The army next engaged his attention, as the key stone of the palace of despotism. His energetic measures restored it from a state of licentiousness and disorder, and supplied it with all necessary accoutrements and ammunition. He thought the sword might become the great peacemaker between the British and the natives, and enable Charles to mould England, as his deputy had done Ireland. He next sought by every conceivable resource to establish a permanent revenue. As to the customs, neither Pym nor his confederates could discover much to censure. These were now so well managed, that within four years, they rose from £12,000 to £40,000 Wentworth improved the method of collection, proper annum. tected the coasts, swept the seas of pirates, extinguished not a few of the worst monopolies, and 'lifted both commerce and shipping into 'a rich prosperity.' Not that tyranny or injustice had ceased to stand at his elbow.Money was to be had somehow-if justly, well -but if not, it was to be had no less. He now for instance 'imposed a license upon the retail of tobacco, and himself farmed 'the privilege for an annual rent of £7000, and finally of ' £12000. A tax also was laid upon brewing, by way of feeler for 'the introduction of the excise,-an object of mortal hatred with the 'Irish.' He then brought in the statutes of wills and uses, useful to the subject, and beneficial to the crown by augmenting the royal fines in the court of wards £10,000 a year. He established a mint, dug pits for saltpetre, worked the silver mines, sent the king an ingot of three hundred ounces, attempted marble quarries, and above all, the illustrious project of opening a victual trade between Galway and Spain! The culture and manufacture of hemp and flax were also proposed, together with the monopoly of salt; in order, as he wrote to Charles, that the island through its prosperity might fill his treasury, and also through its commercial pursuits forget to impede the crown, in its various schemes for rendering the people dependent. John Pym, as a recording angel, failed to note none of these things. The linens of Ulster, however, owe their origin to the deep designs of this unparalleled representative of royalty. In the fifth year of his administration, he was able to inform the ministry in London, that the annual revenues of Ireland exceeded her expenditure by no less an amount than £60,000. When we call to recollection that in 1633, his Majesty contrived to scrape together, from sources legal and illicit, an income of £800,000, and that it averaged from 1637 to 1641 £900,000 per annum, according to a parliamentary report drawn up after the restoration; it is obvious that had his wits been equal to his wickedness, the patriots might have been baffled after all, and no Long Parliament been heard of, until Pym had descended to his grave. The merit of this great man lay in preserving his integrity, when others lost sight of theirs; in watching, when others were at least slumbering, if not

sleeping; in estimating, with precision and foresight, the real position of his country towards the sovereign, and of the court towards the country; in never losing heart or hope, but that an end would come at last; and in turning to account every opportunity however minute, which might benefit the cause of freedom, or accelerate its rescue through writs being once more issued from the Hanaper office!

That dreaded crisis was a spectre, which every now and then haunted the king, especially after Hampden had resisted the payment of ship money, and earned an immortal name. Pym was in close converse with him throughout the glorious trial. But other matters also crowded upon him. Laud was performing his merciless task in England, as Wentworth and Hamilton were working out theirs in Ireland and Scotland. The archbishop was a mean and pusillanimous specimen of a sacerdotal courtier. Supple as an osier, when pliancy would ensure success, he suffered both his intellect and dispositions to grow harder as he got rich, potent, and old. Zeal for his order, engrafted upon a selfish heart, rendered him peculiarly excitable against the puritans, or those who favoured them. It has been correctly observed by an able polemic, that the smaller the lens, the stronger is its magnifying power; just as the narrower the mind, so the greater is its 'magnifying faculty towards objects it dislikes.' Nothing indeed contracts its dimensions like religious prejudices and controversial antipathies. Hence he lived to be as cruel as a familiar of the inquisition, before the fangs of persecution struck into his own soul. He wanted Felton to have been stretched upon the rack. He gloated over the agonies of Leighton under the shears of the executioner. Rome proffered him her purple: but the world, the flesh, and the devil for once refused the cardinalate. Yet he willingly accepted from Oxonian sycophancy the fulsome titles of Holiness, High Priest, and Archangel. Prelacy was the Alpha and Omega of his creed, his darling, his idol, his all in all. He would have extended its dominion from pole to pole, had it been possible, without a scruple at using the temporal sword, or allowing a harem of wives to the laity, if the clergy would but have consented to live alone! He banished the very name of toleration from England, until presbyterianism smote episcopacy; nor was it in truth much better then, until Independency unfurled its banner. It would have soothed his soul, within sight of the block itself, could he but have anticipated what is now going forward in his favourite university. He gave no quarter at his episcopal visitations, which were dreaded by every priest or deacon conscious of any practical attachment to spiritual, rather that formal religion. A refusal to attend divine service in the parish church, was in 'all persons, without exception, punished in the first instance by 'fine, and on repetition of such absence, by transportation.

VOL. VI.

L

Roman recusants, indeed, were allowed to compound for these 'penalties by a heavy annual payment; and the celebration of 'mass, though illegal, was connived at; but no similar indulgence 'was extended to the devotional services of protestant dissenters.' Lecturers were peremptorily silenced; domestic chaplains were punished by degradations, too happy to escape with their ears. Wharton after his cruel whipping and mutilation scattered pamphlets from the pillory, and harangued the multitudes. Orders came down from the archbishop in star-chamber that he should be gagged immediately. Bastwick, Burton, Lilburne, and Balmerino at Edinburgh, all bled like ancient martyrs, under their croppings and flagellations! Had Laud any tears of compassion for his fellow-creatures? So far from it, that we find him sending off whining complaints to Wentworth that these 'fellows should 'be suffered (as they sometimes were when not gagged) to talk 'what they pleased while they stood in the pillory, and win accla'mations from the people, and have notes taken of what they 'spake, and those notes spread in written copies about the city, ' and that when they went out of town to their several imprison'ments, there were thousands suffered to be upon the way to take 'their leave, and God knows what else!'

Time and fate, however, soon pressed in hard upon the government of Charles. Driven to the close of every expedient, his last hope centered in the lord deputy of Ireland, and the capacity and vigour of Wentworth had now twice restored the court finances, and paid the king's debts. Ruin again impended, when Laud, as if to dash at once into the gulf, made a desperate attempt to impose the yoke of the common prayer book upon the Scotch people. A fool might have seen the result, and indeed one fool did see it, and was whipped for his folly. I do not know that it has been remarked before, but the disgrace of the famous Archy, the jester of Charles the First, took place at this time. Archy is fallen into a great misfortune,' writes a contemporary, a fool he would be, but a foul-mouthed knave he hath 'proved himself: being in a tavern in Westminster, and drunk as he says, he was speaking of the Scottish business, when falling to rail on 'my lord of Canterbury, he said he was a monk, a rogue, and a traitor. Of this his grace complained at council, the king being present; when it was ordered, that he should be carried to the porter's lodge, have his coat pulled over his ears, and be kicked out of the court, never to enter again within the gates; and moreover be called into the Star Chamber."'—p. 83.

But the fact was that the cup of national grievances began to overflow. The instance of the Ulster plantations engendered many seeds of abhorrence almost against monarchy itself, within Temple Bar. It was a case of naked robbery. The crown seized these possessions which belonged to the city; the latter,

rather than resist, threw a sop to the royal oppressor of £70,000, upon the understanding that the lord mayor and aldermen should henceforward remain undisturbed. Charles quietly pocketed the bribe, but carried forward the process, as if nothing had happened, and retained his enormous plunder. Valuable as it no doubt proved, he found it at last a sort of Naboth's vineyard-too dearly purchased. Pym declared, as late in the civil war as Waller's engagement, that within the walls of London, as circumstances then and afterwards demonstrated, for one wishing 'writing well to the king and royalists, there were three against 'them.' The metropolis told more then upon general public opinion, than it does now. No marvel that thousands of the middle classes felt for their swords. Many among the aristocracy had shared in the spoils, and indulged sundry cachinnations at the idea of plebeian scoundrels aspiring to become politicians and gentlemen. Yet in 1639, a vast mass of monopolies were called in and annulled. Scotland as we have seen, commenced the strife; for in that land John Knox had dropt his robe of fearlessness, when his stern, but truthful soul ascended to its reward. The prosecution of Lord Balmerino, the advancement of the prelacy to participation in secular power, the offensive compilation of canons and a liturgy for the churches, stirred up the spirits of men at Edinburgh and Glasgow. Tumults in those places, to suppress which the crown had very trifling means at command, led gradually, through the regal obduracy and blindness, to the institution of the Four Tables, as they were termed, and the Solemn League and Covenant. The former were deputations representing the different interests of the nobility, clergy, gentry, and burghers of North Britain; all loud and unanswerable in their demands for the withdrawal of the late obnoxious measures, the abolition of the High Commission, a restriction of episcopal arrogance, the restoration of the privileges of assemblies, and the convention of a parliament. When their commissioners appeared in London, Pym, together with Hampden, and lords Essex, Bedford, Holland, and Say, forthwith joined them. Wentworth, Laud, and Hamilton, also met together at Whitehall, when a war was resolved on against the refractory covenanters. As the exchequer would want supplies, the first proposed a loan, subscribing himself the enormous contribution of £20,000, by way of example to encourage others. As if this were not enough, he pledged himself to bring over from Ireland large subsidies, if his majesty would call a parliament there. The ice thus broken, after a lapse of twelve years, it was further resolved to summon one in England also. Wentworth was created Earl of Strafford; and on the 3rd of April, 1640, the king opened the session in person. It must never be forgotten, that before he had consented to issue the writs, he had put a

question to his ministers, whether upon the restiveness of the house of Commons, they would consent to assist him by extraordinary ways? Laud, Nixon, Wentworth, Hamilton, Cottington, Vane, and Windebanke assented, and a vote was passed to that effect.

Pym by common assent assumed the leadership of the country party in this parliament. He proved himself the concentrated essence of all the folios of precedent which had ever been compiled at Westminster. With Hampden by his side he had ridden through several of the counties, previous to the elections, to organize suitable returns, and promote petitions upon such points as might be really useful. Charles was as ungracious as a monarch could well be; nor were his representatives in the lower house more prudent. The member for Tavistock opened the campaign in an oration of two hours, which may be described as a prologue to the subsequent struggle. He expatiated with mingled skilfulness and eloquence on the three grand classes of grievances, as they affected parliament,-religion, and the liberty of the subject. The effect of this speech was so extraordinary throughout England, that it has been made matter of grave comment with nearly every historian of the period. Abbreviated copies of it were taken down and circulated, says May, 'with great greediness;' for in truth it sounded as the cry of freedom vindicating her rights, and agonizing to get loose from the grasp of the oppressor. The lords then passed two resolutions, at the earnest request of his majesty, declaring that supplies ought to precede a redress of abuses; which notable motions John Pym forthwith presented to the Commons as a gross breach of privilege. His own house nobly supported him; and he had the pleasure of being shortly sent up to the bar of the Peers, with an address, requesting their lordships for the time to come to take no notice of any thing debated by the Commons, until they should themselves declare the same to the upper house. Pym moreover delivered his mes sage with not a few dignified but forcible expressions, which might have opened the eyes of acute observers as to the altering position of parties. The patriot received thanks on his return for the 'good service he had done;' but Charles demanding by message whether the Commons would vote money or not,-a question followed up by a proposition from the treasurer for twelve subsidies, in consideration of which the sovereign should surrender his right to ship-money,-protracted discussions arose, which terminated in a hasty dissolution. From the ashes of this quarrel emerged the Long Parliament.

Pym now felt that one effort more only was necessary to secure his object. His labours multiplied with the demands of the occasion for indeed the prize was within reach, or at least was clearly discerned by those who could peruse the signs of the times. He