himself, that a strict observance of the one would atone CHAP. for any violation of the other. In 1632, the treasurer, Portland, had insisted with the vintners, that they should submit to a tax of a penny a quart upon all the wine which they retailed; but they rejected the demand. In order to punish them, a decree suddenly, without much inquiry or examination, passed in the star-chamber, prohibiting them to sell or dress victuals in their houses'. Two years after, they were questioned for the breach of this decree; and in order to avoid punishment, they agreed to lend the king six thousand pounds. Being threatened, during the subsequent years, with fines and prosecutions, they at last compounded the matter, and submitted to pay half of that duty which was at first demanded of them". It required little foresight to perceive that the king's right of issuing proclamations must, if prosecuted, draw on a power of taxation. He was Lilburne was accused before the star-chamber of publishing and dispersing seditious pamphlets. ordered to be examined; but refused to take the oath usual in that court, that he would answer interrogatories, even though they might lead him to accuse himself. For this contempt, as it was interpreted, he was condemned to be whipped, pilloried, and imprisoned. While he was whipped at the cart, and stood on the pillory, he harangued the populace, and declaimed violently against the tyranny of bishops. From his pockets also he scattered pamphlets, said to be seditious; because they attacked the hierarchy. The star-chamber, which was sitting at that very time, ordered him immediately to be gagged. He ceased not, however, though both gagged and pilloried, to stamp with his foot and gesticulate, in order to show the people, that, if he had it in his power, he would still harangue them. This behaviour gave fresh provocation to the star-chamber; and they condemned him to be imprisoned in a dungeon, and to be loaded with irons h. It was found difficult to break the spirits of men who placed both their honour and their conscience in suffering. f Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 197. 8 Idem, ibid. p. 451. h Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 465, 466, 467. LII. 1637. CHAP. LII. 1637. Trial of The jealousy of the church appeared in another instance less tragical. Archy, the king's fool, who by his office had the privilege of jesting on his master, and the whole court, happened unluckily to try his wit upon Laud, who was too sacred a person to be played with. News having arrived from Scotland of the first commotions excited by the liturgy, Archy seeing the primate pass by, called to him, Who's fool now, my lord? For this offence Archy was ordered, by sentence of the council, to have his coat pulled over his head, and to be dismissed the king's service'. Here is another instance of that rigorous subjection in which all men were held by Laud. Some young gentlemen of Lincoln's-inn, heated by their cups, having drank confusion to the archbishop, were, at his instigation, cited before the star-chamber. They applied to the Earl of Dorset for protection. Who bears witness against you? said Dorset. One of the drawers, they said. Where did he stand, when you were supposed to drink this health? subjoined the earl. He was at the door, they replied, going out of the room. Tush! he cried, the drawer was mistaken: you drank confusion to the Archbishop of Canterbury's enemies; and the fellow was gone before you pronounced the last word. This hint supplied the young gentlemen with a new method of defence; and being advised by Dorset to behave with great humility and great submission to the primate; the modesty of their carriage, the ingenuity of their apology, with the patronage of that noble lord, saved them from any severer punishment than a reproof and admonition, with which they were dismissed *. This year, John Hambden acquired, by his spirit and Hambden. courage, universal popularity throughout the nation, and has merited great renown with posterity, for the bold stand which he made in defence of the laws and liberties of his country. After the imposing of ship-money, Charles, in order to discourage all opposition, had proposed this question to the judges: "Whether in a case of necessity, for the defence of the kingdom, he might not impose this taxation; and whether he were not sole i Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 470. Welwood, p. 278. k Rushworth, vol. iii. p. 180. دو LII. 1637. judge of the necessity?" These guardians of law and CHAP. liberty replied with great complaisance, "That in a case of necessity he might impose that taxation, and that he was sole judge of the necessity'.: Hambden had been rated at twenty shillings for an estate which he possessed in the county of Buckingham: yet, notwithstanding this declared opinion of the judges, notwithstanding the great power and sometimes rigorous maxims of the crown, notwithstanding the small prospect of relief from Parliament; he resolved, rather than tamely submit to so illegal an imposition, to stand a legal prosecution, and expose himself to all the indignation of the court. The case was argued during twelve days in the exchequerchamber, before all the judges of England; and the nation regarded, with the utmost anxiety, every circumstance of this celebrated trial. The event was easily foreseen: but the principles, and reasonings, and behaviour of the parties engaged in the trial, were much canvassed and inquired into; and nothing could equal the favour paid to the one side, except the hatred which attended the other. It was urged by Hambden's counsel, and by his partisans in the nation, that the plea of necessity was in vain introduced into a trial of law, since it was the nature of necessity to abolish all law, and, by irresistible violence, to dissolve all the weaker and more artificial ties of human society. Not only the prince, in cases of extreme distress, is exempted from the ordinary rules of administration all orders of men are then levelled; and any individual may consult the public safety by any expedient which his situation enables him to employ. But to produce so violent an effect, and so hazardous to every community, an ordinary danger or difficulty is not sufficient; much less a necessity which is merely fictitious and pretended. Where the peril is urgent and extreme, it will be palpable to every member of the society; and though all ancient rules of government are in that case abrogated, men will readily, of themselves, submit to that irregular authority which is exerted for their preservation. But what is there in common between such suppositions and the present condition of the nation? Eng 1 Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 355. Whitlocke, p. 24. LII. CHAP. land enjoys a profound peace with all her neighbours: and what is more, all her neighbours are engaged in 1637. furious and bloody wars among themselves, and by their mutual enmities farther ensure her tranquillity. The very writs themselves, which are issued for the levying of ship-money, contradict the supposition of necessity, and pretend only that the seas are infested with pirates; a slight and temporary inconvenience, which may well await a legal supply from Parliament. The writs likewise allow several months for equipping the ships; which proves a very calm and deliberate species of necessity, and one that admits of delay much beyond the forty days requisite for summoning that assembly. It is strange, too, that an extreme necessity which is always apparent, and usually comes to a sudden crisis, should now have continued, without interruption, for near four years, and should have remained, during so long a time, invisible to the whole kingdom. And as to the pretension, that the king is sole judge of the necessity; what is this but to subject all the privileges of the nation to his arbitrary will and pleasure? To expect that the public will be convinced by such reasoning, must aggravate the general indignation, by adding to violence against men's persons and their property so cruel a mockery of their understanding. In vain are precedents of ancient writs produced: these writs, when examined, are only found to require the sea-ports, sometimes at their own charge, sometimes at the charge of the counties, to send their ships for the defence of the nation. Even the prerogative, which empowered the crown to issue such writs, is abolished, and its exercise almost entirely discontinued from the time of Edward III."; and all the authority which remained, or was afterwards exercised, was to press ships into the public service, to be paid for by the public. How wide are these precedents from a power of obliging the people, at their own charge, to build new ships, to victual and pay them, for the public; nay, to furnish money to the crown for that purpose! What security either against the farther extension of this claim, or against diverting to other purposes the public money so levied? The plea of necessity would warrant any other taxation m State Trials, vol. v. p. 245. 255. LII. 1637. as well as that of ship-money: wherever any difficulty CHAP. shall occur, the administration, instead of endeavouring to elude or overcome it by gentle and prudent measures, will instantly represent it as a reason for infringing all ancient laws and institutions: and if such maxims and such practices prevail, what has become of national liberty? what authority is left to the great charter, to the statutes, and to that very petition of right, which, in the present reign, had been so solemnly enacted by the concurrence of the whole legislature? The defenceless condition of the kingdom while unprovided with a navy; the inability of the king, from his established revenues, with the utmost care and frugality, to equip and maintain one; the impossibility of obtaining, on reasonable terms, any voluntary supply from Parliament all these are reasons of state, not topics of law. If these reasons appear to the king so urgent as to dispense with the legal rules of government; let him enforce his edicts by his court of star-chamber, the proper instrument of irregular and absolute power; not prostitute the character of his judges by a decree which is not, and cannot possibly be, legal. By this means the boundaries at least will be kept more distinct between ordinary law and extraordinary exertions of prerogative; and men will know that the national constitution is only suspended during a present and difficult emergence, but has not undergone a total and fundamental alteration. Notwithstanding these reasons, the prejudiced judges, four" excepted, gave sentence in favour of the crown. Hambden, however, obtained by the trial the end for which he had so generously sacrificed his safety and his quiet the people were roused from their lethargy, and became sensible of the danger to which their liberties were exposed. These national questions were canvassed in every company; and the more they were examined, the more evidently did it appear to many, that liberty was totally subverted, and an unusual and arbitrary authority exercised over the kingdom. Slavish principles, they said, concur with illegal practices; ecclesiastical tyranny gives aid to civil usurpation; iniquitous taxes n See State Trials: article Ship-money, which contains the speeches of four judges in favour of Hambden. |