grievances remained to be discussed; but the house had no sooner commenced some inquiries into these matters than the king, rallying his spirits, gave them to understand that though they were to apply redress to some known grievances, they were not to go on seeking after more; and seeing no probability of their voting any further supplies for the relief of his private necessities, he prorogued them, on May 29, to the month of October; when the parliament was dissolved.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XXV.

1624, 1625.

General rejoicing on the change of measures.-Disappointment.-Marriage treaty with France.-Feeble prepara tions for war.—Troops sent to serve with the Dutch.—Expedition fitted out under Mansfeldt.-Its complete failure. -Sickness and death of king James.-His works and character.-Anecdotes of him.-His funeral sermon by Williams.-Translation of the bible under his auspices.-Con

clusion.

THE signal change of measures which had ensued upon the return of the prince and Buckingham had been received with applause as general as sincere and cordial; and it was less the voice of a party than of the English people which had hailed the breach of the Spanish treaty as a great national deliverance, triumphed in the declaration of war as an important assertion of the protestant cause, and elevated the arrogant and unprincipled favorite by whose ungovernable will these acts had been forced upon his reluctant sovereign, into a patriot, a hero, a saviour of his country. A short lapse of time was sufficient to evince the folly of such premature exultation and ill-placed enthusiasm,

The dissolution of parliament, which had put a stop to any further investigation of domestic grievances, was also the signal for a relapse, on the part

of the government, into all that was most offensive and unpopular in the spirit of its former policy. Buckingham hastened to throw off the mask of patriotism and protestant zeal which it had suited him for a time to assume; and it soon appeared, that one catholic match had only been abandoned in favor of another, negotiated on terms equally dangerous in a religious point of view, and recommended by fewer temporal advantages; and that an inglorious peace was only exchanged for a war, with all its inseparable evils, which the want of energy and of practical wisdom inherent in the character of the monarch and his government, must render not merely inglorious, but disgraceful and calamitous.

No sooner had the prince returned from his unsuccessful journey to Spain than his views were directed towards the princess Henrietta Maria of France, daughter of Henry IV. and sister of the reigning monarch Louis XIII., as the only bride worthy of him; and before the Spanish treaty was actually broken off, Henry Rich lord Kensington, brother to the earl of Warwick, was sent to Paris to sound the dispositions of the French court. That situation of the negotiation with Spain which prevented his being furnished with credentials to Louis, did not at all diminish the cordiality of his reception; and such was the encouragement which his overtures received from the king, and especially from the queen-mother, that he was soon enabled to assure his patron the duke of Buckingham of the certainty of the prince's success whenever he should

find himself at liberty to make his proposals in form. He added, that none of those requisitions would be made by the court of France in behalf of the catholics in England, which had thrown so many difficulties in the way of the Spanish alliance.

In consequence of so favorable a report, lord Kensington, created earl of Holland on the occasion, was joined in commission with the earl of Carlisle to negotiate the marriage, and it was hoped that a very short time would suffice to bring the matter to effect; but it soon appeared, that even French promptitude and French address, seconded by the most hearty good will in the cause, were unable to overcome, without considerable delay and difficulty, the obstacles which the difference of religion opposed to the connection. James had just been compelled by the remonstrances of his parliament to put in strict execution the penal laws, and to enforce all the restrictions upon recusants; and the catholics no sooner felt the yoke than they carried their grievances to the king of France, loudly complaining, that whilst the negotiation with Spain had procured them entire impunity and almost a toleration, the present treaty appeared rather to aggravate their afflictions. These representations produced their · effect, and Louis was at length induced to send the archbishop of Ambrun to England to intercede in their behalf. This emissary was highly favored by Buckingham, and received important assistance from his mother, from his father-in-law the duke of Rutland, and from other leading catholics, who furnished

him

him with all the knowledge of persons and things essential to the success of his negotiation.

James, according to his usual policy, received the archbishop very graciously, talked to him in a style calculated to lead him to the opinion that he regarded the points of difference between the churches as of little or no consequence, expressed much respect for the pope, liberated several recusants who had been imprisoned since the petition of the house of commons, and even gave his permission to the archbishop to administer the rite of confirmation, at the hotel of the French ambassador, to all persons who should apply. The prelate affirms, in his own memoirs, that their number amounted to ten thousand.

Meantime, as the negotiation proceeded, the French ministers began to advance in their demands; and refusing to accept as a basis the treaty formerly commenced between prince Henry and the princess Christine, insisted on taking for their model the articles of religion conceded in behalf of the infanta. On the other hand, the portion promised to the French princess was no more than 100,000l., an eighth only of that promised with the daughter of Spain. While this part of the business was settling, the pope was applied to for a dispensation; and as his political views led him to disapprove the match, he evinced a determination to raise as many difficulties, to stickle for as many advantages to his church, and to interpose as many needless delays as possible. At the same time, the nuncio did not fail to repre

sent