finances,

nuance of

the most bloody measures were in that case to be apprehended.

State of the Government was now in great arrears to both and bill for armies, lying in the bowels of the kingdom; and the conti- though parliament might vote subsidies, money, parliament. which was instantly wanted, could only be raised immediately by loan. But the city, whence the money was expected, was only inclined to lend upon the assurance of a general redress of grievances; and it was commonly believed, that were the armies disbanded, the king would at once dissolve the parliament, and recur to his old illegal courses, while he would dearly visit on the heads of the popular members, the attempt to restrain him in the exercise of arbitrary power. At this critical juncture, a Lancashire knight undertook to procure a loan of £650,000 till the subsidies could be levied, if his majesty would pass a bill not to prorogue, adjourn, or dissolve the parliament without the consent of both houses,-that it might continue till grievances were redressed, and a provision made for the money borrowed. The suggestion was eagerly taken, and a committee named to draw a bill to that effect. Next morning it was moved and passed that very day *. It was then transmitted to the upper house, by which it was also passed. In the mean time, the bill of attainder was passed by the lords, who had previously taken the opinion of the judges re

* Whitelocke, p. 45. Diurnal Occurrences, Journals. Cob. Parl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 786. Clar. vol. i. p. 260, et seq.

tainder

the lords.

garding its consonance to law. And now appeared an extraordinary revolution in the feelings and sentiments of the bench within a few months: The Bill of atjudges unanimously delivered it as their opinion, passed by that the crimes proved against Strafforde amounted to high treason. Fortified with the opinions of the judges, the peers proceeded to vote, when, out of the number of forty-five who attended, twentysix voted him guilty on the fifteenth article, for illegally levying money in Ireland by force; and on the nineteenth, for imposing an unlawful oath on the Scots *.

bill of at

that for

the parlia.

ment.

These two grand bills, one for the continuance Charles of parliament, the other for the attainder of Straf. passes the forde, were presented to the throne together. tainder, and Charles was much perplexed; but his embarrass- continuing ments were great, the cry of a discontented people loud. He consulted his councillors, and the majority of them advised him to pass the bills. As to Strafforde, it was argued that he was merely an individual; and that, as the consequences of a furious multitude, with an almost universally deeprooted distrust of the executive, might be very terrible, so there was no other expedient to appease the public mind,-to induce parliament to make provision for the public exigency, or the city to advance money on loan. Amongst others, Williams, who had a little before been so persecuted, but had been lately, according to his own prediction, taken into the council, and apparently resto

*Cob. Par. Hist. vol. ii. p. 757, 758. Whitelocke, p. 45.

red to favour, is said to have been an active adviser on the occasion, alleging that his majesty had a twofold duty to perform, one to himself, the other to the public, and that his conscience might, in a public capacity, do what, in a private, it might condemn: That all ordinary cases of life and death were referred to the judges through whom the king acted, and that, in this, not only the two houses of parliament had concurred, but the judges delivered their opinions against the accused. Though Williams had been the most virulent adviser, and should, if he had acted from personal and vindictive motives, be fairly censured, yet of all men Strafforde had least cause to complain, since he had himself so profligately assisted in the persecution of that individual, and the man who abuses his present power to crush an adversary should not murmur at a similar return on a change of fortune. But some writers, particularly Clarendon, appear to have done Williams little justice on all occasions, and less on this: the house of lords themselves nominated four prelates, the lord primate Usher, and the bishops Morton, Williams, and Potter, to satisfy his majesty upon this subject, and they all concurred in one opinion, while the first still retained the confidence of the earl to that degree (could a better proof of the correctness of his evidence at the trial be desired ?) that "he prayed with him, preached with him, gave him his last viaticum, and was with him on the scaffold as a ghostly father till his head was severed from his body." The rest of the councillors, and the bi

shops, at least acquiesced in the opinion*. Strafforde himself, understanding what had passed, and having lost all hopes of rescue from the tower, addressed a letter to Charles, requesting him to pass the bill, that his life might no longer be the means of preventing a reconcilement of the prince with the people. Whatever might be his motive for writing this letter, whether to acquire popular favour by a shew of magnanimity, as he probably expected that the request would be divulged, or to rivet himself more firmly in the monarch's affections by a pretended concern for his welfare, the sequel proved that he did not anticipate that the request would be granted. Hence, we may easily conclude that the story told by Clarendon of a purpose entertained by the keeper of the tower to order the earl's head to be struck off privately in case the king refused to pass the bill, and of this having been the prisoner's inducement (he having heard

• Clarendon appears, from the rancour with which he always speaks of Williams, to have had a personal enmity to him. While he so strongly condemns him, and unjustly, on this ground, he yet admits that the others acquiesced. But see Hacket's Life of Williams, from which the above quotation is taken, part ii. p. 161. Authorities on this point are not, as indeed might be expected in a case where the greatest odium was supposed by the party to be attached to the advice, quite in unison. Nalson says that Juxon dissuaded his master from passing the bill, (vol. ii. p. 192.) but other authorities do not support the statement. An attempt too has been made to vindicate Usher upon an account alleged to have been privately given by himself; but, even according to that, he told his majesty that he (the king) should himself be satisfied as to the proof of the facts, but that as to their legal effect he ought to be guided by the judges, an advice that approximated to that of Williams. See Biog. Brit. article Usher. The statement is disproved by the facts as given by Hacket, &c.

ous.

of the plot) to write the letter, must be as unfounded as the act itself would have been atrociSir William Balfour appears to have been a gentleman of a high sense of honour, and himself was proof against all seduction to connive at an escape, though offered £20,000 and the earl's daughter to his son. But this, which reflects so much credit upon his integrity, was in reality the cause of the slander. Urged by his council, and apparently pressed by the criminal himself, Charles granted a commission to pass both bills, and sent Secretary Carleton to apprise the prisoner of his fate, with the motives that had influenced the king, among which was particularly mentioned his own request. Stunned with the unlooked-for intelligence, Strafforde conjured the secretary not to trifle with his feelings, but to declare the truth. The other assured him of the fact, when he started from his chair, and, lifting his eyes to heaven, at the same time laying his hand on his heart, exclaimed in agony, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of mer, for in them there is no salvation." Charles himself felt immediate remorse for having given his consent, and the next day, which was the 11th, wrote a letter to the lords with his own hand, begging them to interpose with the lower house to spare the earl's life; but they refused to interfere, and it became necessary for the prisoner to prepare for execution *.

* Cob. Parl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 758. Whitelocke, p. 45. Clar. vol. i. p. 257. Rush. vol. iv. p. 262, et seq. Mr. Hume, in a note, says, that Mr. Carte, in his Life of the Duke of Ormond, has given us