dispatched the serjeant-at-arms to the commons to take the parties impeached into custody. The house resisted, and answered, that the point was one requiring deliberation, but that the due appearance of the five members might be relied upon.

The King comes to the

house to seize

them.

The conduct of the king in proceeding even thus far on the grounds which he alleged, was fraught with material danger to his objects, if not attended with signal success; but such was the judgment which Charles had formed of the reaction which was said to have taken place among the people, that on the following morning he proceeded to the house, followed by three, some say five hundred armed men *. The men remained at the door, which was left open, but the king, attended by his nephew, the prince elector, entered. The monarch ascended the steps by the speaker's chair, and having glanced round the house in search of the persons impeached without discovering them, he inquired of the speaker if they were present. That officer discovered a presence of mind suited to the occasion falling upon his knees before the king, he replied," I have, sir, neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak, in this place, but as the house is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am. And I humbly ask pardon, that I cannot give any other answer to what your majesty is pleased to demand of me." Charles expressed his regret that "the birds had flown," and informed the house, that he intended proceeding in this affair according to law, adding, that in cases of treason their place there could afford them no privilege. Such a scene the history of parliament had never exhibited. The ominous silence with which the speech of the sovereign was heard, was broken by the yet more ominous sound of "Privilege! privilege!" which rose into loud murmurs as he returned towards the door.

This act was the first of an intended series by which the king hoped to crush the power of the parliament. It was a failure, and all failures are spoken of as unwise; but its success was regarded as highly probable, and certainly there was enough in the fluctuation which marked the popular feeling, and in the altered state of parties in the two houses, to make such an issue by no means impossible. Only three days before the king brought his three hundred armed men to the doors of the lower house, a guard had been solicited from him to protect it against "the insolence and menacing" of its enemies, and solicited in vain †.

*This force consisted of the king's usual attendants, and principally of officers who had served in the army recently disbanded. These persons, while waiting without, indulged in expressions which showed, that had the five members been present, any resistance by the members for their protection would have been followed by a general conflict! "Pox take the house of commons !" was the language of some of these worthies; "let them come and be hanged-what an ado is here with the house of commons!" The question, " When comes the word ?" passed from one to another; and when asked, during the investigation of this business, what that question meant, the answer was, that had the word been given," they should certainly have fallen upon the house." Rushworth, iv. 484-486.

† Clarendon, Hist. ii. 124-129. Rushworth, iv. 473-479. May, Hist. 90, 91

During the following week parliament was adjourned, and much was done to render the failure of the monarch in this bold enter

the parlia

prize subservient to the popular cause. Before the ad- Triumph of journment, the two houses had been frequently surrounded by ment. mobs, who sought to intimidate the opponents of their favourite objects by their numbers and their shouts. Armed men also had paraded the streets, some professing to be the protectors of the courtiers, and others of the parliament; and these, as they met, had proceeded to blows, and sometimes to bloodshed. A large body of the students from the inns of court offered themselves as a guard to the royal family, and were kindly received by the king and queen*. But after the attempt to seize the five members, the apparent balance of parties, which had prompted the king to hazard that exercise of his power, ceased to exist. On the day when the parliament re-assembled, the impeached members were seen passing toward Westminster in boats, attended by two thousand seamen bearing arms, and by select companies from the train bands, who brought several pieces of cannon along either side of the river. Hampden, on landing with his colleagues, was greeted with the cheers of four thousand horsemen from Buckinghamshire;-who chose this mode of testifying their confidence in the political integrity of their representative. The shouts of the populace, which had been no novel sound of late, were animated on this occasion by the peals of martial music, but the letting off of fire arms was prohibited. The humiliation of royalty, indeed, seemed to be complete. But from so great a discomfiture it was not difficult to augur some return of feeling in its favour. Charles avoided the spectacle and rejoicings of that day by shutting himself up at Hampton-courtt.

The contradictory language of Clarendon on this subject justifies the conclusion that he looked on the conduct of the king rather as a failure than a weakness. Had the members been arrested, and decidedly dealt with as prisoners," the high spirit of both houses," he remarks, " might possibly have been so dejected, that they might have been treated with." Even their assassination "might have had a wonderful effect," a course of proceeding said to have been recommended by Digby. ii. 390, 391.

* Clarendon, Hist. II. 86-93. In these frays originated the terms roundhead and cavalier," they who were looked upon as servants to the king being then called cavaliers, and the other of the rabble contemned and despised under the name of roundheads." Ibid. The latter were so called from their short hair, long hair being confined to persons of some fashion and condition. Charles went into the city the day after his attempt to seize the members, professedly to search for them, but really to do what was possible toward allaying the fears and indignation which his conduct had excited. His condescensions failed to conciliate. As he passed through the streets, some of the people cried aloud, "Privilege of parliament!" and one man threw a paper in the royal carriage, with the following words written on it: "To your tents, O Israel!" language which was interpreted as that of open rebellion. The man was committed and prosecuted. Charles is described as overwhelmed with sorrow on account of this proceeding-(Hume, ubi supra)-but it is certain, that the few signs of sorrow discovered by him had respect to this result, and not to the measure itself. Ibid. 131. May. Hist. 93, 94.

Rushworth, IV. 483, 484. Nalson's Collections, II. 830-832. To show how willing the parliament was to make the most ill-founded rumours the ground of tyrannical proceedings, Mr. Hume remarks, that "Lord Digby having entered King

But the two great parties continued to exercise their utmost vigilance, each in the hope of counteracting the policy of the other. The spies of the king still apprized him of the proceedings in the different committees of the commons; and the patriots, in their turn, contrived to acquaint themselves with the most secret purposes of the sovereign*.

Charles, aware of the narrow limits to which his power was now reduced, proposed to drop the prosecution which he had commenced, and to extend a general pardon to the impeached members. But his opponents replied, that pardon supposed guilt, which in the present case did not exist. The king could do no wrong; and was not in consequence personally liable to any censure on account of his late infringement of the liberties of parliament; but if that step was taken by the advice of others, the authors of that advice were not thus exempt from responsibility, and the names of those advisers were for this reason demanded. But the king refused to mention his councillors in that act, and it is probable that whatever blame attached to it belonged properly to himself. The great demand of the parliament at this moment was one which had been previously urged, but one which it could not be expected that the king would entertain, unless under the controul of some hard necessity. It was, that the command of the army and navy, and the possession of the forts of the kingdom, should be entrusted to persons nominated by the parliament. The use which the king might some day make of that power had just appeared; and many who regarded this proposed encroachment on the prerogative when first named, as an extravagance entertained only by weak men, now concurred with it as necessary, if the liberties obtained by the present parliament were to be secured. Charles, on the other hand, was not without reasonable ground of apprehension, that this marked inroad on his power would be followed by others, deeply affecting him as a man and a sovereign.

Claim of the parliament to have command

of the militia. Jan. 20.

ston in a coach and six, attended by a few livery servants, the intelligence was conveyed to London, and it was immediately voted that he had appeared in a hostile manner, to the terror and affright of his Majesty's subjects, and had levied war against the king and kingdom." The party at Kingston consisted of some two hundred officers, who had been lately disbanded; at that place was the magazine for the county of Middlesex; ammunition and arms were arrested on their way to the party assembled there, and the visit of Digby was with a message from the king, accepting the proffered services of those military personages. Even these facts may not fully warrant the extreme proceeding of the commons. But surely the mention of them is strictly necessary to "the whole truth." Clarendon, Hist. ii. 171. Nalson, ii. 865. Whitelocke, 54. Parl. Hist. ii. 1036, et seq. Husband's Collection, 202, et seq. Journals of the Commons, ii. 373-379. According to Clarendon, the most odious man in the kingdom, at this moment, to the popular leaders was Lord Digby.

See the pliancy of Clarendon's conscience in this respect, as disclosed in his Life, i. 77-113. To act the spy for the king was deemed honourable, to do so for the parliament was infamous.

Rushworth, iv. 484-494.

Clarendon. Hist. ii. 133. Clarendon indeed imputes this act of the king to the advice of Digby.

The king at length resolved to make an apparent surrender of the command of the forces; but a surrender connected with that sort of secret reservation, which there was too much reason to believe had gone along with all the concessions previously made. It was argued by the courtiers, that a measure evil in itself, could not be made to change its nature by the royal assent, and must, in consequence, be such as it would behove the king to recall as soon as the power to do so should be at his disposal. With this principle understood, it was agreed, that for the present the concession should be made; but it was required, as part of the arrangement, that the persons to be nominated by the parliament should not hold their offices more than two years, and that a law should be framed making the authority of such functionaries to emanate from the crown ;-the nomination of the parties only being reserved to the parliament. This condition was viewed with distrust by the popular leaders, and was rejected. They appear to have thought that this clause would enable the king, in the event of a dissolution, to supply the place of the persons so appointed by others of his own selecting, under pretence of their being removable at the next meeting of parliament:whereas the object of the commons was to secure this power strictly to the parliament, and by a method which would strengthen the necessity for a regular convening of such assemblies. An ordinance was at length agreed to by the two houses, in virtue of which fifty-five persons were chosen from their own body under the name of lieutenants, and placed in so many districts, to have possession of the forts, and to make the requisite provisions against invasion or rebellion*.

The papers issued from this time by the king on the one side, and by the parliament on the other, continued through several months to agitate the nation. Both parties were fully aware that the sword was about to become the arbiter of their disputes, and both were covertly employed in preparing for that event. Charles now began to avail himself of more judicious counsels. He placed particular confidence in Hyde, Falkland, and Colepeper, and the "declarations," in which his case was argued before the people, prepared principally by Hyde, did much service to the royal causet. With his mind full of plans relating to the expected hostilities, Charles began another journey from London to York.

It was soon after his arrival in that city that the king made his memorable attempt to possess himself of the town of Hull, with its rich

*Rushworth, iv. 517-528. Clarendon, ii. 252, et seq.

Rushworth, iv. 528-565. Mrs. Hutchinson relates of her husband at this juncture that "he applied himself to understand the things then in dispute, and read all the public papers that then came forth between the king and parliament, beside many other private treatises, both concerning the present and foregoing times. Hereby he became abundantly informed in his understanding, and convinced in conscience of the righteousness of the parliament's cause in point of civil right." Memoirs, i. 147. But if the question of civil right was on the side of the parliament, the palm of literary excellence, and even of argumentative power, must be conceded the papers which appeared on the side of the king.

magazine. Sir John Hotham, the governor, became aware of the stratagem which had been devised for that purpose, and bearing Attempt of the in mind that his authority had been received from the king to seize Hull, and its parliament exclusively, and not at all from the king, he magazine. placed the town in a posture of defence, and refused to April 24. surrender at the royal bidding. The monarch threatened. and intreated, but without effect. Before submitting to the mortification of a retreat, Charles ordered that Sir John Hotham should be proclaimed a traitor by sound of trumpet*.

This attempt, though a violation of his recent compact with the parliament, was one which few men, in the circumstances of Charles, would not perhaps have been disposed to make. It served to remove the thin disguise which had hitherto lain over his purposes, and its immediate consequence was to hasten the approaching crisis, and to enable his opponents to impute the necessity and the evils of that crisis to his conduct with a greater appearance of truth. Parliament described this effort on the part of the king as a breach of its privileges; the military stores of Hull were removed to London and lodged in the Tower; the train bands of the metropolis were placed under the command of general Skippon; the Earl of Warwick was created Lord Admiral, and the Earl of Essex Lord General with the command of sixteen thousand men. The king, at the same time, obtained assistance from a large portion of the nobility and gentry, from the two universities, and many of the clergy and also from Holland, where the activity of the queen furnished important supplies of arms and ammunition †.

:

And now the dissension which had placed the king and the parliament at so great a distance from each other, extended itself to every town, and almost to every village, in the kingdom, producing bitter animosities, and frequent outrage. Humane men, on both sides, were much concerned to prevent the effusion of blood, and made earnest efforts to bring about a peaceable settlement. But the demands of the parliament had long been governed by resentment and distrust, and every day seemed to bring with it occurrences which tended rather to strengthen than allay those dangerous passions. The king also, amid the loyalty and submission of his subjects in the north, had become more confident of power than while exposed to the turbulence and revolt of the capital. It was also his impression-though, as events proved, a very mistaken one-that his condition as a sovereign was now so insignificant, that he had really nothing to lose by defeat, and nothing to hope except from victory.

Hence the conditions insisted on by both parties were such as neither would entertain the thought of accepting. The praise of moderation, judging only from the former power of the crown, seemed to be on the

* Rushworth, iv. 567, et seq. + Ibid. iv. 569-612.

Ibid. 723-735.