the existence of monarchy compatible with that of freedom, they must not only strip it of all it had usurped, but of something that was its own. NOTE TO CHAPTER VII. PETITION OF RIGHT. and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and give utterance before your privy council and in THE petition exhibited to his majesty by other places, and others of them have been the lords spiritual and temporal, and therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry commons, in this parliament assembled, other ways molested and disquieted; and concerning divers rights and liberties of divers other charges have been laid and the subjects, with the king's majesty's levied upon your people in several counroyal answer thereunto in full parlia- ties by lords-lieutenants, deputy-lieuten ment. To the King's Most Excellent Majesty. auts, commissioners for musters, justices of peace, and others, by command or direction from your majesty, or your privy council, against the laws and free customs of the realm. Humbly show unto our sovereign lord the king, the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in parliament assembled, that whereas it is declared and enacted by III. And whereas also by the statute a statute made in the time of the reign of called "The Great Charter of the Liberking Edward I., commonly called Statutum ties of England," it is declared and enactde tallagio non concedendo, that no tallage ed, that no freeman may be taken or imor aid shall be laid or levied by the king prisoned, or to be disseized of his freehold or his heirs in this realm, without the good- or liberties, or his free customs, or be outwill and assent of the archbishops, bish- lawed or exiled, or in any manner deops, carls, barons, kuights, burgesses, and stroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his other the freemen of the commonalty of peers, or by the law of the land. this realm; and by authority of parliament | IV. And in the eight-and-twentieth year holden in the five-and-twentieth year of of the reign of king Edward III. it was dethe reign of king Edward III. it is declared clared and enacted by authority of parliaand enacted, that from thenceforth no per- ment, that no man, of what estate or conson should be compelled to make any loans dition that he be, should be put out of his to the king against his will, because such land or tenements, nor taken, nor impris loans were against reason and the fran- oned, nor disherited, nor put to death chise of the land; and by other laws of without being brought to answer by due this realm it is provided that none should process of law. be charged by any charge or imposition V. Nevertheless, against the tenor of called a benevolence, nor by such like the said statutes, and other the good laws charge; by which statutes before men- and statutes of your realm to that end tioned, and others the good laws and stat-provided, divers of your subjects have of ntes of this realm, your subjects have in- late been imprisoned without any cause herited this freedom, that they should not showed; and when for their deliverance be compelled to contribute to any tax, tal- they were brought before your justices lage, aid, or other like charge not set by by your majesty's writs of habeas corpus, common consent, in parliament. there to undergo and receive as the court II. Yet nevertheless of late divers com- should order, and their keepers commandmissions directed to sundry commission-ed to certify the causes of their detainer, ers in several counties, with instructions, no cause was certified, but that they were have issued by means whereof your peo- detained by your majesty's special comple have been in divers places assembled, mand, signified by the lords of your privy and required to lend certain sums of money unto your majesty, and many of them, upon their refusal so to do, have had an oath administered unto them not warrantable by the laws or statutes of this realm, council, and yet were returned back to several prisons, without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to the law. VI. And whereas of late great compa 238 NOTE TO CHAPTER VII. nies of soldiers and mariners have been or foreborne to proceed against such of dispersed into divers counties of the fenders according to the same laws and realm, and the inhabitants against their statutes, upon pretense that the said ofwills have been compelled to receive them fenders were punishable only by martial into their houses, and there to suffer them law, and by authority of such commissions to sojourn, against the laws and customs as aforesaid; which commissions, and all of this realm, and to the great grievance other of like nature are wholly and directand vexation of the people. ly contrary to the said laws and statutes of this your realm. VII. And whereas aleo by authority of parliament, in the five and-twentieth year X. They do therefore humbly pray your of the reign of king Edward III., it is de- most excellent majesty, that no man hereclared and enacted, that no man should after be compelled to make or yield any be forejudged of life or limb against the gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like form of the Great Charter, and the law of charge, without common consent by act the land; and by the said Great Charter, of parliament; and that none be called to and other the laws and statutes of this make answer, or to take such oath, or to your realm, no man ought to be adjudged give attendance, or be confined, or otherto death but by the laws established in wise molested or disquieted concerning this your realm, either by the customs of the same, or for refusal thereof: and that the same realm, or by acts of parliament: no freeman, in any such manner as is and whereas no offender of what kind so- before mentioned, be imprisoned or deever is exempted from the proceedings to tained; and that your majesty would be be used, and punishments to be inflicted pleased to remove the said soldiers and by the laws and statutes of this your realm: mariners, and that your people may not nevertheless of late time divers commis- be so burdened in time to come; and sions under your majesty's great seal have that the aforesaid commissions, for proissued forth, by which certain persons have ceeding by martial law, may be revoked been assigned and appointed commission- and annulled; and that hereafter no comers with power and authority to proceed missions of like nature may issue forth to within the land, according to the justice any person or persons whatsoever to be of martial law, against such soldiers or executed as aforesaid, lest by color of them mariners, or other dissolute persons join- any of your majesty's subjects be destroyed ing with them, as should commit any mur- or put to death contrary to the laws and der, robbery, felony, mutiny, or other out- franchise of the land. rage or misdemeanor whatsoever, and by XI. All which they most humbly pray such summary course and order as is of your most excellent majesty as their agreeable to martial law, and as is used rights and liberties, according to the laws in armies in time of war, to proceed to and statutes of this realm; and that your the trial and condemnation of such of majesty would also vouchsafe to declare, fenders, and them to cause to be executed that the awards, doings, and proceedings, and put to death according to the law to the prejudice of your people in any of the premises, shall not be drawn hereafter martial. VIII. By pretext whereof some of your into consequence or example; and that majesty's subjects have been by some of your majesty would be also graciously the said commissioners put to death, when pleased, for the further comfort and safeand where, if by the laws and statutes of ty of your people, to declare your royal the land they had deserved death, by the will and pleasure, that in the things aforesame laws and statutes also they might, said all your officers and ministers shall and by no other ought to have been judged serve you according to the laws and statand executed. utes of this realm, as they tender the honIX. And also sundry grievous offenders, or of your majesty, and the prosperity of by color thereof claiming an exemption, this kingdom. have escaped the punishments due to them Quâ quidem petitione lectâ et plenius inby the laws and statutes of this your realm, tellectâ per dictum dominum regem taliter by reason that divers of your officers and est responsum in pleno parliamento, viz. ministers of justice have unjustly refused, Soit droit fait comme est desiré. CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE DISSOLUTION OF CHARLES'S THIRD PARLIAMENT TO THE MEETING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. § 1. Declaration of the King after the Dissolution. 2. Prosecutions of Eliot and others for Conduct in Parliament. § 3. Of Chambers for refusing to pay Customs. § 4. Commendable Behavior of Judges in some instances. 5. Means adopted to raise the Revenue. Compositions for Knighthood. § 6. Forest laws. § 7. Monopolies. 8. Ship-money. § 9. Extension of it to inland Places. 10. Hampden's Refusal to pay. Arguments on the Case. § 11. Proclamations. Various arbitrary Proceedings. 12. Star-Chamber Jurisdiction. § 13. Punishments inflicted by it. Cases of Bishop Williams, Prynne, etc. 14. Laud-his Character. 15. Lord Strafford. 16. Correspondence between these two. § 17. Conduct of Laud in the Church-Prosecution of Puritans. 18. Favor shown to Catholics. Tendency to their Religion. Expectations entertained by them. 19. Mission of Panzani Intrigue of Bishop Montagu with him. § 20. Apprehensions of the Primate. $21. Chillingworth. 22. Hales. § 23. Character of Clarendon's Writings. Animadversions on his Account of this Period. 24. Scots Troubles, and Distress of the Government. § 25. Parliament of April, 1640. § 26. Council of York. § 27. Convocation of Long Parliament. As § 1. THE dissolution of a parliament was always to the prerogative what the dispersion of clouds is to the sun. if in mockery of the transient obstruction, it shone forth as splendid and scorching as before. Even after the exertions of the most popular and intrepid house of commons that had ever met, and after the most important statute that had been passed for some hundred years, Charles found himself in an instant unshackled by his law or his word; once more that absolute king for whom his sycophants had preached and pleaded, as if awakened from a fearful dream of sounds and sights that such monarchs hate to endure, to the full enjoyment of an unrestrained prerogative. He announced his intentions of government for the future in a long declaration of the causes of the late dissolution of parliament, which, though not without the usual promises to maintain the laws and liberties of the people, gave evident hints that his own interpretation of them must be humbly acquiesced in. § 2. The king next turned his mind, according to his own. and his father's practice, to take vengeance on those who had been most active in their opposition to him. A few days after the dissolution, sir John Eliot, Holles, Selden, Long, Strode, and other eminent members of the commons, were committed, some to the Tower, some to the king's bench, and their papers seized. Upon suing for their habeas 240 PROSECUTIONS OF CHAP. VIII corpus, a return was made that they were detained for notable contempts, and for stirring up sedition, alleged in a warrant under the king's sign-manual. Their counsel argued against the sufficiency of this return, as well on the principles and precedents employed in the, former case of sir Thomas Darnel and his colleagues, as on the late explicit confirmation of them in the Petition of Right. The king's counsel endeavored, by evading the authority of that enactment, to set up anew that alarming pretense to a power of arbitrary imprisonment which the late parliament had meant to silence forever. "A petition in parliament," said the attorney-general Heath, "is no law, yet it is for the honor and dignity of the king to observe it faithfully; but it is the duty of the people not to stretch it beyond the words and intention of the king. And no other construction can be made of the petition than that it is a confirmation of the ancient liberties and rights of the subjects. So that now the case remains in the same quality and degree as it was before the petition." Thus, by dint of a sophism which turned into ridicule the whole proceedings of the late parliament, he pretended to recite afresh the authorities on which he had formerly relied, in order to prove that one committed by the command of the king or privy council is not bailable. The judges, timid and servile, yet desirous to keep some measures with their own consciences, or looking forward to the wrath of future parliaments, wrote what Whitelock calls "a humble and stout letter" to the king, that they were bound to bail the prisoners; but requested that he would send his direction to do so. The gentlemen in custody were, on this intimation, removed to the Tower; and the king, in a letter to the court, refused permission for them to appear on the day when judgment was to be given. Their restraint was thus protracted through the long vacation; toward the close of which, Charles, sending for two of the judges, told them he was content the prisoners should be bailed, notwithstanding their obstinacy in refusing to present a petition declaring their sorrow for having offended him. In the ensuing Michaelmas term, accordingly, they were brought before the court, and ordered not only to find bail for the present charge, but sureties for their good behavior. On refusing to comply with this requisition, they were remanded to custody. The attorney-general, dropping the charge against the rest, exhibited an information against sir John Eliot for words uttered in the house; namely, that the council and judges had conspired to trample under foot the liberties of the sub ject; and against Mr. Denzil Holles and Mr. Valentine for a tumult on the last day of the session; when the speaker, having attempted to adjourn the house by the king's command, had been forcibly held down in the chair by some of the members while a remonstrance was voted. They pleaded to the court's jurisdiction, because their offenses were supposed to be committed in parliament, and consequently not punishable in any other place. This brought forward the great question of privilege, on the determination of which the power of the house of commons, and consequently the character of the English constitution, seemed evidently to depend. Freedom of speech, being implied in the nature of a representative assembly called to present grievances and suggest remedies, could not stand in need of any special law or privilege to support it. But it was also sanctioned by positive authority. The speaker demands it at the beginning of every parliament among the standing privileges of the house; and it had received a sort of confirmation from the legislature by an act passed in the fourth year of Henry VIII., on occasion of one Strode, who had been prosecuted and imprisoned in the Stannary court, for proposing in parliament some regulations for the tinners in Cornwall; which annuls all that had been done, or might hereafter be done, toward Strode, for any matter relating to the parliament, in words so strong as to form, in the opinion of many lawyers, a general enactment. The judges however held, on the question being privately sent to them by the king, that the statute concerning Strode was a particular act of parliament extending only to him and those who had joined with him to prefer a bill to the commons concerning tinners; but that, although the act were private and extended to them alone, yet it was no more than all other parliament-men, by privilege of the house, ought to have; namely, freedom of speech concerning matters there debated. It appeared by a constant series of precedents, the counsel for Eliot and his friends argued, that the liberties and privileges of parliament could only be determined therein, and not by any inferior court; that the judges had often declined to give their opinions on such subjects, alleging that they were beyond their jurisdiction; that the words imputed to Eliot were in the nature of an accusation of persons in power which the commons had an undoubted right to prefer; that no one would venture to complain of grievances in parliament, if he should be subjected to punishment at the dis |