Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/138

124 There was but one doctor who dared to rote against the duke; and many of the fellows who were utterly opposed to him, hired horses, and rode off out of the way to avoid importunity. Great was the triumph of the royal party when the event was announced. Buckingham presented the messenger who brought him the news with a fine gold chain, and sent by him a letter of thanks from himself, and another from the king, in which he told the heads of houses and the fellows who had voted for the duke that they should be rewarded for it, and that he would ever testify Buckingham worthy of their election. On the other hand, the house of commons passed a resolution that the election of a man under impeachment by them, was an insult to the house, and ordered this resolution to be communicated to the heads of houses, and that they should be called up to answer for their conduct. The king sent them word not to stir in this business, which, he said, belonged not to them but to him; but this resolve was only delayed by the proceedings against Buckingham.

On the 8th of June, a week after his election as chancellor of the University of Cambridge, he opened his defence in the house of lords. In this he had been assisted by Sir Nicholas Hyde. He divided the charges against him into three classes: such as were utterly unfounded in fact; such as might be true but did not affect him; and lastly, such as he had merely been the servant of the king or the executive in. In all the circumstances which could be proved, he merely acted in obedience to the late or the present king, with one exception, the purchase of the office of warden of the Cinque Ports, which he admitted that he had purchased, but which he thought might be excused on the ground of public utility. As to the grave charge of the delivery of the king's ships to the French admiral, he did not mean to go into it, not but that he could prove his own innocence in the affair, but that he was bound not to reveal the secrets of the state; and he pleaded a pardon which had been granted by the king on the 10th of February, that is, four days after the opening of the present parliament.

Thus Charles had kept his word: he had allowed the duke to throw the total responsibility of his deeds on himself, and he had granted him a pardon by anticipation, to forestall the conclusions of parliament. This defence by no means satisfied the commons, and they proceeded to reply; but in this they were stopped short by the king, who the very next day sent a message to the speaker, desiring the house to hasten and come at once to the subject of supply, or that he would "take other resolutions." The commons set themselves, without loss of time, to prepare a remonstrance in strong terms, praying for the dismissal of the favourite; but whilst employed upon it, they were suddenly summoned to the upper house, where they found commissioners appointed to pronounce the dissolution of parliament. Anticipating this movement, the speaker had carried the resolutions of remonstrance in his hand, and before the commissioners could declare parliament dissolved, the speaker held up the paper and declared its contents. The lords, on this, apprehending unpleasant consequences, sent to implore Charles to a short delay, but received the kings energetic answer—"No, not for one minute!"

Thus terminated this remarkable parliament, the second of this reign: such a session as had never before been witnessed in this country. From first to last the actions of Charles were like those of a man driven from his right reason by passion; and the conduct of the commons as the result of a settled determination to maintain its rights; which boded far more than any eye or mind could foresee, but which we, who live after the conflict, perceive clearly to be the commencement of that unexampled warfare which will for evermore display its great lesson to the nations. Charles was the blind maniac of prerogative,—blind to all signs in heaven and in earth; blind to the lurid lights of the lowering sky; deaf to the mutterings of the tempest rising hourly around him. The commons were the steadfast rock rooted in the soul of the people, and impassable to the shocks of regal rage.

Charles was left by his own wild agency to try how his fancied right divine would furnish him funds to discharge his debts at home and his obligations abroad. That he was not insensible to his danger, or to the price which he had paid for the support of his favourite, is made plain to us by Meade, the careful chronicler of the time. "The duke," he says, "being in the bed-chamber private with the king, his majesty was overheard, as they say, to use these words:— 'What can I do more? I have engaged mine honour to mine uncle of Denmark and other princes. I have, in a manner, lost the love of my subjects, and what wouldst thou have me do?' Whence some think the duke meant the king to dissolve the parliament."

But however he might feel this, he was in he disposition to take warning; the spirit and the inculcations of his father worked in him victorious over any better instincts. It was hard for the descendant of a hundred kings, who from age to age had trampled carelessly on popular rights, to give up that comfortable ascendancy to the people. Thousands of men had been arraigned and punished for high treason to kings, but for a king to be arraigned and punished for high treason against the people, could not enter into a kingly head, till such a head had fallen from the block. And towards this great lesson Charles was now driving as urged by a fate. Like the horse which pushes against the knife held to its breast, or the bull-dog which plucked the kettle from the fire because it spurted a boiling drop upon him, and died in a deadly scalding struggle with it, the courage of Charles rose doggedly, unchangeably, against all opposition and auguries, and would have been admirable had it not been exerted to annihilate the liberties of the nation for ever, to triumph over Magna Charta.

No sooner had he dismissed parliament, than he seized the earl of Bristol, and Arundel the earl marshal, and thrust Bristol into the Tower. This bit of petty spite enacted, he set about boldly to do everything that the commons had been striving against. The commons had published their remonstrance; he published a counter declaration, and commanded all persons having that of the commons to burn it, or expect his resentment. He then issued a warrant, levying duties on all exports and imports; ordered the fines from the catholics to be rigorously enforced, but offering to compound with rich recusants for an annual sum, so as to procure a fixed income from that source. A commission was issued to inquire into the proceeds of the crown lands, and to