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The light music of Ben Jonson's during several centuries. The Planmasques was dissolute. Half the fine tagenets and the Tudors had, it is paintings in England were idolatrous, true, occasionally supplied a deficiency and the other half indecent. The in their revenue by a benevolence or a extreme Puritan was at once known forced loan: but these expedients were from other men by his gait, his garb, always of a temporary nature. To his lank hair, the sour solemnity of his meet the regular charge of a long war face, the upturned white of his eyes, by regular taxation, imposed without the nasal twang with which he spoke, the consent of the Estates of the realm, and, above all, by his peculiar dialect. was a course which Henry the Eighth He employed, on every occasion, the himself would not have dared to take. imagery and style of Scripture. He- It seemed, therefore, that the decisive braisms violently introduced into the hour was approaching, and that the English language, and metaphors bor- English Parliament would soon either rowed from the boldest lyric poetry of share the fate of the senates of the a remote age and country, and applied Continent, or obtain supreme ascento the common concerns of English dency in the state. life, were the most striking peculiarities of this cant, which moved, not without cause, the derision both of Prelatists and libertines.

racter of

Just at this conjuncture James died. Charles the First succeeded to Accession the throne. He had received and cha from nature a far better under- Charles I. Thus the political and religious standing, a far stronger will, and schism which had originated in the a far keener and firmer temper than sixteenth century was, during the first his father's. He had inherited his quarter of the seventeenth century, father's political theories, and was constantly widening. Theories tending much more disposed than his father to Turkish despotism were in fashion to carry them into practice. He was, at Whitehall. Theories tending to re-like his father, a zealous episcopalian. publicanism were in favour with a He was, moreover, what his father had large portion of the House of Com- never been, a zealous Arminian, and, mons. The violent Prelatists who were, though no Papist, liked a Papist much to a man, zealous for prerogative, and better than a Puritan. It would be the violent Puritans who were, to a unjust to deny that Charles had some man, zealous for the privileges of of the qualities of a good, and even of Parliament, regarded each other with a great prince. He wrote and spoke, animosity more intense than that not, like his father, with the exactness which, in the preceding generation, of a professor, but after the fashion of had existed between Catholics and intelligent and well educated gentleProtestants. men. His taste in literature and art While the minds of men were in was excellent, his manner dignified, this state, the country, after a peace though not gracious, his domestic life of many years, at length engaged in a without blemish. Faithlessness was war which required strenuous exer- the chief cause of his disasters, and is tions. This war hastened the ap- the chief stain on his memory. He proach of the great constitutional was, in truth, impelled by an incurable crisis. It was necessary that the King propensity to dark and crooked ways. should have a large military force. It may seem strange that his conscience, He could not have such a force with- which, on occasions of little moment, out money. He could not legally raise was sufficiently sensitive, should never money without the consent of Parlia- have reproached him with this great ment. It followed, therefore, that he vice. But there is reason to believe either must administer the government that he was perfidious, not only from in conformity with the sense of the constitution and from habit, but also House of Commons, or must venture on principle. He seems to have learned on such a violation of the fundamental from the theologians whom he most laws of the land as had been unknown esteemed that between him and his

subjects there could be nothing of the nature of mutual contract; that he could not, even if he would, divest himself of his despotic authority; and that, in every promise which he made, there was an implied reservation that such promise might be broken in case of necessity, and that of the necessity he was the sole judge.

And now began that hazardous game Tactics of on which were staked the destisition Innies of the English people. It the House was played on the side of the

of Com

mons.

cation and many evasions, agreed to a compromise which, if he had faithfully adhered to it, would have averted a long series of calamities. The Parliament granted an ample supply. The King ratified, in the most solemn manner, that celebrated law, which is known by the name of the Petition of Right, and which is the second Petition Great Charter of the liberties of Right. of England. By ratifying that law he bound himself never again to raise money without the consent of the House of Commons with keen-Houses, never again to imprison any ness, but with admirable dexterity, person, except in due course of law, coolness, and perseverance. Great and never again to subject his people statesmen who looked far behind them to the jurisdiction of courts martial. and far before them were at the head The day on which the royal sanction of that assembly. They were resolved was, after many delays, solemnly given to place the King in such a situation to this great Act, was a day of joy and that he must either conduct the ad- hope. The Commons, who crowded ministration in conformity with the the bar of the House of Lords, broke wishes of his Parliament, or make out-forth into loud acclamations as soon rageous attacks on the most sacred as the clerk had pronounced the anprinciples of the constitution. They cient form of words by which our accordingly doled out supplies to him very sparingly. He found that he must govern either in harmony with the House of Commons, or in defiance of all law. His choice was soon made. He dissolved his first Parliament, and levied taxes by his own authority. He convoked a second Parliament, and found it more intractable than the first. He again resorted to the expedient of dissolution, raised fresh taxes without any show of legal right, and threw the chiefs of the opposition into prison. At the same time a new grievance, which the peculiar feelings and habits of the English nation made insupportably painful, and which seemed to all discerning men to be of fearful augury, excited general discontent and alarm. Companies of soldiers were billeted on the people; and martial law was, in some places, substituted for the ancient jurisprudence of the realm.

princes have, during many ages, signi-
fied their assent to the wishes of the
Estates of the realm. Those acclama-
tions were reechoed by the voice of
the capital and of the nation; but with-
in three weeks it became manifest that
Charles had no intention of observing
the compact into which he had entered.
The supply given by the representatives
of the nation was collected.
The pro-
mise by which that supply had been
obtained was broken. A violent con-
test followed. The Parliament was
dissolved with every mark of royal
displeasure. Some of the most dis-
tinguished members were imprisoned;
and one of them, Sir John Eliot, after
years of suffering, died in confinement.

Charles, however, could not venture to raise, by his own authority, taxes sufficient for carrying on war. He accordingly hastened to make peace with his neighbours, and henceforth gave his whole mind to British politics. The King called a third Parliament, Now commenced a new era. Many and soon perceived that the opposition English Kings had occasionally comwas stronger and fiercer than ever. mitted unconstitutional acts: but none He now determined on a change of had ever systematically attempted to tactics. Instead of opposing an in- make himself a despot, and to reduce flexible resistance to the demands of the Parliament to a nullity. Such the Commons, he, after much alter-was the end which Charles distinctly

proposed to himself. From March 1629 | make Charles a monarch as absolute to April 1640, the Houses were not as any on the Continent; to put the convoked. Never in our history had estates and the personal liberty of the there been an interval of eleven years whole people at the disposal of the between Parliament and Parliament. crown; to deprive the courts of law Only once had there been an interval of all independent authority, even in of even half that length. This fact ordinary questions of civil right bealone is sufficient to refute those who tween man and man; and to punish represent Charles as having merely with merciless rigour all who murtrodden in the footsteps of the Plan- mured at the acts of the government, tagenets and Tudors. or who applied, even in the most decent and regular manner, to any tribunal for relief against those acts.*

Petition of Right violated.

It is proved, by the testimony of the King's most strenuous supporters, that, during this part of This was his end; and he distinctly his reign, the provisions of the saw in what manner alone this end Petition of Right were violated by him, could be attained. There was, in truth, not occasionally, but constantly, and on about all his notions a clearness, a system; that a large part of the re-coherence, a precision, which, if he had venue was raised without any legal authority; and that persons obnoxious to the government languished for years in prison, without being ever called upon to plead before any tribunal.

one

not been pursuing an object pernicious to his country and to his kind, would have justly entitled him to high admiration. He saw that there was instrument, and only one, by which his For these things history must hold vast and daring projects could be carthe King himself chiefly responsible. ried into execution. That instrument From the time of his third Parliament was a standing army. To the forming he was his own prime minister. Several of such an army, therefore, he directed persons, however, whose temper and all the energy of his strong mind. In talents were suited to his purposes, Ireland, where he was viceroy, he actuwere at the head of different depart-ally succeeded in establishing a military ments of the administration. despotism, not only over the aboriginal population, but also over the English colonists, and was able to boast that, in that island, the King was as absolute as any prince in the whole world could be.†

Character and designs

worth.

Thomas Wentworth, successively created Lord Wentworth and Earl of Strafford, a man of great of Went abilities, eloquence, and courage, but of a cruel and imperious nature, was the counsellor most trusted in political and military affairs. He had been one of the most distinguished members of the opposition, and felt towards those whom he had deserted that peculiar malignity which has, in all ages, been characteristic of apostates. He perfectly understood the feelings, the resources, and the policy of the party to which he had lately belonged, and had formed a vast and deeply meditated scheme which very nearly confounded even the able tactics of the statesmen by whom the House of Commons had been directed. To this scheme, in his confidential correspondence, he gave the expressive name of Thorough. His object was to do in England all, and more than all, that Richelieu was doing in France; to

The ecclesiastical administration was, in the meantime, principally di- Character rected by William Laud, Arch- of Laud. bishop of Canterbury. Of all the prelates of the Anglican Church, Laud had departed farthest from the principles of the Reformation, and had drawn nearest to Rome. His theology was more remote than even that of the Dutch Arminians from the theology of

*The correspondence of Wentworth seems to me fully to bear out what I have said in the text. To transcribe all the passages which have led me to the conclusion at which I have arrived, would be impossible; nor would it be easy to make a better selection than has already been made by Mr. Hallam. I may, however, direct the attention of the reader particularly to the very able paper which Wentworth drew up respecting the affairs of the Palatinate. The date is March 31, 1637.

These are Wentworth's own words. his letter to Laud, dated Dec. 16, 1634.

See

the Calvinists. His passion for cere- | inquisition. Neither was a part of the monies, his reverence for holidays, old constitution of England. The Star vigils, and sacred places, his ill con- Chamber had been remodelled, and the cealed dislike of the marriage of eccle- High Commission created, by the Tusiasties, the ardent and not altogether dors. The power which these boards disinterested zeal with which he asserted had possessed before the accession of the claims of the clergy to the reverence Charles had been extensive and formidof the laity, would have made him an able, but had been small indeed when object of aversion to the Puritans, even compared with that which they now if he had used only legal and gentle usurped. Guided chiefly by the violent means for the attainment of his ends. spirit of the primate, and freed from But his understanding was narrow; and the control of Parliament, they dishis commerce with the world had been played a rapacity, a violence, a maligsmall. He was by nature rash, irrit-nant energy, which had been unknown able, quick to feel for his own dignity, to any former age. The government slow to sympathise with the sufferings was able, through their instrumentality, of others, and prone to the error, com- to fine, imprison, pillory, and mutilate mon in superstitious men, of mistaking without restraint. A separate council his own peevish and malignant moods which sate at York, under the presifor emotions of pious zeal. Under his dency of Wentworth, was armed, in direction every corner of the realm was defiance of law, by a pure act of presubjected to a constant and minute rogative, with almost boundless power inspection. Every little congregation over the northern counties. All these of separatists was tracked out and tribunals insulted and defied the authobroken up. Even the devotions of rity of Westminster Hall, and daily private families could not escape the committed excesses which the most disvigilance of his spies. Such fear did tinguished Royalists have warmly conhis rigour inspire that the deadly hatred demned. We are informed by Clarenof the Church, which festered in in- don that there was hardly a man of numerable bosoms, was generally dis- note in the realm who had not personal guised under an outward show of con- experience of the harshness and greediformity. On the very eve of troubles, ness of the Star Chamber, that the fatal to himself and to his order, the High Commission had so conducted Bishops of several extensive dioceses itself that it had scarce a friend left were able to report to him that not a in the kingdom, and that the tyranny single dissenter was to be found within of the Council of York had made the their jurisdiction.* Great Charter a dead letter on the north of the Trent.

The tribunals afforded no protection to the subject against the civil and ecclesiastical tyranny of that period. The judges of the common law, holding their situations during the pleasure of the King, were scandalously obsequious. Yet, obsequious as they were, they were less ready and less efficient instruments of arbitrary power than a class of courts, the memory of which is still, after the lapse of more than two centuries, held in deep abhorrence by the nation. Foremost among these courts in power and in infamy were the Star Chamber and the Comm High Commission, the former a political, the latter a religious See his report to Charles for the year 1639.

Star

Chamber

Commis

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The government of England was now, in all points but one, as despotic as that of France. But that one point was all important. There was still no standing army. There was, therefore, no security that the whole fabric of tyranny might not be subverted in a single day; and, if taxes were imposed by the royal authority for the support of an army, it was probable that there would be an immediate and irresistible explosion. This was the difficulty which more than any other perplexed Wentworth. The Lord Keeper Finch, in concert with other lawyers who were employed by the government, recommended an expedient, which was eagerly adopted. The ancient princes of

Ship money

England, as they called on the inhabi- consent of Parliament, be legally raised tants of the counties near Scotland to for the support of an army. arm and array themselves for the defence The decision of the judges increased of the border, had sometimes called on the irritation of the people. A century the maritime counties to furnish ships earlier, irritation less serious would for the defence of the coast. In the have produced a general rising. But room of ships money had some-discontent did not now so readily as in times been accepted. This old an earlier age take the form of rebellion. practice it was now determined, after a The nation had been long steadily adlong interval, not only to revive but to vancing in wealth and in civilisation. extend. Former princes had raised Since the great northern Earls took up shipmoney only in time of war: it was arms against Elizabeth seventy years now exacted in a time of profound had elapsed; and during those seventy peace. Former princes, even in the years there had been no civil war. most perilous wars, had raised ship- Never, during the whole existence of money only along the coasts: it was the English nation, had so long a period now exacted from the inland shires. passed without intestine hostilities. Former princes had raised shipmoney Men had become accustomed to the only for the maritime defence of the pursuits of peaceful industry, and, excountry: it was now exacted, by the asperated as they were, hesitated long admission of the Royalists themselves, before they drew the sword. with the object, not of maintaining a navy, but of furnishing the King with supplies which might be increased at his discretion to any amount, and expended at his discretion for any purpose.

This was the conjuncture at which the liberties of the nation were in the greatest peril. The opponents of the government began to despair of the destiny of their country; and many looked to the American wilderness as the only asylum in which they could enjoy civil and spiritual freedom. There a few resolute Puritans, who, in the cause of their religion, feared neither the rage of the ocean nor the hardships of uncivilised life, neither the fangs of savage beasts nor the tomahawks of more savage men, had built, amidst the primeval forest, villages which are now great and opulent cities, but which have, through every change, retained some trace of the character derived from their founders. The government regarded these infant colonies with

The whole nation was alarmed and incensed. John Hampden, an opulent and well-born gentleman of Buckinghamshire, highly considered in his own neighbourhood, but as yet little known to the kingdom generally, had the courage to step forward, to confront the whole power of the government, and take on himself the cost and the risk of disputing the prerogative to which the King laid claim. The case was argued before the judges in the Exchequer Chamber. So strong were the arguments against the pretensions of the crown that, dependent and servile aversion, and attempted violently to as the judges were, the majority against Hampden was the smallest possible. Still there was a majority. The interpreters of the law had pronounced that one great and productive tax might be imposed by the royal authority. Wentworth justly observed that it was impossible to vindicate their judgment except by reasons directly leading to a conclusion which they had not ventured to draw. If money might legally be raised without the consent of Parliament for the support of a fleet, it was not easy to deny that money might, without

stop the stream of emigration, but could not prevent the population of New England from being largely recruited by stouthearted and Godfearing men from every part of the old England. And now Wentworth exulted in the near prospect of Thorough. A few years might probably suffice for the execution of his great design. If strict economy were observed, if all collision with foreign powers were carefully avoided, the debts of the crown would be cleared off: there would be funds available for the support of a large

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