to your judgment; and whether (he concluded, looking upward,) that judgment be of life or death, TE DEUM LAUDAMUS: IN TE, DOMINE, CONFIDO!"

The effect of this noble and touching address upon the audience in general, may be understood from the following testimony, subjoined to the report of it, for which we are indebted to Whitelocke, the chairman of the committee of impeachment. Certainly," writes that honest adversary of Strafford, never any man acted such a part, on such a theatre, with more wisdom, constancy, and eloquence, with greater reason, judgment, and temper, and with a better grace in all his words and gestures, than this great and excellent person did; and he moved the hearts of all his auditors (some few excepted) to remorse and pity.". Pym had prepared a reply,-in force of reasoning and condenced power of language, worthy of a juster cause; in sanguinary violence, far exceeding everything hitherto drawn forth by this memorable trial. Among many sterling passages, it contains a description of law, equalled only by the famous one in Hooker. "The law," says the Commons' orator, "is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evil, betwixt just and unjust. If you take away the law, all things will fall into a confusion; every man will become a law to himself, which, in the depraved conditions of human nature, must needs produce many enormities. Lust will become a law, and envy will become a law, covetousness and ambition will become laws; and what dictates, what decisions such laws will produce, may easily be discerned in the late government of Ireland." These sentences were repeatedly quoted, or referred to, in the able proclamations and manifestoes, from the pen of Clarendon, put forth by the king at a subsequent period; when the same men who had once started so honourably, were recklessly hurrying forward over the prostrate ruins of the constitution. From statements so just and philosophic, Pym could pass, however, to the following tone of truculent aggravation: "The forfeitures inflicted for treason, by our law, are of life, honour, and estate, even all that can be forfeited; and this prisoner having committed so many treasons, although he should pay all these forfeitures, will be still a debtor to the commonwealth. Nothing can be more equal, than that he should perish by the justice of that law which he would have subverted. Neither will this be a new way of blood. There are marks enough to trace this law to the very original of this kingdom; and if it hath not been put in execution, as he allegeth, these two hundred and forty years, it was not for want of law, but that all that time hath not bred a man bold enough to commit such crimes as these! "

At this point an incident occurred that shook the orator's firmness. During the delivery of this speech, the earl had frequently regarded his accuser with an earnest look. At length, just as the above words were uttered, their eyes met. What sudden feelings smote through the "firm nerves" of the pursuer, as he caught the steady gaze of his great quarry, once his admired associate, can only be conjectured. He loses, however, his self-possession,-falters, stops; with trembling hands he seeks, among his papers, somewhat towards the next paragraph of premeditated invective. "They could not help him," writes an eye-witness; and, amidst the evident impatience of the hall, he huddles up the unheeded conclusion.

The law which exacted Strafford's blood was not yet in the statute-book. Persuasion

E

had not reached the Lords. Now, therefore, the whole strength of the party was to be applied to force on the bill of attainder. Selden, the most learned and venerable of the advocates of freedom-Holborne, the least corruptible of the judges, argued against that sanguinary enactment-Digby, as long as he believed there was evidence against the earl of high treason, one of his severest accusers, became now his advocate; and protested vehemently against the shedding of his blood. But opposition served only to wet the eagerness of pursuit. The language of St. John was the raving of a fury. Strafford asked to be heard against the bill: he was denied. On the 21st of April it was read a third time in the Commons; and the same afternoon Pym hurried up with it to the Peers, with a special demand for expedition!

Actuated more by motives of conscience and kingly honour than by personal attachment, Charles resolved, at all hazards, to save his unfortunate minister. He assured Strafford by letter, that, "upon the word of a king, he should not suffer, in life, honour, or fortune;" and what he said, he fully designed. But the king was in the power of the Commons. By his connivance, large offers were made to Balfour, the lieutenant of the Tower, to suffer the escape of his prisoner: the stern Scotchman remained true to the cause espoused by his nation, and revealed everything. The troops were discontented at the preference given to the Scotch, in the article of pay; the king was privy to an intrigue, founded on this circumstance, the object of which was to overawe the parliament by bringing the army into the neighbourhood of the metropolis: it was instantly betrayed to the popular leaders. Baffled in every more decided attempt to save his minister, Charles, in the extremity of his distress, took what proved to be a fatal step. He went down to parliament and addressed the houses, acknowledging that Strafford had been guilty of misdemeanors, and promising never again to employ him in his affairs; but added, that having been present and heard the whole of the evidence at the trial, he in his conscience acquitted him of high treason, and could not give his assent to the bill of attainder.

A more unfortunate course could not have been pursued. The Commons exclaimed loudly against this declaration, as an attempt upon their privileges. The next day being Sunday, the party-to use an expression of Queen Elizabeth's-"tuned the pulpits" of the Presbyterians to the cry of "Justice on the great delinquent ;" and on the Monday, armed multitudes, set on by the same instigation, placarded the names of fifty-nine members of the House of Commons who had voted with Lord Digby against the bill, and occupied the passages to the House of Lords; insulting the peers on account of their delay, with shouts of "Justice and execution! Justice and execution!" and openly, before the windows of Whitehall, demanding the blood of Strafford. By these means the judges were intimidated to deliver an opinion, that on certain of the charges the earl was guilty in law; and it is said that some of the bishops (the absence of Laud had been wisely provided for !) to whom the king appealed in his despair, advised him to yield, by means of a quibbling argument, grounded on the distinction between what he owed to his conscience as a man, and what as a sovereign. Pym seized the moment to announce the discovery of the "army plot," the doors, as usual, when a great blow was to be

struck, being previously closed. Terrible things were added, of corresponding dangers from abroad. All day the house continued in debate, which at night issued in the famous "Protestation," imitated from the "Solemn League and Covenant" of Scotland. Following up the prodigious impulse given by these, and other methods of excitement, the Commons then bring in a bill for securing the perpetuity of the parliament. It passes the Lords. Three days later, in a thin house, and by a small majority, the bill of attainder likewise passes. Together they are presented to the king, with pressing entreaties to his majesty to preserve the peace of the kingdom by an immediate assent. With a magnanimity worthy his character, Strafford himself implores his afflicted master to withdraw his pledge, and, by assenting to the bill, seal a "blessed agreement" between himself and his subjects. "Sir," he writes, "my consent shall more acquit you herein to God, than all the world can do besides: to a willing man there is no injury done."

In agony the king passed the interval which he had required to consider his final answer to the solicitations of the two houses; and at the close of it subscribed, with tears, a commission to the Earl of Arundel, and two other lords, to give the required assent, scarcely noticing in his distress that other no less fatal enactment. The next day, when Secretary Carlton announced the terrible decision, and explained its motives to the earl, a moment's flush of that attachment to life, common alike to all, which religious trust, generous greatness of soul, or even the resolves of a strong intellect, can crush, but not extinguish, came over him. Some surprise appeared in his countenance; he inquired if it was so indeed; rose up from his chair; and, with uplifted hands, exclaimed, in the words of the Psalmist, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men!"

Laud, the associate of his greatness, and the companion of his fall, had some time. previously become the earl's neighbour in the Tower. The steps by which he was transferred thither may be here briefly traced.

It is probable, that, at the time of the primate's impeachment, no intention existed to take away his life: it was thought sufficient to keep him from mischief, and let him find, it might be, a grave in prison. Before passing into the custody of Maxwell, he had permission to go over to Lambeth, and select some papers and books for his defence. He remained there till night, and attended prayers, for the last time, in his own chapel. When the hour arrived for his departure, he found hundreds of his poor neighbours waiting to receive his benediction, and praying for his safe return. Such particulars are worthy to be related, in the story of a man whom even they who admit his virtues scarcely believe to have been capable of inspiring attachment.

Towards the latter end of February, the archbishop was ordered to attend the House of Lords, and hear the articles of impeachment read. Pym appeared at the bar in support of the accusation; but his speech on this occasion did not display those marks of a powerful intellect, engaged in its chosen vocation, which shone so brilliantly through his arguments against Strafford. Laud having now permission to speak, enlarged at some length upon the charge; which, he said, was great and heavy, and such, indeed, that he should regard himself as unworthy to live, if it could be made good. On the

first of March he was committed to the Tower; in his passage through the City, "baited" by the rabble with a degree of brutality which deeply shocked even his gaoler, Maxwell. No intercourse between the great and unfortunate friends was allowed; but Laud derived some consolation from the reports made to him by Balfour, of many expressions of reverence and affection towards himself which the earl had been heard to utter.

Strafford's days were now literally numbered. The royal assent to the bill of attainder was given on Monday; Wednesday was fixed for his execution; nor could the utmost endeavours of the afflicted king-negociation, entreaty, supplication,-to all of them he resorted, procure so much as a short respite. The earl employed the interval in calmly settling his affairs. He wrote a petition to the House of Lords, entreating them, in terms perhaps too humble, to have compassion on his innocent children; addressed a letter to his wife, bidding her affectionately to support her courage, and accompanied it with an address of final advice and instruction to his eldest son, exquisite for its pathos, its wisdom, and deep religious tone. He had tender and tearful farewells for other friends beside; but the most solemn he reserved for Laud.

The day previous to his execution, Strafford sent for the lieutenant of the Tower, and requested to know if he might speak with the archbishop. Balfour replied, that such an indulgence was contrary to his peremptory orders. "Master lieutenant," said he, with melancholy playfulness, "you shall hear what passes between us. It is not a time either for him to plot heresy or me to plot treason." The lieutenant suggested that he should petition the parliament. "No," rejoined the earl; "I have gotten my despatch from them, and will trouble them no more. I am now petitioning a higher court, where neither partiality can be expected, nor error feared." He then turned to the primate of Ireland (Usher,) who had been permitted to attend him, and said, "My lord, I will tell you what I should have spoken to my lord's grace of Canterbury. You shall desire the archbishop to lend me his prayers to-night, and to give me his blessing when I go abroad to-morrow; and that he will be in his window, that by my last farewell I may give him thanks for this and all his former favours." Laud, on receiving this message, replied that he was bound, by every obligation of duty and affection, to comply with the request; but feared that his weakness and passion would not lend him eyes to behold the departure of his friend. The next morning, when Strafford was on his way to the scaffold, as he approached the apartment of the archbishop, he remarked to the lieutenant that he did not see him: "nevertheless," continued he, "give me leave I pray you, to do my last observance towards his chamber." An attendant, in the mean time, having apprised the archbishop of his approach, he staggered to the window. The earl perceiving him, exclaimed, bowing himself to the ground, "My lord, your prayers and your blessing!" The aged primate lifted up his hand, pronounced his benediction, and, overcome with anguish, fell fainting to the earth. Strafford added these parting words-" Farewell, my lord; God protect your innocency!" and passed calmly onwards. At the gate of the Tower, the lieutenant wished him to enter a coach, lest the enraged populace should rush upon him to tear him in pieces. "No," said he, "Mr. Lieutenant; I dare look death