A. D.

The king having thus involuntarily 1624. broken with Spain, was obliged to summon a parliament, in order to obtain supplies. In that assembly, Buckingham threw all the blame on the court of Spain, and the nation, eager to commence hostilities with the papists, listened to his insidious arguments, and loaded him with applause. The supply was, however, voted with a parsimonious hand, and to what was granted, some conditions were annexed, which trenched on the prerogative, but conducted at last to legitimate liberty.

James, sensible that his favourite measures had been defeated by the artifices and the violence of Buckingham, began to estrange himself from that minion; but his domineering spirit soon regained him the ascendency over a timid master; and when the earl of Bristol, whom he both hated and feared, was recalled from Spain, he had influence enough to procure him to be sent to the tower, and afterwards banished to his country seat.

A. D. 1625.

Soon after this, a treaty of marriage between the prince of Wales and Henrietta of France being proposed, James entered into the negociation with so much ardour, that it was soon brought to a favourable conclusion; but the king was much less fortunate in the enterprises of war, which his soul abhorThe English nation, however, were bent on the recovery of the palatinate, and to accom plish this object, twelve thousand foot and two hundred horse were embarked under count Mansfeldt; but so ill had this expedition been concerted, that before the men were permitted to land, half of them were cut off by a pestilen

red.

tial disorder, and the other half were too weak to attempt the object of their destination.

James, who had zealousy cultivated the arts of peace, did not long survive the commencement of hostilities. Being seized with a tertian ague, and finding himself gradually becoming weaker, he sent for the prince, whom he affectionately exhorted to bear a tender regard for his wife, but to preserve a constancy in his own religion, to protect the church, and to extend his care to the unhappy family of the palatine; and having settled his other affairs, timid as he had been through life, he met death with the fortitude of a christian and a hero. So composed was he, that he closed his own eyes in the last struggle, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, after a reign over England of twenty-two years and some days.

In the annals of nations, it is scarcely possible to find a reign more unspotted and unblemished than that of James; but it contained nothing that could render it illustrious in history, and therefore it has been mentioned with obloquy and contempt. But if a king is only the father of a large family, and is equally bound with a natural parent, to watch over the welfare and safety of those committed to his care, James will deserve the highest panegyric, where unreflecting prejudice has assailed him the most, Yet it must be owned, that though James possessed many virtues, scarcely one of them was free from the contagion of some neighbouring vice. His generosity bordered on profusion, his learning on pedantry, his love of peace on pusillanimity, and his wisdom on cunning. He ruled over a people who delighted in war, from

which they had seldom been long exempted before his time, and who valued blood and treasure, less than the splendour of battles and conquests.

Great riches acquired by commerce, were at this period rare; and high pride of family prevailed. Civil honours, which now hold the first place, were then subordinate to the military, and a romantic turn for chivalry, still showed itself in furious and sanguinary duels.

The country life, which still prevails in England to a certain degree, was just beginning, in the reign of James, to give way to a fondness for the seducements of the city. The king wisely and benevolently set himself against this alteration of manners. "He was wont to be very earnest," says lord Bacon, "with the country gentlemen to go from London to their country seats; and would sometimes tell them, "Gentlemen, at London you are like ships in a sea, which show like nothing; but in your country villages, you are like ships in a river, which show like great things."

The ordinary revenue in this reign did not amount to half a million, nor the king's expenditure to more than thirty-six thousand pounds. All the extraordinary sums, which he raised by subsidies, loans, sale of lands, and of titles of baronetage, did not amount to two millions and two hundred thousand pounds.

Corn at this time, and the other necessaries of life, were higher in proportion than the present average: wheat was thirty-six shillings a quarter, rye eighteen, and barley sixteen. The usual bread of the poor was made of barley. It appears also that fourpence a pound was the

usual price for beef and mutton, and that the general turn of the age, was to convert arable land into pasture, which no laws could prevent.

London at this time was entirely built of wood, and far from being elegant. The earl of Arundel first introduced the general practice of building with bricks.

The public had neither the danger, nor the expense of a standing army to fear. The militia, amounting to one hundred and sixty thousand men, was the sole defence of the kingdom.

The navy of England was esteemed formidable in Elizabeth's reign; yet it received several additions from James. A ship of one thousand four hundred tons, and carrying sixty-four guns, the largest that had ever come from an English dock, was launched in this reign.

But what renders this æra more memorable, was the incipient organization of some parts of the continent of America. The island of Barba

does was also planted in this reign.

Shakespeare, the immortal glory of his country, reflected a lustre on the times of James, as did Johnson, Fairfax, Raleigh, and Bacon. The latter pointed out the road to true plilosophy, and made considerable advances in it himself.

CH

CHAP. XIV.

The Reign of Charles I.

HARLES mounted the throne in the flower of his age, and having es. poused Henrietta by proxy, no sooner

A. D. 1625.

was their marriage celebrated in England, than he hastened to call a parliament, whom he addressed in the language of simplicity and cordiality.

The commons, however, though aware of the expenses of government, and though the war had been undertaken with their perfect concurrence, were very sparing in their grants; and puritanical zeal was soon inflamed against the catholics; whose expectations were raised by the favour they expected to find with the queen. Concessions in favour of liberty, were tacked to the very moderate supplies they were induced to al, low; and Charles, who had been educated in high notions of prerogative, and full of the ge nerous feelings of youth, could ill brook any encroachments on his power, or any want of atten❤ tion to his reasonable demands.

He frankly explained the nature of the engagements into which he had entered, and the sums that would be necessary to discharge them, particularly in regard to the operations of the war: but the commons were still inexorable; and a new discovery tended still more to increase them against Buckingham. When James courted the alliance of France, he had stipulated to lend Lewis eight ships, which were to be employed against the Genoese, the allies. of Spain; but when the vessels arrived at Dieppe, a suspicion arose that they were intended to serve against the Hugonots of Rochelle. On this, the sailors broke out into a furious mutiny, and Pennington, the admiral, swore he would sooner be hanged in England, for disobedience, than fight against his brother protestants in France. Accordingly, the squadron immedi