raised him inveterate enemies: his eminent mora. virtues has procured him zealous partisans; and between the hatred of the one, and the affections of the other, was the nation agita ed with the most violent convulsions.

That the king might despair of all composition, the parli ment sent him the conditions on which they were willing to come to an agreement. Their demands, contained in nine een propositions, amounted to a total abolition of monarchical authority. They required that no man should remain in th Council who was not agreeable to parliament; that no deed of he king's should have validity unless it passed the council, and was attested under their hand; that all the officers of late and principal judges should be chosen with consent f parliament, and enjoy their offices for life; that none of the oyal family should marry without consent of parliament or council; that the laws should be executed against Catholics; that the votes of Popish lords should be excluded; that the reformation of the liturgy and church government should have place according to advice of parliament; that the ordinance with regard to the militia be submitted to; that the justice of parliament pass upon all delinquents; that a general pardon be granted, with such exceptions as should be advised by parliament; that the forts and castles be disposed of by consent of parliament; and that no peer be made but with consent of both houses.*

"Should I grant these demands," said the king in reply, "I may be waited on bareheaded; I may have my hand kissed; the title of majesty may be continued to me; and 'the king's authority, signified by both houses,' may still be the style of your commands; I may have swords and maces carried before me, and please myself with the sight of a crown and sceptre, (though even these twigs would not long flourish when the stock upon which they grew was dead ;) but as to true and real power, I should remain but the outside, but the picture, but the sign of a king." + War on any terms was esteemed, by the king and all his counsellors, preferable to so ignominious a peace. Charles accordingly resolved to support his authority by arms. "His towns," he said, were taken from him, his ships, his arms, his money;

66

but there still remained to him a good cause, and the hearts of his loyal subjects, which, with God's blessing, he doubted not would recover all the rest." Collecting, therefore, some forces, he advanced southwards; and at Nottingham he erect ed his royal standard, the open signal of discord and civil war throughout the kingdom.

CHAPTER LVI.

CHARLES I.

[1642.] WHEN two names so sacred in the English constiution as those of king and parliament were placed in opposi tion, no wonder the people were divided in their choice, and were agitated with the most violent animosities and factions.

The nobility and more considerable gentry, dreading a total confusion of rank from the fury of the populace, enlisted themselves in defence of the monarch, from whom they received and to whom they communicated their lustre. Animated with the spirit of loyalty derived from their ancestors they adhered to the ancient principles of the constitution, and valued themselves on exerting the maxims, as well as inherit ing the possessions of the old English families. And while they passed their time mostly at their country seats, they were surprised to hear of opinions prevailing with which they had ever been unacquainted, and which implied not a limitation, but an abolition almost total of monarchical authority.

The city of London, on the other hand, and most of the great corporations, took part with the parliament, and adoptedwith zeal those democratical principles, on which the pretensions of that assembly were founded. The government of eities, which even under absolute monarchies is commonly republican, inclined them to this party: the small hereditary influence which can be retained over the industrious inhabit. ants of towns, the natural independence of citizens, and the force of popular currents over those more numerous associa tions of mankind; all these causes gave their authority to the new principles propagated throughout the nation. Many familles, too, which had lately been enriched by commerce, saw with indignation that, notwithstanding their opulence, they could not raise themselves to a level with the ancient gentry: they therefore adhered to a power by whose success they hoped to acquire rank and consideration." And the new

splendor and glory of the Dutch commonwealth, where lib. erty so happily supported industry, made the commercial part of the nation desire to see a like form of government estab lished in England.

The genius of the two religions, so closely at this time interwoven with politics, corresponded exactly to these divis ions. The Presbyterian religion was new, republican, and suited to the genius of the populace: the other had an air of greater show and ornament, was established on ancient author. ity, and bore an affinity to the kingly and aristocratical part of the constitution. The devotees of Presbytery became of course zealous partisans of the parliament: the friends of the Episcopal church valued themselves on defending the rights of monarchy.

Some men also there were of liberal education, who, being either careless or ignorant of those disputes bandied about by the clergy of both sides, aspired to nothing but an easy enjoy ment of life, amidst the jovial entertainment and social intercourse of their companions. All these flocked to the king's standard, where they breathed a freer air, and were exempted from that rigid preciseness and melancholy austerity which reigned among the parliamentary party.

Never was a quarrel more unerual than seemed at fit tha between the contending parties: almost every advantage lay against the royal cause. The king's revenue had been seized from the beginning by the parliament, who issued out to him from time to time small sums for his present subsistence; and as soon as he withdrew to York, they totally stopped all payments. London, and all the seaports, except Newcastle, being in their hands, the customs yielded them a certain and considerable supply of money; and all contributions, loans, and impositions were more easily raised from the cities, which, possessed the ready money, and where men lived under their inspection, than they could be levied by the king in those open countries which after some time declared for him.

The seamen naturally followed the disposition of the sea ports to which they belonged: and the carl of Northumberland, lord admiral, having embraced the party of the parliament, had appointed, at their desire, the earl of Warwick to be his lieutenant; who at once established his authority in the ficet, and kept the entire dominion of the sea in the hands of that assembly.

All the magazines of arms and ammunition were from the

first seized by the parliament; and their fleet intercepted the greater part of those which were sent by the queen from Holland. The king was obliged, in order to arm his follow ers, to borrow the weapons of the train bands, under promise of restoring them as soon as peace should be settled in the kingdom.

The veneration for parliaments was at this time extreme throughout the nation.* The custom of reviling those assem blies for corruption, as it had no pretence, so was it unknown during all former ages. Few or no instances of their encroach. ing ambition or selfish claims had hitherto been observed. Men considered the house of commons in no other light than as the representatives of the nation, whose interest was the same with that of the public, who were the eternal guardians of law and .iberty, and whom no motive, but the necessary defence of the people, could ever engage in an opposition to the crown. The torrent, therefore, of general affection ran to the parlia merit. What is the great advantage of popularity, the priv ilege of affixing epithets fell of course to that party. The king's adherents were the wicked and the malignant: their adversaries were the godly and the well-affected. And as the force of the cities was more united than that of the country, and at once gave shelter and protection to the parliamentary party, who could easily suppress the royalists in their neighborhood, almost the whole kingdom, at the commencement of the war, seemed to be in the hands of the parliament.†

What alone gave the king some compensation for all the advantages possessed by his adversaries was, the nature and qualities of his adherents. More bravery and activity were hoped for from the generous spirit of the nobles and gentry, than from the base disposition of the multitude. And as the men of estates, at their own expense, levied and armed their tenants, besides an attachment to their masters, greater force and courage were to be expected in these rustic troops, than in the vicious and enervated populace of cities.

The neighboring states of Europe, being engaged in violent wars, little interested themselves in these civil commotions; and this island enjoyed the singular advantage (for such it surely was) of fighting out its own quarrels without the interposition of foreigners. France, from policy, had fomented the first disorders in Scotland, had sent over arms to the Irish

Walker p 336.

+ Warwick, p. 318.