IV. Puritans. CHAP. dispassionate philosophy which the precepts of Burleigh sown in his own deep and fertile mind had taught him to apply. This Elizabeth treatise, of which I was not aware in writing the present chapter, appears to coincide in every respect with the views it displays. If he censures the pride and obstinacy of the puritan teachers, their indecent and libellous style of writing, their affected imitation of foreign churches, their extravagance of receding from every thing formerly practised, he animadverts with no less plainness on the faults of the episcopal party, on the bad example of some prelates, on their peevish opposition to every improvement, their unjust accusations, their contempt of foreign churches, their persecuting spirit*. Yet that I may not deprive this great queen's administration, in what concerned her dealings with the two religious parties opposed to the established church, of what vindication may best be offered for it, I will refer the reader to a letter of sir Francis Walsingham, written to a person in France, after the year 1580†. * Bacon, ii. 375. See also another paper concerning the pacification of the church, written under James, p. 387. "The wrongs," he says, " of those which are possessed of the government of the church towards the other, may hardly be dissembled or excused." p. 382. Yet Bacon was never charged with affection for the puritans. In truth, Elizabeth and James were personally the great support of the high church interest; it had few real friends among their counsellors. + Burnet, ii. 418. Cabala, part ii. 38, (4to edition). Walsingham grounds the queen's proceedings upon two principles: the one, that "consciences are not to be forced, but to be won and reduced by force of truth, with the aid of time, and use of all good means of instruction and persuasion;" the other, that "cases of conscience, when they exceed their bounds, and grow to be matter of faction, lose their nature; and that sovereign princes ought distinctly to punish their practices and contempt, though coloured with the pretence of conscience and religion." Bacon has re peated the same words, as well as some more of Walsingham's letter, in his observations on the libel on lord Burleigh, i. 522. And Mr. Southey, (Book of the Church, ii. 291,) seems to adopt them as his own. Upon this I have to observe; first, that they take for granted the fundamental sophism of religious intolerance, namely, that the civil magistrate, or the church he supports, is not only in the right, but so clearly in the right, that no honest man, if he takes time and pains to consider the subject, can help acknowledging it: secondly, that, according to the principles of Christianity as admitted on each side, it does not rest in an esoteric persuasion, but requires an exterior profession, evidenced both by social worship, and by certain positive rites; and that the marks of this profession, according to the form best adapted to their respective ways of thinking, were as incumbent upon the catholic and puritan, as they were upon the primitive church: nor were they more chargeable with faction, or with exceeding the IV. Puritans. It is a very able apology for her government; and if the reader CHAP. should detect, as detect he doubtless may, somewhat of sophistry in reasoning, and of mis-statement in matter of fact, he will Elizabethascribe both one and the other to the narrow spirit of the age with respect to civil and religious freedom, or to the circumstances of the writer, an advocate whose sovereign was his client. bounds of conscience, when they persisted in the use of them, notwithstanding any prohibitory statute, than the early Chris tians. The generality of statesmen, and churchmen themselves not unfrequently, have argued upon the principles of what, in the seventeenth century, was called Hobbism, towards which the Erastian system, which is that of the church of England, though excellent in some points of view, had a tendency to gravitate; namely, that civil and religious allegiance are so necessarily con- CHAPTER V. CHAP. Govern ment. ON THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ELIZABETH. General Remarks-Defective Security of the Subject's Liberty-Trials for Treason and other political Offences unjustly conducted-Illegal Commitments-Remonstrance of Judges against them-Proclamations unwarranted by Law-Restrictions on Printing -Martial Law-Loans of Money not quite voluntary-Character of Lord Burleigh's Administration-Disposition of the House of Commons-Addresses concerning the Succession-Difference on this between the Queen and Commons in 1566-Session of 1571-Influence of the Puritans in Parliament-Speech of Mr. Wentworth in 1576 -The Commons continue to seek Redress of ecclesiastical Grievances-Also of Monopolies, especially in the Session of 1601-Influence of the Crown in Parliament— Debate on Election of non-resident Burgesses-Assertion of Privileges by CommonsCase of Ferrers, under Henry VIII.-Other Cases of Privilege-Privilege of determining contested Elections claimed by the House-The English Constitution not admitted to be an absolute Monarchy-Pretensions of the Crown. THE subject of the two last chapters, I mean the policy adopted by Elizabeth for restricting the two religious parties Elizabeth which from opposite quarters resisted the exercise of her ecclesiastical prerogatives, has already afforded us many illustrations of what may more strictly be reckoned the constitutional history of her reign. The tone and temper of her administration have been displayed in a vigilant execution of severe statutes, especially towards the catholics, and sometimes in stretches of power beyond the law. And as Elizabeth had no domestic enemies or refractory subjects who did not range under one or other of these two sects, and little disagreement with her people on any other grounds, the ecclesiastical history of this period is the best preparation for our inquiry into the civil government. In the pre THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 247 V. Govern sent chapter I shall first offer a short view of the practical exercise CHAP. of government in this reign, and then proceed to show how the queen's high assumptions of prerogative were encountered by Elizabetha resistance in parliament, not quite uniform, but insensibly be- ment. coming more vigorous. Elizabeth ascended the throne with all the advantages of a very extended authority. Though the jurisdiction actually exerted by the court of Star-chamber could not be vindicated according to statute-law, it had been so well established as to pass without many audible murmurs. Her progenitors had intimidated the nobility; and if she had something to fear at one season from this order, the fate of the duke of Norfolk, and of the rebellious earls in the north, put an end for ever to all apprehension from the feudal influence of the aristocracy. There seems no reason to believe that she attempted a more absolute power than her predecessors; the wisdom of her counsellors, on the contrary, led them generally to shun the more violent measures of the late reigns; but she certainly acted upon many of the precedents they had bequeathed her, with little consideration of their legality. Her own remarkable talents, her masculine intrepidity, her readiness of wit and royal deportment, which the bravest men unaffectedly dreaded, her temper of mind above all, at once fiery and inscrutably dissembling, would in any circumstances have ensured her more real sovereignty than weak monarchs, however nominally absolute, can ever enjoy or retain. To these personal qualities was added the co-operation of some of the most diligent and circumspect, as well as the most sagacious counsellors that any prince has employed; men as unlikely to loose from their grasp the least portion of that authority which they found themselves to possess, as to excite popular odium by an unusual or misplaced exertion of it. The most eminent instances, as I have remarked, of a high-strained prerogative in her reign, have some relation to ecclesiastical concerns; and herein the temper of the predominant religion was such as to account no measures harsh V. Govern ment. CHAP. or arbitrary that were adopted towards its conquered but still formidable enemy. Yet when the royal supremacy was to be Elizabeth maintained against a different foe by less violent acts of power, it revived the smouldering embers of English liberty. The stern and exasperated puritans became the depositaries of that sacred fire; and this manifests a second connexion between the temporal and ecclesiastical history of the present reign. Civil liberty, in this kingdom, has two direct guarantees; this, the open administration of justice according to known laws truly interpreted, and fair constructions of evidence; that, the right of parliament, without let or interruption, to inquire into, and obtain the redress of public grievances. Of these, the first is by far the most indispensable; nor can the subjects of any state be reckoned to enjoy a real freedom, where this condition is not found both in its judicial institutions and in their constant exercise. In this, much more than in positive law, our ancient constitution, both under the Plantagenet and Tudor line, had ever been failing; and it has been because one set of writers have looked merely to the letter of our statutes or other authorities, while another have been almost exclusively struck by the instances of arbitrary government they found on record, that such incompatible systems have been laid down with equal positiveness on the character of that constitution. I have found it impossible not to anticipate, in more places. than one, some of those glaring transgressions of natural as well as positive law, that rendered our courts of justice in cases of treason little better than the caverns of murderers. Whoever was arraigned at their bar was almost certain to meet a virulent prosecutor, a judge hardly distinguishable from the prosecutor except by his ermine, and a passive pusillanimous jury. Those who are acquainted only with our modern decent and dignified procedure can form little conception of the irregularity of ancient trials; the perpetual interrogation of the prisoner, which justly gives us so much offence at this day in the tribunals of a neigh |