capacity, made them regard his death as their only security for success in their farther attacks upon the throne.

In consequence of this idea, the impeachment of Strafford had been pushed on with the utmost vigour. After he had been sent to the Tower, a select committee of both houses received orders to prepare a charge against him, with authority to examine all witnesses, to call for every paper, and to use all the modes of scrutiny, in regard to any part of the earl's behaviour or conduct': and, (as Mr. Hume remarks) after so general and unbounded an inquisition, exercised by such powerful and implacable enemies, a man who had acted in a variety of public stations must have been very cautious, or very innocent, not to afford, during the whole course of his proceedings, some matter of accusation against him. Nothing, however, was found against the prisoner that could properly be brought under the description of treason; a crime which the laws of England had defined with the most scrupulous exactness, in order to protect the subject against the violence of the king and his ministers. Aware of this, the commons attempted to prove that he had "endeavoured to subvert the fundamental laws of the kingdom":" and, as the statute of treason made no mention of such a species of guilt, they invented a kind of accumulative or constructive evidence, by which many actions, either totally innocent in themselves, or criminal in an inferior degree, should, when united, amount to treason, and subject the person to the highest penalties inflicted by the law; the king and parliament, as they asserted, having power to determine what is treason, and what is not. They according voted that the facts proved against the earl, taken collectively, were treasonable 3.

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Strafford defended himself with firmness and ability. After pleading to each particular article of the charge, he brought the whole together, in order to repel the imputation of treason. Where," said he, " has this species of guilt been so long concealed? Where has this fire been so long buried, during so many centuries, that no smoke should appear, till it burst out at once to consume me and my children? It were better to

1 Clarendon, vol. i.

2 Rushworth, vol. iv.

Rushworth, vol. iv.-As a proof how far the popular leaders were hurried away by their vindictive passions, it will be sufficient to quote the speech of Mr. St. John, who affirmed that Strafford had no title to plead law, because he had endeavoured to destroy the law. "It is true," said he, "we give law to hares and deers, for they are beasts of chase; but it was never accounted cruel or unfair to destroy foxes and wolves, wherever they can be found; for they are beasts of prey!" Clarendon, vol. i.

live under no law at all, and, by the maxims of cautious prudence, to conform ourselves the best we can to the arbitrary will of a master, than fancy we have a law on which we can rely, and find at last that this law shall inflict a punishment precedent to the promulgation, and try us by maxims unheard of till the very moment of prosecution. If I sail on the Thames, and split my vessel on an anchor; in case there be no buoy to give me warning, the party shall pay the damages: but if the anchor be marked out, then is the striking on it at my own peril. Where is the mark set upon this crime? where the token by which I should discover it? It has lain concealed under water; and no human prudence, no human innocence, could teach me to avoid it, or save me from the destruction with which I am at present threatened.

"It is now full two hundred and eighty years since treasons were defined; and so long has it been since any man was touched to this extent, upon this crime, before myself. We have lived, my lords, happy to ourselves at home; we have lived gloriously abroad to the world: let us be content with what our fathers left; let not our ambition carry us to be more learned than they were, in these killing and destructive arts. Great wisdom it will be in your lordships, and just providence for yourselves, for your posterity, for the whole kingdom, to cast from you, into the fire, these bloody and mysterious volumes of arbitrary and constructive treasons, as the primitive Christians did their books of curious arts, and betake yourselves to the plain letter of the statute, which tells you where the crime is, and points out to you the path by which you may avoid it.

"Let us not, to our own destruction, awake those sleeping lions, by rattling up a company of old records, which have lain for so many ages by the wall, forgotten and neglected. To all my afflictions add not this, my lords, the most severe of any; that I for my own sins, not for my treasons, be the means of introducing a precedent so pernicious to the laws and liberties of my native country. These gentlemen at the bar, however, say they speak for the commonwealth; and they may believe so, yet, under favour, it is I who, in this particular, speak for the commonwealth. Precedents, like those which are endeavoured to be established against me, must draw along with them such inconveniences and miseries, that, in a few years, the kingdom will be in the condition expressed in the statute of Henry IV.no man shall know by what rule to govern his words or actions. "Impose not, my lords, difficulties insurmountable upon

2

ministers of state, nor disable them from serving with cheerfulness their king and country. If you examine them, and under such severe penalties, by every grain, by every little weight, the scrutiny will be intolerable; the public affairs of the kingdom must be left waste: for no wise man, who has any honour or fortune to lose, will ever engage himself in such dreadful, such unknown perils.

"My lords, I have now troubled your lordships too long; a great deal longer than I should have done, were it not for the interest of these dear pledges, which a saint in heaven has left me. I should be loth"-here his grief deprived him of utterance. He let fall a tear, pointed to his children, who were placed near him, and thus proceeded:-" What I forfeit for myself is a trifle; but that my indiscretion should forfeit for them, I confess, wounds me very deeply. You will be pleased to pardon my infirmity"—again dropping a tear. "Something I should have added, but find I shall not be able, and therefore shall leave it. And now, my lords, I thank God I have been, by his good blessing, sufficiently instructed in the extreme vanity of all temporary enjoyments, compared to the importance of our eternal duration; and so, my lords, even so, with all humility, and with all tranquillity of mind, I submit clearly and freely to your judgment; and whether that righteous doom shall be life or death, I shall repose myself, full of gratitude and confidence, in the arms of the great Author of my existence '."

Certainly, says Whitelocke, never any man acted such a part, on such a theatre, with more wisdom, constancy, and eloquence, with greater reason, judgment, and temper, and with a better grace in all his words and gestures, than did this great and excellent person: and he moved the hearts of all his auditors, some few excepted, to remorse and pity'. It is truly remarkable, that the historian, who makes these candid and liberal observations, was himself chairman of that committee which conducted the impeachment against this unfortunate nobleman!

The accusation and defence lasted eighteen days; and Strafford behaved with so much modesty and humility, as well as firmness and vigour, that the commons, though aided by all the weight of authority, would have found it impossible to obtain a sentence against him, if the peers had not been over-awed by the tumultuous populace. Reports were every day spread of the most alarming plots and conspiracies; and about six thousand men,

1 Rushworth, vol. iv.

2 Mem. p. 43.

armed with swords and cudgels, flocked from the city, and surrounded the two houses of parliament. When any of the lords. passed, the cry for justice against Strafford resounded in their ears; and such as were suspected of friendship for that obnoxious minister, were menaced with the vengeance of the furious multitude'. Intimidated by these threats, only forty-five, out of about eighty peers who had constantly attended this important trial, were present when the bill of attainder was brought into the house, and nineteen of that number had the courage to vote against it; a strong presumption that if no danger had been apprehended, it would have been rejected by a considerable majority.

Popular violence having thus far triumphed, it was next employed to extort the king's consent. Crowds of people besieged Whitehall, and seconded their demand of justice on the minister, with the loudest clamours, and most open threatenings against the monarch. Rumours of plots and conspiracies against the parliament were anew circulated; invasions and insurrections were apprehended; and the whole nation was raised into such a ferment, as seemed to portend some great and immediate convulsion. On whichever side the king turned his eyes, he saw no resource or security, except in submitting to the will of the populace. His courtiers, consulting their own personal safety, and perhaps their interest, more than their master's honour, advised him to pass the bill of attainder; the pusillanimous judges, when consulted, declared it legal; and the queen, who formerly bore no good-will toward Strafford, alarmed at the appearance of so frightful a danger, as that to which the royal family must be exposed by protecting him, now became an importunate solicitor for his death. She hoped, if the people were gratified in this demand, that their discontents would finally subside; and that, by such a measure, she should acquire a more absolute ascendancy over the king, as well as some credit with the popular party. Bishop Juxon alone, in this trying extremity, had honesty or courage to offer an opinion worthy of his prince he advised him, if he did not think the prisoner criminal, by no means to give his assent to the bill3.

1 Clarendon, vol. i.

2 Whitelocke, p. 43.

3 Clarendon, vol. i.-This opinion has been cavilled at. "A king of England," it has been said, "ought never to interpose his private opinion against the other parts of the legislature." If so, the royal assent is a matter of mere form; and perhaps, in most cases, it ought to be so. But, in the present instance, the king was surely the best judge, whether Strafford, as a minister, had advised the subversion of the constitution; or, as an officer, had exceeded the extent of his commis

While Charles was struggling between virtue and necessity, he received a letter from Strafford, entreating him, for the sake of public peace, to put an end to the innocent life of his unhappy servant, and thus to quiet the tumultuous people, by granting them that request for which they were so clamorous. "In this," added he, "my consent will more acquit you to God, than all the world can do besides to a willing man there is no injury'. And as, by God's grace, I forgive all the world, with a calmness and meekness of infinite contentment to my dislodging soul, so to you, sir, I can resign the life of this world with all imaginable cheerfulness in the just acknowledgment of your exceeding favours"."

This illustrious effort of disinterestedness, worthy of the noble mind of Strafford, and equal to any instance of generosity recorded in the annals of mankind, was ill rewarded by Charles; who, after a little more hesitation, as if his scruples had been merely of the religious kind, granted a commission to four noblemen to give the royal assent, in his name, to the bill. These commissioners were empowered, at the same time, to give assent to a bill, that the parliament then sitting should not be dissolved, prorogued, or adjourned, without the consent of the majority of the members; a bill of yet more fatal consequence to his authority than the other, as it rendered the power of his enemies perpetual, as well as uncontrollable. But, in the moment of remorse for assenting to the bill of attainder, by which he deemed himself an accomplice in the murder of his friend, this enormous concession appears to have escaped his penetration, and to have been considered comparatively as a trivial point.

The king might still have saved his minister, by granting him a reprieve; but that was not thought advisable, while the minds of men were in such agitation. He sent, however, by the hands of the prince of Wales, a letter addressed to the peers, in which he entreated them to confer with the commons about a mitigation of the prisoner's sentence, or at least to procure some delay. Both requests were rejected; and Strafford, finding his fate inevitable, prepared to meet death with the same dignity with sion; and if he was blameable in neither capacity, Charles was bound, both in honour and conscience, to withhold his assent from the bill. The royal assent is not, at present, necessary to bills of attainder, the jealousy of our constitution having cut off that among other dangerous prerogatives.

1 It appears that the king had sent a letter to Strafford during his confinement, in which he assured him, upon the word of a king, that he should not suffer in life, honour, and fortune. Strafford's Letters, vol. ii.

2 Clarendon, vol. i.-Rushworth, vol. v.

3 Id. ibid.