Treaty broken off. cially included forty of his English adherents, and nineteen of his Scottish, with all such of the latter kingdom as had concurred in the votes at Oxford against that country, or been concerned in the late rebellions there. In addition to this, they insisted that all judges, lawyers, bishops, &c. who had deserted the parliament, should be rendered for ever incapable of exercising their functions, and a third part of their estates be forfeited to the public for payment of the national debts: while a tenth part of those of all other delinquents, whose property exceeded £200 in value, or if soldiers, one hundred, should likewise be forfeited. The treaty, after twenty days, the time limited, was broken off by the parliament; and just before the expiration of the term, Charles writes to his consort, that she needed not doubt of the issue of the treaty; " for my commissioners," says he, "are so well chosen, though I say it, that they will neither be threatened nor disputed from the grounds I have given them, which, upon my word, is according to the little note thou rememberest; and in this not only their obedience but their judgments concur.' When the treaty was ended, he desires her to promise in his name a repeal of all the penal statutes against Catholics, in order to obtain assistance from abroad; and in another letter he writes thus of his mongrel parliament, which he prorogued. "What I told thee last week concerning a good parting with our lords and commons here, was on Monday handsomely per formed: Now, if I do any thing unhandsome or disadvantageous to myself or friends, in order to a treaty, it will be merely my own fault; for I confess, when I wrote thee last I was in fear to have been pressed to make some overtures to renew the treaty, (knowing there were great labourings to that purpose,) but I now promise thee that if it be renewed, (which I believe it will not without some eminent good success on my side) it shall be to my honour and advantage, I being now freed from the place of base and mutinous motions, (that is to say our mongrel parliament here,) as of the chief causers, for whom I may justly expect to be chidden by thee for having suffered thee to be vexed by them, Wilmot being already there, Percy on his way, and Sussex within few days (taking his journey to thee; but I know thou carest not for a little trouble to free me from inconveniences; yet I must tell thee, that if I knew not the steadiness of thy love to me, I might reasonably apprehend that their repair to thee would rather prove a perfect change than an end of their villanies ?" Thus the very individuals whom the parliament proposed to pun. ish, and on whose account Charles affected to * For an account of the treaty of Uxbridge and relative matter, see Rush. vol. v. chap. xix. p. 841, et seq. Clar. vol. ii. p. 574. et seq. State Papers, vol. ii. p. 186. Whitelocke, p. 125, et seq. Append. to Evelyn's Mem. p. 82, et seq. By the way, the ignorance of some editors is exemplified here. The editor, not knowing that, according to the style of that age, the year began on the 25th of March, places these documents anterior to the transactions of summer 1644, because they are dated in January and February 3d, 1644. Append. to Carte's Ormonde, p. 5, et seq. Execution of Laud. be influenced against the treaty, only incurred his resentment by urging him to accommodation. During this treaty, Laud was condemned by ordinance, after a long trial, to lose his head, and suffered on Tower Hill. The sentence was so far mitigated, that he was permitted to dispose of his property by will, and his body was allowed burial. He had for long been allowed to lie forgotten; but the Scots, in conjunction with the Presbyterian party, and particularly Prynn, renewed the prosecution after their second entrance into England. The miseries they had endured, inspired them with resentment: The obstinacy of the king, and the impudent productions of the ex-bishop of Ross made them long for an example. The character and delinquencies of this archbishop have been sufficiently depicted; and the argument in Strafforde's case applies to his; but it must be owned that it was hard for him to be brought to the block by a sect that was fired with all his intolerance. He died firmly; yet, by alleging that he had always been a friend to parliaments, he tarnished the character of his last moments by such a display of the insincerity which had characterized him through life. * Hume's note at the end of vol. vii. upon the death of Laud, is as uncandid as it is possible to conceive: In the face of all evidence, even Laud's own, and the strongest facts, he asserts, without pretending to support his assertion by any authority, that Laud only suspended ministers for nonconformity, who "accepted of be nefices, yet refused to observe the ceremonies which they previously knew to be enjoined by law. He never refused them separate places of worship, because they themselves would have esteemed it impious to demand them, and no less impious to allow them." After this he might assert any thing; and the flagrancy of the assertion must absolutely astonish any one who reads even the lii. chapter of his own history. By the way, Laud in his prayer, after denying that he was guilty of treason, says, "but otherwise iny sins are very great." Now, might not Mr. Hume have made the same inference from this, which every Christian will allow to have been becoming, that he did from the passage in Cromwell's Letter? Rush. vol. v. p. 817, et seq. See Prynn's account of his trial. Laud's own Troubles, and Heylin's Life of him. Whitelocke, p. 75, et seq. Clar. vol. iv. p. 572, et seq. For an account of Maxwell, ex-bishop of Ross's writings, and the rage which these and Charles's declarations excited against the episcopal divines, see Baillie, vol. ii. p. 39, 40, 52. 2 P3 |