1640 CHARLES AND THE SCOTS. 253 and a permanent revenue was voted to the Crown, provision should be made that no such intermission should again occur. On December 24, the day on which the Commons held their last sitting before the short Christmas vacation, Strode brought in a Bill for Annual Parliaments. If in every year the King had not issued writs for the elections before the first Tuesday in Lent, the returns were to be made without the usual intervention of the Crown. In future no Parliament was to be dissolved within forty days after the commencement of the session, unless the consent of both Houses could be obtained. Dec. 30. Charles's concession Though Charles knew well how favourable was the presence of the Scottish army in the North to the pretensions of Parliament, it was only with considerable reluctance that he agreed to a reasonable compromise on the point to the Scots. of the incendiaries. The Scots themselves suggested a way out of the difficulty. Let the King at least engage not to employ about his person any man who had been sentenced by Parliament. To this Charles, though after some hesitation, at last assented.1 Dec. 29. The Commons had allowed themselves no more than four days' vacation at Christmas. When they met again they took up the question of the King's revenue. So loose had The King's been the system which had prevailed in the exchequer that no balance-sheet later than that of 1635 was to be found, and the Commons had to wait till the proper information could be obtained. revenue. Dec. 30. and the Before that time arrived the relations between Charles and his Parliament had become such as to render it unadvisable to place him in possession of sufficient revenue to cover his expenses. On December 30 the Annual Parliament Cromwell Bill was read a second time, at Cromwell's motion. During the past weeks Cromwell had been steadily rising in the estimation of the House. His cousin. ship with Hampden had doubtless introduced him to the companionship of men of influence, but it is certain that he owed more to himself than to his friends. His strong and Annual Parliament The reply of the Scottish Commissioners, Dec. 23. The last answer of the English Commissioners, Dec. 30, Adv. Libr. Edin. 33, 4, 6. vehement Puritanism would be sure to secure him the sympathy of many members; but his special strength lay in his prompt appreciation of the practical necessities of the day. Others might be able to look farther into the future, or might have a wider grasp of constitutional principles. No one was so ready as Cromwell in keeping the House in mind of the action which was needed to maintain a hold on the immediate present.1 Dec. 31. Northern Whilst the constitutional struggle was being fought out at Westminster, the Northern army was ready to disband for want of pay. Money had been sent, but it had been sent State of the slowly and irregularly, and there was a disposition in army. the House of Commons to favour the Scots, whom it trusted, rather than the English, whom it distrusted. The House refused to listen to a proposal that the officers should be entrusted with the power of martial law. An early day was, however, fixed for pushing on the Bill of Subsidies. 1641. Jan. 4. The Irish army. 9,000 men. That At the same time attention was drawn to the army which had been levied under Strafford's authority in Ireland. army, as Sir Walter Erle reported, numbered about It was now scattered over Ulster. It was mainly composed of Catholics, and a detachment had 'seized on Londonderry, and said mass in the church.' A message was at once sent to the Lords to ask for a conference on the threatening peril. Harrison's loan. Before the conference took place, a discussion arose which it is difficult to report without a smile. Some days before, a Mr. Harrison, one of the farmers of the Customs, and a member of the House, had advanced 50,000l. on the security of the coming subsidies. As a reward for his patriotism he had been knighted by the King. He had also done a good stroke of business by securing the favour of the Commons, as it was almost certain that there would be an unpleasant investigation into the conduct of the farmers in collecting tonnage and poundage without a Parliamentary grant. In addition to his increased chance of immunity, Harrison 1 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxii. fol. 101. This characteristic of Cromwell, which shows itself already, comes out much more strongly in the spring and summer of 1642. 1640 Questions interest was D'Ewes. SIR SYMONDS D'EWES. 255 expected to receive interest upon his loan at the usual rate of 8 per cent. An unexpected difficulty arose. He was whether told that the Act of Parliament which had prohibited lawful. a higher rate, had expressly refused to countenance the taking of interest at all, in point of religion or conscience.' The problem was solved by a member who had already acquired a hold of a certain kind upon the assembly. The Position of part played by the Speaker in a modern House of Commons in regulating the debates by an appeal to the precedents of former times, was one for which Lenthall was little qualified. Sir Symonds D'Ewes was just the man to supply his deficiencies. His lifelong studies in the legal antiquities of the country enabled him, with the aid of an excellent memory, to produce on the spur of the moment any precedent that might be needed. In this way he acquired an authority in the House, so long as no higher statesmanship was required than his pedantic self-complacency had at command. He now came to the rescue of the members in their difficulty. To take or pay interest, he said, was undoubtedly the problem. held to be unlawful by the Church and law of England; but it had never been held to be wrong to pay a man damages for the loss which he suffered by abandoning for a time the use of his capital. The House caught at this sapient deliverance. The word 'damages' was substituted for the word ' interest,' and everyone was content.1 He solves Jan. 7. The Irish army again. On the 7th there was a fresh report by Erle on the Irish army. The number, he said, 'was great, near upon 10,000, all or most of them papists.' All the strong places in the North of Ireland were in their hands. Strafford was still their general, and many of the officers were in the habit of repairing to him in the Tower. It would be well to ask the Lords to concur in a petition that this army might be disbanded. Vane's official reply was not likely to allay the suspicion felt. He said that the Irish army ought not to be disbanded till the Scottish army was disbanded also. Charles, in fact, was well aware that he could not for the moment 1 D'Ewes's Diary, Jan. 4, Harl. MSS. clxii. fol. 116. venture to strike at those whom he regarded as his enemies. Yet he would not deprive himself of the power of striking at some future time. It was not in his nature to throw himself frankly on his subjects' loyalty, and to evoke the sympathies which he had lost by a hearty co-operation with the Commons in the work which they had on hand. If he could have done that he might have saved himself, and might, perhaps, have saved Strafford as well. By weakness and hesitation, by hankering after the employment of a force which he had neither the power nor the resolution to wield, he was raising the barrier between himself and his subjects higher and higher every day. Distrust at last would make the breach inevitable by driving the Commons to demands which it was impossible for a king to concede, but which would never have been made if they had been able to repose confidence in him. The wisdom of coming quickly to an agreement with his adversary was never understood by Charles. CHAPTER XCVI. THE TRIENNIAL ACT, AND THE ECCLESIASTICAL DEBATES. 1641. January. Charles's First THERE was nothing in Charles's mind repugnant to the idea of asking for foreign support against the English nation. Twice already he had attempted to procure foreign troops to serve him against the Scots, and he was equally ready feeling about to make use of foreign troops to serve him against the accepting foreign aid. English. The habit of regarding his own authority as something distinct from the nation, prevented him from feeling, as Elizabeth would have felt, that there was anything disgraceful in appealing to foreigners for assistance against his own subjects. When, on January 6, the Dutch ambassadors, who had come to make a formal demand for his daughter's hand, had their Jan. 6. first audience, there can be little doubt that he was audience of by this time under the impression that, in case of extremity, the Prince of Orange would be ready to give him material assistance in the maintenance of his authority in England. But though he had no objection to accept that assistance if things came to the worst, he was not quite certain that things had yet come to the worst. Appearances were against the Parliament; but, after all, a better spirit might prevail. On three points he would never give way. He would never consent to pass a Bill for Annual Parliaments, or one for the abolition of Episcopacy, or to allow any of his ministers to be put to death without his free consent. If any one of these points were insisted on, he would at once dissolve Parliament, and obtain aid from Holland to protect him against the popular insurrection which was likely to follow. As yet, however, matters had not come to this pass. There was even hope that the King's chief opponents would the Dutch ambassa.dors. |