of affection which appeared in his new fubjects; and to this motive may perhaps be afcribed that profufion of titles of honour, which diftinguifhed this period of his reign. During fix weeks, after his entrance into Eng- James diland, it is computed that he bestowed knighthood on no Aributes lefs than two hundred and thirty-feven perfonts. A paf- honours quinade was affixed to St. Paul's, intimating, that in- with great ftructions would be delivered, for affifting fhort memories profufion to retain the names of the new nobility. Though the Scots fhared thefe honours in a proportion which perhaps excited the envy of the English, it must be owned, in juftice to James, that he left almost all the chief offices in the hands of Elizabeth's minifters. Among Cecil conthefe, fecretary Cecil, created earl of Salisbury, was con- tinues to tinued prime-minifter and chief-counsellor. Though this be prime crafty minifter, during the last reign, had been apparently minifter. leagued against the earl of Effex, whofe caufe was favoured by James, yet he kept a fecret correfpondence with that monarch, and fecured his own interefts, without forfeiting the confidence of his party. His former affociates, however, lord Grey, lord Cobham, and fir Walter Raleigh, the enemies of Effex, were not fo fortunate: they felt immediately the king's displeasure, and were dismissed their employments. These three feemed to be marked out for peculiar indignation; for they were foon after accufed of entering into a confpiracy against the king. Confpiracy Neither the proofs nor objects of this plot have been of lords tranfmitted to pofterity. The accufed, however, were Cobham condemned to die, but had their fentence mitigated by and Grey, the king: Cobham and Grey were pardoned, after they Walter had laid their heads on the block. Raleigh was reprieved, Raleigh. but remained in confinement many years afterwards, and at laft suffered for this offence, which was never proved. and fir The religious difputes between the church and the pu- A.D.16c4. ritans induced the king to call a conference at HamptonCourt, on pretence of finding expedients which might Jan. 4. reconcile the two parties. This was an employment en- Confertirely fuitable to the king's tafte; affording him an oppor- ences at Hampton tunity of dictating, concerning points of faith and difci- Court. pline, to an affembly of divines, and of receiving their applaufes for his fuperior zeal and learning. The church of England had not yet abandoned the doctrines of grace and predeftination; the puritans had not separated themfelves from the church, nor openly renounced epifcopacy. Willon, in Kennet, p. 665. Though ment. Though the fpirit of the parties was confiderably different, the only apparent fubjects of difpute were concerning the crofs in baptifm, the ring in marriage, the ufe of the furplice, and the bowing at the name of Jefus. These were the important queftions, which were folemnly agitated in the conference at Hampton-Court between fome bishops and dignified clergy on one hand, and fome leaders of the puritanical party on the other, in the presence of the king and his minifters. From the beginning of the conference, the king fhewed the ftrongeft propensity to the established church, and frequently inculcated the maxim, No bishop, no king. The bishops, in their turn, were very liberal in their praifes towards the royal difputant; and the archbishop of Canterbury faid, that "undoubtedly his majesty spake by the fpecial affiftance of God's fpirit." The two parties agreed to a few alterations in the Liturgy, and feparated with mutual diffatisfaction. March 19 The parliament, fo long delayed on account of the Aparlia plague, which had broken out in London, now affembled. The first bufinefs in which the commons engaged was of the utmost importance to the prefervation of their privileges. The chancellor had hitherto affumed the power of iffuing a writ for the election of any member of the house of commons, by his own authority; but that body now maintained, that, though the returns were by form made into chancery, yet the fole right of judging with regard to elections belonged to the house itfelf. James, not fatisfied with this innovation, ordered a conference between the houfe and the judges, whofe opinion in this cafe was oppofite to that of the commons. This conference, he faid, he commanded as an abfolute king; an epithet, which, though it had been used by Elizabeth, could not prove very grateful to the people. He added, that all their privileges were derived from his grant, and hoped they would not turn them against him. The commons, feeing the confequences of that affumed power, to which their predeceffors had, in fome inftances, blindly fubmitted, were in fome perplexity; but fo great was their deference for majefty, that they appointed a committee to confer with the judges before the king and council. The queftion of law now began to appear in James's eyes a d Kennet, p. 665. e Journ. 3d April, 1604.1 little more doubtful than he had hitherto imagined it; and in order to extricate himself with fome honour, he propofed, that the two members, whofe returns had given rife to the difpute, fhould be fet afide, and a writ be iffued, by a warrant of the house, for a new election. The commons embraced the expedient; but in fuch a manner, that, while they fhowed their regard for the king, they fecured for the future the free poffeffion of their feats, and the right, which they claimed, of judging folely in their own elections and returns. The fpirit and judgement of the houfe of commons appeared, not only in defence of their own privileges, but in their endeavour, though at this time ineffectual, to free trade from thofe fhackles which the highly-exerted prerogative, and even, in this refpect, the ill-judged ty ranny of Elizabeth, had impofed upon it. James had already, of his own accord, called in and annulled all the numerous patents for monopolies, which had been granted by his predeceffor, and which extremely fet tered every fpecies of domeftic industry. But the exclufive companies ftill remained; another fpecies of monopoly, by which almost all foreign trade, except that to France, was brought into the hands of a few rapacious engroffers. These companies, arbitrarily erected, had carried their privileges fo far, that almoft all the commerce of England was centered in London; nay, the whole trade of the capital was confined to about two hundred citizens, who could, by combining among themfelves, fix whatever price they pleased to the exports and imports of the nation. While the commons were thus attempting to give liberty to the trading part of the kingdom, they alfo endeavoured to free the landed property from the burden of wardfhips, and to remove thofe remains of the feudal tenures, under which the nation still laboured. The profit which the king reaped both from wards and from refpite of homage, was estimated; and it was intended to compound for thefe prerogatives by a fecure and independent revenue. But after fome debates in the houfe, and fome conferences with the lords, the affair could not be adjusted. The fame fate attended an attempt to free the nation from the burden of purveyance. In another affair of the utmoft confequence, the commons. showed a greater fpirit of independence than any true judgment of national intereft. The union of the two king The king proposes a union of the two doms was zealously urged by the king; but the more that he recommended fo useful a measure, the more backward was the parliament in concurring with him; while they afcribed his exceffive zeal to a partiality in favour of kingdoms. his Scottish fubjects. Their complaifance for the king, therefore, carried them no farther than to appoint fortyfour commiffioners, to deliberate concerning the terms of a union; but without any power of making advances towards the establishment of it *. Aug. 13: This fummer, the peace with Spain was finally conPeace with cluded, and was figned by the Spanish minifters at LonSpain. don'. Some articles in the treaty, which feemed prejudicial to the Dutch commonwealth, were never executed by the king; and as the Spaniards made no complaints on that head, it appeared, that, by fecret agreement, the king had exprefsly referved the power of fending assistance to the Hollanders ". The Roman Catholics had expected great favour on the acceffion of James, both as he was the fon of Mary, whofe life they believed to have been facrificed to their cause, and as himself, in his early youth, was imagined to have shown fome partiality towards them. It is pretended, that he had even entered into pofitive engagements to tolerate their religion, as foon as he should ascend the English throne. Whether their credulity had interpreted in this fenfe fome obliging expreffions of the king's, or that he had employed fuch an artifice, in order to render them favourable to his title, is uncertain". But they foon discovered their mistake, and were at once furprised and enraged to find James, on all occafions, exprefs his intention of ftrictly executing the laws enacted against them, and of perfevering in all the rigorous meafures of Elizabeth. This declaration determined them upon defpe rate measures; and they at length formed the defign of deftroying the king and both houfes of parliament at a blow. The fcheme was firft proposed by Catesby, a gentleman of good parts and ancient family; who conceived that a train of gunpowder might be placed under the parliament-house, fo as to blow up the king and all the members at once. He opened his intention to Percy, a defcendant of the illuftrious house of Northumberland, who 1ft May, 1604. Parliamentary Hiftory, * Journ. 7th June, 1604. Kennet. p. 673. 585, &c. m Winwood, vol. ii. n State Trials, vol. ii. p. 201, 202, 203. Journ. 21st April, was was charmed with the project, and readily came into it. These two communicated the horrid plot to Thomas Winter, who went over to Flanders in queft of Fawkes, an officer in the Spanish service, with whofe zeal and courage the confpirators were thoroughly acquainted. When they enlisted any new confpirator, the more firmly to bind him to fecrefy, they always, with an oath, employed the communion, the most facred rite of religion. None of these devotees ever entertained the leaft compunction, with regard to the dreadful catastrophe which they projected. Some of them only were ftartled by the idea, that many Catholics must be prefent, as fpectators or attendants on the king, or as having feats in the house of peers; but Tefmond and Garnet, two Jefuits, fuperiors of the order, abfolved their confciences from every fcruple. These transactions paffed in the spring and fummer of 1604; when the confpirators also hired a house, in Percy's name, adjoining to that in which the parliament was to affemble. That they might be lefs interrupted, and give lefs fufpicion to the neighbourhood, they laid in a ftore of provifions; which being done, they began their labour, and perfevered with great affiduity. They foon pierced the wall, though three yards in thickness; when they were alarmed at hearing a noife, which they knew not how to account for. Upon enquiry, they found that it came from the vault below the house of lords; that a magazine of coals had been kept there; and that, as the coals were felling off, the vault would be let to the highest bidder. They, therefore, feized the opportunity of hiring the place; in which they lodged thirty-fix barrels of gunpowder, covered with faggots, bought for the purpose. The doors of the cellar were then boldly flung open, and every body admitted, as if it contained nothing dangerous. 1 Having made thefe preparations, they proceeded to plan, with great confidence of fuccefs, the remaining part of their project. The king, the queen, and prince Henry, were all expected to be prefent at the opening of parliament. The duke, on account of his tender age, would be abfent; and it was refolved, that Percy fhould feize, or affaffinate him. The princefs Elizabeth, a child likewife, was kept at lord Harrington's house in Warwickshire: fir • State Trials, vol. i. p. 199. 198. 210. E VOL. II. Everard, |