PART II. A. D. 1642. moft dreadful apprehenfions, and inflamed them with enthufiaftic rage against the court, the accufed members were conducted by the city militia, in a kind of military triumph to Westminster, in order to refume their feats in the houfe; the populace, as they paffed Whitehall, by land and water, frequently asking, with infulting fhouts, "What is became of the king and "his Cavaliers 37," CHARLES, apprehenfive of danger from the furious multitude, had retired to Windfor. There, deserted by all the world, and overwhelmed with grief and fhame for his misconduct, he had leisure to reflect on the fatal measures into which he had been hurried. He faw himself involved in a fituation the most diftreffing, entirely by his own precipitancy and indiferetion, and how to extricate himself with honour he could not discover: his friends were difcouraged, his enemies triumphant, and the people feemed ripe for rebellion. Without fubmiffion his ruin appeared to be inevitable: but to make fubmiffion to fubjects, was what his kingly pride could not bear; yet to that humiliating expedient, in his present circumstances surely the moft adviseable, he had at laft recourse. In fucceffive meffages to the commons, he told them, that he would defift from his profecution of the accufed members; that he would grant them a pardon; that he would concur in any law that should acquit or fecure them; that he would make reparation to the house, for the breach of privlege, of which he acknowledged they had reason to complain; and he declared, that, for the future, he would be as careful of the privileges of parliament as of his own crown and life 38. This was certainly 37. Whitlocke. Dugdale. 38. Dugdale, p. 84. Rushworth, vol v. yielding yielding too far; but the uneasy mind is naturally carried from one extreme to another, in attempting to repair its errors. If the king's violence made him hateful, his unreferved fubmiffion made him contemptible to the commons. They thought he could now deny them nothing; and, therefore, refused to accept any conceffion for the breach of privilege, unless he would dif cover his advisers in that illegal meafure. But Charles, whofe honour as a gentleman was facred and inviolable, had still spirit enough left to reject with disdain a condition, which would have rendered him for ever defpicable, and unworthy of all friendship or confidence. He had already fhewn to the nation, had the nation not been blinded with fanaticifm, that if he had violat ed the rights of parliament, which was ftill a queftion with many 39, he was willing to make every poffible reparation, and yield them any fatisfaction not inconfiftent with the integrity of his moral character. 39. No maxim in law, it was faid, is more established, or more univerfally allowed, than that privilege of parliament extends not to treafon, felony, or breach of peace; that it was never pretended by any one, that the hall where the parliament affembles is an inviolable fanctuary; that if the commons complained of the affront offered them by an attempt to arrest their members in their very prefence, the blame must lie entirely upon themselves, who had formerly refused compliance with the king's meffage, when he peacefully demanded these members; that the fovereign is the great executor of the laws; and that his prefence was here legally employed. both in order to prevent opposition, and to protect the house against those infults which their difobedience had fo well merited. (Howel's Inspection into the Carriage of the late Long Parliament. Hume, chap, lv.) But whatever might be urged in favour of the legality of Charles's attempt to seize the accused members, no one pretended to vindicate the prudence either of that or the accufation. To impeach the heads of a faction, during the full tide of its power, was indeed attempting to fetter the waves. LETTER A. D. 1642. PART II. A. D. 1642. MEANWHILE the commons continued to declaim againft the violation of parliamentary privileges, and to inflame ftill farther the difcontents of the people. For this purpose they had recourse to the old expedient of petitioning, fo flattering to human pride !---as it affords the meaneft member of the community an opportunity of inftructing the higheft, and of feeling his own confequence, in the right of offering fuch inftructions. A petition from Buckinghamshire was prefented to the house, by fix thoufand men, who promifed to live and die in the defence of the privileges of parliament. One of the like nature was presented by the city of London; and petitions from many other places were given in: nay, a petition from the apprentices was graciously received, and one from the porters was encouraged. The beggars, and even the women, were feized with the fame rage. A brewer's wife, followed by many thousands of her fex, brought a petition to the house; in which they expreffed their terror of papifts and prelates, rapes and maffacres, and claimed a right equal to that of the men, in communicating their fense of the public danger, fince Chrift had died for them as well as for the other sex. The apprentices were loud in the praise of liberty, and bold in their threats against arbitrary power. The porters complained of the decay of trade, and defired that juftice might be done upon offenders, according to the atrociousness of their crimes: and they added, "That "if fuch remedies were any longer fufpended, they "would be forced to extremities not fit to be named 4°." The beggars, as a remedy for public miferies, propofed, "That those noble worthies of the house of "peers, who concur with the happy votes of the com 40. Clarendon, vol. ii. Rushworth, vol. v. mons, mons may separate themselves from the reft, and fit LETTER "and vote as one entire body 4." This language, 1 V. which could not poffibly be misunderstood, was evi- A.D. 1642. dently dictated by the commons themselves. BUT while these inflammatory petitions were encouraged, and received with the warmest expreffions of approbation, all petitions which favoured the church or monarchy were discountenanced, and thofe interefted in them imprisoned, and profecuted as delinquents. In a word, by the present fury of the people, as by an inundation, was fwept away all oppofition in both houses, and every rampart of royal authority was laid level with the ground. The king, as appeared by the vote on the remonftrance, had a strong party in the lower house; and in the houfe of peers, he had a great majority, even after the bishops were chafed away. But now, when the populace without doors were ready to execute, on the leaft hint, the will of their leaders, it was not fafe for any member to approach either houfe, who pretended to oppose the general torrent. THUS poffeffed of an undisputed majority in both houses, the popular leaders, who well knew the importance of such a favourable moment, pursued their victory with vigour and dispatch. The bills fent up by the commons, and which had hitherto been rejected by the peers, were now paffed, and prefented for the royal affent; namely, a bill vefting the parliament with the power of impreffing men into the fervice, under pretence of fuppreffing the rebellion in Ireland, and the long contefted bill for depriving the bishops of the privilege of voting in the house of lords. The king's authority was reduced fo low, that a refufal would have PART II. A. D. 1642. been both hazardous and ineffectual; and the queen, being fecretly threatened with an impeachment, prevailed on her husband speedily to pass those bills, in hopes of appeafing the rage of the multitude, until she could make her escape to Holland +2. BUT these important conceffions, like all the former, ferved only as a foundation for more exorbitant demands. Encouraged by the facility of the king's dif pofition, the commons regarded the smalleft relaxation in their invasion of royal authority, as highly impolitic at fuch a crisis. They were fully fenfible, that monarchical government, which had been established in England during fo many ages, would regain fome part of its former dignity, as soon as the present ftorm was blown over, in fpite of all their new-invented limitations: yet would it not be fafe to attempt the entire abolition of an authority, to which the nation had been fo long accustomed, before they were in poffeffion of the sword; which alone could guard their usurped power, or infure to them perfonal fafety against the rifing indignation of their insulted fovereign. To this point, therefore, they directed all their views. They conferred the government of Hull, where was a large magazine of arms, on Sir John Hotham; they fent orders to Goring, governor of Portsmouth, to obey no orders but fuch as he should receive from the parliament; and they obliged the king to displace Sir John Biron, a man of unexceptionable character, and be. ftow the government of the Tower, on Sir John Conyers, in whom alone, they said, they could place confidence 43. THESE were bold fteps, but a bolder was yet neceffary to be made by the commons, before they could 42. Clarendon, vol. ii. 43. Rushworth, vol. v. hope |