changing the speech into a message all writ with the king's own hand, and sent to the house of lords by the prince of Wales: (which Hollis had said, would have perhaps done as well, the king being apt to spoil things by an unacceptable manner :) but to the wonder of the whole world, the queen prevailed with him to add that mean postscript, if he must die, it were charity to reprieve him till Saturday: which was a very unhandsome giving up of the whole message. When it was communicated to both houses, the whole court party was plainly against it: and so he fell truly by the queen's means P. The mentioning this makes me add one particular concerning archbishop Laud: when his impeachment was brought to the lords bar, he apprehending how it would end, sent over Warner, bishop of Rochester, with the keys of his closet and cabinet, ploy his credit with the king" "for the abolition of episcopacy, we learn from Laud; "but he adds, on the author"ity of the earl's assertion to archbishop Usher, that Straf"ford refused the condition. Laud's Troubles, 177. Neither did the king give up the "request by the conditional postscript for the same con"dition runs through the whole "letter—if it may be done "without discontentment to spared, the king would at "the conclusion of the parlia"ment grant him a pardon, "and place him again over "their heads. His death was "their security. Clarendon, "vol. I. 242." Dr. Lingard's Hist. of England, vol. VI. note. p. 404. Carte, in his MS. papers preserved in the Bodleian library, says, that when cardinal Richlieu heard of the king's consenting to lord Strafford's death, he observed, that the king had cut off the only head in the nation, that could secure his own from the like fate.) that he might destroy, or put out of the way, all papers that might either hurt himself or any body else. He was at that work for three hours, till upon Laud's being committed to the black rod, a messenger went over to seal up his closet, who came after all was withdrawn. Among the writings he took away, it is believed the original Magna Charta, passed by king John in the mead near Stains, was one. This was found among Warner's papers by 33 his executor: and that descended to his son and executor, colonel Lee, who gave it to me. So it is now in my hands; and it came very fairly to me 9. For this conveyance of it we have nothing but conjecture. I do not intend to prosecute the history of the wars. I have told a great deal relating to them in the memoirs of the dukes of Hamilton. Rushworth's collections contain many excellent materials and now the first volume of the earl of Clarendon's history gives a faithful representation of the beginnings of the troubles, though writ in favour of the court r, and full of the best excuses that such There was reason enough for the bishop's giving an account how he came by this most valuable piece of antiquity: his having been trusted (especially after his publication of the History of the Reformation) in searching all records, private and public, gave good grounds to suspect he had obtained it in a less justifiable manner. D. The following remarkable article in relation to our Magna Charta is in the remarks of M. des Maizeaux upon the Colomesiana of monsieur du Co lomies, p. 538 of the Amsterdam edition in 1740. J'ai oui dire que le chevalier Robert Cotton étant allé chez un tailleur, trouva qu'il alloit faire des mesures de la Grande Chartre d'Angleterre en original avec les seings et tous les sceaux. Il eut pour quatre sous cette rare piece, qu'on avoit cru si long tems perdue, et qu'on n'espéroit pas de pouvoir jamais retrouver. Cole. Writ with the spirit of an historian, not of (a raker) into scandal. S. (The intervening ill things were capable of. I shall therefore only set out what I had particular reason to know, and what is not to be met with in books. model of the in Scotland. The kirk was now settled in Scotland with a new The new mixture of ruling elders; which, though they were presbytery taken from the Geneva pattern to assist, or rather to be a check on the ministers in the managing the parochial discipline, yet these never came to their assemblies till the year 1638, that they thought it necessary to make them first go and carry all the elections of the ministers at the several presbyteries, and next come themselves and sit in the assemblies. The nobility and chief gentry offered themselves upon that occasion: and the ministers, since they saw they were like to act in opposition to the king's orders, were glad to have so great a support. But the elders that now came to assist them beginning to take, as the ministers thought, too much on them, they grew weary of such imperious masters: so they studied to work up the inferior people to much zeal: and as they wrought any up to some measure of heat and knowledge, they brought them also into their eldership; and so got a majority of hot zealots who depended on them. One out of these was deputed to attend on the judicatories. They had synods of all the clergy, in one or more counties, who met twice a year and a general assembly met once a year and at parting that body named some, called the commission of the kirk, who were to sit in the intervals to prepare matters for the next as words are supplied by conjecture. In what high esteem the lord Clarendon's History was held by the accomplished Evelyn, may be seen in his Let ter to Mr. Pepys, which is sub- sembly, and to look into all the concerns of the church, to give warning of dangers, and to inspect all proceedings of the state, as far as related to the matters of religion: by these means they became terrible to all their enemies. In their sermons, and chiefly in their prayers, all that passsd in the state was canvassed: men were as good as named, and either recommended or complained of to God as they were acceptable or odious to them. This grew up in time to an insufferable degree of boldness. The way that was given to it, when the king and the bishops were there common themes, made that 34 afterwards the humour could not be restrained: and it grew so petulant, that the pulpit was a scene of news and passion. For some years this was managed with great appearances of fervour by men of age and some authority: but when the younger and hotter zealots took it up, it became odious to almost all sort of people, except some sour enthusiasts, who thought all their impertinence was zeal, and an effect of inspiration; which flowed naturally from the conceit of extemporary prayers being praying by the Spirit. The chief ministers of the party. Henderson, a minister of Edenburgh, was by much the wisest and gravest of them all: but as all his performances that I have seen are flat and heavy, so he found it was an easier thing to raise a flame than to quench it. He studied to keep his party to him yet he found he could not moderate the heat of some fiery spirits: so when he saw he could follow them no more, but that they had got the people out of his hands, he sunk both in body and mind, and died soon after [the papers had passed between the king and him at Newcastle.] The person next to him was Douglas, believed to be descended from the royal family, though the wrong way: [for he was, as was said, the bastard of a bastard of queen Mary of Scotland, by a child that she secretly bare to Douglas, who was half brother to the earl of Murray, the regent, and had the keeping of her in the castle of Lochlevin intrusted to him; from whence he helped to make her escape on that consideration.] There appeared an air of greatness in him, that made all that saw him inclined enough to believe he was of no ordinary descent. He was a reserved man: he had the scriptures by heart, to the exactness of a Jew; for he was as a concordance he was too calm and too grave for the furious men, but yet he was much depended on for his prudence. I knew him in his old age; and saw plainly he was a slave to his popularity, and durst not own the free thoughts he had of some things for fear of offending the people. I will not run out in giving the characters of the other leading preachers among them, such as Dickson, Blair, Rutherford, Baily, Cant, and the two Gillispys. They were men all of a sort: they affected great sublimities in devotion: they poured themselves out in their prayers with a loud voice, and often with many tears. They had but an ordinary propotion of learning among them; something of Hebrew, and very little Greek: books of controversy with papists, but above all with the Arminians, was the height of their study. A way of preaching by doctrine, reason, and use, was that they set up on and some of them affected a strain of stating cases of conscience, not with relation to moral actions, but to some reflexions on their condition |