Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/134

120 operated to produce conciliation, at least of tone; but Charles was one of that class of men who suggested the striking words to the Latin fatalist that, He whom God intends to destroy he first drives mad. Accordingly, he opened the sitting with a curt speech, referring them to that of the new lord keeper Coventry, which was in the worst possible taste. He said, "If we consider aright, and think of the incomparable distance between the supreme height and majesty of a mighty monarch, and the submissive awe and lowliness of loyal subjects, we cannot but receive exceeding comfort and contentment in the frame and constitution of this highest court, wherein not only prelates, nobles, and grandees, but the commons of all degrees have their part; and wherein that high majesty doth descend to admit, or rather to invite, the humblest of his subjects to conference and council with him."

Of all language this was, in the temper of the commons, the most adapted to incense them. Such talk of the condescension of the crown, at the moment when they were entering on a desperate conflict with it for curbing the prerogative, only the more stimulated their resolution to their task. They immediately formed themselves into three committees; one of religion, a second of grievances, and a third of evils. They again, by the committee of religion, canvassed the subject of popery; resolving to enact still severer laws against it, as the origin of many of the worst evils that afflicted the nation. They summoned schoolmasters from various and remote parts of the kingdom, and put searching questions to them, as to the doctrines which they held and taught to their scholars; and every member of the house was called upon in turn to denounce all persons in authority or office, known to them as holding the tenets of the ancient faith. In fact, in their vehement zeal for religious liberty, the zealots of the house were on the highway to extinguish every spark of toleration, and to convert the house of commons into an inquisition, instead of the bulwark of popular right.

They again summoned Dr. Montague to redeem his bail, and receive punishment on account of his book, in which they charged him with having admitted that the church of Rome was the true church, and that the articles on which the two churches did not agree were of minor importance. Laud advocated the cause of Montague at court, for he was of precisely the same opinions, and urged the king and Buckingham to protect him. But both Charles and the favourite saw too many difficulties in their own way to care to interfere in defence of the chaplain. They left him to his fate, and he would have been, no doubt, severely dealt with, had not higher matters seized the attention of the house, and caused the offending churchman to become overlooked.

This was the impeachment of Buckingham. The committee of grievances had drawn up, after a tedious investigation, a list of sixteen grievances; consisting of such as had so often been warmly debated in the last reign; the most prominent of which they regarded the practice of purveyance, by which the officers of the household still collected provisions at a fixed price for sixty miles round the court; and the illegal conduct of the lord treasurer, who went on collecting tonnage and poundage, though unsanctioned by parliament. They charged the maintenance of these evil to the advice and influence of a "great delinquent" at court; who had, moreover, occasioned all the disgraces to the national flag, both by land and sea, which had for some years occurred, and who ought to be punished accordingly.

The time was now actually arriving of which James had warned his son and Buckingham, when they urged the impeachment of the earl of Middlesex, but choosing to forget all that, Charles sent down word to the house that he did not allow any of his servants to be called in question by them, especially such as were of eminence and near unto his person. He remarked that of old the desire of subjects had been to know what they should do with him whom the king delighted to honour, but their desire now appeared to be to do what they could against him whom the king honoured. That they aimed at the duke of Buckingham, he said, he saw clearly, and he wondered much what had produced such a change since the former parliament; assuring them that the duke had taken no step but by his order and consent; and he concluded by desiring them to hasten the question of supply, "or it would be worse for them."

On the 29th of March he repeated the menace; but the commons went on preparing their charges against Buckingham, declaring that it was the undoubted right of parliament to inquire into the proceedings of persons of any estate whatever, who had been found dangerous to the commonwealth, and had abused the confidence reposed in them by the crown.

Seeing them bent on proceeding, Charles sent down to the house the lord keeper, to acquaint them with his majesty's express command that they should cease this inquiry, or that he would dissolve them; and Sir Dudley Carleton, who had been much employed as ambassador to foreign states, and had recently returned from France, warned them not to make the king out of love with parliaments, and then drew a most deplorable picture of the state of those countries where such had come to be the case. In all Christian countries, he said, there were formerly parliaments; but the monarchs, weary of their turbulence, had broken them up, except in this kingdom; and now he represented the miserable subjects as resembling spectres rather than men, miserably clad, meagre of body, and wearing wooden shoes.

This caricature of foreigners, had it been true, was the very thing to make the commons cling to their freedom, and keep their affairs in their own hands; and as such arguments had no effect, Charles summoned the house to the bar of the lords, and there addressed to them a most royal reproof, letting them know that it depended entirely on him whether he would call and when he would dismiss parliament, and, therefore, as they conducted themselves so should he act. Their very existence depended, he assured them, on his will.

This was language which might have done in the mouth of Henry VIII., who by the possession of the vast plunder of the church had made himself independent of parliaments, and trod on them at his pleasure; but the times and circumstances were entirely changed. The commons had learned their power and the king's weakness, and would no longer tolerate the insolence of despotism. They returned to their own house, and, to show that they were about to discuss the