Strafford's death was the signal for a con popular party. Hyde and Falkland, both of whom would seem (notwithstanding Hyde's silence as to his own conduct) to have voted for the attainder, passed over to the king's side. There seems to have been a general impression that enough had been done,—that the king had become the weaker party, and ought to be supported. The bill which forbade the dissolution of parliament without its own consent had, no doubt, strangely altered their position; and these facts to some extent account for the numerous plots, sometimes against the lives of Pym and Hampden, sometimes against the security of the parliament which the king seems to have meant to threaten by bringing up troops from the north,-which were discovered soon after Strafford's execution. These alarms, and the various incidents to which they gave rise, filled the summer and autumn of 1641. that grievances must precede supply, and Mr. Forster's principal witness as to the transproposed to take measures against the collec-actions which took place in parliament in retion of ship-money before granting subsidies. spect of the Grand Remonstrance and the For a few months longer the king was able arrest of the five members. to struggle through his difficulties; but in November, 1640, the Long Parliament assem-siderable reaction and for a division in the bled, and its measures form on the whole the most remarkable series of events in our history. They are so well known that the barest mention of them is enough. They passed the Triennial Bill. They declared ship-money to be illegal. They destroyed the Star Chamber, and the Court of High Commission, and other illegal tribunals, especially the Council of the North and the Council of Wales. They reduced the forests to their proper size; and they impeached Strafford, and finally took his life by the Bill of Attainder. Of the wisdom and utility of all these measures, except the last, no one can doubt; and as to the execution of Strafford, there is so much room for a favorable judgment that Lord Macaulay pronounced for it, whilst Hallam did not pronounce against it. His opinion, from which probably few competent judges will dissent, is that Strafford deserved his death, though there is room for doubt as On the 9th September in that year the to the propriety of the means by which it House adjourned for a short recess, and reaswas inflicted on him. The Grand Remon-sembled on the 20th October. Plots of every strance forms the next memorable proceeding kind were reported to them. Goring's plot after Strafford's execution; and it is to the to bring up troops to London to effect what illustration of its history that Mr. Forster we should now call a coup d'etat was one. has devoted the first of the volumes which we now proceed to notice. Hampden, who was then commissioner in Scotland, reported a plot for the assassination His great authority both for this volume of the leaders of the Covenant. Attempts and for that which relates to the arrest of the were made upon Pym's life. In a word, the five members, is the MS. Journal of Sir Si- reforming party in the House found themmonds D'Ewes,—a document which others, selves suddenly exposed to the danger of losand especially Mr. Carlyle, had referred to ing what they had gained, by defections from before him, but which Mr. Forster had the their own ranks and attacks from without. credit of studying for the first time in its In this state of things the popular leaders integrity. Sir Simonds D'Ewes was the son proposed to state their whole case to the of one of the six clerks, and had been edu- world at large, in the shape of what was cated for the bar. His tastes led him to known as the Grand Remonstrance. In effect, study records and antiquities, which he calls it was, no doubt, an appeal to the people "the most ravishing and satisfying part of against the king and the court. "This is human knowledge." He made large collec- what we have done; this is why we have tions of extracts with a view to writing a done it; and this is the work which the history of England, and being himself re-king and his party are straining every nerve turned to the Long Parliament for Sudbury, to undo." Such, in a few words, was the he studied contemporary history with the gist of this memorable document. It must minute care which he had bestowed upon be admitted the history of the past, and took notes of everything that passed in the House with the minuteness of a professional reporter. He is that the step was one which nothing but the most desperate necessity could justify. It was in the nature of s solemn protest by parliament against the government. It was a solemn call for sup- "great aspersions cast on them for what port in a desperate struggle. Of course, such they had done" during the twelve months a call should be made only in the last extrem- of their existence, the difficulties put in ity but it is not easy to consider the state of their way, and the jealousies stirred up bethings at the time without feeling that such tween the king and parliament. This they a necessity did then exist. Looking at ascribed to a conspiracy to subvert the fundaCharles's behavior throughout the whole of mental laws of the kingdom, made between his reign; looking in particular at his behav-Jesuited Papists," the bishops and disaffectior in respect of the Petition of Right, in ed clergy, and certain officers of state, whose respect of Sir John Eliot, in respect of ship- object it was to degrade Protestantism and money, in respect of the countenance which discredit parliament. After this preamble he had afforded to Strafford's tyrannical they went on to describe the measures taken schemes; and looking, above all, at the un- in the preceding parliaments; the desertion derhand proceedings which he was reasona- of the Protestant cause in the first parliably suspected of carrying on at that very ment; the forced loans raised after the dissotime, and of which the arrest of the five lution of the second parliament; the evamembers was the final result, it is impossible sions and infringements of the Petition of to doubt that he was at once utterly false, Right, and the persecution of Eliot and others. and passionately bent upon treating all the It then went on to describe in minute detail legislation of the Long Parliament as he had the ten years' interval during which the treated the Petition of Rights ten years before, country was governed by prerogative. It as soon as he got the opportunity of doing set out all the unjust and illegal devices by 80. To make the people understand this, and which money had been raised; and, above to show them that if they valued their liber- all, the scandalous device of ship-money,ties, they must be prepared to defend them" that new and unheard-of tax by which for to the utmost, would seem, under the cir- many years, with the help of the book of cumstances, to have been not only a justifia- | rates, near upon seven hundred thousand ble but an absolutely necessary and essential pounds was yearly taken by the crown." step. The debates on the Remonstrance lasted They quoted the case of Chambers, who, for from the 9th to the 20th November, when it refusing to pay illegal taxes, was fined two was finally carried, in the midst of that fierce thousand pounds and kept twelve years in scene which has been so often described, and prison. They next set out the revival of which made so deep an impression on those monopolies, and the odious jobbery which who saw it. Geoffrey Palmer claimed a right was united with extortion. They described to protest, and moved that the clerk should interferences with the course of law and the enter the names of all those whose claim to degradation of the judges, whose patents protest would have to be determined on a were granted to them durante bene placito, future day. Upon this the minority burst instead of quam diu se bene gesserint. They out into shouts of "All! All! described the new and strange jurisdictions, the cruelties of the Star-Chamber, and the oppressions of the bishops' courts. They went on to charge a design to exterminate Protestantism, and with it to destroy all liberty, according to the plans of Laud and Strafford. They also set out the course of Scotch affairs, show "All! All! [says D'Ewes] was cried from side to side, and some waved their hats over their heads, and others took their swords in their scabbards out of their belts, and held them by the pummels in their hands, setting the lower part on the ground; so as if God had not prevented it, there was very great danger that mischief might have been done.ing how ecclesiastical oppression in Scotland All those who cried All! All! and did the had been made the means of furthering the other particulars, were of the number of those who were against the Remonstrance." Perhaps the most interesting part of Mr. Forster's volume is the abstract which it contains of the Grand Remonstrance itself, which caused such fierce excitement. It began by a preamble, setting forth the occasion of its publication, which was stated to be the tyranny practised in England. From this picture of the abuses which had thus prevailed for about fifteen years, they passed to an account of their own proceedings during the last year; and they go on to describe the opposition which they had met with from the party hostile to parliaments, whose proceedings they connected with the frightful rebellion which had broken out in Ireland, and which moved that generation much as the Indian mutiny moved our own. Finally, they describe the remedies which they propose, and which were still required to make good the ground which they had won. These were safeguards against the Roman Catholic religion, security for the better administration of the law, and conditions for the future selections by the king of such counsellors only as could be trusted. This decisive measure was carried by a very small majority. The numbers were one hundred and fifty-nine for, to one hundred and forty-eight against it. Clarendon, with his usual unfairness, declares that the popular party carried their motion because their opponents had been tired out and had left the House. Mr. Forster produces the clearest evidence that this is utterly untrue. Two divisions on minor points took place at an earlier hour. Three hundred and ten members voted in one; in the other three hundred and eight; and on the decisive one three hundred and seven, which was more than three-fifths of the whole House. The history of the arrest of the five members forms the natural sequel to the history of the Grand Remonstrance. Charles's friends have tried to represent it as an unfortunate mistake, an isolated act, done on a sudden impulse. Mr. Forster's book is written to show that it was, in fact, a deliberately planned and by no means hopeless attempt to execute much such a coup d'etat as that of the 20 December, 1851. The passing of the Grand Remonstrance had effected the purpose which its authors had in view; for it attracted public attention and excited public sympathy in the strongest way; on the other hand, it drove Charles into measures of the most violent provocation. He enforced to the utmost the laws which bore on the Puritans. He remitted sentences passed on Roman Catholic priests. But one of his most significant acts was the change which he made in the lieutenancy of the Tower. He dismissed Sir William Ballour without any reason assigned, and supplied his place by Lunsford, a soldier of infamous character. Clarendon describes him as "one who would be faithful for this obligation, and execute anything that should be desired or directed." Warburton translates this phrase into plain English thus: the object was "to keep the five members safe, whom it was determined to arrest." In the mean time the feelings of the people were effectually roused. There were tumults at Westminster in front of Whitehall, and the king gradually collected a certain number of troops there. The Commons, on their side, were moved by Pym to require a guard from the trained-bands of the city. The motion, however, did not succeed. There seems to be reason to think that the king tried to seduce Pym into his service, and that in the course of the negotiations for that purpose he obtained some hints of the designs which were entertained, which he could not state distinctly to that House. On the 3d January, 1642, these rumors and hints took a definite shape; for on that day the attorney-general impeached Lord Kimbolton, Pym, Hampden, Holles, Haslerig, and Strode for high treason, before the House of Lords, and a sergeant-at-arms was sent to the House of Commons to demand that they should be delivered up. The House sat next day to consider what answer they should give, being sensible that the attack on their privileges and the illegality of the whole course of proceeding was as serious as anything, short of open force, could be. On that day no conclusion was reached; but on the following day (January 4), the king in his own person made his famous attempt to arrest the members. Mr. Forster has, with minute care, collected all the evidence which bears on this memorable transaction; and, without going minutely into the subject, it may perhaps be enough to say that he appears to us to make it appear probable in the highest degree that the act was deliberate and carefully prepared; and that the king not only contemplated the possibility of an actual fray between his armed followers and the House of Commons, but was on the whole anxious that it should take place, and inclined to make that use of such an occurrence which has so often been made of similar occurrences in our times by rulers whose tyranny was more consistent, more resolute, more successful, but not more unscrupulous than his own. The arrest of the five members Mr. Forster considers as the true beginning of the civil war, or, at any rate, as the step which rendered it inevitable. The long controversy which followed about the militia and other subjects is extremely wearisome to read in "There was Clarendon's pages; and we are inclined to but did to the world at large a greater poagree with Mr. Forster in thinking that it was litical service than it ever received from any rather a lingering proclamation of war than other quarter. No one, of course, can justify a real negotiation. Hallam observes that the the whole of their conduct. The words of king got much the best of it, thanks, to a Chatham, quoted by Hallam, appear to us great extent, to the skilful advocacy of Claren- to exhaust the whole subject. don, by whom his state papers were drawn. ambition, there was sedition, there was vioThis may be so; but it is fair to the parlia-lence; but no man shall persuade me that it ment to remember that it was no easy matter was not the cause of liberty on the one side to convey their real meaning respectfully. and of tyranny on the other." Hallam adds Put it how you will, it can never be a pleas-upon this that he cannot believe that the great ant thing to say to any one, especially to a king, "You are such a liar and tyrant that we do not believe a single word you say, or trust in any promise that you can make. If you will accept a mere nominal and shadowy authority, take it. If not, take what you can get. This was what the parliament really had to say, and that in a reverential manner. Whether or not they said it, they meant it, and made their meaning good; and it appears to us that by so doing they not only established the liberties of this country, body of the Royalists were combating for the sake of tyranny. He appeals to Hyde's state papers and to the willingness of the royalists to make peace. This may be all very true. No one doubts Clarendon's ability. No one ought to deny the noble qualities of the Cavaliers; but they had one fatal weakness. They were ready to trust a liar because he happened to be a king. The great merit of the parliamentary party was that they knew that Charles was a liar, and treated him as such. interest which it will carry with it forever.-"A Walk from London to John O'Groat's, with Notes by the Way." By Elihu Burritt. JOHN O'GROAT.-In the reign of James IV. of the different Groat families to enter at his of Scotland, three brothers, Malcolm, Gavin, and own door, and sit at the head of his own table. John de Groat, natives of Holland, came to this This happy and ingenious plan restored good feelcoast of Caithness, with a letter in Latin from ing and a pleasant footing to the sensitive famithat monarch, recommending them to the pro-lies, and gave to the good Dutchman's name an tection and countenance of his subjects hereabout. They got possession of a large district of land, and in process of time multiplied and prospered until they numbered eight different proprietors by the name of Groat. On one of the annual dinners, instituted to commemorate their arrival in Caithness, a dispute arose as to the right of precedency in taking the door, and the head of the table. This waxed very serious, and threatened to break up these annual gatherings. But THE tunnel under the Apennines, on the Bothe wisdom and virtue of John prevented this logna and Florence railroad, has just been opened rupture. He made a touching speech to them, to the public, and the line is now open from soothing their angry spirits with an appeal to Turin and Milan to Rome and Naples without the common and precious memories of their na- any other interruption than the few miles which tive land, and to all their joint experiences in separate Civita-Vecchia from Orbitello, on the this. He entreated them to return to their homes Tuscan coast. quietly, and he would remedy the current difficulty at the next meeting. Won by his kindly spirit and words, they complied with his request. In the interval, John built a house expressly for the purpose, of an octagonal form, with eight doors and windows. He then placed a table of oak, of the same shape, in the middle, and when the next meeting took place, he desired each head THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVII. 1282 THE sale of the illustrated edition of "Les Misérables," published in penny numbers by OLD friend, you know I trust you. You have heard You marvel. Yes, it seems a worthless prize, They did not know 'twas this I prized above Think you for wealth of titles or of gold And I have kept my troth. God knows that jest A SEASONABLE GLÉE. M. S. (TO BE SUNG IN BED ON ANY FROSTY DAY.) WITH Cough and cold to bed I've gone, The weather out of doors this morn Is co-0-0-0-old as charity. The bright fire sparkles, sparkles o'er the fen-der with its steel array-ay-ay, -der with its steel array, -der with its steel array. Uprouse ye then, my merry, merry men, Uprouse ye then, my merry, merry men, Beneath the blankets full three deep All snuggled up I cower; To see what is the hour, To see what is the hour. My watch I find says half-past ten, Then down myself I lay. Bring tea and toast, my merry, merry men, Bring tea and toast, my merry, merry men, Some friends drop in to ask me “how And de-lu-ging the floor! "Get up!" No! no! I trust them when I'll house me then, my merry, merry men, I'll house me then, my merry, merry men, -Punch. *On the Boot Tree. This is a poetical intimstion that the singer does not intend going out fors walk. |