illam ofculari, quâ funt oppressi, manum, proceed to impeach Buckingham; the king commits the managers of that procefs to the Tower, and reforting to his prerogative, diffolves his fecond parliament as fuddenly, and more angrily, than his firft.

A third parliament meets, and in the interim new grievances of a more awakening fort had. supplied them with an ample field for complaint and remonftrance; in the intermiffion of their fittings, he had exacted a loan, which they interpreted a tax without parliament, and of courfe a flagrant violation of the conftitution; this he enforced with fo high a hand, that feveral gentlemen of name in their counties had been committed to close imprisonment for refufing payment; fhip-money alfo at this time began to bet questioned as an intolerable grievance, and being one of the resources for enabling the crown to govern without a parliament, it was confidered by many as a violation of their rights, an inequitable and oppreffive tax, which ought to be refifted, and accordingly it was refifted: This parliament therefore after a fhort and inefficient fitting shared the sudden fate of it's predeceffors.

The fame precipitancy, greater blindness, a more confirmed habit of obstinacy and a heightened degree of aggravation marked this period VOL. IV.

K

of

of intermiffion from parliaments, for now the leading members of the late house were fent to clofe imprisonment in the Tower, and informa tions were lodged against them in the StarChamber.

to.

The troubles in Scotland made it neceflary for the king once more to have refort to a parliament; they met for the fourth time on the thirteenth of April 1640, and the fifth day of the following month fent them back to their conftituents to tell thofe grievances in the ears of the people, which their fovereign difdained to liften Ill-counfelled fovereign! but will that word apologize for conduct fo intemperate? It cannot: A mind, fo flexible towards evil coun fel, can poffefs no requifites for government: What hope now remained for moderate meafures, when the people's reprefentatives fhould again affemble? In this fatal moment the fuel was prepared and the match lighted, to give life to the flames of civil war; already Scotland had fet those sparks into a blaze; the king unable to extinguifh the conflagration by his own power and refources, for the fifth and laft time convenes his parliament; but it was now too late for any confidence or mutual harmony to subsist between the crown and commons; on the third of November following their last diffolution

the

the new-elected members take poffeffion of their feats and the house foon refounds with refolutions for the impeachment of the minister Strafford and the primate Laud: The humbled monarch confirms the fatal bill of attainder and fends Stafford to the fcaffold; he ratifies the act for fecuring parliament against future dissolution, and fubfcribes to his own death-warrant with

the fame pen. ·

The proceedings of this famous parliament are of a mixed nature; in many we difcern the true fpirit of patriotifmm, and not a few feem dictated by revenge and violence: The Courts of High Commiffion and Star-Chamber are abolished, and posterity applauds their deliverers; the city-croffes are pulled down, the bishops fent to the Tower and their whole order menaced with expulfion from parliament, and here we discover the first dawnings of fanatic phrenfy: An incurable breach is made in the conftitution; it's branches are diffevered, and the axe of rebellion is laid to the root of the tree: The royal ftandard is fet up; the father of his people becomes the general of a party, and the land is floated with the blood of it's late peaceable inhabitants: Great characters ftart forth in the concuffion, great virtues and great vices: Equal courage and fuperior conduct at length prevail K 2

for

for the leaders of the people; a fanatic champion carries all before him; the fovereign surrenders himself weakly, capitulates feebly, negotiates deceitfully and dies heroically.

And this is the reign, this the exit of a king! Let kings ponder it, for it is a lesson, humbling perhaps to their pride of ftation, but pointedly addrefled to their inftruction.

If there is a truft in life, which calls upon the. conscience of the man who undertakes it more ftrongly than any other, it is that of the education of an heir-apparent to a crown: The training such a pupil is a task indeed; how to open his mind to a proper knowledge of man-› kind without letting in that knowledge, which inclines to evil; how to hold off flattery and yet admit familiarity; how to give the lights of in- . formation and shut out the falfe colours of seduction, demands a judgment for distinguishing and an authority for controuling, which few governors in that delicate fituation ever poffefs, or cán long retain: To educate a prince, born to reign over an enlightened people, upon the narrow scale of fecret and fequeftered tuition, would be an abuse of common sense; to let him loose upon the world is no lefs hazardous in the.. other extreme, and each would probably devote him to an inglorious deftiny: That he should

know

know the leading characters in the country he is to govern, be familiar with it's hiftory, it's conftitution, manners, laws and liberties, and correctly comprehend the duties and diftinctions of his own hereditary office, are points that no one will difpute: That he should travel through his kingdom I can hardly doubt, but whether those excurfions fhould reach into other ftates, politically connected with, or oppofed to, his own, is more than I will prefume to lay down as a general rule, being aware that it must depend upon perfonal circumstances: Splendor he may be indulged in, but excefs in that, as in every thing elfe, must be avoided, for the mischiefs cannot be numbered, which it will entail upon him; excess in expence will fubject him to obligations of a degrading fort; excefs in courtesy will lay him open to the forward and affuming, raise mountains of expectation about him, and all of them undermined. by disappointment, ready charged for explosion, when the hand of prefumption fhall fet fire to the train: Excefs in pleasure will lower him in character, destroy health, refpect, and that becoming dignity of mind, that confcious rectitude, which is to direct and fupport him, when he becomes the dispenser of justice to his subjects, the protector and defender of their religion, the model for their imi