SO

with what entire confidence in each other the numerous proud and indigent nobility of Scotland (for of the common people, who are naturally slaves to the other, there can be no wonder) concurred in the carrying on this rebellion: their strange condescension and submission to their ignorant and insolent clergy, who were to have great authority, because they were to inflame all sorts of men upon the obligations of conscience; and in order thereunto, and to revenge a little indiscretion and ill manners of some of the bishops, had liberty to erect a tribunal the most tyrannical over all sorts of men, and in all the families of the kingdom that the preacher reprehended the husband, governed the wife, chastised the children, and insulted over the servants, in the houses of the greatest men. They referred the managery and conduct of the whole affair to a committee of a few, who had never before exercised any office or authority in the public, with that perfect resignation and obedience, that nobody presumed to inquire what was to be done, or to murmur at or censure any thing that was done; and the general himself, and the martial affairs, were subject to this regimen and discipline as well as the civil: yet they who were intrusted with this superiority, paid all the outward respect and reverence to the person of the general, as if the sole power and disposal had been in him alone.

The few English (for there were yet but very few who were intrusted from the beginning of the enterprise, and with all that was then projected) were men of reserved and dark natures, of great industry and address, and of much reputation for

probity and integrity of life, and who trusted none but those who were contented to be trusted to that degree as they were willing to trust them, without being inquisitive into more than they were ready to communicate, and for the rest depended upon their discretion and judgment; and so prepared and disposed, by second and third hands, many to concur and contribute to many preparatory actions, who would never have consented to those conclusions which naturally resulted from those premises.

This united strength, and humble and active temper, was not encountered by an equal providence and circumspection in the king's councils, or an equal temper and dutiful disposition in the court; nor did they, who resolved honestly and stoutly to discharge the offices of good servants and good subjects to the utmost opposition of all unlawful attempts, communicate their purposes to men of the same integrity, that so they might unite their counsels as well in the manner and way, as their resolutions in the end. But every one thought it enough to preserve his own innocence, and to leave the rest to those who should have authority to direct. The king was perplexed and irresolute, and, according to his natural constitution, (which never disposed him to jealousy of any man of whom he had once thought well,) was full of hope, that his condition was not so bad as it seemed to be. The queen, how much troubled soever, wished much better to the earl of Holland, than to the archbishop, or the earl of Strafford, neither of them being in any degree acceptable to her; so that she was little concerned for the danger

that threatened them: but when she saw the king's honour and dignity invaded in the prosecution, she withdrew her favour from the earl of Holland but then she was persuaded, by those who had most credit with her, to believe, that, by the removal of the great ministers, her power and authority would be increased, and that the prevailing party would be willing to depend upon her; and that, by gratifying the principal persons of them with such preferments as they affected, she would quickly reconcile all ill humours; and so she hearkened to any overtures of that kind; which were always carried on without the consent or privity of those who were concerned, who in truth more disliked her absolute power with the king, than any other excess of the court, and looked upon it as the greatest grievance. Every man there considered only what application would be most like to raise his own fortune, or to do him harm with whom he was angry, and gave himself wholly up to those artifices which might promote either. To preserve themselves from the displeasure and censure of the parliament, and to render themselves gracious to those who were like to be powerful in it, was all men's business and solicitude. And in this very unequal and disproportioned condition and temper, was the king's and the Scottish army, the court and the country, when the parliament met.

THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK.

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

REBELLION, &c.

BOOK III.

THE parliament met upon the third of November, 1640, with a fuller appearance thau could be reasonably expected, from the short time for elections after the issuing out of the writs; insomuch as at the first [not] many members were absent. It had a sad and a melancholic aspect upon the first entrance, which presaged some unusual and unnatural events. The king himself did not ride with his accustomed equipage nor in his usual majesty to Westminster, but went privately in his barge to the parliament stairs, and so to the church, as if it had been to a return of a prorogued or adjourned parliament. And there was likewise an untoward, and in truth an unheard of accident, which brake many of the king's measures, and infinitely disordered his service beyond a capacity of reparation. From the time the calling a parliament was resolved upon, the king designed sir Thomas Gardiner, who was recorder of London, to be speaker in the house of commons; a man of

gravity and quickness, that had somewhat of authority and gracefulness in his person and presence, and in all respects equal to the service. There was little doubt but that he would be chosen to serve in one of the four places for the city of London, which had very rarely rejected their recorder upon that occasion; and lest that should fail, diligence was used in one or two other places that he might be elected. The opposition was so great, and the faction so strong, to hinder his being elected in the city, that four others were chosen for that service, without hardly mentioning his name: nor was there less industry used to prevent his being chosen in other places; clerks were corrupted not to make out the writ for one place, and ways were found to hinder the writ from being executed in another, time enough for the return before the meeting: so great a fear there was, that a man of entire affections to the king, and of prudence enough to manage those affections, and to regulate the contrary, should be put into that chair. So that the very morning the parliament was to meet, and when the king intended to go thither, he was informed, that sir Thomas Gardiner was not returned to serve as a member in the house of commons, and so was not capable of being chosen to be speaker; so that his majesty deferred his going to the house till the afternoon, by which time he was to think of another speaker.

Upon the perusal of all the returns into the crown office, there were not found many lawyers of eminent name, (though many of them proved very eminent men afterwards,) or who had served long in former parliaments, the experience whereof was