lief in

guilt.

Their be- the guilt of Strafford to have been proved, Strafford's they continued to have faith in the Impeachment; and afterwards they adopted it, because, the House having finally determined against the Impeachment, the fame conviction as to Strafford's guilt left them only that alternative. Until the very laft, however, they clung to the Impeachment, and to the obligations it had impofed. St. John, Glyn, and Maynard, as Queftion foon as the bill was introduced, would have whether made it the pretext for refifting what had preto hear his viously been refolved as to hearing counsel for Strafford before the Lords upon the matter of law; and this point was ftrenuously debated for two days. It was in relation to it that the fpeech was spoken by Hampden of which Sir Ralph Verney kept the note.

railed

counfel?

Both Falkland and Culpeper, as well as St. John, Maynard, and Glyn, infisted strongly that it would compromife both the dignity and the power of the Commons, if, at a time when they proposed to make themselves judges in the cafe, they confented to hear or reply to counsel anywhere but at their own bar; and Culpeper went fo far as to affert his belief, that, by attending fo land and to hear and reply before the Lords, they would Culpeper imperil their right to affume subsequent legiflative action in the matter. But Pym and by Hamp- Hampden were not to be moved from the den and ground on which they stood resolutely as to

Refifted

by Falk

Supported

Pym.

this part of the cafe. Why should not the lawyers of the House, fuggested Hampden in reply to Culpeper, fpeak to the points of law before the bar of the Lords, and then come back to their feats among the members of their

against.

own House, and afterwards speak again at the Lords' bar if neceffary? To which Maynard Speech of somewhat hotly replied, that he fhould hold Maynard fuch a running up and down from one place to another to be nothing less than a dishonour to the Commons. The word called up Pym, Pym in who appears to have made one of his moft reply. effective appeals. He fubmitted to the House that the question before it, of hearing and replying to Strafford's counsel before the Lords, did not bind them either to continue, or to abandon, the proceeding by bill. That might hereafter be fettled, according to the wisdom and pleasure of the Houfe; but what they Advohad now to confider was the queftion, really cates Strafinvolving honour, whether the pledge was to claim to be kept or to be broken, which, at the time hearing. when their counsel firft rose before the Lords to fpeak against Strafford, they then undoubtedly gave that Strafford's counfel fhould be heard in his behalf before the fame tribunal. "If," continued Pym, according to the report in D'Ewes's manuscript of this remarkable speech, "if we did not go this way to have it heard "publickly in matter of law as well as it had "been heard for matter of fact, we fhould "much difhonour ourselves, and hazard our "own fafeguards."

ford's

fuccefsful.

To this appeal the Houfe yielded, and the His apfame fpirit which fuggefted it prevailed in the peal fubfequent proceedings. It was upon Pym's motion, when the Impeachment was finally abandoned, that all its moft material articles were imported into the Bill; that the facts, under each article, were voted feparately; and

L

to At

tainder.

His fug- that, before the third reading paffed to a quefgeftions as tion, the House first heard the "Gentlemen "of the long robe" argue at great length the feveral points of law, and then proceeded judicially to vote upon them. It would tax a greater ingenuity, I think, than that of the privy councillor and county member to whom reference has been made, to discover in all this anything of Barrère or Fouquier Tinville. It is a school of comparison, however, to which recourfe is ever readily found by unreasoning affailants of the parliamentary English leaders; and Mr. Bankes has not fcrupled to compared declare that "while the English are thought "to be lefs fanguinary in their days of political

to French

Revolution.

frenzy than the French, undoubtedly the hiftory of London in 1641 bears very many "points of fimilarity with the hiftory of Paris "from the year 1791 to 1793." Not the lefs is it to be faid, of all fuch attempts at parallel, that they are fimply and utterly falle. For a moment to fet up the affertion that the history of London, during the year when the Commons impeached and beheaded the most capable minister of the King, and the King made a fimilar but lefs fuccessful attempt against the moft capable members of the Commons, bears even any points of fimilarity parifon. with the history of Paris at the time when its guillotine reeked with the execution of its harmless inoffenfive King and its poor fallen Queen, while women and men were taken daily by waggon loads to death, and while the fwollen gutters of the wicked city foamed over into the Seine with the best blood of

Folly and

falfehood of com

France, is to infult the fenfe of the reader to Obfolete whom fuch folly is addreffed. Happily, few views. are now found to repeat it. It belongs to a hardihood of affertion that has long been paffed away, to compare the frenzied wretches who bore aloft the mangled body of the Princeffe de Lamballe with the calm felf-refolute men. who kept the fword quietly fheathed till it flashed out at Edgehill and Marston Moor. It is now for the most part the declared belief Opinions of every writer who has shown himself fami- of the betliar with this period of English hiftory, that formed. with anything approaching to its temper under wrong, its patience in long fuffering before the fword was drawn, its moderation in victory when the sword was finally fheathed, no fimilar movement in the world was ever begun and carried to its close.

ter in

to Arreft

Upon this earlier portion of the ftory of our civil wars, indeed, nearly all intelligent inquirers might be thought to have laid afide their differences long ago. From whatever Agreeoppofite points of view, the fairest judgments ment up have been able of late years to arrive at of Five fubftantially the fame conclufion, on this firft Members. ftage of the conflict; and, up to the Arreft of the Five Members at leaft, to agree that a power to difcriminate between good and bad faith is really all the investigation requires. That the Long Parliament had no defire permanently to strip the Crown of any of its effential prerogatives, and did abfolutely no- Parliathing, before the sword was drawn, which was not justified by the King's perfonal character, tion. or of which the fufficient reason is not difcern

ment's

juftifica

ible in a neceffary abfence of all belief or truft General in his promises, is an opinion which the character moft uncompromifing high-church reafoners truggle. have not been afhamed to adopt from the

of the

More wealth

Commons

Some

late Mr. Coleridge; and it was the fcrupulous regard for truth and right by which the ftruggle was fo characterised at its beginning, that imparted to it mainly what bore it in fuch honour and credit to its end. We have also to remember that much more of the real wealth of the kingdom was committed on behalf of the Parliament than at any time remained with the King, and that this alone would have rendered it impoffible that fanfculottifm should have got the upper hand amongst us. lives were sternly exacted, because held to have with the been neceffarily forfeited; but no blood was than with ruthleffly or caufeleffly fpilt upon the scaffold. the King. No monftrous or unnational innovations difgraced the progrefs, and no infamous profcriptions marked the termination, of the war. The palaces of England ftood throughout as unrifled as its cottages; and, except where fortified refiftance had been offered, the manfions and manor-houses remained as of old, through the length and breadth of the land. No While the conflict continued, no fervile paffions inflamed or difgraced it; and when all was over, the vanquished fat down with the victors in their common country, and no man's property was unjustly taken from him.

terrorism.

Origin

of the intereft

For these reasons it is that the various incidents and characters in the civil wars of the feventeenth century continue to be regarded with a living and active fympathy. Other