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me, and that, not only in respect of our dangers from abroad (which yet I know are great, as they have been often prest and dilated to us), but in respect of our disorders here at home, which do enforce hose dangers, and by which they are occasioned. For I believe I shall make it clear to you, that both at first the cause of these dangers were our disorders, and our disorders now are yet our greatest dangers-that not so much the potency of our enemies, as the weakness of ourselves, doth threaten us; so that the saying of one of the Fathers may be assumed by us, non tam potentiâ suâ quam negligentiâ nostrâ," "not so much by their power as by our neglect." Our want of true devotion to heaven, our insincerity and doubting in religion, our want of councils, our precipitate actions, the insufficiency or unfaithfulness of our generals abroad, ignorance and corruption of our ministers at home, the impoverishing of the sovereign, the oppression and depression of the subject, the exhausting of our treasures, the waste of our provisions, consumption of our ships, destruction of our men,—these make the advantage of our enemies, not the reputation of their arms; and if in these there be not reformation, we need no foes abroad. Time itself will ruin

us.

To show this more fully the speaker proceeds to examine the various shortcomings of the nation just enumerated. Having discussed four separate heads, he goes on:

Fifthly. Mr. Speaker, I fear I have been too long in these particulars that are past, and am unwilling to offend you: therefore in the rest I shall be shorter; and as to that which concerns the impoverishing of the king, no other arguments will I use than such as all men grant.

*

The exchequer, you know, is empty, and the reputation thereof gone; the ancient lands are sold; the jewels pawned; the plate engaged; the debts still great; almost all charges, both ordinary and extraordinary, borne up by projects! What poverty can be greater? What necessity so great? What perfect English heart is not almost dissolved into sorrow for this truth?

Sixthly. For the oppression of the subject, which, as I remember, is the next particular I proposed, it needs no demonstration. The whole kingdom is a proof; and for the exhausting of our treasures, that very oppression speaks it. What waste of our provisions, what consumption of our ships, what destruction of our men there hath been; witness that expedition to Algiers†-witness that with Mansfeldt-witness that to Cadiz-witness the next-witness that to Rhé

* Buckingham had taken the crown jewels and plate to Holland, and pawned them for £300,000.

+ Buckingham, some years before, had sent out an expedition for the capture of Algiers. It totally failed, and so incensed the Algerines that the commerce of England suffered tenfold loss in consequence; thirty-five ships, engaged in the Mediterranean trade, having been captured within a few months, and their crews sold for slaves.-Goodrich.

1628.]

ŠIR JOHN ELIOT.

-witness the last (I pray God we may never have more such witnesses)-witness, likewise, the Palatinate-witness Denmark-witness the Turks-witness the Dunkirkers-witness all! What losses we have sustained! How we are impaired in munitions, in ships, in men !

It is beyond contradiction that we were never so much weakened, nor ever had less hope how to be restored.

These, Mr. Speaker, are our dangers, these are they who do threaten us; and these are, like the Trojan horse, brought in cunningly to surprise us. In these do lurk the strongest of our enemies, ready to issue on us; and if we do not speedily expel them, these are the signs, these are the invitations to others! These will so prepare their entrance, that we shall have no means left of refuge or defence. If we have these enemies at home, how can we strive with those that are abroad? If we be free from these, no other can impeach us. Our ancient English virtue (like the old Spartan valour) cleared from these disorders-our being in sincerity of religion and once made friends with heaven; having maturity of councils, sufficiency of generals, incorruption of officers, opulency in the king, liberty in the people, repletion in treasure, plenty of provisions, reparation of ships, preservation of men-our ancient English virtue, I say, thus rectified, will secure us; and unless there be a speedy reformation in these, I know not what hopes or expectations we can have.

These are the things, sir, I shall desire to have taken into consideration; that as we are the great council of the kingdom, and have the apprehension of these dangers, we may truly represent them unto the King; which I conceive we are bound to do by a triple obligation of duty to God, of duty to his Majesty, and of duty to our country.

And, therefore, I wish it may so stand with the wisdom and judgment of the House, that these things may be drawn into the body of a Remonstrance, and in all humility expressed, with a prayer to his Majesty that for the safety of himself, for the safety of the kingdom, and for the safety of religion, he will be pleased to give us time to make perfect inquisition thereof, or to take them into his own wisdom, and there give them such timely reformation as the necessity and justice of the case doth import.

And thus, sir, with a large affection and loyalty to his Majesty, and with a firm duty and service to my country, I have suddenly (and it may be with some disorder) expressed the weak apprehensions I have; wherein, if I have erred, I humbly crave your pardon, and so submit myself to the censure of the House.

TH

THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.

HOMAS WENTWORTH, Earl of Strafford, the great minister of Charles I. and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, was born in London in 1593. He was educated at Cambridge; in 1614 was returned to Parliament as member for Yorkshire, and sat in several Parliaments for that county. Without going into extremes, he sided with the opponents of the Court; but in 1628 he changed his course, and went over to the side of the King, who created him Baron Wentworth, then Viscount, then Lord President of the Council of the North, then Privy-Councillor. He was made Lord-Deputy of Ireland in July, 1633. Whilst filling that office his government was despotic and cruel; and by his infamous claim of the whole province of Connaught for the Crown, he created general alarm, and, no doubt, led the way to the rebellion of 1641. In 1639 he was created Earl of Strafford, and received the title of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In November, 1640, he took his seat in the House of Lords, and was immediately impeached for high treason. In March, 1641, his trial began. It ended in a bill of attainder being passed, and the Earl of Strafford was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 12th of May of that year. The character of the unfortunate and misguided nobleman is thus sketched by Macaulay :- -"He was the first Englishman to whom a peerage was a sacrament of infamy, a baptism into the communion of corruption. As he was the first of the hateful list, so was he also by far the greatest; eloquent, sagacious, adventurous, intrepid, ready of invention, immutable of purpose, in every talent which exalts or destroys nations, preeminent; the lost archangel, the Satan of the apostacy.'

The speech which follows was delivered on the occasion of his defence before the House of Lords on the 13th of April, 1641. The pathos of the conclusion has been often admired, especially that part of it where he exclaims, "My lords, my lords, my lords, something more I had intended to say, but my voice and my spirit fail me.”

son.

When Impeached for High Treason before the House of Lords, April 13, 1641.

MY LORDS,-This day I stand before you charged with high treaThe burden of the charge is heavy, yet far the more so because it hath borrowed the authority of the House of Commons. If they were not interested, I might expect a no less easy, than I do a safe, issue. But let neither my weakness plead my innocence, nor their power my guilt. If your lordships will conceive of my defences, as they are in themselves, without reference to either party,—and I shall endeavour so to present them,-I hope to go hence as clearly justified by you, as I now am in the testimony of a good conscience by myself.

My lords, I have all along, during this charge, watched to see that poisoned arrow of treason, which some men would fain have feathered in my heart; but, in truth, it hath not been in my quick

1641.]

THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.

ness to discover any such evil yet within my breast, though now, perhaps, by sinister information, sticking to my clothes.

They tell me of a two-fold treason, one against the Statute, another by the common law; this direct, that consecutive; this individual, that accumulative; this in itself, that by way of construction.

As to this charge of treason, I must and do acknowledge, that if I had the least suspicion of my own guilt, I would save your lordships the pains. I would cast the first stone. I would pass the first sentence of condemnation against myself. And whether it be so or not, I now refer to your lordships' judgment and deliberation. You, and you only, under the care and protection of my gracious master, are my judges. I shall ever celebrate the providence and wisdom of your noble ancestors, who have put the keys of life and death, so far as concerns you and your posterity, into your own hands. None but your own selves, my lords, know the rate of your noble blood; none but yourselves must hold the balance in disposing of the same.*

The Earl then proceeded with his answers to the various articles brought forward against him, under the two heads of treason against the Statute, and constructive treason or treason by way of accumulation. At last he arrived at the twenty-eighth article, which charged him with "a malicious design to engage the kingdoms of England and Scotland in a national and bloody war," but which the managers had not urged in the trial. The accused went on as follows:

If that one article had been proved against me, it contained more weighty matter than all the charges besides. It would not only have been treason, but villainy, to have betrayed the trust of his Majesty's army. But, as the managers have been sparing, by reason of the times, as to insisting on that article, I have resolved to keep the same method, and not utter the least expression which might disturb the happy agreement intended between the two kingdoms. I only admire how I, being an incendiary against the Scots in the twenty-third article, am become a confederate with them in the twenty-eighth article! How could I be charged for betraying Newcastle, and also for fighting with the Scots at Newburne, since fighting against them was no possible means of betraying the town into their hands, but rather to hinder their passage thither! I never advised war any farther than, in my poor judgment, it concerned the very life of the King's authority, and the safety and honour of his kingdom. Nor did I ever see that any advantage could be made by a war in Scotland, where nothing could be gained but hard blows.

* "Strafford had no chance of acquittal except by inducing the Lords, from a regard to their dignity and safety, to rise above the influence of the Commons as his prosecutors, and of the populace, who surrounded Westminster Hall by thousands, demanding his condemnation. In this view, his exordium has admirable dexterity and force. He reverts to the same topic in his peroration, assuring them, with the deepest earnestness and solemnity (and, as the event showed, with perfect truth), that if they gave him up, they must expect to perish with him in the general ruin of the peerage."-Goodrich.

For my part I honour that nation, but I wish they may ever be under their own climate. I have no desire that they should be too well acquainted with the better soil of England.

My lords, you see what has been alleged for this constructive or rather destructive treason. For my part, I have not the judgment to conceive that such treason is agreeable to the fundamental grounds either of reason or of law. Not of reason, for how can that be treason in the lump or mass, which is not so in any of its parts? or how can that make a thing treasonable which is not so in itself? Not of law, since neither statute, common law, nor practice hath, from the beginning of the government, ever mentioned such a thing.

It is hard, my lords, to be questioned upon a law which cannot be shown! Where hath this fire lain hid for so many hundred years, without smoke to discover it, till it thus bursts forth to consume me and my children? My lords, do we not live under laws? and must we be punished by laws before they are made? Far better were it to live by no laws at all; but to be governed by those characters of virtue and discretion which Nature hath stamped upon us, than to put this necessity of divination upon a man and to accuse him of a breach of law before it is a law at all! If a waterman upon the Thames split his boat by grating upon an anchor, and the same have no buoy appended to it, the owner of the anchor is to pay the loss; but if a buoy be set there, every man passeth upon his own peril. Now, where is the mark, where is the token set upon the crime to declare it to be high treason?

My lords, be pleased to give that regard to the peerage of England as never to expose yourselves to such moot points, such constructive interpretations of law. If there must be a trial of wits, let the subject matter be something else than the lives and honour of peers! It will be wisdom for yourselves and your posterity to cast into the fire those bloody and mysterious volumes of constructive and arbitrary treason, as the Primitive Christians did their books of curious arts, and betake yourselves to the plain letter of the law and Statute, which telleth what is, and what is not, treason, without being ambitious to be more learned in the art of killing than our forefathers. These gentlemen tell us that they speak in defence of the Commonwealth against my arbitrary laws. Give me leave to say I speak in defence of the Commonwealth against their arbitrary treason!

It is now full two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this alleged crime to this height before myself. Let us not awaken those sleeping lions to our destruction, by taking up a few musty records that have lain by the walls for so many ages, forgotten or neglected.

My lords, what is my present misfortune may be for ever yours! It is not the smallest part of my grief that not the crime of treason, but my other sins, which are exceeding many, have brought me to this bar; and, except your lordships' wisdom provide against it, the shedding of my blood may make way for the tracing out of yours You, your estates, your posterity lie at the stake!