"concealed under water: and no human prudence, no human innocence, could teach me to avoid it, or save me "from the destruction with which I am at present threat❝ened.

66

66

"It is now full two hundred and forty years since treasons 66 were defined; and so long has it been since any man was "touched to this extent, upon this crime, before myself. "We have lived, my Lords, happy to ourselves at home; "we have lived gloriously abroad to the world let us he 64 content with what our fathers left; let not our ambition carry us to be more learned than they were, in these killing and destructive arts. Great wisdom it will be in your "lordships, and just providence for yourselves, for your pos"terities, for the whole kingdom, to cast from you into the fire, these bloody and mysterious volumes of arbitrary and "constructive treasons, as the primitive Christians did their "books of curious arts, and betake yourselves to the plain "letter of the statute, which tells you where the crime is, "and points out to you the path by which you may avoid it.

"Let us not, to our own destruction awake those sleep"ing lions, by rattling up a company of old records, which "have lain for so many ages by the wall, forgotten and ne

glected. To all my afflictions add not this, my lords, "the most severe of any; that I for my own sins, not for "my treasons, be the means of introducing a precedent so

66

pernicious to the laws and liberties of my native country. "These gentlemen at the bar, however, say they speak for "the commonwealth : and they may believe so: yet, under

favour, it is I who, in this particular, speak for the com"monwealth. Precedents like those which are endeavoured "to be established against me, must draw along with them "such inconveniencies and miseries, that in a few years, "the kingdom would be in the condition expressed in a "statute of Henry IV. no man shall know by what rule to "govern his words or actions.

VOL. III.

Rr

"Impose

"Impose not, my Lords, difficulties insurmountable upon "ministers of state, nor disable them from serving with "cheerfulness their king and country. If you examine "them, and under such severe penalties, by every grain, by every little weight, the scrutiny will be intolerable: the public affairs of the kingdom must be left waste; for no "wise man, who has any honour or fortune to lose, will "ever engage himself in such dreadful, such unknown "perils.

"My Lords, I have now troubled your lordships too "long; a great deal longer I should have done, were "it not for the interest of these dear pledges, which a saint "in heaven has left me. I should be loth"-Here his grief deprived him of utterance. He let fall a tear, pointed to his children, who were placed near him, and thus proceeded : "What I forfeit for myself is a trifle; but that my indis "cretion should forfeit for them, I confess, wounds me very "deeply. You will be pleased to pardon my infirmity" again dropping a tear. "Something I should have added, "but find I shall not be able, and therefore shall leave it. "And now, my Lords, I thank God, I have been, by his "good blessing, sufficiently instructed in the extreme vanity “of all temporary enjoyments, compared to the importance "of our eternal duration; and so, my Lords, even so, with "all humility, and with all tranqullity of mind, I submit, clearly and freely, to your judgments: and whether that "righteous doom shall be life or death, I shall repose myself "full of gratitude and confidence in the arms of the great "Author of my existence."

46

Certainly, says Whitlocke, never any man acted such a part, on such a theatre, with more wisdom, constancy, and eloquence with greater reason, judgment, and temper, and with a better grace in all his words and actions, than did this great and excellent person: and he moved the hearts fall his auditors, some few excepted, to remorse and pity. It it

60. Rushworth, vol. iv.

61. Mem. p. 43.

truly

truly remarkable, that the historian, who makes these candid and liberal observations, was himself chairman of that committee, which conducted the impeachment against this unfortunate nobleman!

The accusation and defence lasted eighteen days; and Strafford behaved with so much modesty and humility, as well as firmness and vigour, that the commons, though aided by all the weight of authority, would have found it impossible to obtain a sentence against him, if the peers had not been over-awed by the tumultuous populace. Reports were every day spread of the most alarming plots and conspiracies; and about six thousand men, armed with swords and cudgels, flocked from the city, and surrounded the two houses of parliament. When any of the lords passed, the cry for justice against Strafford resounded in their ears; and such as were suspected of friendship for that obnoxious minister, were sure to meet with menaces, accompanied with symptoms of the most desperate intentions in the furious multitude62. Intimidated by these threats, only forty-five, out of about eighty peers, who had constantly attended this important trial, were present when the bill of attainder was brought into the house, and nineteen of that number had the courage to vote against it63; a strong presumption that, if no danger had been apprehended, it would have been rejected by a considerable majority.

Popular violence having thus far triumphed, it was next employed to extort the king's consent. Crowds of people besieged Whitehall, and seconded their demand of justice on the minister, with the loudest clamours, and most open threatenings against the monarch. Rumours of plots and conspiracies against the parliament were anew circulated; invasions and insurrections were apprehended; and the whole nation was raised into such a ferment, as seemed to, portend some great and immediate convulsion. On which

62. Clarendon, vol. i.

63. Whitlocke, p. 43.

side soever the king turned his eyes, he saw no resource or security, except in submitting to the will of the populace. His courtiers, consulting their own personal safety, and perhaps their interest, more than their master's honour, advised him to pass the bill of attainder; the pusillanimous judges, when consulted, declared it legal: and the queen, who formerly bore no good will toward Strafford, alarmed at the appearance of so frightful a danger, as that to which the royal family must be exposed by protecting him, now became an importunate solicitor of his death. She hoped, if the people were gratified in this demand, that their discontents would finally subside; and that by such a measure, she should acquire a more absolute ascendant over the king, as well as some credit with the popular party. Bishop Juxon alone in this trying extremity, had honesty or courage to offer an opinion worthy of his prince : he advised him if, in his conscience, he did not think the prisoner criminal, by no means to give his assent to the bill64.

While Charles was all anxiety and irresolution, struggling between virtue and necessity, he received a letter from Strafford, intreating him for the sake of public peace, to put an end to the innocent life of his unhappy servant; and thus to quiet the tumultuous people, by granting them that request for which they were so clamorous. "In this," added he, << my consent will more acquit you to God, than all the "world can do besides; to a willing man there is no in

"A king of

private opi

64. Clarendon, vol. i. This opinion has been cavilled at. "England," it has been said, "ought never to interpose his "nion against the other parts of the legislature." If so, the royal assent is a matter of mere form; and perhaps in most cases, it ought to be so. But, in the present instance the king was surely the best judge, whether Strafford, as a minister, had advised the subversion of the constitution; or as an officer, had exceeded the extent of his commission: and, if he was blameable in neither capacity, Charles was surely bound, both in honour and conscience, to withhold his assent from the bill. The royal assent is not now necessary to bills of attainder; the jealousy of our constitution having cut off that, among other dangerous prerogatives.

jury

66

"jury65. And as, by God's grace, I forgive all the world, "with a calmness and meekness of infinite contentment to my dislodging soul; so to you, sir, I can resign the life of "this world with all imaginable cheerfulness in the just ac"knowledgment of your exceeding favours","

This illustrious effort of disinterestedness, worthy of the noble mind of Strafford, and equal to any instance of generosity recorded in the annals of mankind, was ill rewarded by Charles; who, after a little more hesitation, as if his scruples had been merely of the religious kind, granted a commission to four noblemen to give the royal assent, in his name, to the bill. These commissioners were also empowered, at the same time, to give assent to a bill, that the parliament then sitting should not be dissolved, prorogued, or adjourned, without the consent of the majority of the members67; a bill of yet more fatal consequence to his authority than the other, as it rendered the power of his enemies perpetual, as well as uncontroulable. But in the moment of remorse for assenting to the bill of attainder, by which he deemed himself an accomplice in his friend's murder, this enormous concession appears totally to have escaped his penetration, and to have been considered comparatively as a light matter.

The king might still have saved his minister, by granting him a reprieve; but that was not thought advisable, while the minds of men were in such agitation. He sent, however, by the hands of the prince of Wales, a letter addressed to the peers, in which he entreated them to confer with the commons about a mitigation of the prisoner's sentence, or at least to procure some delay. Both requests were rejected; and Strafford, finding his fate inevitable, prepared to meet death with the same dignity with which he had lived. In those awful moments of approaching dissolution, though

65. It appears, that the king had sent a letter to Strafford during his confinement, in which he assured him, upon the word of a king, that he should not suffer in life, honour, or fortune. Straffor's Letters, vol. ii. 66. Clarendon, vol. i. Rushworth, vol, v.

67. Id. ibid.

neither