LIH. NOTWITHSTANDING these reasons, the prejudiced CHA P. or prostituted judges, four excepted, gave fentence in favour of the crown K. Hambden, however, obtained by the trial the end, for which he had fo generously fa- 1637: crificed his fafety and his quiet: The people were rouzed from their lethargy, and became fenfible of the danger, to which their liberty was expofed. These national queftions were canvassed in every company; and the more they were examined, the more evidently did it appear to many, that liberty was totally fubverted, and an unusual and arbitrary authority exercifed over the kingdom. Slavish principles, they faid, concurred with illegal practices; ecclefiaftical tyranny gave aid to civil ufurpation; iniquitous taxes were fupported by arbitrary punishments; and all the rights of the nation, tranfmitted through fo many ages, fecured by fo many laws, and purchased by the blood of fo many heroes and patriots, now lay proftrate at the feet of the monarch. What though public peace and national industry encreased the commerce and opulence of the kingdom? This advantage was temporary, and due alone, not to any encouragement given by the crown, but to the spirit of the English, the remains of their antient freedom. What though the perfonal character of the king, amidst all his misguided counfels, might merit indulgence, or even praise? He was but one man; and the privileges of the nation, the inheritance I See State Trials: Article fhip-money, which contains the speeches of four judges in favour of Hambden. K The power of taxing themfelves is the undoubted and most important privilege of the people of England. The only apology which could be made for the king in impofing fhip-money, is derived from a topic which could not juftly be admitted by any court of judicature, that all the privileges. of the people were fo far fubordinate to royal prerogative, that in cafes of neceffi y they might lawfully be difpenfed with. Such a doctrine may be tolerable where the neceffity is fuppofed evident, extreme, and inevitable. But the king thought, that a lefs neceffity, if it proceeded from the obftinacy of the people, might warrant this extraordinary exertion of prerogative; a principle, it must be owned, very dangerous to national liberty, and fuch as no lawyer ought to be allowed to plead. Whatever, therefore, may be advanced in excufe for the king, nothing reafonable can be faid in favour of the judges. CHAP, inheritance of millions, were too valuable to be facriLIII. ficed to his prejudices and mistakes. Such, or more se vere, were the fentiments promoted by a great party in 1637. the nation: No excufe on the king's part, or alleviation, however reasonable, could be heakened to or admitted: and to redress these grievances, a parliament was impatiently longed for; or any other incident, however calamitous, that might fecure the people against those oppreffions, which they felt, or the greater ills, which they apprehended, from the combined encroachments of church and state, CHAP. Difcontents in Scotland.Introduction of the canons and -Difcon tents in England-Rout at Newburn.Treaty at Rippon. TH LIV. HE grievances, under which the English laboured, CHA P. when confidered in themselves, without regard to the conftitution, scarcely deserve the name; nor were they either burthenfome on the people's properties, or 1637. anywife fhocking to the natural humanity of mankind, Even the impofition of fhip-money, independent of the confequences, was rather an advantage to the public; by the judicious ufe which the king made of the money levied by that expedient. And though it was justly apprehended, that fuch precedents, if patiently fubmitted to, would end in a total disuse of parliaments, and in the establishment of arbitrary authority; Charles dreaded no oppofition from the people, who are not commɔnly much affected with confequences, and require fome ftriking motive, to engage them into a refiftance of established government. All ecclefiaftical affairs were settled by law and uninterrupted precedent; and the church was become a confiderable barrier to the power, both legal and illegal, of the crown. Peace too, industry, commerce, opulence; nay, even juftice and lenity of administration, notwithstanding fome few exceptions: All these were enjoyed by the people; and every other bleffing of government, except liberty, or rather the prefent exercise of liberty, and its proper fecurity '. It feemed probable, therefore, that affairs might long have continued on the fame footing in England, had it not been for the neighbourhood of Scotland; a country more turbulent, and lefs difpofed to fubmiffion and obedience. It was from thence the commotions first arose; and it is therefore time for us to return thither, and to give an account of the ftate of that kingdom. THOUGH Clarendon, p. 74, 75. May, p. 18. Warwick, p. 62. CHAP. 1637. Difen tents in Scotland. THOUGч the pacific, and not unfkilful government LIV. of James, and the great authority, which he had acquirwed, had much allayed the feuds among the great families, and had established law and order throughout the kingdom; the Scottish nobility were ftill poffeffed of the chief power and influence over the people. Their property was extenfive; their hereditary jurifdictions and the feudal tenures encreased their authority; and the attachment of the gentry to the heads of families established a kind of voluntary fervitude under the chieftains. Befides that long abfence had much loofened the king's connection with the nobility, who refided chiefly in their country-feats; they were, in general, at this time, though from flight causes, much difgufted with the court. Charles, from the natural piety or fuperftition of his temper, was extremely attached to the ecclefiaftics: And as it is natural for men to perfuade themfelves, that their intereft coincides with their inclination; he had established it as a fixed maxim of policy, to encrease the power and authority of that order. The prelates, he thought, eftablished regularity and difcipline among the clergy; the clergy inculcated obedience and loyalty among the people: And as that rank of men had no feparate authority, and no dependence but on the crown; the royal power, it would feem, might, with the greater fafety, be entrusted in their hands. Many of the prelates, therefore, he raised to the chief dignities of the ftate K. Spotfwood, archbishop of St. Andrews, was created chancellor: Nine of the bishops were privy counfellors: The bishop of Rofs afpired to the office of treafurer: Some of the prelates poffeffed places in the exchequer: And it was even endeavoured to revive the first inftitution of the college of juftice, and to fhare equally between the clergy and laity the whole judicial authority. Thefe advantages, poffeffed by the church, and which the bithops did not always enjoy with fuitable modefty, difgufted the haughty nobility, who, deeming themselves much fuperior in rank and quality to this new order of men, were difpleafed to find themfelves inferior in power and influence. Intereft joined it felf to ambition; and begot a jealousy, left the epifcopal fees, which, at the K Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 386. May, p. 29. L Guthry's LIV. the reformation, had been pillaged by the nobles, fhould CHA P. again be enriched at the expence of that order. By a most useful and beneficial law, the impropriations had already been ravished from the great men: Power had been 1637.. given to affign, to the impoverished clergy, competent livings from the tythes of each parish: And what remained, the proprietor of the land was impowered to purchase at a low valuation. The king likewise, warranted by antient law and practice, had declared for a general refumption of all crown lands, alienated by his predeceffors; and though he took no step towards the execution of this project, the very pretenfion to fuch power had excited jealoufy and discontent N. NOTWITHSTANDING the tender regard which Charles bore to the whole church, he had been able, in Scotland, to acquire only the affection of the fuperior rank among the clergy. The minifters, in general, equalled, if not exceeded the nobility, in their prejudices against the court, against the prelates, and against epifcopal authority. Though the establishment of the hierarchy might feem advantageous to the inferior clergy, both as it erected dignities, to which all of them might afpire, and as it bestowed a luftre on the whole body, and allured men of family into it; these views had no influence on the Scottish ecclefiaftics. In the present difpofition of men's minds, there was another circumstance, which drew confideration, and counterbalanced power and riches, the usual foundation of distinction among men; and that was, the fervour of piety, and the rhetoric, however barbarous, of religious lectures and difcourses. Checked by the prelates in the licence of preaching, the clergy regarded epifcopal jurifdiction both as a tyranny and an ufurpation, and maintained a parity among ecclefiaftics to be a divine privilege, which no human law could alter or infringe. While fuch ideas prevailed, the most moderate exercife of authority would have given difguft; much more, that extenfive power, which the king's indulgence encouraged the prelates to affume. The jurisdiction of prefbyteries, fynods, and other democratical courts, was, in a manner, abolished by the bishops; and the general affembly itself had not M King's declaration, p. 7. Franklyn, p. 611. declaration, p. 6. o Burnet, Mem. p. 29, 30. been N King's |