•

the discreet course would be to disclaim it, and to institute a sham prosecution against some who had read the book, which the Court had at first warmly patronised. Accordingly, an information in the Star Chamber was filed against the Earl of Bedford, the Earl of Clare, Sir Robert Cotton, John Selden, Esquire, Oliver St. John, Esquire, and several other patriots, for publishing a seditious writing, entitled "A Proposition for his Majesty's Service to bridle the Impertinency of Parliaments."

However, when this case was coming to a hearing, the Lord Keeper declared in the Star Chamber that the King, in respect of the great joy upon the birth of his son*, had ordered the proceedings to be stopped, and the defendants to be discharged; yet to mark his dislike of such advice, commanded the writing to be burned as seditious and scandalous.†

But the scheme was in reality highly agreeable to the Court, and was steadily acted upon. Not only were tonnage and poundage still levied without authority of parliament, but the duty on goods imported was from time to time increased by the Council, and extended to new commodities. A new stamp duty was imposed upon cards. To accustom the people to obey the royal mandate, proclamations were issued from time to time respecting subjects connected with trade, the public health, and supposed public convenience, and these were enforced in the Star Chamber, -with the intention, that breaches of them should by-and-by be punished by indictment in the Courts of common law, and that, by degrees, a proclamation might in all respects be considered equivalent to an act of parliament.‡

If persons, to escape from these oppressions, wished to seek refuge in another hemisphere, they were restrained from emigrating, by proclamation. Thus was the ship stopped that was to have carried to New England, Cromwell, Pym, Hampden, and Hazelrig: and a violation of the law which, being compared with others, was considered so slight as not to be much regarded at the time, led to a revolution in the state.§

Not more respect was paid to private property than to public rights, as many shops and houses were pulled down, by order in Council, to make way for supposed improvements in the city of London, such compensation being made to the owners as an agent of Government chose to fix.||

* Charles II, born May 20. 1630.

† 3 St. Tr. 387.

These proclamations prohibited the importation of certain commodities, regulated the mode of carrying on manufactures at home, fixed the prices of marketable goods, forbade the erection of houses in London, and enforced residence in the country. For disobedience of this last proclamation, 167 persons were prosecuted in one year. One Hillyard was fined 5000l. for selling saltpetre contrary to procla mation.-Rushworth, ii. 144.

§ Rush. ii. 409. 418.

Mr. Hume defends or palliates these illegal acts by observing that, as parliament did not meet, they were necessary, thereby making the unconstitutional disuse of parliaments the excuse for the assumption of legislative power by the Crown.— Hume's Hist. c. 52,

The Lord Keeper was in a more special manner answerable for the revival of monopolies. In direct violation of the statute law, he passed many patents under the Great Seal for the exclusive manufacture and vending of soap, leather, salt, and other commodities, without any pretence of invention or improvement, -merely in respect of the large sums that were given for the grants. A parliament was talked of to redress these grievances: but, to drive the people to despair, a proclamation came out, countersigned by the Lord Keeper, wherein the King reciting the late abuses in parliament, declared that "he would consider it presumption for any one to prescribe to him any time for calling that assembly," so that a petition for a parliament would afterwards have been prosecuted as a seditious libel.

[A. D. 1631.] committing a

The custom

The attention of the public was, for a short time, diverted from these measures by the trial, before Lord Coventry, as Lord High Steward, and his Peers, of Lord Aud ley, Earl of Castlehaven, in Ireland, for assisting in rape on his wife, and for other abominable offences. was still kept up of previously taking the opinion of the Judges on any points likely to arise in a criminal case, even though not of a political nature; and on this occasion, for the guidance of the Lord High Steward, they told him, "that a Peer of Parliament could not, if so inclined, waive his privilege, and be tried by Commoners; that a Peer cannot challenge a Peer on his trial; that a Peer was not entitled to counsel for matter of fact more than a Commoner: that a wife may be a witness against her husband in case of personal violence; and that in clergyable offences a Peer cannot pray his privilege till he confesses or is found guilty."

The trial took place, with great pomp and solemnity, in Westminster Hall. When the prisoner had been placed at the bar, the Lord High Steward, after alluding to the heavy charges against him, said, “His Majesty brings you this day to your trial, doing herein, like the mighty King of kings, in the 18th of Genesis, ver. 20, 21., who went down to see whether their sins were so grievous as the cry of them. 'Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sins be grievous, I will go down (saith the Lord) and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it.' And kings on earth can have no better pattern to follow than the King of heaven; and therefore our Sovereign Lord the King, God's Viceregent here on earth, hath commanded that you should be tried this day, and to that end hath caused these Peers to be assembled." The trial then proceeding on three indictments, for three several felonies at the same time. Both written depositions and viva voce evidence were adduced against him. Being found guilty, sentence was pronounced upon him very impressively by the Lord High Steward, and he was afterwards executed.*

* 3 St. Tr. 402.

The King soon after went into Scotland, ostensibly to be crowned, but, in reality, to enforce the attempt to introduce [ A. D. 1633.] Laud's episcopacy into that country; an attempt which for ever alienated from him the hearts of his countrymen, and which may be considered the remote cause of all his misfortunes. Laud accompanying him, Coventry was left at the head of affairs in England, and no way relaxed the arbitrary system. pursued by his master.

Charles returned from Scotland under the delusion that he had completely effected his object, and more thoroughly determined to make himself absolute all over the island. The death of Archbishop Abbot enabled him to raise Laud to the primacy; and Juxon, the new Bishop of London, (to the general disgust, and to the deep concern of all the enlightened friends of the Church), was made Lord High Treasurer,—to preside in the seat of Lord Burleigh over the finances and councils of the nation.

Now the innovations to bring the rites of the Church of England as near as possible to those of Rome were pushed with fresh energy, and the Puritans were persecuted with re-doubled zeal. Lord Coventry, neither in the Council nor in the Star Chamber, did any thing for the law, the constitution, or the public safety. He sometimes pretended to disapprove of the excesses of Laud, but in reality countenanced them. Henry Sherfield, an ancient barrister of Lincoln's Inn, being prosecuted in the Star Chamber for breaking a painted glass window in a church at Salisbury, the Lord Keeper at first gave it as his opinion that the defendant should only be reprimanded, make an acknowledgment before the Bishop, and repair the broken window; but he easily allowed himself to be overruled by Laud, and pronounced the sentence that the defendant should further be fined 5007., and be committed to the Fleet prison.*

The sentence of the Star Chamber on the learned Prynne for his "HISTRIOMASTIX, or a Scourge for Stage Players," was unanimous" that he should be disbarred,-that he should be fined 10,000%.†,—that he should suffer perpetual imprisonment, like monsters that are not fit to live among men, nor to see light,'—that he should stand in the pillory in Westminster and Cheapside, that he should have his ears cropped-that his nose should be slit,and that he should be branded on the forehead, and that all who had any copies of his book should deliver them up to be burnt, under pain of the high displeasure of the Court."§

* 2 St, Tr. 561.

† It was avowed that this fine was more than he was able to pay, so that Magna, Charta was ostentatiously violated.

It was pleasantly observed, that he might conceal his loss of ears by a periwig although in his 'Histriomatix' he had inveighed against that ornament.'

§ 3 St. Tr. 562. Hume cannot conceal his delight in recording the punishment of Prynne, and openly praises the good intention of the Court in thus trying to inspire better humour into the Puritans, but adds, with much naïveté, "whether pillories, fines, and prisons were proper expedients for that purpose, may admit of some question."

Now came the two prosecutions in the Star Chamber of ExLord Keeper Williams*, which Hume imputes to "the haughty Primate,” and denounces as "the most iniquitous measure pursued by the Court during the time that the use of parliaments was suspended." But the sentences of fine, pillory, ear-cropping, and imprisonment for life in distant gaols, pronounced and executed upon Bastwick the physician, and Burton the divine, for reflecting upon the Bishops, might well bear a comparison.

In the case of Lilburn, the Lord Keeper took a very active part in supporting the jurisdiction of the Court. An in

formation being exhibited against the defendant for [A. D. 1637.] a libel, he was called upon to answer interrogatories, that he might criminate himself, and refusing to answer them, he was brought up before the Lord Keeper and the other dignitaries forming this awful tribunal, for this contempt.- Lord Keeper. "Why will you not answer?" Lilburn. "My honourable Lord, I have answered fully before Mr. Attorney General to all things that belong to me to answer unto.". Lord Keeper. "But why do you refuse to take the Star Chamber oath?" - Lilburn. "Most noble Lord, I refused on this ground, because that when I was examined, although I had fully answered all things that belonged to me to answer unto, and had declared myself of the thing for which I am imprisoned, yet that would not give content, but other things were put unto me concerning other men, to ensnare me and get further matter against

me.

Lilburn

And withal I perceived the oath to be an oath of inquiry, and for the lawfulness of which oath I have no warrant." Lord Keeper. Well, come, submit yourself unto the Court.” "Most noble Lords, with all willingness I submit my body unto your Honours' pleasure, but for any other submission, I am conscious to myself that I have done nothing that doth deserve a convention before this illustrious assembly, and therefore for me to submit, is to submit I know not wherefor." the Fleet, and being brought up on a subsequent day still refused. Lord Keeper. "Thou art a in spite of all threats, to be sworn.

He was committed to

mad fellow, seeing things are thus, that thou wilt not take thine oath." Lilburn My honourable Lord, I have declared unto you the real truth; but for the oath, it is an oath of inquiry, and of the same nature as the High Commission oath, which oath I know to be unlawful." The Lord Keeper then sentenced him to be fined 5007., to be whipt through the streets, to be set in the pillory, and to be remanded to the Fleet till he conformed. When in the pillory he distributed some papers, said to be seditious, beand for this new offence cause they vindicated his innocence, an order was made, on the suggestion of the Lord Keeper, to which Laud and all the other Judges assented, "that he should be laid alone — with irons on his hands and legs-in the wards of

the Fleet, where the loosest and meanest sort of prisoners are used to be put."*

These were sentences of the Star Chamber, Coventry's own Court, and generally pronounced with his own lips. But he must likewise be held responsible for the greater iniquities of the High Commission, which, if he did not prompt, he might easily have restrained, either by his private influence, or judicially by writs of prohibition,—which he refused to issue.

He was further grievously to blame for vexations which he countenanced in extending the bounds of royal forests, and for the extortions practised under his superintendence in revising obsolete claims by the Crown to estates that had for generations been quietly enjoyed by the families now in possession of them.

CHAPTER LXII.

CONCLUSION OF THE LIFE OF LORD KEEPER COVENTRY.

We have been relating the grievances of individuals which, though they excited much commiseration, might long [a. D. 1634—1635.] have been borne without any general move

ment; but SHIP MONEY" now threw the whole nation into a flame. The Lord Keeper, if not artifex, was particeps criminis. Noy, who had gained eminence in his profession by practising "in the sedition line," having ratted and been made Attorney General, was eager to show his devotion to the Court,—and, after a long examination of musty records in the Tower, finding that in time of war the King had first pressed ships into his service, had then asked the seaports to equip ships for him, and had occasionally afterwards ordered the adjoining counties to contribute to the expense, framed his famous scheme, which, if it had succeeded, would have effectually superseded parliaments. He disclosed his invention to the Lord Keeper, and to Strafford, now high in the ascendant, and they both rapturously approved of it--but foreseeing that its legality would come in question, and entertaining some misgivings respecting Sir Robert Heath, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, they, as a prudent preliminary, removed him from his office, and substituted for him Sir John Finch, [JAN. 21, 1635.] one of the most unprincipled and reckless Judges who ever disgraced the English Bench. The writs under the Great Seal, directed to the Sheriffs of every county in England, fixing, by royal authority, the sum to be raised in each county, and requiring that it should be rateably assessed, were then concocted; but before they were issued their author suddenly died, and the

* 1 Str. 1315.