tors have done, we have suffered more than ever they suffered; and yet, in point of modesty and duty, we shall not yield to the best of former times; and we shall put this in issue, whether the highest and most unwarrantable precedents of any of his majesty's predecessors do not fall short and much below what has been done to us this parliament; and, on the other side, whether, if we should make the highest precedents of other parliaments our patterns, there would be cause to complain of want of modesty and duty in us, when we have not so much as suffered such things to enter into our thoughts, which all the world knows they have put into act."

In other dispatches, Charles professes the utmost regard for the liberties of the people and the Protestant religion; declaring that he never will allow a toleration, and appeals to Almighty God for his sincerity in these matters, and in his abhorrence at the idea of reducing the kingdom by force, or introducing foreign troops. But he argues, that the militia, with all the forts, had been entrusted to him and his heirs for ever; and that it cannot be believed that a body called at his pleasure, and appointed by the people for a season, should ever be intended as guardians or controllers in managing that trust which God and the law had committed to him and his posterity for

ever *.

The parliament prayed that the king would dis

Husband's Col. p. 138, et seq. Rush, vol. iv. p. 565, et

seq.

Clar.

vol. ii. p. 506. et seq. Whitelocke, p. 57, et seq.

miss his guards, and return to the neighbourhood of London; and when they perceived that accommodation was hopeless, and understood how busy the queen was in raising money upon the crown jewels, they entered into a resolution, which they published, that the king intended to make war upon them; and passed an ordinance, that whoever lent money upon the crown jewels, or assisted in pawning them, &c. should be deemed an enemy to the state, and be liable, out of his own property, for any damage which might ensue. Charles complained much of the vote in regard to his intention of making war, declaring, that God knew his heart abhorred it *; and to such a height did

Husband's Col. p. 259, et seq. Rush, vol. iv. p. 624. Clar. vol. ii. p. 539, 640." It may seem strange," says this author," that these men could entertain the hope and confidence to obtrude such a declaration and vote upon the people, that the king did intend to make war against the parliament,' when they were so far from apprehending that he would be able to get an army to disturb them, that they were most assured he would not be able to get bread to sustain himself three months, without submitting all his counsels to their conduct and control.”—Clarendon says this, who yet informs us that war of the most rancorous kind had been determined on before the queen left England; and who, only on the seventh page preceding the one just quoted, writes thus-" Beyond the seas the queen was as intent to do her part, and to provide, that so good company as she heard was daily gathered together about the king, should not be dissolved for want of weapons to defend one another; and therefore, with as much secrecy as could be used in those cases, and in those places where she had so many spies upon her, she caused, by the sale or pawning of her own and some of the crown jewels, a good quantity of powder and arms to be in readiness in Holland against the time that it should be found necessary to transport it to his majesty ; so that both sides, while they entertained each other with discourses of peace, (which always carried a sharpness with them that whetted their appetite to war,) provided for that war which they saw would

he and his counsellors carry their hypocrisy, that, even on the 15th of June, when the arms had been purchased and sent from Holland, and the warlike preparations were far advanced, in council he took "notice of the rumours spread, and informations given, which might induce many to believe that his majesty intended to make war against his parliament; professed before God, and said, he declared to all the world, that he always had and did abhor all such designs, and desired his nobility and council, who were there upon the place, to declare whether they had not been witnesses of his frequent and earnest professions to that purpose. Whether they saw any colour of preparations, or counsels that might reasonably beget a belief of any such design; and whether they were not fully persuaded that his majesty had no such intention: But that all his endeavours, according to his many professions, tended to the firm and constant settlement of the true Protestant religion, the just privileges of parliament, the liberty of the subject, the law, peace, and prosperity of the kingdom." "Whereupon all the lords and counsellors present unanimously agreed, and did sign a paper in these words:" "We, whose names are underwritten, in obedience to his majesty's desire, and out of the

not be prevented." P. 532.-He elsewhere informs us, that the parliament was apprised of all the royal motions, and particularly of the queen's selling and pawning the jewels to purchase arms. P. 640.Such is the veracity of Lord Clarendon, the individual panegyrised and followed by Mr. Hume, who says that "he was too honest a man to falsify facts!”

duty which we owe to his majesty's honour and to truth, being here upon the place, and witnesses of his majesty's frequent and earnest declarations and professions of his abhorring all designs of making war upon his parliament, and not seeing any colour of preparations or counsels that might reasonably beget the belief of any such designs, do profess before God, and testify to all the world, that we are fully persuaded that his majesty hath no such intention; but that all his endeavours tend to the firm and constant settlement of the true Protestant religion, the just privileges of parliament, the liberty of the subject, the law, peace, and prosperity of this kingdom*.” This

Clar. vol. ii. p. 654, et seq. It is impossible to conceive a more melancholy picture of insincerity, nay downright perfidy, than Charles and his advisers exhibited on this occasion. Nothing need be said of Clarendon who drew the papers; but what shall we say of Lord Falkland, whose memory has been so revered?

Mr. Laing, in endeavouring to shew that Charles had meditated war before the queen's departure, quotes Neal's History of the Puritans; where that writer informs us, that a few days after the king's removal from Whitehall, it was resolved, in a cabinet council at Windsor, that the queen, who was about to depart with her daughter for Holland, should carry the crown jewels thither, to pledge for money, ammunition, and arms, and to procure, by the intervention of the Pope's nuncio, 4000 soldiers from France and Spain, &c. Laing says, that he could not discover Neal's authority, but justly remarks, that his statement coincides with the inadvertent discoveries of Clarendon. I should be surprised at this, had I not early perceived that Laing, while he had looked through a number of manuscripts, had not sifted the numerous publications-including Neal himself—to which he refers, and on which the truth must chiefly depend.-The fact of the jewels appears from all authorities, Whitelocke, p. 55. May. Lib. ii. p. 42. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 146. Ludlow, vol. i. p. 27. Mystery of Iniquity, p. 28. Clarendon, who quotes the very state papers

declaration was subscribed by thirty-five peers, and also by Lord Falkland and others! A long proclamation was grounded upon this, to the equal discredit of the veracity of Charles and his advisers and supporters. Amongst other things, he denied, in the most solemn language, and with affected indignation, his intention of introducing foreign troops into the kingdom, as a measure fraught with the ruin of the commonwealth; and yet he had, as we have seen, attempted such a thing in the first years of his reign-again at the commencement of the Scottish troubles-and even at this moment he was endeavouring to overwhelm the parliament by assistance from every potentate who would render it, and by even bartering the crown jewels*.

which passed between the king and parliament relative to this subject. See the papers in Husband's Col. Rush. vol. iv. p. 736, et seq. and parliamentary histories. With regard to the expectations of 4000 troops from each of the powers-of France and Spain -that seems to have been derived from the state papers, in which the charge is made by the parliament, in alleged reports from foreign parts, and denied by the king. As to the resolution formed in the cabinet-council at Windsor, had Laing looked through Neal, he would have found his authority within a few pages of that quoted by him, p. 605. It is Father Orleans who not only tells us this, but develops the truth as to the resolutions formed by Charles before he went to Scotland. Tome iii. p. 72, et seq. See Clar. vol. ii. p. 712. for a passage not hitherto referred to. See a curious letter from the ambassador at the court of France to one of the secretaries of state. Clarendon's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 137.

*See the state papers on this subject in Husband, Clar. Rush. &c. See also in the king's cabinet opened, the instructions to be pursued by Colonel Cochrane, in his negociation with the King of Denmark for assistance. Charles proposed to give as a security the great collar of rubies, which has been already so much spoken of. The publica