Page images
PDF
EPUB

bullets in their snap-hances; grimly prompt for orders. . . You call yourselves a Parliament,' continues my Lord General, in clear blaze of conflagration: You are no Parliament; I say, you are no Parliament ! Some of you are drunkards,' and his eye flashes on poor Mr. Chaloner, an official man of some value, addicted to the bottle; 'some of you are,—' and he glares into Harry Marten, and the poor Sir Peter, who rose to order, lewd livers both-living in open contempt of God's commandments.' 'Corrupt, unjust persons; scandalous to the profession of the Gospel: how can you be a Parliament for God's people? Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God-go!' The House is of course all on its feet-uncertain almost whether not on its head: such a scene as was never seen before in any House of Commons. History reports with a shudder that my Lord General, lifting the sacred mace itself, said, 'What shall we do with this bauble? Take it away!'-and gave it to a musketeer. And now, Fetch him down!' says he to Harrison, flashing on the Speaker. Speaker Lenthal, more an ancient Roman than anything else,* declares he will not come till forced. 'Sir,' said Harrison, 'I will lend you a hand;' on which Speaker Lenthal came down, and gloomily vanished. They all vanished, flooding gloomily, clamorously out, to their ulterior business and respective places of abode: the Long Parliament is dissolved! 'It's you that have forced me to this,' exclaims my Lord General: 'I have sought the Lord night and day that He would rather slay me than put me upon the doing of this work.'"

SIR HENRY VANE.

(1612-1662.)

Respected and Feared.-Sir Henry Vane, commonly called Vane the Younger, was son to one of the same name who was Secretary of State and Treasurer of the Household to Charles I. He appears to have adopted republican principles in early life, and when little more than twenty years of age he left his native land for America, to join a people whose sentiments in politics and in religion more nearly approached his own, than did those of the circle in which he had been educated. He was elected Governor of Massachusetts before he had reached his twenty-fourth year, but he returned to England in 1637, and was sent to Parliament for Kingston-upon-Hull in April, 1640. Charles, courting his abilities, knighted him, and made him joint treasurer of the navy; but he joined the party of Pym and Hampden in the Long Parliament, and thenceforward was one of the leading spirits of that side. On the restoration of Charles II. he was indicted for "helping to exclude the King from the exercise of his royal authority," and sent to the scaffold. Milton's lines"Vane, young in years, but in sage council old,

Than whom a better senator ne'er held

The helm of Rome "

expressed the general opinion as to Vane's abilities, and Charles himself *See page 32, "Attempt to Arrest the Five Members."

wrote to his Chancellor (Clarendon), "he is too dangerous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way."*

On the Bill against Episcopacy.-Sir Henry Vane's speech in committee on the Bill against Episcopal Government, June 11, 1641, is printed in the "Speeches and Passages" of that year, previously quoted, and is remarkable for the logical closeness of its argument. The following were the opening passages: "Master Hyde,-The debate we are now upon is whether the government by archbishops, bishops, chancellors, &c., should be taken away out of the church and kingdom of England. For the right stating whereof we must remember the vote which passed yesterday, not only by the committee, but the House, which was to this effect: That this government hath been found by long experience to be a great impediment to the perfect reformation and growth of religion, and very prejudical to the civil state. So that then the question will lie thus before us, Whether a government which long experience hath set so ill a character upon, importing danger not only to our religion but the civil state, should be any longer continued amongst us, or be utterly abolished? For my own part, I am of the opinion of those who conceive that the strength of reason already set down in the preamble to this bill by yesterday's vote is a necessary decision of this question. For one of the main ends for which church government is set up is to advance and further the perfect reformation and growth of religion, which we have already voted this government doth contradict; so that it is destructive to the very end for which it should be, and (which) is most necessary and desirable; in which respect certainly we have cause enough to lay it aside, not only as useless in that it attains not its end, but as dangerous in that it destroys and contradicts it. In the second place, we have voted it prejudicial to the civil state, as having so powerful and ill an influence upon our laws, the prerogative of the King, and liberties of the subject, that it is like a spreading leprosy, which leaves nothing untainted and unaffected which it comes near. May we not therefore well say of this government, as our Saviour in the fifth of Matthew speaks of salt(give me leave upon this occasion to make use of Scripture, as well as others have done in this debate)-where it is said that salt is good, but if the salt hath lost its savour, wherewith will you season it? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.' So church government, in the general, is good, and that which is necessary, and which we all desire; but when any particular form of it hath once lost its savour, by being destructive to its own ends for which it is set up (as by our vote already passed we say this hath), then surely, Sir, we have no more to do but to cast it out, and endeavour, the best we can, to provide ourselves a better. But to this it hath been said that the government now in question may be so amended and reformed that it needs not be pulled quite down or abolished, because it is conceived it hath no original sin or evil in it, or if it have, it is said regeneration will take that away. Unto which I answer, I do consent that we should do with this government as

The letter is given in Forster's "Statesmen of the Commonwealth."

we are done by in regeneration, in which all old things are to pass away and all things are to become new; and this we must do if we desire a perfect reformation and growth of our religion, or good to our civil state. For the whole fabric of this building is so rotten and corrupt, from the very foundation of it to the top, that if we pull it not down now it will fall about the ears of all those that endeavour it, within a very few years." He then went on to say that "the universal rottenness or corruption of this government will most evidently appear by a disquisition into these ensuing particulars," &c.

ANDREW MARVELL.

(1620-1678.)

The Incorruptible.-Andrew Marvell was chosen by the electors of Hull, his native town, to represent them in Parliament, in the year 1660. The newly-elected member was in a pecuniary condition which compelled him to accept the wages at that time paid by constituents to their representatives. He was almost the last representative who received wages for the performance of parliamentary duties.* Charles II., says Cooke ("History of Party"), desirous to secure the powerful support of Marvell, sent Lord Danby, his Lord Treasurer, with offers of place and of money. The royal messenger found the object of his search occupying obscure apartments in a court near the Strand; but all his blandishments failed to produce any effect on the independent soul of Marvell. The Treasurer at parting-says a pamphlet which professes to give a minute record of the circumstances-slipped into Marvell's hand an order upon the Treasury for a thousand pounds, and was moving towards his carriage, when Marvell stopped him, and taking him again up-stairs, called his servant boy, when the following colloquy ensued: "Jack, child, what had I for dinner yesterday?"—"Don't you remember, sir, you had the little shoulder of mutton, that you ordered me to bring from the woman in the market ?"-Very right, child; what have I for dinner to-day ?""Don't you know, sir, that you bid me lay by the blade-bone to broil ? ”— ""Tis so, very right, child; go away. My lord, do you hear that Andrew Marvell's dinner is provided? There's your piece of paper; I want it not; I knew the sort of kindness you intended. I live here to serve my constituents; the ministry may seek men for their purpose; I am not one."

Marvell and Milton's Imprisonment.-The following statement appears in the "Parliamentary History" for 1660: "Dec. 17th. The celebrated Mr. John Milton, having now laid long in custody of the sergeant-at-arms, was released by order of the House. Soon after Mr. Andrew Marvell complained that the sergeant had exacted 1501. fees of Mr. Milton; which was seconded by Colonel King and Colonel Shapcot. On the contrary, Sir Heneage Finch observed that Milton was Latin Secretary to Cromwell, and deserved hanging. However, this matter was referred to the Committee of Privileges to examine and decide the

See "Parliamentary Usages-Payment of Members."

difference." Milton had been ordered to be taken into custody on the 16th of June previous, and to be prosecuted by the Attorney-General for having written the "Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio" against Salmasius, and another book in answer to the "Icon Basilike."

ALGERNON SIDNEY.

(1620-1683.)

A Happy Survival.-In a work entitled "Of the Use and Abuse of Parliaments, in two Historical Discourses" (1744), the first treatise, by Algernon Sidney (reprinted from an early edition) comprises "A General View of Government in Europe." In this the writer remarks: "The Parliament of France seems quite antiquated and subdued; the ghost and shadow of the defunct has appeared three or four times since Lewis the XIth; but to revive that assembly in its full and perfect vigour requires a miracle like the Resurrection. So that, in effect, we may date the demise of the Parliamentary sovereignty in France from Lewis the XIth, and the decay of that in Germany from Charles the VIth. It is in England only that the antient, generous, manly government of Europe survives, and continues in its original lustre and perfection. . . Magna Charta, instead of being superannuated, renews and recovers its pristine strength and athletic vigour by the Petition of Right, with our many other explanatory or declaratory statutes; and the annual Parliament is as well known to our laws as ever it had been famous amongst the customs of France and Germany."

Manufactured Evidence.-Algernon Sidney (writes Hume) "was in principle a republican, and had entered deeply into the war against Charles I. He had been named on the high court of justice which tried and condemned that monarch, but he thought not proper to take his seat among the judges, and had ever opposed Cromwell's usurpation with zeal and courage. After the Restoration he went into voluntary banishment; but in 1677, having obtained the King's pardon, he returned to England. When the factions arising from the Popish plot began to run high, Sidney, full of those ideas of liberty which he had imbibed from the great examples of antiquity, joined the popular party; but his conduct was deficient in practical good sense, and he labours under the imputation of accepting French gold." At his trial in 1683, for participation in the Rye-house conspiracy, "the only witness who deposed against him was Lord Howard; but as the law required two witnesses, the deficiency was supplied by producing some of his papers, in which he maintained the lawfulness of resisting tyrants, and the preference of liberty to the government of a single person. The violent and inhuman Jeffreys was now Chief Justice, and by his direction a partial jury was easily prevailed on to give a verdict against Sidney. His execution followed a few days after." The judgment against him was annulled in 1689, and his attainder, like that of his associate and fellow victim Lord William Russell, was reversed.

Not an Extremist.-The ordinance for the trial of Charles I. included the name of Sidney, but respecting this he wrote: "I was at

Penshurst when the Act for the King's trial passed, and, coming up to town, I heard that my name was put in. I presently went to the Painted Chamber, where those who were nominated for judges were assembled. A debate was raised, and I positively opposed the proceeding. Cromwell using these formal words, I tell you, we will cut off his head with the crown on it,' I replied, 'You may take your own course, I cannot stop you; but I will keep myself clean from having any hand in this business;' and saying thus I immediately left them, and never returned.”

THE FIRST EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.
(1621-1683.)

Cromwell's House of Lords.-Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury, the son of a Hampshire baronet, was returned for Tewkesbury at an early age. After being an active supporter of the Commonwealth, he was among the members of Parliament who went to Holland to invite the return of Charles II., by whom he was taken into favour, and made Lord Chancellor in 1672. His connection with the Habeas Corpus Act and the Exclusion Bill, and the allusions to him in Dryden's poems, cause him to be one of the best-remembered figures of our history. He died in Holland in 1683, after having been sent to the Tower and tried for treason, but acquitted. He was one of the most brilliant speakers of his time. The following passage occurred in addressing the Commons in 1659, in support of a motion, "that the other House be limited in time, and last only for the present Parliament:"-" What I shall speak of their quality, or anything else concerning them, I would be thought to speak with distinction, and to intend only of the major part; for I acknowledge, Mr. Speaker, the mixture of the other House to be like the composition of apothecaries, who mix something grateful to the taste to qualify their bitter drugs, which else, perhaps, would be immediately spit out and never swallowed. So, Sir, his Highness of deplorable memory to this nation, to countenance as well the want of quality as honesty in the rest, has nominated some against whom there lies no other reproach but only that nomination; but not out of any respect to their quality or regard to their virtues, but out of regard to the no-quality, the no-virtues of the rest; which truly, Mr. Speaker, if he had not done, we could easily have given a more express name to this other House than he hath been pleased to do; for we know a house designed for beggars and malefactors is a house of correction, and so termed by our law. But, Mr. Speaker, setting those few persons aside who, I hope, think the nomination a disgrace, and their ever coming to sit there a much greater, can we without indignation think of the rest? He who is first in their roll, a condemned coward;* one that out of fear and baseness did once what he could to betray our liberties, and now does the same for gain. The second, a person of as little sense as honesty, preferred for no other reason but his no-worth, his no-conscience; except cheating his father of all he had was thought a virtue by him, who by sad experience we find hath done as much for his

*Fiennes, condemned to death for cowardice at Bristol.

« EelmineJätka »