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they paid for their very provisions; and they sent messengers to the king, who was now arrived at York, to renew their protestations of loyalty and submission, and to beg forgiveness for the unavoidable effusion of the blood of his English subjects. (1) Charles understood the hypocritical insult, but his circumstances did not permit him to resent it. The nation was universally and highly dissatisfied: the army was discouraged, the treasury exhausted, the revenue anticipated; and every expedient for supply that ingenuity could suggest had been tried to the utmost. In this extremity, as the least of two evils, the king agreed to a treaty, in order to prevent the Scots from advancing upon him; and named sixteen English noblemen, who met with eleven Scottish commissioners at Rippon. The result of their deliberations was a cessation of arms; in consequence of which, the Scots were to be allowed, for their maintenance, eight hundred and fifty pounds a day, during their stay in England. (2)

It may be worthy of remark, that the earl of Strafford, who had succeeded Northumberland in the command of the army, and who possessed more vigour of mind than the king or any of the council, advised Charles to put all to the hazard of a battle, rather than submit to such unworthy terms as were likely to be imposed upon him; "for, should your majesty even be defeated, nothing worse can befall you," observed his lordship, "than what from your inactivity you will certainly feel!"(3) These prophetic words seem to have been dictated by the most infallible of all inspiration, that intuitive discernment of a penetrating genius, habituated to the contemplation of human affairs, which enables it to look into futurity.

The causes of disgust which had, for above thirty years, been every day multiplying in England, were now arrived at their height; and Charles, in despair of being able to stem the torrent, at last resolved to yield to it. He therefore, in compliance with a number of petitions, and the general wish of his subjects, again assembled the parliament. Many exorbitant claims, he was sensible, would probably be made, and must necessarily be complied with. But he little expected that great and decisive blow, which, on the meeting of parliament, was aimed at his authority, by the commons, in the person of his minister, the earl of Strafford; for such that nobleman was considered, both on account of the credit which he possessed with the king, and of his own extensive and vigorous capacity. Not unacquainted with the load of popular prejudices under which he laboured, Strafford would gladly have declined attendance in parliament; and begged permission to withdraw himself to his government of Ireland, being then lord-lieutenant, or at least to remain at the head of the army in Yorkshire. But the king, judging his presence and counsels necessary at such a crisis, assured him, that not a hair of his head should be touched by the parliament. (4) So confident was Charles still of his own authority, though ready to expire, and so lofty were his ideas of the majesty of kings!

The commons thought less respectfully of it. No sooner was Strafford's arrival known, than a concerted attack was made upon him by Mr. Pym; who, after enumerating all the grievances under which the nation laboured, inferred, that a deliberate plan had been formed under the reign of a pious and virtuous king, for changing totally the frame of government, and subverting the ancient laws and liberties of the kingdom."We must inquire," added he, "from what fountain these waters of bitterness flow; and though doubtless many evil counsellors will be found to have contributed their endeavours, yet there is one who claims the guilty pre-eminence: HE is the earl of Strafford, lieutenant of Ireland, and president of the council of York; a man who, in the memory of many present, has sat in this house, an earnest vindicator of the laws, and a most zealous assertor and champion for the liberties of the people. But it is long since he turned from these good affections; and, according to the custom of apostates, he is become the greatest

(1) Rushworth, vol. iii (3) Nalson, vol. ii.

(2) Clarendon, vol. i. Rushworth, vol. ili.
(4) Whitlocke

enemy to the liberties of his country, and the greatest promoter of tyranny, that any age hath ever produced."(1)

This political apostacy of Strafford seems, indeed, to have been his chief crime with the popular leaders, and never to be expiated but with his blood. Pym was seconded in his charge by sir John Hotham, sir John Clotworthy, and others; and, after several hours spent in bitter invectives against the supposed criminal (the doors being locked to prevent a discovery of the concerted purpose), it was moved, that the earl of Strafford should be accused of high-treason. The motion was received with general approbation, and the impeachment was voted without much debate. Mr. Pym was chosen to carry it up to the lords: most of the members attended him; and Strafford, who had just entered the house of peers, and intended, it is said, the same day to have impeached some popular members of both houses, for holding a treasonable correspondence with the Scots, was suddenly ordered into custody, with many symptoms of prejudice in his judges as well as his accusers.(2)

Elated with their success, the popular leaders ventured also to impeach archbishop Laud, the lord-keeper Finch, and secretary Windebank.(3) The last two made their escape beyond sea, before they were taken into custody: the primate was committed. From traitors, the commons proceeded to the prosecution of delinquents; a term expressive of a degree and species of guilt not exactly known or ascertained; but which, by the interpretation then put upon it, exposed to punishment not only the king's ministers and counsellors, but many of the nobility, gentry, and clergy: all, in a word, however warranted by precedent or proclamation, who had acted without the authority of the statute-law of the land. (4)

The commons took other steps of more importance. They declared the sanction of the two houses of parliament, as well as of the king, necessary to the confirmation of ecclesiastical canons; they expelled from their house all monopolists; and committees were appointed to inquire into all the violations of law and liberty, of which any complaint had been made. From the reports of these committees, the house daily passed votes, which mortified and astonished the court, at the same time that they animated and inflamed the nation. Ship-money was declared illegal and arbitrary; the sentence against Hambden was cancelled; compositions for knighthood were stigmatized; the extension of the forest-laws condemned; patents for monopolies annulled; and every measure of administration for some years back was treated with reproach and obloquy.(5)

All moderate men were now of opinion, that a design was formed to subvert the monarchy;(6) and the church was in no less danger. While the harangues of the members, now first published and dispersed, kept alive the discontents against the king's administration, the pulpits, delivered over to puritanical preachers and lecturers, whom the commons arbitrarily settled in all the considerable churches, resounded with faction and fanaticism; and the popular leaders, in order to maintain that high authority which they had acquired, and inspire confidence into their friends, as well as to overawe their opponents, judged it, requisite still to delay the departure of the Scots. Meantime, the chaplains to their commissioners began openly to use the Presbyterian form of worship, which had not hitherto been tolerated in England, and with such amazing success in London, that multitudes crowded not only

(1) Parl. Hist. vol. ix. Clarendon, vol. i.

(2) Clarendon, vol. i.

(3) Grimstone, a popular member, called sir Francis Windebank, who was one of Laud's creatures, "the very pander and broker to the whore of Babylon!" (Rushworth, vol. v.) Nothing can show in a stronger light the illiberal way of thinking, and narrow prejudices of the times, than the use of such expressions, in the house, on so great an occasion. (4) Clarendon, vol. i.

(5) Nalson, vol. i. Clarendon, vol. i. Rushworth, vol. iii.

(6) "You have taken the whole machine of government in pieces," said Charles, in a speech to the parliament," a practice frequent with skilful artists, when they desire to clear the wheels from any rust which may have grown upon them. The engine," continued he, " may again be restored to its former use and motions, provided it be put up entire, so as not a pin of it be wanting." But this was far from being the intention of the commons. The machine, they thought, with some reason, was encumbered with many wheels and springs, which counteracted its operations and destroyed its utility. Hume, chap. liv.

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into the church assigned them, but such as could not there find room clung to the doors or windows, in hopes of catching at least the distant murmur, or some broken phrases of the spiritual rhetoric.(1)

This was the most effectual measure of paying court to the zealous covenanters. To spread the Presbyterian discipline and worship throughout England, and to establish that faith on the ruins of episcopacy would have given more joy to their godly hearts than the temporal conquest of the kingdom; and the hour was fast approaching when that joy was to be theirs. The puritanical party among the commons, imboldened by their success in civil matters, began openly to profess their tenets, and to make furious attacks on the established religion. Every day produced some vehement harangue against the usurpations of the bishops; and so highly disgusted were all the the lovers of liberty at the political doctrines propagated by the clergy, that no distinction, for a time, appeared between such as desired only to repress exorbitancies of the hierarchy, and such as wanted totally to annihilate episcopal jurisdiction.(2)

Encouraged by these favourable appearances, petitions against the established church were framed in different parts of the kingdom; and the epithet of the ignorant or scandalous priesthood was commonly applied to all churchmen; although the episcopal clergy in England during that age seem to have been sufficiently learned and exemplary. An address against episcopacy was presented by twelve clergymen of the committee of religion, said to be signed by seven hundred puritanical ministers. But the petition which made the greatest noise was that from the city of London, for a total alteration of church government, and to which sixteen thousand names were annexed.(3)

The popular leaders, notwithstanding these indications of a fanatical disposition in the people, and though generally disaffected against episcopacy, resolved to proceed with caution, and overturn the hierarchy by degrees. With this view, they introduced a bill for prohibiting all clergymen the exerThe bishops, of course, were to be deprived of their cise of any civil office. seats in the house of peers; a measure very acceptable to the zealous friends of liberty, who had observed with regret the devoted obsequiousness of the ecclesiastical order to the will of the monarch.

Charles, who had hitherto remained wholly passive, during all the violent proceedings of the present parliament, was now roused by the danger that threatened his favourite episcopacy; which was, indeed, the great pillar of the throne. He sent for the two houses to Whitehall, and told them, that he intended to reform all innovations in church and state, and to reduce matters of religion and government to what they were in the purest times "But some men," said he, "encouraged by the of queen Elizabeth.(4) sitting of this parliament, more maliciously than ignorantly, put no difference between reformation and alteration of government."

"Though I am for the former," added he, "I cannot give way to the latter. I will not say that bishops may not have overstretched their spiritual power, or encroached upon the temporal; which, if you find, correct and reform the abuse, according to the wisdom of former times: and so far I am with you. Nay, farther: if, upon serious debate, you shall show me, that bishops have some temporal authority inconvenient to the state, and not necessary to the church for the support of episcopacy, I shall not be unwilling to persuade them to lay it down. Yet by this you must understand that I cannot consent to the taking away of their voice in parliament; a privilege which they have anciently enjoyed under so many of my predecessors, even before the conquest, and ever since, and which I conceive I am bound to maintain as one of the fundamental institutions of this kingdom."(5)

(1) Clarendon, vol. i.

(2) Hume, vol. vi.

(3) Clarendon, vol. i.

(4) If the majority of the commons, or at least of the leading men among them, had not been resolved on the total overthrow of the church and monarchy, a fair opportunity was here afforded them of effecting a thorough reconciliation of parties, by a temperate reformation of civil and ecclesiastical abuses. (5) Parl. Hist. vol. ix.

The king, however, was soon freed from all immediate apprehensions_on this subject by the peers, a great majority of whom rejected the bill. But the puritanical party among the commons, in order to show how little they were discouraged, brought in another bill for the total abolition of episcopacy; and although they thought proper to let it rest for a while, their purpose was not the less sincere. Other matters demanded their present attention. They got an act passed, and without any hesitation on the part of the king, declaring it unlawful to levy the duties of tonnage and poundage without consent of parliament; after which, they brought in a bill to prevent the discontinuance of parliaments for above three years.

Though by this bill some of the noblest and most valuable privileges of the crown were retrenched, such a law was indispensably necessary for completing a regular plan of law and liberty. "Let no man," said the spirited and artful Digby, who knew well the importance of the bill, "object any derogation from the king's prerogative by it. His honour, his power will be as conspicuous in commanding that a parliament shall assemble every third year as in commanding a parliament to be called this or that year. There is more majesty in ordaining primary and universal causes, than in actuating subordinate effects. In choosing ill ministers," added he, emphatically, "we do but dissipate clouds that may gather again; but, in voting this bill, we shall perpetuate our sun, our sovereign, in his vertical, his noonday lustre."(1) Charles, finding that nothing less would satisfy his parliament and people, gave his reluctant assent to the bill.

The victory of the commons was now complete; and had they used it with moderation, the members of this parliament would have merited the praise of all sincere lovers of their country, as well as of the enthusiasts of liberty. Nor would their subsequent abolition of the arbitrary courts of the Star Chamber and High Commission, so grievous to the nation, be imputed to them as cause of blame. But their cruel persecution of Strafford, and their future encroachments upon the king's authority, which made resistance a virtue, and involved the three kingdoms in all the horrors of civil war, must make their patriotism very questionable in the opinion of every dispassionate man. Their unjustifiable encroachments on the authority of Charles, we shall afterward have occasion to consider: here we must examine the progress of their vengeance against his minister; whose high reputation, for experience and capacity, made them regard his death as their only security for success in their farther attacks upon the throne.

In consequence of this idea, the impeachment of Strafford had been pushed on with the utmost vigour. Immediately after he was sequestered from parliament and confined in the tower, a committee of thirteen was chosen by the commons, and intrusted with the office of preparing a charge against him. This committee, assisted by a few peers, was vested with authority to examine all witnesses, to call every paper, and to use any means of scrutiny, in regard to any part of the earl's behaviour or conduct:(2) and, as a profound historian remarks, after so general and unbounded an inquisition, exercised by such powerful and implacable enemies, a man who had acted in a variety of public stations, must have been very cautious or very innocent, not to afford, during the whole course of his proceedings, some matter of accusation against him.(3)

Nothing, however, was found against Strafford that could by any means be brought under the description of treason; a crime which the laws of England had defined with the most scrupulous exactness, in order to protect the subject against the violence of the king and his ministers. Aware of this, the commons attempted to prove against the prisoner "an endeavour to subvert the fundamental laws of the kingdom:"(4) and as the statute of treason makes no mention of such a species of guilt, they invented a kind of accumulative, or constructive evidence, by which many actions, either totally innocent in themselves, or criminal in an inferior degree, shall, when united,

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amount to treason, and subject the person to the highest penalties inflicted by the law; the king and parliament, as they asserted, having power to determine what is treason, and what not. They accordingly voted that the facts proved against the earl of Strafford, taken collectively, were treasonable.(1)

Strafford defended himself with firmness and ability. After pleading to each particular article of the charge, he brought the whole together, in order to repel the imputation of treason. "Where," said he, "has this species of guilt been so long concealed? Where has this fire been so long buried, during so many centuries, that no smoke should appear, till it burst out at once to consume me and my children? Better it were to live under no law at all, and, by the maxims of cautious prudence, to conform ourselves the best we can to the arbitrary will of a master, than fancy we have a law on which we can rely, and find at last that this law shall inflict a punishment precedent to the promulgation, and try us by maxims unheard of until the very moment of prosecution. If I sail on the Thames, and split my vessel on an anchor, in case there be no buoy to give me warning, the party shall pay me damages; but if the anchor be marked out, then is the striking on it at my own peril. Where is the mark set upon this crime? where the token by which I should discover it? It has lain concealed under water; and no human prudence, no human innocence, could teach me to avoid it, or save me from the destruction with which I am at present threatened.

"It is now full two hundred and forty years since treasons were defined; and so long has it been since any man was touched to this extent, upon this crime, before myself. We have lived, my lords, happy to ourselves at home; we have lived gloriously abroad to the world: let us be content with what our fathers left; let not our ambition carry us to be more learned than they were, in these killing and destructive arts. Great wisdom it will be in your lordships, and just providence for yourselves, for your posterities, for the whole kingdom, to cast from you, into the fire, these bloody and mysterious volumes of arbitrary and constructive treasons, as the primitive Christians did their books of curious arts, and betake yourselves to the plain letter of the statute, which tells you where the crime is, and points out to you the path by which you may avoid it.

“Let us not, to our own destruction, awake those sleeping lions, by rattling up a company of old records, which have lain for so many ages by the wall, forgotten and neglected. To all my afflictions add not this, my lords, the most severe of any; that I for my own sins, not for my treasons, be the means of introducing a precedent so pernicious to the laws and liberties of my native country. These gentlemen at the bar, however, say they speak for the commonwealth; and they may believe so: yet, under favour, it is I who, in this particular, speak for the commonwealth. Precedents like those which are endeavoured to be established against me must draw along with them such inconveniences and miseries, that, in a few years, the kingdom would be in the condition expressed in a statute of Henry IV.-no man shall know by what rule to govern his words or actions. "Impose not, my lords, difficulties insurmountable upon ministers of state, nor disable them from serving with cheerfulness their king and country. If you examine them, and under such severe penalties, by every grain, by every little weight, the scrutiny will be intolerable: the public affairs of the kingdom must be left waste; for no wise man, who has any honour or fortune to lose, will ever engage himself in such dreadful, such unknown perils.

"My lords, I have now troubled your lordships too long; a great deal longer than I should have done, were it not for the interest of these dear

(1) Rushworth, vol. iv. As a proof how far the popular leaders were hurried away by their vindictive passions, it will be sufficient to quote the speech of Mr. St. John, who affirmed that Strafford had no title to plead law, because he had endeavoured to destroy the law. "It is true," said he, "we give law to hares and deers, for they are beasts of chase; but it was never accounted cruel, or unfair, to destroy foxes and wolves, wherever they can be found, for they are beasts of prey!" Clarendon, vol. i.

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