upon him to take up the title of knighthood. Prynne, a barrister of Lincoln's inn, had written an enormous quarto of a thousand pages, which was entitled Histriomastix, or a Scourge for the Stage. In this, besides much paltry declamation against the stage, he took occasion to blame the ceremonies and late innovations of the church; and this was an offence that Laud was A. D. not likely to forgive. He was condemned by 1634. the Star-chamber to be degraded from the bar; to stand in the pillory, in two places, Westminster and Cheapside; to lose his ears, one at each place; to pay five thousand pounds to the king, and to be imprisoned during life. This sentence, which was equally cruel and unjust, was rigorously executed; and Prynne gloried in his sufferings. Burton, a divine, and Bastwick, a physician, were tried before this tribunal for schismatical libels, in which they attacked, with great severity and intemperate zeal, the ceremonies of the church of England. They were condemned to the same punishment that had been inflicted upon Prynne; and Prynne himself was also tried for a new offence, for which he was fined five thousand pounds more, and sentenced to lose the remainder of his ears. The answers which these bold demagogues gave into court, were so full of contumacy and invective that no lawyer could be prevailed with to sign them. The rigours, however, which they underwent, being so unworthy of men of their profession, gave general offence; and the patience, or rather alacrity, with which they suffered, increased still farther the public indignation.

The puritans, restrained in England, shipped themselves off for America, where they laid the foundations of a new government, agreeable to their systems of political freedom. But the government, unwilling that the nation should be deprived of its useful members, or

dreading the unpopularity of these emigrations, at length issued a proclamation, debarring these devotees from access even to those inhospitable regions. Eight ships, lying in the Thames, and ready to sail, were detained by order of council; and in these were embarked sir Arthur Haselrig, John Hampden, and Oliver Cromwell, who had resolved for ever to abandon their native country. This may stand as a proof of the sincerity these men afterwards testified in the cause for which they fought, and is a clear proof that hypocrisy, with which they were charged, in the beginning at least, was not among the motives of their opposition.

Every year, every month, every day, gave fresh instances, during this long intermission of parliaments, of the resolution of the court to throw them off for ever: but the levying of ship-money, as it was called, being a general burthen, was universally complained of as a national grievance. This was a tax which had, in former reigns, been levied without the consent of parliament; but then the exigency of the state demanded such a supply. As the necessity at present was not so apparent, and the impost might excite murmurs among the people, a question was proposed by the king to the judges, whether, in a case of necessity, for the defence of the kingdom, he might not levy this tax? and whether he was not sole judge of this necessity? To this the judges replied that he might; and that he was sole judge of the necessity. In this universal appearance of obedience to the king's injunctions, John Hampden, a gentleman of fortune in Buckinghamshire, refused to comply with the tax, and resolved to bring it to a legal determination. He had been rated at twenty shillings for his estate, which he refused to pay; and the case was argued twelve days in the Exchequer-chamber before all the judges of England. The nation regarded,

with the utmost anxiety, the result of a trial that was to fix the limits of the king's power: but, after the former opinion of the judges on this subject, the event might

A. D. have been easily foreseen. All the judges, four 1638. only excepted, gave sentence in favour of the crown; while Hampden, who lost his cause, was more than sufficiently recompensed by the applauses of the people. Nothing now was heard in every company but murmurs against the government, and encomiums on him who had withstood its usurpations. It was now alleged that tyranny was confirmed into system; and that there was no redress except in sullen patience or contented slavery. Ecclesiastical tyranny was thought to give aid to political injustice; and all the rights of the nation, transmitted through so many ages, secured by so many laws, and purchased by the blood of so many heroes, now lay prostrate in undistinguished neglect. In this universal state of despondence, or clamour, an accident gave the people of England an opportunity of vindicating their ancient privileges, and even of acquiring greater than it was compatible with the subjects' happiness to possess.

The Scots had, during the reign of James the First, shown a strong attachment to puritanical principles; and though they still continued to allow of bishops, yet they were reduced to poverty, and treated with contempt. James, indeed, had seen the low estate of episcopacy in that kingdom, and had endeavoured to exalt and establish it once more; but he died in the midst of his endeavours. It was the fate of Charles for ever to aim at projects which were at once impracticable and unnecessary; he resolved therefore to complete what his father had begun. This ill-judged attempt served to alienate the affections of his Scotish subjects, as much as his encroachments on liberty had rendered

him unpopular in England. The flame of sedition in Scotland passed from one town to another, while the puritans formed a Covenant, to support and defend their opinions, and resolved to establish their doctrines, or overturn the state. On the other hand, the king was determined to establish the liturgy of the church of England; and both sides being obstinate in opinion, those sanguinary measures were soon begun in Scotland, which had hitherto been only talked of among the English.

The discontent and opposition which Charles met with in maintaining episcopacy among his English subjects might, one would think, deter him from attempting to introduce it among those of Scotland; but such was his ardour, that he was resolved to have it established in every part of his dominions. When he had published an order for reading the liturgy in their principal church in Edinburgh, the people received it with clamours and imprecations. The court party, indeed, with great justice, blamed their obstinacy, as the innovations were but trifling; but the people might have retorted with still greater force the folly of their thus earnestly attempting the establishment of trifles. The seditious disposition in that kingdom, which had hitherto been kept within bounds, was now too furious for restraint, and the insurrection became general over the country.

Yet still the king could not think of desisting from his design; and so prepossessed was he in favour of royal right, that he thought the very name of king, when forcibly urged, would induce the people to return to their duty. But he was soon undeceived; the puritans of Scotland were republicans in principle as well as those in England; and they only wished to see the bishops first humbled, in order to make a more

successful attack upon unguarded monarchy. Charles therefore finding them in arms, and that they insisted on displacing the bishops, considered their demands as an open declaration of war; and accordingly summoned such of the nobility of England as held lands of the crown, to furnish him with a proper number of forces to oppose them. To add to these supplies, he demanded a voluntary contribution from the clergy, as he was in fact fighting their cause; and by means of his queen, the catholics were also pressed for their assistance. By these methods he soon found himself at the head of an undisciplined and reluctant army, A. D. amounting to about twenty thousand men, and 1639. commanded by generals less willing to fight than to negotiate. His superiority in numbers, however, gave him the manifest advantage over his rebellious subjects, who were no way slow in marching to give him battle. But Charles, who inherited the peaceable disposition of his father, was unwilling to come to extremities, although a blow then struck with vigour might have prevented many of his succeeding misfortunes. Instead of fighting with his opponents, he entered upon a treaty with them; so that a suspension of arms was soon agreed upon, and a treaty of peace concluded, which neither side intended to observe; and then both parties agreed to disband their forces. This step of disbanding the army was a fatal measure to Charles, as he could not levy a new army without great labour and expense; while the Scotish insurgents, who were all volunteers in the service, could be mustered again at pleasure. Of this the heads of the malcontents seemed sensible; for they lengthened out the negotiations with affected difficulties, and threw in obstructions in proportion as they were confident of their own superiority. At length, after much altercation, and many