BOOKS.
GARDINER'S PERSONAL GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES I.*
Tam further instalment of Mr. Gardiner's work commences at- the period immediately following the assassination of the Duke- of Buckingham and extends to the eve of the Puritan Revolu- tion. The nine years it embraces are full of circumstances- tending to undermine the Royal power, and Mr. Gardiner says, "an accurate knowledge of these less exciting times is therefore- absolutely indispensable to the formation of a sober judgment on the more stirring events which followed." The gradual change that was creeping over English feeling year by year has not had sufficient importance attached to it by other historians, and where- they failed to recognise its value, it is not difficult to account for- the distorted views of events and individuals held by the genera- tions preceding our own. One feature in these volumes is. the prominence given to foreign affairs. Mr. Gardiner antici- pates criticism on this point, by remarking that he could not have- said less about foreign affairs without in-jury to the main subject of his narrative. "No one can apprehend the truth about Ship- money, and the Ship-money Fleet, unless he understands the- relations between England and the Governments of the Continent which first suggested the necessity of a larger fleet than Charles's Exchequer could support," and "it is impossible for any one to read of the intrigues which Charles carried on alter- nately with France and Spain, without being forcibly reminded of the very similar intrigues which he subsequently carried on with- Presbyterians and Independents, with Parliament and Army."
Buckingham's death was the turning-point in Charles's life. The- latter had been so completely dependent on his friend, that he had. now no one but himself to look to. "The murdered Buckingham had no successor in Charles's affections." These are the significant words with which Mr. Gardiner begins his new volumes. "No- other man could bring with him the long habitude of personal friendship, or the promptness of decision, made palatable by- winning gracefulness of manner, which had enabled the late Lord Admiral, under the show of deference, to guide his Sovereign at his pleasure." 'Charles marked his sense of per- sonal loss by refusing to give away the Order of the Garter which, the Duke had worn, and he tried to hide the political vacancy by stepping into it himself, by presiding assiduously at the Council,. and by requiring each Minister to report direct to him on the- work entrusted to his charge. Had he been a Louis XIV., this- might have succeeded, but, as history has declared, he had no- capacity for government, no moral sympathy with his subjects, and no tact to observe when resolution would degenerate into obstinacy and provoke resentment. Had he inherited the strong, open-handed art of rule proper to a Tudor, he might have cut the troublesome- knot of tonnage and poundage without injury to himself ; Eliot and others might have been swept away with unsparing hand, and the Commons mollified by an active and vigorous foreign policy, but pride and vacillation occupied the place of the requisite kingly qualities, and when the storm appeared on the political horizon, he
could only be swept, still resisting, before it. Andyet notwithstand- ing all this, his personal management, ably assisted by Weston, was full of promise. Finding it unwise to allow the debates to proceed without a word from himself, he summoned the Houses to Whitehall, and assured them he had had no intention
* A History oflenitland, from he ssassination of he Duke of Buckingham to the Declaration of t 'ayes fon Ito London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Ship-Money. 7 By Samuel Baweon Gardiner. 1 vols. of levying duties by his hereditary prerogative. "It ever was," he declared distinctly, "and still is my meaning, by the gift of my people to enjoy it ; and my intention in my speech at the end of the last session was not to challenge tonnage and poundage of right, but for expedience de bens esse, showing you the neces- sity, not the right by which I was to take it until you had granted it unto me, assuring myself, according to your general profession, that you wanted time, and not good-will, to give it me." This speech made a most favourable impression and it was interrupted repeatedly by sounds of applause. The impression, however, was not of long duration, nor was it deep enough to obliterate the errors of the last four years. There being no sympathy between Charles and his people, his good intentions were of small avail against the general discontent and insecurity, and in less than six weeks the session that opened so promisingly had abruptly closed.
It is hazardous to question the accuracy of any statement by Mr. Gardiner on an occurrence of this period, but we are doubtful about the actual circumstances of the compositions for knight- hood in 1630. What had these fines to do with knighthood ? We are of opinion that the statute, which was revived by Weston to procure supplies for the King, required that at every coronation such subjects as were owners of an estate worth £40 a year should appear ad arma gerenda, not for the creation of knights ; and that if the persons so attending were not employed after waiting four days, they were at liberty to depart. But Mr. Gardiner says "No lawyer doubted that the King had the right to summon such of his subjects as were owners of an estate worth 140 a year to receive knighthood." Surely the King could summon a subject for this purpose at any time, without having recourse to an old statute, though the latter would be requisite in .claiming the fines for non-attendance at his coronation. Considering the position of affairs, this was not an unreasonable exaction, and although it may have been allowed to fall into abeyance, it was not on that account to be resisted or condemned, when an impoverished exchequer or the exercise of the Royal prerogative might require its revival. Funds were imperatively wanted, Parliament was not sitting—and even if it had been, it was nearly certain that no supplies would be voted unless grievances were first redressed—so it became necessary to look elsewhere for -contributions. In this dilemma, Weston's policy must not be lightly condemned, particularly as he was acting within the law and under support of the Judges, whilst the receipt-books of the Exchequer reveal the satisfactory results of this resuscitated measure.
We turn now to the foreign policy of Charles I., if indeed it deserves to be so called, for it really resolved itself into nothing but a fixed idea to get the Palatinate restored to his eider Elizabeth. This craving was in all respects personal, not national, and is consistent with the same unhappy trait that char- acterised his domestic policy. The broad, well-understood interests of England did not prompt the motive for that continual harping after the recovery of the Palatinate which made him almost the laughing-stock of Europe ; it was simply a conviction that haunted him that his own honour as King was being insulted by his brother-in-law's discomfiture, added to a natural diffi- culty of relinquishing any object on which he had set his affec- tions, however impracticable such an object might be. The Prince .of Orange remarked one day to Vane, "Whenever either the Upper or the Lower Palatinate is restored by treaty, I will give his Majesty my head, which I should be loath to lose," adding, by way of showing that he thought as little of the King's -capacity for war as for negotiation, "The Emperor is powerful and great, and to think of the recovery of the Palatinate by the sword may be as full of difficulty as by treaty." Charles's designs were too complicated and too transparent to prosper ; moreover, he was attempting to stand well with the House of Austria and its enemies at the same time. Neither the King of Spain nor the Emperor would act in accordance with his wishes, for they knew very well that from him they had nothing to fear -or to hope ; he had so little to give in return for what he demanded, that his negotiations were allowed to run their course unchecked, as harmless and immaterial.
Where the details of nine years' domestic and foreign progress -are given with such fulness as in these volumes, and the events so interwoven with and dependent on one another, it is not easy to single out any particular matter for review in a short ' -article like this. What gives value to Mr. Gardiner's work is not so much the revelation of some new or startling information, as the microscopic clearness with which the little causes and effects -that helped to make up the whole fabric are laid bare. The revolution that sent the King to his violent death was not of rapid
growth or sudden development. The seed had been sown long before, but the events of these nine years' personal government did everything to ripen it. Taxation in various shapes, tonnage and poundage) ship-money, ecclesiastical controversy, Wentworth's rule in Ireland, and the constant friction between sovereign and subject, embrace and include most of the history Mr. Gardiner has so thoroughly amplified.
In these days of Ritualistic warfare, it is curious to find that two and a half centuries ago there were the same con- tentions about vestments, bowing, and turning to the East. Durham Cathedral was the principal scene of religious strife, and there the services had become for the most part what theyare in the nineteenth century. Peter Smart, one of the prebendaries, led the attack against the innovations, and charged his colleagues with bringing in altars instead of tables, priests instead of ministers, propitiatory sacrifices instead of sacraments, and with being bent on introducing Mass into the midst of an English congregation. During the summer of 1628, he indicted the chief prebendaries for their conduct relating to the communion- table, standing at the Nicene Creed, and other ceremonies of the Church, the fact being that the communion-table was per- manently fixed at the east instead of temporarily resting, as before, at the north end of the church ; and a new one (the present one) of stone, supported on marble pillars, was substituted for that which had been removed, more muaio was introduced into the service, and two large candlesticks were placed upon the communion-table. Whitelocke, the Judge who heard the case, was conducted over the cathedral, saw nothing objectionable in the conduct of the service, and refused Smart's application, the matter ending by his prebend being sequestered by the Dean and Chapter for an offence "against good manners, Christian charity, and the statutes of the Church of Durham." The same year is memorable for the commence- ment of an attack upon the Bishops by Alexander Leighton, who was "right down for extirpation of the prelates, with all their dependencies and supporters." His book, entitled, An Appeal to Parliament ; or, Sion's Plea against Prelacy, was a scurrilous work, in which he spoke of the Bishops as "men of blood" persecuting the saints, "knobs and wens and bunchy popish flesh," declaring they were the "trumpery of Antichrist," by whom the land was filled with swearing, drunkenness, pride, idleness, and all kinds of sin, the book being, as Mr. Gardiner describes it, not only an ecclesiastical manifesto, but "an appeal to political Presby- terianism to take the sword in hand." Buckingham is spoken of as that great Goliath who had been made to fall unexpectedly by the Lord of Hosts, and the queen is styled a daughter of Heth. A severe sentence was imposed on Leighton for writing such a work ; he was degraded by the High Commission and his clerical dress stripped from his back ; he escaped from prison, was recap- tured, underwent part of his cruel sentence with a martyr's courage and a boaster's blasphemy, and finally endured many years of misery in prison.
These volumes will certainly remain for some time to come the standard history of the period of which they treat. For grasp of situation and desire to set everything in its proper light, for perception of motives and the wise use of evidence, for accuracy, honesty, and exhaustive treatment, Mr. Gardiner stands alone and needs no praise from us. From the first he has refused to be guided by the sympathetic statements of thoso historians who wrote nearest to the times, and whose habit it was never to allow that there could be two sides to a story ; he has preferred to choose for himself among official records or authenticated documents, and so to create an entirely new history of his own. By working thus, by discarding the traditionary impressions of modern times, and carrying himself back body and soul to the days of which he is writing, he has endeavoured to look upon the actors as though he were actually among them, and by his knowledge of the aims of each and all to judge impartially of their actions. His method of dealing with various simultaneous events so as to illustrate their bearings and influence on one another is an excellent, but by no means general feature in English history ; by its means many a void is filled up, and many a link formed between events that have hitherto been kept apart. His char- acters are drawn with his usual skill, and it is impossible to read and not feel the truth that stamps the lineaments of his portraits. The gentle poetry of George Herbert and his quiet life at Bemerton, the fiery and patriotic Eliot, the unscrupulous and indomitable Prynne, the unobtrusive devotion of Ferrar in the seclusion of Little Gidding, no less than the frequent and ever- contrasting touches in his portraits of the King and Cromwell,
-conjure up pictures that shape themselves in the memory with clear and lasting outline. Whether he sometimes suggests a higher purpose than can be borne out by evidence, or whether from dearth of material he is unable to produce authority for a particular statement in its entirety, the reader may be safe in accepting his version as the best procurable, after much research, honest thought, and deliberate judgment.
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