that had been con- ducted with distinguished prudence, and those who then governed in England acted upon such principles of policy as were founded in truth and experience."* Nor should the testimony of an accomplished foreign writer be omitted in this record. " The new Republic," says the Abbe Raynal, in his " History of the Parliament of England," " pro- cured England a tranquillity which it no longer hoped for, and gave it a lustre which it had not had for several centuries. It had just been agitated by a most violent tempest, and now all was calm ; it had thought itself on the brink of ruin, and was now in condition to give law. It is melancholy, for the honour of virtue, that one of the best and greatest spectacles which the annals of nations present should be the work of rebellion. Everything appeared won- derful in this revolution. The Royalists con- formed to a kind of government ill adapted to their tempers, and disapproved by their con- sciences. The grandees, accustomed to the part of legislators, remained quietly in the rank of private subjects. The Irish and Scots, who had taken up arms, the first from an attachment to their kings, the other to efface the horror of their treachery, were unhappily subdued. The Dutch, who had taken the advantage of the calamities of England to usurp the empire of the seas, were humbled. France and Spain, who had been always rivals, always enemies, meanly courted the friendship of the usurpers. The sovereigns who ought to have united to revenge an outrage to which all kings were ex- posed, either through fear or interest applaud- ed the injustice. All Europe debased itself, was silent, or admired." Finally, even their enemies were awed from insult into praise, in the presence of that gi- gantic memory their actions left behind them. Roger Coke not only lays aside his customary bitterness and scorn, but adopts a striking tone of just and reverential respect. "Thus,"t he says, " by their own mercenary servants, and not a sword drawn in their defence, fell the haughty and victorious Rump, whose mighty ac- tions will scarcely find belief in future generations ; and, to say the truth, they were a race of men most indefatigable and industrious in business, al- ways seeking for men Jit for it, and never prefer- ring any for favour nor by importunity. You scarce ever heard of any revolting from them ; no murmur or complaint of seamen or soldiers ; nor do I find that they ever pressed any in all their wars. And as they excelled in the manage- * This is mentioned by M. Chanat, both in the appendix to Keysler's Travels, and in Basnage's book. See Puffen- dorf's observations on the resolution of the last Swedish diet, <fec., in the appendix to Keysler's Travels, vol. iv., p. 51, and Basnage's Annals of the United Provinces, vol. i., p. 243. See also Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 31fi. t Detection of the Court and State of England, vol. ii., p. 30. OLIVER CROMWELL. 525 ment of civil affairs, so it must be owned they exercised in matters ecclesiastic no such se- verities as either the Covenanters or others before them did, upon such as dissented from them ; nor were they less forward in reforming the abuses of the common law." And now a brief sketch of the measures by which these statesmen made themselves so fa- mous will show how well they merited even this lofty praise. Finance was necessarily a subject which largely employed their attention and taxed their powers, in consequence of the unceasing wars, by land or sea, in which the Commonwealth was engaged. The chief sources of revenue were five : the excise ; the customs ; the sale of fee-farm rents,* of the lands of the crown, and of those belonging to the bishops, deans, and chapters ; the sequestration and forfeiture of the estates of delinquents ; and, finally, the postoffice. For the establishment of the latter we are indebted to Edmund Prideaux,t who held the office of attorney-general to the Com- monwealth at the period of its destruction. We first observe him chairman of a committee for considering what rates should be set upon inland letters ; then, by an ordinance passed shortly before the death of the king, we find him created postmaster-general ; and, finally, we see, by a report on the journals of the House, dated the 21st of March, 1650, that he had established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation, and kept up a reg- ular intercourse of packets between England and Ireland. The introduction of the system of excise by Pym has been referred to in this work. It was borrowed from the financial proceedings of Holland, and worked with most consummate skill during the wars with that Republic. And here I am tempted to borrow from the historian of the Commonwealth} the only intelligible def- inition of excise that has occurred to my read- ing. Excise, it may be stated on that authori- ty, is a tax upon the manufacture of a commod- ity, paid by the manufacturer ; also on the im- portation of goods, upon which, if manufactured at home, an excise duty would be required, an equivalent sum in that case being demanded from the importer. The retailer of excisable commodities has likewise, in many cases, to pay for an annual license. It is a tax, for many reasons, well adapted for popular impo- sition. It differs from the duty denominated customs in this, that the latter, being paid upon the exportation or importation of commodities, will often fall on the raw material, whereas the former is only collected upon a commodity ready for sale to the consumer. It is therefore peculiarly distinguished by its being imposed at the latest practicable period, and is in that sense the most economical of all taxes. The earlier any impost is paid, the heavier it falls upon the consumer in the end, since every trader through whose hands the commodity passes must have a profit, not only upon the * The clear annual income from this source amounted to 77,000; and we find that, in January, 1651, 25,300 of this income had been sold Cor 225,650. Lingard, vol. ii., p. 176. t The youngest son of Sir Edmund Prideaux of Devon- shire, created a baronet by James I. Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 508. t Godwin, vol. iii., p. 489. raw material, and his own labour and time, but also upon the tax itself, which is paid by him long before he is remunerated by the consumer. Notwithstanding which, it has been observed, that the duties earliest paid are least felt by the people, the merchant being sensible that they do not eventually and in the last result fall upon him, and the consumer being induced to con- found them with the intrinsic price of the com- modity. But this very circumstance renders customs, and duties imposed on the raw ma- terial, taxes for slaves ; and an excise, or a duty on goods already prepared for consump- tion, a tax for men who feel that what they pay for is a substantial benefit to themselves. When men are contending for their liberties and everything that is dear to them, they are prepared to make great sacrifices ; and such a people, as Montesquieu says, will frequently take on themselves, of voluntary choice, im- posts more severe than the most arbitrary prince would dare to lay on his subjects. An- other objection that is frequently made to the duty of excise is the severity of its collection, since it is found necessary to give to its offi- cers a power of entering into and searching the houses of those who deal in the commodities on which it is laid, at any hour of the day, and sometimes of the night. But this objection is of the game description as the preceding. " Undoubtedly," Mr. Godwin proceeds, " a soft- er and more forbearing mode of treatment may be attained in a mixed than in a Republican government. In the former the individual is more considered ; in the latter, the public. He who is not contented to sacrifice, in a certain degree, his individuality, and some of his in- dulgences, to the well-being of the whole, is not yet sufficiently prepared to become a citizen under the purest and noblest kind of political administration."* Great financial ability, it is obvious, was the first condition of success in the vast struggle. Without that, the entire amount of other genius developed in military or civil matters would have been little better than useless and un- profitable. In the various deliberations that arose on a subject so important, it was impos- sible that its furtherance by means of seques- tration could be in any way avoided ; and this is a part of the policy of these statesmen which is most frequently remembered to their disadvantage.! Let it be fairly looked at, and * Mr. Godwin intimates that the substance of this pass- age was communicated to him by his friend Booth, the mathematician. It will be curious to subjoin Blackstone's definition of excise, adopted in all the encyclopaedias, as a puzzle for the reader's ingenuity. " Excise," he says, " is an inland imposition, paid sometimes upon the consumption of the commodity, or frequently upon the retail sale, which is the last stage before the consumption." Com., book 1, cap. viii. t This, and another favourite charge, already indignant- ly repelled by the great authorities I have quoted, namely, that of a desire they always manifested of filling their own pockets, and enriching their poor estates with the wealth of others : a charge which might be dismissed with silent contempt, if silent contempt were at any time a serviceable thing. It rests on lists published by the sour and disap- pointed Presbyterian, Clement Walker, subsequently im- bodied in a tract against the " Rump" (published in the auspicious era of the Restoration, and entitled the " Mys- tery of the Good Old Cause Unfolded"), and finally adopted by such historians as Clarendon and Hume. Walker's lists were called " Lists of Names of Members of the House of Commons, annexing to each such sums of money, offices, and lands as they had given to themselves for service done BRITISH STATESMEN. it is far from that of which they or their friends should be ashamed. They enacted, at the commencement of the war, a seizure of the revenues of the estates of such as openly appeared in arms against them, or voluntarily contributed to the support of the king's forces ; and this was an act, all the cir- cumstances considered, justified by the de- mands of the time. The only fair ground of objection to it must surely rest on the mode in which it was carried into effect, and on the strict and virtuous application of the funds so raised. These, indeed, are the chief points of attack selected by the enemy. Hollis boldly affirms that the style of proceeding under the sequestration committees was like that of Ahab in the case of Naboth's vineyard, which cov- eting, and not being able otherwise to obtain, he " suborned certain men, sons of Belial, to bear witness against Naboth, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king,' and thus destroyed the proprietor, and got possession of the property." To which Clement Walker adds, " You may as easily find charity in hell as justice in any committee ; so that, where the king hath taken down one Star Chamber, the Parliament hath set up a hundred." It stamps the character of these scurril libels* and to he done against the king and kingdom." Mr. God- win has pointed out, in his distinctions between the two self-denying ordinances (see Life of Vane, p. 296), the gross mistake, or more properly, falsehood, on which these lists were made out. Their compiler's object was to collect a list of the names of such as held offices, as he says, " con- trary to the Self-denying Ordinance." Now it has already appeared that there were two self-denying ordinances ; and it has been the artifice of the enemies of the Common- wealth's-meu to confound these two together. The first ordinance forbade any member of either House of Parlia- ment from bearing any office, civil or military, during the war. This ordinance was proposed in the House of Com- mons on the 9th of December, 1644, and was rejected by the Lords on the 13th of January following. A second self- denying ordinance was then brought in, and passed into a law on the 3d of April, 1645. This was essentially a tem- porary measure, and extended no farther than the discharg- ing members of either House of Parliament from the offices they then held, without so much as forbidding their reap- pointment. The question wjth Clement Walker and his fellows was, whether the members of the House of Com- mons were not bound in delicacy to. conform to the law which they had passed and the Lords had rejected. This idea, however, was set aside, not covertly and clandestine- ly, but in the most open manner. When it was deter- mined, in the autumn of 1645, tu recruit the House of Com- mons by issuing writs for new elections in the room of those members who had deserted their seats by adhering to the king, Fairfax, Blake, Ludlow, Algernon Sidney, Ireton, Skippon, Massey, and Hutchinson, some of the most con- siderable officers in the army, were among the persons re- turned to occupy the vacant seats. Walker's list, there- fore, which forms the most considerable part of that in the " Mystery of the Good Old Cause," contains names which can by no construction be considered as those of corrupt placemen. Twenty-one persons are put down, merely be- cause they were at one and the same time members of Par- liament and colonels in the army. Blake, D'ean,.and Rains- borough appear for no reason but because they were admi- rals. Algernon Sidney, and six others, because they were the commanders of garrisons ; Strickland, because he was an ambassador ; and Sir William Armine, because he was a commissioner in Scotland. It was expressly provided by the second self-denying ordinance that the commissioners of the great seal, and the commissioners of the admiralty, navy, and revenue, should not even be disturbed in their places; yet their names swell the list. It includes some of the most notorious Presbyterians, Hollis, Sir John Mey- rick, and Sir William Waller. It includes Hampden. Finally, it is worth notice, in completion of the false pre- tences on which this charge against the statesmen was grounded, that the lists which furnish the chief material of slander were drawn up and published before the triumph of the Independents and the death of the king. * In another passage of his memoirs, Hollis says, " Now I appeal to all men who they were that had the hand in when we state simply, without any other com- ment, that these men, Hollis and Clement Walker, were among the chief authors of the system of sequestration, and only clamoured against it thus when baffled spleen, disappoint- ed ambition, and hatred against the men who had triumphantly finished the work which they had basely deserted, drove them to seek shel- ter once more under the monster-covering gab- ardine of royalty. The first measure on the subject was passed in the shape of an ordinance, in March, 1643, when committees of sequestration were ap- pointed in the counties, cities, and different places of England, to conduct the business in a regular and orderly manner. Two thirds of the revenues of all Roman Catholics were, by the same ordinance, included in the sequestra- tion. And upon the construction and conduct of these committees for the various counties, and whether their manner of proceeding was in truth " regular and orderly," the question would seem to turn. Of their general character, some idea may be formed by a few of the chief names that are to be found in all of them. Lord Fairfax, for example ; his son, Sir Thomas, the great gen- eral ; the resolute, but most just Pym ; the virtuous Hampden ; the witty and good-hu- moured Marten ; the gallant Blake ; the mild, and, by his own showing, the mercy-loving Hollis (!) ; the formal and scrupulous White- locke ; Widdrington, Stapleton, Gerard, and others of position as high, and of motives as unquestioned. Of their manner of proceeding, it also happens most fortunately that we have evidence yet more decisive. Their absolute records, supposed for some time to have been lost, have of late been most happily recovered, and are deposited in the State-paper Office. They consist of several hundred volumes, which exhibit not merely the names of the delinquents and Catholics through the kingdom, with the particulars and value of their respective prop- erties, hut also the nature of the acts of de- Ifnquency severally charged against them, by which each person was brought within the scope of some or other of the provisions of the several ordinances. To these are added the grounds upon which the alleged delinquents ask to be admitted to compound (for all those in whose case there were any mitigating cir- cumstances were allowed to pay a fine for their indiscretions, instead of losing their entire rev- enue); the depositions of witnesses examined as to the truth of these statements ; and the reasons for indemnity or allowances in respect to particular items offered by the different claim- ants, together with the entire proceedings upon each man's forfeiture or composition. It is not thus, the historian of the Commonwealth may well observe, that acts of wanton spoliation and violence are conducted. He adds, with good reason, that however severe was the execution of these ordinances of sequestration, all was making all those penal ordinances, to severe for sequestra- tions, so high for compositions, so ensnaring and bloody for making new treasons, and little things to be capital crimes ; that no man almost was safe, free from question, and few or none were questioned but were sure to be destroyed. What committees were set up ! That of Haberdasher*' Hall, to pill and poll men, even fetching in some members of the House to whom they had a displeasure, and generally all men who bad crossed or opposed them in anything '." OLIVER CROMWELL. 527 proceeded in regularly, with the forms of jus- tice, and under sanction of the venerable name of law.* The right of appeal was given to every one who found himself aggrieved ; a right perpetually exercised, and therefore, we may be well assured, not nugatory or fruitless. All the money raised under these ordinances was strictly required to be paid into the hands of the treasurers at Guildhall, from whence it was again issued for the pay and subsistence of the army, and for such other uses as the Parliament should direct. With these state- ments the whole subject may be confidently left to an honest and impartial judgment.* Passing from the subject of finance to those higher questions which involve the freedom and independence of man, the claims of these fa- mous statesmen to eternal gratitude and hon- our become apparent indeed. They settled, upon a basis never to be disputed more, the right of every Englishman, in all grades of life, to his writ of habeas corpus; by the exercise of which, if on any pretence cast into prison, he could demand to be brought before the judges of the land, to ascertain the cause of his im- prisonment ; if with any charge of crime accu- sed, he could insist that the accusation against him should be put into the way of trial with all convenient speed ; or, supposing no satisfactory answer were given in either case, he had then the great privilege of insisting upon his right to immediate liberation. t Scarcely less important than this was their settlement of the tenure by which the judges arbiters of law between man and man, of jus- tice between sovereign and subject should in all time tO'Come hold their solemn office. The condition of the old and corrupt system, durante bene placito, was overthrown by the introduc- tion of letters patent, with the stipulation of quamdiu se bene gesserint. The working of the old system, thus beneficially changed forever, is aptly described by Neal in his " History of the Puritans." "The judges," he says, "were generally of a stamp, that, instead of upholding the law as the defence and security of the sub- jects' privileges, they set it aside on every little occasion, distinguishing between a rule of law and a rule of government. They held their places during the king's pleasure ; and when the prerogative was to be stretched in any par- ticular instance, Laud would send for their opin- ions beforehand, to give the greater sanction to the proceedings of the council and the Star Chamber, by whom they were often put in mind that, if they did not do the king's busi- * Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. iii., p. 495, 496. t The only act in these confiscations which seems to me to deserve any part of the extreme censure applied to them was the sale of the Earl of Craven's estate. Though the earl had been out of England during the war, his estate was sold, on the ground of his having had personal corre- spondence with Charles Stuart abroad. This was an inde- fensible action ; but it is just to remember that this was an action not only undefended, but strenuously opposed, by many of the most virtuous and eminent members of the House. The division was a singularly narrow one ; the majority which carried the confiscation and sale was two only, and Vane, always on the side of kindness and human- ity, was teller for the minority. Hazlerig (who appears for the majority), and the less considerate politicians of the House, unwisely and unjustly, but there is no reason to believe dishonestly, carried their point thus closely against him. See Journals, 22d of June, 1652. t This habeas corpus enactment formed the main part of the act for taking away the Star Chamber. ness to satisfaction, they would be remo- ved."* With the destruction of that infamous pow- er, a memorable lesson was taught forever. One of the judges, who had debased himself by trampling law and justice under his feet, was publicly dragged from the bench he had degra- ded, and, still clad in his soiled and spotted er- mine, was taken through the open streets to prison. t And as with lawyers who had over- thrown law, so also with bishops who had cor- rupted religion. All ranks, including royalty itself, were made amenable to Truth, and bow- ed perforce before it. The crown was for all time to come restrained from arbitrary taxation ; all irregular or despotic practices against prop- erty or freedom were abolished ;| every state criminal, unjust monopolist, fraudulent paten- tee, were unshrinkingly struck down ; and in the bill for triennial Parliaments, and other measures, which were afterward lost for a time in the unexpected results of the war, the shat- tered fabric of the old constitution of limited monarchy was consolidated and restored. The next great act to be specially commem- orated has been described by Blackstone as "a greater acquisition to the civil property of the kingdom than even Magna Charta itself,"^ This was the abolition of the Court of Wards, and of all those tenures which were the subject of its jurisdiction. Wardship was a part of the old feudal system. All landed property, according to that system, began with the king. He distributed his domains among his feudal tenants, or, in other words, the officers of his army, and they, in return, were obliged to serve him in his wars with a stipulated number of followers. But in this obligation it was im- plied that the tenant in chief should be capable of military service. There were two cases where this could not happen : first, where the heir was a female, or, secondly, was a minor. It became, therefore, the established law under this system, that the king could dispose of the female heir in marriage as he pleased, and that he received the whole produce of the estate during a minority. It is easy to see how this prerogative would be abused. " It was intend- ed merely to prevent the damage the king might sustain by the loss of the stipulated military service. It grew into a resource by which he might feed the rapacity of his hungry courtiers. To an idle and insinuating favourite he had the undisputed prerogative of giving a great heiress in marriage ; or to an individual of that character he might give the wardship of a mi- nor, in consequence of which the receiver en- tered into absolute possession of the produce of aa estate, with no other duty in return than that he must provide in some way for the sub- sistence and education of the heir."|| And as the uses of the Court of Wards had grown into * Book ii., cap. iii. t This was Sir Robert Berkeley. See Whitelocke, p. 39 ; the Life of Pym, p. 179k. t The act they passed against impressment elicits the unqualified praise of Hallam (Const. Hist., vol. ii., p. 137), and the famous enactment in their tonnage and poundage bill is well known ; " that it is and halh been the ancient right of the subjects of this realm, that no subsidy, custom, impost, or other charge whatsoever, ought, or may be laid or imposed upon any merchandise exported or imported by subjects, denizens, or aliens, without common consent in Parliament." $ Commentaries, book ii., cap. v. II Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. iii., p. 500. 528 BRITISH STATESMEN. such gross abuse, so the military services them- selves, out of which it rose, had long, as the feudal system gradually declined, been com- pounded and exchanged for a different species of payment, though still under the same name and pretence, and rendered sources of cruelty, tyranny, and oppression, in every kind of shape. Both enormities were struck down together by the leaders of the Long Parliament. A res- olution of the House, dated the 24th of Febru- ary, 1646, declared that the Court of Wards, and all tenures by homage and knight's service, with all fines, licenses, seizures, pardons for alienation, and other charges arising from such tenures, should from that day be taken away. Cromwell found this resolution on the journals in the Protectorate, and prudently turned it into a regular act of Parliament, which, with additional clauses, was re-enacted after the Res- toration. Blackstone remarks, of the various benefits conferred by this law, that, in its indi- rect operation, " it opened a wider door to the power of bequeathing property generally than had previously subsisted. By a statute of Henry VIII., all persons were empowered to bequeath two thirds of their lands held in feu- dal tenure, and the whole of such as were not subjected to such services ; and the present law, abolishing all such tenures, gave, by con- sequence, an unlimited power to the possessor of landed property, under certain restrictions, to dispose of the whole by will as he pleased."* Their noble efforts in the great cause of re- ligious toleration claim grateful mention next. They first established in the policy of the state that greatest human privilege, that every man should be free to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. Enactments fol- lowed as a natural consequence, that, whenev- er a certain number of men agreed to worship their Maker after a given mode, they should consider themselves at liberty to choose their own preacher and officers to their churches, and to arrange, without interference or moles- tation, all their selected ceremonies and forms. Mr. Godwin has selected from the Journals of the House of Commons! the chief legislative provisions on this subject. The most remark- able appears to have been an act of the 27th of September, 1650, which repealed various acts of Elizabeth, whose professed object had been to establish throughout England a uniform- ity of religious faith and worship. The chief of these acts were, 1 Elizabeth, chapter 2, com- monly called the Act of Uniformity ; and 23 Elizabeth, chapter l.and 35 Elizabeth, chapter 1, each of them entitled "An Act for retaining the Queen's Subjects in their due Obedience." The last of these is the most memorable. It ordains, among other things, that whoever shall be convicted before a magistrate of ab- senting himself (or herself) from the Establish- ed Church for one month shall be detained in prison till he conforms ; or, if after three months he persists in his nonconformity, shall be re- quired to abjure the realm of England, and shall transport himself out of the country ac- cordingly ; or, lastly, if he refuses to abjure, or, abjuring, does not transport himself, or, having departed the realm, shall return, shall be adjudged a felon, and shall suffer according- ly. All these gross provisions disappeared be- fore the wiser and more humane policy of the Independent leaders of our great Parliament, who provided a full toleration* for every form of religion, with the exception of prelacy, ne- cessarily excluded by its political tendencies, and popery, which Vane and a few others had, however, struggled hard to procure the tolera- tion of also.t The limits they imposed to this system of toleration will scarcely find favour in many eyes ; but it is just to give them here, with the remark, that various circumstances of the time had rendered them wellnigh needful. A bill was passed in 1651 with a view to correct cer- tain extravagances in the professors of reli- gion. There was a sect who had taken to themselves the name of Ranters. The Parlia- ment appointed a committee to consider of the suppression of the " obscene, licentious, and impious practices" used by these persons. A law was, in consequence, made for the " pun- ishment of atheistical, blasphemous, and exe- crable opinions." The crimes condemned by this act are, for any person, not under the in- fluence of sickness or distraction, to affirm of him or her self, or of any other mere creature, that he is God ; or that the acts of unclean- ness and the like are not forbidden by God ; or that lying, stealing, and fraud, or murder, adul- tery, fornication, sodomy, drunkenness, profane swearing, and lascivious talk, are in their own nature as holy and righteous as the duties of prayer, preaching, or thanksgiving ; or that there is no such thing as unrighteousness and sin, but as a man or woman judges thereof. * Blackstone, book ii., c. 23. Godwin, vol. iii., p. 503. t Vol. iii., p. 504. * This toleration, of course, did not interfere with the revenues of the Church, out of which every minister, duly appointed to a living, received the income thereto belonging. t Dr. Lingurd mentions a. petition from Catholic recu- sants, presented to the House on the 30th of June, 1652, in which they solicit such indulgence "as might be thought consistent with the public peace, and their comfortable sub- sistence in their native country." The petition, says Lin- gard, " was read ; Sir Harry Vane spoke in its favour ; but the House was deaf to the voice of reason and humanity." Vane's equally generous and gallant, but more successful exertions in behalf of Diddle, the father of English Unitari- ans, have been related in this work ; but Mr. Godwin has a remark on the motives of the men who opposed Vane on these points which should not, in fairness, be omitted. Speaking of the circumstance of Biddle, after his first re- lease, being again committed by an order signed " John Bradshaw, " he thus proceeds: "We are told that Biddle was recalled, and once more committed to custody by an order from Bradshaw, whom Biddle's biographer designates as his mortal enemy. What is the precise truth on the subject I have not been able to discover. If he were com- mitted by a warrant from Bradshaw, it is very probable that this statesman signed it officially only, as president of the council. But I have not been able to trace such a warrant in the order books. If it were in any respect the personal act of Bradshaw, however much we may regret that he should have differed in this particular from his illustrious coadjutor, Vane, who had 'learned to know both spiritual power and civil, what each means, what severs each, which few have done,' yet it is but just that we should distinguish between one species of persecutor and another. The Epis- copalians and the Presbyterians persecuted, having for their object religious uniformity, and being determined, to the extent of their power, that only one creed should be known through the land. Bradshaw, if he were a persecutor, certainly agreed with his brother Independents in a free al- lowance of varieties of religious opinion, and had no wish to enslave the energies of mind to a vain effort after uni- formity, but had the weakness to be shocked at what he thought blasphemous opinions, and to hold it his duty by the civil arm to counteract so dire a contagion." Biddle was finally set free in February, 1652. I have elsewhere urged what fairly rests in extenuation of the non-tolerance of po- pery, in the memoirs of Eliot and Pym. OLIVER CROMWELL. 529 The punishment of these crimes is, for the first offence, six months' imprisonment ; and for any subsequent conviction, to abjure the dominions of the Commonwealth ; and, in case of return, to suffer death as a felon. The only qualifica- tion of the severity is, that the party shall be indicted within six months of his having com- mitted the alleged offence :* a provision which serves well to show the still prevailing sense of equity and fairness which presided over what would seem the harshest measures of these statesmen. Their acts of toleration in matters of religion were at the same time accompanied with a de- clared resolution, adopted from one of the army petitions, that, while they were favourable to liberty of conscience, they did not desire that the least indulgence should be shown to licen- tiousness or profaneness ; and, accordingly, a bill was brought in, in the beginning of 1651, and shortly after passed into a law, for the sup- pression of incest, adultery, and fornication. The punishment of the two former, an excep- tion being made of the case of a woman whose husband should have been three years absent (adultery in this act is understood to relate to woman in the state of marriage), was ordered to be death ; and the punishment of fornication was three months' imprisonment. Every keep- er of a brothel was also made liable, for the first offence, to be whipped and branded, and for the second, to suffer death as a felon. t When these acts were passed, however, Vane and Marten both predicted, in opposition to them, that the severity of the punishment would defeat the purpose of the law : a prediction confirmed so fully, that, in consequence of Mar- ten's continued agitation of the subject, the se- verities were afterward relaxed. And be it not forgotten, in this detail, that measures of law reform, to a very large and various extent, were in deliberation at the pe- riod of Cromwell's act of tyranny. They had passed, on the 8th of November, 1651, a mem- orable measure, which was understood to be only the forerunner of several others,! that the books of law already written and in force should be translated into English ; that all law-books in future should be written in English ; and that all law proceedings should be conducted in the English language. II What would have follow- ed in. furtherance of their great design on this * Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. iii., p. 507, 508. t Godwin, vol. iii., p. 506. t See Journals of May 10, November 22, 1651. White- locke, p. 460. Lingard's History, vol. xi., p. 175. <l The exact terms of the resolution were, " That all re- port books of the resolution of judges, and other books of the law of England, shall be translated into the English tongue ; and all writs, processes, and returns thereof, pleadings, rules, orders, indictments, injunctions, certifi- cates, patents, and all acts, deeds, and proceedings what- soever, shall be only in the English tongue, in the ordinary usual hand, and not in court hand." II On this question (which, before it was carried, pro- voked a " very long and smart debate ;" in which debate, we are likewise told, many " spoke in derogation and dis- honour of law," and the necessity of its reform, White- locke delivered a speech on the origin and character of the English laws, vindicating their Saxon birth from the re- proach of having been imposed upon the land by William the Norman, which, for its singularly argumentative char- acter and wouderful minuteness of research, must always be considered a stupendous monument of antiquarian and legal learning. He concluded thus the entire speech may be found in his own memorials, p. 460-465 : " But, Mr. Speaker, if I have been tedious, 1 humbly ask your pardon ; Xxi I head (frequently declared, in emphatic phrase), ' to make the law more simple, and, by means of a better promulgation, to abridge its powers of ensnaring the people who were called on to obey it, was checked by their forcible disper- sion, to be again resumed, indeed, as we shall see, by the next assemblage of men who sat in their House, but only to be again arrested by a second dispersion of legislators, who refused to be made the direct tools of tyranny. Finally, it becomes us to speak of the strict- ly administrative genius of these statesmen, dispersed by Cromwell and his muskets as idle and incapable ! unclean birds, that had, by in- solent success, been unfairly perched upon For- tune's top ! slugs, that preyed upon the vitals of the Commonwealth ! History, even as history is commonly writ- ten, has not dared to dispute that, during the whole period of their supremacy, they upheld with unceasing dignity and spirit the national honour. They made the arms of England the terror of the world abroad, as they had made the engines of their government the terror of enemies at home ; and it was from them, and from them alone, that Cromwell inherited the respect and awe of the whole Continent of Europe. They had declared that they would not rest till they had vindicated and asserted the ancient right of their country to the sov- and have the more hopes to obtain it from so many worthy English gentlemen, when that which I have said was chiefly in vindication of their own native laws, unto which I held myself the more obliged by the duty of my profession ; and I account it an honour to me to be a lawyer. As to the de- bate and matter of the act now before you, I have delivered no opinion against it ; nor do I think it reasonable that the generality of the people of England should, by an implicit faith, depend upon the knowledge of others in that which concerns them most of all. It was the Romish policy to keep them in ignorance of matters pertaining to their soul's health ; let them not be in ignorance of matters pertaining to their bodies, estates, and all their worldly comfort. It is not unreasonable that the law should be in that language which may best b understood by those whose lives and fortunes are subject to it, and are to be governed by it. Moses read all the laws openly before the people in their mother tongue. God directed him to write it, and to ex- pound it to the people in their own native language, that what concerned their lives, liberties, and estates might be made known unto them in the most perspicuous way. The laws of the Eastern nations were in their proper tongue ; the laws at Constantinople were in Greek ; at Rome, in Latin ; in France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and other nations, their laws are published in their native idiom. ' For our own country, there is no man that can read the Saxon character but may find the laws of your ancestors yet extant in the English tongue. Duke William himself i commanded the laws to be proclaimed in English, that none l might pretend ignorance of them. It was the judgment of the Parliament, 36 Edward III., that pleadings should be in English; and in the reigns of those kings, when our stat- utes were enrolled in French and English, yet then the sheriffs in their several counties were to proclaim them in English. I shall conclude with a complaint of what I have met with abroad from some military persons ; nothing but scoffs and invectives against our law, and threats to take it away ; but the la'w is above the reach of those weapons, which, at one time or another, will return upon those that use them. Solid arguments, strong reasons, and authori- ties, are more fit for confutation of any error, and satisfac- tion of different judgments. When the emperor took a bishop in complete armour in a battle, he sent the armour to the pope with this word, Hccccine sunt vestes flii tui ? BO may I say to those gentlemen abroad as to their railings, j taunts, and threats against the law, Hceccine sunt arguments horum antinomianorum ? They will be found of no force, but recoiling arms. Nor is it ingenuous or prudent for Englishmen to deprave their birthright the laws of their own country. But to return to the matter in debate : I can I find neither strangeness, nor foresee great inconvenience, j by passing this act ; and therefore, if the House shall think I fit to have the question put for the cassing of it I am ready [ to give my affirmative." 530 BRITISH STATESMEN. ereignty of the seas ; nor did they rest till it was done. They sought even to interest the commonest people in this proud achievement, and with that view circulated, by thousands, a translation, made at their expense and sug- gestion, of Selden's Mare Clausum, scu. Domin- io Maris.* This alone would declare them no ordinary or selfish men. They were the au- thors, too, be it remembered, of the famous navigation act.t afterward passed into our stat- ute-books as one of the grandest sources of England's unrivalled commercial greatness, and only recently abandoned for those more philo- sophical views of trade it was chiefly instru- mental in producing. They projected also, and went far towards accomplishing, the union be- tween Scotland and England. J They placed * Marchmont Needham was the translator, and the hook was puhlished, by special command, in November, 1652. In an admirable dedication to the " Parliament of the Com- monwealth of England," the translator, after observing that " it is a gallant sight to see the sword and pen in victorious equipage together ; for this subdues the souls of men by reason, that only their bodies by force," thus spiritedly pro- ceeds : "What true English heart will not swell when it shall be made clear and evident (as in this book) that the sovereignty of the seas, flowing about this island, hath, in all times whereof there remains any written testimony, both before the old Roman invasion and since, under everv revo- lution down to the present age, been held and acknowledged by all the world as an inseparable appendant of the British empire; and that, by virtue thereof, the kings of England successively have had the sovereign guard of the seas ; that they have imposed taxes and tributes upon all ships passing and fishing therein ; that they have obstructed and opened the passage thereof to strangers at their own pleasure, and done all other things that may testify an absolute sea domin- ion what English heart, I say, can consider these things, together with the late actings of the Netherlnnders, set forth in your public declaration, and not be inflamed with an indignation answerable to their insolence, that these people, raised out of the dust at first into a state of liberty, and at length to a high degree of power and felicity by the arms and benevolence of England that they who, in times past, durst never enter our seas to touch a herring, without license first obtained by petition from the Governor of Scar- borough Oastle, should now presume to invade them with armed fleets, and, by a most unjust war, bid defiance to the united powers of these three nations ?" t The preamble to this act (passed on the 9th of October, 1651 ) was short, but most expressive. It runs thus : " For the increase of the shipping and encouragement of the navi- gation of this nation, which, under the good providence and protection of God, is so great a means of the welfare and safety of this Commonwealth, be it enacted." Dr. Harris gives the following summary, from Sr.obell's collections, of the clauses in this famous act. They are, " that no goods shall be imported from Asia, Africa, or America, but in English ships, under the penalty of forfeiture of the said goods and ships ; nor from any part of Europe, except in such vessels as belong to the people of that country of which the goods are the growth or manufacture, under the like penalty ; that no salt fish, whale-fins, or oi! should be im- ported, but what were caught or made by the people of England ; nor no salt fish to be exported, or carried from one port to another in this nation, but in English vessels, under the like penalty ; but commodities from the Levant seas, the East Indies, the ports of Spain or Portugal, might be imported from the usual ports or places of trading used heretofore, though the said commodities were not the very growth of the said places. The act did not extend to bull- ion or prize goods, nor to silk or silk wares, brought by land from Italy to Ostend, Amsterdam, Newport, Rotterdam, Middleburgh, provided the owners and proprietors, being of the English Commonwealth, first made oath by them- selves, or other credible witnesses, that the goods were bought with the proceed of English commodities, sold either for money or in barter." It is worth adding what Sir Josias Child says of the act in his celebrated work on trade. " The act of navigation," he remarks, " deserves to be called our charta maritima. . . For my own part," he adds, " I am of opinion that, in relation to trade, shipping, profit, and power, it is one of the choicest and most prudent acts that ever was made in England, and without which we had not now been owners of one half of the shipping, nor trade, nor employed one half of the seamen which we do at pres- ent." t The proceedings toward* accomplishing this great de- in their service men of the greatest genius, in various departments of the state, that, since their day, have been produced by our nation ; they patronized, without ceasing, literature and learned men ; they declared, on assuming pow- er, that they would neither write to other states, nor receive answers, but in the tongue which was common to all countries, and fittest to re- cord great things, the subject of future history. They first employed, in the service of England, the thoughts and the pen of Milton, even in that day the greatest of her living children ; they presented a thousand pounds to him on the pub- lication of his " Answer to Salmasius ;" they appointed him Latin secretary to the Common- wealth ; they gave him the means of entertain- ing foreign ministers on their arrival in Eng- land, and of welcoming first at his own table, though at the public charge, the visits of emi- nent strangers who brought with them the rep- utation of wisdom or of learning.* They show- ed, in like manner, true respect for whatever had a good and legitimate object : they enrich- ed the universities, and having voted a resolu- tion against the principle of tithes, they placed upon a most equal and commendable footing the revenues of the clergy of the state.t Cer- sign have been partially described in the life of Vane. I will give here, however, a curious passage from the wri- tings of Dr. Gumble respecting it, because it bears emphatic testimony to the eminent merits of the statesmen (though it gives an odd reason for them), and is surely most valua- ble when the time at which it was written, and the gross prejudices of the writer, are all taken into account. " The English pretended Commonwealth," he says, " having re- duced the whole nation of Scotland and Ireland, they hav- ing a great calm of peace and tranquillity, they fell upon a project (though practised by usurpers, and men who had great fears, because of their great crimes, and of much care and diligence, because of their future danger to be brought to condign punishment) to unite all the three nations into one government, and to meet in one Parliament, a work which they did effect by the present advantages of conquest, and by a pretended consent of some elected deputies : this union being a work which King James, of blessed memory, set on foot, and renewed by our gracious sovereign King Charles II. (whom God direct to the conclusion) ; an affair that would as much tend to the peace and public security of all the three nations as any other design that can be imagined." * Toland says, on this point, that Milton "was allowed a weekly table by the Parliament for the entertainment of foreign ministers, especially such as came from Protestant states, and for the learned, which allowance was afterward continued by Cromwell." t The bishops, it is known, were at an early period ex- cluded from the House of Lords ; but it was not till Octo- ber 9th, 1646, that, an ordinance of both Houses abolished their office, and settled their lands and possessions upon trustees, for the use of the Commonwealth. A second ordi- nance, bearing date the 3d of October, 1648. ordered "the trustees to give warrants to the treasurers for the issuing out and paying of the rents and revenues of parsonages, im- propriate tithes, oblations, obventions, pensions, portions of tithes, parsonages, and vicarages, as have been or shall be received by the said treasurers, and have not otherwise been disposed of for the maintenance of ministers, to such person or persons respectively to whom the said rents and revenues have been or shall be ordered or assigned by the committee for plundered ministers, for augmentation of maintenance for officiating in any church or chapel in Eng- land and Wales." This was the last enactment on the subject previous to the Commonwealth. We observe, how- ever, that on the 30th of April, 1649, an act was passed " for the abolishing of deans and chapters, canons, prebends, and other officers and titles, of or belonging to any cathe- dral or collegiate church or chapel within England or Wales." The plea put forth in the preamble to this bill was the very sufficient one of necessity nor, indeed, a plea at all unreasonable, when all the circumstances are con- sidered. " Having seriously weighed," say its enactors, " the necessity of raising a present supply of money for the present safety of this Commonwealth, and finding that their other securities are not satisfactory to lenders, nor sufficient to raise so considerable a sum as will be necessary for the OLIVER CROMWELL. 531 tain it is, moreover, that in all they applied themselves to (their object in all, even when mistaken most, being still the advancement of the welfare of England), they distinguished themselves by indefatigable perseverance and unwearying toil.* And then, to crown and con- summate the fame of these lasting things, which shall surely be held supreme above their tem- porary errors, they were on the point of giv- ing a just charter of representative franchise to the great body of the nation, when they fell be- neath the violence of Cromwell. Was that fall merited 1 Does the plea of ne- cessity hold good ! Had these men rendered themselves suddenly incapable of the trust of government they had held so long, by insolent saul service, are necessitated to sell the lands of the deans and chapters, for the paying of public debts, and for the raising of 300,000 for the present supply of the pressing necessities of the Commonwealth, do enact," &c. These lands, it should be mentioned at the same time, notwith- standing the urgent necessity, were not to be sold under twelve years' purchase, though the lands of the bishops had been allowed to be sold for ten ; not a bad price, considering the high interest of money, at this time about eight per cent., and recollecting the possibility, also, of the lands be- ing one time or other reclaimed by their former possessors. I now come to the equal and sufficient revenues alluded to in the text. Out of the lands thus appointed to be sold, a subsequent act of the 8th of June, 1649, excepted expressly "all tithes appropriate, oblations, obventions, portions of tithes appropriate, of or belonging to the archbishops, bish- ops, deans, and deans and chapters, all which, together with 2'l,000 yearly rent, formerly belonging to the crown of England, the Commwns thought fit to be settled for a competent maintenance of preaching ministers, where it was wanting, in England and Wales." This competent maintenance was 100 a year, equally awarded to the state preachers. Nothing, at the same time, was taken from the rectories, which, whatever their revenue might be, were preserved eutire. This system, founded on justice and common sense, worked admirably ; uor, it may be safely added, will any church, whether voluntary or of the state, work to the satisfaction of its ministers, or of the people it should be designed to benefit, till it is taken from the temp- tation of too much wealth on the one hand, and the degra- dation of too much poverty on the other. What 1 have said iu the text on the subject of the universities claims a con- cluding word. One of the enactments supplementary to the foregoing ordered, " That the trustees, in whose, hands the dean and chapter lands were vested for the use of the pub- lic, shall, from time to time, pay out of the above-mentioned 20,000, 2000 yearly, for the increase of the maintenance of the masterships of colleges, in both universities, where maintenance is wanting, regard being to be had unto the number of houses of learning in each university that are fit to have an increase of maintenance ; and to make an as- (ignment of maintenance unto them accordingly, provided it do not exceed 100 per annum to any on of them." Nor was this bounty ill rewarded. The names of Cud- worth, Whichcott, Wilkins, and many others, bear witness to the quality of intellect the universities of the Common- wealth produced ; men who educated and gave to the world the Tillotsons and Barrows. As to the general patronage bestowed by the statesmen on literature and learned men, it is only needful to add to the names of Milton, Needham, and others, those of Marvel and the two Parkers. I had wellnigh forgotten to state, too, that on the 18th of June, 1651, a committee appointed by these accomplished and truly "liberal" statesmen reported in favour of the endowment of a third university in Durham, out of the overgrown wealth of the chapter lands. The project, we shall see, was re- vived in the Protectorate. Even Mr. Hallam {generally unjust, I regret to say, to these great men) can say of this that it " was a design of great importance to education and literature in this country." * Not long after the first meeting of this famous assem- bly of men, we find that above forty committees were ap- pointed to investigate and prepare so many different sub- jects for the consideration of the House of Commons ; and as these committees, upon an average, consisted of twenty persons, and sometimes of double that number, almost every member must be supposed to have been upon some committee, and the same member was often upon several. The House usually sat in the morning, the committees in the evening. The larger committees had a power of ap- pointing sub-committees of their own body, either for expe- dition, or for a more accurate examination of the subjects that came before them. assertions of undue power, and selfish prefer- ! ences of their own ends before the welfare and j the good of England, when Cromwell, speak- ing the voice of the people, doomed them to dispersion and contempt, as an expiation of j their sin 1 Their actions are now before the reader ; their errors have not been concealed ; | and by the result of both, let them be finally and fairly judged. It is our duty at present to follow Cromwell's fortunes in the new scenes opened to his vast ambition. Means will thus be offered in abundance of determining how far the result justified the outrage of the 20th of April, and whether its author then executed the righteous sentence of the nation, or merely practised on its weakness and divisions. With all the strange indifference, or, rather, as it may be better termed, the suspense between anger and hope, by which that outrage seemed to have half received the popular sanction, there was yet enough of the elements of good incur coun- trymen to render it needful that still under the show and by the pretences of Parliamentary authority should despotism effect its crafty march upon them. But this is anticipating what will soon reveal itself, in a political les- son of no indifferent value. It will speedily be manifest whether the reign of saints was a more practicable thing than the reign of statesmen, and whether the last was indeed a failure, since the first achieved success. It will also be made evident under which anomalous authority the Parliament or the Protectorate the people of England enjoyed most freedom. Let the palm be given to that which only has deserved best, when some proof is offered that under it the people were better governed ; that by its means our England had increased in wealth at home and honour abroad ; that vice was trampled un- der foot ; that property was protected ; that personal and political liberty were enjoyed ; and, in one word, that this authority, which claims to be remembered with our greatest re- spect, had discountenanced all possible revival of servile thoughts and Royalist vices in the new Republic, and promoted only the growth of pop- ular intelligence, of sobriety, and virtue. Be it, then, once more remembered, before proceeding to these means of final judgment, that Cromwell, by a peculiar combination of circumstances, most rare in the history of usurpers, had been able to overthrow the gov- ernment of the Commonwealth, not in its hour of weakness or decay, but at what seemed to be the "highest point of all its glory." The Dutch were virtually subdued ;* the Portuguese and the Danes had humbled themselves to Eng- land ; and with all the other powers of Europe * So completely were many parties at a loss to fathom the first inducement of Cromwell to assault the Parliament at such an hour, that a story became very current at the time, that, immediately after Blake's last victory over the I Dutch, the great loss of the latter had " so sensibly affected i the states of Holland and West Friezland, that they de- spatched letters to the English Parliament to endeavour, after some means, for putting an end to this cruel war. This negotiation had no effect, though it was particularly promoted by General Cromwell himself, who was very de- sirous to have a peace concluded. The states had offered to acknowledge the English sovereignty of the British seas, and to pay 300,000 to the English Commonwealth ; but, finding this was not likely to succeed, they applied them- selves (as we are told) more directly to General Cromwell, promising him vast sums if he would venture to depose and dissolve the Parliament." This is tld in a life of the Lord Protector not at all inimical to Cromwell. 532 BRITISH STATESMEN. the leaders of the Commonwealth were at peace. They were in sole possession of the Spanish trade, and were gradually, though slowly, diminishing the burdens of the people. They had given safety, at least, to each man's home, and commerce was once more lifting up its head throughout the country. On the day of their dissolution there were upward of 500,000 in the public treasury, and the value of 700,000 in the magazines ; their power at sea was giv- ing law to the world, and they had refused 900,000 a year for the customs and excise.* Finally, they had then resolved to submit their stewardship to the judgment of the nation ; to test, by new institutions, the capacity of the people for Republican government ; and to stand or fall by the result. Bishop Warburton, in a few celebrated words, has stated the mat- ter as we may now be well content to leave it. " Cromwell," he says, " seemeth to be distin- guished in the most eminent manner, with re- gard to his abilities, from all other great and wicked men who have overturned the liberties of their country. The times in which others succeeded in this attempt were such as saw the spirit of liberty suppressed and stifled by a gen- eral luxury and venality ; but Cromwell sub- dued his country when this spirit was at its height, by a successful struggle against court oppression, and while it was conducted and supported by A SET OF THE GREATEST GENIUSES FOR GOVERNMENT THE WORLD EVER SAW EMBARK- ED TOGETHER IN ONE COMMON CAUSE." It only remains that the names of these statesmen should be placed on record beside this mention of their deed*. A list of them was published, as they reassembled after the death of Cromwell, and to this, which follows, I have added such as declined to reassume their seats, or had perished in the interval. It may be held, therefore, very nearly complete ; and embra- cing, as it does, the most eminent of the men who assembled on the 3d of November, 1640, * Biog. Brit., art. Cromwell, ed. Kippis, vol. iv., p. 525. The History of Mrs. Macauley. The author of " The World's Mistake in Oliver Cromwell" (published in 1668) distinctly says, that the prosperity of trade " appeared by the great sums offered them for the customs and excise, 900,000 a year being refused. The riches of the nation showed itself in the high value that land and all our native commodities bore, which are the certain marks- of opulency. ' Our honour was made known to all the world by a conquer- : ing navy, which had brought the proud Hollanders upon ! their knees, to beg peace of us upon our own conditions, keeping all other nations in awe. And, besides these ad- j vantages, the public stock was 500,000 in ready money ; the value of 700,000 in stores ; and the whole army in ad- I vance, some four, and none under two months ; so that, though there might be a debt of near 5000 upon the kingdom, he met with above twice the value in lieu of it." This tract ' was written by Slingsby Bethel, and carries considerable I authority with it. He was the son of Sir Walter Bethel, by j a sister of the sturdy and celebrated Cavalier, Sir Henry Slingsby, who expiated on the scaffold his love for monar- chy. Bethel, who was sheriff of London in 1680, played a conspicuous part in the agitations of the Popish Plot and i the Exclusion Bill ; and, as a stanch partisan of Shaftes- bury and Monmouth, fell under the terrible lash of Dryden. He is the Shimei of " Absalom and Achitophel." "When two or three were gathered to declaim Against the monarch of Jerusalem, Shimei was always in the midst of them ; And, if they cursed the king when he was by, Would rather curse than break good company. " If any leisure time he had from power, Because 'tis sin to misemploy an hour His business was, by writing, to persuade That kings were useless, and a clog to trade." and all who held their seats between the 30th of January, 1649, and the 20th of April, 1653, the reader has thus before him, recollecting the immortal memories of Eliot, Pym, and Hamp- den, and making needful allowance for the in- different or the traitorous among them, the great authors of all the legislative triumphs this work has recorded, and, indeed, of all the es- sential political liberty that our country has en- joyed. William Lenthall, speaker. Earl of Salis- j bury. Philip earl of Pembroke. Philip lord- viscount Lisle. Edward lord Howard of Es- cricke. Thomas lord Halifax. William lord 1 Monson. Oliver St. John, lord-chief-justice. i John Wild, lord-chief-baron. Lord-commiss. ! John Lisle. Lord-commiss. Bulstrode White- ! locke. Oliver Cromwell, lord-general. Henry I Ireton, lieutenant-general. Lieutenant-general ! Fleetwood. Lieutenant-general Ludlow. Ma- | jor-general Skippon. Sir Arthur Hazlerig. Sir Henry Vane. Sir Thomas Wroth. Sir Thomas Walsingham. Sir Henry Mildmay. Sir Mi- ; chael Livesey. Sir Robert Goodwin. Sir John Trevor. Sir William Brereton. Sir Thomas Widdrington. Sir Richard Lucy. Sir Francis Russel. Sir John Lenthall. Sir William Ar- mine. Sir William Strickland. Sir John Bour- chier. Sir Gilbert Pickering. Sir Peter Went- worth. Sir James Harrington. Edmund Pri- deaux, attorney-general. Roger Hill, sergeant- at-law. Erasmus Earle, sergeant-at-law. Rob- ert Blake. John Jones. James Challoner. John Moyle. Thomas Crompton. Christopher Martin. Henry Smith. Miles Corbet. Michael Oldsworth. Carew Raleigh. Edward How- ard. John Gurdon. John Fielder. John Fry. Thomas Atkin. John Hutchinson. Edmund Dunch. Thomas Pury, Sen. Thomas Chal- loner. William Leman. Edmund Harvey. Henry Marten. Benjamin Weston. William Heveningham. John Barker. George Thom- son. Luke Robinson. Gilbert Millington. Au- gustine Garland. Henry Neville. Robert An- drew. Thomas Lister. Peter Brook. John Trenchard. Nathaniel Rich. Nicholas Gould. Algernon Sidney. John Lowry. William Say. John Selden. Edward Neville. John Wastell. Henry Darley. Francis Lassels. William Pure- foy. Nicholas Letchmere. Thomas Allen. John Dormer. Francis Rouse. William Caw- ley. John Nut. Richard Ingoldsby. Corne- lius Holland. Edmund Wilde. John Corbet. James Ash. John Goodwin. Richard Sawley. Herbert Morley. James Nelthorp. Robert Brewster. John Dixwell. Thomas Harrison. John Downs. John Anlaby. Simon Meyne. Thomas Scot. George Fleetwood. Thomas Pury, Jun. William Eyre. Thomas Boone. Edmund West. Robert Reynolds. William White. Richard Darley. John Carew. Au- gustine Skinner. John Dove. Thomas Birch. Nicholas Love. Philip Smith. Valentine Wau- ton. Alexander Popham. Robert Cecil. Isaac Pennington. John Fag. William Hay. Na- thaniel Hallowes. Thomas Wayte. Henry Arthington. Walter Strickland. John Pyne. Thomas Mackworth. Gervas Pigot. Francis Thorp. Robert Bennet. Robert Nicholas. Richard Norton. John Stevens. Peter Tem- ple. James Temple. John Weaver. Thomas Wogan. Brampton Gurdon. Robert Wallop. OLIVER CROMWELL. 533 William Sydenham. John Bingham. Philip Jones. John Palmer. William Ellis. Cromwell had been some days engaged in the establishment of the council of state before he described it to the nation in his declaration of the 30th of April.* It was not an easy mat- ter to establish, for all his officers thought them- selves entitled to have an opinion concerning it, and it was his policy, for the present, to seem to give them their way. The discussions that ensued were, accordingly, highly characteristic. Lambert, and a few of the more worldly of these gentlemen, proposed that it should con- sist of ten members ; Harrison, and a section of his party, were for the number of seventy, after the model of the Jewish Sanhedrin ; Okey, and others of the saints, were for thirteen, in imitation of Christ and his twelve apostles. The last scheme, embracing at once the scrip- tural and convenient, was favoured for this and other peculiar reasons by Cromwell, and ulti- mately adopted. On the 29th of April they had taken their seats, for the first time, as rulers of the Commonwealth. With Cromwell were associated eight officers of high rankf and four civilians. t The last would thus seem to have been thrown in as a convenient screen alone ; for this council of state, so constituted, was to all intents and purposes a military council. It will scarcely be believed, notwithstanding, that a desperate attempt was made to secure, in the position of one of the civilians, the name and authority of Sir Henry Vane. Idle effort ! but not less zealously made ; for none knew better than Cromwell that any damage to such a character must be self-inflicted, and none more certain than he that such co-operation, by any argument secured, would altogether avert the possibility of a popular outbreak be- fore his plans were ripe. No argument was therefore forgotten, no inducement omitted, to achieve the services of the "juggling" Vane. But the manner of their reception became his character. As he had treated the insult, he treated the mean submission. From his house in Lincolnshire, to which he had at once re- tired after the 20th of April, he wrote a brief answer to the application from the council, that " though the reign of saints was now no doubt begun, he was willing, for his part, to defer his share in it till he should go to heav- en."$ Heartily Cromwell wished him there who can doubt ! Decidedly warlike, however, as the new * See ante, p. 515. A curious letter, of a few days later date, shows the suspicious already begun to be entertained as to his purpose*. " This declaration," says the writer, " is in his own name, and signed by himself, Oliver Crom- well, which shewct what henceforward he aimti att." 'L'kur- loe't State Papert, vol. i., p. 240. t These were Lambert, Harrison, Desborough, Thomlin- son, Bennet, Sydenham, Stapely, and another whose name I cannot precisely ascertain, in the confusion of the addi- tions subsequently made, ami of the second council of state so soon afterward appointed. I take him, however, to have been Colonel Philip Jones. i These were, Strickland, late ambassador to the United Provinces; Sir Gilbert Pickering, John Carew,auil Samuel Moyer. A new president was weekly chosen, Lambert being the first, Pickering the second, and Harrison the third. 4 See an intercepted letter of Mr. T. Robinson to Mr. Stoneham, at the Hague, in Thurloe's Slate Papers, vol. i., f. 265. council of state was in its construction, the old council of officers held, not the less, to their existence as a quasi-authoritative body, of which the lord-general, Cromwell himself, was the natural and most authoritative mouthpiece. Under no lack of governors, therefore, did Eng- land labour after the dispersion of her states- men. A fortnight had not elapsed after that event before acts of the highest authority were seen to emanate, with equal force and poten- cy, from three several executive powers. Eng- lishmen were now called on to obey the coun- cil of state, now to submit to the council ot officers ; in one day they were to receive, with deference, the law of the Lord-general Crom- well, speaking on behalf of the officers, and in the next they were to welcome the orders of the Lord-president Cromwell, as the mouthpiece of the state.* Such, however, were the trifling peculiari- ties that might well precede a reign of saints, and men waited in hope accordingly. Scarce- ly a day passed that did not bring to the coun- cil its " humble and thankful congratulation from some that fear the Lord," in anticipation of the great things they were to do, and not seldom a mission or address of the following fashion reached the devout hands of the lord- general or the lord-president, Oliver Cromwell. " After so many throes and pangs severe contests between the powers of the world and the interest of Christ we conceive the great and long-desired reformation is near the birth. We bless the God of Heaven, who hath called you forth and led you on, not only in the high pla- ces of the field, making you a terror to the en- emy, but aBo (among those mighty ones whom God hath left) to the dissolving of the late Par- liament. O my lord, what are you, that you should be the instrument to translate the na- tion from oppression to liberty, from the hands of corrupt persons to the saints ? And who are we, that we should live to see these days which our fathers longed to see, and reap the harvest of their hopes 1 To be low in our own eyes, when God lifteth us, is a true testimony of humility and uprightness. No action of ser- vice or honour ever swelled the bosom of Christ ; him, we believe, you make your pat- tern. Let the high praises of God be in our mouths, and the generations to come tell of his wonders. Let the improvement of this opportunity be your care and our prayer, that you may follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, and we attend you with our persons, * See Whitelocke, p. 530-533. Among other acts done, judges were displaced, appointed, superseded ; new treasury and admiralty commissioners were named ; even the month- ly assessment (so clamoured against in the time of the statesmen !) of 120,000 was renewed for an additional half year ; and all these various powers assumed by author- ities as various. (See Leicester's Journal, p. 142. Merc. Pol., No. 157.) The chief civil offices had in the main gone forward without intermission, in obedience to the order contained in the declaration of officers. (See ante, p. 514.) It is amusing to mark Whitelocke's manner of shuffling over, in his Memorials, the fact of his first adhesion to this anomalous and most unlawyer-like state of things. Allu- ding to the appearance of this declaration, and of the more particular passage to which I have referred, he says, " The commissioners did not proceed in the business of the great seal till after this declaration ; and then,* considering that they had their authority from the Parliament, they did pro- ceed." This " Parliament" must have been the Parliament remotely and mysteriously alluded to in the declaration at likely, probable, impossible to be gammoned ! 534 BRITISH STATESMEN. petitions, purses, lives, and all that is dear to us."* The Royalists had a somewhat different mode of regarding the recent occurrences more sensible as a matter of reasoning, but still mistaken in point of fact, or, rather, in point of time. They wrote exultingly to every quarter of the Continent that their great ene- mies were gone, that the regicide Parliament was no more, that a " notable crisis" was at hand ; they revelled in the thought of " the noble confusion" Cromwell had made ;t they said that their cause, low as it was, should spring back higher than ever ; in plain and pro- phetic terms, they told the personal friends of Stuart that he should have his throne again ; and all these things they mixed as freely as their draughts, in ribald songs at their Royalist taverns. "Some think that Cromwell with Charles is agreed, And say 'twere good policy if it were so. Lest the Hollander, French, the Dane, and the Swede, Do bring him again whether he will or no. " And now I would gladly conclude my song With a prayer, as ballads are wont to do ; 'But yet I'll forbear, for I think, ere 't be long, We may have a king and a Parliament too.''i The only man in the midst of these strange j doings who already knew their result as thor- oughly as he coolly and determinedly contem- plated it, was Cromwell himself. It is a sin- gular proof of the complete self-possession with which he had long been quietly providing for the movement he had resolved sooner or later to make, that he sent confidentially to the great rival of Mazarin, in the very instant of the brief triumph which preceded the fall of that statesman, to bespeak his interest and friend- j ship. I find the following note in the Memoirs j of the Cardinal de Retz. He had been on | some certain night to negotiate a money loan for Charles Stuart, who was then in Paris, and thus relates the evening's adventures. " It ; is remarkable that the same night, as I was going home, I met one Tilney, an Englishman, whom I had formerly known at Rome, who told me that Vere, a great Parliamentarian and a favourite of Cromwell, was arrived at Paris, and had orders to see me. I was a little per- plexed ; however, I thought it would be im- proper to refuse him an interview. He gave me a letter from Cromwell, in the nature of credentials, importing that the sentiments I had discovered in the defence of public liberty add- ed to my reputation, and had induced him to enter into the strictest friendship with me. It was a most civil, complaisant letter, and I an- swered it with a great deal of respect, but in such a manner as became a true Catholic and an honest Frenchman." But yet, as surely as his designs were held, did this extraordinary man contrive, among his own partisans, to throw every kind of doubt and uncertainty over them. A memorable instance at this period is related by Edmund Ludlow. Among the deluded agents in the dispersion of the Parliament, Major Salway has been men- tioned. He appears to have been too self-willed for introduction among the new council, and yet too influential with some sections of the army to be passed over without a certain show of deference and conciliation. To him, there- fore, Cromwell had sent shortly after the fall of the Commonwealth, and Salway, " with his friend Mr. John Carew," at once obeyed the invi- tation. Then Cromwell, according to the report of Ludlow, complained to them of " the great weight of affairs that by this means was fallen upon him, affirming that the thoughts of the consequence thereof made him to tremble, and therefore desired them to free him from the temptations that might be laid before him, and to that end to go immediately to the Chief- justice St. John, and Mr. Selden, and some others, and endeavour to persuade them to draw up some instrument of government that might put the power out of his hands." To this Major Salway at once answered with dignity and spirit, yet, at the same time, no recorded distrust of Cromwell, " The way, sir, to free you from this temptation, is for you not to look upon yours-clf to be under it, but to rest persua- ded that the power of this nation if in the good people of England, as formerly it was." Good advice, but by no means so acceptable in the quarter addressed as the pretences which had scattered the statesmen might have led poor Salway to suppose ! Yet it was advice which Cromwell no doubt received with all gracious profession, since it confirmed in one conve- nient sense, if not in the speaker's own, a de- termination which already existed in the lord- general's mind, and by a well-devised realiza- tion of which he hoped to settle the "popular representative" and the "reign of saints" to- gether, in a prescription that should serve for both. Salway, there is little reason to doubt, was sent away perfectly contented. Meanwhile everything was working in public as Cromwell could have best desired. The frame of affairs seemed to be breaking asunder. Each day brought fresh rumours to agitate and confuse the public ; each day was the birth of a new project that was to glorify and exalt, or of some design that was sure to betray, the people. Now one excited group met another, and exchanged beliefs that Cromwell had offer- ed to recall the royal family on condition that Charles should marry one of his daughters ;* then might be seen, next day, a knot of disturb- ed and threatening men, who were telling each other that Cromwell intended himself to ascend the throne, and that the insignia for his coro- nation were actually prepared ; finally, aloof * I take the following from a curious letter in Thurloo (vol. i., p. 254), dated at the close of May, 1653 : such ex- tracts might be given in abundance : " I expected some news in the letters concerning the King of Scots, which was strongly reported here a fortnight or three weeks ago to be gone for Holland ; and now the fresh reports are, that it's lowly spoken in the court that he is to marry one of Cromwell's daughters, so to be brought again to his three lost crowns. This is also muttered here, but not believed, Cromwell professing himself a constant enemy to monarchs, and that the height of his ambition is to te a -vassal of the Commonwealth, although it's thought by many he is at his wit's end, not content with what he hath got, nor knowing how to get absolute hold of the sceptre, or to content all, the soldiers being much divided by their several interests. It is said again, he hath sent for all the soldiers to come up ; and what will be done when they come (if indeed they da come), 1 cannot divine. Our city is earnest, either to have tht old Parliament brought to sit again, or to have a neut one. Cromwell will never yield to the first, but rather punish the motioneis ; what he will do to the second^ tint must show." OLIVER CROMWELL. 535 from all these, excited enthusiasts gathered to- gether in various quarters of the city, to pre- dict a speedy advent for those halcyon days which would at last fulfil God's promises to man. In one street signatures were solicited to a petition for the re-establishment of the an- cient Constitution ; in another, for a pure re- public, with the government of successive Par- liaments ; in a third, for welcome to that " Lamb of the Lord," which had exhibited itself in the new military councils. All this was to have been expected in the state of society and of parties already described. Some addresses de- clared the conviction of their subscribers that the late dissolution was a crime, some that it was a blessing ; some were for having the statesmen back, some were rather impatient, and not very implicit, about the assembling of the saints. From the country, too, various ru- mours arrived in quick and startling succession. Here there was " gathering of hands" for the fallen Commonwealth, there for the rising king ;* and only one thing reigned alike everywhere, THE SPIRIT OF CONFUSION. And thus arose the instrument of Cromwell's vast design ! " Sure," wrote Hyde from Paris a few weeks later, " sure the confusion is very high in England, and you must declare for Crom- well, that his single influence may compose these distractions, which the multitude cannot do." It is good to make our giants first, since it is certain that we kill them then more easily. The time had certainly arrived, if not for that of a declaration in behalf of Cromwell, at least for his own trial of the last grand cheat he had been so long preparing. It was observed for some weeks that he had never seemed to wear such gracious aspects of humility and godliness as at this peculiar time ; his prayers had pecu- liar relish in them, and a most extraordinary fervour ; his preachings were also very frequent in the council ; and it was the report of men more immediately about his person in confiden- tial relations, that he had certainly, of late, re- ceived absolute communications from the Holy Spirit.! * I refrain from overlaying the text with details on these matters, which might be multiplied to an interminable ex- tent. I give another curious letter, however, which bears upon the subject generally, and sufficiently illustrates the view I have given of the state of society : it is to be found in Thnrloe, vol. i., p. 249, 250: "We talk merrily of a pe- tition coming out of Surrey for making their general king. The foolish, senseless, stupid citizens were so sottish as to petition their lord-general to have at least some who were thought good men of the Parliament to sit again ; but he gave them an answer no ways to their desire. He intends to be king in effect, though loth to take upon him the title. The apparition of the city's petition was seen a fortnight ago in several places of this town ; but it soon vanished in the thoughts of wise men. The council often are at a non- plus, for they know not what to do ; they have added three more to their number. The general's picture was set up at the Exchange, with verses under it, tending much to his honour: it was brought to him by the lord-mayor, toAo, it is thought, was the contriver of the setting of it up. White- locke declareth that the Parliament is not dissolved, and there is a gathering of hands to that purpose. On the other side, there is a gathering of hands for a king. This is both in town and country. Essex and Buckinghamshire are sending a petition for a king. Thus things stand in a great confusion. As things stand now, we know not what to think or say. The time was, when the challenging of five members was cried out upon for an unheard-of breach of privilege of Parliament ; but afterward the impeaching of eleven members was a greater, and made a mighty noise among the Presbyterians. What think you now of turning them all out of doors ?" t The assertion is thought worthy of grave contradiction The secret of these spiritual throes and hear- ings made its appearance in due course. It had been immediately preceded by eight days' close consultation between Cromwell and his military divan : a circumstance duly noted with all kinds of lofty and indistinct surmises by the Whitehall newspapers,* and for the result of by one of Cromwell's common-sense partisans : M. de Bor- deaux, for example, the French resident in England, and for many reasons well affected to Cromwell, thus writes to Monsieur de Brienne, the French secretary of state : " Les bruits, qu'on fait courir du general [Cromwell] ne sont pas vrais ; if affecte bien une grande pi6t6, mais par vine par- ticuliere communication avec le St. Esprit ; et n'est par si foib'ie, que de se laisser pnndre par des flateries. Je scais que 1'ainb. de Portugal lui en aiant fait sur ce changement, il en fait raillerie." An extract from a Royalist pamphlet of the day will show, however, the peculiar interests that now subsisted between this Frenchman and Cromwell. Alluding to the addresses which were got up after the fall of the Parliament "to strengthen the hands of this dictator in carrying on the work of Sion," it thus proceeds : " He was also complimented by the French ambassador Bor- deaux, who had made applications to the Parliament, but was doubtful of effecting his errand with those highest and mightiest states who were grown formidable not only to the Dutch, but to his master, who willingly courted them to prevent their closing with his rebels of Bordeaux ; only Oli- ver, as we have seen, valued them no more than scoundrels or rake-shames, nor would give ear to any more enemies of monarchy." A vice in the foreign policy of the Protectorate is here glanced at. * It is needless to observe that the breathless interest with which intelligence of each new incident or circum- stance of the war was looked for, had greatly tended to the increase of newspapers, both in numbers and influence. About twelve were now regularly published, all of them weekly newspapers, besides those occasional assaults on the popular party which came out in the shape of Royalist journals. On Monday appeared the Perfect Diurnal, and the Moderate Intelligencer; on Tuesday, Several Proceed- ings in Parliament, a publication of authority ; the Weekly Intelligencer, and the Faithful Post ; on Wednesday, Mer- curius Democritus, and the Perfect Account ; on Thursday, Several Proceedings in State Affairs, a publication of some authority, and Mercurius Politicus. a sort of state gazette ; and on Friday, the Moderate Publisher, the Faithful Post, by a different publisher from that of Tuesday, and the Faithful Scout. There was no newspaper on Saturday, probably because that would have been considered as too nearly trenching on the Lord's Day. Among the various writers whose names have come down to ns, that of Mareh- mont Needham, the editor of the Mercurius Politicus, best deserves mention. He had written against the liberal cause in the commencement of the war, yet the statesmen not only pardoned him this, but extended to his undoubted tal- ents the patronage they loved to bestow universally on lit- erature and learned men. Eventually he " was induced to become an advocate for them and liberty." He was a wri- ter worth gaining. This is his character by Anthony & Wood: "His Mercurius Politicus, which came out by au- thority, and flew every week into all parts of the nation for more than ten years, had very great influence upqn num- bers of inconsiderable persons, such as have a strong pre- sumption that all must needs be true that is in print. He was the Goliath of the Philistians, the great champion of the late usurper, whose pen, in comparison of others, was like a weaver's beam. And certainly he that will or can peruse those his intelligences called Merc. Politici, will judge that, had the devil himself (the father of all lies) been, in this Goliath's office, he could not have exceeded him ; as bavin? with profound malice calumniated his sovereign, with scurrility abused the nobility, with impudence blasphemed the Church and members thereof, and with industry pois- oned the people with dangerous principles." The reader will know how to translate this into an admission of Need- ham's great talents, and his power of making them avail- able. He may still wish tn judge for himself, however, as to the quality of the newspaper-writing in that age, and I therefore subjoin a passage fnm the 108lh number of " Mer- curius Politicus," on what are called "Reasons of State :" " The regulation of affairs by reason of state, not the strict rule of honesty, has been an epidemical one. But, for fear 1 be mistaken," continues he, " you are to understand, that by reason of state here we do not condemn the equitable re- sult of prudence and right reason for upon determinations of this nature depends the safety of all slates and princes but thnt reason of state which flows from a corrupt principle to an indirect end ; that reason of state which is the states- man's reason, or, rather, his will and lust, when he admits ambition to be a reason preferment, power, profit, revenge, BRITISH STATESMEN. which all parties in the metropolis appear to have waited with an extreme intensity of in- terest. It was early in June when its disclo- sure appeared, and it announced a Parliament. A Parliament ! That name which a short month past was said to have become hateful to the English people, was now confessed to be the one feasible mode of inducing satisfaction and content. A Parliament of statesmen ! Some hearts, it might be, leaped high again with the generous hope, which in generous nature sur- vives distrust and fear, and saw the men of the army powerless, and the Commonwealth re- stored. A Parliament of saints ! At that rapt announcement, enthusiasts who walked the city with their faces too much fixed on heaven to see ordinary wants or human fears, beheld the prayed for movements in the clouds that were to sweep away forever iniquity and sorrow, but were, alas ! struck blind to movements reviving on the earth, which, in a few brief years, would sweep themselves away with a most triumphant scorn. A Parliament of saints it was indeed to be ! The ignorant and enthusiast still believed ; the poor were obliged to hope, since it was some- thing still to cling to ; the statesmen grieved or smiled ; the indifferent calculated chances ; while the irreverent exultation of the Royalists scattered questions along the streets, to ask if the image of him who rode into Jerusalem upon an ass's foal were any more than a type of the new deliverer, who was about to ride into his throne upon the backs of a hundred and twenty asses, selected out of several counties for the especial purpose.* But were the people to return these saints 1 Were the asses to be of popular selection 1 The pretences urged against the statesmen would surely, at least, be permitted to survive so far. It would be hardly credible, that within a month of the violent destruction of a Parliament on the plea that it had refused to place faith in the people, its destroyers should take on themselves to call another Parliament together without even the semblance of a popular appeal. And yet this was what was now done, as any other thing equally monstrous might have been done and opportunity, to be reasons sufficient to put him upon any design or action that may tend to present advantage, though contrary to the law of God, or the law of common honesty and of nations. Reason of state is the most sover- eign command and the most important counsellor. Reason of state is the card and compass of the ship. Reason of state is many times the religion of a state the law, the life of a state ; that which answers all objections and quarrels about mal-government ; that which wages war, imposes taxes, cuts off offenders, pardons offenders, sends and treats ambassadors. It can say and unsay ; do and undo ; balk the common road, make high-ways to become by-ways, and the farthest about to become- the nearest cut. If a difficult knot come to be untied, which neither the divine by Scrip- ture, nor lawyer by case or precedent can untie, then reason of state, or an hundred ways more which idiots, know not, dissolve it. This is that great empress which the Italians call Raggione di Stato ; it can rant as a soldier, compliment as a monsieur, trick it as a juggler, strut it as r, statesman, and is as changeable as the moon in the variety of her ap- pearances." This is admirable satire, expressed with ad- mirable correctness and ease. I should not omit to add that one of the ablest works produced by Needham was written at the request of the Parliamentary leaders, and thus enti- tled : "The Case of the Commonwealth of England stated, with a Discourse of the Excellencie of a Free State above a Kingly Government.'' I shall have an opportunity of re- turning to this work. * Lord Somers's Tracts by Scott, vol. vii., p. 97. Placards containing such sneers as these were dropped in various places throughout the city. in that condition of affairs. When men have been induced, no matter by what disunion or distraction, to countenance one great falsehood, they have then surrendered the privileges with the protection of truth. A lie can only gener- ate a lie, and he who has acknowledged the pa- rent, dares not deny or reject the offspring. The first result of the pernicious fraud which perverts the intellect is the habitual indifference or insincerity which debases and corrupts the heart. The new Parliament was to be summoned on principles unheard of in all time before. The qualification of its members was to be sanctity of principles and holiness of life, and their election was to proceed, heaven-directed, from the choice of the council of officers. With this view, ministers in various parts of the country, on whom the council could rely, had been directed to take the sense of the " Congregational churches" in their several counties, and to send up to the lord-general and his officers returns containing the names of persons " able, loving truth, fearing God, and hating covetousness," whom they judged " qualified to manage a trust in the ensuing government."* Out of these, with the assist- ance of various names selected for their own more immediate ends, the council of officers, in the presence of the lord-general, t now pro- ceeded to select a convention of 139 repre- * 1 subjoin from Thurloe a specimen of one of these Con- gregational documents. " Letter from the people of Bed- fordshire to the Lord-general Cromwell and the council of the army. May it please your lordship and the rest of the council of the army, We (we trust), the servants of Jesus Christ, inhabitants in the county of Bedford, having fresh upon our hearts the sad oppressions we have (a long while) groaned under from the late Parliament, and now eyeing and owning (through grace) the good hand of God in this great turn of providence, being persuaded it is from the Lord that you should be instruments in his hand at such a time as this, for the electing of such persons who may go in and out before his people in righteousness, and govern these nations in judgment, we having sought the Lord for you, and hoping that God will still do great things by you, under- standing that it is in your hearts (through the Lord's as- sistance) to establish an authority, consisting of men able, loving truth, fearing God, and hating covetousuess ; and we having had some experience of men with us, we have judged it our duty to God, to you, and to the rest of his people, humbly to present two men, viz., Nathaniel Taylor and John Croke, now justices of peace in our county, whom we judge in the Lord qualified to manage a trust in the ensuing government. All which we humbly refer to your serious considerations, and subscribe our names, this 13th day of May, 1653." A memorandum of the " Dutch deputies in England," dated the 12th of August, 1653, states that the new council, " by the direction and the name of the Lord- general Cromwell, against the 4th of July, 1653, have sum- moned a new representation of 120 English, five Scotch, and five Irish commissioners, out of the respective counties and a few towns ; who, upon the letter of the said general, after a foregoing communication with the ministers of the Independent party, which are spread through all England under the name of the gathered churches, and do keep a mutual correspondence, were chosen, and have appeared here." It is worthy of remark, at the same time, that the lord-general and his council exercised their own right of choice at all times when it happened to differ from their Congregational advisers ; and that, for example, though Nathaniel Taylor in the above recommendation was "call- ed," John Croke was not. "Edward Cater" was sum- moned in his Ktead. t It is a singular circumstance, that what was called the council of state took no authoritative share in this proceed- ing, and, accordingly, no notice of the subject is to be found in their order book": it was solely the work of Cromwell and his officers. A characteristic circumstance should also be noted. Major Salway, though not a member of the mil- itary council, was present at these meetings, invited there by Cromwell, who thus, by an extreme appearance of con- fidence and favour, disarmed the suspicions of a gentleman equally credulous and troublesome. OLIVER CROMWELL. 537 sentatives, divided thus : for England, 122 ; for Wales six ; six for Ireland ; and five for Scot- land ; and to all these, summonses were at once sent out. The form of the summons was as extraordi- nary as its origin. It was issued in the sole name of Oliver Cromwell, as though in these two words already lodged the sovereign au- thority of England ; and it ran thus : " Foras- much as, upon the dissolution of the late Par- liament, it became necessary that the peace, safety, and government of this Commonwealth should be provided for ; and in order thereunto, divers persons fearing God, and of approved fidelity and honesty, are by myself, with the ad- vice of my council of officers, nominated, to whom the charge of trust of so weighty affairs is to be committed ; and having good assurance of your love to, and courage for, God and the interest of this cause, and of the good people of this Commonwealth, I, Oliver Cromwell, cap- tain-general and commander-in-chief of all the armies and forces raised and to be raised with- in this Commonwealth, do hereby summon and require you, , Esquire (being one of the persons nominated), personally to be and ap- pear at the council-chamber at Whitehall, with- in the city of Westminster, upon the 4th day of July next ensuing the date hereof, then and there to take upon you the said trust, unto which you are hereby called and appointed to serve as a member for the county (or city) of . And hereof you are not to fail. Given under my hand and seal, the 6th day of June, 1653. OLIVER CROMWELL."* Nor did any fail excepting two. Two men only refused to answer to the summons. The rest, in wonder or enthusiasm, obeyed. It is indeed recorded of the majority that they took the very extraordinary manner of their election as a sufficient proof that the call was from heaven !f This was natural enough, since men who have been fed with prodigies once, will feed themselves with prodigies still ; nor is a falsehood itself more self-productive than a miracle : and thus did everything work to the usurper's wish. Temporal and spiritual pride went hand in hand to the work, trusting each to the blindness of the other, and both resolved to get what they could, of their respective yet most opposite desires, out of the " mysterious knack," as one of the Royalist papers not in- aptly called it, " of a new, unheard-of legisla- tive authority, who, by the name of men of in- * Lord Somers's Tracts, vol. vi., p. 247. t The author of "An Exact Relation of the Proceedings and Transactions of the late Parliament, their beginning and ending ; by a Member" (printed in the year 1654, and to be found in Somers's Tracts, vol. vi., p. 266), tells us, "It is very observable, that of all that were chosen and summoned to appear for the end aforesaid, being 140 per- sons, there were but two that refused the call and work, so unanimous a concurrence was there found as to the service, though they knew well their call was not according to an- cient formality and the way of the nation. There seemed to be two reasons wherein there was satisfaction : first, that Divine Providence had cast it on them, without their teeking in the least ; secondly, the necessity, as the case of the Commonwealth stood, of having some to act and carry on affairs in way of government till there might be an attainer to a better way of settlement, by the choice of tht good people of this nation, which was not to be denied to be their just and dearly-purchased liberty." The last passage proves that a certain set of men in this Parliament had been able to combine a conscientious sense and care of public liberty with even the rapt and excited phrensies of religious enthusiasm. YYY tegrity and fidelity to the cause of God, were by a bare summons from Oliver called to the settlement of the state that was, to be stir- rups or footsteps to the throne whereon Crom- well should tread."* Faithful to the day appointed in the sum- mons, these wonderfully-selected, able, truth- loving, God-fearing, covetousness-hating, and Cromwell-obeying men, presented themselves on the 4th of July, 1653, at the council-chamber in Whitehall. A more extraordinary assem- blage had assuredly never been seen within the walls of any place of power. Mean men were among them, and for this they have been flung aside in the mass as a set of ignorant mechan- ics and adventurers, low born, low bred, illiter- ate, and vile ; indifferent and reckless men were among them, and for this they have been scorn- ed and branded by history as hypocrites and madmen, t Yet were they none of these. De- * It will be worth quoting another Royalist comment of the time on the present proceedings, more especially as it contains a curious illustration of the origin of the slanders against the quality and condition of the men who composed this conventien. "As for news here, we have none but good, for the lord-general goes on like himself, a conqueror and a king, as it is hoped he will shortly be ; for there is a privy seal made, a sword with three crowns upon it, to borrow moneys with it. And it is told me by some that I know in Whitehall, that there is brought in there a royal crown and a sceptre ; and I wish him as much joy with it as you do, or can do. His excellency and his privy council, which consist of as many Christ and his apostles, all godly men, have made two acts lately, equal to the former acts of Parliament : the one for the continuance of our monthly tax ; the other for the convening of a new rep- resentative at Whitehall, on purpose, as is expected, to crown his excellency. They are elected out of all counties, but not by the counties of England, but by the special ap- pointment of him and his council ; and his warrant to them runs thus : ' I and my council do will and command you to appear at Whitehall,' <fec. ; and I assure you we shall have a blessed government, for though all the elected are mean men, yet they are godly men, and the most of them gifted men, fit to govern both in Church and government. By the next I shall give you their names. In the mean time, take the names of some good and gracious, elected for West- minster and London: Air. Squib, some time clerk to Sir Edward Powel ; another, a leather-seller, over Ram Alley, in Fleet-street, a very ram, a man well known to your bed- fellow ; another, a scrivener in St. Thomas Apostle's, a pure apostle, Mr. Colbume by name ; another, an aqua vita: man, near Aldgate, to furnish the state with a dram out of the bottle to comfort their hearts." The " leather-seller" re- ferred to here was the notorious Barbone, and it is singular that there is no such attempt to play the same trick with his name on the part of this scurrilous Royalist as our grave historians have since played. t " Much the major part of them," Lord Clarendon tells us, " consisted of inferior persons of no quality or name, artificers of the meanest trades, known only by their gifts in praying and preaching, which was now practised by all degrees of men, but scholars, throughout the kingdom. In which number, that there may be a better judgment made of the rest, it will not be amiss to name one, from whom that Parliament itself was afterward denominated, who was Praise-God (that was his Christian name) Barebone, a leather-seller in Fleet-street ; from whom, he being an emi- nent speaker in it, it was afterward called Praise-God Bare- bone's Parliament. In a word, they were a pack of weak, senseless fellows, fit only to bring the name and reputation of Parliaments lower than it was yet." Another contem- porary styles them, " A set of men for the most part of such mean and ignoble extraction, that so far were they from, be- ing taken notice of by their shires, each of whom. (but two or three) represented, that they were scarce known in the very towns wherein they were born, or afterward inhabited, till the excise, then committees for sequestration, and the war in the respective counties, made them infamously known. The rest were of Cromwell's partisans in the Par- liament and high Court of Justice." Whitelocke remarks, however, "That many of this assembly being persons of fortune and knowledge, it was much wondered by some that they would at this summons, and from such hands, take upon them the supreme authority of this nation, consider- ing how little authority Cromwell and his officers had to give it, or these gentlemen to take it." It may be worth 538 BRITISH STATESMEN. scribe them, as such an assemblage claims to he described, by the general characteristics of the great majority of its members and let laughter still flow freely as it will at the mon- strous origin of their authority, and the ludi- crous pretences of their sanctity, the more grave and the more respectful will be our men- tion of the personal qualities of the men. They were earnest and sincere. They had great truth of purpose, unquestionable good faith, and a zeal that set life and labour at naught in the service to which they had been called. They believed much, and they acted as men who be- lieved. They wildly thought themselves, in- deed, the heralds of a new and glorious era of unearthly happiness to earth, and of immortal peace and good-will to mortal men ; but to this service of overheated imaginations they brought the aid of judgment, upon various and most es- sential things, at once sober, correct, and prac- tical, which should for itself alone command the admiration and respect of all reasoning or reflecting persons. Finally, they were men of no common worldly esteem. " It was much wondered at by some," says Whitelocke, " that these gentlemen, many of them being persons of fortune and knowledge, would, at this sum- mons and from these hands, take upon them the supreme authority of the nation." There were many more things wonderful which Whitelocke's philosophy preferred to leave un- dreamed of, though it might, perchance, have explained them. It was possibly much won- dered at by some, for example, that such gen- tlemen as these, many of them being persons of knowledge, would have been called upon, un- der a summons from such hands, to assume the supreme authority of the nation ; yet none knew better than Whitelocke and his class what Cromwell's objects were, and none better than they could have told how even such men as these would be made the instruments to advance them. This will speedily become manifest. Thus, then, assembled in this Whitehall coun- cil-chamber the celebrated Barebone's Parlia- ment : a title by which grave historians, taking advantage of the lucky accident of the name of one of its members, have sought to make it ridiculous in history. A cheap thing is ridicule ; and a most precious instrument of unprincipled power, the facility of coining nicknames ! The ingenious device of changing Barhone into Barebone, and the constant repetition of the latter word in its most ridiculous sense, have been successful in persuading historical read- ers for nearly two centuries that this assem- blage of men, wealthy, high born, wise, as many of them were, was little better, to all sensible or rational purposes, than an assem- blage of literal bare bones* might have been ! subjoining 1 , also, the character of the members of this cou- Tention from Ludlow, who tells us, " That many of the members of this assembly had manifested a good affection to the public cause ; but some there were among them who were brought in as spies and trepanne.rs ; and though they had been always of the contrary party, made the highest pretensions to honesty and the service of the nation. This assembly, therefore, being composed, for the most part, of honest and well-meaning 1 persons (who, having good inten- tions, were less ready to suspect the evil designs of others), thought themselves in full possession of the power and au- thority of the nation, and therefore proceeded to the making of laws relating to the public." * Voltaire gravely translates Barbone's name into os de- eiarne ! so true it is that men are not made less con- temptible because their nickname happens to he nonsense. It is all the better for revealing no shadow of the qualities they may have, whether vile or great, since it only flings the more insignificance over them in expressing, as it were, a very abstraction of the contemptible. The return of Praise-God Barbonet as one of the members for the city of London hath had truly a portentous influence on the memory of this Parliament ! Besides Barbone, however, it will become us to recollect in this narrative that Henry Crom- well, a man of no insignificance any way, was summoned ; that the whole of what was called the council of stale, with the exception of the * Mr. Godwin (in the Hist, of the Commonwealth, vol. iii., p. 524) first exposed the trick of this altered name, and, on the authority of four undisputed contemporary lists of this Parliament, published by the council of the state, wrote it Barbone. He suggested, at the same time, as to the Chris- tian prefix, that it was scarcely more fanatical than Deoda- tus, a name to be found in the records of most of the coun- tries of Europe. He might have said more for the name it- self, which is capable of the classic translation of Timothe- us. It would be scarcely necessary to refer to the number- less vulgar slanders and ridiculous fictions that have sprung out of this notorious name, but that it too well expresses the spirit in which the history of these times has (until of late) been written, to be altogether omitted. For example, one historian talks of " Praise-God Barebone" having had two brothers, the Christian name of the first of whom was Christ came into the world to save, and of the second, If Christ had not died, thouhadst been damned. He introduces his anecdote with the suspicious words, " / have been in- formed that there were three brothers," and adds, that " some people, tired of the long name of the younger broth- er, are said to have omitted the former part of the sentence, and to have called him familiarly Damned Barebone." An- other writer, according to Mr. Godwin, the Reverend James Brome, in a book of Travels over England, Scotland, and Wales, second edition, 1707, has endeavoured to render the satire more complete by giving the names of a "jury re- tunied in the county of Sussex, in the late rebellious, troub- lesome times, as follows (p. 279) : Accepted Trevor, of] Norsham ; Redeemed Compton, of Battel ; Faint-not Hewet, of Heathfield ; Make-peace Heaton, of Hare ; God-reward Smart, of Tisehurst ; Stand-fast-on-high Stringer, of Crow- hurst ; Earth Adams, of Warbleton ; Called Lower, of the same; Kill-sin Pimple, of With am ; Return Spelman, of Waiting; Be-faithful Joiner, of Britling; Fly-debate Rob- erts, of the same ; Fight-the-good-Jight-of-faith White, of Einer; More-fruit Fowler, of East Hodley ; Hope-far Bend- ing, of the same ; Graceful Harding, of Lewes; Weep-not Billing, of the same ; Meek Brewer, of Okeham." It is re- ally scarcely credible that this list should have been copied into Hume's History of England: so it is, however, and Dr. Zachary Grey had previously given it the authority of his name, if his name had been capable of bearing author- ity in matters which involved hatred to the Puritans. Un- blinded by such hatred, these men would have been the first to see that this notable list was a mere piece of mauvaise pleasanterie. If any doubt remained about it, however, it fortunately happens, from Mr. Godwin's researches, that the Rev. James Brome (the original reporter) has furnished a sufficiently satisfactory clew to the whole, by premising to this list of the Sussex jury that it was given him " by the same worthy hand" that had supplied him with the names of the Huntingdon jury in a preceding page. The story of the Huntingdon jury runs thus : " The following is the copy of a jury taken before Judge Doddridge at the assizes holden in this place, July, 1619, which is the more remark- able, because the surnames of some of the inhabitants would seem to make them at first sight persons of very great re- nown and quality (p. 56): Maximilian King, of Poseland ; Henry Prince, of Godmanchestcr ; George Duke, of Somers- ham ; William Marquess, of Slukeley ; Edmund Earl, of Hartford ; Richard Baron, of Bythorn ; Stephen Pope, of Newton ; Stephen Cardinal, of Kimbolton ; Humphrey Bishop, of Bugden ; Robert Lord, of Waseley ; Robert Knight, of Winwick ; William Abbot, of Stukeley ; Robert Baron, of St. Neot'g ; William Dean, of Old Weston ; John Archdeacon, of Paxton ; Peter Esguire, of Easton ; Edward Friar, of Ellington ; Henry Monk, of Stukeley : George Gentleman, of Spaldech ; George Priest, of Graffan ; Rich- ard Deacon, of Catworth ; Thomas Yeoman, of Barham." It is altogether a joke, the reader perceives, aud, what is worse, by no means a good one ! OLIVER CROMWELL. four general officers and Colonel Thomlinson, appeared ; and that among the names of influ- ence and consideration which were to be found among them were those of Viscount Lisle ; George lord Eure ; Major Salway ; Lockhart, afterward French ambassador ; Montague, af- terward Earl of Sandwich ; Howard, afterward Earl of Carlisle ; Sir Robert King, of Dublin ; Sir Charles Wolseley, of Oxfordshire ; Sir Will- iam Brownlow, of Lincolnshire ; Sir William Roberts, of Middlesex ; Sir James Hope, of Hopetown ; and Colonels Duckenfield, Bennet, Fenwick, Barton, Sydenham, Bingham, Law- rence, Blount, Kenrick, West, Danvers, Jones, Pyne, Norton, Clark, James, and Hutchinson ; with Majors Saunders and Horseman, Captain Stone, and others that had served with singu- lar credit in the war. The illustrious name of Robert Blake appeared also in the list, with eleven others, including Francis Rouse, the pro- vost of Eton College, who had sat with him in the Long Parliament itself* Two names remain to be mentioned, whose appearance may now be held to have been tru- ly ominous of the crisis to which the public cause was approaching fast, and of the strange and sad prospects that were in wait for liber- ty. These were George Monk, and Anthony Ashley Cooper the "scoundrel of fortune" who restored Charles II., and the renegade who sat in judgment on the judges of Charles I. From this period both date their fortunes. Monk had already been selected by Cromwell to su- persede Blake in the naval command ; and Cooper, whose " venal wit" had hiterto been aptly used for royalty, now recognised the pe- riod of his great advancement come, and set that wit to work to profit by it. " He cast himself into the saint-like mould, Groan'cl, sigh'd, and pray'd, while godliness was gain, The loudest bagpipe of the squeaking train !" No surer mark can we find of the present as- pect of affairs than in the rise of such men as these. They determine, with an almost uner- ring accuracy, from the distance at which we regard them, the character of the crisis which suddenly gave them power. England had be- come little better than a wide theatre for the struggle of selfish passions. With no para- mount principle to bind men together with no ties of acknowledged allegiance to restrain them, the intrepid and the bold ; the men who had sufficient daring to execute what they had craft enough to plan ; the unscrupulous and the restless ; the souls for close designs and crook- ed counsels, for storm, for confusion, for any- thing but calm all these would naturally start above the surface. We see the types of such men in George Monk and Anthony Ashley Cooper. We see the demoralizing action on the people, in the state to which they had been brought, and can discern, " as in a map, the end of all." Policy measured by passion ; rules of govern- ment, various as the various temperaments of men, set up each day ; plots and conspiracies, unheard of during the sway of the statesmen, hatched each night ; but George Monk still faithful to George Monk, Anthony Cooper losing * These were Lisle, Pickering, Christopher Martin, Francis Rouse, Harrison, George Fleetwood, Carew Strick- land, Richard Norton, Sydenham, and Jones. no love for Anthony Cooper, and at no great distance from the sad scene, the brutal and wicked orgies of the Restoration ! He who now cants for tyranny under Cromwell with pious breath, will soon practise it under Charles II. with iron heel.* The 4th of July was a very sultry day, and the council-chamber at Whitehall was of mod- erate dimensions, but upward of 130 of the " elect" legislators had on that day assembled in that place, to receive into their own hands the supreme authority of the nation ; and, " seat- ed round the room on chairs," waited for the entrance of the lord-general and his officers. After a brief delay, Cromwell appeared, follow- ed by the chiefs of his military council. Every one present at once rose and uncovered, t Upon this, Cromwell also removed his hat, and, ad- vancing up the room to the " middle window," took his station there with a considerable body of his officers on either hand, and, " leaning upon the back of a chair, with his own back to the window, "J proceeded to address that re- markable meeting in a speech of profoundest art. It occupied upward of an hour in deliv- * Not to acquaint the reader with a satire which he has no doubt admired, but to place on record a noble delineation of the kind of qualities which were now, as in a hot-bed, nursed in England, I subjoin the character of Shaftesbury from Dryden's great hand : " Of these the false Achitophel was first, A name to all succeeding ages cursed. For close designs and crooked counsels fit, Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit. Restless, unfix'd in principles and place, In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace ; A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to decay, And o'er-informed the tenement of clay. A daring pilot in extremity ; Pleased with the danger when the waves went high, He sought the storms ; but for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide . Else why should he, with wealth and honour bless'd, Refuse his age the needful hours of rest ! Punish a body which he could not please, Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease ? And all to leave what with his toil he won. To that unfeather'd, two-legged thing, a son ; Got while his soul did huddled notions try, And born a shapeless lump like anarchy. In friendship false, implacable in hate, Resolved to ruin or to rule the state. To compass this the triple bond he broke, The pillars of the public safety shook. And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke : Then seized with fear, yet still affecting fame t Usurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name. So easy still it proves in factious times, With public zeal to cancel private crimes. How safe is treason, and how sacred ill, Where none can sin against the people's will ! Where crowds can wink, arid no offence be known, Since in another's guilt they find their own '. Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge ; The statesmen we abhor, but praise the judge. In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abethdin With more discerning eyes, or hands more clean ; Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress ; Swift of despatch, and easy of access. Oh ! had he been content to serve the crown, With virtues only proper to the gown, Or had the rankness of the soil been freed From cockle, that oppress'd the noble seed, David for him his tuneful harp had strung, And heaven had wanted one immortal song ! But wild ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land. Achitophel, grown weary to possess A lawful fame and lazy happiness, Disdain'd the golden fruit to gather free, And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree." t Lord Leicester's Journals, p. 147. t Ibid. 540 BRITISH STATESMEN. ery, and is said* to have been pronounced in so excellent a manner " as sufficiently manifested that as the lord-general himself was thor- oughly persuaded the Spirit of God acted in him and by him." The convention had by this time resumed their seats, but Cromwell and his officers still stood. He began by observing that no doubt the sum- mons they had all received would have explain- ed to them the cause of their being in that room ; he had, however, something more " significant" than that summons to offer them now, in the shape of "an instrument drawn up by the con- sent and advice of the principal officers of the army." " And," he added, " we have some- what likewise farther to say to you for our own exoneration, and we hope it may be somewhat farther to your satisfaction ; and, therefore, seeing you sit here somewhat uneasy, by rea- son of the scantness of the room and the heat of the weather, I shall contract myself with re- spect to that." This was merely one of those pleasant promises which orators often make and seldom keep. His very next sentence con- fessed what a long story he had resolved to tell. " I have not thought it amiss a little to mind you of that series of providences wherein the Lord hitherto hath dispensed wonderful things to these nations, from the beginning of our troubles to this very day. If I should look much backward, we might remember the state of affairs as they were before the short, and that which was the last Parliament. In what a pos- ture the things of this nation stood, doth so well, I presume, occur to all your memories and knowledges, that I shall not need to look so far backward, nor yet to the beginning of those hostile actions that passed between the king that was and the then Parliament ; and, indeed, should I begin this labour, the things that would fall necessarily before you would rather be fit for a history than- for a discourse at this present. " But thus far we may look back. You very well know, after divers turnings of affairs, it pleased God, much about the midst of this war, to winnow, as I may so say, the forces of this nation, and to put them into the hands of men of other principles than those that did engage at first. By what strange providences that also was brought about, would ask more time than is allotted me to remember you of. Indeed, there are stories that do recite those transac- tions, and give narratives of matter of fact. But those things wherein the life and power of them lay ; those strange windings and turnings of Providence ; those very great appearances of God, in crossing and thwarting the designs of men, that he might raise up a poor and a con- temptible company of men, neither versed in military affairs nor having much natural pro- pensity to them even through the owning of a principle of godliness, of religion, which, so soon as it came to be owned, the state of af- fairs put upon that foot of account how God blessed them, and all undertaking?, by the ri- sing of that most improbable, despicable, con- temptible means for that we must forever own you very well know. " What the several successes have been is * By Camngton, one of his biographers. (Life of Crom- well, p. 151.) not fit to mention at this time neither, though I must confess I thought to have enlarged my- self upon this subject, forasmuch as the con- sidering the works of God and the operation of his hands is a principal part of our duty, and a great encouragement to the strengthening of our hands, and of our faith for that which is behind. And then, having given us those marvellous dispensations among other ends for that was a most principal end as to us, in this revolu- tion of affairs and issues of those successes God was pleased to give this nation and the author- ity that then stood, were very great things brought about besides those dints that were upon those nations and places where they were carried on, even in the civil affairs, to the bring- ing offenders to justice, even the greatest to the bringing the state of this government to the name, at least, of a commonwealth to the searching and sifting of all places and persons the king re- moved, and brought to justice, and many great ones with him ; the House of Peers laid aside ; the House of Commons, the representatives of the people of England, itself winnowed, sifted and brought to a handful you may very well remember !" Having thus obscurely reminded them of what they very clearly remembered, the lord- general went on to characterize the year 1648, more especially, as the " most memorable that ever this nation saw," by reason of " so many insurrections, invasions, secret designs, open and public attempts, quashed in so short a time by the very signal appearances of God himself." He then briefly referred to the defection of the Presbyterians, and their treasonable attempts to treat with the king, "whereby we should have put into his hands all that cause and in- terest we had opposed, and have had nothing secured to us but a little piece of paper." He next, in a strain of enthusiasm, recalled " what God wrought in Ireland and Scotland, until the Lord had finished all farther trouble upon the matter by the marvellous salvation wrought at Worcester." And then followed that elaborate and worthless attempt to vindicate the disper- sion of the Long Parliament which has been elsewhere quoted,* and by which the speaker could scarcely himself have hoped to mystify the apprehensions of his hearers. t * See ante, p. 516 to p. 519. t Twelve, as I have already mentioned, had been them- selves members of the Long Parliament, but nearly all of these were tools of Cromwell. The nobler occupation of Vane, and others of the chief men of that still great though broken body, has been already glanced at in these pages. A passage from Mrs. Hutchinson's delightful memoirs will more distinctly describe the generous thoughts that sup- ported them in their unmerited exile from power. Speak- ing of her husband, she says, he was travelling up from his country business, " when news met him upon the road, near London, that Cromwell had broken the Parliament. Notwithstanding, he went on, and found divers of the mem- bers there, resolved to submit to this providence of God, and to wait till he should clear their integrity, and to dis- prove those people who had taxed them of ambition, by sit- ting still, when they had friends enough in the army, city, and country to have disputed the matter, and probably van- quished these usurpers. They thought that if they should vex the land by war among themselves, the late subdued ene- mies, Royalists and Presbyterians, would have an opportu- nity to prevail on their dissensions, to the ruin of both ; if these should govern well, and righteously, and moderately, they should enjoy the benefit of their good government, and would not envy them the honourable toil ; if they did other- wise, they should be ready to assist and vindicate thtir op~ pressed country when the ungrateful people were made sen- tible of their true champions and protectors. Col. Hutch OLIVER CROMWELL. 541 Passing from this subject with the manner of one who had discharged an irksome and pain- ful task, his tone suddenly changed. He ad- dressed himself more directly to the individu- als so strangely assembled before him, and de- clared his persuasion that they were men who knew the Lord. He congratulated them on their sudden call, and told them to be proud that it had not been of their own seeking. " Now do you know," he continued, " that what hath been done in the dissolution of that Par- liament was as necessary to be done as the preservation of this cause ; and that necessity, that led us to do that, hath brought us to this issue of exercising an extraordinary way and course to draw yourselves together upon this account that you are men who know the Lord, and have made observations of his marvellous dispensations, and may be trusted with this cause. It remains for I shall not acquaint you farther with what relates to your taking upon you this great business, that being con- tained in this paper in my hand, which I do offer presently to you to read having done that which we thought to have done upon this ground of necessity, which we know was not feigned necessity, but real and true, to the end the government might not be at a loss, to the end we might manifest to the world the single- ness of our hearts, and integrity, who did those things, not to grasp after the power ourselves, to keep it in a military hand, no, not for a day, but, as far as God enables us with strength and ability, to put it into the hands that might be called from several parts of the nation this necessity I say, and we hope may say for ourselves, this integ- rity, of labouring to divest the sword of the power and authority, in the civil administration of it, hath been that that hath moved us to con- clude of this course ; and having done that, we think we cannot, with the discharge of our con- sciences, but offer somewhat unto you, as I said before, for our own exoneration, it having been the practice of others who have voluntari- ly and out of sense of duty divested themselves, and devolved the government into the hands of others it having been the practice, where such things have been done, and very consonant to reason, together with the authority, to lay a charge in such a way as we hope we do, and to press to the duty, which we have a word or two to offer to you. Truly God hath called you to this work by, I think, as wonderful provi- dences as ever passed upon the sons of men in so short a time. And truly I think, taking the inson, in his own particular, was very glad of this release from that employment, which he managed with fidelity and uprightness, but not only without delight, but with a great deal of trouble and expense, in the contest for truth and righteousness upon all occasions." Nor can I refrain from giving another extract from the same charming book, which will show what the nature of Colonel Hutchinson's country occupations were. " He carefully attended," his wife says, in a passage which describes as well the country residences of Vane and Scot, " to the administration of justice in the country, and to the putting in execution of those whole- Borne laws and statutes of the land provided for the orderly regulation of the people. And it was wonderful how, in a short space, he reformed several abuses and customary neglects in that part of the country where he lived, which being a rich, fruitful vale, drew abundance of vagrant peo- ple to come and exercise the idle trade of wandering and begging ; but he took such courses that there was very sud- denly not a beggar left in the country, and all the poor in every town so- maintained and provided for as they never were so liberally maintained and relieved before nor since." arguments of necessity (for the government must not fall) take the appearances of the will of God in this thing I am sure you would have been loth it should have been resigned into the hands of wicked men and enemies. I am sure God would not have it so. It comes, there- fore, to you by way of necessity ; it comes to you by the way of the wise providence of God, though through weak hands ; and therefore I think, it coming through our hands, though such as we are, it may not be taken ill if we offer to you something as to the discharge of that trust which is incumbent upon you. And although I seem to speak that which may have the face of a charge, it is a very humble one ; and he that speaks it means to be a servant to you who are called to the exercise of the supreme au- thority to discharge that which he conceives is his duty, in his own and his fellows' names, to you, who will, I hope, take it in good part. And truly I shall not hold you long in that, be- cause I hope it is written in your hearts to ap- prove yourselves to God ; only this scripture I shall remember to you, which hath been much upon my spirit : Hosea, xi., ver. 12 : 'Yet Ju- dah ruleth with God, and is faithful among the saints.' It is said before, 'Ephraim did com- pass God about with lies, and Israel with de- ceit.' How God hath been compassed about with fastings, and thanksgivings, and other ex- ercises and transactions, I think we have all to lament. Why, truly, you are called by God to rule with him and for him, and you are called to be faithful with the saints, who have been somewhat instrumental to your call ! 'He that ruleth over men,' the Scripture saith, 'he must be just, ruling in the fear of God.' " One very cool inference may be detected in the midst of all this enthusiastic heat. It is clear that, in so emphatically divesting the sword of all power and authority, he meant it to go forth to the world that, in the event of any unexpected dissolution of the present " su- preme authority," it would be impossible for the " council of officers" again to consider it- self competent to provide for the weal and hap- piness of the nation. Some new government must then be formed, of a nature till then un- tried. He had himself appeared in the council- chamber that day to separate the sword forever from the retention of power over the state, and to profess that his fellow-officers as well as himself were thenceforward only servants to an authority more supreme. Proceeding to that " humble charge," which now included all the duty that he and those officers, servants of the state, had to offer to its governors, he enforced the great advice, which still and always, in his worst temper, as in his most worthy, declared the greatness of his mind. He would pray, he said, that they might " exercise the judgment of mercy and truth," and still be " faithful to the saints," however those saints might differ respecting forms of worship. "It is better," he continued, "to pray for you, than to counsel you in that, that you may exercise the judgment of mercy and truth ! I say it is better for you to do it than to advrse you ; better to ask wisdom from heav- en for you, which I am confident many thou- sands of saints do this day, and have done, and will do, through the permission of God, and his 542 BRITISH STATESMEN. assistance to advise you ! Only, truly, I thought of a scripture likewise, that seems to be but a scripture of common application to every man as a Christian, wherein he is counselled to ask wisdom ; and he is told what is that wisdom that is from above : 'it is pure, peaceable, gen- tle, easy to be entreated, full of good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy.' And my thoughts ran thus upon this, that the executing of the judgment of truth, for that is the judg- ment that you must have wisdom from above for, and that is pure, and that will teach you to j execute the judgment of truth ; then, if God give you hearts to be easy to be entreated, to be peaceable spirits, to be full of good fruits, bearing good fruits to the nation, to men as men, to the people of God, to all in their sev- eral stations this wisdom will teach you to execute the judgment of mercy and truth ; and I have little more to say to this ; I shall rather bend my prayers for you in that behalf (as I said before), and I know many others do also. Tru- ly, the judgment of truth will teach you to be as just towards an unbeliever as towards a be- liever ; and it is our duty to be so. / confess, I have often said it foolishly, if I would miscarry, I would rather do it to a believer than to an unbe- liever ; perhaps it is a paradox ; but let us take heed of doing it to either, exercising injustice to cither. If God rill our heart with such a spirit as Moses and Paul had, which was not only a spirit for the believers among the people of God, but for the whole people (he would have died for them ; and so Paul to his countrymen according to the flesh, he would have died for them), truly, this will help us to execute the judgment of truth, and mercy also.' In the same truly beneficent spirit, however confusedly expressed, of religious toleration that first and most sacred principle of civil gov- ernment Cromwell added this earnest and touching exhortation : " I hope, whatever oth- ers may think, it ought to be to us all matter of rejoicing, that as one person, our Saviour, was touched with our infirmities, that he might be pitiful, I do think this assembly, thus called, is very much touched with the common infirm- ity of the saints ; and I hope that will teach you to pity others, that so saints of one sort may not be our interest, but that we may have respect unto all, though of different judgments ; and if I did seem to speak anything that might seem to reflect upon those of the Presbyterian judgment, I think, if you have not an interest of love for them, you will hardly answer this faithfulness to his saints. I confess, in my pil- grimage, and some exercises I have had abroad, I did read that scripture often, in Isaiah, xli., 19, when God gave me and some of my fellows what he would do there and elsewhere, which he performed for us ; and what would he do 1 To what end? 'That he might plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the shittah-tree, and the myrtle-tree, and the palm-tree together.' To what end 1 ' That they might know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this ;' and that the Lord hath created it ; that he wrought all salva- tion and deliverance, which he hath wrought, for the good of the whole flock ; therefore I beseech you (but I think I need not), have a care of the whole flock ; love all the sheep, love the lambs all ; and tender all, and cherish all, and countenance all, in all things that are good ; and if the poorest Christian, the most mistaken Christian, should desire to live peaceably and qui- etly under you, soberly and humbly desire to lead a life in godliness and honesty, let him. be protect- ed! . . I think I need as little advise you con- cerning the propagation of the Gospel, and en- couraging such ministers and such a ministry as are faithful in the land, upon whom the true character is ; men that have truly received the spirit for such a use ; which Christians will be well able to discern, and do ; men that have received gifts from him that ascended on high, and led captivity captive, for the work before mentioned. And truly the apostle, Romans, xii , when he hath summoned up all the mercies of God, and the goodness of God, and hath dis- coursed of the foundations of the Gospel, and of the several things that are the subject of his discourse, in the eleven first chapters ; after he hath besought them to offer up their souls and bodies a living sacrifice to God, he beseecheth them not to esteem more highly of themselves than they ought ; but that they would be hum- ble, and sober-minded, and not stretch them- selves beyond their line, but they would have a care to those that had received gifts to the uses there mentioned. I speak not it is far from my heart for a ministry, deriving itself through the papacy, and pretending to that which is so much insisted upon to be succession. The true succession is through the spirit, given in that measure that the spirit is given ; and that is a right succession. But I need not discourse of these things to you ; I am persuaded you are taught of God in a greater measure than my- self in those things ; indeed, I have but one word more to say, and that is (though in that, perhaps, I shall show my weakness), it is by way of encouragement to you to go on in this work." But most striking and characteristic of all were the closing passages of this extraordinary address, where, kindling into an apparent pas- sion of enthusiastic fervour, Cromwell spoke as if Futurity had suddenly revealed her secrets to his soul. The only war in England hereaf- ter, he exclaimed, should be that of the Lamb against his enemies ! To the very threshold of the door, to the edge of the promises and prophecies, they had come at last ! Out of the depths of the sea God was about to bring home his people even the very Jews themselves he would bring home to their station out of the isles of the sea ! And all this was to be the work of the men he saw before him, who had probably never seen each other's faces till that day, but who had answered a divine and mirac- ulous call who had owned Jesus Christ, and whom Jesus Christ had owned ! No man liv- ing would have thought, three little months be- fore, to have seen such a company taking upon them the supreme authority ! But they had been called with a high call, and would do all that the good English people wished to bring them to their liberties ! I subjoin in detail these singular passages. They express, to its utter- most depths, the character of Cromwell, in its most startling phases of profound artifice and profounder self-delusion. No one, with a knowl- edge of the result that followed on so fast, can OLIVER CROMWELL. 543 fail to discover in them the violent self-seeker, alternately quieting his nerves and encouraging his passions with a selfish religious creed, but yielding, in the same instant, to just so much of sincere delusion as the faith in his own im- mense power was likely to generate in such a man, and to just so much of real enthusiasm as can never be wholly separated, even in its falsest phrensies, from a mind of that peculiar order. Still be it kept in view, that through all, whether true or false, there yet sprang up his own advantage and advancement. There was no danger to him in revealing a false futurity, since by his own side he held fast the key of the true one ; but how dangerous to those elect legislators, that they should be made responsi- ble for blessings, over the generation of which they were soon to have no control, and that the people, to whom they were to give a new life of power and love, should speedily be fated to discover them incapable of common self-exist- ence ! In that mean position they were placed by these rhapsodies from Cromwell, to which they listened this day, no doubt, in unsuspect- ing gratitude. " / confess I never looked to see such a day as this, it may be nor you, when Jesus Christ shall be owned, as he is this day and in this world. Je- sus Christ is owned this day by you all, and you own him by your willingness in appearing here ; and you manifest this (as far as poor creatures can) to be a day of the power of Christ by your willingness. I know you remember that scripture in Psalm ex., 3. The people shall be willing in the day of thy power. God doth manifest it to be a day of the power of Jesus Christ ! " Having through so much blood, and so many trials as have been upon these nations, made this to be one of the greatest issues there- of, to have a people called to the supreme au- thority upon such an avowed account, God hath owned his Son by this ; and you, by your will- ingness, do own Jesus Christ ; and therefore, for my part, / confess I did never look to see such a sight. Perhaps you are not known by face one to another; but we must tell you this, that in- deed we have not allowed ourselves in the choice of one person in whom we had not this good hope that there was faith in Jesus Christ, and love unto all his saints and people. And thus God hath owned you in the face and eyes of the world ; and thus, by your coming hither, you have owned him, as it is in Isaiah, xliii., 21. It is a high expression, and look to your own hearts whether now or hereafter God shall apply it to you. ' This people,' saith he, ' I have formed for myself, that they might show forth my praise.' It is a memorable place, and, I hope, not unfitly applied ; God apply it to each of your hearts. I shall not descant upon the words ; they are plain. You are as like the forming of God as ever people were. If any man should ask you one by one, and should tender a book to you, you would dare to swear that nei- ther directly nor indirectly did you seek to come hither. You have been passive in com- ing hither, in being called hither, and that is an active word ' This people I have formed.' Consider the circumstances by which you are called together ; through what difficulties, through what strivings, through what blood, you are come hither. Neither you nor I, nor no man living, three months ago, had a thought to have seen such a company, taking upon them, or, rather, being called to the supreme authority, and therefore know now your call ! " Indeed I think, as it may be truly said, that never was a supreme authority, consisting of so numerous a body as you are, which, I be- lieve, are above one hundred and forty, ever in such a way of owning God and being owned by him, and therefore I say also, never a people formed for such a purpose (so called), if it were time to compare your standing with those that have been called by the suffrages of the people. Who can tell how soon God may FIT THE PEOPLE for such a thing, and who would desire anything more in the world but that it might be so? I would all the Lord's people were prophets I would they were Jit to be called, and FIT TO CALL ; and it is the longing of our hearts to see them once men the in- terest of Jesus Christ. And give me leave to say, if I know anything in the world, what is there more like to win the people to the in- terest and love of God nay, what a duty will lie upon you, to have your conversation such as that they may love you, that they may see you lay out your time and spirits for them 1 It not this the most likely way to bring them to their liberties 1 And do you not, by this, put it upon God to find the time and the season for it, by pouring forth his spirit ; at least by convincing them that, as men fearing God have fought them out of their thraldom and bondage under the royal power, so men fearing God rule them in the fear of God, and take care to administer good unto them 1 But this is some digression. / say, own your call, for indeed it is marvellous, and it is of God, and it hath been unprojected, un- thought of by you and us ; and that hath been the way God hath dealt with us all along, to keep things from our eyes, that what we have acted we have seen nothing before us, which also is a witness, in some measure, to our in- tegrity. / say, you are called with a high call ! And why should you be afraid to say or think that this way may be the door to usher in things that God hath promised and prophesied of, and to set the hearts of his people to wail fur and expect 1 We know who they are that shall war with the Lamb against his enemies. They shall be a people, called, chosen, and faithful ; and in the military way (we must speak it without flat- tery), I believe you know it, he hath acted with, them and for them, and now in the civil power and authority ; and these are not ill prognosti- cations for that good we wait for. Indeed, I do think something is at the door ; we are at the threshold ; and therefore it becomes us to lift up our heads, and to encourage ourselves in the Lord ; and we have some of us thought it our duty to endeavour this way, not vainly looking on that prophecy in Daniel, ' And the kingdom shall not be delivered to another peo- ple.' Truly God hath wrought it into your hands by his owning, and blessing, and calling out a military power ; God hath persuaded their hearts to be instrumental in calling you, and this hath been set upon our hearts, and upon all the faithful in the land ; it may be that it is not our duty to deliver it over to any other peo- ple, and that scripture may be fulfilling now to us. But I may be beyond my line. 644 BRITISH STATESMEN. " But I thank God I have my hopes exercised in these things, and so I am persuaded are yours Truly, seeing that these things are so, that you are at the edge of the promises and prophecies at least, if there were neither promise for this nor prophecy, you are coveting the best things, endeavouring after the best things ; and, as I have said elsewhere, if I were to choose the meanest officer in the army or Commonwealth, I would choose a godly man that hath princi- ples, especially where trust is to be committed, because I know where to have a man that hath principles. I believe if any man of you should choose a servant, you would do so ; and I would all our magistrates were so chosen, that there may be some effects of this. It is our duty to choose men that fear the Lord, to praise the Lord, yea, such as the Lord forms for himself, and he expects not praises from others. This being so, puts me in mind of another scripture, Psal. Ixviii., which indeed is a glorious proph- ecy, and I am persuaded of the Gospel, or it may be of the Jews ; also there it is prophesied, ' He will bring his people again out of the depths of the sea, as once he led Israel through the Red Sea ;' and it may be, some do think God is bringing the Jews home to their station from the isles of the sea ! Surely, when God sets up the glory of the Gospel-church, it shall be gathering people out of deep waters, out of the multitude of waters ! such are his people, drawn out of the multitudes of the nations and people of the world ! And that psalm will be very glo- rious in many other parts of it, ' When he gave the word, great was the company of them that published it. Kings of the armies did fly apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. And, although ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.' And, indeed, the triumph of that psalm is exceeding high and great, and God is accomplishing it ! and the close of it closeth with my heart, and I am persuaded will with yours also ! God shakes hills and mountains, and they reel; and God hath a hill too, and his hill is as the hill of Bashan, and the chariots of God are twenty thou- sand of angels, and God will dwell upon this hill forever.' " Relapsing into his ordinary manner, the lord- general added these words : " Truly I am sorry that I have troubled you, in such a place of heat as this is, so long ; all that I have to say in mine own name, and in the names of my fellow-offi- cers, who have joined with me in this work, is, that we shall commend you to the grace of God and to the guidance of his Spirit ; having thus far served you, or, rather, our Lord Jesus Christ in it, we are, as we hope, and shall be, ready in our stations, according as the provi- dence of God shall lead us, to be subservient to the work of God, and the authority which, we reckon, God hath set over us. And although we have no formal thing to present you with, to which the hands and outward visible ex- pressions of the hearts of the officers of the three nations are set, yet we may say for them, and we may also, with confidence, for our breth- ren at sea, with whom, neither in Scotland, nor Ireland, nor at sea, hath any artifice been used to persuade their approbations to this work ; yet we can say that their consent and affections hath flowed in to us from all parts beyond our expectations ; and we are confident we may say with all confidence that we have had their approbations and full consent, unsought indeed to the other work, so that you have their hearts and affections in this ; and not only they, but we have very many papers from the churches of God throughout the nation, wonderfully both approving what hath been done in removing obstacles, and approving what we have done in this very thing. And, having said this, I shall trouble you no more ; but if you will be pleased that this instrument may be read, which I have signed by the advice of the council of officers, we shall then leave you to your own thoughts and to the guidance of God, to order and dispose of yourselves for further meetings as you shall see cause." Having thus closed this memorable address, this " grave, Christian, and seasonable speech," as his contemporary historian* terms it, he placed upon the table a formal instrument, en- grossed on parchment, and bearing his hand and seal, by which, with the advice of his coun- cil of officers, he developed and intrusted the supreme authority and government of the Com- monwealth into the hands of the persons there met, and declared that they were to be acknowl- edged for that authority, to whom all persons within this nation should yield obedience and subjection ; that they were to sit till the 3d of November, 1654 ; and that, three months be- fore that time, they should make choice of oth- er persons to succeed them, who were not to sit longer than twelve months, and were then to determine respecting the succession of the government.! And now, to all outward appearance, Crom- well stood in the proud position of one who, having virtually held the supreme government of England for upward of six weeks, had freely surrendered it from himself forever, and intrust- ed it to a convention of able, faithful, high-spir- ited, and holy men, with whom were to rest, not only the appointment of their successors in power, but the entire disposal of his own poor services, due, as from a private man, to the supreme governors of his country. His * Carrington. t It is a remarkable circumstance that this Instrument of Government, of the date of the 4th of July, 1653, is nowhere to be found in the state records of the time. It has per- ished with the act for dissolving the Long Parliament and providing a new representative. The following, however, is the official description of the instrument, in the Mercurius Politicus. After a brief sketch of Cromwell's speech, the writer says, " Which being ended, his lordship produced an instrument under his own hand and seal, whereby he did, with the advice of his officers, devolve and intrust the su- preme authority and government of this Commonwealth into the hands of the persons there met ; who, or any forty of them, are to be held and acknowledged the supreme au- thority of the nation ; unto whom all persons within the same, and the territories thereunto belonging, are to yield obedience and subjection. And they are not to sit longer than the 3d of November, 1654. Three months before their dissolution, they are to make choice of other persons to suc- ceed them, who are not to sit longer than a twelvemonth ; but it is left to them to take care for a succession in govern- ment : which instrument being delivered to the persons aforesaid, his lordship commended them to the grace of God." Mr. Godwin not unfairly suggests it as an artifice of Cromwell, that while the authority of this assembly stood on so precarious a footing, he ostentatiously gave them an existence of sixteen months, adding twelve months more for their successors, that he might thus render their imbecility more apparent, and excite in his countrymen an inxious wish for a government more stable, and that should command a greater degree of respect at home and abroad. OLIVER CROMWELL. 545 resignation had been accompanied with all the fence of advowsons and of tithes ; the officers would have good reason to tremble for the se- curity of their recent endowments ; and what protection would all these think of in their hour of alarm, if not of that which he could afford them ? He knew himself their sole refuge. Thus would vanish the last solid resistance to his daring project and he had found far more conscientious resistance to it, even among his forms that could declare it final and irrevoca- ble. A fixed term was named for the existence of the present authority, and in the nomination of their successors he had reserved no person- al control. Nay, more : a majority of those into whose hands he had just placed the Instru- ment of Government were men, as the result soon after proved, of whom his personal knowl- edge was little, and his means of personal in- own relatives and creatures, than he had been fluence or control still less. Finally, he had j at all prepared for and he might ascend the not reserved to himself a seat in their councils, | chair of the Protectorate as indeed the saviour nor cared to stipulate that even his officers of the state, the protector of her interests, the should sit there. He had submitted in all things, and exacted in nothing. As lord-general of the army, he remained, indeed, servant to the slate. In a political sense, he was nothing more than the brewer's son of Huntingdon. Yet, if the majority present had only thought more of earth and less of heaven, it might have been manifest to all that Cromwell stood in that room on the threshold of his most ambitious designs, that his golden dream was wellnigh out, and that the glittering bawble he had so long set his heart upon was at last settling it- self upon his head. There had been something in his manner, while he offered all these hum- ble sacrifices, which half betrayed the secret of his soul. As his fancy kindled into the later and more passionate raptures of the exhorta- tion, a characteristic incident was noted, which Lord Leicester has recorded in his journal. " He grew very hot," his lordship writes, " and put off his cloak, and gave it to one of the col- onels, who took it, and held it like a servant. This was done as the king would sometimes do in great assemblies, but no man else." The colonels, indeed, knew it all every man who had been nominated by Cromwell himself to that convention knew it and each had his part to play. A still larger body of honest men remained, and honest and enthusiastic as they were, they too had their parts to play. The in- struments of Cromwell's ambition were as oft- en sincere as false. His favourite policy was to win open trust, and pay it back with secret treachery. But such trust is most frequent in the true, and it was accordingly yet more by means of the honest than of the base that he strode into his throne. Here was a majority of honest and not unwise fanatics. He could rely upon their mode of action. He knew that they would conduct their proceedings as if the Divinity himself had, indeed, called them to their office. He had nothing of stratagem to fear from them. He knew that with himself they would keep the faith of honest men, if not of politic ones. He had in any case provided, be- sides, a secret current of counteraction against them in a formidable minority of their own body a safety-valve in the moment of danger, which with his own hand he could shut or open. Their first legislative efforts, he was well aware, would raise formidable discontents in the peo- ple against them ; the divine call he had impo- sed upon them was a death-warrant to class- interests, which would at once range them- selves in fierce opposition ; the lawyers, from the commonest scrivener up to the Lord-com- missioner Whitelocke, would be called to arms for their fees ; the ecclesiastical ministry and their patrons would be summoned forth in de- Z z z sole apparent refuge of her civil and religious institutions, the composer of her quarrels and confusion, the harbinger of order and of peace. A nd this was the grave cheat of the 4th of July, 1653. When Cromwell and his officers had left the room, it was merely voted that the Convention should meet on the following morning at eight o'clock, in the old Parliament House at West- minster. There and then they met according- ly, and devoted the greater part of the day to prayers.* " And the service," one of the body relates to us, " was performed by the members among themselves, eight or ten speaking in prayer to God, and some briefly from the word ; much of the presence of Christ and his Spirit appearing that day, to the great gladding of the hearts of many ; some affirming they never en- joyed so much of the spirit and presence of Christ in any of the meetings and exercises of religion in all their lives as they did that day."t After this auspicious commencement of their legislative duties, they elected a speaker in the person of Mr. Francis Rouse, a Devonshire man, of very good fortune, and provost of Eton Col- lege. They then separated for that day. The record of the second day's proceedings has a more business-like aspect. After prayer, much more brief, which, according to the au- thor of the " Exact Relation," " was daily per- formed by one member or other, as they were found free to perform it, they proceeded to call over the House; read and laid up the instru- ment of their empowering ; chose a clerk,t and after a sergeant-at-arms ; and chose a commit- tee to consider what offices and attendants were necessary to be taken in, and to consider of the fees and salaries of such as should be employ- ed ; which, accordingly, was done and confirm- ed by the House." Their next action tended to show the correctness of the judgment formed by Cromwell. They sent a deputation, headed by Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, to invite the lord-general himself,^ the three major-generals, Harrison, Desborough, and Lambert, with Col- onel Thomlinson, to assist in their deliberations as members of the House. This invitation was of course graciously accepted. On the following day they voted that all ad- * This fervent religious exercise lasted from eight o'clock in the morning till seven o'clock in the evening. The Dutch, delegates then in London, however, carnal self-seekers as they were, transmitted to their Republic no other note of the prayers preferred than that one member prayed for a peace with tho high and mighty states, their constituents. t Exact Relation. t Scobell was continued in this office, and Birkhead elected sergeant-at-arms. i> They renewed to the lord-general also the offer of the palace of Hampton Court, in exchange for his house at Newhall. 546 BRITISH STATESMEN. dresses should be made to them under the name of " the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England." This passed by a division of sixty- five to forty-six. Their next movement of im- portance was the appointment of a new coun- cil of state, which they resolved should consist of thirty-one members. They left the old thir- teen untouched, adding eighteen more. The mere names in this council would suffice to re- pel the favourite imputations of slander against its framers, since they made no effort to thrust members into it who had not already some pub- lic consideration or importance.* Two days after its appointment, another entire sitting of the House was devoted to prayer, " which ac- cordingly," the "Exact Relation" tells us, " was done by the members, principally by such as had not done service before, when also the lord- general was present, and it was a very com- fortable day." The practice after this period seems to have been very regularly observed, that, as soon as about twelve members were met, they began with prayer, and so continued praying, one after another, till a sufficient num- ber had assembled to make up a House, when the speaker took the chair. A special prayer-day, that is, a day entirely devoted to prayer, had generally a special ob- ject. Thus we find among the proceedings that on the 12th, "the House having spent the day before in prayer to God for his counsel and direction in their affairs, a committee was ap- pointed to draw up a declaration, to invite the people of this Commonwealth to seek unto the Lord for the same blessing." This paper soon after appeaied, and was sent round, for imme- diate promulgation, to all the various sheriffs and civil officers throughout England. Great care is taken in it to abstain from reflection or remark on the conduct or the dissolution of the late Parliament, and no other reference is made to the summons by which they had themselves assembled than in the simple statement, that, being in an extraordinary manner called togeth- er, and required to assume the supreme gov- ernment, they had judged it meet and requisite to take upon themselves the charge assigned. They farther remark, that though, " compassed about," as they were, "with much weakness and human frailty," they were tender of press- ing covenants and engagements on the people, yet they expected and believed that all peace- able and good citizens would conduct them- selves suitably to the protection they looked for from the present authority. They were ample in expressing their purpose to proceed in all things as might best conduce to the good of all, and in declaring the watchfulness they would in every respect exercise. We will be as tender, they said, " of the lives, estates, lib- .Lawrence ; Colonel Kichard Norton ; r/d Charles Howard ; Alderman Tichborn ; . ~. .,. , Hugh Courteuey ; Thomas St. Nicholas ; Dennis Hollister ; Audrew Broughton ; John Williams. erties, just rights and properties of all others, as we are of ourselves and our posterities, whom we expect still to be governed by successive Parliaments." Some remarkable passages fol- lowed. They revealed, though in language of noble elevation, that statesmanship was to be attended hereafter with certain mysterious and extravagant results, which men could nevei have dreamed of until then. They fairly pro- claimed the approaching advent of a reign of saints. They marked themselves out, in the midst of much honesty, and not a little of the true sense of government's wisest functions, as at once the instruments and the victims of Cromwell. Lest the people should think too highly of the means they were about to display of conferring happiness and order on the land, they declared at the very outset that the ulti- mate end they had in view was one which was utterly unattainable. But in no mean or vul- gar strain was this done in nothing of the de- based spirit of fanaticism which has been attrib- uted to them but in language which was wor- thy of even the sublime source from which they sought its inspiration, and with a simplicity of soul which, while it too surely disclosed the sincerity of their own delusions, spoke not less surely for the proportionate success of Crom- well's scheme. After calling the attention of the people to the great works recently done in England, " which have much filled all our enemies with amaze- ment and our friends with admiration," they thus proceed : " Yet we cannot but acknowl- edge that we are not yet at rest, nor can be- lieve we have yet enjoyed or seen enough to accomplish the ends of God, or satisfy the thoughts of men for that vast expense of blood and treasure, which could not have been en- dured with any patience but in hope that, at length, those bitter pangs and throes would make some way for that long-expected birth of peace, freedom, and happiness, both to the souls and bodies of the Lord's people ; and al- though we do not see it fully brought forth, yet we do not despair but in God's due time it shall be so ; and the dark black clouds of the night shall fly before the bright morning star, and the shakings of heaven and earth make way for the desire of all nations ! Nay, there are many things which make us hope the time is near at hand. We see the clouds begin to scatter, and the dark shadows fly away ! streams of light appear, and the day is surely dawned !" Pursuing this through other scriptural allu- sions, they added, with a noble fervour, "And as we believe the Lord hath never yet stepped back, or withdrawn his mighty arm after he had gone so far and done so much, and had made his people willing and desirous still to follow him, so, we also hope, his great and free goodness will not forsake his people here, or suffer them to forsake him, or to deal false- ly with him in his cause, till he hath accom- plished his great works, and brought about his great ends, whose gifts and callings are with- out repentance ! Is the Lord's hand shorten- ed, that he cannot save 1 Is he a man, that he should turn, repent, withdraw, or look back] Shall he bring to the birth, and shall he not give strength enough to bring forth \ He is the same God, and changeth, not ; and if this be of God, OLIVER CROMWELL. 547 it shall stand ; and let every one take heed of fighting against God. This is all we say. If it be from God, let him prosper and bless it ; but if not, let it fall, though we fall before it." In the same spirit of exalted humility and faith they thus concluded, please the Lord," they said, However it shall 1 to do by us or to important questions were referred to as many committees. Two of these committees, for the affairs of Ireland and Scotland, had ben named on the ninth, but they were now organized afresh, with some trifling alterations, and the names of Cromwell and Lambert inserted in the first, which had before stood only in the second. The other committees were for the law, the army, the revenue, petitions, trade and corporations, the poor and commissions of the peace, public debts and frauds, prisons, and the advancement of learning: The names of Crom- well and Lambert were in none of these. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was the first person named on the committee of the law. He was also on the committee for the advancement of learning. Barbone, represented by all the his- tories to have been so active and forward in everything, that he was, in fact, the "all in all" of the assembly, was only of the committee for petitions. A committee on the great subject of tithes had been named on the day preceding. The committees varied in the number of their members from twelve to nineteen.* Leaving them for a while to their memora- ble duties, it is right that we should now record the incidents which marked the interval be- tween the issue of the writs and their meeting and that all nations may turn their swords and \ in obedience to them, while the military coun- spears into ploughshares and pruning-hooks ! that cil still held supreme power. These councils, the wolf may feed with the lamb, and that the earth as we already have had occasion to state, di- le full of the knowledge of God as waters cover the j vided among themselves and their great chief sea ! that upon every house or assembly may be a ' all the necessary acts of government. They cloud by day, and a pillar ofjire by night, as is j appointed a committee of five to finish the treaty promised, and was of old upon the tabernacle ! that begun by the statesmen with the Portuguese every one may be holy, and the pots, nay, the bells \ ambassador, Don Pantaleon Sa. To the same upon the horses, may be holiness to the Lord ! and j committee it was referred to consider of the deal with us, yet we humbly desire that our- selves and all the people of God may be stiM faithful and fervent with him, wrestling in pray- ers and supplications till he shall fully raise up his o\vn tabernacle, and build his temple with his own spirit, which he hath promised to pour upon all flesh ! and raise up governors after his own heart, and teachers after his own will, to make exactors peace, and officers righteous- ness ! that he may overcome the evil of the world with his goodness, and fill the whole earth with his glory ! that his will may be done on earth as now in heaven ! that righteousness may spring out of the earth, and may dwell here, and righteousness and peace may kiss each other ! that all his people may have one lip, one heart, one consent, and one shoulder to bow down and worship him ! that the envy of Judah and Ephraim may be taken away, and that they may be one of the same fold with one shepherd ! that all wars may cease to the ends of the earth, that in peace and joy we may all wait, expect, treaty with the resident from France, M. de and long for his glorious coming, who is King Bordeaux. The agent of the Duke of Tus- of kings and Lord of lords, our hope and righ- cany was met by another committe*, similarly teousness ; who is still to ride on prosperous- 1 appointed. But the main occurrences of the ly, conquering and to conquer, till he hath sub- j time were their reception of, and their negoti- dued all his enemies, and at length come to de- ] ation with, the ambassadors of the United Prov- liver up the kingdom to his Father, that God j inces, who came, after a new battle of the 3d may reign, and be all in all." I of June, to solicit peace, and their conduct on The day after the issue of this extraordinary j the sudden return of John Lilburne.f address was famous for the first movement in One of the noblest of the legacies left by the the House against tithes that grand and pri- Long Parliament to their destroyer was the mary source of contention, which stood in the i great and well-appointed fleet by which they way of the universal peace they promised. For j had already, in all essential respects, broken the several successive days the discussion on the strength of the Dutch, and one of Cromwell's subject was continued, but without any fixed j first acts of power was the substitution of Monk result,* and the matter was at last referred to ! for Blake in its chief command.}: Distrusting a special committee. The law and its griev- i the stanch Republicanism of Blake, he obvious- ances wore doomed next, and, in entire reali- j ly apprehended some hostile movement from zation of all that was anticipated by Cromwell, the work of provoking class-hostilities went in- def-d bravely on. On onvj da/ alone, the 20th of July, eleven ' Tbv a jthnr of the " Exact Relation" describes what the chief dif.er'noe was, and marks also the wise and sober him when he should hear of the deed that had * The author of the " Exact Relation" says, " Then the House was methodized into several committees, for the bet- ter despatch of business, so as none might be idle, but all employed in public service. Besides the council of state, six or seven committees were chosen and set to work the committee for the army, the committee for prisons and pris- judr.mejt vhich relieved evau the wildest projects of these , oners, the committee for regulating the law, the committee si.gu.ar msn. " Whereas all the House, for the most liar*., v-jre sensible that tithe was a grievance fit to be re- njjveJ, t!,e difference was, some would not give way to the for justices and for the poor, the committee for public debts, the committee for the Scots and Irish affairs, the committee for petitions which committees sat daily, and took great ren ovt of ,t till some other thing were provided to be set in pains, morning and evening, almost every day in the week, ruom of it [this was precisely the state of the question on '.he dissolution of the Long Parliament] ; others would Lave it removed as a grievance in the first place, and then to make provision as God should direct. In the debate, difference was made betwixt impropriators and that which to despatch business, and make things ready for the House ; and many things were fitted and prepared." t See ante, notes to p. 521, 522. $ Clarendon thus describes the three admirals. " Blake, a man well known, but not thought entirely enough dtvoted was otherwise ; and all seemed "free and willing that im- i to' Cromwell; Monk, 'whom he called out of Scotland as his propriators should be satisfied the value; and therefore, own creature; and Dean, a mere seaman, grown from a upon the choosing of a committee for tithes, ouly that of common mariner to the reputation of a bold and excellent incumbents was to be considered of." J officer " 548 BRITISH STATESMEN. been done. Yet had that great commander, in the course he really took, administered to Crom- well and his creatures an ever-memorable les- son. As soon as the news of the forcible dis- persion of his friends and associates reached him, he directed an order to be issued through- out the fleet, that " it was not the business of seamen to mind state affairs, but to keep for- eigners from fooling us."* There, as in every other action of the life of Blake, spoke out the heroic spirit which moved, in later but not such glorious years, the passionate love and admi- ration of the English people at the mention of the name of Nelson. Monk was already on his way to assume supreme command, but Blake not less cheerfully submitted to command under him. News of greater promise, or received with greater rapture, than that which told of the dis- solution of the formidable Parliament of states- men, was never heard in the Dutch Common- wealth. They seem to have beheld already England at their feet. Resolved, at all events, to make a strenuous effort to bring her there, they at once renewed their shattered fleets ; and Van Tromp having safely convoyed the outward-bound trade of Holland, returned im- mediately with a force of a hundred sail to seek the English on their own coasts. He was ac- companied by De Ruyter, De Witt, and Evert- sens. Monk, assisted by Dean, Penn, and Lawson, met the Dutch admiral off the North Foreland with about an equal number of ships. The ac- tion began on the 2d of June, and lasted for two entire days. On the night of the first, it was found 'that the Dutch had lost two sail ; but for this superiority the English had paid a heavy price in the death of their great admiral, Dean. Struck, at the very commencement of the ac- tion, by a chain shot from the Dutch vice-ad- miral's ship, he fell lifeless at the feet of Monk. He was a man so worshipped by the seamen, from the midst of whom he sprung, that the knowledge of his fate at such a time might have turned the fortune of the fight. But the cool sagacity of Monk did not desert him. Quietly unfastening the cloak he wore, he dropped it over the dead body, and went on with the issue of his orders as though Dean had merely turn- ed aside. The English seamen, unconscious of the fall of their beloved commander, fought with their accustomed gallantry ; and before the dawn of the morning of the third, Blake's ar- rival, with eighteen ships, placed the issue be- yond farther doubt. Van Tromp fought on that day with the most determined courage ; but Blake's arrival acted as a panic to his fleet ; his orders were disobeyed ; several of his cap- tains fled in confusion from the superior fire of their opponents ;t and he was ultimately obli- ged to seek shelter within the Wielinngs, and along the shallow coast of Zealand. Eleven of his ships had been captured, eight sunk, and two blown up with gunpowder ; 1300 of his men had been left behind him as prisoners, and in proportion, on his side, were the killed and * Lives, English and Foreign, vol. ii., p. 109. t It would seem, from the letters in Thurloe, that the English fought at the distance of half cannon shot till the enemy fell into confusion, and began to fly, when, their dis- abled ships were surrounded and captured by the English wounded. The English loss was slight in com- parison. Cromwell received this news, which arrived in London before the meeting of the Conven- tion, with transports of rapture. It was not his victory it was the victory of the govern- ment he had overthrown* of the statesmen he had pursued with ridicule and insult : it was more especially the result of those exertions of Vane which had drawn down his signal hatred on that statesmant but it was an occurrence of superior good fortune, of which none knew better to avail themselves than he ; and in ev- ery quarter of the country he ordered it to be proclaimed as a sudden manifestation of the Lord, an " answer to the faith and prayer of God's people." His council issued at the same time, on his suggestion, a declaration of extra- ordinary fervour, in which the whole people of England were called uponj to set apart a day of public thanksgiving to the Almighty for such singular mercies. We shall conclude our ex- hortation, they said, with that of David : " O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy en- dureth forever. Let Israel now say that his mercy endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron now say that his mercy endureth forev- er. Let them now, that fear the Lord, say, that his mercy endureth forever. give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy en- dureth forever." As the people heard such, thanks proclaimed by order of the sheriffs in every English county, they might well indeed suspend all anger or impatience at the recent extraordinary change in wondering expectancy of a coming reign of sanctities and blessings ! On the 22d of June, twenty days after the victory, ambassadors from Holland arrived in London to negotiate for peace. Cromwell, still the holder of supreme power, received them coldly. On the 24th, the body of Admiral Dean arrived in the Thames, and Cromwell issued orders for its conveyance into London with ev- ery possible demonstration of gratitude, affec- tion, and honour. A long line of mourning barges filled the river from Greenwich to West- minster Bridge, and as the body passed, all the ships upon the Thames, answered by minute guns from the Tower, offered it respect and reverence. In the evening of the same day it received state-burial, by torchlight, in the Abbey of Westminster ; and Cromwell, " with all the officers -of the army and navy then in town," attended as chief mourners. Thus early in his * This is not denied 'by impartial historians. " The fleet," says Dr. Lingard, " owed its success to the exertions of the government which Cromwell had overturned." t Such, for example, as the proposed sale of Hampton Court, during Vane's remarkable exertions towards the preparation of this great fleet. It remains undeniable, and to the immortal honour of that eminent politician, that the greatest glories of our unrivalled English navy dale from the naval administration over which Vane presided. t The admirers and partisans of Cromwell were very busy on the appearance of this declaration in pointing to it as a has the following remark concerning it : " It took the more," he says, " with many people, because it was not a command, and imposing upon men, but only an invitation of them to keep a day of public thanksgiving." OLIVER CROMWELL. 549 reign of power did this remarkable man dem- onstrate a rare administrative capacity. His unexampled honours to the memory of a com- mander so beloved, who had sprang from among the common sailors, and was venerated in an especial manner by all classes of the people, won for himself no little sympathy and grati- tude : his repulsive treatment of the Dutch am- bassadors propitiated the general pride. Some circumstances connected with this Dutch embassy should not be omitted. As soon as Blake's great victory off the Isle of Portland became known in Holland, a general importu- nity had risen for peace, not less in the mer- chant classes than among the common people. Ambassadors for the management of a treaty were accordingly named. With the dissolution of the Long Parliament, however, and the ti- dings of hope it carried to all the enemies of England, hope revived in Holland also,* and the embassy was temporarily suspended. Again these anticipations fell when it was seen that Blake and the seamen had not deserted the new government, but accepted service under Monk ; and again the Dutch implored their States for peace. It was accordingly resolved that the ambassadors formerly named should proceed to discharge their mission ; but before they arrived in London, Van Tromp had pro- voked Monk to engage, with the disastrous re- sult I have described ; and, instead of present- ing themselves on their arrival as men who might reasonably, from the chief of a new gov- ernment, demand a fair and honourable peace, they appeared in the pitiful posture of suppli- ants, who deprecated fiercer rage than they had experienced yet, from a more triumphantly victorious conqueror. It is, under these cir- cumstances, right to keep in mind that the pres- ence of these pacific negotiators from the proud government of the United Provinces was a con- fession of the invincible capacity and energy of the statesmen of the Long Parliament, and not, as it has been esteemed, a tribute to the in- stant supremacy of Cromwell. When the lord- general seized the power of the state, he may be said to have inherited a well-appointed navy of upward of 100 sail, and the fruits of one of the noblest maritime victories on record : yet, when Van Tromp first appeared in the Channel, the committee of the Admiralty had only twen- ty sail in the Downs. AH else had followed, with sundry victories in its course, from the exertions of Blake and Vane. Cromwell, surrounded by his military coun- cil, received the Dutch delegates with a haugh- ty pride. Their first proposition was, that, pending the present negotiation, all hostilities should cease. This he peremptorily refused. Their next had relation to what they termed the exorbitant demands formerly made by the Long Parliament, when St. John was ambassa- dor at the Hague,! and some abatement of * Whitelocke adduces various letters to prove that " the Dutch much rejoiced at the dissolving of the Parliament, hoping for some disabling of the English fleet thereby ; but, being disappointed thereof, the common people were earnest for a peace with England." t This was before the victory of Worcester in 1651. The embassy was admirably discharged by St. John, who, as soon as he saw a disposition in the States to trifle with England, threw up his mission in these memorable words : " I perceive," he said to the States-General, " that you are waiting the issue of our war with the Scotch ; and gome which, they contended, must form the basis of any new treaty. This proposition met with no better fate than the first. Cromwell refused to stir one jot from the ground taken up by his predecessors. Three weeks passed fruitlessly thus : the Dutchmen, in despair, demanded their passports, and would have gone at once, had not Cromwell condescended, for special purpo- ses he had privately in view, to cajole and hu- mour them : now he would chide them re- proachfully for their impatience, and now, with tears in his eyes, for their carelessness of the miseries of war! The Convention meanwhile assembled, and it then favoured his purposes to represent himself as their servant merely, and the humble representative of a supremer power in the state. Two months at least pass- ed in continual agitation of new proposals, and the transient glitter of new hopes, when he an- nounced to them, on the behalf of " the Parlia- ment of the Commonwealth," at an audience they had claimed from its new council of state, that England would waive her claim of pecuni- ary compensation from Holland, provided Van Tromp were for a while removed from the com- mand of their fleet, in acknowledgment of his having been the aggressor ; and provided, also, the States would consent to the incorporation of the two countries into one great maritime power, to be equally undei the same govern- ment, consisting of individuals chosen out of both.* The last condition proved, as it was probably intended, a stumbling-block to the Dutch negotiation. It was a subject not em- braced in their instructions. Ultimately, three of their number left London for the Hague, to procure larger powers : Beverningk, the repre- sentative of the States of Holland, alone re- mained. But it was now the close of July, and exact- ly two days before the departure of the Dutch- men, another battle had been fought at sea, and another victory won for England. During the whole of the negotiations I have described, Van Tromp and De Witt had exerted themselves with unrelaxing zeal to retrieve their last dis- grace, knowing well how little chance there is of honourable peace after ill- fought war. Tromp complained of the insubordination of his offi- cers, and De Witt of the inadequacy of his ships. Tromp even threatened to withdraw from the command, while De Witt is recorded to have addressed, after this fashion, both the States-General and the States of Holland : " I am here before my sovereigns : of what use is it to dissemble 1 the English are our masters at sea, and things must so remain till we have ships built on a different scale."t To both the admirals a most respectful attention was at once paid. Full power was given to Van Tromp members of our Parliament advised that we should first fin- ish that business as we soon shall and then expect your envoys on our shores. I thought better of you, and have misjudged ; but trust me you will soon repent your rejection of tke offers which we have made you." The statesmen kept their words. The equipment of a noble fleet, and the pass- ing of the Navigation Act, were the immediate results of St. John's abrupt return. * A vast number of papers will be found in Thurloe hav- ing reference to these negotiations. See, for example, in the first volume only, p. 268, 284, 302, 308, 315, 316, 340, 362, 370, 672, 381, 382, 394, 401. And see, for the best popular statement of these results, Dr. Lingard's History, vol. ii., p. 219-223. t Thurloe, vol. i., p. 341 ; Le Clerc, vol. ii., p. 333, 334. 550 BRITISH STATESMEN. to place and displace his officers at pleasure ;* deputies were specially sent from the civil gov- ernment to every crew in the service, exhort- ing and entreating them to make a last effort for their country, and promising them extraor- dinary advantages and rewards ; while in the Dutch dockyards De Witt's orders reigned su- preme. Unexpected success, in one sense, fol- lowed. Towards the end of July, Tromp was enabled to sail from the harbours of Zealand with about eighty ships, and De Witt had twen- ty-five more in readiness in the Texel, with which he afterward joined his chief. But the Dutchmen had lost the habit of victory. Monk and Blake had for eight weeks blocka- ded the entrance of the Texel, when, on the evening of the 29th of July, near the coast of Holland, they cleared for a decisive action with Van Tromp and De Witt. On that evening Monk issued a memorable and most character- istic order through his ships, which were in number about equal to the Dutch force. He had found by experience, he said, that the ta- king the ships of the enemy consumed much precious time, while the sending the ships so taken into a place of security necessitated the detaching other vessels from the fleet to con- duct them, and so weakened his force. He therefore gave positive instructions to the cap- tains that 7io English ship should surrender to the enemy, and that they should accept no surrender of the vessels against which they fought. Their bu- siness was not to take ships, but to sink and de- stroy to the extent of their power.! Another circumstance, not less sagacious or cold-blood- ed, was observed in his conduct this famous evening. He sent out a sudden order to trans- pose the captains of the merchant-men which had been placed by him in the battle. In the former engagement, he had found that they committed themselves somewhat too cautious- ly, out of tenderness they had to the freight which belonged to their owners !J The first evening's encounter was character- ized by nothing decisive. The squally winds of the succeeding day prevented battle. The sun of the third, which was Sunday, the 31st of July, set in terrible streaks of blood. Its most illustrious victim was Van Tromp. " While he very signally," says Clarendon, " performed the office of a brave and bold commander, he was shot with a musket bullet into the heart, of which he fell dead without speaking a word. This blow broke the courage of the rest." Af- ter the fall of Van Tromp, the victory was in- deed no longer doubtful. The Dutch at once wavered, in a short time fled, and pursuit last- ed beyond midnight. $ On the English side, though few ships were lost, the loss of men * Thurloe, vol. i., p. 325. t Gamble's Life of Monk, p. 62. } Heath, p. 348. $ During the continuance of this pursuit on the evening of the battle, Monk sent off a despatch to the lord- president of the council of state, dated from " on board the Resolu- tion, off Camperdown," which, on its arrival in London, was received and read with much excitement in the House of Commons. Its description of the closing days was high- ly characteristic of Monk, and will give the reader a vivid picture of the scene. Having mentioned the result of the lirst day's encounter, he thus continues: " Yesterday little was done as to an engagement, both fleets finding it work enough to get off from the lee-shore, having the wind at W.N.W., blowing hard, with thick and dirty weather, which was the worst for us, being on an enemy's country. This morning, it being fair weather and little wind, both was found to be considerable. Six captains and 500 sailors were killed, and six captains and 800 sailors wounded. A more terrible is- sue had befallen the Dutch. Nearly thirty of their ships were burned or sunk, and among them that of Vice-admiral Evertsens, who was himself made prisoner. Their loss of life was proportionately fearful, and 1200 of their seamen were carried into England as a trophy of the battle, having been taken as they escaped from the wrecks in their boats, or picked up as they were swimming in the sea.* But heavier news than that of all these losses to the people of Holland was the death of their famous Van Tromp.t fleets prepared for a second engagement, the enemy bear- ing in upon us, having the wind of us. To this time the Lord seemed to encourage tht enemy, by laying the scales, as it were, in a balance, so that neither could tell which had the better ; bat good was the Lord unto us, who knew the best time for manifestation of his own glory, in appear- ing for his own people, though unworthy of so great a mer- cy ; for, about seven in the morning, the great ships from the Texel, being twenty-five in number [De Win's fleet], having made a conjunction with them the day before, there began a very hot dispute with them, which so continued till one in the afternoon, the enemy having the wind of us all the while, whereby he had the opportunity of taking all ad- vantages ; yet truly may we say, great was the Lord, and marvellous, worthy to be praised for his glorious appear- ance on our behalf; for by this time the Lord had so daunt- ed their spirits, that they began to bear away from us, ma- king all the sail they could with the remainder of their fleet, being not above sixty of their whole number ; for, so far as 1 can gather, there cannot be less than thirty or forty sunk, taken, and destroyed. We are now in pursuit with some of our best sailing frigates, bring almost ap with some of their sterrtmost ; and our expectations still are great, that the Lord will perfect the work thus far begun and carried on, which I hope will be to the glory of his grace in us, as well as without us. The enemy had nine flag-ships when he first engaged, and now but one left, and Tramp's tied to the topmast, as far as I can discern. But I saw two of our own fired by the enemy's fire-ships, whereof one was the Oak, whose men were most of them saved ; the other a fire-ship. In the fight, the Resolution, with the Worcester frigate,, led the English fleet in a desperate and gallant charge, through the whole Dutch fleet. Van Tramp's top- mast was shot down, which he would have set up again, but could not, and so was fain to put his flag upon his ne.ar masts. Those of the Dutch, that are got into the Texel, are much shattered ; Tramp's vice-admiral sunk by his side." It is clear that Monk had not at this period become aware of the first source, as well as the greatest incident, of his victory the death of Tromp. A brief letter from him arrived to announce it the next day. * Several Proceedings. Heath, p. 348. t Lord Clarendon tells us, that " on the Hollanders' part, between twenty and thirty of their ships of war were fired or sunk, and above 1000 prisoners taken. The victory cost the English dear too ; for 400 common men and eight, cap- tains were slain outright, and above 700 common men and five captains wounded. But they lost only one ship, which was burned ; and two or three more, though carried home, were disabled for farther service. The most sensible part of the loss to the Dutch was the death of their admiral, Van Tromp, who, in respect of his maritime experience, and the frequent actions he had been engaged in, might very well be reckoned among the most eminent commanders at sea of that age, and to whose memory his country is far- ther indebted th.an they have yet acknowledged." Yet the States had given him a splendid triumphal funeral, and struck a medal to his memory. Ludlow thus describes, in his memoirs, the engagement of the last day. " Though many of our men were sick of the scurvy, and the Dutch had fire-ships, of which w^ had none, the wind also entire- ly favouring them, yet did the fight continue with equal balance till two or three in the afternoon, about which time their admiral, Van Tromp, was killed with a musket ball, as he walked upon the deck with his sword drawn. This so discouraged the enemy, that they made all the haste they could away towards the Texel, and were pursued with that diligence by ours, that the ship of Cornelius Evertsen was sunk, with about thirty more, as we were informed by the prisoners taken or saved from perishing. The victory was great, but cost us dear ; for we lost eight of our brave cap- tains, whose names were, Graves, Peacock, Taylor, Crisp, Newman, Cox, Owen, and Chapman, with about 400 men. We hud also about 700 wounded, and among them five com* manders, yet we lost but one ship in this fight." OLIVER CROMWELL. 551 The Parliament vied with Cromwell and the council of state in showering honours and re- wards on the victorious English admirals. A grand dinner was given in the city of London to celebrate their return, at which Cromwell was requested to invest them with sundry gold chains and medals, which had been voted in commemoration of their exploits. Nor did this Parliament vent its gratitude in mere partial and unsubstantial honours : they gave orders, we ascertain from the papers of the time, " for taking care of necessaries for the relief of the sick and maimed seamen and soldiers. They also resolved that a convenient house should be provi- ded in or near Dover, Deal, or Sandwich, for their accommodation ; that one moiety of all the hos- pitals for sick throughout England be reserved for the service of the navy ; and that provision be made for the wives and children of the captains and sailors slain in this engagement, who were also admitted to make prolate of their husbands' and fathers' wills, without payment of any fees." But the case of Lilburne claims brief mention before the striking course of Parliamentary pol- icy is resumed.* Banished from England for life in 1652, he had taken refuge in Holland, allied himself to the Royalists there,! and made formal proposals to them for the destruction of the Long Parliament and the then council of state, and for the murder of Cromwell, all of which he undertook to accomplish in sixmonths, on the payment often thousand pounds.f His * A passage from the " Exact Relation" may yet be sub- joined, descriptive of matters already partly referred to, and which will not require farther statement. " By this time (the opening of August) many matters were fitted and pre- pared by the committees, who made their daily reports. The council of state having 1 the pre-eminence to be first heard, divers things were offered by them, some of which had been considered of by them in the interval of Parlia- ment. Many things passed, and were despatched, of what they reported, and which other committees did likewise re- port, which spent not a little time. Business came on so fast from committees, which did cause striving which should be fi rst heard, and in uch time lost thereby. There were many particular things ordered and despatched by the House, as 'The relieving: the sufferings of many by fires in many parts of the nation ; some their grievences redressed ; some their petitions and desires granted ; some obstructions i-n all their purchases removed by the House.' The business of providing moneys (all other things ever giving way to that) occasioned expense of much time, and great debate of ways and means to that end. The fights at sea coming to knowl- edge by letters ; the reading of them ; the acknowledging 1 God's goodness, arid praising his holy name ; the taking care to provide for the sick and maimed ; the relieving the widows of such whose husbands were slain; the honouring 1 with rewards the chieftains and commanders ; with the be- stowing several sums of money on the widows and children of such captains as were slain in the fight, in consideration of their loss of such husbands and fathers; all which were things just and honourable, but not done without expense of time. The despatch of ambassadors to foreign parts, as to Turkey and to Sweden, their letters of credence, and commissions signed and sealed, the receipt.of letters from Switzerland and other free states, the reading of them and returning answers, may be reckoned into the expense of time. The council of state chose a second time by the box or glass, where every one put in his paper of names, and those that had most votes carried it, spent more time than one whole day." t This is not denied even by himself. According to his own " Defensive Declaration," he entered into familiar in- tercourse with the Duke of Buckingham, Sir John Cole- peper, Sir Ralph Hopton (distinguished followers of Charles the Fust, and who had been created peers by him in 1644), Bishop Bramhall, and other eminent Royalists. t When asked how he proposed tojeffect all this, he re- plied, by papers that he wnuld print in Amsterdam, and send over and get dispersed by his agents in England. He affirmed that he had a numerous party in his native coun- try, and that the majority of the army would easily be brought over to his views. It is fair to add that Lilburne has denied this part of the charges. His character and proposals, made in the autumn of 1652, were rejected, after some deliberation ; yet he re- mained in Holland, where, on the 3d of May, 1053, the news of the dispersion of the states- men reached him. Seeing the opportunity for disorder, he wrote at once and offered his alle- giance to Cromwell, with the prayer that he might be allowed to return to England, to call to account the deceased authority that had ban- ished him. The letter was loaded with abuse of the Parliamentary leaders especially of Scot, whom it styled secretary of state and with quiet hints of conciliation and respect for Cromwell, but unavailingly. The lord-general avoided double-edged tools, and had profited by his old experience of Lilburne. The letter pass- ed unanswered. Lilburne then resolved on the daring step of an unsanctioned return to England. He sup- posed himself safe in the disorders and uncer- tainties of the time. The Duke of Bucking- ham is said to have accompanied him as far as Calais ;* and it is certain that the council of state had received information, which left them little doubt of the desperate intentions with which he came. He arrived in the middle of June, was arrested the day after his arrival at a lodging in Little Moorfields, and shortly after committed to Newgate. The determination had at once been taken by Cromwell to send him to trial on the act which banished him, and which affixed to his unpermitted return the pen- alty of death. It was a case, moreover, where- in he thought he might safely trust a jury. The only matter submitted to their decision would be the simple proof of identity, since the felony was clearly established and declared. Thus would he, at the same instant, not only drive from his path a troublesome demagogue, hut in all probability, by his very means of doing it, win the popular sympathies and regards. The result was another proof of his miscalculation. Nor of that only. It furnished decided evidence of that general condition of confusion and in- certitude which was the follower of his act of usurpation. habits, however, are a formidable support to it; and the informations, perfectly agreeing as to the facts, are sworn to by four persons, Isaac Berkenhead, Captain John Titus, Captain John Bartlett, and Richard foot. In the evidence of the latter person some curious circumstances arc stated. Describing the interval between the despatch of Lilburne's first letter to Cromwell and his subsequent departure in de- fiance of permission, Foot illustrated it by the following scene. " On Sunday, the 29th of May, Lilburn and Jamot being at a tavern called the Conserge, with one Captain, Whittington and Colonel Layton, both of the king's party here in England, and two merchants, one of the company asked him what he would say if this pass came not ; he said that, 'if my pass come not, and I find that it is Cromwell that hinders it, as it must be> for it lies in his power, I will either kill him myself, or send one to do it." Then one of the merchants asked him how he could do such a thing with conscience : he answered, ' Tell me not of conscience in, this case, for if that I am banished without law, conscience, or equity, and deprived of my natural air to breathe in, which is every man's birthright (with such like expressions),. I may justly right myself if 1 can- If I would take a hare or a deer, 1 ought to give him fair play, because thy are- beasts of game ; but if a fox or wolf, I may use what device- I can to kill him; so if Cromwell keep himself above the law, that I cannot have my right by the law, I may kill him how I can.' Then presently his letters came, and 1 after he had read them, and saw his pass was not come, he said, ' I am resolved to have one fling more at Cromwell.' Further he said, that ' Cromwell hath been an atheist these seven, years, and that his design is and hath been lo make himself king.' " * Thurloe, vol. i., p. 306. Several Informations, p. 18. 552 BRITISH STATESMEN. As soon as Lilburne discovered the resolute front opposed to him, he took up his own old positions with all his accustomed obstinacy.* He set to work his friends to petition, and his own wits to baffle by all kinds of technical ob- jection the legal proceedings already instituted. His first endeavour was to obtain a respite of the trial till the meeting of the Convention that had beem summoned, and in this he succeeded. Cromwell was not unwilling to share with them the responsibility of some portion of what he had resolved to do. Within four or five days of their meeting, petitions were accordingly poured in upon the Parliament petitions from Lilburne himself petitions from Lilburne's wife petitions from Lilburne's native county pe- titions from London apprentices, who thought Lilburne a great man. It is instructive to know how much may be done, or, rather, how much always seems to be done, by one active person, during the inaction of everybody else. Sever- al discussions arose on these petitions, and many divisionst were taken. " Some members of the House," according to the author of the " Exact Relation," " earnestly moving to> have had his trial suspended, and the act called in question by which he was banished and made a felon, that the merit of the cause might be looked into ; which they professed, again and again, they did not do so much in favour of Mr. Lilburne, as in the right of themselves and their posterities, and all Englishmen, which they judged highly concerned therein ; but other gen- tlemen of note being very opposite, nothing came of the whole but expense of time." The real fact was, that the evidence of Lilburne's intentions, laid before the various members by the council of state, was, at last, too strong to be resisted.! His intrigues with the Royalists * See note, anti, p. 521, 522. t Thurloe, vol. i., p. 387. t An amusing passage, from the examination of Captain Titus, will describe in detail a part of Lilburne's interview with the Duke of Buckingham in Holland. Independent of the entire corroboration it received from others, nothing can more exactly or characteristically express the style and manner of " free-born John :" ' This examinant farther saith, that at this same time the said Lilburne proposed to the said duke, that if he, the said duke, could but procure him 10,000, he, the said Lilburne, would have a piece of him nailed upon every post in Bruges, if he, the said Lil- burne, did not overthrow and destroy those damnable vil- lains in England; 'I mean,.' said he, the said Lilburne, ' the Lord-general Cromwell, the Parliament, and that mon- strous council of state.' To which the said duke replied, ' I pray you, sir, let me hear which way you will do this.' The said Lilburne replied, ' My lord, I'll tell you how : first I'll set my press on work (for which purpose I have bought one with letter at Amsterdam, which cost me thirty pounds), and then I'll send my papers over into England, which by jny agents shall be spread all over the nation, and by my agents (for I have enough) my papers shall be brought into the army there (where I have double interest) ; and now every trooper begins to understand his own privilege, and so soon as these papers are spread, they'l fly in the faces of their officers, so that, with the help of my particular inter- est, the soldiery shall do all themselves, and I'll do nothing but sit in my chair and use my pen.' To which the duke replied, ' Sir, you may observe that in all your attempts the general outwitted you, and broke your business in the bud ; besides, you may see, that on all occasions the soldiery hath been obedient unto his officer, so discreetly hath the gen- eral ordered his army.' ' Why, then,' saith the said Lil- burne, ' I perceive you take the general for a wise man.' ' Yes,' said the duke ; ' let the world read his stories, and they'l find him so.' ' No,' said the said Lilburne, ' I know him to be otherwise, for heretofore all his business was managed by Ireton, and is since by others ; and for the gen- eral himself, he is as false a perfidious false-hearted rogue as ewer lived in the world. And I know no reason why I should not vie with Cromwell, since 1 had once as great a had become too clear, and his intemperate style of abuse through all the proceedings had weak- ened what little sympathy remained for him. Parliament refused to interfere, and his trial was ordered to proceed. He was arraigned at the sessions in the middle of July, on the capi- tal charge of having violated the statute of his banishment. But to this statute he refused to plead ; and for five successive days, with all the genuine accomplishments of a first-rate demagogue, he kept prosecutors and judges* at bay. He left not an inch of ground unfought ; and at every turn in the case, covered every one opposed to him, not excepting the judges themselves, with charges of rascality and tyranny. First, he de- manded counsel : that point was at once con- ceded, and, among others, he named Glyn, Maynard, and Hale, of whom Maynard, who lived to dabble in the blood of the regicides, took up his case with a real and very hearty zeal. Three days of the trial had meanwhile been ex- hausted. On the fourth, returning to the charge with renewed vivacity, Lilburne tended a bill of exceptions.f The court refused it unless signed by counsel, and gave him till evening to repair the defect. But the majority of the coun- sel he had named were out of town, and his friends only narrowly achieved the good fortune of finding Maynard, who was himself on the point of setting out when they arrived. He signed the bill at once, and procured the signa- ture of Norbury, a Welsh judge, who had re- cently been dismissed by Cromwell. The crafty lawyer sent, at the same time, a message to Lilburne of still greater value than his signa- ture : he would baffle his judges most effective- ly, he told him, if he insisted on his oyer : a specification under the great seal of the statute on which he was tried, of the judgment of ban- ishment given against him, and of the crime or crimes on which that judgment was founded. Lilburne received this hint with becoming gratitude, and on the sixth day of the proceed- ings formally demanded his oycr. Maynard's anticipations proved correct. The court knew not how to refuse the request, since it was claimed as of right and necessary to defence ; power as he had, and greater too, and am as good a gentle- man, and of as good a family.' " * Chief-baron Wild presided, assisted on the bench by the Lord-commissioner Keble, Judge Warburton, the Re- corder Steele, and, by some strange and unintelligible com- promise with decency and justice, Attorney-general Pri- deaux. t These exceptions were, first, that it did not appear on the face of the act that it was an act of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, or the Parli-^ueut sitting at Westminster, and might as well be an act of a Parlia- ment in Naples, or any other country. Secondly, it did not appear that" there was any judgment given upon which the sentence was founded. Before a judgment there must be indictment, presentment, or information ; the party ac- cused must appear, or must be outlawed for not appearing ; he must either confess or plead ; all of which circumstan- ces were wanting, the least of them being enough to anni- hilate the proceeding. Thirdly, the act spoke of his not being allowed to remain in England, Scotland, or Ireland, after twenty days, but the vote of the House upon which the act was bottomed specified thirty days. Fourthly, the indictment now preferred against him was against John Lilburue, gentleman, while the act of banishment was against Lieutenant-colonel Lilburne ; no proof being ren- dered that he was the person named in the act. lie denied that he had been a lieutenant-colonel at the time of passing the act. There were several persons in England whose names and designation were John Lilburne, gentleman, and they might as well hang any one of these, as- hong him, under this apt. OLIVER CROMWELL. 553 and assuredly they knew still less how to grant it, since no record of the charge or judgment was known to exist. They granted a specification of the act, and adjournment to the next ses- sions. The proceedings were resumed in the middle of August by two days' argument on Lilburne's exceptions, and his right to the oyer. He con- sented to plead at last, under threat from the court that they would enter up judgment against him as contumacious. A jury was em- panelled to try him on the 18th of August, and the trial lasted three days. The court was crowded within and without by the city appren- tices, of whom Lilburne was the hero ; some hundreds of them were said to have provided themselves with arms for his rescue if he should chance to be condemned ; and threatening pa- pers were dropped about in various directions (printed, no doubt, at the demagogue's own printing press !), to declare that if Lilburne per- ished, twenty thousand Englishmen would per- ish with him ! Cromwell unwisely elevated these circumstances into an importance they could never themselves have claimed for the great mass of the people were in truth look- ing indifferently on by taking measures to strengthen and encourage the court. Two com- panies of soldiers were posted in the immedi- ate vicinity ; three regiments of infantry, and one of cavalry, were quartered in the city ; and a considerable force without the gates received orders to march towards London. The details of the trial itself, which lasted three days, have not been preserved. It is only known that the counsel for the prosecution re- stricted themselves to bare evidence of the pris- oner's identity with the Lilburne named in the act of banishment ; that the court charged the jury, in the same strain, that they had nothing lo do but with the act of Parliament in ques- tion ; and that Lilburne himself made a long and passionate speech, in which, among a vast variety of topics of argument and abuse, the chief were these : he denied the legal authority of the late Parliament to banish him, because it had in law expired with the death of the king, and because in no circumstances can a House of Commons assume the functions of a court of justice ; he urged upon the jury, with elabo- rate vehemence, that they were judges of the law as well as of the fact ; he maintained that they could not possibly, if they had any regard to justice or the peace of their own conscien- ces, adjudge a man to death for a thing not done or proved, but merely because other men had ordered certain words to be written down on paper or parchment ;* he finally adjured them to remember that an act of Parliament which was evidently unjust was essentially void, and that jurymen who pronounced according to it, and not according to their oaths, would have * The original judgment against Lilburne was, no doubt, only defensible, on the ground of an elemental danger to society and government both at that time in a state of revolution and transition which the ordinary law and usage were incompetent to meet. He was condemned in a heavy fine, with banishment for life, on the ground of a breach of privilege. It is well to recollect that a previous vote of a precisely similar description against Lord Howard, of Esrricke, and Captain Wenday Oxford, had been called by Lilburne (in his Just Reproof, <kc.) " a gallant piece of justice." Still Vane and Marten strenuously opposed his banishment. 4 A one day a heavy reckoning to answer. It was late in the night of the third day of the trial when the jury returned their verdict, and the shout of the apprentices in celebration of Lil- burne's acquittal rang clamorously up White- hall* to the residence of Cromwell. I have thus glanced at this close of the way- ward career of Lilburne, because in the marked distinction which separates it from his previous trials, a striking characteristic of the time may be noted. The plain and simple point involved in the present instance was the identity of Lil- burne with the victim of the act of banishment. But with whom had that act of banishment originated, of which Cromwell now sought so vigorous an enforcement 1 It was peculiarly the work of the statesmen, whose authority, within the last four mouths, Cromwell had him- self destroyed, and whose motives he had brand- ed with the vilest and most insulting imputa- tions. The act of banishment was, in fact, no other than a special assertion of that authority, no other than a terrible resentment of Lil- burne's reckless disregard of its injunctions. But with the substance the shadow perished ; doubts arose between the justice and the thief; the question of identity became a question of indifference ; and in the same proportion as Cromwell might be held to represent the au- thority by which he claimed the forfeit life of Lilburne, did the shouts of the apprentices of London represent the voice of the English peo- ple. The true England was silent as the true statesmen. Yet Cromwell was troubled when those shouts reached him in Whitehall. It is the unhappy consequence of a great man's play- ing a mean part, that mean men may become suddenly, though for a brief space, respected and respectable. A lion in the skin of an ass gives propriety and elevation to an ass in his own skin. Within a few days after the result of Lil- burne's trial, measures for the establishment of a high court of justice were pressed forward in Parliament by Cromwell's partisans, for every instant, to them, seemed teeming with a new Lilburne. The time groaned, meanwhile, with much heavier dangers. The real indifference, languor, and incertitude of the people made themselves known in a more formidable shape. * A few words will suffice to close Lilburne's career. The result of an examination of the judges and jurymen be- fore the council of state ; of the evidence of a certified copy of certain opprobrious expressions used by Lilburne in his defence ; and, finally, of additional proof of his Royalist intrigues, was an order from the Parliament that, notwith- standing his acquittal, he should be confined in the Tower; and that no obedience should be paid to any writ of habeas corpus issued, from the Court of Upper Bench in bis behalf. These measures were loudly complained of by sensible and well-judging people, who had taken no interest in Lilburne, and stoutly resisted also by a minority in the Parliament. They were carried by the plea of state necessity. It was afterward supposed that Lilburne would be brought to trial for treason, with other conspirators, before a high court of justice, but he was at length sent a prisoner by Cromwell to Elizabeth Castle, in the Isle of Jersey. Here he de- ported himself with the greatest contumacy. He -vas final- ly, as we are told, being 1 far gone in a consumption, liber- ated from confinement, and only turned out to die, which event occurred in August, 1657, at the age of thirty-nine. It is characteristic of all his life that he is recorded to have died in the faith of a Quaker '. For various circumstances connected with these latter incidents of his most unprofit- able life, see Thurloe, vol. i., p. 321, 367, 368, 3ti9, 429, 430, 435, 441, 442. 451, 453. See, also, State Trials, vol. v., p. 415-450; Whitelocke, passim; and the Journals of the Commons, under dates already mentioned in the text. 554 BRITISH STATESMEN. It had been a memorable incident in the histo- ry of the statesmen, that, after the death of the king, though there had been wars with the Roy- alists of Scotland and Ireland, and insurrections of that party when England was invaded by the enemy, no intestine commotion ever shook their power or weakened their general author- ity with the people. The argument of White- locke will also be in the reader's recollection.* Protesting with real or feigned sincerity against the dissolution of the Parliamentary govern- ment, he observed with admirable foresight, " The question will then be no more whether our government shall be by a monarch or by a free state, but whether Cromwell or Stuart shall be our king. And thus that question, wherein- before so great parties of the nation were en- gaged, and which was universal, will by this means become, in effect, a private controversy only. Before it was national, What kind of government we should have] Now it will be- come particular, Who shall be our governor, whether of the family of the Stuarts, or of the family of the Cromwells T Thus the state of our controversy being totally changed, all those who were for a commonwealth (and they are a very great and considerable party) having their hopes therein frustrated, will desert you ; your hands will be weakened, your interest straitened, and your cause in apparent danger to be ruined." Substantially this time had now arrived, and its arrival made itself known in a series of Royalist conspiracies. Its first herald, as we have seen, was Lil- burne's arrival, under the tender escort, as far as Calais, of his grace the Duke of Bucking- ham. Then followed his acquittal. Then arose mysterious talk throughout London of secret correspondence and designs, and several per- sons of consideration were sent to the Tower, t Then, within some days after, we meet with accounts of ten or twelve colonels having been apprehended on the charge of having come over from abroad with a design to raise men in sev- eral places for the service of Charles Stuart. And at last a formal report of various conspira- cies was presented to the Parliament by the council of state, with a view to expedite the proposed establishment of a high court of jus- tice. Cromwell saw in all this the worst disadvan- tages of an incomplete act of usurpation, unac- companied by any of the strength or awe that would follow its final assertion. He began to look forward impatiently over the heads of his " faithful Commons." In a letter I have found to his son-in-law Fleetwood, who was now in Ireland with his wife, the significant humility, the discontented sanctity, the obscure anticipa- tion, point directly at the Protector's chair. It is dated the 22d of August, 1653, and runs in these words : " DEERE CHARLES, Although 1 doe not soe often (as is desired by me) acquaint you howe it is with me, yett I doubt not of your prayers in my behalfe that in all thinges I may walke as becometh the Gospell. Trudy I nev- er more needed all kelps from my Christian friends than nowe. Fayne would I have my service ac- cepted of the saincts (if the Lorde will) ; butt it is not soe. Beinge of different judgments, and of * See ante, p. 502. t See Thurloe, vol. i., p. 441, 442, 453. each sort, most seckinge to propagate their owne, that spirit of kindnesse that is to them all is hard- ly accepted of any. I hope I can say it, my life has heene a willinge sacrifice, and I hope is, for them all. Yett it much falls out as when the two Hebrews were rebuked, you know upon whom they turned their displeasure ; butt the Lorde is wise, and will, I trust, make manifest that I am no enimy. Oh how easy is mercie to be abused ! Perswade friends with you to be very sober. If the day of the Lorde be so neer (as some say), how should our moderation appeare ! If every one (instead of contending e) would justifie his forme by love and meeknesse, wisdorne would be justified by her children. Butt alas ! I am in my tentation ready to say, ' Oh, would I had winges like a dove, then would I,' &c. ; butt this, I feare, is my hast. I blesse the Lorde I have somewhat keepes me alive, some sparkes of the light of his countenance, and some sin- ceritie above man's judgement. Excuse me thus unbowellinge myselfe to you ; pray for me, and desire my friends to doe soe alsoe. My love to thy deere wife, whom indeed I entyerly love, both naturally, and upon the best account ; and my blessinge(if it be worth anythinge)upon thy little babe. Sr. George Ascough havinge occasions with you, desired my letters to you on his behalfe ; if he come or send, I pray you show him what favour you can. Indeed, his services have been considerable for the state, and I doubt he hath not been answered with suitable respect. Therefore again I desier you, and the commissioners, to take him into a very perticular care, and helpe him soe farr as jus- tice and reason will any wayes afforde. Re- member my heartie affections to all the officers. The Lorde bless you all, soe prayeth your true- ly lovinge father, O. CROMWELL. . . . All heere love you, and are in health, your children and all." Another circumstance of the same date in- dicates the movement in Cromwell's mind. Whitelocke was suddenly sent off from London in the character of ambassador extraordinary to the Swedish queen Christina. No formida- ble opposition was thus removed, but many troublesome and annoying scruples. In vain poor Whitelocke struggled and objected ; in vain he sought the aid and counsel of wife, of friends, of tenants. "There's no use in resisting the GREAT MAN," said one of the latter, " an ancient, sober, discreet, and faithful servant to White- locke and his father above forty years." White- locke rejoined that he was not " bound to obey" Cromwell. " I am deceived," said the shrewd old servant, " if he will not be obeyed in what he hath a mind to." " I am not under his com- mand," retorted Whitelocke ; " what can he do to me!" "What can he do!" exclaimed the experienced William Cooke ; "what can he not do ! Don't we' all see he does what he list ! We poor countrymen are forced to obey him to our cost ; and if he have a mind to punish us or you, it's an old proverb that it's an easy thing to find a staff to beat a dog ; and I would not have you to anger him, lest you bring dan- ger, and trouble too, upon you and your family and state : that's the truth on't."* * For an ample uccount of these conferences, and of Whitelocke's interviews with Christina herself, imbodying many striking illustrations of Cromwell's character, see Appendix E., CBOMWELL AND CHKISTI.NA. OLIVER CROMWELL. 555 The " Parliament of saints" had meanwhile been working to Cromwell's wish. Their meas- ures of general polity and reform now claim from us a fair recital, and will be found, indeed, well worthy of it. Be it first observed that they began their du- ties by establishing in all matters appertaining to the state a system of the most rigid econo- my. They revised the regulation of the ex- cise ; they simplified and improved the consti- tution of the treasury, by reducing into one the several receipts of the revenue ; they abolish- ed unnecessary offices, and reduced exorbitant salaries ; they subjected to a most rigorous scrutiny the various public accounts, and gave new facilities to the sale of the lands now con- sidered as national property. In all these things, as in others I will shortly name, the spirit of the Long Parliament had survived the disper- sion of its members ; in the fanaticism of lan- guage and occasional extravagance of argu- ment by which the truth and advantages of such a course of policy were obscured in the Convention, we must at once, in fairness, rec- ognise the original vice of its origin. It should never have been expected that anything could supply that grave defect in the minds of the more sensible English people. Thus deficient in the only solid support they could hope to rest on, they had at once com- menced their quarrel with the formidable class interests, and with the army first. It had been with visible reluctance that they voted the monthly tax of 120,000 for the support of the military and naval establishments. They were, indeed, careful not to complain of the amount ; their objections were pointed against the nature of the tax, and the inequality of the assess- ments ; but this pretext could not hide their real object from the jealousy of their adversa- ries ; and their leaders were openly charged with seeking to reduce the number of the army, that they might lessen the influence of the lord- general.* Their war with the lawyers was more dar- ingly and openly conducted. Among the first acts they passed were those for taking away fines on bills, declarations, and original writs, and for the redress of delays and mischiefs ari- sing out of writs of error. They passed, at the same time, an act respecting marriages, which, with several others, was sanctioned by their successors in 1656, and which declared that they should in all cases be preceded by publica- tion of banns in church, or in the market-place on market-day ; and a certificate being grant- ed of such publication, together with the ex- ception made, if any, that the ceremony should then take place before some justice of the peace within the county. This measure, which was strongly opposed by the clergy as well as the lawyers,! they accompanied with acts for the * Exact Relation, p. 10. Thurloe, i., p. 755. Dr. Lin- gard, vol. ii., p. 193. t A considerable time, the authors of the Parliamentary History tell us, was taken up in agitation of it. Ou the 25th of August it passed the House on the question, and was ordered to be printed and published. ' This extraor- dinary act entirely took marriages out of the hands of the clergy, and put it into those of the justice of the peace. . . A very remarkable clause, add the compilers of the Par). History, was proposed to be added upon the third reading, but passed in the negative. It was this : That if any per- 011 then married, or to be married according to this act, registration of marriages, and also of births and burials. They prepared and introduced other bills, with less success in passing them. Among them were, for example, an attempt to consti- tute by enactment a public committee for advance of trade ; a new system of workhouses, and provis- ion fur the. poor ; and many admirable remedies for making the law more expeditious and less chargeable.* Their next offence to the lawyers was not less a boon and blessing to the people, in an- swer to whose repeated prayers and entreatiest should make proof, by one or more credible witness upon oath, that either the husband or wife had committed the detestable sin of adultery during such marriage, then the said parties might be divorced by the sentence of three jus- tices of the peace.' " * The author of the Exact Relation tells us that " about three days were spent in passing the excise rates, particu- larly, by vote. The old and new drapery, hats, caps, and tobacco-pipes, were by vote exempted from the duty of ex- cise. The bill following, iu order of the rates, was very large, of about eighty sheets of paper ; spent one whole day in the hearing of it read ; and there appeared so many snares and difficulties in it as to trade, as was judged no way fit to be put on a people that expected freedom at the price of their blood and treasure, by them spent in the late war ; whereupon it was by a general consent waived and laid aside. There were divers bills prepared by several com- mittees, some of which were read in the House, and others offered to have them read, but other business hindered ; as, ' A bill for constituting a committee for advance of trade ;' ' A bill for workhouses, and providing for the poor;' ' Divers bills for regulation of the law, and making it less chargeable to the poor, and more expeditious.'" t I subjoin a striking extract from a petition against the system of imprisonment for debt, printed in the journals of the time. It is entitled the " humble petition of all the prisoners for debt within the several (both national and private) tyrannical dens of cruelty, called prisons, jails, counters, holes, and dungeons in this land." It opens with a laudation of the members of the Convention, as " the Lord's faithful ones," who had been called to restore Eng- land's fundamental laws, rights, and liberties. It proceeds : "In assurance of your speedy accomplishment of this so great good work, to God's glory, your country's happiness, and your own eternal fame to posterity, we are encouraged to show, though not unknown unto you, that the law of God is a law of mercy, peace, and preservation to the people, and not of strife, rigour, and destruction, as it is at this present time, in and by the chargeable, dilatory, and deceit- ful practice thereof; witness the numerous actions charged on men ; vexatious and chargeable arrests, and dragging of men and women like dogs into holes and dungeons ; false and endless imprisonment ; the frequent commitments to prison, by the judges and justices, upon trivial matters ; unjust decrees ; false reports of masters in chancery ; ille- gal outlawries ; delay <>i justice ; and, by the extraordinary charges in law and protraction of time, disheartening honest men from suing for their just debts and rights ; together, also, with the most cruel usage and unreasonable exactions of bailiffs, sergeants, and jailers, to the utter ruin arid de- struction of thousands of families in the land ; so as now, by the diabolically invented practices of the judges and lawyers, the law is become sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing the life from the body ; working an endless separation between a man and his wife, children, and friends ; deprivation of liberty and calling, and a total ruin of estate, to the great prejudice of this Commonwealth in general, but to the satisfaction of cruel, revengeful persons, and enrichment of lawyers and their dependants in partic- ular. . . That restraint of men and women's persons in jail pays no debt, but defrauds the creditor, feeds the lawyers and jailers, and murders the debtors, witness the many thou- S'lnds that have thus perished miserably, as the jailer's bonks, coroner's records, and committory rolls do testify. . . That imprisonment for debt is contrary to the law of God, to rea- son, justice, and charity, and l the law of this land, as ap- peareth by several statutes. The premises piously consid- ered, your poor still enslaved brethren therefore humbly pray, that you may speedily break off this cruel, sinful yoke by the powerful rule of righteousness, justice, and mercy ; that there may be no more arresting nor imprisonment for debt.'" The close of the petition suggested a provision in the stead of imprisonment not less just than humane that "all able debtors might be, in somo short time, en- forced to satisfy their creditors out of the two-third parts of their estates, either in lands or goods ; the other third part to be resolved to themselves for their support and edu cation of their children." 556 BRITISH STATESMEN. it was granted by these reformers. A bill was to the party injured, and to be set on the pillo- introduced " for relief of creditors and poor ry. And in case of the death of a prisoner be- prisoners for debt," the immediate operation of j fore his debts were paid, they were empowered which, besides its effects throughout the Eng- to sell his estate for payment thereof. And lish provinces, was to release upward of 300 though prisoners enlarged by this act were not distressed men who were confined in different prisons in and near London alone. A brief sketch of its provisions will illustrate the judi- cious and equable temper in which these " fa- liable to be arrested for debts due before, yet their estates were to remain subject to their creditors' satisfaction. Lastly, these commis- sioners were not to be responsible for their natics" approached a subject which involved so conduct but to Parliament ; and in case of any many nice and difficult questions of property difficulty, wherein they might apprehend they and humanity. Seventeen commissioners were appointed to act as judges in the case of prisoners " in the Upper Bench prison, the Fleet, the Gatehouse in Westminster, the Counter in Surrey, or pris- on in Whitechapel," with power to examine, and determine in a summary way, concerning the causes of such persons' imprisonment, their escapes and their estates, and to act as com- missioners of bankrupts. They were to be al- lowed twopence in the pound out of the money arising by the sale of such prisoners' estates, for the charges of them and their clerks. A had not sufficient power for the relief of just creditors or poor prisoners, they were to certi- fy the same to the House, with their opinion what farther provision was necessary to be made. The four great votes which followed these measures sealed the fate of their unconscious originators. Before I proceed to describe them, it will be interesting to place on record a com- plete list of the enactments of general govern- ment and policy which were passed by the Con- vention. They imbody, in connexion with the four votes in question, the last effort made to certain number of persons were also appointed gather up the fruits of the struggle it has been to act in the same capacity for each county in the purpose of this work to record, in anything like a permanent result or legislative action on the people. Different scenes await us after England and Wales, with an allowance of six- pence in the pound. Prisoners not paying their debts in six months were to be deemed bank- j these have passed. Scenes of mingled shame rupts ; and in case of settlement of any part of and glory ; the administration of a despotism a prisoner's estate in trust for himself or any at once brilliant and mean ; the oppressions it other person, after the debt contracted or judg- ment obtained, these commissioners were em- powered to sell the estate, and to fine any oth- er person aiding or assisting in such fraud. Persons not able to pay such fine were to be ad- judged to the pillory or workhouse. Prisoners able to pay their debts, and refusing so to do, were, if these commissioners thought fit, to be ordered to close imprisonment. The estates of any person for whose debts another should be imprisoned, were to be sold as fully as the estate of the prisoner himself ; and where a prisoner made an escape, his estate not being sufficient to discharge his debts, the jailer and his security were to make good the deficiency. In the case of prisoners, however, against whom there had not been any declarations filed, these commissioners were to discharge them, and to give them damages for such vexatious impris- onment. In order to prevent prisoners, unable to pay their debts or fines, from perishing in prison, through the cruelty or obstinacy of any obdurate creditor, the commissioners were em- powered to discharge, abate, or give respite of time to any such prisoner, according as the cir- cumstances of the case might require, and to remove to the workhouse or house of correc- practised, the temporary honours it achieved, the few vain benefits it bestowed, the partial but glorious resistance it overcame, the serious and solemn lesson it taught to posterity ; but none of those higher aims which belong to the higher provinces of statesmanship, and by which alone may be connected and consolidated the interests and the happiness of men in distant ages. The list, compiled from the imperfect jour- nals of the House, and the relation of one of its members, who adopts the signature of " L. D.," may be given thus : First. " An act for the committee of the army, and treasurers of war." Second. " An act for constituting commission- ers for ordering and managing the admiralty and the navy." Third, the Court of Admiralty." An act for settling Much time," we are told, " spent in fixing on judges." Fourth. "An act for taking away fines on original writs," which, L. D. adds, " was, as some knowing gentlemen of worth in the House affirmed, to the saving of the people of this Commonwealth 120,000 per annum, only 10,000 or 12,000 thereof coming to the state." Fifth. " An act touching the several receipts of the revenue and treasuries of the Commonwealth, and the tion any obstinate prisoner, who should be found j bringing them into one treasury." Sixth. " An to keep in prison through his own wilful default, ; act for marriages, and the registering of them ; or to have run into debt by a vicious course of I as also births and burials." " Much time," life. They were also authorized to examine into the case of persons who had fraudulently got out of jail by means of former acts for re- lief of insolvent debtors, and to recommit them. They were to inquire into the abuse of charities subjoins our relator, "spent in the debate about marriages, there being many niceties and diffi- cult cases relating to that subject." Seventh. " An act for the more speedy bringing in of the arrears of the excise, and settling commission- given to prisoners, and to award punishment ers to that end." Eighth. "An act concerning for it; to make orders for selling wholesome ; the planters of tobacco in Gloucestershire and else- provisions to the prisoners at a reasonable price; | where." Ninth. "An act to continue the re- and to cause a table of moderate fees to be ceipts of the excise till the 29th of December hung up in every prison, the transgressor of j last." Tenth. " An act, additional and explan- \vhich in any particular was to forfeit fourfold ; atory, for the sale of the remaining fee-farm OLIVER CROMWELL. 557 rents, and finishing the whole business." Elev- enth. " An act for settling Ireland, and making it a part of the Commonwealth, and satisfying the adventurers and soldiers with lands ;'' which act, we are told, " being very large and compre- hensive, took many days' debate before it could be passed as a law." Twelfth. " An act for the relief of creditors and poor prisoners." " The fruit of it," L. D. observes, with a justi- fiable pride, " hath shown the worth of it, 300 poor starving souls having been freed thereby in and about London : a law so just and hon- ourable as England hath few better ; which passed not without serious debate." Thir- teenth. " An act for accounts, and clearing pub- lic debts, and for the discovery of fraud, and concealment of anything due to the Common- wealth." Fourteenth. " An act for empower- ing the committee of the army to state and de- termine the accounts of all soldiers and others employed by them, for moneys by them re- ceived from the 26th of March, 1647, until the 25th of July, 1653." Fifteenth. "An act for redress of delays and mischiefs arising by writs of error, and writs of false judgment, in several cases." Sixteenth. " An act for repealing of a branch of an act of the late Parliament, intituled 'An act for subscribing the engagement,'" which was made, L. D. quietly adds, " to the ease and profit of the people, and to the loss of the lawyers.'' 1 Seventeenth. " An act for the regulating the making of stuffs in the county of Norwich and Norfolk." Eighteenth. " An act for a high court of justice." Upon this, L. D.'s remark is characteristic : " It cost," he says, " indeed but one day's time, the reading, ' debate, and passing for a law, by reason of the | great haste some gentlemen made, pretending i great danger to themselves and the Common- ; wealth, so as no reasons could prevail to have , it recommitted, as some desired ; or that the ; acts for treasons might be read which the com- 1 missioners were to proceed upon, as others moved to have them ; nor yet that the bill ' might be engrossed, being to be a law that concerned life, for then it could not have passed till the next day, when some that were perceived that day absent (being praying at the Blackfriars') might be present, and hinder, as it is likely to be feared, the passing of it ; which had they done, ! they had saved much the credit of the council, i for to wise men it seemed a very weak piece. I And experience hath ^thanks be to God) shown j there was -not that sudden danger as some gentlemen suggested, who did not let to say j (in answer to those that would have had it en- grossed against the next morning) ' that they ] knew not but by that time they might have | their throats cut.' " In explanation of this, i the case of Lilburne need only be recalled, j Nineteenth. " An act for deofforistation and improvement of the forests, and of the honours, manors, lands, and tenements within the limits and perambulations of the same, heretofore belonging to the king, queen, and prince." This was, we are told, " a very large act, and comprehensive in the particulars, wherein the old farmers of the custom-house, that lent the old king money to make war with the Scots, were admitted to have their old debts made public faith, to double on, to the sum of two hundred seventy -cix thousand pounds, to the end to be sure to have money against the spring. It was complied with ; and some very eminent and wise gentlemen made others be- lieve there was no question but the money would be provided ready against the times ; other members of less note [no doubt our present informant] told the House what they thought, even as it is come to pass." Twen- tieth. " An act confirming the purchasers of Sir John Stowel's lands, what they had pur- chased of the state." Twenty-first. "An act for an assessment at the rate of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a month, for six months, for the maintenance of the armies and navy of this Commonwealth."* Twenty-sec- ond. " An act for continuing the privileges and jurisdiction of the county of Lancaster." Twenty-third. " An act touching idiots and luna- tics." Twenty-fourth. "An act for enabling commissioners of Parliament for compounding with delinquents to dispose of two parts of the lands and estates of recusants, for the benefit of the Commonwealth." This act, we again learn from L. D., " cost much time in the de- bate of it ; for that some gentlemen fearing it amounted to the toleration of popery, did strongly oppose it, and caused it to be so mod- elized as that it was never like to attain the end aimed at, as some then declared ; of which experience now can best declare and speak." Twenty-fifth. " A second act for the constitu- ting commissioners for ordering and managing of the Admiralty and navy." Twenty-sixth. * " This," says the author of the Exact Relation (the curious pamphlet 1 have already quoted), " was a very large act, and took up many days in the debate and passing of it. there being a desire, if possible it might have been, to have abated something of that turn, and that it might be laid equally. Many votes passed, and very sharp debates, by reason of the great inequality that was evident in the lay- ing of the tax, some countries bearing beyond their propor- tion, and some much less, which made the burden more grievous than otherwise it would be. When, after many days spent in the modelizing of the bill, and it came to be passed, some gentlemen gave their reasons why they could not give their yea to pass it for a law, for the unrighteous- ness that was in it (and something else), which had been laid forth in the debate : the great inequality betwixt country and country, city and city, hundred and hundred; and so of particular estates, some paying but two or three shillings in the pound, and others four and five, yea, some ten or twelve shillings for their real estate, besides what they paid for their personal ; some of London passionately complained of being overrated, they paying 8000 a month, the fifteenth part of the whole assessment of the Common- wealth, when, as they with great confidence affirmed, they were not the fortieth part of the Commonwealth in value, as their case now was. The act engrossed, and the ques- ameiuled against the next day. A gentleman that first moved to have the House give up that morning they were dissolved, made this one of his reasons why he could sit no longer with his fellows, because of their dealing so disin- genuously with, the army, some other gentleman having spoken to the same account ; but as to this, those that gave their noes against the then passing of the bill upon the ac- count before, can say, they never were in arms against the Parliament and army, nor were ever in Oxford, or any other garrison that stood in opposition to them. And for their constant cordial affection to them, they may safely say, without boasting, they have been but a very little behind them that have been the highest and best affected in the nation, whatever those gentlemen please to say. To endeav- our to have the assessment equally laid and borne tended much to the army's good rather than hurt, whereby they might continue to enjoy the love and affection of the people unto them." So began, as I have already observed, the quarrels and contentions, which in the four concluding votes received their final consummation. The writer of this passage seems to have taken a decided part himself. 558 BRITISH STATESMEN. " An act for the better and more effectual discov- ery of thieves and highwaymen.'" We have to add, in concluding the list, that " there was also a bill brought in and read, and debated, for the uniting of Scotland to the Commonwealth of Eng- land, as a part of it, with equal privileges, which spent two or three days' debate in a grand committee of the House, before it was ordered to be engrossed, being a thing of very great weight and concernment : being engrossed, it lay ready on the table to be read and passed ; but the Highlanders putting the country into distemper, it was not put to be passed for a law while the House continued."* * It is scarcely worth while nowadays to refute the calumnies which Lord Clarendon so notoriously indulged against his opponents; but after this list, it may amuse the reader to hear the noble historian coolly observe that " these men who took upon themselves the supreme author- ity of the nation, and continued to act in that capacity near six months, to the amazement and even mirth of the people, never entered upon any grave or serious debate that might tend to any settlement, but generally expressed great sharp- ness and animosity against the clergy, and against all learn- ing, out of which they thought the clergy had grown, and still would grow. They looked upon the function itself to be anti-Christian, the persons to be burdensome to the peo- ple, and the requiring and paying of tithes to be absolute Judaism, and so thought fit that they should be abolished together. And that there might not, for the time to come, be any race of people who might revive these pretences, they proposed that all lands belonging to the universities, and colleges in those universities, might be sold, and that the money arising thereby should be disposed of for the public service, and to ease the people from the payment of taxes and contributions." It is unnecessary to observe that no shadow of any such motion or proposal relating to the universities was ever made in the House. The only attempt that carried even the smallest tendency that way was the scheme for abolishing of tithes. " And this project," as we are assured by a member, "was so far from being intended to the prejudice of the parochial clergy, that the design was only to take away the manner of maintenance by tithes as unequal, burdensome, and being the occasion of litigious law-suits ; and that a bill was offered, on the day of the Parliament's resignation, for rendering the revenues of the clergy more certain and equal, by reducing benefices of 200 a year and upward, and advancing those of a smaller income, and also for making a provision for the widows and children of ministers; but that this equitable proposal was refused a reading, and that therefore the charge against one part of the House, of an intent to destroy the ministry, was a groundless reproach, cast upon those who endeavoured only to take off oppressions and grievances." The truth of this assertion is the less liable to be controverted, after the statement already proved in this work that the Long Par- liament, when they abolished episcopacy, and sold the tem- poral revenues of the bishops, deans, and chapters, &c., made an express reserve of all their impropriatioiis, which were to be applied to the increase of the revenues of the parochial clergy and heads of colleges. The same reserve of impropriations was made in the act passed by this Con- vention for enabling delinquents to compound for their es- tates. In connexion with these calumnies, it is only fair to add what is said on the subject by the author of the Exact Relation. "The House," he observes, "was at least not altogether idle, nor at a stand in their work, so as there was no need to have them dissolved on that score ; indeed, much more might have been done and proceeded in, if there had not. been something that did let. The two great griev- ances of the law and tithes had such friends in the House, as that, when either of those things came into debate, the House was as divided into two parts : the one very indulgent, still pleading and making defence in their behalf; the other endeavouring the redress of them. Great counsels agree not in all things presently : yet is that no good ground of their dissolution. That the House was not idle, nor at a stand, nor in an inc.-ipacity to do the work of the nation, though so divided as aforesaid, may, besides what appear- eth already, be farther taken knowledge of by these ensuing votes which follow. There were four great votes that passed in the time of the sitting of the House, which some interests were much displeased at, and they passed not with- out great debate. First, a vote for abolishing and taking away the Court of Chancery ; 2dly, a vote for a new body or model of the law ; 3dly, a vote to take away the power of patrons to make presentations ; 4thly, that innocent nega- tive vote of not agreeing with the report of the committee for tithes, touching what they reported, as the best way to The first of the four famous votes which alone remain to be mentioned was a declara- tion that the Court of Chancery should be to- tally taken away and abolished. In almost every recent petition of the people to the su- preme authority of the nation, complaints had been made of the Court of Chancery ; of its dilatory proceedings ; of the enormous expense which it entailed on its suitors ; and of the suspicious nature of its decisions, so liable to be influenced by the personal partialities and interests of the judge. At last this " little Parliament" grappled with the mighty evil ! The debate, which was filled with interest and excitement, lasted two days.* The enemies of the court mustered all their force against it, and, on the main question, the resistance of its friends was feeble. It was beyond a doubt, the movers of the vote affirmed, the greatest griev- ance of the nation. For dilatoriness, charge- ableness, and a faculty of bleeding the people in the purse- vein, even to their utter perishing and undoing, it might compare with, if not surpass, any court in the world. It was confi- dently asserted by persons of great weight that there were depending in that court 23,000 caus- es, some of which had been going on for five, ten, twenty, and thirty years ! that there had been spent therein thousands of pounds, to the ruin, nay, utter undoing, of many families ! that no ship (that is, cause) almost sailed in the sea of the law, but, first or last, it put into that port, where it suffered so much loss that the remedy was worse than the disease ; that what w 7 as ordered in it one day was contra- dicted the next, so that in some causes there had been 500 orders or more ; and that, at last, when the purses of clients began to be emptied, and their spirits a little cooled, then, by a ref- erence to some gentleman in the country, the cause came to be suddenly ended ! In one word, that the Court of Chancery was no better than " a mystery of wickedness and a standing chcat."^ The friends of the court, in apparent inability to weaken the popular strength of these arguments, reserved themselves for the more difficult question of detail ; and, after a brief and ineffectual resistance, suffered the Court of Chancery to be " voted down."t Then arose that question of detail how to give to the vote the shape and efficacy of law how, in other words, to dispose of the causes actually pending in the court, and to substitute a less objectionable tribunal in its place. It was referred to the committee on law affairs, hut the first bill they prepared was rejected. Its provisions were deemed inadequate to the proper arrangement of what should be done, after the court was abolished, respecting caus- es actually before it. A second bill underwent the same fate. A third was judged by the au- thors of the vote to have had too much of the lawyers themselves in its concoction, and the eject scandalous, prophane, and ignorant ministers, <tc., on which presently followed the dissolution of the House." * Whitelocke's Memorials. t The debate is so described in the Exact Relation, p. 12. j " How did good people rejoice," says a writer of the time, " when they heard of that vote, and how sad and sor- rowful were the lawyers and clerks for the fear of the IOSB of their great Diana, may be remembered, with their great joy in making bonfires and drinking sack when they were delivered from their fears by the dissolution of the late Parliament !'' OLIVER CROMWELL. 559 " remedies it prescribed were imagined worse than the disease." It was, without hesitation, rejected. Term now approached ; and the members who had taken foremost part against the lawyers and " their great Diana," reso- lutely put forth a bill to suspend all chancery proceedings for one month, till an effectual provision could be made to meet every diffi- culty. To this, however, the lawyers and their partisans offered the most determined resistance they had yet ventured to make. Cromwell openly assisted them ;* and, taking advantage of the absence of some of their more strenuous adversaries from town, they man- aged to fling the measure out.t Exasperated to conduct as extreme, the reformers in turn collected all the power they could command in the House, brought up their absent members, prepared themselves for a final rally against what they termed the " nuisance of the nation," and within a few days presented a fourth bill ! In this, the defects of all the previous attempts, and particularly of the first bill, were remedied, provision being made in it, in particular, for a proper conclusion to suits now in hand, as well as for the termination of such causes as were ordinarily brought into chancery, so that they should be decided in a short time, and for the most part at an expense of thirty or forty shil- lings ! All opposition to this bill was over- borne. It was read twice in one day, and committed, and would most certainly have passed, had not subsequent proceedings been cut short by the dissolution of the Parliament. But the Court of Chancery was only one stall in the Augean stable of the law, and in this little Parliament had the very soul of a Her- j cules sprang forth against all such impurities of the time. Their second great vote to be recorded was for a general revision and new modelling of the whole body of the law. That design, which the greatest jurists and philoso- phers of our country, from Bacon to Bentham, have won fame by merely propounding and j shaping forth in theory, has alone been boldly and practically grappled with by this so-called j mean and ignorant assembly ! What, they asked, made up the law 1 A voluminous col- j lection of statutes, many of them almost un- known, and many inapplicable in existing cir- cumstances ; the dicta of judges, perhaps ig- norant, frequently partial and interested ; the ! reports of cases, but so contradictory, that they j were regularly marshalled in hosts against j each other ; and the usages of particular dis- tricts, only to be ascertained through the treach- ! erous memories of the most aged of the inhab- * Godwin, vol. iii.. p. 572. t When Cromwell, however, had fairly settled himself in power, he did not scruple, in the year following, to act upon the vote he thus opposed ! lu 1655 he issued an ordi- nance, consisting of sixty-seven articles, " for the better regulating and limiting the jurisdiction of the High Court of Chancery." The commissioners of the great seal, Wid- drington and Whitelocke, with Lenthal, the master of the rolls, informed him by letter, on its appearance, that they had sought the Lord, but did not find themselves free to act according to the ordinance. But, alas for them ! the slightest good-will from the people had become more impor- tant to the Lord Protector than the most potent sanction of the lawyers ; and therefore Cromwell, without the smallest delay or scruple, took the seals from the first two, and gave them to Fiennes and Lisle. Lenthal opportunely overcame his scruples, and remained in office. See Scobell, p. 324, for the ordinance. itants. Englishmen had a right to know the laws by which they were to be governed ; it was easy to collect from the present system all that was really useful ; to improve it by necessary additions ; and to comprise the whole within the shape and compass of a sin- gle reasonably-sized volume. A debate was accordingly held, which lasted, in the midst of very great excitement and a furious opposition, for two days. The result was a vote to ex- press the necessity of the measure, and to refer its details to the committee already ap- pointed, of whom, as I have said, Anthony Ashley Cooper, afterward lord-high-chancellor of England, was a chief member. The com- mittee began with crimes treason in the first place, and secondly murder. The plan was, that this " new body of law," when formed by the committee, was to undergo the patient re- vision of the House, and, as they should see cause, to be in each of its parts adopted or rejected. Meanwhile the opposition was tremendous, and every inch of ground without and within, the House was fought indeed desperately, and with all the basest expedients of faction. The first point laid hold of after the vote was an er- ror of the clerk of the House in wording it. " The clerk," says the author of the Exact Re- lation, " in drawing up the question, put the word body instead of model, which some mem- bers, for the passing of the vote before and af- ter, desired to have altered ; but others, lovers of the law as now it is, opposed the alteration of the word, being very angry at the vote ; and so it went as it was, with some seeming disad- vantage by means of the word body, which some of those aforesaid, being angry, would need fan- cy, and accordingly reported, as if it were in- tended to destroy the law, and take away the laws we had been fighting for all this while as our birth- right and inheritance ; and such a noise was made about it, that made many believe that the House was model ized of monsters rather than men of reason and judgment." The writer adds that, notwithstanding, "there were very sober and moderate gentlemen in the account of all men, that concurred heartily in this vote, and upon whom little blemish will stick." And no doubt, being such, these hard words did not much affect them, since all reformers must wear that epithet of monsters till they transfer it finally to the abuses they have resolved to over- throw. Cromwell assisted, with all his energy, the outcry raised against the vote, and, strength- ened by his authority, there arose from out of the courts and purlieus of Westminster such a multitudinous and tumultuous clamour of voi- ces and of pens, that the like had not been heard before, to " protect from ruin the venerable fabric of English jurisprudence." The pre- sumption of these ignorant and fanatical legis- lators was ridiculed by every device of false- hood ; the desigli was ascribed to them of sub- stituting the law of Moses for the law of the land ; and the people were earnestly conjured to unite in defence of their " birthright and in- heritance," for the preservation of which so many miseries had been endured and so much blood had been shed. This charge of an inten- tion to overthrow all custom and common sense BRITISH STATESMEN. in favour of the law of Moses was afterward frequently insisted on by Cromwell. It rested altogether on a single expression used in the debate, that neither the infliction of the punish- ment of death for theft, nor the sparing the lives of men for murder, under the notion and name of manslaughter, ought to be sanctioned in the new code, because no such things were to be found in the " law of God" or the sanc- tion of " right reason." But a vindication of the purpose and neces- sity of this vote, and of the intentions of its originators, has been left on record by one of themselves, and possesses too much interest and value to be here omitted. The main grounds for it, he tells us, as rested upon in the debate, were the " intricacy, uncertainty, and incon- gruity of the laws as now they are. First," he continues, "that whereas the laws ought to be easy, plain, and short, so that they who were to be subject to them, and have benefit by them, might be able to know and understand them in some good measure, they are now so voluminous, and thereby intricate and uncertain, dark and con- cealed, as few are able to come to the knowl- edge of them. Those of the profession of the law differ, in very many cases, what the law is, and are of several opinions about this thing and the other ; and then how should others, though highly concerned, be able to understand them, and their interest therein contained, there be- ing so many law-books of great bulk, so many old musty records, reports, and book-cases, as that, after the time spent in school-learning', the rest of the time of the flower of a man's years would be little enough to read them over and peruse them; and besides, those records and book-cases are very ill guides or lights to go by, for who know- eth the circumstances that did attend them, which often alter the whole case 1 Who know- eth whether, in those cases, bribery did not make the judgment ; or the powerfulness of some great man ; or the love or hatred of the judge ; or the negligence or corruption of the advocate 1 And, besides, in those law cases, some precedents are directly contrary to others ; and an advocate or counsel allegeth one case or report, and another another ; and then the judge followeth which he pleaseth. How ar- bitrary is the law in this case ! And at what uncertainty are the great interests and proper- ties of men ! . . . Besides, how various are the customs which, notwithstanding, pass for law ! usually unknown but to some old man of the place, which, though it be ever so unrighteous and unreasonable, time out of mind carries it. How bulky and voluminous are the statute- books ! and of so great a price that few are able to buy them ; and so large that few can spare time to read them, to know their right, and how they are concerned in them ; and yet they must be judged, and stand or fall by them. And many times some musty statute, of a hundred years old and more imprinted, is found and made use of by some crafty lawyer, to the undoing of an honest man that meant no hurt, nor knew anything at all of the danger." The wisdom and humanity of these argu- ments are surely not to be disputed. The wri- ter afterward goes on to describe the measures adopted in realization of them. " Upon some- thing," he says, " held forth to this effect, the vote was first carried for a new body or model of the law ; and a committee chosen to that end, who met often, and had the help of some gentlemen of worth, that had deserved well of their country, being true patriots ; who liked well the thing, as very useful and desirable ; it being not a destroying of the law, or putting it down, as some scandalously reported, but a re- ducing the wholesome, just, and good . laws into a body, from them that are useless and out of date ; such as concerned the bishops and Holy Church, so called, and were made in favour of kings, and the lusts of great men, of which there are very many. If the law of God be eyed, and right reason looked into in all, there be some laws that are contrary to both, as the putting men to death for theft, the sparing the lives of men for murder, under the notion and name of manslaugh- ter a term and distinction not found in the righteous law of God; and that unreasonable law, that if a wagon or cart, &c., driven by the owner or some other, with never so much care, fall and kill any person, the owner, though it were his own son or servant, that could no way help it, shall lose his horse and wagon by the profane and superstitious name of deodand ; and the owners of the goods shall lose them also upon the same account, though they were as innocent as Abel. Other instances might also be given. The way the committee took in order to their work, which must needs be elaborate, was, by reducing the several laws to their proper heads to which they did belong, and so modelizing or imbodying of them; taking knowl- edge of the nature of them, and what the law of God said in the case, and how agreeable to right reason they were ; likewise how propor- tionable the punishment was to the offence or crime ; and wherein there seemed anything either de- ficient or excessive, to offer a supply and rem- edy, in order to rectifying the whole. The committee began with criminals. Treason be- ing the highest, they considered the kinds there- of; what was meet to be adjudged treason in a free commonwealth, and what was meet to be the punishment of grand and petty treason- Then they proceeded to murder, the kinds of it, and what was to be so adjudged, and the punishment thereof. The like they intended concerning theft, and, after, to have ascertain- ed and secured property ; as also the executive part of the law, so as a person should not need to part with one property to secure and keep another, as now it is ; persons being forced to lose the property of their cow to keep the prop- erty of their horse, or one parcel of land to pre- serve and keep another. This body of law, when modelized, was to be reported to the House to be considered of, and passed by them as they should see cause : a work in itself great, and of high esteem with many, for the good fruit and benefit that would arise from it ; by which means the huge volumes of the law would come to be reduced into the bigness of a pocket-book, as it is proportionably in New- England and elsewhere. A thing of so great worth and benefit as England is not yet worthy of, nor likely in a short time to be so blessed as to enjoy. And this being the true end and endeavour of those members that laboured in that committee, it is submitted to every godly and rational man in the nation, whether, as is OLIVER CROMWELL. IPvX most falsely and wickedly reported and charged upon persons acting in so much love to their country, their endeavours tended to destroy the whole laws, and pulling them up by the roots." The appeal will be honestly answered at last, even though deferred till now. Nor are there many rational men among us who, while they offer their hearty sympathy to the honourable motives and exertions of this writer and his as- sociates, will not also avow, in shame and re- gret, that the design they had thus commenced two hundred years ago was indeed a thing of so great worth and benefit that England is not yet worthy of it, nor likely in a short time to be so blessed as to enjoy it ! The soldiers and lawyers having thus been thoroughly roused by the first two of these fa- mous votes, it was reserved for the remaining two to provoke the parsons and the patrons of livings. The third great vote, for example, in- volved the subject of presentations to benefices. It assaulted " Satan himself" in his " strong- hold" of advowsons. Nothing could certainly be more adverse to that religious spirit call it fervent or fanatical, seek it among Independents or Presbyterians now in undoubted prevalence with a majority of the English people, than these rights of presentation and advowson, where in the first case the possessor of a certain proper- ty claimed the power of naming the priest of the parish where his property lay, and in the second (as the term is used in ordinary accep- tation), for a given sum of money disposed of that right to another, against the first vacancy that should occur. It was, the originators of this vote contended, contrary to reason that any private individual should possess the pow- er of imposing a spiritual guide upon his neigh- bours, and therefore they argued that presenta- tions should be abolished, and the choice of the minister be vested in the body of the parish- ioners, who might thus have the power, in se- lecting a preacher that was to lead them in the ways of eternal life, to secure one whose modes of thinking coincided with their own, and whose temper, general carnage, and habits of life were agreeable to them. Meanwhile, the question had deeply interested and aroused vast numbers of patrons of livings and influential men of that class, who sought against Parlia- mentary oppression the " protection" of the lord-general ; and an earnest stand was accord- ingly made in their favour. The vote was car- ried, however, on the 17th of November, that the right of presentation to benefices should be taken away, and the people in the several par- ishes be authorized to choose their own instruc- tors. A bill to that effect was at the same time ordered to be brought in. The last and most fatal of all the votes in- volved the much- vexed question of tithes, and was somewhat strangely brought, as by a " side wind," before the House. The result of a " large debate" at the commencement of the session had been an understanding or agree- ment that tithes ought to be abolished, and that in their stead a compensation should be made to the impropriators, and a decent main- tenance provided for the clergy. We have seen, accordingly, that one of the committees which were named for the discussion and ar- rangement of many of the most important 4B questions of public policy was chosen to ex- amine into tithes, with a special instruction to inquire into the alleged sacredness of the prop- erty which was thus constituted. Great were the fluctuations and vicissitudes of the Parlia- ment during the subsequent months ; and it was not till the 2d of December that the com- mittee made its report ; nor is it supposed, in- deed, that the report would even then have been presented, but with the hope of arresting, in some sort, the farther agitation of the ques- tion of advowsons. The report was entitled " respecting the method of rejecting scanda- lous, and settling godly ministers ;" but its chief article was a distinct opinion of the com- mittee appended to it as a sort of second sec- tion, that incumbents, rectors, and impropria- tors had a property in tithes. This report provoked a most earnest and singular debate of five days,* and when the question was put * The author of the " Exact Relation" gives a detailed description, which is as correct as it is vivid, of the circum- stances of this debate, and of the real bearing of this cele- brated vote. "The fourth vote," he says, "whereupon followed the dissolution of the Parliament, was that harm- less negative of not complying with the report of the com- mittee, touching what they offered as the best way to eject ignorant, profane, and scandalous ministers, and encoura- ging them that are good, <fec. ; of which two things, and so an end of this discourse : first, of the proceed to it, and in the debate of it, and then that which followed after it, till the House was dissolved. The proceed was shortly this : after the aforesaid vote had passed, and some of the gentle men of the House were in readiness to offer the bill, the committee for tithes, to counterwork and keep that off, as some thought, did on Monday morning offer this report, and many were for the taking of it on ; others were against the meddling with it at that time ; some moving to have the bill taken in concerning presentations, some to fall on things of more present concernment, as the bill for uniting Scot- land to England. Reasons were offered on every side, and after one o'clock the House rose, and nothing fastened on. The next morning, those that were for the report to be taken in the day before moved again, and the other not op- posing, it was taken in, but not without being put to the vote whether the House would take it in, which was car- ried in the affirmative ; and so the debate began, and con- tinued day after day, till after one o'clock each day, the speaker being aged, and not able to sit longer. The debate was managed day by day with very great seriousness, many arguments, and scriptures being alleged. The House being evenly poised, and great attendance been given by the mem- bers, waiting the time of the vote ; and though any member might, by the rules of the House, have spoken every day as long as the debate continued, yet such was the modesty showed, that hardly any on all the five days spake twice ; very littlo of heat or passion being showed all that time; only one gentleman or two that were for the report, seeing them- selves and their party so engaged, flew out a little, com- plaining of the expense of time, to have given a check to the going on of the debate. But the orders of the House being called for by some of the other side of the speaker, he declared it to be the right of every one to be heard, and that the question could not be put so long as any would speak to it ; withal, those gentlemen were told of their restlessness to take on the debate, and how they wanted patience to wait the issue of if. After three or four days, a member that was against the report offered an expedient, but was not accepted. At last, on Saturday, towards noon, the question drew near, as did also the end of the Parlia- ment ; some members that were against the report having not spoken, and essaying to speak, were persuaded to for- bear, who only gathered the issue and result of the whole, and left it to the House ; which was, whether, upon the whole, this which is in the report was the best expedient for that end ? which some on the other side, that were for the report, perceiving the stress of the question put there, moved that the word 'best' might be put out; but it was not admitted, having been in the report all the time of the debate ; so about one of the clock the vote passed, and upon dividing the House was carried in the negative. A debate of that nature and length, in so great a council, hardly ever passed with such soberness, and little heat or passion. The business was in statu quo as to any one's being either bet- ter or worse ; the report was laid aside, for that the first part of it, whereon the other part depended, was rejected ; to wit, that the best way to eject ignorant, profane, and 562 BRITISH STATESMEN. on the first section as to an entertainment of the mode of settling godly ministers, though the committee, assisted in all respects by Cromwell, had mustered the whole force of the Independents in its favour, it was rejected on the 10th of December by a majorily of two. The numbers were fifty-six to fifty-four. The second part, respecting the property in tithes, was in reality not put to the vote at all ; its fate was held to be included in that of the former ; and it was at once, with the rapidity of lightning, circulated, through London, that Parliament had voted the abolition of tithes, and with them of the ministry, which derived its maintenance from tithes ! The time had arrived for the master-stroke of Cromwell.* Every power in the land that could make itself felt above the general indif- ference of the people was now in arms against the only body which stood between him and absolute rule. The compact between Crom- well and these various powers was thoroughly scandalous ministers, and to encourage them that are good, was by sending certain commissioners empowered to do it, as at full length hath been put forth in print already. There was, at the passing of this vote, 115 members, whereof 54 were the affirmative, and 56 for the negative, and two gentlemen, tellers for each side, and the speaker, which make up that number." * I should observe, that besides the scenes of Parliament that had paved the way for it, other causes had worked as strongly. On every Monday during the session, Feakes and Powell, two Anabaptist preachers, had delivered week- ly lectures to numerous audiences at Blackfriar's. They certainly appear to have been eloquent enthusiasts, com- missioned, as they fancied, by God himself, and regardless of earthly control. They introduced into their sermons most of the subjects discussed in Parliament, and advocated the principles of their sect with a force and extravagance which had powerfully advanced the object of Cromwell and his council ; because, in investing with their fanatical and fantastical phrases the various measures of the Convention, they managed to conceal very effectually from the under- standings of common men their really temperate wisdom and correct bearing on the true interests of the people. Their favourite topic was the Dutch war. God, they main- tained, had given Holland into the hands of the English ; it was to be the landing-place of the saints, whence they should proceed to pluck the w of Babylon from her chair, and to establish the kingdom of Christ on the Conti- nent ; and they threatened with every kind of temporal and everlasting wo the man who should advise peace on any other terms than the incorporation of the United Provinces with the Commonwealth of England. When it was sus- pected, for example, that Cromwell had receded from this demand, their indignation stripped the pope of many of those titles " with which," as Dr. Lingard observes, "he had so long been honoured by the Protestant churches, and the lord-general was publiciy declared to be the beast in the Apocalypse, the old dragon, and the man of sin." Un- willing even to appear to evade the liberty of religious meetings, Cromwell had for some time borne these insults with an air of indifference ; at last he summoned the two preachers before himself and the council ; but the " heralds of the Lord of Hosts quailed not before the servants of an earthly commonwealth ;" they returned rebuke for rebuke, charged Cromwell with an unjustifiable assumption of power, and departed from the conference unpunished and unabashed. By the common and generally indifferent pub- lic, as a matter of course, these sermons at Blackfriar's were considered as strictly and entirely explanatory of the views and principles of the reformers in the House, and the poor reformers suffered accordingly. Their enemies multi- plied daily ; ridicule and abuse were poured upon them from every quarter, and " it became evident to all but them- selves that the hour of their fall was rapidly approaching." In illustration of Messrs. Feakes and Powell's style of preaching, it will only be necessary to quote the mention of the sermons on one occasion, by Beverningk, the Dutch ambassador, who went out of curiosity to hear them. It is given in Thurloe, vol. i., p. 442. " The scope and inten- tion," he says, " is to preach down governments, and to stir up the people against the united Netherlands. Being then in the assembly of the saints, I heard one prayer, two ser- mons ; but, good God '. lehat cruel, and abominable, and most horrid trumpets of fire, murder, and flame !" understood. The sacrifices to be made on the one hand, the " protection" to be given on the other, were as thoroughly prepared. The day after the vote against the report on tithes happened to be Sunday. Cromwell passed it in his own house, in secret consul- tation with his friends ; and the result of this consultation appeared early on the morning of the day following. On Monday, the 12th of December, a considerable number of members in the interest of Cromwell were observed to enter the House of Commons at an unusually early hour. Old Francis Rouse, the speaker, arrived some minutes after them, and a House was at once formed. No question of superior interest had been entered for discussion that day, and the number of the extreme party of reformers who happened to be present was singularly few. When, however, Cromwell's men were observed to enter in such unusual strength, suspicions arose, and messengers were despatched by the reformers for re-en- forcements against them. They had scarcely left the House prayers were briefly said when Colonel Sydenham rose to address the speaker. He must take leave, he said, to unburden himself of some things that had long lain upon his heart. He had to speak, not of matters relating to the well-being of the Commonwealth, but that were inseparable from its very existence. He proceeded to load the measures of the Parlia- ment, and particularly of a majority of its mem- bers, with the most monstrous charges and accusations. He said that they aimed at no less than destroying the clergy, the law, and the property of the subject. Their purpose was to take away the law of the land, and the birthrights of Englishmen, for which all had so long been contending with their blood, and to substitute in their room a code, modelled on the law of Moses, and which was adapted only for the nation of the Jews. In the heat of a preposterous fervour, they had even laid the axe to the root of the Christian ministry, al- leging that it was Babylonish, and that it was anti-Christ. They were the enemies of all in- tellectual cultivation and all learning.* He noticed a motion which had been made by some member, that the great officers of the army should be treated with to serve without pay for one year, and another suggestion that had been offered, in the progress of the bill of as- sessment for six months for the maintenance of the army and navy, that the bill should be laid aside till a plan had been arranged for a more equal taxation of the subject : symptoms, he added, which, in no equivocal manner, indi- cated a deep-laid design in some for the total dissolution of the army.t In these circum- stances, he said that he could no longer satisfy * How little has the style of abuse, in matters apper- taining to reform of law or church, changed with the pas- sage of two centuries ! Is there an Exeter Hall declaimer against education who might not adopt this argument of Sydenham as a text of faith? Is there a party man of re- ligion, above the rank of curate or rector, who does not think the love of tithes synonymous with the love of learn- ing T t But Sydenham himself confessed that this was a mere single and unsupported idea of a single member of the House, taken up by no one after it was broached, dying as soon as born ; and therefore his argument was ridiculous, save as a mere party weapon "a stick to beat a dogge." OLIVER CROMWELL. 563 himself to sit in that House ; and he moved | that the continuance of this Parliament, as now constituted, would not be for the good of the Commonwealth, and that therefore it was requisite that the House, in a body, should re- pair to the lord-general, to deliver back into his hands the powers which they had received from him. His motion was seconded by Sir Charles Wolseley. One of the most eloquent of the reformers (his name has not been preserved by the re- porter of his speech) then rose and earnestly protested against the motion. He defended the character of the Parliament so unnaturally deserted by its own members ; he challenged every statement made by Sydenham on the question of tithes. What had been proposed, he said, was so far from being intended to the prejudice of the parochial clergy, that its ex- press object was to render the revenues of the clergy more certain and equal, by reducing beneh'ces of 200 a year and upward, by in- creasing those of smaller income, and also by making a provision for the widows and children of ministers. As the Long Parliament, when they abolished Episcopacy, and sold the tem- poral revenues of the bishops, deans, and chap- ters, made an express reserve* of all impro- priations, which were to be applied to increase the revenues of the parochial clergy and the universities, so had a precisely similar reserve been made by the present assembly in their act for enabling delinquents to compound for their estates. He then enumerated the various measures conducive to the public advantage that were in progress, and extolled in the highest terms the disinterestedness and dili- gence of the Parliament and its committees. He protested, in conclusion, with passionate earnestness, against a measure fraught with such incalculable calamity as the dispersion of that Parliament would prove. Several other reformers followed on the same side with equal warmth, and the debate promised to be of con- siderable duration. Other reformers, who had been sent for, were now also fast arriving, and the issue seemed at the least doubtful. The number of Cromwell's partisans might be about forty ; the reformers had by this time mustered between thirty and thirty-five.* * This is according to the double evidence of the author of the Exact Relation and of the New Narrative of the Dis- solution. A letter from one of the members to his brother, contained in Thurloe, gives the same number to the Crom- well party, and says, that when the latter had left, only twenty-seven reformers stayed behind. The other eight, no doubt, felt that any farther resistance would be idle. .1 subjoin this letter, from Bussy Mansel to Edward Pritchard, which derives its interest from the fact of its writer having- been present. " Since I writ ray last to you, and some days before, wee were about a report from the committee of tieths, about sending commissioners to the several cir- cuits to cast out all that they judged to be unfit to be min- isters, and to put in all they judged to be fit upon the last day of the weeke. This power und its appurtenances came to the question, and it was carried in the negative. Here- upon those gentlemen that were for the report came sooner than their usual hower upon Munday to the House, and there spoke of the unlikelihood of doing good, and instanced in several things that they judged evill that was don, and therefore desired that they would goe, and returne that power they had from whence they received it ; and there- upon about forty, and the speaker, went to the general!, and did accordingly. Twenty-seven stayed in the House a lit- tle time speaking to one another ; and going to speak to the Lord in prayer, Col. Goffe and Lieut.-col. White came into the House, and desired them that were there to come out. Some answered that they were there by a call from the All doubt, however, was suddenly ended by the extraordinary conduct of the speaker, Francis Rouse, who had become one of Crom- well's most thorough-going tools. Acting on an evidently preconcerted plan, he suddenly rose and left the chair. The sergeant took up the mace and carried it before him as he quitted the hall ; even the clerk rose and went out at the same instant ; while as many members as were favourable to the motion followed, and repaired at once to Whitehall, to demand ad- mission to Cromwell. Some few reformers left also, in hopelessness and disgust. Twenty- seven of the more fervent and enthusiastic remained, gazing on each other in wonder at what had passed, insufficient in numbers to make a House, and without a speaker had they been so inclined. Harrison appears to have been one of these, as well as one of the orators in the debate that had preceded. They continued thus for some time, in helpless con- sultation as to what was to be done, and had just proposed to fall to prayers, when two offi- cers, Colonel Goffe and Major White,* sudden- ly entered, and requested them to withdraw. Harrison demanded by what warrant, and Ma- jor White called in a file of musketeers. No farther resistance was offered ; the House was expeditiously cleared, and the keys left with the guard. The speaker, meanwhile, preceded by the mace, and followed by Sydenham and his party, walked through the streets to Cromwell's resi- dence at Whitehall. Some few members, who were on their way to the House, joined him, in curiosity, as he passed ; some few, in fear. Having arrived at Whitehall, they withdrew into one of the apartments, and placed a few hurried lines on paper expressive of the resig- nation of their power into Cromwell's hands. This was as hastily engrossed by the clerk, subscribed by the speaker and his followers, generall, and would not come out by their desire, unless they had a command from him. They returned noe answer, but went out and fetched two files of musquetiers, and did as good as force them out, amongst whom I was an un- worthy one." * A vulgar piece of pleasantry, on the part of this Major White, has been suffered to creep into history. He is said to have asked, on his entrance, ' What they did there !" to have been answered by Harrison, " That they were seek- ing the Lord;" and to have rejoined, "Then you may go elsewhere, for to my knowledge he has not been here for several years post." The anecdote rests on the authority of a piece of Royalist scurrility, in which the circumstance of the dissolution is described after this fashion: " In the mean time, Rouse, the speaker, with the mace before him (and his followers), came to Whitehall, and there resigned the instrument he gave them, by which they were consti- tuted a Parliament, and gave them likewise to understand how they had left their fallows. Their surrendnry was kindly received by Oliver, and they thanked for the pnins they had taken in the service of the Commonwealth, how- ever he and they had miss'd.of their intentions of the good should thereby have come to the Commonwealth, which a strange spirit an4 perverse principle in some of the mem- bers had solely hindered ; and as to them yet sitting in the Parliament House, he despatched away Lieutenant-colonel White, a confident of his, to dislodge them, who according- ly, with a guard of red-coats, came thither, and entering the House, demanded them, in the name of the general, to depart, for the Parliament was dissolved ; who, replying to the contrary, and tilling him they were upon business, and ought not thus to be disturbed, he asked, ' What business ?' They answered, ' We are seeking of God.' ' Pugh !' saith he, is that all 1 That's to no purpose, for God hath not been within these walls these twelve years ;' and so fairly compelled them out, muttering with the same wrath and sorrowful looks back as those that had sat thirty times the same term, and could have almost pleaded prescription." BRITISH STATESMExN. and tendered by them to Cromwell, who at once put on a well-painted air of surprise, as- severated that he was not prepared for such an offer, and protested that he could not load himself with so heavy and serious a burden.* But his reluctance yielded at last to the remon- strances and entreaties of Lambert and the officers, and the instrument was laid in a chamber of the palace for the convenience of such members as had not yet subscribed their names. It lay there three days, and, though only sign- ed at first by Sydenham's party, it is said to have exhibited, at the close of the third day, very nearly eighty names a majority of the whole assembly ; nor do I find any distinct au- thority that questions this. In what way these signatures were obtained, or whether they were in all respects genuine, is a matter scarcely worth discussion. The existence of the Con- vention sprang out of cheat and delusion ; and though its career was elevated into respect by the unlooked-for gravity of its counsels and the wise determination of its measures, its abrupt and iniquitous end was nothing more than the natural consummation of its monstrous origin. Some of the members, it is said, were induced to yield their signatures to the solicitations of the friends of Cromwell ; some to fear, and a reluctance to incur the displeasure of the pow- erful ; several, according to one of their own members, because certain of their companions and allies had done it already ; several, happy that they might so be rid of a troublesome and thankless employment ; and several, because they would not expose themselves to the charge of ambition, and an overweening love of digni ty and power.* Thus was a majority at last obtained, and within a few hours afterward came forth the new constitution of government, in which Oliver Cromwell openly stood su- preme. On Friday, the 16th of December, 1653 an ominous day the lord-general set out in his carriage, at about one in the afternoon, from his own residence to Westminster Hall, through two lines of soldiery, composed of five regi- ments of foot and three of horse. When he * It seems hardly credible that such hypocrisy as this could have been attempted ; but Cromwell had now lost, in matters of this kind, all sense of ingenuousness or shame. His tools and creatures would seem to believe anything, for the pleasure, in being duped, of duping others in turn ; and he himself would seem ready to say or do anything at all times, only to show his power of doing or saying it. He had the deliberate effrontery, for example, to repeat the present farce of falsehood to the first Parliament of the Protectorate, whom he assured, in the most solemn manner, " that he was so far from having any hand iu the project, that he was an absolute stranger to the design, till the speaker, with the major part of the House, came to him with the instrument of their resignation." It was in the same speech, I may add, that he used the characteristic expression, " I have appealed to God before you already ; I know that it is a tender thing to make appeals to God." I do not insult the common sense of the reader by affecting to inquire into the possibility of sincere self-delusion here. Setting aside the plain course of his policy, from the first moment of the existence of this Parliament to his last delib- eration with his officers before its fall, will any rational person believe that a file of musketeers could be marched into the House of Parliament, the members turned out, and the door of the House locked, without the knowledge of the lord-general ? I subjoin an extract from Ludlow, in cor- roboration of the views already urged in the text. " The perfidious Cromwell having forgot his most solemn profes- sions and former vows, as well as the blood and treasure that had been spent in this contest, thought it high time to take off the mask, and resolved to sacrifice all our victories and deliverances to his pride and ambition, under colour of taking upon him the office, as it were, of a high constable, in order to keep the peace of the nation, and to restrain men from cutting one another's throats. One difficulty yet re- mained to obstruct his design, and that was the Convention, which he had assembled and invested with power, as well as earnestly solicited to reform the law, and reduce the clergy to a more evangelical constitution ; and having suf- ficiently alarmed those interests, and shown them their danger from the Convention, he informs thnm farther that they cannot be ignorant of the confusion that all things are brought into by the immoderate zeal of those in authority, and to what extremities matters might be reduced if per- mitted to go on possibly, said he, to the utter extirpation of law and Gospel from among us ; and therefore advised that they would join their interests to his, in order to pre- vent this inundation. His proposition was readily embraced by the corrupt part of the lawyers and clergy, and so he became their protector, and they the humble supporters of his tyranny. But that his usurpation might seem less hor- rid, he so contrived it, by his instruments, that some of the Convention must openly manifest their disapprobation of their own proceedings, and under divers specious pretences put a period to their sitting. When the instrument of res- ignation was brought to Cromwell, 'tis said he lifted up his eyes with astonishment, and with no less seeming mod- esty refused to receive it ; but at length, through the im- portunity of Major-general Lambert and others, represent- ing to him that the welfare of the nation absolutely required his acceptance of the Parliament's resignation, he thought fit to comply with their request." * Exact Relation. There are some other points of detail in the account of the writer of the Exact Relation, which make it worth while to subjoin the description of the whole scene of the dissolution in his own words : " The speaker, forgetting the duty of his place, though he was earnestly called unto to keep the chair, he left it ; and the sergeant, as if he had been of council, took up the mace and carried it before him, though he was spoken unto to the contrary, ai in like manner did the chief clerks ; and thus, in an irrup- tious way going out of the House without any adjournment or vote, left sitting thirty or thirty-five members in the House. Whether those that so went away were a greater, or lesser number, as is more likely, it is hard to be deter- mined, though it be thought by some there were not sev- enty so early in the House. Those that went out of the House, going towards Whitehall, met some coming to the House, who, seeing them go in that manner, thought they had adjourned thither, and so went along with them : others they sent for up and down, where they could find them, to come to them to the House chamber, where they were. Those in the House immediately betook themselves to consider what they had to do, being so deserted of their fellows ; and telling over their number, they found them- selves but thirty-four or thirty-five, which could not make a House, forty being the least number that might act in a Parliamentary way. As they were going to consider among themselves, a colonel and lieutenant-colonel entered the House, and desired them to depart. The members desired them to withdraw, for that they, as members of Parliament, had warrant to be there ; and if they had warrant to put them out, they wished them to show it ; but not many words passed ; they went back and opened the doors, and brought in the soldiers with their muskets, and then the gentlemen rose and went out, which was done before the other were halfway at Whitehall ; and some so put out of the House went after to Whitehall, to see what they were doing, and found them in the House chamber, preparing a writing of surrender of their power back into his hands from whom they had received it. If they had been his council, and not legislators or a Parliament, much might have been in it ; it was three or four lines written in four or six several papers, that so the gentlemen might more easily read and see what it was ; which, when the clerk engrossed on parchment, then they signed it by subscribing their names, as many as would ; first the speaker, and then others, according to their quality. It may be wondered at that, so great a power should be passed by so low and little an instrument. Some gentlemen went three or four days after, and set their hands to it. They that subscribed it did it on several grounds and reasons : some did it knowingly to dissolve the House, before dissolved by the soldiers, and their disorderly going away, whick they had plotted and resolved before ; some because some eminent persons of their party did it before them, expecting- by that means to have been rid of some of the other party at the least, and they to have continued in power without them, wherein they were deceived, and not a little vexed ; some therein looked no farther than at their own quiet, and to be rid of a troublesome employment ; some, that they might not be thought lovers of power and dignity ; and some, out of weakness and fear of the loss of some worldly enjoyment, which they have sufficiently repented and been sorry for since." OLIVER CROMWELL. 565 arrived at the door of the Hall, a procession formed, of persons who there awaited him, and wonderfully complete were the various arrange- ments for an event, of the possibility of which the chief actor, only three days before, had sol- emnly asseverated his utter and hopeless igno- rance ! The aldermen entered first, then the judges, the commissioners of the great seal (Keble and Lisle), and the lord-mayor. Be- hind these were the two councils, of state and the army. They ascended to the court of chancery, where a chair of state with a cush- ion had been placed on a rich carpet, and here arranged themselves Keble on the right hand of the chair, and Lisle on the left ; the judges on both sides ; the lord-mayor and aldermen on the right, and the members of the two councils on the left. It was a brilliant scene : the robes of the civilians blended with the full dress equip- ments of the soldiers in a most imposing pic- ture, and excitement stirred on every face. Cromwell entered, and every person in the hall uncovered. He advanced, and took his place next the Lord-commissioner Lisle. He was plainly dressed a secret artifice of pride. He wore neither robes nor uniform, but a sim- ple suit and cloak of black velvet, with long boots, and a broad gold band round his hat. As soon as he had taken his position, Lambert ad- vanced from the circle and addressed him. He declared the dissolution of the late Parliament ; observed that the exigency of the time required a strong and stable government ; and prayed his excellency, in the name of the army and the three nations, to accept the office of Protector of the Commonwealth, or chief magistrate, un- der a new Constitution, which had been pre- pared by the council of the army and sanction- ed by the principal officers of state.* * There can be scarcely a doubt that this assertion was only part of the entire delusion, and that the form as well as details of the new Constitution had been, in fact, the entire suggestion and arrangement of Cromwell himself. Ludlow says, in the sole account preserved of its origin or authorship, that it had been in deliberation for upward of two months before this memorable day, and many other circumstances stronjly corroborate this most probable as- sertion. Not the least striking of these, I may add, is the fact (which I have established in the Life of Vane) that the best provisions in this " instrument," relating to the estab- lishment of new constituencies, are bodily taken out of the famous reform act of Vane, which Cromwell brought away with him under his cloak, uncopicd and unengrossed on the fatal 20th of April. Another remarkable fact which tends to prove it is, that when the idea of a new Instrument of Government was first submitted to Cromwell in private, the title appropriated to the chief magistrate in the first article would seem to have been that of king. To this Cromwell at once objected. No doubt he wished to receive the offer from a less questionable authority, and had secret- ly resolved, also, that the minds of the people and of his own partisans should be better prepared, before he ven- tured on a step so hazardous. The Dutch ambassador (see Thurloe, vol. i., p. 644) seems to have received a confused statement of this circumstance ; for he says that it was Cromwell's first project to he declared king, and that he only desisted because of the reluctance of his officers. The contrary would decidedly appear (if we may trust an au- thority by no means indisputable) from a speech of Crom- well to the body of 100 officers, who waited on him in Feb- ruary, 1657, to remonstrate against the title of king. He plainly tells them that they had on the former occasion of- fered him the title, and that he had refused it. (MSS. Ad- ditions to Avscough, appended by Mr. Rutt to Burton's Di- ary. And Bates, in his Elenchus Motuum, part ii., p. 166, observes on the occasion, "Yet Cromwell would not accept of the government by the title of kin?, though he was per- suaded to it by many,") The obscure statement of the offi- cial account is merely that "the Parliament having sur- rendered its powers into the hands of the lord-general, from whom it bad received tbpm, he called a council of the Lambert, as he concluded, turned to one of the clerks of the council, Jessop, and ordered him to read aloud the act or instrument in which this new Constitution was imbodied. The read- ing of this act, entitled "the Government of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belong- ing," occupied upward of half an hour. It was a document of unquestionable ability, as even the brief abstract which may be admitted here will show. Its first and most essential article was, that the supreme legislative authority should be in, one person, and the people in Parliament as- sembled ; and that the style of that person should be Lord Protector. It proceeded, that the Protector should be assisted with a coun- cil, of not fewer than thirteen, nor more than twenty-one persons ;* that all writs, processes, commissions, and grants should run in his name ; and that from him should be derived all magis- tracy and honours ; that he should order the militia and forces both by sea and land, and with his council should have the power of war principal officers of the army, and advised with other per- sons of interest in the nation, who, after three days seeking God and consulting on the subject, concluded upon the form of the government of the Commonwealth. (Declaration of the Lord Erotector." Perfect Diurnal, Dec. 19. Weekly Intelligencer, Dec. 20.) This council is said to have been opened by the lord-general with a most excellent, wise, loliows: "Alter," ne says, "a rew uays, a council or neiu- olficers was summoned, where Major-general Lambert hav- ing rehearsed the several steps and degrees by which things had been brought to the present state wherein they were, and pressed the necessity incumbent upon the army to pro- vide something in the room of what was lately taken away, presented to them a paper intituled ' An Instrument of Gov- ernment,' which he read in his place. Some of the officers being convinced that the contents of this instrument tended to the sacrificing all our labours to the lust and ambition of a single person, began to declare their unwillingness to concur in it. But they were interrupted by the major-gen- eral, and informed that it was not now to be disputed whether this should be the form of government or not, for that was already resolved, if having been under considera- tion for two months past; neither was it brought before them with any other intention than to give them permission to offer any amendments they should think fit, with a prom- ise they should be taken into consideration. The council of officers, perceiving to what terms they were restrained, proposed that it might be declared in this instrument that the general of the army should, after this first time, lie held incapable of being Protector (for that was the title given by this instrument to the chief magistrate, though some were laid to have moved that it might be king), that none of the relations of the last Protector should be chosen at the next succeeding election, and that a general council of all the commission officers who were about the town should be summoned to consider thereof. To these propositions they could obtain no other answer than that they should be of- fered to the .general, which was the title they yet gave to Cromwell. At the next meeting of the officers it was not thought fit to consult with them at all ; but they were openly told by Major-general Lambert that the general would take care of managing the civil government ; and then, having required them to repair to their respective charges, where their troops and companies lay, that they might preserve the public peace, he dismissed them." * By observing the first council appointed by the new Protector under this institute, we may fairly make out Cromwell's chief creatures and most favourite advisers through all the recent extraordinary scenes. Of the twelve original counsellors named by him in the preceding April, six were preserved, Lambert, Desborough, Strickland, Syd- enham, Philip Jones, and Sir Gilbert Pickering ; and six omitted, Harrison, Tomlinson, Stapeley, Carew, Moyer, and Bennet. To the six preserved were added seven from among those who had been named by the Parliament on their meeting, Lord Lisle, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Sir Charles Wolseley, Fleetwood, Montague, Richard Major, and Henry Lawrence. To these counsellors were now first added by Cromwell, Major-general Skippon, and Francis Rouse, the late speaker. 566 BRITISH STATESMEN. and peace ; that no law should be altered, sus- pended, abrogated, or repealed, but by the au- thority of Parliament ; and that a Parliament should be summoned in every third year. It directed that the summons to Parliament should be by writ under the great seal, and that, if the Protector should neglect to order these writs, the keeper or keepers of the seal should issue them on their own authority, under pain of high treason. Also, in case of similar neglect in these officers, the sheriffs of the counties were to proceed in the election in the same manner as if the writs had been issued, under the like penalty. Each Parliament was to sit five months ; and if an intermediate Parliament was called by the Lord Protector, it was not to be prorogued or dissolved within three months, unless by its own consent. In case of war with any foreign state, a Parliament was to be sum- moned immediately. The institute determined that every person possessing an estate, real or personal, to the value of two hundred pounds, should have a vote at the election of members of Parliament, excepting such as had been con- cerned in the war against the Parliament or in the rebellion in Ireland. It ordered, that all bills passed by the Parliament should be pre- sented to the Lord Protector for his assent, and if he did not assent within twenty days, the Parliament might declare his neglect, and the bills should then become law notwithstanding. The army was limited not to exceed ten thou- sand horse and twenty thousand foot. It was also directed, in an article which disclosed the secret and naked despotism which lurked be- neath it all, that, till the meeting of the first triennial Parliament in September, 1654, the Protector and, council might have power to raise money for the public defence, and to make such j laws and ordinances as the welfare of the nation [ should require. No member could be removed from the council but for corruption, or such oth- er miscarriage as should be judged by a commit- tee from the Parliament and the council, togeth- er with the keeper or keepers of the seal ; the removal during the intervals of Parliament to j be made by the council itself, with the consent ; of the Protector. The institute farther ordered that the keeper or keepers of the seal, the treas- urer, the admiral, the chief justices of the two benches, and the chief governors of Scotland and Ireland, should be nominated by Parlia- ment, and in the intervals of Parliament by the Protector and council ; that, as soon as might be, a provision should be made for the main- tenance of the clergy, less subject to scruple and contention, and more certain, than the way of tithes ; and that no person should be com- pelled to conform to the Established Church ; nor should any be restrained, but all protected, in the profession and exercise of his religion, with an exception of the adherents of popery and prelacy. It was one article in the Institute of Government, that Oliver Cromwell should be declared Lord Protector for life, and that, in case of his demise, the council of state should assemble to the number of not fewer than thir- teen, and immediately elect his successor. This clause was generally supposed to have been in- serted to conciliate Lambert, and to feed him with the hope of being second lord protector. It was altered in the subsequent Petition and Advice, and the power surrendered to Crom- well. The plan for the future representation of the people was, as I have already endeav- oured to show, in all its essentials, copied from the celebrated act which was on the point of passing into a law on that fatal twentieth of the preceding April. The representatives for England were to be four hundred. All petty boroughs where there was scarcely a single house were suppressed, and the representation, as nearly as might be, proportioned to the amount of taxation. Of these, 251 were to be county members, besides six for London, two for the Isle of Ely, two for the Isle of Wight, and two each for Exeter, Plymouth, York, Col- chester, Gloucester, Canterbury, Leicester, Lin- coln, Westminster, Norwich, Lynn, Yarmouth, Nottingham, Shrewsbury, Taunton, Bristol, Ips- wich, Bury, Southwark, Coventry, Worcester, and Salisbury, one each for the two uniTersi- ties, and one each for all the towns and bor- oughs that were thought proper to be repre- sented, among which Manchester is named. In addition to these, there were to be 30 repre- sentatives for Scotland, and 30 for Ireland ; the distribution of the counties, cities, and places represented, and the number of their represent- atives respectively, being to be determined by the Lord Protector and his council previously to issuing the writs. When the reading had closed, Lisle turned to Cromwell to administer to him his oath as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth ; but even at this instant the habit of dissimulation pre- vailed over every other, and scruples appeared, and a wonderful humility and a most touching reluctance, which only gave way at last to an assent more touching still, in its seeming sac- rifice of every selfish wish to the interests of his country ! Then, raising his right hand and his eyes to heaven with great solemnity, Crom- well swore to observe, and cause to be observ- ed, all the articles of the Instrument ; and Lam- bert, falling on his knees, offered to the Lord Protector a civic sword in the scabbard, which he accepted, laying aside his own, to denote that he meant to govern by constitutional, and not by military authority ! He then seated him- self in the chair of state provided for him ; put on his hat while the rest still stood uncovered ; received the great seal from the commissioners, the sword of state from the lord-mayor, formally delivering them back again ; and, having exer- cised these acts of sovereign authority, return- ed in procession to his carriage, and drove back to his palace at Whitehall with the state and majesty of a king. In the evening of the same day proclamation was made in every quarter of London accom- panied by all the ceremonies that had hitherto been used on the accession of a new monarch of the establishment of a new government by means of a chief magistrate and triennial Par- liaments ; and the people were called upon to offer their allegiance and obedience in all things to OLIVER CROMWELL, LORD PROTECTOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH. Cromwell's first act was to revive the forms of monarchy. He issued new patents to the judges, as on the occasion of a succession to OLIVER CROMWELL. 567 the crown * He then completed the arrange- ments of his council, as named in the Instru- * It appears from the order-hooks and law records that the first law-term of the year commenced on the 23d of January ; and, accordingly, four days before, a fresh patent was issued to Rolle, chief justice of the upper, and Atkins, one of the puisne judges of the common bench ; on the first day of term, a similar patent was granted to St. John, chief justice of the common bench ; and before the end of the month, patents were made out to Aske, a puisne judge of the upper bench, and Thorpe, a baron of the Exchequer. At the same time, Matthew Hale (I borrow many of these details from Mr. Godwin's Researches) was made a judge of the common bench, and Robert Nicholas, who had pre- viously been a judge in the upper bench, was added to Thorpe in the Exchequer. Wild, who had been made chief baron in the year before the king's death, was desirous of being continued in his office, but could not obtain that favour from the Protector. Shortly after these appoint- ments, a list was formed of twelve persons to hold the as- sizes at the principal towns of England for the spring cir- cuit. Secret instructions were at the same time given to such as the new Protector could rely on, that they were " to take especial care to extend all favour and kindness to the Cavalier party." (Ludlow, vol. ii., p. 489.) Rolle and Glyn were named for the western circuit, St. John and Atkins for the Oxford, Aske and Richard Newdigate for the home, Thorpe and Richard Pepys for the midland, Nicholas and William Conyers for the Norfolk, and Hale and Hugh Windham for the northern. Five of these per- sons, Glyn, Newdigate, Pepys, Conyers, and Windham, had not received patents as judges, and must therefore have officiated merely pro ftac vice. Hale, Pepys, Newdigate, and Windham were called to the degree of sergeant at this time, together with Steele, the recorder, Maynard, Thomas Fletcher, and Thomas Twisden. Glyn and Conyers had been made sergeants in August, 1648. The names of Glyn and Maynard are emphatic proofs that these wily men an- ticipated a brilliant prospect for their detestable principles under this reign of Cromwell. Attorney-general Prideaux had a fresh patent from the Protector (docket-book of the Crown Office), January 23, 1654, and William Ellis was made solicitor-general (ibid.), May 24. The appointment of St. John is curious when we recall his own defence of himself under Charles the Second, and instead of corrobo- rating that defence, would go to prove an extreme interest and confidence reposed in him by Cromwell. " It is said that I was the dark lantern and privy counsellor in setting up and managing affairs in the late Oliver Protector's time. This wholly denied, and the contrary true, and many wit- nesses of my manifesting my dislike. In October I fell sick so dangerously, that from that time till the end of May my friends expected death ; I think in December or January he was set up, when I was at the worst." But I have already given abundant proofs of St. John's servile assistance to his great relation in all his worst designs. I cannot suffer the more honourable name of MATTHEW HALE to pass even in a note without giving (from Burnet's History of his own Time) two memorable instances of the way in which he discharged the functions of that office, to which it is one of the greatest merits of Cromwell to have appointed him. " Nut long," says the bishop, " after he was made a judge, when he went the circuit, a trial was brought before him at Lincoln concerning the murder of one of the townsmen, who had been of the king's party, and was killed by a sol- dier of the garrison there. He was in the fields with a fowling-piece on his shoulder, which the soldier seeing, he came to him, and said it was contrary to an order which the Protector had made, that none who had been of the king's party should carry arms, and so he would have forced it from him ; but as the other did not regard the or- der, so being stronger than the soldier, he threw him down, and having beat him, he left him. The soldier went into the town, and told one of his fellow-soldiers how he had been used, and got him to go with him, and lie in wait for the man, that he might be revenged on him. They both watched his coming to town, and one of them went to him to demand his gun, which he refusing, the soldier struck at him, and as they were struggling, the other came behind, and ran his sword into hi body, of which he presently died. It was in the time of the assizes, go they were both tried. Against the one there was no evidence of forethought felony, so he was only found guilty of manslaughter, and burned on the hand ; but the other was found guilly of mur- der ; and though Colonel Whalay, that commanded the garrison, came into the court, and urged that the man was killed for disobeying the Protector's orders, and that the soldier was but doing his duty, yet the judge regarded both his reasons and threateuingii very little, and therefore he not only gave sentence against him, but ordered the execu- tion to be so suddenly done that it might not be possible to procure a reprieve., which he believed would have been ob- ti-aed if there had been time enough granted for it. An- 1 ment of Government, in the mode best fitted to promote his aims.* Colonel Henry Law- rence was nominated president for a month, reappointed at its expiration till farther orders, and, in fact, retained the office during the whole of the Protectorate. Thurloe, a man of thor- ough fitness for the work, was named secreta- ry to the council, or, as he is frequently styled, secretary of state ; and Walter Frost, the sec- retary under the Commonwealth, was appoint- ed to an office which was called treasurer for the council's contingencies. Philip Meadows was chosen secretary for the Latin tongue, the office held under the statesmen by Milton ; and Milton's name was entered in the order-book along with these, but unaccompanied with any specification of salary, or of the business in which he was to be employed. t other occasion was given him of showing both his justice and courage, when he was in another circuit. He under- stood that the Protector had ordered a jury to be returned for a trial in which he was more than ordinarily concerned. Upon this information he examined the sheriff about it, who knew nothing of it, for he said he referred nil such, things to the under sheriff; and having next asked the under sheriff concerning it, he found the jury had been re- turned by order from Cromwell ; upon which he showed the statute, that all juries ought to be returned by the sheriff or his lawful officer ; and this not being done accord- ing to law, he dismissed the jury, and would not try the cause ; upon which the Protector was highly displeased with him, and at his return from the circuit, told him in anger he was not fit to be a judge ; to which all the answer he made was, that it was very true.'' * The following is the list, as published officially, of the i names of the councillors: Philip Viscount Lisle; Charles Fleetwood ; John Lambert ; Edward Montague ; John Des- borough ; Walter Strickland ; Henry Lawrence ; Sir Gil- bert Pickering, Bart. ; Sir Charles Wolseley, Bart. : Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Bart. ; William Sydenham : Philip Jones ; Richard Major ; Francis Rouse ; Philip Skippon. To these were added, February 7, 1654. Humphrey Mack- worth ; April 27, Nathaniel Fiennes ; and June 30, Ed- mund Sheffield, earl of Mulgrave. The salary of each counsellor was i'1000 per annum. (See Thurloe, vol. iii., p. 581.) One of the first orders issued was, that the coun- cil should sit on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thurs- day, in the morning, and on Friday both morning and after- noon, and not at other times without special direction from the Lord Protector. The sittings were to commence at nine, and not to continue after one ; and each member who did not appear at nine, and was absent without reasonable excuse, was to forfeit two shillings and sixpence. t Mr. Godwin has directed special attention to the con- stitution of this council. The members, he would have us recollect, were named in the Act of Government, which was always represented by Cromwell himself as of such paramount authority, that even the Parliament itself was not entitled to call it in question. No one of them could be displaced but for corruption or other miscarriage in his trust ; and in that case the Parliament was to appoint seven, of its members, and the council six, who, together with the lord-chancellor, lord-keeper, or commissioners of the great seal for the time being, should have power to hear and de- termine such corruption or miscarriage, and to award and inflict such punishment as the nature of the offence might deserve, which punishment should not be pardoned or re- mitted by the Lord Protector : the major part of the council, with the consent of the Protector, being authorized, in the intervals of Parliament, to suspend any of their number till the accusation against him could be heard and examined in the manner prescribed. The counsellors appointed by the act were fifteen ; and the Protector, with the advice of his council, might increase their number to twenty-one ; but, in case of death or other removal, the Parliament was to nominate six candidates for the vacant place, out of which the council might name two, between whom the Protector was to elect the successor. All this may be quite true, and such a boon was naturally enough given at first setting out to the restiff and selfish officers, who were to believe that the new form nf government was as much an aristocracy or oligarchy as a monarchy. But Cromwell was not long iu teaching them their mistake. He only waited to be more firmly planted in his chair, and then did not scruple to pro- ceed in the most important matters without an order of council, and, as it should seem, without even consulting his assessors of state. 568 BRITISH STATESMEN. While the council arrangements proceeded, the most extravagant rumours became rife in London. The new Protector had already been secretly crowned ; Lambert was commander- in-chief and a duke, Oliver St. John lord-treas- urer, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper lord-chan- cellor, and Lord Say chamberlain of the house- hold.* The peerage of England was to be re- stored ; the various lords were to repair imme- diately to London, and submit to the new gov- ernment ; plays and players were to " go up" again, and all was to jog merrily on once more in the old road.t This was a little too fast for Cromwell. He went to work in a more gradual way. His next actions were directed, indeed, to that most miserable result, but though they argued more than the power of monarchy, they were as yet content to fall somewhat short of its forms. He proceeded to exhibit in practice that monstrous clause in the act of his author- ity which gave, before the assembling of Par- liament, absolute legislative as well as execu- tive power to him and his council. One of his first ordinances was, in a manner, to abolish the Commonwealth he had been called in to protect. It publicly repealed the ' memorable engagement imposed on the English people by the statesmen, to be true and faithful | to the Commonwealth of England, as then es- ! tablished, without king or House of Lords. A second ordinance significantly declared the new offences that were to be taken and ad- judged for treason. These were, to compass or imagine the death of the Lord Protector ; to j raise forces against the present government ; to deny that the Protector and the people as- sembled in Parliament are the supreme au- thority of the nation, or that the exercise of j the chief magistracy is centred in him ; to af- firm that the government is tyrannical, usurped, ; or illegal, or that there is any Parliament now in j being- ; and, finally, the effort to proclaim, or in any wise to promote, any of the posterity of | the late king to be king or chief magistrate of ', England, Scotland, or Ireland, or any of the dominions thereunto belonging. Other ordinances, either of this or a some- i what later date, may also claim mention here. Various duties and imposts, as those of excise, ! were continued for a certain term, and one of i * Thurloe's papers give a variety of rumours of this kind, j t " His highnes is not yet come to Whitehall ; 200,000 ; is setled upon him yerely ; he is choosing officers of state. It is thought that the lords will be sent for to attend him at court, to acknowledge and submitt to the government ; and wee heare that playes are gotinge vp agame, and that thinges had beene comings to the old rode." Thurloe, vol. ii., p. 8. i It provokes only laughter and contempt when we ob- serve, from the order-book of the Protector and his council, . that when they passed bills, the forms were exactly copied I that were used in the two Houses of Parliament ! Every bill is read twice ; then referred to a committee, which committee ordinarily consists of three persons, of whom two are a quorum ; afterward read a third time ^ and lastly pre- , vented to the Protector as the advice of the council, and by i him passed for a law, and ordered to be printed and pub- lished. Yet Ihe council, when full, only amounted to four- teen, as Fleet wood continued in Ireland. What a mean and base inculcation of hypocrisy is here ! $ I may mention that Ashley Cooper had made an unsuc- cessful effort to effect this in the Barbone Parliament. On the 20th of October, 1633, a bill was brought into that Par- liament from a committee, and presented by Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, for annulling the engagement, but was re- jected. An act for taking away one of the penalties on non-subscribers was, with some difficulty, substituletl. in its room. two acts which had been brought to their last stage of completion by the statesmen of the Long Parliament now received the efficacy of law. Among these were the ordinance of union between England and Scotland, and that of grace and oblivion to the people of Scotland,* which formed its proper companion. The same course was adopted also with regard to a few acts of the little Parliament, as in that which brought the public revenue into the treasury ; and that which was designed to compromise the question of chancery reform by simplifying the process of the court, and reducing its expenses.! Two ordinances pass- ed at the same time for the distribution of per- sons to be chosen to serve in Parliament for Scotland and Ireland ; one for commissioners to approve of public preachers ; and one for the ejection of scandalous, ignorant, and insuffi- cient ministers. The latter ordinances had been in some sort clamoured for by sections of the people, and were wily instances of Cromwell's power of coercing, while he seemed to be most freely giving way. A slight description of them will show of what good they were capable, and of how much monstrous evil. The commission- ers under that for the approval of preachers were thirty-eight, nine of whom were laymen, and the rest divines. At their head was Crom- well's convenient old friend and counsellor, Francis Rouse, the provost of Eton. With him, among others, were associated Owen, Goodwin, Caryl, and Lockyer, Cromwell's fa- vourite preachers ; Hugh Peters, Philip Nye, Peter Sterry, Marshal, Manton, and Major- general Goffe. They were empowered to ex- amine the qualifications of such as should be named to benefices, as well as of such as had been presented since a certain recent date. The ordinance for ejecting scandalous and ig- norant ministers was, however, infinitely more extensive, and projected a thorough purgation of the Church Establishment of insufficient and unworthy clergy, at whatever period they might have been inducted into their livings. It ap- pointed commissioners, from fifteen to thirty in each county,:): to carry the ordinance into execution ; to hear complaints against all cler- gy ; and to deprive such as should be proved guilty of maintaining the principles condemned in the act against atheistical, blasphemous, and execrable opinions ; or of profane cursing and swearing, and perjury ; or of adultery, forni- cation, drunkenness, common haunting of tav- erns and alehouses, and frequent playing at * From this grace were excepted nine earls, two vis- counts, and five barons. t See ante, p. 555, aud p. 559. i From those commissioners, at the same time, though the majority were tools of Cromwell, it was found impossi- ble to exclude various men, the most distinguished in their counties, who had opposed the usurpation of Cromwell. I find, among other names, those of Lord Fairfax, Lord Whar- ton, Lord Say, Samuel Browne, Thomas Scot. Sir Arthur Hazlerig, Sir Robert Harley, and Robert Blake, together with those of most of the members of the council, Henry Lawrence, Viscount Lisle, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Sir Charles Wolseley, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lambert, Skippon, Sydenham, and Major. The names of Richard lord Crom- well and Henry lord Cromwell, sons of the Protector, were also in the commission. The ordinance named eight or ten clergy besides for every county, who were to be joined to the lay commissioners in all questions of ignorance and in- sufficiency. The principal of these was Owen. The cele- brated Richard Baxter, the Presbyterian, was bkewise iu- ciuded. OLIVER CROMWELL. 569 cards or dice ; also to incapacitate such as should publicly and profanely scoff at the pro- fession or professors of religion and godliness, or should encourage and countenance Whit- sun - ales, wakes, morris-dances, May - poles, and stage plays ; such as should hold or main- tain popish doctrines, or frequently and pub- licly read the Book of Common Prayer, or should have declared by writing, preaching, or otherwise, their disaffection to the present government ; and such as should be non-resi- dent, or should be accounted negligent, and omit the duties of praying and preaching. These ordinances worked as Cromwell wished. Some good was done by them, and much evil. Among the most- celebrated men who suffered under them, and were with difficulty restored, may be named the most learned man of the day, Pocock, the Oxford professor of Hebrew and Arabic ; and Fuller, the famous Church historian.* By such means, before the possibility of in- terference on the part of any Parliament, Crom- well proceeded to settle himself firmly in his new seat of power. He had not been careless, meanwhile, of his old enthusiasts for a vision- ary republic, his foremost friends and dupes of the saints' reign. Within a few days after his inauguration, he sent to ask Harrison if he would own, and act under, the new power ; and, on that honest fanatic's refusal, his major- general's commission was at once stripped from him. Messrs. Christopher Feakes and Vavasor Powellt shared a similar fate. At the first Blackfriars' meeting after the 16th of De- cember, these headlong zealots had devoted special denunciations against Cromwell, calling him, by name, a perjured villain, and desiring that, if any of his friends were present, they would go to him, and tell him in their name that his reign would be short, and his end more tragical than that of the great tyrant, the last Lord Protector of England. \ The message was delivered, and as promptly answered. * I quote from a letter of Oliver to Secretary Thurloe (vol. viii., p. 281). "There are," he writes, "in Berkshire some few men of mean quality and condition, rash, heady, enemies of tithes, who are commissioners for the ejecting of ministers. These alone sit and act, and are at this time casting out, on slight and trivial pretences, very worthy men ; one in especial they intend the next week to eject, whose name is Pocock, a man of as unblameable conver- sation as any that I know living, of repute for learning throughout the whole world, being the professor of Hebrew and Arabic in our University ; so that they do exceedingly exasperate all men, and provoke them to the height." Nor was Owen content with making this complaint. He went before the commissioners themselves, took three eminent divines with him (Wilkins, Wallis, and Ward, afterward Bishop of Salisbury), and expostulated with so much warmth, indignation, and success, that Pocock was resto- red. The case of Fuller was of the same character, and is told thus by his biographer. He received sudden notice that he should be cited before the commissioners, and in this emergency applied to his friend, Johu Howe, chaplain to Cromwell, and one of the most eloquent writers of his time, to know how he should conduct himself. " You must have observed," said Fuller, "that I am a pretty corpulent man, and I am to go through a passage that is very strait ; I beg that you will be so kind as to give me a shove, and help me through." Howe accordingly suggested to him the most suitable advice ; and when the commissioners came to propose the question, which formed the pith of their examinations, " Whether he had at any time experienced a work of grace on his soul ?" Fuller replied, " That he could appeal to the Great Searcher of hearts that he had on all occasions made conscience of his very thoughts ;" with which answer the commissioners expressed themselves sat- isfied, t See nnte, p. 562. } Richard III. 40 Feakes and Powell were flung into the Tower first, and afterward sent prisoners to Windsor Castle. One of their colleagues, named Symp- son, imprisoned at the same time, was only re- leased on making submission. Harrison was also sent, by peremptory mandate from the council board, into a watched retirement in his native county of Stafford. The same vigorous measures were pursued in every quarter where there was reason to fear resistance. Cromwell everywhere trans- ferred the chief army commands to men in whom he could best confide, and quartered troops most effectively against the various chances of insurrection. As an additional se- curity, he sent his son Henry into Ireland, and Monk into Scotland, to deal upon the spot with any sudden defections. Henry Cromwell had inherited the largest share of his father's genius dispensed to his children. He had risen rapidly to the rank of a colonel, by purely honourable service in the Irish campaign ; acquitted himself with great ability in the " little" Parliament ; and was generally supposed to have no mean share in his father's confidence and counsel. A special part of his instructions on the present mission appears to have been, to observe in the various counties through which he travelled from Lon- don to Holyhead, as well as in Ireland, how the people, and Che army in particular, stood af- fected to the present government.* When he arrived in Dublin, he found Fleetwood in some anxiety and alarm ; and but for his sudden ap- pearance, the enthusiasm with which he was received, and the courteous address, singular skilfulness, and admirable good sense with which he treated all parties he found, it is more than doubtful whether the Protectorate could have been quietly established there. When, about a month before, it had been put to the vote, at a meeting of the commissioners of government, with three or four principal officers of the army, whether they should pro- ceed without delay to proclaim the Lord Pro- tector, it was only carried in the affirmative by a single voice. t From that time, Ludlow in- forms us in his memoirs, he entirely withdrew himself from the civil government, and contin- ued to act in his military capacity alone.t * Several Proceedings, p. 149, 162. t Ludlow 's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 482. t Yet Henry Cromwell produced even a considerable ef- fect on this sturdy Republican. Their interview, as re- corded by himself, has various very interesting points in it, characteristic of the artifices of the Lord Protector, and also of the honest and sincere distinctions that were wisely drawn by such men as Ludlow between the power of the sword before and after the death of Charles the First. " He sent," says Ludlow, " his second sou, Col. Henry Cromwell, into Ireland, to feel the pulse of the officers there touching his coming over to command in that nation, where he ar- rive'], attended only by one servant ; and landing near my country house, I sent him my coach to receive him, and to bring him thither, where he stayed till Lieut. -gen. Fleet- wood, with several officers, came with coaches to conduct him to Dublin. Having made what observations he could of persons and things in Ireland, he resolved upon his re- turn ; of which having given me advice, I desired him to take my house in his way, and to that end dined with him on the day of his departure, at the lieutenant-general's in the castle. After dinner, we went together to my house at Monctown, where, after a short collation, walking in the garden, I acquainted him with the grounds of my dissatis- faction with the present state of affairs in England, which I assured him was no sort personal, but would be the same were my own father alive and in the place of his. He told me that his father looked upon me to be dissatisfied, upon * 570 BRITISH STATESMEN. Everything was quiet, however, and promised to continue so, when Henry Cromwell, after a sojourn of three weeks, returned to England. Monk's mission to Scotland was not less suc- cessful. He vanquished the Royalist move- ment under Middleton ; removed Robert Lil- burne, an honest Republican, from his com- mand ; superseded three anti-Protectorate zeal- ots, Okey, Overton, and Alured ; and adminis- tered correction to the regiments of Harrison and Pride, at this time quartered in Scotland, though their leaders were in the south. Over- ton was Milton's friend, and the great poet, though personally attached to Cromwell, was so far from deserting him in his disgrace, that he selected that very time for the offer of his most affectionate tribute. " Te Overtone," wrote the generous Milton, dragging his name into a mention of Cromwell's council to which Overton did not belong, " mihi multis abhinc annis, et studiorum similitudine, et morum su- avitate, concordia plusquam fraterna conjurvc- tissime ; te Marstonensi praelio illo memorabili, pulso sinistro cornu nostro, respectantes in fuga duces stantem curn tuo pedite, et hostium im- petus propulsantem inter densas untrinque ca?- des vidre ; Scotico deinde bello, ut primum Cromwelli auspiciis, tuo marte occupata Fifaj littora, et patefactus ultra Sterlinium aditus est ; te Scoti occidentals, te Boreales humanissi- inum hostem, te Arcades extremae domitorem fatentur." Cromwell had, meanwhile, a comparatively dittinct account from most men in the three nations, and thereupon affirmed that he knew it to be his resolution to carry himself with all tenderness towards me. I told him I ought to have so much charity for his father to believe that he apprehended his late- undertaking to have been abso- lutely necessary, being well assured that he was not so weak a man to decline his former station, wherein his power was as great, and his wealth as much, as any ra- tional man could wish, to procure to himself nothing but envy and trouble. I supposed he would have agreed with me in these sentiments; but he, instead of that, acknowl- edged the ambition of his father in these words : ' You that are here may think he had power, but they made a very kick- shaw of kirn at I^ondon.' I replied that if it were so, they did ill ; for he had deserved much from them. Then I pro- ceeded to acquaint him with my resolution not to act in my civil employment, and my expectation not to be permitted to continue in my military command ; to which he answer- ed, that he was confident I should receive no interruption therein. I told him I could not foresee what his father would do, but inclined to think that no other man in his case would permit it. To this I added, that the reason of my drawing a sword in this war was to remove those ob- structions that the civil magistrate met with in the dis- charge of his duty, which being now accomplished, I could not but think that all things ought for the future to run in their proper and genuine channel ; for as this extraordinary remedy is not to be used till the ordinary fail to work its proper effect, so ought it to be continued no longer than the necessity of using it subsists ; whether as this they called I a government had no other means to preserve itself but ' such as were violent, which not being natural, could not be lasting. ' Would you, then,' said he, ' have the sword laid down? I cannot but think you believe it to be as much your interest to have it kept up as any man !' / confessed \ 1 had been of that opinion while I was persuaded there was a necestity for it, which seemed to me to be note over. I ac- counted it to be much more my interest to >ee it well laid down, there being a vast difference between using the sword to restore the people to their rights and privileges, and the keeping it up for the robbing and despoiling them of the same. But company coming in, and the time for his going on board approaching, we could not be permitted to con- tinue our discourse ; so, after we had taken leave of each other, he departed from Ireland, and upon his arrival at Chester, was attended by many of the late king's party, and among others by Col. Molson, who inquiring of him how he left affairs in Ireland, he answered, very well, only that tome who were in love with their power must be removed," Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 490-492. easy task at home, for the chief portion of the people in and near London were still content to wait in a kind of patient indifference what the future would bring forth.* The Presbyte- rians, who always numbered thickly in the city, he had in some sort conciliated by placing cer- tain members of their body on his commFssion for the approval of preachers, and Bishop Bur- net tells us all that we need farther know con- cerning the bargain by which this sordid set consented to be duped. " As for the Presby- terians," says the bishop, indulging, in his usu- al coarse fashion, at once the falsehood and the truth, " they were so apprehensive of the fury of the Commonwealth party, thai they thought it a deliverance to be rescued out of their hands ; many of the Republicans began to pro- fess deism ; and almost all of them were for destroying all clergymen, and for breaking ev- erything that looked like the union of a nation- al church. They were for pulling down the churches, for discharging the tithes, and for leaving religion free, as they called it, without either encouragement or restraint. Cromwell assured the Presbyterians he would maintain a public ministry with all due encouragement ; and he joined them in a commission with some Independents, to be the triers of all those who were to be admitted to benefices. These dis- posed also of all the churches that were in the gift of the crown, of the bishops, and of the cathedral churches : so this softened them." More respectable dupes of a different class were represented by John Goodwin, who, with an infinite and almost boundless trust in the lord-generalship, was troubled with thick-com- ing fancies about the Protectorate, and feared it might one day intercept the Millennium. Bish- op Burnet has still more aptly described Crom- well's masterly manner of cajoling John Good- win. He it was, the bishop tells us, " who first brought in Arminianism among the sectaries, for he was for liberty of all sorts. Cromwell hated that doctrine ; for his beloved notion was, that once a child of God was always a child of God. Now he had led a very strict life for above eight years together before the war ; so he comforted himself much with his reflections on that time, and on the certainty of perseve- rance. But none of the preachers were so thor- ough-paced for him, as to temporal matters, as Goodwin was ; for he not only justified the put- ting the king to death, but magnified it as the most glorious action men were capable of. He filled all people with such expectation of a glo- rious thousand years speedily to begin, that it looked like a madness possessing them. It was no easy thing for Cromwell to satisfy those, * The peculiar feelings which lay at the bottom of this indifference, or patience, have been thus described by an actor in the events of the time : "Tliat which disposed the minds of the people to abstain from a present protestation against this government, besides the agony of the late confu- sions, and the astonishment upon the new wonderful altera- tion, was, that it was but temporary, and that limited to a very short time ; a free Parliament was to be called within so many months, which was entirely to consider and settle the government of the kingdom, and to remove all those obstructions which hinder the peace and happiness of the nation, and to restore it to that tranquillity and quiet it had been so long deprived of; and the Protector was sworn to a due observation of all those articles which he had him- self prescribed for his own rules and bounds, and therefore the more Hope that he would be contented to be limited by them." Letter from a member of the late 1'arliamtnt to one of Ms highness's council. OLIVER CROMWELL. 571 when he took the power into his own hands ; since that looked like a step to kingship, which Goodwin had long represented as the great anti- Christ that hindered Christ being set on his throne. To these he said, and, as some have told me, with many tears, that he would rather have ta- ken a shepherd's staff than the Protectorship, since nothing was more contrary to his genius than a show of greatness ; but he saw it was necessary at that time to keep the nation from falling into extreme disorder, and from becom- ing open to the common enemy, and therefore he only stepped in between the living and the dead, as he phrased it, in that interval, till God should direct them on what bottom they ought to settle ; and he assured them that then he would surrender the heavy load lying upon him with a joy equal to the sorrow with which he was affected while under that show of dignity. To men of this stamp he would enter into the terms of their old equality, shutting the door, and making them sit down, covered, by htm, to let them see how little he valued those distances that for form sake he was bound to keep up with others. These dis- courses commonly ended in a long prayer." With Royalists, again, Cromwell held a dif- ferent way, concerning which the bishop is able to proffer some information also. In pro- portion as a single life seemed alone to stand between them and power, he knew that assas- sination would become more and more their policy.* He declared, therefore, in quarters from which he was aware it would speedily be repeated in their places of chief resort, " he de- clared," according to the bishop, " often and openly, that in a war it was necessary to re- turn upon any side all the violent things that any of the one side did to the other. This was done for preventing greater mischief, and for bringing men to fair war ; therefore, he said, assassinations were such detestable things, that he would never begin them ; but if any of the king's party should endeavour to assassinate him, and fail in it, he would make an assassin- ating war of it, and destroy the whole family : and he pretended he had instruments to exe- cute it, whensoever he should give order for it. The terror of this was a better security to him than his guards." To such of the Royalists, at the same time, as in any way proffered him allegiance, he had nothing but courtesy and favour, while from such as were at all detected in plots against his government or person, he would not con- sent to avert the law's heaviest arm. He had judged rightly in ascribing the first place in Roy- alist hopes and resolves to schemes of assas- sination. Within a brief space after the dec- larations recorded by Burnet, a project of this kind, unparalleled for its shameless atrocity, had been set on foot in Paris. In Paris Charles Stuart still lived, in the mimic state of a king, with his Lord-keeper * He had, in point of fact, already hod experience of this. Within a fortnight of his inauguration a plot came before his council. The conspirators were all Royalists. It was a wild and foolish scheme, hut its groundwork was sup- posed to be the feasibility of assassinating Cromwell as he went into the city. Eleven of the plotters were arrested at a tavern in the Old Bailey, the most distinguished of whom were a Mr. Thomas Button and a son of Bunce, who was one of the four aldermen impeached by the Independ- ents in 1617, and was now in exile with Charles Stuart. The" were sent to the Tower, and kept imprisoned there. Ormond, his Chancellor of the Exchequer Hyde, his privy councillors and officers of household. It will naturally be supposed that Hyde had a sinecure in his office. This pitiful court was in truth in a villanous condition of beggary. A clean shirt was a rarity, and a good dinner a thing long remembered.* Surrounded by such sordid wants, Charles Stuart yet spent his monthly allowance of six thousand francs from the French king with a profligate and reckless profusion while it lasted, in which no beggar j or pensioner has before or since excelled him. But suddenly the rise of the Protectorate of the renewed government by a single person shed rays of unaccustomed hope upon his rag- ged courtiers, and he was induced to turn aside for a time from the embraces of Lucy Walters, to listen to the lively project of a general mus- ter of murderers from Ormond and Hyde. In a short space, a proclamation had obtain- ed extensive circulation through private chan- nels in Paris and London, which began thus : " By the king, Charles the Second, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, to all our good and loving subjects, peace and prosperity. Where- as a certain mechanic fellow, by name Oliver Cromwell, hath, by most wicked and accursed ways and means, against all laws, both divine and human, most tyrannically and traitorously usurped the supreme power over our said king- doms. . . . these are in our name to give free- dom and liberty to any man whomsoever, with- in any of our three kingdoms, by pistol, sword, or poison, or by any other ways or means what- soever, to destroy the life of the said Oliver Cromwell, wherein they will do an act accepta- ble to God and good men." The proclamation farther promised, "in the faith of a Christian king," to the perpetrators and his heirs, a re- ward of five hundred pounds a year forever, and the honour of knighthood ; and " if he is a soldier, the office of a colonel, with such oth- er honourable employment as may render him capable of attaining to farther preferment cor- responding to his merit."! Copies of this in- famous proclamation, which has been attribu- ted, $ on excellent authority, to the ready pen of Sir Edward Hyde, were speedily, as 1 have said, and very largely circulated ; but solemn secrecy was at the same time preserved, and they were, of course, communicated to none but those from whom good faith, perhaps en- gagement in the purposed enterprise, was thought beyond question sure. But what is good faith among assassins ! Cromwell had already began a system of espi- onage, which kept in nearly every Royalist or fanatic circle " a servant feed." The very * There is not a particle of exaggeration in this. " I do not know," says one of them (Clarendon's State Papers, vol. in., p. 174), in a letter dated the 27th of June, 1653, " I do not know that any man is yet dead for want of bread, which really I wonder at. I am sure the king owes for all he hath eaten since April, and I am not acquainted with one snrvant of his who hath a pistole in his pocket. Fw* or six of us eat together one meal a day for a pistole a week ; but all of us owe, for God knows how many weeks, to the poor woman that feeds us." In another letter, of the date of the 3d of April, 1634, we find this passage : " I want shoes and shirts, and the Marquis of Ormond is in no better condition. What help, then, can we give our friends !" Many similar proofs might be quoted. t Thurloe, vol. ii., p. 24S-9. i See Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. iv. 572 BRITISH STATESMEN. agents whom Charles Stuart employed were most frequently the men who betrayed his se- crets ;* the assassins on whose daggers he most relied were generally men who seduced his wretched adherents into imaginary plots, that by opportune discovery they might curry favour with the Lord Protector. A man of this class was a Major Henshaw. On the appear- ance of the proclamation he repaired to Paris, in company with an enthusiastic young Royal- ist named Gerard. t Here a conspiracy was organized, and Gerard and Henshaw returned to England to complete it. The Lord Protec- tor was to be murdered on the road as he pass- ed from Whitehall to Hampton Court the guards at the former place were to be sudden- ly disarmed the town surprised and Charles II. proclaimed. In this plot a number of men engaged, and it was given in evidence on the trial that Cromwell received notice of the design but a few hours before it was to have been executed, and was only able to render it abortive by crossing the water at Putney, and thus avoiding the ambuscade. But this was merely to conceal the treachery of Henshaw, who, having disclosed everything in time to the council, suddenly vanished from the whole af- fair, and was seen in it no more.J The truth was, that the chief conspirators were taken the night before the appointed day ; some of them, as Gerard, were dragged out of their beds to prison ; and a variety of others, on little or no pretence whatever, were seized in the charac- ter of accessories. A high court of justice was instantly erected by ordinance, and the three leading conspira- tors, Gerard, Vowel, and Fox, were at once placed upon their trial. II Fox pleaded guilty, in furtherance of a secret arrangement, to cor- roborate in that way the secret evidence of Henshaw, and earned and obtained his pardon. Vowel and Gerard defended themselves gal- lantly, but unavailingly.H" A scaffold was now * The same system followed Charles closely when he left France for Cologne. On one occasion the letters were opened at the postofiice, and a despatch was found from a retainer in Charles's service, named Manning, to Thurloe. Being questioned before Charles, Manning confessed that he received an ample maintenance from the Protector, but defended himself on the ground that he was careful to communicate nothing but what was false. That his plea was true, appeared from his despatch, which was filled with a detailed account of a fictitious debate in the council ; but even the falsehoods which he had sent to England had oc- casioned the arrest and imprisonment of several Royalists, and Manning was shot as a traitor at Duynwald, in the territory of the Duke of Neuburg. Lingard's England, vol. ii. Clar., iii., 563-9. Whitelocke, 633. Thurloe, iv., 293. t Colonel John Gerard, only twenty-two years of age, first cousin to Charles Gerard, created a baron by Charles the First, in 1645, anJ afterward, in 1679, made Earl of Marclesfield. t It was pretended on the part of the prosecution that he had escaped. Thurloe discloses to us, however, that he was safe in the Tower. t) Cromwell appears to have merely seized the occasion as a good one for taking some eminent persons into custody, among whom were Sir Gilbert Gerard, brother to the colo- nel, the Earl of Oxford, Sir Richard Willis, and the two Ashburnhams ; done upon the poorest pretence of suspect- ing that they were concerned in the conspiracy. The pris- oners altogether exceeded forty in number. II Commissioner Lisle sat as its president. The other judges were Aske and Nicholas of the upper bench, Atkins of the Exchequer, Steele recorder, seven aldermen, and twenty other persons. IT Vowel's first demand was a more equitable form of trial a trial by jury of peers, according to the sixth article of the Government of the Commonwealth. The court an- ! erected still more rapidly than the high court of justice, and Vowel died upon it with the glorying sense of martyrdom ; and Gerard, after avow- als of enthusiastic royalty, mingled with protes- tations not less earnest that the murder of the | Lord Protector formed no part of what he meant to have done, perished there also.* But a still more memorable act of justice was performed an hour later on the same scaffold, which struck still wider terror into the enemies of authority in England. Among the brilliant legacies of foreign supremacy left to Cromwell by the statesmen were the adjusted prelimina- ries of a treaty between the Commonwealth and the Portuguese. These, however, during the recent changes of state authority, had not yet been signed, though circumstances! had only increased a desire to have them ratified on the part of the Lisbon court. Meanwhile, an extraordinary incident had occurred to the Portuguese embassy. About a fortnight before the dispersion of the little Parliament, a sud- den dispute, as if by some strange fatality, arose in the new Exchange in the Strand, be tween Don Pantaleon Sa, brother to the Por- tuguese ambassador, and this very Gerard, whose execution we have just witnessed. A scuffle followed, but the combatants were sep- arated. The next evening, however, Pantaleon repaired to the same place with a body of arm- ed companions, and assaulted and killed a per- son named Green way, quite unconcerned in ihe dispute, whom he mistook for Gerard. His pur- pose, as he believed, being effected, he took refuge in the house of the ambassador ; but that minister, after having in vain pleaded his privilege, was obliged to surrender the assassin and his accomplices, who were at once com- mitted to Newgate. Their trial followed with- in a few months after Cromwell's elevation, amid unprecedented excitement in behalf of the accused on the part of foreign courts and their ministers, and on the part of the London, populace against them.} Pantaleon was con- swered that they were his peers, and that he might see that the individuals on the bench exceeded twelve in num- ber ! Glyn affirmed, moreover, that the ordinance, though made only by the Protector and council, was undoubtedly in force till the Parliament should repeal it. He added that, in the old law of treason, king signified merely supreme governor, that it had been so construed in the case of a queen, and that it equally extended to a Lord Protector. * Nor did Cromwell's retaliation on Charles and his as- sassins close here. He ordered a " True Account of the late Bloody Conspiracy" to be published as by special au- thority, in which Charles Stuart is expressly described as a man bedabbled in all the blood that had been shed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and naturally a nullilidian in all points of civil honesty, as well as religion. " His de- meanour, therefore," the writer adds. " being well weighed, we need say little concerning his faith, as supposing not many will fall in love with him for that, which he seems not much to love ; but if we consider his education, and his alliances with relations and dependancies upon foreign papists, we may easily conclude what religion he is of, if any : so that, whether we call to mind the fate and wretch- edness of his family, or his own personal qualifications, we conceive it hardly imaginable that an}' pious, honest, and sober-minded man would contribute so much as a thought, much less embroil his country in blood, for the restoring so blood-guilty, perfidious, and infamous a house and person." t It was supposed that Cromwell already contemplated hostilities against Spain, a prospect hailed with natural delight by the enemies of that power. t One of the foreign ministers distinctly declares that Pautaleon was sacrificed to the clamours of the people. But had he, or had he not, committed the murder ? His friends said it was a mistake an accident a matter of self- defence ; but the friends of murderers are fond of that argu- ment. On the trial it was pleaded for Pantaleon, 1st. That OLIVER CROMWELL. 573 demned with four of his accomplices, and though three of the latter were pardoned,* no influence or argument, no threat or inducement, could prevail with Cromwell in favour of the chief offender. To demonstrate still more openly to the world of Europe the fearlessness and pow- er of the new authority in England, he so ar- ranged that the morning of the day appointed for the execution of Pantaleon should he fixed for the final settlement of the Portuguese treaty. Within a few hours after the ambassador had signed that treaty,! his brother's head fell for the crime of murder upon a public scaffold the same scaffold on which had perished, one hour before, that very Gerard, in connexion with whom the crime may be said to have be- gun amid the approving shouts of an immense crowd, who had gathered to witness the scene of terrible retribution. $ The statesmen had already taught habits of re- spect and fear to the foreign powers of Europe, and Cromwell thus early showed that he would improve upon that lesson. It is certain that the wily Mazarin, then prime minister of France, had been induced at its commencement to fa- vour Gerard's plot in Paris,^ and that one of he was an ambassador, and therefore answerable to no one but his master ; and, 2d. That he was a person attached to the embassy, and therefore covered by the privilege of his principal. But the instrument which he produced in proof of the first allegation was no more than a written promise that he should succeed his brother in office ; and in reply to the second, it was maintained that the privilege of an ambassador, whatever it might be, was personal, and did not extend to the individuals in his suite. At the bar, after several refusals, he was induced, by the threat of the peine forte et dure, to plead no euilty ; and his demand of coun- sel, on account of his ignorance of English law, was re- jected on the ground that the court was " of counsel equal to the prisoner and the Commonwealth." * The fourth was Pantaleon's immediate retainer, who was proved to have been foremost in the deed. He was hanged at Tyburn on the day of his master's execution. t I can adduce an eminent authority in praise of this treaty, which was, as I have said, the work of the states- men. No less a person than Lord-chancellor Hyde, in his speech to both Houses, May 8, 1661, culls it " in very many respects the most advantageous treaty to this nation that ever was entered into with any prince or people." And again, in the same speech, he says, "Every article in it but one [a liberty given to Portugal to make levies of ten thousand men for their service] was entirely for the benefit of this nation, for the extraordinary advancement of trade, for the good of religion, and for the honour of the crown." Lives of the Lord-chancellors, vol. ii., p. 172. I I grieve to have to subjoin that, by an execution of a different kind some short time before, Cromwell had sought, and not unsuccessfully, to propitiate the Presbyterians. I was not acquainted with the circumstances till I saw them described in Dr. Lingard's History. Colonel Worsley had apprehended in his bed a Catholic clergyman of the name of Southworth, who, thirty-seven years before, had been convicted at Lancaster, and sent into banishment. The old man (he had passed his seventy-second year), at his ar- raignment, pleaded that he had taken orders in the Church of Rome, but teas innocent of any treason. The recorder advised him to withdraw his plea, and gave him four hours for consideration. But Southworth still simply owned that he was a Catholic and in orders. Judgment of death was pronounced ; and Cromwell, notwithstanding the urgent solicitations of the French and Spanish ambassadors, re- solved that he should suffer. It was not that the new Pro- tector approved of sanguinary punishments in matters of religion, but that he had no objection to purchase ihe good will of the fierce, sordid Presbyterians by shedding the blood of a priest. Whether it were through curiosity or respect, two hundred carriages and a crowd of horsemen followed the hurdle on which Southworth was drawn to the place of execution. On the scaffold he spoke with sat- isfaction of the manner of his death, hut at the same time pointed out the inconsistency of the men who pretended to nave taken up arms for liberty of conscience, arid yet shed the blood of those who differed from them in religious opin- ions. He suffered the usual punishment of traitors. Lin- gard,-vul. ii., p. 211, 212. This wag in his doubt as to the real condition of things his confidential emissaries, De Baas, had fa- voured it in London ; but the execution of Ge- rard, and the as ignominious return of De Baas, convinced the cardinal of his error, and no- thing hereafter checked the servile desire of fa- vour with which "all the kings of the earth prostrated themselves before this idol."* Am- bassadors and envoys from most of the princes of Europe crowded to the court of the Protec- torate, and the anterooms of its palace were filled with their hopes and fears. In receiving them he abridged no jot of the state of a sov- ereign. He had now removed all his familyt including his aged and excellent mother, who passed her few remaining days and nights in continual alarm for her dear son's safety ; his wife, " who seemed at first unwilling to re- move thither, though afterward she became bet- ter satisfied with her grandeur ;"t and his fa- vourite daughter Claypole, whom, though mar- ried, he could not bear to see separated from his side ; his gentle and even handsome like- ness of himself, Mary ; and his mirthful young- est Frances from their old apartments in the Cockpit, to share the splendours of his palace at Whitehall. The latter had been newly fur- nished for their reception in a most costly and magnificent style ; and in the banqueting-room was placed a chair of state on a platform, rais- ed by three steps above the floor. Here the Protector stood to receive the ambassadors. They were instructed to make three reveren- in England a doubt for which even the crafty Italian may be well excused. The Royalists told him, it would seem, and naturally enough, that nothing could be more precari- ous and uncertain than the government of the Protector; that he was almost without friends ; that the Anabaptists had deserted him ; that the Republicans hated him ; and that even the army was divided respecting him ; while, on the other hand, the bulk of the English nation, the old Royalists, and the Presbyterians, looked with earnest im- patience for the restoration of the house of Stuart. Maza- rin, startled at last into some belief of this, despatched an emissary named De Baas, ostensibly to assist Bordeaux in his negotiations for a treaty, but in reality to confer with the Gerard conspirators, to inquire out the malecontents, and, if he found the schemes that were in contemplation feasible, to favour them to the extent of his power. But all this, as soon as conceived by Mazarin, was known to Cromwell, and shortly after De Baas's arrival in London, Cromwell sent for him, confronted him with one of the conspirators, and having- heard him fully in his own vindi- cation, overwhelmed him with indignation, his employer with scorn, and so dismissed him. Bordeaux, at the same time, lost no favour ; he had not known anything of the plots, but continued admirably affected to the Protector. * \Vicquelin, Ambassador and his Functions, p. 17. t It is very strange, that about the only really illiberal passage to be found in Mrs. Hutchinson's delightful memoirs has relation to Cromwell's family. Had the woman's jeal- ousy against woman of which as little as ever lodged in heart may confidently be attributed to Lucy Hutchinson anything to do with this ? This is her remark : " His wife and children were setting up for principality, which suited no better with any of them than scarlet on the ape ; only, to speak the truth of himself, he had much natural great- ness, and well became the place he hadusurped. His daugh- ter Fleetwood was humbled, and not exalted with these things ; but the rest were insolent fools. Claypole, who married his daughter, and his son Henry, were two de- bauched, ungodly Cavaliers. Richard was a peasant in his nature, yet gentle and virtuous, but became not greatness. His court was full of sin and vanity, and the more abomina- ble, because they had not yet quite cast away the name of God, hut profaned it by taking it in vain upon them. True religion was now almost lost even among the religious party, and hypocrisy became an epidemical disease, to the sad grief of Col. Hutchinson, and all true-hearted Christians and Englishmen. " There is great power, and a most melan- choly truth, in the last observation. I may subjoin, from a minute in the council-book, that the quarterly expenditure of tho Protector's household amounted to 35,000. See entry of March 14, 1655. t Ludlow, vol. ii., p. 488. 574 BRITISH STATESMEN. ces, one at the entrance, the second in the mid- way, and the third at the lower step, to each of which Cromwell answered hy a slight inclina- tion of the head. When they had delivered their speeches, and received the reply of the Protector, the same ceremonial was repeated at their departure. On one occasion he was requested to permit the gentlemen attached to the embassy to kiss his hand ; but he advanced to the upper step, bowed to each in succession, waved his hand, and withdrew.* This was that kind of regal state which even the most discontented of the English people could best endure to see assumed by Cromwell. In the glory of their common country they for- got their own gravest and most fatal dissen- sions. Whatever quarrels they had among each other, they always kept cordial agreement in this that foreigners should not fool them It became, therefore, matter of common re- joicing, that here the Lord Protector went hand and heart with Leveller, with Anabaptist, with Presbyterian, with Republican. They saw him often claim, indeed, far more than the common exactions of old regal ceremony for the honour of his Commonwealth ; and the more he exact- ed, the more they rejoiced. In the complaints of insulted ministers they might have even heard their poet's lines reversed " This is a Turkish, not an English court : An Amurath an Amu rath succeeds, Not Harry Harry" and would still have thought themselves only the more exalted. This it was, beyond a doubt, which made many well-intentioned men too prone to pardon the sins of Cromwell's domes- tic rule ; and there was in it a mixture of good and evil, though in such circumstances the evil greatly preponderated. When we rejoice in the feeling of what looks like tyranny practised against another country than ours, we may be- gin to doubt the perfect freedom of our own. The one is little better than a secret set-off against the other. It is the effort to conceal a degrading truth by the glare of a miserable vanity. The John Goodwins, who were allow- ed to wear their hats in Cromwell's presence, and, as it were, to " hob and nob" with my Lord Protector, were for that reason better contented to go home slaves. So an insult to Portugal, or a kick to Spain, was found, in the end, the most consolatory prescription for a new wound to liberty at home ; and though it was quite true that Cromwell realized his boast of making the name of an Englishman as great with foreign countries " as ever that of a Ro- man had been," not less certain and melancholy must be our addition, that he branded upon the name of an Englishman a stamp of domestic slavery as debased as ever in its worst days that of a Roman suffered. Bishop Burnet only describes the excellent and just side of this English feeling when he observes, in the history of his times, that " Cromwell's maintaining the honour of the na- tion in all foreign countries gratified the vanity which is very natural to Englishmen ; of which he was so careful, that though he was not a ' crowned head, yet his ambassadors had all the * See Lingard, vol. ii., p. 217 ; the Clarendon Papers, rol. iii., p. 240 ; and various passages in the first volume of Thurloe. respect paid them which our kings' ambassa- dors ever had. He said the dignity of the crown was upon the account of the nation, of which the king was only the representative head ; so the nation being still the same, he would have the same regard paid to his min- isters."* There cannot be a doubt that the only pleasing part of the writer's duty who would fairly describe the Protectorate must be- gin and end with his description of such passa- ges in its foreign policy. And yet it must not be admitted that, in the treaty of peace with the Dutch, which was now signed, after a ten months' tedious negotiation, Cromwell secured those great advantages which the statesmen had proposed by their large expenditure of blood and treasure. The reverse is, indeed, the fact. There cannot be a question that the lofty pretensions set forth by the statesmen in their conduct of the war were silently abandoned in this treaty : and Cromwell's motives were obvious and pressing. Monk, after ceasing to become his creature, explained them in the remark, that it was " a base treachery in Cromwell to make a sudden peace with the Dutch, and betray all the ad- vantages of the war, that he might go up to the throne with more peace and satisfaction." Peace had at the moment become necessary for the consolidation of the new authority, and it is ob- vious, from the nature of the concessions Crom- well claimed in lieu of those surrendered, that the mere selfish thought of his own convenience and safety actuated the settlement of the terms of it. They made no mention of indemnity for the past, or security for the future ; of the in- corporation of the two states ; of the claim of search; of the tenth herring; or even of the exclusion of the Prince of Orange from the of- fice of stadtholder. To these conditions the pride of the states had refused to submit ; and Cromwell was content to accept two other ar- ticles, which, while they appeared equally to affect the two nations, were in reality directed against the Stuart family and its adherents.* * In the same passage the bishop goes on to relate a most amusing and characteristic anecdote. Still speaking of Cromwell, he adds, " The States of Holland were in such dread of him, that they took care to give him no sort of umbrage ; and when at any time the king or his brothers came to see their sister, the princess royal, within a day or two after they used to send a deputation to let them know that Cromwell had required of the States that they should give them no harbour. King Charles, when he was seeking for colours for the war with the Dutch in the year 1672, urged it for one, that they suffered some of his rebels to live in their provinces. Borel, then their ambassador, answered, that it was a maxim of long standing among them, not to inquire upon what account strangers came to live in their country, hut to receive them all, unless they had been concerned in conspiracies against the persons of princes. The king told him, upon that, how they had used both himself and his brother. Borel, in great simpli- city, answered, ' Ha ! sire, c'etoit uue autre chose : Crom- well 6toit un grand homme, et il se faisoit craindre et par terre et par mer.' This was very rough. The king's an- swer was, ' Je me ferai craindre aussi a mon tour :' but he was scarce as good as his word." t Lingard, vol. ii., p. 224. In one of the abandoned arti- cles of the treaty Cromwell had already betrayed his mo- tives, which were, as far as possible, to distress his rival, Charles Stuart, by stripping him of all hope of foreign sup- port. From the Prince of Orange, so nearly allied to ths royal family, Cromwell had little to fear during his minor- ity; and, to render him incapable of benefiting the royal cause in his more mature age, he attempted to exclude him by the treaty from succeeding to those high offices which might almost be considered as hereditary in his family. The determined refusal of the States induced him to with- OLIVER CROMWELL. 575 It was stipulated that neither commonwealth should harbour or aid the enemies, rebels, or ex- iles of the other ; but that either, being previous- ly required, should order such enemies, rebels, or exiles to leave its territory, under the penalty of death, before the expiration of twenty -eight days. The main provisions of the treaty belong to history, and I need only here relate the other article to which I have referred. This was, that the same respect which had been paid to the flag of the king should be paid to that of the Com- monwealth. The Dutch did not object, and the majority of the English people, not so thorough- ly understanding the points surrendered as this which they had achieved, were loud in their rejoicings at this close of so long and ter- rible a war. Peace was proclaimed with great solemnity, and " that same day, at night," says one of the Dutch ambassadors, Jongestall, in an interest- ing despatch to Frederic of Nassau, the "guns went off at the Tower, and aboard the ships three times, and bonfires made, according to the customs of the country, before Whitehall, and up and down the city. We did the like on the back side of our house, towards the river, and burned near eighty pitch barrels, and we had trumpeters and others to play all the while. The river was so full of boats that there was hardly any water to be seen ; at the same time, several lords and ladies of quality came to sec us, whom we treated. In sum, all things were done here in great solemnity. Yesterday, at noon, we were invited to dinner to his royal highness the Lord Protector, where we were nobly entertained. Mr. Strickland and the mas- ter of the ceremonies came to fetch us in two coaches of his highness, about half an hour past one, and brought us to Whitehall, where twelve trumpeters were ready sounding against our coming. My Lady Nieuport and my wife were brought to his highness presently, the one by Mr. Strickland, and the other by the master of the ceremonies, who received us with great demonstrations of amity. After we stayed a little we were conducted into another room, where we found a table ready covered. His highness sat on one side of it, ALONE ; my Lord Beverningk, Nieuport, and myself, at the upper end ; and the Lord-president Lawrence, and others, next us. There was in the same room another table covered for other lords of the council and others. At the table of my Lady Protectrice dined my Lady Nieuport, my wife, my Lady Lambert, my Lord Protector's daugh- ter, and mine. The music played all the while we were at dinner. The Lord Protector had us into another room, where the Lady Protectrice and others came to us, where we had also music and voices, and a psalm sung, which his highness gave us, and told us that it was yet the best paper draw the demand ; but he still intrigued, through the agency of Beverningk, with the leaders of the Louvestein faction, and obtained a secret article, by which the States of Holland and West Friesland promised never to elect the Prince of Orange for their stadtholder, nor suffer him to have the chief command of the army and navy. But the secret transpired ; the other States highly resented this clandestine negotiation ; complaints and remonstrances were answered by apologies and vindications ; an open schism was declared between the provinces, and every day added to the exasperation of the two parties. The ultimate result was decidedly to strengthen the claims of the young Prince of Orange, and to baffle Cromwell. that had been exchanged between us. And from thence we were had into a gallery next the river, where we walked with his highness about half an hour, and then took our leaves, and were conducted back again to our houses, after the same manner as we were brought. My Lord Protector showed a great deal of kindness to my wife and daughter in particular." This is certainly a pleasing picture of Cromwell's cour- teous habits, and the at once dignified and graceful conduct of his household. Nor did the muses refuse to give their aid to the dinners, the trumpets, and the pitch-bar- rels, in celebration of this peace. Cambridge and Oxford combined their choicest flowers of Greek and Latin verse into one rich garland for the brow of the Protector. The Cambridge vice-chancellor, Seaman, led the way ; Arrow- smith, Tuckery, and Horton, men who were famous then ; Whichcote and Cudworth, men famous still, followed after him.* The elder and more venerable school of Oxford supplied names and tributes more memorable still. Doc- tor Owen, Doctor Zouch, Professor Harmer, Doctor Bathurst, Leonard Lichfield, and Doc- tor Busby, joined one chorus of praise to Crom- well for his deeds in war and peace, and his generous patronage of learning. t It proved a good rehearsal for Charles II. Then a more modest voice from a greater than these, John Locke, at that time an accomplished student of Oxford, arose to dignify the theme. t Pass- ing them with this allusion merely, I have been unable to pass one name which occurs towards the close of the list, subscribed to verses which transcend all the rest in a vile extravagance of praise. " Tu Dux," exclaims this fervent flat- terer, in very pitiful phrases, ". . Tu dux pariter Terra Domitorq ; profundi, Componant laudes cuncta elemenla tuas. Cui mens alta subest pelagoq ; profundior ipso, Cujus fama sonat, quam procul unda sonat. Tu poteras solus motos componere fluctus, Solus Neptunum sub tua vincla dare. Magna simul fortis vicisti et multa : Trophsis I i mare, sic pariter cedit arena tuis. Nomine pacifico gestas insignia pacis, Blandaq ; per titulos serpit Oliva tuos ;". and the flatterer was Doctor South, who after- ward earned a bishopric by calling Cromwell a bankrupt beggarly fellow, of threadbare coat and greasy hat ! * Other names of eminence in their day are also found among the authors of the Cambridge tributes, which were published with the title of " Oliva Pacis. Ad Illustrissi- mum Celsissimumque Oliverum, Reipub. Angliifi, Scotiae, et Hiberni,e Dominum Protectorem ; de Pace cum Faedera- tii Belgis feliciter sancita, Carmen Cantabrigiense." t The Oxford men styled their effusions thus: " Musa- rum Oxoniensium 'EAAIO<I>OP1'A. Sive, ob Fosdera, Au- spiciis Serenissimi Oliveri Reipub. Ang. Scot, et Hiber. Domini Protectoris, inter Rempub. Britannicam et Ordmes Foederatos Belgii FiEliciter Stabilita, Geutis Togatse ad vada Isidis Celeusina Metricum." t The reader may be interested to see this early poetical effusion of the young philosopher and lover of toleration and liberty. Here it is : "Pax regit Augusti, quem vicit Julius orbem : Ille sago factus clarior, ille toga. Ilns sua Roma vocat magnos et numina credit, Hie quod sit mundi victor, et ille quies. Tu helium et pacem populis des, unus utrisq ; Major es ; ipse orbem vinris, et ipse regis. Non hoininem 6 ccelo missum Te credimus ; unus Sic poteras binos qui superare deos !" i> In another discourse he called him " a lively picture of Jeroboam," and had the impudence to say of the leading ecclesiastics of the University in Cromwell's time (the time 576 BRITISH STATESMEN. But the new Lord Protector of England had a nobler congratulation, and in better Latin, addressed to him at this period, with a name attached to it, which, though humble then, and kept down by the pressure of the world, has now risen higher than his own, or than that whole world itself, into the clearer region of immortality. Milton published his " Defensio Secunda," and thus addressed him. The Lat- in is noble, but it translates into still nobler English. " Consider frequently," said this wise but too partial counsellor, " in thy inmost thoughts, how dear a pledge, from how dear a parent recommended and intrusted (the gift liberty, the giver thy country), thou hast received into thy keeping. Revere the hope that is enter- tained of thee, the confident expectation of England ; call to mind the features and the wounds of all the brave men who under thy command have contended for this inestimable prize ; call to mind the ashes and the image of those who fell in the bloody strife ; respect the apprehension and the discourse that is held of us by foreign nations, how much it is they look for in the recollection of our liberty so bravely achieved, of our Commonwealth so gloriously constructed ; which if it shall be in so short a time subverted, nothing can be imagined more shameful and dishonourable: last of all, REVERE THYSELF, so deeply bound, that that liberty, in securing which thou hast encountered such mighty hardships, and faced such fearful perils, shall, while in thy custody, neither be violated by thee, nor any way broken in upon by others. Recollect that thou thyself canst not be free un- less we are so ; for it is fitly so provided in the nature of things, that he who conquers another's liberty, in the very act loses his own ; he becomes, and justly, the foremost slave. But. indeed, if he, the patron of our liberty, and (if I may so speak) its tutelar divinity if he, of whom we have held that no mortal was ever more just, more saintlike and unspotted, should undermine the freedom which he had but so lately built up, this would prove not only deadly and de- structive 'to his own fame, but to the entire and universal cause of religion and virtue. The very j substance of piety and honour will be seen to have evaporated, and the most sacred ties and engagements will cease to have any value with ! our posterity, than which a more grievous wound could not be inflicted on human inter- ests and happiness since the fall of the first fa- ' ther of our race. Thou hast taken on thyself a task which will probe thee to the very vitals, and disclose to the eyes of all how much is thy courage, thy firmness, and thy fortitude; wheth- I er that piety, perseverance, moderation, and jus- 1 tice really exist in thee, in consideration of which we have believed that God hath given thee the supreme dignity over thy fellows. To govern three mighty states by thy counsels, to recall the people from their corrupt institutions to a purer and nobler discipline, to extend thy thoughts and send out thy mind to our remo- when this poem was printed), that " Latin was with them a mortal crime, and Greek, instead of being owned for the language of the Holy Ghost (as in the New Testament it is), was looked upon as the sin against it ; so that, in a word, they had all the confusions of Babel among them without the diversity of tongues." test shores, to foresee all and to provide for all, to shrink from no labour, to trample under foot and tear to pieces all the snares of pleas- ure, and all the entangling seducements of wealth and power these are matters so ardu- ous, that in comparison of them the perils of war are but the sports of children. These will win- now thy faculties, and search thee to the very soul ; they require a man sustained by a strength that is more than human, and whose meditations and whose thoughts shall be in perpetual commerce with his Maker." Admitting the premises on which this coun- sel is founded, as freely as though under the immediate influence and persuasiveness of Cromwell himself, to which alone, on the sa- cred lips of such a man as Milton, they are fairly attributable, the time now approaches in which a test will be applied to it, and to the faith it rests upon, at once final and irrevoca- ble. The Instrument of Government had fix- ed the 3d of December for the meeting of the first Parliament of the Protectorate, but in the writs now issued Cromwell inserted the 3d of September instead. That was his FORTUNATE DAY, his day of Dunbar and Worcester ; and with a sense of how much good fortune he needed in the battle he was about to fight, he selected the 3d of September for his first meet- ing with this formidable enemy ! Meanwhile Whitelocke returned from Sweden with the ratification of a most favourable treaty of commerce between England and that coun- try, and a prohibition of protection and favour to the enemies of either. It detached Sweden from the interest of France, and engaged it to maintain the liberty of trade in the Baltic against Denmark, which was in the interest of Holland. The news of Christina's extraordi- nary resignation of her crown followed hard upon his return, but her successor, Charles X., at once confirmed the treaty.* This was no * Whitelocke has given so interesting and graphic a mention of Cromwell's style of receiving the ambassador who brought the confirmation and assent of Charles the Tenth, that the reader will thank me for inserting it here. " His (the ambassador's) people," says the memorialist, " went all bare, two and two before him in order, according to their qualities; the best men last; the master of the ceremonies next before him ; I on his right hand, and Strick- land on his left hand. They made a handsome show in this equipage, and so went up to the council chamber, where the ambassador reposed himself about a quarter of an hour, and then word being brought that the Protector was ready in the Banqueting House, he came down into the court aijain, and in the same order they went up into the Ban- queting House. Whitehall court was full of soldiers in good order, the stairs and doors were kept by the Protector's guards in their livery coats, with halbens; the rooms and passages in very handsome order ; the Banqueting House was richly hung with arras, multitudes of gentlemen in it, and of ladies in the galleries. The ambassador's people were all admitted into the room, and made a lane within the rails in the midst of the room. At the upper end, upon a foot-pace and carpet, stood the Protector, with a chair of state behind him, and divers of his council and servants about him. The master of the ceremonies went before the ambassador on the left side ; the ambassador in the middle, betwixt me and Strickland, went up in the open lane of the room. As soon as they came within the room, at the lower end of the lane, they put off their hats : the ambassador a little while after the rest ; and when he was uncovered, the Protector also put off his hat, and answered the ambassa- dor's three salutations in his coming up to him, and on the foot-pace they saluted each other as usually friends do ; and when the Protector put on his hat, the ambassador put on, his as soon as the other. After a little pause, the ambas- sador put off his hat, and began to speak, and then put it on again ; and whensoever in his speech he named the king his master, or Sweden, or the Protector, or England, he moved his hat, especially if he mentioned anything of God, OLIVER CROMWELL. 577 sooner done than the King of Denmark hasten- ed to conciliate Cromwell also, and entered at once into a treaty that the English traders should pay no other customs or dues than the Dutch, and that thus they should be enabled to import on the same terms those naval stores which before, on account of the heavy duties, they had been content to buy at second-hand of the Dutch. Thus had the Lord Protector already signed four treaties favourable to Eng- land, on the part of four great countries to which she had been opposed, while France and Spain, held to have been the two proudest nations of the earth, inveterate foes to each other, were struggling in a mean rivalry as to which should first obtain his favour. " Each knew that side must conquer lie would own, And for him fiercely, as for empire, strove." It is yet singular to observe, in one of his private letters of the time, that he puts on to his most confidential associates an appearance of infinite humility, a regret for his poverty of resources, and a reluctance to provoke too much of the attention of men to his personal and private doings. It is an answer to a re- quest from the father of Richard Cromwell's wife, apparently a request for co-operation in some design of bestowing a new establishment on Richard and his wife, becoming their new- rank as eldest son and daughter to the Lord Protector. But the Lord Protector is still the lord-general, and shows equal caution and care. " DBERE BROTHER, I receaved your lovinge letter, for which I thanke you ; and surely were it fitt to proceed in that husinesse, you should not in the least have beene putt upon anythinge butt the trouble, for indeed the land in Essex, with, some monie in my hand, and some other rem- nants, should have gone towards it. Butt in- deed I am so unwillinge to be a Seeker after the World, havinge had so much favour from the Lorde in givinge me so much without seek- inge, and soe unwillinge that Men should think me soe, which they will though you only ap- peare in it (for they will by one meanes or other knowe it), that indeed I dare not meddle, nor proceed therin. Thus I have tould you my or the good of Christendom, he put off his hat very low ; and the Protector still answered him in the like postures of civility. Trie ambassador spoke in the Swedish language, and after he had done, being but short, his secretary did interpret it in Latin. After his interpreter had donft, the Protector stood still a pretty while, and putting off his hat to the amlmssndor, with a carriage full of gravity and state, he answered him in English," This simultaneous compli- ment to the language of each country, unusual in these conferences, was thought highly striking at the time, and a new proof of Cromwell's affection and respect for Sweden. From another source, I present the speech of our Lord Protector, at once simple, direct, and happily turned. It is about the briefest and best specimen on record of Crom- well's eloquence in the Protectorate. " My lord ambassa- dor, I have great reason to acknowledge with thankfulness the respects and good affection of the king your master to- wards this Commonwealth, and towards myself in particu- lar, whereof I shall always retain a very grateful memory, and shall be ready upon all occasions to manifest the high sense and value I have of his majesty's friendship and alli- ance. My lord, you are very welcome into England, and during your abode here, you shall find all due regard and respect to be given to your person, and to the business about which yon come. I am very willing to enter into a nearer and more strict alliance and friendship with the King of Swedland, as that which in my judgment will tend much to the honour and commodity of both nations, and to the general advantage of the Protestant interest. I shall nomi- nate some persons to meet and treat with your lordship upon such particulars as you shall communicate to them." 4D plain thoughts. My heartie love I present to you and my Sister, and my blessingc and lore to deere Doll and the little one, with love to all. I rest your lovinge brother, OLIVER, P."* Such letters may prove to us what things widely separate and apart were the private and public professions of this extraordinary man. In public he was clearly to be held as merely the organ of a higher power. Nothing was done by his " seekinge" there. It was God who spoke out in him ; who elevated men or de- pressed them ; who " rained snares" upon his enemies or ble.ssings on his friends ; who made him, Oliver Cromwell, a prince, whether he would or no, and was alone responsible for it ! " For yet dominion was not hit design, We owe that blessing not to him, but heaven, Which to fair acts unsought rewards did join ; Rewards, that less to him than us were given. "t In private it was another matter. It became him to reflect on his humility there, and do no- thing that should provoke the remarks of men. He was dust, and would return to dust ; and in relation to that melancholy element which mere- ly composed himself, had only to be patient and suffer. It was the extreme rebound from this state of feeling which gave birth to his worst actions. God had taken him by the hand and given him permission to walk, when, " to show how he could walk, he strode. "$ Every new * Tt is addressed, " For my lovinge brother, Richard Ma jor, Esq., at Horsley, in Hampsheire." t Dtyden-. t This is the expression of Walter Savage Landor, who says finer things, in better English, than any other writer of our time. It will be the honour and happiness of a suc- ceeding agE to discover the priceless value of his books. lie has made allusions to Cromwell very lately, and though far from agreeing in all his remarks, they should find inser- tion not the less in every notice of our English Lord Pro- tector. " Cromwell," says Mr. LandoT, " was destitute of all those elegances which adorned the Roman dictator, but he alone possessed in an equal degree all those which ensure the constancy of fortune. . . And was Cromwell, then, sin- cere and pure? Certainly not : but he began in sincerity ; and he believed to the last that every accession of power was an especial manifestation of God's mercy. Fanaticism hath always drawn to herself such conclusions from the Bible. Power made him less pious, but more confident. God had taken him by the hand at first, and had now let him walk by himself. To skow how he could walk, he strode. Religion, in the exercise of power, is more arbi trnry, more intolerant, and more cruel than moriarchy ; and the sordid arrogance of Presbyterianism succeeded to the splen- did tytanny of Episcopacy. The crosier of Laud was un- broken: those who had been the first in cursing it, seized and exercised it ; it was to fall in pieces under the sword 'of Cromwell. To kirn alone are we indebted for the estab- lishment of religious liberty. If a Vane and a Milton have acknowledged the obligation, how feeble were the voices of j all men living if the voices of all men living were raised \ against it. Cromwell did indeed shed blood, but the blood | he shed was solely for his country, although without it he j never would have risen to the Protectorate." Mr. Landor, then, contrasting Cromwell with Napoleon, thus proceeds : j "A king should never be struck unless in a vital part Cromwell, with many scruples, committed not this mistake : Bonaparte, with none, committed it. The shadow of Crom- well's name overawed the most confident and haughty. He intimidated Holland, he humiliated Spain, and he twisted the supple Mazarin, the ruler of France, about his finger. All those nations had then attained the summit of their prosperity ; all were unfriendly to the rising power of Eng- land ; all trembled at the authority of that single man, who coerced at oncn her aristocracy, her priesthood, and her factions. No agent of equal potency and equal moderation had appeared upon earth before. He walked into a den of lions, and scourged them growling out: Bonaparte was pushed into a menagerie of monkeys, and fainted at their grimaces. . . Rudeness, falsehood, malignity, and revenge, have belonged in common to many great conquerors, but never to one great man. CromWell had indulged in the least vile of these ; but on his assumption of power, he rec- ollected that he was a gentleman. No burst of rage, no rally of ribaldry, no expression of contemptuousnoss, was ever heard from the Lord Protector. He could subdue, or 578 BRITISH STATESMEN. accession to his power was, in other words, a new manifestation of God's mercy, and the very extravagance of his ways at last became only the fullest demonstration of his and of God's uncontrollable sovereignty ! It is not hard to say what term we should apply to this, in any other case than that of Cromwell. Meanwhile, we see the disadvantages under which it placed his immediate associates, relatives, dependants, and followers, who had the man they knew in private to contrast with the man the public knew. Between the issue of the writs and the meet- ing of Parliament, the Lord Protector was en- tertained in the city. Attended by his council, the principal officers of the army, and many persons of quality, he paraded in the midst of his life-guards from Whitehall to Temple Bar. Here the lord-mayor and aldermen were wait- ing for him, when the former, advancing to his coach, presented the city sword. This being returned, the recorder, in an inflated city speech, pronounced the compliments which are usually paid to sovereigns, to " which learned harangue the Lord Protector returned for answer ' that he was greatly obliged to the city of London for this and all former testimonies of respect ;' and then, mounting his horse of state, rode in a kind of triumph through the principal streets, the several companies, in their livery gowns, being placed on each side thereof, in scaffolds erected for that purpose ; the lord-mayor car- rying the sword bareheaded before him to Gro- cers' Hall, where a most magnificent entertain- ment was provided. After dinner his highness knighted the lord-mayor, and made him a pres- ent of his own sword from his side, which was the first instance of the Protector's assuming this piece of regal grandeur. The bells rang all the day ; the Tower guns were fired at his highness's taking leave of the city ; and, about seven in the evening, he and his attend- ants returned back to Whitehall in their coach- es."* Ludlow has a striking remark, in his me- moirs, on the result of this city visit. The ex- hibition, he says, was contrived to let the world see how good a "correspondence" prevailed between the Protector and the capital, but among discerning men it had a contrary effect. It was perceived to be an act of force rather than of choice. This appeared in the great silence and little respect that was given to the Lord Protector in his passage through the streets, although he, to invite such respect, rode bareheaded the greatest part of the way. oof*te. or spell-bind the master-spirits of his age; but it i a genius of a fur different order that is to seize and hold firfority : it must be such a genius as Shakspeare's or Mil- tow*. No sooner was Cromwell in his grave than all he had won for himself and his country vanished. If we must admire the successful, however brief and hollow the advan- tages of their success, our admiration is not due to those whose resources were almost inexhaustible, and which nothing but profligate imprudence could exhaust, but to those who. resisted great forces with small means, such as Kosciuskoand Hofer, Hannibal and Sertorius, Alexanderand Cffisar, Charles of Sweden and Frederic of Prussia. Above all these, and above all princes, stands high Gustavus Adol- phus, one of whose armies, in tho space of six weeks, had seen the estuary of the Elbe and the steeples of Vienna ; another, if a fever had not wasted it on the Lake of Como, would, within less time, have chanted Luther's hymn in St. Peter's. . . Signal as were Cromwell's earlier services to his country," ends Mr. Landor, with a terrible and indis- putable truth, "he lived a hypocrite, and died a traitor." * Parliamentary History, vol. xx., p. 274. " Some of his creatures had placed themselves at the entrance of Cheapside, and began to shout ; yet it took not at all with the people." The people had not, in truth, in any way recovered their indifference, notwithstanding all the ef- forts of the last twelve months to propitiate and excite them. It remained to be seen what a Parliament would do. At last arrived the eventful 3d of September. It happened to be Sunday, but Cromwell still adhered to his resolve that the new members returned to serve in Parliament should meet that day. Many things were strong in him, but none so strong, with all his earnest submission to the hand of God in human affairs, as a su- perstitious sense of destiny and fortune. Up- ward of three hundred representatives of the people met accordingly, on Sunday afternoon, in the abbey church of Westminster, and thence repaired to the House of Commons at about four o'clock. Here a message was sent, that the Lord Protector awaited them in the Painted Chamber, where he had arrived by water from Whitehall. Thither they went accordingly to his high-ness, who, " standing bare, upon a ped- estal erected for that purpose," told them that, having met, he desired rhey would now adjourn, since he had things to communicate to them " not so fit to be delivered that day," and would, if they so pleased, meet them on the morning of the day following, in the abbey church of Westminster. The members bowed obedience, returned to their House, and formally adjourn- ed.* It must have heavily taxed Cromwell's faith in his fortunate day to withhold from sad fore- bodings as he returned that evening to his pal- ace. He could have little hope from those three hundred English representatives, among whom he had seen 1 steadily gazing upon himv as he spoke in the Painted Chamber, the well- remembered faces of Scot, of Hazlerig, and Bradshaw ! Still Vane was not among them,f nor Harry Marten, nor Algernon Sidney, nor Edmund Ludlow. There was in that no indif- ferent consolation. He had also succeeded in his efforts to exclude some few of the more fierce Republican officers, for all the power of his government had been put forth to influence the elections ; and, not content with this, the va- rious returns had been officially examined by a committee of his council, under pretext of see- ing that the provisions of the " Instrument" were observed. It was this pretext which sufficed to exclude Major Wildman, Lord Grey of Gro- by, and a few others, while Harrison and the more violent Anabaptists were again placed un- der positive restraint. He had also secured the election of all his council, his principal officers, and his household, excepting the Lord-viscount Lisle. His sons Richard and Henry were re- turned, and Fairfax and Blake. Many of the nobility had been rejected, but the Earl of Stam- ford, the Earl of Salisbury, and a few others, had secured seats. Judges Hale and Thorpe, Sergeant Glyn, and the Oxford vice-chancellor Owen, sat also in this celebrated assembly, than which no authoritative body, with greater OLIVER CROMWELL. 579 claims to respect and attention, had sat down in England since November, 1640. Returned, for the most part, under a fair working of many admirable provisions out of Vane's reform bill, it represented, beyond a doubt, the sense of at least one large and most respectable portion of the influential English people. The small bor- oughs, the places most exposed to influence and corruption, had been disfranchised. Of the four hundred members of which the Parliament consisted, two hundred and fifty-one had been chosen by the counties, and the rest by London and the more considerable corporations. The meanest of the people, too, had been excluded from the elective franchise, a property of two hundred pounds having been required to qualify any one to vote. One most considerable limit- ation had, indeed, been placed on all this free- dom, which was, that the plan of electing the sixty members who were to represent Scotland and Ireland not being thoroughly fixed, they were in a particular degree subject to the influ- ence of the court. In addition to this, it is only needful to observe, that all persons who had in any way aided and assisted in the civil war against the Parliament, together with their sons, were disqualified to vote. The Lord Protector had at least no pretence to say that out of fac- tious hatred to all authority save their own, Royalists, Republicans, and Presbyterians had, for once, consented to act together. At ten o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 4th of September, Cromwell proceeded in great state from Whitehall to the Abbey of Westmin- ster. He was preceded by two troops of life- guards ; then rode some hundreds of gentlemen and officers, bareheaded, and in splendid appar- el ; immediately before the state carriage walk- ed the pages and lackeys of the Protector in rich liveries, and on each side a captain of the guard ; behind it came Claypole, master of the horse, leading a charger magnificently capari- soned ; and Claypole was followed by the great officers of state and the members of the coun- cil. All eyes were fixed on Cromwell himself, a striking and proud contrast to the gorgeous parade of the procession. He was dressed in a plain suit, after the simple fashion of a coun- try gentleman ; but he wore his hat, while Lam- bert, who occupied the opposite seat of the car- riage, sat splendidly attired, and bareheaded. After sermon, all the members hurried over to the Painted Chamber, and seated themselves uncovered, on benches ranged around the walls. The Lord Protector then entered, and took his place in the chair of state, from which he soon afterward rose, removed his hat, and addressed the assembly in a speech which lasted three hours. This speech was at once artful and able : very forcibly and simply expressed where he had any case to lodge against the policy of his adversaries ; most involved, obscure, and vil- lanously verbose where he affected to disclose his own purposes : it was profound in its va- rious points of craft and dissimulation ; pious and fervently enthusiastic to the saints ; mod- est and lowly to the Republicans. He began by telling them that they were met on the greatest occasion their country had ever witnessed. He dwelt on those evils with which England had lately been menaced ; he craftily referred to the dangerous principles of the Lev- ellers, striking, as he said, at the root of all property ; and, safe in the sympathy of his au- dience on that head, he denounced the wild spirit of the various sects of Fifth Monarchy men, which, he asseverated, aimed at directly extirpating the very existence of the clerical order, on the pretence that it was Babylonish and anti-Christian. Alluding, then, with a cold and deliberate hypocrisy, to the proceedings of the Barbone Convention, he asserted that proj- ects and conspiracies had been extensively formed among its members for the subversion of all those laws which had been produced by the revolution of property and the manners of our ancestors, and for substituting in their stead the law of Moses. He next, with a view to propitiate the Independents and Republicans who listened to him, threw out subtle allusions to the difference between liberty of conscience as that convention would have established it, to the overthrow of all government and, minis- try, and the liberty of conscience he would sub- stitute in its stead. " Such considerations and pretensions," he observed, " of liberty of con- science and liberty of subjects, two as glorious things to be contended for as any God has giv- en us ; yet both these also abused for the patro- nising of villanies, in so much as that it hath been an ordinary thing to say, and in dispute to affirm, that it was not in the magistrate's power ; he had nothing to do with it ; not so much as the printing a Bible in the nation for the use of the people, lest it be imposed on the consciences of men ; for they must receive the same traditionally and implicitly from the power of the magistrate, if thus received. The aforementioned abomi- nations did thus swell to this height among us. The axe was thus laid to the root of the ministry : it was anti-Christian it was Babylonish. It suffered under such a judgment, that the truth of it is, as the extremity was great on that, I wish it prove not so on this hand. The ex- tremity was, that no man having a good testi- mony, having received gifts from Christ, might preach, if not ordained. So now, many on the other hand affirm, that he who is ordained hath a nullity or anti-Christianism stamped upon his calling, so that he ought not to preach, or not be heard. I wish it may not too justly be said that there was severity and sharpness yea, too much of an imposing spirit in matters of conscience ; a spirit unchristian enough in any times, most unfit for these ; denying liberty to those who have earned it with their blood who have gained civil liberty, and religious also, for those who would thus impose upon them." In a still more artful passage of most accom- plished dissimulation, Cromwell managed to associate the Fifth Monarchy men with the practices of the Jesuits, attributing to the lat- ter much of the confusion that had risen. " No- tions," he said, " will hurt none but them that have them ; but when they come to such prac- tices as to tell us that liberty and property are not the badges of the kingdom of Christ, and tell us that, instead of regulating laws, laws are to be abrogated, indeed subverted, and perhaps would bring in the Judaical law instead of our known laws settled among us this is worthy of every magistrate's consideration, especially where every stone is turned to bring confusion 580 BRITISH STATESMEN. While these things were in the midst of us, and the nation rent and torn, in spirit and principle, from one end to another, after this sort and manner I have now told you, family against family, husband against wife, parents against children, and nothing in the hearts and minds of men but overturn, overturn, overturn' (a Scripture phrase very much abused, and applied to justify unpeaceable practices by all men of discontented spirits), the common adversary in the mean time sleeps not ; and our adversaries, in civil and spiritual respects, did take advan- tage of these divisions and distractions, and did practise accordingly in the three nations. We know very well that emissaries of the Jesuits never came in those swarms as they have done since these things were set on foot.'" He then resumed his general view of affairs. To add to our miseries, he said, we had been at war with all our neighbours. Contest with Holland had absorbed all the pecuniary re- sources, while a commercial war with France and Portugal cramped the industry of the na- tion. He bade them contrast this picture with the existing state of things. At last, every- thing having been driven to the worst, and a remedy having become indispensable, that rem- edy had been found ; namely, the government which was instituted in the preceding Decem- ber. That government had effected a happy peace with all Protestant states, with Holland, with Sweden, and with Denmark, and so had relieved us from an accumulation of ruinous expenses, and opened many salutary channels for our trade. A treaty had been signed with Portugal, also, which would place the British trader beyond the reach of the Inquisition, and another was in progress with the ambassador of the French monarch. Nor had the govern- ment been inattentive to internal advantages : they had made considerable progress in a plan for the reformation of the law, which would in due time be laid before Parliament ; they had placed the administration of justice in the hands of men of known integrity and ability ; they had reformed the Court of Chancery ; they had taken proper measures for establish- ing the clerical functions in men of piety, sober- ness, morality, and learning, and " a stop had been put to that heady way, for every man who pleased to become a preacher." A passage from this portion of the speech will show the simplicity and plainness with which Cromwell expressed himself on the few occasions when he dared to do so. " It hath," he said, speaking still of h : -s gov- ernment, "had some things in desire, and it hath done some things actually. It hath de- sired to reform the laws I say, to reform them ; and, for that end, it hath called together persons (without reflection) of as great ability and as great integrity as are in these nations, to consider how the laws might be made plain and short, and less chargeable to the people ; how to lessen expense for the good of the na- tion ; and those things are in preparation, and bills prepared, which in due time, I make no question, will be tendered to you. There hath been care taken to put the administration of the laws into the hands of just men men of the most known integrity and ability. . . The Chan- cery hath been reformed, and, I hope, to the just satisfaction of all good men ; and, for the things depending there, which made the burden and work of the honourable persons intrusted in those services beyond their ability, it hath referred many of them to those places where Englishmen love to have their rights tried, the courts of law at Westminster." The last assertion made by the Lord Pro- tector on behalf of his authority on this mem- orable occasion was afterward remembered to his bitter disadvantage. Not the least, he said, did it rank in their claims to public gratitude that they had been instrumental in bringing to- gether this free Parliament. They had thus brought the three nations by hasty strides to- wards the land of promise ; it was for that Par- liament to introduce them into it. The pros- pect was bright before them ; let them not look back to the onions and fleshpots of Egypt. He entreated of the persons there assembled to put the top-stone to the work which they had so auspiciously begun, and make the nation happy. He said that their task was that of composing all understandings and jealousies, and he pro- fessed to them that, if this meeting did not prove healing, he was at a loss to decide what was next most advisable to be done. He spoke not as their lord, he protested, but as their fel- low-servant their fellow-labourer with them in the same good work, and would, therefore, detain them no longer, but desire them to re- pair to their own House and choose their speak- j er. This elaborate speech, we are told by its ' reporter, was followed by tokens of satisfac- tion, and hums of approbation, from various parts of the assembly. The approbation lasted but a little time, however ; for when, on the return of the mem- bers to their own House, the court officers rose and proposed Lenthal as the speaker, the opposition immediately named a rival candi- date in the formidable person of Bradshaw. They did not care, however, to press the elec- tion to the vote. They did not so much object to Lenthal, as they desired to show the inde- pendent and free spirit with which they had there assembled : so Lenthal was elected ; the one party glad, because they had secured in him a timid and time-serving tool ; the other not sorry, because in him they saw a remnant of their old Long Parliament, and could even sup- pose his present election one step towards a revival of the great assembly in which he had so long presided. But no one of the court party dared propose to offer him, according to ancient custom, to the acceptance of the chief magistrate, and so, in the presence of this Par- liament, for the first time since his inaugura- tion, tumbled down the Lord Protector's claim to all the privileges of royalty. A more significant movement followed. On the second day, Bradshaw, to the amazement and alarm of the court, moved that they should form themselves into a committee of the whole House, to deliberate on the question whether the House should approve of the system of government by a single person and a Parlia- ment. A fierce debate followed, in which it was repeatedly asked why the members of the Long Parliament then present should not re- sume the authority of which they had been il- legally deprived by force, and by what right OLIVER CROMWELL. 581 but that of the sword, one man presumed to "command his commanders;" and, ultimately, the motion was carried by a majority of Jive. Cromwell's excitement became extreme. He was but little composed by the assurance that many of those who voted in the majority had not objected to the authority of the Protector, but to the source from which it emanated a written instrument, the author of which was unknown ; and rather wished it to be settled on him by act of Parliament.* Bradshaw and his friends, meanwhile, moved forward unflinchingly. For four successive days, the 7th, the 8th, the 9th, and the llth of September, the committee remained in discus- sion on this question ; the debates were in the highest degree animated ; and the House sat late each day. Bradshaw, Hazlerig, and Scot eminently, on all these days, distinguished themselves, and, Ludlow informs us, " were very instrumental in opening the eyes of many young members, who had never before heard the public interest so clearly stated and assert- ed, so that the Commonwealth party increased every day, and that of the sword lost ground proportionally." One " noble gentleman," we farther ascertain, made a speech, in which he said that the snares that were laid to entrap the liberties of the people were such as it was impossible to mistake ; but that, for his own part, as God had made him instrumental in cut- ting down tyranny in one person, so he could not endure to see the nation's rights ready to be shackled by another, whose claim to the government could be measured no otherwise than by the length of his sword. The arguments on both sides in this very fa- mous discussion have been happily preserved for us in the rough heads of Goddard's diary.t and may be briefly arranged and summed up thus. The Protector's party insisted that the govern- ment of the Commonwealth was to be admitted entire, such as it had been established in the preceding December; and the other party as- serted the paramount authority of the Parlia- ment, and that nothing was to be admitted as of validity that had not the sanction of the na- tional representatives. The court retorted, under the instructions of their master, that, since it had been approved by the people, the only real source of power, it could not be sub- ject to revision by the representatives of the people ! Not so, rejoined even the most mod- erate members in opposition. Waving the question of ascendency, and Cromwell's title to assume it, they still objected to the language of the Instrument, and said that, instead of affirming that " the supreme legislative author- ity shall be in one person, and the people as- sembled in Parliament," it ought to be, " in the Parliament of the people of England, and a sin- gle person qualified with such instructions as that assembly should authorize." Upon this the court fled from the "right" and took up the " expedient." They obscurely threatened. With whatever fair speeches, they said, the Protector had opened the Parliament, it could not be expected that he would divest himself of his authority, and that it would therefore be their wisdom cheerfully to yield what it was * Thurloe, vol. ii., p. 606. t See the Burton Diary Introduction. not in their power to withhold. They added, that the co-ordinate power of legislation given him by the Instrument was merely a negative pro tempore, extending to a term of twenty days only ; and that a milder prerogative than this it was impossible to devise. They dwelt with emphatical commendation upon the article which limited the sitting of Parliament to a period of five months, and indulged in terms of bitter reproach against that feature of the government of the Long Parliament, in which they had shown themselves disposed to prolong their authority without limitation. Such a usurpation should be carefully provided against in future !* While the argument rested thus, Judge Matthew Hale went down to the House on the fourth day to endeavour to effect a compro- mise.t He proposed that the legislative authori- ty should be affirmed to be in the Parliament of the people of England, and a single person qualified with such instructions as that assem- bly should authorize in the manner suggested by the Republicans. But, to render this pal- atable to the executive magistrate, and prac- ticable under the circumstances, he recom- mended that the military power for the present should be unequivocally given to the Protector ; and, to avoid the perpetuity of Parliament, arid other exorbitances in their claims of suprem- acy, that that officer should be allowed such, a co-ordination as might serve for a check in those points. The conduct of the Republicans at this cri- sis deserves especial attention : it is their final and ample vindication from the favourite char- ges with which history is so rife against them. They had chosen, on the issue of writs for this Parliament, to depart from the sterner princi- ple of their great associate, Sir Henry Vane who refused even to answer to the authority of the Protectorate as a thing under which no good could be achieved for liberty and to of- fer themselves for selection by the people. The electors of Buckinghamshire at once returned Scot ; those of Cheshire, Bradshaw ; those of Newcastle on Tyne, Sir Arthur Hazlerig ; and those of Durham, Robert Lilburne. These were all large and eminent constituencies, and altogether by such indeed were the chief por- tion of the Republicans returned. Having ta- ken this step, they resolved to work it out fair- ly to its results. They showed themselves neither headlong nor pragmatical, but able and most practical politicians. Waiving their sense of the superior force and virtue of a republic, they conceded the argument of the court that power might be delegated profitably to a single person. But if this is so, they said, we must control his resources for mischief, and make him indeed the servant of the people and the laws. We are not here now for the support of our own visionary theories, but we stand for the substance of solid justice, and we will have it. Fair play to the Protectorate must imply fair play to the people, or it is based upon a lie. We will make any concessions on that principle, in the faith that so long as the pop- ular voice is heard, and its influence acknowl- * Godwin, vol. iv., p. 118. t This was first disclosed in Goddard's Diary (introduc- tion to Burton's) ; and see also Godwin, vol. iv., p. 119, 120. 582 BRITISH STATESMEN. edged, the people will eventually be able to right themselves and their cause. They agreed to the compromise proposed by Hale, and stripped off the last pretence from Cromwell. The course now taken by the Lord Protector sets the final stamp of reprobation on his po- litical career. On the morning of the 12th of September, having on the previous evening rejected Hale's proposition with scorn, he commanded Lenthal to attend him in Whitehall with the mace ; he at the same time ordered Harrison, whose par- tisans were in motion for the Parliament, to be again taken into close custody ;* he sent for the lord -mayor, and despatched three regi- ments to occupy the principal posts in the city ; he ordered the doors of the House in which the Parliament had assembled since its meeting to be locked, and filled the avenues in Palace Yard and Scotland Yard with four companies of foot. At eight o'clock all this had been done ! The members in succession repaired to the place of their sitting, but found themselves ex- cluded, and were told that the Protector would speedily arrive at the Painted Chamber, where he proposed to receive them. Here he received them accordingly; and laying aside at once his modesty and his mys- ticism, addressed them in a vigorous speech. " Gentlemen," he said, " it is not long since I met you in this place, upon an occasion which gave much more content and comfort than this doth. That which I have to say to you now will need no preamble to let me into my dis- course, for the occasion of this meeting is plain enough. I could have wished, with all my heart, there had been no cause for it. At that meeting I did acquaint you what the first rise was of this government which hath called you hither, and in the authority of which you came hither. Among other things that I told you of then, I said you were a free Parliament ; and so you are, while you own the government and au- thority that called you hither ; for certainly that word implied a reciprocation, or implied nothing at all. Indeed, there was a reciprocation implied and expressed, and I think your actions and carriages ought to be suitable ; but I see it will be necessary for me now a little to magnify my office, which I have not been apt to do. I have been of this mind, I have been always of this mind, since first I entered upon it, that if God will not bear it up, let it sink. But if a duty be incumbent upon me to bear my testimony unto it (which in modesty I have hitherto for- borne), I am in some measure now necessita- ted thereunto, and therefore that will be the prologue to my discourse." He now proceeded to declare frankly, as the grounds on which he made this most extraor- dinary claim of reciprocation, that his calling was from God, his testimony from the people, and that no one but God and the people should ever take his office from him. It was not of his seeking : God knew that it was his utmost ambition to lead the life of a country gentle- man ; but imperious circumstances had im- posed it upon him. I cannot forbear to quote these extraordinary passages, in which he rap- idly, and in language of very passionate clear- ness, reviewed the circumstances of his life, * He was released after a week's detention. and pushed to its very uttermost extreme what seems to have been the most fatal doctrine of his whole career : that since God had chosen him to be the successful champion of his holy cause, the very honour of the divinity himself had become identified with his own personal advancement, and, safe in his first condition of grace, any falsehood or hypocrisy would be par- doned him for the sake of the ulterior advan- tages which, by their means, he would achieve. There is possibly some distinction from ordi- nary and mean falsehood in this, so far as a pollution of the mind and heart is implied in it, but there is no distinction in its wicked results upon the world. It is entitled to consideration as a metaphysical subtlety, and in some ex- planation of the fact that Oliver Cromwell is very nearly, if not quite, a solitary specimen of a great man who was not also a true one. " I called not myself to this place I say again, I called not myself to this place ; of that God is witness; and I have many witnesses who, I do believe, could readily lay down their lives to bear witness to the truth of that that is to say, that I called not myself to this place; and being in it, I bear not witness to myself, but God and the people of these nations have borne testimony to it also. If my calling be from God, and my testimony from the people, God and the people shall take it from me, else I will not part with it. I should be false to the trust that God hath placed in me, and to the interest of the people of these nations, if I should. That I called not myself to this place, is my first assertion. That I bear not witness to myself, but have many witnesses, is my second. These are the two things 1 shall take the liberty to speak more fully to you | of. To make plain and clear that which I have said, I must take the liberty to look back. / was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. I have been called to several employments in the na- tion to serve in Parliament ; and, because I would not be over-tedious, I did endeavour to discharge the duty of an honest man in those services, to God and his people's interest, and of the Commonwealth, having, when time was, a competent acceptation in the hearts of men, and some evidences thereof. I resolve not to recite the times, and occasions, and opportu- nities that have been appointed me by God to serve him in, nor the presence and blessings of God then bearing testimony to me. Having had some occasions to see (together with my brethren and countrymen) a happy period put to our sharp wars and contests with the then common enemy, / hoped, in a private capacity, to have reaped the fruit and benefit, together with my brethren, of our hard labours and haz- ards ; to wit, the enjoyment of peace and liberty, and the privileges of a Christian and of a man, in some equality with others, according as it should please the Lord to dispense unto me. And when, I say, God had put an end to our wars at least, brought them to a very hopeful issue, very near an end after Worcester fight, I came up to London to pay my service and duty to the Parliament that then sat ; and ho- ping that all minds would have been disposed 1 to answer that which seemed to be the mind I of God, viz., to give peace and rest to his peo- OLIVER CROMWELL. 583 pie, and especially to those who had bled more than others in the carrying on of the military affairs, I was much disappointed of my expec- tation, for the issue did not prove so. What- ever may be boasted or misrepresented, it was not so, not so. I can say, in the simplicity of my soul, I love not, I love not (I declined it in my former speech), I say, I love not to rake into sores, or to discover nakednesses ; that which I drive at is this : I say to you, / hoped to have had leave to have retired to a private life : I begged to be dismissed of my charge ; I begged it again and again ; and God be judge between me and alt men if I lie in this matter. That I lie not in matter of fact, is known to very many ; but wbether I tell a lie in my heart, as labour- ing to represent to you that which was not upon my heart, I say the Lord be judge ! let uncharitable men, that measure others by them- selves, judge as they please. As to the mat- ter of fact, I say it is true. As to the ingenui- ty and integrity of my heart in that desire, I do appeal, as before, upon the truth of that also. But I could not obtain what my soul longed for ; and the plain truth is, I did after- ward apprehend that some did think (my judg- ment not suiting with theirs) that it could not well be. But this, I say to you, was between God and my soul between me and that assembly. " / confess I am in some strait to say what I could say, and what is true of what then fol- lowed. I pressed the Parliament, as a mem- ber, to period themselves, once, and again, and again, and ten, nay, twenty times over. I told them (for I knew it better than any one man in the Parliament could know it, because of my manner of life, which was to run up and down the nation, and so might see and know the temper and spirits of all men, the best of men) that the nation loathed their sitting: I knew it; and, so far as I could discern, when they were dissolv- ed, there was not so much as the barking of a dog, or any general and visible repining at it. You are not a few here present that can assert this as well as myself; and that there was high cause for their dissolution, is most evident, not only in regard there was a just fear of that Parliament's perpetuating themselves, but be- cause it was their design ; and had not their heels been trod upon by importunities from abroad, even to threats, 7 believe there would never have been thoughts of rising, or of going out of that room, to the world's end ! I myself was sounded, and by no mean persons tempted, and addresses were made to me to that very end, that it might have been thus perpetuated : that the vacant places might be supplied by new elections, and so continue from generation to generation. I have declined, I have declined very much, to open these things to you ; yet, having proceeded thus far, I must tell you, that poor men, under this arbitrary power, were driven like flocks of sheep, by forty in a morn- ing, to the confiscation of goods and estates, without any man being able to give a reason that two of them had deserved to forfeit a shil- ling. I tell you the truth, and my soul ; and many persons whose faces I see in this place were exceedingly grieved at these things, and knew not which way to help it but by their mournings, and giving their negatives when occasions served. I have given you but a taste of miscarriages. I am confident you have had opportunities to hear much more of them, for nothing is more obvious. 'Tis true this will be said, that there was a remedy to put an end to this perpetual Parliament endeavoured, by having a future representative. How it was gotten, and by what importunities that was obtained, and how unwillingly yielded unto, is well known. What was this remedy 1 It was a seeming willingness to have successive Par- liaments. What was that succession 1 It was, that when one Parliament had left their seat, another was to sit down immediately in the room thereof, without any caution to avoid that which was the danger, viz., perpetuating of the same Parliaments ; which is a sore now that will ever be running, so long as men are am- bitious and troublesome, if a due remedy be net found. So, then, what was the business 1 It was a conversion from a Parliament that should have been, and was perpetual, to a legislative power always sitting ; and so the liberties, and interests, and lives of people, not judged by any certain known laws and power, but by an arbi- trary power, which is incident and necessary to Parliaments ; by an arbitrary power, I say, to make men's estates liable to confiscation, and their persons to imprisonments ; some- times by laws made after the fact committed , often by taking the judgment, both in capital and criminal things, to themselves, who, in former times, were not known to exercise such a judicature." And thus, he now proceeded to assert, as the Long Parliament brought their dissolution upon themselves by despotism, so the little Parlia- ment by imbecility. On each occasion, he add- ed, he had found himself invested in absolute power with the military, and through them over the three nations. He described what they proposed to do at the dissolution of the Bar- bone Convention, and then continued thus : " I denied it again and again, as God and those persons know : not complimentingly, as they also know, and as God knows. I confess, after many arguments, and after the letting of me know that I did not receive anything that put me into any higher capacity than I was in be- fore ; but that it limited me, and bound my hands to act nothing to the prejudice of these nations without consent of a council, until the Parliament, and then limited by the Parliament, as the Act of Government expresseth ; I did accept it. I might repeat this again to you, if it were needful ; but I think I need not. I was arbitrary in power, having the armies in the three nations under my command ; and truly not very ill-beloved by them, nor very ill-beloved then by the people, by the good people ; and I believe I should have been more beloved if they had known the truth, as things were before God and in them- selves, and before divers of those gentlemen whom I but now mentioned unto you." But this arbitrary power, he continued, he always desired to be freed from ; and if he had acqui- esced in the " Instrument" of the Protectorate, it was because it made the Parliament a check on the Protector, and the Protector on the Par- liament ! " The next thing I promised you, wherein I hope I shall not be so long (though I am sure this occasion does require plainness and freedom), is, that I brought not myself into 584 BRITISH STATESMEN. this condition, as in my own apprehension I did not ;* and that I did not, the things being true which I have told you, I submit it to your judg- ment, and there shall I leave it, let God do what he pleaseth. The other things, I say, that I am to speak to you of, are, that / have not, nor do not bear witness to myself. I am far from alluding to Him that said so ; yet truth concerning a member of his He will own, though men do not. But I think, if I mistake not, / have a cloud of witnesses : I think so, let men be asfroward as they will. I have witness within, without, and above." These witnesses he then summoned forth in order. He had, he said, God for a witness above, and his own conscience for a witness within. Then, for his " cloud of witnesses" without, he had all those who attended when he took the oath of fidelity to the " Instru- ment ;" he had the officers in the army in the three nations, who testified their approbation by their signatures ; the city of London, which feasted him ; the counties, cities, and boroughs, that had sent him addresses ; the judges, ma- gistrates, and sheriffs, who acted by his com- mission ; and the very men who now stood be- fore him, for they came there in obedience to his writ, and under the express condition that " the persons so chosen should not have power to change the government as settled in one single person and the Parliament." He averred to them, finally,, that he would not dispute that they were ' a free Parliament ;" free to deliber- ate for the general welfare ; but added, that there were some things fundamental, from which they were not at liberty to depart. These were four : the government by a single * I have quoted this passage that I may subjoin in a note the admirable and most powerful remarks that are made with evident reference to it by the poet Cowley, in his fa- mous Vision : " Are we then," asks Cowley supposing Cromwell's assertion believed that he had become, by his office in the army, arbitrary in power " are we so unhappy as to be conquered by the person whom we hired at a daily rate, like a labourer, to conquer others for us? Did we fur- nish him with arms only to draw and try vpon our enemies, and keep them forever sheathed in the bowels of his friends 1 Did we fight for liberty against our prince, that we might become slaves to our servant 1 The right of conquest can only be exercised upon those against whom the war is de- clared and the victory obtained ; so that no whole nation ean be suid to be conquered but by a foreign force. la all civil wars, men are so far from stating the quarrel against their country, that they do it only against a person or party which they really believe, or at least pretend, .to be perni- cious to it ; neither can there be any just cause for the de- struction of a' part of the body, but when it is done for the preservation and safety of the whole. 'Tis our country that raises men in the quarrel, our country that arms, our coun- try that pays them, our country that authorizes the under- taking, .and that distinguishes it from rapine and, murder. Lastly, 'tis our.- country that directs and commands the army, and is indeed their, general ; so that to say in civil wart that the prevailing party conquers their country, is to toy the country cqnjucrs itself ;. ami if the general. only of that party be the conqueror, i he army by which he is made no i* no lees conquered than the army which is beaten, and lave as little reason to triumph in that victory, by which they lose both their honour and liberty; so that if Crom- well conquered any party, it was only that against which he was sent ; and what that was must appear by his com- mission." As powerfully and conclusively, though in sup- port of unsound views, does the vigorous hand of Cowley shatter the pretences which Cromwell founds throughout this speech, on the circumstance of authority having fallen *o pieces, when he was requested to reunite it. "The gov- Brnmnnt was broke : who broke it ! It was dissolved : who dissolved it? It was extinguished: who was it but Crom~ well, who not only put out the light, but cast away even the very snuff of it? As if a man should murder a whole family, and then possess himself of the whole house, because *\ii better that he,, than that only rats, should live there !" person and a Parliament ; that Parliaments should be successive, and not attempt to make themselves perpetual ; liberty of conscience, and the vesting of the power of the sword and of the militia in the single person and the Par- liament. And here he paused for an instant, with a remark on one of these fundamentals, only to show the more clear-sighted of his list- eners, though in reality designed to throw dust in their eyes, what little chance there was, in his thorough knowledge of what was right, that he would ever, by any mistake, diverge into it. " Is not liberty of conscience in religion a fun- damental 1 So long as there is liberty of con- science for the supreme magistrate to exercise his conscience in erecting what form of church government he is satisfied he should set up, why should he not give it to others ? Liberty of conscience is a natural right ; and he that would have it, ought to give it, having liberty to settle what he likes for the public. Indeed, that hath been one of the vanities of our contest. Every sect saith, Oh ! give me liberty. But give him it, and, to his power, he will not yield it to anybody else. Where is our ingenuity ! Truly that is a thing ought to be very reciprocal." These fundamentals, he added in conclusion, he had thought so plain, that he had not con- ceived it necessary that he should require of the members the owning of their call, and the authority which had brought them together, previously to their entering the place of their deliberations. But they had obliged him to come to another conclusion ; and he had ac- cordingly put a stop to their entrance into the Parliament House, and caused a recognition of the government to be prepared, which it would be necessary for every member to sign in the lobby before he would be allowed to advance farther. The recognition was a simple engagement to be true and faithful to the Lord Protector and Com- monwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and not to consent to an alteration of the government, as it was settled in one person and a Parliament. The members left the Painted Chamber con- fusedly, and again repaired to the door of their own House. They found a guard of soldiers stationed there, and on a table in the adjoining lobby a parchment lying for signatures. An officer of the army had been appointed to take their subscriptions ; and, one by one, as they conformed themselves to this requisition, they were to be allowed to enter. Lenthal, the speaker, at once advanced and signed. Brad- shaw, Scot, and Hazlerig, with an indignant protest of defiance and scorn, turned their backs on the degrading scene, and were followed by about a hundred men. The rest, either on the spot, or after some days' inducement from the army and the court, consented to sign the rec- ognition. These amounted to nearly three hundred. Subsequent events showed, how- ever, that they had signed it with a mental res- ervation. This Parliament now loses its claim to our respect, but, as the reader will find, not alto- gether to our interest. Before it resumed its deliberations, an ominous occurrence had be- fallen Cromwell. Among the presents he had received from foreign princes were six hand- some gray Friesland coach-horses, from the Duke of Oldenburgh. The humour took him OLIVER CROMWELL. 585 one day to dine with Thurloe under the shade of the park, and afterward to try, with his own hand, the mettle of these horses, " not doubt- ing," observes Ludlow, with bitter sarcasm, " but the three pair of animals he was about to drive would prove as tame as the three nations which were ridden by him." The result was curious, and will be best related in the language of the time. The Dutch ambassadors thus write to their States- General : " After the sending away of our letters of last Friday, we were acquainted the next morning, which we heard nothing of the night before, that about that time a mis- chance happened to the Lord Protector, which might have been, in all likelihood, very fatal unto him, if God had not wonderfully preserved him. As we are informed, the manner of it was thus : his highness, only accompanied with Secretary Thurloe and some few of his gentle- men and servants, went to take the air in Hyde Park, where he caused some dishes of meat to be brought, where he made his dinner, and afterward had a desire to drive the coach himself, having put only the secretary into it, being those six horses which the Earl of Oldenburgh had pre- sented unto his highness, who drove pretty handsomely for some time ; but at last, provo- king those horses too much with the whip, they grew unruly, and ran so fast that the postillion could not hold them in, whereby his highness was flung out of the coach-box upon the pole, upon which he lay with his body, and afterward fell upon the ground. His foot getting hold in the tackling, he was carried away a good while in that posture, during which a pistol went off in his pocket ; but at last he got his foot clear, and so came to escape, the coach passing away without hurting him. He was presently brought home, and let blood ; and, after some rest ta- ken, he is now pretty well again. The secre- tary, being hurt on his ankle with leaping out of the coach, hath been forced to keep his cham- ber hitherto, and been unfit for any business ; so that we have not been able to further or ex- pedite any business this week." A second description, from another of the ambassadors now waiting in London the pleas- ure of the Lord Protector, shows the suspicion of falsehood which had begun to attach to what- ever Thurloe and the Lord Protector were con- cerned in ! "I have not yet anything to write unto you of my negotiation. It was referred six days ago, under pretence of an accident hap- pened to the Lord Protector and the secretary of state, in a promenade, wherein the first took the place of his coachman ; and, his horses running away with him, he was flung out of the box among the horses ; and, if his shoe had not broken or slipped off, the misfortune had been entire. He got off only with some bruises, and was likewise no ways hurt with a pistol that went off in his pocket. During this disorder the secretary of state sat in the coach, who, endeavouring to get out, sprained his foot, which was all the harm that happened to him. Both of them do not forbear to keep their beds, nor to busy themselves also. 1 ' A third am- bassador seems infected with the same myste- rious doubts. " No doubt you have heard of the accident happened to the Protector, who, being in the park in his coach, got up into the 4E I box ; and, his horses being unruly, they flung him out of his throne, and he had like to have been racked alive. This doth afford matter of speculation to some, and discourses to others. His enemies speak him to be very ill, and his friends, in health." Finally, a mention of the circumstance in two letters of Paris Royalists to Charles's court shows the bitter hopes it had awakened there. One prophesies that as the new Protector's first fall had been from a coach, so his second would be from a cart ! And a second writes more moderately thus : " We hear of a misfor- tune befallen the Lord Protector for playing the coachman. He had better have sat in his chair in the Painted Chamber to govern tho Parliament, which is more pliable to his pleas- ure, than in the coach-box to govern his coaeh- horses, which have more courage to put him out of the box than the three hundred members of Parliament have to put him out of his chair. ' Est malum omen, et ah animalibus forsan dis- cent exemplum ; qui sedit, videat ne cadat.' "* To the general mass of the English people this accident neither taught a jest nor a proph- ecy, but revealed a fact of melancholy signifi- cance. The explosion of the pistol in Crom- well's pocket betrayed the dangers which beset him in the midst of all his glory the haunting sense of insecurity which follows inordinate ambition. t In the incident itself, too, they might have seen at once the headlong desire to purchase relief from overburdened thoughts, and the fantastical tricks he would play to as- sume the mere power of doing anything. Crom- well had now forfeited all old claims to envy. Even his broken Parliament the Parliament he had forced under the muskets of his soldier)^ the fragment of the free assembly he had wel- comed on his fortunate day had found strength to turn once more against him. If it showed in this, as his partisans asserted, the meanness of the worm, it at least showed no less its des- perate vitality ! The first thing it did on reas- sembling was to come to a resolution that the " recognition" did not comprehend the whole of the instrument of the 16th of December, but , simply the government of the Commonwealth hy a single person and successive Parliaments. Then, a few days after, with a somewhat ab- surd attempt to maintain what they called the dignity of the House, they converted the whole of Cromwell's base transaction into a proceed- * These various letters will be found in the second vol- ume of Thurloe, p. 652, 653, 674, <fec. The court newspa- pers never alluded lo the accident. t At a subsequent date I find one of the numberless spiel employed by Thurloe thus writing to that wily secretary. He is describing one of the Presbyterian plots against the Protector. " He told me a story, which, if you were a fowler, might be of some use to you. We two, discoursing concerning the murthering of his highnes, and I urging the difficulty of it, he told me it was true, indeed, he wore a private coat, as he was informed by a Presbiterian minister; but they had a way to peirce it, which was this : To take some graines of pepper (white the best), and steep them twenty-four hours in the strongest aqua vitse, and then mix three or four graines with the powder, wherewith n pisu.ll is charged ; and that pistoll will carry levell twice as far as before, and therefore, by consequence, peirce twice as deep. This minister preached before his highnes at Hamp- ton Court ; and, being invited to heare his highnes exer- cise, he asked the boy, that waited on him in his chamber for accommodation, what was the reason his hihues did sweat so much. The boy answered, that he had a close coat under his other clothes, which was the reason his highnes did sweat so much." Thurlor, vol. i., p. 708. 586 BRITISH STATESMEN. ing of their own, coming to a resolution that " all persons who shall be returned to serve in this Parliament shall, before they are admitted to sit, subscribe the recognition of govern- ment !" Next we find them in committee vo- ting that the supreme legislative authority should reside in a Lord Protector and Parlia- ment ; and, the day following, with a most ri- diculous affectation of independence, that Crom- well should be the Protector. Then, having determined that essential point, they proceeded to analyze the instrument itself, article by ar- ticle, and occupied themselves in committee on this business to the 8th of November ! One day they had the important question to vote whether the Protectorship was to be hereditary, or for life only, and in what manner, and by what authority, a new Protector was to he named ; on another day, whether any law could be made, or tax imposed, for the future, ex- cept in Parliament, and in what hands the pow- er of declaring war and making peace was to be vested ! The former question, I should add, had originated chiefly in the accident just de- scribed, and which naturally led to a consider- ation of the probable consequences of the death of Cromwell. The court party first started the point, and Cromwell had so managed to cajole Lambert with some secret understanding, as is suppo- sed, for a special exception or reservation in his favour, that on the morning of the day ap- pointed for the debate, when all the court de- pendants had mustered their utmost force, to the amazement of every one, who supposed it the secret aim of Lambert to strike for the Protectorate on Cromwell's death, that officer rose, and having detailed in a long and elabo- rate speech the miseries of an elective, and the merits of an hereditary succession, moved that the office of Protector should be limited to the family of Oliver Cromwell, according to the known law of inheritance. A long and very vivid debate followed, and closed, to the alarm and confusion of the court, in a division of two hundred for the elective chief magistracy, and only sixty for the hereditary. It was resolved, at the same time, that, on the death of the Pro- lector, his successor should be chosen by the Parliament, if it were sitting, and by the coun- cil in the absence of Parliament. It is clear that Cromwell, the instant after this vote, took the resolution on which he act- ed some three months later. He showed no sign of impatience or interference, smiled when the vote was officially communicated to him, and said that the Parliament should proceed. They proceeded accordingly. Cromwell had insisted, the reader will recollect, on four fun- damentals, and required that on these a final negative on the acts of the Legislature should be reserved to him ; on all others, his power, under his own instrument of government, ex- tended no farther than to suspend for twenty days their decrees from being acknowledged as law. The article concerning these negatives was the next matter taken up, and upon a point which, in its result at least, seemed to realize a farce of much ado about nothing. The opposition party insisted that the hills upon which the Protector should be entitled to this prerogative should be of a sort, containing in them something "contrary to such matters wherein the Parliament shall think fit to give a negative to the Protector." The court party urged as an amendment that the words should be, " contrary to such matters wherein the single person and the Parliament shall declare a negative to be in the single person."* The debate was ardently conducted on both sides, and closed with a majority on the side of the opposition, the numbers being 109 to 85. Nothing could exceed the apparent distress of the court party in the House at this vote.t It had, they swore, as far as a vote could do it, deposed the executive magistrate from his of- fice. Lord Broghill declared it was so mortal a wound to the government, that he would will- ingly have redeemed it with a pound of his blood. Then followed dark threats about the necessity of a dissolution, and at these the ma- jority quailed. Next day the amendment of the court party was carried without a division ! and, most ridiculous to add, three days after, the negatives were taken into farther consid- eration ; the friends of the Protector were twice left in a minority upon questions of the same import as in the former instance ; and again, on the day following these, a second amend- ment was carried, reversing a second time the obnoxious vote. Their subsequent proceedings, which had about as much dignity and as much annoyance in them, may be briefly described. t Having brought their discussions on the Act of Settle- ment to a close at last, it was moved by the court party that, before the Act of Settlement was engrossed, a conference should be had with the Protector on the subject ; but it was carried against them by a majority of 107 to 95. Then, with a new start of courage, they voted that this bill should he a law, without needing the Protector's consent. Next day, however, they became convinced that they had gone too far, and directed that it should be engrossed, in order to its being presented to him for his con- sideration and consent. As a sort of set-off to this, it was at the same time decided, that un- less the Protector and Parliament should agree to the whole and every part of the bill, it should be void and of no effect. Void and of no effect the Protector had al- ready resolved it should be ! He only waited a good opportunity for the movement he had already projected, and it soon came. Having passed various resolutions in revision of the ordinances promulgated before they met having canvassed in a most troublesome spir- it sundry arrangements of the executive hav- ing interfered with several assessments which had been thought by Cromwell essential to the public service, they manifested a decidedly res- * Godwin, vol. ii., p. 137. t It may be explained, in some sort, by keeping in mind the doctrine of Cromwell himself, that he was, whatever concessions he might consent to make, solely and exclu- sively the fountain of all the government that existed, and that the Parliament derived its privileges from him and his writ. Taken in this sense, the otherwise very fine dis- tinction between the negative " which the Parliament might think fit to give," and that " which the single person and the Parliament should declare to be already in exist- ence," becomes clear enough. t In the midst of them, it may be worth while to men- tion, the death of the famous Selden created much interest among those who recollected and appreciated his noble ser- vices to the cause. OLIVER CROMWELL. 587 uft spirit in the matter of supplies. This was the opportunity for which Cromwell alone had waited. He summoned the House once more to meet him in the Painted Chamber. This was on the 22d of January, and not till twelve days later could the term of five months' ex- istence, secured to the Parliament under the Protectorate, possibly expire. The members went up to the Painted Chamber, therefore, in the natural expectation of an angry remon- strance, but the still paramount security, that till the 3d of February, at least, they should remain a Parliament. Cromwell, having saluted them with an ex- pression of displeasure and contempt, at once began his address, which was conceived in the most masterly and subtle spirit of praise and flattery to the people, and of scorn and defiance to them. " GENTLEMEN, I perceive you are here as the House of Parliament, by your speaker, whom I see here, and by your faces, which are, in a great measure, known to me. When I first met you in this room, it was, to my apprehension, the hopefullest day that ever mine eyes saw, as to considerations of this world ; for I did look at (as wrapped up in you, together with myself) the hopes and the hap- piness of (though not the greatest, yet a very great, and) the best people in the world ; and truly and unfeignedly I thought so : a people ! that have the highest and the clearest profes- j sion among them of the greatest glory, viz., re- ' ligion ; a people that have been, like other na- ' tions, sometimes up and sometimes down in ! our honour in the world, but yet never so low ! but we might measure with other nations ; a ' people that have had a stamp upon them from ' God ! God having, as it were, summed up all J our former glory and honour, in the things that ' are of glory to nations, in an epitome, within | these ten or twelve years last past, so that we : knew one another at home, and are well known ' abroad." What, he then asked, had they done as a ! Parliament 1 He never had played, he never ! would play, the orator, and therefore, he would tell them frankly, they had done nothing. For ! five months they had passed no bill, had made no address, had held no communication with ] him. As far as concerned them, he had no- '< thing to do but to pray that God would en- lighten their minds, and give a blessing to their labours. But had they then done nothing 1 Yes : they had encouraged the Cavaliers to plot against the Commonwealth, and the Levellers to intrigue with the Cavaliers. By their dis- sensions they had aided the fanatics to throw the nation into confusion, and by the slowness of their proceedings had compelled the soldiers to live at free quarters on the country. The result he thus forcibly and eloquently described. "There be some trees that will not grow under the shadow of other trees ; there be some that choose (a man may say so by way of illusion) to thrive under the shadow of oth- er trees. I will tell you what hath thriven I will not say what you have cherished under your shadow ; that were too hard. Instead of peace and settlement, instead of mercy and truth being brought together, righteousness and peace kissing each other, by reconciling the honest people of these nations, and settling the woful distempers that are among us, which had been glorious things, and worthy of Chris- tians to have proposed weeds and nettles, briers and thorns, have thriven under your shadow. Dissettlement and division, discon- tent and dissatisfaction, together with real dan- gers to the whole, have been more multiplied within those five months of your sitting than in some years before. Foundations have been also laid for the future renewing the troubles of these nations, by all the enemies of it abroad and at home. Let not these words seem too sharp, for they are true as any mathematical demonstrations are or can be. I say, the ene- mies of the peace of these nations, abroad and at home ; the discontented humours through- out these nations, which I think no man will grudge to call by that name, or to make to al- lude to briers and thorns they have nourished themselves under your shadow." He next referred to the question of the Pro- tectorship, and said they supposed, no doubt, that he had sought to make it hereditary. With unblushing effrontery, and a faith in his pow- ers of delusion, which constituted in itself a perfect miracle, he told them that this was not true ! " I will not presage what you have been about or doing in all this time, nor do Hove to make conjectures-; but I must tell you this, that as I undertake this government in the sim- plicity of my heart, and as before God, and to do the part of an honest man, and to be true to the interest which, in my conscience, is clear to many of you (though it is not always under- stood what God in his wisdom may hide from us as to peace and settlement), so I can say that no particular interest, either of myself, estate, honour, or family, are, or have been, prevalent with me to this undertaking ; for if you had, upon the old government, offered to me this one, this one thing (I speak as thus advised, and before God, as having been to this day of this opinion ; and this hath been my constant judgment, well known to many that hear me speak) if this one thing had been inserted ! this one thing, that the government should | have been placed in my family hereditarily, I \ would have rejected it ! and I could have done no other, according to my present conscience ' and light. I will tell you my reason, though I | cannot tell what God will do with me, nor you, ' nor the nation, for throwing away precious op- portunities committed to us. This hath been I my principle, and I liked it when this govern- ! ment came first to be proposed to me, that it puts us off that hereditary way ; well looking that as God had declared what government he had delivered over to the Jews, and placed it upon such persons as had been instrumental for the conduct and deliverance of his people, and considering that promise in Isaiah, that i God would give rulers as at the first, and judg- es as at the beginning, I did not know but that God might begin ; and though at present with a most unworthy person, yet, as to the future, it might be, after that manner ; and I thought this might usher it in. I am speaking as to my judgment against making it hereditary ; to have men chosen for their love to God, and to truth and justice, and not to have it hereditary ; , for as it is in Ecclesiastes, who knoweth wheth- 588 BRITISH STATESMEN. er he may beget a fool or a wise man, honest or not' Whatever they be, they must come in on that account, because the government is made a patrimony." The motive for these desperate assertions was to enable him, after that day's action, to keep a fair appearance before the country, and their sole justification was the end he hoped one day to accomplish in behalf of God and God's people. Hence he did not scruple to add, in an expression I may not venture to charac- terize, that he spoke in the fear of the Lord who would not be mocked, and with the satis- faction that his conscience did not belie his as- sertion. The different revolutions which had happened, he then observed, were attributed to his cunning. How blind were men, who would not see the hand of Providence in its merciful dispensations ! men, who even ridiculed as vis- ions of enthusiasm, observations " made by the quickening and teaching Spirit !" After this, he went at once to the object for which he had summoned the members before them, and to the amazement of his hearers, deliberately ar- gued on the consequences of an immediate dis- solution of their authority ! It might be thought, forsooth, that without the aid of Parliament, the Protectorate could not raise money. He knew better. "I did think, also, for myself, that I am like to meet with difficulties ; and that this nation will not, as it is fit it should not, be deluded with pre- texts of necessity in that great business of rais- ing of money ; and were it not that I can make some dilemmas, upon which to resolve some things of my conscience, judgment, and actions, I should sink at the very prospect of my encounters. Some of them are general, some are more special. Supposing this cause or this business must be carried on, it is eitiier of God or of man ; if it be of man, I would I had never touched it with a finger. If I had not had a hope fixed in me that this cause and this business is of God, I would many years ago have run from it ; if it he of God, he will bear it up ; if it be of man, it will tumble, as everything that hath been of man since the world began hath done. And what are all our his- tories, and other traditions of actions in former times, but God manifesting himself, that he hath shaken, and tumbled down, and trampled upon, everything that he hath not planted ! And as this is, so the all-wise God deal with it. If this be of human structure and invention, and if it be an old plotting and contrivance to bring things to this issue, and that they are not the births of Providence, then they will tum- ble ; but if the Lord take pleasure in England, and if he will do us good, he is able to bear us up. Let the difficulties be whatsoever they will, we shall, in his strength, be able to en- counter with them ; and, bless God, I have been inured to difficulties, and I never found God fail- ing when I trusted in him : I can laugh and sing in my heart when I speak of these things to you', or elsewhere. And though some may think it is a hard thing, without Parliamentary authority, to raise money upon this nation, yet I have an- other argument to the good people of this na- tion, if they would be safe and have no better principle, whether they prefer the having of their will, though it be their destruction, rather than comply with things of NECESSITY ? That will excuse me ; but I should wrong my native country to suppose this." Necessity that was his plea ; and if it were answered that the necessity was of his own creation, he should answer, No, it was of God ! It was the consequence of God's pro-cidcnce ! No marvel was it, he added, if men who lived on their masses and service-books, their dead and carnal worship, were strangers to the works of God ; but for those who had been instructed by the Spirit of God, to adopt the same lan- guage, and say that men were the cause of these things, when God had done them this, this, he solemnly warned them, was more than the Lord would bear ! But now he had simply to com- municate his determination. They had sat long enough, he thought, for the benefit of Eng- land, and now, therefore, he declared them dis- solved ! For everything but this his listeners were prepared. They claimed their term of five months by the Lord Protector's own law. They were answered that that term was meant to he counted as in the arrangements of military ser- vice, by calendar and not lunar months ; and that, as the soldiers were paid, so should their existence be measured out. They had no re- ply to make to this deliberate artifice, but at once to go sullenly to their several homes, and leave their country once again to the absolute despotism of Cromwell. And an absolute despotism he at once es- tablished. The opportune and most natural occurrence of several conspiracies against him | after this third dissolution, formed what he ! thought would seem to be a sufficient motive, and most certainly prove a more than sufficient defence ! The conspiracies exploded from two differ- i ent quarters, the Republican sections of the : army, and the Royalists of the northern and western counties. The first embraced projects for the surprisal of Cromwell's person, and for the seizure of the Castle of Edinburgh, of Hull, Portsmouth, and other places of strength. But spies, paid by Thurloe, were in every regiment ; and no movement occurred that was not pre- viously known to Crmnwell. All officers ot doubtful fidelity were at once dismissed ; ev- ery regiment was purged of its questionable men ; Colonel Wildman was surprised in the very act of dictating to his secretary a declara- tion against the government of a most hostile 1 and inflammatory tendency ; and Lord Grey of Groby, Colonels Alured, Overton, and others, j were arrested, of whom some remained long I in severe and infamous confinement, while others were permitted to go at large on giving security for their peaceable behaviour. The tyrant did not yet dare to bring to the scaffold ' his old associates of Naseby and Marston Moor. The Royalist plot, though more extensive, proved to be still more harmless. It was head- ed by Wilmot, just then created Earl of Ro- chester, Sir Henry Slingsby, Sir Richard Ma- leverer, and Colonel Penruddock ; and, after a moment's occupation of Salisbury, was dis- persed by a captain with only a few companies ' of infantry. The mass of the people were still, as I have before described them, indifferent. OLIVER CROMWELL. It is, at the same time, recorded of the inhab- itants of Salisbury, in particular, that they were disgusted with the brutal purpose of the Roy- alists (during the momentary occupation) to hang the judges of assize whom they surprised in the town. Of the prisoners, the most dis- tinguished were executed, though they had sur- rendered the town under regular articles of war. The remainder were sold for slaves to Barbadoes, a favourite policy with Cromwell, pursued first in his Irish campaigns, and car- ried on through the whole of the Protectorate.* And now followed a regular and elaborate project of despotism, deliberately planned and resolutely executed. It was heralded by a few precautionary measures, which served to pre- pare the way for it. These were to forbid all ejected and sequestered clergymen of the Church of England to teach as schoolmasters or tutors, or to preach or use the church service as ministers either in public or private ; to order all priests belonging to the Church of Rome to quit the kingdom under pain of death ; to banish all Cavaliers and Catholics to the distance of twenty miles from the metropolis ; to prohibit the publication in print of any news or intel- ligence without permission from the secretary of state ;t and to place in confinement most of the nobility and principal gentry in England, till they could produce bail for their good be- haviour and future appearance ! Among the first who were apprehended were the Earl of Newport ; Lord Willoughby, of Parham, broth- er-in-law of Whitelocke ; and Geoffry Palmer, at once one of the most eminent and eccentric of the Royalist lawyers still residing in En- gland, and whom the Restoration afterward re- vived. They were committed to the Tower. The Earl of Lindsey and Lord Lovelace were I imprisoned at Banbury. Then followed the ar- j rest of the Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of j Northampton, Viscount Falkland, the Lords St. John, Petre, Coventry, Maynard, and Lucas, and above fifty commoners. The names of Earl Rivers and the Earl of Peterborough were subsequently added. AH this occurred within a few weeks, and was specially and openly designed by Cromwell to break the spirits of men, and to prepare them for what he had in reserve ; for against j the majority of the Royalists arrested thus, he ' did not scruple to confess afterward that he j had no specific charge to make. The first part of the great despotic scheme followed rapidly, * The following sad and significant extract is from a Paris letter of this date : " Here is nothing more now, but many Irish come from Ireland daily, into the service of Prince Cond6, with the most sad stories of the English usage to the natives that ever I heard of: parents taken from their wives and children, and sent into the English plantations ; the children starve in wildernesses, and some knocked to death. If all be true, it cannot be the Protector will leave it impune." Thurloe, vol. ii., p. 160. t Up to this time, as has been already stated, there were eight weekly newspapers, the majority in favour of the gov- ernment, but two of them, in a certain degree, hostile to the measures now pursued. " They expressed their opposition, however," as Mr. Godwin very properly remarks, " for the most part in a very subdued style, and had by no means lately broken out into great intemperance." After this or- dinance, which destroyed what remained of the liberty of the press, only the Mercurius Politicus, by Marchn-.ont Needham, and a new one now started, called the Public Intelligencer, by the same writer, appear to have been pub- lished. It is, indeed, not easy to conceive a measure of a more infamous character. in the shape of an ordinance, solely levelled against the adherents of the Stuarts. It de- clared that " all who had ever borne arms for the king, or declared themselves to be of the royal party, should be decimated ; that is, pay a tenth part of all the income or estate which they had left, to support the charge which the Commonwealth was put to by the unquietness of their temper, and the just cause of jealousy which they had administered." This was an infamous violation of every provision in the Act of Oblivion, passed with Cromwell's own most strenuous assistance by the statesmen, and an outrage upon every larger provision of natural equity or justice. But it was only the begin ning of an end more terrible. This declared itself, within a few weeks after, by a most comprehensive completion of the scheme of tyranny. While brooding over it, and all the desperate cruelty and injustice it involved, the Lord Protector found it necessary to vent what he fancied was the real lowliness and submissiveness of his honest and affec- tionate heart, to his son-in-law Fleetwood. He sent him, accordingly, to his government in Ire- land, the following most characteristic letter . " DEERE CHARLES, I write not often. At once I desier thee to knowe I most dearly love thee, and indeed my harte is plaine to thee as thy harte can well desier ; lett nothinge shake thee in this. The wretched jealosies that are amongst us, and the spirit of calumny, turn all into gall and wormwood. My harte is for the people of God ; that the Lorde knows, and I trust will (in due time) manifest ; yett thence are my wounds, which, though it grieves me, yett (through the Grace of God) doth not discourage me totally. Many good men are repininge at everythinge, though indeed very many good, well satisfied and satisfyinge daily. The will of the Lorde will bring forth good in due time. . . It's report- ed that you are to be sent for, and Harry to be Deputy, which truely never entred into my harte. The Lorde knows, my desier was for him and his Brother to have lived private lives in the Country ; and Harry knows this very well, and how dif- ficultly I was perswaded to give him his Co- mission for his present place. This I say was from a simple and sincere harte. The noyse of my beinge crowned, <fc., are like malUioits fig- ments. . . . Use this bearer, Mr. Brewster, kind- ly ; lett him be nere you ; indeed, he is a very holy, able man ; trust me you will find him soe. He was a bosome Friend of Mr. Tillinghurst ; ask him of him ; you will thereby know Mr. Tillinghurst's spirit. This Gentleman brought him to me a little before he died, and Mr. Cradock, Mr. Throughton, a Godly Minister, beinge by, with himselfe, who cried shame. Deere Charles, my deere love to thee and to my deere Biddie, who is a joy to my harte, for what I hear of the Lorde in her. Bid her be cheerfull and rejoyce in the Lorde once and again ; if she knows the Covenant thoroughly, she cannot butt doe ; for that transaction is, without her, sure and stedfast between the Father and the Mediator in his Blood ; there- fore leaninge upon the Sonn, or lookinge to him, thirstinge after him, imbracinge him, wee are his seed, and the covenant is sure to all the seed ; the compact is for the seed ; God is bound in faithfulness to Christ, and in him to 590 BRITISH STATESMEN. us. The covenant is without us a transac- 1 one. And I am of y r opinion that Trev r and tion between God and Christ look up to it ! Col. Mervin are very dangerous persons, and God ingageth in it to pardon us, to write his : may be made the heads of a new Rebellion ; .aw on our heart, to plant his fear, that wee and therefore I would have you move the shall never depart from him. Wee under all Councell that they be secured in some very safe our sins and infirmities can dayly offer a per- | place, and the farther out of their own Counties feet Christ, add thus wee have peace, and safe- the better. I comend you to the Lorde, and ty, and apprehension of love, from a Father in ! rest your aff 1 father, OLIVER, P." Covenant, who cannot deny himselfe : and true- j The ex-governor Fleetwood meanwhile pre- ly in this is all my Salvation, and this helps me sented himself, with Desborough, as ready tools to bear my great burthens. . . . If you ha.vea.mind for the Protector's purpose in his great despotic to come over with your deere Wife, <fc., take your \ plan. He laid the base of it in the already sub- best oportunilie for the good of the publique and \ sisting old English militia arrangements. It your own convenience. The Lorde bless you all. Pray for me, that the Lorde would direct and keep me his servant. I bless the Lorde I am was feasible, by their means, he saw, to divide England and Wales, with little trouble, into ten or twelve districts, and to place over the militia not rny own, butt my condition to flesh and blood \ of each of these districts an officer with the is very hard. Pray for me ; I do for you all ; comend me to all friends. I rest, your lovinge Father, OLIVER, P." Fleetwood accepted the invitation, came over to London, and never returned to his Irish gov- ernment. His wily father-in-law had merely wished to see him, to effect, by his powers of persuasion, what Fleetwood would have re- name of major-general. This plan was carried on with the utmost secrecy for more than two months, and only openly declared when ripe for execution. It was then announced, by a vote of the Protector's council, that the command of militia, in ten districts that were named, should be intrusted to Fleetwood, Desborongh, Lambert, Whaley, Goffe, Skippon. Colonel sented with scorn and indignation if attempted James Berry, Colonel Thomas Kelsey, Colonel in any other way. The real truth was, that j William Boteler, and Major Charles Worsley. Cromwell had already positively resolved that To these were afterward added Barkstead, lieu- his son Henry should be Irish deputy an office | tenant of the Tower, and Admiral Daw kins. for which Fleetwood had proved himself in- The districts were, by another vote, apportion- capable and shortly after Fleetwood's return, Henry proceeded to Ireland ! The consummate ability with which he there administered the government of the Protector- ed in detail. Fleetwood had the counties of Oxford, Bucks, Hertford, Norfolk, Suffolk, Es- sex, and Cambridge, being permitted to appoint Colonel Henry Haines as his deputy for the ate is not a subject for discussion in these I last four. Lambert, having received the north pages. As I shall not again return to it, how- j of England into his charge, was allowed, as a ever, it may be as well to show, in a private still greater man than Fleetwood, to appoint letter from the Protector to his son, the rela- tion of assistance and advice which from this period till Oliver's death subsisted between Colonel Richard Lilburne for the counties of York and Durham, and Colonel Charles How- ard, afterward Earl of Carlisle, for Cumber- them. Shortly after his departure, the follow- j land, Westmorland, and Northumberland. His ing letter was despatched to him. It refers to own name was merely reserved to give orna- the disaffected, and imbodies excellent advice " moderation and love" to Ludlow and the Republicans, caution and detention in the case of Mervin and the Royalists. " SONN, I have seen y r letter writt unto M r Secretary Thurloe, and doe finde thereby that ment and dignity to the affair. Whaley had the command of the militia of the counties of Lin- coln, Nottingham, Derby, Warwick, and Lei- cester ; Goffe, of Sussex, Hants, and Berks ; Skippon, of London ; Berry, of Worcester, Hereford, Salop, and North Wales ; Kelsey, of you are very apprehensive of the carriage of j Kent and Surrey ; Boteler, of Northampton, some persons with you towards yo r self and the publique affaires. I doe believe there may be some perticular persons who are not very well pleased w th the present condition of thinges, and may be apt to show their discontents as they have oportunitie ; but this should not make too great impressions in you. Time and pa- tience may worke them to a better frame of spirit, and bring them to see that w ch for the present seemes to be hid from them ; especially if they shall see yo 1 ' moderation and love towards them, whilst they are found in other ways towards you ; which I earnestly desier you to studie and endeavour all that lyes in you, whereof both you and I too shall have the comfort, whatso- ever the issue and event thereof be. For what you write of more help, I have long en- deavoured it, and shall not be wantinge to send you some further addition to the Councell, as soone as Men can be found out who are Jilt for y' trust. I am alsoe thinkinge of sendinge over to you a fitt person icho may comand the north of Ireland, w ch I believe stands in great need of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Rutland ; Worsley, of Chester, Lancaster, and Stafford ; Barkstead, of Westminster and Sliddlesex ; and Dawkins, of Monmouthshire and South Wales. And what were the ostensible duties of these formidable major-generals'? I will first give the substance of their official instructions, and then exhibit their powers in action. They were, according to the former,* first, to en- deavour to suppress all tumults, insurrections, rebellions, and all other unlawful assemblies ; and for this purpose, to draw together their forces and troops, and march them to such places as they should judge convenient. Sec- ondly, to take care and give orders that all pa- pists, and others who had been in arms against the Parliament, as well as all who were found dangerous to the peace of the nation, should be deprived of their arms, which should be secured in some neighbouring garrison, or otherwise The paper was officially published as als Instructions and orders to the major-generals for preserving the peace of the Commonwealth " See Godwin, vol. iv. OLIVER CROMWELL. 591 disposed of. Thirdly, every master of a family, or householder, who was considered as dis- affected, was to be required to give security, by his bond, for the good behaviour of all his menial servants, the servants being liable to be called to appear before the major-general, or his deputy, at such time and place as either should appoint. Fourthly, an office of register was to be set up in London, where the names of all persons thus giving security were to be entered, together with their residence ; and as often as they changed their abode, this was also to be punctually recorded, and the notice communicated to the major-general of each dis- trict, as the case might require. Fifthly, every person, whether foreigner or otherwise, who came from beyond sea, was required, within twenty-four hours after his landing, to appear before the person whom the major-general of the district should appoint in the different ports for that purpose, to deliver his name, and an account of the place from whence he came and to which he intended to go ; as also, if he came to London, to appear before the registrar there, and give an account of his lodging and his pur- pose ; all his removals from place to place being to be reciprocally communicated between the re- gistrar in London, and the major-generals in the different districts. Sixthly, the major-generals were to take an account of what had been- done in execution of the ordinance against insuffi- cient and scandalous ministers and school- masters, to the end that no disaffected persons might be allowed in public teaching, or in the education of youth. To these were added cer- tain articles, with which the instructions were concluded, as to high roads and robberies ; the execution of the laws against drunkenness and blasphemy, and gaming-houses, and houses of ill fame, as well as respecting idle and loose persons, who had no visible means of subsist- ence ; and they granted not only the power to apprehend thieves and robbers, but also to per- mit no horse-races, cock-fightings, bear-baiting, or stage-plays, within the several counties. Such was the tenour of the instructions, as openly published in the papers of the time, and designed to convey the idea, as far as it was possible, of a kind of general rural police and civil regulation. Appended to the commission of each, however, were these ominous words, with Cromwell's signature : "And you are to observe and follow such directions as you shall from time to time receive from ourself." The most essential portion of their instructions was, in truth, altogether secret ; and in their subse- quent correspondence with the government, as we find it in Thurloe, can we alone discover the whole extent and object of this atrocious des- potism. There we ascertain the plan of assessment by means of these tools of tyranny, and the par- ties on whom it was imposed. They were em- powered to summon before them any persons whom they should consider as disaffected to the government, or who had no calling or visible means of subsistence, and require them to give an account of themselves and their property, which they then assessed to the state. They were at the same time authorized to receive in- formation from any other quarters, and by that means to correct any attempted misrepresen- tations of principles. Any disobedience to the major-generals made the offender liable to im- prisonment at the pleasure of the Protector and council. The Royalists, terrified at the exten- sive arrests and imprisonments which took place among their brethren, and awed by the j military preparations which were made to sub- due resistance, appear, from all the accounts that are preserved, to have promptly obeyed the summons of these armed justices, and for the most part yielded quietly to assessments which were imposed upon them. There was, indeed, no hope of redress in any case. The sole appeal was reserved to the Protector in council, and all privilege or appeal to the laws was forever barred and stopped. The major- generals, therefore, summoned whomsoever they pleased to appear before them as delin- quents ; and it was fatal to slight their com- mands. They inquired into every man's es- tate and income, and assessed it to a tenth of its annual value ; if any one endeavoured to clear himself of delinquency, they assumed the privilege of pronouncing upon the validity of his defence. They sent whom they pleased to prison, and confined them where they pleased ; and it has been remarked by Mr. Godwin, as one of the general characteristics of Cromwell's government, that those who were judged to be disaffected never succeeded in their endeavours to be set at large in due course of law.* But one or two individual cases will at once express the general iniquity. Worsley, for ex- ample, thus writes to Thurloe from Stafford : " Yesterday we had a meeting at this town, and I have made a good progress in our busi- ness. We have assessed diverse, and the rest must expect it with all speed. I hope we shall pay our county troop out of what we have done already, and provide you a considerable sum fur other uses. We have sent out warrants to give notice to the whole county of our day of meeting, when we shall sit upon the ordinance for the ejecting of scandalous ministers. We have disarmed the disaffected in this county. We shall fall of snapping- some of our old blades that will not let us be quiet. We have found an estate of Pen- ruddock's that was executed, and have ordered it to be sequestrated. I hope shortly to give you a good account of the rest of the counties." Desborough writes in equal spirits with his in- famous work. " Yesterday we proceeded upon taxing seven or eight of this county, among whom was Sir James Thynn, who was at first a little averse, and did plead as much innocen- cy as my Lord Seymour hath done ; but at last, having no refuge, ions constrained to comply ; and I think of those eight that we have already dealt withal, the sum will amount to six or seven hundred pounds per annum. There are four more to ap- pear this morning, and then I intend for Bland- ford, to attend the Dorsetshire gentlemen, and so to Marlborough, where there are twenty more to be summoned." The case of Cleaveland, the Royalist poet, has been already referred to in this work, t He had offended Cromwell in early years, and was one of the first victims to the power of the ma- jor-generals in Norwich Cleaveland was a man of masterly talents, and one of the most popu- * See Godwin, vol. iv., p. 236, et sea. t See anti, p. 412. BRITISH STATESMEN. lar writers of his time. His works had passed ten editions in about twenty years. He was now living in great poverty, but yet cheerfully submitting to the reverses that had fallen on him only in common with the cause to which his talents had been devoted. He was plotting against no one, harming no one, not even li- belling any one ; and yet we find in Thurloe's papers the following abominable despatch, with the signature of Haynes and the other commis- sioners. In " observance to the orders of his highness and council sent unto us, we have this day sent to the garrison of Yarmouth one John Cleaveland, of Norwich, late judge-advo- cate at Newark, whom we have deemed to be comprised within the second head. The rea- sons of judgment are, 1. He confesseth that about a year since he came from London to the city of Norwich, and giveth no account of any bu- siness he hath there, only he pretends that Edward Cooke, Esquire, makcth use of him to help him. in his studies. 2. Mr. Cleaveland confesseth that he hath lived in the said Mr. Cooke's house ever since he came to the said city, and that he but seldom went into the city, and never but once into the country ; indeed, his privacy hath been such, that none or but few save papists and Cavaliers did know that there was any such per- son resident in these parts. 3. For that the place of the said Mr. Cleaveland his abode, viz., the said Mr. Cooke's, is a family of notorious dis- order, and where papists, delinquents, and oth- er disaffected persons of the late king's party do often resort more than to any family in the said city or county of Norfolk, as is commonly reported. 4. Mr. Cleaveland liveth in a genteel garb ; yet he confesseth that he hath no estate but .20 per annum, allowed by two gentlemen, and 30 per annum by the said Mr. Cooke. 5. Mr. Cleaveland is a person of great abilities, and so able to do the greater disservice ; all which we humbly submit." At about the same period, Jeremy Taylor, a more illustrious name, suffered the fate of Cleaveland for his talents, his poverty, and his attachment to royalty. He was flung into pris- on at Chepstow Castle, in the county of Mon- mouth. With these cases may close our de- scription, since they will serve to express many hundred others of equal or superior iniquity. To this condition, then, England was now re- duced. After the gallantest fight for liberty that had ever been fought by any nation in the world, she found herself trampled under foot by a military despot. All the vices of old king- ly rule were nothing to what was now imposed upon her. Some restraint had still been kept on the worst of her preceding sovereigns ; now she found herself hopeless and helpless, her faith in all that she once held noblest broken, and her spirits unequal to any farther struggle. Besides this, there was stealing upon her, in gradual but certain progress, a vile hypocrisy and habit of falsehood, which even good men found it necessary to sanction and endure, that some semblance of the mere pretences of a bet- ter nature might still be left to them, were it only to redeem the name of their sad degrada- tion. Let royalty revisit them as speedily as it would, it could bring nothing back for which they might not gladly exchange all that they now endured. What was the innocent and partial tax of ship-money to an all but universal decimation 1 What were agonies and mutila- tions by the Star Chamber to wholesale mur- ders and executions by high courts of justice'? What was an open profligacy worse than a se- cret lie 1 What the arrest of five members of the House of Commons to the utter violation and destruction of every privilege Parliament possessed, and even of the very form and name of its rights and its immunities'! The true cause of the death of Charles I. was his resist- ance to the sacred principle of popular repre- sentation. He laid down his head upon the block j because he broke violently, and in succession, ! three English Parliaments. Oliver Cromwell had now merited, far more richly, that self- same doom, for he had committed, in circum- stances of greater atrocity, the self-same sin. But Charles was weak, and Cromwell strong ; and the people had undergone that worst and most sad recoil from a virtuous and quick-spir- ited enthusiasm, to the debasing sense of fail- ure, depression, and indifference. Even this last, however, had more hope in it than anoth- er sense to which they were now and then roused to give way. This was when they ad- mired their tyrant. Vilest degradation of all was that ! He flung some foreign victory among them as a rattle or a toy, and the whimpering ceased, and they recollected what a great man their Lord Protector was, and sent up an ill- sung song of praise ! " The sea's our own '. and now all nations greet, With bending sails, each vessel of our fleet : Our power extends as far as winds can blow, Or swelling sails upon the globe may go." There may have been some consolation in the fact that the sea was their own, but it would have been a much superior advantage to have had their souls their own. A bad thing becomes worse when covered or gilded thus ; and far better is it to keep the mean and imbecile ra- pacity of a Stuart to its naked and natural mean- ness, than suffer it to be overshadowed or adorn- ed by the gorgeous tyranny of a Tudor. I turn, with no feeling of relief or pride, to such brief mention as may become this work, of the foreign policy of the Protectorate. France and Spain had continued for some time to rival each other in their mean prostration before the power of Cromwell,* that power which he had inherited from the foreign victories of the states- men, and which had thrown into his hands the balance of Europe. The first question started in these negotiations was the manner in which Cromwell should be addressed. No objection was offered by Spain to the regal claims of the Lord Protector, but France showed a slight * So monstrous did this become, that ft gave occasion to the most ribald jests in every other part of Europe. The Dn'tch absolutely struck a medal with the bust of Cromwell and liis titles on one side, Britannia on the other, Cromwell thrusting his head in her bosom, with the opposite part of his person ludicrously exposed ; while, as the Spanish am- bassador stoops to offer it homage, the French ambassador holds him by the arm, and says, " Get you back! the hon- our belongs to the king my master!" This medal is still preserved in many Dutch cabinets. Even in Paris pictures were circulated, wherein the English Lord Protector was sitting in an attitude the most ludicrously gross, with the^ King of Spain on the one side, arid the King of France on the other, offering him paper. And Mazarin received still graver reproaches. See advice to him at the end of the Memoirs of De Retz. [The reader will be much amused by consulting Kippis's Biographia Britannica, rol. iv., p. 401, at note DD. C.] OLIVER CROMWELL. 593 restiffhess. Louis's first letter was addressed " To his most serene highness, Oliver, Lord Protector, &c., &c." This was rejected. Then " Mon Cousin" was offered. This also was re- fused. The ordinary address hetween sover- eigns, " To our Dear Brother Oliver, &c.," was at last formally demanded. " What !" said Louis to Mazarin, " shall I call such a fellow my brother 1" " Ay !" rejoined the crafty Ital- ian, " or your father, to gain your ends." Louis then submitted.* And it must be confessed, though not for that immediate reason, he gained his ends.t * Many letters will be found in Thurloe, referring to this diplomatic dispute. I may quote one or two. De Bordeaux (the ambassador) thus opens the subject to De Brienne, the French secretary of stale : " J'ai receu lesdeux lettres que vous m'avez fait 1'honneur de m'ecrir les 21 et 25 du mois passe, avec celle du roi, dans lesquelles je vois qu'il plait a S. M. me confier la negotiation du trail6 entre la France et 1'Angleterre, avec la quality d'ambassadeur. J'ai demand^ audience au secretaire du conseil, sous pretexte de lui en faire part, afin de descouvrir avec quels termes Monsieur le Protecteur disereroit que S. M. le traitast. II ne voulut point s'expliquer autre.ment, si non que son altesse aroit I'autorite souveraine, et aussi grande que les rois, et que c'etoit a nous d'en user comme nous jugerions a propot. Depuis cette conversation un hommc, qui se mf le d'inlrigue, m'est venu trouver, et m'a voulu faire entendre, que le terme de frere seroit bien agreable. J'ai donne ordre d mon secretaire, si 1'on lui temoigne desirer le litre de frere, qu'il responde de soi-mme, que les pouvoirs ra'ont 6te envoiez, 4 fin d'avoir un pretexte pour me dispenser de donner cette q indite. Toutes les resolutions d'ici dans les rencontres de la moindre importance se prennent avec grand secret, et la politique est de surprendre." Thurloe, vol. ii., p. 106. In a subsequent letter he says, " J'infere que S. A. n'esl pas contents de ce que je ne suis pas qualifie ambas- sadeur pres d'elle, and de n'etre pas traite de fre're le mal- tre des ceremonies ayant adverti 1'ambassadeur de Portugal de lui donner ce litre." Thurlor, vol. ii., p. 143. A Paris letter to London shows that the matter was generally dis- cussed and talked, of. "The cardinal said yesterday that your Protector is angry that the King of France called him not mon frere, brother. He rallied much upon it, and de- manded whether his father was ever in France ? I hope our Protector will make him sing another song before sum- mer be past." Thurloe, vol. ii., p. 159. The Protector did make him sing another song, though he seems, by the fol- lowing extract, to have consented in one interval to a com- promise : " Vous trouverez bon que je vous i-claircisse du double que je croiois avoir leve par quelqu'une de mes pre- cedentes touchant la suscription des lett.res du roy a M. le Protecteur. II a refuse le litre de cousin, et s'est contente, dans loutes les deux depfiches de celui, de Monsieur le Pro- tecteur de la Republique d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, et Irlande. Celui de frere eut ete bien plus agreable." Thurloe, vol. ii., p. 228. Shortly after, the more agreeable " brother" was demanded and conceded. t Slingsby Bethel, in his World's Mistake in Oliver Cromwell, makes this part of his foreign policy a grave charge of objection to him, and has been followed by Hume and others. " Cromwell," he says, "contrary to our inter- est, made an unjust war with Spain, and an impolitic league with France, bringing the first Ihereby under, and making the latter loo great for, Christendom, and by that means broke the balance betwixt the two crowns of Spain and France, which his predecessors, the Long Parliament, had always wisely preserved. In this dishonest war with Spain, he pretended and endeavoured to impose a belief on the world that he had nothing in his eye but the advancement of the Proteslant cause and ihe honour of the nation ; but hi pretences were either fraudulent, or he was ignorant in foreign affairs (as I am apt to think that he was not guilty of too much knowledge in them) ; for he that had known anything of the temper of the popish prelacy and the French court policies, could not but see that the way to increase or preserve the Reformed interest in France was by rendering the Protestants of necessary use to their king ; for, thai longer than they were so, they could not be free from per- secution, and that the way to render them so was by keep- ing the balance betwixt Spain and France even, as that which would consequently make them useful to their king ; but by overthrowing the balance in his war with Spain, and joining with France, he freed the French king from his fears of Spain, enabled him to subdue all faclions al home, and thereby lo bring himself inlo a condition of not stand- ing in need of any of them ; and from thence hath proceed- ed the persecution that hath since been, and still is, in that 4F Cromwell, after a protracted negotiation, ab- ruptly broke with the Spanish envoy, Don Alonzo Cardenas, who demanded and obtained his passports. Don Alonzo's bait had been the reconquest of Calais ; Mazarin's, the counter temptation of the capture of Dunkirk. It is scarcely probable that Cromwell much cared for either. But it was more convenient to him, and to the safety of his personal power, to be on good terms with so near a neighbour as France, who had already, to oblige him, dis- missed from Paris his rival Charles Stuart. And in the colonial possessions of Spain in the New World, he saw an opportunity to make large accessions to the maritime power of Eng- land ; at the same moment, to dazzle and dis- tract his oppressed countrymen by brilliant epi- sodes of distant conquests, and get convenient- ly dismissed upon that service officers whose influence and whose principles he feared. The illustrious Blake was the chief of these. His first demonstration of his policy was ac- cordingly to equip and send out two large ar- maments, one under Pen and Venables, the nation against the Reformed there ; so that Oliver, instead of advancing the Reformed interest, hath, by an error in his politics, been the author of destroying it. The honour and advantage he propounded to this nation in his pulling down of Spain, had as ill a foundation ; for if true, as was said, that we were lo have had Ostend and Newport, as well as Dunkirk (when we could get them), they bore no propor- tion, in any kind, to all Ihe rest of the King of Spain's Eu- ropean dominions, which must necessarily have fallen to the French king's share, because of their joining and nearness to him, and remoteness from us ; and the increasing the greatness of so near a neighbour must have increased our future dangers." But all this was surely to have anticipated a litlle too rapidly the power and conquests of Louis the Fourteenlh, and the maturity of our William the Third. Lord Bolingbroke followed up the charge. " Cromwell ei- ther did not discern," says he, "this turn of the balance of power [from Spain to France], or, discerning it, he was in- duced, by reasons of private interest, to act against the general interest of Europe. Cromwell joined with France against Spain ; and though he got Jamaica and Dunkirk, he drove the Spaniards into a necessity of making a peace with France, that has dislurbed Ihe peace of the world al- most fourscore years, and the consequences of which have wellnifh beggared in our times the nation he enslaved m his. There is a tradition I have heard il from persons who lived in those days, and I believe it came from Thur- loe that Cromwell was in treaty with Spain, and ready to turn his arms against France, when he died. If this fact was certain, as little as I honour his memory, I should have some regret that he died so soon. But, whatever his in- lenlions were, we must charge the Pyrenean treaty, and the falal consequences of il, in great measure to his ac- count. The Spaniards abhorred the thought of marrying their Infanta to Louis the Fourteenlh. It was on this point thai they broke the negotiation Lionne had begun ; and if they resumed it afterward, and offered the marriage they had before rejected, Cromwell's league with France was a principal inducement to this alleralion of their resolution." But I may close this note wilh a subtle remark of Bishop Warburton, who, in hilling much closer to the truth, un- consciously exposes, at Ihe same lime, what was undoubt- edly the vice of the Proteclor's foreign as well as domestic policy, namely, the pursuit of temporary expedienls of ihe brilliant and dashing sort, ralher than general principles of the sober and enduring. Thus says the bishop: " Some modern politicians have affected to think contemptuously of Cromwell's capacity, as if he knew not that true pol- icy required lhat he should have thrown himself inlo Ihe lighler balance, which was that of Spain ; or as if he did not know which was become the lighter. But this is talking as if Cromwell had been a lawful hereditary mon- arch, whom true policy would have Ihus directed. But true policy required that the usurper should first take care of him- self, before he busied himself in adjusting Ihe balance of Europe. Now France, by ils vicinily, was the most dan- gerous power to disoblige, as well as by the near relation- ship of the two royal families of France and England ; so that, though Cromwell gave out that which of the two states would give most for his friendship should have it, in order to raise the price, he was certainly determined in himself that France should have it." 594 BRITISH STATESMEN. other in command of Blake, with the professed purpose of restoring the natural dominion of England on the sea, but whose real and secret destination was to invade the American colo- nies, and surprise the Plate fleet of Spain, till then supposed by all men to be, and to be held, the most faithful ally of the Commonwealth.* The bait took, and the most extraordinary ex- citement and pleasure was produced in various quarters of England. Preachers declared from their pulpits that the Protector intended to de- stroy Babylon ; nothing less than the pope was, abroad, avowed to be his quarry ; and Innocent X., expecting to be attacked in Rome, ordered fortifications to be built round the Church of our Lady of Loretto, the rich offerings in which were presumed to be the chief object of the heretic adventure ! Meanwhile Pen's fleet, carrying upward of 4000 soldiers, had arrived at Barbadoes, where they were instructed to open their sealed or- ders ; and, opening them, there found instruc- tions to take at once Cuba and Hispaniola. Re-enforcements of upward of GOOO additional troops awaited them for that purpose, and they instantly set forth. They had scarcely landed at Hispaniola, however, when they fell into an ambuscade, and were obliged to re-embark de- feated. They made a subsequent descent on the island of Jamaica with better success. This great gain was yet held insufficient to balance the first defeat ; and on the return of Pen and Venables, they were both committed to the Tower. I may pause for an instant here to notice a sound example of Cromwell's far-seeing saga- city. Though men scouted in that day the ac- quisition of Jamaica, he saw its value in itself, and its importance in relation to future attempts on the continent of America. Exerting the in- human power of a despot occasionally, as hur- ricanes and other horrors, necessary for the purification of the world he ordered his son Henry to seize on a thousand young girls in Ireland, and send them over to Jamaica, t for the purpose of increasing population there. A year later, and while the Italian Sagredo was in London, he issued an order that all females of disorderly lives should be arrested and ship- ped for Barbadoes for the like purpose. Twelve hundred were accordingly sent in three ships. * It afterward appeared to have been argued by Crom- well in his council, to justify the measure, that since America was not named in the treaties of 1604 and 1630, hostilities in America would be no infraction of those trea- ties (!!); that the Spaniards had committed depredations on the English commerce in the West Indies, and were consequently liable to reprisals ; that they had gained pos- session of these countries by force, against the will of the natives, and might, therefore, be justly dispossessed by force ; and, lastly, that the conquest of these transatlantic territories would contribute to spread the light of the Gos- pel among the Indians, and to cramp the resources of po- pery in Europe. These were but shallow pretexts for con- cealment of more substantial personal aims. t I quote from Henry Cromwell's answer to Thurloe : " Sir, I understand by your last letter that the transpor- tation of a thousand Irish girles, and the like number of boyes, is resolved on by the councell, but as touchinge what you write for the charges you will be at to putt them in an equipage fitt to be sent (havinge advised with some persons heer), I know not well what answer to return you to it ; hut it's thought most adviseable to provide their clothes for them in London, which we thinke you may doe better and at cheaper rates than wee can heer. Wee shall have, upon the receipt of his highness his pleasure, the number you propound, and more if you tbjuk fitt." Thur- loe, vol. iv., p. 87. "Ho veduto prima," says Sagredo, "del mio partire piu squadre di soldati andar per Londra cercandro donne di allegra vita, imbarcandone 1200 sopra tre vascelli per tragittarle all' isola, a fine di far propagazione."* This subject may now be left with the fol- lowing most able and characteristic letter from Cromwell to Major-general Fortescue, whom Venables had left in command of the newly- won island, in which the Lord Protector forci- bly explains his views of the proper policy for security and improvement of the conquest. " Sir, You will herewith receive instruc- tions for the better carryinge on of your buis- nes, which is not of small account here, al- though our discouragements have been many, for which we desier to humble ourselves before the Lorde, who hath sorely chastened us. I doe commend, in the midst of others' miscar- riages, your constancy and faithfulnesse to your trust, in everywhere you are, and takinge care of a company of poore sheepe left by their shepherds ; and be assured, that as that which you have done hath been good in itself, and be- cominge an honest man, soe it hath a very good savour here with all good Christians and all true Englishmen, and will not be forgotten by me, as oportunitie shall serve. I hope you have long before this time received that good supplye which went from hence in July last, whereby you will perceive that you have not been for- gotten heer. I hope alsoe the ships sent for New England are before this time with you ; and lett me tell you as an incouragement to you and those with you to improve the utmost diligence, and to excite your courage iu this buisnes, though not to occasion any negligence in presentinge that affair, nor to give occasion to slacken any improvement of what the place may afford that you will be followed with what necessary supplyes, as well for comforta- ble subsistance as for your security against the Spaniard, this place may afford or you want. And therefore study first your securitie by forti- fyinge; and although you have not monies for the present wherewith to doe it in such quan- tities as were to be wished, yet your case be- inge as that of a rnarchinge army, wherein every soldier, out of principles of nature, and accordinge to the practice of all discipline, ought to be at the pains to secure the common quarter, wee hope no man among you will be soe wantinge to him- self, consideringe food is provided for you, as not to be willinge to help to the uttermost therein ; and therefore I require you and all with you, for the safetie of the whole, that this be made your principal intention. The doinge of this will require that you be verie careful not to scatter till you have begun a securitie in some one place. Next I desier you that you would consider how to form such a body of good horse as may, if the Spaniard should attempt upon you at the next cominge into the Indies with his gallions, be in a readiness to march to hin- der his landinge, who will hardly land upon a body of horse ; and if he shall land, be in a posture to keep the provisions of the country from him, or him from the provisions, if he shall endeavour to march towards you. Wee trust wee shall fur- nish you with bridles, saddles, and horse-shoes, and other thinges necessary for that worke, A manuscript quuted by Dr. Lingard, vol. ii., p. 260. OLIVER CROMWELL. 595 desiringe you to the uttermost to improve what you have already of those sorts. Should it be knovvne that you had 500 horse well appointed, ready to march upon all occasions in that island, even that alone might deterre the Spaniard from attempting anythinge upon you. Wee have sent commissioners and instructions into New England to trye what people may be drawn thence. Wee have done the like to the Eng- lish windward islands, and both in England, Scotland, and Ireland you will have what men and women wee. can welt transport. Wee thinke, and it is much designed amongst us, to strive with the Spaniard for the mastery of all those seas ; and therefore wee could hartilie wish that the island of Providence were in our hands againe, believinge that it lyes so advantagiously in ref- erence to the Mayne, and especially for the hin- drance of the Peru trade and Cartagena, that you would not only have great advantage there- by of intelligence and surprize, hut even blocke up the same. It is discoursed here, that if the Spaniard doe attempt you, it is most likely it will be on the east end of the island, towards Cuba ; as also Cuba upon Cuba is a place easily attempted, and hath in it a very rich copper mine. It would be good for the first, as you have op- ortunitie, to informe yourself, and if there be need, to make a good worke thereupon, to pre- vent them ; and for the other, and all thinges of that kinde, wee must leave them to your judgement upon the place, to doe therein as you shall see cause. To conclude, as wee have cause to be humbled for the reproof God gave us at St. Domingo upon the account of our owne sins, as well as others, soe truly upon the reports brought hither to us of the extreame avarice, pride, and confidence, disorders and debauchedness, profaneness and wickedness, commonly practised amongst the army, wee- can not onlie bewail the same, butt desier that all with you may doe soe, and that a very spe- cial regard may be had soe to governe for time to come as that all manner of vice may be thoroughly discountenanced and severely pun- ished, and that such a frame of government may be exercised, that virtue and godlinesse may receive due encouragement." Meanwhile Blake had triumphantly swept the Mediterranean, cleared that sea of pirates, and successively chastised the deys of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. He forced from the Grand- duke of Tuscany a compensation for having some years before countenanced in his port the sale of unlawful English prizes by Prince Ru- pert, and was able to send home, as reparation to the English owners whose goods had been thus sold by his permission, the sum of 60,000 in sixteen vessels. The Republic of Genoa thanked the Protector by a special embassy for having thus afforded protection and safety to maritime commerce ; the Vaivode of Tran- sylvania solicited his aid against the Turks ; the King of Poland requested his succour against the growing power of Russia ; and the canton of Zurich appealed to him as the nat- ural guardian of Protestant states. This was followed by other triumphs imme- diately connected with Cromwell's hypocritical j pretences, and therefore of the greater service to him.* It would not be becoming in this * [It is by 110 means proved that Cromwell was a hypo- work to enter into any detail of the massacre of the Vaudois in the valleys of Piedmont, or of that general feeling of sympathy aroused in England, and forever impressed on history by the sublime voice of Milton. "Avenge, O Lord ! thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold ; Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worship'd stocks and stones, forget not ! in thy book record their groans Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans The vales redouble to the hills, and they To heaven !" Cromwell saw at once what a noble policy it would be to avenge these moans, and he did it in a manner which was worthy of the justice and sacredness of the cause: Milton conducted the negotiation. He refused to sign the French treaty with Mazarin, long and painfully pro- tracted as it had been, till he had received what he quietly termed the " opinion" of Louis on the subject of the troubles in Piedmont. In vain Bordeaux remonstrated against this new pre- text for delay ; in vain maintained that the question bore no relation to the matter of the treaty ; in vain protested that the King of France would never interfere with the internal administration of an independent state ; and still more vainly held that the Duke of Savoy had as good a right to make laws for his Prot- estant subjects as the English government for the Catholics of the three kingdoms, and that the Vaudois were in reality rebels who had justly incurred the resentmeat of their sov- ereign. Cromwell stood unmoved. Bordeaux applied for an audience to take leave ; still the Lord Protector abated no jot of his demand. The perplexity was ended by sudden intelli- gence that the Duke of Savoy, at the request of the King of France, had granted an amnesty to the Vaudois, and confirmed all their ancient privileges ; that the boon had been, gratefully received ; and that the natives of the valleys, Protestants and Catholics, had met, embraced each other with tears, and sworn to live in per- petual amity together. Projects respecting the Jews occupied at this period also the mind of Cromwell, but of which it will not be necessary to say more in this work than that, having appointed an assembly of men of various professions, divines, lawyers, and merchants, to take into consideration the expediency of permitting them to trade in Eng- land (leave for which had been supplicated by Manasseh Ben Israel, one of their chief rabbis), the general prejudices were discovered to be as yet too strong against that people to allow of their obtaining the liberty desired, or other privileges which Cromwell would gladly have granted them.* crite, and certainly his interference on behalf of the perse- cuted Piedmontese affords no evidence. This interference was in keeping with his religious life and entire character. C.] * Thurloe thus writes to Henry Cromwell : " Wee have had very many disputations concerninge the admittance of the Jewes to dwell in this Commonwealth, they havinge made an earnest desire to his highnesse to be admitted, whereupon he hath beene pleased to advise with some of the judges, merchants, and divines. The point of con- science hath beene only controverted yet, viz., whether it be lawful! to admitt the Jewes now out of England to re- turne againe into it. The divines doe vejy much differ in their judgements about it, some beingc for their admittance upon fittinge cautious, others are in expresse termes against 596 BRITISH STATESMEN. The treaty with France was signed shortly after the submission of Savoy. It was drawn up in Latin ; and on its being observed that Louis styled himself Rex Gallice, since there was no longer an English king to claim the silly title, Cromwell objected, insisted on Rex Gallorum, and Mazarin at length complied. The chief conditions of this treaty were, that France should indemnify English merchants for injuries to their commerce ; that the con- quest of Dunkirk should be made for England by their joint forces; and that Charles II., his family, and his court, should be forever exclu- ded from the French territory. Of the Stuarts, the Duke of York only was then in France ; and Cromwell, at the request of Mazarin, con- sented to his being, allowed to remain there.* The duke repaid Cromwell for this concession by sending his brother, within a few days after, a deliberate proposition for the murder of the Lord Protector, accompanied by the last court burlesque. The letter was caught by the ever- watchful Thurloe. "There is a proposition has been made to me which is too long to put in a letter ; so that I will, as short as I can, lett you know the heads of them. There are fower Roman Cath- olikes that have bound themselves in a solemn oath to kill Cromwell, and then to raise all the Cath- olikes in the Citty and the Army, which they pretend to be a number so considerable as may give a rise for your recovery, they beinge all warn'd to be ready for somethings that is to be done, without knowinge what it is. They de- mand ten thousand livres in hand ; and when the businesse is ended, some recompence for them- selves ackording to their severall qualities, and the same liberty for Catholikes in England as the Protestants have in France. I thought noil jit to reject this proposition, butt to acquainte you with it, becaus the first parte of the desine seems to me to be better layd and resolved on than any I have knoicen of that kind; and for the defects of the second, it may be supply'd by some desines you may have to join to it. If you approve of it, one of the fower, intrusted by the rest, will repaire to you, his charges being borne, and give you a full account of the whole matter. In .the .mean time, he desires, in his owne name and theirs, that you would lett butt one or two, whome you most trust, know it, and enjoyne them .secrecy. This is all I can say of it at this time. I have not much more to say at present, theire beinge no certaine newse of the treaty with Cromwell, though it is much reported that it is agreed on, though not sign'd. For my owne businesse, my Lord Jermine, who comes now from speaking with the it upon any termes whatsoever. The like difference I finde in the councell, and soe amongst all Christians abroad. The matter is debated with great candour and ingenuitie, and without any heat. What the issue thereof will be I am not able to tell you, butt am apt lo thinke that nothinge will be done therein." Thurloe, vol. iv., p. 321. * Lockhart was sent ambassador to France, where he was treated with peculiar favour. A Paris letter of a later date may describe this: ' They do caress here the Lord Protector very much ; also Colonel Lockhart was well dis- missed. The lord-cardinal presented to him four exceed- ing fine horses, for the saddle, for the Lord Protector. The said Colonel Lockhart told me himself he never saw such fine horses, and that the lord his master would be mightily pleased with them. He told me likewise that this court had given him good content in all things, so that he went from hence very well satisfied, and thinks to return hither again shortly." Thurloe, vol. v., p. 655. Cardinal!, will give you an account of it, soe that I need not trouble you with it, or the oth- er newes of this place ; only this, that it is soe hot weiher, that I have been a swiming this after- none, and never found the Water warmer. I send you some songs of the last ballet t inclosed with the Gazette burlesque. This is all I have to trouble you with at present." Spain had now, of course, taken measures of extreme hostility, and had even sanctioned a most unnatural plot against the person of the English Protector, in connexion with a fierce Fifth-Monarchy Republican, Colonel Sex- by, and the exiled Charles Stuart. The war between the two nations, however, proceeded languidly, without much sympathy on the part of the people generally, and with the decided opposition of the London merchants, whose trade it so seriously interfered with. One inci- dent then suddenly occurred to give to it a tem- porary brilliancy. Blake (whose stern Repub- licanism always kept Cromwell in fear) had been joined in the command by Montague, and sent in second pursuit of the Spanish Plate fleet. Without military force, however, they found they could not strike the necessary blow at Cadiz or Gibraltar, and therefore, abandoning the attempt, they sailed to Lisbon ; completed the old treaty by forcing from Don John a stip- ulated payment of 50,000 ; returned to Ca- diz ; passed the Straits ; insulted the Spaniards in Malaga, the Moors in Sallee ; and after a fruitless cruise of more than two months, anchored a second time in the Tagus. Here it most opportunely and fortunately happened that one of their captains, Stayner, with a squadron of frigates, fell in with a Spanish fleet of eight sail from America. Of these he destroyed four and captured two, one of which was laden with golden ingots and other treas- ure. Montague was at once sent home with the prize, valued in his despatch at 200,000. The Protectorate prints raised the amount to two millions ; and the friends of Cromwell hailed the event " as a renewed testimony of God's presence, and some witness of his ac- ceptance of the engagement against Spain." To his more servile flatterers it suggested what they knew would be far more welcome to the Lord Protector. " And now," said Waller, " Returns victorious Montague, With laurels in his hand, and half Peru. Let the brave generals divide that bough, Our great Protector hath such wreaths enough ; His conquering head has no more room for bays, Then let it be as the glad nation prays ; Let the rich ore be forthwith melted down. And the state fixed, by making him A CROWN ; With ermine clad, and purple, let him hold A royal sceptre, made of Spanish gold." The same thought was already working in the brain of Cromwell, and might have worked more profitably there had there been more of this Spanish gold. But the truth was, that his treas- ury, notwithstanding these grateful supplies, notwithstanding all his infamous extortions, was at this instant wellnigh exhausted. The equipments of the various fleets had run it out, and, having been forced into contests for the right of levying taxes with some few spirited individuals* in his own courts of law, even he durst not exercise his power of levying while * Besides Cony, Sir Peter Wentworth and others had resisted hit assessments in the country. OLIVER CROMWELL 597 the question was still under judgment. The most famous case of this sort was that of a merchant named Cony, who narrowly escaped the glory of another Hampden. He refused the payment of certain custom duties, on the ground of their not being levied by authority of Parliament ; referred to the opposition of Rolls, Valentine, and Chambers, in a similar case, to Charles I., and recalled to the memory of Crom- well his own expression in the Long Parlia- ment, " that the subject who submits to an il- legal impost is more the enemy of his country than the tyrant who imposes it." Cromwell answered this by committing him to prison for contempt. He claimed his writ of habeas cor- pus, and retained three of the most eminent lawyers at the bar, Maynard, Twisden, and Wadharu Windham, to plead it for him. They did so, and are said to have urged such argu- ments, and enforced them with such vigour, that, if ceded to, they would have shaken the Protectorate to its base. Maynard and his fel- low-pleaders were accordingly, the day after these arguments, sent to the Tower, on the charge of having held language destructive to the existing government. But the case did not end here. The day fol- lowing, Cony, unsupported by counsel, present- ed himself at the bar of the Upper Bench, and urged his own cause with so much power, that Rolle, who presided in the court, was either moved very far towards conviction, or suffered very heavily from sharne. He delayed the case for a term on some formal pretence, gave in his resignation in the interim, and was at once succeeded by Glyn in the chair of the chief-jus- tice. Maynard, Twisden, and Windham, on their submission, were discharged from con- finement ; and Cony was prevailed upon, by some secret means, which must forever dis- honour a memory that had so nearly become illustrious, to bring his cause no more before the court. Cromwell was still left, however, in a most difficult position ; a position from which the name and the forms of some Parliamentary au- thority could alone, he saw at last, by any pos- sibility rescue him. So hard he found it, even with such resources as he had called into ex- istence, to subdue utterly a nation which had once been free. Writs were issued for a Par- liament to meet on the 17th of December, 1656. Before I proceed to sketch the incidents of that Parliament, it may be interesting to supply from the page of Lord Clarendon's history a view of the power and position of Cromwell, as it now appeared to the view of the Royalists. It marks an emphatic lesson in the life of the Lord Protector, that with all this show of in- fluence and glory, which cannot be altogether in fairness disputed, his real resources should have been to the last degree mean, crippled, and low. There was, indeed, a ghastly skele- ton under the painted face. " After he was confirmed and invested Pro- tector by the humble Petition and Advice, he consulted with very few upon any action of im- portance, rw>r communicated any enterprise he resolved upon with more than those who were to have principal parts in the execution of it ; nor with them sooner than was absolutely ne- cessary. What he once resolved, in which he was not rash, he would not be dissuaded from, nor endure any contradiction of his power and authority, but extorted obedience from them who were not willing to yield it. "When he had laid some very extraordinary j tax upon the city, one Cony, an eminent fanat- ic, and one who had heretofore served him very notably, positively refused to pay his part, and loudly dissuaded others from submitting to it, ' as an imposition notoriously against the law and the property of the subject, which all hon- est men were bound to defend.' Cromwell sent for him, and cajoled him with the memory of ' the old kindness and friendship that had been between them ; and that, of all men, he did not expect this opposition from him, in a matter that was so necessary for the good of the Commonwealth.' But it was always his fortune to meet with the most rude and obsti- nate behaviour from those who had formerly been absolutely governed by him ; and they com- monly put him in mind of some expressions and sayings of his own in cases of the like nature : so this man remembered him how great an en- emy he had expressed himself to such grievan- ces, and had declared ' that all who submitted to them, and paid illegal taxes, were more to blame, and greater enemies to their country, than they who had imposed them ; and that the tyranny of princes could never be grievous but by the tameness and stupidity of the people.' When Cromwell saw that he could not convert him, he told him that ' he had a will as stubborn as his, and he would try which of them two should be master.' Thereupon, with some terms of reproach and contempt, he committed the man to prison ; whose courage was nothing j abated by it, but, as soon as the term came, he brought his habeas corpus in the King's Bench, which they then called the Upper Bench. Maynard, who was of counsel with the prison- er, demanded his liberty with great confidence, both upon the illegality of the commitment, and the illegality of the imposition, as being laid without any lawful authority. The judges could not maintain or defend either, and enough declared what their sentence would be ; and therefore the Protector's attorney required a farther delay, to answer what had been urged. Before that day Maynard was committed to the Tower for presuming to question or make doubt of his authority, and the judges were sent for and severely reprehended for suffering that license. When they, with all humility, mentioned the law and Magna Charta, Crom- well told them, 'their magna f . . . . should not control his actions, which he knew were for the safety of the Commonwealth.' He asked them, 'Who made them judges! Whether they had any authority to sit there but what he gave them? and, if his authority were at an end, they knew well enough what would be- come of themselves, and therefore advised them to be more tender of that which could only pre- serve them,' and so dismissed them with cau- tion that they should not suffer the lawyers ' to prate what it would not become them to hear.' " Thus he subdued a spirit that had been often troublesome to the most sovereign power, and made Westminster Hall as obedient and sub- servient to his commands as any of the rest of his quarters. In all other matters, which did BRITISH STATESMEN. not concern the life of his jurisdiction, he seemed to have great reverence for the law, rarely interposing between party and party. As he proceeded with this kind of indignation and haughtiness with those who were refracto- ry, and dared to civilly contend with his great- ness, so towards all who complied with his good pleasure and courted his protection, he used a wonderful generosity and hounty. "To reduce three nations, which perfectly hated him, to an entire obedience to all his dic- tates ; to awe and govern those nations by an army that was undevoted to him and wished his ruin, was an instance of a very prodigious address. But his greatness at home was but a shadow of the glory he had abroad. It was hard to discover which feared him most, France, Spain, or the Low Countries, where his friend- ship was current at the value he put upon it. As they did all sacrifice their honour and their interest to his pleasure, so there is nothing he could have demanded that either of them would have denied him ; to manifest which there needs only two instances : the first is, when those of the Valley of Lucerne had unwarily re- belled against the Duke of Savoy, which gave occasion to the pope, and the neighbour princes of Italy, to call and solicit for their extirpation, and their prince positively resolved upon it. Cromwell sent his agent to the Duke of Savoy, a prince with whom he had no correspondence or commerce, and so engaged the cardinal, and even terrified the pope himself, without so much as doing any grace to the English Roman Cath- olics (nothing being more usual than his saying ' that his ships in the Mediterranean should vis- it Civita Vecchia, and that the sound of his cannon should be heard in Rome'), that the Duke of Savoy thought it necessary to restore all that he had taken from them, and did renew all those privileges they had formerly enjoyed and newly forfeited. " The other instance of his authority was yet greater and more incredible. In the city of Nismes, which is one of the fairest in the prov- ince of Languedoc, and where those of the re- ligion do most abound, there was a great fac- tion at that season, when consuls, who are the chief magistrates, were to be chosen. Those of the Reformed religion had the confidence to set up one of themselves for that magistracy, which they of the Roman religion resolved to oppose with all their power. The dissension between them made so much noise, that the in- tendant of the province, who is the supreme minister in all civil affairs throughout the whole province, went thither to prevent any disorder that might happen. When the day of election came, those of the Reformed religion possessed themselves, with many armed men, of the town- house, where the election was to be made. The magistrates sent to know what their meaning was ; to which they answered, ' They were there to give their voices for the choice of the new consuls, and to be sure that the election should be fairly made.' The bishop of the city, the in- tendaut of the province, with all the officers of the Church, and the present magistrates of the town, went together in their robes to be pres- ent at the election, without any suspicion that there would be any force used. When they came near the gate of the town-house, which was shut, and they supposed would be opened when they came, they within poured out a vol- ley of musket-shot upon them, by which the dean of the church, and two or three of the magistrates of the town, were killed upon the place, and very many others wounded, where- of some died shortly after. In this confusion, the magistrates put themselves into as good a posture to defend themselves as they could, without any purpose of offending the other till they should be better provided ; in order to which, they sent an express to the court, with a plain relation of the whole matter of fact, ' and that there appeared to be no manner of combination with those of the Reformed re- ligion in other places of the province, but that it was an insolence in those of the place, upon the presumption of their great numbers, which were little inferior to those of the Catholics.' The court was glad of the occasion, and resolv- ed that this provocation, in which other places were not involved, and which nobody could ex- cuse, should warrant all kind of severity in that city, even to the pulling down their temples, and expelling many of them forever out of the city ; which, with the execution and forfeiture of many of the principal persons, would be a general mortification to all of the religion in France, with whom they were heartily offended ; and a part of the army was forthwith ordered to march towards Nismes, to see this executed with the utmost rigour. " Those of the religion in the town were quickly sensible into what condition they had brought themselves, and sent, with all possible submission, to the magistrates to excuse them- selves, and to impute what had been done to the rashness of particular men, who had no or- der for what they did. The magistrates an- swered ' that they were glad they were sensi- ble of their miscarriage, but they could say noth- ing upon the subject till the king's pleasure should be known, to whom they had sent a full relation of all that had passed.' The others very well knew what the king's pleasure would be, and forthwith sent an express, one Moulins, a Scotchman, who had lived many years in that place and in Montpellier, to Cromwell, to de- sire his protection and interposition. The ex- press made so much haste, and found so good a reception the first hour he came, that Crom- well, after he had received the whole account, bade him 'refresh himself after so long a jour- ney, and he would take such care of his busi- ness that, by the time he came to Paris, he should find it despatched ;' and that night sent away another messenger to his ambassador Lockhart, who, by the time Moulins came thith- er, had so far prevailed with the cardinal, that orders were sent to stop the troops which were upon their march towards Nismes ; and, with- in a few days after, Moulins returned with a full pardon and amnesty from the king, under the great seal of France, so fully confirmed with all circumstances that there was never farther mention made of it, but all things passed as if there had never been any such thing, so that nobody can wonder that his memory remains still in those parts, and with those people, in great veneration. " He would never suffer himself to be denied anything he ever asked of the cardinal, alleging OLIVER CROMWELL. 599 'that the people would not be otherwise satis- fied,' which the cardinal bore very heavily, and complained of to those with whom he would be free. One day he visited Madame Turenne, and when he took his leave of her, she, accord- ing to her custom, besought him to continue gracious to the churches ; whereupon the car- dinal told her ' that he knew not how to behave himself: if he advised the king to punish and suppress their insolence, Cromwell threatened him to join with the Spaniard ; and if he show- ed any favour to them, at Rome they accounted him a heretic." The excitement at the election for the Par- liament now summoned exceeded that of any previous occasion. It has been described in this work,* and requires very brief allusion here. Vane reappeared upon the agitated scene by the publication of his " Healing Question." He was summoned before the council, and com- mitted to Carisbrook. Bradshaw, Ludlow, and Rich were also, on various pretences, arrested. Bradshaw was removed from his office of chief- justice of Chester ; Rich was incarcerated in Windsor Castle ; and Ludlow, after some de- tention, discharged on his reluctant concession of bail.t Colonel Okey and Vice-admiral Law- * In the Memoir of Vane. t Ludlow has characteristically described his interview with Cromwell and his military satellites on this occasion : "The next. Wednesday after my arrival, about eight in the evening, Cromwell sent a gentleman, one Mr. Tenwick, to let me know that he would speak with me. I found him in his bedchamber at Whitehall, and with him Major-general Lambert, Col. Sydenham, Mr. Walter Strickland, Col. Mon- tague, and soon after came in Lieutenant-general Fleet- wood. . . He asked me wherefore I would not engage not to act against the present government, felling me that if Nero were in power, it would be my duty to submit. To which I replied, that I was ready to submit, and could truly say that I knew not of any design against him. But, said I, if Providence open a way, and give an opportunity of ap- pearing in behalf of the people, I cannot consent to tie niy own hands beforehand, and oblige myself not to lay hold on it. However, said he, it is not reasonable to suffer one that I distrust to come within my house till he assure me he will do me no mischief. I told him I was not accustomed to go to any house unless I expected to be welcome ; neither had I come hither but upon a message from him; and that I desired nothing but a little liberty to breathe in the air, to which I conceived I had an equal right with other men. . . Then beginning to carry himself more calmly, he said that he had been always ready to do me what good offices he could, and that he wished me as well as he did any one of his council, desiring me to make choice of some place to be in where I might have good air. I assured him that my dissatisfactions were not grounded upon any animosity against his person, and that, if my own father were alive and in his place, they would, I doubted not, be altogether as great. He acknowledged that I had always carried my- self fairly and openly to him, and protested that he had never given me just cause to act otherwise. . . Major-gen- eral Lambert then desired to know from me why I could nut own this as a lawful government. Because, said I, it seems to me to be in substance a re-establishment of that which we all engaged against, and had with a great ex- pense of blood and treasure abolished. What then, said he, would you account to be a sufficient warrant for you to act against the present authority ? I answered, when I might rationally hope to be supported by an authority equal or superior to this, and could be persuaded '.hat the said au- thority would employ iti power for the good of mankind. But who shall be judge of that? said he ; fur all are ready to say that they do so, and we ourselves think we use the l>est of our endeavours to that end. I replied that if they did so, their crime was the leis, because every man stands obliged to govern himself by the light of his own reason, which rule, with the assistance of God, I was determined to observe. Cul. Sydenham said we might be mistaken in judging that to be a power giving us a just and rational call to act, v hich may not be so. I told him that we ought to be very careful and circumspect in that particular, and at least he assured of very probable grounds to believe the power under which we engage to be sufficiently able to protect us in our undertaking, otherwise I should account rence were also arrested, and Harrison was sent, with a strong escort, into Pendennis Cas- tle in Cornwall. The chiefs of the Royalists who had shown the smallest activity were at the same time flung into the Tower. But all was in vain : the returns showed Cromwell and his council the bitter truth, that the constituen- cies had once more decided against him. Among the members were Scot and Hazlerig ; Sir An- thony Ashley Cooper, who had quarrelled with the Protector, and resigned his seat in the coun- cil ; Maynard, who had resisted him in the case of Cony ; Thorpe, one of the judges who had resigned his authority ; Chaloner, Chute, Pop- ham, and other decided Republicans ; Sir Hen- ry Milding, and Lord Salisbury. Cromwell took the desperate resolution at once of excluding these and others. The Instrument of Govern- ment vested in the council the power of verify- ing the regularity of the elections ; and Crom- well, extending it into a right to cancel the re- turns, however regular, at his mere personal discretion, supplied a list of nearly a hundred members immediately obnoxious to him, and including all those I have named, to be exclu- ded for " immorality" or "delinquency !" Unconscious of this, the new Parliament met the Protector on the 17th, in the Painted Cham- ber, when he addressed them in a long, obscure, but most artful speech. It was clear from the first that his sole object was to procure money ; and with this view he sought to excite their alarm and to interest their religious antipathies. He enumerated the enemies of the nation. The first was the Spaniard, the natural adversary of England, because he was the slave of the pope, a child of darkness, and consequently hos- tile to the light ; blinded by superstition, and anxious to put down the things of God ; one with whom it was impossible to be at peace, and to whom, in relation to this country, might be applied the words of Scripture, " I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed." There was also Charles Stuart, who, with the aid of the Spaniard and the Duke of Nieuburg, had raised a formidable army for the invasion of the island. There were the Papists and Cav- aliers, who had already risen, and were again ready to rise, in favour of Charles Stuart. He mentioned a plot for surprising himself, as he lay in his bed at Whitehall, and another for blowing up the apartment in which he slept, but expressed himself respecting them with con- tempt. He next assailed the Levellers, who had sent an agent to the court of Madrid (Col- onel Sexby), and the Fifth-Monarchy men, who sought a union with the Levellers against him, " a reconciliation between Herod and Pilate, that Christ might be put to death." He after- ward eulogized the good effects which had aris- en from his appointment of the major-generals, which, he said, had been greatly successful, first, in suppressing vice and profligacy, and next, in establishing an unusual internal tran- quillity ! He was earnest in recommending the toleration of all conscientious Christians, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, how- ever they might differ in inferior matters ; ap- myself not only guilty of my own blood, but also, in some measure, of the ruin and destruction of all those that I 1 should induce to engage with me, though, the causa were never so just.'' 600 BRITISH STATESMEN. plauded the measures that had been adopted [ land. Upon this account, and upon this ground for removing scandalous ministers ; urged the | of necessity, when we saw what game they public maintenance of a preaching ministry by I were upon, and knew individual persons, and tithes, or some less exceptionable method ; and j of the greatest rank, not a few, engaged in this a reform of the law, particularly of the criminal: business (I knew one man that laid down his law, comprehending a reduction of the number j life for it, and by letters intercepted, which of offences to which capital punishment was j made it as clear as the day), we did think it awarded. He referred to the prisoners detain- our duty to make them that were in the corn- ed in the Isle of Wight, Cornwall, and other bination of men, as evident as anything in the places, and said that their detention had been i world, equally to bear that share of the Charge, found necessary for the public safety. He then one with another, for the raising of the forces came to the subject of remedies, and, after much j that were so necessary to defend us against circumlocution, he at last stated them to be ! those designs. And truly, if any man be angry to prosecute the war abroad, and strengthen i at it, / am plain, and shall use an homely expres- the hands of the government at home ; to lose sion, Let him turn the Buckle of his Girdle behind no time in questions of inferior moment or less Aim. If this were to be done again, I would do urgent necessity, but to inquire into the state ' it. . . . How the Major-Generals have behaved of the revenue, and to raise ample supplies. In j themselves in that Work ] I hope they are men, conclusion, he explained the eighty-fifth psalm, as to their persons, of known integrity and exclaiming, "If pope, and Spaniard, and devil,! fidelity, and Men that have freely adventured and all set themselves against us, though they | their blood and lives for that Good Cause (if it should compass us about like bees, yet in the J be thought so, and it was well stated, against all name of the Lord we shall destroy them. The j the humours and fancies of men). And truly, Eng- Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is land doth yet receive one day more of length- our refuge." But, having explained the purpose of this ening out its tranquillity by that occasion. . . . " You see where your war is : it is with the most remarkable harangue, which to an ordina- Spaniard. You have peace with all nations, or ry reader would not by any means appear upon the most of them, Swede, Dane, Dutch. At its surface, I will present a few of the more | present, I say it is well it is at present so ; and striking passages it contained. They possess so with Portugal, France, the Mediterranean additional interest from the circumstance of the Sea both those states, both Christian and pro- speech not having found a place in the compi- fane the Mahometans, you have peace with lation of our Parliamentary histories. They j them all. Only with Spain, I say, you have a are in many points expressed with startling | difference, you have a war. I pray consider it. force and boldness, in others with unusual oh- ! Do I come to tell you that I would tie you to scurity, a kind of unfathomable effort of signifi- this war 1 No. As you shall find your spirits cance. It is especially curious to mark, how- and reasons grounded in what hath been said, ever, with what dexterity the few peculiar mer- so let you & me join in the prosecution of that its of his government are brought up to the sur- War, as we are satisfied, and as the cause face, to the depression and concealment, not t will appear to our consciences in the sight of only of their own notorious abuse, but of the j t-he Lord ; but if you can come to prosecute it, fearful accessaries by which even their best use i prosecute it vigorously, or do not do it at all. was perverted into tyranny. They need no in- troduction, after the general abstract I have given of the purpose of the speaker. I have had Petitions, and acknowledg- ments, and professions from whole counties, as from Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and other " Truly when this insurrection was, & we counties ; acknowledgments that they do but saw it, in all the roots and grounds of it, we ! desire they may have liberty and protection in did find out a little from invention, which 1 1 the worshipping of God according to their own hear has been much regretted. I say, there ' Judgments, for the purging of their congrega- was a little thing invented, which was the erect- '' tions, and the labouring to attain more purity ing of your Major-Generals to have a little tn-' of faith and repentance ; that in their outward spection upon the people, thus divided, thus discon- ' profession they will not strain themselves be- tented, thus dissatisfied, in divers interests, by yond their own line. I have had those ; I have the Popish party the Lord Taffe and others ; them to show ; and I confess, I look at that as the most, consisting of natural Irish Rebels, the blessedest thing which hath been since the and all those Men you have fought against in adventuring upon this Government, that these Ireland, and expulsed from thence, as having times produce. . . . For my part, I should think had a hand in that bloody massacre of those ! I were very treacherous if I should take away that were under his power : they should have tithes till I see the legislative power to settle main- joined in this excellent business of insurrec-! tenance to them another way; but whoever they tion. And, upon such rising as that was, truly, ! be that shall contend to destroy them, that doth I think, if ever anything was justifiable to ne-| as really cut their throats, as it is a drift to cessity, and honest in every respect, this was ; take them away before a way of preparation or and I could as soon venture my life with it asj other maintenance be had. Truly, I think all anything I ever undertook. We did find out such practices and proceedings should be dis- I mean myself and the Council that if there countenanced. I have heard it from as gra- were need to have greater forces to carry on cious a Minister as any is in England I have this work, it was a most righteous thing to put ' had it professed that it would be a far greater the charge upon that party which was the : satisfaction to them to have it another way, if the cause of it, and if there be any Man that hath j State will provide it. . . . a face looking averse to this, I dare pronounce " In my conscience it was a shame to be a him to be a man against the interest of Eng- [ Christian within these fifteen, sixteen, or seven- OLIVER CROMWELL. 601 teen years in this nation, either in Cssar's house or elsewhere. It was a shame, it was a reproach to a Man ; and the badge of Puritan was put upon it. We would keep up the Nobility and Gentry ; and the way to keep them up is, not to suffer them to be Patronizers, nor Countenanccrs of debauchery or disorders. And you will here- hy be as Labourers in the Work ; and a Man may tell us plainly as can be what becomes us, by our indifferency or lukewarmness, under I know not what weak pretensions, if it lives in us. Therefore, I say, if it be in the General, it is a thing, I am confident, that the liberty and prosperity of this nation depends upon ref- ormation. Make it a shame to see men to be bold in sin and profaneness, and God will bless you. You will be a blessing to the nation ; and by this, be more Repairers of breaches than anything in the World. Truly, these things do respect the souls of Men, and the spirits which are the Men. The mind is the Man. If that be kept pure, a man signifies somewhat ; if not, I would very fain see what difference there is betwixt him and a beast. He hath only some activity to do some more mischief. . . . "There are some things which respect the Estates of men, and there is one general grievance in the Nation : it is the law. Not that the laws are a grievance, but there are laws that are a grievance, and the great grievance lies in the exe- cution and administration. I think I may say it, / have as eminent Judges in this land as have been had, or that the Nation has had for these many years. . . . Truly I could be particular as to the executive part, to the administration, but that would trouble you. But the truth of it is, there are wicked and abominable laws, that will be in your power to alter. To hang a man for 6s. 3d. ! I know not what ! To hang for a trifle, and pardon murder, it is the ministration of the laic, through the ill framing of it. I have known, in my experience, abominable murders quitted, and j seen Men lose their lives for petty matters ! This is a thing that God will reckon for, and I wish it may not lie upon this nation a day longer than you have an opportunity to give a remedy, and I hope I shall cheerfully join with you in it. This hath been a great grief to many honest hearts and conscientious people, and I hope it is in all your Hearts to rectify it. ... " I say it again, the endeavours have been, by those that have been appointed, by those that have been Major-Generals, I can repeat them with comfort, that it hath been effectual for the preservation of your peace. It hath been more effectual towards the discountenan- cing of vice and settling religion, than anything done these fifty years. / will abide it, notwith- standing the envy and slander of foolish men. But I say there hath been a design ! I confess I speak that to you with a little vchcmcncy. But you had not that peace two months together. I profess, I believe it as much as ever I did anything in the World, and how instrumental they have been to your peace, and for your preservation, by such means, which we say was necessity, than from all instituted things in the world. . . . If you would make Laws against the things that God may dispose, to meet with everything that may happen, why, then, make a law in the face of God, and tell God you will meet his dispensa- tions, and you will stay things, whether he 4G will or no. But if you make laws of good gov- ernment, that Men may know how to obey and do, for Government, you may make laws that have frailty and weakness, ay, and good laws observed ; but if nothing should be done but what is according to law, the throat of the nation may tie cut till we send for some to make a law. There- fore, certainly, it is a pitiful, beastly notion to think, THAT THOUGH IT BE FOR ORDINARY GOT- ERNMENT TO LIVE BY LAW AND RULE, YET Yet to be clamoured at, and blattered at ! When mat- ters of necessity come, inviolably, then what ex- traordinary remedies may not be applied ? Who can be so pitiful a person 1 . . . I must say, I do not know one action, no, not one, but it hath been in order to the peace and safety of the nation ; and the keeping of some in Prison hath been upon such clear and just grounds, that no Man can except against it. I know there are some imprisoned in the Isle of Wight, Corn- wall, and elsewhere, and the cause of their im- prisonment was, they were all found acting things that tended to the disturbance of the peace of the nation. . . . " I beseech you, do not dispute of unneces- sary and unprofitable things, that may divert you from carrying on so glorious a work as this is. I think every objection that ariseth is not to be answered, nor have I time for it. I say, look up to God ; have peace amongst yourselves. Know assuredly, that if I have interest, / am by the voice of the people the Su- preme Magistrate, and, it may be, know somewhat, that may satisfy my conscience if I stood in doubt. But it is a union, really it is a union, between you and me, and both of us united in faith and love to Jesus Christ, and to his peculiar interest in the World, that must ground this work ; and in that, if I have any peculiar interest that is personal to myself, that is not subservient to the public end, it were no extravagant thing for me to curse myself, because I know God will curse me, if I have." When the Lord Protector had closed, the members returned to their own House, where they found the door guarded by soldiers, with orders to admit none but such as were provi- ded with a certificate of the approbation of the council, signed by the clerk of the Common- wealth. Upward of a hundred members were thus, to their amazement and indignation, at once excluded. The rest entered, and elected Widdrington as their speaker. The first busi- ness urged on the following day was that of the excluded members They had, the pre- vious evening, drawn up and signed a letter of remonstrance, addressed to the speaker, who read it to the House. It set forth that they whose names were subscribed, having been duly returned to serve with them in Parlia- ment, were kept back in the lobby by soldiers ; and they now demanded admission to discharge their trust. Upon the reading of this letter, a motion of adjournment was negatived by a ma- jority of 115 to 80; a resolution that the driven out members be referred for redress to the council, and that the House do proceed with the great affairs of the nation, was carried by a majority of 125 to 29. Upon this, several mem- bers, to show their disapprobation, voluntarily seceded, and those who had been driven out by force published an appeal to the people ol 602 BRITISH STATESMEN. England, which showed, in the eloquent lan- guage of just indignation, for what excellent reasons such men had been excluded from the subservient and servile business for which the tyrant of England had summoned what he called a Parliament. It is more the business of this work to supply the substance of that noble ap- peal, than to trace the repulsive track of the mean and spiritless members who continued to crawl before the feet of their master and lord. It stated and it bore the signature of a hun- dred educated and wealthy Englishmen that when our ancestors in Parliament had found oppression and tyranny too strong for them to subdue, they had often made their protesta- tions, and forewarned the people of their dan- ger. The remonstrators referred particularly to a protestation of the third Parliament of the late king (March, 1629), in which they had de- clared, that whoever should advise him to levy tonnage and poundage, not being granted by Parliament, should be accounted a capital ene- my ; and whoever paid the tax, a betrayer of the liberties of England. They go on to say, that the rumour has doubtless gone through the nation, that a considerable number of the mem- bers, chosen by the people to represent them in Parliament, have, by force of arms, been ex- cluded from the place of their sitting ; but they express their fear that the slavery, rapines, cruelties, murders, and confusion comprehend- ed in that one horrid fact have not been so sensibly discerned, and so much laid to heart, as the case required ; and they doubt not but, as the manner of the man had been, that the name of God and religion, and formal fasts and prayers, will be made use of to colour over the blackness of the deed. They proceed, therefore, to remonstrate, that, by the fundamental rights of the nation, the people ought not to be bound by any laws but such as have been freely consented to by their deputies in Parliament, and that by pre- serving this principle, the good people of England have, beyond the memory of any record, retained their estates, their families, and their lives, which had else been destroyed at the will of every tyrant. They add, that the Parliaments of England, consisting of the people's chosen deputies, have always been, and ought to be, the ordainers and creators of dignities, offices, and authori- ties within this nation, and have of right exer- cised the power of disposing even of the kingly office, and of enlarging or restraining the king- ly power ; and have questioned, censured, and judged even the persons of our kings them- selves, who have acknowledged their power to be only intrusted to them for the nation's wel- fare. English kings had feared the people's complaints in Parliament, well aware that it was their custom to choose for their deputies the most known champions for their liberties ; and none of the kings, in their highest attempts at tyranny, had ever dared to throw aside by force as many of the chosen members as they thought would not serve their ends, till the time of the present Protector. But, they ob- serve, the chief magistrate now in office de- clares that his proclamations shall have the force of laws, and takes upon himself to be above the people of England, and to censure the whole or any part, by no other rule than his own pleasure. Doubtless, if he had conquered the nation, he yet could not but know that the right of the people's deputies in Parliament would remain good against him, as against a public enemy, unless, by some agreement with the people in Parliament, he were admitted to some sort of governing power ; nor could he be discharged from the character of a public enemy by any agreement with a part of the people's deputies, while he shut out another part. These gallant and high-spirited men con- clude, therefore, with protesting, first, that whoever had advised or assisted the Protector in excluding a part of the people's deputies, was a capital enemy of the Commonwealth ; and they quote the instance of Judge Tresilian, under Richard II., who was executed at Ty- burn for advising the king to dissolve the Par- liament. Secondly, that all such members as should sit, act, and vote in the name of a Par- liament, while other legal members were shut out, were to be accounted betrayers of the liber- ties of England, and adherents to the capital ene- mies of the Commonwealth. Nor did these at all belie the description. They had at once passed a resolution declara- tory of the justice and policy of the war against Spain, and two acts, by one of which were an- nulled all claims of Charles Stuart and his fam- ily to the crown, while by the other additional safeguards were provided for the person of their chief governor, Oliver Cromwell. With the same unanimity a supply of 400,000 had been voted ; but when the means of raising the money came under consideration, a great diversity of opinion prevailed, and upon this question even these poor tools of the Protec- torate did not dare to commit themselves with the country, subdued and distracted as it was beneath the hope of effectual resistance. Some proposed to inquire into the conduct of the treasury ; some to adopt improvements in the collection of the revenue ; others recommend- ed an augmentation of the excise ; and others a more economical system of expenditure. In the discussion of these questions and of pri- vate bills, week after week, and month after month, were most unprofitably consumed ; though the time limited by the Instrument was passed, still the money-bill had made no prog- r6ss; and, to add to the impatience of Crom- well who, though he had an important mat- ter of his own to engage him meanwhile, still showed himself impatient they commenced a series of infamous cruelties and tortures against Fox, Naylor, Biddle, the Quakers, the Unita- rians, the Muggletonians, and other strange re- ligious sects that had recently started up. All this, however, while it added to the Pro- tector's impatience, was secretly advancing his design, which, with his more private creatures, had been in discussion and deliberation ever since this Parliament assembled. This was no less than the expediency of venturing on a revival of kingship, ana assuming for himself the crown. The strongest effect he was yet called on to encounter had been wrought against the Protectorate by the gallant remonstrance he had just provoked : everywhere around him were symptoms of dissolution and change, OLIVER CROMWELL. 603 which it would speedily require some bold and novel course of policy to gather up for even common safety ; his major-generals were ha- ted universally ; the system he had hoped to establish was confessedly a failure ; that very system, however, had prepared the way for any change as some relief ; and some change there must be, sooner or later, since all the designs he held once, in connexion with the Protectorate, had either been thwarted or had utterly failed. He now saw, in addition, that the Presbyterian and sectarian measures of this Parliament repulsive to the general body of the people would give him for the moment a fictitious consideration for superior wisdom and gentleness. Having satisfied himself, in any case, that now was the fit time to strike the blow, he suffered not the delay of another instant. The first idea he had was to seize the occa- sion of propitiating the people, still more than in a disapproval of the sectarian cruelties of the Parliament, by effecting a dissolution of the powers of the major-generals ! He, therefore, who had called that body into existence who, at the opening of the Parliament, had been elo- quent in their praise he who had declared that, after his experience of their utility, " if the thing were undone, he would do it again" he now not only abandoned them himself, but instructed those over whom he had the greatest influence in the House, to conduct the opposition against them ! He overreached him- self in this, as he afterward discovered, most egregiously. The subject was opened in the House on the question of the legal confirmation of the ma- jor-generals, according to a previous wily scheme, by the Protectors son-in-law Clay- pole, who said he did but start the game, and must leave it to others more experienced than he to follow in the chase. He should, there- fore, only say, that to violate the Act of Ob- livion, as the major-generals and their instruc- tions had invariably done, was a proceeding that should not have his approbation. He had believed that, in the situation in which the na- tion then stood, the commission and measures of the major-generals were necessary, and they ought, therefore, to be indemnified ; but to turn such proceedings into a law was an affair of a very different sort ; nor could he admit that the authority which had been given to these officers was fit any longer to be continued. The debate which followed was unusually long and obstinate. It continued for ten successive days. Lambert and the major-generals were strenuous in supporting the measure, and Brog- hill, another close creature of Cromwell's, as strenuously opposed it, and spoke for the in- stant dispersion of the major-generals. So did Whitelocke. At length the Protector's desire was even more directly declared. In one of the later debates, a lively youth, Colonel Hen- ry Cromwell, grandson of old Sir Oliver Crom- well, and, of course, nephew to the Protector, rose, after Boteler, one of the major-generals, had finished his speech in favour of the bill, and replied with great smartness. He ob- served, that the last speaker, as well as sev- eral that had gone before him, had argued that, because some of the Cavaliers had done amiss, all ought to be punished. " By the same rule," said this stripling, " I may infer that, because some of the major-generals have done ill, of which I offer to produce proofs, all of them ought to be visited with the censure of this House." Major-general Kelsey, who probably held himself to be particularly aimed at, imme- diately called the speaker to order, and insist- ed that he should name the persons whom he charged as offenders. The colonel declared his entire readiness to do so, and that he sec- onded the proposition of the major-general. It was, however, determined to put off this question till the end of the debate, that the main business might not be interrupted. A similar scene passed with another member on the fol- lowing morning, when the major-generals were flattered with comparisons to a set of Turkish bashaws. Meanwhile' it was intimated to young Crom- well that he should repent the attack he had made, and that he would find the Protector, his kinsman, greatly offended with his forwardness. The colonel, we are told, thus rebuked, imme- diately repaired to his highness, and avowed what he had said, holding forth documents in his hands to justify his assertions. Cromwell, in return, reproached him, between jest and earnest, with the rashness of his conduct ; and, at the close of the interview, pulled off a rich scarlet cloak he happened to wear, and present- ed it, with his gloves, to the youth. The next day Henry Cromwell came down to the House, wearing these tokens of his triumph, to the great satisfaction and delight of some, to the trouble of others,* and to the special mortifica- tion of the major-generals, who, by the deser- tion of Cromwell, found themselves subsequent- ly exposed to actions at law for the exercise of those powers which they had accepted in obedience to his command. The result of the debate was to disallow their authority by a ma- jority of 124 to 88. Lambert and Cromwell never afterward spoke to each other. The explosion of the Sexby and Syndercotnbe plot against Cromwell's life now happened so opportunely in furtherance of Cromwell's de- signs, that it became the general belief after- ward that it had been purposely forced on by Thurloe's spies. A casual mention of the pol- icy of re-establishing "kingship" followed im- mediately in the House, and was succeeded by a more deliberate and explicit recommendation of it from Mr. Ashe, who, in a brief discussion on the Syndercombe plot, and measures for the greater safety of his highness's person, re- marked boldly, " I would have something else added, which, in my opinion, would tend very much to the preservation of himself and us, and to the quieting of all the designs of our ene- mies that his highness would be pleased to take upon him the government according to the ancient Constitution, so that the hopes of our enemies and their plots would be at an end." This suggestion was made on the 19th of January, 1657, and seems to have been tolera- bly well received by several of the members. One of them, indeed, remarked, that he did not know what was meant by the " ancient Con- stitution," if it were not the interest of Charles Stuart, whom he hoped that they did not intend ""Godwin, voiriv., p. 329^30T~Thurloe,\al. vi., p. SOT 604 BRITISH STATESMEN. to call back again. He had no wish that Crom- well should be appointed the viceroy of the ex- iled king, or any such thing. But another, Mr. Robinson, replied, that it was not a matter of merriment : on the contrary, it was one which ought to be seriously weighed. " When," said he, " men pull down their houses that are ru- inous, they try a while by setting up shrouds ; but, finding them drop in, they build their hou- ses again. I cannot propound a better expe- dient for the preservation both of his highness and the people, than by establishing the gov- ernment upon the old and tried foundation, as was moved to you by a grave and well-expe- rienced person." Still there was some start- ling resistance. One of the orators exclaimed, " Will you make the Protector the greatest hyp- ocrite in the world]" Yet most serviceable had the hint and its preliminary skirmish prov- ed, since it marked the relative quarters of fa- vour and opposition. The next incidents in the comedy were an address of congratulation to Cromwell on his escape from assassination, and his own prince- ly entertainment to the various members given at Whitehall. As soon as ever they reassem- bled, the grand scheme was fairly broached. Whitelocke had been asked to do it, but warily refused. He readily promised, at the same time, to support it with all his power. The day was the 23d of February, and as soon as the members were seated, Sir Christo- pher Pack, an alderman, and representative of London, who had been lord-mayor,* called the attention of the House to the unsettled state of the nation ; suggested that, as the best remedy, " the Lord Protector might be desired to as- sume the title of KING, as the best known and most agreeable kind of government to the Eng- lish ;" and proposed that a bill which he held in his hand should be read. So extraordinary was the sensation when the word KING declared it- self at last, that many members rose simulta- neously from their seats, and poor Pack was violently borne down to the bar ;t but, on the restoration of order, he found himself support- ed by Broghill, Whitelocke, and Glyn, and, with them, by the whole body of the lawyers and the dependants of the court. The paper was ultimately read, after a division on that question, in which the party of the Protector gained a triumph, carrying with them a major- ity of 144 to 54. It was entitled, " An humble Address and Remonstrance." It protested against the existing form of government, which depended for security on the odious institution of major-generals ; and it provided, in a series of eighteen articles, that the Protector should assume a higher title, and govern, as had been done in times past, with the advice of two Houses of Parliament. After some resolute opposition from the Republican officers, among whom Lambert, Desborough, and Fleetwood made themselves most prominent, a motion that it should be discussed paragraph by para- graph was carried by 100 to 44. Successive debates at once began. * And is accused, I may subjoin, in Heath's Chronicle, with the guilt of embezzling a charitable fund of which he was commissioner, and with having earned his pardon from Cromwell by the present service. He was afterward made one of his lords '. t Ludluw. The opposition of Fleetwood and Desborough occasioned great surprise, but it was account- ed for by their natural timidity, and still more, perhaps, by Cromwell's desertion of them in their unpopular and ill-requited service of ma- jor-generalship. Lambert's resistance was lit- tle wondered at, since Pack's proposition would have raised a lasting barrier between his own notorious ambition, and the means which, with a special promise, as it was said, of assistance from Cromwell himself, he still looked for achieving it. The fact of such an important matter having been put forth without either co operation or consent from such men as these the most essential members of Cromwell's own council shows not only a most passionate de- sire for it in the breast of the Lord Protector, but proves that (as the proceedings on the ma- jor-generals had led men to suspect) many of the most weighty consultations of the govern- ment of the Protectorate were not held in the council chamber. The great author of the plot at the same time professed utter ignorance and unconcern about it ! Strengthened by the opposition of such men as Lambert and Fleetwood, it would seem that on the second or third day of the debate, which was regularly continued on each section of the- proposed bill, one hundred of the inferior officers waited on the Protector, to entreat him that ho would not listen to the idea of administering the executive government under the proposed new title, suggesting that it would not be pleasing to the army, nor to the godly and pious mem- bers of the community ; that it would be haz- ardous to his own person, and dangerous to the nation ; and was calculated, in the result, to make way for the restoration of the exiled fam- ily. In answer to this, while he affected to ridicule or be careless of the title of kingship, he yet disclosed the deep purpose of his soul : he retorted back upon these soldiers many of the vilest passages of their own policy ; he di- rected their attention to the sort of Parliament that had assembled, and asked them if there ought not to be, in the government they had themselves erected, more liberty of control. There was a time when they felt no objection to the title of king, for the army had offered it to him with the original Instrument of Govern- ment. He had rejected it then, and had no greater love for it now. He had always been the " drudge" of the officers, had done the work which they imposed on him, and had sacrificed his opinion to theirs. If the present Parlia- ment had been called, it was in opposition to his individual judgment ; if the bill which prov- ed so injurious to the major-generals had been brought into the House, it was contrary to his advice. But the officers had overrated their own strength ; the country called for an end to all arbitrary proceedings ; the punishment of Naylor proved the necessity of a check on the judicial proceedings of the Parliament, and that check could only be procured by investing the Protector with additional authority ! This speech, however, which has only been recov- ered within the last eight years, is so remark- able, that I here present it to the reader as it stands in the diary of one who was present. " His highness returned answer presently to this effect : that the first man that told him of OLIVER CROMWELL. 605 it was he, the mouth of the officers then present (meaning Colonel Mills) ; that, for his part, he had never been at any cabal about the same (hinting, by that, the frequent cabals that were against kingship by certain officers). He said, the time was when they boggled not at the word (king), for the Instrument by which the government now stands was presented to his highness with the title (king) in it, as some there present could witness, pointing at a prin- cipal officer, then in his eye, and he refused to accept of the title. But how it comes to pass that they now startle at that title, they best know. That, for his part, he loved the title, a feather in a hat, as little as they did. That they had made him their drudge upon all occasions : to dissolve the Long Parliament, who had con- tracted evil enough by long sitting ; to call a Parliament, or convention of their naming, who met ; and what did they 1 Fly at liberty and property ! insomuch as if one man had twelve cows, they held another that wanted cows ought to take share with his neighbour ! Who could have said anything was their own if they had gone on ! After their dissolution, how was I pressed by you (said he) for the rooting out of the ministry ; nay, rather than fail, to starve them out ! A Parliament was after- ward called ; they sat five months : it is true, we hardly heard of them in all that time. They [ took the Instrument into debate, and they must >, needs be dissolved; and yet stood not the Instru- | ment in need of mending 1 Was not the case j hard with me, to be put upon to swear to that which was so hard to be kept 1 Some time after that, you thought it was necessary to have major- ' generals, and the first rise to that motion \ (which was the late general insurrections) was j justifiable ; and you, major-generals, did your ' parts well. You might have gone on. Who bid you to go to the House with a bill, and there receive ( a foil 1 After you had exercised this power a while, impatient were you till a Parliament was called. I gave my vote against it, but you J [were] confident, by your own strength and interest, to get men chosen to your heart's de- sire. How you have failed therein, and how much the country hath been disobliged, is well known. That it is time to come to a settlement, and lay aside arbitrary proceedings, so unacceptable to the nation; and by the proceedings of this Parlia- ment, you see they stand in need of a check, or balancing power [meaning the House of Lords, ' or a house so constituted], for the case of James ! Naylor might happen to be your own case. By | their judicial power they fall upon life and member, and doth the Instrument enable me to control it ?''* * Sloane MSS. Additions to Ascough. It is now ap- pended to the Diary of Banton. One of Cromwell's most remarkable accomplishments in the art of dissimulation was this power he had, as in the present speech, of accom- modating his craft, whether of cajolery, expostulation, or threat, to the various manners and nicest habits of thinking of his various victims or dupes. Thus, too, when even the young Quaker must denounce to him the iniquity of war and its upholders, he would be answered with, " It is very good ; it is truth : if THOU and I were but an hour of a day together, we should be nearer one to the other." I am re- minded of this anecdote by its quotation in the last volume of the " History of the Colonization of the United States, by George Bancroft ;" a work of the deepest interest to any student of the times to which these memoirs have been de- voted, and executed in a manner, whether its style or opin- ions are regarded, that must elevate in general esteem the national literature of America. This extraordinary harangue, in which we may discover the Lord Protector's most pecu- liar and striking mode of dealing with his old brethren in arms, was in a great degree suc- cessful. Several of the officers at once " dis- covered a leaning" to the recommendation of their old general. In conclusion, an arrange- ment was made, in pursuance of which the measure was allowed to proceed. It was agreed that the question of the title under which the executive government was to be ex- ercised should be postponed till the last, and that the Parliament should come to vote that no provision in the bill should be regarded as binding till the whole had been gone through. In return for these concessions on the part of the Protector, the officers consented that that particular proposition should pass in virtue of which the present chief magistrate should be authorized to name his successor, and the other also, which was in favour of the Parliament consisting of two Houses. The issue of this conference confirmed Cromwell in his resolu- tion of pursuing his purpose to the last. The officers fulfilled their pledge, and their part of the compact was executed to the letter. The first article of the remonstrance consisted of two propositions : the first, praying that Cromwell would hold the office of chief magis- trate with the title of king ; the second, that he would please, during his lifetime, to name the person who should succeed him. The first was postponed ; the second was immediately adopted. The second article was, that there should be Parliaments once in three years at farthest, to consist of two Houses, constituted in such a manner as should hereafter be agreed on and declared. This was voted without a division. The third article prescribed that the ancient and undoubted privileges of Parliament should be preserved and maintained, and that the chief magistrate should not break or inter- rupt them, nor suffer them to be broken or in- terrupted ; and, in particular, that those per- sons who were legally chosen to represent the people in Parliament should not be excluded from sitting but by the judgment and consent of that house of which they were members. This was in a like manner voted, and imposed the necessity on Cromwell, if he continued the present House of Commons under the act, to restore the excluded Republicans. The fourth article related to the qualifications, either in point of loyalty, or of religion and morality, which should be required of members of the House of Commons, and to the number and distribution of members of which that House should consist. The fifth article directed that the members of the other House should be in number not fewer than forty, nor more than seventy ; that they should be named by the chief magistrate, and approved by Parliament ; and that, upon the decease of any one of them, no new member should be admitted to sit but by the consent of the house of which he was to be a member. The sixth article ordered that no new law should be made, nor old one altered, suspended, or repealed, but by consent of Par- liament. The seventh article directed that there should be an annual revenue of one mill- ion for the maintenance of the army and navy, and of three hundred thousand pounds for the 606 BRITISH STATESMEN. support of government ; that this should not be altered but by consent of Parliament ; that such other temporary supplies should be granted as the Commons might judge necessary ; that there should be no land-tax ; and that no charge or impost should be laid on the people but by con- sent of Parliament. The eighth article related to the privy council. The ninth article direct- ed that the great officers of state should be ap proved by Parliament. The tenth and eleventh articles related to religion and toleration, and provided that no persons who acknowledged the doctrine of the Trinity, and the Scriptures to be the word of God, should be molested in the freedom of their worship. This liberty was not to be extended to popery and prelacy There were seven other articles of less im- portance, on minor matters of detail. All were passed. The grand article was then discussed, and after two days' debate was carried, that Crom- well should be desired to take on him the gov- ernment with the title of KINO. The numbers were 123 to 62. The day following this, it was resolved to change the title of this Instrument from Address and Remonstrance to that of Pe- tition and Advice ; and it was farther determin- ed that, unless the Lord Protector should be satisfied to give his unreserved consent to the whole, no part of the Instrument should be deemed to be of force. They now took it up to Cromwell in a body, and to their amazement were received with doubts, and uncertainties, and most delicate scruples. Widdrington, as speaker, address- ed him in a long speech in commendation of the measure, after which the " Petition and Advice" was read by the clerk of the House. In reply, the Protector observed, that of all the things that had befallen him in his public life, the present offer struck him as being of the greatest magnitude, and most worthy of deliberation; and he therefore demanded from them some short time, to ask counsel of God and of his own heart, lest his answer should savour more of the flesh, proceed from lust, arise from arguments of self, than from those momentous considerations by which he desired to be governed on such an occasion. The time was granted. Three days after, Crom- well addressed a letter to the speaker, request- ing to be attended by a commitiee of the House, which accordingly waited upon him the next day at Whitehall. To them he explained him- self in faint and unwilling terms, saying that he had not been able to find it his duty to God and the Parliament to undertake the proposed charge under the title assigned. His partisans immediately understood the secret of his dis- claimer, and moved that the House adhere to the Petition and Advice they had presented. This resolution was carried immediately after the report of Cromwell's declining the honour intended him. With this vote, they presented themselves once more on the following day, and received this formal answer. " That no man could put a greater value than he did, and always should do, upon the desires and advice of the Parliament, readily acknowl- edging that it was the advice of the Parliament of these three nations. " That he looked upon the things advised to, in the general notion of them, as tending to the settlement of the chiefest things that could fall into the hearts of men to desire or endeavour after ; and this, at such a time, when the na- tion was big with expectation of anything that might add to their better being ; and, therefore, that he must needs put a very high esteem upon, and have a very reverend opinion of, any- thing that came from them; and that so he hath had of that Instrument presented to him, as he had already expressed himself; and that what he expressed had been from an honest heart towards the Parliament and public, which (he said) he spake not to compliment them, being past all consideration of that kind, seeing both himself and the Parliament must be real now, if ever. " That in this business they laid a burden upon a man conscious of his own infirmities and disabilities, and therefore he hoped that it would be no evil in him to measure their ad- vice and his own infirmities, seeing these would have some influence upon conscience ; con- science in him that receives talents, to know how he might answer the trust of them ; that he hath had, and still hath, such a conscience ; and therefore, that when he thought he had had an opportunity, lately, to make an answer, he made that answer, being a person that had been before, and then, and since, lifting up his heart to God, to know what might be his duty at such a time as this, and upon such an occasion and i trial as this was to him. " That he knew great place, great authority, to he a great burden, and that he knew a man who was convinced, in his conscience, that nothing less would enable him to the discharge of it than assistance from above ; and that it concerned such a person, so convinced and so persuaded, to be right with the Lord in such an undertaking ; and that if he undertook anything not in faith, he might serve them in his own unbelief, and so be the unprofitablest servant that ever a people or a nation had. " That he desired leave, therefore, to ask counsel, being ready to render a reason of his own apprehension, which, haply, might be overswayed by better apprehensions : that as to the point of liberty, he acknowledged they had made provisions for it, both spiritual and civil the greatest provision that ever was made ; that himself desired liberty to vent his own doubts, and his own fears and scruples, though haply, in such cases as these were, the world had judged that a man's conscience ought to know no scruple ; but that his did, and that he durst not dissemble ; and therefore they who were knowing in the ground of their own actions would best be able to measure ad- vice to others. " That there were many things in that In- strument besides that one of the name and title of king, which required much information as to his judgment ; and that it was they, and none but they, that could capacitate him to receive satisfaction in them ; that otherwise he must say he was not informed, and so not acted, as he knew they intended he should be, and as every man in the nation should be. " That he could not tell what other return to make to them than this, that he was ready to give them a reason if they would capacitate OLIVER CROMWELL. 607 him to give it, and themselves to receive it, and to do that in the other things, if they would inform him a little more particularly than the vote passed yesterday, and now read to him ; and that he hoped, when he understood the grounds of those things, the whole being not so much for their good and his own as for the good of the nation, there would be no doubt but that they might, even in those particulars, find out such things as might answer their duty, his own, and all their duties, to those whom they both served. " That this was what, with a great deal of affection, honour, and respect, he offered then unto them." The information he here asked it was at once resolved should be granted. A committee of the House was named for conference, and to solve the apparent doubts of the Protector. This committee consisted of ninety-nine per- sons who had voted for the title of king, or were known to be favourable in that essential point to the tenour of the Petition and Advice. The list included Whaley, Goffe, and Berry, from among the major generals ; and the name of Waller, who first, as we have seen, publicly suggested the thing, is very properly to be found there too. The speakers in the conference were Glyn, Whitelocke, Fiennes, Lisle, Lenthal, Colonel Jones, Sir Charles Wolseley, Sir Rich- ard Onslow, and Lord Broghill. The tenour of their arguments, which were inordinately lengthy, and in which Cromwell himself was perhaps the most lengthy and the most able of all, may be thus given. Cromwell proposed to argue the question on the ground of expedience. If the power were the same under a Protector, where, he asked, could be the use of a king? The title would offend men who, by their former services, had earned the right to have even their prejudices respected. Neither was he sure that the re- establishment of royalty might not be a falling off from that cause in which they had engaged, and from that Providence by which they had been so marvellously supported. It was true that the Scripture sanctioned the dignity of king, but to the testimony of Scripture might be opposed " the visible hand of God," who, in the lale contest, " had eradicated kingship." It was gravely replied that Protector was a new, king an ancient title ; the first had no definite meaning, the latter was interwoven with all our laws and institutions ; the powers of the one were unknown and liable to alteration, those of the other ascertained and limited by the law of custom and the statute law. The abolition of royalty did not originally enter into the contemplation of Parliament the objection was to the person, not to the office it was afterward effected by a portion only of the representative body ; whereas, its restoration was now sought by a greater authority the whole Parliament of the three kingdoms ! That restoration was indeed necessary, both for his security and theirs, as by law all the acts of a king in pos- session, but only of a king, were good and val- id. Some there were who pretended that king and chief magistrate were synonymous ; but no one had yet ventured to substitute one word for the other in the Scriptures, where so many covenants, promises, and precepts are annexed to the title of king. Neither could the " risible hand of God" be alleged in the present case ; for the visible hand of God had eradicated the government by a single person as clearly as that by a king. Cromwell promised to give due attention to these arguments ; to his confidential friends he owned that his objections were removed ; and, at the same time, to enlighten the igno- rance of the public, he ordered a report of the conferences to be published.* Several days had meanwhile passed, and yet Cromwell still deferred his final and public de- cision. For the first time, perhaps, 4n his life, he did not dare to seize what lay within his reach, and was the first and foremost object of his desire. The resolute withdrawal of Lam- bert he had been prepared for, and would not care to have contested, but the continued aver- sion of Fleetwood and Desborough to his grand design held him fairly at bay. He employed the interval with many of these recusant officers in all his profoundest, his most careless, his most deliberate arts, of laughter, of serious ar- gument, of obscure intimidation, and of most accomplished cajolery. He mixed up with ex- quisite skill in the various efforts certain cas- ual but powerful arguments deduced from an- other extensive conspiracy against his life and present power, in which Harrison, Venner, and the Fifth-Monarchy men had been just engaged. Whitelocke has related to us the style of these strange scenes in a curious passage of his me- morials. "The Protector," he says, "often advised about this and other great businesses, with Lord Broghill, Pierrepoint, Sir Charles Wolseley, Thurloe, and myself, and would be very cheerful with us, and laying aside his greatness, would be exceeding familiar with us, and, by way of diversion, would make verses with us ; and every one must try his fancy. He would commonly call for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and now and then would take tobacco himself. Then he would fall again to his serious and great busi- ness, and advise with us in those affairs ; and this he did often with us." A not less characteristic passage from the memoirs of Ludlow will show the nature of his attempts to overthrow, or moderate, or thrust aside, the scruples of Fleetwood and Desbor- ough. "Knowing that Lieut. -general Fleet- wood and Colonel Desborough were particu- larly averse to it, he invited himself to dine per- sonally with the colonel, and carried the lieuten- ant-general with him, where he began to droll with them about monarchy, and speaking slight- ly of it, said it was but a feather in a man's cap, and therefore wondered that men would not please the children, and permit them to enjoy their rattle. But he received from them, as Colonel Des- borough since told me, such an answer as was not at all suitable to his expectations or desires ; for they assured him that there was more in this matter than he perceived ; that those who put him upon it were no enemies to Charles Stuart ; and that, if he accepted of it, he would infallibly draw ruin on himself and friends. * Published they accordingly were, in a very thick vol- ume, out of which Dr. Lingard has conveyed the abstract I have availed myself of in the text. The book was called " Monarchy asserted to be the roost ancient and legal form of government." At the close of the third day's confer- ence, the Protector declared, both to Whitelocke and others, that his scruples were entirely over. 608 BRITISH STATESMEN. Having thus sounded their inclinations, that he might conclude in the manner he had begun, he told them they were a couple of scrupulous fel- lows, and so departed. The next day he sent a message to the House to require their attend- ance in the Painted Chamber the next morning, designing, as all men believed, there to declare his acceptation of the crown ;* but in the mean time meeting with Colonel Desborough in the great walk of the Park, and acquainting him with his resolution, the colonel made answer that he then gave up the cause, and Cromwell's family also, for lost ; adding, that though he was resolved never to act against him, yet he would not act for him after that time ; so, af- ter some other discourse upon the same sub- ject, Desborough went home, and there found Colonel Pride, whom Cromwell had knighted with a fagot stick ; and having imparted to him the design of Cromwell to accept the crown, Pride answered, 'He shall not.' 'Why?' said the colonel; 'how wilt thou hinder it?' To which Pride replied, ' Get me a petition drawn, and I will prevent it.' Whereupon they both went to Dr. Owen, and having acquainted him with what had happened, they persuaded him to draw a petition according to their desires While this was doing, Cromwell, having re- flected on his discourse with Colonel Desbor- ough, and being informed that Lambert and di- vers other officers were dissatisfied with his design, sent a message to put off the meet- ing in the Painted Chamber, and to desire that the House would send a committee to confer with him about the great business that was then depending, intending thereby to gain time, in which he might be fitting the officers for his design. But the House being risen before his message arrived, and so out of a capacity to appoint any to come to him, the old committee that had been formerly appointed to that end thought fit, by virtue of their general instruc- tions, to wait on him to know his pleasure. Accordingly they came to Whitehall, where they attended about two hours, and then a Barbary horse being brought into the garden for him to see, gave him an occasion to pass through the room where the committee was attending. As he icas passing by without taking the least notice of them, one of the messengers put him in mind that they had at- tended very long, which he slightly excusing, told them that he thought the Houses, being risen before his message came to them, had * This is confirmed by very many authorities. White- locke states explicitly that the Protector was satisfied in his private judgment that it was expedient for him to assume the name and authority of king; but, he adds, " by solici- tation of the Commonwealth's men, and fearing a mutiny and defection of a great body of the army in case he should take that title and office, his mind changed ; and many of the officers of the army gave out high threatenings against him if he should do it." The same view of the case is given in a letter, dated at Whitehall, on the 27th of April, and addressed by Sir Francis Russel to his son-in-law, the Lord Henry Cromwell. " I do in this (letter) desire to take leave of your lordship, for my next is likely to be to the Duke of York. Your father begins to come out of the clouds, and it appears to us that he will take the kingly power upon him. That great noise which was made about this business not long since is almost over, and I cannot think there will be the least combustion about it. This day I have had some discourse with your father about this great business. He is very cheerful, and his troubled thoughts seem to be over. I was told the other day by Colonel Pride, that I was for a king, because I hoped that the next would be Henry's turn." Many other letters from Thurloe to Henry express the same thing. not empowered any persons to him. It was answered that they came to him upon the gen- eral instructions which they had formerly re- ceived from the House ; upon which he' told them he would send to them some other time." Beneath these careless delays and apparent- ly indifferent movements of Cromwell, there then lay, could the truth have been unfolded, a bitter agony of pride and mortification of heart beyond any that his worst enemy or victim could have desired to see working within him. A mean and spiritless slave to the vilest pas- sions of overwrought ambition, he stood there within sight of the glittering bawble* for which he had perilled so much, and yet dared not af- fect to see it, but would stand gazing on his Barbary horse, or talk of a toy, or sneer about a rattle, or laugh at a feather in a man's cap, or do anything to cover the fever of that imbe- cile passion, incapable of its own desire, which raged in his heart. So to the last he trifled ; and at the last, the Republican officers, taking courage from his cowardice, ventured one bold step, and dashed down his hopes forever. On the very morning of the occurrence Lud- low has last described, Desborough rose in his place, and announced that certain officers of the army attended with a petition. The House voted their admission to the bar, and it was presented by Colonel Mason. Cromwell's ma- jority were prepared for a petition in favour of his views. To their surprise and consterna- tion, it set forth, " that the petitioners had haz- arded their lives against monarchy, and were still ready to do so ; that they observed some men endeavouring to bring the nation under the old servitude, by pressing their general to take upon him the title of king ; that they hum- bly desired the House would continue steady to the good old cause, in defence of which they (the petitioners), for their parts, were ready to lay down their lives." The good old cause ! When Cromwell heard this, he felt that his hope was gone, and made what merit he could to surrender it with some show of dignity. At once sending for Fleet- wood, he expressed much surprise at his not preventing the presentation of such a petition, especially as, he said, he must know the crown would never have been accepted by him against the inclinations of the army ; and he therefore de- sired him to hasten to the House, and prevent any proceedings upon the petition. This office Fleetwood readily undertook, and without dif- ficulty convinced the members of the impropri- ety of considering the prayer of the officers un- til they had received the Protector's answer. A message then arrived from Cromwell, desi- ring the members, instead of repairing to the Painted Chamber, to meet him in the Banquet- ing House. They did so ; and there, on the 12th of May, 1657, this comedy a farce it might be better called, save for its length closed with a speech of " much embarrassment" from Crom- well, in which he said many things with a reach of hypocrisy that might well embarrass even him.t This is that memorable speech. * Nor, it was said, did this exist in imagination only ! Welwood asserts that a crown was actually made and brought to Whitehall. t l)r. Johnson, in his Life of Waller, asserts that " Crom- well, after a long conference with a deputation of Parlia- ment that was sent to invite him to the crown, refused it, OLIVER CROMWELL. 609 "MR. SPEAKER, I come hither to answer that which was in your last paper to the com- mittee you sent to me, which was in relation to the desires which were offered to me by the House in what they called their Petition. " I confess that business hath put the House, the Parliament, to a great deal of trouble, and spent much time. " I am very sorry for that ! It hath cost me some, and some thoughts ; and because I have been the unhappy occasion of the expense of so much time, I shall spend little of it now. " I have, the best I can, resolved the whole business in my thoughts ; and I have said so much already in testimony to the whole, that I think I shall not need to repeat anything that I have said. . I think it is a government that, in the aims of it, seeks the settling the nation on a good foot, in relation to civil rights and liberties, which are the rights of the nation ; and I hope I shall never be found to be one of them that shall go about to rob the nation of those rights, but serve them what I can to the attaining of them. : " It is also exceeding well provided there, for the safety and security of honest men, in that great, natural, and religious liberty, which is lib- erty of conscience. These are the great funda- mentals ; and I must bear my testimony to them, as I have and shall do still, so long as God lets me live in this world, that the inten- tions and the things are very honourable and honest, and the product worthy of a Parliament : I have only had the unhappiness, both in my conferences with your committees, and in the best thoughts I could take to myself, not to be convinced of the necessity of that thing that hath been so often insisted on by you to wit, the title of king, as in itself so necessary as it seems to be apprehended by you. " And yet I do, with all honour and respect to the judgment of a Parliament, testify that (cateris paribus) no private judgment is to lie in the balance with the judgment of Parliament ; but, in things that respect particular persons, every man that is to give an account to God of his actions must in some measure be able to prove his own work, and to have an approba- tion in his own conscience of that that he is to do, or to forbear ; and .while you are granting others their liberties, surely you will not deny me this, it being not only a liberty, but a duty (and such a duty as I cannot, without sinning, forbear), to examine in my own heart, and thoughts, and judgment, in every work which I am to set my hand to, or to appear in or for. " I must confess, therefore, that though I do acknowledge all the other, yet I must be a lit- tle confident in this. That what with the cir- cumstances that accompany human actions, whether they be circumstances of times or per- sons, or whether circumstances that relate to the whole, or private, or particular circum- stances, that compass any person that is to render an account of his own actions, I have truly thought, and do still think, that if I should, at the best, do anything on this account to an- swer your expectation, at the best I should do it doubtingly ; and, certainly, what is so is not of faith ; and whatsoever is not so, whatsoever but is said to have fainted in his coach when he parted from them." I cannot find any authority for this, 4H is not of faith, is sin to him that doth it, wheth- er it be with relation to the substance of the action about which the consideration is con- versant, or whether to circumstances about it which make all indifferent actions good or evil : I say circumstances ; and truly I mean good or evil to him that doth it. " I, lying under this consideration, think it my duty, only I could have wished I had done it sooner, for the sake of the House, who hath laid so infinite obligations on me I wish I had done it sooner, for your sake, and saving time and trouble, and, indeed, for the committee's sake, to whom I must acknowledge publicly I have been unreasonably troublesome I say I could have wished I had given it sooner ; but truly this is my answer, that (although I think the government doth consist of very excellent parts, in all but in that one thing, the title, as to me) I should not be an honest man if I should not tell you that I cannot accept of the government, nor undertake the trouble and charge of it. I have a little more experiment- ed than everybody what troubles and difficulties do befall men under such trusts and in such undertakings. I say I am persuaded to return this answer to you, that I cannot undertake the government with the title of king ; and that is my answer to this great and weighty business." All that could now be achieved was to pass the Petition and Advice without the title of king. This was done, and, with a few other unimportant amendments, received the Pro- tector's sanction. The House at the same time adjourned for six months, to allow the Lord Protector opportunity for the formation of the other House, constituted by this new act. A new and solemn inauguration followed. On a platform, raised at the upper end of West- minster Hall, and in front of a magnificent chair of state, stood the Protector, while the speaker, with his assistants, invested him with a purple mantle lined with ermine, presented to him a Bible superbly gilt and embossed, girt a sword by his side, and placed a sceptre of massive gold in his hand. As soon as the oath had been administered, Manton, his chaplain, pronounced a long and fervent prayer for a blessing on the Protector, the Parliament, and the people. Rising from prayer, Cromwell seated himself on the right ; at some distance sat the French, on the left the Dutch ambassa- dor ; on one side stood the Earl of Warwick, with the sword of the Commonwealth ; on the other, the lord-mayor, with that of the city ; and behind arranged themselves the members of the Protector's family, the lords of the coun- cil, and Lisle, Whitelocke, and Montague, each of the three bearing a drawn sword. At a sig- nal given, the trumpets sounded, the heralds proclaimed the style of the new sovereign, and the spectators shouted, " Long live his high- ness ! God save the Lord Protector !" He rose immediately, bowed to the ambassadors, and walked in state through the Hall to his carriage.* * Dr. Lingard, from Whitelocke's Memorials. But a de- tailed account, with many points of vivacity and interest, will be seen in Appendix K. I have also given, from the same official hand (Appendix L.), the account (with some interpolations inserted after the Restoration) of the Lord Protector's funeral. 610 BRITISH STATESMEN. From this ceremony, apparently so grand and so imposing, may be dated Cromwell's downfall. He had failed, and the sole charm which seemed to have sustained him hitherto perished in those words. He had declared, in a manner not to be mistaken, that he thought monarchy the best form of government, and yet he was not suffered to become that, mon- arch. He held the chair of another. Many of his oldest friends, and fellow-comrades too, had withdrawn from his side, and he had to look for the familiar faces of Naseby, Dunbar, Mars- ton Moor, and Worcester, in the ranks of men who were banded against his life, or more bitter contemplation had entered an immortal judgment with posterity against his fame. His mother, whom he deeply venerated, had per- ished some short time before, unable to live in her continual terror that his life would be ta- ken by assassins.* His most beloved daughter Claypole is said to have already estranged her- self from his side, where he would have al- ways had her present, on account of the attach- ment she bore to truth, not less than to many of his political enemies. His son Richard, to whom he desired to leave the power for which he had sacrificed so many blessings, was inca- pable, he feared too well, to hold it for a day. Nor did it seem that he could hope to leave it, for such a feeble hand, better organized than it already was, for his own health was known to be declining. The prospect before this great and most mistaken man, after his second most gorgeous inauguration, was a dreary one in- deed. Had the old story of his enemies been true, it could scarcely have left to him fewer hopes of redemption f Yet he made a rally in his foreign adminis- tration, where his genius, which had there a theatre for its exercise unencumbered with his follies or his crimes, still shone supreme.* The * Ludlow tells us that " his mother, who, by reason of her great age, was not so easily flattered with temptations, very much mistrusted the issue of affairs, and would be often afraid, when she heard the noise of a musket, that her son was shot, being exceedingly dissatisfied unless she might see him once a day at least ; but she, shortly after dying, left him the possession of what she held in jointure, which was reported not to exceed sixty pounds by year, though he out of the public purse expended much more at her interment in the abbey at Westminster, and, among other needless ceremonies, caused many hundred torches to be carried with the hearse, though she was buried by day- light." Instead of this, she had prayed of her sou a humble village burial-place. t Echard builds up this most ridiculous story from the romantic fictions of Clement Walker anil others, which is yet worth quoting, to show the feeling which was encour- aged respecting Cromwell until within the last century. " We have a strange story in the last part of the History of Independency, which the author says he received from a person of quality, viz., ' It was believ'd, and that not with- out some good cause, that Cromwell, the same morning that he defeated the king's army at Worcester, had conference personally with the devil, with whom he made a contract, that to have his will then, and in all things else for seven years from that day, he should, at the expiration of the said years, have him at his command, to do at his pleasure, both with his soul and body.' This is also related in other printed books ; but we have receiv'd a more full account, never yet published, which is here inserted as a thing more wonderful than probable, and therefore more for the diver- sion than satisfaction of the reader. It is a relation or nar- rative of a valiant officer call'd Lindsey, an intimate friend of Cromwell's, the first captain of his regiment, and there- fore commonly call'd Colonel Lindsey, which is to this ef- fect: On the 3d of September, in the morning, Cromwell took this officer to a wood-side, not far from the army, and bid him alight and follow him into that wood, and to take particular notice of what he saw and heard. After they had both alighted and secur'd their horses, and walked some small way into the wood, Lindsey began to turn pale, and to be seiz'd with horror from some unknown cause, upon which Cromwell ask'd him how he did, or how he felt himself. He answer'd, that he was in such a trembling and consternation, that he never felt the like in all the conflicts and battels he had been engag'd in ; but whether it pro- ceed'd from the gloominess of the place, or the temperament of his body, he knew not. ' How now !' said Cromwell ; ' what ! troubl'd with vapours ? Come forwards, man !' They had not gone above twenty yards, before Lindsey on a sudden stood still, and cry'd out, by all that's good, he was seiz'd with such unaccountable terror and astonish- ment, that it was impossible for him to stir one step further Upon which Cromwell call'd him faint-hearted fool, and bid him stand there and observe, or be witness ; and then ad- vancing to some distance from him, he rnet with a grave elderly man, with a roll of parchment in his hand, who de- liver'd it to Cromwell, who eagerly perus'd it. Lindsey, a little recover'd from his fear, heard several loud words be- tween them ; particularly Cromwell said, ' This is but for seven years ; I wns to have had it for one-and-twenty, and it must and bhall be so.' The other told him positively it cou'd not be for above seven ; upon which Cromwell cry'd with great fierceness it shou'd, however, be for fourteen years. But the other peremptorily declar'd 'it could not possibly be for any longer time ; and if he would not take it so, there were others who would accept of it.' Upon which Cromwell at last took the parchment, and returning to Lindsey with great joy in his countenance, he cry'd, ' Now, Lindsey, the battel is our own ! I long to be engag'd.' Returning out of the wood, they rode to the army, Crom- well with a resolution to engage as soon as possible, and the other with a design of leaving the army as soon, After the first charge. Lindsey deserted his post, and rode away, with all possible speed, day and night, till he came into the county of Norfolk, to the house of an intimate friend, one Mr. Thorowgood, minister of the parish of Grimstone. Cromwell, as soon as he miss'd him, sent all ways after him, with a promise of a great reward to any that shou'd brinar him alive or dead.' Thus far the narrative of Liml- sey himself; but something further is to be remember'd, to compleat and confirm the story. When Mr. Thorowgood saw his friend Lindsey come into his yard, his horse and himself just tired, in a' sort of maze, said, ' How now, colo- nel ! we hear there is like to he a battel shortly. What ! fled from your colours ?' ' A batte) !' said the other ; ' yes, there has been a battel, and I am sure the king is beaten ; but if ever I strike a stroak for Cromwell, may I perish eternally ; for I am sure he has made a league with the devil, and the devil will have him in due time.' Then de- siring his protection from Cromwell's inquisitors, he went in, and related the whole story, and all the circumstances, concluding with these remarkable words : ' That Cromwell would certainly dye that day seven years that the liaitel was fought.' The strangeness of the relation caus'd Mr. Thorowpood to order his son John, then about twelve years of age, to write it in full length in his common-place book, and to take it from Lindsey's own mouth. This common- place book, and likewise the same story, written in other books, I am assur'd is still preserv'd in the family of the Thorowgoods, but how far Lindsey is to be believ'd. and how far the story is to be accounted incredible, is left, to the reader's faith and judgment, and not to any determina- tion of our own." Echard's .History of England, p. 601. I will subjoin to this a piece of admirable wit and satire, fir which it is even worth while to preserve such a slory. Dr. Nettieton, an accomplished physician of the last cen- tury, was in company one day wiih several gentlemen, one of whom was laying great stress on the popular account I have just quoted, even then rifa with well-educated per- sons, of Cromwell's selling himself to the devil before the battle of Worcester, affirming that the bargain was intend- ed to be for twenty-one years, but that the devil had put a trick upon Oliver by changing the 21 into 12; and then, turning hastily to the doctor, the gentleman asked him, "What could be the devil's motive for so doing ?'' The doctor answered, " That he could not tell what was his mo- tive, unless he was in a hurry about the Restoration." * Mr. Wallace gives, in his most able history of England, the following anecdote of this date, in illustration of the ascendant of Cromwell over Mazarin : " An English mer- chant vessel was unjustly confiscated on the coast of France, and the owner, an honest Quaker, applied to Cromwell for redress. The Protector asking him whether he would make a journey to Paris with a letter, was answered in the affirmative, and despatched the Quaker with a letter to Cardinal Mazarin, demanding redress within three days, at the expiration of which he peremptorily ordered the Quaker to return. He obeyed, and presented himself to Cromwell. 'Well, friend, hast thou thy money?' said the Protector. The Quaker said, No.' Cromwell desired him to take no farther trouble, as he should take the matter into his own hands. He accordingly seized and sold the first two French, OLIVER CROMWELL. 611 details belong to general history ; but I may be allowed to glance so far at them as to state that Mardyke was now delivered to him under a new and larger treaty with Mazarin, as a secu- rity for Dunkirk, and that, on the subsequent meeting of the troops of the two nations at the siege, Louis XIV. made a journey expressly to see those of Cromwell. It is farther recorded that Lockhart paid him this compliment at the review that Cromwell had enjoined both offi- cers and soldiers to display the same zeal in ihe service of the French king as in his own ; and that Louis replied, he was transported to receive so noble a testimony of the affection of a prince, whom he had always considered as the greatest and happiest in Europe. Anticipating the events of a few months later, I may add that, after the surrender of Dunkirk to Lock- hart and an English garrison, Louis XIV. and the cardinal having taken up their quarters at Calais, Cromwell seized the occasion to send Lord Faulconberg, his son-in-law, with a splen- did equipage and a numerous retinue, to com- pliment the king on his near approach to the shores of Britain. Here Fauteonberg was en- tertained with every possible distinction. Louis not only received him uncovered at his public audiences, but also at a private visit, which he requested from the Protector's son-in-law, when they talked for two hours in the garden. The cardinal was equally ceremonious. He came from his apartment to meet thre ambas- sador, and, after an hour's discourse, conduct- ed him again to his carriage, a condescension be was accustomed to dispense with, not only to all others, but to the king himself. After a stay of five days, Faulconberg left, charged with all honour and affection for the great Protector from Mazarin and Louis. I leave this redeeming subject of foreign pol- icy with two rare and memorable missives. The first is a remonstrance to the Grand Seignior, respecting the unjust surprisal of an English ship. " Oliver, by the grace of God Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions and territories thereto belonging, to the high and mighty em- peror, Sultan Mahomet Han, chief lord and com- mander of the Mussulman kmgdome, sole and supreme monarch of the Eastern empire, greet- ing. . . . Most high and mighty prince. . . . We doubt not but you have found by yourowne ex- perience, as well as by information of such as have bin of councell with your royall predeces- sors, that the amity and traffique soe long contin- ued betweene both nations hath bin of great ad- vantage and benefit in many respects ; to the disturbance whereof we should be very unwill- ing that any occasion should be offered on our part, who desire nothing more than a contin- uance and increase of that friendship which hath bin established. But it falleth out that the same sauor, wno suumiuea 10 mis very summary proceeding." 1 cannot transcribe this passage from the history by Mr. 'Wallace, without an expression of deep and heartfelt regret J-t the melancholy event which has removed so suddenly from among us that excellent person, in whom the public have lost a writer of very great and various accomplish- ments, and his more intimate friends an adviser and com- panion whose place they will vainly seek to supply. hath bin too frequently interrupted by such as exercise pyracy and spoile at sea, who, though they are enemies to all entercowrse and civill society, and dishonorable to princes and states, yet find places of re.tr eate. and succor in some part of your dominions. An instance whereof (to omit many others) appeareth in the late surpri- zall of an English ship called the Resolution, which being laden with cloth, tynne, lead, and money (to the value of two hundred thousand dollars), and bound for your owne port of Scan- derone, was yet in her passage (nere Candy) assaulted by seaven ships of Tripoly (part of your Majesty's fleetes, and then actually in your service), and by them carried to Rhodes, an- other of your majesty's ports, where we are in formed the captaine bassa hath bin soe farr from disowning the action, that he hath, in scorne and contempt of the capitulation, secured the ship and goods, as also the master, mariners, and passengers, who had not a ragg left to cov- er them ; which barbarous act, soe repugnant to the emperiall capitulations (which ought to be held inviolate), soe injurious to trade, and soe dis- honorable to your majesty, we cannot pass over without a due consideration and representation to you, as a manifest breach of peace ; and therefore we doe presume soe much of your wisdome and justice, that you will not only command a to- tall and compleate restitution to be made of the ship, goods, and money, and releasement of the men, but also for your owne honor take course for suppressing those pyrates, and prohibiting their retreate into places, and receiving favour and succor from persons under your obedience, as also for punishing such as countenance or abett them, and for a generall redres-s of all for- mer injuries too commonly practiced on our peo- ple, both to our dishonor and their irreparable loss. In all which we have given order to our ambassador residing at your high port to in- forme you more particularly, desiring to under- stand your resolution herein, that upon knowl- edge thereof we may take such course as shall be agreeable to justice and to the good of our people, whom we are bound to protect in their lawfull cours- es of trade. And soe we wish you health and true felicity. Given at our pallace at West- minster, this llth day of the moneth of August, 1657." The second is addressed,, with the date of the same day, to the high and excellent lord, the Vizier Azem. " Oliver, by the grace of God Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of Eng- land, Scotland,, and Ireland, and the dominions and territories thereto belonging, to the high and excellent lord, the Vizier Azem. . . . High and excellent lord. ... As we have now done to the Grand Seignor your lord and master, soe doe we also to you, complaine of an act of vi- olence and injustice exercised towards divers merchants of this Commonwealth, interested in an English ship called the Resolution, which being laden with cloth, tynne, and money, and bound for the Grand Seignor's owne port of Scanderone, in a peaceable course of trading, was (notwithstanding) in her way (nere Candy) assaulted by seaven Tripoly men of warr actu- ally ingaged in the Grand Seignor's service, and by them carried to Rhodes, where the captaine bassa hath secured the ship and her lading, and imprisoned the master, mariners, and passen- 612 BRITISH STATESMEN. gers, being in number forty-five persons ; which act, soe contrary to the emperiall capitulations, and to the very essence of commerce, being an absolute breach of the peace between both na- tions, we cannot but judge will be held very dishonorable to the Grand Seignor, and accord- ingly to be resented by him, even to the severe punishment of the captaine bassa, who soe read- ily owned the action, and of those others, en- emies of humane society, who are guilty of an attempt soe foule and disgracefull to a monarch pretending justice. And we shall not doubt but, as an intimation of his justice, he will command compleate restitution of ship and goods, and releasement of the persons, otherwise you must shortly expect a ruine and dissolution of all trade, besides the confusion and danger that may grow to your owne state ; and therefore we presume you will (though for noe other respect than your owne interest and safety) be instrumentall to procure reparation in this particular, and an ut- ter extirpation of those sea rovers, that soe peace and the effects thereof, which have bin found soe advantageous to both nations, may be preserved, to the mutual good of each. In all which we desire you to give care and cred- it to our ambassador there, and to procure such speedy answere and return e from his emperiall majesty as may stand with equity and with the continuance of that amity which hath bin set- led between both nations, and which we shall not willingly give the least occasion .to disturbe without some great provocation. Given at our pallace at Westminster, this llth day of the moneth of August, in the yeare 1657." Lord Faulconberg, I have intimated, was now the son-in-law of Cromwell. He had married the Lady Mary Cromwell some short period after the prorogation of the Parliament. Some few days earlier, the Protector's youngest daughter, Lady Frances,* had been also mar- * This is the lady of whom is told a singularly well-at- tested story of a proposal of marriage from Charles the Second. It is related by Morrice, chaplain to Lord Brog- hill, in his life of that nobleman, and by Burnet (History of his Own Times), who states that he had it from Brog- hill's lips. It runs thus, being said to belong to the year 1653. the period ia which Cromwell had ull power in his own hands, and before he had openly assumed the office of chief magistrate. Lord Broghill was the author of the prop- osition. Having, as we are told, opportunities, by a secret correspondence with some about the king, he sounded Charles's inclinations, as to how he would feel respecting a proposition to restore him to his hereditary dominions by means of such a marriage. The royal exile received the proposition with avidity. Its author next stated it to the mother and daughter. Neither of them showed any aver- sion to the suggestion. Having succeeded thus far, the next business was to break the proposal to Cromwell himself. This Broghill took an opportunity of doing in the following manner : Being one day returned from the city, and wait- ing upon Cromwell in his closet, one of the first questions with which he was accosted was, whether there was any news ? " In truth there is," said Broghill, " and very ' strange news." " What is it ?" " It is in everybody's \ mouth," answered the courtier; "but I dare not mention it to your excellency, lest you should be offended." Crom- ! well told him to speak out. To which Broghill rejoined, "All the news in the city is, that you are going to inarry ' your daughter Frances to the Pretender." The general ' was struck with the suggestion, and paced up and down the | room two or three times in silence. " And what do people say to the tale ?" " I assure you it is received with decided approbation by the majority. Consider, sir, that by it you would extricate yourself from your present precarious situ- ation, would become father-in-law to a prince who would owe everything to your interference, might. retain the com- mand of the army, and would, in all probability, become progenitor to a race of kings." " No," said Cromwell, af- ter a pause, " it is impossible: he would never forgive me the death of his father." ried, and her bridegroom was another member of the old aristocracy, Mr. Rich, grandson of the Earl of Warwick.* In thus effecting these alliances, Cromwell betrayed the melancholy weakness with which his life was doomed to close. Deprived of the title of king, he had fixed his affections on the creation of the other House, granted him by the Petition and Ad- vice. It occupied all his thoughts, and was clung to, till his life had passed, with, for such a man, a kind of imbecile fondness. These noble alliances, it is admitted by his friends and courtiers, were designed to aid him in the scheme. The marriage of Lady Frances with Mr. Richt would seem to have been a love-match too. I ascertain this from a curious letter written by her sister Mary to Henry Cromwell, and which proves also that somewhat similar difficulties to those which so long obstructed Richard's marriage with Miss Major}: had oc- curred here also. Not the less does it prove the Lord Protector's fatherly affection stronger than any politic consideration, and illustrate generally the close ties of love which, in the midst of all their grandeur, still held this family together. * For the extraordinary festivities at this marriage, see ante, p. 452; see also Appendix H., COURT CIRCULAR. t Mr. Rich died a few months after the marriage ; and I may quote a letter from his venerable grandfather to Crom- well, in fairness and justice to the every-way honourable testimony it bears to the latter. " My pen and my heart were ever your lordship's servants; now they are become your debtors. This paper cannot enough confess my obli- gations, and much less discharge it, for your reasonable and sympathizing letters, which (because the value they derive from so worthy a hand) express such faithful affec- tions, and administer such Christian advice, as renders them beyond measure welcome and dear to me ; and although my heaviness and distraction of thoughts persuade me rather to peruse those excellent lines than to answer them, and to take relief from them rather than make a return to them, yet I must not be so indulgent to mine own sorrows as to lose this opportunity of being thankful to your lordship for so great a favour. My lord, I dare not be insensible of that hand which hath laid a very sharp and awaking affliction upon me ; but we may not be so presumptuous as to make choice of our own rod, or so much as in thought to detract from or diminish the justice, and wisdom, and goodness of God, in those hard events which must all stand inviolable, when millions of such worms as I am are gone to dust. I must needs say, I have lost a dear and comfortable relation, one in whom I had much determined my affections and lodged my hopes, are now rebuked and withered by a hasty and early death ; but my property in him was inferior to his who hath taken him, and I must rest my heart in his proceedings, making it my care and suit that those evils which cannot be averted may be sanctified. In order to which I desire, from this one sad instance, to argue the whole world of vanity and variableness. Alas ! what a staff of reed are these things, which have no stay in them- selves, and therefore can give none to us. They witness their own impotency, and themselves admonish us to pitch our rest above this sphere of changeable mortality, and to cast anchor in heaven, while we can find no hold at all on earth. Assuredly he that will have and hold a right tranquillity must found it in a sweet fruition of God, which whosoever wants may be secure, but cannot be quiet. My lord, all thu is but a broken echo of your pious counsel, which gives such ease to my oppressed mind, that I can scarce forbid my pen being tedious. Only it remembers your lordship's many weighty and noble employments, which, together with your prudent, heroic, and honourable managery of them, I do here congratulate, as well as my grief will give me leave. Others' goodness is their own ; yours is a whole country's yea, three kingdoms; for which you justly possess interest and renown with wise and good men ; virtue is a thousand escutcheons. Go on, my lord, go on happily, to love religion, to exemplify it. May your lordship long continue an instrument of use, a pattern of virtue, and a precedent of glory ! This is the inward and affectionate prayer of, my lord, your lordship's moit affectionate servant, WARWICK." t See ante, p. 472, et teg. OLIVER CROMWELL. 613 " Deare Brother, Your kind leters do so much engag ray hart towards you, that I can never tell how to expres in writing the tru af- fection and value I have of you, who, truly, I think, non that knows you but you may justly claim it from. I must confes myself in a great fault in the omiteing of writing to you and your deare wif so long a tim ; but I suppos you canot be ignorant of the reason, which truly has ben the only caus, which is this bisnes of my sester Franses and mr. Rich. Truly I can truly say it, for thes thre months, I think our famyly, and myself in perticular, have ben in the gratest confusion and troble as ever poor famyly can be in ; the Lord tell us his ... in it, and setel us, and mak us what he would hav us to be. I suppos you hard of the breaking of the bisnes, and according to your deser in your last leter, as well as I can, I will give you a full account of it, which is thes. After a quarter of a yeor's admitons, my father and my lord Warwick be- gon to tret about the estate ; and it sems my lord did ofer that that my father expected. I ned not nam perticulars, for I suppos you may hav had it from beter hands ; but, if I may say the truth, I think it was not so much estat as som private rcsons that my father discovered to non but my sester Franses and his own famyly, which was a dislik to the young person, which he had from som reports of his being a visions man, given to play, and such lik things, which ofis was done by some that had a mind to brak of the match. My sester hearing these things, wos resolvd to know the truth of it ; and truly, dued find all the reports to be fals that wer raisd of him ; and to tell you the truth, they wer so much engagd in affection before this, that she could not thenk of breaking of it of; so that my sester en- gagd me and all the frinds she had, who truly wer very few, to spek in her behalf to my fa- ther, which we deid, but could not be hard to any purpos ; only this, my father promised, that if he wer satisfyed as to the report, the estat shold not brak it of, which she was satisfyed with. But after this ther was a second trety, and my lord Warwick desered my father to nam what it was he demanded more, and to his utmost he would satisfy him ; so my father, upon this, mad new propositions, which my lord Warwick has answered as much as he can ; but it seems there is fiv hundred pounds a yeor in my lord Riche's hands which he has power to sell, and ther are some people that persuad his highnes that it would be desonerable for him to con- clud of it without thes fiv hundred pounds a yeor be setled upon mr. Rich after his father's deth, and my lord Rich having no esteem at all of his son, becos he is not so bad as himself, will not agre to it ; and thes people, upon this, persuad my father it would be a desoner to him to yald upon thes terms it would shew that he wos mad a fool on by my lord Riche ; which the truth is, how it should be, I cant understand, nor very few els ; and truly, I must tell you privatelie, that they ar so far engagd as the match canot be brok of. She acquainted non of her frends with her resolution when she did it, Deare broth- er, this is as far as I can tell the stat of the bisnes. The Lord derect them what to do ; and all I think ought to beg of God to pardon her in her dowing of this thing, which I must say truly she was put upon by the of things. Deare, let me beg my excuses to my sester for not writing my best respects to her. Pardon this troble, and belev me, that I shall ever striv to approv myself, deare brother, your affectionate sester and servant, " MARY CROMWELL." This Lady Mary would seem to have been the family counsellor and referee in all their casual misunderstandings with each other. It is somewhat interesting to find her, at a little earlier date, remonstrating with this same great and able brother Henry in a tone which would appear to countenance Mrs. Hutchin- son's worst scandal against him. "DEARE BROTHER, I canot be any longer without beg- ing an excus for my so long silens. You canot but hear of my sester's ilnes, which inded has ben the only caus of it. You might justly tak it ill otherwis, and think ther wer want of that afection I owe unto you. Inded, deare broth- er, it was a grat deal of truble to me to think I should giv you any ocation to think amis of me ; for I can truly say it, you are very deare to me, and it is a grat truble to me to think of the destans we ar from on another, and would be mor if I ded not think you ar doing the Lord's sarvis ; and truly that ought to satisfy us, for whil we ar hear, we canot expect but that we must be seprated. Deare Brother, the Lord direct you in his ways, and kep your hart clos unto himself; and I am sur therin you will hav tru comfort, and that that will last when all this world shall pass away. I canot but giv you some item of won that is with you, which is so much feared by your frinds that lov you, is som deshonor to you and my deare sester, if you hav not a grat car ; for it is reported hear that she ruls much in your family ; and truly it is feared she is a descountenanser of the godly people. Therfor, deare brother, tak it not ill that I giv you an item of her ; for truly, if I did not dearly lov you both and your oner, I would not giv you notis of her. Ther- for I hope you will not tak it ill that I hav delt thus planly with you. I supos you know who it is I mean ; therfor I deser to be excused for not naming of her. I deser not to he sen in it, and therfor deser you that you would not tak the lest notis of my writing to you about it, becos I was deser'd not to spek of it ; nor should I, but that I know you will not tak it amis from your poor sester that lovs you. Deare Broth- er, I tak my leev to rest. Your Sister and Servant, MARY CROMWELL. . . . Her Highnes deseres to hav her love to you and my Sester, and my Sester Franke her respects to you both." Our attention is now called to the last great public action of the life of the Lord Protector Cromwell. On the 28th of January, 1658, the prorogued Parliament reassembled, with its re- enforcement (by stipulation of the Petition and Advice) of upward of a hundred of the exclu- ded Republicans, and its addition of the other House. This other House consisted of sixty- one members, and comprised his two sons, Richard and Henry, eight peers of royal crea- tion, several members of his council, some gentlemen of fortune and family, with a due proportion of lawyers and officers, and a very scanty sprinkling of persons known to be dis- affected to his government. Of the ancient 614 BRITISH STATESMEN. peers, two only attended, the Lords Eure and Faulconberg ; Lords Warwick, Manchester, Miilgrave, and Wharton did not appear. Even old Warwick, who was, as we have seen, Crom- well's very good friend, declared that "he could not sit in the same assembly with Colonel Hew- son, who had been a shoemaker, and Colonel Pride, who had been a drayman ; but had they driven no worse trade," adds Ludlow, "I know not why any good man should refuse to act with them." They had, however, driven a worse trade ; and they only now assembled as members of a new nobility, to be covered, in conjunction with their creator, with contempt and scorn. Whitelocke, I should add, was also one of these lords, with Lisle, Glyn, Widdring- ton, Desborough, Jones, Fleetwood, Claypole, and others of that class.* Old Francis Rouse had been rewarded with one of the sinecure ti- tles for his services in the days of Barbone, and the ex- Lord-mayor Pack had become as real a Lord Pack as Cromwell could make him. Our old friend Lenthall, too, received a writ of summons, which is said to have delighted him so much that the coach in which he rode through the Strand next day could hardly con- tain him. Men might well grieve when they saw the illustrious name of Hampden in such a list, and think it pity that he should not have " inherited his father's noble principles, though he doth his lands." The sturdy name of Hazle- rig was also there, but only that his formidable opposition in the lower House might be cut off. He contemptuously refused to obey the writ, and presented himself, with his old friend Scot, among the commoners, who had taken their station in what was now called the House of Lords, to witness and to ridicule that new and miserable imitation of the ancient forms of . monarchy ! Called by the " usher of the black rod," they had found his highness the Lord Protector seated under a canopy of state. His speech began with the ancient address : " My lords, and gentlemen of the House of Commons." It was short, a circumstance he prayed them to excuse in consequence of the state of his health, but full of piety ; and after an exposition of the eighty-fifth Psalm, he referred his two Houses for other particulars to Fiennes, his lord-keep- er, who, in a long and tedious harangue, praised and defended the new institutions under which they had met. A few words will describe the brief career of this wretched absurdity. Scot and Hazle- rig, backed by a formidable majority, whom they influenced by their eloquence and talents, flatly refused to acknowledge the new House j as a House of Lords. They asked who had made its members lords, and who had the priv- ilege of restoring the authority of the ancient peerage. The reply that the Protector had | called them lords, and that it was the object of the Petition and Advice to re-establish the second estate, was no reply for Scot or Hazle- rig. Whenever the Lords sent a message to the Commons, the latter refused to give an an- swer until they had determined by what name they were to address the others, and to what * See Appendix I. for some curious extracts from the many descriptions that were published of them at the time, for the pleasure of the iudiguaut people who despised them. extent they were to admit their right to inter- fere with the deliberations of a body to whom they, in fact, owed their existence. Were they to have the privileges of the ancient peer- age 1 Were they to be empowered to nega- tive the acts of that House to which they owed their existence T Was it to be borne that the children should assume the superiori- ty over their parents 1 that the nominees of the Protector should control the representa- tives of the people, the depositaries of the su- preme power of the nation T The idea was scouted with a hiss whenever it was broached anew. Cromwell, in an unprecedented state of an- ger and excitement, went to the House to re- monstrate. The character of his address may be judged from one of its opening passages. " I look on this to be the great duty of my place, at being set on a watch-tower, to see what may be for the good of these nations, and what may be for the preventing of evil, that so, by the ad- vice of so great and wise a Council as this is (that hath in it the life and spirit of these na- tions), that Good may be attained, and that evil (whatever it is) may be obviated. We shall hardly set our shoulders to this work, unless it shall please God to work some conviction upon our hearts that there is need of our most seri- ous and best Counsels at such a time as this is. ... 7 have not prepared any such matter and rule of speech to deliver myself unto you as perhaps might have been more fitter for me to have done, and more serviceable for you to understand me in, but shall only speak plainly and honestly to you, out of such Conceptions as it hath pleased God to set upon me. . . . We have not been now four years and upward in this Government, to be totally ignorant of the things that may be of the greatest concernment to us. Your dangers (for that is the head of my speech), they are either with respect had to affairs abroad and their difficulties, or to affairs at home and their difficulties. . . . You come, as I may say so now, in the end of as great difficulties and straits as, I think, ever nation was engaged in. . . . I had in my thoughts to have made this the method of my speech : to wit, to have let you see the things that hazard your being and your well-being ; but when I came seriously to con- sider better of it, I thought (as your affairs stand) that all things would resolve themselves into very being. You are not a nation, you will not be a nation, if God strengthen you not to meet with these evils that are upon us." He then proceeded to lecture them on the benefit the necessity of unanimity. Let them look abroad. The Papists threatened to swal- low up all the Protestants of Europe. England was the only stay, the last hope of religion. Let them look at liome. The Cavaliers and the Levellers were combined to overthrow the Constitution ; Charles Stuart was preparing an invasion, and the Dutch had ungratefully sold him certain vessels for that purpose. Dissen- sion would inevitably draw down ruin on them- selves, their liberties, and their religion. For himself, he called God, angels, and men to wit- ness that he sought not the office he held. It was forced upon him ; but he had sworn to exe- cute its duties, and he would perform what he had sworn, by preserving to every class OLIVER CROMWELL. 615 of men their just rights, whether civil or reli- gious. These gross falsehoods had now also spent out their day. No one among the Republicans cared for them one jot. Accordingly, when he had left the chamber, over and over again were messages renewed " from the Lords to the Commons," and as often received by the latter with the contemptuous intimation that " that House would return an answer by messengers of their own." Instead of returning the prom- ised answers, however, they spent their whole time in debating what title and what rights ought to belong to the " other House," and whether, indeed, they deserved to have rights or title at all. Cromwell seems to have been goaded by the nature of this opposition its contempt, its carelessness, its quiet and collected defiance into a state approaching to insanity.* His health, as he himself told the House some days before, had evidently broken much. Nothing now remained to his distempered thoughts but a dissolution ; and, having taken that resolve, he rushed, with the headlong phrensy of a man who dares not pause to think what he must do, to put it into instant execution. He would not wait for his carri ge. He suddenly snatched up his hat, waved to half a dozen of his guards to follow him, flung himself into a hackney- coach he saw standing near Whitehall, and drove to the door of his " House of Lords." His appearance when he entered bespoke the concern of his son-in-law Fleetwood, who hast- ily ran up to him. Cromwell told him abrupt- ly what he had come to do. Fleetwood tried to dissuade him ; but " he clapped," continues Ludlow, from whom I take this account, "his hand on his breast, and swore by the living God he would do it." He sent the usher of the black rod to summon the Commons to attend him in the House of Lords. They were still engaged in discussing the title of the " other House" when the usher appeared, and they ad- journed the question to their return, uncon- scious of what awaited them. Oliver Cromwell then delivered, to the last assemblage of men he was doomed to meet within those walls, his last speech. It was brief and passionate, but with a touch of occa- sional humility, which may here, at least, in the circumstances of miserable failure that sur- rounded him, he taken as most sincere. They are proportionately touching. " 1 had very comfortable expectations that God would make the meeting of this Parlia- ment a blessing ; and the Lord be my witness, I desired the carrying on the affairs of the na- tion to these ends : the blessing which I mean, and which we ever climbed at, was mercy, truth, righteousness, and peace, which I desire may be improved. . . . " That which brought me into the capacity I now stand in was the Petition and Advice given me by yocu who, in reference to the an- cient Constitution, did draw me to accept of the place of Protector. There is not a man liv- ing can say I sought it no, not a man, nor wom- an treading upon English ground ; but, contem- * "Something happening that morning that put the Protector into a rage and passion near unto madness, as those at Whitehall can witness." Second Narrative, p. 8. plating the sad condition of these nations, re- lieved from an intestine war unto a six or seven years' peace, I did think the nation happy there- in. But to be petitioned thereunto, and advised by you to undertake such a government a burden too heavy for any creature and this to be done by the House that then had the legis- lative capacity, I did look that the same men that made the frame should make it good unto me. / can say, in the presence of God, in com- parison of whom we are but like poor creeping ants upon the earth, I would have been glad to have liv- ed under my wood side, to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than undertook such a government as this is ! but, undertaking it by the advice and petition of you, I did look that you that had of- fered it unto me should make it good. " I did tell you at a conference concerning it, that I would not undertake it unless there might be some other persons that might inter- pose between me and the House of Commons, who then had the power, to prevent tumultuary and popular spirits ; and it was granted I should name another House. I named it of men that shall meet you wheresoever you go, and shake hands with you, and tell you it is not titles, nor lords, nor party that they value, but a Christian and an English interest ; men of your own rank and quality, who will not only be a balance unto you, but to themselves, while you love England and religion. " Having proceeded upon these terms, and finding such a spirit as is too much predominant, everything being too high or too low when vir- tue, honesty, piety, and justice are omitted, I thought I had been doing that which was my duty, and thought it would have satisfied you ; but if everything must be too high or too low, you are not to be satisfied. "Again, I would not have accepted of the gov- ernment unless I knew there would be a just ac- cord between the governor and the governed ; unless they would take an oath to make good what the Parliament's Petition and Advice ad- vised me unto. Upon that I took an oath, and they took another oath upon their part answer- able to mine ; and did not every one know upon 1 what condition they swore 1 God knows, I 1 took it upon the conditions expressed in the Government ; and I did think we had been upon a foundation and upon a bottom, and thereupon 1 I thought myself bound to take it, and to be ad- ' vised by the two Houses of Parliament ; and ! we standing unsettled till we were arrived at I that, the consequences would necessarily have : been confusion if that had not been settled. Yet there are not constituted hereditary lords j nor hereditary kings, the power consisting in [ the two Houses and myself. I do not say that was the meaning of your oath to you ; that were to go against my own principles to enter j upon another man's conscience. God will judge \ between me and you : if there had been in you any intention of settlement, you would have settled upon this basis, and have offered your judg- '' ment and opinion. " God is my witness, I speak it ; it is evi- dent to all the world and people living, that a new business hath been seeking in the army against this actual settlement made by your consent. I do not speak to these gentlemen, or lords [pointing to his right hand], or whatsoever 616 BRITISH STATESMEN. you will call them I speak not this to them, but to you. You advised me to run into this place, to be in a capacity by your advice ; yet, instead of owning a thing taken for granted, some must have I know what; and you have not only dis- jointed yourselves, but the whole nation, which is in likelihood of running into more confusion in these fifteen or sixteen days that you have sat, than it hath been from the rising of the last session to this day, through the intention of devising a Commonwealth again, that some of the people might be the men that might rule all ; and they are endeavouring to engage the army to carry that thing. And hath that man been true to this nation, whosoever he be, es- pecially that hath taken an oath, thus to pre- varicate 1 These designs have been among the army, to break and divide us. I speak this in the presence of some of the army, that these things have not been according to God nor according to truth, pretend what you will. These things tend to nothing else but the play- ing the King of Scots' game, if I may so call him ; and I think myself bound, before God, to do what I can to prevent that. " That which I told you in the Banqueting House was true, that there were preparations of force to invade us ; God is my witness, it hath been confirmed to me since within a day, that the King of Scots hath an army at the water side ready to be shipped for England. I have it from those who have been eye-witness- es of it ; and while it is doing, there are en- deavours from some, who are not far from this j place, to stir up the people of this town into a I tumulting what if I said into a rebellion 1 And I hope I shall make it appear to be no better, if ] God assist me. It hath been not only your en- j deavour to pervert the army while you have ' been sitting, and to draw them to state the i question about a commonwealth, but some of you have been listing of persons, by commis- ! sion of Charles Stuart, to join with any insur- rection that may be made : and what is like to come upon this, the enemy being ready to in- vade us, but even present blood and confu- sion t And if this be so, I do assign to this cause your not assenting to what you did in- vite me to by the Petition and Advice, as that which might be the settlement of the nation ; and if this be the end of your sitting, and this be your carriage, I think it high time that an end be put unto your sitting, and I do dissolve this Parliament ; and let God judge between me and you." At this last solemn appeal, Scot called out aloud, AMEN ! and was echoed, with a sad sig- nificance, by other members that surrounded him. Can there be a doubt for whom the judg- ment has passed 1 A flock of sheep by a wood side would in- deed have been a preferable fortune to the thoughts with which Cromwell must that day have returned to Whitehall. Every political expedient he had tried in his domestic govern- ment of England had failed. His treasury was empty ; and he had just broken, with violence, the only resource that could safely have replen- ished it. His English army was five months in arrear, and his Irish seven. Petitions were on foot in the city and elsewhere against what was left to him of his power, and he stood in the very midst of muskets and daggers that were aimed against his life. Killing had been declared No Murder against him ; and a pam- phlet with that terrible title, circulated in Eng- land within the last two months by thousands, had imbittered days and nights with the un- certain sense that each moment was to prove his last. For several nights, indeed, preceding that very day, he had made the round of the posts at Whitehall in person, for even his own body-guard he could trust no longer. " The Protector's own muster-roll," said that awful writing, which seemed to face him continual- ly, "contains the names of those who aspire to the honour of delivering their country ; his highness is not secure at his table or in his bed ; death is at his heels wherever he moves ; and though his head reaches the clouds, he shall perish like his own dung, and they that have seen him shall exclaim, Where is he ?" Melancholy duties awaited him next day. With this haunting sense of danger, which now pressed in upon him to the exclusion of nearly every other thought, he was obliged to cashier many of the favourite officers in his own fa- vourite regiment. " I that had served him," says Colonel Hacker, a brave and single-heart- ed soldier, " fourteen years, ever since he was captain of a troop of horse till he came to this power, and had commanded a regiment seven years without any trial or appeal with the breath of his nostrils I was ousted, and lost not only my place, but a dear friend to boot. Five captains under my command, all of integrity, courage, and valour, were ousted with me, be- cause they could not say that that was a House of Lords." Still no greater safety was achieved. The flood that was so soon to bear him down rolled heavily and uninterruptedly on. It would be idle to attempt to describe the conspiracies that surrounded him, even the more terrible be- cause he knew them all.* The system of es- pionage that had been organized by Thurloe was by far the most extraordinary that had been known in those days, or perhaps in later; and it was said that even Thurloe knew not all that the Lord Protector knew.t The letters * Some little relief there is in an occurrence the Marquis of Ormond was engaged in. The marquis came secretly to London during the sitting of Parliament, passed three weeks in conspiring with the Royalists, and intriguing with the Republicans, and returned unmolested to Charles II., then at Bruges. But Cromwell was fully apprized of his pres- ence and his proceedings. He asked Broghill whether he was aware of the presence of an old friend. Broghill asked who it was ; he was told by Cromwell it was the Marquis of Ormond, and professed his entire ignorance of the fact. " I know it well," said Cromwell ; " and I will tell you where he is, in order that you may save your old acquaint- ance." No one had greater magnanimity than Cromwell, where the question was one of a purely personal kind. t From many rumoured scenes and incidents by which I might illustrate the popular notion of this formidable secre- tary, and his still more formidable chief, I present the fol- lowing : " Thurloe was wont to tell that he was command- ed by Cromwell to go at a certain hour to Gray's Inn. and at such a place deliver a bill of 20,000 to a man he shou'd find walking m such a habit and posture as he dcscnb'd him, which accordingly Thurloe did, and never knew to the day of his death either the person or the occasion. At another time, the Protector coming late at night into Thurloe's office, which he kept in the last staircase in Lin- coln's Inn, towards Holborn, that has a way down into the garden, made on purpose for Cromwell's coming to him un- observ'd, the Protector began to discourse with his secre- tary about an affajr of the last importance ; but seeing Moteland, one of the clerks, afterward- Sir Samuel Mor OLIVER CROMWELL. 617 that were interchanged between the members of his family were expressions of alarm at a most dear father or husband's imminent dan- ger, or of congratulation at his marvellous es- cape. I present to the reader perhaps one of the last letters, if not the last, that the Lady Elizabeth ever wrote. It is to her sister-in- law, the wife of Henry Cromwell, and bears the date of the 12th of June. " DEARE SISTER, I must beg your pardon that I doe not right to you soe oft ase I would doe ; but, in earnist, I have bin soe extremely sickly of late, that it has made mee unfit for anything, thoye thare is nothing that can plese mee more than wherein I maye expres my true lofe and respekt to you ; which I am suer non has more resen than myself, both for your for- mer fafers, and the cens you have of anything which arises to mee of happnes. I will aisuer you, nothing of that can bee to mee, wherein I have not power to express how really I lofe and honnor you. Truly, the Lord has bin very gratius to us, in doeing for us abofe whot we could exspekt ; and now has shod himself more extraordinary in delevering my father out of the hands of his enymise, which wee have all reson to bee sensible of in a very pertikellar manner ; for sertingly not ondly his famely would have bin ruined, but in all probabilliyti the hoi nation would have bin invold in blood. The Lord grant it maye never bee forgot by us, but that it may cose us to depend upon him, from horn wee have reseved all good, and that it may cose us to se the mutablenes of thise things, and to yuse them accordingly ; I am suer wee have nede to bage that sperrit from God. Hary is vary well ; I hope you will se him this sommer. Truly, thare is nothing I desier more than to enjoy you with us. I wis you may laye your grat bely here. I bag my true afficktion to your letel wons. Deare sister, I am your most afficktineate sister and servant, E. CLAYPOLE." The plot referred to by Lady Elizabeth was what is called the Slingsby and Hewet plot ; and to avert the fate of Hewet, an Episcopal clergy- man, whose ministry she was attached to, even this favourite and best -beloved daughter of Cromwell exerted herself in vain. Both Slings- by and Hewet perished on the scaffold. The health of the Lady Elizabeth, which was al- ways delicate, and had been of late extremely so, seemed after this incident to wear still fast- er away ; but whether that incident was at all connected with its more rapid decline, may be doubted. Be that as it may, it was at least watched with a more than father's anxiety by Cromwell. Even during all the disputes and anxieties that beset him at the opening of his last Parliament, nothing set aside that private sorrow. I find in one of Thurloe's letters this land, was in the office, whom he had not seen before, tho' he pretended to be asleep upon his desk, and fearing he might have overheard them, he drew out a dagger which he always carried under his coat, and was going to dispatch Moreland on the spot, if Thurloe had not, with great in- treaties, prevail'd upon him to desist, assuring him More- land had sat up two nights together, and was certainly fast asleep. Probably this incident gave rise to the fictions of Moreland and Henshaw, and Morelaud and Willis ; but no question Moreland did betray his master, when he found things were like to lake another turn, and, indeed, I never heard much of his integrity or merit." Oldmixon's Historv, p. 424. passage : " His highnesse, findinge he can have noe advise from those he most expected it from, sayth he will take his owne resolutions, and that he cannot any longer satisfye himselfe to sitt still, and make himselfe guilty of the losse of all the honest partye, and of the nation it- selfe ; and truly I have long wished that his highnesse would proceed accordinge to his owne satisfaction, and not soe much consider others, who truly are to be indulged in everything but where the beinge of the nation is concerned. His highnesse is now at Hampton Court, and will continue therefor some tyme, as well for his own health as to be neare my Lady Elizabeth, who hath beene of late very daungerously ill, but now is some- what better." But the sorrows and anxieties of both father and daughter were now, happily for them, hast- ening to a rapid close. Public necessities press- ed fearfully on the Protector. He had contract- ed enormous debts ; his exchequer was fre- quently drained to the last shilling ; and his ministers were compelled " to go a begging," as Thurloe tells us, for the temporary loan of a few thousand pounds, with the cheerless anti- cipation of a refusal. There, too, was the army, the greater part of which he had quartered in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, as his chief his only support against his enemies ; and while the soldiers were comfortably clothed and fed, he might, perhaps, with confidence rely on their attachment ; but now that their pay was in arrear, might not discontent induce them to listen to the suggestions of those officers who sought to subvert his power 1* He had once imposed taxes by his own authority : he dared not attempt it now. He strove to get up a loan in the city : the merchants, impoverished by the failure of their Spanish trade, eluded all his ef- forts. Thurloe himself gave way to despair at last. It was only, he said, when he looked up to heaven that he discovered a gleam of hope, in the persuasion that the God who had be- friended Cromwell through life would not de- sert him at its close. Thurloe should have rather wished that life to close as it was. It could be stretched out no longer with profit or with honour. If the Lord Protector had indeed a FORTUNATE DAY, it became his friends to an- ticipate with no ungenerous hope that that might be his DEATH DAY. His errors were irretrieva- ble. He could not then recall the " game of the King of Scots," which he had played so well. His arts were utterly exhausted ; and what but mischief could there be in the farther retention of a life that was powerless and value- less without them 1 A Parliament was nevertheless thought of once more ! Urged by Thurloe's entreaties, he appointed a committee to consider of the means of defeating the Republicans. The committee sat and deliberated, and deliberated and sat, but nothing very ingenious did they hit upon ; and Cromwell's last public action was to dissolve them. Thurloe lifted hands and eyes to heav- en, and said no more. Cromwell redoubled his precautions for personal safety. He multiplied every means of defence he had. As if appre- hensive of some attack upon his palace, he se- lected from different regiments of cavalry a hundred and sixty " brave fellows," in whom * Lingard, vol. ii., p. 347. 618 BRITISH STATESMEN. he could repose the utmost confidence, and to whom he gave the pay and appointments of of- ficers. He divided them into eight troops of twenty men each, and directed that two of these bodies, in rotation, should always be on duty near his person. He wore a coat of mail, or steel shirt, as it was called, under his clothes ; he carried loaded pistols in his pockets ; he sought to remain in privacy; and, when he found it necessary to give audience, he " stern- ly watched the eyes and gestures of those who addressed him." He was careful that his own motions should not be known beforehand. His carriage was filled with attendants ; a numer- ous escort accompanied him ; and he proceed- ed at full speed, " frequently diverging from the road to the right or left, and generally re- turning by a different route." In his palace he often inspected the nightly watch ; changed his bedchamber ; and was careful that, besides the principal door, there should be some other j egress for the facility of escape. And this was the Cromwell who had almost singly turned the enemy's line at Marston Moor the Cromwell of Naseby, of Worcester, of Newbury, of Dun- bar ! But what spirit can fight against shad- ows those most terrible shadows that spring up from the grave of virtue 1 This hero pass- ed his nights in a state of feverish anxiety ; sleep had fled from his pillow ; and for more than a year before his death, the absence of rest is always found assigned as either the cause which produced, or the circumstances which aggravated, his numerous ailments.* But now they were all forgotten in the sud- den and most dangerous relapse of his dearest daughter. It was announced to him that she was dying. Public affairs, private dangers, his own bodily pains all were thrust aside for the greater love and the more unselfish sorrow, and he hurried to Hampton Court to watch by her bedside her slightest wish ; to alleviate, or console, or share her dying thoughts and suf- ferings. The Lord Protector of three great kingdoms became the protector of his child alone ; and that deathbed, if it had its dark pangs of grief, had surely its tender rays of sunshine too. Such griefs to such a man must have brought back with them some of nature's kindest memories. On the 4th of August the Lady Elizabeth Claypole died, and on the 17th Thurloe wrote to Henry Cromwell. Having described " my Lady Elizabeth's funeral," the secretary thus proceeded: "Your lordship is a very sensible judge how great an affliction this was to both their highnesses, and how sadd a familye she left behinde her, which saddness was truly very much increased by the sicknesse of his high- nesse, who at the same time lay very ill of the gout, and other distempers, contracted by the long sicknesse of my Lady Elizabeth, which made great imprcssione upon him ; arid since that, wheither it were the retiringe of the gout out of his foot into his body, or from some other cause, I am not able to say, he hath beene very daungerous- ly sicke, the violence whereof lasted 4 or 5 days ; but, blessed be God, he is now reasona- ble well recovered, and this day he went abroad for an houre, and findes himselfe much refresh- ed by it, soe that this recovery of his highnesse * Lingard, vol. ii., p. 350. doth much allay the sorrow for my Lady Eliza- beth's death. Your excellencye will easily ima- gine what an alarume his highnesse's sicknesse gave us, beinge in the posture wee are now in." A slow fever, however, still lurked about the Lord Protector, and on the 24th he was again confined to his room. The fever was pro- nounced to be a bastard tertian. One of his physicians, as they stood in his chamber that day, whispered to another that his pulse was intermittent. The words caught the ears of the great soldier : he turned pale ; a cold perspira- tion covered his face ; and, requesting to be placed in bed, he executed his private will. The next morning he had recovered his usual composure ; and, when he received the visit of his physician, ordering all to quit the room but his wife, whom he held by the hand, he said to the physician, " Do not think that I shall die ; I am sure that I shall not." Then, observing the surprise which these words excited, he contin- ued, " Don't think that I am mad ; I tell you the truth ; I know it from better authority than any which you can have from Galen or Hippocrates. It is the answer of God himself to our prayers ; not to mine alone, but to those of others, who have a more intimate interest in him than I have."* The same communication was made to Thurloe, and to the different members of the Protector's family ; nor did it fail to obtain credit among men who believed that " in other instances he had been favoured with similar assurances, and they had never deceived him." Hence his chaplain, Goodwin, exclaimed, " Lord, we pray not for his recovery that thou hast granted already : what we now beg is his speedy recovery."! All of them seem to have forgotten (and him- self, alas ! the first) that nine days later would be his FORTUNATE DAY. Having been moved for change of air to Whitehall till the palace of St. James's could be prepared for him, his strength rapidly wast- ed, and his fever became a double tertian. On the 25th of August Thurloe thus wrote to Henry Cromwell : " May it please your excel- lencye, I gave you some account by Doctor Worth of His Highnesse's condition, as it then was ; but least he should delay his journey, or miscarry in it, I thought it necessary to send this expresse, to the end your excellencye may fully understand how it is with his Highnesse. * Bates's Elenchi, pars secunda, p. 215. I subjoin the original passage: "Post prandium autem acceilentihus ad eum quinque qnos habebat medicis, quidara ex tactu pulsuni interniisisse pronunciat: quo, audito ille subito consterna- lus ore pallet, sudatiunculas patitur, et fer6 deliquium, ju- b^tque se ad lectulum deportari ; atque ibi cardiacis refo- cillatus, supremum condidit testamentum, sed de rebus privatis et domesticis. Mane summo, cum unus e cteterit visitatum veniret, percontatur, quare vultus ei adeo tnstis. Oumqiie respimderet, ita oportere, si cui vitie ac salutis ejus pondus ineuniberet; Vos (inqnit) medici me creditis intermoriturum : dein cseteris arnotis (uxorem manu com- plectens) ita hunc atfatur. Tiln pronuncio, non esse mihi hoc morho inoriendum ; hujus enim certus sum. Et quia intention aspcctantem oculo ad ista verba ccrneret, Tu me (inquit) n credas insanire ; ver'ia veritatis eloquor, cerli- oribus innixus q'larn vobis Galanus aut Hippocrates vester s<i|.peditat rationibus. Dens ipse hoc resnonsum precibus dedit non mcis unius, venim et eorum quihus arctius cum illo commerciuin et major familiaritas. Pergite alacres, exoussa penitus a vultu tristitia. meque instar servuli trac- tate. Pollere vobis licet prndentia rerum ; plus tamen va- let natura quam medici simulomnes ; De us autem naturam longiori superat intervallo." t Lingard, vol. ii., p. 353. OLIVER CROMWELL. 619 This is the 13th day since his Ague took him, havinge been sicke a fortnight before of a gen- erall distemper of body. It continued a good while to be a tertian ague, and the burninge fitts very violent. Upon Saterday it fell to a double tertian, havinge two fitts in 24 houres, one upon the heeles of another, which doe ex- treamely weaken him, and endaunger his life. And truly since Saterday morninge he hath scarce beene perfectly out of his fitts. The Doctors are yett hopefull that he may struggle through it, though their hopes are mingled with much feare. But truly wee have cause to put our hope in the Lord, and to expect mercy from him in this case, he havinge stirred up the saints to pray for him in all places. Never was there a greater stocke of prayers goinge for any man than is now goinge for him ; and truly there is a generall consternation upon the spir- its of all men, good and bad, fearinge what may be the event of it, should it please God to take his highnesse at this tyme : and God hav- inge prepared the heart to pray, I trust he will enclyne his eare to heare. And that which is some ground of hope is, that the Lorde, as in some former occasions, hath given to himselfe a perticular assurance that he shall yett live to serve him, and to carry on the worke he hath put into his handes. ... I doe not yett finde that there are any great stirringes yett upon this occasion, though the Cavaliers doe begin to listen after it, and hope their day is cominge, or indeed come, if his Highnesse dye. And truly, my Lord, wee have cause to feare that it may goe very ill with us if the Lord should take away his Highnesse in this conjuncture. Not that I thinke Charles Stewart's interest is soe great, or his partye soe powerfull in themselves ; but I feare our own divisions, which may be great enough if his Highnesse should not settle and fix his successor before he dyes, which truly I beleeve he hath not yett done. He did by him- selfe declare one in a paper before he was in- stalled by the Parliament, and sealed it up in the forme of a letter, directinge it to me, but kept both the name of the person and the paper to himselfe. After he fell sicke at Hampton Court, he sent Mr. John Barrington to London for it, tellinge him it lay upon his study table at Whitehall ; but it was not to be found there, nor elsewhere, though it hath been very narrowly looked for. And in this condition matters stand, his highnesse havinge beene too ill to be troubled with a buisnesse of this importance. This day he hath had some discourse about it, but his illnesse disenabled him to conclude it fully ; and if it should please the Lord not to give him tyme to settle his succession before his death, the judgement would be the soarer, and our condition the more daungerous ; but I trust he will have compassion on us, and not leave us as a prey to our enemies, or to one another. All persons here are very reserved as to what they will doe in case his Highnesse should not declare his Successor before he dyes, not beinge willinge to enterteyne any discourse of it, either because it is a matter too grievous to be thought of, or because they would not discover any oppinion which might crosse his highnesse's thoughts in his life tyme. And this, my Lord, is the whole account I am able to give your Lordship of this sadd buisnesse, which I am sure will occasion much trouble and sorrow to you ; but I could not omit my duty, judginge it absolutely necessary that your Excellency should understand all that passes or falls out upon this subject, that you may the better knowe how to direct your prayers and coun- sells, and stirre up others alsoe to pray for his highnesse and three nations in this day of dis- tresse. And as anythinge further occurs (which I beseech the Lord may be for good) I shall suddenly despatch it away to you, and be ready to answer such Commands as your Excellencye shall lay upon me, beinge Your Excellencye's most humble, faithful], and obedient servant, Jo. THURLOE. Whitehall, 30 Aug., 1658, 9 o'clock at night. . . . The Kinge of Sweden and the Kinge of Dennimark are againe in open hostillity ; the Kinge of Sweden landed an army upon his island of Zealand, and is like to pos- sesse himselfe of his Capitall Citty, Copen- hagen, and the Sound. The cause of this new quarrel I cannot now acquaint your excellencye, beinge not informed myselfe. . . . That about the Succession is an absolute secret : I beseech your Excellency e keepe it soe." This despatch suggests thoughts with which this work has nothing now to do. The final scene approached fast. On the second of Sep- tember, Cromwell, who had been delirious, had a lucid interval of some duration. He called on one of his chaplains to read a certain text to him out of the Bible. They read what he directed from St. Paul to the Philippians : " Not that I speak in respect of want ; for I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content. I can do all things through Christ which strengthened) me. Notwithstanding, ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction." As this fell upon his ear, he murmured brokenly forth these inexpressi- bly touching words. " This scripture did once save my life when my eldest son died, which went as a dagger to my heart . . . indeed it did."* Then, as they stood around his bed, he sud- denly lifted himself up, and, with what energy remained, " Tell me," said he to Sterry, one of his chaplains, " is it possible to fall from grace ?" "It is not possible," replied the minister. "Then," exclaimed the dying man, " / am safe ; for I know that I was once in grace." So, reassuring himself even then with the most fatal doctrine of his life, he turned round and prayed, not for himself, but for God's people. t " Lord," he said, " although I am a miserable and wretched creature, I am in covenant with thee through grace, and I may, I will come to thee for thy people. Thou hast made me (though very un- worthy) a mean instrument to do them some good and thee service ; and many of them have set too high a value upon me, though others * Collection of Passages concerning his late Highness in Time of his Sickness, p. 12. The author was Underwood, groom of the bedchamber, and was present at the scene. t [Respecting his alleged beloved notion of final perseve- rance, that once a child of God always so, and his supposed question whether a man could fall from grace, and the sup- posed answers of Goodwin and Sterry, such a conversation might or might not pass, but is conceived to mean no more than Cromwell's belief of the doctrine of predestination and election, which many wise and good persons of the then and present times, both in and out of the Church, have be- lieved and do believe to be contained in the Articles of the English Church, See Memoirs of the Protector, vol. ii., p. 409.-C.] 620 BRITISH STATESMEN. wish and would be glad of my death ; but, Lord, however thou dost dispose of me, continue and go on to do good for them ; give them con- sistency of judgment, one heart, and mutual love, and go on to deliver them ; and with the work of reformation ; and make the name of Christ glorious in the world ; teach those who look too much upon thy instruments to depend more upon thyself; pardon such as desire to trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are thy people too ; and pardon the folly of this short prayer, even for Jesus Christ's sake, and give us a good night, if it be thy pleasure." He went into a kind of stupor after this, but revived a little as the night closed in, and be- gan to murmur half-audible words. An eye- witness* describes the affecting scene : " ' Tru- ly God is good ; indeed he is . . . be will not ' There his speech failed him ; but, as I appre- hended, it was, ' He will not leave me.' This saying that God was good he frequently used all along, and would speak it with much cheer- fulness and fervour of spirit in the midst of his pain. Again he said, ' I would be willing to live to be further serviceable to God and his people, but my work is done ; yet God will be with his people.' He was very restless most part of the night, speaking often to himself; and there being something to drink offered him, he was desired to take the same, and endeavour to sleep ; unto which he answered, ' It is not my design to drink or to sleep, but my design is to make what haste I can to be gone.' " The morning of the next day dawned from a sky of terrible storm. It was the 3d of Sep- tember. Cromwell had relapsed into a state of utter insensibility, but he lived until four o'clock in the afternoon, when, unconscious still, he breathed heavily, and his chaplains looking closely into the bed, found that his great spirit had passed away.t All the at- tendants who were present, and who had lost at that instant one of the kindest, the gentlest, and most affectionate of masters, wept and groaned aloud. " Cease to weep," exclaimed the enthusiastic and most confident Sterry ; "you have more reason to rejoice. He was your protector here ; he will prove a still more powerful protector, now that he is with Christ at the right hand of the Father !" Thurloe at once announced the event to Henry Cromwell in this earnest and mournful despatch : " May it please your excellencye, I did by an expresse upon Munday give your ex- cellencye an account of his highnesse's sick- nesse and the daunger he was in ; since that, it hath pleased God to put an end to his dayes. He died yesterday, about four of the clocke in the afternoone. I am not able to speake or write. This stroake is soe scare, soe unex- pected, the providence of God in it soe stu- pendious, consideringe the person that is fall- en, the tyme and season wherein God tooke him away, with other circumstances, I can doe nothinge but put my mouthe in the dust, and say, ' It is the Lord !' And though his wayes be not always knowne, yet they are I always righteous, and wee must submitt to his will, and resigne up ourselves to him with all our concernements. . . . His highnesse was pleased before his death to declare my Lord Richard successor. He did it upon Munday ; and the Lord hath soe ordered it, that the coun- cell and army hath received him with all man- ner of affection. He is this day proclaymed ; and hitherto there seems a great face of peace : the Lord continue it ! ... It is not to be sayd what affection the army and all people shew to his late highnesse ; his name is already precious. Never was there any man soe pray'd for as he was during his sicknesse solemne assemblies meetinge every day to beseech the Lord for the continuance of his life soe that he is gone to heaven, embalmed with the teares of his people, and upon the winges of the prayers of the saints. He lived desired and dyed lament- ed, everybody bemoaninge themselves, and sayinge, 'A great man is fallen in Israel!' The Lord double his spirit upon his successor and upon your excellencye, that you both may be famous in your generation, and be helped by God, with one heart and shoulder, to carry on that worke, the foundation whereof your most renowned father layed, and for which posteri- tie will blesse him ! The councell hath given your excellencye an account of what is done as to the proclayminge his highnes-se your brother. I only herewith send the voet of the councell ; and, though I know not ichat will be my portion or condition here, yett I shall alvvayes be your excellencye's most humble and obe- dient servant, Jo. THURLOE." . . . His high- nesse (Richard) intends to send a gentleman to your excellencye in the beginninge of the next weeke, to let you understand fully the state of all thinges here and of your, family, and commanded me to desire you to excuse his not writinge by this messenger. The truth is, his highnesse's death is soe soare a stroake unto him, and he is soe sensible of it, that he is in noe condition to write or doe yett. Here is a sadd family on all hands : the Lord sup- port them !" The great storm of the night of the 2d of September, 1658, reached to the coasts of the Mediterranean. It was such a night in Lon- don as had rarely been passed by dwellers in crowded streets. Trees were torn from their roots in the park, chimneys blown down, and houses unroofed in the city. The various ac- counts which writers as various have handed down to us, would seem to realize the night of Duncan's murder. " As they say, Lamcntings heard i' the air ; strange screams of death And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion, and confused events, New hatch'd to the woful time. The obscure bird Clamour'd the live-long night." It was, indeed, a night which prophesied a wo- ful time to England, but to Cromwell it proved a night of happiness. It ushered in for him, far more surely than at Worcester or Dunbar, his FORTUNATE DAY.* * Underwood. t [A most touching account of the death-scene is con- ained in the closing pages of Carlyle's second volume, ). 406-12.-C.] * [Since this work has been in press, the production of Monsieur Guizot on Charles I. and Cromwell has appeared. It is marked by great ability. It will be consulted by all who are interested in the character of the Lord Protector. It is published by the Messrs. Appleton, New- York. C.J APPENDIX LIFE OF CROMWELL. A. THE industry of Mr. Noble has finally settled the point of Oliver Cromwell's relationship to Charles I. by the moth- er's side. The result may be shortly stated thus. He car- ries back the lineage of William Steward, Esq., the father of Mrs. Robert Cromwell, to Alexander, the lord-high- steward of Scotland, from whose third son, Andrew, he proves him to have sprung. John Steward, the grandson of this Andrew, had accompanied the suite of the young prince James of Scotland, when, on his way to France, to avoid his uncle's ambition, he was driven on the English coast, and detained prisoner by Henry IV. More fortunate than his royal master, John Steward became one of the English king's favourites ; received knighthood from him at a tournament held at Smithfield in the tenth year of his reign, and thenceforward settled in England. The pedigree, connecting him and his descendants with royalty, stands thus : ALEXANDER, LORD-HIGH-STEWARD OF SCOTLAND. James, lord high-steward of Scotland. Walter, lord high-steward = Marjory, sister and heiress of David II., king of Scotland. Robert II., king of Scotland. Robert III. James I. James II. I James III. James IV. James V. I Queen Mary. James VI. and I. of England. CHARLES I. It may be mentioned here, that the lord-high steward's second son, John, gave birth to the noble family of Lennox, which was subsequent- ly " ingrafted into the royal stem" by the ill- omened marriage of Lord Darnley with Mary Stuart. Andrew Steward, Esq. Sir Alexander Steward. [This knight was surnamed the Fierce. In the presence of Charles VI. of France, he en- countered a furious lion with his sword ; and that breaking, seized a stick, and with it killed the enraged creature. For this feat the de- lighted monarch gave him an instant addition to his arms a lion rampant gules, over all a bend reguled or.] Sir John Steward. [The English settler. Knighted by Henry IV.] Sir John Steward. [Knighted by Henry V.] Thomas Steward, Esq. Richard Steward, Esq. Archibald Steward, Esq. Archibald Steward, Esq. William Steward, Esq. Elizabeth Steward = Robert Cromwell, Esq. OLIVER CROMWELL. From this, the reader will observe, Charles I. and Crom- well's mother were eighth cousins ; James I. and Oliver himself ninth cousins ; Oliver and Charles I. ninth cousins one remove ; and the Protector Richard, Oliver's second son, tenth cousin to the ill-fated English king. Mr. Noble has not failed to direct attention to the fact, that " the royal line so constantly marrying at a very early age, had got one descent of the younger branch, from whom Mrs. Cromwell, Oliver's mother, derived her birth ; a thing very common, owing to a cause too obvious to be mentioned." These details, I may add, were not so satisfactorily made out during the life of the Protector as they have since been. His mother's modest character forbade such assumptions on her part, and he was himself too proud of his self-achieved authority to set up the miserable shadow of a fantastic fam- ily claim, which, if it established any thing, should have bespoken pity for the kinsman he had sent to the block. His more servile admirers and dependants, however, did not fail to press for him his hereditary pretensions on the royal score ; but the way in which they urged it showed on how obscure a tradition it rested then. One " H. Dauben- ny" published, the year after Cromwell's death, a duodecimo volume of 300 pages, entitled " Historic and Policie Re- viewed, in the Heroic Transactions of his Most Serene High- nesse, Oliver, late Lord-Protector, from his Cradle to his Tomb : declaring his steps to princely perfection ; as they are drawn in lively parallels to the ascents of the great patriarch Moses, in thirty degrees to the height of Honour." In which Mosaic parallel we find this remark : " I cannot say his late highnesse was extracted from so priestly a fam- ily [as Moses], but altogether as princely, being lineally de- scended from the loynes of our most ancient linttish princei, Sir Thomas Steward. [The only brother of Mrs. Robert Cromwell, knighted by King James I., at Windsor, in 1604. He left his fortune to his illustrious nephew.] and ty'd in near alliances to the blood of our later kings, as by that thrice noble family of the Harringtons, and divers others ; which to make a petigree of would take up more paper than we intend for our volume, and make me appear more a herald than an historian. Nay, indeed, should I but go about to prove his highnesse's most illustrious house no- ble, I should commit a sacriledge in the temple of honour, and onely violate his most glorious family with a more sol- emn infamy. His highnesse is unquestionably known to have descended from such a stem of princely antecessors, that whole ages, which waste rocks and wear out elements, have never altered to lessen, but rather advance, the hon- our of his great house. He was derived from such a family, that we may better say of it than what was of the other, ex qua ntsc.it aliquid mediocre nasci, from whence nothing or- dinary can proceed ; as is likewise made notoriously evident in those other most eminent persons of honour, now living, who are blest with a share of his incomparable blood ; who have spread their glory abroad, so well as at home, and built themselves such trophies, in the hearts of their very enemies, that eternity itself must celebrate ; so no time can ever be able to demolish, or reduce into oblivion. And that I may not be thought to flatter so great a truth, 1 will be bold to hasten, and abruptly conclude this first point of our Mosaical parallel, with saying onely, that this sublime person, his late most serene highnesse, our second, as the first great Moses, came into the world like a princely pearl, and made it appear, by the quality of his orient, that if na- ture pleased to equal his birth to the best of noblemen upon earth, he would equal his virtues to his extraction ; as we shall see more plainly, when we mount a little higher upon our Mosaical ascents and parallels." 622 BRITISH STATESMEN. B. OLIVER CROMWELL. I Had nine children, of whom only two sons and three daughters survived him. One daughter and two sons (Robert and James) died in extreme youth ; his second son, Oliver, a captain in the service of the Parliament, fell in battle in July, 1648. The following table enumerates only the families of the male descendants, of whom such as had male issue continuing the name are enclosed in lines: ~~~~ ~ ~ Richard, Protector. Left nine children ; two were sons, but both died bachelors. I Henry, lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Born in 1627; died in 1674. Oliver. Frances. I I I I Richard. William. Elizabeth. Elizabeth. [Henry. Born in 1658; died in 171 1.| ~~ Oliver. Benjamin. Henry. William. Richard. Henry. i I Oliver. Mary. Hannah. [Thomas. Burn in 1699; died in 1748.| By his first Wife. By his second Wife. Henry. 1 Thomas. 1 1 Elizabeth. Ann. Thomas. Richard. Elizabeth. Susan. Hannah, Oliver Cromwell, Esq., of Cheshuut Park ; born in 1742, and died on 31st of May, 1821. A very worthy old gentleman, but author of a portentously stupid book in vindication of his great namesake and progenitor. A son. A son. Both died in extreme youth. C. The Protecting Brewer. A brewer may be a burgess grave, And carry the mattei so fine and so brave, That he the better may play the knave, Which nobody can deny. A brewer may be a Parliament-man, For there the knavery first began. And brew most cunning plots he can, Which nobody can deny. A brewer may put on a Nabal face, And march to the wars with such a grace, That he may get a captain's place, Which nobody can deny. A brewer may speak so wondrous well, That he may rise (strange things to tell), And so be made a colonel, Which nobody can deny. A brewer may make his foes to flee, And raise his fortunes so that he Lieutenant-general may be, Which nobody can deny. A brewer may be all in all, And raise his powers both great and small, That he may be a lord-general, Which nobody can deny. A brewer may be like a fox in a cub, And leach a lecture out of a tub, And give the wicked world a rub, Which nobody can deny. A brewer by his excise and rate Will promise his army he knows not what, And set upon the college gate, Which nobody can deny. Methinks I hear one say to me, Pray why may not a brewer be Lord-chancellor o' th' University ? Which nobody can deny. A brewer may be as bold as Hector, When he had drank his cup of nectar; And a brewer may be a lord- protector, Which nobody can deny. Elizabeth Olivera ; married to T. A. Russell, Esq , by whom she has had a numerous family. Now here remains the strangest thing, How this brewer about his liquor did bring To be an emperor, or a king. Which nobody can deny, A brewer may do what he will, And rob the Church and State, to sell His soul unto the d 1 in h 11, Which nobody can deny. D. SIR OLIVER CROMWELL. SIR OLIVER CROMWELL, a wealthy and respectable old knight, and a stanch Cavalier, claims some notice from the biographer of his illustrious nephew. He had succeeded to the enormous estates of Sir Henry, and chiefly resided, of course, at the splendid family seat of Hinchiubrook. " Sir Oliver Cromwell," says Noble, "eldest son and heir of Sir Henry, was a most popular and beloved character in his own county of Huntingdon, for which he was returned one of the members in the Parliaments called in the 31st, 35th, 39th, and 43d years of (he reign of Queen Elizabeth, and had the honour to receive knighthood from her majesty in 1598, in which year he was sheriff of the counties of Hunt- ingdon and Cambridge." Immediately after the latter date, some enormous acces- sions appear to have fallen into his rent-rolls ; but Sir Oliver was a true Cavalier, fond of the present, careless of the future, and with every new accession of fortune more reck- lessly profuse of the old. His love of display was carried at all times to ridiculous excess ; but it was not till the death of Elizabeth that the brilliant thought of his life occurred to him, namely, that, as the new king must pass through Huntingdon in his journey from Edinburgh to London, it would reflect eternal glory on the Cromwells if a magnifi- cent entertainment at Hinchinbrook awaited the passage of the new sovereign ! Poor Sir Oliver little knew what other and different glories an infant Oliver was then providing for the Cromwells what other and different entertainments for that Scotch dynasty of English kings ! The knight's duteous invitation having been accepted by royalty, it became his next care to show off as much as pos- sible the family claims of the Cromwells, and so, according to Noble, " he hastily made such improvements in his house as he judged most proper; and Rt this time he built that very elegant bow window to the dining-room, in which are OLIVER CROMWELL. 623 two shields of arms of his family impaling, the one his first, as they are alluded to in the life of his nephew. " He was the other his second lady's, painted upon the glass, with not,' 1 says the cautious Mr. Noble, "an idle spectator in the many quartering^," and surrounded by a prodigious number i dreadful civil war which the tyranny of King Charles I. and of other shields Oromwellian. All preparations complete, the ambition of the popular leaders of the House of Cofn- King James arrived at Hinchinbrook on the 27th of April, 1603, Lord Southampton carrying before him the sword which the mayor of Huntingdon had offered to the new sovereign. Sir Oliver received James at the gate of the freat court, and conducted him up a walk, that then imme- iately led to the principal entrance of the house. mons had involved this nation in ; but remembering the many obligations he and his ancestors lay under to the crown, he determined to support the royal cause-. For this purpose, he not only (at a very heavy expense) raised men, and gave large sums of money, but obliged his sons to take up arms, and go with the royal army ; and he wus of great- Ills majesty," we learn from various accounts, " here ' er use to his majesty than any person in that part of the met with a more magnificent reception than he had ever done since his leaving his paternal kingdom, both for the plenty ami variety of the meats and wines. It is inconceiv- kingdom, by which he rendered himself particularly obnox- ious to the Parliament." Of his nephew's visit to him at Ramsey mention is else- able with what pleasure the English received the king: all where made. No claim or favour of relationship, no consid- strove to please, every one to see the new sovereign, who was to unite two jarring and valiant kingdoms, and to be the common monarch of both. Sir Oliver gratified them to the full. His doors were thrown wide open to receive all that chose to pay their respects to the new king, or even to see e ration for his sinking and nearly squandered fortunes, could avail to move his faith. " Nothing." pursues our authority, " was able to shake Sir Oliver's loyalty ; he supported the royal party to the last ; for which, like many others, he was sentenced to have all his estates, both real and personal.se- him ; und each individual was welcomed with the choicest ' questered ; but they were saved through the interposition, viands and most costly wines: even the populace had free ' and for the sake of his nephew Oliver, then lieutenant-gen- access to the cellars during the whole of his majesty's stay, j eral ; and the Parliament, April 17, 1648. took off the se- While the king was at Hinchinbrook, he received the heads ; questration, in which he is styled ' Sir Oliver Cromwell, of of the University of Cambridge in their robes, to congratu- j Ramsey Moore, in the county of Huntingdon, Knight of the late him upon his accession to the English throne, which Bath.' During the whole of the usurpation, as well by the they did in a long Latin oration. His majesty remained Commonwealth as under the government of his relation Ol- with Sir Oliver until he had breakfasted on April 29. At iver, he followed the example of the grandee Loyalists in his leaving Hinchinbrook, he was pleased to express the ob- courting privacy and retirement ; and it is pretty singular ligations he had received from him and his lady ; In the for- that the colours which he and his sons took from the Parlia- mer he said at parting, as he passed through the court, in ment forces continued displayed in Ramsey Church during his broad Scotch manner, ' Morry mon, thou hast treated the whole of the Grand Rebellion, and remained there uu- me better than any one since I left Edenburgh ;' and it is til within these fifty years. This fortitude in not courting more than probable, than ever that prince was entertained the favour of the Protector is the more observable and praise- before or after ; for it is said, Sir Oliver at this time gave worthy, as from the repeated losses he had sustained from the greatest feast that had been given to a king by a subject, his loyalty, his numerous family, and want of economy in His loyalty and regard to his prince seems almost unbound- j both himself and his sons, the evening of his life was ren- ed ; for when his majesty left Hinchinbrook, he was pre- , dered very disagreeable upon pecuniary accounts, he dying sented by him with many things of great value ; among oth- oppressed with a load of debts, although he had parted not ers, a large, elegant, wrought standing cup of gold, goodly i only with most of his estates in Huntingdonshire (to whom horses, deep-mouthed hounds, divers hawks of excellent I know not), but of his other valuable manors, since none wing ; and. at the remove, gave fifty pounds among the royal of these came to his heirs, to whom it is reasonable to con- officers. So many and such great proofs of attachment, and jecture he resigned up the whole of what he had left : for those in a manner peculiarly agreeable to the taste of the in the decree of chancery for dividing the fens, passed in prince, gained his regard, which he took an early opportu- 1652, his name is not mentioned ; and his eldest son and nity of expressing, by creating him, with fifty-nine others, I heir-apparent is called lord of the manor of Ramsey, of which a knight of the Bath, prior to his coronation. This cere- he was actual owner at that time. His death happened muny was performed on Sunday, July 24, following ; upon ! Aug. 28, 1655, in the ninety-third year of his age : he was which day he, with the other gentlemen designed for that buried the same night (to prevent, it is said, his body be- honour, rode in state from St. James's to the court, and so, ing seized by his creditors) in the Church of Ramsey ; but with their esquires and pages, about the tiltyard, and from there is no memorial of him or of his family, nor does there thence to St. James's Park, where, alighting from their seem ever to have been any in that church ; but, upon horses, and going in a body to the presence-gallery, they sounding-, I discovered that there is a vault just entering received their knighthood from his majesty." into the chancel, where the Cromwells are said to be bu- Happy Sir Oliver-! We hardly recover breath after this , ried." description to glance rapidly at his remaining fortunes. Fuller sketches, in his own quaint style, the character ot He was, we find, a conspicuous member of the House of i Sir Oliver as one of the worthies of Huntingdonshire, and Commons from 1604 to IfilO, and also in 1614, 1623, and tells us he is remarkable to posterity on a fourfold account: 1624, during which years he is perhaps oftener named upon " First, for his hospitality, and prodigious entertainment of committees than any other man. He is always a stanch King James and his court ; secondly, for his upright deal- courtier, and once or twice styled Queen Anne's attorney in ings in bargain and sale with all chapmen, so that no man the journals of the House ; but he did not hold that place whosoever that purchased land of him was put to the charge long, probably not many months. It is probable that ha of three pence to make his title ; yet he sold excellent pen- succeeded Sir Lawrence Tanfield in the office in or about j nyworths, insomuch that Sir John Leaman (once lonl-may- the year 1604. On the 10th of May, 1605, he, with others, j or of London), who bought the fair manor of Warboise, in signed a certificate to the privy council, that the work of j this county, of him, affirmed, that it was the cheapest land draining the fens in Lincolnshire, fec., was feasible, and ! that ever he bought, and yet the dearest that ever Sir Oli without any peril to any haven or county. In this letter ! ver Cromwell sold ; thirdly, for his loyalty, always behold- Robeit joined him ; and in 1606 he was named in the act or bill for draining of the fens ; and was one of the adventurers ng the usurpation and tyranny of his nephew, godson, and namesake with hatred and contempt ; lastly, for his vivaci- who subscribed towards planting and cultivating Virginia, j ty, who survived to be the oldest knight who was a gentle- His majesty. King James I., we also find, gave Sir Oliver, man, seeing Sir George Dalston, younger in years (yet still in 1608, 6000 for his relinquishing a grant of 200, issu- alive), was knighted some days before him." ing yearly out of the royal lands, given to him as a free gift; j It will be only necessary to add that Sir Oliver married and the family records tell us, that on May 2, 1622, he gave J twice : first, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Bromley, a grant in fee of certain lands in the manor of Warbovs to j lord-chancellor of England, upon whom was settled Ramsey, hisson and heir Henry, outof his affectiontohim, and for his , Warboys, Hinchinbrook, Higney, Broughton alias Brone- better maintenance and living: the seizen was witnessed by ' ton, and Little Raveley. After her death he married, July Sir Phil. Cromwell and others. Meanwhile, we may add, he i 7, 1601 (at Baberham, in Cambridgeshire, the place of her had made enormous gaps in his fortune by his gorgeous ; late husband's residence), Ann, daughter of Bfidius Hooft- style of living, and the royal entertainments he persisted in j man, a gentleman of Antwerp, and widow of Sir Horatio giving at intervals to_the king, which he continued even af- { Palavicini, a noble Genoese. Upon this latter lady he set- tled the manors uf Ramsey, Heigmongrove, Bury, Upwood, nd Wistow Meers, except the rectories in each of them, ter the accession of Charles to the throne. Sir Oliver, Mr. Noble tells us, " was in no less favour with King Charles I. than he had been with the late sovereign ; his name occurs in a committee in the first Parliament of this reign ; Aug. 1-2 in this year, and Feb. 23 following, he is named, among others, in a special commission directed to them, for ' rulinge, governinge, demiseing, and disposeing of our assessisnane, and customary lands within our dutchie of Cornwall ;' he was also named one in the commission of peace by King Charles I. in 1625, and for the loan-money for the county of Huntingdon in the following year." It is not necessary here to pursue his fortunes in detail, and the parishes called the old and new parishes, and the lands lying in those parishes, viz., Ramsey and the Chase, and the ground called Wychwood. She died at Hinchin- brook, and was buried at All Saints' Church, in Hunting- don, April 26, 1626. By Lady Elizabeth Sir Oliver had six children, and by Lady Ann four. 624 BRITISH STATESMEN. E. CROMWELL AND CHRISTINA. INTRODUCTION. AFTER the dissolution of the Long Parliament, and on the eve of the seizure of the Protectorate, Cromwell resolv- ed to send Whitelocke as ambassador extraordinary to Swe- den, to arrange a treaty with Queen Christina. Viscount Lisle, the other lord-commissioner of the great seal, had been named for the office, but Lisle's presence promised to prove as available to Cromwell in the designs he now held, as the absence of the cautious and circumspect Whitelocke, who had, as in every other great event of the time, objected to the dissolution of the Parliament before it occurred, and acquiesced in it afterward. Whitelocke, therefore, he was determined should go ; and his conduct in achieving his point was eminently characteristic. Whitelocke had grave reasons for declining the service, nd many long and tearful conversations passed with his wife (the third who had helped to increase his family), in which those reasons are earnestly given. The voyage was a danger the repulsive climate of Sweden was a danger the health of Lady Whitelocke, then on the eve of confine- ment, an imminent danger; but worst and most dangerous of all had it been to disobey the lord-general. His wife, would thinke herselfe flighted by ttt : and she is a lady of great honour, and stands much uppon ceremonies." Poor Whitelocke, somewhat softened against his will, yet found strength enough to renew his importunities of release on the ground of various incapacities he alleged himself to labour under. "The councell," retorted Cromwell, con- cealing his own private and determined will under a torrent of persuasion and entreaty, " the councell have pitched up- pon you unanimously, as the fittest man in the nation for this service ; we know your abilities, having long conversed with you ; we know you have languages, and have travel- led, and understand the interest of Christendome ; and I have known you in the army, to endure hardships, and to be healthful and strong, and of mettle, discretion, and parts most fitt for this imployment : you are so indeed ; really, no man is so fitt for it as you are. We know you to be a gen- tleman of a good family, related to persons of honour ; and your present office of commissioner of the scale will make you the more acceptable to her. I doe earnestly desire you to undertake it ; wherein you will doe an act of great merit one ac- and advantage to the Commonwealth, as great as any member of it can performe, and which will be as well cepted by them. The biiisnes is very honourable, and ex- ceeding likely to have good successe. Her publique minis- ters heer have already agreed uppon most of the material! with a woman's ready wit, endeavoured, by a sort of half- j a "d maine points of the buisnes ; if it had not been such an deserved compliment, to infuse some spirit of resistance into ! employment, we would not have putt you uppon if, the him: "The lord-general means no good to you," she said, " hut would be rid of you." " Why," answered White- locke, " should he desire to be rid of me, when I may be serviceable to him heer ?" The wife readily retorted : "Though you are serviceable in some things, yet you are not thorough-paced for them in all things, which they would buisnes of trade, and of the funds, and touching the Dutch, are such as there cannot be any of greater consequence." With the little spirit remaining to him, Whitelocke in- terposed once more the condition of his wife for at least a little delay. ' I know," replied Cromwell, " my lady is a ' woman, and a religious woman, and will be contented , have you to doe ; you refused to act in the great business ; ; to suffer a little absence of her husband for the publique you opposed the breaking of the Parliament, and other un- I? 00 *! > an ^ f. r 'he time of the year, really the life of the just things."* " But what further designes," afterward asks the simple lawyer, " can he have ? He exercises more power than any king of England ever had or claymed.'' " His ambition," answers his wife, " is higher than we can ima- gine ; and you have often declared yourself for the law and rights of the people, which, if they stand in his way, he will lay them, or you, or anything aside." Similar language to buisnes consists in the despatch of it att this time ; the Dutch are tampering with the queen, butt she holds them off, expecting to hear from us." The interview ended with the grant of a week's consideration to the ambassador mal- gre lui. At the week's end, Whitelocke again presented himself at the chamber of the lord-general again to implore of him locke and his father above forty years." This old country- i eral obstinately resumed, " I know your education, travayle, man advised his master to go, because the " GREAT MAN," i anu< language, and experience have fitted you for it ; you as he calls Cromwell, desires him to go. Whitelocke re- joins, that that is true ; but he is not " bound to obey" Crom- well. "I am deceived," says the shrewd old servant, " if he will not be obeyed in what he hath a mind to." " I am not under his command," retorts Whitelocke ; " what can he doe to me 1" " What can he doe !" exclaims the expe- rienced William Cooke ; " what can he not doe? Don't we all see he does what he list? We poor countrymen are forced to obey him to our cost ; and if he have a mind to punish us or you, it's an old proverbe that it is an easie thing to find a staffe to beat a dogge ; and I would not have you to anger him lest you bring daunger, and trouble too, upon you and your family and state : that's the truth on't." Let us next view Whitelocke in conversation with the lord-general. He had received a very simple and short note, signed by Cromwell and Pickering (as of the council of state), but "all written with Cromwell's own hand," in- timating- the office he was expected to discharge. Next morning he called on Pickering, told his wife's condition, and his reluctance to leave England, and implored his inter- cession with the lord-general. Together they proceeded to the latter, and Whitelocke made his appeal. " I am very sorry," quietly remarked Cromwell, " that the letter came no sooner to you." " I confess," interposed Sir Gilbert Pickering, ' it was my fault." " Sir Gilbert," characteris- tically resumed Cromwell, " would needs write a very fine tetter ; and when he had done, did not like it himselfe. / then took the pen and ink, and straightway wrote that letter to you. And the business is of exceeding great importance to the Commonwealth, as any can be ; that it is : and there is no prince or state in Christendome, with whom there is any probability for us to have a friendship, butt only the Queen of Sweden. She hath sent severall times to us, butt we have returned no ambassy to her, only a letter by a young gentleman. She expects an ambassador from us ; and if we should not send a man of eminency to her, she * Here, no doubt, allusion is made to the execution of Charles ; and the remark which Whitelocke instantly makes in the original dialogue betrays a simple point in his character, and leaves it in much doubt whether his only motive in opposing that great deed was not simply to facilitate a courtship. " Had I not done so," lie remarks, "you and I had not met together." Laily Whitelocke loses no time in corrobora- ting this. "It was the first thing I inquired of you," she gravely ivjoins ; ' my first husband nor you were engaged; if you had, I should not cd to you. I believe you lost by it much of the gener- al's favoui might be i and he would take this > hindrance to his further designs.' to lay you aside, that you know the affayres of Christendome as well as most men, and of England as well as any man, and can give as good an ac- count of them. I think no man can serve his countrey more than you may herein ; indeed I think so ; and therefore I make it my particular suit and earnest request to you to un- dertake it. and I hope you will show a little regard to me in it ; and I assure you that you shall have no cause to repent it." Wonderful indeed was Cromwell's power of persua- sion ! but the uxorious Whitelocke hesitated still. " My lord, I am very ready to testify my duety to your excellency ; I acknowledge your many favours to me, and myselfe an officer under your command, and to owe you obedience. Butt your excellency will not expect it from me in that wherin I am not capable to serve you ; and therefore I make it my most humble suit to be excused from this service." Humble but vain ! " For your abilities," Cromwell reitera- ted, as though Whitelocke had not meanwhile spoken, ' I am satisfied ; I know no man so fitt for it as yourself? ; and if you should decline it (as I hope you will not), the Com- monwealth would suffer extremely by it, your own profes- sion might suffer likewise, and the Protestant interest would suffer by it. Indeed, you cannot be excused. The hearts of all the good people in this nation (!) are set uppon it, to have you undertake this service ; and if you should waive it, be- ing thus, and att such a time when your going may be the most likely means to settle our buisnes with the Dutch and Danes, and all matters of trade (and none, I say again, can doe it better than you), the Commonwealth would be att an extreame prejudice by your refusal!. Butt I hope you will hearken to my request, and lett me prev&yle with you to undertake it : neither you nor yours, I hope, shall ever have any cause to wish you had not done it." Whitelocke wavers sensibly at last, and observes cau- tiously and inquiringly, " My lord, when a man is out of sight, he is out of mind. Though your excellency be just and honourable, yett your greater affayres calling you off, those to whom matters of correspondence and supplyes must be referred will perhaps forget one who is afarre of, and not be so sensible of extremities in a foreign countrey as those who suffer under them." " I will engage to take," at once answered Cromwell, " particular care of those matters my- selfe, and that you shall neither want supplyes, nor any thing that is fitt for you : you shall be sett out with as much honour as ever any ambassador was from England. I shall hold mvselfe particularly obliged to you if you will under- take it, and will stick as close to you as yoi.r skin is to your flesh. You shall want nothing either for your honour and OLIVER CROMWELL. 625 equipage, or for power and trust to be reposed in you, or for correspondence and supplyes when you are abroade : I prom- ise you, my lord, you shall not ; I will make it my buisnes to see it done. The Parlement and councell, as well as my- selfe, will take it very well and thankfully from you to ac- cept of this unployment ; and all people, especially the good people of the nation, will be much satisfyed with it ; and therefore, my lord, I make it againe my earnest request to you to accept this honourable imployment." A pause now followed, and Whitelocke consented to go. Then, in proportion to his quiet determination to take no refusal, was the abundance of Cromwell's protestations of gratitude at not having received one ! Nothing can more strikingly illustrate the man. " My lord, I doe most heart- ily thanke you for accepting the imployment, whereby you have, testified a very great respect and favour to me, and af- fection to the Commonwealth, which will be very well taken by them. And I assure you, that it is so gratefull to me, who, uppon my particular request, have prevayled with you, that I shall never forgett this favour, but endeavour to re- quite it to you and yours. Really, my lord, I shall. And I will acquaint the councell with it, that we may deire fur- ther conference with you." Happily does this interview end with Whitelocke's remark of himself, that " he went away well pleased ;" nor was his pleasure diminished by a messenger from Cromwell, who arrived a few days after at his house in Chelsea well sent one of his gentlemen with a present to Whitelocke a sword, and a payre of spurres, richly inlaid with gould, of a noble work and fashion." All the care he had now was to quiet his wife as well as he could, and to this end he ex- erted himself with reasonable success. The interview of leave took place on the 30th of October, 1653. Cromwell repeated all his assurances to him with redoubled earnestness, gave him various hints of policy and conduct in the management of the treaty and its objects, and granted him every request he asked of personal favour. Whitelocke then finally implored him never to "give credit to whisperings, or officious words, or letters of pickthanks behind my backe." " I shall not easily give beliefe," Crom- well assured him," to such backbiters. I hate them. And what I shall be informed of jour actions abroade will hardly create in me an ill opinion of them before I be certifyedfrom yourselfe." ' It may be your excellency will heare," pur- sued the wily lawy y be y r, " th t I am great with some cavaliers when I am abroade, and that I make much of them ; and truely that may well be. / love a civility to all, especially to persons of condition, though enemies ; and have ever used it, and perhaps may use it more than ordinary when I am abroade, and to those of the king's party ; and by them I may be the better inabled to secure myselfe, and to under- stand their designs, which will be no disadvantage to your af- fayres ; nor shall I ever betray those, or any persons by whom I am trusted." " / thinke such a carryage towards them," earnestly answered Cromwell, " will be prudent, and jilt for you to use ; and it will never occasion in me, nor I hope in any other sober men, the least jealousy of your faithfullness, butt it may tend to your security and to the good of your buisnes." " I have butt one thing more," concluded the ambassador, " to trouble your excellency with ; that is, my humble thanks for all your favours, and particularly for the noble present I received from your hand." " I pray, my lord," answered the lord-general, kindly, " doe not speake of so poore a thing ; if there were opportunity for me to doe honour to your lordship, I assure you that very few should goe before you." It will have been observed throughout these interviews, that, though Cromwell was still, to all appearance, only a private individual, with no other charge than as lord-general of the army and a member of the council of state, his au- thority and power were already single and absolute, in fact. His earnest anxiety for this treaty with Sweden was not, let us add, assumed, though many of his protestations to Whitelocke were. The importance of Sweden, in the great division of the European governments into Catholic and Protestant, as the most considerable of the Protestant mon- archies, whose alliance the Republic claimed, need not be pointed out to the well-informed historical reader; and the motive to a perfect alliance with Sweden had been strongly increased by the sympathies awakened in Cromwell's mind, when the frank and masculine spirit of the young queen who then held the Swedish throne stood out boldly from the other feeble and vacillating crowned heads of Europe, and at once, with daring resolution, acknowledged the English Republic. Christina, queen of Sweden, was now not twenty-seven years old. She was the daughter of a hero, Gustavus Adol- phus, and had inherited the spirit of a hero. Her eccen- tricities are matter of history. Among them for in a crown- ed head this is an eccentricity indeed should be named, first, her passionate encouragement of literature and learn- ed men, inspired, it should be added, by her own great tal- ents and acknowledged learning. When the great work against the leaders of the English Commonwealth, written by Sahuasius, at the suggestion of Charles the Second's 4 K court, had been finished, that famous controversialist went, for his best reward, to the court of Christina. He was re- ceived there with the greatest distinction. The cold climate of Stockholm, however, proved too much for his health, and the young queen herself is said to have spent hours with him alone by his bedside, and to have performed for him all the functions which are necessary to a valetudinarian. Fa- tally for Salmasius, however, Milton's " Defensio" reached Stockholm in the very midst of these ultra courtesies from, royalty. Christina read the immortal treatise of the Eng- lish writer "devoured it," as was said, and proclaimed everywhere in the circles of b/er capital that glory should belong to the name of Milton. Salmasius could not but hear this, and yet the queen was " too humane and considerate to reverse the treatment with which she had honoured him." The delicacy of the defeated scholar then rose equal to her own. He proposed, for his health's sake, removal to a mild- er climate, and Christina dismissed him with honour. For the court of this queen it was that Whitelocke, on the 5th of November, 1653, with a magnificent suite of officers and attendants, set sail as ambassador to the English Com- monwealth. And at this court it was that several delight- ful scenes and dialogues occurred, which not only illustrate the character and influence of the great subject of this me- moir in a novel and interesting manner, but also disclose, better than any records else, the more sterling as well as ' Crom- charming aspects of the character of Christina. Whitelocke arrived in Stockholm only a few months before she aston- ished Europe by the resignation of her crown, at a time when no one disputed it, and all her people loved her. WHITELOCKE FIRST SEES CHRISTINA IN HER MAGNIF- ICENT PALACE, AND IS NOT AFRAID. As soon as he came within this roome, he putt off his halt. and then the queen putt off her cappe, after the fashion of men, and came two or three steppes forward uppon th Toot carpet. This, and her being covered, and rising from ner seate, caused Whitelocke to know her to be the queen, which otherwise had not bin easy to be discerned : her habit being of plaine gray stuffe, her petticote reached to the ground ; over that a jackett, such as men weare, of the same stuffe, reaching to her knees ; on her left side, tyed with crimson ribbon, she wore the Jewell of the order of Amaran- ta ; her cuffes ruffled a la ftnode ; no gorgett or band, butt a blacke scarffe about her neck, tyed before with a blacke rib- bon, as soldiers and marriners sometimes use to weare ; her hayre was breaded, and hung loose uppon her head ; she wore a blacke velvet cappe lined with sables, and turned up, after the fashion of the countrey, which she used to putt off and on as men doe their haltes. Her countenance was sprightly, but somewhat pale ; she had much of majesty in her demeanour, and though her person were of the smaller size, yett her mienne and carryage was very noble. [Here Whitelocke describes his kissing her hand, " which cere- mony all ambassadors used to this queen," and other mat- ters.] The queene was very attentive whilst he spake, and comming up close to him, by her looks and gestures (as was supposed) would have daunted him ; but those who have bin conversant in the late great affayres in England are not so soon as others appalled with the presence of a young lady and her servants. CHRISTINA TELLS WHITELOCKE, AT THEIR FIRST PRI- VATE INTERVIEW, HER OPINION OF CROMWELL, AND INQUIRES IF IT IS REALLY TRUE THAT HE PRAYS AND PREACHES. WH. [ The queen having read his Latin instructions.'} I see your majesty understands the Latin perfectly, and will find heer sufficient authority given me for this buisnes. Qu. I have Latin enough to serve my turne, and the au- thority given to you is very full. Uppon what perticularg will the Parlement thinke fitt to ground the alliance between the two nations ? WH. If your majesty please, I shall present you with the perticulars in writing, in French or Latin, as you shall command. Qu. It will be best in Latin, because I shall take advice in it. WH. I shall doe it as your majesty directs. Qu. Your generall is one of the gallantest men in the world ; never were such things done as by the English in yottr late war. Your generall hath done the greatest things af any man in the world ; the Prince of Condi is next to him, butt short of him. I have as great a respect and honour for your generall as for any man alive ; and I pray, left him know at much from me. WH. My generall is indeed a very brave man ; his actions show it ; and I shall not fayle to signify to him the great honour of your majesty's respects to him ; and I assure your majesty, he hath as high honour for you as for any prince in Christendome. Qu. I have bin told that many officers of your army will themselves pray and preach to their soldiers ; is that true 1 WH. Yes, madame, it is very true. When ther ennemies are swearing, or debauching, or pillaging, the officers and 626 BRITISH STATESMEN. soldiers of the Parlement's army use to be encouraging and exhorting one another out of the Word of God, and praying together to the Lord of Hosts for his blessing to be with them ; who hath showed his approbation of this military preaching by the successes he hath given them. Qu. That's well. Doe you use to doe soe too? WH. Yes ; uppon some occasions, in my own family ; and thinke it as proper for me, being the master of it, to admon- ish and speake to my people when there is cause, as to be beholding to another to doe -it for me, which sometimes brings the chaplein into more credit than his lord. Qu. Doth your generall and other great officers doe so? WH. Yes, madame, very often, and very well. Neverthe- less, they maintain chapleins and ministers in their houses and regiments ; and such as are godly and worthy ministers have as much respect, and as good provision in England, as in any place of Christendome. Yet 'tis the opinion of many good men with us, that a long cassake, with a silke girdle, and a great beard, do not make a learned or good preacher, without gifts of the Spirit of God and labouring in his vine- yard ; and whosoever studies the Holy Scripture, and is en- abled to doe good to the souls of others, and indeavours the game, is nowhere forbidden by that Word, nor is it blame- able. The officers and soldiers of the Parlernent held it not unlawful!, when they carryed their lives in their hands, and were going to adventure them in the high places of the field, to incourage one another out of His Word who com- mands over all ; and this had more weight and impression with it than any other word could have, and was never de- nyed to be made use of butt by the popish prelates, who by no meanes would admit lay people (as they call them) to gather from thence that instruction and comfort which can nowhere else be found. Qu. Alethinks you preach very well, and have now made a good sermon. I assure you I like it very well. WH. Madame, I shall account it a great happiness if any of my words may please you. Qu. Indeed, sir, these words of yours doe very much please me ; and I shall be glad to hear you oftener on this strayne. Butt 1 pray tell me, where did your generall, and you his offi- cers, learne this way of praying and preaching yourselves ? WH. We learnt it from a neer friend of your majesty, whose memory all the Protestant interest hath cause to honour. Qu. My friend ! Who was that ? WH. It was your father, the great king Gustavus Adolphus, who, uppou his first landing in Germany (as many then present have testifyed), did himselfe, in person, uppon the shoare, on his knees, give thanks to God for his safe land- ing, and before his soldiers himselfe prayed to God for his blessing upon that undertaking ; and he' would frequently exhort his people out of God's Word ; and God testifyed his great liking thereof by the wonderful successes he was pleased to vouchsafe to that gallant king. CHRISTINA, STRUCK BY WHITELOCKE'S PRUDENCE IN A LONG CONFERENCE OF STATE, BECOMETH CONFIDEN- TIAL AT ITS CLOSE. Qu. You speake very fully and truly of the interest of the several! princes and states of Europe. I doe extreamly like the bnisnes, and will prepare a memoire of some propo- salls concerning it, and give it to you to send into England ; butt speed, and vigour, and secrecy are requisite heerin. And I must injoyne you to acquainte nobody with this dis- course, butt only your generall Cromwell, whose word I thall relye uppon : butt I would not have this matter made knowne to any other whatsoever ; and I desire you not to speake of it to any of my own ministers, nor of anything else relating to your negotiation, butt what I shall give way unto. WH. Madame, I shall faithfully obey your majesty's commaunds, and not reveale any tittle of these matters without your permission. Qu. Have you heard in England that I was to marry the King of Scotts ? WH. It hath bin reported so in England, and that let- ters have passed between your majesty and him for that purpose ; and that your majesty had a good affection for the King of Scotts. Qu. I confesse that letters have past between us; butt this I will assure you, that I will not marry that king : he is a young man, and in a condition sad enough ; though I re- spect him very much, yett 1 shall never marry him, you may be well assured. Butt I shall tell you, under secrecy, that the King of Scotts lately sent a letter to the Prince Palatin, my cousen, and with it the order of a Knight of the Garter to the prince ; butt the messenger had the witt to bring it first to me ; and when I saw it and had read the letter, I threw it into the fire, and would not suffer the George to be delivered to my cousen. WHITELOCKE'S DEVICE IN WRITING PRIVATELY TO CROM- WELL ; ALSO HIS DEVICE IN DELIVERING PRESENTS FROM MR. HUGH PETERS TO CHRISTINA. WH. I leave with my generall, or with the secretary of the couucell, two glasses of water, which I make : with the one of the waters I write my letters, having two like glas- es of waters with myselfe. The letter thus written no man can possibly reade, no more than if it were written with fayre wafer ; butt wash over this letter with the water in the other glasse, and it turns it to blacke, and just as if it had bin written with inke. Qu. That is a curious way indeed : and have you of those waters heer ? WH. Yes, madame, I make them myselfe, and have left one of them with my generall ; so that no creature can reade his or my letters without them. Qu. What huge dogge is this? WH. It is an English mastiffe, which I brought with me, and it seems is broke loose and followed ine even to this place. Qu. Is he gentle and well conditioned ? WH. The more courage they have, the more gentle they are ; this is both. Your majesty may stroake him. Qu. I have heard of the fierceness of these dogges.; this is very gentle. WH. They are very gentle, unlesse provoked, and of a generous kind ; no creature hath more mettle or faithfull- nesse than they have. Qu. Is it your dogge 7 W,H. I cannot tell ; some of my people told me that one Mr. Peters sent it for a present to the queen. Qu. Who is that Mr. Peters? WH. A minister, and great servant to the Parlement. Qu. That Mr. Peters sent me a letter 1 WH. He is a great admirer of your majesty ; butt to pre- sume to send a letter, or a dogge, for a present to a queen, / thought above him, and notfitt to be named to your majesty. Qu. I have many letters from private persons : his letter and the dogge doe belong to me, and are my goods ; and I will have them. WH. Your majesty commands in chiefe, and all ought to obey you, and so will I ; not only as to the letter and dogge, but likewise as to another part of his present, a great Eng- lish cheese of his countrey making. Qu. / doe kindly accept them from him ; and see that you send my goods to me. WH. I will not fayle to obey your majesty. The queen was pleased to take notice herselfe, and to promise to give order for supply, of some accommodations which were heer wanting to Whitelocke and his company ; and so they parted in much drollerye CHRISTINA INTERESTS HERSELF IN THE DOMESTIC AF- FAIRS OF CROMWELL PROPHESIETH HIS DESIRE TO BE KINO, SIMPLE LORD-GENERAL AS HE IS AND STARTLETH WHITELOCKE WITH SOME DELICATE QUES- TIONS, AS ALSO WITH A PIECE OF PLAIN SPEAKING Qu. Hath your generall a wife and children ? WH. He hath a wife and five children. Qu. What family were he and his wife of? WH. He was of the family of a baron,* and his wife the like from Bourchiers. Qu. Of what parts are his children ? WH. His two sons and three daughters are ail of good parts and liberal! education. Qu. Some unworthy mention and mistakes have been made to me of them. WH. Your majesty knows that to be frequent ; butt from me you shall have nothing butt truth. Qu. Much of the story of your generall hath some para- lell with that of my ancestor, Gustavus the First, who, from a private gentleman of a noble family, was advanced to the title of Marshall of Sweden, because he had risen up and rescued his country from the bondage and oppression which the King of Denmarke had putt upon them, and expelled that king; and for his reward, he was att last elected King of Sweden ; and / believe that your generall will be King of England in conclusion. WH. Pardon me, madame, that cannot be, because Eng- land is resolved into a Commonwealth ; and my generall hath already sufficient power and greatness, as generall of all their forces both by sea and land, which may content him. Qu. Resolve what you will, I believe HE resolves to be king ; and hardly can any power or greatness be called suf- ficient, when the nature of man is so prone (as in these dayes) to all ambition. WH. I find no such nature in my generall. (!) Qu. It may easily be concealed till an opportunity serve , and then it will show itselfe. WH. All are mortal! men, subject to affections. Qu. How many wives have you had? WH. I have had three wives. Qu. Have you had children by all of them ? WH. Yes, by every one of them. This and knighthood were often confused in that da}. OLIVER CROMWELL. 627 Qu. Par Dieu, BOUS tstes incorrigible !* WK. Madame, I have bin a true servant to your sexe ; nd as it was my duety to be kind to my wives, so I count it niy happiness, and riches, and strength to have many chil- dren. Qu. You have done well ; and if children doe prove well, it is no small nor usuall blessing. [Much more discourse her majesty moved of private mat- ters, whereby she made experiment if the truth would be told her ; it appearing that the particulars were known to her before, and that she had good intelligence. She was pleased with some earnestness to say], Qu. You are hypocrites and dissemblers. WH. For myselfe, I can have little of design (especially in your couutrey) to dissemble ; I always hated hypocrisy as a thing unworthy a Christian or a gentleman ; and my generall hath not bin charged with that odious crime. Qu. I do not meane either your generall or yourselfe ; butt / thinke that in England there are many who make pro- fession of more holyness than is in them, hoping for advan- tage by it. THE WISE OXENSTIKRNE INTERESTED IN CROMWELL. At this meeting the chancellor inquired much of White- locke concerning Cromwell's age, health, children, family, temper, <fcc., and sayd that Cromwell was one of the gal- lantest men that this age had brought forth, and the thinges which he had done argued as much courage and wisdome in him as any actions that the world had seen for many years. In which discourse Whitelocke did not omit to doe right to the generall and to the Parlement, and informed the chancellor fully of their courses, actions, councells, and successes. MEWS OF CROMWELL'S USURPATION KEA.CHETH STOCKHOLM. Qu. Par Dieu, I beare the same respect, and more, to your generall and to you than 1 did before ; and I had rath- er have to doe with one than with many. WH. I may very well believe it ; and returne thanks to your majesty for the continuance of your respects to Eng- land, and to my generall, and to his servant ; your majesty understands he hath a new title, butt his power was not meane before. Qu. It was very great before, and I thinke it greater now, and therefore better for England, butt subject to envy ; and / tell you, under secrecy, that my chancellor would for- merly have bin so in Sweden when I was young, but could not attaine it; butt if he was my enemy, yell I should say that he is a wise and a gallant man ; and if your generall were the greatest enemy I have, ye.tt I should give him his due, that he is a wise and brave man, and hath done the greatest things of any man alive. I much desire his friendship, and am heartily glad of his present condition. CHRISTINA'S OPINION OF THE PROTECTORATE, AND HER WISE ADVICE. Qu. Sir, you are welcome still to me ; and, if possible, more than before the change. WH. Madame, it is your goodness and favour to a gen- tleman, a stranger in your country, who truly honours your majesty ; and you are pleased to show much respect to my generall. Qu. Your generall is a gallant man, and you are fitt to serve any prince in Christendome. WH. I may without vanity thinke the better of him, and of myselfe, because of your majesty's judgement. Qu. My judgement is, that your affayres in England are much amended, and better established, by this change than before. WH. We hope that our God will give us a settlement ; and we have found much of his favour therein already, and doubt not of the continuance thereof to us. Qu. Is your new government by a Protector different from what it was before as to monarchy, or is the alteration in all points ? WH. The government is to be the same as formerly, by successive representatives of the people in Parlement ; only the Protector is the head or chiefe magistrate of the Com- monwealth. Qu. He is a gallant man; and I pray letthim know that no person hath a greater esteem and respect for him than I have. WH. I presume, then, that his letters to your majesty will not be unwellcome ? Qu. They shall be most wellcome to me. WH. I then present these new credentialls to your maj- esty from his highnes my lord-protector. * So Charles II. thought, in * ban mot he seems to hare borrowed from the naive Christina. It is related of him that, when the obsenui- ous Whitelocke waited on his majesty at the Restoration to beg his pardon for all he had transacted against him, Charles laughed and said, 1 Go, go, good Whitelocke, go and live in the country, and take care of your wife and ona-aud-tlurty children \"Biof. Brit., vii, 4231. Qu. What is the reason that the Protector's name ispntt first in the letters? WH. The Protector's name, signed by himselfe, is at the bottome of the letter ; and the naming of him first is be- cause he writes to your majesty, and is the constant forme in England used to all other princes and states. Qu. If it be used to other princes, I am satisfyed, and ex- pect no other. What is the substance of your new govern- ment ? WH. I shall shew your majesty the instrument of our new government, whereof a copy is sent me ; and I shall reade such parts of it to your majesty in French as may satisfy you. [Then Whitelocke read unto the queen some parts of the Instrument of Government ; and when he came to the title, she sayd], Qu. Why is the title protector, when the power is kingly ? WH. I cannot satisfy your majesty of the reasons of this title, being att so great a distance from the inventors of it. Qu. Neia titles, with sovereign power, proved prejudiciall to the state of Rome. WH. One of your majesty's ancestors was not permitted to keep the title of Marshall of Sweden. Qu. He was afterwards king, and that will be next for yo-ur protector. . WH. That will not be so consonant to our commonwealth as it was to your crown. Qu. It is an honour to our nation that you have looked into the story of it. WH. It is the duety of an ambassador to study the history of that crown to which he is imployed. Qu. It becomes you well ; butt why is your new govern- ment so severe against the Roman Catholiques ? WH. It is not more severe against them than it was for- merly, and in some things lesse. Qu. Methinkes that you, who stand so much for liberty, should allow it to them, as well as to others, in a tolleration of them. WH. Their principles are held contrary to the peace of the nation, and therefore they are not tollerated the pub- lique exercise of those principles: they hold your majesty's profession and ours to be heretical!, and a forreign power to be above you and above our commonwealth. Qu. Those among them who understand themselves are of another opinion, and it is pitty they should be persecuted for their conscience sake. WH. We are not for persecution in any point of con- science i butt we expect a submission to the civil magis- trate, and nothing to be done to the disturbance of our peace. Qu. That is fitt to be preserved with all care. Is your protector sacred as other kings are ? WH. He is not anointed and crowned: those ceremonies were not used to him. Qu. His power is the same with that of king, and why should not his title have been the same '.' WH. It is the power which makes the title, and not the title the power ; our protector thinkes he hath enough of both. Qu. He is hardly a mortall man then ; butt he hath brought his buisnes notably to passe, and hath done great things. 1 give you my hand for it that I have a great value for him. THE SWEDISH CHANCELLOR OXENSTIERNE DISCUSSETH CROMWELL'S USURPATION WITH WHITELOCKE SOME HOME TRUTHS EVADED BY THE LAWYEB-AMBASSADOR. CHAN. I doe like your settlement the better, because the power of the Protector is limited by your lawe; there re- maines nothing for him now to do butt to gett him a back and breast of steele. WH. Without limitation in the power of a chiefe magis- trate, it will be hard to distinguish him from a tyrant ; butt what meaneth my father by a back and breast of steele ? CHAN. I meane the confirmation of his being Protector to be made by your Parlement, which will be his best and greatest strength. WH. For your farther satisfaction of the settlednes of government, I have caused the writing or instrument agreed uppon in our last change to be translated into Latin, that you may peruse it. CHAN. Is the Protector and the people bound to an ob- servation of this instrument? WH. This is agreed uppon as to the rule of government, to oblige both the people to obey it, and the Protector to govern according to it. CHAN. From whom is this power derived, and given to tht Protector ? and who had power to ordaine it to be binding to the people ? WH. The Parlement, then sitting, found the peace of the Commonwealth in danger to be againe disturbed, and the many divisions in the nation hardly to be cured ; they thereupon judged it the best and most expedient way, to prevent the mischiefs threatened, to make choise of a head of the Commonwealth, and the generall to be the fittest and worthiest person for that office and trust ; and therefore- 628 BRITISH STATESMEN. they, by a solemn writing, did resigne their power and au- [ thority into the hands of the generall, and desired him to accept of the government as chiefe magistrate, under the j title of Protector; (! !) and to this, the officers and soldiers of the armies and navies, the magistrates of London, the | principal! judges of England, and divers noblemen, gentle- | men, and persons of quality and faithfulnesse to the common interest and peace of the nation, did assent, and were pres- ent in a solemne meeting, where he was sworne to observe this instrument ; and the people generally, by their accla- mations, testifyed their agreement therunto. (! ! !) CHAN. This seems to be an election by the sicord, and prevayling party of the nation ; and such precedents in other countryes have proved daungerous and not durable. WH. God hath thus ordered it ; and I heare there is a generall acquiescence and submission to it, (.'.') and the su- preame law of salus populi seemed to require this change : and though he were the generall that is chosen to be the head, yett the soldiers were not sole, butt joint actors in this designation. CHAN. Such military elections of the Roman emperors, and in other nations, proved fatall to the publique peace and liberty. WH. I hope this may prove a means for the conservation of our peace and freedome. CHAN. Doe you hold this to be an election, or rather a military imposition, of your chiefe governor? WH. It is certainly a very generall agreement of persons in power and authority, and of principall interest in the na- tion, to sett up this government, and therefore may be hoped to continue as firnm as those elections of kings by a few great men only, which was used in yours and the neighbour countryes by the senators. CHAN. Those elections by the senators, formerly made, raysed great factions, and occasioned much civill war and misery ; therefore our Bicksdagh judged it necessary to al- ter that course of elections of our kings, and to settle the crown in an hereditary succession, which proves more peace- full and prosperous than those elections. WH. This was a great change, yett forreign treatyes were still kept with you. ,1 was borne under hereditary lungs, and do not disprove of that government ; yett I hope our commonwealth, as now constituted, will also nourish, and afford liberty and advantage to the people under it, and be as fixed as any other ; and if you (my noble father) have as good an opinion thereof as I have, our treaty will have the better issue. CHAN. The great doubt will be of the permanency ther- of, you being so much subject to changes; and then, how will our treatyes be observed ? WH. I suppose that the treatyes which you made with other states in the names of your elective kings doe yett re- maine good, and are observed in the time of your hereditary queen. I come not to treate with you concerning the inter- est of my generall, now Protector, but concerning the in- terest of England, and on the behalfe of the Commonwealth and people of England to treate with the crown of Sweden, and on the behalfe of the people of Sweden; and whether the head of either people be called king or queen, or pro- tector, and the nation be called a commonwealth or a king- dome, yett the people's interest is the same, and of equall force att one time or another. CHAN. Son, I am satisfyed with your reasons, and con- vinced that we may safely proceed in a treaty with you. CHRISTINA AND HER LADIES AT WHITELOCKE'8 MAY-DAT ENTERTAINMENT. Her majesty, to expresse her contentment in this colla- tion, was full of pleasantnes and gaity of spirit, both in sup- per-time and afterwards : among other frollickes, she com- manded Whitelocke to teache her ladyes the English salu- tation ; which, after some pretty defences, their lips obeyed, and Whitelocke most readily. WHITELOCKE STANDETH UP FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND. [The master of the ceremonies came to Whitelocke from the queen, to desire his company this evening att a masque ; and they had this discourse] : WH. Present my thankes to her majesty, and tell her I will waite upon her. MR. What would your excellence expect in matter of precedence, as in case you should meet with any other am- bassador att the masque ? WH. I shall expect that which belongs to me as ambas- sador from the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; and I know no other ambassador now in this court besides myselfe, except the ambassador of the King of Den- marke, who I suppose hath no thoughts of precedence be- fore the English ambassador, who is resolved not to give it him if he should expect it. MR. Perhaps it may be insisted on, that he of Denmarke is not ambassador to the Protector, a new name, and not tacree. WH. Whosoever shall insist on that distinction will be mistaken ; and I understand no difference of power between king and protector, or anointed or not anointed ; and am- bassadors are the same publique ministers to a protector or commonwealth, as to a prince or sultan. MR. There hath always been a difference observed be- tween the publique ministers of kings aud of common wealths or princes of inferior titles. WH. The title of Protector (as to a sovereign title) hath not yett bin determined in the world as to superiority or inferiority to other titles ; butt I am sure that the nation of England hath ever bin determined superior to that of Den- marke. I represent the nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland, aud the Protector, who is chiefe of them ; and the honour of these nations ought to be in the same consid- eration now as it hath bin formerly; and I must not suffer any diminution of that honour by my person to please any whatsoever. MR. I shall propose an expedient to you, that you may take your places as you come ; he who comes first, the first place, and he who comes last the lower place. WH. I shall hardly take a place below the Danish am- bassador, though I come into the roome after him. MR. Butt when you come into the roome, and find the Danish ambassador sett, you cannot help it, though he have the upper place. WH. I shall endeavour to help it, rather than sit below the Danish ambassador. MR. I presume you will not use force in the queen's presence. WH. Master, it is impossible for me, if it were in the presence of all the queens and kings in Christendome, to forbeare to use any means to hinder the dishonour of my nation in my person. MR. I believe the Danish ambassador would not be so high as you are. WH. There is no reason why he should : he knows his nation never pretended to have the precedence of England ; and you, being master of the ceremonies, cannot be ignorant of it. MR. I confesse your nation alwayes had the precedence of Denmarke when you were under a king. WH. I should never give it from them, though they were under a constable. MR. If you insist uppon it, the Danish ambassador must be uninvited againe, for I perceive that you two must not meet. WH. I suppose the gentleman would not expect prece- dence of me. MR. I can assure you he doth. WH. I can assure you he shall never have it, if I can help it; butt I pray, master, tell me whether her majesty takes notice of this question of precedence, or did she wish to con- ferre with me about it ? MR. The queen commandeth me to speake with you about it, hoping that the question might be so composed that she might have the company of you both att her intertainment. WH. I shall stay att home rather than interrupt her maj- esty's pleasure, which I should doe by meeting the Danish ambassador, to whom I shall not give precedence, uulesse he be stronger than I. MR. The queen makes this masque chiefly for your ex- cellence's intertainment, therefore you must not be absent, butt rather the Danish ambassador must be uninvited ; and I shall presently goe about it. [In the evening, according to the invitation from the queen, Whitelocke went to court to the masque, where he did not find the Danish ambassador ; butt some of the court tooke notice of the discourse which had bin between the master of the ceremonies and Whitelocke, touching prece- dence, and they all approved Whitelocke's resolution, and told him that the queen highly commended him for it, and said that he was a stout and faithfull servant to the Protec- tor and to his nation, and that she should love him the bet- er for it ; nor was the contest the lesse pleasing, because with the Dane in Sweden.] WHITELOCKE DANCETH WITH CHRISTINA A CURIOUS REMARK AFTERWARD. [After they had done dauncing, and Whitelocke had waited uppon the queen to her chayre of state, she sayd to him], Qu. ParDieu ! these Hollanders are lying fellows. WH. I wonder how the Hollanders should come into your mind uppon such an occasion as this is, who are not usually thought uppon in such solemnities, nor much acquainted with them. Qu. 1 will tell you all. The Hollanders reported to me a great while since, that all the noblesse of England nitre of the king's party, and none butt mechanicks of the Parlemenl party, and not a gentleman among them; now I thought to trye you, and to shame you if you could not daunce ; butt I see that you are a gentleman, and have been bred a gen- tleman ; and that makes me say the Hollanders nre lying- fellows, to report that there was not a gentleman of the OLIVER CROMWELL. 629 Parlement's party, when I see by you chiefly, and by many of your company, that you are gentlemen. WH. Truely, niadame, in this they told a great untrueth to your majesty, as I believe they have done in several! other particulars ; I doe confesse that the greatest part of our tiul.ility and gentry were of the king's party, butt many of them likewise were of the Parlement's party : and I, who am sent to waite uppon your majesty, can (without vanity) derive to rayselfe an antient pedigree of a gentleman. THE CHANCELLOR OXENSTIERNE TRANSMITTETH ADVICE TO CROMWELL BY HIS AMBASSADOR, WHICH THE AM- BASSADOR FORGETTKTH TO DELIVEK. CHAN. 1 shall advise you, att your returne home, to putt the Protector in mind of some particulars, which iu my judgement require his speciall care. WH. I shall faithfully doe it, and I know they will be re- ceived with much the more regard, comming from you ; and I pray doe me the favour to lett me know them. CHAN. I would councell the Protector to take heed of those daungerous opinions, in matters of religion, which dayly increase among you, and, if not prevented and curbed, will cause new troubles; they never resting till themselves may domineer in chiefe. WH. Will not the best way to curb them be to slight them, and so they will fall of themselves ? CHAN. I doubt they have taken too much roote to fall so easily ; butt if they be not countenanced with preferrements, they will the sooner wither and decay. WH. That will surely lessen them. CHAN. The Protector must also be carefull to provide money and imployment for his soldiers, else he will hardly keep them in order. WH. That is very requisite ; and for money there is good provision already made. CHAN. He must likewise be watchfull of the king's par- ty, who will be buisy att worke, especially uppon the new duingc. WH. The care thereof is the life of our affayres, and his highnes is most vigilant. CHAN. It behoves him to be so, for they that could not vanquish him by armes, will indeavour to doe it by craft, and treachery* of your own party, which you must looke to. WH. He hath good intelligence of their plotts. CHAN. It will also be prudence in him to lett the people see that he intends not to rule them with an iron scepter, nor to govern them by an arm}', butt to give them such a liberty and injoyment of the benejltt of their lames, that the continuance of his government may become their interest, and that they may have no cause to desire a change ; else, though they mnst beare the yoake for a time, yett as soon as they meet with an opportunity they will shake it off againe. WH. This is councell proper to come from such a mind and judgement as yours is, and I shall not fayle to report it to his highnes ; and your excellence hath rightly stated the disposition of my countrymen, who love peace and liberty, and will hardly brooke slavery longer than they are forced to it by necessity ; and the best way to govern them is, to Jett them injoy their lawes and rights, which will rule them better than an iron scepter. CHAN. It is the disposition of all generous and free peo- ple, as the English are, whom I truely respect, and him that is their head, that gallant person, the Protector. A YOUTHFUL QUEEN, PROSPEROUS AS SHE IS BELOVED, GEOWS TIRED OF STATE AND RESIGNS HER CROWN THE LORD-AMBASSADOR WHITELOCKE's WONDERMENT HE RECOLLECTS THAT CROMWELL ONCE INTENDED TO RETIRE. lAfter this discourse, she drew her stoole close to White- locke, and this discourse passed :] Qu. I shall surprise you with something which I intend to communicate to you ; butt it must be under secrecy. WH. Madame, we, that have bin versed in the affayres of England, doe not use to be surprized with the discourse of a young lady ; whatsoever your majesty shall thinke fitt to impart to me, and commaund to be under secrecy, (hall be faithfully obeyed by me. Qu. I have great confidence of your honour and judge- ment, and therefore, though you are a stranger, I shall ac- quaint you with a buisnes of the greatest consequence to me in the world, and which I have not communicated to any creature ; nor would I have you tell any one of it, no, not your generall, till you come to see him ; and in this buisnes I desire your councell. WH. Your majesty doth me in this the greatest honour imaginable, and your confidence in me I shall not (through the help of God) deceive in the least measure, nor relate to any person (except my generall) what you shall impart to me ; and wherin your majesty shall judge my councell worthy your receiving, I shall give it you with all sincerity, and according to the best of my poore capacity. * lien <ud by tbe chancellor w another word for just discontent Qu. Sir, this it is: I have it in my thoughts and resolu- tion to quitt the crowne of Sweden, and to retire myselfe unto a private life, as much more suitable to my content- ment than the great cares and troubles attending uppon the government of my kingdome : and what think you of this resolution ? WH. I am sorry to heare your majesty calle it a resolution ; and if any thing would surprise a man, to heare such a res- olution from a lady of your parts, power, and judgement, would doe it ; butt I suppose your majesty is pleased only to drolle with your humble servant. Qu. I speake to you the trueth of my intentions ; and had it not bin for your comming hither, which caused me to de- ferre that resolution, probably it might have bill done before this time. WH. I beseech your majesty deferre that resolution still, or rather wholly exclude it from your thoughts, as unfitt to receive any intertainment in your royall breast; and give me your pardon if I speake my poore opinion with all duety and plainness to you, since you are pleased to require it : can any reason enter into a mind, so full of reason as yours is, to cause such a resolution from your majesty? Qu. I take your plainnes in very good part, and desire you to use freedome with me in this matter. The reasons which conduct me to such a resolution are, because I am a woman, and therefore the more unfitt to govern, and subject to the greater inconveniences ; that the heavy cares of gov- ernment doe outweigh the glories and pleasures of it, and are not to be unbraced in comparison of that contentment which a private retirement brings with it. WH. As I am a stranger, I have an advantage to speake the more freely to your majesty, especially in this great buisnes : and as I am one who have bin acquainted with a retired life, I can judge of that; butt as to the cares of a crowne, none butt those that weare it can judge of them ; only this I can say, that the higher your station is, the more opportunity you have of doing service to God, and good to the worlde. Qu. I desire that more service to God, and more good to the world may be done, than I, being a woman, am capable to perforate ; and as soon as I can settle some affayres for the good and advantage of my people, I think I may, with- out scandall, quitt myselfe of my continuall cares, and injoy the pleasure of a privacy and retirement. WH. Butt, madame, you that injoy the kingdome by right of descent, you that have the full affections and obedience of all sorts of your subjects, why should you be discouraged to continue the reines in your own hands ? How can you forsake those who testify so much love to you and liking of your government ? Qu. It is my love to the people which causeth me to thinke of providing a better governor for them than a poor woman can be, and it is somewhat of love to myselfe, to please my own fancy, by my private retirement. WH. Madame, God hath called you to this eminent place | and power of queen : doe not act contrary to this call, and disable yourselfe from doing Him service, for which end we are all heer ; and your majesty, as queen, hath farre greater opportunities than you can have as a private person, to bring honour to Him. I Qu. If another person who may succeed me have capaci- ty and better opportunity, by reason of his sexe and parts, to doe God and his countrey service than I can have, then my quitting the government and putting it into better hands doth fully answear this objection. WH. I confesse my ignorance of better hands than your owne in which the government may be placed. Qu. My cousen, the Prince Palatin, is a person of excel- lent parts and abilities for government, besides his valour and knowledge in military affayres : him I have caused to be declared my successor : it was I only that did it. Per- haps you may have heard of the passages between him and me ; butt I am resolved never to marry. It will be much more for the advantage of the people that the crown be on his head than on mine ; none fitter than he for it. WH. I doe believe his royall highnes to be a person of exceeding great honour and abilities for government: you have caused him to be declared your successor, and it will be no injury to him to stay his time ; I am sure it may be to your majesty to be perswaded (perhaps designedly) to give up your right to him whilest you live and ought to in- joy it. Qu. It is no designe, butt my owne voluntary act, and he being more active and fitt for the government than I am, the sooner he is putt into it the better. WH. The better for him indeed. With your majesty's leave, I shall tell you a story of an old English gentleman, who had an active young man to his son, that perswaded the father to give up the management of the estate to the son, who could make greater advantage by it than his father did: he consented, writings were prepared, and friends melt to see the agreement executed to quitt all to the son, reserving only a pension to the father. Whilest this was doing, the father (as is much used) was taking tobacco in the better roome, the parlour, where his rheum caused him 630 BRITISH STATESMEN. to pitt much, which offended the son ; and because there was much company, he desired his father to take the tobacco in the kitchen, and to spitt there, which he obeyed. All things being ready, the son calls his father to come and aeale the writings : the father sayd his mind was changed : the son wondered att it, and asking the reason, the wise old man said the reason was, because he was resolved to spitt in the parlour as long as he lived ; and so I hope will a wise young lady.(!) Qu. Your story is very apt to our purpose, and the appli- cation proper, to keep the crowne uppon my head as long as 1 live : butt to be quitt of it, rather than to keep it, / shall think to be to spitt in Ihe parlour. WH. What your majesty likes best is best to you ; butt doe you not thinke that Charles V. had as great hopes of contentment by his abdication as your majesty hath, and yett repented it the same day he did it. Qu. That was by reason of his son's unworthines ; butt many other princes have happily, and with all contentment, retired themselves to a private condition ; and I am confi- dent that my cousen, the prince, will see that I shall be j duely paid what I reserve for my owne maintenance. WH. Madame, left me humbly advise you, if any such thing should be (as I hope it will not), to reserve that coun- trey in your possession out of which your reserved revenue shall be issued ; for when money is to be paid out of a prince's treasury, it is not alwayes ready and certaine. Qu. The Prince Palatin is full of justice and honour : butt I like your counsel! well, and shall follow it, and advise fur- ther with you in it. WH. Madame, I shall be alwayes ready to serve yon in any of your commaunds, butt more unwillingly in this than any other. Suppose, madame (as the worst must be cast), that by some exigencyes or troubles, your lessened revenue should not be answered and payd, to supply your own oc- casions ; you that have bin mistris of the whole revenue of this crowne, and of so noble and bountiful! a heart as you have, how can you beare the abridging of it, or, it may be, the necessary supplyes for yourselfe and servants to be wanting to your quality ? Qu. In case of such exigencyes, notwithstanding my quality, I am content myselfe with very little ; and for ser- vants, with a lacquey and a chambermaid. WH. This is good philosophy, butt hard to practice. Give me leave, madame, to make another objection : you now are queen and sovereigne lady of all the nations subject to your crowne and person, whose word the stoutest and greatest among them doe obey, and strive to cringe to you : butt when you shall hare divested yourselfe of all power, the same persons who now fawue nppon you will be then apt to putt affronts and scornes uppon you ; and how can your generous and royall spirit bronke them, and to be despised by those whom you have raysed and so much obliged ? Qu. 1 looke uppon such thinges as these as the course of this world, and shall expect such scornes, and be prepared to contemne them. WH. These answears are strong arguments of yonr ex- cellent temper and fitnes to continue in your power and government ; and such resolutions will advance your majes- ty above any earthly crowne. Such a spirit as this showes ' how much you are above other women, and most men in the world, and, as such a woman, you have the more ad- vantage for government ; and without disparagement to the prince, not inferior to him, or any other man, to have the trust of it. Qu. What opinion have they in England of the Prince Falatin ! WH. They have a very honourable opinion of him, butt have not heard so much of him as of your majesty, of whom is great discourse, full of respect and honour to your person and to your government, Qu. I hope I shall testify my respects to your common- wealth in the buisnes of the treaty between us, and that it shall be brought to a good issue, and give satisfaction to us both. WH. That doth wholly rest in your majesty's power, to whom I hope to have the favour to offer my reasons in any points wherein there is a difference of opinion between your chancellor and me ; and I shall much depend uppon your majesty's judgement and good inclinations to my superiors. Qu. 1 shall not be wanting in my expressions thereof, and doe hope that the Protector will afford me his assistance for the gaining of a good occasion and place for my intended retirement. WH. You will find his highnes full of civility and re- spects and readines to serve your majesty. Qu. I shall never desire any thing but what may stand with the good of both nations ; and what doe you judge the best means to procure free navigation through the Sundt ? WH. I know no other means butt force, the King of Den- marke denying it. Qu. That is the way indeed ; butt what shall then be done with the castles uppon the Sundt, and the King of Denmarke's land there ? WH. If it shall please God to give a blessing to the do- signe, the castles must either be razed, or they and 1 tn* island putt into good hands, such as both may trust. Qu. That is to the purpose; but doe you thinke that England will assist to that end 1 WH. 1 thinke they will, uppon such reasonable condi- tions as shall be accorded ; butt, in such actions, ^peedy and vigorous prosecution is necessary. The spring' should not be lost, against which time preparations are to be made, and your majesty must be pleased to give me your proposals for that buisnes ; nor is the present treaty uppon my arti- cles to be delayed, they being the foundation of the whole designe. Qu. You may assure yourselfe that the alliance between the two nations is as good as concluded, and will be done ; and I will give you iny proposals concerning the Sundt: and if Zeland could be taken from the Dane, and the Pro- tector agree to my living there, it should be the place of my retirement ; I would quitt the crowue of Sweden and re- tire there. WH Your majesty wonld have the worst part of the bar- gain ; I hope you would then bestow uppon your servant the commaund of one of the castles there. Qu. With all my heart ; butt I believe you doe butt drolle. I will promise you more, that if this buisnes bo brought to effect, I shall be willing, if England will con- sent to it, that you shall have the commaund of nil the isl- and, and of all such Swedish and English forces as shall be placed there ; and I should not be willing to pott that trust into the hand of any other stranger whatsoever, so much confidence I have of your worth and honour. WH. Your majesty is pleased to putt an exceeding great obligation uppun me, and I hope (by the assistance of God) I should approve my faithfullness in any trust reposed in me. I believe my lord- protector would as soon putt this great trust in me as in any other of his servants, and I shall acquaint his highnes with what your majesty mentions. Qu. I pray Ooe soe ; and I shall give you my proposals. WH. This discourse putts me in mind of a passage uf my general) before I came out of England : he told me he had a mind to quitt his charge, and presently followed an addition of honour to him : the like may be to your majesty, though not in title, yet in good successes. Qu. All the addition I desire is to be lesse than I am, by a private retirement. WHITELOCKE RETURNED HE RECOUNTS TO CROMWELL, LORD-PROTECTOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH, THE AD- VENTURES OF HIS EMBASSY TO CHISIST1NA- THE LORD- PROTECTOB'S REMARKS THEREON. [Whitelocke came to Whitehall about nine o'clock this morning,* where he visited Mr. Secretary Thurloe, who brought him to the Protector ; and he received Whitelocke with great demonstration of affection, and carryed him into his cabbinett, where they were together about an hower, and had this among other discourses :] PRO. How have you enjoyed yonr health in your long journey, both by sea and land ; and how could you indure those hardships you were putt unto in that barren and cold countrey ? WH. Indeed, sir, I have injured many hardships for an old crazy carcas as mine is ; butt God was pleased to shew much mercy to me in my support under them, and vouch- safing me competent health and strength to indure them. PRO. I have heard of yourquarters and lodging in strawe, and of your diett in your journey : we were nut so hardly nor so often putt to it in our service in the army. WH. Both my company and myselfe did cheerfully in- dure all our hardships and wants, being in the service of our God and of our countrey. PRO. That was also our support in OUT hardships in the army ; and it is the best support ; indeed it is : and you found it so in the very great preservations you have had from daungers. WH. Your highnes hath had great experience of the goodnes of God lo you ; and the same hand hath appeared wonderfully in the preservation of my company and my- self from many imminent and great daungers both by sea and land. PRO. The greatest of all others, I heare, was in your re- turn home uppon our coast. WH. That indeed, sir, was very miraculous. PRO. I am flail to see you safe and well after it. WH. I have cause to blesse God with all thankefulnes for it as long as I live. PRO. 1 pray, my lord, tell me the particulars of that great deliverance. [Theruppon Whitelocke gave a particular account of the passages of that wonderfull preservation : then the Pro* lector said], PRO. Really these passages are full of wonder and mercy; and I have cause to join with you in acknowledgement of the goodnes of the Lord hesrin. WH. Your highnes testifyes a true senee thereof, and your favour to your servant. Monday, July llio 3d, 1654. OLIVER CROMWELL. 631 PKO. I hope I shall never forgett the one or the other ; indeed, I hope I shall not: butt, [ pray, tell me, is the queen a lady of such rare parts as is reported of her? WH. Truely, sir, she is a lady excellently qualified, of rare abilities of mind, perfect in many languages, and most sorts of learning, especially history, and, beyond compare with any person whom I have knowne, understanding the affayres and interest of all the states and princes of Chris- tendonie. PRO. That is very much : butt what are her principles in matters of religion ? WH. They are not such as I could wish they were ; they are too much inclined to the manner of that countrey, and to some perswasions from men not well inclined to those matters, who have had too much power with her. PRO. That is a great deale of pitty ; indeed, I have heard of some passages of her, not well relishing with those that feare God ; and this is too general! an evill among those people, who are not so well principled in matters of religion as were to be wished. WH. That is too true ; butt many sober men and good Christians among them doe hope, that in time there may be a reformation of those things ; and I took the boldnes to putt the queen and the present king in mind of the duety incumbent uppon them in that buisnes ; and this I did with becoming freedome, and it was well taken. PRO. 1 thinke you did very well to informe them of that great duety, which now lyes uppon the king; and did he give care to it? WH. Yes, truely, sir, and told me that he did acknowl- edge it to be his duely, which he resolved to pursue as op- portunity could be had of it ; butt he said, it must be done by degrees with a boisterous people, so long accustomed to the contrary ; and the like answear I had from the Arch- bishop of Ubsale, and from the chancellor, when I spake to them uppou the same subject, which I did plainly. PRO. 1 am glad you did so. Is the archbishop a man of good abilities? WH. He is a very reverend person, learned, and seems yery pious. PRO. The chancellor is the great wise man 1 WH. He is the wisest man that ever I conversed with ABROADE, (!) and his abilities are fully answerable to the report of him. PRO. What cnaracter do you give of the present king ? WH. I had the honour divers times to be with his majesty, who did that extraordinary honour to me as to visit me att my house : he is a person of great worth, honour, and abil- ities, and not inferior to any in courage and military con- duct. PRO. That was an exceeding high favour to come to you in person. WH. He never did the lixe to any publique minister; butt this, and all other honour done to me, was butt to testi- fy their respects to your highnes, the which, indeed, was very great, both there and where I past in Germany. PRO. I am obliged to them for their very great civility. WH. Both the queen, and the king, and his brother, and the archbishop, and the chancellor, and most of the gran- dees, gave testimony of very great respect to your highnes, and that not only by their words, butt by their actions like- wise. PRO. I shall be ready to acknowledge their respects uppon any occasion. WH. The like respects were testifyed to your highnes in Germany, especially by the town of Hambourgh, where I in- deavoured, in your highnes's name, to conh'rme the privi- ledges of the English merchants, who, with your resident there, showed much kindness to me and my company. PRO. I shall heartily thanke them for it. Is the court of Sweden gallant and full of resort to it 7 WH. They are extreame gallant for their r.loathes ; and for company, most of the nobility, and the civill and military officers, make their constant residence where the court is, and many repayre thither on fill occasions. PRO. /* their administration of justice speedy and have they many law-suits? WH. They have justice in a speedier way than with us, butt more arbitrary, and fewer causes, in regard that the boores dare not contend with their lords, and they have butt fevi contracts, because they have butt little trade ; and there ir smalle use of conveyances or questions of titles, because tne law distributes every man's estate after his death among his children, which they cannot alter, and therefore have the fewer contentions. PRO. That is like our gavel-kind. WH. It is the same thing ; and in many perticulars of our lawes, in cases of private right and of the publique government (especially in their Parlements), there is a strange resemblance between their law and ours. PRO. Perhaps ours might, some of them, be brought from thence ? WH. Doubtless they were, when the Goths and Saxons, and those northerne people, planted themselves heer PRO. You met with a barren countrey, and very coldo ? WH. The remoter parts of it from the court are extream* barren ; butt alt Stockholme and Upsale, and most of the great townes, they have store of provisions : butt fatt beef* and mutton in the winter time is not so plentiful! with them as in the countryes more southerly ; and their hott weather in summer as much exceeds ours, as their colde doth in winter. PRO. That is somewhat troublesome to indure ; butt hovr could you passe over their very long winter nights ? WH. I kept my people together, and in action and recrea- tion ; by having musick in my house, and incovraging that and the exercise of dauncing, which held them by the ears and eyes, and gave them diversion without any offence. And I caused the gentlemen to have disputations in Latin, and declamations upon words which I gave them. PRO. Those were very good diversions, and made your house a little academy. WH. I thought these little recreations better than gaming for money, or going forth to places of debauchery. PRO. It was much better ; and I am glad you had so good an issue of your treaty. WH. I blesse God for it, and shall be ready to give your highnes a particular account of it when you shall appoint a time for it. PRO. I thinke that Thursday next, in the morning, will be a good time for you to come to the councell, and to make your report of the transactions of your negotiations ; and you and I must have many discourses upon these argu- ments. WH. I shall attend your highnes and the councell. The treaty thus successfully concluded by Whitelocke is matter of history, and.will find mention in the notice of the Protectorate. It was a treaty of commerce between the two countries, and a prohibition of protection and favour to the enemies of either. It is pleasant to be able to close these interesting scenes with a happy piece of gallantry on the part of Cromwell. Soon after VVhitelocke's return, he sent over his portrait to Queen Christina, inscribed with a Latin epigram, fur which, the hand of Milton had been right cheerfully employed, and which ran to this effect. " Virgin, powerful in war, queea ot the frozen north, bright star of the pole, you see what furrows the toils of the field have traced in my brow, while, already old in appearance, I still retain the energies of a soldier, and pursue the untried paths of fate, executing the heroic behests of that country with whose welfare I am in- trusted. Yet to you I willingly smooth the sternness of my feature ; nor shall the royal Christina find that I at all times regard the possessor of a throne with severity."* This portrait, I should add, was seen a century afterward at the court of Stockholm by one of the ambassadors to that court, Isaac Le Heup, Esq., who described it to several gentlemen in this country. It was by Walker, and repre- sented Cromwell in his warrior garb, but (in delicate com- pliment to Christina) with a double gold chain (her gift) hanging down his neck to his breast, and pendent from it three crowns, with, below them, a white pearl. These were the arms of Sweden, which, with the gold chain, and a private missive from Christina, imagined in her wildest and most fantastic humour, were said to have rapidly fol- lowed Whitelocke to England. The missive was to the ef- fect that, supposing a marriage practicable, she should not hesitate, in Cromwell's favour, to forego her objections to the drudgery of it, since she thought it possible that be- tween them they might get a race of Alexanders. Our no- tices of Cromwell and Christina may not inaptly dose with, this characteristic incident, which the grave reader will not indignantly reject altogether as a piece of wild romance, until he shall have read the following extract of a " letter of intelligence" from one .of Thurloe's most trustworthy spies stationed at the Hague, and who thus conveys what was the gossip of almost every court at the time : " Voiis doubles, si la Hollande soil cordialeinent enclin6 a la paix ; mais icy on a plus de sujet de doubter, si leg * The original runs thus: " Bellipotens virgo, septem regina trionum, Christina, Arctoi fucida Stella poli! . laide rugao, u ujue f-eucA, m uiis impiger, ora tero : Invia fatorum dum per vestigia nitor As Exequor et populi fortta jussa manu. t tibi submittit frontem reverentior umbra; Nee aunt hi vultus regibus usque truces." Of which, should the reader desire to see an indifferent poetical traat- latioti, be bas it from Toland : " Bright martial maid, queen of the frozen zone! The northern pole supports thy shining throne : Behold what furrows age and steel can plow ; The hHmet's weight onpress'd thi wrinkled brow. Through fate's untrodden paths I move; my band* Still act my freeborn people's bold commands: Yet this stern shade to you submits his frowns; Hor are these looks always severe to crowm. 1 * BRITISH STATESMEN. Cromwell Anglois ou 130 soyent ventablement enclins a la paix. Les Orange party Royalists Cromwell 145 and 146 icy soustiennent fort et ferme, que 130 af- Scotland fecte le droit de 138. L'on en raille, disant que 1'effigie de Queen of Sweden Cromwell 141 pend en sa cbambre : que la femme de 130 eu soil ja- Cromwell loux auroit dit 130 voudroit bien, que je fusse morte; cars Queen of Sweden, alors aussy tost il espousera cette 141." A Neit Ballad to the Tune of Cock-LorreU. WILL you hear a strange thing ne'er heard of before, A ballad without any lies : A Parliament that is turn'd out of door, And a council of state likewise 1 Brave Oliver came to the House like a sprite, His fiery look struck the speaker dumb : " You must be gone hence," quoth he ; " by this light, Do y' intend to sit here till doomsday come ?" With that the speaker look'd pale for fear, As if he had been with the nightmare rid, In so much that some did think that were there That he ev'n did as the alderman did. But Oliver, though he be doctor of law, Yet seem'd to play the physician here, Whose physic so wrought in the speaker's maw, That it gave him a stool instead of his chair. Sir Arthur thought Oliver wond'rous bold, I mean that knight that was one of the five, For he was loth to lose his freehold ; But needs must he go whom the devil doth drive. And gone he is for the north country, In hope thereabout to make some stir ; But in the mean time pray take it from me, Brave Arthur must yield to brave Oliver. Harry Martin wonder'd to see such a thing Done by a knight of such high degree, An art which he couldn't expect from a king, Much less from such a John Dorie as he. But Oliver, laying his hand on his sword, Upbraided him with his adultery. Then Martin gave him never a word, But humbly thank'd his majesty. Allen the coppersmith was in great fear, He did us much harm since the war begun, A broken cit was he many a year, And now he's a broken Parliament-man. Bold Oliver told him what he had been, And him a cheating knave did call. Which put him into a fit of the spleen, For now he must give an account for all. It went to the heart of Sir Harry Vane To think what a terrible fall he should have, For he that did once in the Parliament reign Was call'd, as I hear, a dissembling knave. Bradshaw, that president, bold as a pope, Who loves upon kings and princes to trample ; Now the House is dissolved, I cannot but hope To see such a president made an example. Now room for the speaker without the mace, And room for the rest of the rabble rout : My masters, methinks it's a pitiful case, Like the snuff of a candle thus to go out. Some like this change, and some like it not ; For they say they are sure it was done in due season : Some say it was the Jesuits' plot, Because it resembled the gunpowder treason. Some think that Cromwell with Charles is agreed, And say 'twere good policy if it were so, Lest the Hollander, French, the Dane, and the Swede, Do bring him in whether he will or no.. And now I would gladly conclude my song With a prayer, as ballads are wont to do ; But yet I'll forbear, for I think, ere 't be long, We may have a king and a Parliament too. July 13, 1653. G. A Sketch of the Civil Wars to the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell, in a Letter from Maidstone, of Oliver's House- hold, to John Winthrop, Esq., Governor of the Colony of Connecticut in New-England. SIR, YOUK kinde remembrance of mee in Mr. Hooke's letter covered mee with noe small shame, that I have neg- lected a person of soe signal worth, as all reportes I meet with present you in, especially wlien it is attended with the consideration of the obligations your father's memorie hath left upon me. Yet may I not be soe injurious to myselfe as to acknowl- edge that the long omission of writing to you proceeded from forgetfulnesse. The frequent discourse I have made of yourselfe and honoured father have created testimony sufficient to vindicate mee from such ingratitude. But the perpetual hurry of distressing affaires, wherein for some yeares I have been exercised, deprived mee of gaining a fit opportunity of conveying letters. And this is briefly and truely the cause of soe long an intermission. Fur mee now to present you with a relation of the unheard-of dealing of God towardes his people in thes nations, is not my designe ; partly because I believe you have heard much of it, but principally because such a worke would better become a voluminous chronicle than a short epistle. For it would weary the winge of an eagle to measure out the wayes wherein God hath walked, with all the turnings and iu- tricacys that are found in them. The quarrel, at first com- menced betwixt king and Parliament, was grounded upon a civil foundation : the king accusing them of invading his prerogative, and the House charging him with the breach of their priviledges, and consequently the invassalaging the people represented by them. When this argument had for some time been agitated by as hot and bloody a war as this latter age hath seen, it fell at last to be managed (on the Parliament side) by instruments religiously principled, in whose hand it received so many evident testimonies of God's extraordinary presence and conduct, that in conclusion a period was put to it, the king made a prisoner, and all his expectation of rescue utterly defeated and cut off. While the matter stood in this posture, great debates, solicitous consultations and cabals are held, in order to settlement ; for thes transactions (according to the constant product of all such things) had created factions and divisions betwixt persons of equal worth in point of parts, and (as themselves thought) of ballancing merit, to receive the reward of soe great and hazardous an undertaking as they had gone thorow. The parties instantly divyded themselves (or rather did appeare divyded, for they h;id been soe before) under the heades of Presbitery and Independency. The former had the advantage in number, the ministry gener- ally adhereing to them ; the latter in having been the active instrument by whose valour and conduct the king was brought from a pallace to a prison, and thereby were pos- sest of the militarie power of the nation ; by helpe whereof, and having many friendes in the House of Commons against the minde of the major part, they first secluded them, and then set aside the House of Lords ; and by a co-operation with the House of Commons then sitting (whom they owned as the supreame power of the nation), the king was brought to tryall before an high court of justice (consisting of mem- bers of Parliament, officers of the army, and others), and proceeded against to execution. This art was highly displeasing to many, who with equal zeal and forwardness had assisted in the war, insomuch that the difference which the king's party put between them that fought with him and thos that take away his life, they exprest in this proverb: that the Presbiterians held him by the hayr, till Independants cut off his head. Yet have the former struggled hard ever since to doe something that might render them under a better character as to their covenant and loyalty to the king. The peace of the nation being thus settled, and the king's family and offspring de- parted into forreign places, his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, travelled into the Netherlands, where (after somn short time) application was made to him by the most sere- ous and prudent party of Scotland (amongst whom 1 know some to be as choyce men as most I have been acquainted with for wisedome and true holynesse, for soe it becomes mee to judge), who presented to him the consideration of the stupendous judgments of God upon him and his father's house, and prest upon him the sence of it, endeavouring to reduce him to Scotland, in order to restore him to his do- minions, upon hope that he might be instrumental to hon- our God, and re-establish publique peace. To this he gave very fayre returns, and in a short time shipt himself for Scotland, and arrived there, where he was honourably en- tertained by that which is called the Kirk party, and is, indeed, the religious party of that nation: by them he was crowned King of Scotland, and soe brought into a capacity of action. The Kirk party had now the command of him and the nation ; but another party had a greater roome in his heart, having been constant to his father when the other had raysed war against him. Thes divyded under two heades, called Resolutioners and Protesters. The Parliament of England by this time grew awakened, foreseeing that this whole action was calculated to the per- fect capacity of Scotland, imposing a king upon England, of which they were evinced by more than probahle argu- ments ; to obviat which they resolve to send a potent army, under the command of General Cromwell (the Lord Fair- OLIVER CROMWELL. 633 fax refusing that service, upon the influence of Presbiterians, as was sayd), that Scotland might be rendered the seat of war, and soe made less able to annoy England. This accord- ingly was done ; an invasion made from England ; Scotland put into armes to resist it, whereby they wearied and wasted the English army, and forced it (in a miserable condition) to retreat for England, had they not, at Dunbar, out of pure necessity, inforced an ingagement to their own destruction ; for the defeat then given to the Scotch army was as signal as any thing in the whole war. The advantage of number and men fit for fight was very great, but that which is most observable is the quality of the persons ; for Presbiterie be- ing the golden ball that day, I am credibly informed that thousands lost their lives for it (after many meetings, de- bates, and appeales to God betwixt our English officers and them), of as holy, praying people as this island or the world affoardes. The Lord-general Cromwell was a person of too great ac- tivity and sagacity to lose the advantage of such a victory, and therefore marcht his army to Edenburgh, and possest himselfe of that place, lay'd siege to the strong castle in it, and distrest it till it submitted, being soe situated as not to be enter'd by onslaught, nor undermined, by reason of the rocke on which it is built. There he spent the winter, but was not idle, for in that time many strong places became subject to him : by this means the young king had opportu- nity to fall in with his beloved party called the Resolution- ers. His interest likewise wrought here in England, caried on by the Presbiterian party ; and in this quarrel, honest Mr. Love, who doubtless was a godly man, though indis- creet, lost his heade, and many of his brethren were iu- dangered, being deteined prisoners till General Cromwell came home and procured their release. But before that, his continuance in Scotland was a time of great action, wherein he soe distressed the king, as he inforced him to march with all the force he could make for England ; but being close pursued by the English horse, under the com- mand of General Lambert (a prudent, valiant commander, and a man of gallant conduct), and resisted by force raysed in England, he was compelled to make a halt at Worcester city, till the lord-general, with a body of the army, ad- vanced thither, and after a short time totally defeated his army, himselfe escaping very hardly, and afterwardes (with great difficulty) conveyed himselfe beyond the seas. The idea of the stocke of honour which General Cromwell came invested with to London, after this crowning victorie (su- peradded to what God had before cloathed him with, not onely by his achievements in England, but those in Scot- land, which 1 pretermitted, because, being grounded on thos barbarous massacres, the habitable world sounded with the noise of them), will in my silence present itself to your imagination. He had not long continued here before it was strongly imprest upon him by tbos to whom he had no rea- son to be utterly incredulous, and strengthened by his own observation, that the persons then called the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, as from whom he had de- rived his authority, and by virtue whereof he had fought soe many holy men in Scotland into their graves, were not such as were spirited to carry the good interest to an end, wherein he and they had jeopardied all that was of concern to them in this world ; and I wish cordially that there had not been too great a ground for thos allegations. The re- Kult of them, after many debates betwixt the members then sitting and the general, with some who joyued with him, was the dissolution of that Parliament by a military force, since called by a softer word, interruption. Great dissatis- faction sprung from this action, and such as is not yet for- gotten amongst good men ; for let the reasons and end be , never so good upon which the general acted this part, yet, | say they, 'twas high breach of trust in him to overthrow that authority, in defence of winch God had appeared, and made him soe significant an instrument ; yet factum valet, say others, who were not well satisfyed neither ; and now care is used to settle fluctuating Britain. In order to which, the lord-general, by his authority (which was but military), summons one hundred persons out of all parts of the nation (with competent indifferency and equalety) to represent the nation, and invests them with legislative authority. They meet and accept it, assume the title of Parliament, and sit in the House of Commons, and inact sundry lawes ; but in a short time made it appear to all considering and unprejudiced men that they were huic negotio impares, non iA>slante their godlinesse ; of which the mure judicious of them being sensible, contrived the niatter soe as to dissolve themselves by an act of their owne, and resolve their authority, whence they first derived it, upon the general. It was not long before he was advised to assume the government of this nation in his single capa- city, limited with such restrictions as were drawne up in an instrument of government framed to that purpose. This he accepted of, and (being by it with due ceremonie in Westminster Hall inaugurated) he assumed it accordingly. According to one of the articles in it, he summoned a House of Commons at Westminster the September following, of which House I had the honour to be a member. The House. 4L consisting of many disobliged persons [some upon the king's account, and others upon a pretence of right to sit upon the former foundation, as not being legally, though forceably dissolved ; and others judging that the powers given by the instrument of government to the Protector were too large, professing- that though they were willing to trust him, yet they would not trust his successors with soe large a juris- diction], fell into high animosities, and after five months spent in framing another instrument instead of the former [which they sayd they could not swallow without chewing], they were by the Protector dissolved. This was ungrateful! to English spirits, who deify their representatives; but the Protector's parts and interest en- abled him to stemme this tyde. Yet the weight of govern- ment incumbing too heavily upon him, before many years passed he summoned another Parliament, and his experience guided him to concur with them in a new instrument to governe by. In it they would have changed his title, and made him king, and I thinke he had closed with them in it, not out of lust to that title [I am persuaded], but out of an apprehension that it would have secured [in a better way] the nation's settlement ; but the party to whom the Pro- tector ever professed to owe himself [being the generallity of his standing friends] rose so high in opposition to it [by- reason of the scandal that thereby would fall upon his per- son and profession], as it diverted him, and occasioned him to take investiture in his government, though from them, yet under his former title of Protector. As in former cases, this found acceptance with many, but was dissatisfactory to a greater number. The instrument of government made in this Parliament, and to which the Protector tooke his oath, was called the humble Petition and Advice. In it provision was made for another House of Parliament instead of the old Lords, that this might be 2. screen or bal- lance betwixt the Protector and Commons, as the former Lords had been betwixt the king and them. Thes to consist of seventy persons, all at first to be norm nated by the Protector, and after as any one dyed, a new one to be nominated by him and his successors, and assented to by themselves, or without that consent not to sit : twenty of them was a quorum. It was noe small taske for the Pro- tector to finde idoneous men for this place, because the fu- ture security of the honest interest seemed [under God] to be layd up in them ; for by a mortal generation [if they were well chosen at first], like foundationals in the gathering of a church, they would propagate their owne kinde when the single person could not, and the Commons [who represented the nation] would not, having iu them, for the most part, the spirit of thos they represent, which hath little affinity with or respect to the cause of God. And indeed, to speake freely, soe barren was the island of persons of quality spir- ited for such a service, as they were not to be found, ac- cording to that of the apostle, 1 Cor., i., 26 : " Yee see your calling, not many wise, nor noble," <fec. This forced him to make it up of men of meane ranke, and consequently of Jesse interest, and upon tryall too light for ballance, too thin for a screen, and upon the point ineffectual to answer the designe, being made a scorn by the nobility and gentry, and generallity of the people ; the House of Commons contin- ually spurning at their power, and spending large debates in -controverting their title, till at length the Protector [find- ing the distempers which grew in his government, and the dangers of the publique peace thereby] dissolved the Par- liament, and soe silenced that controversy for that time. And that was the last that sat during his life.Ae being com- pelled to wrestle with the difficulties of his place, soe well as he could, without Parliamentary assistance, and in it met with soe great a burthen, as [/ doubt not to say] it dranke up his spirits, of which his natural constitution yeelded a vast stocke, and brought him to his grave ; his interment being the seed-time of his glory, and England's calamity. Before I passe further, pardon mee in troubling you with the character of his person, which, by reason of my near- nesse to him, I had opportunity well to observe. His body was well compact and strong, his stature under 6 foote [I believe about two inches], his head so shaped as you might see it a storehouse and shop both of avast treas- ury of natural parts. His temper exceeding fyery, as I have known, but the flame of it kept downe for the most part, or soon allayed with thos moral indowments he had. He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distrense, even to an effeminate measure ; though God had made him a heart wherein was left little roorne fur any fear but what was due to himselfe, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he exceed in tendernesse towards sufferers. A. larger soul, I thinke, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his was. 1 doe believe, if his story were impartially transmitted, and the unprejudiced world well possest with it, she would adde him to her nine worthies, and make up that number a decemviri. He lived and dyed in comforta- ble communion with God, as judicious persons neer him, well observed. He was that Mordecai that sought the wel- fare of his people, and spake peace to his seed ; yet were his temptations such as it appeared frequently that he that 634 BRITISH STATESMEN. hath grace enough for many men may have too little for hirnselfe ; the treasure he had being but in an earthen ves- sel, and that equally defiled with original sin, as any other man's nature is. He left successor in the Protectorship his eldest son, a worthy person indeed, of an obliging nature and religious disposition, giving great respect to the best of persons, both ministers and others, and having to his lady a prudent, godly, practical Christian. His entrance into the government was with general satisfaction, having accepta- tion with all sorts of people, and addresses from them, im- porting s<: much. It was an amazing consideration to mee fwho, out of the experience I had of the spirits of people, did fear confusion would be famous Oliver's successor] to see my fears soe confuted, though, alas ! the sin of Eng- land soon shewed that they were not vaine fears ; for in a short time some achings in the army appeared, tending to devest the Protector of the power of it. This bred some jealousy and unkindnesse betwixt him and the officers of it ; but it was allayed, and things looked fayre again. About this time writs were sent out to summons a Parliament, which accordingly sat down in March following. The power of the Protector and that of the other House was in- stantly controverted in the House of Commons, which House consisted of a tripartite interest, viz., the Protec- tor's, the Commonwealth's [as it was soe called by some, though groundlessly enough], and Charles the King of Scots ; each party striving to carry an end their own de- sign, syding one whyle with one, another whyle with an- other obstructed settlement, and acted nothing but what tended to leave religion and sobriety naked of protection. The vigilant army observed this, and disposed themselves to prevent this growing evil: in order to it, keep general councells, publish remonstrances, and make addresses. The Parliament, fearing the co-ordinacy [at least] of a military power with the civil, forbid the meetings of the army. The army resent this soe ill, as by a violent im- pression they prevayle with the Protector to dissolve the Parliament. This he did animo tarn reluctanti, that he could not conceal his repentance of it, but it breake out upon all occations. The army, observing it, reflected on him as a person true to the civil interest, and not fixed to them ; and the officers, keeping general councells, in a few days resolve to depose him, and restore the members of Parliament dissolved by the first Protector, in the year 53, to the exercise of their government again, in order [as they ridiculously stiled it] to the settling of a commonwealth. The nation resented this act of the army exceedingly ill, the godly party being generally much dissatisfyed with it, in regard the persons brought together were for the most part disobliging to anything of reason or sobriety, soe that they inslaved the people to the lusts of a few men, as it soon appeared from this the officers of the army and all in civil power derived their authority, and they seemed to have brought all under perfect subjection. But their de- portment waxed too swelling for the army to bear long ; for upon an insurrection raysed in the west by Sir George Booth, a secluded member, in behalf of a free Parliament, forces were sent against him under General Lambert, by whom Sir George was soone reduced and made a prisoner. This so elevated the ruling men in Parliament, as they be- gan to increase the thicknesse of their fingers. The army, fearing they would not rest till they had brought them to Rehoboam's scantling, make complaint to them by way of remonstrance, out of which egg a bird sprang, that made new division, or, rather, renewed the old betwixt them, till it came to another interruption. This put us into so great distemper, as one regiment marcht against another, some for the Parliament, others against them, and drew up near Westminster Hall, even to push of pike, but God in mercy kept them from ingaging, soe that noe blood was spilt. The House, thus disturbed, used its interest to redintigrate its power : members meet in private cabals about it. They send into Scotland to General Monke, who was placed there by the old Protector, commander-in-chiefe of the force of that nation. To him they complaine of the breach of trust by the army here, and by them of the violence offered to Parliament. This Monke resents ill, and declares for the Parliament against the array. The army in England meet in councell ; they choose the Lord Fleetwood captain-gen- eral of all the forces in England, Scotland, and Ireland ; send letters to Monke for accommodation ; appoint a com- mittee of safety for the publique peace, made up of many chief officers of the army, and others of the best qnalety they could get ; declare a resolution to call a new Parlia- ment ; appoynt a committee to draw a platforme of govern- ment for the three nations. Whyle this was acting, the nations grew into a flame, greatly bating any government introduced by the sword ; loe the officers of the army, and committee of safety, and all begun to draw heavily, and in a few weeki, by the revolt of the soldiery, which began first at Portsmouth, was seconded by the fleet, and generally falne m with by the private soldiers, their wheeles fell off, and left them on the ground. The members of Parliament returned to sit, all the officers that were looked upon as having a hand in their interruption set aside, though to other things indemnifyed. Thus far was Jotham's parabla in the case of Abimelech and the men of Shechem realized in this matter also. General Monke advances now to Lon- don, and is there honourably entertained : he is invited into London, courted and careeced there, upon hope he would introduce the King of Scots, whose interest grew all this whyle, and the generality of the people exprest intentnesse upon it, abuse the Parliament, and affront (to violence) the speaker at his lodgings, and the members walking in the streets. In this interim the House dismisses Sir Henry Vane from sitting in it, as a person that had not been constant to Par- liament priviledges ; and Major Salaway, a person of great parts, and Sir Henry Vane's second in most things, with some others who acted in the committee of safety. Yet were they greatly prest by declarations from the people, who, though they were pleased with the dishonour put on Sir Henry Vane [he being unhappy in lying under the most catholique prejudice of any man I know], yet, partly dissatisfyed with the seclution of the members of 48, and partly thirsting after their libertyes in free Parliament, were restless and impetuous. General Monke is now earnestly applyed to by the great- est part of the citizens of London, and the members of Par- liament, who were secluded in the year 48, to restore them to the exercise of theire trust. In that capacity, after some debate of some of the then sitting members concern- ing this matter, without further consent obtained from the then sitting members, and without their privity, they were by the general brought into the House. They sat not three weekes before they by act of Parliament dissolved them- selves, and made provision for a succeeding Parliament, which is to sit down the 25th day of the next month. In this time they made sundry acts : one about the ministry, to the advantage of Presbiterie ; another, in which they settled a militia distinct from that of the army, put. into such commissioners' hands, for the most part, as are for the king's interest. They likewise settled a councell of state, consisting of one- and- thirty very prudent and sober men, and of good interest as to civil concernments. But to draw to a period, and trouble you no longer with this discourse : the interest of religion lyes dreadfully on the dust ; for the eminent professors of it having atchieved formerly great victories in the war, and thereby great power in the army, made use of it to make variety of chan- ges in the government ; and every of thos changes hazard- ous and pernicious, and dissatisfactory in one considerable respect or other. They were all charged upon the principles of the au- thours of them, who, being Congregational men, have not only made men of that persuasion cheape, but rendered them odeous to the generallity of the nation ; and that the rather, because General Fleetwood, who married the Protector's daughter, and the Lord Desborow, who married his sister, were principal instruments [as is apprehended, though I thinke not truely of Fleetwood] in overthrowing the family from which they had their preferment and so many signal kindnesses. It is not to be exprest what reproach it brought upon profession of religion by this meanes, and what a foundation layd to persecute it out of England, if that party prevayles ; for demonstration is made by experience, that professors were not more troublesome and factious in times of peace, before the wars of England began, and the great instruments of them, than they have been imperious, self-seeking, trust-breaking, and covenant-violating since they were invested with power. And whyther this scandal will goe, or what the effects of it will be, the Lord knows ; but to be sure, as Solomon says, he that breaks a hedge, a serpent will byte him ; and this is fulfilled upon them, who have been the greatest hedge-breakers that I have known. And as there is a woe pronounced to the world by our Sav- iour because of offences, soe there is a redundant woe to them by whom thos offences come. I have cause to beleeve that you have met with most of what I have here communicated to you, in a better dresse, from some other hand ; if soe, 1 entreat the pardon of your stomake for my crambe bis coctum. I also entreat your advice by the next opportunity, concerning friendes here, what incouragement persons may have, if tymes press them, to transport their families into New-England, with some general directions of doeing to the best advantage. I doe promise myselfe this fruit of my writing, that as it may renue our intercourse, and kindle the former coales of love, soe it will provoke you with greatest fervency to lay the sad stale of our affaires here before the Lord, whose name is greatly ingaged in them ; for the rage of the ene- my is swelled to an intollerable height, and his mouth set against the heavens. God hath great cause now to feare the enemy and the avenger. And this is our last refuge, for we have forfited all to the utmost. I pray present me to my cousin your wife, under the character of a person ready, though unable to serve her. Accept of the like tender from, sir, your real servant and unworthy kinsman, Jo. MAIDSTO.NE. Westminster, March 24. 1659. OLIVER CROMWELL. 635 If you shall give yourselfe the trouble at any time of honouring mee with a letter, you may please to direct it to Pond House, at Boxted, in Essex, where my father lived : it is three miles from Colchester. These for his honourable friend and kinsman, John Wiuthorpe, Esq., govemour of the collonie of Con- nectacut, in New-England. H. Specimens of the Court Circular in Cromweffs Protectorate. " Nov. 11. This day the most illustrious lady, the Lady Frances Cromwell, youngest daughter of his highness the Lord Protector, was married to the most noble gentleman, Mr. Robert Rich, son of the Lord Rich, grandchild of the Earl of Warwick, and of the Countess Dowager of Devon- shire, in the presence of their highnesses, and of his grand- father and father, and the said countess, with many other persons of high honour and quality. The solemnities of the happy nuptials were continued and ended with much hon- our." .Were. Pol, Nov. 5 to 12, 1657. " JVoti. 19. Yesterday afternoon, his highness went to Hampton Court, and this day the most illustrious lady, the Lady Mary Cromwell, third daughter of his highness the Lord Protector, was there married to the most noble lord, the Lord Faulconbridge,in the presence of their highnesses, and many noble persons. Friday, 20. Their highnesses, with the said lord and lady, returned from Hampton Court." Merc. Pol., Nov. 19 to 26, 1657. I. Some Extracts from a Description of Cromwell's Lords. RICHARD CROMWELL, eldest son of the Protector (so called), a person of great worth and merit, and well skilled in hawking, hunting, horse-racing, with other sports and pastimes ; one whose undertakings, hazards, and services for the cause cannot well be numbered or set forth, unless the drinking of King Charles's, or, as is so commonly spo- ken, his father's landlord's health; whose abilities in pray- ing and preaching, and love to the sectaries, being much like his cousin Dick Ingoldsby's, and being so very likely to be his father's successor, and to- inherit his nuble virtues, in being the light of the eyes, and breath of the nostrils of the old heathenish popish laws and customs of the nation, especially among the learned, the University of Oxford have therefore thought fit, he being also no very good scholar, to choose him their chancellor. Henry Lawrence, a gentleman of a courtly breed and a good trencher-man, who, when the bishops ruffled in their pride and tyranny, went over to Holland, afterward came back, and became a member of the Long Parliament ; fell off at the beheading the late king and change of the gov- ernment, for which the Protector, then lieutenant-general, with great zeal declared, " That a neutral spirit was more to be abhorred than a Cavalier spirit, and that such men as he were not fit to be used in such a day as that, when God was cutting down kingship root and branch;" yet came in play again, upon design, in the Little Parliament, and con- tributed much to the dissolving of them, as also setting up the Protector, and settling the Instrument of Government and a single person, affirming, " That other foundation could no man lay." For which worthy services, and as a snare or bait to win over, or at least quiet the baptized peo- ple, himself being under that ordinance, he was made and continued president of the Protector's council, where he hath signed many an arbitrary and illegal warrant for the carrying of honest, faithful men to prisons and exile with- out cause, unless their not apostatizing with them from just and honest principles. His merits are great and many, being every way thorough-paced, and a great adorer of kingship ; so as he deserveth, no doubt, and is every way fit, to be taken out of the Parliament, to have the third place of honour, and negative voice in the other House over the people of these lands. Colonel Desborough, a gentleman or yeoman of about sixty or seventy pounds per annum at the beginning of the wars, who, being allied to the Protector by marriage of his sister, he cast away his spade and took a sword, and rose with him in the wars, and in like manner, upon the princi- ples of justice and freedom, advanced his interest very much ; if he were not of the Long Parliament, he was of the little one, which he helped to break. Being grown considerable, he cast away the principles by which he rose, and took on principles of violence and tyranny, and helped to set up the Protector, for which he was made one of his council, and one of the generals at sea, and hath a princely command at land, being major-general of divers counties in the west, as also one of the lords of the Cinque Ports. Lord-viscount Lisle, eldest son of the Earl of Leicester, was of the Long Parliament to the last, and at the change of government, and making laws of treason against a single person's rule, and, no question, concurred with the rest therein ; he was also of the Little Parliament, and of all the Parliaments since ; was all along of the Protector*! council, and was never to seek ; who having learned so much by changing with every change, and keeping still like his father-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury, and Pete Sterry, on that side which hath proved trump, nothing need farther be said of his fitness, being such a man of principles, to be taken out of the Parliament to have a set- tled negative voice in the other House over all the good people of these lands, he being a lord of the old stamp al- ready, and, in time, so likely to become a peer. Sir Gilbert Pickering, knight of the old stamp, and of a considerable revenue in Northamptonshire, one of the Long Parliament, and a great stickler in the change of the gov- ernment from kingly to that of a commonwealth ; helped to make those laws of treason against kingship; hath also- changed with all changes that have been since ; he was one of the Little Parliament, and helped to break it, as also of all the Parliaments since ; is one of the Protector's council ; and, as if he had been pinned to his sleeve, was never to seek ; is become high-steward of Westminster ; and, being so finical, sprue*, and like an old courtier, is made lord- chamberlain of the Protector's household or court, so that ho may well be counted fit and worthy to be taken out of the House to have a negative voice in the other House, though he helped to destroy it in the king and Lords. There are more besides him, that make themselves trans- gressors, by building again the things which they once de- stroyed. Walter Strickland, some time agent or ambassador to tho Dutch in the Low Countries from the Long Parliament, and a good friend of theirs, at length became a member of that Parliament ; was also of the Little Parliament, which he helped to break ; was of the Parliament since, and is now of the Protector's council. He is one that can serve a commonwealth, and also a prince, so he may serve himself and his own ends by it ; who, having so greatly profited by attending the Hogan Mogans, and become so expert in the ceremony postures, and thereby so apt like an ape, with his brother Sir Gilbert and the president, to imitate or act the part of an old courtier in the new court, was made captain- general of the Protector's magpye, or gray-coated foot-guard in Whitehall, as the Earl of Holland formerly to the king; who, being every way of such worth and merits, no ques- tion can be made or exception had against his fitness to be taken out of the Parliament to exercise a negative voice in the other House over the people of this Commonwealth. Sir Charles Ousely, a gentleman who came something late into play on this side, being converted from a Cavalier in a good hour. He became one of the Little Parliament, which he helped to break, and to set the Protector on the throne ; for which worthy service, he was, as he well de- served, taken in to be one of his council ; was also of the Parliaments since ; a man of constancy and certainty in his principles much like the wind ; and, although he hath done nothing for the cause whereby to merit, yet is he counted of that worth as to be every way fit to be taken out of the Parliament to have a negative voice in the other House over such as have done most and merited highest in the cause, the Protector and his fellow-negative men excepted, and over all the Commonwealth besides. Mr. Rouse, one of the Long Parliament, and by them made provost or master of Eton College ; he abode in that Parliament, and helped to change the government into a commonwealth, and to destroy the negative voice in the king and Lords ; was also of the Little Parliament, and their speaker ; who, when the good things came to be done* which were formerly declared, and for not doing of which the old Parliament was pretendedly dissolved, being an old bottle, and so not fit to bear that new wine, without put- ting it to the question, left the chair, and went with his fellow old bottles to Whitehall, to surrender their power to the general, which he as speaker, and they by signing a parchment or paper, pretended to do. The colourable foundation for this apostacy, upon the monarchical founda- tion being thus laid, and the general himself, as Protector, seated thereon, he became one of his council, good old man, and well he deserved it, for he ventured hard. He was also of the Parliaments since, and, being an aged, ven- erable man, all exceptions set aside, may be counted wor- thy to be taken out of the House to have a negative voice in the other House over all that shall question him for what he hath done, and over all the people of these lands besides, though he would not suffer it in the king and Lords. Colonel Sydenham, a gentleman of not very much per annum at the beginning of the wars, was made governor of Malcomb Regis, in the west ; became one of the Long Parliament, and hath augmented his revenue to some pur- pose ; he helped, no question, to change the government, and make those laws of treason against kingship ; was also of the Little Parliament, and ot those that were since one also of the Protector's council, hath a princely com mand in the Isle of Wight, is nne of the commissioners a. the treasury, by all which he is growa very great ami conr siderable. 636 BRITISH STATESMEN. Colonel Montague, a gentleman of Huntingdonshire, of a fair estate, a colonel formerly in the association army under the Earl of Manchester, where he for some time appeared, while Colonel Pickering lived, to be a sectary, and for lay- men's preaching, as also a lover of the rights and freedoms of the people, rather than of the principle he now acts by; but, that honest colonel dying, some other things also com- ing between, he became of another mind. He gave off being a soldier about the time of the new model, it is likely upon the same account with Colonel Russell ; did not great- ly approve of beheading the king, or change of the govern- ment, or the army's last march into Scotland, as the Pro- tector, then general, may witness ; yet, after the war WHS ended at Worcester, and the old Parliament dissolved, he was taken in, though no change appearing from what he was before, to be of the Little Parliament, which he helped to break, and to set up monarchy anew iu the Protector, which he designedly was called to do; for which worthy service he was made one of the council, a commissioner of the treasury, and one of the generals at sea. He was of the Parliaments since ; all which considered, none need question his fitness to be a lord, and to be taken out of the House to have a negative voice in the other House, not only over the treasury and seamen, but all the good people of these lands besides. Commissioner Lisle, some time a counsellor in the Tem- ple ; one of the Long Parliament, where he improved his interest to purpose, and bought state lands good cheap; afterward became a commissioner of the great seal, and helped in Parliament to change the government from kingly to Parliamentary, or of a commonwealth ; changed again to kingly, or of a single person ; and did swear the Protector at his first installing chief magistrate, to the hazard of his neck, contrary to four acts of Parliament, which he helped to make, with others, that make it treason so to do. He hath lately retired for sanctuary into Mr. Howe's church, and is still commissioner of the seal ; and being so very considerable in worth and merit, is also fit to be taken out of the House to have a negative voice in the other House over the good people, and all such who shall any way ques- tion him. He is since made president of the high court, so called, of justice. Treas For, i ;ver prospers : what's the reason ? it prospers, none dare call it treasc Chief-justice Glyn, some time a counsellor at law, and steward of the court at Westminster, formerly one of the Long Parliament, and that helped to bait the Earl of Straf- ford and bring him to the block, was recorder of London, and one of the eleven members impeached by the army of treason, and by that Parliament committed to the Tower ; the Protector, through apostacy, assuming the government, took him up and made him a judge, and, finding him so fit for his turn, did also make him chief-justice of England; so that, of a little man, he is grown up into preat bulk and interest, and of complying principles to the life ; who, being so very useful to advance and uphold the Protector's great negative voice, is thereby questionless, in his sense, fit to be taken out of the House, and to have a negative voice himself in the other House, not only over the people, but over the law he is to be chief judge of, and in a capacity to hinder that no good law, for the future, be made for the ease of the people, or to hurt of the lawyers' trade. Bulstrode Whitelocke, formerly a counsellor at law, one of the Long Parliament, profited there, and advanced his interest very greatly; became one of the commissioners of the great seal, one that helped to change the government, and make laws against a single person's rule. In the time of the Little Parliament, he went ambassador to Sweden in great state; that Parliament being dissolved, he agitated there for the Protector, then came over ; and, when some alteration and pretended reformation was made in the chancery, he stood off from being any longer a commission- er of the seal, and became one of the supervisors of the treasury at one thousand pounds per annum salary. He is one who is guided more by policy than by conscience, and being, on that account, the more fit for the Protector's ser- vice, there is no question to be made of his worth and merit to be taken out of the House to have a negative voice in the other House over the people there, though he helped to put it down in the king and Lords. Mr. Claypole, son of Mr. Claypole in Northamptonshire, now Lord Claypole. He long since married the Protector's daughter; a person, whose qualifications not answering those honest principles, formerly so pretended to, of putting none but godly men into places of trust, was a long time kept out ; but, since the apostacy from those principles, as also the practice brake in, and his father-in-law (the head thereof) came to be Protector, he was then judged good enough for that dispensation, and so taken in to be master of his horse, as Uuke Hamilton to the king. Much need not be said of him ; his relation, as son-in-law to the Pro- tector, is sufficient to bespeak him .every way fit to be ta- ken out of the House and made a lord ; and, having so ! long time had a negative voice over his wife, Spring Gar- den, the ducks, deer, horses, and asses in James's Park, ia the better skilled how to exercise it again in the other House over the good people of these nations, without any gainsaying or dispute. Colonel Pride, then Sir Thomas, now Lord Pride, some time an honest brewer in London, went out a captain upon the account of the cause, fought on, and in time became a colonel ; did good service in England and Scotland, for which he was well rewarded by the Parliament ; with cheap debentures of his soldiers and others, he bought good lands at easy rates ; gave the Long Parliament a purge, fought against the king and his negative voice, and was against the negative voice of his brethren, the lords spirit- ual and temporal, being unwilling to have any in the land ; but hath now changed his mind and principles with the times, and will fight for a negative voice in the Protector, and also have one himself, and be a lord, for he is a knight of the new order already, and grown very bulky and con- siderable. It is hard to say how the people will like it. However, his worth and merits, rightly measured, will, no question, render him fit to be taken out of the House to be one of the other House, and to have a negative voice, not only over the bears, but all the people of these lands, though he did formerly so oppose and fight against it ; and the noble lawyers will be glad of his company and friend- ship, for there is now no fear of his hanging up their gowns by the Scottish colours in Westminster Hall, as he former- ly so greatly boasted and threalened to do. Colonel Hewson, then Sir John, now Lord Hewson, some time an honest shoemaker or cobbler iu London, went out a captain upon the account of the cause, was very zealous, fought on stoutly, and in time became a colonel ; did good service both in England and Ireland ; was made governor of Dublin, became one of the Little Parliament, and of all the Parliaments since ; a knight also of the new stamp. The world being so well amended with him, and the sole so well stitcned to the upper leather, having gotten so con- siderable an interest and means, he may well be counted fit to be taken out of the House to b,e a lord, and to have a negative voice in the other House, over all of the gentle craft, and cordwainers company in London, if they please. But, though he be so considerable, and of such merit in the Protector's, as also in his own esteem, not only to be a knight, but also a lord, yet it will hardly pass for current with the good people of these lands if being so far beyond the last; neither will they think him fit (saving the Pro- tector's pleasure) to have a negative voice over them, though he formerly fought so stiffly against it in the king and Lords, in order to set them free. Colonel Barkstead, then Sir John, now Lord Barkstead, some time a goldsmith in the Strand of no great rank, went out a captain to Windsor Castle, was some time governor of Reading, got at length to be a colonel, then made lieu- tenant of the Tower by the old Parliament. The Protector (so called), finding him fit for his turn, continued him there, and also made him major-general of Middlesex in the deci- mating business, and assistant to Major-general Skippon in London. He is one to the life to fulfil the Protector's de- sires, whether right or wrong, for he will dispute no com- mands, nor make the least demur, but, in an officious way, will rather do more than his share. His principles for all arbitrary things whatsoever being so very thorough, let friends or foes come to his den, they come not amiss, so he gets by it ; yea, rather than fail, he will send out his armed men to break open other men's houses, and seize their persons, and bring them to his jail, and then, at his pleasure, turn them out. He hath erected a principality in the Tower, and made laws of his own, and executes them, in a martial way, over all comers, so that he hath great command, and makes men know his power. He was of the lattei Parliaments ; is one of the commissioners, like the bishop's pander's in the king's days, for suppressing truth in the printing presses, an oppression once the army so greatly complained of; is, for sanctuary, gotten in to be a member of Mr. Griffith's church ; is also knighted after the new order, and, the better to carry on the Protector's interest among the ear-bored slavish citizens, is lately be- come an alderman, so that he hath advanced his interest and revenue to purpose. His titles and capacities, embla- zoned, will sufficiently argue his worth and merits, and speak him out fully to be a man of the times, and every way deserving to lie yet greater, and, Haman-like, to be set higher: allwhichconsidered.it would seem a wrong not to have taken him out of the House, and made him a lord of the other House. Colonel Ingoldsby, a gentleman of Buckinghamshire, al- lied to the Protector. He betook himself to the wars on the right side, as it happened, and in time became a colo- nel. A gentleman of courage and valour, but not very famous for any great exploits, unless for beating the honest innkeeper of Aylesbury in Whitehall, for which the Pro- tector committed him to the Tower, but was soon released No great friend of the sectaries (so called), or the cause of OLIVER CROMWELL. 637 freedom then fought for, as several of his then and now officers and soldiers can witness ; and, although it be well known, and commonly reported, that he can neither pray nor preach, yet, complying so kindly with new court, and being in his principles of kingship, as also a colonel of horse, and the Protector's kinsman, he may well be reck- oned fit to be taken out of the House and made a lord. Colonel Whaley, formerly a woollen draper, a petty mer- chant in London, whose shop being out of sorts, and his cash empty, not having wherewithal to satisfy his-creditors, he fled into Scotland for refuge till the wars began ; then took on him to be a soldier, whereby he hath profited greatly ; was no great zealot for the cause, but, happening on the right side, he kept there, and at length was made commissary-general of the horse. He was of these latter Parliaments, and, being so very useful and complying to promote the Protector's designs, was made major-general of two or three companies. He is for a king, or protector, or what you will, so it be liked at court ; is, with his little brother Glyn, grown a great man, and very considerable, and wiser, as the Protector saith, than Major-general Lam- bert ; who having, with his fellow-lords, Claypole and Howard, so excellent a spirit of government over his wife and family, being also a member of Thomas Goodwin's church, no question need be made of his merit of being every way fit to be a lord, and to be taken out of the House to have a negative voice in the other House over the peo- ple, for that he " never, as he saith, fought against any such thing as a negative voice." Colonel Goffe, now Lord Goffe that would be, some time Colonel Vaughan's brother's apprentice (a sailer in Lon- don), whose time being near or newly out, betook himself to be a soldier instead of setting up his trade ; went out a quartermaster of foot, and continued in the wars till he forgot what he fought for; in time became a colonel, and, in the outward appearance, very zealous and frequent in praying, preaching, and pressing for righteousness and free- dom, and highly esteemed in the army on that account, when honesty was in fashion j yet having, at the same time, like his general, an evil tincture of that spirit that loved and sought after the favour and praise of man more than that of God (as, by woful experience in both of them, hath since appeared), he could not further believe or perse- vere upon that account, but by degrees fell off. And this was he who, with Colonel White, brought musketeers, and turned the honest members, left behind in the Little Par- liament, out of the House. Complying thus kindly with the Protector's designs and interest, he was made major- general of Hampshire and Sussex ; was of the late Parlia- ment ; hath advanced his interest greatly, and is in so great esteem and favour at court, that he is judged the only fit man to have Major-general Lambert's place and command as major-general of the army ; and, having so far advanced, is in a fair way- to the Protectorship hereafter, if he be not served as Lambert was. He, being so very considerable a person, and of such great worth, there is no question of his deserts and fitness to be taken out of the House to be a lord, and to have a negative voice in the other House ; the rather, for that he " never, in all his life, as he saith, fought against any such thing as a single person or a nega- tive voice, but only to put down Charles and set up Oliver," and hath his end. Colonel Berry. His original was from the iron-works, as a clerk or overseer ; betook himself to the wars on the Par- liament side ; profited greatly in his undertaking, and ad- vanced his interest very far ; who, though he wore not the jester's coat, yet, being so ready to act his part and please his general, in time he became a colonel of horse in the army, afterward a major-general of divers counties, a com- mand fit for a prince, wherein he might learn to lord it in an arbitrary way beforehand at his pleasure. Colonel Cooper, some time a shopkeeper, or salter, in Southwark, a member of Thomas Goodwin's church, one formerly of very high principles for common justice and freedom, like his brother Tichborn. The army, then in Scotland, sending into England for faithful, praying men to make officers of, the honest people in the borough rec- ommended him to the general in order to have a command who accordingly went down, but left his principles behind him, and espoused others ; was made colonel at the first dash, and, though he began late, yet hath so well improved his interest, that he hath already gotten as many hundreds per annum as he had hundred pounds when he left his trade. He hath a regiment of foot in Scotland, and another in Ireland, where he is major-general of the North, in Venable's room, and governor of Carrickfergus, so as he is in a very hopeful way to be a great man indeed. Alderman Pack, then Sir Christopher, now Lord Pack. His rise formerly was by dealing in cloth ; near the begin- ning of the Long Parliament was made an alderman : was then very discreet, and meddled little, more like a neuter or close malignant than a zealot for the cause; was a com- missioner of the customs, alo sheriff and lord-mayor of London, next after Alderman Viner. The Protector taking ou liiui the governaiuiit, the sunshine of the new court pleased him, and brought him in full compliance. He was one of the last Parliament, and zealous to re-establish king- ship in the person of the Protector, and judged the only meet man to bring the petition into the House, praying him to accept of and take it upon him, which, though he then refused, yet, as is reported, hath since repented his then refusal. Alderman Tichborn, then Sir Robert, knight of the new stamp, now Lord Tichborn. At the beginning of the Long Parliament, when a great spirit was stirring for liberty and juslice, many worthy petitions and complaints were made against patentees, the bishops, and the Earl of Strafford. He being the son of a citizen, and young, fell in and es poused the good cause and principles then on foot, and; thereby became very popular, and was greatly cried up by the good people of the city, <fec. His rise was first in tha military way, where he soon became a colonel, and by th Parliament made lieutenant of the Tower of London ; and, though he was a colonel, yet never went out to fight, but became an alderman very timely, and then soon began to cool and lose his former zeal and principles, and left off preaching, as his pastor, Mr. Lockyer, did the church, to his brother George Cockain. He was afterward sheriff and lord-mayor in his turn ; was also of the committees for the sale of state lands, whereby he advanced his interest and revenue considerably. Out of zeal to the public, he offered the Parliament to serve them freely as a commissioner of the customs, whereby he supplanted another, and planted himself in his room, and then, with the rest of his brethren, petitioned the committee of the navy for a salary, and had it ; notwithstanding he was so well rewarded for his pains, after he had pretended to serve them for nothing, yet, with his brother. Colonel Harvey, and Captain Langham, came off bluely in the end. He was of the Little Parliament, and helped to dissolve it ; one of the late Parliament also. He hath, by degrees, sadly lost his principles, and forgotten the good old cause, and espoused and taken up another ; being so very officious for the new court interest, and such a stickler for them, he is become a great favourite ; it is not hard to read his change, it being in so great letters. All things considered, he is, no question, fit to be called Lord Tichborn. Sir Francis Russel, knight baronet of the old stamp, a gentleman of Cambridgeshire, of a considerable revenue. In the beginning of the wars was first for the king, then for the Parliament, and a colonel of foot under the Earl of Manchester ; a man, like William Sedgwick, high flown, but not serious or substantial in his principles. He con- tinued in his command till the new model, then took offence, and fell off or was laid aside by them ; no great zealot in the cause, therefore not judged honest, serious, or wise enough to be of the Little Parliament, yet was of these lat- ter Parliaments : is also chamberlain of Chester, at about 500 per annum. He married his eldest daughter to Henry Cromwell, second son of the Protector, then colonel of horse, now lord-deputy, so called, of Ireland ; another to Colonel Reynolds, a new knight, and general of the English army in France, under Cardinal Mazarin, since, with Col- onel White and others, cast away coming from Mardike. There is no question but his principles are for kingship and the new court, being so greatly concerned therein ; where- fore it were graat pity if he should not also be taken out of the House to be a lord of the other House, his son-in-law being so great a lord, and have a negative voice over Cam- bridgeshire, and all the people of these lands besides. Sir William Strickland, knight of the old stamp, a gen- tleman of Yorkshire, and brother to Walter Strickland ; was of the Parliament a long time, but hath now, it seems, forgotten the cause of fighting with, and cutting off the late king's head, and suppressing the Lords their House, and negative voice. He was of these latter Parliaments, and of good compliance, no question, with the new court, and settling the Protector anew in all those things for which the king was cut off; wherefore he is fit, no doubt, to be taken out of the House and made a lord ; the rather, for that his younger brother, Walter, is so great a lord, and by whom, in all likelihood, he will be steered to use his negative voice in the other House over Yorkshire, and the people of these lands, to the interest of the court. Sir Richard Onslow, knight of the old stamp, a gentle- man of Surrey, of good parts, and a considerable revenue. He was of the Long Parliament, and with much ado, through his policy, steered his course between the two rocks of king and Parliament, and weathered some sore storms. Was not his man taken in his company, by the guard of Southwark. with commissions of array in his pocket from the king, and scurrilous songs against the Roundheads ? Yet, by his interest, rode it out till Colonel Pride came with his purge, then suffered loss, and came no more in play till about Worcester fight ; when, by the help of some friends in Parliament, he was empowered to raise, and lead as colonel, a regiment of Surrey-men against the Scots and their king, but came too late to fight, it being over. Being popular in Surrey, he was of the latter Par- liaments, is fully for kingship, and was never otherwise,. 638 BRITISH STATESMEN. and stickled much among the seventy kinglings to that end ; and, seeing he cannot have young Charles, old Oliver will serve his turn, so he have one ; so that he is very fit to be Lord Onslow, and to be taken out of the House to have a negative voice in the other House over Surrey, if they please, and all the people of these lands besides, whether they please or not. Mr. John Fiennes, son of the Lord Say, and brother to Commissioner Fiennes; brought in, it is likely, for one upon his score, is, in a kind, such a one as they call a sec- tary, but no great stickler ; therefore, not being redeemed from the fear and favour of man, will, it is probable, follow his brother, who is, as it is thought, much steered by old subtlety, his father, that lies in his den, as Thurlot by his Mr. St. John, and will say No with the rest when any- thing opposes the interest of the new court, their power, and greatness, and may therefore pass for one to be a lord. Sir John Hubbard, knight baronet of the old stamp, a gentleman of Norfolk, of a considerable estate, part whereof came lately to him by the death of a kinsman. He was of these latter Parliaments, but not of the former ; had med- dled very little, if at all, in throwing down kingship, but hath stickled very much in helping to re-establish and build it up again ; and a great stickler among the late kinglings, who petitioned the Protector to be king. His principles being so right for kingship and tyranny, he is in great fa- vour at court, as well as Dick Ingoldsby, and, no question, deserves to be a lord. Sir Thomas Honeywood, knight of the old stamp, a gen- tleman of Essex, of a considerable revenue. He was a com- mittee-man in the time of the Long Parliament, and also a military man, and led, as colonel, a regiment of Essex-men to the fight at Worcester ; came in good time, and fought well against kingship and tyranny in the house of the Stew- arts ; was of the last Parliament. He is not so wise as Sol- omon, or so substantial and thorough in his principles for righteousness and freedom as Job (chap, xxix.), but rather soft in his spirit, and too easy, like a nose of wax, to be turned on that side where the greatest strength is. Being, therefore, of so hopeful principles for the new court interest, and so likely to comply with their will and pleasure, uo doubt need be made of his fitness to be a lord. Mr. Hampden, now Lord Hampden, a young gentleman of Buckinghamshire, son of the late Colonel Hampden, that noble patriot and defender of the rights and liberties of the English nation, of famous memory, never to be forgotten, for withstanding the king in the case of ship-money ; being- also one of the five impeached members which the said king endeavoured to have pulled out of the Parliament, where- upon followed such feud, war, and shedding of blood. This young gentleman, Mr. Hampden, was the last of sixty-two, which were added singly by the Protector, after the choice of sixty together ; it is very likely that Colonel Ingoldsby, or some other friend at court, got a cardinal's hat for him, thereby to settle and secure him to the interest of the new court, and wholly take him off from the thoughts of ever following his father's steps, or inheriting his noble virtues ; as likewise, that the honest men in Buckinghamshire, and all others that are lovers of freedom and justice, that cleaved so cordially to, and went so cheerfully along with his father in the beginning of the late war, might be out of all hopes of him, and give him over for lost to the good old cause, and inheriting his father's noble spirit and princi- ples, though he doth his lands. He was of the latter Par- liament, and found right, saving in the design upon which he was made a lord after the rest, and the Protector's pleasure. It is very hard to say how fit he is to be a lord, and how well a negative voice over the good people of this laud, and his father's friends in particular, will become the ion of such a father, and how well the aforesaid good people, now called sectaries, will like of it ; but, seeing it is as it is, let him pass for one as tit to be taken out of the House, with the rest, to have a negative voice, and let him exercise it in the other House over the good paoole for a season. K. Procession, with ceremony of the Investiture and Installa- tion of His Highness Oliver Cromwell, as by the Parlia- ment appointed to be performed in Westminster Hall, on June 26, 1657, written by me, Edmund Prestwick, of the city of London, an eye and ear witness to all that passed on this glorious occasion. Nou> set forth by me, John Prestaick, Esq. IN Westminster Hall, at the upper or south end thereof, there was built an ascent, whereon was placed the chair of Scotland, brought for this purpose out of Westminster Ab- bey, and here set under a prince-like canopy of state. Be- fore his highness, and below him, was set a table covered with pink-coloured velvet of Genoa, fringed with fringe of gold. On this table, besides the Bible, sword, and sceptre of the Commonwealth, were pens, ink, paper, sand, wax, Before this table, on a chair, sat Sir Thomas Widdrinf- ton, the speaker to his highness and the Parliament. At some distance were seats built scaffold-wise, like a theatrum, where, on both sides, sat the members of his highness's Parliament, and below were places for the aldermen of Lon- don and the like. After all things were thus ordered, the Protector came forth out of the council-room adjoining to the Lords' House, and in the order following proceeded into the Hall : First went his highness's gentlemen, two and two. A herald. Q Aldermen of London, two and two. A herald. Edmund Prideaux, his highness's attorney-general. The judges following of both benches. John Glyn, lord-chief-justice. Peter Warburton and Richard Nudigate. Justices of the Upper Bench. Barons of his highness's Exchequer. Robert Nicholas. John Parker. Roger Hill. Norroy king-at-arms. Commissioners of the Treasury. Commissioners of the Great Seal of the Commonwealth, and their officers, viz. : Commissioner Nathaniel lord Fiennes, carrying the Great Seal. Commissioner John lord Lisle. William Lenthal, master of the Rolls. Officers attending, viz. : Henry Middleton, sergeant-at-arrus. Mr. Brown and Mr. Dove. Garter king-at-arms. Before the Protector came, first, Robert earl of Warwick, with the sword of the Common- wealth, bare-headed, on the right hand ; and on the left, the lord-mayor. Tichborn, carrying the sword of the city of London, bare-headed. His highness, OLIVER CROMWELL, richly dressed, habited with a costly mantle of estate, lined with ermines, and girt with a sword of great value ; his highness's train supported by three generals, bare- headed, and armed with drawn swords. Close to his highness followed the members or lords of the other House, i. e.. House of Lords, in order, two and two. In like manner, in order, two and two, were the mem- bers of the Parliament, as knights of the counties, citizens of the cities, and burgesses of the boroughs and towns, and barons of the Cinque Ports, of the Commonwealth of Eng- land, Scotland, and Ireland ; of which first came those of England, the county of Middlesex, and the northern coun- ties leading the way, as Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northum- berland, and so in like manner. Besides these were many persons of distinction, and no small number of Scotch and Irish nobles. INSTALLATION OF HIS HIGHNESS. The Protector, with loud acclamation, was enthroned, being seated in the chair of state ; on the left hand thereof stood the lord-mayor, Tirhborn. and the Dutch ambassador ; the French ambassador, and Robert earl of Warwick, on the right. Behind the Protector stood his son, Lord Richard Crom- well; Charles lord Fleetwood, lieutenant-general of the army ; John lord Claypole, master of the horse to his high- ness ; and the privy council, of whom, as of the nobility, were the Earl of Manchester, Lord Wharton, and Lord Mulgrave, the rest being very much their inferiors. Upon a lower descent stood the Lord-viscount Lisle, Lords Mon- tague and Whitelocke, with drawn swords. The heralds, in the name of his highness and the Com- monwealth, commanding silence, then the speaker (Sir Thomas Widdrington), in the name of the Parliament, pre- sented to his highness, Oliver Cromwell, a rich and costly robe of purple velvet, lined with ermines ; a Bible, orna- mented with bosses and clasps, richly gilt ; a rich and cost- ly sword ; and a sceptre of massy gold. At the delivery of these things, the speaker made a short comment upon them, and on the ceremonies thereof, which he addressed to the Protector, dividing them into four parts, viz. : " First, the robe of purple ; this is an emblem of magis- tracy, and imports righteousness and justice. When you have put on this vestment, I may say you are a gownman. This rolie is of a mixed colour, to show the mixture of justice and mercy. Indeed, a magistrate must have two hands, plectentem el amplectentem, to cherish and to punish. " Second, the Bible is a book that contains the Holy Scrip- tures, in which you have the happiness to be well versed. This Book of Life consists of two Testaments, the Old and New. The first shows Christum velatum ; the second, Christum revelatum : Christ veiled and revealed. It is a book of books, and doth contain both precepts and examples for good government. OLIVER CROMWELL. 639 " Third, here is a sceptre, not unlike a staff, for you to be a staff to the weak and poor. It is of ancient use in this kind. It is said in Scripture that ' the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shilo come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be :' ! ! It was of the like use in other king- doms. Homer, the Greek poet, calls kings and princes sceptre-bearers. " Fourth, the last is a sword ; not a military, but a civil sword. It is a sword rather of defence than offence ; not to defend yourself only, but your people also. If I might pre- sume to fix a motto upon this sword, as the valiant Lord Talbot had upon his, it should be thus : Ego sum Domini Protectoris^ad protegendum Populum meum ; I am the Lord Protector's, to protect my people." This comment or speech being ended, the speaker, Sir Thomas Widdrington, took the Bible, and gave the Protec- tor his oath. After the administration of the oath, Mr. Manton, who for this purpose was appointed, made and delivered a prayr, wherein he recommended the Protector, Parliament, council, the forces by land and sea, government and people of the three nations, to the protection of God ; which being ended, the heralds, by loud sound of trumpet, proclaimed his highness, Oliver Cromwell, Protector of England, Scot- laud, and Ireland, and the dominions and territories there- unto belonging, commanding and requiring all persons to yield him due obedience. Then did the trumpets again sound, and the people with loud shouts cried, " Long live his highness ! long live his highness ! long live his high- ness ! huzza, huzza, huzza !" Silence being commanded, and his highness being re- spectfully saluted, he rose from the chair of state, and de- scending, proceeded as follow?, himself leading the way. The Protector ; His train carried up by the Lord Sherard, Warwick's nephew, and Lord Roberts, his eldest son. After followed those who had before murched in the first of the procession ; the Protector and these returning HI the same posture to the great gate or entrance of the Hall, without which was a state coach to receive his highness. The Protector being now seated in his coach ; with him, sitting opposite at one end, was Robert earl of Warwick, Lord Richard Cromwell, his son, and Bulstrode lord White- locke, in one, and Philip lord-viscount Lisle and Lord Mon- tague in the other boot, with swords drawn; and the Lord Claypole, master of the horse, led a horse of honour in rich caparisons to Whitehall. The members, two and two, pro- ceeded to the Parliament House, where they prorogued their sitting to the 20th of January. At night were great proclaimings of joy and gladness, both in London, Westminster, and the surrounding towns, villages, and hamlets. On this occasion, for his highness and the Parliament, were ensigns armorial of their power; which signs or tokens of honour were commanded to be en- graven and cut on seals for the sealing and stamping all public writings. The great seal of the Commonwealth was a largo circle, having thereon the Protector bareheaded, mounted on mareback, attired in a short coat or jacket of mail, over which was a military sash, placed over his right shoulder and under his left arm, tied behind ; pendent to his left side, a large and broad sword, his right hand grasping the head of a truncheon, which he holds before him, one end resting on the pommel of the saddle, his left hand holding the bridle. Behind, on the space on the sinister side, and near the top, was a civic shield, with four quarters : the first and fourth, with the cross of St. George, for England ; 2d, the saltier, or cross of St. Andrew, for Scotland ; and, third, the harp of King David, for Ireland. On the margin of this side the seal, these words, Olivarivs. Dei. Gra. Reip. Anglia. Scotia, et Hibernia. S[C. Protector. On the other side of the broad seal, the like arms as that for proclama- tions, as before described, only with this difference, the mantling lamberquin'd with four doublings or folds : on the margin of this side, Magnvm. Sigillvm. Reipvb. Anglia. Scotia, et Hibernia. i.. The Death, Funeral Order, and Procession of His Highness the Most Serene and Most Illustrious Oliver Cromwell, late Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging. The whole of this faithfully copied from the MS. of the Rev. John Preitieick, Fellow of All Sou/*' College, Oxford. His highness's first illness was at Hampton Court, where he sickened of a bastard tertian, of which he grew very ill, insomuch that after a week's time his disease began to show very desperate symptoms, whereupon he \ms removed to Whitehall, Westminster, near London, where his chap- lains, and others of his family, kept private meetings and fastings for his recovery. Continuing in this condition, his highness died on Friday, the third of September, at three of the clock in the afternoon, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and fifty-eight. His body, presently after his expiration, was washed and laid out ; and being opened, was embalmed, and wrapped in a eere cloth six double, and put into an inner sheet of lead, enclosed in an elegant coffin of the choicest wood. Owing to the disease he died of, which, by-the-by, appeared to be that of poison, his body, although thus bound up and laid in the coffin, swelled and bursted, from whence came such filth, that raised such a deadly and noisome stink, that it was found prudent to bury him immediately, which was done in as private a manner as possible. For the solemnization of the funeral, no less than the sum of sixty thousands pounds was allotted to defray the expense. The corpse being thus quickly buried, by reason of the great stench thereof, a rich coffin of state was, on the 26th of September, about ten at night, privately removed from Whitehall, in a mourning hearse, attended by his domestic servants, to Somerset House, in the Strand, where it re- mained in privute for some days, till all things were pre- pared for public view ; which being accomplished, the effi- gy of his highness was, with great state and magnificence, exposed openly, multitudes daily crowding to see this glo- rious but mournful sight, which appeared in the order fol- lowing. FUNERAL ORDER. First. The first room where the spectators entered was wholly hung and covered with black ; and at the upper end of this room was placed a cloth and chair of state. In the like manner of the first room were two others, namely, the second and third, all having funeral escutch- eons very thick upon the walls ; and gnards of partisans were placed in each room for people to pass through. The fourth room was completely hung with black velvet, the ceiling being of the same. Ilere lay the effigy of his highness, with a large canopy of black velvet fringed, which hung over it. The effigy was of wax, fashioned like the Protector, and placed lying upon its back: it was ap- parelled in a rich and costly suit of velvet, robed in a little robe of purple velvet, laced with a rich gold lace, furred with ermine. Upon the kirtle was a large robe of purple velvet, laced and furred as the former, with strings and tassels of gold. The kirtle was girt with a rich embroi- dered belt, wherein was a sword richly gilt, and hatched with gold, which hung by the side of this effigy. In the right hand was a sceptre ; in the left, a globe. Upon his head was placed a purple velvet cap, furred with ermines suitable to the robes. Behind the head was placed a rich chair of tissued gold, whereon was placed an imperial crown, which lay high, that the people might behold it. BED OF STATE. The bed of state whereon he lay was covered with a large pall of black velvet, under which was a Holland sheet, borne up by six stools covered with cloth of gold. About the bed was placed a complete suit of arms ; and at the feet of the effigy stood his crest. This bed had fixed about it an ascent of two steps. A little from thence stood eight silver candlesticks about five feet high, with white wax tapers standing in them of three feet long. All these things were environed with rails and balusters, four square, covered with velvet ; at each corner whereof there was erected an upright pillar, which bore on their tops lions and dragons, who held in their paws streamers crowned. On both sides of the bed were set up, in sockets, four great standards of the Protector's arms, with banners and banrols in war, painted upon taffeta. About the bed stood men in mourning, holding in their hands black wands, and also standing bareheaded ; and without the rails stood others, in like manner, whose office it was to receive people in, and turn them out again. When this public wake or funeral had been kept for many weeks together, so that all strangers, &c., had seen it fully, then did the following change take place, and the whole scene became altered. The effigies being removed into another inner room, it was there set up, placed upon an ascent, under a cloth of state, being vested as it was be- fore lying, only now his purple velvet was changed for a crown. In the same manner (as formerly) were men wait- ing upon him bareheaded. In this manner he continued until the 23d of November, which day was appointed to carry him with all solemnity to Westminster Abbey. THE FUNERAL PROCESSION This great funeral was performed with very great maj- esty, in this manner following. All things being in readi- ness, the waxen effigies of the Protector, with a crown on his head, a sword by his side, a globe and sceptre in his hands, was taken down from his standings, and laid in an open chariot, covered all over with black velvet. The streets, from Somerset House to Westminster Abbey, were guarded by soldiers, placed without a railing, and clad in. new red coats, with black buttons, with their ensigns 640 BRITISH STATESMEN. wrapped in cypress. These made a lane, to keep off spec- tators from crowding the procession. The PROCEEDING to the Funeral of the most noble and puissant Oliver, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions am territories thereunto belonging, from Somerset House in the Strand, unto the Abbey Church of Westminster, on Thursday, the 23d of November, 1658. Colonel Biscoe, knight marshal, on horseback, with his black truncheon, tipped at both ends with gold. Richard Gerald, deputy marshal, on horseback, with his black truncheon, tipped with silver. Marshal's men, 13, on horseback, with the knight marshal Two conductors of the poor men of Westminster, with black staves. Poor men of Westminster, two and two, in mourning gowns and hoods. Two conductors more, with black staves. Poor men in gowns, two and two, in number 82. Two conductors more, with black staves, in cloaks. Servants to gentlemen, esquires, knights, baronets, two and two. Two porters of the pate, with their staves. Six drums, with the arms of Ireland. Six trumpets, with banners of Ireland. The standard of Ireland, borne by Colunel Le Hunt and Major Crooke, close mourners. One in a cloak, to bear up the train of the standard. A horse, covered with black cloth, adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheveron, and escutcheons of the same, led by Mr. Tenant, equerry, in a clciak, and a groom in a coat to attend and lead away the horse. Inferior servants. The household kitchen, 8 ; his highness's kitchen, 7 ; hall- place, 5; scullery, 1. Door-keepers. James's Park Committee of the Army. Committee of the Admiralty. The Compting-house. Un- der-keepers of parks, 2 ; watermen, 28 ; Richard Nutt, master of the barge ; fire-makers, 5 ; pastry, 2 ; larder, 2 ; pantry, 1 ; buttery, 5 ; great beer-cellar, 1 ; wine-cellar, 1 ; privy cellar, 2 ; bake-house, 4 ; porters, 2 ; ale-brewers ; cooper; under-groomsof the chamber, 5 ; inferior waiters at the cofferer's table, 2 ; inferior waiters at the comp- troller's table, 3. Three drums, with escutcheons of the arms of Scotland. Three trumpets, with banners of the same. The standard of Scotland, borne by Major Dawboroon and Major Babington. Assistant close mourners. One iu a cloak, to bear up the train of the standard. A horse, covered with black cloth, adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheveron, and escutcheons of the same, led by Mr. Bergawny, an equerry, in a cloak, and a groom in a coat to attend, &c. Inferior officers of the lord-mayor, 70. Marshal's men, 6. Servants relating to the surveyor's office, 12. Servants in his highness's wardrobe, 4. Three drums, with escutcheons of the standard of the Dragon. Three trumpets, with banners of the same. The standard of the Dragon, borne by Colonel Goodrick ; and Major Cambridge, assistant. Close mourners. One in a cloak, to bear the train of the standard. A horse, covered with black cloth, adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheveron, and escutcheons of the same, led by Mr. Wilcocks, equerry, in a cloak, and a groom in a coat to attend, &c. Officers of better sort. Scullery, 3 ; larder, 1 ; hall- place, 2 ; deputy-sewer, 1 ; kitchen, 1 ; slaughter-house, 1 ; spicery, 1 ; cellar. 1 ; ale-brewers, 2 ; falconers, 2 ; hunts- man ; key-keeper ; gardeners, 3 ; park-keepers, 8 ; bird- keeper ; chapel-keepers, 4. Messengers of the committee of the army, 4 ; of the com- mittee of the Admiralty, 2. Keepers of the Council Chamber and privy lodgings, 5 ; messengers of the Council Chamber, 15. Sergeant De.ndy's men, 3 ; grooms of the chamber, 7 ; waiters on the cofferer's table, 2 ; chafe-wax and sealer of the Chancery, 2 ; tally-cutter; usher of the hall ; usher of the Council Chamber ; butler to the comptroller. Household kitchen, 3 cooks ; his highness's kitchen, 1 cook ; gunsmith, shoemaker, hatter, tailor, upholsterer, measurers of cloth, 3 ; master carpenter, master joiner, master carver, master mason. Three drums, with escutcheons of the standard of England. Three trumpets, with banners of the same. The standard of the Lion of England, borne by Major Creed and Major Grove ; close mourners. One in a cloak, to bear up the train of the standard. A horse, covered with black cloth, adorned with plumes, garnished with a cheveron, and escutcheons of the same, led by Mr. Wallen, equerry, in a cloak, and a groom in a coat to attend, <tc. Gentlemen, attendants on public ministers. Barons', viscounts', earls' servants. Gentlemen, attendants upon ambassadors. Clerks iu the surveyor's office, 2 ; the wardrobe, 2. Under-clerks to the commissioners of the Admiralty, 2 Clerk of the accounts of the army. Clerk for the affairs of the ordnanre. Clerk of the commissioners of the navy Clerk to the committee of the army. Mr. Malin's clerks, 2. Clerks under the clerks of the council, 10. Cash-keeper. Printers, Mr. Henry Hill, Mr. John Field. Gentlemen that wait at the comptroller's table Officers of the lord-mayor, in gowns. Young men, 6 ; yeomen of tne water-side, 4 ; sergeants of the chamber, 3 ; carvers, 3 ; esquires, belonging to the lord-mayor, 4 ; water-bailiff; common crier ; common hunt ; sword-bearer. Three drums, with escutcheons of the Guidon. Three trumpets, with banners of the same. The Guidon, borne by Major Knight and Sir John Black- amore. A horse, covered with black velvet, adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheveron, and escutcheons of the same, led by Mr. Bagg and Mr. Nelson, two equerries, in cloaks, and one groom in a coat to attend, &c. The poor knights of Windsor, Mr. Richard Pratt, Cap- tain Fanshaw, Cornet Stephens, Captain Beale, Lieuten- ant Parker, Cornet Oliner, Lieutenant Mayns, Major Wai- linger, Lieutenant Bankes, Mr. Grosvciior, Captain Roe, Colonel Herbert, Mr. Day, Captain Cooper, Major Leven- thorp, David Hatfield, Captain Burges, Mr. Gary, Colonel W.hichcote. Two lads brought up to music. Musicians. Mr. John Rogers, Mr. Thomas Mallard, Mr. William Howe, Mr. David Mell, Mr. Thomas Blagrave, Mr. William Gregory, Mr. Richard Hudson, Mr. Hinckston, master of the Music. Apothecaries. Mr. Webb, Mr. Phelps, Mr. William Bag- hurst. Chirurgeons. Mr. Fothergail, Mr. Trapham, Mr. Harris. Her highness's butler. His highuess's butler. Pantry, 2; great beer-cellar, 1 ; privy cellar, 1 ; scullery, 1 ; wood-yard, 2 ; pastry, 2 ; caterer, 1 ; bake-house, 2 ; lar- der, 3; slaughter-house, 1. Three drums, with escutcheons of the White Lion. Three trumpets, with banners of the same. The banner of the Lion, borne by ColonelPretty and Colonel Gibbon. A horse, covered with black velvet, adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheveron, and escutcheons of the same, led by two equerries in cloaks, and a groom in a coat to attend, Arc. Surveyor of Westminster Abbey. Head bailiff of Westminster, Mr. Jenkin. Merchant of timber to his highness. Clerk of the surveys. Assistant to the keeper of the wardrobe. Mewes-keeper. Clerks of the stables, the aviary, the spicery, wine-cellar. Purveyor of wine. Clerks of the household kitchen. His highness's kitchen, 2. Master of Westminster School, Mr. Busby. Usher of the Exchequer, Mr. Bowyer. Deputy-chamberlain of the Exchequer. Mr. Edward Faulconbridge and Mr. Scipio le Squire. Clerk for approbation of ministers, Mr. John Nye, Jun. Solicitor of the Admiralty, Mr. Dorislaus. Solicitor of the treasury, Mr. William Swan. Secretary of the army, Captain Kingdom. Secretary to the general at sea, Mr. Richard Creed. Secretary to the commissioners of the Admiralty, Mr. Black- borne. Marshal of the Admiralty, Solomon Smith. His highness's proctor in the Admiralty Court, Mr. David Bud. Secretary to the lords commissioners of the treasury, M* Sherwin. Secretary to the lords-keepers, Mr. Dove. Register of the Admiralty, Mr. Rushworth. Master shipwrights, Mr. John Taylor, Mr. Christopher Pett, Mr. Tippett. Masters' attendants, Mr. Thomas Scott, Mr. Charles Thoro good, Mr. William Badley, Mr. Thomas Arkonstall. Officers of the Ordnance, Mr. Billers, Major Browne, Mr. Lewis Audley, Mr. John Faulkner, Mr. Wollaston, Mr. Elias Palmer. Officers of the Mint, Mr. Thomas Symond, chief graver , r. James Hoar, clerk for his highness ; Mr. John Rey- nolds, under assay-master ; Mr. Thomas Birch, weigher and eller; Mr. Richard Pitt, surveyor and clerk of the irons Hr. Samuel Bartlett, assay-master; Mr. Thomas Barnar- diston, comptroller; Doctor Aaron Gurdon, master of the Mint. Clerk of the papers, Mr. Ambrose Randolph. OLIVER CROMWELL. 641 Surveyor of the works, Mr. Embree. Keeper of the wardrobe at Whitehall, Mr. Clement Kin nersley. The Post-house, Mr. Clarke. Tellers of the Exchequer, Mr. Nicholas Bragg, Mr. Georgi Downing, Mr. Christopher Lyster, Mr. John Stone. Auditors of the revenue of his highness's Exchequer, Mr William Hill, Mr. Augustin Wingfield, Mr. Henry Broad Mr. John Brokett, Mr. John Edwards, Mr. Richard Sadler Auditor of the impress, Mr. Bartholomew Beale. Counsel attending the lords commissioners of the treasury Mr. Brereton, Mr. Manby. Three drums, with escutcheons of the arms of the Union. Three trumpets, with banners of the same. The banner of Union, borne by Colonel Grosvenor am Colonel Ashfield. A horse, covered with black velvet, adorned with plumes and garnished with a cheyeroii, and escutcheons of the same, led by two equerries in cloaks, and a groom in a coa to attend, &c. Officers of the fleet, Captains Ming, Newburg, Nixon Howard, Earning, Robert Sanders, Eustace Smith, Rober Blague, Whithorne Whetstone, Tittman, Blague, With' eridge, Poole, John Copping, Lambert, Anthony Young Harinan, Clark, Cuttavie. Judge-advocate Fowler, Sii Richard Stainer, Captain Stoaks. Officers of the army, Mr. Nathaniel Eldred, commissa- ry of provisions in Scotland ; Mr. Simon White, apotheca- ry ; Mr. Rossington, chirurgeon ; Mr. Samuel Barron, phy siciau in Scotland ; Mr. Knight, commissary of ammuni tion; Mr. Thomas Margetts, deputy advocate; Mr. Malin chief secretary to the army. Captains of horse and foot, Captains Henry Creer, Henry Creer, Jun. Commissioners for regulation of the excise, Mr. Adam Bains, Mr. Price, Mr. Bockett, Mr. John Stone. Committee of the navy, Mr. Henry Hatsell, Mr. George Paler, Mr. Peter Pett, Major Nathaniel Bourne, Mr. Rich- ard Hutchensou, Mr. Wright, Mr. Willoughby, Major Rob- ert Thomson. Commissioners of the army, Mr. John Phillips, Mr. John Hildesley, Mr. Gervais Bennett, Mr. Richard Lucy. Mr. Pierce, lecturer of Margaret's. Mr. Sangar, minister of Martin's. Ministers of Westminster, Mr. John Rowe, Mr. Seth Wood. Commissioners for approbation of public preachers, Mr. Holbeach, Mr. John Turner, Mr. Daniel Dyke, Mr. Samuei Fairclough, Mr. John Tombes, Mr. Samuel Slater, Mr. William Greenhill, Mr. Joseph Caryl, Mr. William Jessey, Mr. George Griffith, Mr. Thomas Valentine, Mr. Walter Cradock, Mr. William Cooper, Mr. Thomas Manton, Mr. Philip Nye, Mr. Thankful Owen, Dr. Horton, Dr. Arrow- smith, Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Dr. Tuckney, Dr. John Owen. Chaplains at Whitehall, Mr. White, Mr. Sterry, Mr. Hooke, Mr. Howe, Mr. Lockyer, Mr. Peters. Three drums, with escutcheons of the arms of Ireland. Three trnmpets, with banners of the same. The banner of Ireland, borne by Colonel Clarke and Colonel Salmon. A horse, covered with black velvet, adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheverou, and escutcheons of the same, led by two equerries, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Ireland, in cloaks, and a groom in a coat to attend <tc. Treasurer of the contingencies, Mr. Gaulter Frost. Council's solicitor, Mr. Beck. Secretaries of the French and Latin tongues, Mr. Dra- don, Mr. Marvel, Mr. Sterry, Mr. John Milton, Mr. Hart- libbe, Sen. Clerki of the signet, Mr. Samuel Moreland, Mr. James Nutley. Clerk* of the Privy-seal, Mr. Richard Whitehead, Mr. Miles Fleetwood. Clerk of the Council, Mr. Jessop. Clerk of the House of Commons, Mr. Smith. Clerk of the House of Lords, Mr. Scobell. Clerk of the Commonwealth, formerly clerk of the crown, Mr. Nathaniel Taylor. His highness's gentlemen. Majors John Chamberlain, William Farley, Nathaniel Cadwell, John Hill, Eaton, Robert Swallow, Holmes, Creed, John Pittman, Nicholas Andrews, John Grime, Peter Crisp, Abraham Holmes, Craufield, Greenleaf, Elleatson. Lieutenant-colonels John Miller, Richard Mope, Henry Flower, William Stile, Francis Allen, Dennis Pepper, Will- iam Cough, John Pierson, John Needier, Stevenson, John Clawberry, Arthur Young, Clement Keen. Adjutant-general for Scotland, Jeremiah Smith. Adjutants-general for England, Captain John Melthorpe, Major George Sedasene. Doctors of physic. Dr. Clarke, Dr. Goddard, Dr. Prujean, Dr. Simcotts, Dr. Bates, Dr. Glisson, Dr. Outburst. Advocate-general for Ireland, Dr. Cartwright. His highness's advocate, Dr. Walter Walker. Clerk comptroller, Mr. Ewer. Clerk of the green cloth, Mr. Harrington. 4 M r, Steward of the lands, Mr. Waterhouse. Cofferer, Mr. Maidstone. Head officers of the army. Lieutenant-colonel Elton, of foot, to the lord-general. Treasurers of the army, Captains Blackwell, Dean, Colonels Smith, Barry, Bridges, Rogers William Mitchell, Fitch ; Dr. William Staines, commis- sary-general of musters. Chief officers of the fleet. Rear-admiral Bourne, Vice-Ad- miral Goodson. Knights bachelors. Three drums, with escutcheons of the arms of Scotland. Three trumpets, with banners of the same. The banner of Scotland, borne by Lord Berry and Lord Cooper. A horse, covered with black velvet, adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheveron, and escutcheons of the same, led by two equerries in cloaks, and a groom in a coat to attend, &c. The chief officers and aldermen of London. Solicitor, auditor, remembrancer, comptroller, town clerk, common sergeant, chamberlain, judge of the Sheriff's Court, record- er, SirLislebone Long; Aldermen, 20. Attorney-general of South Wales, Mr. Jones. Judges of South and North Wales. Mr. Corbett, Mr. Hagatt, Mr. Bulstrode, Mr. Foxwist, Mr. Hoskins, Ser- geant Seys, Sergeant Barnard. Masters of the Chancery, 9. Mr. Pell, Mr. Bradshaw, Major-general Jephson. His highness's learned counsel. Attorney of the duchy, Mr. Nicholas Lechmere ; Solicitor-general, Sir William Ellis : Attorney-general, Sir Edmund Prideaux ; His high- ness's sergeants, Sergeant Maynard, Sergeant Earle. Judges of the Admiralty. Colonel Charles George Cock, Dr. Godolphin. Masters of requests. Mr. Francis Bacon, Mr. Nathaniel Bacon. Gentlemen of the bedchamber. Mr. Charles Harvey, Mr. Underwood. Master of the ceremonies, Sir Oliver Fleming. Chief-justice of Chester, Lord Bradshaw. Barons of the Exchequer, Richard Tomlins, John Parker, Roger Hill, Edmund Nicholas. Judges of both benches, Hugh Wyndham, Edward At- kins, Peter Warburton, Matthew Hale, Richard New- digate. Lord-chief-baron, Sir Thomas Widdrington. Lord-mayor of London, Sir John Ireton. Four drums, with escutcheons of the banner of England. Four trumpets, with banners of the same. The banner of England, borne by Lords Toinlinson and Hewson. A horse, covered with black velvet, adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheveron, and escutcheons of the same, led by two equerries in cloaks, and a groom to at- tend, &c. Relations. Lord Dunch, Sir Robert Pye, Jnn., Thomas Bouchier, John Bouchier, Esquires, John Dunch, Esq., Captain Fox, Thomas Cromwell, Esq., Captain Whetstone, Mr. Philip Loo, Mr. Edward Fleming, Mr. Edward Hooper, Mr. Edmund Phillips, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Thomas Crom- well, Mr. Hughes, Captain Hierome Ingoldsby, Captain Ingoldsby, Mr. John Whaley, Mr. Henry Whaley, Major Horseman. Public ministers of foreign states, commonwealths, princes, and kings. The Black Rod. Colonel Willonghby, gentlemen usher of the House of Peers, in a cloak, with an usher on his right hand, bare- headed. Sir. Secretary Thurloe, one of his highness's privy council. Peers. William lord Goffe, Edmund lord Thomas, John lord tlughson, John lord Barkstead, Robert lord Tichborn, Christopher lord Pack, Archibald lord Johnson, William lord Roberts, Thomas lord Honeywood, William lord Lock- lart, Alexander lord Popham, William lord Strickland, Richard lord Onslow, Sir Arthur Hazlerig, Philip lord Jones, comptroller of his highness's household, Francis lord Rouse, Philip lord Skippon, Charles lord Wolseley, Will- am Steel, lord-chamberlain of Ireland, William lord Len- :hall, master of the Rolls, John lord Glyn, chief-justice of ;he Upper Bench, George Monke, general in Scotland, Ed- ward lord Montague, Lord John Disbrowe, Roger lord Sroghill, George lord Enre, William lord viscount Say and Sele, Earl of Cassilis, Edward earl of Manchester, Henry ord Lawrence, president of the council: all their trains borne. [tie seal-bearer, supported by a gentleman usher, bare- headed, and a sergeant-at-arms, Sergeant Middle ton. Phe lords-commissioners of the Great Seal, John lord Lisle, Nathaniel lord Fiennes : trains borne. Ambassadors of foreign states, princes, and kings. Six drums, with escutcheons of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, <tr. Six trumpets, with banners of the same. 642 BRITISH STATESMEN. Sergeants-at-arms, Birkhead, Dendy. Rouge Dragon, poursuivant-at-arms. The great banner, borne by John lord Fiennes, Francis lord Ruisel, George lord Fleet-wood, close mourners : their trains borne. Cheval de Deuil, or the chief horse of mourning, covered with black velvet, same, led by two equerries in cloaks, and a groom in a coat to attend, &c Helm and crest, spurs, Lancaster. Gnuntlet, York. Target, Somerset. Sword, Norroy king of arms. Coat of arms. Clarencieux king of arms, supported on each side by a gentleman usher, bareheaded. adorned with plumes, and garnished with a cheveron of the Gent The lord-chamberlain, in close mourning, with his staff: his tram borne. Piece* of armour. 2 o. Pieces of armour. rt a S 1 V B A SJ Backs. 5 Gauntlett*. g 3 cq-n w P sr "o M 3 Vambrace and a, THE BODY. Brest. ~3 a poaldron sinister. g 3 Vambrace and s" g. 3 S S a o 4 Gorgett*. i g pould dextra. M 4 Helm and plume. * ST Garter principal king of arms ; on each side a gentleman usher, bareheaded. Charles lord Fleetwood, chief mourner. Philip lord-riscount Lisle, Lord-viscount Faulconberg, supporters to the chief mourner, their trains borne. Chief mourner'* train borne by Luke Skippon, Fiennes, Samuel Disbrowe, James Disbrowe, Gilbert Pickering, Esquires. Assistants to the chief mourner, fourteen in number. Horse of honour, ornamented in very rich trappings, em- broidered on crimson velvet, and adorned with white, red, and yellow plumes, led by the master of the horse ; equer- ries and grooms to attend. The Guard of Halberdiers, two and two Gentlemen porters of the Tower, warders of the Tower. The effigy in this manner being brought to the west gate of the Abbey Church of Westminster, it was taken from the chariot by ten gentlemen, who carried it to the east end of the church, and there placed with the wax effi- gies of the Protector, in a most magnificent structure, built in the same form as one before had been on the like occasion for King James, but much more stately and expensive, as the expenses attending the funeral amounted to upward of siity thousand pounds. This funeral procession was the last ceremony of honour to the most serene and most illustrious OLIVER CROM- WELL, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belong- ing ; to whom less could not be performed, to the memory of him to whom posterity will pay (when Envy is laid asleep by Time) more honour than I am able to express. But, alas ! how true are the words of the wise king, " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity ;" seeing that, after all this funeral pomp and grandeur, his dead body was lastly, by the coun- el of these men whom his power had raised to greatness Inscription over the Bed of State. OLIVER CROMWELL, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland ; Born at Huntingdon, Of the name of Williams, of Glamorgan, and by King Henry VIII. changed into Cromwell ; Was educated in Cambridge, afterward of Lincoln's Inn. At the beginning of the wars, captain of a troop of horse, raised at his own charge ; And bv the Parliament made commander-in-chief. He reduced Ireland and South Wales, Overthrew Duke Hamilton's army, the Kirk's army, at Dunbar ; Reduced all Scotland ; Defeated Charles Stuart's army at Worcester. He had two sons, Lord Richard, Protector in his father's room, Lord Henry, now lord-deputy of Ireland ; And four daughters, Lady Bridget, first married Lord Ireton, afterward Lieutenant-general Fleetwood ; Lady Elizabeth, married Lord (Maypole ; Ladv Mary, married Lord-viscount Faulconberg ; Lady Frances, married the Honourable Robert Rich, Grandchild to the Right Honourable the Earl of Warwick. He was declared Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, Dec. 16, 1653 ; Died Septembers, 1658, after fourteen days' sickness, of An ague, with great assurance and serenity of mind, Peaceably in hi* bed. Natus April 15, 1599. Dunkirk, in Flanders, surrendered to him, June 20, 1658. INDEX. ABBOT, archbishop of Canterbury, page 139. Acton, sheriff of London, 31. Archy, the famous jester of Charles I., 161. B. Baas, De, 573. Bacon, Lord-chancellor, 138. Baltimore, Lord, his letter to the Earl of Strafford, 68. Barbone, 547. Barebone's Parliament, list of the members of, 538. Com- mittees appointed by, 547. Their measures of reform, 555. Bates, a Turkish merchant, his case, 58. Baxter, Richard, his account of Cromwell's troops, 420. Beaumont, Sir Richard, his letter to Strafford, 65. "Bedford Level," 411. Bellasis, Henry, 78. Berkeley, Sir Robert, 179. Blake, Admiral, 312. His successes, 595. Sent in pursuit of the Spanish Plate fleet, 596. Bordeaux, M. de, French ambassador, 535, 547. Boston, controversy of the Autinomians at, 271. Bonchier, Sir James, 402. Bouchier, Elizabeth, her marriage with Oliver Cromwell, 402. Her character, 403. Bradshaw appointed president of the Council of State, 306. Chosen president of the Court of Commissioners, 372. His character, 373. His address to Charles I. on his trial, 374. Pronounces sentence on Charles I., 375. Amount of lands settled on him by the government, 380. His answer to Cromwell on the latter coming to dissolve the executive council, 382. His motion whether the House should approve of the system of government by a single person and a Parliament, 580. Brooke, Lord, his address to his soldiers, 256. His death, 258. Buckingham, Duke of, II. Impeachment of, 14. Com- mands an expedition for the relief of Rochelle, 19. A remonstrance voted against certain of his proceedings, 28. Assassination of, 29. Burnet, Bishop, extract from, 422. Butler, Sir Francis, 358. Byron, Lord, besieges Nantwich in Cheshire, 433. C. Calvert, Sir George, 64, 142. Cambridge College, 432. Carleton, Sir Dudley, vice-chancellor to Charles I., his memorable expostulation to the House of Commons, 16. Carlile, Lucy Percy, Countess of, her character, 203. Par- ticipates in Curing's army plot, 204. Carlisle, siege of, 4s9. Chambers, Richard, 155. Clialgrcive Field, battle of, 259. Charles I., his first Parliament, 5. Dissolves the. Parlia- ment, 9. His insolent message to the House of Commons concerning Buckingham, 13. His rage on hearing of Eliot's speech against Buckingham, 15. His " new coun- cils," 16. Executes a forced loan, 17. His famous third Parliament, 19. Attempts to get hold of the subsidies, 20. His message to the House of Commons, threatening to end the session, 22. His answer to the Petition of Rights, 23. His message to the House, acquainting them that the session would end in six days, 27. His speech to the Commons, 28. Measures adopted towards him by the House of Commons, 28. His speech on proroguing Par- liament, 29. Dissolves the Parliament, 34. His letter to the Earl of Strafford during his imprisonment, 124. His letter to the Lords on the condemnation of Strafford, 128. The duties of tonnage and poundage rigorously extorted by him, 155. Dissolves the Parliament, 174. His imbe- cile measures, 176. His perfidy, 182. His cold and la- conic remark on hearing of the Irish rebellion, 206. The grand remonstrance presented to him at Hampton Court, 209. His entrance into the House of Commons to accuse Pym and the four other members of high treason, 213. Enters the city in search of these five members, 214. His speech denouncing Sir John a traitor, 219. De- nounces the militia ordinance as illegal, 221. Erects his standard at Nottingham, 222. His address to his officers at the battle of Edgo Hill, 256. His spirit of intrigue, 318. Signs a secret treaty with the Scots commission- ers, 366. Charges brought against him, 371. His trial, 374. His last appearance in Westminster Hall, 374. His execution, 376. His character, 376, 438, 459, 461 , 469. Charles II., 489, 571. Clare, Lord, his letter to Lord Strafford, 66. Clarendon, Lord, extracts from his works, 183, 208, 443. Claypole, son-in-law of Cromwell, proposes the question on the legal confirmation of the major-generals, 603. Cleaveland, John, opposes Cromwell in the election for Cambridge, 412. His imprisonment, 412. His definition of Protector, 413. Clifford, Lord, 68. Coke, Solicitor, counsel for the prosecution of Charles I., 374. Conisby, Sir Thomas, 423. Cony, a merchant, his case, 597. Cooke, Secretary, 12. Cottiugton, Lord, his letter to the Earl of Strafford, 79. Cotton, Mr., minister of the Boston church, 274. Cowley, the poet, extract from his " Vision," 441 Cowell, Dr., 58. Crew, Mr., 174. Cromwell, Oliver, ancestry of, 392. His parents, 394. Character of his mother, 394. Anecdotes of his child- hood, 396. His school days, 397. Enters Cambridge College, 398. Milton's address to him, 399. Death of his father, 400. Enters Lincoln's Inn, 400. His irregu- larities, 400. His marriage, 402. Character of his wife, 403. Attaches himself to the Non-conformists, 403. Re- turned member of Parliament for Huntingdon, 404. His letter to Mr. Downtell, inviting him to stand sponsor for his child, 405. His first entrance into Westminster Hall description of his person, 405. His religious exercises, 407. Appointed justice of peace for Huntingdon, 407. Removes to St. Ives, 407. His influence, 408. His letter to Mr. Storie, 408. Removes to Ely, 409. His letter to Mrs. St. John, 410. Takes part in the question on the Bedford Level, 411. Returned member for Cambridge, 412. Takes part in the debate on the "Remonstrance,'' 419. His exertions for forming his famous regiment of Ironsides, 420. Accepts the commission of colonel of a troop, 420. His military discipline, 421. His address to his soldiers, 422 His victory at Grantham, 425. De- feats Colonel Cavendish at Gainsborough, 425. His first acquaintance with Ireton, 426. Appointed Lieutenant- governor of the Isle of Ely, 432. His letter to his broth- er-in-law after the battle of Marston Moor, 437. His de- feat at Dennington, 439. His letter to the Governor of Edinburgh Castle, 447. His letter to Lord Wharton, 449. His letter to Bridget Ireton, 450. Anecdotes of him, 451. Appointed lieutenant-general of horse. 459. His letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons after the battle of Naseby, 461. Defeats Goring at Taunton, 462. His action with the Clubmen, 462. His account of the siege of Bristol, 463. His letter giving an account of the siege of Basing, 464. Takes Langford House, 465. Fights Lord Wentworth at Bovey Tracy, 465. His strict mili- tary honour, 465. 2500 a year settled on him by Par- liament, 465. His letter to Colonel Robert Hammond, 468. His measure to hinder the reduction of the army, 469. Marches into Wales, and reduces Pembroke, 469. His bold and successful measures with the disaffected portion of his troops, 469. His letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, after the battle of Preston, 470. Marches into Scotland, 471. His reception in Edinburgh, 472. Negotiates a marriage for his son Richard with the daughter of Mr. Major, 472. Anecdotes of him at the time of the execution of Charles I., 477. Made Lord- lieutenant of Ireland, 478. His letters to Mr. Major from Bristol, 478. Arrives in Dublin, 479. Takes Drogheda, 480. Invests Wexford, 481. Breaks up the siege of Waterford, 481. Re-opens the campaign, 461. Takes Clonmel, 481. Appoints Ireton deputy, and sails for England, 481. Appointed general-in-chief of the army, 484. Defeats the Scots at Musselburgh, 484. Gains the victory of Dunbar, 486. Occupies Glasgow and Edin- burgh, 489. Attacked with ague, 489. Gains the vic- tory of Worcester, 490. His exultation, 491 . 4000 a year voted to him, and a royal residence ordered to be prepared for him, 493. Commissioners sent to congratu- late him on his arrival at Aylesbury, 493. Takes his seat in Parliament, 493. Forces the House to pass a bill of amnesty, 495. Holds a meeting at the speaker's house, 495. Whitelocke's account of this conference, 496. Holds a council of officers at Whitehall to petition against military retrenchment, 498. His conference with Lord- commissioner Whitelocke whether he should take the title of king, 500. Description of the meetings and di- 644 BRITISH STATESMEN. tensions ofhis military cabal, 504. Proposes the " Coun- cil of Forty," 508. Enters Westminster with his sol- diers, and forcibly dissolves the Parliament, 510. His address to the House, 510. His address to the Council of State, 512. His " Declaration of the grounds and rea- IOBS for dissolving the Parliament," 513. Establishes a new Council of Slate, 533. Form of the summons issued for the Barebones Parliament, 537. His memorable ad- dress to his first Parliament, 540. A deputation sent to him from Parliament to become one of their members, 545. His transport on hearing of the victory of the English fleet over the Dutch, 548. His repulsive treatment of the Dutch ambassadors, 549. His gratitude to the Eng- lish admirals, 551. His measures for establishing a high court of justice, 553. His letter to his son-in-law Fleet- wood, 554. Opposes the vote for abolishing the Court of Chancery, 559. Receives the resignation of Parliament, 564. Solemnly inaugurated, in Westminster Hall, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Ireland, and Scotland, 566. Revives the forms of monarchy, 566. His various ordinances, 568. Conciliates the Presbytery, 570. Cajoles the Arminians, 570. His manner of treat- ing with the Royalists, 571. Plot for his assassination, 572. Erects a high court of justice for the trial of the leading conspirators, 572. The regal state which he as- sumes, 573. His treaty with the Dutch, 574. Congrat- ulatory addresses presented to him, 575. An entertain- ment given to him in the city, 578. His speech on the opening of Parliament, 579. His excitement on the de- bate on Bradshaw's motion, 581. His remonstrance with the House of Commons on their refusing to acknowledge the House of Lords, 582. His address to the members who waited on him in the Painted Chamber, 582.' An ominous occurrence befalls him, 584. Summons the Parliament to meet him in the Painted Chamber, 587. His address to them, 587. His instructions to the major- generals, 590. Equips and sends an army for the inva- sion of the American colonies, 594. His sagacity, 594. His letter to Major-general Fortesque, 594. Signs a treaty with France, 595. His projects concerning the Jews, 595. Summons another Parliament, 597. His in- terview with his military satellites, 599. His address to the members of the new Parliament, 599. Disannuls the title of Charles Stuart, 602. Provides additional safe- guards for his person, 602. His measures to conciliate the people, 603. The Sexby and Syndercombe plot against his life, 603. His answer to the officers that waited on him, entreating him not to accept the title of king, 604. Refuses to take the title of king, 606. His memorable speech refusing to take the title of king, 609. Solemnly inaugurated Lord Protector for life, with power to name his successor, 609. His remonstrance to the Grand Seignor respecting the unjust surprisal of an Eng- lish ship, 611. Establishes a House of Peers, 613. For- cibly dissolves the House of Commons, 616. His fears for his personal safety, 616. His domestic sorrows, 617. Redoubles his precautions for his personal safely, 617. His grief for the death of his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Claypole, 618. His death, 620. Cromwell, Richard, birth of, 405. Proclaimed Lord Pro- tector, 620. Cromwell, Colonel Henry, nephew to the Protector, 603. Cromwell, Henry, sou of the Protector, 569. D. Dean, Admiral, 548. Dering, Sir Edward, 221. De Witt, Admiral, his address to the States-General of Holland, 549. Digges, Sir Dudley, 14. " Discovery of Mysteries," 253. D'Israeli, Mr., 3, 11. Down, Bradock, battle of, 426. Dunbar, battle of, 486. Dutch War, the, 311. E. Edge Hill, battle of, 256. Echard, Archdeacon, 1. Extracts from his history, 4. Eliot, Sir John, his descent, 1. His birth, 1. His quarrel with Mr. Moyle, 1. His letters to Mr. Movie, 2. Be- comes a barrister, 3. Visits the Continent, 3. Returns home, 3. Made Vice-admiral of Devonshire, 4. Re- ceives the honour of knighthood, 4. His letter to the Duke of Buckingham, 5. Returned member for the Borough of Newport, 6. His first speech, 6. Again re- turned for Newport, 9. His motion on the adjournment of Parliament to Oxford, 10. His public honesty illus- trated, 11. His address to the House of Commons to prevent farther supplies to the French king, 12. Ap- pointed one of the secret managers to prepare an im- peachment of Buckingham, 12. Returned member for Cornwall, 13. His speech in the House of Commons, 6th of February, 1626, 13. His speech on the impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham, 14. Committed to the Tower, 15. His reappearance ni the House of Commons, to answer the charges brought against him, 16. Cleared from every imputation, 16. His imprisonment in the Gatehouse, 18. His release and return for Cornwall, 19. His rebuke of Secretary Cooke, 20. His speech on the proposed shortness of the session, 22. His speech on the king's answer to the Petition of Rights, 24. His protest, 27. His letter to Sir Robert Cotton, 29. His reply to Sir Robert Philips, on the seizure of the goods of Mr. Holies, 30. His speech on the alteration of the Articles of Religion, 31. His remonstrance concerning tonnage and poundage, 33. His speech against the Bishop of Winchester and Lord-treasurer Weston, 33. Summoned before the council table, 34. His committal, 34. His rigorous imprisonment, 35. His letter to Hampden, 36. His letters to his sons, 36. His letter to Sir Oliver Luke complaining of his imprisonment, 38. His letter to his kinsman Knightley, 38. His letter to Hampden on his illness, 38. His letter to Hampden complaining of in- creasing restrictions, 39. Hit likeness to Sir Walter Raleigh, 39. His portrait, 40. His death, 41. Philo- sophical treatise written by him during his imprison- ment, 43. England, ecclesiastical constitutinn of, 185. Essex, Earl of, his letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons after the battle of Chalgrove, 261. Extract from his Life, 428. Ewer, his evidence, 376. Exeter, Earl of, his letter to Lord Strafford, 90. F. Fairfax made Constable of the Tower, 304. His victory at Selby, 433. Appointed lord-general of the army, 457. Falkland, Lord, 82. Faulconberg, Lord, 611. Feakes, Mr. Christopher, 569 Fitz-Geoffry, Charles, dedicates his sermon on the death of Lady Rous to Pym, 135. Fleetwood, his marriage with Bridget Ireton, 504. His opposition to Sir Christopher Pack's motion, 604. Forster, Chief Justice, 334. Foulis, Sir David, deputy-lieutenant and member of tha Council of York, 78. Information exhibited in the Star Chamber against him by the Earl of Strafford, 78. Sen- tence of the court on him and his son, 79. Fox, James Charles, extracts from his " Fragment of His- tory," 377. G. Garrard, Mr., extracts from his letters, 155, 158. Gerard, Colonel, execution of, 572. Godwin, Mr., extracts from his History of the Common- wealth, 296, 307. Goodwin, Arthur, 256. Greenwood, Mr., tutor to the Earl of Strafford, 55. Grenville, Sir Bevill, declares himself for Charles, 423. Publishes a commission of array, 423. His correspond- ence with his wife, 424, 427. Grey, Lord, of Groby, 588. H. Hale, Judge Matthew, 581. Hampden, John, his birth, 241. Early education of, 241. Enters Oxford College, 242. His marriage, 242. Takes his seat as member for Grampound, 242. His memorable words on refusing the loan to Charles 1., 243. Returned member for Wendover, 243. Associated with Pym, St. John, Selden, and Coke, on the Committee of Bills, 243. His letters to Eliot concerning the children of the latter, 244. His letter to Richard Eliot, 245. His letter to Eliot containing his criticism on the " Monarchy of Man," 245. Death of his wife, 247. Signs the protest against ship-money, 247. Description of his residence at Hamp- den, 248. Clarendon's account of him, 248. Declines pleading for Archbishop Williams, 249. His second mar- riage, 249. Clarendon's statement of his real opinions on the anti-episcopal measure, 251. His speech on the impeachment of the five members, 251. Returns to Buck- inghamshire, 253. Publishes an ordinance to martial the militia, 253. Accepts the commission of colonel, 253. Musters his levies on the field of Chalgrove, 254. En- gaged in the battle of Reading, 257. His domestic sor- rows, 257. Receives his death wound at the battle of Chalgrove, 259. Lord Nugent's account of him, 262. His death, 262. Clarendon's character of him, 264. Haughton, Lord, 68. Henderson, Sir John, 431. Henrietta, Queen, 199. Herbert, Attorney-general, 210. Heylin, Dr., 253. Hollis, Denzil, his letters to Wentworth, 69. His scheme for the preservation of the Earl of Strafford, 128. Hotham, Sir John, 174. Hutchinson, Mrs., her character, 272. Her controversy with the Colony of Massachusetts, 272. Accused of heresy, 272. Her doctrines, 273, 523. INDEX. 645 I. Independents, the, 293. Ingram, Sir Arthur, his letter to the Earl of Stratford, 66. Ireland, the Court of High Commission introduced into, 100. A mint erected in, 104. The linen trade first established in, 105. Ireton, his character, 426. His attack on the outposts of Charles, 460. His death, 495. His funeral, 495. Isle of Wight, treaty of, 304. J. Jamaica, taking of, by Pen, 594. James I. remonstrates with Parliament on the impeach- ment of Lord Middleton, 9. His first interview with his English counsellors, 56. His impositions on imports and exports, 58. Refuses to abolish purveyance, 58. An amusing anecdote of him, 64. His letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, on receiving a copy of the "Remonstrance," 140. Assembles his privy council at Whitehall, 143. Dissolves the Parliament by proclama- tion, 143. Jenkins, Judge, accused of high treason against the House of Commons, 358. His answer to the speaker, 358. His intended speech at the place of execution, 359. Jongestall, Dutch ambassador, his interesting despatch to Frederic of Nassau, 575. Kirke, Colonel, 257. K. L. Lambert, Colonel, rejects the appointment of Governor of Ireland unaccompanied by the title of lord-deputy, 503. His opposition to Sir Christopher Pack's motion, 604. Laud, Archbishop, his celebrated schedule of ecclesiastics, 10. His letter to Wentworth on his marriage, 88. His levities, 89. His personal appearance, 89. His letter to the Earl of Exeter, 89. His letter to Lord Strafford on the general affairs of church and state, 99. Accused of high treason, 179; and committed to the Tower, 179. Lawrence, Colonel Henry, president of the council under the protectorate, 567. Leicester, Earl of, his account of Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament, 314. Lenthall elected speaker, 580. Leslie, David, commander-in-chiefof the Scottish army, his success over Cromwell at Dunbar, 484. Lilburne, John, 358. Promotes dissension in the army Committed to the Tower, 379. Banishment of, 551. His proposal for the murder of Cromwell and destruction of the council of state, 551. His letter to Cromwell offering nis allegiance, 551. Committed to Newgate, 551. Ar- raigned on the capital charge of violating the statute of his banishment, 552. His trial and acquittal, 553. Lindsey, Lord, 256. Ludlow, extracts from, concerning the designs of Cromwell, 443, 445, 523. Loftus, Sir Adam, 93, 114. London, hackney-coaches first introduced into, 156. Louis, Charles, Prince, elector of the palatinate His cor- respondence with his mother, 415. Luusford, Colonel, 209. M. Manchester, Earl of, 455. Mainwaring, Dr., his case, 150. His sentence, 154. Marshall, Dr., his sermon on the death of Pym, 231. Marston Moor, battle of, 435. Marten, Henry, his birth and parentage, 353. His marriage, 353. Returned member for Berkshire, 353. Anecdote of him, 353. Another anecdote of him, 354. Appointed one of the " Committee of Safety," 355. Made Governor of Reading, 355. Anecdote of him, 356. Expelled the House and committed to the Tower, 357. His reinstate- ment, 358. Anecdote of him, 358. His successful inter- ference in behalf of Judge Jenkins, 358. Preserves the life of the author of Gondibert, 359. His answer to the Scotch Commissioners, 360. Draws up a resolution de- claring " that they would offer no farther addresses or applications to the king," 366. Joins Fairfax in hi* ca- pacity of colonel Assists Ireton in his famous papers and representations to the House of Commons, 267, 268. Takes part iu the deliberation against the king, 371. Carries the report of the committee into the House of Commons for the construction of a new great seal, 372. Anecdote of him, 372. Associated with others in prepa- ring the "draught" for the penal sentence against King Charles, 374. An extraordinary scene between him and Cromwell on the signing of the warrant for Charles's ex- ecution, 376. Takei a prominent part in the debate for the abolition of kingship, 378. Takes his seat in the Council of State, 378. Proposes the repeal of the statute of banishment against the Jews, 378. His interference in behalf of John Lilburne, 360. Amount of property settled on him in consequence of the losses he sustained in the public service, 380. His suspicions of Cromwell'* designs, 380. Excluded from the Council of State, 381 . A few instances of his humour, 381. His trial at the Old Bailey, 387. His address to the Court, 389. Sum- moned before the Lords, 390. His sentence, 390. Hi* imprisonment, 390. Anecdote of him, 390. His death, 391. Mason, Colonel, with other officers, presents a petition to Parliament against Cromwell taking the title of king, 608. Meadows, Philip, secretary for the Latin tongue, 567. Mercurius Aulicus, 223. Mercurius Britannicus, 223. Milton, his letter to Cromwell, 317. Made secretary to the council for foreign tongues, 378. Ill* congratulatory ad- dress to Cromwell on the conclusion of peace with the Dutch, 576. Conduct* the negotiations with the Duke of Savoy, 596. Monk, Admiral, replaces Blake in the command of the navy, 547. Issues a memorable and characteristic order through, bis ships, 550. Gains a decisive victory over the Dutch, 550. His mission to Scotland, 570. Montague. Dr., his case, 145. Montjoy, Lord, 82. Mountnorris, Lord, vice-treasurer of Ireland, 86. Accused of an attempt to stir up mutiny, 108. A charge brought against him by the Earl of Stratford His trial, 108. His sentence, 108. Intercession of hi* wife, 108. His par- don, 109. Muggletonians, 602. N. Nalson, Dr., 253. Naseby, battle of, 297. Neal, extract from his " History of the Puritans," 527. Newbury, battle of, 428. Newcastle, Marquis of, 437. Newport, Lord, 215. Nicholas, Sir Edward, his letter to the king at the time of Goring's army plot, 204. His letter to the king detailing the attempts on Pym's life, 207. P. Pack, Sir Christopher, 604. Palmer, Sir Geoffrey, 334. Pantaleon Sa, Don, 547. Pautaleon, trial and execution of, 573. " Parliament of Saints," 555. Parsons, Sir William, 93. "Pell Records," 416. Pen commands a fleet for the invasion of the American col- onies, 593, 594. His defeat, 594. Pennyman, William, intrusted with the care of Lord Straf- ford's children, 80. Philips, Sir Robert, his capture and imprisonment, 143. Focock, professor of Hebrew and Arabic, 569. Port Eliot, 1. Pory, his letter to Sir Robert Puckering, giving an account of the proceedings of Sir John Eliot to obtain his liberty, 40. Powell, Vavasor, 569. Poynings, Sir Edward, 82. Pride, Colonel, 370, 608. Prideaux, Mr., his bill for yearly Parliaments, 183. Prideaux, Sir Edmund, 525. Presbyterians, 293. Preston, battle of, 470. Pym, John, his birth, 135. His descent, 135. His mar- riage Death of his wife, 135. Returned member for Calne, 137. Deputed, with eleven others, to bring the declaration and petition of the Commons to the king at Newmarket, 141. Returned member for Tavistock, 144. Hi* proceedings against Dr. Montague, 145. His speech on the impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham, 146. His imprisonment and release, 148. His exertions during the progress of the Petition of Rights, 149. His speech in the case of Dr. Mainwaring, 150. Takes part in the debate on Arminianism, 154. His acute feeling on th desertion of Wentworth, 154. Appointed leader in th House of Commons, 162. Petitioning Parliament first or- ganized as a system by him, 163. The bearer of an ad- dress from the Commons to the Lords His memorable words, 173. Hi* correspondence with the Scotch Com- missioner*, 175. Presents a petition for a Parliament to the king at York, 176. Anecdote of him, 177. His speech on the impeachment of Lord Stratford, 177. Appears at the bar of the House of Lords to accuse Lord Stratford, 179. His view* reupecting church government, 180. His speech on presenting the articles of impeachment against the Earl of Stratford, 183. Extracts from his speeches on the trial of Lord Stratford, 185, 168, 192. Chosen by the Commons to justify the impeachment of Laud, 195. Ko- 646 INDEX. marks on his frequent recurrence to the phraseology of Scripture, 198. Disclosures made by his committee of conspiracies against the Parliament and people, 199. His speech on delivering a charge against Lord Dighy, 201. Conducts a conference with the Lords " concerning the security of the kingdom and Parliament," 205. Counsels the re introduction of the bill against the bishops, 205. His personal danger, 207. Presents the grand remon- strance, 208. Resolutions proposed by him to the House of Lords on the king's answer to the bill for raising sol- diers by impressment, 209. His address to the speaker of the House of Commons on the articles of impeach incut, 211. Petition and defence drawn up by his friends, 214. His triumphant return to the House of Commons, 215. His speech on presenting the London petition to the House of Lords, 215. His motion for disposing of the militia, 221. His speech in the case of Sir Edward Bering, 221. His address to the authorities at Guildhall, 223. His speech on the manifesto of Charles I., 225. His speech on Waller's Plot (vide Appendix), 227. Impeaches the queen, 227. His " declaration and vindication" (vide Ap- pendix), 228. His illness, 228. His death, 229. Respect shown to his memory by the House of Commons, 230. His family and estates, 232. R. Radcliffe, Sir George, 87. Extract from his Essay, 90. Raynal, Abbe, extract from his " History of the Parliament of England," 524. Reading, battle of, 257. Retz, Cardinal, extract from his Memoirs, 534. Rich, Mr., 612. Richelieu, Cardinal, 30. Rolles, John, 30. Rouse, Lady Philippa, mother of Pym, 135. Rupert, Prince, 428. Takes Stockport, Bolton, and Liver- pool, and raises the siege of Latham House 435. Re- treat after the battle of Marston Moor, 437. Rush-worth, 213. Ruthven, Earl of Brentford, 433. S. St. John, Oliver, 465. Sandys, Sir Edwyn, 140. Savile, Sir George, 61. Savile, Sir John, 61. Scot, his speech refusing to recognise Cromwell's House of Lords, 383. Scotland, union of, with England, 310. Selden, 530. " Self-denying Ordinance," 456, 457. Sexby, Colonel, 596. Sheffield, Lord, president of the north, his letter to Elles- mere, 61. Skippon, Major-general, 215, 256. Slingsbyand Hewet, plot of, 617. Stratford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of, 55. His birth, 55. Ancestry of, 55. Education of, 55. Obtains the honour of knighthood, 55. His marriage, 56. Returned as a member for Yorkshire, 59. His letter to Mr. Greenwood, 60. Appointed to the office of custos rotulorum for the West Riding, 61. His letter to his brother-in-law, Lord Clifford, alluding to Parliaments, 63. His letter to Sir Edward Conway in behalf of his brother Michael, 63. His letter to Sir George Calvert, 64. Deprived of his office of custos rotulorum, 67. His letter to Sir William Weston,67. Receives the privy seal, 68. Committed to the Marshalsea, 69. Removed to Uartford in Kent, 69. His speeches on the discussion of the general question of grievances, 69. Created baron of Wentworth, 69. His letter to his nephew, Sir W. Savile, 72. His letters to Thomas Gower and other friends on his election of knight ef the shire of York, 73. His letter to Sir Thomas Fair- fax, 74. Created viscount and president of the north, 76. Claims for himself the most absolute reverence and re- spect as the representative of royalty, 78. His letter to Lord Cottington concerning the trial of Sir David Foulis, 79. Death of his second wife, 80. His letter to Sir Ed- ward Stanhope, 80. Intrigues against him, 81. His let- ter to Weston, 81. Appointed governor of Ireland, 83. His despatches from York, 83. Arrives in London, 84. His letter to the lords justices of Ireland, 84. His stipu- lations, 85. His supplementary private propositions, 85. His letter to Lord Mountnorris. 87. His third marriage, 88. Arrives in Dublin, 92. His first despatch, 92. His letter to the lord-marshal, 93. His privy council, 93. His elaborate despatch to the secretary for the consideration of the king, 95. Issues writs for a Parliament to be held in Dublin, 96. His speech to the privy council, 96. His first speech in the Irish House of Commons, 97. His man- agement of the convocation of the clergy, 98. His ac- count of the proceedings in the Irish House of Lords, Q8. Introduces the Court of High Commission into Ireland, 100. Success of his measures for reducing the people of Ire- land to conformity in religion, 102. Presses a personal suit on the king, 102. His care of the army, 103. His increasing reputation, 103. His objections to take the office of lord-treasurer, 104. His struggles to rescue the trade of Ireland from restrictions and monopolies, 104. His project for establishing the linen trnde in Ireland, 105. His letter to Mr. Greenwood respecting his estates in Wentworth Woodhouse, 105. Reduces Connaught, 107. Opposition which he meets with, 107. The enmity which he provokes by his prosecution of Lord Monntnorris, 109. Appears at the English court Details the measures by which he consolidated the government of Ireland, 109. His letter from York to the king, 110. Again entreats for an earldom, and is again refused. 111. Returns to Ireland, 111. His financial measures, 111. His letter to the king on the conduct of Lord Holland, 112. His castle at Naas, 112. Magnificence of his mode of living, 113. His private habits, 113. His advice concerning the com- motions in Scotland, 114. Puts down the commotions of the Scotch settlers in Ulster, 114. His despatches on tho "Antrim negotiations," 115. His letter to Lady Clare when sending her his daughters, 115. Arrives in England, 117. Declares for a war with Scotland, 117. Invested with the dignity of Earl of Strafford, 117. And Lord- lieutenant of Ireland, 117. His letter to the king previous to his return to England, 118. Extract from his despatch, relating an extraordinary incident which occurred on his journey, 118. His letter to Windebanke, 119. Arrives in London, 120. Takes his seat in the House of Lords, 120. Commands an expedition against the- Scots, 120. Intrigues against him-, 120. His success against the Scots, 120. His impeachment, 121. His arrest, 121. His letter to Lady Strafford, 121. Summary of the char- ges brought against him, 122. His address to the Lords, 124. His trial, 125. His personal defence, 125. Bill of attainder passed against him, 127. His letter of final in- structions to his sun, 130. His execution, 131. " Strafford Papers," 59. Sydenhum, Colonel, 563 Taylor, Jeremy, 592. Temple, Sir Peter, 247. Temple, Sir Purbeck, 388. Thurloe, secretary of state, his letters to Henry Cromwell, giving an account of the illness and death of Oliver Crom- well, 620. Tromp, Van, 312, 550. Ume, Colonel, 257, 259. Uxbridge, treaty of, 294. U. V. Vane, Henry, the elder, 265. Vane, Sir Henry, the younger, his birth, 2fi5. His parent- age, 265. Early education of, 266. Enters Magdalen College, Oxford, 266. His disaffection in matters of re- ligion, 266. Causes which moved him to a voluntary exile, 267. Characteristic circumstances which awaited him on board the passage ship, 267. Arrives at Boston, 267. Made governor of Massachusetts, 268. His admin- istration, 268. The incidents which led to the hostilities against him, 269. Passages from Sykes attributed to him, 270. His influence with the people of the colony, 271. His entrance into Salem, 271. His return to Bos- ton, 271. His religions essays, 275. Advocates the cause of Mrs. Hutchinson, 276. His answer to Winthrop, 277. Departs from America, 278. His marriage, 280. Re- turned member for Kingston-upon-Huli, 280. United with Sir William Russell as treasurer of the navy, 280. His evidence against the Earl of Strafford, 281. Dis- tinguishes himself in all matters of religious reform, 282. Appointed sole treasurer of the navy, 263. His embassy to Scotland, 284. Foils the treacherous intrigues of the Duke of Hamilton, 285. Signs the Solemn League and Covenant proposed to be adopted in England, 286. Ex- tract from his work entitled the " Retired Man's Medita- tions," 287. His definition of what a civil magistrate's authority should be restricted to, 292. His policy in the natter of the Self-denying Ordinance and the New Model, 294. His essay on government, 300. His treatise, " The People's Case stated," 300. Appointed one of the chief commissioners to represent the Republican party at the treaty in the Isle of Wright, 304, His speech on the question of a Monarchy or a Republic, 304. HIS retire- ment to Raby Castle, 05. Refuses to take the oath pre- sented to him bv the Parliament of the Commonwealth, 306. Placed at" the head of the affairs of the army and navy, 306. His uneasiness respecting the dissolution of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth, 308. H is ad- ministration of the naval affairs, 309. His speech for the exclusion of Scotch nominees, 310. His unparalleled ef- INDEX. 647 forts to increase the navy, 312. Milton's famous sonnet to him, 312. His exertions to avert the despotism of Cromwell, 313. His last effort to sustain the Republic, 315. Provisions of the bill on which he and Cromwell disagreed, 316. Retires to Raby Castle, 317. His polit- ical treatise, entitled " A Healing Question," 318. " Eng- land's Remembrancer" ascribed to him, 320. Summoned before the council, 320. His answer to the order issued against him, 320. His arrest and imprisonment, 321. His liberation, 321. Returned member for Whitechurch in Hampshire, in Richard Cromwell's Parliament, 322. His speech on the debate upon the question of a recogni- tion of Richard Cromwell, 322. His speech on the prop- osition of Secretary Thurloe on going into details connect- ed with the war, 325. His speech on the petition of the Barbadoes prisoners, 326. Heads of his bill for the set- tlement of government, 330. His imprisonment in one of the isles of Scilly, 330. His meditations on death, 331. His letter to his wife, 332. His removal to the Tower, 333. His arraignment, 333. His address to his judges, 333. His trial, 334. His appeal on the last day of his trial, 339. His exhortations and prayers previous to his execution, 339. His address to the people, 341. Hi ex- ecution, 342. Vaudois, massacre, the, 595. W. Waisby Field, battle of, 431. Waller's plot, 226. Warwick, Earl of, 306. Warwick, Sir Philip, 414, 425. " Weekly Accompt," 363. " Weekly Intelligencer," 362. Weslon, Lord-treasurer, 30, 103. Whitelocke, his description of the troops raised by Crom- well, 303. His embassy to the Queen of Sweden, 554, 576. Wildman, Colonel, 588. Williams, Archbishop of York, 138, 209. Wilson, Mr., minister of the Boston church, 274. Winthrop, Governor of Boston, 276. Worcester, battle of, 490. York, siege of, 433, 439. Y. THE END. VALUABLE NEW AND STANDARD WORKS IN THE SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE, PUBLISHED BY ri-n Inf AGRICULTURE, DOMESTIC ECONOMY, ETC, ARMSTRONG'S TREATISE ON AGRICULTURE: ed- ited by HIT EL, 50 cents. BEECHER'S DOMESTIC ECONOMY, 75 cents. -- HOUSEKEEPER'S RECEIPT-BOOK. BUEL'S FARMER'S INSTRUCTOR, $1 00. CHAPTAL'S CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICUL- TURE, 50 cents. GARDNER'S FARMER'S DICTIONARY, Engravings. GAYLORD AND TUCKER'S AMERICAN HUSBAND- KY, $1 00. KITCHENER'S COOK'S ORACLE AND HOUSE- KEEPER'S MANUAL, 88 cents. 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