CHAP. 1641. These contempts and violations, not only of the principles of the constitution, but of the abstract principles of freedom, took place within twelve months from the passing of the act which rendered Parliament indissoluble without its own consent.* Here was enough to justify the suspicions which that measure might have created. The time had arrived, when more danger to the liberties of the people was to be apprehended from that power which had lately been their guardian, than from the humbled despotism which had previously oppressed them. The finger of the Parliament was now heavier than the arm of the prerogative. If nothing was left but a miserable choice between conflicting tyrannies, and there was no middle course of safety, we cannot blame those who might have preferred submission to the effete and crippled tyranny of one, rather than to the newly-fledged and less controllable tyranny of of many. But, if in this oligarchical tyranny we see the corrupting influence of irresponsible power, we also see a natural consequence of the tyranny which had preceded it. The evils of misgovernment are more lasting than misgovernment itself; and the redress which seemed immediate is not immediate in reality. There is ever a legacy of violence and injustice, which is bequeathed by a fallen tyranny. The fruits of that legacy are seen, too probably, in the conduct of the first recipients of the transferred authority; and, so exhibited, they furnish a wel * Com. Journals, Dec. 3. 1641. IV. 1641. come theme, and a plausible argument, to the CHAP. bigoted advocates of old abuses. It is true, the change is attended with evil; but, on that which preceded be the evil charged, and not alone on that which has ensued. Of all preparations for the exercise of power, the very worst is the education of a slave. Men who have lived in an atmosphere of injustice, are liable to have formed for themselves a debasing standard of right. They will need the guidance of an inward sense of justice, for they will not have learnt, by observation, how power ought to be employed. If Laud had not glutted his vengeance upon libellers, - if he had not, in open court, given God thanks, when the Starchamber sentenced Dr. Leighton to be fined 10,000l., to be degraded from his ministry, to be twice whipped, twice pilloried, to have his ears cut off, his nose slit, to be branded on the face with a double S, and to be imprisoned for life; - if he, who became Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest minister of the religion of mercy, had not desecrated his sacred functions by a vindictiveness so unchristian, it is possible that the laymen, assembled in parliament in 1642, might have been withholden, by compunctious shame, from their atrocious punishment of Sandeford. But the Crown, and the Church, had, by their example, contaminated the Parliament: and when the latter invested themselves with sovereign power, they assumed those oppressive attributes of sovereignty, which they had before resisted and controlled. Though once the victims of sys IV. 1641. CHAP. tematic oppression, they hated the offenders rather than the offence: a thirst for retaliation had obliterated their disapprobation of injustice; and what they had denounced as a wrong, they remembered only as a precedent. CHAP. V. KING GOES TO SCOTLAND. — THE POPULARITY OF THE PAR- REMONSTRANCE. THE PALMER SENT TO THE TOWER. KING'S RETURN FROM SCOTLAND. ANSWER TO THE REMONSTRANCE DRAWN UP 1641. V. The King On the 10th of August the King departed for CHAP. Scotland. Nothing very important occurred in parliament during his absence, and the two houses adjourned from the 3d of September to the 20th goes to of October, appointing during the recess a standing committee of fifty members. The popularity of the parliament was at this time declining. * May acknowledges that they had lost favour, and attributes the change, in a great measure, to their attacks upon the Established Church, their connivance at rude disturbers of the church service, and the preaching of illiterate Dissenters. Much is also attributed by him to the ungrateful fickleness of the people, who, "tired with "expectations of a cure, do usually by degrees forget the sharpness of those diseases which 66 Scotland. CHAP. 1641. The" Incident" and the Irish Rebellion unfavour able to the King's cause. "before required it;" or, impatient of taxation, do not consider "that the causes of all which they "now endure were precedent, and that their pre"sent suffering is necessary for their future security." 66 Two circumstances occurred this autumn of which the parliament took advantage in order to restore their declining popularity, to excite an interest in their favour, and to throw additional odium on the King. The first of these was the event in Scotland called "the Incident," an event involved in much obscurity, but which, inasmuch as it indicated the existence of a plot against two noblemen of the popular party, Hamilton and Argyle, was employed by the English parliamentary leaders to excite fears of a more extensive conspiracy; and on the day before the parliament met again, warrants were issued by the committee for the appointment of guards for its protection. The other circumstance was the Irish rebellion, which broke out about the end of October. It was attended with unparalleled horrors, and "proved," says Clarendon, "of infinite disad"vantage to the King's affairs, which were then recovering new life." It was unjust to impute to Charles the promotion of this rebellion, or connivance at its atrocities.. But here were extensive massacre, and dreadful cruelties, inflicted on Protestants, by the hands of Papists calling themselves *May's Hist. Parl. 75, 76. |