since he would be a king, as he could not live a private life, so neither could his vices be like those of a private person. For, in the first place, he did a great deal of mischief by his example: in the second place, all that time that he spent upon his lust and his sports, which was a great part of his time, he stole from the state, the government of which he had undertaken: thirdly and lastly, he squandered away vast sums of money which were not his own, but the public revenue of the nation, in his domestic luxury and extravagance. So that in his private life at home he first began to be an ill king. But let us rather pass over to those crimes “that he is charged with on the account of misgovernment.” Here you lament his being condemned as a tyrant, a traitor, and a murderer. That he had no wrong done him shall now be made appear. But first let us define a tyrant, not according to vulgar conceits, but the judgment of Aristotle, and of all learned men. He is a tyrant who regards his own welfare and profit only, and not that of the people. So Aristotle defines one in the tenth book of his Ethics, and elsewhere, and so do very many others. Whether Charles regarded his own or the people's good, these few things of many that I shall but touch upon, will evince. When his rents and other public revenues of the crown would not defray the expenses of the court, he laid most heavy taxes upon the people; and when they were squandered away he invented new ones; not for the benefit, honour, or defence of the state, but that he might hoard up, or lavish out in one house, the riches and wealth, not of one, but of three nations. When at this rate he broke loose, and acted without any colour of law to warrant his proceedings, knowing that the parliament was the only thing that could give him check, he endeavoured either wholly to lay aside the very calling of parliaments, or calling them just as often, and no oftener, than to serve his own turn, to make them entirely at his devotion. Which bridle, when he had cast off himself, he put another bridle upon the people; he put garrisons

THE KING A TRAITOR.

179

of German horse and Irish foot in many towns and cities, and that in time of peace. Do you think he does not begin to look like a tyrant? In which very thing, as in many other particulars which you have formerly given me occasion to instance, though you scorn to have Charles compared with so cruel a tyrant as Nero, he resembled him extremely much. For Nero likewise often threatened to take away the senate. Besides, he bore extreme hard upon the consciences of good men, and compelled them to the use of ceremonies and superstitious worship, borrowed from Popery, and by him reintroduced into the church. They that would not conform were imprisoned or banished. He made war upon the Scots twice, for no other cause than that. By all these actions he has surely deserved the name of a tyrant once over at least. Now I will tell you why the word traitor was put into his indictment: when he assured his parliament by promises, by proclamations, by imprecations, that he had no design against the state, at that very time did he list Papists in Ireland, he sent a private embassy to the king of Denmark to beg assistance from him of arms, horses, and men, expressly against the parliament; and was endeavouring to raise an army first in England, and then in Scotland. To the English he promised the plunder of the city of London; 'to the Scots, that the four northern counties should be added to Scotland, if they would but help him to get rid of the parliament, by what means soever. These projects not succeeding, he sent over one Dillon, a traitor, into Ireland, with private instructions to the natives to fall suddenly upon all the English that inhabited there.--These are the most remarkable instances of his treasons; not taken up upon hearsay and idle reports, but discovered by letters under his own hand and seal. And, finally, I suppose no man will deny that he was a murderer, by whose order the Irish took arms, and put to death, with most exquisite torments, above 100,000 English, who lived peaceably by them, and without any apprehension of danger; and who raised so

great a civil war in the other two kingdoms. Add to all this, that at the treaty in the Isle of Wight the king openly. took upon himself the guilt of the war, and cleared the parliament in the confession he made there, which is publicly known. Thus you have, in short, why King Charles was adjudged a tyrant, a traitor, and a murderer.

CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

And now, I think, through God's assistance, I have finished the work I undertook, to wit, the defence of the noble actions of my countrymen at home and abroad, against the raging and envious madness of this distracted sophister; and the asserting of the common rights of the people against the unjust domination of kings, not out of any hatred to kings, but tyrants; nor have I purposely left unanswered any one argument alleged by my adversary, nor any one example or authority quoted by him, that seemed to have any force in it, or the least colour of an argument. Perhaps I have been guilty rather of the other extreme, of replying to some of his fooleries and trifles, as if they were solid arguments, and thereby may seem to have attributed more to them than they deserved. One thing yet remains to be done, which perhaps is of the greatest concern of all, and that is, that you, my countrymen, refute this adversary of yours yourselves, which I do not see any other means of your effecting than by a constant endeavour to outdo all men's bad words by your own good deeds. When you laboured under more sorts of oppression than one, you betook yourselves to God for refuge, and He was graciously pleased to hear your most earnest prayer and desires. He has gloriously delivered you, the first of nations, from the two greatest mischiefs of this life, and most pernicious to virtue, tyranny and superstition; He has endued you with greatness of mind to be the first of mankind, who after having conquered their own king, and having had him delivered into their hands, have not scrupled to condemn

APPEAL TO THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.

181

him judicially, and pursuant to that sentence of condemnation, to put him to death. After the performing so glorious an action as this, you ought to do nothing that is mean and little, not so much as to think of, much less to do, anything but what is great and sublime. Which to attain to, this is your only way: as you have subdued your enemies in the field, so to make appear, that unarmed, and in the highest outward peace and tranquillity, you of all mankind are best able to subdue ambition, avarice, the love of riches, and can best avoid the corruptions that prosperity is apt to introduce (which generally subdue and triumph over other nations), to shew as great justice, temperance, and moderation in the maintaining your liberty, as you have shewn courage in freeing yourselves from slavery. These are the only arguments, by which you will be able to evince that you are not such persons as this fellow represents you, Traitors, Robbers, Murderers, Parricides, Madmen; that you did not put your king to death out of any ambitious design, or a desire of invading the rights of others, not out of any seditious principles or sinister ends; that it was not an act of fury or madness; but that it was wholly out of love to your liberty, your religion, to justice, virtue, and your country, that you punished a tyrant. But if it should fall out otherwise (which God forbid!), if as you have been valiant in war, you should grow debauched in peace, you that have had such visible demonstrations of the goodness of God to yourselves, and His wrath against your enemies; and that you should not have learned by so eminent, so remarkable an example before your eyes, to fear God and work righteousness; for my part, I shall easily grant and confess (for I cannot deny it) whatever ill men may speak or think of you, to be very true. And you will find in a little time, that God's displeasure against you will be greater than it has been against your adversaries, greater than His grace and favour has been to yourselves, which you have had larger experience of than any other nation under heaven.

THE

SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE
OF ENGLAND,

AGAINST

AN ANONYMOUS LIBEL, ENTITLED, THE "ROYAL BLOOD CRYING TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE ON THE ENGLISH PARRICIDES."*

(Translated from the Latin, by Robert Fellowes, A.M., Oxon.)

[MILTON'S Defence of the People of England called forth several rejoinders, but as Salmasius was understood to be preparing a reply, he took no notice of them, reserving himself for his chief opponent. But in 1653 Salmasius died, leaving his answer unfinished, or at least unpublished. He therefore felt himself at liberty to deal with the pack of curs who were yelping at his heels. The couple whom he selected for castigation were Du Moulin, a Frenchman, and a vagabond Scotchman, then residing in France, named More. These worthies had between them produced a work, entitled Regii Sanguinis Clamos ad Cælum, adversus Parricidas Anglicanos, which appeared in the year 1652. But for the death of Salmasius it would probably have passed unnoticed, but its scurrilous abuse and unscrupulous calumnies against Milton and the parliamentary leaders, seemed to call for an answer. We have reason to be thankful for the publication of a gross and scandalous libel which elicited so able a reply, containing some of the finest biographical and autobiographical sketches in the whole range of literature. Very much of our knowledge of Milton's life, both internal and external, is due to the account of himself contained in the Second Defence, in answer to the foul charges brought against him; and the eulogiums of Bradshaw and Cromwell stand in the very first class of this style of composition. The Secunda Defensio is more largely historical than any other of Milton's controversial writings, and hence is amongst the most popular of them. We have quoted from it so largely that any analysis of

* First published in 1654.

+ It was published after the Restoration of Charles the Second.