use of Stuart

most every point the policy of his great predecessor. Where she with supreme tact had loosened the screws so that the great authority vested in her might not press too heavily upon the nation, he tightened them. Where she bowed her imperious will to that of the Commons, this puny tyrant insolently defied it, and swelling with sense of his own greatness, claimed, "Divine right" for Kingship and demanded that his people should say "th

t English Colon

y of the Bishops in such matters "they should be harried out of the land." In the persecution implied by this threat, a large body of Puritans escaped to Holland with their families, and from thence came that band of heroic men and women

"Gunpowder

one stroke to get rid of a usurping tyrant, and of a House of Commons which was daily becoming more and more infected with Purita

eat King as himself. He proposed a marriage between his son Charles and the Infanta, daughter of the King of Spain, making abject promises of legislation in his Kingdom favorable to the Catholics; and when an indignant House of Commo

e: Franc

ening to his pedantic wisdom, and humoring his theory of the "Divine right" of hereditary Kingship. And alas!-that we have to say it-Francis Bacon (his Chancellor), wit

into the foundation of his throne. And when he violated the law of the land by the imposition of taxes, without the sanction of his Parliament, he had "sowed the wind" and the "whirlwind," which was to break on his son's head was inevitable. Popular indig

lation of Bible.

urope;-sacrificing Sir Walter Raleigh because he had given offense to Spain, the country whose friendship he most desired. We see numberless acts of folly, and but three which we can commend. James did authorize and p

Death 1625. Char

his irreproachable morals, and his rectitude in the personal relations of life, might have won him only esteem and honor. But these qualities belonged to Charles Stuart the gentleman. Charles th

arm southern blood of her mother which was Mary Stuart's ruin. She was a Guise,-and so was her son James I.-and so was Charles I., her grandson. Ther

the Conquest. With every royal marriage there is a fresh infusion of foreign blood drawn from fountains not always the purest,-

iage had been abandoned

ter of Louis X

: Archbis

dvocated the absolutism of the King, saying that James in his theory of "Divine right" had been inspired by the Holy Ghost, thus turning religion into an engine of attack upon English liberties. Laud's ideal was a purified Catholicism-retaining auricular confession, prayers for the dead, the Real Presence in the Sacrament, genuflexions and crucifixes, all of w

not at all in sympathy with a religious fanaticism which condemned innocent pleasures, and all the things which adorn life, as mere devices of the devil

,-he must have,-money. Religion and money are the two things upon which the fate of nations has oftenest

covery of the theory of "Divine right," prepared the way to throw off these Parliamentary trammels. But that could only be reached by degrees. So Parliament was summoned.

uarter. "We will gladly lend the money, but it must be done through Parliament." The King was thoroughly aroused. If the loan wi

n Hampden, Pet

he sum was small, but his manhood was great. "Not one farthing, if it

t was summoned. The Commons, with memory of recent outrages in their hearts, were more determined than before. The members drew up a "Petition of

m was urging him to yield. Perhaps it was Charles Stuart the gentleman who hesitated to receive money in return for solemn promises which he did not intend to keep! But Charles the King signed the paper, which seven judges out of twelve, in th

polluted at its fountain, what hope wa

ssachusetts C

rge landed estates, professional men, some of the best in the land, who abandoned home and comfort to face intolerable hardships. One wrote, "We are weaned from the delicate milk of our Mother England and do not mind these trials." As the pressure increased under Laud, the stream toward the

ad body. But his place had been filled by one far better suited to the King's needs at a time when he had de

filling his exchequer; and if Parliament would not give him that except by a dicker for reforms, and humiliating pledges which he could not keep, why then he would find new

d not enter his dreams. It was the limitations of his intelligence which proved his ruin, his inability to comprehend a new condition in the spirit of his people. Elizabeth would have felt it, though she did not understand it, and would

(Earl Strafford), who

tate from the party of

e Commons he had drawn

ed upon him as the

Strafford. The

Charles was feebly scheming for revenue, he was laying large and comprehensive plans for a system of oppression, which should yield the revenue,-and for Arsenals and Forts-and a standing Army, and a rule of terror which s

ctfully of Laud, is condemned to pay 5,000 pounds to the King, 300 pounds to the aggrieved Archbishop himself, one side of his nose is to be slit, one ear cut off, and one cheek branded. The next week this to be repe

erates, Laud and Strafford, who were in their pleasant letters to each other all the time lamenting that the power of the

on profits added to the price of the original concession. Every article in use by the people was at last bought up by Monopolist

Monoplies.

onary with the King. It was always possible and imminent, and was the most odious of all the methods adopted for wringing money from the nation, while resistance

were paid by the people is evident, for so successful was this scheme of revenue that many predicted the King would never again call a Parliament. What would be the need of a Parliament, if he d