In the other parts of the kingdom they observed the time appointed, not hearing of the misfortunes of their friends at Dublin. A general insurrection of the Irish spread itself over the whole country, in such an inhuman and barbarous manner, that there were forty or fifty thousand of the English protestants murdered, before they suspected themselves to be in any danger, or could provide for their defence, by drawing together into towns, or strong houses. From Dublin, the lords justices, and council, despatched their letters by an express (the same man who had made the discovery, one O'Conelly, who had formerly been a servant to sir John Clotworthy) to London, to the earl of Leicester, then lord lieutenant of Ireland. From the parts of the north, and Ulster, an express was sent to the king himself, at Edinburgh; and the king's letters from thence, to the two houses, arrived within less than two days after the messenger from Dublin. land, and exceedingly courted by all the party which governed. Whether he found that he had raised a spirit that would not be so easily conjured down again, and yet would not be as entirely governed by him as it had been; or whether he desired from the beginning only to mend his own fortune, or was converted in his judgment that the action he was engaged in was not warrantable, certain it is, that he had not been long in England, before he liked both the kingdom and the court so well, that he was not willing to part with either. He was of a pleasant and jovial humour, without any of those constraints which the formality of that time made that party subject themselves to; and he played his game so dexterously, that he was well assured upon a fair composition that the Scots' army should return home well paid, and that they should be contented with the mischief they had already done, without fomenting the distempers in England. He was to marry a noble lady of a great and ample fortune and wealth, and It was upon a Sunday night, that the letters should likewise be made a gentleman of the king's from Dublin came to the earl of Leicester; who bed-chamber, and a privy-counsellor; and upon immediately caused the council to be summoned, these advantages made his condition in this king- and, as soon as it was met, informed them of the dom as pleasant as he could; and in order there- condition of Ireland; that is, so much as those unto, he resolved to preserve the king's power as letters contained: which were written, when little high as he could in all his dominions. When any more was known than the discovery at Dublin; extraordinary accidents attend those private con- and what the conspirators had confessed upon tracts, men naturally are very free in their cen- their examinations. The house of peers had then sures, and so his sudden falling into a sickness, adjourned itself to the Wednesday following; but and from a great vigour of body, in the flower of the house of commons were to meet on the next his age, (for he was little more than thirty,) into a day, Monday morning; and the council resolved, weakness, which was not usual, nor could the phy- "that they would in a body go to the house of sicians discover the ground of it, administered commons, as soon as it sat, and inform them of much occasions of discourse; and that his coun- "it" which they did; notice being first given to trymen too soon discovered his conversion. He the house, "that the lords of the council had some was not able to attend upon his majesty to Scot- "matters of importance to impart to them, and land; where he was to have acted a great part; were above in the painted chamber ready to but he hoped to have been able to have followed come to them :" whereupon chairs were set in him thither. His weakness increased so fast, that the house for them to repose themselves, and the by the time the king was entered that kingdom, sergeant sent to conduct them. As soon as they the earl died at Richmond, whither he retired for entered the house, the speaker desired them to sit the benefit of the air; and his death put an end down; and then being covered, Littleton, lord to all hopes of good quarter with that nation; and keeper, told the speaker, "that the lord lieutenant made him submit to all the uneasy and intolerable "of Ireland, having received letters from the lords conditions there, they could impose upon him. justices and council there, had communicated Yet he returned from thence with some confidence "them to the council; and since the house of that he should receive no more trouble from peers was not then sitting, they had thought fit, thence, the principal persons there having made" for the importance of the letters, to impart them him great acknowledgment, and greater profes-" to that house;" and so referred the business to sions; (for which he had given them all they could the lord lieutenant; who, without any enlargedesire, and indeed all and more than he had to ment, only read the letters he had received, and give) and Lesley the general, whom he made earl so the lords departed from the house. of Leven, with precedence of all earls for his life, had told him voluntarily, and with an oath, that he would not only never serve against him, but would do him any service he should command, right or wrong. There was a worse accident than all these, which fell out in the time of the king's stay in Scotland, and about the time of the two houses reconvening; which made a wonderful impression upon the minds of men; and proved of infinite disadvantage to the king's affairs, which were then recovering new life; and that was the rebellion in Ireland: which broke out about the middle of October, in all parts of the kingdom. Their design upon Dublin was miraculously discovered, the night before it was to be executed; and so the surprisal of that castle prevented; and the principal conspirators, who had the charge of it, apprehended. 66 There was a deep silence in the house, and a kind of consternation: most men's heads having been intoxicated, from their first meeting in parliament, with imaginations of plots, and treasonable designs, through the three kingdoms. The affair itself seemed to be out of their cognizance; and the communication of it served only to prepare their thoughts, what to do when more should be known; and when they should hear what the king thought fit to be done. And when the king's letters arrived, they were glad the news had come to him, when he had so good council about him to advise him what to do. The king was not then informed of what had been discovered at Dublin: but the letters out of Ulster (which he sent to the parliament) gave him notice of the general insurrection in the north; "and of the inhuman murders committed there, upon a multitude of the protestants; and that "sir Phelim O'Neil appeared as the general and "commander in chief." 66 son and plot against the kingdom. One day, a letter from beyond seas, of great forces prepared to invade England;" then, some attempt upon the life of Mr. Pym;" and no occasion omitted to speak of the evil council about the king; when scarce a counsellor durst come near him, or be suspected to hear from him; then an order must be framed to the marquis of Hertford, (governor to the prince,) to require him to take all care of his highness' person, and a motion that the king might be desired to make no privy-counsellor but such as the two houses might approve of, and many other such extravagancies, which, though they seemed then but the murmurings of inconsiderable persons, were artificially vented to try the pulse of the house, and whether they were sufficiently inflamed with the new discoveries. Upon which his majesty writ to the two houses," "that he was satisfied that it was no rash insurrection, but a formed rebellion; which must be "prosecuted with a sharp war; the conducting "and prosecuting whereof he wholly committed to "their care and wisdom, and depended upon them "for the carrying it on; and that for the present "he had caused a strong regiment of fifteen hun"dred foot, under good officers, to be transported "out of Scotland into Ulster, for the relief of "those parts;" which were upon the matter wholly inhabited by Scots and Irish; there being fewer English [there], than in any part of Ireland. This fell out to their wish; and thereupon they made a committee of both houses, "for the con- After some days, a new bill was presented to "sideration of the affairs of Ireland, and pro- the house of commons, " for the taking away the "viding for the supply of men, arms, and money, bishops' votes in parliament; and for disabling "for the suppressing that rebellion;" the lord "them to exercise any temporal office in the kinglieutenant of Ireland being one of the committee," dom :" against which was objected, "that it was which sat every morning in the painted chamber; and the lord lieutenant first communicated all the letters he received, to them to be consulted on, and to be thence reported to the two houses; which were hereby possessed of a huge power and dependence; all men applying themselves to them, that is, to the chief leaders, for their preferments in that war: the mischief whereof, though in the beginning little taken notice of, was afterwards felt by the king very sensibly. These concurrent circumstances much altered and suppressed that good humour and spirit the houses were well disposed to meet with; and the angry men, who were disappointed of the preferments they expected, and had promised themselves, took all occasions, by their emissaries, to insinuate into the minds of the people, "that this "rebellion in Ireland was contrived or fomented "by the king, or, at least, by the queen, for the "advancement of popery; and that the rebels "published and declared, that they had the king's "authority for all they did;" which calumny, though without the least shadow or colour of truth, made more impression upon the minds of sober and moderate men (who till then had much disliked the passionate proceedings of the parliament) than could be then imagined, or can yet be believed. So great a prejudice, or want of reverence, was universally contracted against the court, especially against the queen, whose power and activity was thought too great. 66 "contrary to the course and order of parliament, As, There being at this time the bishoprics of Worcester, Lincoln, Exeter, Chichester, and Bristol, void by death, or translation; the king, during the time of his being in Scotland, collated to those sees, Dr. Prideaux, the regius professor of divinity in Oxford; Dr. Winniff, dean of St. Paul's; Dr. Brownerigg, master of Catherine-hall in Cambridge; Dr. Henry King, dean of Litchfield; and Dr. Westfield, of Great St. Bartholomew's, London; all of great eminency in the church; frequent preachers; and not a man, to whom the faults of the then governing clergy were imputed, or against whom the least objection could be made. Shortly after the beginning of the parliament, there had been a committee appointed, "to pre"pare and draw up a general remonstrance of the "state of the kingdom, and the particular griev"ances it had sustained;" but it scarce ever met, or was ever after mentioned. But now, the houses As soon as the house of commons heard of this no sooner met after their recess, than Mr. Strode designation of his majesty's, (having then newly (one of the fiercest men of the party, and of the the second time sent up to the house of peers their party only for his fierceness) moved," that that bill to remove bishops from thence,) they were "committee might be revived, and ordered to much troubled, that, at a time when they resolved "meet;" for which, of course, a time and place to take away the old, the king should presume to was appointed: by which men easily discerned, make new bishops, and create so many voices to that nothing of their fury was abated, and the less, oppose the other; and therefore they moved very in that they found their credit every day lessened earnestly, "that the lords might be moved to join in the house, by the opposition and contradiction" with them, in sending to the king, to make no they sustained. And men being thus disquieted; and knowing little; and so doubting much; every day produced a new discovery, of some new trea 66 new bishops till the controversy should be ended "about the government of the church:" which appeared so unreasonable, that the wisest of them R 66 who wished it, apprehended no possibility, that | house of peers, if they had not been fatally sotted, the lords would join with them; or, if they did, must have resented it as a high presumption, and that the king would be prevailed with. However, insolent breach of privilege,) with more formality being glad to find their companions had so much and colour, though as unreasonably, they pressed, mettle, after a long debate, the major part carried "that those thirteen bishops, whom they had it, "that a committee should be appointed to draw “before impeached, for making the late canons; up reasons to give the lords, to concur with " and upon whom their lordships themselves had "them in that desire to the king:" but, after "passed notable votes," (such in truth as were that, moved that stone no further. fitter for accusers than judges, unparliamentary and unprecedented,) "might be sequestered from "the house, till they should be brought to judg"ment." And for this, without any shame, they found lawyers in their house, who, prostituting the dignity and learning of their profession, to the cheap and vile affectation of popular applause, were not ashamed to aver custom and law for their senseless proposition. But the house of peers was not yet deluded enough, or terrified, (though too many amongst them paid an implicit devotion to the house of commons,) to comply in this unreasonable demand. In all debates of this nature, where the law, reason, and common sense, were in a diameter opposite to what they proposed, they suffered those who differed from them in opinion, and purposes, to say what they thought fit in opposition; and then, without vouchsafing to endeavour their satisfaction, called importunately for the question; well knowing that they had a plurality of voices to concur with them, in whatsoever they desired. I remember, in this last business, when it was voted that a committee should be named to draw up reasons, the committee being to be named, many of those who had during the debate positively And here I cannot but with grief and wonder argued against the thing, were called upon to be remember the virulency and animosity expressed of that committee; and, amongst these, the lord upon all occasions, from many of good knowledge Falkland, and Mr. Hyde, who stood up, and in the excellent and wise profession of the common "desired to be excused from that service, where law, towards the church and churchmen; taking they could be of no use; having given so many all opportunities, uncharitably, to improve mistakes reasons against it, that they could not apprehend into crimes; and, unreasonably, to transfer and any could be given for it; therefore they thought impute the follies and faults of particular men "the work would be better done, if those, who (swollen with ambition or corrupted with avarice) "had satisfied themselves with the reasonableness to the malignity of their order and function; and "of what they wished, would undertake the con- so whet and sharpen the edge of the law, to wound verting and disposing of other men." There the church in its jurisdiction; and at last to cut was a gentleman who sat by, (Mr. Bond of Dor- it up by the roots, and demolish its foundation. chester; very severe, and resolved, against the It cannot be denied, that the peevish and petulant church and the court,) [who,] with much passion spirits of some clergymen have taken great pains and trouble of mind, said to them, "For God's to irreconcile that profession to them; and others "sake be of the committee; you know none of as unskilfully (finding that in former times, when our side can give reasons;' which made those the religion of the state was a vital part of its that overheard him smile, though he spake it sud-policy, many churchmen were employed eminently denly, and upon observation that their leaders were not then in the house. Otherwise, it cannot be denied, those who conducted them, and were the contrivers of the mischief, were men of great parts, and unspeakable industry; and their silence in some debates proceeded partly from pride, that it might appear their reputation and interest had an influence upon the sense of the house, against any rhetoric or logic: but principally from the policy they were obliged to use; for though they could have given a pregnant reason for the most extravagant overture they ever made, and evinced it, that it was the proper way to their end; but it being not yet time to discover their purposes, (how apparent soever they were to discerning men,) they were necessarily to give no reasons at all; or such as were not in truth the true ones. 66 This stratagem failing, of stopping the creation of the new bishops, they endeavour by all means to hasten the house of peers to despatch the work before them, before they should be qualified (their elections, confirmations, and consecrations, and other ceremonies, spending much time) to increase the number of the opposers; and for the better doing thereof, with great confidence, they demand of the lords, "that no recusant lord, or bishop, might have a vote in the passing that act: the "last being parties; and the other not supposed "competent judges on the behalf of the kingdom." But, when they found that logic could not prevail, (the demand being indeed so scandalous, that the : in the civil government of the kingdom) imputed their wanting those ornaments their predecessors wore, to the power and prevalency of the lawyers; some principal men whereof, in all times, they could not but remember as avowed enemies of the church and so believed the straitening and confining their profession must naturally extend and enlarge their own jurisdiction. Thence proceeded their bold and unwarrantable opposing and protesting against prohibitions, and other proceedings at law, on the behalf of ecclesiastical courts; and the procuring some orders and privileges from the king, on the behalf of that faculty; even with an exclusion of the other: as the archbishop of Canterbury prevailed with the king to direct, “that "half the masters of the chancery should be al 66 ways civil lawyers;" and to declare, "that no "others, of what condition soever, should serve "him as masters of request." "Which was a great mistake: for, besides the stopping prohibitions was an envious breach upon the justice of the kingdom; which, at some time or other, will still be too hard for the strongest opposers and oppressors of it: I could never yet know, why the doctors of the civil laws were more of kin to the bishops, or the church, than the common lawyers were. To say that their places were in their disposal, as chancellors, commissaries, and the like ; and, therefore, that their persons were more like to be at their disposal too, at least, to pay them greater reverence, concludes nothing: for they had all opportunity enough, and I think equal to oblige and create a dependence from the other profession; and I am persuaded, the stewardships to bishops, and of the lands of the church, which were to be managed by the rules of the common law, were not much inferior in profit to all the chancellorships in England. And for their affection and respect to their patrons, I believe, experience hath now manifested, that though many of the common lawyers have much indiscretion, injustice, and malice to repent of towards the church, the professors of the civil law have not been less active, to their skill and power, in the unnatural destruction of their mother; and then, where their policy may consist with justice, it will be no ill measure in making friendship, to look into the power of doing hurt and doing good, as well as into the faculty of judging; and it was apparent, that the civil law in this kingdom could neither help or hurt the church in any exigent, it being neither of reputation enough to advance it, or power to oppress it; whereas the professors of the other had always, by their interests, experience, abilities, and reputation, so great an influence upon the civil state, upon court and country, that they were notable friends or enemies; and then the dependence of the church was entirely upon that law, all their inheritance and estates (except their minute tithes) being only determinable by those rules; and by which they have seldom received eminent injustice. And truly, I have never yet spoken with one clergyman, who hath had the experience of both litigations, that hath not ingenuously confessed, "he had rather, in the respect of his trouble, charge, and satisfaction to "his understanding, have three suits depending "in Westminster-hall, than one in the arches, or "any ecclesiastical court." The particulars above mentioned were, I confess, to vulgar minds, great provocations and temptations to revenge; and, therefore, I do not at all wonder, that, in the great herd of the common lawyers, many pragmatical spirits, whose thoughts and observations have been contracted to the narrow limits of the few books of that profession, or within the narrower circle of the bar-oratory, should side with the others, in the womanish art of inveighing against persons, when they should be reforming things: and that some, by degrees, having found the benefit of being of that opinion, (for we all remember, when papist and puritan lawyers got more money than their neighbours, for the opinions they had; not which they delivered,) grew, at last, to have fits of conscience in earnest; and to believe, that a parity in the church was necessary to religion, and not like to produce a parity in the state; the suspicion of which would quickly have wrought upon their divinity. But, that learned and unbiassed (I mean unprovoked) men, in that science, who knew the frame and constitution of the kingdom, and that the bishops were no less the representative body of the clergy, than the house of commons was of the people; and, consequently, that the depriving them of voice in parliament, was a violence, and removing landmarks, and not a shaking (which might settle again) but dissolving foundations; which must leave the building unsafe for habitation: [that such men,] who knew the ecclesiastical and civil state was so wrought and interwoven to gether, and, in truth, so incorporated in each other, that like Hippocrates' twins, they cannot but laugh and cry together; and that the professors of the law were never at so great a height, as even in this time that they so unjustly envied the greatness of the church: and, lastly, [that they,] who might well know, that the great and unwieldy.body of the clergy, consisting of such different tempers, humours, inclinations, and abilities, and which inevitably will have so strong an influence upon the natures and affections of the people, could never be regulated and governed by any magistrates, but of themselves; nor by any rules, but such power which the bishops exercised; whom (besides all arguments of piety, and submission to antiquity) experience of that blessed time since the reformation, not to be paralleled in any nation under heaven, declared to be the most happy managers of that power, whatsoever rankness and excrescence had proceeded from some branches: I say, that these knowing and discerning men (for such 1 must confess there have been) should believe it possible for them to flourish, and that the law itself would have the same respect and veneration from the people, when the well disposed fabric of the church should be rent asunder, (which, without their activity and skill in confusion, could never have been compassed,) hath been to me an instance of the Divine anger against the pride of both, in suffering them to be the fatal engines to break one another: which could very hardly have been oppressed by any other strength or power than their own. And I cannot but say, to the professors of that great and admirable mystery, the law, (upon which no man looks with more affection, reverence, and submission,) who seem now, by the fury and iniquity of the time, to stand upon the ground they have won, and to be masters of the field; and, it may be, wear some of the trophies and spoils they have ravished from the oppressed; that they have yet but sharpened weapons for others to wound themselves; and that their own eloquence shall be applied to their own destruction. And, therefore, if they have either piety to repent and redeem the ill that they have wrought, or policy to preserve their own condition from contempt, and themselves from being slaves to the most abject of the people, they will wind up the church and the law into one bottom; and, by a firm combination and steady pursuit, endeavour to fix both to the same pinnacle, from whence they have been so violently ravished. By this time the king was as weary of Scotland, as he had been impatient to go thither; finding all things proposed to him, as to a vanquished person, without consideration of his honour, or interest; and having not one counsellor about him, but the duke of Lenox, (who from the beginning carried himself by the most exact rules of honour, gratitude, and fidelity to him,) and very few followers, who had either affection to his person, or respect of his honour. That which should have been an act of oblivion, was made a defence and justification of whatsoever they had done: their first tumults, and erecting their tables in opposition [to], and at last suppressing, both courts of justice and session; and the acts and orders of those tables, declared to be "the effects of their duty to his majesty; and according to the law of the land:" and so all those, who according to their allegiance had op. posed and resisted them on the behalf of his majesty, and [were] qualified by his majesty's commissions, [were] adjudged criminal; and the only persons excepted from pardon, and exempted" from the benefit of that oblivion. The seditious acts of the assembly, which had expelled all bishops, and the canonical clergy, from being members of that assembly; and declared themselves to have a power 66 to inflict the censures of the church upon his majesty himself;" were declared" to be lawful, and according to the "constitution of the kingdom; and the govern"ment of the church by archbishops and bishops, "declared to be against the word of God, and an enemy to the propagation of the true reformed "protestant religion; and therefore to be utterly "abolished; and their lands given to the king, I his heirs, and successors.' 66 In consideration of the king's necessary absence from that his native kingdom, it was thought fit, "that the full and absolute government thereof "should be committed to the lords of the secret 66 council; who were likewise made conservators "of the peace of the two kingdoms, during the "intervals of parliaments;" and those lords and conservators were then, and still, to be named by parliament, which was once in three years to "assemble upon a day certain, without any summons from the king, if he neglected to publish "such summons; and, upon the same reason, all "great officers, as chancellor, treasurer, secretary, "and the rest, nominated by parliament; and in "the interval by the lords of the secret council;" without so much as being concerned in his majesty's approbation. 66 All which acts, and whatsoever else they were pleased to present to him, concerning church or state, the king confirmed; and thereby made the lord Lowden, who had been the principal manager of the rebellion, chancellor of Scotland; and created him likewise an earl; and conferred the other great offices, as he was directed: then he made the earl of Argyle (for he was still trusted with conferring of honours) marquis; their great general, Lesley, earl of Leven; and their lieutenantgeneral, earl of Calendar; and conferred other honours, according to the capacity and ability they had had in doing him mischief: and, lastly, (leaving all his own party to live, for he had procured a pardon for them from the parliament, upon condition "they came not near the king's presence; nor received any benefit from him, without their approbation,") he gave all the lands of the church, which had been devolved to him by their ruin, and whatsoever he had else to give, in that kingdom, to those who had discovered it not to be in good hands before: so that he seemed to have made that progress into Scotland, only that he might make a perfect deed of gift of that kingdom; which he could never have done, so absolutely, without going thither. And so, having nothing more to do there, he began his journey towards England about the middle of November. 66 It is not to be doubted, in consideration of those extravagant concessions, they made as extravagant promises to the king; that, by their loyal and dutiful comportment, his majesty should find no diminution of his power; that he should have the entire obedience of that nation, to preserve his full rights and regalities in England; and to reduce Ireland: the earl of Leven telling him, (as mar quis Hamilton assured me, in his hearing,)" that he would not only never more serve against him, "but that whenever his majesty would require his service, he should have it, without ever ask"ing what the cause was:" and many of them whispering in his ear, and assuring him, " that as soon as the troubles of the late storm could be perfectly calmed, they would reverse and repeal "whatsoever was now unreasonably extorted from "him." And his majesty having never received any profit from Scotland, or other benefit than the reputation of a kingdom in his title, cared the less for what he parted with there: and, it may be, being resolved they should be no more charge to him in his court, (for sure he was then perfectly irreconciled to the whole nation,) he believed he should save more in this kingdom, than he had given in that; and he made no scruple, but that they were so full fed now, that they would not stir from home again, till the temper and affection of his people here should be better disposed for their reception. But his majesty never considered, or not soon enough, that they could not reasonably hope to keep what they had so ill got, but by the same arts by which they were such gainers; and there cannot be a surer evidence of the continuance of an enemy, than the having received injuries from him, of a nature that do not use to be forgiven. Neither did he sufficiently weigh the unspeakable encouragement, and, in some particulars, the reasonable pretence the factious party here would have, from the prosperous wickedness of those there. And, it is certain, their number from thence increased wonderfully; the enemies of the church presuming their work was more than half done, when the king himself had declared, (for his consent to that act they would easily make appear to be such,)" that the government by archbishops, "and bishops, was against the word of God, and "the propagation of religion." Many concluding the king would at last yield to any thing, put themselves in company of the boldest and most positive askers; and some, who in their hearts abhorred what the Scots had done, yet disdaining to be overwitted by them; and that they should get more for themselves, and receive a greater argument of the king's trust, than we of this nation; out of pure malice to them, resolved to do the same things with them; and so joined and concurred in any exorbitances. All which the king too late discovered, by the entertainment he received upon his return. About the time the news came of the king's being to begin his journey from Scotland upon a day appointed; and that he had settled all things in that kingdom to the general satisfaction; the committee for preparing the remonstrance offered their report to the house; which caused the draught they offered to be read. It contained a very bitter representation of all the illegal things which had been done, from the first hour of the king's coming to the crown, to that minute; with all those sharp reflections which could be made, upon the king himself, the queen, and council; and published all the unreasonable jealousies of the present government, of the introducing popery; and all other particulars, which might disturb the minds of the people; which were enough discomposed. The house seemed generally to dislike it; many |