tisement; but retire yourself into the country, where you may expect the event in safety; for, though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they will receive a terrible blow this parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned, because it may do you good, and can do you no harm; for the danger is past as soon as you have burned the letter: and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you 1."

Though Monteagle was inclined to think this a foolish attempt to expose him to ridicule, by frightening him from attending his duty in parliament, he judged it safest to carry the letter to the earl of Salisbury. The secretary either did or pretended to think it a light matter; so that all farther inquiry was dropped, till the king, who had been for some time at Royston, returned to town. To the timid sagacity of James, the matter appeared in a more important point of view. From the serious and earnest style of the letter, he conjectured that it intimated some dark and dangerous design against the state; and the hints respecting a great, sudden, and terrible blow, of which the authors would be concealed, seemed to denote some contrivance by gunpowder. It was, therefore, thought proper to inspect all the vaults under the parliamentary place of meeting. This inspection, however, was purposely delayed till the day before the meeting of the great counsel of the nation; when, on searching the vaults, the gunpowder was discovered, though concealed under great piles of wood and faggots; and Guy Fawkes, an officer in the Spanish service, who stood in a dark corner, and passed for Percy's servant, was seized and carried to the Tower.

This man had been sent from Flanders, on account of his determined courage, and known zeal in the Catholic cause. He was accordingly entrusted with the most hazardous part of the enterprise. The matches, and every thing proper for setting fire to the train, were found in his pocket. He at first behaved with insolence, and not only refused to discover his accomplices, but expressed the utmost regret, that he had lost the precious opportunity of at least sweetening his death, by taking vengeance on his and God's enemies'. But after some confinement, his courage failed when the rack was shown to him; and he made a full discovery of all the conspirators. Several of them were men of ancient family,

1 Works of James I. p. 227.

2 Winwood, vol. ii.

independent fortune, and unspotted character; instigated to so great a crime by a fanatical zeal alone, which led them to believe that they were serving their Creator, while they were contriving the ruin of their country, and the destruction of their species.

Such of the conspirators as were in London, on hearing that Fawkes was arrested, hurried into Warwickshire; where sir Everard Digby, one of their associates, was already in arms, in order to seize the princess Elizabeth, who was then at lord Harrington's seat. They failed in their attempt to secure the princess; the county rose upon them; and they were all taken and executed except three, who fell a sacrifice to their desperate valour; namely, Wright, a daring fanatic; Catesby, the original conspirator; and Percy, his first and most active associate'.

After this escape, James seems to have enjoyed a kind of temporary popularity, even among his English subjects. If the Puritans were offended at his lenity toward the Catholics, against whom he exercised no new severities, the more moderate and intelligent part of the nation considered that lenity as truly magnanimous; and all men seemed to be convinced that he could not be the patron of a religion which had aimed so tremendous a blow at his life and throne. His love of peace was favourable to commerce, which flourished under his reign; and it procured him leisure, notwithstanding his natural indolence of temper, to attend to the disordered state of Ireland.

Elizabeth had lived to see the final subjection of that island. But a difficult task still remained; to civilize the barbarous inhabitants; to reconcile them to laws and industry; and by these means to render the conquest durable, and useful to the crown of England. The first step that James took in regard to this important business, which he considered as his master-piece in politics, was to abolish the Irish customs that supplied the place of laws; and which were calculated, as will appear by a few examples, to keep the people for ever in a state of barbarism and disorder. Their chieftains, whose authority was absolute, were not hereditary but elective; or, to speak more properly, were established by force and violence; and although certain lands were assigned to the office, its chief profit arose from exactions, dues, assessments, which were levied at pleasure, and for which there was no fixed law 2.

1 Works of James, p. 231.-Winwood. vol. ii.-State Trials, vol. i.

In consequence of the Brehon law or custom, every crime, how enormous soever, was punished in Ireland, not with death, but by a fine. Even murder itself, as among our Saxon ancestors, was atoned for in this manner; and each man, according to his rank, had affixed to him a certain rate or value, which if any one was willing to pay he might assassinate whatever man he disliked. This rate was called his Eric. Accordingly when sir William Fitzwilliams, while lord deputy, told the chieftain Macguire, that he was to send a sheriff into Fermanagh, which had been made a county a little before, and subjected to the English laws, "Your sheriff," replied Macguire," shall be welcome to me: but let me know before-hand his eric, or the price of his head, that, if any of my people should cut it off, I may levy the money upon the county'."

After abolishing these, and other pernicious Irish customs, and substituting English laws in their stead, James proceeded to govern the natives by a regular administration, military as well as civil. A sufficient army was maintained, its discipline inspected, and its pay punctually transmitted from England, in order to prevent the soldiers from subsisting upon the country, as had been usual in former reigns. Circuits were established, justice administered, oppression banished, and crimes and disorders of every kind severely punished. For the relief of the common people, the dues which the nobles usually claimed from their vassals were estimated at a fixed sum, and all arbitrary exactions were prohibited under severe penalties 2.

A pretended plot furnished the king's deputy in Ireland with a pretext for crushing the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, whose vast possessions in Ulster rendered them dangerous subjects. Wholly unprepared, these chieftains fled to Spain, thus showing that there was no truth in the charge of their having made extensive preparations for war. By an iniquitous extension of the law of forfeiture, it was resolved not only to confiscate the immense estates of the fugitives, but also the property of all their tenants, vassals, and dependents. Six entire counties, containing half a million of acres, were seized by the king, and a company established in London for planting colonies in these fertile lands. Nothing can justify the sweeping iniquity of this transaction; but historians are frequently induced to palliate its guilt by proving that its consequences were beneficial. Some skill was exhibited in the distribution of the forfeited estates,

1 Sir John Davies, p. 167.

2 Ibid. p. 278.

and an ordinary share of caution displayed in the establishment of the new colonies. The property was divided into moderate shares, the largest not exceeding two thousand acres; tenants were brought from England and Scotland; the Irish were driven. to the hills and forests, and colonies from Britain settled in the open country; husbandry and the mechanical arts were taught, a fixed habitation was secured for the new tenants, and every irregularity repressed. By these means Ulster, from being the most wild and disorderly province in Ireland, soon became the most civilized and the best cultivated part of the island.

But, whatever domestic advantages might result from James's pacific disposition, it gradually lost him the affections of his people, as it induced him to avoid war by negotiations and concessions derogatory from the dignity of an English monarch. It sunk the national consequence, and perhaps the national spirit; and his excessive love of carousals and hunting, of public spectacles and unavailing speculations, which left him little time for public business, at last divested his political character of all claim to respect, and rendered him equally contemptible at home and abroad. This contempt was increased by a disadvantageous comparison between the king and the prince of Wales.

any

Though youth and royal birth, embellished by the flattering rays of hope, prepossess men strongly in favour of an heir apparent of the crown, Henry, James's eldest son, independently of such circumstances, seems to have possessed great merit. Although he was now in his nineteenth year, the illusions A.D. of passion or of rank had never seduced him into 1612. irregular pleasures: business and ambition alone engaged his heart, and occupied his mind. Had he lived to ascend the throne, he might probably have promoted the glory more than the happiness of his people, his disposition being strongly turned to war. Of this we have a remarkable instance. When the French ambassador took leave of him, and asked his commands for France, he found him employed in the exercise of the pike. "Tell your king," said Henry," in what occupation you Nov. 6. left me engaged'." His death, which was sudden, diffused throughout the nation the deepest sorrow, and violent reports were propagated that he had been taken off by poison. The physicians, however, on opening his body, found no symptoms to justify such an opinion.

But James had one weakness, which drew on him more odium

1 Dep. de la Boderie.

2 Wilson.-Coke.-Welwood.

than either his pedantry, pusillanimity, or extravagant love of amusement; namely, an infatuated attachment to young and worthless favourites. This passion appears so much the more ludicrous, though less detestable, as it does not seem to have contained any thing criminal.

Of these favourites the first and most odious was Robert Carr, a young gentleman of a good family in Scotland. When about twenty years of age he arrived in London, after having passed some time in his travels. A handsome person, an easy manner, and a graceful air, were his chief accomplishments; and these were sufficient to recommed him to James, who, through his whole life, was too liable to be captivated by exterior qualities. Lord Hay, who was well acquainted with this weakness in his sovereign, and meant to take advantage of it, assigned to Carr, at a tournament, the office of presenting to the king his buckler and device. But, as the future favourite was advancing for that purpose, his ungovernable horse threw him, and his leg was broken by the fall.

Equally struck with this incident, and with the beauty and simplicity of the youth, whom he had never seen before, James approached him with sentiments of the softest compassion; ordered him to be lodged in the palace, and to be attended by the most skilful surgeons; and paid him frequent visits during his confinement. The more ignorant he found him, the stronger his attachment became. Having an elevated opinion of his own wisdom, he flattered himself that he should be able to form a minister whose political sagacity would astonish the world, while he surpassed all his former courtiers in personal and literary accomplishments. In consequence of this partial fondness, interwoven with selfish vanity, the king soon knighted his favourite; created him viscount Rochester, honoured him with the garter, admitted him into the privy council, and without assigning him any particular office, gave him the supreme direction of his affairs'.

This minion, however, was not so transported by his sudden elevation, as not to be sensible of his own ignorance and inexperience. He had recourse to the advice of a friend, and found a judicious and sincere counsellor in sir Thomas Overbury, by whose means he enjoyed for a time, what is very rare, the highest favour of the prince without being hated by the people. To complete his happiness, he only wished for a kind mistress;

1 Wilson's Life of James.