remained in confinement many years afterwards, and at last suffered for this offence, which was never proved.

This mercy, shown to those supposed delinquents, was very pleasing to the people; and the king, willing A.D. to remove all jealousy of his being a stranger, 1604. began his attempts in parliament by an endeayour to unite both kingdoms into one. However, the minds of the people were not yet ripe for this coalition; they were apprehensive that the posts and employments, which were in the gift of the court, would be conferred on the Scots, whom they were as yet taught to regard as foreigners. By the repulse in this instance, as well as by some exceptions the house of commons took to the form of his summons to parliament, James found that the people he came to govern were very different from those he had left behind, and perceived that he must give reasons for every measure he intended to enforce.

He now, therefore, attempted to correct his former mistake, and to peruse the English laws, as he had formerly done those of his own country; and by these he resolved to govern. But even here he again found himself disappointed. In a government so fluctuating as that of England, opinion was ever deviating from law; and what was enacted in one reign was contradicted by custom in another. The laws had all along declared in favour of an almost unlimited prerogative, while the opinions of the people were guided by instructors who began to teach opposite principles. All the kings and queens before him, except such as were controlled by intestine divisions, or awed by foreign invasion, rather issued their commands to parliament than gave their reasons. James, unmindful of this alteration in the opinions of the people, resolved to govern in the ancient manner; while the people, on the contrary, having once

gotten an idea of the inherent privileges of mankind, never gave it up, sensible that they had reason and power also on their side.

Numberless were the disputes between the king and his parliament during this reign; the one striving to keep the privileges of the crown entire, the other aiming at abridging the dangerous part of the prerogative; the one labouring to preserve customs established for time immemorial, the other equally assiduous in defending the inherent privileges of humanity. Thus we see laudable motives actuating the disputants on both sides of the question, and the principles of both founded either in law or in reason. When the parliament would not grant a subsidy, James had examples enough among his predecessors, which taught him to extort a benevolence. Edward the Fourth, Henry the Eighth, and queen Elizabeth herself, had often done so; and precedent undoubtedly entitled him to the same privilege. On the other hand, the house of commons, who found their growing power to protect the people, and not suffer the impositions of the crown, considered that this extorted benevolence might at length render the sovereign entirely independent of the parliament, and therefore complained of it, as an infringement of their privileges. These attempts of the crown, and these murmurings of the commons, continued through this whole reign, and first gave rise to that spirit of party which has ever since subsisted in England; the one for preserving the ancient constitution, by maintaining the prerogative of the king, the other for trying an experiment to improve it, by extending the liberties of the people.

During these contests, James, who supposed no arguments sufficient to impair the prerogative, seemed entirely secure that none would attempt to allege any. He continued to entertain his parliament with set

speeches and florid harangues, in which he urged his divine right and absolute power as things incontestable: to these the commons made as regular answers, not absolutely denying his pretensions, but slowly and regularly abridging his power.

However, though James persevered in asserting his prerogative, and threatened those who should presume to abridge it, yet his justice and clemency were very apparent in the toleration which he gave to the teachers of different religions throughout the kingdom. The minds of the people had long been irritated against one another, and each party persecuted the rest, as it happened to prevail: it was expected, therefore, that James would strengthen the hands of that which was then uppermost, and that the catholics and sectaries should find no protection. But this monarch wisely observed, that men should be punished for actions, and not for opinions; a decision which gave general dissatisfaction; but the complaint of every sect was the best argument of his moderation towards all.

Yet mild as this monarch was, there was a project contrived in the very beginning of his reign for the reestablishment of popery, which, were it not a fact known to all the world, could scarcely be credited by posterity. This was the gunpowder plot; than which a more horrid or terrible scheme never entered into the human heart to conceive; and which shows at once that the most determined courage may be united with the most execrable intentions.

The Roman catholics had expected great favour and indulgence on the accession of James, both as a descendant from Mary, a rigid catholic, and also from his having shown some partiality to that religion in his youth. But they soon discovered their mistake, and were at once surprised and enraged to find James on all

occasions express his resolution of strictly executing the laws enacted against them, and of persevering in the conduct of his predecessor. This declaration determined them upon more desperate measures; and they at length formed a resolution of destroying the king and both houses of parliament at a blow. The scheme was first broached by Robert Catesby, a gentleman of good parts and ancient family, who conceived that a train of gunpowder might be so placed under the parliamenthouse, as to blow up the king and all the members at once. He opened his intention to Thomas Percy, a descendant from the illustrious house of Northumberland, who was charmed with the project, and readily came into it. Thomas Winter was next intrusted with the dreadful secret; and he went over to Flanders in quest of Guy Fawkes, an officer in the Spanish service, with whose zeal and courage the conspirators were thoroughly acquainted. When they enlisted any new zealot into their plot, the more firmly to bind him to secrecy, they always, together with an oath, employed the sacrament, the most sacred rite of religion.. Every tender feeling, and all pity, were banished from their breasts ; and Garnet, a Jesuit, superior of the order in England, absolved their consciences from every scruple.

How horrid soever the contrivance might ap- A.D. pear, every member seemed faithful and secret 1605. in the league; and they hired a house in Percy's name, adjoining to that in which the parliament was to assemble. Their first intention was to bore a way under the parliament-house, from that which they occupied, and they set themselves laboriously to the task; but when they had pierced the wall, which was three yards in thickness, they were surprised to find, on approaching the other side, that the house was vaulted underneath, and that coals were usually deposited there. From

their disappointment on this account they were soon relieved, by information that the coals were in a course of sale, and that the vault would be then let to the highest bidder. They therefore seized the opportunity of hiring the place, and bought the remaining quantity of coals with which it was then stored, as if for their own use. The next thing done was to convey thither thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, which had been purchased in Holland; and the whole was covered with the coals and with faggots brought for that purpose. Then the doors of the cellar were boldly flung open, and every body admitted, as if it contained nothing dangerous.

Confident of success, they now began to plan the remaining part of their project. The king, the queen, and prince Henry, the king's eldest son, were all expected to be present at the opening of the parliament. The king's second son, by reason of his tender age, would be absent, and it was resolved that Percy should seize or assassinate him. The princess Elizabeth, a child likewise, was kept at lord Harrington's house, in Warwickshire; and sir Everard Digby was to seize her, and immediately proclaim her queen.

The day for the sitting of parliament now approached. Never was treason more secret, or ruin more apparently inevitable; the hour was expected with impatience, and the conspirators gloried in their meditated guilt. The dreadful secret, though communicated to above twenty persons, had been religiously kept during the space of near a year and a half; but, when all the motives of pity, justice, and safety, were too weak, a remorse of private friendship saved the kingdom.

Percy, one of the conspirators, had conceived a design of saving the life of lord Monteagle, his intimate friend and companion, who also was of the same persuasion with himself. About ten days before the meeting of