420 



STRAFFORD-STRAMONIUM. 



serving their country in that assemhly, by being 

 appointed sheriffs for their respective counties. 

 He submit tod to this arbitrary net in silence ; and, 

 soon after, the duke of Buckingham, alarmed at the 

 measures taken against him in parliament, made 

 him overtures, which proved ineffectual, and the . 

 favourite revenged himself by obliging him to re- 

 btore his office of cnstos rotulorum to Sir John Sa- 

 vile. When Charles, among other expedients for 

 raising money, had recourse to a forced general loan, 

 Went worth refused to pay his contribution, and 

 was first imprisoned in the Marshalsea, and then 

 confined to a range of two miles round the town of 

 Dartford. This restraint was, however, removed 

 when it became necessary to summon a new parlia- 

 ment, in 1628 ; and he again took his seat for York- 

 shire, and became one of the most conspicuous ad- 

 vocates of the petition of right. As he had now 

 proved the strength of his abilities, high terms were 

 offered him by the court, which he finally accepted ; 

 and, in 1628, he was created baron Wentworth, 

 and some months afterwards a viscount and privy- 

 counsellor, and on the resignation of lord Scrope, 

 nominated president of the north. The assassina- 

 tion of Buckingham, soon after, freed him from a 

 powerful enemy at court, and he became so influen- 

 tial in the king's council, that his powers in the 

 four northern counties, over which he presided, be- 

 came enormous ; and his commission contained 

 fifty-eight instructions, of which scarcely one did 

 not exceed or violate the common law. In the 

 exercise of this authority, he displayed equal 

 haughtiness, impetuosity, and ability, and, by his 

 strictness in levying exactions, increased the revenue 

 in his district to four or five times the previous 

 amount. Having assiduously cultivated the friend- 

 ship of archbishop Laud, he was selected by that 

 prelate to proceed to Ireland, as lord-deputy, in 

 1632. He greatly improved the state of the coun- 

 try, both as regarded law, revenue, and trade (the 

 manufacture of linen being of his own creation) ; 

 but, at the same time, nothing could be more arbi- 

 trary than his system of government, it being his 

 boast that he had rendered the king as absolute in 

 Ireland " as any prince in the whole world could 

 be." On the first symptoms of resistance to the 

 royal authority, he counselled the strongest mea- 

 sures ; and after the failure of the king's first ex- 

 pedition against Scotland, he was sent for from Ire- 

 land, and created earl of Strafford, and knight of 

 the garter. He returned with the full title of lord 

 lieutenant, with a view to gain subsidies and troops, 

 in which he fully succeeded ; and, again repairing 

 to England, took the command in the north, but 

 found himself obliged to retire before the Scottish 

 army, and retreat to York. Charles was now by 

 his necessities obliged to call the long parliament ; 

 on which Strafford, aware of the enmity which he 

 had inspired among the popular leaders, wished to 

 return to his government ; but the king, hoping 

 that his great talents would be serviceable, en- 

 couraged him by a solemn promise that " not a hair 

 of his head should be touched by parliament." 

 Stratford's apprehensions were well founded. The 

 very first movement of the party opposed to arbi- 

 trary power, was to impeach him of high treason, 

 with which charge Pym appeared at the bar of the 

 house of lords, November 18, 1640. The articles 

 of impeachment, at first nine in number, were after- 

 wards increased to twenty-eight, the object of 

 which was to convict him of an attempt to subvert 

 the fundamental laws of the country. As in the 



case of Laud, it was easy to prove that he acted as 

 a friend and promoter of arbitrary measures, but 

 not to substantiate any particular fact to justify a 

 capital charge. Although treated with the extreme 

 of legal rigour, and debarred the assistance of coun- 

 sel, his own gre.at abilities and force of mind sup- 

 plied every deficiency ; " And never man," says 

 Whitelock, the chairman of the impeaching com- 

 mittee, " acted such a part, on such a theatre, with 

 more wisdom, consistency and eloquence, or with 

 greater reason, judgment and temper." His defence, 

 indeed, was so strong, that the original impeachment 

 was deserted, for the unjustifiable proceeding of a 

 bill of attainder. The bill passed by a great majo- 

 rity : and so great was the animosity borne towards 

 him, that the house of lords was intimidated into 

 compliance. The king, who had imprudently en- 

 deavoured to stop the bill by his personal interfe- 

 rence, had not sufficient firmness to redeem the 

 pledge of safety which he had previously given, but 

 yielded to the advice of his counsellors, backed by 

 a letter from Strafford himself, who urged him, for 

 his own safety, to ratify the bill. This act has the 

 semblance of being truly heroical ; yet it is probable 

 that he did not think that the king would have been 

 swayed by it, since, being assured of the fatal truth, 

 he lifted his eyes to heaven, and, with his hand on 

 his heart, exclaimed, " Put not your trust in princes, 

 nor in the sons of men ; for in them there is no sal- 

 vation." His conduct, from this time to his execu- 

 tion, was in the highest degree composed and noble. 

 At the scaffold, he addressed the people, expressing 

 entire resignation to his fate, and asserting the good 

 intention of his actions, however misrepresented. 

 He fell in the forty-ninth year of his age, lamented 

 by some, admired by more, and leaving behind a 

 memorable but certainly not an unspotted name. 

 The parliament, not long after his death, mitigated 

 his sentence as regarded his children ; and in the 

 succeeding reign, his attainder was reversed. He 

 married three times, and, by his second wife, left 

 an only son, and several daughters. See Mac- 

 diarmid's Lives of British Statesmen. 



STRALSUND; a town of Prussian Pomerania, 

 capital of a government of the same name, formerly 

 capital of Swedish Pomerania, on a strait which 

 separates the island of Rugen from the main land ; 

 120 miles east of Hamburg; Ion. 13 32' E. ; lat. 

 54 19' N. population, 15,800. It has a safe and 

 capacious harbour, admitting ships of fifteen feet 

 draught. It was formerly one of the principal 

 Haiise towns. (See Hansa.) It has considerable 

 trade. Corn is the principal article of export, of 

 which there are sometimes snipped from 30 to 40,000 

 quarters. It contains a government house, town 

 house, public library, &c. The aspect is gloomy, 

 the streets narrow, the houses low, built of brick, 

 and remarkable for being pointed at the top. See 

 Pomerania. 



STRAMONIUM (sometimes called Jamestown' 

 weed), a species of datura, is now common in waste 

 places throughout the United States, as well as in 

 Europe. It belongs to the solanecc, the same na- 

 tural family with the tobacco and nightshade, and 

 amply sustains the poisonous character of the tribe. 

 The stem is herbaceous, fleshy, two or three feet 

 high, and branching, furnished with large angular 

 and dentate leaves. The flowers are large, and the 

 corolla funnel-shaped. All parts of the plant ex- 

 hale a strong and nauseous odour. It is one of the 

 most dangerous of narcotic poisons; and when 

 taken internally, produces vertigo, torpor, and 



