which were indeed illegal, but which it was not easy to interrupt. The judges held their offices Means of Sus during the pleasure of the king, and, in many instances, they became subservient to his will. The moral power of the Established Church was used by the Primate to sustain the personal government. taining the Tyranny of the King. The Settle When Charles was dissolving his third Parliament, he granted the Charter which established the Colony of Massachusetts. Men thought ment of Mas- they saw the hand of Providence pointing sachusetts. them to the lands beyond the sea as the place where they could realize their ideal of a free Church in a free state. The Puritans did not all give up the contest. The great majority remained to continue the struggle that was to result in the overthrow of the personal government and the vindication of the rights of the people. It is an interesting fact, however, that at one time even John Hampden purchased a tract of land in New England, with a view to leading a colony there. There is a tradition that Oliver Cromwell was only prevented from going by a royal embargo. The Puritan Lord Warwick bought a tract of land in the Connecticut valley, and Lord Saye and Sele and Lord Brooke at one time expected to transport themselves to Massachusetts. It was better, however, that these leaders who were engaged in the struggle in England remained behind, and that younger men, who were not needed at home, led the colony across the sea. Those who went away were not inferior to those who stayed behind. Though separated by the breadth of the Atlantic, the two sections of the Puritan party continued in full sympathy with each other, each section carrying out, in its own way, and according to its environment, the principles which they held in common. The plan for emigration had been under discussion in the Puritan families for a long time. Sir John Eliot, while a prisoner in the Tower, corresponded with John Hampden about it.1 A notable "agreement" was entered into at Cambridge, in 1629, for the settlement of New England, signed by John Winthrop, William Pynchon, Isaac Johnson, Thomas Dudley, and others. The emigration was on a large scale. Endicott went to Salem in 1628, with forty or fifty persons; four hundred came with Higginson in 1629; eight hundred arrived with Governor Winthrop in 1630. Up to the time of the meeting of the Long Parliament, in 1640, the average number of emigrants was about two thousand a year. After the meeting of the Long Parliament, very few came over, as the Puritans in England had gained a position which gave them the assurance of success. 1 Life of Winthrop. XIX. THE struggle in England had been going on through all those years. The most important events were connected with the efforts of the king to collect money without the authority of Parliament. The law officers of the crown had found The Ship- precedents for collecting money from the port towns to equip ships for the navy. Writs were issued, and the money was paid by the towns on the coast. But, it was argued, the obligation to support the royal navy rests as much upon the people who live away from the sea, as upon those in the port towns. So that it was claimed that all the people of England were bound to pay ship-money. A quarter of a million a year was collected in this way. But, the ministers of the king reasoned, if the people of England are bound to pay ship-money to support the navy, they are under an equal obligation to pay ship-money to support the army, and to meet all the expenses of the government. If such claims as these were allowed, it was plain that there would be no need of the authority of Parliament for the collection of the revenue. It was John Hampden who brought the question before the courts. The trial of this case, in 1637, attracted the attention of the whole country. It lasted twelve days. In the end, seven of the twelve judges decided that no statute prohibiting arbitrary taxation could be pleaded against the king's will. Rex is lex," said the judges. "Acts of Parliament to take away the king's royal power in the defence of his kingdom are void." The king and his courtiers exulted over the decision; but the people of England were aroused to a sense of the danger to their liberties. Hampden had gained his purpose by the publicity of the proceedings; and from that day the people never forgot the lesson of that historic trial. The struggle began in Scotland. The Scottish people renewed their covenant, and gathered an army to resist the efforts of Charles to introduce the Episcopal forms of worship into their churches. The Scottish war made it necessary for the king to summon a Parliament, which met in April, 1640. The king asked for grants of money to put down the Scottish rebellion. But the Commons declared that no subsidy could be granted till security was had for religion, and the rights of the people. Charles dissolved the Parliament after a session of three weeks. This dissolution added to the determination of the people. The king found it impossible by any expedients to raise money to meet the expenses of the war, and before the year ended he was forced to summon another Parliament. While the elections were pending, Hampden and Pym The Long rode together through the counties to rouse the people to a sense of the crisis which was upon them. When the Houses came together, the first week was spent in receiving petitions of grievances, which came pouring in from every county and borough. A list of the officers, who had executed the illegal orders of the king, was prepared. The oppression and persecution of Laud and his instruments were passed in review. Strafford was impeached and sent to the Tower. The Archbishop followed him soon after. The Puritans whose ears had been cropped off, and who had been sentenced to imprisonment for life, were set at liberty, and were received in London with great honor, as the martyrs of liberty. The House of Commons declared the collection of ship-money illegal, and passed a statute which put a final end to the claim of a right to impose taxes of any sort without the consent of Parliament. Another act required the assembly of Parliament once in three years, and made it the duty of the returning officers to proceed with the elections if the king should fail to summon them. A Committee of Religion was appointed to consider the state of the Church, and to free it from the innovations which had been made by Laud and his coadjutors. But the great majority of this Parliament, in its best days, was opposed |