rather expressed sorrow that all the opposite party to him was not cut off, than that any were; and he stuck not to declare in words that no man's blood spilt in the quarrel troubled him, but only one, meaning the Earl of Strafford. The gentlemen that were appointed his judges, and divers others, saw in him a disposition so bent on the ruin of all that opposed him, and of all the righteous and just things they had contended for, that it was upon the consciences of many of them that, if they did not execute justice upon him, God would require at their hands all the blood and desolation which should ensue by their suffering him to escape, when God had brought him into their hands."

CHAPTER XVII

Vane disapproves of the Execution of Charles. The new Commonwealth. Sensation throughout Europe. Milton and Salmasius. The Foundation altered as well as the Superstructure. Abolition of Episcopacy. Varieties of Religious Sects. Serious Tone of the Nation.

THE trial and execution of Charles I. are too well known to relate here. A good deal can be said against the irregularity of the process, and the choice of his judges. But it ought not to be forgotten that, if there was no statute law to provide for the punishment of a king who violated his promises and broke his coronation oath, neither was there any to provide for his subjects rising in arms against him. The statute book had nothing of the parliament making war on the king, or the king raising taxes to make war on the parliament. John Bradshaw, the president of the court of justice, in the address he delivered, laid down that "there is something that is superior to law, the parent or author of the law, and that is the people of England." Whether, meted by the standard of his deserts, Charles merited the punishment he got, is a question to which widely different answers have been given; but there is no question that as politicians those who brought the

king to the scaffold committed a most serious error. Both during the war and his captivity Charles had shown some qualities not noticed in the days of his prosperity.

His dignified demeanour at the trial, and his protest against the breach of old legal forms, aroused sympathy amongst the onlookers. With most men it is more important to excite their emotions than to satisfy their reason. When retribution is exacted men have pity on the worst offenders; nor were the offences of the Stuart king of that atrocious character which remain long in the popular memory. The spectacle of a king laying his head upon the block at Whitehall, aroused with many a deeper pathos than the slaughter of thousands sacrificed to his love of rule. From the day of his execution there was a reaction in his favour which much helped the cause of his son, who now succeeded to his claims. Nevertheless, it appears that the commission which sat as judges upon the king acted under motives of austere justice. Henry Vane so much disapproved of the violent expulsion of the opposite party that he forbore to come to the parliament or to meddle in any public transaction for ten weeks, from December 3, 1648, till towards the middle of February. During this time the trial and execution of the king was effected, and the resolutions were passed which changed the kingdom of England into a republic. On February 6, by a majority of 44 over 29, the House of Lords was abolished as useless and injurious. The next day a decree was adopted that the office of king was unnecessary, useless, and dangerous, and a new seal was engraved with the

KINGSHIP ABOLISHED

299

arms of England and Ireland, and on the reverse the inscription suggested by Henry Marten: "The first year of liberty restored by the blessing of God, 1648." A proposed constitution for the commonwealth, mostly drawn up by Ireton, was presented to the parliament in the name of Lord Fairfax and the general council of officers of the army on January 15, 1649, under the title of an "Agreement of the People." A scheme of equal distribution of seats was given in detail. The electors were to be all men above twenty-one, who were independent householders. Those who had taken arms or given public support for the king were excluded from voting for seven years, and from being elected for fourteen years. The whole powers of the state were to be vested in a representative chamber of 400 members. An attendance of 150 was needed for a binding enactment. General elections were to be held every two years. The assembly was to appoint an executive council of state acting with the parliament and in the intervals between parliaments.

The parliament might endow any church not popish or prelatic. All other forms of Christian worship were to be protected. The proposed scheme should be tendered to the people in all parts, to be subscribed by those that were willing, and as those who had taken sides with the king were excluded, it is likely that an appearance of assent would have been obtained. The parliament was to be dissolved on the last day of April 1649.

The only part of this scheme which was accepted at the time by the parliament was the election of a council of state of 41 members. The number of

members in the House was about 122 (Bisset), and as the average attendance was no greater than 50, the council could generally command a majority. In this council Cromwell, Bradshaw, Marten, and other regicides were active members. For the discharge of business in various departments, they were divided into smaller committees.

A regard for the safety of the state in those times of imminent danger, both within and without, induced Vane to return to his post at Westminster. When required by the parliament to take an oath to give his approbation ex post facto to what had been done, he utterly refused, and would not accept of sitting in the council of state upon these terms, but occasioned a new oath to be drawn wherein

this pledge was omitted. On which terms many

of the council of state sat who would not take the oath.1

produced a mighty There had been nothing the papal bulls in the That a people should

These wonderful events commotion all over Europe. like it since Luther had burnt market-place at Wittemberg. send forth opposing armies to slaughter one another, solely to prove that they were the movable property of this or that prince by inheritance or election—that a sovereign should be hunted away by his barons, or murdered by his own relations, within his palace walls -these were things for which men's minds were already prepared; but when the news came "how a most potent king, after he had trampled upon the laws of the nation, and given a shock to its religion, and begun to rule at his own will and pleasure, was at last

1 See The Tryal of Sir Henry Vane, 1662, p. 47.