duties of his office. Although he had undertaken them with reluctance, he expressed, in a letter to his cousin Wandesford, his resolution to discharge them with fidelity: and, in the true spirit of a philosopher, he adds; " I will withal closely and quietly attend my own private fortune, repairing and settling it with innocent hands, moderate and regulated desires, and so repose myself upon the goodness of the Almighty, that doth not only divert the scourges of an adversary, but doth even convert them into health and soundness. Can there be a fairer, or fuller revenge ? Insanos feri tumultus ridere. Is there any state or condition so safe, more to be recommended? Virtusvitæ tacitos beatæ Rure secreto, sibi nota tantùm, Exigit annos. Yet do I lament, sadly lament, the miseries of these times; being reduced to such a prostration of spirit, as we are neither able to overcome the exulcerated disease, nor to endure a sharp prevalent remedy." Still, however, he offered up his prayers for the success of the patriots, though precluded from rendering them other assistance; for he was determined never to contend with the prerogative out of a parliament.' At this period Buckingham, alarmed at the gathering storm, vouchsafed to repeat his overtures to the excluded senator; assuring him, that his nomination as Sheriff had taken place without his knowledge,' and entreating that all former mistakes might be buried in a contract of permanent friendship.' Wentworth met his advances with more cordiality than accompanied them for soon afterward, to his infinite surprise and indignation, he received, at a full meeting of the county over which he officially presided (with a view of aggravating the insult) his Majesty's order to re

sign his appointment of Custos Rotulorum to his old antagonist Savile. In terms of respectful submission and courteous loyalty, he endeavoured through his friend Sir Richard Weston, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to interest his Sovereign in his favour upon this occasion; but in vain.

Charles I. now ventured upon the new* and fatal experiment of commanding a general contribution, under the less invidious name of a 'Loan,' to be levied throughout the kingdom: and Commissioners

* The following extract from Archbishop Abbot's Narrative' strongly represents the general sentiments at that period: "For the matter of the Loan, I knew not a long time what to make of it. I saw, on the one side, the King's necessity for money, and especially it being resolved that the war should be pursued; and on the other side I could not forget, that in the parliament great sums were offered, if the petitions of the Commons might be hearkened unto. It ran still in my mind, that the old and usual way was best; that in kingdoms the harmony was sweetest, where the prince and the people tuned well together. It ran in my mind, that this new device for money could not long hold out; that then we must return into the highway, whither it were best to retire ourselves betimes, the shortest errors being the best. At the opening of the commission for the Loan, I was sent for from Croydon. It seemed to me a strange thing; but I was told that, howsoever it showed, the King would have it so, there was no speaking against it.' I have not heard, that men throughout the kingdom should lend money against their will; I knew not what to make of it. But when I saw the instructions, that the refusers should be sentaway for soldiers to the King of Denmark,' I began to remember Urias, that was set in the fore-front of the battle; and, to speak truth, I durst not be tender in it. And when afterward I saw that men were to be put to their oath, with whom they had conference, and whether any did dissuade them, and yet farther beheld that divers were to be imprisoned; I thought this was somewhat a new world." (Rushworth, I, 455.)

sworn to secrecy were instructed in the art of mingling menaces with persuasion. Still the measure experienced great resistance among all conditions and Wentworth was impelled, if not by patriotism and generosity, by feelings of resentment and of ambition (contrary to the hopes, and expostulations, of his nearest friends) to rank himself among it's most strenuous opposers. He was in consequence, in May 1627, first thrown into prison; and subsequently, as a mitigated punishment, sent to Dartford in Kent, with a prohibition to go above two miles from the town,

The unjustifiable quarrel however of Buckingham with France, and his disgraceful and disastrous prosecution of it, speedily led to a liberation from this qualified restraint. By the advice of Sir Robert Cotton, as Privy Councillor, writs were issued for a new parliament. Archbishop Abbot, Bishop Williams, the Earl of Bristol, and others were summoned to resume their seats; and the gentlemen who had been most steady in refusing the general Loan, released from their various places of confinement, were immediately returned by the grateful people, as the champions of their liberties, to the House of Commons. Among these, Wentworth was triumphantly re-elected for the County of York. In this parliament (of 1628) he farther signalised himself as a patriot, upon occasion of the inquiry made by the Commons into the grievances of the nation. Those grievances were the billeting of soldiers by the Lieutenants and their deputies, Loans by benevolences and privy seals, imprisonment of persons refusing to lend the King money, and denial

of release upon a Habeas Corpus. Those abuses, however (he observed) were to be imputed, not to the Sovereign, but to his ministers, who had extended the prerogative beyond the just symmetry, which maketh a sweet harmony of the whole. "They have brought the crown into greater want than ever," said he, "by anticipating the revenues. They have introduced a Privy Council, ravishing at once the spheres of all ancient government, destroying all liberty, imprisoning us without either bail or bond. They have taken from us-what shall I say? Indeed, what have they left us? By tearing up the roots of all property, they have taken from us every means of supplying the King, and of ingratiating ourselves by voluntary proofs of our duty and attachment.

"To the making whole all these breaches I shall apply myself; and to all these diseases shall propound a remedy. By one and the same thing have the people been hurt, and by the same must they be cured. We must vindicate-what? New things? No: our ancient, legal, and vital liberties; by reinforcing the laws enacted by our ancestors, by setting such a seal upon them as no licentious spirit shall hereafter dare to infringe. And shall we fear, by this proceeding, to put an end to parliament? No: our desires are modest, and just, and equally for the interest of the king and the people. If we enjoy not these rights, it will be impossible for us to relieve him."

Though he strongly pressed upon the Commons, however, that their grants should be preceded by the redress of grievances, they unanimously (at the instance, more especially, of Mr, Pym) voted a supply of

five subsidies to his Majesty.* At the same time they determined, to the great alarm of the King, to draw up for his sanction and signature a Declaration reciting the substance of those ancient and unrepealed statutes, which expressly protected the lives, liberty, and property of the subject, under the name of a 'Petition of Right.'t Unwilling to comply with their just wishes, he unwarily betrayed his reluctance, before the vote for the subsidies had passed into a law;

* "When informed of this unexpected liberality," says Macdiarmid, "Charles was sensibly affected. He had accustomed himself to look upon the Commons as the inveterate enemies of his power, as a clog intended only to impede and disorder the motions of his government. Yet amidst their loudest complaints of arbitrary measures, and their most bitter invectives against his obnoxious ministers, they had uniformly spoken of himself, not only with respect and loyalty, but with affection and esteem: and, though exasperated by his menaces, they had now hastened to remove those necessities, which all his own authority had failed to relieve. When the gracious reception which he gave to this instance of their duty was reported to them, they showed a jealousy of his honour beyond all his servile courtiers; and expressed their indignation, that the thanks of the Duke of Buckingham should be coupled with the approbation of their Sovereign."

† Yet Hume "It says, may be affirmed, without any exaggeration, that the King's assent to the Petition of Right produced such a change in the government, as was almost equivalent to a revolution; and by circumscribing, in so many articles, the royal prerogative, gave additional security to the liberties of the subject!" It is a pity, that he has not mentioned some of the novelties, which he seems to have discovered in this Petition. If there exist any such, they certainly escaped both the Parliament and the King at the time they were introduced. The Lords and Commons professed, that the Petition was merely the substance of certain ancient statutes,' nor was this allegation ever called in question by the Court. The statutes alluded to are either mentioned in the preamble, or cited in the margin.