BRITAIN. 



567 



tecnth century. Jh 1<)0.1, James the Sixth of Scot- 

 land and I'irst of England, '. to the throne of 

 Eh/,tbeth. He was tin- y HI of Margaret, 

 eldest daughter of Henry VII.; and his right to 

 the crown w,is farther strengthened by the net of 

 parliament which had settled tl .sion on the 

 <;t Henry VII. by the dving he<jiir.;t of Eli/.a- 

 beth. As the memory of deputed succession wa; 

 yet fresh in the minds of the English, the joy of the 

 nation at James's accession was very great. A Pro- 

 testant and undisputed successor, and a sovereign 

 who was to extinguish the hostilities of Scotland, 

 seemed to be a golden era in the public welfare. 



But the popularity of James hardly survived his 

 arrival in England. The people, who had crowded 

 around him with shouts and acclamations of happi- 

 ness, were forbidden, by the pride or timidity of the 

 monarch, to shew their loyalty in this noisy manner, 

 and in a short time it became unnecessary to forbid 

 them. He disgusted the English, by heaping favours 

 on unpopular families, and by multiplying the Scots 

 as well as English new nobility. A conspiracy, 

 which, though obscurely developed, was certainly 

 detected in the first year of his reign, attests the dis- 

 content of some of the leading characters in the na- 

 tion. The Lords Cobbam and Gray de Wilton were 

 connected with it, and it was made at a subsequent 

 period the pretext for Raleigh's execution. 



Of all those who had hoped for advantage from 

 the accession of James, the puritans, a body of be- 

 lievers now important from their numbers, and des- 

 tined to take a decisive share in the events of the 

 subsequent reign, had been the most sanguine, and 

 were the most disappointed. They imagined, that 

 the king of a Presbyterian nation would be propitious 

 to a similar church. But James, in his heart, de- 

 tested presbytery, and gave an audience to the lead- 

 ers of the puritans only for the pleasure of insulting 

 them. In a conference which those dissenters held 

 with the bishops at Hampton Court, he answered 

 their chief objections himself, so much to the satis- 

 faction of the dignified churchmen, that one of their 

 number, Bishop Whitgift, said, he verily believed 

 the king spoke by the spirit of God. 



The first intercourse between James and his Eng- 

 lish parliament discovered at once the character of 

 the new monarch, and the spirit of the people over 

 whom he had come to reign. Vain, weak, accessible 

 to flattery, arbitrary in principles, though not rero- 

 cious in disposition, James had unhappily found in 

 his English ministers, Cecil, Suffolk, and N >rth- 

 ampton, as devoted parasites as in Whitgift and the 

 bishops. He addressed the parliament in terms 

 which shewed that he believed himself an absolute 

 king, whose proclamations were to be identified with 

 laws. But it was only his courtiers and bishope who 

 either believed, or affected to believe, him an absolute 

 monarch, and the Solomon of the age. The House 

 of Commons already contained a large proportion 

 of free and intelligent spirits. The principles of 

 indep.ndeiice, which had been upheld in that house, 

 :n some instances, against the power of the great 

 Elizabeth, were not likely to be veiled before the 



mock dignity of James. His first pai lujinent, therr 



ton-, leninuled him of their privileges ; they routed ,~'J 



the encro I Ins clianeclicn w writ! 



for elections, without an or 



the knight of a county had bren duly 1 1- < fd ; and 



they made some laudable attempts, wL 



cessora brought to a concln 



trade and manufactures of the kingdom (mm moi 



polies, as well as the landed interest froi: 



of feudal oppression.* 



James's acce-sion to the English throne was quick- 

 ly followed by the conclusion of peace with S,.ain. 

 A pacific disposition is one of the g- 

 James's character, which has been too little allowed. 

 But while the nation was enjoying the first return of 

 peace, a more di eadful blow was meditated against 

 the government in all its branches, and against the 

 religion ot the country, than any that is recorded 

 in our history. This was the Gunpowder Plot ; for G;m pow- 

 the detailed particulars of which, we must refer the der P 10 *- 

 readers to some subsequent pages of our work. 

 The fears of gunpowder, which were naturally pre- 

 sent to James's mind by the recollection of his fa- 

 ther's death, happily suggested to him the mean: 

 of threats contained in a letter from one of the o 

 spirators, which had eluded the sagacity of hi 

 counsellors. The common danger which the king 

 and parliament had escaped, seems for a while tu 

 have cemented them in good humour ; and we find a 

 supply, estimated at HIO.OOO/., a most import 

 sum in those days, voted by the comnv 

 the king, when his want of economy and ex 

 establishment had reduced him to difficulties, in giv- 

 ing a splendid reception to his brother-in law, the 

 King ef Denmark. 



In a most important discussion, which occupied Union wi:h 

 the attention of James's first parliament, it is some- Sc 

 what surprising to find the king eager in forwarding ^^g' 

 a measure which reflects credit on his sagacity, and 

 opposed on the part of his parliament by the most 

 groundless fears, or still more contemptible national 

 prejudices this was the union of the two kingdoms. 

 Sir Francis Bacon, the king's solicitor, moved it, 

 and supported it with the usual powers of his grea' 

 mind. He maintained, that for this desirable mea- 

 sure, no uniformity was necessary in the laws or re- 

 ligion of the two people ; but that the English mo- 

 narchy would become truly formidable, with Ire- 

 land subdued, Scotland united, and the navy sup- 

 ported. The commons were inflexible. But from 

 the judges a declaration was. obtained, which, though 

 inferior in force to a law, was of some importance. 

 The post niiti, that is, all Britons born since the 

 death of Elizabeth, were declared to te naturalized 

 in either kingdom. 



James's pecuniary difficulties, incurred partly by j.ime 

 his expellees in maintaining his government in Ire- differ* with 

 land, but still more by his uiir.ie 'fusion, '" 1 



brought him to solicit his first parliament for ano- 

 ther supply. They, in turn, demanded ti 

 national grievances, ;:m! atnom; these the suj , 

 of the High Commission, an eceletMfticu court, 

 which had begun to uct with severity against thv 



Particulaily lonWiips and pur\cyaneo. 



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+ To 1* given under the article GeM-oworn PLOT 



