from the nobility assistance was requested, and from the city a loan required; and the maritime towns, with the aid of the adjacent counties, were compelled to equip a certain number of ships. This is the first appearance in Charles's reign of ship-money, a mode of taxation which afterwards produced such violent discontents.

Though these irregular and unequal expedients would have given disgust in more tranquil times, yet Charles proceeded in these invidious methods with some degree of moderation, till at last, under the name of a general loan, he levied a sum equal to four subsidies. Many, however, refused these loans; and some were even active in encouraging others to insist on their common rights and privileges. Several were thrown into prison by warrant of the council. Of these, sir Thomas Darnel, sir John Corbet, sir Walter Earl, sir John Heveningham, and sir Edmund Hampden, had spirit enough, at their own hazard and expense, to defend the public liberties, and to demand releasement, not as a favour from the court, but as a matter of right.

The question was brought to a solemn trial before the court of King's Bench; but though sir Randolph Crew, chief justice, had been displaced as unfit for the purposes of the court, and sir Nicholas Hyde, esteemed more obsequious, had obtained that high office, yet the judges went no farther than to remand the gentlemen to prison, and to refuse the bail which was offered. The nation, indeed, was already exasperated to a very high degree, by a varie ty of real grievances; and except a few courtiers and ecclesiastics, all men were dissatisfied with the measures of government, and thought that if some remedy were not speedily adopted, all hopes of preserving the freedom of the constitution might be abandoned.

Great, however, was the surprise, when Charles, though baffled in every attempt against Austria, embroiled with his own subjects, and unsupplied with any treasure except what he extorted by the most invidious and most dangerous measures, wantonly attacked France, the other great kingdom in his neighbourhood. This rash action is ascribed to the counsels of Buckingham.

When Charles married by proxy the princess Henrietta, this minister and minion had been sent to France, to grace the nuptials, and conduct the new queen into England. The beauty of his person, the elegance of his manners, and the

splendour of his equippage, occasioned general admiration. Encouraged by the smiles of the court, he carried his addresses to the queen of Lewis; and, after his departure, he secretly returned, and visiting the queen, was dismissed with a reproof which savoured more of kindness than of anger. The vigilance of Richelieu soon discovered this correspondence; and when the duke was making preparations for a new embassy to Paris, a message was sent him, that his presence would not be agreeable. In a romantic fit of passion, he swore, "that he would see the queen in spite of all the power of France;" and from that moment, he determined to engage England in a war with that kingdom.

He first took advantage of some quarrels excited by the queen of England's attendants; and he persuaded Charles to dismiss all her French servants, contrary to the articles of the marriage-treaty. He encouraged the English ships of war and privateers to seize vessels belonging to French merchants; and these he forthwith condemned as prizes, by a sentence of the court of admiralty; but finding that these injuries produced only remonstrances, or at most reprisals, on the part of France, he resolved to second the intrigues of the duke of Soubize, and to undertake a military expedition against that kingdom.

Soubize, and his brother, the duke of Rohan, were the leaders of the Hugonot faction, and strongly solicited the assistance of Charles. Accordingly, a fleet of one hundred sail, and an army of seven thousand men, were intrusted to the command of Buckingham; but when the fleet appeared before Rochelle, the inhabitants of that city refused to admit allies of whose arrival they had received no previous information, and Buckingham sailed to the isle of Rhé, where he landed his men. He finally returned to England with the loss of two thirds of his land forces, and with no other credit than the vulgar one of courage and personal bravery.

Great discontents, as might be expected, prevailed among the English people. Their liberties were menaced; illegal taxes extorted; their commerce, which had been already injured, was totally annihilated by the French war; the military reputation of the nation had been tarnished by two unsuccessful and ill-conducted expeditions; and all these calamities were ascribed to the obstinacy of Charles,

in adhering to the counsels of Buckingham, whose services and abilities by no means deserved such unlimited confidence.

In this situation of men's minds, the king and A. D. the duke dreaded the assembling of a parliament; 1628. but the money levied, or rather extorted, under colour of prerogative, had been very slowly procured, and had occasioned much ill-humour in the nation; and as it appeared dangerous to renew the experiment, and a supply was absolutely necessary, it was resolved to call a parliament. When the commons assembled, it was soon found that they were men of the same independent spirit with their predecessors, and that the resentment for past injuries was neither weakened nor forgotten. The court party did not pretend to defend the late measures, in order to procure money, except on the ground of necessity, to which the king had been reduced by the conduct of the two former parliaments; and a vote was passed, without opposition, against arbitrary imprisonments and forced loans. In return for this concession, a supply of five subsidies was voted, with which the king declared himself satisfied; and even tears of affection started in his eye, when he was informed of this liberality.

But the supply, though voted, was not immediately passed into a law; and the commons resolved to employ the Interval in providing some barriers to their rights and liberties, so lately violated. They enumerated all the encroachments that had been made on their constitutional liberties, under the name of a "petition of right;" and against these grievances an eternal remedy was to be provided. The terms in which this petition was expressed, seem to have been just and reasonable, yet favourable to public freedom; but Charles, though he had given his con sent to any law for securing the rights and liberties of the people, had not expected such inroads on the prerogative, in regard to which he was a great stickler; and it was not without much difficulty, and many evasions, that the royal assent was obtained to a measure which diffused a general joy through the nation.

Nothing tended more to excuse, if not justify, the extreme rigour of the commons towards Charles, than his open encouragement and avowal of principles incompatible with a limited government. One doctor Mainwaring had preached