day was left for consideration on the 9th, the adjournment having been postponed till that day. Order on Sept. 9. Lords that service be performed according to law. Whilst the Lords were thus busy, the Commons took another forward step. They declared it to be lawful for all parishes to set up lecturers at their own charge, and there was no lecturers. sign that they meant to consult the Lords on this important declaration.1 It is probable that the Peers took offence at the neglect. On the 9th they laid aside the resolutions of the Commons.2 In a house of twenty it was Order of the carried by a majority of eleven to nine, that an order of the 16th of January should be printed and published, to the effect 'that the divine service be performed as it is appointed by the Acts of Parliament of this Realm; and that all such as shall disturb that wholesome order shall be severely punished according to law; and that all parsons, vicars, and curates in their several parishes shall forbear to introduce any rites or ceremonies otherwise than those that are established by the laws of this land.' The Lords not only passed this order, but they refused to communicate their resolution to the Commons. Against this latter resolve six peers-Bedford, Warwick, Clare, Newport, Wharton, and Mandeville-protested. Lyttelton, Manchester, and Huns don voted in the minority, but did not protest.3 Protest of six peers. 1 C. F. ii. 283. 2 In Dover's Notes, where the affair is misdated as Aug. 10 (Clarendon MSS. 1603), we are told that our reasons for proceeding in this manner, before we advised with the House of Commons, was that the very night before they had in their House ordered that very order which is now set forth by them, to be published and printed before they had a conference with us. Query, whether the House of Commons have power of themselves to enjoin the whole kingdom anything which is not settled by the laws?' Dover was clearly mistaken in saying that the Commons published their order about innovations before the division in the Lords. Probably the truth is as I have put it in the text, though there is no actual direction in the Fournais to print the order about lecturers. 3 L. J. iv. 395. The names of the eleven who formed the majority are given in Dover's Notes as Bishop Williams, the Earls of Denbigh, Cleveland, Portland, Dover, Kingston, and Barons Mowbray, Wentworth, Dunsmore, Coventry, and Capel. The names are given somewhat differ Feeling in the Commons. Both the resolutions and the As might have been expected, the Commons in their turn took offence. D'Ewes said that it was not a fit time to print such an order, 'when all men who loved the truth expected a mitigation of the laws already established touching religion, and not a severe execution of them.' Yet it was hard to know what was to be done. Pym suggested that a messenger should be despatched to ask the King to revoke the Lords' order by proclamation. The House probably felt that this would not be a hopeful course. It was finally resolved that its own resolutions should be published together with the order of the Lords. A commentary was to be affixed, expressing surprise at the thinness of the Upper House when so important a decision had been arrived at. 'So it may still be hoped, when both Houses shall meet again, that the good propositions and preparations in the House of Commons, for preventing the like grievances, and reforming other disorders and abuse in matters of religion, may be brought to perfection.' 'Wherefore,' they ended by saying, 'we expect that the commons of mons appeal the realm, do, in the meantime, quietly attend the to patience. reformation intended, without any tumultuous disturbance of the worship of God and the peace of the kingdom." " order to be published. The Com 2 The printing of this declaration was carried without a division. Nothing could have been more conciliatory than the last paragraph. The warning to submit to the law without impatience till Parliament was again in session was conceived in the best spirit of both parties. For all that, the danger was postponed, not averted. The call to abide by the law which had sounded forth from the House of Lords would be sure to find a response in appeal to the the nation, if it were coupled with a firm resolve to search out the defects of the existing law, in order to bring it into conformity with the new facts which had arisen The Lords law. ently in the Diurnal Occurrences. Lord Hunsdon was Dover's eldest son, who had been raised to a peerage in his father's lifetime. This is noteworthy, as showing that Pym did not yet despair of Charles's co-operation. 2 C. F. ii. 287. D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxiv. fol. 110. since the law had been made. Otherwise the appeal was no more than a fair show covering the passions of a party. Adjournment of the Houses. The committees to sit in the recess. For the time interest was diverted to the North. On the 9th both Houses brought their sittings to an end, and most of the few members who had been constant to the last were allowed to enjoy a brief and well-earned rest.1 Each House, however, left behind it a Committee charged to watch the progress of affairs, and to correspond with the Joint Committee which had been ordered to attend the King. That Committee, with the exception of the new Earl of Bedford, who was a less energetic man than his father had been, and who declined to make the journey, had arrived in Edinburgh on August 30. Its leading spirits were Hampden and Fiennes. The King refused to give to its members any authority to treat with the Scottish Parliament, but he could not hinder them from remaining in Scotland to keep watch over his own proceedings.2 Aug. 30. The Committee in Edinburgh. The feast in the Parlia ment House. To all appearance Charles had at last succeeded in winning the hearts of his Northern subjects. On the day of the arrival of the English Committee, he was entertained at a magnificent banquet in the Parliament House. The Lord Provost drank the health of the King and Queen with the heartiest expressions of loyal devotion. "Over the whole town," wrote an Englishman who was present, “there was nothing but joy and revelling, like a day of jubilee, and this is taken of the union which doubtless is more firm by reason of the happy intervention of the unity of form of religion, at least for the present, and in the King's own practice, which wins much upon this people. Yesterday his Majesty was again at the great Church at sermon, where the bishops were not spared, but such downright language as would a year ago have been at the least a Star Chamber business, imputing all that was amiss to ill coun It is customary to speak of the period ending here as the first session of the Long Parliament. The term, though convenient, is inaccurate, as there was no prorogation. 2 The King to Lyttelton, Aug. 25, L. J. iv. 382. The word "have" is omitted in the MS. sellors, and so ingratiating His Majesty with all his people, who indeed show a zeal and affection beyond all expression." Sept. 3. of confi dence. Demand that offices should be the consent of Parliament. " 1 It is easy to conjecture what were the thoughts which arose in Hampden's mind as he looked for the first time on the fair town in the new-found loyalty which had been bought by so great and so suspicious a self-surrender. Charles was Charles full in the highest spirits. "You may assure everyone," he wrote to Nicholas, "that now all difficulties are passed here." He was not long in discovering that he had been too sanguine. In Parliament Argyle was relentless in demanding that no political or judicial offices should be filled up without the approval of Parliament, and Argyle's filled up with supporters were in a clear majority in the House. He was not indeed all-powerful. There were many amongst the nobility, besides the imprisoned Montrose, who struggled hard against this new constitutional system, in which a majority of country gentlemen and burghers was to be welded, in the hands of one popular nobleman, into a political force to beat down the power of the great families. They had never intended to throw off the yoke of Charles in order to become the servants of Argyle. "If this be what you call liberty," said the Earl of Perth, "God send me the old slavery again." ."2 Charles might choose his own side. He might put himself at the head of the popular party or of the aristocratic party. It needed more decision than he possessed to do either with effect. "His Majesty's businesses," wrote Endymion Porter, "run in their wonted channel-subtile de signs of gaining the popular opinion, and weak executions for the upholding of monarchy."3 Charles himself did not recognise the realities of the situation. He continued to hopefulness. write cheerfully to the Queen. Argyle, he told her, had promised to do him faithful service. Leslie was equally devoted to him, and had driven with him round the town amidst the shouts of the people. The Queen, we may be sure, Sept. 7. Charles's Bere to Pennington, Aug. 30, S. P. Dom. 2 Webb to Nicholas, Sept. 5, Nicholas MSS. ♦ Giustinian to the Doge, Sept. 1, Ven. Transcripts, R. O. knew well enough what it was that he expected from the devotion of Leslie and Argyle. During the weeks of his absence, she had been again urging the representatives of the Pope on the Continent to send her that supply of money which was so sorely needed. Might it not, she had asked, be sent to Cologne, only to be made over to herself if she could show that there was indeed a sufficient cause for its use. To this, as to all similar pleas, the Papal authorities were deaf.1 The Queen's application to the Pope. Charles's eyes were too steadily fixed on England for him to struggle very pertinaciously against the Scottish Parliament. Sept. 16. On the 16th an Act was passed, according to which Act for the the King was to choose his officers 'subject to the choice of officers. advice of Parliament.' 2 Charles, perhaps, thought that the mere form of concession would be enough. The next day he gave in a list of councillors, and on the 20th he added the names of the new officers of state. He proposed Sept. 20. Nomination that Loudoun should be Chancellor, and that Lanark, who with his brother Hamilton, had now attached himself to Argyle, should remain Secretary of State. Roxburgh, a steady partisan of the King, was to keep the Privy Seal; and Morton, who was a still stronger Royalist than Roxburgh, was to be Lord Treasurer. At once Argyle rose to of officers. Opposition of Argyle. declaim against Morton, his own father-in-law, as a man deeply in debt, and incapable of so great a trust. Many of the nobility urged Charles to stand by his nomination. Morton, however, relieved him from his difficulty by voluntarily relinquishing his claims.3 Sept. 22. Charles ceases to Charles was deeply mortified. Argyle, he found, meant to be master in Scotland. The blow was the more bitterly felt because it was accompanied by a still graver disappointment. The troops which had hitherto been kept on foot, and which Charles had expected to be placed at his own disposal for purposes which he, perhaps expect help from Scotand. The Archbishop of Tarsis to Barberini, 2 Acts of Parl. of Scotland, v. 403. Aug. 28 Balfour, iii. 66, 69. |