688 



BRITAIN. 



the fears of the one, and the hopes mid expectations 

 of the other parties. Dissimulation \vas n lending 

 feature of his character, and a desire of unlimited 

 power and authority, the reigning passion of his 

 heart ; but which he had carefully concealed while 

 he reigned in Scotland. Instead of moderating, he 

 increased the power of the Episcopal hierarchy ; and 

 the Catholics were so provoked at the disappointment 

 of their expectations of a toleration, at least, if not an 

 establishment, that they formed a plot for the purpose 

 of cutting off, not only the king and his ministers, but 

 the whole of his parliament. This conspiracy, well 

 known by the name of the Gunpowder Plot, was hap- 

 pily prevented; and the principal conspirators suf- 

 fered that punishment which they had so justly 

 merited. 



England and Scotland were now ruled by the same 

 prince, and James wished to make the union still 

 more complete; but national animosities were not 

 yet sufficiently extinguished, and national prejudices 

 were too prevalent. It was James's misfortune that 

 he had imbibed exalted notions of the royal preroga- 

 tive, and wished to govern by the arbitrary maxims 

 that had distinguished queen Elizabeth ; the glories 

 of whose reign were, in the eyes of her subjects, some 

 atonement for her occasional acts of despotism. But 

 the nation, in consequence of the progress of political 

 and religious knowledge, and the increasing diffusion 

 of commercial wealth and prosperity through the 

 whole community, was beginning to question the di- 

 vine right of kings, and to wish for an extension of 

 popular privileges. His whole reign was therefore a 

 continued contest between the prerogative of the 

 crown, and the freedom of the people. The parlia- 

 ment refused to give supplies to a prince who was al- 

 ways reminding them of his prerogative : and who, 

 at the same time, was destitute of vigour to enforce 

 his pretensions. Accustomed, as James had been, 

 while he swayed the Scottish sceptre, to support the 

 splendours of regal dignity upon a very slender 

 revenue ; it was reasonable to expect, that when he 

 ascended the English throne, that frugality would 

 have been a marked feature of his conduct ; but his 

 behaviour disappointed these expectations. Careful, 

 though indeed from a constitutional timidity of char- 

 acter, to avoid wars, his system was entirely pacific 

 during the whole course of his reign ; yet his pro- 

 fusion was such, that it uniformly exceeded his in- 

 come ; for he kept up three courts, one for himself, 

 one for his queen, and a third for his son. The ex- 

 pense of his daughter's marriage to the elector Pala- 

 tine, cost, including her portion, 93,278 : and not 

 content with bestowing upon his favourites the most 

 lucrative offices of the state, and considerable grants 

 from the royal domains, he lavished upon them large 

 sums of money. In the first fourteen years of his 

 reign, 424,467 were thus expended. He bestowed 

 upon his eldest son, Henry prince of Wales, a clear 

 revenue of 51,000; a sum equivalent in value to 

 150,000 of our modern money. During his whole 

 reign, Ireland continued to be a heavy load upon 

 England, occasioning large sums of money to be con- 

 stantly remitted to support a standing army, which at 

 one time amounted to 19,000 men ; as also to supply 

 the deficiencies of the Irish treasury. His wants, oc- 

 casioned by his profusion, kept him engaged in con- 

 stant disputes with his parliament, who would not 

 grant him money equal to his demands, and compelled 

 him to resort to monopolies, loans, benevolencies, and 

 other illegal methods. Among other expedients, he 

 sold the titles of baron, viscount, and earl, at the rates 

 of from 10 to 15,000 and 20,000. In his reign the 

 hereditary'title of baronet first originated. In 1611, 

 ninety-three baronets were created, the sale of whose 

 patents produced 98,550, or, 1,095 each. Of the 



800,000 which Holland owed to Elizabeth, James 

 was content to take the one half, and surrendered up 

 the cautionary towns for a fourth of their value ; anil 

 suffered the Dutch to dispossess the English of their 

 factories in the East Indies. He also meanly con- 

 sented to accept of 00,000, instead of 300,000, 

 which Elizabeth had lent to Henry IV. of France ; 

 and in order to gratify the Spanish court, he sacrifictd 

 the brave Sir Walter Raleigh. His ambition was 

 more to shine as a theologian than a prince ; and in 

 1617, he attempted to establish episcopacy in Scot- 

 land, but was baffled in his design by the firmin 

 the people. In fine, though the nation undoubtedly 

 prospered in wealth and commerce, yet his reign was 

 inglorious ; and he died, disliked by the majority of 

 his subjects, in 1625, after a reign of twenty-two 

 years over England ; without having performed one 

 great or glorious deed to exalt his own character, or 

 that of the nation. 



His son Charles, who succeeded, inherited the 

 same exalted notions of royal prerogative; accom- 

 panied with a stiff and perverse temper, and a reserved 

 and distant behaviour, which he had acquired while 

 he was in Spain. Equally with his father, he was 

 addicted to favouritism. His unhappy marriage with 

 a Popish princess; his servile fondness for his queen, 

 and his resolute adherence to arbitrary maxims, and 

 illegal methods of raising money, without consent of 

 his parliament, gradually widened the breach between 

 him and his subjects. His government grew more 

 unpopular daily, and the commons would vote no sup- 

 plies without redress of grievances ; which, instead of 

 diminishing, or complying with the wishes of his par- 

 liament, and thereby soothing them into a more sub- 

 missive temper, he constantly augmented, by pro- 

 ceeding from bad to worse ; dissolving parliaments ; 

 imprisoning members ; and raising prosecutions in 

 the star-chamber, against the most popular characters 

 in the kingdom. He intrusted the keeping of his 

 conscience entirely to Laud, a complete bigot in 

 church and state ; who, in conjunction with Went- 

 worth, earl of Strafford, entangled him in a most ex- 

 pensive and disastrous contest with his Scottish sub- 

 jects, and afterwards with his parliament, encouraged 

 by the successful resistance which the Scots had made 

 to arbitrary power. The success at first was various ; 

 but the king was destitute of money to pay his troops, 

 while the parliament had at their disposal the whole 

 wealth of the nation. Charles was at last involved in 

 such distress, that he fled for protection to the Scot- 

 tish army ; which, in conjunction with the parliament, 

 maintained the struggle against arbitrary power. 

 There he endeavoured, by various machinations, to 

 sow dissension between them and the English parlia- 

 ment, and to engage them in his interest ; but entirely 

 failed in the attempt. The Scots had no intention of 

 involving themselves in a war, for the sake of a prince 

 who had forfeited all confidence, by keeping his word 

 no longer than it suited his convenience ; and there- 

 fore delivered him up to the parliamentarian commis- 

 sioners. 



The more moderate, and perhaps the more upright 

 part of the parliament, and of the nation, were or 

 opinion, that now the constitution ought to be recti- 

 fied ; that the limits between the prerogatives of the 

 king, and the privileges of the people, ought to be 

 accurately determined ; that after such salutary regu- 

 lations, the king ought to be restored to his throne, 

 and to that share of power which was consistent with 

 the happiness of his subjects ; and that all past tran- 

 sactions ought to be buried in oblivion : but the voice 

 of moderation and wisdom is seldom heard amid the 

 din of national commotions : the outcry of ignorance, 

 and of presumption, is better fitted in such cases to 

 command attention. The parliamentary army had 



