410. guilty of offences, yet quite free from the crime <bers; but because he knew himself a principal in what the earl was but his acceffary; and thought nothing 6 ⚫ treason against the commonwealth, but againft himfelf () Milton's only (n).-There was no occafion for this infult; for profe works, it appears Charles's fcruple arofe from the earl's not being vol. i. p. liable to the laws then in force against treason, and therefore might think it unjuft to execute him as a traitor, even though he had appeared much more criminal in his eyes than probably he did.-Those who have read the tryal of this nobleman through, without prejudice, will perhaps hardly be fo apt to lament his fate as his majesty. They may miflike the method taken to punish him, and condemn the riots rofe on that occafion; but furely they cannot be forry to find a man made an example, who, in the judgment of lord Digby, was the most dangerous minifter, the most infupportable to free fubjects, that can be charactered. I believe, adds he, his practices • in themselves have been as high, as tyrannical, as any fubject ever ventured on; and the malignity of them 6 are hugely aggravated by thofe rare abilities of his, ⚫ whereof God hath given him the use, but the devil the application. In a word, I believe him ftill that grand apoftate to the commonwealth, who muft not expect to be pardoned in this world, till he be dispatched to the other (o). If this was his character, and Digby at forde's tryal this time was not his foe, can any man-I repeat it-be worth, p.50, forry to find that he was made an example of? (o) Straf by Rush fol. Lond. 1680. (p) Id. p. 757. ི་ . In the bill of attainder, there was the following provifo. • Provided that no judge or judges, justice or juftices whatsoever, fhall adjudge or interpret any act or thing to be treason, nor hear or determine any treafon, in any other manner than he or they fhould or ought to have done before the making of this act, and as if this act had never been had or made (p). Upon this it is remarked, in the Icon Bafilike, that that afteract, vacating the authority of the precedent for future imitation, fufficiently tells the world, that fome remorfe touched even his moft implacable enemies, as ' know. crime of high treafon. At length, how ever, Charles's < knowing he had very hard measure, and fuch as they would be very loath fhould be repeated to themfelves (q).' How pertinent this reflection is, will ap- (9) King pear by what follows. Abundance of people, efpe- works, p. cially the old cavaliers, understand this provifo as a 649. reflection on the bill itfelf; and as if his cafe [Strafforde's] was fo very hard, even in the opinion of the parliament itself, that it was ordered by this clause to be no precedent for the future. This is a ridiculous error in many refpects: first, becaufe doing a thing in < one parliament, and ordering it to be no precedent to another, is an arrant bull; fince the very doing it is and must be a precedent, at the fame time 'tis ordered ⚫ that it shall be none. Secondly, it would have been ⚫ an unparalleled open injuftice, to put one man to death for fuch a crime, as, even in the opinion of those who punished him, was not great enough to be capital in any other perfon, or at any other time. And it will ⚫ not weaken this argument to fay, that it was an unjust cruel act, and therefore a good many diffented from it: for those diffenting members themselves could not be so uncharitable as to imagine all the members of both houses, who paffed the bill, not only fo bafe and bloody as to be all the while against it in their confciences, but fo foolish alfo as to own it in the very < bill itself. And therefore nothing can be plainer than that 'tis only a grofs mistake among ignorant people, to think they meant it in that manner. Accordingly, that act of Charles II. which has reverfed this bill of < attainder, and in the preamble recited every thing imaginable in favour of that earl, yet takes no notice of this claufe, which had more difcredited the bill than all the reft, if it could have been interpreted in that manner (r).' If Mr. Hume had attended to these con- () Works fiderations, he would poffibly have left out the reflection of John in the clofe of the following period. The first par- duke of Sheffield, <liament, after the restoration, reverfed the bill of at- Bucks, vol. <tainder; and even a few weeks after Strafforde's exe- ii. p. 130, Y 3 'cution, 12mo. Lond, 1753. 1 ever, against his own judgment, he figned the bill of attainder, to the very great amazement of Strafforde, and the contufion of his adherents.-The death of this great man, lay always heavy on the mind of Charles.This facrifice, together with the paffing the bills for triennial parliaments; for not dif folving the prefent parliament without its own confent; for abolishing the courts of Star-chamber and High-commiffion; and the bill for taking away the bishops votes In parliament, and all temporal jurifdictions and offices from them, and all others in holy orders (PPP); I fay, the paffing thefe cution, this very parliament remitted to his children the more fevere confequences of his sentence [by a bill for reftoring them in blood and honour, and fettling his lands on his heirs], as if confcious of the violence, with which the affair had been conducted (s).' Surely (5) Hiftory fo juft, fo generous a thing, merited not fuch an illnatured remark. of Great Britain, vol. (PPP) The bill for taking away the bishops votes in parliament, and all temporal jurifdictions and offices from them, and all others in holy orders.] The bifhops and courtclergy had rendered themselves fo very unpopular and odious, by promoting the fchemes for tyranny in church and ftate, that we need not wonder to find them very furiously attacked by men of fenfe, virtue, and moderation. In the beginning of this parliament a fhort bill was brought in, to take away the bifhops votes in parliament, and to leave them out in all commiffions of the peace, or that had relation to any temporal affairs.' This, on a fecond reading, was caft out in the house of peers, where the bishops then had votes.-Soon after this another fhort bill was prepared for the utter era'dication these bills feemed calculated to allay the fears 6 P. 234, 237. dication of bifhops, deans and chapters, with all chancellors, officials and all officers, and other perfons, belonging to either of them. This alfo was laid afide for a time (t).' Lord Clarendon, speaking of this bill, (t) Clarenfays, they [the governing party in the houfes] prevailed don, vol. i. with fir Edward Dering, a man very oppofite to all their defigns (but a man of levity and vanity; easily flattered, by being commended), to prefent into the houfe; which he did from the gallery, with the two verfes in Ovid, the application whereof was his great• eft motive: • Cuneta prius tentanda, fed immedicabile vulnus Enfe recidendum eft, ne pars fincera trahatur. "He took notice of the great moderation and candour of the house, in applying fo gentle a remedy, by the late bill, to retrench the exorbitancies of the clergy: hoping that by pruning and taking off a few unneceffary branches from the trunk, the tree might profper the better; that this mortification might have mended < their conftitution, and that they would have the more ⚫ carefully intended their health: but that this foft re medy had proved fo ineffectual, that they were grown 6 more obftinate and incorrigible; fo that it was now 6 neceffary to put the ax to the root of the tree, and therefore defired that the bill might be read (u).' I (u) Id. p. have quoted this paffage at length, in order to give the 237. reader a fpecimen of lord Clarendon's relations and colourings. Sir Edward Dering, here fpoken of, was a man of fenfe, virtue, and learning, perhaps not inferiour to his lordship, of a family vaftly fuperiour. His zeal for the intereft of religion was great, as well as his concern for the honor and welfare of its teachers: he could not, therefore, be actuated by fo mean a motive as the application of Ovid's verfes. Sir Edward himself has published the speech he made on this occafion, in which there is hardly one fentence of what his lordship has put into his mouth. Sir,' fays he, addreffing himself to Ý 4 the (w) Collec tion of fpeeches, p. 63. fears of the people, and to fatisfy the par liament. Ard the speaker, I am now the inftrument to prefent unto clergy, |