be suppressed, and the victory remain solely to the Presby. terians. Hamilton, with better reason, complained of the precipitate humor of the English royalists, who, by their ill-timed insurrections, forced him to march his army before his levies were completed, or his preparations in any for wardness. No commotions beyond a tumult of the apprentices, which was soon suppressed, were raised in London: the terror of the army kept the citizens in subjection. The parliament was so overawed, that they declared the Scots to be enemies, and all who joined them traitors. Ninety members, however, of the lower house had the courage to dissent from this vote. Cromwell and the military council prepared themselves with vigor and conduct for defence. The establishment of the army was at this time twenty-six thousand men; but by enlisting supernumeraries the regiments were greatly augmented, and commonly consisted of more than double their stated complement.* Colonel Horton first attacked the revolted troops in Wales, and gave them a considerable defeat. The remnants of the vanquished threw themselves into Pembroke, and were there closely besieged, and soon after taken by Cromwell. Lambert was opposed to Langdale and Musgrave in the north, and gained advantages over them. Sir Michael Livesey defeated the earl of Holland at Kingston, and pursuing his victory, took him prisoner at St. Neots. Fairfax, having routed the Kentish royalists at Maidstone, followed the broken army; and when they joined the royalists of Essex, and threw themselves into Colchester, he laid siege to that place, which defended itself to the last extremity. A new fleet was manned, and sent out under the command of War. wick, to oppose the revolted ships, of which the prince had taken the command. While the forces were employed in all quarters, the parlia ment regained its liberty, and began to act with its wonted courage and spirit. The members who had withdrawn from terror of the army, returned; and infusing boldness into their companions, restored to the Presbyterian party the ascendant which it had formerly lost. The eleven impeached members were recalled, and the vote by which they were expelled was reversed; The vote, too, of non-addresses was repealed; and * Whitlocke, p. 284. commissioners, five peers and ten commoners, were sent to Newport in the Isle of Wight, in order to treat with the king.* He was allowed to summon several of his friends and old counsellors, that he might have their advice in this important transaction.† The theologians on both sides, armed with their syllogisms and quotations, attended as auxiliaries. By them the flame had first been raised; and their appearance was but a bad prognostic of its extinction. Any other instruments seemed better adapted for a treaty of pacification. When the king presented himself to this company, a great and sensible alteration was remarked in his aspect, from what it appeared the year before, when he resided at Hampton Court. The moment his servants had been removed, he had laid aside all care of his person, and had allowed his beard and hair to grow, and to hang dishevelled and neglected. His hair was become almost entirely gray, either from the decline of years, or from that load of sorrows under which he labored; and which, though borne with constancy, preyed inwardly on his sensible and tender mind. His friends beheld with compassion, and perhaps even his enemies, that "gray and discrowned head," as he himself terms it, in a copy of verses, which the truth of the sentiment, rather than any elegance. of expression, renders very pathetic. Having in vain endeavored by courage to defend his throne from his armed adversaries, it now behoved him, by reasoning and persuasion, to save some fragments of it from these peaceful, and no less implacable negotiators. The vigor of the king's mind, notwithstanding the seeming decline of his body, here appeared unbroken and undecayed. The parliamentary commissioners would allow none of hist council to be present, and refused to enter into reasoning with any but himself. He alone, during the transactions of two months, was obliged to maintain the argument against fifteen men of the greatest parts and capacity in both houses; and no advantage was ever obtained over him. This was the scene above all others in which he was qualified to excel. A quick conception, a cultivated understanding, a chaste clocu * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 180. Sir Edward Walker's Perfect Copies. P. 6, + Sir Edward Walker's Perfect Copies, p. 8. Sir Edward Walker's Perfect Copies, p. 8, 38. tion, a dignified manner; by these accomplishments he triumphed in all discussions of cool and temperate reasoning. The king is much changed," said the earl of Salisbury to Sir Philip Warwick: "he is extremely improved of late." "No," replied Sir Philip, "he was always so: but you are now at last sensible of it."* Sir Henry Vane, discoursing with his fellow-commissioners, drew an argument from the king's encommon abilities, why the terms of pacification must be rendered more strict and rigid.† But Charles's capacity shone not equally in action as in reasoning. : The first point insisted on by the parliamentary commissioners, was the king's recalling all his proclamations and declarations against the parliament, and the acknowledging that they had taken arms in their own defence. He frankly offered the former concession, but long scrupled the latter. The falsehood, as well as indignity of that acknowledgment, begat in his breast an extreme reluctance against it. The king had, no doubt,, in some particulars of moment, invaded, from a seeming necessity, the privileges of his people but having renounced all claim to these usurped powers, having confessed his errors, and having repaired every breach in the constitution, and even erected new ramparts in order to secure it, he could no longer, at the commencement of the war, be represented as the aggressor. However it might be pretended, that the former display of his arbitrary inclinations, or rather his monarchical principles, rendered an offensive or preventive war in the parliament prudent and reasonable, it could never, in any propriety of speech, make it be termed a defensive one. But the parliament, sensible that the letter of the law condemned them as rebels and traitors, deemed this point absolutely necessary for their future security; and the king, finding that peace could be obtained on no other terms, at last yielded to it. He only entered a protest, which was admitted, that no concession made by him should be valid, unless the whole treaty of pacification were concluded.‡ He agreed that the parliament should retain, during the term of twenty years, the power over the militia and army, and that of levying what money they pleased for their support. He even yielded to them the right of resuming, at any time afterwards, this authority, whenever they should declare such * Warwick, p. 324. + Walker, p. 11, 12, 24. VOL. V. + Clarendon. Sir Edward Walker, p, 319. 31 H a resumption necessary for public safety. In effect, the im portant power of the sword was forever ravished from him and his successors.* He agreed that all the great offices, during twenty years, should be filled by both houses of parliament. He relin quished to them the entire government of Ireland, and the conduct of the war there. He renounced the power of the wards, and accepted of one hundred thousand pounds a year in lieu of it. He acknowledged the validity of their great seal, and gave up his own. He abandoned the power of creating peers without consent of parliament. And he agreed, that all the debts contracted in order to support the war against him, should be paid by the people. So great were the alterations made on the English constitution by this treaty, that the king said, not without reason, that ne had been more an enemy to his people by these concessions, could he have prevented them, than by any other action of his life. Of all the demands of the parliament, Charles refused only two. Though he relinquished almost every power of the crown, he would neither give up his friends to punishment, nor desert what he esteemed his religious duty. The severe repentance which he had undergone for abandoning Strafford, had no doubt confirmed him in the resolution never again to be guilty of a like error. His long solitude and severe afflictions had contributed to rivet him the more in those religious principles which had ever a considerable influence over him. His desire, however, of finishing an accommodation, induced him to go as far in both these particulars as he thought anywise consistent with his duty. The estates of the royalists being at that time almost entirely under sequestration, Charles who could give them no protection, consented that they should pay such compositions as they and the parliament should agree on; and only begged that they might be made as moderate as possible. He had not the disposal of offices; and it seemed but a small sacrifice to consent, that a certain number of his friends should be rendered incapable of public employments. But when the parliament demanded a bill of attainder and banishment against * Walker, p. 51. + Walker, p. 78. seven persons, the marquis of Newcastle, Lord Digby, Lord Biron, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Sir Richard Granville, Sir Francis Doddington, and Judge Jenkins, the king absolutely refused compliance; their banishment for a limited time he was willing to agree to.* Religion was the fatal point about which the differences had arisen; and of all others, it was the least susceptible of composition or moderation between the contending parties. The parliament insisted on the establishment of Presbytery, the sale of the chapter lands, the abolition of all forms of prayer, and strict laws against Catholics. The king offered to retrench every thing which he did not esteem of apostolical institution he was willing to abolish archbishops, deans, prebends, canons: he offered that the chapter lands should be let at low leases during ninety-nine years; he consented, that the present church government should continue during three years: † after that time, he required not that any thing should be restored to bishops but the power of ordination, and even that power to be exercised by advice of the presbyters. If the parliament, upon the expiration of that period, still insisted on their demand, all other branches of episcopal jurisdiction were abolished, and a new form of church government must, by common consent, be established. The Book of Common Prayer he was willing to renounce, but required the liberty of using some other liturgy in his own chapel; § a demand, which, though seemingly reasonable, was positively refused by the parliament. In the dispute on these articles, one is not surprised that two of the parliamentary theologians should tell the king, "that if he did not consent to the utter abolition of Episcopacy he would be damned." But it is not without some indignation that we read the following vote of the lords and commons: "The houses, out of their detestation to that abominable idolatry used in the mass, do declare, that they cannot admit of, or consent unto, any such indulgence in any law, as is desired by his majesty, for exempting the queen and her family from the penalties to be enacted against the exercise of the mass." || The treaty of marriage, the regard to the queen's sex and *Walker, p. 91, 93. Walker, p. 65. + Walker, p. 29, 35, 49 Walker, p. 75, 82. Rush. vol. viii. p. 1323. |