Meanwhile the sheriffs of the neighbouring counties having sent notice to one another, called the people to arms, and pursued the conspirators from place to place, till at length the villains were forced to take harbour at Holbeach, where the sheriff summoned them to surrender. They answered, he had not a sufficient force to compel them, and prepared to defend themselves, or fight their way through. But in opening a barrel of powder to charge their muskets, it took fire and blew up part of the house. This accident constrained them to open the gate, and try to escape. Some were killed immediately by the people, who surrounded them. Catesby, Percy, and Winter, standing back to back, fought desperately, till the two first were killed with one shot, and the other taken alive, after receiving several wounds. Digby, Rookwood, Grant, and Bates, yielded, or were taken in trying to escape. Tresham, who staid in London with Robert Winter, brother of Thomas Winter, and Littleton, was discovered and apprehended with his two companions. All the prisoners were sent to the Tower, and strictly examined. Thomas Winter confessed himself guilty, and wrote his confession with his own hand. Digby extenuated his crime, because, having expected the King would grant a free toleration to the Catholics, and not seeing any likelihood of their obtaining it, he was driven by despair to join the plot.

The Sessions of the Parliament began not till the 9th of November, though it was fixed for the 5th. The King made a long speech, representing the heinousness and consequences of this horrible plot, and magnifying the mercy of God in the miraculous discovery. But withal, he took great care to clear the Catholic religion, and to observe, that this abominable plot was to be ascribed to such only as were truly papists, and imbued with the detestable principles mentioned in his first speech to the Parlia

ment.

As soon as he had ended his speech, the King

prorogued the Parliament to the 21st of January: so that it evidently appeared he had caused them to meet for one single day, on purpose to show his thoughts of the conspiracy, and the manner he would have it examined; that is, with respect to such only as were concerned in it.

The Parliament meeting the 21st of January, the King appointed commissioners to try the conspirators. He had till now delayed to give the people the satisfaction to see these villains punished. But, perceiving if he did not do it of himself, the Parliament would not fail to petition him, he resolved to give them over to justice. There were but eight executed the 31st of January, though the number of guilty was much greater.

The consternation caused by the powder-plot, in the court and the whole kingdom, was at length turned into a pleasant tranquillity. The king and people were equally pleased with being delivered from so great a danger; and the king had the more reason to be so, as he had brought the parliament to be of his moderate sentiments, with respect to the Roman Catholics, of whom ten had only been left to the rigour of the law. Their yoke was not aggravated, unless the obligation of bearing allegiance to their king or departing the realm, was to be deemed an aggravation. On the other hand, the king was able to gratify his favourites, by means of the money granted by parliament, and the whole court rejoiced; every one expecting to partake of the king's bounties. The parliament appointed the 5th of November to be a public thanksgiving-day for so great a deliverance, which day has been constantly solemnized as such to the present time.

49

LIFE OF THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.

It is our intention to bring under the notice of our readers, the characters and lives of some of the most illustrious men whose names adorn our annals. In the selection of these, our choice will, for the most part, be directed by a consideration of their acknowledged merits: we shall record those high deserts which mark out the pre-eminent benefactors of the British Nation; brave and successful warriors, statesmen of unquestionable patriotism, or sovereigns who, like Alfred, still live in the institutions they bequeathed to us. It is our present purpose to furnish a brief memoir of an individual, whose claims to our regard are of a more doubtful character, though his history is full of instruction. Few men have suffered more from the violence of party misrepresentation. His friends have sought to depict him as the hero and the martyr in the best of all causes, that of religion and good order; his enemies tell us he was the abettor and apostle of tyranny; traitor to his friends, and renegade to his own avowed principles. Truth, as usual, lies between; through the obscurity in which both contemporary and recent misrepresentation have involved the subject, we can now discern that the moving principle of Strafford's whole life was personal ambition; this led to the inconsistency of his earlier, and the violence of his later, conduct. He was not a martyr, for he never sought to serve his country or his king, unless for the sake of advancing his own interests; he could not be a renegade, for in fact he had never been a patriot. Indeed it is in this point that the study of his life and character may be made most useful, as it will enable us to detect that mock patriotism, under which men of talent so frequently disguise their efforts for personal aggrandisement. In a free government like ours, when an ambitious man happens, by any concurrence of circumstances, to be excluded from a share of official power, he seeks for compensation in courting popu

D

larity, which, while it confers on him that sort of influence over others which it is so consonant to our nature to desire, does not shut out of his view the more direct objects of political ambition. Such conduct is not really liable to the charge of inconsistency; it is still the wish in courts to shine;" in the one case indulged, and therefore more exposed to the envy of the world; in the other thwarted, and therefore more vehement in its operation on the individual.

Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, was born April 13, 1593. He was the eldest son and heir to the honours and estates of a family distinguished for its antiquity and opulence. Their seat was at Wentworth Manor in Yorkshire, which had been the residence of their ancestors before the Conquest. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, and, after the usual period of academical study, enjoyed the benefits of foreign travel, under the superintendence of a Mr. Greenwood; a man, as it appears, of considerable talents and excellent character, with whom, during the remaining period of his life, he maintained the most friendly and confidential intercourse. In this, as in many other instances, he proved himself capable of the strongest attachment; and the warmth of his nature, which but too frequently showed itself in bursts of angry violence, was manifested in its most amiable aspect by the ardour and permanence of his friendships.

Soon after his return from abroad, he married the daughter of the Earl of Cumberland; and in the following year, on the death of his father, succeeded to a baronetcy and six thousand a-year (at that time a large fortune). He soon came forward into public life; as he was nominated to the cffice of Custos Rotulorum for the West Riding, and in the year 1621 was returned to Parliament for the county of York. Wentworth appeared in the House of Commons at a period most eventful in our history. Those prerogatives of the Crown, which had their origin in the feudal character of our Government, now began to

be felt as a grievous and intolerable burthen. The Princes of the House of Tudor had succeeded in retaining those prerogatives, in spite of many increasing difficulties, arising out of the altered circumstances of the times-Henry VII. had carried his points by craft; Henry VIII. by violence; Elizabeth, by a most politic mixture of both; yielding always when she found the resistance likely to be too strong for -her, and pressing her claims with the utmost energy, whenever she saw that it was likely they would be conceded. But the time was come when neither craft nor violence would have availed, even had James the First been capable of exercising them; the peculiar weakness and insincerity of his character served only to hasten the crisis which a wiser King might have delayed, or mitigated, but which could not have been avoided. The opinions newly sprung up, respecting the privileges of the people, were utterly at variance with the old notions of kingly power; and the only question was, whether the issue between them should be submitted to the tribunal of public opinion, or decided by an appeal to arms. James was too timorous to think of having recourse to any war, but the wordy war of tongues; and he managed matters so as to be uniformly worsted even in these encounters. His son was of a noble spirit; but Charles's character, illustrious as it appeared amidst difficulties and misfortunes, was tainted too much with his father's weaknesses to allow him to make a right use of prosperity. He did not, however, shrink from an appeal to arms, when the violence of the republican party rendered it necessary; but, though there was spirit enough in the King and his friends, discretion was wanting; and the result was such as, under the actual circumstances, we can now pronounce to have been inevitable. Englishmen of the present day ought to entertain feelings of the deepest gratitude, that they are allowed to profit by the good which has accrued from this period of danger and trial; we need not become either Roundheads or Cavaliers; but we may sympathise with the