AND in this ensuing History, though the hand and judgement of God will be very vifible, in infatuating a People (as Ripe and Prepared for Deftruction) into all the perverfe actions of folly and madness, making 'the Weak to contribute to the defigns of the Wicked, and fuffering even those, by degrees, out of a Confcience of their Guilt, to grow more Wicked than they intended to be; letting the Wife to be impofed upon by Men of fmall understanding; and permitting the Innocent to be poffeffed with lazinels and fleep in the moft vifible article of Danger; uniting the Ill, though of the moft different Opinions, oppofite Interefts, and diftant Affections, in a firm and conftant league of Mifchiefs; and dividing those, whofe Opinions and Interefts are the fame, into Faction and Emulation, more pernicious to the Publick than the Treafon of the others: whilft the poor People, under pretence of Zeal to Religion, Law, Liberty, and Parliaments words of pretious efteem in their juft fignification) are furiously hurried into Actions introducing Atheism, and diffolving all the Elements of Chriftian Religion; Cancelling all obligations, and destroying all foundations of Law and Liberty; and rendring, not only the Privileges, but the very Being of Parliaments defperate and impracticable: I fay, though the immediate finger and wrath of God must be acknowledg'd in thefe perplexities and diftractions; yet he who fhall diligently obferve the diftempers and conjunctures of Time, the ambition, pride, and folly of Perfons, and the fuddain growth of Wickedness, from want of care and circumspection in the first impreffions, will find all these Miseries to have proceeded, and to have been brought upon us from the fame natural caufes, and means, which have ufually attended Kingdoms fwoln with long Plenty, Pride, and Excels, towards fome fignal mortification, and caftigation of Heaven. And it may be, upon the confideration how impoffible it was to foresee many things that have happen'd, and of the neceffity of overlooking many other things, we may not yet find the Cure fo defperate, but that, by God's mercy, the Wounds may be again bound up; and then this profpect may not make the future Peace lefs pleafant and durable.

I HAVE the more willingly induced my felf to this unequal task, out of the hope of contributing fomewhat to that bleffed end: and though a piece of this Nature (wherein the infirmities of fome, and the malice of others, must be boldly look'd upon and mention'd) is not likely to be published in the Age in which it is writ, yet it may ferve to inform my felf, and fome others, what we ought to do, as well as to comfort us in what we have done. For which work, as I may not be thought altogether an incompetent Perfon, having

been

t

been prefent as a Member of Parliament in thofe Councils before, and till the breaking out of the Rebellion, and having fince had the Honour to be near two great Kings in fome Truft, fo Ifhall perform the fame with all faithfulness, and ingenuity; with an equal obfervation of the faults and infirmities of both fides, with their defects and overfights in purfuing their own ends; and fhall no otherwife mention fmall and light Occurrences, then as they have been Introductions to matters of the greatest Moment, nor fpeak of Perfons otherwife, than as the mention of their Virtues or Vices is effential to the work in hand: In which I fhall, with truth, preferve my self from the least sharpness, that may proceed from private provocation, and in the whole, obferve the rules that a Man fhould who deferves to be believed.

I SHALL not then lead any Man farther back in this journey for the discovery of the entrance into those dark ways, than the beginning of this King's Reign. For I am not fo fharp-fighted as thofe, who have difcerned this Rebellion contriving, from (if not before) the death of Queen Elizabeth, and fomented by feveral Princes, and great Minifters of State in Christendom, to the time that it brake out. Neither do I look fo far back as I do, because I believe the design to have been fo long fince formed, but that by viewing the Temper, Difpofition, and Habit, at that time, of the Court and of the Country, we may difcern the minds of Men prepared, of fome to Act, and of others to Suffer all that hath fince happened; the Pride of this Man, and the Popularity of that; the Levity of one, and the Morofity of another; the Excefs of the Court in the greatest Want, and the Parfimony and Retention of the Country in the greatest Plenty; the spirit of Craft and Subtlety in fome, and the Unpolished Integrity of others, too much defpifing craft or art; all contributing joyntly to this mass of Confusion now before us.

K

ning of K.

ING James in the end of March 1625 died, leaving A View of his Majefty that now is, engaged in a War with the beginSpain, but unprovided with money to manage it; Charles I. though it was undertaken by the confent and advice of Par- Reign. liament: the People being naturally enough inclined to the War (having furfeited with the uninterrupted Pleasures and Plenty of 22 years Peace) and fufficiently inflamed against the Spaniard; but quickly weary of the charge of it: And therefore, after an unprofperous and chargeable attempt in a Voyage by Sea upon Cadiz, and as unfuccefsful, and more unfortunate one upon France at the Ifle of Ree (for fome difference had likewife about the fame time begotten a War with that Prince) a general Peace was fhortly concluded with both

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Kingdoms; the Exchequer being fo exhausted with the debts of King James, the bounty of his Majefty that now is (who upon his first access to the Crown, gave many coftly inftances of his favour to Perfons near him) and the charge of the War upon Spain, and France, that both the known, and cafual Revenue being anticipated, the neceflary Subfiftence of the Household was unprovided for; and the King on the fuddain driven to thofe ftreights for his own Support, that many ways were reforted to, and inconveniencies fubmitted to for Supply; as felling the Crown-Lands, creating Peers for money, and many other particulars, which no accefs of power, or plenty, fince could repair.

PARLIAMENTS were Summoned, and again Diffolved in displeasure and that in the fourth year (after the Diffolution of the two former) was determined with a Profeffion, and Declaration, that, "fince for feveral ill ends the calling again "of a Parliament was divulged, however his Majefty had fhewed, by his frequent meeting with his People, his love to the ufe of Parliaments, yet the late abuse having, for the "prefent, driven his Majefty unwillingly out of that course, "he fhalí account it prefumption for any to prescribe any "time to his Majefty for Parliaments. Which words were generally interpreted, as if no more Affemblies of that nature were to be expected, and that all Men were prohibited upon the penalty of Cenfure, fo much as to speak of a Parliament. And here I cannot but let my felf loofe to fay, that no Man can fhew me a Source, from whence those waters of bitterness, we now tafte, have more probably flowed, than from these unreasonable, unskilful, and precipitate Diffolutions of Parliaments; in which, by an unjuft furvey of the Passion, Infolence, and Ambition of particular Perfons, the Court measured the Temper and Affection of the Country; and by the fame standard the People confider'd the Honour, Juftice, and Piety of the Court; and fo ufually parted, at thofe fad feasons, with no other Respect, and Charity one toward the other, than accompanies Perlons who never meant to meet but in their own Defence. In which the King had always the disadvantage to harbour Perfons about him, who with their utmost Industry, falfe Information, and Malice, improved the faults, and infirmities of the Court to the People; and again, as much as in them lay, rendered the People fufpected, if not odious to the King.

I AM not altogether a ftranger to the paffages of thofe Parliaments (though I was not a Member of them) having carefully perufed the Journals of both Houfes, and Familiarly converfed with many who had principal parts in them. And I cannot but wonder at thofe Counfels, which perfwaded the

courfes

courses then taken; the habit and temper of Mens minds, at that time, being, no question, very applicable to the Publick ends; and thofe ends being only difcredited by the Jealoufies the People entertain'd from the manner of the profecution, that they were other, and worse than in truth they were. It is not to be denied, that there were, in all thofe Parliaments, especially in that of the fourth year, several Paffages, and ditempered Speeches of particular Perfons, not fit for the Dignity, and Honour of thofe places, and unfuitable to the Reverence due to his Majefty and his Councils. But I do not know any formed Act of either House (for neither the Remonftrance, nor Votes of the laft day were fuch) that was not agreeable to the Wisdom, and Juftice of great Courts upon those extraordinary occafions. And whoever confiders. the Acts of power, and injuftice of fome of the Ministers, in thofe intervals of Parliament, will not be much scandalized at the warmth, and vivacity of thofe meetings.

IN the Second Parliament there was a mention, and intention declared of granting five Subfidies, a proportion (how contemptible foever in refpect of the preffures now every day impofed) fcarce ever before heard of in Parliament. And that Meeting being, upon very unpopular, and unplaufible Reasons, immediately Diffolved, thofe five Subfidies were exacted, throughout the whole Kingdom, with the fame rigour, as if, in truth, an Act had paffed to that purpose: Divers Gentlemen of prime Quality, in feveral Counties of England, were, for refufing to pay the fame, committed to Prifon, with great rigour and extraordinary circumftances. And could it be imagined, that thofe Men would meet again in a free Convention of Parliament, without a fharp, and fevere expostulation, and inquifition into their own Right, and the power that had impofed upon that Right? And yet all these Provocations, and many other, almoft of as large an extent, produced no other Refentment than the Petition of Right (of no prejudice to the Crown) which was likewife purchased at the price of five Subfidies more, and, in a very fhort time after that Supply granted, that Parliament was likewife, with strange circumftances of Paffion on all fides, Diffolved.

THE abrupt, and unkind breaking off the two firft Parliaments was wholely imputed to the Duke of Buckingham; and of the Third, principally to the Lord Weston, then Lord High Treasurer of England; both in refpect of the great Power, and Intereft they then had in the Affections of his Majefty, and for that the time of the Diffolutions happened to be when fome Charges, and Accufations were preparing, arready to be preferred against thofe two great Perfons. And thefore the Envy, and Hatred, that attended them thereupon,

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was Infupportable, and was vifibly the caufe of the murther of the firit (ftabbed to the Heart by the hand of a Villain, upon the meer impious pretence of his being odious to the Parliament) and made, no doubt, fo great an impreffion upon the Understanding, and Nature of the other, that, by degrees, he loft that temper and ferenity of Mind, he had been before mafter of, and which was moft fit to have accompanied him in his weighty Imployments: infomuch, as, out of indignation to find himself worse used than he deferved, he cared less to deferve well, than he had done; and infenfioly grew into that Publick hatred, that render'd him lefs ufeful to the Service that he only intended.

I WONDER lefs at the Errors of this nature in the Duke of Buckingham; who, having had a moft generous Education in Courts, was utterly ignorant of the Ebbs, and Floods of Popular Councils, and of the Winds that move those Waters; and could not, without the fpirit of Indignation, find himfelf, in the space of a few weeks, without any visible cause intervening, from the greatest height of popular Eftimation that any perfon hath afcended to (infomuch as Sr Edward Coke blafphemoufly call'd him our Saviour) by the fame breath thrown down to the depth of Calumny, and Reproach. I fay, it is no Marvail (befides that he was naturally to follow fuch Counfels as were given him) that he could think of no better way, to be freed of thefe inconveniences, and troubles, the Paffions of thofe Meetings gave him, than to Diffolve them, and prevent their coming together: and that when they feemed to neglect the publick Peace, out of Animofity to him, he intended his own Eafe and Security in the first place, and cafily believed, the Publick might be otherwife provided for, by more Intent, and Difpaffionate Councils. But that the other, the Lord Wefton, who had been very much, and very Popularly converfant in thofe Conventions, who exactly knew the Frame, and Conftitution of the Kingdom, the Temper of the People, the Extents of the Courts of Law, and the Jurifdiction of Parliaments, which at that time had feldom, or never committed any Excefs of jurifdiction (Modefty and Moderation in words never was, nor ever will be obferved in Popular Councils, whofe foundation is Liberty of Speech) that He fhould believe, that the Union, Peace, and Plenty of the Kingdom could be preferved without Parliaments, or that the Paffion, and Diftemper gotten, and received into Parliaments, could be removed, and reformed by the more paffionate Breaking and Diffolving them; or that That Courfe would not inevitably prove the moft Pernicious to himfelf, is as much my Wonder, as any thing that hath fince happened.

THERE