and claimed, before making his payment, to have the legality of the demand fairly determined in the courts of law. This claim was so modestly urged, and was withal so manifestly reasonable, that compliance with it was hard to be avoided; and as this was the only secondary ground of objection that could be taken to the proceeding, it is probable that the government expected to gain additional strength by this means, the corrupt conduct of the judges with regard to this subject on a recent occasion rendering it highly probable that the decision would be in its favour.

During eleven days, this question was argued before the judges. No name was now so familiar to the people as that of Hampden, and the progress of the debate to which he had called their attention was watched with the most anxious solicitude by all parties. On the part of the crown, an appeal was made to the Anglo-Saxon tribute called Dane-gelt, and to other customs of the same remote date. But in reply, it was urged that our notices of such customs are much too imperfect and contradictory to admit of any plea being founded upon them. It was then shown, from the records of later times, that to obtain a requisite supply of shipping, the crown had often either pressed vessels into its service, or had compelled the ports, or the maritime counties, to provide them. But it was contended, that no precedent could be derived from such facts in favour of the present writs, which, instead of calling upon the sea-ports, or the counties forming the coast of the island, to provide shipping, called upon the whole kingdom to pay according to a certain assessment in money. It was further maintained on the side of the prerogative, that assuredly the king should be allowed to exact aids of this nature from his subjects in times of emergency, inasmuch as the time necessarily consumed in assembling a parliament, and obtaining assistance through that channel, might hazard the safety of the kingdom. To this favourite pretext it was sufficient to reply, that the present was manifestly no such crisis, since the writs themselves conceded that six months might be allowed to prepare the proposed navy-an interval affording ample room for the meeting and deliberations of a parliament. But the great argument of the popular advocates remained. There were statutes older than the race of our Stuart or Tudor princes, which declared that no Englishman should be taxed without his consent, and this leading maxim of the constitution had been confirmed in the plainest terms, and after the most solemn manner, in the Petition of Right.

The judges were perplexed, and employed themselves during three months in attempts to discover the means of escape from the difficulties which beset them. At the close of that period it appeared that seven were in favour of the crown, Croke and Hutton decided without qualification in favour of Hampden, towards whom the three remaining judges also inclined. The suspense which followed the discussion had not only augmented the interest of both parties, but had turned the scale much in favour of the popular cause, as it was natural to conclude that arguments so

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difficult to be disposed of by such authorities must have been constructed on a solid foundation. The court indeed proclaimed the decision, tardy and divided as it was, as a triumph. But the people judged of the question by the speeches of those who had argued upon it; and from this time were very generally satisfied, not only that the imposition laid upon them had been introduced without any real sanction from the laws, but that its object was by degrees to supersede all law on such matters. The question was, should the country in future be governed by an absolute or a limited monarchy-should there be a constitution including its representative and legislative assemblies, the ancient safeguards of freedom and property-or should it be thrust aside and trodden down by a mere band of courtiers, responsible to none save the master appointing them, and observant of no law save that of his pleasure? Charles did not mean to become a Nero, but the principles of government to which he would thus have given the permanence of custom and the force of law, are precisely those which have never failed to prepare the way for such specimens of paternal sovereignty. Men who saw this course of things, and had protested against it, now protested more loudly, and many who had wavered were in doubt no longer. Laud saw the injury done to the king's policy by this memorable debate, and bitterly deplored it *.

in the star

But what was wanting to the justice of the king's policy was supplied by his power, which, by means of the star-chamber, spread Proceedings its terrors in all quarters. Some examples of proceedings chamber. in that court must be introduced in this place. Alexander Leighton. Leighton, a native of Scotland, and a divine of respectable 1630. learning, dedicated a treatise to the last parliament, intitled Sion's Plea against Prelacy.' An examination of the treatise will show that Leighton's offence consisted in his bold censures of episcopal tyranny, in his calling upon the parliament to abolish the hierarchy, and in a somewhat rude allusion to Henrietta, as "a daughter of Heth," or a catholic. He represented the bishops as the main cause of so much mal-administration in the church and the state. This work was published in Holland, and had been very cautiously circulated in this country, a copy of it not being obtained for less than twenty shillings. On the dissolution of the parliament the author made some effort to suppress the obnoxious production, aware that by that event he was left exposed to the unchecked resentment of the court. But he was brought into the star-chamber, where his sentence was to pay a fine of 1000l., to be degraded from his office, to be publicly whipped,

The honour of being the first to call for this kind of judgment upon the question of ship-money belongs to the puritan merchant Richard Chambers. But his claim was disregarded. Rushworth, ii. 323. This was in 1636. Ibid., 325345, 352-364, 481-605, 725-730. Clarendon Papers, i. 49, 75, 83, 105–126; ii. App. xxvi. xxxii. Strafford's Letters, passim. State Trials, iii. 825-1316.

to stand in the pillory at Westminster, there to suffer the loss of one ear, to have one side of his nose slit, and his cheek branded with the letters S. S., meaning a sower of sedition. His sentence further required, that after a convenient time, by which was meant the time when his previous wounds should be in some measure healed, he should be again scourged, and again placed in the pillory, and after losing his remaining ear, and the remaining half of his nose being slit, his person should be committed to prison during life. Nor was the penalty in the least degree mitigated. But the fortitude of the sufferer marred the policy of his oppressors :-upon themselves it brought the execrations of the people, upon him the honours of martyrdom. The resolute bearing of this victim of intolerance appears to have been interpreted as a new crime, and, in consequence, when the scenes of public torture were ended, his imprisonment was made to be more miserable than his sentence required. No doubt Leighton had his portion of fanaticism, and he made no secret of his intolerance with regard to catholics, but these circumstances do little towards exonerating his persecutors *.

1632.

The prosecution of Leighton belongs to the year succeeding that in which the last parliament was dissolved, and in the year follow- Case of ing, the case of Prynne served to manifest still further the cha- Prynne. racter and purpose of the government. Prynne was a barrister of Lincoln's-inn, a man of a gloomy temper, immoveably conscientious, of studious habits, and possessing vast stores of learning. He sent forth a ponderous volume, in which he endeavoured to show that the theatre, and all similar amusements, were of the most pernicious tendency. The court, the prelates, and the common people, all, in their turn, were arraigned as offenders, and described as contributing to bring in licentiousness, heathenism, and ruin. It happened that six weeks after this book was given to the world, the queen performed a part in a mask at court, and the enemies of the writer were ingenuous enough to apply to that illustrious person the language which his book contained with respect to the general immorality of actresses. The tendency of the work was adjudged to be dangerous and seditious, and the author was sentenced to pay a fine of five thousand pounds, to be excluded from the bar and from Lincoln's-inn, to be degraded at Oxford, to stand in the pillory at Westminster and Cheapside, to lose his ears, to see his book committed to the flames by the hangman, and to be imprisoned during life; and this sentence was executed with relentless precision! Two years later, Prynne was again brought into the court of star-chamber in company with Bastwick and Burton-the former a physician, the latter a clergyman. While in his cell, Prynne had contrived to

* State Trials, iii. 385-387. Rushworth, ii. 55-58. This person was the father of the well known archbishop Leighton, whose works are so generally esteemed for their learning and piety. It is not true that he called upon the people to kill the bishops, as asserted by Heylin.

issue a tract, entitled "News from Ipswich," in which, with a violence equal to anything contained in his former publication, he charged the prelates with having devised and accomplished a multitude of innovations, all tending to suppress the doctrine of the gospel, and to favour the return of popery *.

Bastwick. 1635.

Bastwick did not content himself with assailing the conduct of the prelates, but maintained that the institution of bishops was altogether a human invention. In the opinion of his judges, his object was not so much to discuss principles, as to libel persons, that being regarded as the best method of throwing discredit on the government, and of spreading disorder through the kingdom. It was accordingly required that he should pay a fine of one thousand pounds, be suspended from his profession, be imprisoned two years, and make a recantation of his errors. The period of his confinement had nearly expired, when he contrived to send forth a second pamphlet ; but judging from its contents, his sufferings had by this time affected his brain, so extravagant is the language with which he assails everything prelatical f.

Burton.

Burton had been chaplain to Charles while prince of Wales, but had been suspended from his functions by the court of high commission, on account of a discourse which he published containing some of the complaints usually preferred by the puritans against the ruling clergy. He also published a vindication of that discourse, which was deemed more obnoxious than the discourse itself, and exposed him to additional penalties.

The information against these persons was prepared under the influence of Laud. Each came anxious to enter upon his defence; but as they had not been able to prevail on any two counsellors to appear in their behalf, there was a rule of the court which prevented their being heard. Their defence, had they been allowed to proceed with it, would have been far from availing them anything, as they had resolved on braving the utmost resentment of their enemies, by repeating, in the most resolute terms, the whole of the charges which they had publicly brought against them. Had they determined to pursue a more humble course, such was the terror which attended the proceedings of this court, that it is probable they would still have been obliged to appear without counsel, and would not only have fallen before it, but have fallen without a hearing. They were adjudged to pay fines much beyond their means of payment, to stand two hours in the pillory, to have their ears cut off, and to be imprisoned during life. While in the pillory, they made an animated appeal to the populace, who applauded their constancy, sympathized with their sufferings, and as the knife of the executioner was applied successively to their ears, expressed their

*Rushworth, ii. 220-240, 247-249.

State Trials, iii. 5C2, et seq. 711-770.

Ibid.

Different sentiments of the peo

ple and the in regard to these prose

government

sense of the barbarity and injustice of the deed by loud groans and hisses. The sufferers were afterwards conducted to separate prisons in the islands of Scilly, Guernsey, and Jersey;-the roads along which they passed being crowded with people, thousands vieing with each other to do them honour as martyrs in the cause of liberty and religion*. These expressions of popular sentiment should have taught the archbishop that the war which he had commenced had not so much to do with the extravagant mood of particular persons, as with principles and passions pervading a large mass of the community; and that unless the temper of this large class of minds could be changed, or the country be freed from them, the policy which he had adopted was not that from which tranquillity was to be expected. He did not, it seems, witness these things without alarm; but the only effect of his fear appears to have been a disposition to greater severity. The multitude who, in the rebellion of their hearts, had dared to manifest their sympathy with the culprits, could not well be brought under the lash of a state prosecution; but certain inhabitants of Chester, who had shown some hospitable attention to Prynne when passing through that city, were found to be within his reach. These were severally fined, from two hundred and fifty pounds to five hundred pounds each, and made to acknowledge their fault in the cathedral of York, and before the corporation and citizens of the town where their offence had been committed †.

cutions.

The effect of such proceedings was to extend that disaffection to the protestant hierarchy, which, from similar causes, had been directed against its predecessor. Religion was exhibited as divorced from justice and humanity, and as looking to wrong and cruelty for its principal means of defence. It must be remembered that the persons on whom the indignities above described were inflicted belonged to the several professions of law, medicine, and divinity. It had always been known that no rank could place an offender beyond the reach of the star-chamber; but it remained for the zeal of its present functionaries to show that it could dare to inflict the most degrading penalties on persons belonging to the most respectable classes of society. Regulations of still greater severity were now made to bind the press; and Laud, writing to Wentworth, expresses his confidence that "a little more quickness in the government would cure this itch of libelling, and something more that is amiss." He laments, however, that this increased vigour was hard to be infused into it. His correspondent is of the same judgment, and prays very devoutly that God of his grace may bestow the energy so much needed!

State Trials, iii. 711. et seq.

When the star-chamber pronounced its sentence on Prynne and his colleagues, Laud said much to show that it was "just and honourable," and gave thanks to those who, by agreeing to it, had shown their unanimity in defence of the church, and their hatred of its enemies. Ibid., 745.