singular abilities and immense virtue." "In short," says Archbishop Williams' biographer, "Laud was a man fit for primitive times, but Williams to comply with the weakness of his own; the one being fit to govern saints, the other to deal with man, the difficulter task by far."2 On the day that Laud was condemned to die, the Puritan Directory was voted to replace the Liturgy. The former was composed by an "assembly of Divines, neither chosen by any rule or custom ecclesiastical, nor eminent for either piety or knowledge, only elected as each member of Parliament in his fancy thought fit."3

Then rushed forth Sectarianism triumphant-Ranters, Independents, Anabaptists, Familists, Seekers, Brownists -to the destruction of all public and all private peace. Ecclesiastical intolerance is evil, but social intolerance far more intolerable. Men of learning and grave responsibilities may be sometimes unworthy ministers, but sure not better were the ignorant men, women, and children, the preachers, prophets, and enthusiasts, who now entered upon the presumptuous teaching of how to make men wise unto salvation.

B.

TRAINBANDS, OR MUNICIPAL GUARDS.

THESE city train bands constituted then, as now, the most unserviceable and yet dangerous force that could be called upon. They answered to the Municipal Guards that in Berlin, Paris, and Rome, have lately shewn themselves, "so weak to save, so vigorous to destroy." They appear to be the least national and the most partizan of all troops; the most ready instruments for revolution, the least faithful to the cause that they espouse. They merge their common sense and citizen character in the pseudomilitary spirit that only apes the vices and violence of the

Rebellion, i. 116.

2 Ambrose Philips.

3 Milton.

soldier, without the fidelity, simplicity, or heroism that redeems him. 1 Why these peculiarities of character should belong so much more to city than to rural militia, it would not be difficult to explain; the latter alone still exists as a recognized force (in posse) amongst us now. 2

In Henry the Second's reign, it was enacted, with consent of Parliament, that every freeman, according to the value of his estate or movables, should hold himself constantly furnished with suitable arms and equipments.3 Under Edward the First, further enactments increased the stringency of these martial obligations on the subject: every man who possessed fifteen pounds a-year in rent, or forty marks in goods, was obliged to provide for his own use, or that of his substitute, a hauberk, a breastplate, a knife, a sword, and a horse: his armour to be inspected every six months by constables chosen for each Hundred.* The sheriff, as chief conservator of the public peace, had always possessed the right of summoning the "Posse Comitatûs," or the assistance of all the King's subjects within his jurisdiction, in cases of rebellion, robbery, or obstruction of legal process. In seasons of public danger, when France or Scotland was to be invaded or repelled, it became customary to issue "Commissions of Array," empowering the Commissioners "to muster and train all men capable of bearing arms within each county thus

5

To this class we have fortunately now no corresponding one in England, and to that is probably owing, in a great measure, our impunity from modern revolution. The special constable is an admirable substitute, and peculiarly English: about him there is nothing assumed or mock-military. Manly, spontaneous, and strong, he constitutes a force invaluable in an emergency; the moral influence of such a body is one great source of its strength-it represents the true genius, will, and power of the people as opposed to that of the mob.

2 Lord Hervey, on occasion of the Porteous riots in Edinburgh, proposed to do away with that armed and disciplined part of the mob called the Town-guard: "For what purpose," said he, "can the Court desire to continue the use of a weapon which has always been blunt when employed for you, and pointed when directed against you?"- Memoirs. Lyttleton's Henry II., iii. 354.

4 Stat. 13 Edw. I.

Hallam's Const. Hist. i. 543.

1

addressed, and to hold them in readiness to defend the kingdom. These ancient provisions, however (but not the spirit of them), were abrogated by James the First, in his first Parliament: they had been principally useful, or used against the Scots, and now that the succession of the Scottish King had consolidated the two realms into one, there were no more "borders," as Louis the Fourteenth proclaimed of the Pyrenees.

The British monarch was determined to have no more war, whatever might be sacrificed to that object, and the weapons of offence that had been so widely distributed, were now collected into "magazines." This measure, no doubt, tended to civilization and humanity; the people, when thus disarmed, were induced to turn their thoughts to the public laws, as a better security than private means of vengeance or defence. Thenceforth the rural population, at least, fell into entire desuetude of war and warlike discipline: on some few occasions, small and local levies were made, as for the Palatinate, and for the expeditions to Cadiz and Rochelle; but these did not affect the kingdom at large. On the latter occasion I find, from the archives of Coventry, that Coventry-and I presume other similar towns, were ordered to muster and array their trainbands, "for the defence of the kingdom, during the absence of the fleet." The citizens of London, indeed, mustered their trainbands on holidays, and the "honourable artillery company" even then was in high repute.*

1 Mr. Hallam says, the earliest of these Commissions of Array to be found in Rymer is in 1324, the latest in 1557.

At Hull, for instance, Newcastle, Leicester, and other chief towns of counties, of which we have many things to relate hereafter.

This order may be seen in the Coventry archives, which contain a good deal of interesting matter relating to earlier periods: there are few documents relating to the Civil Wars in the public records of this or, I believe, of any other town. An index or digest of the archives of our chief towns would be a very valuable acquisition to our historical libraries, and not very difficult of compilation.

"Artillery" was, at this time, applied to the long bow.-Grose, i. 150.

C.

I THINK it may be interesting to some of my readers to peruse the manuscripts relating to Prince Rupert's life, as it was intended to have been printed. It is evidently made up from many loose notes and a diary, which I have used as well as this in the text. In these notes are several trifling circumstances omitted in this detailed relation; but they are so scattered and fragmentary it would be almost impossible to print them: I imagine the history, in this form, was written by Rupert's secretary, Colonel Benett, during the Prince's lifetime.

66 THE LIFE OF PRINCE RUPERT.1

"Prince Rupert was the third son of Frederick, King of Bohemia, and Count Palatine of the Rhine, and of Elizabeth, the only daughter of James I., monarch of Great Britain, descended, on the father's side, from sovereign princes, by a fair and known succession of above twelve hundred years; and on the mother's, from the most ancient crown of Christendom: for the truth whereof we shall here refer the reader to the genealogy itself.

This must have been written about the year 1678. The internal evidences prove the date of its composition to have been previous to the Elector Palatine's death, and subsequent to that of Monk in 1670. In the notes for his own instruction, the anonymous writer refers to an edition of Baker's Chronicle, 1674, now in my possession. In order not to detract from any interest that may be found in my relation, I have only printed the Prince's early biography in this volume: the italics are mine, and the modern spelling.

2

66 THE GENEALOGY OF PRINce rupert, THIRD SON TO THE

KING OF BOHEMIA.

"Taken out of Authentic Authors and Records.

"This Prince began to be illustrious many ages before his birth, and we must look back into history above two thousand years, to discover the first rays of his glory. We may consider him very great, being descended from the two most illustrious and ancient Houses of Europe, that of England and the Palatines of the Rhine.

"It is true we find no certain succession of the Palatines of the Rhine but for twelve hundred years. The first of their ancestors that

"Being to take our rise to this history from a capital disaster in Bohemia, it will be proper to say something of

is recorded in history is Adellaheren, whom the Bavarians chose King of the Huns, immediately after the death of the famous Attila, about the middle of the fifth century. The most famous account we read of him was the battle he fought near Cologne, where he was killed by Clovis, King of France, after having long disputed the victory with a courage that put astonishment and fear in the very conqueror himself.

"So great a man, and chosen by the Germans for their King, and after Attila, shews he was not the first renowned Prince of his race; and this reason alone is sufficient to persuade us that he was as considerable in his blood as in his valour. Yet, in all appearance, he has been more famous in his successors than in his ancestors, and the Princes which have descended from him are more glorious than those from whom he himself descended.

"This we see in Charlemagne, the greatest Emperor since Constantine, who came in a direct line from Adellaheren, more than three hundred years after him; during which time his ancestors were called Dukes of Bavaria, and they rendered their name great in the world by those eminent virtues which supported it.

"Charlemagne, who succeeded them, shined with so much honour, that he obscured theirs, and the world was so filled with acclamations of his glory, that they almost forgot to make mention of his predecessors. He had many children: the most considerable in story were Pepin, Louis, and Charles. Pepin, who was called Carloman, reigned in Italy, and would have been Emperor had he lived four years longer, but he died in the ninth century, and his father in the fourteenth so the empire came to the second son, who, from the excellence of his piety, had the name given him of "Louis the Good." He wore the Imperial Crown six-and-twenty years, and his children after him till the eleventh year of the succeeding century. Charles died the same year his brother Pepin did, and history reports him to have been a King.

"It had been doubtless a great honour to have descended from any son of Charlemagne, although the youngest. But the Palatines of the Rhine and Dukes of Bavaria, which were not then distinguished, have this advantage, that they descended from the eldest, coming directly from a King of Italy, called Wernard, or Bernard, who died in the year eight hundred and eighteen, and was the son of Pepin, the eldest son of Charlemagne.

"Bernard had a son, named Pepin, as his grandfather, who was Count of Longenfeilet and Duke of Nordgaw; and it is by him that the blood of Charlemagne comes to this Prince whose story we are writing. The year this Pepin died is not known, nor the account that made him memorable, but his posterity is known to have gained much honour in the world. It had for nearly three centuries the principal charges of the empire, and became so powerful about the end of the thirteenth century, by the union of all Bavaria and the Palatinate, that the Emperors grew jealous of their greatness.

"This was the state of this illustrious family under Otho, the first Count Palatine and Duke of the Two Bavarias. He had two sons, Louis