mission acted with extreme tyranny, and the common law courts affirmed the legality of notoriously unlawful demands. At length, having, as they rashly conceived, crushed all opposition in England, Charles and his councillors attempted to complete the restoration of episcopacy in Scotland commenced by James I.; this was resisted by force of arms, and the illegal means that had been so long practised being inadequate to maintain an army, the king was obliged, in 1639, to meet the representatives of his justly offended people. Unwarned by experience, however, the ill-advised kinge speedily dissolved his fourth parliament, as he had its predecessors, before any funds had been granted. Urgent want of means, however, compelled him very soon to assemble another, the memorable Long Parliament, which met Nov. 3, 1640, and, mindful of the fate of former assemblies, procured an act [16 Car. I. c. 10], which deprived the king of power to prorogue or dissolve them without their own consent. They had before this seized on Archbishop Laud and the earl of Strafford; they displaced and otherwise punished the judges and others who had in any way acted illegally; obtained the suppression of the three obnoxious courts of Starchamber, High Com a manner, of all things of most common and necessary use." "Supplemental acts of state were made to supply defect of laws obsolete laws were revived and rigorously executed, wherein the subject might be taught how unthrifty a thing it was, by too strict a detaining of what was his, to put the king as strictly to inquire what was his own." Such is the only palliation which even Clarendon can offer for the system pursued; how that system was viewed by the nation in general is but too manifest in the unhappy result. Clarendon remarks that the great misfortune of Archbishop Land was the want of a true friend; the same remark applies with still greater force to his royal master. mission, and the Earl Marshal, and expelled the bishops from parliament, neither king nor lords venturing openly to resist them, though the former listened to proposals for employing force against them; but his measures were foiled by the activity and address of the popular leaders. He next attempted to seize on Lord Kimbolton, Mr. Hampden, and others, but failed, and then thought it advisable to quit London. At length the parliament demanded that the power of raising the militia should be placed in their hands, but as this would have rendered them absolute, the king refused his consent; and then, most fatally for himself and his people, appealed to the sword, setting up his royal standard at Nottingham, Aug. 25, 1642. In the lamentable civil war that followed, the parliament had great advantages, both in men and money. The king was supported by the Church, by the Universities, and by the great body of the nobility and gentry, and their tenants in the rural districts; while the adherents of the parliament were the Puritans of every grade, including many gentlemen of moderate estates, and many small freeholders, and the chief part of the population of larger towns; money was readily obtained "on the public faith," and their levies, in which the London apprentices formed a conspicuous part, were, by the able management of Skipponf and other soldiers of Philip Skippon had raised himself from the ranks in the wars of the Low Countries. He commanded the armed force which reinstated the five members (justly described by Lord Clarendon as the first scene of the civil war), enjoyed the confidence of the Londoners, and served throughout the struggle with courage and success. He was made one of Cromwell's peers and died shortly before the Restoration. fortune, soon rendered more than a match for the disorderly valour of the cavaliers. Through the whole course of the contest, the parliamentary leaders acted with far more promptitude and decision than the king and his advisers. He had no sooner withdrawn from London than they openly assumed all the powers of government, the details of which were carried out by numerous Committees, which usually met in the city. Each House by its votes regulated a variety of matters independently of the other, but the more important affairs were settled by Ordinances, which began, "The Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, taking into their consideration . . . . do hereby ordain." .... By such instruments the new rulers seized on the power of the sword (Feb. and Mar. 1642h), levied heavy weekly assessments for the support of their army and the relief of the wounded, the widows and orphans (March 4, 6, 1643), and a rate for fortifying the city of Londoni (March 7, 1643); imposed an excise (July, Sept. 1643), and established courts-martial (Aug. 17, 1644). They confiscated the estates of "all persons ecclesiastical or temporal" who appeared in arms against them, or voluntarily contributed to the king's service (Mar. 31, 1643), treated those who attempted to stand neuter as enemies (May 7, 1643), forbade quarter being given to 8 See Notes and Illustrations. These are the earliest dates relating to each step of their usurpation, but many other ordinances, which it is unnecessary to particularize, were subsequently passed to give effect to their designs. i The rate was 2d. in the pound on large rents, and 6d. each on small houses. Similar ordinances were afterwards made for Exeter, Yarmouth, the Isle of Wight, and other places. Irishmen taken in England (Oct. 24, 1644), and when the war was closed, ordered all "papists, officers, and soldiers of fortune, and other delinquents," to remove from London, under the pains of treason (May 6, 1646; July 9, 1647; June 16, 1648). Their government, which spread every year more widely over the country, retained, and even aggravated, all the worst features of that which they had cast off. In direct violation of the Bill of Right, they made numberless forced levies of horses and arms (May 23, 1643, &c.); gave powers to their generals to press men into their service (June 10, 1645); passed a most tyrannical ordinance to " repress disorders in printing1;" and after imprisoning by mere arbitrary votes any who ventured to present addresses that were distasteful, they passed a rigid law (May 20, 1648) against "tumultuous petitioning," the very means by which their own power had been first established. To keep alive the interest in their cause they imposed a contribution of a meal a-week towards the support of their troops, and ordained a monthly fastm (March 26, 1644), beside numerous occasional ones; they also prohibited public amusements (Oct. 22, 1647), but were obliged, by the clamour of the London apprentices, to * See p. 381. Parties were empowered to break open doors and locks, by day or by night, in order to discover unlicensed printing presses, and to apprehend authors, printers, binders, and others; this ordinance was not more effectual than the Starchamber decree of 1637 (see p. 395), and books, pamphlets, and newspapers were published daily, which condemned their tyrannical rule in language as little measured as their own. This was apparently distasteful to some of their own party, as Whitelock remarks, under date March 31, 1647, "Very long prayers and sermons this monthly fast-day, as usual." B b allow the second Tuesday in each month as a day of recreation, instead of the customary festivals and holydays, which had been suppressed as superstitious and vain (June 8, 1647). The parliament had, long before the king's departure, shewn their irreconcilable hostility to the Church and its ministers", and had done all in their power to banish all decency and order from the public service of God. They now appointed an Assembly of Divines (June 12, 1643), ordered a systematic defacement of churches under the pretext of "removing monuments of superstition or idolatry" (Aug. 28, 1643), "regulated" the University of Cambridge, and removed "scandalous ministers" (Jan. 22, 1644); in forgetfulness of their professed regard for " tender consciences," they imposed the Covenant on all classes, beginning with the judges and lawyers, and disabling all refusers to practise any liberal profession, or hold any public employment (Jan. 30, Feb. 2. 16449); substituted the Directory for the Prayerbook (Jan. 3, Aug. 23, 1645); they forbade any preaching, except by persons allowed by both Houses (April 26, 1645); set up the presbyterian form of Church government (June 5, 1646); formally abolished episcopacy (Oct. 9, 1646), and sold the bishops' lands (Nov. 16, 30, 1646), paying their most active instruments with See Notes and Illustrations. • Oxford was then in the king's hands; when it came into theirs it was treated with the extremity of rigour by a committee of Visitors, appointed by ordinance May 1, 1647. See Notes and Illustra tions. P See pp. 400, 433. They had imposed the Covenant in London before this (Aug. 17, 1643), as a kind of invitation to the Scots, and on Dec. 20 of the same year they disabled all dissentients. |