abeyance during the reign of Elizabeth; but became more prominently active and vigorous, in the reign of her successor, James I. During the sway of the unfortunate Charles I., and till he fell by the hand of the executioner, the great body of the English nation never once relaxed their efforts in the cause of popular right, and religious toleration. Cromwell, himself, says, that whatever might be the efficient and proximate causes of the commencement of the civil war, yet God soon brought it to a religious issue; and he constantly affirms, that amidst the contentions, and dangers, and sacrifices of war, the reward which he and his followers always had before them, was the freedom of worshipping God according to their conscience.

SECTION III.

From the death of Charles I. to the year 1700.

IN the reign of Charles I., and during the Commonwealth, and even for a considerable time afterwards, it must be kept in remembrance, that there were floating in the public mind five distinct systems of church government; namely, Popery, Diocesan Episcopacy, Presbyterianism, Independency, and Erastianism. Each of these ecclesiastical forms sought to mould or modify civil liberty and political right in some fashion or other; and hence the writers of each system naturally adopted that particular political theory which was more or less in harmony with their respective views of church policy.

The execution of the king was, of itself, one of the most important political events the world ever witnessed. It imparted to the public mind of Europe new views of the ends or purposes of governments, and of the reciprocal duties of citizenship which spring out of, and sustain them. There can be little doubt, but that the writings which had previously appeared in England, and even on the continent, relative to the lawfulness and expediency of punishing royalty, when neglectful of its sacred and weighty obligations, had made a deep impression on the minds of the speculative politicians of the day, of all shades of party and opinion. The old ideas of irresponsible power had been greatly weakened by the repeated and eager discussions of various theories and schemes of general polity. The treatises on the subject had been numerous even in our own country; and the more scientific part of them had so clearly and forcibly developed the abstract nature of monarchical rule, that men, for the first time in their history, saw the justice, as well as necessity, of putting some limitation to royal prerogatives and privileges. Regal punishment, which appeared, at first, a daring and impious doctrine, soon became the current train of public thought, and the every day conversation of the multitude. Whether Charles fully merited to be selected as the first example of national vengeance, is not the proper view of the matter. It was the principle embodied in the people's right and power to bring to trial and pronounce judgment, that constituted the vital question at issue. Whether his death was justifiable or not, judged by the number and enormity of his own delinquencies, certain it is, that the event gave birth, shortly

after his execution, to the most elaborate development of political doctrines. The discussions on the justice and policy of his end, gave rise to treatises on the nature of general government, and social institutions, of inestimable value and importance.

DR. GAUDEN, was the person who published, in 1648, "Eikon Basilike; or, the Portraiture of His Sacred Majesty in his Solitude and Sufferings." It is now generally understood that Gauden wrote a great part of this work. It contains a defence of the king, which, in many parts, is very touching and affecting.

The lines written by Charles, when confined in Carisbrook Castle, are interesting. They are in the form of an address to the Deity. The verses, descriptive of the political questions at issue between himself and his people, are here transcribed.

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Nature and law, by thy divine decree,

The only root of righteous royaltie,

With this dim diadem invested me.

With it, the sacred sceptre, purple robe,

The body unction, and the royal globe;

Yet I am levell'd with the life of Job.

The fiercest furies, that do daily tread
Upon my grief, my grey discrowned head,
Are those that owe my bounty for their bread.
"They raise a war, and christen it the cause,
While sacrilegious hands have best applause,
Plunder and murder are the kingdom's laws.

"Tyranny bears the title of taxation,

Revenge and robbery, are reformation,

Oppression gains the name of sequestration.

* See on this subject, Nichol's Lit. Anecdotes, and Lang's Scotland; also, "Who wrote Eikon Basilike ?" by Dr. Wordsworth. London, 1824.

"My loyal subjects, who, in this bad season,
Attend me, (by the laws of God and reasou,)

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They dare impeach, and punish for high treason.

Next at the clergy do their furies frown,

Pious episcopacy must go down,

They will destroy the crosier and the crown.

"Churchmen are chain'd, and schismaticks are freed,
Mechanicks preach, and holy fathers bleed,

The crown is crucified with the creed.

"The church of England doth all factions foster,

The pulpit is usurpt by each imposter,

Extempore excludes the Paternoster.

The Presbyter and Independent seed

Springs with broad blades. To make religion bleed,
Herod and Pontius Pilate are agreed."

ARCHBISHOP USHER wrote in defence of Charles I., "The power of the Prince, and the Obedience of the Subject," a work of some little note in its day.

JOHN MILTON was one of the chief leaders of the puritan writers, and a complete host in himself. His first political writings relate to church government. Up to his thirty-eighth year, he had published five distinct tracts on this subject. They roused the ire of many of the established clergy. In 1644 he published his speech on the liberty of the press, under the title of "Areopagitica, a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing." This was a spirited and argumentative defence of this great bulwark of the freedom and happiness of nations.

After the trial and execution of Charles I., he entered into a defence of this measure, in a tract, called "The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates." Here he lays down the right of citizens to put "a tyrant or

wicked king," to death, on due conviction, "by any who possess the power," should the ordinary magisterial authority be insufficient for the purpose. The work is not a general plea for regicide, nor an attack on the late king, but it simply lays down the principle, that when rulers are insensible to the miseries of the people, and unblushingly tyrannise over them in every possible way, that resistance becomes then a duty, and punishment justifiable. Milton defends himself from the charge of making a general onslaught on the office of monarchy; and remarks in his "Second Defence of the People of England," in reference to the favourable reception which Christiana, Queen of Sweden, gave to his first "Defence," "That when the critical emergencies of my country demanded that I should undertake the arduous and invidious task of impugning the rights of kings, I should meet with so illustrious, so truly a royal evidence to my integrity, and to this truth, that I had not written a word against kings, but only against tyrants, the spots and pests of royalty." This "Tenure of Kings," has been considered one of the most ably reasoned of Milton's political works, particularly from his having placed the great principles of constitutional law, treated of by previous writers, in so clear and convincing a point of view. Mr. Phillips tells us, "This treatise, reviving the fame of other things Milton had formerly published, he was more and more taken notice of for his excellency of style, and depth of judgment; and courted into the service of the commonwealth."

In 1649, Milton, at the request of the council of state, wrote his "Iconoclastes," in answer to the "Eikon Basilike," of Charles I. Milton tells us, that