and in less than three weeks, chiefly by a voluntary loan, 300,000l. was paid into the Exchequer, and an army was immediately raised to march into Scotland. Lord Essex was again slighted; his services of the preceding year were overlooked. The Earl of Northumberland was appointed General, and Lord Conway General of the Horse. The Earl of Northumberland was too ill to take the field, and the Earl of Strafford was appointed Lieutenant-General, that he might supply his place. Lord Conway submitted to a most shameful defeat at Newburn, and fled to Durham; the Earl of Strafford there met him, and the whole army retreated into Yorkshire, the Earl of Strafford afterwards joining the King at York. The difficulties of the King's position now began to press sorely on him; his appointing Lord Strafford had created great displeasure in the army; his enemies were successful, his friends corrupted or disheartened, his treasury nearly exhausted, and immediate danger was to be apprehended of further invasion by the Scots, to whose progress little resistance was to be expected. In this difficulty he had recourse to an expedient which had not been practised for some hundred years. A council of all the Peers was called to attend the King at York, within twenty days, to give assistance by their advice. Two petitions had been "The Earl of Strafford bringing with him a body much broken with "his late sickness, which was not clearly shaken off, and a mind and "temper confessing the dregs of it, which, being marvellously provoked "and inflamed with indignation at the late dishonour, rendered him less "gracious, that is, less inclined to make himself so, to the officers." The result was, that in a short time the army was more inflamed against "him than against the enemy.”—Clarendon's Ilist. of the Rebellion, vol. i. pp. 256, 257. VOL. I. D addressed to the King, one from the city of London, and another signed by twelve peers, to summon a Parliament; and when the Council assembled at York the 24th September, the King's opening speech announced that he had of himself resolved to call Parliament," and had given orders "to the Lord Keeper to issue "writs, so that Parliament should be assembled by "the 3rd of November." He then asked their advice and assistance how to deal with the Scots, and how to maintain his own army till Parliament met. It was agreed that a treaty should be set on foot, and Commissioners on the part of the King were appointed to meet those named by the Scots at Ripon. The treaty agreed to by the King's Commissioners was more favourable to the Scotch than to the English army. The Scots demanded the payment of their army, and the English Commissioners allowed a larger sum for their maintenance than that assigned for the same purpose to the King; 200,000l. was to be borrowed in the city, to be repaid out of the first grant by Parliament. For this temporary cessation of hostilities the Commissioners were to adjourn to London to complete the treaty, and thither the King and his Lords also repaired. The King was so little satisfied with his Commissioners, that he looked forward to the Parliament as being more jealous of his honour" than they had been. On the 3rd of November Parliament met. It Nalson's Coll., vol. i. p. 442. 2 Lord Clarendon greatly attributes the favourable disposition of the English Commissioners towards the Scotch to their being quite uninformed as to the laws and customs of that kingdom, by which only was the opening of that long eventful chapter of our history from which the great lessons of constitutional government are to be gathered; where the Prince was taught too late how fatal to himself it was to exceed the limits of prerogative; where the people learnt how dangerous to their liberty it became to usurp as privileges the sovereign power. The King had weakened the Crown by the abuse of its influence: the use of its authority was afterwards wanting to redress the balance which had been disturbed. He had leaned on the vicious support of prerogatives that, whilst they seemed to add strength to the throne, destroyed its healthy vigour. The skilful hand of the reformer could now alone have saved its existence; but it was in no state to withstand those ruder attacks of revolution which its weakness provoked. The reform of grievances that were fast subverting the constitution was a task no less congenial to the principles of such men as Lord Falkland and Hyde than to those of Pym and Hampden; but a period was could they judge whether the King had exceeded his just power in the past transactions; and that, being dependent on the Scotch for information, they were indirectly influenced by their statements, as well as colouring of facts.-Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 288. This opinion does not, however, tally with the fact that, in addition to the sixteen Commissioners employed in making the treaty, six more were added "because the Commissioners, for their better proceeding and infor"mation, desired some such assistance to be present with them at the "treaty as were either versed in the laws of Scotland, or had been "formerly acquainted with the passages of this business." The following were named and appointed assistants by his Majesty, viz. Earl of Traquair, Earl of Morton, Earl of Lanerick, Mr. Secretary Vane, Sir Lewis Steward, and Sir John Burrough.-Rushworth, Coll., vol. iii. p. 1276. soon to arise when neither the conscientious royalist nor the honest patriot could have trod with unmixed satisfaction the path that he had chosen, or rather the path which events had forced upon his choice. The King, having been disappointed in the person he had wished to make Speaker of the House of Commons, prevailed on Mr. Lenthall, a lawyer, to fill that office. The Commons began actively to apply themselves to the business of the country. Much that had passed in the interval between the dissolution of the last short Parliament and the calling together of the present must have tended to produce the change described by Lord Clarendon. "The same men," says he, "who "six months before were observed to be of very mode"rate tempers and to wish that gentle remedies might be 66 66 applied, without opening the wound too wide, and exposing it to the air, and rather to cure what was amiss "than too strictly to make inquisition into the cause "and original of the malady, talked now in another "dialect both of things and persons." The first occasion. on which Lord Falkland seems to have addressed the House was on the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford of high treason on the 11th of November. This proposition was no sooner mentioned than, as Lord Clarendon states, "it found an universal approbation and "consent from the whole House, nor was there in all "the debate one person who offered to stop the torrent by any favourable testimony concerning the Earl's "carriage." Lord Falkland fully shared in the unfa Clarendon's 'Hist. of the Rebellion,' vol. i. p. 298. vourable opinion of Lord Strafford, and deeply felt the danger of his evil counsels: his private feelings were also enlisted against him, "from the memory of some "unkindnesses, not without a mixture of injustice, "from him towards his father," yet he was the only member of the House of Commons, who, when the proposition was made for the immediate accusation of High Treason," "desired the House to consider whether "it would not suit better with the gravity of their pro"ceedings first to digest many of those particulars which "had been mentioned, by a Committee, before they sent 66 up to accuse him, declaring himself to be abundantly "satisfied that there was enough to charge him." This honest desire that no point should be stretched to hasten the accusation of the Minister, whom he regarded not only as guilty of treasonable abuse of power in his public capacity, but also as a private enemy to his own family, shows that Lord Falkland was above the blindness of party spirit on a question of party struggle, and incapable of being influenced in his conduct against a public man on personal grounds. His suggestion was rejected by Mr. Pym, not on the ground of its being in itself objectionable, but on that of distrust of Lord Strafford's influence, fearing that, should he have access to the King, he might use his power to procure the dissolution of Parliament, in order to save himself from further proceedings. The sudden dissolution of former Parliaments, to avert an unwelcome interference with the favoured ministers, might readily account for the fear 3 'Clarendon's 'Hist. of the Rebellion,' vol. iv. p. 245. |