of the writer's recent recusancy. "With a sad, yet a faithful heart," Eliot continues, " he now presumes to offer up the reasons that induced him. The rule of justice he takes to be the law; impartial arbiter of government and obedience; the support and strength of majesty; the observation of that justice by which subjection is commanded." Through a series of illustrious examples the writer then advances to his position of strict obedience to the laws, in the duty of resisting their outrage. "He could not, as he feared, without pressure to these immunities, become an actor in this loan, which by imprisonment and restraint was urged, contrary to the grants of the great charter, by so many glorious and victorious kings so many times confirmed. Though he was well assured by your majesty's promise that it should not become a precedent during the happiness of your reign, yet he conceived from thence a fear that succeeding ages might thereby take occasion, for posterity, to strike at the property of their goods." He concludes by assuring the king, that he will never consent to "inconveniences in reason," or to the dispensation, violation, or impeachment of the laws. "No factious humour, nor disaffection led on by stubbornness and will, hath herein stirred or moved him, but the just obligation of his conscience, which binds him to the service of your majesty, in the observance of your laws; and he is hopeful that your majesty will be pleased to restore him to your favour, and his liberty, and to afford him the benefit of those laws which, in all humility, he craves." 1 Eliot probably never expected that this petition would be granted. Its publication effected his purpose in strengthening the resolutions of the people; and he quietly waited in his prison for the day of a new parliament. This was precipitated by the insolent fury of Buckingham, who had consummated the desperate condition of affairs by a new and unprovoked war with France. At the suggestion of the duke's outraged vanity1, Charles had dismissed the French servants of his young queen; she herself had been insulted 2; the remonstrances of the French court answered by a seizure of French ships; and an expedition for the relief of Rochelle undertaken by the very court whose treachery had so lately assisted to reduce it. Recollecting the bitter sarcasm of Eliot3, Buckingham undertook the command of the present expedition in person; and, having concerted measures so wretchedly as to be obliged to disembark on the adjacent 1 Rushworth, vol. i. p. 429. Whitlocke says that "Sir John Eliot took this way to inform the king what his council did not. " - Memorials, p. 8. Anthony Wood oddly converts this into a statement that Eliot was obliged to write in this way to the king, because his (Eliot's) "counsel would not assist him otherwise." Isle of Rhé, he there suffered his army to be baffled by an 1 Clarendon distinctly assigns this as the motive: - " In his embassy in France, where his person and presence was wonderfully admired and esteemed (and in truth it was a wonder in the eyes of all men), and in which he appeared with all the lustre the wealth of England could adorn him with, and outshined all the bravery that court could dress itself in, and over-acted the whole nation in their own most peculiar vanities, he had the ambition to fix his eyes upon, and to dedicate his most violent affection to, a lady of a very sublime quality," - but I will cut short the reader's impatience, and this interminable sentence, by saying at once that Buckingham fell violently in love with the young queen of France, Anne of Austria, declared his passion, and was listened to with anything but resentment. With what success the duke might ultimately have urged his suit, it would be impossible to say, since great authorities differ; but it is certain that his purpose was abruptly foiled by the interference of cardinal Richelieu, in whom he suddenly discovered a formidable rival. The mad desire to foil this great statesman and most absurd lover, and to be able to return to Anne of Austria in all the triumphs of a conqueror, now urged him to these extremities against France. The thing is scarcely credible, but so it certainly appears to have been. What is to be said of the wretched weakness of Charles? See Mémoires inédits du Comte de Brienne, i. Eclaircissements. Madame de Motteville, Mémoires d'Anne d'Autriche. Aikin's Court of Charles, vol. i. p. 67. Brodie's Hist. of British Empire, vol. ii. p. 139. Lingard's History, vol. ix. p. 361. Clarendon, vol. i. p. 31. Carte (vol. iv. p. 132.) has attemped to throw discredit on it by the production of dates from the Mercure François, but unsuccessfully. 2 This is not an occasion to notice the personal disputes of the king and queen, nor the way in which, for his own purposes, they were secretly inflamed by Buckingham. Charles, like most unfaithful and decorous husbands, suspected his wife; and his wife, a woman of energy and spirited sense, despised him. Buckingham's insults to the queen are described by Clarendon, vol. i. p. 31., and other writers. See History, from Mackintosh, vol. v. p. 62. I may add, that the account of the young queen's reception of the news of the dismissal of her servants, as given in a letter of the day, is extremely characteristic of a quick temper redeemed by a ready self-command. "It is said, also, the queene, when she understood the designe, grew very impatient, and brake the glasse windows with her little fiste; but since I heare her rage is appeased, and the king and shee, since they went together to Nonsuche, have been very jocund together." Harl. MSS. 383. Ellis's Original Letters, vol. iii. p. 239. 3 See p. 39. of this Memoir. 1 inferior force, and to be at length overtaken in a situation where valour was of no avail, and where death destroyed them dreadfully, without even the agency of an enemy. The result of this was in all respects frightful; mutiny proved the least of the dangers that followed; and the financial difficulties of the court became so urgent, that the last desperate and dreaded resource forced itself upon the king.2 The loan recusants were set at liberty, and writs for a new parliament were issued. Unprecedented excitement prevailed at the elections.3 Sir John Eliot was triumphantly returned for Cornwall; and every country gentleman that had refused the loan was sent to the house of commons. "We are without question undone!" exclaimed a court prophet; and the king, agitated by fear and rage, prepared himself to "lift the mask." Secret orders were transmitted to the Low Countries for the levy of 1000 German horse, and the purchase of 10,000 stand of arms, immediately to be conveyed to England.1 See a letter of Denzil Hollis to Wentworth. Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 42. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 465. Carte, vol. iv. p. 176. et seq. Many curious particulars, and especially the letters of Charles to Buckingham, connected with this affair, will be found in Hardwicke's State Papers, vol. i. p. 13. et seq. I shall have to advert to it again, in noticing one of Eliot's speeches. 2 Sir Robert Cotton was consulted by the lords of the council, and his advice is said to have determined the matter. It is melancholy to see, however, that this great scholar was tempted on this occasion (see his Paper in Rushworth, vol. i. p. 467.) into concessions extremely unworthy of him. It is probable that a rumour of this, coupled with his silence on the affair of the loan, led to his defeat at the Westminster election. Eliot was warmly attached to him. It was at the meetings held at his house, where all the eminent men of the day assembled, that Eliot's intimate friendship with Selden most probably commenced. See the Cottonian MSS. Jul. C. iii. 3 An extract from a manuscript letter, dated March 8. 1627, will present a lively notion of this excitment. It has quite a modern air: - "There was a turbulent election of burgesses at Westminster, whereof the duke (Buckingham), being steward, made account he should, by his authority and vicinity, have put in sir Robert Pye. It continued three days, and when sir Robert Pye's party cried 'A Pye! a Pye! a Pye!' the adverse party would cry A pudding! a pudding! a pudding!' and others, ' A lie! a lie! a lie!' In fine, Bradshaw, a brewer, and Maurice, a grocer, carried it from him by about a thousand voices, they passing by also sir Robert Cotton, besides our man and Mr. Hayward, who were their last burgesses, because, as it is said, they had discontented their neighbours, in urging the payment of the loan. It is feared (saith mine author), because such patriots are chosen every where, the parliament will not last above eight days. You hear of our famous election in Essex, where sir Francis Barrington and sir Harbottle Grimston had all the voices of 16,500 men."Sloane MSS. This famous third parliament was opened by the king at Westminster, on the 17th of March, 1628, in a speech of insolent menace. If they did not do their duty, he told them, " I must use those other means which God hath put into my hands, to save that which the follies of other men may otherwise hazard to lose. Take not this as threatening; I scorn to threaten any but my equals." 2 Wonderful was the temper and decorum with which the great leaders of that powerful house listened to this pitiful display. The imagination rises in the contemplation of the profound statesmanship which distinguished every movement of these men, and it is difficult to describe it in terms of appropriate praise. Conscious of the rigour of the duties they had to perform, for these they reserved their strength. Not a worce was wasted before the time of action came, not an energy fell to the ground as too great for the occasion. A resolved composure, a quiet confidence, steadily shone from their slightest preparation ;-and the court, who had looked to strengthen themselves by the provocation of outrage, were lost in a mixed feeling of wonder and doubt, perhaps of even hope. "Was it possible that the new counsels' had cooled the fire of patriotism?" Finch, a man known to be favourably affected to the court, was chosen speaker. "Was the expediency of some compromise recognised at last?" A resolution was passed to grant a supply, no less than five subsidies, and to be paid within twelve months! "Was all this possible?" "Were these the men who had been sent from every quarter of the country to oppose the court, to resent the wrongs of their constituents, and to avenge their own?" Old secretary Cooke hurried down with feeble haste to grasp at the subsidies. He was then quietly told that they could not be paid; that the bill for collecting them, indeed, should not be framed, until certain necessary securities were given by the king for the future enjoyment of liberty and property among the subjects of the kingdom. The crestfallen ministers resorted to their hypocritical arts of evasion and refusal: the patriot leaders prepared for action. The consummate policy we have described had resolved the dispute into the clearest elements of right and wrong; and the position of the commons against the court was firmly and immovably determined. What they had resolved to do could now be done; and, the court policy once openly betrayed, the passionate eloquence of Eliot was heard, opening up to the public abhorrence the wounds that had lately been inflicted upon the liberties and laws.2 1 There is no doubt of this. The pretence afterwards assigned was to defend the kingdom from invasion (Carte iv. p. 183.); but the real object was to overawe the house of commons. See Rushworth, vol. i. p. 474. A commission was issued at the same time (concurrent with the issuing of the election writs!) to certain privy councillors, to consider of raising money by impositions, or otherwise, "wherein form and circumstance must be dispensed with, rather than the substance be lost." These schemes were all defeated, but their discovery necessarily exasperated the commons. - Rushworth, vol. i. p. 614. 2 Rushworth, vol. i. p. 477. The men to whom this foolish impertinence was addressed are thus described in a manuscript letter of the time by a very 'moderate politician. "The house of commons was both yesterday and to-day as full as one could sit by another; and they say it is the most noble and magnanimous assembly that ever these walls contained. And I heard a lord intimate they were able to buy the upper house (his majesty only excepted) thrice over, notwithstanding there be of lords temporal to the number of 118: and what lord in England would be followed by so many freeholders as some of these are." - Letter, dated March 21. 1628, in Sloane's MSS. 1 I refer the reader, for the only exact account of the proceedings of this parliament, to the journals and debates. Dr. Lingard has described the conduct of the leaders of the country party very faithfully. "They advanced step by step; first resolving to grant a supply, then fixing it at the tempting amount of five subsidies, and, lastly, agreeing that the whole should be paid within the short space of twelve months. But no art, no entreaty could prevail on them to pass their resolution in the shape of a bill. It was held out as a lure to the king; it was gradually brought nearer and nearer to his grasp, but they still refused to surrender their hold; they required as a previous condition that he should give his assent to those liberties which they claimed as the birthright of Englishmen." - History, vol. ix. p. 379. See also Hume, vol. v. p. 160. 2 "Sir John Eliot," says the writer of the Ephemeris Parliamentaria, "did passionately and rhetorically set forth our late grievances; he misliked much the violating of our laws." This speech is unfortunately lost. "What pity it is," observes Mr. Brodie, "that no copy has been preserved of sir John Eliot's speech upon the grievances! He appears to have been the most eloquent man of his time." Echoing his regret, I am surprised that Mr. Brodie should have passed without mention a most remarkable speech of Eliot, which I shall have immediate occasion to allude to, delivered by him on the same subject in the present session, and admirably handed down to us from the MSS. of Napier. He had noble seconders on the occasion referred to in the text. "I read of a custom," said sir Robert Philips (rising after Eliot had ceased), "among the old Romans, that |