with this important victory. They continued their inquiries into every part of government. They remonstrated against a commission, which had been granted for levying money by impositions or otherwise, where form and circumstance, as expressed in the commission, must be dispensed with, rather than the substance be lost or hazarded; an obvious scheme to render the parliaments entirely useless. They were not less strenuous in their representations against another commission, which had been issued for raising ten thousand German horse, and transporting them to England, in order, as it was supposed, to support the projected impositions on excises. They next resumed their censure on Buckingham, and presented a remonstrance, in which they recapitulated all national grievances and mis. fortunes, and omitted no circumstance which could render the whole administration despicable and odious. This remonstrance was the more provoking, as it joined to the extreme acrimony of the subject, an affected civility and submission in the language; and as it was the first return the king met with for his late sacrifices of prerogative, the greatest by far ever made by any of his predecessors, he could not be but extremely offended at it, and deeply repented having made such concessions.

On the same day that the remonstrance was presented to the king, the commons sent the bill of subsidy to the upper house, and prepared another remonstrance against the levying of tonnage and poundage without consent of parliament, as being a palpable violation of the liberties of the people, and an open infringement of the petition of right lately granted. The king prevented the finishing of that remonstrance, by suddenly ending this sessicn by a prorogation, June 26th.

All the subsidies given by parliament were soon expended in preparing a considerable fleet and army

for the relief of Larochelle, now closely besieged by land, and threatened with a blockade by sea. The earl of Denbigh, brother-in-law to Buckingham, had been already dispatched for the same purpose, but returned without having effected any thing, and had even declined to attack the enemy's fleet. In order to repair that dishonour, the duke hastened to Portsmouth, where he was to take the command of the new expedition, when he was assassinated by one Felton, of a good family, but of an ardent melancholy temper, who had served under the duke in the station of lieutenant. His captain being killed in the retreat at the isle of Rhé, Felton had applied for the company, and when disappointed, he threw up his commission, While he was brooding on this private cause of resentment, he met with the remonstrance of the commons, in which the duke was represented as the cause of every grievance. The national discontent thus communicated tò that desperate enthusiast, inflamed his vindictive disposition against this dangerous foe to his country. As the duke, in a narrow passage, turned to speak to one of his followers, he was on a sudden struck on the breast with a knife. Without uttering other words, than, "The villain "has killed me!" he pulled out the knife, and breathed his last. The murderer, when asked, at whose instigation he had committed the horrid deed, answered, that no man living had credit to have disposed him to such an action, but that believing he should perish in the attempt, he had explained his motives in his hat; in the inside of which was sewed a paper, containing four or five lines of the remonstrance of the commons, which declared Buckingham an enemy to the kingdom, and under these lines was a short ejaculation or prayer. The king received the news of Buckingham's death with great composure in public, but

lamented it bitterly, as he was still as much as ever attached to him, and during his whole life he retained an affection for the friends of his favourite, and a prejudice against his enemies.

After Buckingham's death the command of the fleet and army destined for Larochelle was conferred on the earl of Lindesey, but when he arrived he found the inhabitants reduced to surrender at discretion even in sight of the English forces.

Ann, 1629.

The parliament was assembled at the latter end of January, and the commons immediately found new causes of complaint, such as Manwaring's pardon and promotion, the same favour granted to two other clergymen, who for like reasons were no less obnoxious to the commons, and the promotion of Montague to the see of Chichester, though he had been censured for moderation towards the catholics, the most odious of all crimes at that time. They found likewise, that to all the copies of the petition of right which were dispersed, had been annexed by the king's order the first answer, which had given so little satisfaction to the commons; an expedient by which it was endeavoured to persuade the people, that the king had nowise receded from his former claim and pretensions. As to the duty of tonnage and poundage, which for above a century had been considered the due of the king, even before it was voted by parliament, Charles foreseeing, from what had passed about it in the last session, that the same controversy would be renewed, took care very early to inform the commons, with many mild and reconciling expressions, that he had not "taken these duties as appertaining to his hereditary prerogative; but that it ever was and still is "his meaning to enjoy them as a gift of his people;

"and that if he had hitherto levied these duties, he • pretended to justify himself by the necessity of so 66 doing, not by any right which he assumed."

This concession, which evinces the king's moderate temper, now freed from the influence of Buckingham's violent counsels, might have satisfied the commons, had they entertained no other view than that of securing their own powers and privileges; but their plan was evidently to reduce the king to complete and perpetual dependence. They accordingly insisted, as a necessary preliminary, that the king should at once entirely desist from levying these duties, after which they were to take it into consideration how far they would restore him to the possession of a revenue of which he had clearly divested himself. Besides the extreme hardness of this condition, there were other reasons which deterred Charles from complying with it. It was probable that the commons might renew their former project of making this revenue only temporary, and would cut off the new impositions which Mary and Elizabeth, but especially James, had levied, and which formed an important part of the public revenue. Besides, as they openly declared, that they had at present many pretensions of the greatest consequence, chiefly with regard to religion, it was obvious that if compliance were refused, no supply must be expected from the commons.

Charles, immediate successor to a long series of monarchs who had exercised an unlimited authority, considered as the greatest of all indignities that of being degraded from his rank into a slave of his most insolent and ungrateful subjects; he did not, however, break immediately with them, upon their postponing from day to day the vote of a supply. He thought that he could better justify any strong measure which he might afterwards be obliged to take, if he allowed them to carry to the utmost ex

tremities the attacks upon his government and prerogative. He contented himself for the present with soliciting the lower house by messages and speeches. But instead of hearkening to his solicitations, they carried their scrutiny into his management of the church, and levelled their formidable censures against the followers of Arminius, a sect who had opposed the rigid tenets of predestination, and some of whom, by the indulgence of James and Charles, had attained the highest preferments in the hierarchy.

The appellation of puritan at that time was applied to three different parties, which, though commonly united, were actuated by different views and motives. There were political puritans, who maintained the most exalted principles of civil liberty; the puritans in discipline, who were averse to the ceremonies and episcopal government of the church; and the doctrinal puritans, who rigidly defended the speculative system of the first reformers. In opposition to them stood the court-party, the hierarchy, and the Arminians, with this distinction, that the latter, being introduced a few years before, did not as yet comprehend all those who were favourable to the church and to monarchy. The house of commons being now much governed by the puritanical party, thought they could not better serve their cause than by branding the Arminian sect. In the debates of the commons it is easy to discern, so early, some sparks of that enthusiastic fire which afterwards set the whole nation in combustion. Oliver Cromwell, at that time a young man of no account in the nation, is mentioned in these debates as complaining of one clergyman, who, he was told, preached flat popery. It is curious to observe how exactly the first words of this fanatical hypocrite correspond with the character he afterwards displayed.