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England, destined by their position to form one vigorous monarchy, could [PART II. never have attained as separate and hostile kingdoms.

Dazzled with the glory of giving a master to their rich and powerful rivals, and relying on the partiality of their native prince, the Scots expressed no less joy than the English at this increase of their sovereign's dignity; and as his presence was necessary in England, where the people were impatient to see their new king, James instantly prepared to leave Edinburgh, and set out for London without delay. In his journey, crowds of his English subjects every where assembled to welcome him: great were the rejoicings, and loud and hearty the salutations that resounded from all sides. But James, who wanted that engaging affability, by which Elizabeth had captivated the hearts of her people; and who, although social and familiar among his friends and courtiers, could not bear the fatigue of rendering himself agreeable to a mixed multitude; James, who, though far from disliking flattery, was still fonder of ease, unwisely issued a proclamation forbidding such tumultuous resort. (1) A disadvantageous comparison between his deportment and that of his illustrious predecessor was the consequence; and if Elizabeth's frugality in conferring honours had formerly been repined at, it was now justly esteemed, in consequence of that undistinguishing profusion with which James bestowed them.(2)

The king's liberality, however, in dispensing these honours, it sumed, would have excited less censure in England, had they not been shared may be preout, with other advantages, in too unequal proportions to his Scottish courtiers, a numerous train of whom accompanied him to London. Yet it must be owned, in justice to James, whose misfortune it was, through his whole reign, to be more guided by temper and inclination than by the rules of political prudence, that he left all the great offices of state in the hands of Elizabeth's ministers, and trusted the conduct of public affairs, both foreign and domestic, for a time, to his English subjects. with whom he held a private correspondence during the latter years of the Among these secretary Cecil, reign of Elizabeth, and who had smoothed his way to the throne, was regarded as his prime minister and chief counsellor. been carried on with the most profound secrecy, Cecil's favour with the king As this correspondence had created general surprise; it being well known to the nation, that his father, lord-treasurer Burleigh, had been the principal cause of the tragical death of the queen of Scots, and that he himself had hastened the fate of Essex, the warm friend of the family of Stuart. But the secretary's services had obliterated his crimes; and James was not so devoid of prudence or of gratitude, as to slight the talents of a man who was able to give stability to that throne which he had helped him to ascend, nor so vindictive as to persecute him from resentment of a father's offences. On the contrary, he loaded him with honours; creating him successively Lord Effingdon, viscount Cranbourn, and earl of Salisbury. The earl of Southampton and the young earl of Essex were restored to their titles; while sir Walter Raleigh, lord Grey, and lord Cobham, Cecil's former associates, were dismissed from their employments.(3) This disgrace, however, was not so much occasioned by their hostile conduct, and violent opposition against the king's family during the life of Elizabeth, as by an ineffectual attempt which they had made, after her death, to prescribe certain conditions to the declared successor, whom they found they wanted power to set aside, before he should ascend the throne.(4)

James and his new ministers had soon an opportunity of exercising their political sagacity. Ambassadors arrived from almost all the princes and states in Europe, in order to congratulate him on his accession to the crown of England, and to form new treaties and alliances with him, as the head of the two British kingdoms. Among others, Henry Frederic of Nassau,

(1) Kennet.

Within six weeks after his entrance into England, he is said to have bestowed knighthood on two hundred and thirty-seven persons, many of whom were utterly unworthy of such honour. (3) Kennet, p. 663. 4) Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii.

assisted by Barnevelt, the pensionary of Holland, represented the United Provinces. But the envoy who most excited the attention of the public, both on account of his own merit and that of his master, was the marquis de Rosni, afterward duke of Sully, prime minister and favourite of Henry IV. of France. He proposed, in his master's name, a league with James, in conjunction with Venice, the United Provinces, and the northern crowns, in order to restrain the ambition, and to depress the exorbitant power, of the house of Austria.(1) But whether the genius of the British king, naturally timid and pacific, was inadequate to such vast undertakings, or so penetrating as to discover, that the French monarchy, now united in domestic concord, and governed by an able and active prince, was become of itself a sufficient counterpoise to the Austrian greatness, he declined taking any part in the projected league; so that Rosni, obliged to contract his views, could only concert with him the means of providing for the safety of the United Provinces. Nor was this an easy matter; for James, before his accession to the throne of England, had entertained many scruples in regard to the revolt in the Low Countries, and had even gone so far, on some occasions, as to give to the Dutch the appellation of rebels. (2) He was induced, however, after conversing freely with his English ministers and courtiers, to sacrifice to politics his sense of justice. He found the attachment of his new subjects so strong to that republic, and their opinion of a common interest so firmly established, as to make his concurrence necessary; he therefore agreed with Rosni to support secretly the States General, in conjunction with France, lest their weakness and despair should bring them again under the enormous dominion of Spain.(3)

While James was taking these salutary steps for securing tranquillity, both foreign and domestic, a conspiracy was hatching to subvert the government, and to place on the throne of England Arabella Stuart, the king's cousingerman, equally descended with him from Henry VII. Watson and Clarke, two Catholic priests, were accused of hatching the plot, and executed for their share in it. But the chief conspirators were lord Cobham, and his brother Mr. Broke, lord Grey, sir Griffin Markham, sir Walter Raleigh, and other discarded courtiers. These daring and ambitious spirits, meeting frequently together, and believing the whole nation as dissatisfied as themselves, had entertained very criminal projects; and some of them, as appeared on their trial, had even entered into a correspondence with Aremberg, the Flemish ambassador, in order to disturb the new settlement of the crown.(4) Cobham, Grey, and Markham were pardoned, after they had laid their heads upon the block; Broke was executed, and Raleigh reprieved. (5) He remained, however, in confinement many years.

Soon after surmounting this danger, the king was engaged in a scene of business more suited to his temper, and in which he was highly ambitious of making a figure. Of all the qualities that mark the character of James, he was by none so much distinguished as by the pedantic vanity of being thought to excel in school learning.(6) This vanity was much heightened by the flattery he met with from his English courtiers, but especially those of the ecclesiastical order; and he was eager for an opportunity of displaying his theological talents, of all others most admired in that age, to the whole body of his new subjects. Such an opportunity was now offered him, by a petition from the Puritans, for reforming certain tenets of the established church.

(2) Winwood, vol. ii. (3) Mem. de Sully.

(4) State Trials, vol. I.

(1) Mem. de Sully. (5) Winwood, vol. ii. (6) James's pedantry, which led him to display his learning upon all occasions, only could have drawn upon him contempt as a scholar; for his book, entitled Basilicon Doron, which contains certain precepts relative to the art of government, addressed to his son prince Henry, must be allowed, notwithstanding the subsequent alterations and refinements in national taste, not only to be no contemptible performance, but to be equal to the works of most contemporary authors, both in purity of style and justness of composition. If he wrote concerning witches and apparitions, who, in that age, as the sagacious Hume observes, did not admit the reality of these fictitious beings?-If he has composed a commentary on the Revelations, and proved the pope to be Antichrist, may not a similar reproach be extended to the famous Napier? and even to the great Newton? who lived at a time when learning and philosophy were more advanced than during the reign of James L.

Under pretence of finding expedients which might reconcile the parties, the king called a conference at Hampton court, and gave the petitioners hopes of an impartial debate; though nothing appears to have been farther from his purpose. This matter will require some illustration.

The Puritans, whom I have formerly had occasion to mention,(1) formed a sect which secretly lurked in the church, but pretended not to any separate worship or discipline. They frequented no dissenting congregations, because there were none such in the kingdom; uniformity of religion being, in that age, thought absolutely necessary to the support of government, if not to the very existence of civil society, by men of all ranks and characters. But they maintained, that they themselves were the only pure church; that their principles and practices ought to be established by law, and that none else deserved to be tolerated. In consequence of this way of thinking, the puritanical clergy frequently refused to comply with the legal ceremonies, and were deprived of their livings, if not otherwise punished, during the reign of Elizabeth; yet so little influence had these severities upon the party, that no less than seven hundred and fifty clergymen signed the petition to the king for the farther reformation of the church.(2)

As James had been educated in the religion of the church of Scotland, which was nearly the same with that which the Puritans wanted to establish in England, and as he had written, at a very early period of life, a commentary on the Revelations, in which he had proved the pope to be Antichrist, and modern Rome the Whore of Babylon in Scripture, these enthusiastic zealots hoped to see the sanctuary thoroughly purified, and every remaining rag of the whore torn away. The impurities of which they chiefly complained were the episcopal vestments, and certain harmless ceremonies, become venerable from age and preceding use, which the moderation of the church of England had retained at the Reformation; such as the use of the ring in marriage, the cross in baptism, and the reverence of bowing at the name of Jesus. If the king should not utterly abolish these abominations, they flattered themselves that he would at least abate the rigour of the laws against nonconformity.

But although James, in youth, had strongly imbibed the Calvinistical doctrines, his mind had now taken a contrary bias. The more he knew the puritanical clergy, the less favour he bore them. He had remarked in their Scottish brethren a violent turn towards republican maxims; and he had found, that the same lofty pretensions, which dictated their familiar addresses to their Maker, induced them to take still greater freedoms with their earthly sovereign. They had disputed his tenets, and counteracted his commands. Such liberties could hardly have recommended them to any prince, and made them peculiarly obnoxious to James, whose head was filled with lofty notions of kingship and high prerogative, as well as of his theological pre-eminence and ecclesiastical supremacy. Besides, he dreaded the popularity which the Puritans had acquired in both kingdoms; and being much inclined himself to mirth and wine, and sports of all kinds, he apprehended the censure of their austerity, on account of his free and disengaged manner of life. Thus averse, from temper as well as policy, against this rigorous sect, James was determined to prevent, as far as possible, its farther growth in England; and even to introduce, as we shall afterward have occasion to see, the English liturgy into Scotland, in order to soften the manners of the people.

A judge so prejudiced could not possibly be just. The Puritans accordingly complained, and with reason, of the unfair management of the dispute at the conference. From arbiter, the king turned principal disputant, and frequently repeated the episcopal maxim: "No bishop, no king!" The bishops, and other courtiers, in their turn, were very liberal in their applause of the royal theologian. "I have often heard that the royalty and priesthood were united," said chancellor Egerton, "but never saw it verified till now."

(1) Part I. Letter LXXII.

(2) Fuller, book x.

And Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, exclaimed, " that he verily believed the king spoke by the special assistance of God's spirit!"(1) Little wonder, after so much flattery from the church and its adherents, that the Puritans were enjoined by the king to conform. They obtained, however, a few alterations in the liturgy; and pleaded hard for the revival of certain assemblies, which they called prophesyings, and which had been suppressed by Elizabeth, as dangerous to the state. This demand roused all James's choler; and he delivered himself in a speech, which distinctly shows the political' considerations that determined him in his choice of religious parties. "If you aim at a Scottish presbytery," replied he, "it agrees as well with monarchy as God and the Devil. There Jack, and Tom, and Will, and Dick, shall meet and censure me and my council: therefore I reiterate my former speech; le roi s'avisera. Stay, I pray, for one seven years before you demand; and then, if you find me grow purfie and fat, I may perchance hearken unto you; for that government will keep me in wind, and give me work enough.”(2)

The assembly in which the king next displayed his learning and eloquence was of a very different complexion. The meeting of the great council of the nation had hitherto been delayed from a dread of the plague, which had lately broke out in London, and there raged to such a degree, that above thirty thousand persons are supposed to have died of it, although the city and suburbs did not then contain two hundred thousand inhabitants. At length, however, the plague subsided, and the parliament was convened. The speech which James made on that occasion fully displays his character. Though by no means deficient either in style or matter, it wants that majestic brevity and reserve which becomes a king in addressing his subjects from the throne. "Shall I ever," said he, "nay, can I ever be able, or rather so unable, in memory, as to forget your unexpected readiness and alacrity-your ever memorable resolution, and the most wonderful conjunction and harmony of your hearts, in declaring and embracing me as your undoubted and lawful king and governor? or shall it ever be blotted out of mind, how, at my first entrance into this kingdom, the people of all sorts rid and ran, nay rather flew, to meet me? their eyes flaming nothing but sparkles of affection, their mouths and tongues uttering nothing but sounds of joy; their hands, feet, and all the rest of their members, in their gestures discovering a passionate longing to meet their new sovereign!" He next expatiated on the manifold blessings which the English had received in his person; and concluded with observing, that the measure of their happiness would be full, if England and Scotland were united in one kingdom. "I am the husband," added he, "and the whole island is my lawful wife; and I hope no one will be so unreasonable as to think, that a Christian king under the Gospel can be a polygamist, and the husband of two wives.”(3)

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The following words, in a letter from James to the parliament, on the same subject, is more to the purpose. "It is in you now," says he, "to make the choice to procure prosperity and increase of greatness to me and mine, you and yours; and by the away-taking of that partition-wall, which already, by God's providence, in my blood is rent asunder, to establish my throne and your body politic in a perpetual and flourishing peace." This was indeed an important and desirable object: and so much was James's heart set upon effectually removing all division between the two kingdoms, and so sure did he think himself of accomplishing his aim, that he assumed the title of king of Great Britain; quartered St. Andrew's cross with St. George's; and, in order to give a general idea of the peaceful advantages of such a union, the iron doors of the frontier towns were converted into ploughshares. (4) But the minds of men were not yet ripe for that salutary measure. The remembrance of former hostilities was too recent to admit of a cordial friendship; the animosity between the two nations could only be allayed by time. The complaisance of the parliament to the king, therefore, carried them no farther

than to appoint forty-four English to meet with thirty-one Scottish commissioners, in order to deliberate concerning the terms of a union, without any power of making advances towards its final establishment.(1)

The commons discovered more judgment of national interest in some other points in which they opposed the crown; and fully showed, that a bold spirit of freedom, if not a liberal manner of thinking, was become general among them. It had been usual during the reign of Elizabeth, as well as in more early periods of the English government, for the chancellor to exert a discretionary authority, of issuing new writs for supplying the places of such members as he judged incapable of attending on account of their ill state of health, or any other impediment. (2) This dangerous prerogative James ventured to exercise in the case of sir Francis Goodwin. The chancellor declared his seat vacated, and issued a writ for a new election. But the commons, whose eyes were now opened, saw the pernicious consequences of such a power, and asserted their right of judging solely in their own elections and returns. "By this course," said a member, "a chancellor may call a parliament consisting of what persons he pleases. Any suggestion, by any person, may be the cause of sending a new writ. It is come to this plain question, whether the chancery or the parliament ought to have authority?"(3) The king was obliged to yield the point; and that right, so essential to public liberty, has ever since been regarded as a privilege inherent in the house of commons, though at that time rendered doubtful through the negligence of former parliaments.

Nor did the spirit and judgment of the commons appear only in their vigorous exertions in defence of their own privileges: they extended their attention to the commercial part of the nation, and endeavoured, though at that time in vain, to free trade from those shackles which the ill-judged policy of Elizabeth had imposed upon it. (4) James had already, of his own accord, called in and annulled the numerous patents for monopolies which had been granted by that princess, and which fettered every species of domestic industry; but the exclusive companies still remained, another species of monopolies, by which almost all foreign trade was brought into the hands of a few rapacious engrossers, and all prospect of future improvement in commerce sacrificed to a temporary advantage to the crown. The commons also attempted to free the landed interest from the burden of wardships, and the body of the people from the oppression of purveyance. (5) It will therefore be proper here to give some account of these grievous remains of the feudal government.

The right of purveyance was an ancient prerogative, by which the officers of the crown could, at pleasure, take provisions for the king's household, whithersoever he travelled, from all the neighbouring counties, and make use of the horses and carriages of the farmers. The price of these provisions and services was fixed and stated; but the payment of the money was often distant and uncertain, and the rates were always much inferior to the usual market price so that purveyance, besides the slavery of it, was always regarded as a heavy burden, and, being arbitrary and casual, was liable to great abuses. Elizabeth made use of it to victual her navy during the first years of her reign.(6) Wardship, though the most regular and legal of all impositions by prerogative, was also an humiliating badge of slavery, and oppressive to all the considerable families among the nobility and gentry. When an estate devolved to a female, the king would oblige her to marry whom he pleased; and whether the heir was male or female, the crown enjoyed the whole profits of the estate during the minority.(7) These impositions had been often complained of; and the commons now proposed to compound with the king for them, by a secure and independent revenue. The benefit which the crown reaped from wardship and purveyance was

(1) Journals of the House of Commons, June 7, 1604.

(3) Journ. March 30, 1604.

(5) Journ. April 30, and June 1, 1604

(7) Hume, Hist. Eng. vol. v.

(2) Journ. January 19, and March 18, 1580. (4) Journ. May 21, 1604.

(6) Hume. Camden.