op! no king in the conference at Hampton-Court, still echoed in the ear of the puritan. He assured the duke that the love of the people was his only anchor, which could only be secured by the most popular measures. A new sort of reformation was easy to execute. Cathedrals and collegiate churches maintained by vast wealth, and the lands of the chapter, only fed fat, lazy, and unprofitable drones.' The dissolution of the foundations of deans and

chapters would open an ample source to pay the king's debis, and scatter the streams of patronage. You would then become the darling of the commonwealth; I give the words as I find them in Hacket. If a crum stick in the throat of any considerable man that attempts an opposition, it will be easy to wash it down with manors, woods, royalties, tythes, &c.' It would be furnishing the wants of a number of gentlemen, and he quoted a Greek proverb, 'that when a great oak falls, every neighbour may scuffle for a faggot.'

Dr Preston was willing to perform the part which Knox had acted in Scotland! He might have been certain of a to maintain this national violation of property; for party be who calls out Plunder! will ever find a gang. These acts of national injustice, so much desired by revolutionists, are never beneficial to the people; they never partake of the spoliation, and the whole terminates in the gratification of private rapacity.

It was not, however, easy to obtain such perpetual access to the minister, and at the same time escape from the watchful. Archbishop Williams, the lord keeper, got sufficient hints from the king; and in a tedious conference with the duke, he wished to convince him that Preston had only offered him flittten milk, out of which he should churn nothing" The duke was, however, smitten by the new project and made a remarkable answer: You lose yourself in generalities: make it out to me in particular, if you can, that the motion you pick at will find repulse, and be baffled in the house of commons. I know not how you bishops may struggle, but I am much deluded if a great part of the knights and burgesses would not be glad to see this alteration." We are told on this, that Archbishop Williams took out a list of the members of the house of commons, and convinced the minister that an overwhelming majority would oppose this projected revolution, and that in consequence the duke gave it up.

But this anterior decision of the duke may be doubtful, since Preston still retained the high favour of the minister, after the death of James. When James died at Theobalds, where Dr Preston happened to be in attendance, he had the honour of returning to town in the new king's coach with the Duke of Buckingham. The doctor's servile adulation of the minister gave even great offence to to the over-zealous puritans. That he was at length discarded is certain; but this was owing not to any deficient subserviency on the side of our politician, but to one of those unlucky circumstances which have often put an end to temporary political connexions, by enabling one party to discover what the other thinks of him.

I draw this curious fact from a manuscript narrative in the hand-writing of the learned William Wotton. When the puritanic party foolishly became jealous of the man who seemed to be working at root and branch for their purposes, they addressed a letter to Preston, remonstrating with him for his servile attachment to the minister; on which he confidentially returned an answer, assuring them that he was as fully convinced of the vileness and profligacy of the Duke of Buckingham's character as any man could be, but that there was no way to come at him but by the lowest flattery, and that it was necessary for the glory of God, that such instruments should be made use of as could be had and for that reason, and that alone, he showed that respect to the reigning favourite, and not for any real honour that he had for him. This letter proved fatal; some officious hand conveyed it to the duke! When Preston came as usual, the duke took his opportunity of asking him what he had ever done to disoblige him, that he should describe him in such black characters to his own party? Preston, in amazement denied the fact, and poured forth professions of honour and gratitude. The duke showed him his own letter. Dr Preston instantaneously felt a political apoplexy: the labours of some years were lost in a single morning. The baffled politician was turned out of Wallingford House, never more to see the enraged minister! And from that moment Buckingham wholly abandoned the Puritans, and cultivated the friendship of Laud. This happened soon after James the First's

death. Wotton adds, 'This story I heard from one who was extremely well versed in the secret history of the time.'*

SIR EDWARD COKE'S EXCEPTIONS AGAINST THE HIGH SHERIFF'S OATH.

A curious fact will show the revolutionary nature of hu man events, and the necessity of correcting our ancien statutes, which so frequently hold out punishments and penalties for objects which have long ceased to be criminal; as well as for persons against whom it would be barbarous to allow some unrepealed statute to operate.

When a political stratagem was practised by Charles the First to keep certain members out of the house of commons, by pricking them down as sheriffs in their different counties, among them was the celebrated Sir Edward Coke whom the government had made High Sheriff for Bucks. It was necessary, perhaps, to be a learned and practised lawyer to discover the means he took, in the height of his resentment to elude the insult. himself, perhaps, had often administered the oath to the This great lawyer, who sheriffs, which had, century after century, been usual for them to take, to the surprise of all persons, drew up Exceptions against the Sheriff's oath, declaring that no one could take it. Coke sent his Exceptions to the attorneygeneral, who by an immediate order in council, submitted them to all the judges of England.' Our legal luminary had condescended only to some ingenious cavilling in three of his exceptions; but the fourth was of a nature which could not be overcome. All the judges of England assented, and declared, that there was one part of this ancient oath which was perfectly irreligious, and must ever hereafter be left out! This article was, That you shall all manner of heresies, commonly called Lollaries, within do all your pain and diligence to destroy and make to cease your bailiwick, &c.'t The Lollards were the most ancient of protestants, and had practised Luther's sentiments -it was, in fact condemning the established religion of the country! An order was issued from Hampton-Court, for the abrogation of this part of the oath; and at present all high sheriffs owe this obligation to the resentment of Sir Edward Coke, for having been pricked down as Sheriff of Bucks, to be kept out of parliament! The merit of having the oath changed, instanter, he was allowed; but he was not excused taking it, after it was accommodated to the conscientious and lynx-eyed detection of our enraged lawyer.

SECRET HISTORY OF CHARLES I, AND HIS FIRST

PARLIAMENTS.

The reign of Charles the First, succeeded by the commonwealth of England, forms a period unparalleled by any preceding one in the annals of mankind. It was for the English nation the great result of all former attempts to ascertain and to secure the just freedom of the subject. The prerogative of the sovereign, and the rights of the people, were often imagined to be mutual encroachments; and were long involved in contradiction, in an age of unsettled opinions and disputed principles. At length the conflicting parties of monarchy and democracy, in the weakness of their passions, discovered how much each required the other for its protector. This age offers the finest speculations in human nature, it opens a protracted scene of glory and of infamy; all that elevates, and all that humiliates our kind, wrestling together, and expiring in a career of glorious deeds, of revolting crimes, and even of ludicrous infirmities!

The French Revolution is the commentary of the Eng. lish; and a commentary at times more important than the text which it elucidates. It has thrown a freshness over the antiquity of our own history; and, on returning to it, we seem to possess the feelings, and to be agitated by the interests, of contemporaries. The circumstances and the persons which so many imagine had passed away, have been reproduced under our own eyes. In other his tories we except the knowledge of the characters and the incidents on the evidence of the historian; but here we may take them from our own conviction, since to extinct

Wotton delivered this memorandum to the literary antiquary, Thomas Baker; and Kennet transcribed it in his Manuscript Collections. Landsowne MSS, No. 932-88. The life of Dr Preston, in Chalmer's Biographical Dictionary, may be consulted with advantage

† Rushworth's Historical Collections Vol. I, 199. 1

names and to past events, we can apply the reality which we ourselves have witnessed.

Charles the First had scarcely ascended the throne, ere he discovered, that in his new parliament he was married to a sullen bride; the youthful monarch, with the impatience of a lover, warm with hope and glory, was ungraciously repulsed even in the first favours! The prediction of his father remained, like the hand-writing on the wall; but, seated on the throne, Hope was more congenial to youth than Prophecy.

As soon as Charles the First could assemble a parliament, he addressed them with an earnestness, in which the simplicity of words and thoughts strongly contrasted with the oratorical harangues of the late monarch. It cannot be alleged against Charles the First, that he preceded the parliament in the war of words. He courted their affections; and even in his manner of reception, amidst the dignity of the regal office, studiously showed his exterior respect by the marked solemnity of their first meeting. As vet uncrowned, on the day on which he first addressed the Lords and Commons, he wore his crown, and veiled it at the opening, and on the close of his speech; a circumstance to which the parliament had not been accustomed. Another ceremony gave still greater solemnity to the meeting; the king would not enter into business till they had united in prayer. He commanded the doors to be closed, and a bishop to perform the office. The suddenness of this unexpected command disconcerted the catholic lords, of whom the less rigid knelt, and the moderate stood there was one startled papist who did nothing but cross himself!*

The speech may be found in Rushworth; the friendly tone must be shown here.

'I hope that you do remember that you were pleased to employ me to advise my father to break off the treaties (with Spain.) I came into this business willingly and freely, like a young man, and consequently rashly, but it was by your interest-your engagement. I pray you remember, that this being my first action, and begun by your advice and entreaty, what a great dishonour it were to you and me that it should fail for that assistance you are able to give me!'

This effusion excited no sympathy in the house. They voted not a seventh part of the expenditure necessary to proceed with a war, into which, as a popular measure, they themselves had forced the king.

At Oxford the king again reminded them that he was engaged in a war from their desires and advice.' He expresses his disappointment at their insufficient grant, 'far short to set forth the navy now preparing.' speech preserves the same simplicity.

The

Still no echo of kindness responded in the house. It was, however, asserted, in a vague and quibbling manner, that though a former parliament did engage the king in a war, yet (if things were managed by a contrary design, and the treasure miscmployed) this parliament is not bound by another parliament: and they added a cruel mockery, that the king should help the cause of the Palatinate with his own money! this foolish war, which James and Charles had so long bore their reproaches for having avoided as hopeless, but which the puritanic party as well as others, had continually urged as necessary for the maintenance of the protestant cause in Europe.

Sull no supplies! but protestations of duty, and petitions about grievances, which it had been difficult to specify. In their Declaration' they style his Majesty' Our dear and dread sovereign,' and themselves his poor Commons: but they concede no point-they offer no aid! The king was not yet disposed to quarrel, though he had in vain pressed for despatch of business, lest the season should be lost for the navy; again reminding them that it was the first request that he ever made unto them! On the pretence of the plague at Oxford, Charles prorogued parliament, with a promise to reassemble in the winter.

There were a few whose hearts had still a pulse to vibrate with the distresses of a youthful monarch, perplexed by a war which they themselves had raised. But others of a more republican complexion, rejected Necessity, as a dangerous counsellor, which would be always furnishing arguments for supplies. If the king was in danger and necessity, those ought to answer for it who have put both king and kingdom into this peril: and if the state of things would not admit a redress of grievances, there cannot be so much necessity for money.

From a manuscript letter of the times.

The first parliament abandoned the king!

Charles now had no other means to despatch the army and fleet, in a bad season, but by borrowing money on privy seals these were letters, where the loan exacted was as small as the style was humble. They specified, that this loan, without inconvenience to any, is only intended for the service of the public. Such private helps for public services, which cannot be deferred,' the king's premises had been often resorted to; but this being the first time that we have required any thing in this kind, we require but that sum which few men would deny a friend. As far as I can discover, the highest sum assessed from great personages was twenty pounds! The king was willing to suffer any mortification, even that of a charitable solicita tion, rather than endure the obdurate insults of parlia ment! All donations were received, from ten pounds to five shillings: this was the mockery of an alms-basket! Yet, with contributions and savings so trivial, and exact ed with such a warm appeal to their feelings, was the king to send out a fleet with ten thousand men-to take Cadiz!

This expedition, like so many similar attempts from the days of Charles the First to those of the great Lord Chatham, and to our own-concluded by a nullity! Charles, disappointed in this predatory attempt, in despair, called his second parliament-as he says. In the midst of his ne cessity-and to learn from them how he was to frame his course and councils ?'

The Commons, as dutcously as ever, profess that 'No king was ever dearer to his people; and that they really intend to assist his majesty in such a way, as may make him safe at home, and feared abroad'-but it was to be on condition, that he would be graciously pleased to accept 'the information and advice of parliament in discovering the causes of the great evils, and redress their grievances." The king accepted this as a satisfactory answer;' but Charles comprehended their drift- You specially aim at the Duke of Buckingham; what he hath done to change your minds I wot not.' The style of the king now first betrays angered feelings; the secret cause of the uncom plying conduct of the Commons was hatred of the favourite, but the king saw that they designed to control the execu tive government, and he could ascribe their antipathy to Buckingham but to the capriciousness of popular favour; for not long ago he had heard Buckingham hailed as 'their saviour.' In the zeal and firmness of his affections, Charles always considered that he himself was aimed at, in the person of his confident, his companion, and his minister!

Some of the bold speakers,' as the heads of the opposttion are frequently designated in the manuscript letters, had now risen into notice. Sir John Elliot, Dr Turner, Sir Dudley Digges, Mr Clement Coke, poured themselves forth in a vehement, not to say seditious style, with invec tives more daring than had ever before thundered in the House of Commons! The king now told them, I come to show your errors, and, as I may call it, unparliamentary proceedings of parliament. The lord keeper then assured them that when the irregular humours of some par ticular persons were settled, the king would hear an answer all just grievances: but the king would have them also to know, that he was equally jealous to the contempt of his royal rights, which his majesty would not suffer to be nolated by any pretended course of parliamentary liberty. The king considered the parliament as his council; but there was a difference between councilling and controlling, and between liberty and the abuse of liberty. He finish ed, by noticing their extraordinary proceedings in ther impeachment of Buckingham. The king, resuming his speech, remarkably reproached the parliament.

Now that you have all things according to your wishes, and that I am so far engaged that you think there is no retreat, now you begin to set the dice, and make your own game. But I pray you be not deceived; it is not a par liamentary way, nor is it a way to deal with a king. Mr Clement Coke told you, "It was better to be eaten up by a foreign enemy than to be destroyed at home!" Indred, I think it more honour for a king to be invaded and almost destroyed by a foreign enemy than to be despised by his ones subjects.'

The king concluded by asserting his privilege, to call or to forbid parliaments.

The style of the bold speakers' appeared at least as early as in April; I trace their spirit in letters of the times, which furnish facts and expressions that do not appear in our printed documents.

6

used by him; and it seems probable that he was suffered to eat his words. Elliot was made of sterner stuff;' he abated not a jot of whatever he had spoken of that man,' as he affected to call Buckingham.

The commons whatever might be their patriotism, seem at first to have been chiefly moved by a personal haired of the favourite; and their real charges against him amounted to little more than pretences and aggravations. The king, whose personal affections were always strong, considered his friend innocent; and there was a warm, romantic feature in the character of the youthful monarch, which scorned to sacrifice his faithful companion to his own interests, and to immolate the minister to the clamours of the commons. Subsequently, when the king did this in the memorable case of the guiltless Strafford, it was the only circumstance which weighed on his mind at the hour of his own sacrifice! Sir Robert Cotton told a friend, on the day on which the king went down to the House of Lords, and committed the two patriots, that he had of late been often sent for to the king and duke, and that the king's affection towards him was very admirable and no whit lessened. Certainly, he added, the king will never yield to the duke's fall, being a young man, resolute, magnanimous, and tenderly and firmly affectionate where he takes.'* This authentic character of Charles the First by that intelligent and learned man, to whom the nation owes the treasures of its antiquities, is remarkable. Sir Robert Cotton, though holding no rank at court, and in no respect of the duke's party, was often consulted by the king, and much in his secrets. How the king valued the judgment of this acute and able adviser, acting on it in direct contradiction and to the mortification of the favourite, I shall probably have occasion to show.

·

The commons did not decline in the subtile spirit with which they had begun; they covertly aimed at once to subjugate the sovereign, and to expel the minister! A remonstrance was prepared against the levying of tonnage and poundage, which constituted half of the crown revenues; and a petition, equivalent to a command,' for removing Buckingham from his majesty's person and councils. The remonstrance is wrought up with a high spirit of invective against the unbridled ambition of the duke,' whom they class, among those vipers and pests to their king and commonwealth, as so expressly styled by your most royal father.' They request that he would be pleased to remove this person from access to his sacred presence, and that he would not balance this one man with all these things, and with the affairs of the Christian world.'

The king hastily dissolved this second parliament; and when the lords petitioned for its continuance, he warmly and angrily exclaimed, 'Not a moment longer!' It was dissolved in June, 1626.

The patriots abandoned their sovereign to his fate, and retreated home sullen, indignant, and ready to conspire among themselves for the assumption of their disputed or their defrauded liberties. They industriously dispersed their remonstrance, and the king replied by a declaration; but an attack is always more vigorous than a defence. The declaration is spiritless, and evidently composed under suppressed feelings, which, perhaps, knew not how to shape themselves. The Remonstrance' was commanded every where to be burnt; and the effect which it produced on the people we shall shortly witness.

The king was left amidst the most pressing exigencies. At the dissolution of the first parliament, he had been compelled to practise a humiliating economy. Hume has alluded to the numerous wants of the young monarch; but he certainly was not acquainted with the king's extreme necessities. His coronation seemed rather private than a public ceremony. To save the expenses of the procession from the Tower through the city to Whitehall, that customary pomp was omitted; and the reason alleged was to save the charges for more noble undertakings;' that is, for means to carry on the Spanish war without supplies! But now the most extraordinary changes appeared at court. The king mortgaged his lands in Cornwall to the aldermen and companies of London. A rumour spread that the small pension list must be revoked; and the royal distress was carried so far, that all the tables at court were laid down, and the courtiers put on board wages! I have seen a letter which gives an account of * Manuscript letter.

Rushworth, I. 400. Hume VI, 221, who enters widely into the view and feelings of Charles.

the funereal supper at Whitehall, whereat twenty-three tables were buried, being from henceforth converted to board-wages; and there I learn, that since this dissolting of house-keeping, his majesty is but slenderly attended.' Another writer who describes himself to be only a looker-on, regrets, that while the men of the law spent ten thousand pounds on a single masque, they did not rather make the king rich; and adds, "I see a rich commonwealth, a rich people, and the crown poor! This strange poverty of the court of Charles seems to have escaped the notice of our general historians. Charles was now to victual his fleet with the savings of the board wages! for this surplusage' was taken into account!

6

The fatal descent on the Isle of Rhé sent home Buckingham discomfited, and spread dismay through the nation. The best blood had been shed from the wanton bravery of an unskilful and romantic commander, who, forced to retreat, would march, but not fly, and was the very last man to quit the ground which he could not occupy. In the eagerness of his hopes, Buckingham had once dropped, as I learn, that before Midsummer he should be more honoured and beloved of the commons than ever was the Earl of Essex:' and thus he rocked his own and his master's imagination in cradling fancies. This volatile hero, who had felt the capriciousness of popularity, thought that it was as easily regained as it was easily lost; and that a chivalric adventure would return to him that favour which at this moment might have been denied to all the wisdom, the policy, and the arts of an experienced

statesman.

The king was now involved in more intricate and desperate measures; and the nation was thrown into a state of agitation, of which the page of popular history yields but a faint impression.

The spirit of insurrection was stalking forth in the me tropolis and in the country. The scenes which I am about to describe occurred at the close of 1626: an inattentive reader might easily mistake them for the revolutionary scenes of 1640. It was an unarmed rebellion.

An army and a navy had returned unpaid, and sore with defeat. The town was scoured by mutinous seamen and soldiers, roving even into the palace of the sovereign. Soldiers without pay form a society without laws. A band of captains rushed into the duke's apartment as he sat at dinner; and when reminded by the duke of a late proclamation, forbidding all soldiers coming to court in troops, on pain of hanging, they replied, that Whole com panies were ready to be hanged with them! that the king might do as he pleased with their lives; for that their reputation was lost, and their honour forfested, for want of their salary to pay their debts.' When a petition was once presented, and it was inquired who was the composer of it? a vast body tremendously shouted, All! all! A multitude, composed of seamen, met at Tower-hill, and set a lad on a scaffold, who, with an O yes! proclaimed that King Charles had promised their pay, or the duke had been on the scaffold himself! These, at least were the grievances more apparent to the sovereign than those vague ones so perpetually repeated by his unfaithful commons. But what remained to be done? It was only a choice of difficulties between the disorder and the remedy. At the moment, the duke got up what he called The council of the sea was punctual at the first meeting, as appointed three days in a week to sit but broke his appointment the second day-they found him always other wise engaged; and the council of the sea' turned out to be one of those shadowy expedients which only lasts while it acts on the imagination. It is said that thirty thousand pounds would have quieted these disorganized trocje: but the exchequer could not supply so mean a sum. ingham, in despair, and profuse of life, was planning a fresh expedition for the siege of Rochelle; a new army was required. He swore, If there was money in the kingdom it should be had!

Back

Now began that series of contrivances and artifers and persecutions to levy money. Forced loans, or pretended free-gifts, kindled a resisting spirit. It was urged by the court party, that the sums required were, in fact, much less in amount than the usual grants of subsidies, but the cry, in return for a subsidy,' was always 'A Par lament! Many were heavily fined for declaring, that "They knew no law, besides that of Parliament, to com pel men to give away their own goods.' The king ordered, that those who would not subscribe to the loans should not

be forced; but it seems there were orders in council to specify those householders' names who would not subscribe; and it further appears, that those who would not pay in purse should in person. Those who were pressed were sent to the depot; but either the soldiers would not receive these good citizens, or they found easy means to return. Every mode which the government invented seems to have been easily frustrated, either by the intrepidity of the parties themselves, or by that general understanding which enabled the people to play into one another's hands. When the common council had consented that an imposition should be laid, the citizens called the Guild-hall the Yieldall! And whenever they levied a distress, in consequence of refusals to pay it, nothing was to be found but Old ends, such as nobody cared for. Or if a severer officer seized on commodities, it was in vain to offer penny-worths where no customer was to be had. A wealthy merchant, who had formerly been a cheesemonger, was summoned to appear before the privy council, and required to lend the king two hundred pounds, or else to go himself to the army, and serve it with cheese. It was not supposed that a merchant, so aged and wealthy, would submit to resume his former mean trade; but the old man, in the spirit of the times, preferred the hard alternative, and balked the new project of finance, by shipping himself with his cheese. At Hicks's Hall the duke and the Earl of Dorset sat to receive the loans; but the duke threatened, and the earl affected to treat with levity, men who came before them, with all the suppressed feelings of popular indignation. The Earl of Dorset asking a fellow, who pleaded inability to lend money, of what trade he was, and being answered a tailor,' said: 'Put down your name for such a sum; one ship will make amends for all! The tailor quoted scripture abundantly, and shook the bench with laughter or with rage by his anathemas, till he was put fast into a messenger's hands. This was one Ball, renowned through the parish of St Clements; and not only a tailor, but a prophet. Twenty years after tailors and prophets employed

messengers themselves!*

These are instances drawn from the inferior classes of society; but the same spirit actuated the country gentlemen: one instance represents many. George Catesby, of Northamptonshire, being committed to prison as a loanrecusant, 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 shook his head, observing, I come not here to contend with your lordship, but to suffer! Lord Suffolk then interposing, entreated the lord president would not too far urge his kinsman, Mr Catesby. This country gentleman waived any kindness he might owe to kindred, declaring, that he would remain master of his own purse.' The prisons were crowded with these loan-recusants, as well as with those who had sinned in the freedom of their opinions. The country gentlemen insured their popularity by their committals; and many stout resisters of the loans were returned in the following parliament against their own wishes. The friends of these knights and country gen→

The Radicals of that day differed from ours in the means, though not in the end. They at least referred to their Bible, and rather more than was required; but superstition is as mad as atheism! Many of the puritans confused their brains with the study of the Revelations; believing Prince Henry to be prefigured in the Apocalypse; some prophesied that he should overthrow the beast.' Ball our tailor, was this very prophet; and was so honest as to believe in his own prophecy. Osborn tells, that Ball put out money on adventure; . e. to receive it back, double or treble, when King James should be elected pope! So that though he had no money for a loan, he had to epare for a prophecy.

tion.

This Ball has been confounded with a more ancient radical, Ball a priest, and a principal mover in Wat Tyler's insurrecOur Ball must have been very notorious, for Jonson has noticed his admired discourses. Mr Gifford, without any knowledge of my account of this tailor-prophet, by his active mapacity has rightly indicated him. See Jonson's Works, vol. V, p. 241.

+ It is curious to observe, that the Westminster elections, in the fourth year of Charles's reign, were exactly of the same turbulent character as those which we witness in our days. The duke had counted by his interest to bring in Sir Robert Fye. The contest was severe, but accompanied by some of those ludicrous electioneering scence, which still anise the moti Whenever Sir Robert Pye's party cried-' A Pyo! a Pye a Pye the adverse party would cry- A pudding! a

tlemen flocked to their prisons; and when they petitioned for more liberty and air during the summer, it was policy to grant their request. But it was also policy that they should not reside in their own counties; this relaxation was only granted to those who, living in the south, consented to sojourn in the north; while the dwellers in the north were to be lodged in the south!

In the country the disturbed scenes assumed even a more alarming appearance than in London. They not only would not provide money, but when money was offered by government, the men refused to serve; a conscription was not then known: and it became a question, long debated in the privy council, whether those who would not accept press-money should not be tried by martial law. I preserve in the note a curious piece of secret information.* The great novelty and symptom of the times was the scattering of letters. Sealed letters, addressed to the leading men of the country, were found hanging on bushes; anonymous letters were dropt in shops and streets, which gave notice, that the day was fast approaching, when Such a work was to be wrought in England, as never was the like, which will be for our good.' Addresses multiplied To all true-hearted Englishmen! A groom detected in spreading such seditious papers, and brought into the inexorable star-chamber, was fined three thousand pounds! The leniency of the punishment was rather regretted by two bishops; if it was ever carried into execution, the unhappy man must have remained a groom who never after crossed a horse!

There is one difficult duty of an historian, which is too often passed over by the party writer; it is to pause whenever he feels himself warming with the passions of the multitude, or becoming the blind apologist of arbitrary power. An historian must transform himself into the characters which he is representing, and throw himself back into the times which he is opening; possessing himself of their feelings and tracing their actions, he may then at least hope to discover truths which may equally interest the honourable men of all parties.

This reflection has occurred from the very difficulty into which I am now brought. Shall we at once condemn the king for these arbitrary measures? It is, however, very possible that they were never in his contemplation! Involved in inextricable difficulties, according to his feelings, he was betrayed by parliament; and he scorned to barter their favour by that vulgar traffic of treachery-the immolation of the single victim who had long attached his personal affections; a man at least as much envied as hated! That hard lesson had not yet been inculcated on a British sovereign, that his bosom must be a blank for all private affection; and had that lesson been taught, the character of Charles was destitute of all aptitude for it. To reign without a refractory parliament, and to find among the people themselves subjects more loyal than their representatives, was an experiment-and a fatal one! Under Charles, the liberty of the subject, when the neces sities of the state pressed on the sovereign, was matter of discussion, disputed as often as assumed; the divines were proclaiming as rebellious those who refused their contributions to avoid the government;* and the law-sages alpudding! a pudding and others- A lie! a lie! a lle !— This Westminster election of nearly two hundred years ago, ended as we have seen some others; they rejected all who had urged the payment of the loans; and passing by such men as Sir Robert Cotton, and their last representative they fixed on a brewer and a grocer for the two members for Westmin ster.'

* Extract from a manuscript letter. On Friday last I hear, but as a secret, that it was debated at the council table, whether our Essex-men, who refused to take press-money, should not be punished by martial-law, and hanged up on the next tree to their dwellings, for an example of terror to others. My lord keeper, who had been long silent, when in conclusion, it came to his course to speak, told the lords, that as far as he understood the law, none were liable to martial law, but martial men. If these had taken press-money, and afterwards run from their colours, they might then be punished in that manner; but yet they were no soldiers, and refused to be. Secondly, he thought a subsidy, new by law, could not be pressed against his will for a foreign service; it being supposed in law, the service of his purse excused that of his person, unless his own country were in danger; and he appealed to my lord treasurer, and my lord president, whether it was not so, who both assented it was so, though some of them faintly, as unwilling to have been urged to such an answer. So it is thought, that proposition is dashed; and it will be tried what may be done -Chamber against these refractories."