drums to drown the voices of the people, and carrying their pikes and muskets upon their shoulders as in a march, not trailing them as was usual at a mourning.*

Felton, meanwhile, persisted in his assertion that he had no accomplices, and no motive but that of doing good to his country and the cause of the true religion.† The Earl of Dorset, who, according to some accounts, was accompanied by Bishop Laud, went to the Tower and threatened the prisoner with the rack. "I am ready," said Felton: " yet I must tell you that I will then accuse you, my Lord of Dorset, and no one but yourself." The king was desirous of employing the rack; but the House of Commons had of late given many salutary lessons and warnings, and the judges unanimously declared that the use of torture had been at all times unwarrantable by the laws of England; and upon this declaration Charles declined to use his prerogative. For some time Felton gloried in his deed; but at length, 'through the continual inculcation of his majesty's chaplains and others of the long robe," he was induced to consider himself in the light of a foul murderer. It may be doubted, however, whether he ever really regretted that Buckingham was removed. When put upon his trial, he confessed the fact with which he was charged, but added, that he did it not maliciously, but out of an interest for the good of his country. The attorneygeneral made a speech in aggravation of the offence, showing the high quality of the person killed, who was

* Meade.

Meade says that it was reported he affirmed in the Tower, "that his only confederate and setter on was the remonstrance of the parliament, which he then verily thought in his soul and conscience to be a sufficient warrant for what he did upon the duke's person." And Sir Dudley Carleton, who wrote a long account of the assassination to the queen, avers that Felton had said, at Portsmouth, on his first arrest, "that, reading the remonstrance of the House of Parliament, it came into his mind that, in committing the act of killing the duke, he should do his country great good service."

so dear and near a subject of the king's, so faithful a servant to his majesty, so great a counsellor of state, a general, high-admiral, &c. &c.; and, producing the knife in open court, he compared Felton to Ravaillac, who had murdered Henry IV. of France. Judge Jones asked Felton what he could say why judgment should not be given against him, without impanneling a jury or examining witnesses. Felton answered that he was sorry if he had taken away so faithful a servant to his majesty as Mr. Attorney had described the duke to be, and, lifting up his arm, he said, "This is the instrument which did the fact; I desire it may be first cut off." The judge told him that, by the law, if a man strike in the king's palace, he is to lose his hand, &c.; but it was not his majesty's pleasure that they should proceed against him in any other way than that which the law had ordinarily determined in such cases. "You shall therefore," said he, “have the law and no more;" and so gave sentence he should be hanged until he were dead. Felton bowed and thanked his lordship. He was hanged at Tyburn, and his body, by the king's orders, was sent down to Portsmouth and fixed on a gibbet.*

In lieu of Buckingham as commander of the expedition to Rochelle, Charles appointed the Earl of Lindsey, who sailed on the 8th of September with a formidable fleet and army, which did no more than might have been done had they still been commanded by the favourite. At the same time private negotiations were carried on with the French court by means of Mr. Walter Montague,† who was then a Catholic in heart, and, as such, averse to the Protestant Rochellers. Lindsey returned with dishonour, and soon after Rochelle, the last bulwark of the Huguenots, was taken by Richelieu. When the siege *Rushworth.-State Trials.-Letters of Carleton and Meade, in Ellis.

Montague was second son of the Earl of Manchester. He afterwards publicly recanted, settled in France, was made Commendatory Abbot of Pontoise, and a member of the council to the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria.

began there were fifteen thousand souls within those walls; when it ended there remained but four thousand, and these half dead from famine.

A.D. 1629.-Parliament, which had been further prorogued from the 20th of October to the 20th of January, met when the spirit of Protestantism was embittered by these events. The first things the Commons did were to revive all committees of religion and grievances, and to take into consideration what things the liberty of the subject had been invaded in against their Petition of Right since the end of the last session. Mr. Selden soon after reported to the House that the unpalatable speech which his majesty made in the Lords the last day of the last session had been entered on the Journals along with the Petition of Right, and the proper answer, by his majesty's command. But in fact, to the country Charles had suppressed the proper document, and circulated in its stead a copy of the petition with his first answer to it, which parliament had rejected. The king's printer being sent for to know by what authority he had suppressed the original impression and printed another with unwarrantable additions, answered that he had a warrant for it; and upon sending some of the members to his house, it was found that the clerk of the Lords had sent the proper papers; that, during the sitting of parliament, fifteen hundred copies of them had been printed, but very few divulged; and that the day after the session was ended the attorney-general had sent for the printer and told him, as from the king, that he must not publish these papers,-that the Lord Privy Seal, the Earl of Worcester, had told him as much; and that soon after the printer was sent for to court, and told that he must make a new impression, and print the Petition of Right with the king's first answer to it, and his majesty's last speech in the Lords. The House was indignant at this double dealing. "For this Petition of Right," said Selden, we know how it has been invaded since our last meeting. Our liberties of life, person, and freehold have been invaded,-men have been committed contrary to that petition. No man ought to lose life or

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limb but by the law, and hath not one lately lost his ears by order of the Star Chamber? Next, they will take away our arms, and then our legs, and so our lives. Let all see we are sensible of this. Evil customs creep in on us: let us make a just representation thereof to his majesty." But the attention of the House was presently drawn away to the case of Mr. Rolles, a merchant and a member of the House, who complained that his goods were seized by the officers of the customs, for refusing to pay the rates by them demanded, although he told them what was adjudged to be due by law he would pay them. This case, which was only one of many, transported the Commons. "Cast your eyes which way you please," exclaimed Sir Robert Philips, "you see violations of the liberty of the subject. Look on the privileges of this House. They knew the party was a parliament man; nay, they said if all the parliament was with him, or concerned in the goods, they would seize them just the same." "We have had good admonitions," cried Littleton, "and we have followed them. We have had moderation preached to us in parliament, and we follow it. I would others did the like out of parliament. Let the parties be sent for that violated the liberties of parliament, that they may have their doom." The king -sent a message commanding them to stay any further debate or proceedings in that case until the morrow at two o'clock in the afternoon, when his majesty was resolved to speak with both Houses in the Banqueting House at Whitehall. On the morrow-the 24th of January-the two Houses attended at the time and place appointed, and Charles thus addressed them, paying a compliment to the Lords at the expense of the Commons: "The care I have," he said, "to remove all obstacles that may hinder the good correspondency, or cause a misunderstanding betwixt me and this parliament, made me call you hither at this time, the particular occasion being a complaint lately moved in the Lower House. For you, my lords, I am glad to take this and all other occasions whereby you may clearly understand both my words and actions: for, as you are nearest in degree, so

you are the fittest witnesses for kings. The complaint I speak of is for staying men's goods that deny tonnage and poundage. This may have an easy and short conclusion, if my words and actions be rightly understood; for, by passing the bill as my ancestors have had it, my by-past actions will be concluded and my future proceedings authorised, which certainly would not have been struck upon if men had not imagined that I had taken these duties as pertaining unto my hereditary prerogative, in which they are much deceived: for it ever was, and still is, my meaning, by the gift of my people to enjoy it; and my intention in my speech at the end of the last session was not to challenge tonnage and poundage as of right, but de bene esse, showing you the necessity, not the right, by which I was to take it until you had granted it unto me, assuring myself, according to your general professions, that you wanted time, and not good-will, to give to me." He proceeded to tell the Commons he expected that they, without loss of time, would vote the tonnage and poundage, and so put an end to all questions arising out of this subject. To con

clude," he proceeded, "let us not be jealous one of the other's actions; for, if I had been easily moved at every occasion, the order made in the Lower House on Wednesday night last might have made me startle, there being some show to suspect that you had given yourselves the liberty to be the inquisitors after complaints, the words of your order being somewhat too largely penned; but, looking into your actions, I find you only hear complaints, not seek complaints, for I am certain you neither pretend nor desire to be inquisitors of men's actions before particular complaint be made.”

The truth was, the Commons were resolute to be inquisitors of many men's actions-men like Laud and other bishops, counsellors, and ministers, who attacked their consciences and their property. The Commons knew well that the voting of tonnage and poundage for life was a comparatively modern practice, and they were determined not only not to vote these duties for life, but not even for a term of years,-no, not for a single year,