power as may be, that there may be power to do the more good in the place where a man lives."1 Eager to promote the public weal, he rejoiced in the labours it demanded. He describes himself truly, as 66 ever desiring the best things, never satisfied I had done enough, but did always desire to do better." 2 In the service of the State alone could such a man find full scope for his energies, and from the King's commission alone could he obtain the authority his aims required. He had grown up under the influence of the Elizabethan traditions, and looked to the monarchy, not to the people, as the source of authority; to the King, not to the Parliament, as the natural ally of a reformer. Wentworth represented Yorkshire in the Parliament of 1614. In December 1615 he was made Custos Rotulorum for the West Riding of Yorkshire, and as such, first in the Commission of Peace for that district. On July 10th, 1619, he was appointed a member of the Council of the North. In 1620, at the desire of the Government he again stood for Yorkshire, and used his local influence to secure the return of Sir George Calvert, one of the Secretaries of State, as his colleague. He seemed marked out for the King's favour, and in 1621, the newsletters predicted his approaching elevation to the peerage, and even reported that he would take the title of Viscount Raby.3 At this moment, however, Wentworth's rise came to a stop. During the Parliament of 1621 he had 2 Trial, p. 161. 1 Rushworth, Trial of Strafford, p. 146. b wavered in his support of the Government. His attitude was conciliatory throughout. He supported the King's demand for a subsidy for the defence of the Palatinate. In language which recalls his later utterances, he urged the Commons not to seek "to capitulate with the King," to "consider of the King and people together and indivisibly," to avoid "leaving a kind of misunderstanding between the King and his people." But anxious as he was to press on with practical legislation, and to prevent barren disputes about privileges, he could not quietly submit to the King's denial of freedom of speech to Parliament. "Sir Thomas Wentworth," says the reporter . . . "would have us stand on it that our privileges are our right and our inheritance." Vexed also by the sudden dissolution which followed the protest of the Commons, he was yet far from any thought of active opposition, and still aimed at office. The path was more difficult, but "with patience, circumspection, and principally silence," it might still be passed.1 Silence was Wentworth's resource throughout the debates of the Parliament of 1624. The nation was eager for war, and Buckingham seized the opportunity to put himself at the head of the movement. Unmoved himself by the popular feeling, Wentworth knew that it was useless to struggle against it. His own views on European politics were uninfluenced by religious considerations, and he cared little for the fate of the German Protestants. He had no share in the Puritan antipathy to Spain, and scoffed at the exultation with which "all 1 Letters, i. 19. xxi nd at the cobblers and bigots and zealous brethren the London hailed the dismissal of the Spanish ambas..e dor.1 For dynastic reasons he desired the restoration of the Prince Palatine, but he would have sought it by diplomatic means only. The King of England, he held, was bound neither in justice nor honour to venture his people's prosperity for the recovery of the Palatinate. In 1637, King Charles thought of going to war with Spain for that purpose, and asked Wentworth's opinion on the question. There can be little doubt that the principles which dictated his answer then guided his conduct now. "The first consideration ariseth, whether this war tends in any sort to the wealth or safety of the crown of England, or not rather to the decay of trade, and losing the greatest entrance to the enlargement thereof that hath of many years been opened unto us, whilst those two great monarchs of France and Spain are now at odds, the commodities and commerce consequently of both, of necessity to pass through our merchants, to their mighty enriching, to the extreme improvement of the customs, and the great increase of shipping." Instead of rushing on "the bleeding evil of an instant and active war," let the King turn his attention homewards, and seek first the welfare of England. The advice which Wentworth gave in 1637, he would have given in 1624 also. Consistently insular in his view of foreign politics, he was anxious to avoid interference in continental struggles, eager to amend laws, to redress grievances, and to "do the 1 Letters, i. 21. 2 Letters, ii. 60, 62. waveress of the Commonwealth." As a member of the was liament of 1625, he neither attacked Buckingham Bersonally, nor refused the subsidies the King demanded, but allowed his dissatisfaction with their policy to be clearly seen. As yet he was scarcely numbered with the opposition. The King still styled him "an honest gentleman," and if Buckingham by a trick excluded him from the Parliament of 1626, it was sedulously excused as an accident. Wentworth submitted quietly to his exclusion from Parliament. "It was better," he declared, “to be a spectator than an actor,” and he announced his resolve not to contest with the King unless he were constrained thereto. It is significant that at this very time he applied for the Presidency of the Council of the North.1 Other motives no doubt besides ambition led him to desire it. Serving the King in the parts where he lived, he could keep out of the sterile constitutional struggles in Parliament, and avoid all responsibility for the foreign policy of which he disapproved. His application was made almost directly to Buckingham, was followed by explanations, and ended in a promise of friendship. Buckingham, however, would tolerate no neutrals amongst his friends, and required active support, There is little doubt that Wentworth's refusal to take part in the collection of the forced loan of 1626 was the cause of his dismissal from the dignity of Custos Rotulorum, and from his other official posts. His further refusal to subscribe to that loan himself was 1 Appendix, p. 290. followed by imprisonment in the Marshalsea and at Dartford. How reluctantly Wentworth exchanged the attitude of "cold, silent forbearance," for the "active heat" of opposition his conduct shows. His refusal to pay was courteous, his bearing at the Council-board firm but conciliatory. It is evident from his letters to Weston that he regarded himself as personally attacked by Buckingham, and as the victim of a breach of faith on the part of the favourite. Immediately he was dismissed he sought to represent his fidelity to the King, complained that he had been maliciously misrepresented to his Majesty, and expressed the hope of presenting hereafter more ripe and pleasing fruits of my labours in his service." 66 Thus personal and political motives alike combined to make Wentworth one of the leaders of the Opposition during the first session of the Parliament of 1628. Yet fiercely as he attacked the King's ministers, he was careful to exonerate the King. "This hath not been done by the King . . . but by projectors," is the conclusion of his catalogue of grievances. Vehement though his language was, it was evident that he sought to heal, not to widen, the breach between Charles and England. "Whether we shall look upon the King or his people, it did never more behove this great physician the parliament, to effect a true consent amongst the parties than now." Sovereign and subject alike had suffered by Buckingham's policy. "Both are injured; both to be cured... By one and the same thing hath the King 1 Appendix, p. 291. |