Reign of Charles I. (Continued.) page 2

And now, notwithstanding the reluctance of the lords, they were compelled to entertain this question, for they found lord Newport, the constable of the Tower, also brought into question by the king. It appeared that during Charles's absence in Scotland, at a meeting of a number of the peers and members of the commons at Kensington, regarding some rumour of plots against parliament, lord Newport was reported to have said, "Never mind, we have his wife and children." Newport stated in the house that he had waited on the queen at the time, and assured her that no such words had been spoken; yet on Friday last the king had reminded him of it, and intimated his belief of it. It was now the turn of the lords to call for a conference with the commons. This was granted on Monday, and whilst it was sitting, the house of parliament was surrounded by tumultuous mobs, crying, "Beware of plots! No bishops! no bishops!"

Poor Williams, made archbishop of York on the 4th of this month, was surrounded by this mob and no little frightened; but got away unhurt, any further than in his feelings, from the execrations heaped on the bishops; but one David Hide, a ruffian officer, who had been in the army in the north, and was now appointed to the service in Ireland, drew his sword, and swore that "he would out the throats of those roundheaded dogs that bawled against bishops," and by that expression, says Clarendon, gave the first utterance to the name roundhead, which was immediately universally applied to the parliamentary party; the term cavaliers soon being introduced to designate the royalists. The same day Lunsford had the insolence to go through Westminster Hall with thirty or forty of his partisans at his back. The mob fell on them, and they drew their swords and cut right and left among the crowd. Presently there came pouring down to Westminster hundreds of fresh apprentices, with swords, cudgels, and other weapons, crying, "Slash us now! Slash us now!" And this was relived by thousands the next day, December 28th, with the same "Slash us now, whilst we wait on the honourable house to request an answer to our petition." Some of the youths were shut into the abbey and brought before Williams, whilst those without cried, that if they were not released, they would break in, and pull down the organs. This, however, they were prevented doing, by numbers of the bishop's men coming out on the abbey leads, and flinging down stones upon them, by which many were injured; and Sir Richard Wiseman, who happened to be passing, was so much hurt, that he died of his injuries,

Williams, the archbishop, was so incensed at the cry against the bishops, that he forgot his usual cunning, and got eleven other bishops to join him in an address to the king, declaring that the bishops could not get to their places for the riotous crowds, and from fear of their lives from them; and therefore, as bishops had at all times formed part and parcel of the upper house, that house, so long as they were detained from it, was no longer a competent house, and that all its acts, of whatever kind, would be utterly invalid. This was supposed to be a manoeuvre of the king's to get rid of the authority of parliament for the present, and thus of his unfortunate surrender of the powers :: adjournment; but the lords, taking no other notice of the protest of the bishops, desired a conference with the commons, and then denounced the protest of the bishops as subversive of the fundamental rights of parliament. The commons, on their part, instead of contenting themselves with passing a resolution condemnatory of the folly of the bishops, at once declared them guilty of high treason, and called on the lords to apprehend them, which was at once done, and ten of the bishops were committed to the Tower, and two, on account of their age, to the keeping of the usher of the black rod.

On the last day of this eventful year, Denzell Hollis waited on his majesty, by order of the commons, to represent to him, that whilst his faithful parliament was ready to shed the last drop of its blood in defence of his majesty, it was itself daily exposed to the danger of plots and ruffians who had dared to shed the blood of the people coming to petition at the very doors of the house. They demanded, therefore, a guard. Charles had taken care to surround his own palace day and night since the commotions. Such a guard was reluctantly granted three days after.

But if 1641 had been an astonishing year, 1642 was destined to cast even it into the shade, and its very opening was with nothing short of the first trumpet note of civil war. On the 3rd of January Charles sent his answer to the commons respecting the guard, acceding to the request, but Immediately following it up by a demand that electrified the houses, and was soon to electrify the nation. Whilst the commons were debating on the royal message, the king's new attorney-general, Herbert, appeared at the bar of the house of lords, and presented articles of high treason against six leading members of parliament, one peer and five commoners. These members were, lord Kimbolton in the peers, and Hollis, Hazelrig, Pym, Hampden, and Strode, of the commons. There were seven articles exhibited against them of high treason and other misdemeanour, These were stated in the following words: - "1st, That they have traitorously endeavoured to subvert the fundamental laws and government of the kingdom of England, to deprive the king of his royal power, and to place in subjects an arbitrary and tyrannical power over the lives, liberties, and estates of his majesty's liege people. 2nd, That they have traitorously endeavoured, by many foul aspersions upon his majesty and his government, to alienate the affections of his people, and to make his majesty odious unto them. 3rd, That they have endeavoured to draw his majesty's late army to disobedience to his majesty's commands, and to side with them in their traitorous designs. 4th, That they have traitorously invited and encouraged a foreign power to invade his majesty's kingdom of England. 5th, That they have traitorously endeavoured to subvert the rights and the very being of parliaments, 6th, That for the completing of their traitorous designs, they have endeavoured, so far as in them lay, by force and terror, to compel the parliament to join with them in their traitorous designs, and to that end have actually raised and countenanced tumults against the king and parliament. 7th, And that they have traitorously conspired to levy, and actually have levied war against the king."

Now, setting aside some of the usual technicalities of such impeachments, it cannot be denied that there was a great deal of truth in these charges. It is not to be denied that the commons had by this time far overstepped their ancient and hereditary functions; had obviously and extensively invaded the prerogatives of the crown; had seized on the right to adjourn or to sit in defiance of the king; had seized on his majesty's right to raise, direct, and employ the army and the militia; had charged him with treasonable practices against the parliament and people; had beheaded one of his ministers; still held in durance another; and had driven others from the realm for executing his commands. It was true that they had called on the Scots with an army to hold him in check, and make war on him if necessary; any one of which acts, or a mere design of such an act, in Henry VIII.'s time, would have brought them to the block long ago. We have been going on, step by step, from one aggression of the commons to another, for these sixteen years, till we do not recognise, in any lively degree, the strange ground on which we now stand, and it is necessary to look back a little in order to see how it has come about. Charles began with insisting on the right to levy tonnage and poundage and ship-money without permission of parliament; in fact, to make the right of raising taxes at pleasure, in defiance of parliament, the right of the crown. Then the commons were on just and constitutional ground; they fought the battle bravely, and compelled the king to give up his claim. Here, then, with a wise king, there would have been an end of trouble; but Charles was not that wise king. It was soon seen that with the most solemn assurances of his faith, he never for a moment abandoned the idea of wresting this right still from the parliament and people. His advisers, Wentworth and Laud, pointed out the array as the means of putting down the parliament, and that system of the "Thorough" was adopted by them, which was to raise the supremacy of the army, backed by the church, and enable him to become, not a constitutional king, but "the most absolute monarch that ever reigned." We have detailed the attempts in England, Scotland, and Ireland, to bring about this end. They have all failed; one of the authors of the "Thorough" has fallen, the other awaits the same fate. Scotland has resisted the same attempt on her liberties, and marched at the call of parliament, to prevent a like catastrophe in England. It has become a necessity of parliament to secure itself against the king, whose numberless treacheries have destroyed the nation's faith in him, not by withstanding ancient rights, but by depriving him of such of those as he is most inclined to use to crush the bulwark of the people - parliament. These are, the power of proroguing parliament at any moment, thus defeating all their efforts, and the power of calling forth an army to annihilate them. Thus, in defence of popular right, they have been compelled to invade the royal right. But Charles, though professing to assent to this arrangement, is still really plotting to upset it. He has coquetted with the Scotch, who had shown the value of their alliance, and scattered honours and promises amongst their leaders, especially those of the army. Old Leslie is now earl of Leven. He had intrigued with the Irish army to the same end, and once more hints of his allies. But these wide-awake and indomitable men have again discovered his intrigues and defeated them. The Scotch are alarmed; their deputies are once more in London in conference with the commons; Ireland is in rebellion, and London in commotion, crying for the demolition of the bishops, those lovers of absolutism, and for the protection of their parliament. Defeated at all points, the infatuated king determines on a daring and insane deed. Sixteen years of defeats and humiliations; sixteen years, during which he has been continually worsted by this invulnerable, immovable parliament, and seen it continually advancing out of the defensive into the offensive, and now fast usurping all his most valuable privileges, have never led him to ask himself the plain question - how is it that this parliament has been able to do these aggressive and disloyal deeds in the face of the nation? In this undoubtedly loyal land of England, how is it that every class and order has not started up in indignation, and plucked from this audacious body the usurped rights of sovereignty, and struck down those men for ever as traitors? In all these years of strife, discomfort, and disgrace, it has never gleamed into his soul that the people themselves are one with the parliament, are themselves the very power against which those few individuals lean, and without whom the lords and commons altogether would be as a mere tuft of bulrushes against the sense of the king and the country. The country is with the parliament and against the king. It is not merely parliament, much less the commons, still less this little knot of leading men - it is the people of England who no longer put any trust in the king, but who see alone in the seizure of the powers of the whole constitution, the guarantee for its preservation. This is the real cause why the commons are justified in their bold encroachments on the king; and in attempting to seize these half-dozen of undaunted men, Charles is, in fact, vainly attempting to grasp England by the throat, and the upshot will be accordingly. This Pharaoh of the seventeenth century has hardened his heart as often as the Egyptian monomaniac, and, blind to the signs of the times, he now rushes forward to recapture his escaping slaves, and stumbles on destruction. It is no longer a constitutional struggle - it is a civil war.

"The house of peers," says Clarendon, "was somewhat startled by this alarm, but took time to consider it till the next day, that they might see how their masters, the commons, would behave themselves," Lord Kimbolton declared his readiness to meet the charge: the lords sent a message upon the matter to the commons; and at the same time came the news that officers of the crown were sealing up the doors, trunks, and papers of Pym, Hampden, and the other impeached members. The house immediately ordered the seals put upon the doors and papers of their members to be broken, and they who had presumed to do such an act to be seized and brought before them. At this moment the serjeant-at-arms arrived at the door of the house; they ordered him to be admitted, but without his mace, and having heard his demand for the delivery of the five members, they bade him withdraw, and sent lord Falkland and three other members to inform the king that they held the members ready to answer any legal charge against them. But the next day the commons were informed by captain Languish, that the king, at the head of his gentlemen pensioners, and followed by some hundreds of courtiers and officers, armed with swords and pistols, was advancing towards the house. The house was well supplied with halberds, which they had previously ordered into it when the king withdrew their guard; but they saw the advantage of preventing an armed collision, and ordered the accused members to withdraw.

Charles entered the house, attended only by his nephew, Charles, the prince palatine, his attendants remaining in Westminster Hall, and at the door of the commons, As he advanced towards the speaker's chair, he glanced towards the place where Pym usually sate, and then approaching the chair, said, "By your leave, Mr. Speaker, I must borrow your chair a little." The house, at his entrance, arose and stood uncovered; Lenthall, the speaker, dropped upon his knees, and Charles, much excited, said, "Gentlemen, I am sorry for this occasion of coming unto you. Yesterday I sent a sergeant-at-arms to apprehend some, that at my command were accused of high treason, wherewith 1 did expect obedience, and not a message; and I must declare unto you here, that albeit no king that ever was in England shall be more careful of your privileges, to maintain them to the utmost of his power, than I shall be; yet you must know that in cases of treason no person hath a privilege, and therefore I am come to know if any of those persons that I have accused, for no slight crime, but for treason, are here. I cannot expect that this house can be in the right way that I do heartily wish it, therefore I am come to tell you that I must have them, wheresoever I find them." He looked earnestly round the house, but seeing none of them, demanded of the speaker where they were. Lenthall, still on his knees, declared that he had neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak, but as the house directed. "Well," said the king, "since I see all the birds are flown, I do expect that as soon as they return hither, you do send them to me," And with mingled assurances that he meant no force, yet not without a threat, he withdrew. As he walked out, there were raised loud cries of "Privilege! privilege!" and the house instantly adjourned.