by orders to the Lord General (Essex) to advance his forces with all possible speed. The King had neither wished nor expected any other result from the proposal that he had been so unwillingly forced to make, and he pleased himself with the hope that he should not again be required to address the two Houses; but his counsellors, more true to their trust than solicitous to please, relaxed not in their endeavours to adopt some course that should avert the collision of arms. He was advised, as Lord Clarendon records, by "some whom "he trusted as much as any, and those whose affections were as entire to him as any men's, to give all other

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thoughts over, and instantly to make all imaginable "haste to London, and appear in the Parliament "House before they had any expectation of him.

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They conceived there would be more likelihood for "him to prevail that way than by any army he could “raise; and it must be solely imputed to his Majesty's "own resolution that he took not that course."

It is evident from Lord Clarendon's expression that this advice was specially tendered to the King by those three upon whose counsels he had mainly depended for guidance in his fallen state, but, nevertheless, the advice was rejected. The presence of the Sovereign in the capital at this juncture of affairs would have been calculated to give that confidence to the Parliament in his sincerity which his professions and declarations failed to inspire. In truth, it was not Charles, but his advisers, who were sincere in the present wish for peace. He had been with extraordinary difficulty brought to

'Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion,' vol. iii. p. 212.

consent to the first message; he now absolutely refused to adopt the counsel of presenting himself to Parliament. Perhaps he felt himself supported in this resistance by the knowledge of the opinions of others, to whom he was bound by the ties of affection and relationship. Prince Rupert, who was in command of the horse at Leicester, was so indignant at the King's first message being sent, or at any question of a treaty, that he and some of his principal officers even talked of offering violence to those who had advised it. The promise given to the Queen on her departure, that he would not again approach the capital so long as the Parliament was sitting, but too probably retained its hold upon his memory, and the more surely because it accorded with his own feelings. As a compromise, however, he allowed a second message of peace to be carried to the Parliament, and on the 5th of September

1 Lord Sunderland, in a letter addressed to his wife, the Lady Dorothy Sidney (well known as the Sacharissa of Waller), dated Shrewsbury, September 21, 1642, fully bears out the statement that the King had been worked upon by some to no longer desire peace, though he seems to do him more than justice in the belief that he "heartily wished it" when the late messages were sent to Parliament :

"If there could be an expedient found to solve the punctilio of honour, "I would not continue here an hour. The discontent that I and many "other honest men receive daily is beyond expression. People are much "divided; the King is of late very much averse to peace, by the per"suasions of 202 and 111 (?). It is likewise conceived that the King has "taken a resolution not to do anything in that way before the Queen comes; for people advising the King to agree with the Parliament was "the occasion of the Queen's return. Till that time no advice will be "received; nevertheless the honest men will take all occasions to procure an accommodation, which the King when he sent the late messages did heartily desire, and would still make offers but for 202 and 111, and "the expectation of the Queen and fear of the Papists, who threaten people "of 342.”—Sidney, Mem., vol. ii. p. 657.

Lord Spencer and Lord Falkland were the messengers appointed for its delivery to the two Houses. The same scene was enacted as that which had passed with Lord Southampton and Sir John Culpepper. Lord Falkland was allowed to deliver his message and then retire.' Two days afterwards he was the bearer of the reply of the Parliament to the King, which amounted to little more than the repetition of their answer to the first message. On the 13th, before leaving Nottingham, the King addressed a third message to the Parliament, which, Lord Clarendon says, was "as a farewell to his hopes of a treaty, and to make the deeper sense and

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impression in the hearts of the people, of those who "had so pertinaciously rejected it.”2

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1 Lord Falkland's Message to Parliament.

"We will not repeat what means we have used to prevent the dangerous "and distracted estate of the kingdom, nor how those means have been "interpreted; because, being desirous to avoid the effusion of blood, we are willing to decline all memory of former bitterness that might render our offer of a treaty less readily accepted. We never did declare, nor 66 ever intended to declare, both our Houses of Parliament traitors, or set 'up our standard against them, and much less to put them and this 'kingdom out of our protection. We utterly profess against it before "God and the world; and farther, to remove all possible scruples which I may hinder the treaty so much desired by us, we hereby promise (so "that a day be appointed by you for the revoking of your declarations against all persons as traitors or otherwise for assisting of us) we shall, "with all cheerfulness, upon the same day recall our proclamations and "declarations, and take down our standard. In which treaty we shall "be ready to grant anything that shall be really for the good of our sub"jects; conjuring you to consider the bleeding condition of Ireland and "the dangerous condition of England, in as high a degree as by these "our offers we have declared ourself to do; and assuring you that our chief "desire in this world is to beget a good understanding and mutual con"fidence betwixt us and our two Houses of Parliament."-Clarendon, Hist. of Rebellion, vol. iii. p. 212; Com. Journ., vol. ii. p. 753.

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2 Ibid., p. 218.

This last declaration was certainly well calculated to produce a deep impression on the hearts of those who recoiled with natural horror from the certain outbreak of a civil war; it was written with all the dignity and courage becoming a sovereign towards his people, with the humility and resignation due from man to his Maker. Even at this distance of time it is impossible to read this final address without being moved by the solemn and pathetic tone which pervades its sentiments throughout, and without deeply mourning that the Parliament at this critical moment was not represented by counsellors as wisely pacific as those who had wrung from the King the power of thus serving his cause in spite of himself. "Who have taken most ways, used "most endeavours, and made most real expressions to

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prevent the present distractions and dangers, let all "the world judge, as well by former passages as by our "two last messages, which have been so fruitless, that, "though we have descended to desire and press it, not "so much as a treaty can be obtained, unless we would "denude ourself of all force to defend us from a visible strength marching against us, and admit those persons

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as traitors to us, who, according to their duty, their "oaths of allegiance, and the law, have appeared in "defence of us, their King and liege lord (whom we "are bound in conscience and honour to preserve), "though we disclaimed all our proclamations and de"clarations, and the erecting of our standard, as against “our Parliament. All we have now left in our power is "to express the deep sense we have of the public misery "of this kingdom, in which is involved that of our

"distressed Protestants of Ireland, and to apply ourself "to our necessary defence, wherein we wholly rely 66 upon the providence of God, the justice of our cause, "and the affection of our good people; so far we are "from putting them out of our protection. When you "shall desire a treaty of us, we shall piously remember "whose blood is to be spilt in this quarrel, and cheerfully embrace it. And as no other reason induced "us to leave our city of London but that with honour

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"and safety we could not stay there, nor to raise any "force but for the necessary defence of our person and "the law against levies in opposition to both, so we shall

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suddenly and most willingly return to the one and "disband the other as soon as these causes shall be "removed. The God of Heaven direct you, and in

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mercy divert those judgments which hang over this "nation, and so deal with us and our posterity as "we desire the preservation and advancement of the "true Protestant religion, the law and the liberty of "the subject, the just rights of Parliament, and the peace of the kingdom."

The leaders in Parliament were probably well aware that Charles's own opinions were often not represented in the declarations and addresses that issued from his Court, and in that consists their apology, if not justification, in continued resistance, but they had no reason to doubt the sincerity of those by whom these addresses were really penned; yet on the 22nd of September we find that a resolution passed the House of Commons

' Clarendon's ' Hist. of the Rebellion,' vol. iii. p. 218.