day, or the next, whether he might by his proclamation recall them to meet together again: but finding that impossible, he fell roundly to find out all expedients for the raising of money, in which he had so wonderful success, that, in less than three weeks, by the voluntary loan of the particular lords of the council, and of other private gentlemen about the city, some relating to the court, and others strangers to it, there was no less than three hundred thousand pounds paid into the exchequer to be issued out as his majesty should direct a sum that sufficiently manifests the plenty of that time, and greater than any prince in Europe could have commanded in so short a time; and was an unanswerable evidence, that the hearts of his subjects were not then aliened from their duty to the king, or a just jealousy for his honour.

All diligence was used in making levies, in which few of the general officers which had been employed the year before were made use of; though it was great pity that the earl of Essex was not again taken in; which had infallibly preserved him from swerving from his duty, and he would have discharged his trust with courage and fidelity, and therefore probably with success: but he was of a rough, proud nature, and did not think his last summer's service so well requited that he was earnestly to solicit for another office; though there was no doubt but he would have accepted it, if it had been offered.

A general was appointed, the earl of Northumberland; and the lord Conway general of the horse: which made the great officers of the former year, the earl of Arundel, the earl of Essex, and the earl of Holland, (who thought themselves free from any oversights that had been committed,) more capable of infusions by those who were ready to work according to the occurrences upon their several constitutions, and I am persuaded if this war had been left to the managery of the same officers, or rather if the earl of Essex had been made general, (who, notwithstanding the trivial disobligation he had received in being denied the command of Beedon-forest, might easily have been caressed,) it would have been more prosperously carried on. But the reputation of the earl of Northumberland, who had indeed arrived at a wonderful general estimation, was believed to be most instrumental: and the lord Conway by as gentle and as general a concurrence was thought an able soldier, and of great parts. Besides, the earls of Essex and Holland (for, for the earl of Arundel, there was neither reason why he was general in the first expedition, and why he was not in this;) were thought less governable by those councils to which the main was then to be intrusted, the earl of Strafford bearing a part in them; to whom the first was very averse, and the latter irreconcilable.

Despatches were sent into Ireland to quicken the preparations there, which the earl had left in a great forwardness, under the care of the earl of Ormond, his lieutenant-general: monies issued out for the levies of horse and foot there, and for the making a train: all which were as well advanced as, considering the general discomposure, could be reasonably expected.

And the king, the earl of Northumberland, and the earl of Strafford, thought they had well provided for the worst in making choice of the lord Conway to be general of the horse: a man very

dear to the two earls; and indeed, by a very extraordinary fate, [he had] got a very particular interest and esteem in many worthy men of very different qualifications. He had been born a soldier in his father's garrison of the Brill, when he was governor there; and bred up, in several commands, under the particular care of the lord Vere, whose nephew he was; and though he was married young, when his father was secretary of state, there was no action of the English either at sea or land, in which he had not a considerable command; and always preserved a more than ordinary reputation, in spite of some great infirmities, which use to be a great allay to the credit of active men; for he was a voluptuous man in eating and drinking, and of great license in all other excesses, and yet was very acceptable to the strictest and the gravest men of all conditions. And which was stranger than all this, he had always (from his pleasure, to which his nature excessively inclined him, and from his profession, in which he was diligent enough) reserved so much time for his books and study, that he was well versed in all parts of learning, at least appeared like such a one in all occasions, and in the best companies. He was of a very pleasant and inoffensive conversation, which made him generally very acceptable: so that the court being at that time full of faction, very few loving one another, or those who resorted to any who were not loved by them, he alone was even domestic with all, and not suspected by either of the lords' or the ladies' factions.

The war was generally thought to be as well provided for, as, after the last year's miscarriage, it could be, by his being made general of the horse; and no man was more pleased with it than the archbishop of Canterbury, who had contracted an extraordinary opinion of this man, and took great delight in his company, he being well able to speak in the affairs of the church, and taking care to be thought by him a very zealous defender of it; when they who knew him better, knew he had no kind of sense of religion, and thought all was alike. He was sent down with the first troops of horse and foot which were levied, to the borders of Scotland, to attend the motion of the enemy, and had a strength sufficient to stop them, if they should attempt to pass the river, which was not fordable in above one or two places, there being good garrisons in Berwick and Carlisle. And in this posture he lay near Newburn in the outskirts of Northumberland.

Whilst these things were thus publicly acted, private agitations were not less vigorously intended. The treaty and pacification of the former year had given an opportunity of forming correspondences, and contriving designs, which before had been more clandestine; and the late meeting in parliament had brought many together, who could not otherwise have met, and discovered humours and affections, which could not else have been so easily communicated. The court was full of faction and animosity, each man more intending the ruin of his adversary, and satisfying his private malice, than advancing his master's service, or complying with his public duty, and to that purpose directing all their endeavours, and forming all their intercourse; whilst every man sottishly thought him whom he found an enemy to his enemies, a friend to all his other affections: or

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rather by the narrowness of his understanding, and extent of his passion, having contracted all his other affections to that one of revenge.

And by this means those emissaries and agents for the confusion which was to follow were furnished with opportunity and art to entangle all those (and God knows they were a great people) who were transported with those vulgar and vile considerations: cheap, senseless libels were scattered about the city, and fixed upon gates and public remarkable places, traducing some, and proscribing others of those who were in highest trust and employment: tumults were raised, and all license both in actions and words taken; insomuch as a rabble of mean, unknown, dissolute persons, to the number of some thousands, attempted the house of the lord archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth, with open profession and protestation, "that they would tear him in pieces;" which (though one of that rabble, a sailor, was apprehended and executed in Southwark, upon an indictment of high treason) was so just à cause of terror, that the archbishop, by the king's command, lodged for some days and nights in Whitehall; which place likewise was not unthreatened in their seditious meetings and discourses. This infamous, scandalous, headless insurrection, quashed by the deserved death of that one varlet, was not then thought to be contrived or fomented by any persons of quality: yet it was discoursed after in the house of commons by Mr. Strode (one of those ephori who most avowed the curbing and suppressing of majesty) with much pleasure and content; and it was mentioned in the first draught of the first remonstrance (when the same was brought in by Mr. Pym) not without a touch of approbation, which was for that reason somewhat altered, though it still carried nothing of judgment upon it in that piece.

Things standing thus both in the court and city, and the Scots preparing amain for an invasion, and we, at least, for a defence, on a sudden the lord Lowden, (who before was said to be committed for desiring protection and aid from the French king, by a letter under his hand) was discharged from his imprisonment; without imparting that resolution to the council; and after a few days admittance and kind reception at Whitehall, was dismissed into Scotland; his authority and power with that people being as considerable as any man's, and his conduct as necessary for the enterprises they had in hand. This stratagem was never understood, and was then variously spoken of; many believing he had undertaken great matters for the king in Scotland, and to quiet that distemper others, that it was an act entirely compassed by the marquis of Hamilton, who was like to stand in need of great supporters, by that extraordinary obligation to endear himself with that nation; or to communicate somewhat to that nation, if his condition before were so good that it needed no endearment. They who published their thoughts least, made no scruple of saying," that "if the policy were good and necessary of his first "commitment, it seemed as just and prudent to "have continued him in that restraint."

The progress in the king's advance for Scotland was exceedingly hindered by the great and dangerous sickness of the earl of Northumberland the general, whose recovery was either totally despaired

of by the physician, or pronounced to be expected very slowly; so that there would be no possibility for him to perform the service of the north: whereupon he sent to the king, that he would make choice of another general. And though the lord Conway in all his letters sent advertisement, "that "the Scots had not advanced their preparations to "that degree, that they would be able to march "that year," yet the king had much better intelligence that they were in readiness to move; and so concluded, that it was necessary to send another general; and designed the earl of Strafford for that command, and to leave the forces in Ireland, which were raised to make a diversion in Scotland, to be governed by the earl of Ormond. The earl of Strafford was scarce recovered from a great sickness, yet was willing to undertake the charge, out of pure indignation to see how few men were forward to serve the king with that vigour of mind they ought to do, and knowing well the malicious designs which were contrived against himself, but he would rather serve as lieutenant-general under the earl of Northumberland, than that he should resign his commission: and so, with and under that qualification, he made all possible_haste towards the north, before he had strength enough for the journey.

And before he could arrive with the army, that infamous irreparable rout at Newburn was fallen out; where the enemy marched at a time and place, when and where they were expected, through a river deep though fordable, and up a hill, where our army was ranged to receive them: through those difficulties and disadvantages, without giving or taking any blows, (for the five or six men of ours who were killed, fell by their cannon, before the passing of the river,) they put our whole army to the most shameful and confounding flight that was ever heard of; our foot making no less haste from Newcastle, than our horse from Newburn; both leaving the honour, and the coal, to those who had not confidence enough (notwithstanding the evidence they had seen of our fear) to possess that town in two days after; not believing it possible that such a place, which was able to have waged war with their nation, could be so kindly quit to them: the lord Conway never after turning his face towards the enemy, or doing any thing like a commander, though his troops were quickly brought together again, without the loss of a dozen men, and were so ashamed of their flight, that they were very willing as well as able to have taken what revenge they would upon the enemy, who were possessed with all the fears imaginable, and could hardly believe their own success, till they were [assured that the lord Conway with all his army rested quietly in Durham, and then they presumed to enter into Newcastle.]

But it seemed afterwards to be a full vindication to the honour of the nation, that, from this infamous defeat at Newburn, to the last entire conquest of Scotland by Cromwell, the Scots' army never performed one signal action against the English, but were always beaten by great inequality of numbers as oft as they approached to any encounter, if they were not supported by English troops.

In this posture the earl of Strafford found the army about Durham, bringing with him a body much broken with his late sickness, which was not clearly shaken off, and a mind and temper confess

ing the dregs of it, which being marvellously provoked and inflamed with indignation at the late dishonour, rendered him less gracious, that is, less inclined to make himself so, to the officers, upon his first entrance into his first charge; it may be, in that mass of disorder and unsoldierliness, not quickly discerning to whom kindness and respect was justly due. But those who by this time no doubt were retained for that purpose, took that opportunity to incense the army against him; and so far prevailed in it, that in a short time it was more inflamed against him than against the enemy; and was willing to have their want of courage imputed to excess of conscience, and that their being not satisfied in the grounds of the quarrel was the only cause that they fought no better. And in this disposition in all parts, the earl found it necessary to retire with the army to the skirts of Yorkshire, and himself to York, (whither the king was come,) leaving Northumberland and the bishopric of Durham to be possessed by the victors; who being abundantly satisfied with what they never hoped to possess, made no haste to advance their new conquests. It was then and is now very much wondered at, that the earl of Strafford, upon his first arrival at the army, called no persons to a council of war for that shameful business of Newburn, or the more shameful quitting of Newcastle, (where were not ten barrels of musquet bullets, nor moulds to make any; the enemy having been long expected there, and our army not less than a month in that town; time enough, if nothing had been done before, to have made that place tenable for a longer time than it could have been distressed.) Whether the earl saw that it would not have been in his power to have proceeded finally and exemplarily upon that inquisition, and therefore chose rather not to enter upon it; or whether he found the guilt to be so involved, that though some were more obnoxious, few were unfaulty; or whether he plainly discerned whither the whole tended, and so would not trouble himself further in discovering of that, which, instead of a reproach, might prove a benefit to the persons concerned; I know not: but any public examination it never had.

The Scots needed not now advance their progress; their game was in the hands (no prejudice to their skill) of better gamesters. Besides, they were not to make the least inroad, or do the least trespass to their neighbours of Yorkshire; who were as solicitous, that, by any access or concurrence of the strength of that large county, they should not be driven further back; and therefore, instead of drawing their trained bands together (which of themselves would have been a greater or a better army than was to contend with them) to defend their county, or the person of the king then with them, they prepared petitions of advice and good counsel to him to call a parliament, and to remove all other grievances but the Scots. At the same time some lords from London (of known and since published affections to that invasion) attended his majesty at York with a petition, signed by others, eight or ten in the whole, who were craftily persuaded by the liegers there, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hambden, and Mr. Saint-John, to concur in it, being full of duty and modesty enough; without considering, that nothing else at that time could have done mischief; and so suffered themselves to be made instruments towards those ends, which in truth they abhorred.

In these distractions and discomposures, between an enemy proud and insolent in success, an army corrupted, or at best disheartened, a country mutinous and inclined to the rebels, at least not inclined to reduce them, and a court infected with all three, the king could not but find himself in great straits; besides that his treasure, which had hitherto kept that which was best from being worse, was quite spent. The raising and disbanding the first army so unfortunately and wretchedly, had cost full three hundred thousand pounds, which the good husbandry of the ministers of the revenue had treasured up for an emergent occasion; and the borrowing so much money for the raising and supplying this latter army had drawn assignments and anticipations upon the revenue to that degree, that there was not left wherewithal to defray the constant necessary expense of the king's household. A parliament would not be easily thought of for many other considerations than that it could not come together speedily enough to prevent that mischief, to which it should be chiefly applied: for if we were not then in a condition to defend ourselves, in forty days (the soonest a parliament could meet) an army elate with victory, when no town was fortified, or pass secured, would run over the kingdom; especially the people being every where so like to bid them welcome.

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A new convention (not before heard of, that is, so old, that it had not been practised in some hundreds of years) was thought of, to call a great council of all the peers of England to meet and attend his majesty at York, that by their advice that great affair might be the more prosperously managed. Whether it was then conceived, that the honour of the king and kingdom being so visibly upon the stage, those branches of honour, which could not outlive the root, would undoubtedly rescue and preserve it; or whether it was believed, that upon so extraordinary an occasion the peers would suffice to raise money; as it was in that meeting proposed by one of them, "that they might give subsidies" whether the advice was given by those who had not the confidence in plain terms to propose a parliament, but were confident that would produce one; or whether a parliament was then resolved on, and they called to be obliged by it, and so to be obliged to some sober undertaking in it; or what other ground or intention there was of that council, was never known or whether indeed it was resolved out of the trouble and agony of afflicted thoughts, because no other way occurred: but such a resolution was taken, and writs immediately issued under the great seal of England to all the peers to attend his majesty at York within twenty days; and preparations were made in all places accordingly.

Whilst the lords are on their way thither, it will not be amiss to consider the general state of affairs in that time, and the persons to whom the managing the public business was principally then, and for some time had been, intrusted; that so, upon view of the materials, we may be the better enabled to guess how those dexterous workmen were like to employ themselves. It is told you before, that, upon the dissolution of the parliament but four months before, the lords of the council bestirred themselves in levying the ship-money, and in lending great sums of money for the war.

The convocation house (the regular and legal