The king was afterwards finally conducted to Hampton-court.-Miss Aikin next invites us to the ever memorable scenes which took place at Carisbrook Castle, where Charles, a prisoner, still showed that fatal partiality to bad faith which mainly contributed to his downfal. Here the whole time, which he could spend as he might think fit, was devoted to intrigues and plans for securing his escape from the country. A curious fact transpires in this account, which fully demonstrates the nature of the influence still held by the delusive doctrines of astrology. We find the king expressly retaining the diviner Lilly, to direct him in the course which he should pursue, and the latter regularly consulted the stars, made his figure in accordance with his observations, and gave in his report to the king accordingly. From Carisbrook Castle, it is well known, that Charles was subsequently removed to Hurst Castle, near Southampton, where he was kept a close prisoner. He was next conducted to Windsor, on the road to which he attempted an unsuccessful escape, the plan of which had been previously projected. It appeared to have been concerted by his majesty, that he should stop at Bagshot, at the lodge where his confidential friends, Lord and Lady Newburgh, then resided; that, under pretence of his horse being lamed, he should be placed on another, furnished at Bagshot, and that this should be a swift footed animal, which would speedily enable him to distance his escort through the bye tracts of the forest, with which the king was so familiar. But the plan failed, and the king was safely placed in the custody of the governor of Windsor. On the day of his arrival there, the House of Commons, whose proceedings were urged on with the utmost importunity by the army, appointed a committee to draw up a charge against the king, and all other delinquents "that it may be thought fit to bring to condign punishment." An ordinance was then prepared for attainting his majesty of high treason, and trying him by commissioners. The charge against him was substantially"That he, Charles Stuart, hath acted contrary to his trust, in departing from his parliament, setting up his standard, and making a war against them, and thereby been the occasion of much bloodshed and misery to the people whom he was set over for good: that he gave commissions to Irish rebels, and since was the occasion of a second war; besides what he has done contrary to the liberties of the subject, and tending to the destruction of the fundamental laws and liberties of this kingdom."

A high court of justice was then constituted for the trial of Charles, and the ordinance which contained the accusations, and some resolutions declaring that it was treason for the king to levy war against the parliament and kingdom, were sent to the upper house. Twelve peers only were assembled, but they rejected the ordinance without a division. In the meantime, the king laughed at the idea of a trial, and the Earl of Leicester, in his journal, describes his majesty at Windsor as merry as usual; it is even re

corded, that so little did he anticipate the real result which followed, that after the commissioners were appointed, his majesty actually gave an order for the sowing of some Spanish melon seeds at Wimbledon. The Commons, seeing themselves abandoned by the Lords, turned the house into a grand committee, to take into consideration the nature and extent of their own powers. After much discussion, they came to the conclusion, that the people, under God, are the original of all just power; that the Commons House, being chosen by, and representing the people, have the supreme authority of the nation; also, "That whatsoever is enacted and declared law by the Commons of England assembled in parliament, hath the force of law, and all the people of this nation are concluded thereby, although the consent and concurrence of the king and House of Peers be not had thereunto."

It was on the 20th of January, 1649, that Charles, after having been brought from Windsor to St. James's Palace the night before, was conducted to Westminster Hall, there to undergo a judicial proceeding, such as was, up to that time, unprecedented in the history of the world. The number of the commissioners who were assembled on the occasion consisted of eighty out of the one hundred and fifty who had been appointed. Serjeant Bradshaw, described as an able and accomplished lawyer, acted as president, and on each side of him sat Lisle and Say, two members of the same profession. The royal prisoner was brought in a sedan chair, and placed before the bar on a velvet chair. He looked sternly about on the multitude present, and did nothing that indicated the slightest respect for the court; but his attention was soon fixed by the president, who rose, and in a solemn voice pronounced these words: "Charles Stuart, king of England: The Commons of England, being deeply sensible of the calamities that have been brought upon this nation, which are fixed upon you as the principal author of them, have resolved to make inquisition for blood; and, according to that debt and duty they owe to justice, to God, the kingdom, and themselves, they have resolved to bring you to trial and judgment, and for that purpose have constituted this high court of justice before which you are brought."

When the president concluded, the advocate for the Commonwealth, Mr. Cook, rose to state the case against the king, and when the latter saw what he was about to do, he stretched out a staff which he held, and laying it on Mr. Cook's shoulder two or three times, desired him to "hold." But the president ordered the advocate to go on, and at his request the accusation was read. When the officer who read the charges came to pronounce "Charles Stuart to be a tyrant and traitor," the royal prisoner, who till then stood up frequently, and gazed on the guards and spectators with great sternness, began to laugh as he sat down.

When the proceedings on the part of the accusers were ended, the president called on "Charles Stuart" for what he had to say in

his defence. His majesty replied, that he questioned their authority to try him, that he was their lawful king, having obtained his title as a trust committed to him by God, and by old and lawful descent. When the president told him that he was required to answer, in the name of the people of England, of whom he was elected king, Charles replied, that England was never an elective monarchy, but that it descended by hereditary right for nearly a thousand years; and as he persisted in this line of argument, the court thought it prudent to adjourn its proceedings. It was remarked as an ominous accident, that when the charge was reading against him, the head of his staff fell off; he looked at it in surprise, and seeing nobody about to take it up, he was under the necessity of stooping for it himself. Repeated adjournments took place afterwards, the king still obstinately questioning the authority of the tribunal, and desiring to be permitted to plead his own cause before the two houses of parliament. At last, the court gave peremptory instructions to the president to declare the final sentence a direction which was complied with in such a manner as to have a manifest effect in placing the guilt of the king in a clear light. The president, in his solemn address, informed Charles, that it was perfectly plain that he had acted on erroneous principles, and had even, by his own avowal, admitted that he considered himself in no manner subject to the law, and that, therefore, he held himself superior to it. But the contrary, he ought to have known, was the principle of the people of England, who always understood that the law was superior to the monarch, and that he was bound imperatively to rule in strict accordance with the law:

I know very well (observed the president) your pretence hath been that you have done so but, Sir, the difference hath been, who shall be the expositors of this law: whether you and your party out of the courts of justice shall take upon them to expound law, or the courts of justice who are the expounders ;-nay, the sovereign and high court of justice, the parliament of England, that are not only the highest expounders, but the sole makers of the law. Sir, for you to set your single judgment and those who adhere unto you, against the high court of justice, that is not law. As the law is your superior, so truly, Sir, there is something that is superior to the law, that is indeed the parent or authority of the law, and that is, the people of England. For as they are those that at the first did choose to themselves this form of government, even for justice sake, that justice might be administered, that peace might be preserved; so, Sir, they gave the laws to their governors according to which they should govern; and if these laws should have proved inconvenient, or prejudicial to the public, they had a power in them, and reserved to themselves to alter them as they shall see cause.... The end of having kings or any other form of government, is for the enjoyment of justice. Now, Sir, if so be that the king will go contrary to the end of his government, he must understand that he is but an officer in trust, and he ought to discharge that trust, and they are to take order for the animadversion and punishment of such an

offending governor. This is not the law of yesterday, Sir, since the time of the division betwixt you and your people, but it is law of old, And we know very well the authorities that do tell us what the law was on that point upon the election of kings, upon the oath that they took unto their people. And if they did not observe it, there were those things called parliaments; the parliaments were they that were to adjudge (the very words of the authority,) the plaints and wrongs done of the king and the queen, or their children; such wrongs especially when the people could have nowhere else any remedy. That hath been the people of England's case; they could not have their remedy anywhere but in parliament.

"Sir, I speak these things the rather to you, because you were pleased to let fall the other day, that you thought you had as much law as most gentlemen in England. It is very well, Sir, and truly it is fit for the gentlemen of England to understand that law under which they must be governed. And then the scripture says, "They that know their master's will and do it not.'-What follows? The law is your master, and the acts of parliament."-vol. ii. pp. 590-592.

In this strain the president proceeded to show to the reluctant Charles, that he had completely realised the description given of his deeds by the charge, and that he must be truly accounted at once as a tyrant, who sought to establish an arbitrary government; a traitor who had broken the trust which was reposed in him by his superiors, the kingdom; and a murderer, because all the sanguinary murders, all the shocking outrages perpetrated in the late wars must be traced to him alone. "Sir," said the president, in concluding his solemn address," you said to us the other day, you • wished us to have God before our eyes: truly, Sir, I hope all of us have so; that God that we know is a king of kings and lord of lords; that God with whom there is no respect of persons; that God that is the avenger of innocent blood. We have that God before us that does bestow a curse upon them that withhold their hands from shedding of blood; which is in the case of guilty malefactors, and that do deserve death: that God we have before our eyes. And were it not that the consequence of our duty hath called us to this place and this employment, Sir, you should have had no appearance of a court here; but, Sir, we must prefer the discharge of our duty unto God and unto the kingdom before any other respect whatsoever; and although at this time many of us, if not all of us, are severely threatened by some of your party what they intend to do, we do here declare that we shall not decline or forbear the doing of our duty in the administration of justice even to you, according to the merit of your offence, although God should permit these men to effect all that bloody design in hand against us. He concluded by urging the example of David's repentance on the king's imitation.

Here we close our eyes on the melancholy scene which followed, and the details of which are so familiarly remembered by every reader of English history. Miss Aikin has shown throughout the VƆL. II. (1833) No. IV.

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deeply interesting narrative, a clear judgment, carefully directed by an impartiality which is strictly judicial. Nor are the literary merits which these volumes present, unworthy of the dignity and importance which are sustained uniformly throughout the style of Miss Aikin is beautifully simple, without the slightest deviation into carelessness or affectation; and possessing strength, grace, and freedom, it is modified with the most exact attention to the exigencies and proprieties of every varying occasion.

ART. II.-A Subaltern's Furlough, descriptive of Scenes in various parts of the United States, Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, during the Summer and Autumn of 1832. By E. COKE, Esq., Lieutenant of the 45th Regiment. With Illustrations. 1 vol. large 8vo. London: Saunders and Otley. 1833.

It is so very recently that we have devoted to American affairs a considerable portion of each successive number of this journal, that we had made up our minds to concede some breathing time to our readers as well as to ourselves, during which they might obtain relief from what we must believe to have been in some measure a monotonous employment. We were fully under the influence of this determination when the present volume was placed in our hands. We had proceeded but a very short way through its contents, when we found quite sufficient reason to alter our previous resolution, for we felt that we should have seriously violated our own sense of duty were we to delay our assistance in placing before the British public, testimony in favour of the cause of truth, which may owe a great deal of its good effects to the promptitude with which it is diffused. The volume before us is the production of an impartial mind, which is evidently guided by a paramount love of truth, and is happily so trained and endowed as to be capable of decking it with the fairest chances of success. A generous forbearance, which is, by the way, an essential ingredient in the character of every description of critic, whatever be the objects of his inquiry, marks the pages of the present author; and this, with the very creditable sentiments which he displays, prove only how worthily he sustains his moral rank as a generous and high-minded British soldier.

Mr. Coke, in the course of the summer of 1832, having some leisure on his hands, and some honest ambition in his mind, and withal not being quite satisfied with the very contradictory accounts which he was accustomed to read at home of the Americans, took the gallant resolution of making an examination with his own eyes. He entered the United States on its southern side, and the first observation which he makes on the general subject of the peculiarities of the people, are made on his visit to Philadelphia. In