СНАР. 1640. May 5. the real England was on his side, and would rally round him as soon as it learnt how grossly deluded it had been. With these feelings he was not likely to plan an Irish invasion of England. But it does not follow that he did not contemplate it as a distant possibility. Pushed hard in the discussion in the Committee to justify his confidence, he might fall back upon the forces in Ireland as a convincing proof that alarm was needless, just as he would have the clause relating to England inserted in his patent in order to provide for all eventualities, without expecting those eventualities to occur. Even Vane's paper of notes conveys the impression that the thought of employing this Irish army for the repression of resistance in England did not enter largely into Strafford's plans. His words point to no knot worthy of such a solution. He had been arguing that the Scots would be overpowered in a single campaign, and that the quiet of England would hold out long. It was only as the refusal of the Commons presented itself to his thoughts that he flashed out into threats of this last resource. Nor is it likely that he at all understood what his countrymen would Strafford's think of such a threat. To him the thought of an Irish Irish army. army conveyed no impression which was not satis view of an factory. The small force which was already in existence was distinguished for its discipline and good behaviour. He had every reason to believe that the larger force which he now contemplated would be distinguished by the same qualities. He did not realise the feeling of horror which the very notion of an Irish army conveyed to the mass of Englishmen. The popu- Pride of race and pride of religion combined in regarding the mere suggestion of the introduction of such a force as a deadly insult. The English people lar view. ENGLISH FEELING AGAINST THE IRISH. 341 VII. 1640. May 5. resented it as the Americans resented the employment CHAP of Indians against them in 1776, and as the Germans resented the employment of Turcos against them in 1870. To bring over Irishmen to crush their liberties was in their eyes to let loose a horde of pitiless Popish savages upon the sober Protestant, God-fearing population of England. To have planned such an atrocity was sufficient to exclude the contriver from the courtesies of civilised existence. taken by That the suggestion of bringing over the Irish Position army, when once it came to be known, added bitter Strafford. intensity to the feeling of hatred with which Strafford was now beginning to be regarded, is beyond dispute. That hatred dates from the day of the dissolution of the Short Parliament. From thenceforth the name of Strafford, of black Tom Tyrant, as he was sometimes called, was coupled with that of Laud in the popular imagination, as the bulwark of arbitrary and despotic government. The popular imagination was in the main right. No doubt Strafford would have rejected the charge. It was the Commons, he thought, who had failed to do their duty. The case was one in which, as he afterwards expressed it, the King might use as the common parent of the country what power God Almighty hath given him for preserving himself and his people, for whom he is accountable to Almighty God.' This power, he then added, could not be taken from him by others; neither, under favour, is he able to take it from himself.'1 Somewhere or another in every Constitution a power must be lodged of providing for extreme necessities, irrespective of the bonds of positive law, and this power had, at least for some generations, been lodged in the Crown. 1 Rushw. Straf. Trial, 559. СНАР. May 5 What Strafford failed to see was that the King had brought that power into contempt by constantly using 1640. it to provide for necessities which were not extreme. Men were slow to believe that a special emergency existed when that emergency had been appealed to to justify an unparliamentary government of eleven years. Strafford was undoubtedly in earnest in desiring to put an end to this evil system. If he had no wish to anticipate the constitution of the eighteenth century, he at least wished to bring back the Constitution of the sixteenth. It was precisely this which he was powerless to do. If his master had returned victorious from the Northern war at the head of a devoted army, no result but the establishment of a military despotism would have been possible for him. Against this the great national party, with Pym at its head, now numbering the vast majority of educated Englishmen, raised its voice. They were no reformers, no followers of new ideas, by which the lives of men might be made brighter and happier than of old. They wished to worship as their fathers had worshipped, to believe as their fathers had believed, and to live as their fathers had lived. They did not wish to be harassed by constant changes, of which they did not understand the import, and of which they mistrusted the tendency. To them Parliaments were not an instrument of improvement, but an instrument to avert unpopular alterations. Parliamentary supremacy would give full expression to the inertia which appeared to Strafford to be the most dangerous quality of human society. To Strafford, the active-minded reformer, impatient of restraint, the very thought of Parliamentary supremacy was abominable. He did not, could not, rise up into the knowledge that acceptance of the limitations imposed by the national STRAFFORD'S DISTRUST OF PARLIAMENTS. temper was the only condition under which permanent reforms could ever be accomplished. He did not even acknowledge to himself that the national temper was truly reflected in the Parliament which had been so recently dissolved. 343 СНАР. VII. 1640. May 5, 344 CHAP. 1640. May 5. Strafford CHAPTER VIII. PASSIVE RESISTANCE. ON May 5 two systems of government entered upon the final struggle for supremacy in England. Each of these systems had its own representative leader. The voice of Pym was silenced for a time. It was and Pym. for Strafford to do what in him lay to encourage his fainting allies, to stand forward as the saviour of monarchical government in its hour of trial. The King's Declaration. Measures of the Government. At once a Declaration was issued in the King's name for general circulation. Subjects were reminded that of old time it had been held to be the duty of Parliament to support their kings in time of war, not to abuse their power of control over supplies to extort the surrender of the rightful prerogatives of Sovereigns.1 Orders were also issued. to the Lords Lieutenants to postpone the departure of the new levies till June 10, so as to gain a little time for financial preparation.2 The studies of Lords Saye and Brooke, of Pym, Hampden, and Earle, were searched, doubtless in the belief that evidence would be secured of criminal intelligence with the Scots. No compromising matter was discovered, and no further proceeding was taken. Three other members did not escape so easily. Crew, the Parliament Chairman of the Committee on Religion, was sent in prison. to the Tower for refusing to deliver up the petitions entrusted to his charge. Sir John Hotham and Henry May 8 Members of |