Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/636

 624: ENGLAND lively limited powers and jurisdiction, was converted into a star chamber for all that part of England which lies between the Humber and the Tweed. Wentworth, the president of this council, contrived to make it even worse than it would have been under the presidency of any other man. Proclamations were fre- quently resorted to, and were made to have the force of law. They intermeddled with almost every department of life, to the great grievance of the subject. Yet nothing can be clearer than their unconstitutionality ; and until the Stuart age they were but little known. James I. made them common, and his evil ex- ample was outdone by his successor. The case of ship money has attracted extraordinary at- tention, which is in part due to the character of Hampden ; but it was one then calculated to excite all men's attention in itself, for it showed that no dependence could be placed on the common-law courts, and that those tribu- nals were nearly as bad as the irregular tribu- nals which Charles, and Wentworth, and Laud employed to plunder the property, to restrict the liberty, and to mutilate the persons of Englishmen. "Ship money," says Hallam, " was held lawful by Finch and several other judges, not on the authority of precedents, which must in their nature have some bounds, but on principles subversive of any property or privilege in the subject. These paramount rights of monarchy, to which they appealed to-day in justification of ship money, might to-morrow serve to supersede other laws, and maintain new exertions of despotic power. It was manifest by the whole strain of the court lawyers, that no limitations on the king's au- thority could exist but by the king's sufferance. This alarming tenet, long bruited among the churchmen and courtiers, now resounded in the halls of justice." A reconciliation was sought with Rome, and Catholic troops were to be employed to control the Scotch and Eng- lish. Even had there been no religious griev- ances to complain of, the political grievances were so vast and so various, that they would have justified a resort to arms on the part of all who cared for constitutional government. But there were religious grievances in abun- dance, though so "thorough" had been the repression exerted by Laud, that he could re- port to his master a most happy absence of nonconformity in 1639, " on the very eve of a revolution, in which primate and church, and monarch and monarchy, were to perish to- gether." The religious element had much to do with bringing about the contest that com- menced in 1640. The fourth parliament of Charles I. met in April, and was soon dissolved ; and six months later met the most memorable parliament that ever assembled. That parlia- ment fought the battle of the constitution, and fought it successfully. The entire machinery of despotism was broken down, most of it never to be rebuilt. The star chamber, the council of the north, and the high commission court disappeared from England, the first two for ever, and the last to be only temporarily revived by James II. This would have ended the quarrel could the king have been trusted. But to trust him was quite out of the question, and parliament, to preserve the freedom of the country, resorted to measures which were not according to the letter of the constitution, though in keeping with its spirit. The king was forced to agree that parliament should not be dissolved without its own consent, which was an invasion of his prerogative ; and later it was resolved that no minister should be appointed or peer created without the consent of parliament, and that the king should be made to resign the supreme mili- tary authority, which he justly held to be the very flower of the crown, and which was un- questionably one of its most ancient attri- butes. This conduct, indefensible on mere technical grounds, was proper in reference to the object in view, which was to put an end to illegal government by the king, who had repeatedly proved himself incapable of keeping his word. War soon broke out, and the king was supported by a large number of constitu- tionalists, men who were prepared to maintain the government as it was after the early reforms of the long parliament had been accomplished, but who dreaded innovation. The war led to the suspension of the constitution, and the protectorate of Cromwell was mainly a govern- ment by the sword, in spite of the fact that the protector sincerely wished to rule as a constitutional monarch. In 1660 the house of Stuart was restored, without anything having been done to secure legal rule. The old polity came once more into full force. The govern- ment was what it had been, nominally, before Charles I. and parliament appealed to the sword, though the star chamber and high com- mission courts, and other institutions of tyranny, no longer had place in England. Tenures by knight service were abolished, and most of the soil of England was held under that tenure. The parliament of 1661, which lasted down to 1679, was fanatically attached to royalist prin- ciples, and to its fanaticism must the bad gov- ernment of Charles II. in no small degree be attributed. His reign is one of the worst in English history, but his first parliament was as bad as the king. Yet in that reign much was done that had permanent effect on the con- stitution. The dispensing power was con- demned by parliament, and its illegality ad- mitted by the king himself. The test act was passed. The habeas corpus act, which supplied a proper system of procedure to preserve the liberty of the subject, was adopted, and re- ceived the support of all Englishmen who were not anxious to see despotism established. Par- liament made war or peace at its pleasure. It was now obvious not only that parliament had become the chief power in the state, but that the house of commons was virtually parlia- ment. To counteract this, the king adopted