L. The king soon found, by fatal experience, that this engine CHAP. of religion, which with so little necessity was introduced into politics, falling under more fortunate management, was played with the most terrible success against him. While the king, instigated by anger and necessity, thus employed the whole extent of his prerogative, the spirit of the people was far from being subdued. Throughout England, many refused these loans; some were even active in encouraging their neighbours to insist upon their common rights and privileges. By warrant of the council, these were thrown into prison. Most of them with patience submitted to confinement, or applied by petition to the king, who commonly released them. Five gentlemen alone, Sir Thomas Darnel, Sir John Corbet, Sir Walter Earl, Sir John Heveningham, and Sir Edmond Hambden, had spirit enough, at their own hazard and expense, to defend the public liberties, and to demand releasement, not as a favour from the court, but as their due, by the laws of their country'. No particular cause was assigned of their commitment. The special command alone of the king and council was pleaded; and it was asserted, that, by law, this was not sufficient reason for refusing bail or releasement to the prisoners. 1626. This question was brought to a solemn trial before the November. King's Bench and the whole kingdom was attentive to the issue of a cause, which was of much greater consequence than the event of many battles. By the debates on this subject it appeared, beyond controversy, to the nation, that their ancestors had been so jealous of personal liberty, as to secure it against arbitrary power in the crown, by six several statutes, and by an article of the GREAT CHARTER itself, the most sacred foundation of the laws and constitution. But the Kings of England who had not been able to prevent the enacting of these laws, had sufficient authority, when the tide of liberty was spent, to obstruct their regular execution; and they deemed it superfluous to attempt the formal repeal of statutes which they found so many ex e Rushworth, vol. i. p. 429. Franklyn, p. 210. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 458. Franklyn, p. 224. Whitlocke, p. 8. g 25 Edw. III. cap. 4. 28 Edw. III. cap. 3. 37 Edw. III. cap. 18. 38 Edw. III. cap. 9. 42 Edw. III. cap. 3. 1 Richard II. cap. 12. h Chap. 29. L. 1626. CHAP. pedients and pretences to elude. Turbulent and seditious times frequently occurred, when the safety of the people absolutely required the confinement of factious leaders; and by the genius of the whole constitution, the prince, of himself, was accustomed to assume every branch of prerogative, which was found necessary for the preservation of public peace and of his own authority. Expediency at other times would cover itself under the appearance of necessity; and, in proportion as precedents multiplied, the will alone of the sovereign was sufficient to supply the place of expediency, of which he constituted himself the sole judge. In an age and nation where the power of a turbulent nobility prevailed, and where the king had no settled military force, the only means that could maintain public peace was the exertion of such prompt and discretionary powers in the crown; and the public itself had become so sensible of the necessity, that those ancient laws in favour of personal liberty, while often violated, had never been challenged or revived during the course of near three centuries. Though rebellious subjects had frequently, in the open field, resisted the king's authority, no person had been found so bold, when confined and at mercy, as to set himself in opposition to regal power, and to claim the protection of the constitution against the will of the sovereign. It was not till this age, when the spirit of liberty was universally diffused, when the principles of government were nearly reduced to a system, when the tempers of men, more civilized, seemed less to require those violent exertions of prerogative, that these five gentlemen above mentioned, by a noble effort, ventured, in this national cause, to bring the question to a final determination. And the king was astonished to observe, that a power exercised by his predecessors, almost without interruption, was found, upon trial, to be directly opposite to the clearest laws, and supported by few undoubted precedents in courts of judicature. These had scarcely, in any instance, refused bail upon commitments by special command of the king; because the persons committed had seldom or never dared to demand it, at least to insist on their demand. 1627. Sir Randolf Crew, chief justice, had been displaced as unfit for the purposes of the court; Sir Nicholas Hyde, esteemed more obsequious, had obtained that high office: yet the judges, by his direction, went no farther than to remand the gentlemen to prison, and refuse the bail which was offered'. Heathe, the attorney-general, insisted that the court, in imitation of the judges in the thirty-fourth of Elizabeth, should enter a general judgment, that no bail could be granted upon a commitment by the king or council'. But the judges wisely declined complying. The nation, they saw, was already to the last degree exasperated. In the present disposition of men's minds, universal complaints prevailed, as if the kingdom were reduced to slavery. And the most invidious prerogative of the crown, it was said, that of imprisoning the subject, is here openly and solemnly, and in numerous instances, exercised for the most invidious purpose; in order to extort loans, or rather subsidies, without consent of Parliament. But this was not the only hardship of which the nation then thought they had reason to complain. The army, which had made the fruitless expedition to Cadiz, was dispersed throughout the kingdom, and money was levied upon the counties for the payment of their quartersTM. The soldiers were billeted upon private houses, contrary to custom, which required that, in all ordinary cases, they should be quartered in inns and public-houses". Those who had refused or delayed the loan were sure to be loaded with a great number of these dangerous and disorderly guests. Many too, of low condition, who had shown a refractory disposition, were pressed into the service, and enlisted in the fleet or army. Sir Peter Hayman, for the same reason, was despatched on an errand to the Palatinate". Glanville, an eminent lawyer, had been obliged, during the former interval of Parliament, to accept of an office in the navy. The soldiers, ill paid and undisciplined, committed many crimes and outrages, and much increased the public discontents. To prevent these disorders, martial law, so i Rushworth, vol. i. p. 462. 1 Ibid. p. 161. n Ibid. P Ibid. p. 431. k State Trials, vol. vii. p. 147. q Parl. Hist. vol. vii. p. 310. CHAP. L. 1627. L. 1627. CHAP. requisite to the support of discipline, was exercised upon the soldiers. By a contradiction, which is natural when the people are exasperated, the outrages of the army were complained of; the remedy was thought still more intolerable'. Though the expediency, if we are not rather to say the necessity, of martial law, had formerly been deemed, of itself, a sufficient ground for establishing it, men, now become more jealous of liberty, and more refined reasoners in questions of government, regarded as illegal and arbitrary every exercise of authority which was not supported by express statute or uninterrupted precedent. It may safely be affirmed, that, except a few courtiers or ecclesiastics, all men were displeased with this high exertion of prerogative, and this new spirit of administration. Though ancient precedents were pleaded in favour of the king's measures, a considerable difference, upon comparison, was observed between the cases. Acts of power, however irregular, might casually, and at intervals, be exercised by a prince, for the sake of despatch or expediency, and yet liberty still subsist in some tolerable degree under his administration. But where all these were reduced into a system, were exerted without interruption, were studiously sought for, in order to supply the place of laws, and subdue the refractory spirit of the nation, it was necessary to find some speedy remedy, or finally to abandon all hopes of preserving the freedom of the constitution. Nor did moderate men esteem the provocation which the king had received, though great, sufficient to warrant all these violent measures. Commons, as yet, had nowise invaded his authority; they had only exercised, as best pleased them, their own privileges. Was he justifiable, because from one house of Parliament he had met with harsh and unkind treatment, to make in revenge an invasion on the rights and liberties of the whole nation? The But great was at this time the surprise of all men, when Charles, baffled in every attempt against the Austrian dominions, embroiled with his own subjects, unsupplied with any treasure but what he extorted by the most invidious and most dangerous measures; as if the r Rushworth, vol. i. p. 419. Whitlocke, p. 7. CHAP. L. 1627. War with half of Europe, now his enemy, were not sufficient for the exercise of military prowess; wantonly attacked France, the other great kingdom in his neighbourhood, and engaged at once in war against these two powers, whose France. interests were hitherto deemed so incompatible, that they could never, it was thought, agree either in the same friendships or enmities. All authentic memoirs, both foreign and domestic, ascribe to Buckingham's counsels this war with France, and represent him as actuated by motives which would appear incredible, were we not acquainted with the violence and temerity of his character. The three great monarchies of Europe were at this time ruled by young princes, Philip, Lewis, and Charles, who were nearly of the same age, and who had resigned the government of themselves, and of their kingdoms, to their creatures and ministers, Olivarez, Richelieu, and Buckingham. The people, whom the moderate temper or narrow genius of their princes would have allowed to remain for ever in tranquillity, were strongly agitated by the emulation and jealousy of the ministers. Above all, the towering spirit of Richelieu, incapable of rest, promised an active age, and gave indications of great revolutions throughout all Europe. This man had no sooner, by suppleness and intrigue, gotten possession of the reins of government, than he formed at once three mighty projects; to subdue the turbulent spirits of the great, to reduce the rebellious Hugonots, and to curb the encroaching power of the house of Austria. Undaunted and implacable, prudent and active, he braved all the opposition of the French princes and nobles in the prosecution of his vengeance; he discovered and dissipated all their secret cabals and conspiracies. His sovereign himself he held in subjection, while he exalted the throne. The people, while they lost their liberties, acquired, by means of his administration, learning, order, discipline, and renown. That confused and inaccurate genius of government, of which France partook in common with other European kingdoms, he changed into a simple monarchy, at the very time when the incapacity of Buckingham encouraged the free spirit of the Commons to establish in England a regular system of liberty. |