most important affairs of state, to the guidance of incompetent favourites, who, as in the instance of the notorious Duke of Buckingham, disgracefully abused the confidence unexpectedly as undeservedly reposed in them.

Under such circumstances, we need feel no surprise if the increasing boldness with which a government that enjoyed but little consideration had recourse to arbitrary measures, till at last it forgot itself so far as to declare all the rights and liberties of the nation only emanations from the royal grace, should in the end have awakened a spirit of resistance in the country, giving birth, in 1621, to the two great parties, one of which stood forth as the champion of the people's rights, while the other lent its support to the efforts for the enlargement of the royal prerogative. Sixty years later, these two parties acquired a wider fame; but their struggles would undoubtedly have overwhelmed James altogether, had not his good genius, by removing him, on the 8th of April, 1625, from the scene of strife, secured him against the effects of the storm that shortly afterwards burst forth.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF STUART CONTINUED TO THE ABDICATION OF JAMES II.

In the whole succession of kings of the house of Stuart, we might vainly look for one endowed with virtues of higher order than the son and successor of James, Charles I., born on the 19th of November, 1600, and married, shortly after his accession, to Henriette Marie, daughter of Henry IV. of France. With a dignified and pleasing demeanour he combined high mental cultivation, kindness of disposition, and a character that, in the usual intercourse of life, would have acquired for him general esteem; but his father, and, what was worse, the Duke of Buckingham, had been his tutors; and the prejudices which had nearly involved them in ruin had been imbibed by their pupil, who possessed, as little as James had done, those qualities of a

sovereign which might have blinded his people to the mischievous character of those prejudices.

The Duke of Buckingham was as all-powerful a minister, during the first three years of Charles's reign, as under James. It was through the instigation of Buckingham that Charles was led into a great number of arbitrary measures, and was involved in a war with France, which terminated even more disgracefully than one that had previously been waged against Spain, and for which also Buckingham must be held responsible. The English nation, fatigued by so onerous and at the same time so disgraceful a system of despotism, after numerous vain attempts to release the king from the feeble and faithless counsels of Buckingham, had recourse to new measures. In 1628, a committee of both houses of parliament laid the celebrated Petition of Rights before the king. This document, by which the original contract between the king and the people was renewed according to the principles of Magna Charta, Charles was invited to confirm. This the king at first unwisely refused to do; and in the sequel he complied with the demand, equally unwisely, to protect

kis favourite against the effects of the charges raised against him. When the dagger of an assassin, shortly afterwards, relieved the country from so unworthy a minister, it was too late to allay the spirit of animosity which the abuse of power had called forth.

In the twelve succeeding years indeed, during which Charles reigned without minister or parliament, England enjoyed the advantages of peace; but occurrences were not wanting that showed how little the nation was reconciled by internal prosperity to the loss of its freedom. A trifling cause, it was evident, would suffice to make the smothered flame break forth with renewed fury; and, owing to the king's partiality towards the episcopal form of church government, this cause arose first in the more ancient portion of the dominions of his house. Although Scotland beheld in this form of church government only the first step towards a return to Popery, still Charles, whose religious prejudices were encouraged by Laud, Bishop of London, had resolved to carry into effect the union of the English and Scottish churches, as contemplated in the preceding reign; and with this view the new liturgy

was ordered, in 1637, to be read in all Scottish

churches.

In consequence of this order, a regular armed resistance was organised, the members of which published the celebrated "Covenant" as their confession of faith, the main points of which were contained in the assurance of inviolable attachment to the principles of Presbyterianism. The king was not without the means of opposing an overwhelming military force to the insurgents. Wentworth, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, who was afterwards advanced to the dignity of Earl of Strafford, spared no pains to place the king in a position to act with energy against the insurgents; but Charles was twice led by the weakness of his own character to enter into negotiations with those very insurgents, by doing which the civil war was merely postponed; as none of the causes from which the recommencement of a similar movement might reasonably be anticipated were removed.

In 1640, Charles opened the celebrated "Long Parliament," which consisted chiefly of Presbyterians, or, as they were then more frequently called, Puritans. These, instead of applying