National Covenant, to maintain their religious independence. Prelacy was abolished by a General Assembly held at Glasgow, and Presbyterianism again became the established religion of Scotland. Charles now made considerable concessions, but only to gain time to prepare for war. The Scots were well aware of this, and made similar preparations. A powerful army was raised and placed under the command of General Leslie, who had greatly distinguished himself in the wars of Germany. In 1639 Charles advanced against the Scots; but so incapable was he of carrying on the war, that he gladly came to an agreement to disband both armies, and refer the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland to a new assembly and parliament.

10. The royal treasury was too empty for further operations, and Charles was reluctantly compelled to summon a parliament in order to obtain supplies. It met in 1640, and, instead of satisfying his immediate wants, took up the subject of his misgovernment. Persisting in this, Charles, within little more than three weeks of its first meeting, dissolved parliament.

11. He next called a council of peers at York, but before they could meet found himself obliged to convene another parliament. This was the famous Long Parliament, which lasted for more than nineteen years. During the early part of its existence its measures were highly laudable, but as it grew in strength it acted more and more unconstitutionally, and ended by becoming as tyrannical as the government which it superseded.

The courts of Star-Chamber and High Commission were abolished by it, and their illegal judgments reversed; all illegal taxation was prohibited; compulsory knighthood was abolished; and a bill was passed enacting that a new parliament should be assembled once every three years.

Strafford was the first of the public ministers whom the Commons selected for punishment. He was impeached of high treason, and, after an eloquent defence, was found guilty.

According to the law of England, as it then stood, it was

difficult to show that the charges brought against Strafford amounted to treason. As he himself said, "A hundred white rabbits will not make one white horse." The Commons, in consequence, passed a bill of attainder, declaring any attempt to subvert the laws of the realm to be treasonable.

Charles wrote to Strafford to assure him of protection, and, for some time, refused to sign the bill of attainder, but the minister placed his life at his sovereign's disposal, and expressed his willingness to die rather than be the occasion of a rupture between him and the people. This advice was followed, and the royal signature was given for his execution. Strafford died with great firmness on Tower Hill.

On hearing of Charles's consent to his death, he is said to have exclaimed, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, for in them there is no salvation." He was probably thinking of the king's lately-given promise. "Be sure, on my royal word, that you shall not suffer, either in your life, or in your fortune, or in your honour."

12. To prevent a surprise the Commons now passed a bill, declaring that the power of dissolution should be vested in their own hands, and Charles was obliged to give his assent to it. They next attacked episcopacy, but the attempt to procure its abolition totally failed. Whilst this subject was under discussion a terrible massacre of the Irish Protestants took place. According to a preconcerted plan, the Papists fell upon their Protestant fellow-countrymen, October 23rd, 1641, and, pretending to act upon royal authority, murdered them without respect of age or sex.

This insurrection is chiefly attributable to the tyranny of Strafford, and to the enforcement of the penal laws. The number of those who perished has been estimated at 40,000; though some writers place it as high as 200,000. "Husbands and wives, parents and children, the infant and the man of grey hairs, were laid prostrate together. Those who surrendered perished, and those who resisted were often beguiled into submission by the most perfidious promises; while some were induced to destroy their nearest connexions as the price of their own escape, and then were themselves immediately numbered with the victims." (Dr. Vaughan.)

CHARLES I.-continued.

1641-1649.

Although Charles was undoubtedly innocent of the Irish massacre, yet his connivance at Popery, his hatred of Puritanism, and his intrigues in raising soldiers amongst the Irish Papists, increased the distrust with which the people generally regarded him.

13. Satisfied with the concessions which Charles had now made, Hyde (afterwards Earl of Clarendon), Lord Falkland, and many others, quitted the popular party and went over to the royalists. The parliamentary leaders, however, were not yet contented, and determined so to limit Charles's prerogative that he would be unable to rescind the late measures, and be equally unable to take vengeance on themselves. To prevent any reaction on the part of the public in favour of the king, a remonstrance was drawn up by the Commons against the bad government of the nation since his accession. It was carried, but only by the small majority of nine votes.

The spirit manifested in this remonstrance has been justly censured. A recital of grievances which had been abolished, and which could scarcely recur in future, was only calculated to promote ill feeling between the king and the people, and, after Charles's ample concessions, was ungrateful and vindictive. So important, however, was this measure considered, that Cromwell observed to Falkland, "Had the remonstrance been rejected, I would to-morrow have sold everything I possess and never seen England more; and I know many other honest men of the same resolution."

14. An act of indiscretion on the part of the king followed soon after, which shows that the national distrust was not wholly without grounds. On the 3rd of January, 1642, a charge of high treason was preferred against Lord Kimbolton and five members of the Commons, Pym, Hampden, Hollis, Hazelrig, and Strode, and a demand was made that they should be

G

instantly given into custody. The House resisted this unconstitutional procedure, and the next day Charles made an attempt to seize the accused members by force, but they had received timely warning and had escaped.

Charles was accompanied by from three to five hundred armed men, consisting chiefly of attendants and ex-military officers. When he had entered the House he inquired of the Speaker if the persons impeached were present. Lenthal, falling on his knees, replied, "I have, Sir, neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak, in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am.' Charles then exclaimed, "Well, since the birds are flown, I do expect that you will send them to me as soon as they return hither." He then left the House amidst cries of "Privilege!-Privilege!" Charles is said to have been instigated to this insane step by his queen, who, in terms of bitter upbraiding, had said to him, "Go, coward, and pull those rogues out by the ears, or never see me more!" Meanwhile the five members had taken refuge in the city. The next day Charles proceeded to search for them, but his progress through the streets clearly showed the tone of public opinion. The people following his carriage shouted "Privilege of Parliament !" and one of the mob had the audacity to fling a paper through the carriage-window, bearing on it the ominous words, "To your tents, O Israel!"

This unsuccessful attempt to overawe the Commons rendered Charles more unpopular than ever, and, in despair, he left London for York, never to return to it unless as a prisoner. Two bills now passed through parliament, one to exclude the bishops from the House of Lords, and the other to vest the control of the militia in the parliament. To the first of these Charles gave his assent, but to the second he gave a decided refusal. It was on this ground that the Civil War first commenced.

nor.

15. In April, 1642, Charles was refused admission into Hull by Hotham, the parliament-appointed goverThe queen had been already sent to Holland to procure means for carrying on a war, and in August the royal standard was set up at Nottingham. Thousands of Royalists immediately resorted to it, ready to

sacrifice their lives for a sovereign, whose conduct they could not approve, but whose faults they were willing to forgive. The army of the parliament assembled at Northampton, and was placed under the command of the Earl of Essex. The leading officers under Charles were his nephews Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, the Earl of Lindsay, and the Earl of Newcastle; under Essex, Lord Kimbolton, afterwards Earl of Manchester, Sir William Waller, Hampden, Cromwell, and Ireton.

The Royal army consisted chiefly of the nobility and gentry and their retainers; the Parliamentary army of the commercial and manufacturing classes. The parts of England which were most favourable to Charles were the northern, western, and south-western counties. London sided with the Parliamentarians, as did most of the eastern counties. Of the various religious bodies, the Established Church and the Roman Catholics were almost uniformly Royalist; the Presbyterians, Independents, and other sectaries, Parliamentarian. Many of Charles's adherents, however, were bound to him by no other tie than that of loyalty; their hearts were with their opponents. "I would not continue here one hour," wrote Lord Spencer from the royal camp, "if there could be an expedient found to solve the punctilio of honour." Charles's own standard-bearer declared that it was no love for the cause which kept him a royalist, but "he had eaten of the king's bread," and therefore felt bound to serve him.

The first battle of the Civil War was fought at Edgehill, in Warwickshire, 1642, Charles and Essex commanding in person, but the result of the action was indecisive. The former then retired to Oxford, where he established his winter-quarters.

16. Early in 1643 war was resumed; and in Junc Hampden was defeated and slain in a skirmish with Prince Rupert at Chalgrove-field (Bucks).

In his dying moments he prayed for his distracted country. "O Lord!" said he, "save my bleeding country. Have these realms in thy especial keeping. Confound and level in the dust those who would rob the people of their liberty and lawful prerogative. Let the king see his error; and turn the hearts of his wicked counsellors from the malice and wickedness of their designs. Lord Jesus! receive my soul."