a charge of treafon against Pym and Hampden, on eve of and fuch acceffions from the undifbanded journey to Scotland. Scotch army to the confpirators of the army of the North as to of fuch a charge. poses of his own, advifes The concilia render fafe the profecution Bishop Williams, for purhad intercourse with a fervant of Pym's, and did not fcruple to tell the King how that he had learned, from this worthy, what had been going on in his master's houfe. Some of the Commons were preparing a Declaration to make the actions of his Ma- Bishop jefty's government odious, and he had better Williams try to conciliate them before he went. King was as ready to accept the fuggestion as the wily prelate to offer it, and negotiations were opened for a revival of the scheme of giving office to the leaders of the popular party, fet on foot a few months before. What King conhad then for its object to fave Strafford's life fents. was now defigned to fave the King, by giving him time to ruin the very men he was meanwhile to invite to ferve him. tion. The continued hoftility of Pym and Hampden to the Scottish vifit, and their calm determination to bring forward the Remonftrance, baffled the plan. There can be no doubt that Scheme for a time the Court party believed their baffled. opponents to be on the point of taking office. The rumour first went that Hampden was to be Secretary of State. Then it was announced, Intended with more confidence, and by no lefs a perfon diftributhan Mr. Nicholas, fo foon himself to affume offices. that high office and who meanwhile was exercifing its functions, that the feals were to be taken by Denzil Hollis, that Hampden was tion of Friday, 30th of July: New expected. to be Chancellor of the Duchy, that Lord Say and Seale was to be Lord Treasurer, and, as in all the previous propofed arrangements, that Pym was to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. The date of the letter in which fuch intended diftribution of the offices is mentioned by Nicholas is the 29th of July; and on the day Miniftry following, an Under Secretary in his department writes to a friend that Mr. Treasurer has warned him to be in readiness for the expected change. Nevertheless it came to nothing. Within the next feven days, the differences between the King and the leaders of the majority in the House had deepened; in the teeth of all their reprefentations, inftant departure for Scotland was perfifted in, and the propofition for a viceroy during the royal abfence Saturday, overruled; and on the first Saturday in Auguft 7th Aug: a portion of the King's retinue had already fet forth upon the journey, while the House were ftill in the midst of a confufed debate which lafted till nearly midnight, and in the course Remon- of which had been brought forward the fubject formally of "A REMONSTRANCE to be made, how wee found the Kingdome and the Church, " and how the state of it now stands."† ftrance brought <c forward. Excite ment as to Scotch journey. I have printed thefe various letters, from MSS. in the State Paper Office, in my Arrest of the Five Members, § v. + I quote Sir Ralph Verney's Notes of the Long Parliament (p. 113): Saturday, 7th August, 1641. It occurs after allufion to the fact of an extraordinary fitting of the House having been appointed for the following (Sunday) morning, and after mention made of an order taken for a "peremptory" call of the Houfe on the next Wednesday "in regard of the great "and weighty affaires that import the faifty of the kingdome." All these are indications of the great apprehenfion prevailing at the moment as to the King's obftinate perfiftence in going to Scotland. And on this Saturday, as I remark in the text, Wil liams's All the pains and labour of the intriguing Bishop Bishop, therefore, might clearly have been spared. He needed not to have bribed Mr. Pym's fer- labour vant, nor was it neceffary to have fet on his lost. mafter to bribe Mr. Pym himself. The Declaration, or, as Lord Digby had suggested it should be called, the Remonftrance, appears to have been revived openly, and direction given that it should take its place among the orders of the House, as part of the business of the feffion remaining to be done. Portions of it certainly came under difcuffion before the Remonmembers rofe for the recefs; and we have evi- ftrance dence that after the King's departure, amid the difcuffed. openly excitements of the inquiry into the army plot, army_plot, the committee to whom it had been referred had it under deliberation as "the Remon"ftrance of the state of the Kingdom and the "Church."* What its promoters prudently concealed, or, to speak perhaps more correctly, had not yet finally fettled, was the particular manner in which they propofed to make use of it. don: 9th The King quitted London on Monday the King 9th Auguft; with what hopes of returning, quits Lonafter his abfence, better able to cope with his Auguft. antagonists in the Houses, an anecdote related by Mr. Hyde may in fome degree enable us to judge. He defcribes† the furprise with which, fome little time before, he had received an invitation to wait privately on the King; Hyde's how he had fuppofed it was fome mistake, previous both Houses fat until after 10 at night, unable to settle upon So ftyled in the Commons' Journals (ii. 234). interview. M Why "for that he had not the honour to be known "to the King, and that there was another of the "fame name, of the House;" but how that it proved to be no mistake, and he accordingly faw the King alone in the "fquare room at Whitehall. On which occafion his Majefty told him "that he heard from all hands how much was grateful to him," he was beholden to him; and that when all "his fervants in the Houfe of Commons "either neglected his fervice, or could not "appear ufefully in it, he took all occafions "to do him fervice; for which he thought fit "to give him his own thanks, and to affure "him that he would remember it to his against pacy Bill. Epifco advantage." For his affection to the Church in particular, Mr. Hyde proceeds to tell us, his Majesty thanked him more than for all the reft; and then he difcourfed of what he called His fervice the paffion of the House, and of the bill lately brought in against Epifcopacy, and afked Hyde whether he thought they would be able to carry it, to which the other answered he believed they could not, at least that it would be very long first. "Nay," replied Charles, "If will look to it that they do not carry it "before I go to Scotland, which will be at "fuch a time, when the armies fhall be dif"banded, I will undertake for the Church after "that time." Engage ment to defeat it. you Plainly one great hope on which Charles built in this expedition to his Northern dominions, was, by means of personal intercourfe on his way with the mutinous Northern army, and by fimilar influences exerted in Edinburgh over the leaders of the yet undif Scottish banded Scottish force, to be able to achieve Hopes fome plan for getting certain regiments into from the the fouth with a view to his defign against the Journey. Parliament itself in the perfons of its leading members. Does your Majefty fay, then, exclaimed Hyde, that you can undertake for the Church after your return? "Why, then, Hyde's by the Grace of God, it will not be in much promife. danger." What Mr. Hyde meant by this will foon more fully appear. § VI. REASSEMBLING OF PARLIAMENT : 1641. Commons. THE parliamentary recefs, during which Pym 20th of fat as chairman of a committee having abfolute October, powers to conduct business in the interval, Houfes lafted from the 9th of September, when the meet. House had not rifen until nine o'clock at night, to the morning of the 20th of October. On that day the members reaffembled; but great gaps were seen in their ranks, and it Defaulters became obvious, as week followed week with- from the out supplying these deficiencies, that the average of attendance had confiderably diminifhed. Lord Clarendon, though he hesitates expreffly to fay fo, would have us affume that the King's party fuffered moft by this falling off; but the affumption is hardly reconcileable with the strenuous exertions of the patriots to compel a more full attendance. It appears from the D'Ewes manufcript that Strode went Strode's even fo far, fome two months after the recefs, propofias to propose to fine a member £50, or expel against the him, if he persisted in abfence without leave; abfent tion |