Part 2

The King came to London on Thursday evening, the 10th of this month, and made all preparations for opening Parliament on Tuesday, the 15th. This would have taken place had not a most grave and important event upset the arrangement. About six months ago a gentleman, named Thomas Percy, relation of the Earl of Northumberland and pensioner of the King, hired, by means of a trusty servant, some wine cellars under the place where Parliament meets, and stored in them some barrels of beer, the usual drink of this country, as well as wood and coal. He said he meant to open a tavern for the use of servants who attended their masters to Parliament. But among this beer, wood, and coals he introduced thirty-three barrels of gunpowder, besides four tuns, the size of Cretan hogsheads, intending to make use of it at the right moment. About two months ago Lord Salisbury received anonymous letters from France, warning him to be on his guard, for a great conspiracy was being hatched by priests and Jesuits; but, as similar information had been sent about a year ago by the English lieger in France, no great attention was paid to these letters, and they were attributed to the empty-headed vanity of persons who wished to seem more conversant with affairs than became them. Finally, on Monday last, a letter was brought by an unknown person, for it was dark, about two o'clock of the night, to a servant of Lord Monteagle, who was standing at the door. The unknown said, "Please give this to your master: and tell him to reply at once, as I will come back in half an hour for the answer to carry to my master." The servant took the letter, and went upstairs and gave it to his master, who opened it and found it was anonymous, nor did he recognize the hand. The substance of the letter was this, that the writer, in return for the favours received at various times from Lord Monteagle, had resolved to warn him by letter that he should on no account attend Parliament the following morning, as he valued his life, for the good party in England had resolved to execute the will of God, which was to punish the King ... and the Ministers for their bitter persecution employed against the poor [Catholics] ... in such brief space ... he could burn the letter, which he earnestly begged him to do. Lord Monteagle read the letter, and in great astonishment took it to the Earl of Salisbury, who at once carried it to the King, and under various pretexts ordered a search of all the neighbouring houses to see if arms or anything of that sort, which might furnish a clue, were hidden there. Meantime the King read the letter, and in terrified amaze he said, "I remember that my father died by gunpowder. I see the letter says the blow is to be struck on a sudden. Search the basements of the meeting-place." The Chamberlain, with three or four attendants, went straightway to carry out this order. First he inquired who had hired the basements; then he caused the door to be opened and went in. He saw nothing but beer barrels, faggots and coal. Meantime, those who had searched the neighbouring houses came back and reported that they had found nothing of any importance, and when the Chamberlain returned and reported that he, too, had seen nothing but the barrels, faggots and coal this increased the alarm and suspicions of the King, who said, "I don't like these faggots and coal. Go back and shift all the wood and all the coal and see what is underneath, and use all diligence to come to certainty in the matter." The Chamberlain went back, and after shifting the wood he found underneath some barrels of powder, and after shifting the coal he found more barrels. In confusion he returned to the King and told him; and orders were at once given to a certain knight to take a company with him and to set sentinels in various posts to watch who approached the door of the cellars. About two in the morning they saw a man approaching with a dark lantern, but not so well closed as to hide the light completely. The guards cunningly drew back and left him free passage to the cellars, the door of which had been securely fastened as it was at first. The man went in, laid a train of powder and fitted a slow match; the powder and the tinder reached the powder barrels. His intention was to fire the train in the morning. When he had finished his business, as he was coming out, he was surprised by the guard, who asked what [he was doing] at that hour at that place. [He replied] that he had come there, as he had a fancy to see his property. They saw a bag in his hand, and found in it little bits of slow match, and when they turned on the light they saw the train of powder. Thereupon they bound him and took him to the Palace, where some of the Council were awake, waiting the issue of this affair. The man was brought into their presence, and at once confessed that he was servant to Thomas Percy, who had left the evening before, he knew not where for, and was quite ignorant of these facts. He further confessed that it was his firm resolve to have set fire to the mine that morning while the King, Queen, Princes, Clergy, Nobility, and Judges were met in Parliament, and thus to purge the kingdom of perfidious heresies. His only regret was that the discovery of the plot had frustrated its due execution, though it was certain that God would not for long endure such injustice and iniquity. The rest in my next despatch.

ARGUMENTS IN BATES' CASE (1606).

ARGUMENT OF CHIEF BARON FLEMING.

=Source.=--_State Trials._ Vol. ii., p. 389.

To the king is committed the government of the realm and his people; and Bracton saith, that for his discharge of his office, God had given to him power, the act of government, and the power to govern. The king's power is double, ordinary and absolute, and they have several laws and ends. That of the ordinary is for the profit of particular subjects, for the execution of civil justice, the determining of _meum_; and this is exercised by equity and justice in ordinary courts, and by the civilians is nominated _jus privatum_ and with us, common law: and these laws cannot be changed, without parliament; and although that their form and course may be changed, and interrupted, yet they can never be changed in substance. The absolute power of the king is not that which is converted or executed to private use, to the benefit of any particular person, but is only that which is applied to the general benefit of the people, and is _salus populi_; as the people is the body, and the king the head; and this power is guided by the rules, which direct only at the common law, and is most properly named Policy and Government; and as the constitution of this body varieth with the time, so varieth this absolute law, according to the wisdom of the king, for the common good; and these being general rules and true as they are, all things done within these rules are lawful. The matter in question is material matter of state, and ought to be ruled by the rules of policy; and if it be so, the king hath done well to execute his extraordinary power. All customs, be they old or new, are no other but the effects and issues of trades and commerce with foreign nations; but all commerce and affairs with foreigners, all wars and peace, all acceptance and admitting for current foreign coin, all parties and treaties whatsoever, are made by the absolute power of the king; and he who hath power of causes, hath power also of effects. No exportation or importation can be, but at the king's ports. They are the gates of the king, and he hath absolute power by them to include or exclude whom he shall please; and ports to merchants are their harbours, and repose; and for their better security he is compelled to provide bulwarks and fortresses, and to maintain, for the collection of his customs and duties, collectors and customers; and for that charge it is reason, that he should have this benefit. He is also to defend the merchants from pirates at sea in their passage. Also, by the power of the king they are to be relieved, if they are oppressed by foreign princes, for they shall have his treaty, and embassage; and if he be not remedied thereby, then _lex talionis_ shall be executed, goods for goods, and tax for tax; and if this will not redress the matter, then war is to be attempted for the cause of merchants. In all the king's courts, and of other princes, the judges in them are paid by the king, and maintained by him to do justice to the subjects, and therefore he hath the profits of the said courts. It is reasonable that the king should have as much power over foreigners and their goods, as over his own subjects; and if the king cannot impose upon foreign commodities a custom, as well as foreigners may upon their own commodities, and upon the commodities of this land when they come to them, then foreign states shall be enriched and the king impoverished, and he shall not have equal profit with them; and yet it will not be denied, but his power herein is equal with other states.

MR. YELVERTON'S ARGUMENT.

=Source.=--_State Trials._ Vol. ii., p. 482.

For the first, it will be admitted for a rule and ground of state, that in every commonwealth and government there be some rights of sovereignty, _jura majestatis_, which regularly and of common right do belong to the sovereign power of that state; unless custom, or the provisional ordinance of that state, do otherwise dispose of them: which sovereign power is _potestas suprema_ a power that can control all other powers, and cannot be controlled but of itself. It will not be denied, that the power of imposing hath so great a trust in it, by reason of the mischiefs may grow to the common-wealth by the abuses of it, that it hath ever been ranked among those rights of sovereign power. Then is there no further question to be made, but to examine where the sovereign power is in this kingdom; for there is the right of imposition. The sovereign power is agreed to be in the king: but in the king is a twofold power; the one is parliament, as he is assisted with the consent of the whole state; the other out of parliament, as he is sole, and singular, guided merely by his own will. And if of these two powers in the king one is greater than the other, and can direct and control the other; that is _suprema potestas_, the sovereign power, and the other is _subordinata_. It will then be easily proved, that the power of the king in parliament is greater than his power out of parliament; and doth rule and control it; for if the king make a grant by his letters patents out of parliament, it bindeth him and his successors: he cannot revoke it, nor any of his successors; but by his power in parliament he may defeat and avoid it; and therefore that is the greater power.

THE ULSTER PLANTATION (1609).

=Source.=--_State Papers; Ireland, 1608-1610._ No. 455.

_Lords of the Council to Sir Arthur Chichester._

The City of London being willing to undertake such a part as might befit them in the project of the Plantation of Ulster, and to be a means to reduce that savage and rebellious people to civility, peace, religion, and obedience, and having commissioned the bearers John Brode Goldsmill, John Monroes, Robert Treswell, painter, and John Rowley, draper, to view of the country, and make report on their return, Sir Arthur Chichester is to direct a supply of all necessaries in their travel into those countries, and to aid them in every way. And they (the Lords) have directed Sir Thomas Philips to accompany them, whose knowledge and residence in those parts and good affection to the cause in general, they assure themselves will be of great use at this time; seeing there is no man that intendeth any plantation or habitation in Ulster that ought not to be most desirous of such neighbours as will bring trade and traffic into the ports.

RELIGION IN RURAL ENGLAND (_circa_ 1615).

=Source.=--_The Life of the Rev. Mr. Richard Baxter._ Ed. M. Sylvester, 1790. Pp. 1, 2.

_Eaton Constantine, near Wrekin Hill._

We lived in a country that had but little preaching at all. In the village where I was born there were four readers successively in six years' time, ignorant men and two of them immoral in their lives, who were all my schoolmasters. In the village where my father lived, there was a reader of about eighty years of age that never preached and had two churches about twenty miles distant; his eyesight failing him he said Common prayer without book, but for the reading of the psalms and chapters he got a common thresher and day labourer one year, and a tailor another year (for the Clerk could not read well). And at last he had a kinsman of his own (the excellentest stage player in all the country and a good gamester and good fellow) that got orders and supplied one of his places. After him, another younger kinsman that could write and read got orders. And at the same time another neighbour's son that had been a while at school turned minister, and who would needs go further than the rest, ventured to preach (and after got a living in Staffordshire), and when he had been a preacher about twelve or sixteen years, he was fain to give over, it being discovered that his orders were forged by the first ingenious stage player. And after him another neighbour's son took orders, when he had been a while an attorney's clerk and a common drunkard and tippled himself into so great poverty that he had no other way to live. These were the schoolmasters of my youth (except two of them) who read Common prayer on Sundays and holidays and taught school and tippled on the weekdays and whipped the boys when they were drunk, so that we changed them very often....

In the village where I lived the reader read the Common prayer briefly, and the rest of the day even till dark night almost, excepting eating time, was spent in dancing under a maypole and a great tree, not far from my father's door, where all the town did meet together. And though one of my father's own tenants was the piper, he could not restrain him nor break the sport, so that we could not read the Scriptures in our family without the great disturbance of the tabor and pipe and noise in the street. Many times my mind was inclined to be among them and sometimes I broke loose from conscience and joined with them, and the more I did it the more I was inclined to it. But when I heard them call my father Puritan, it did much to cure me and alienate me from them, for I considered that my father's exercise of reading the Scriptures was better than theirs and would surely be better thought on by all men at the last. When I heard them speak scornfully of others as Puritans whom I never knew, I was at first apt to believe all the lies and slanders wherewith they loaded them. But when I heard my own Father so reproached and perceived the drunkards were the forwardest in the reproach, I perceived that it was mere malice. For my Father never scrupled Common prayer or Ceremonies, nor spake against Bishops, nor ever so much as prayed but by a book or form, being not ever acquainted then with any that did otherwise. But only for reading Scriptures when the rest were dancing on the Lord's Day, and for praying (by a form out of the end of the Common prayer Book) in his house, and for reproving drunkards and swearers, and for talking sometimes a few words of Scripture and the Life to come, he was reviled commonly by the name of Puritan, Precisian, and Hypocrite, and so were the godly conformable ministers that lived anywhere in the country near us, not only by our neighbours, but by the common talk of the vulgar rabble of all about us. By this experience I was fully convinced that Godly People were the best, those that despised them and lived in sin and pleasure were a malignant unhappy sort of people; and this kept me out of their Company, except now and then when the love of sports and play enticed me.

THE DECLARATION OF SPORTS (1618).

=Source.=--_Harleian Miscellany._ Vol. v., p. 75.

Whereas, upon our return the last year out of Scotland, we did publish our pleasure, touching the recreations of our people in those parts, under our hand; for some causes us thereunto moving, we have thought good to command these our directions, then given in Lancashire (with a few words thereunto added, and most applicable to these parts of our realms), to be published to all our subjects.

Whereas we did justly, in our progress through Lancashire, rebuke some Puritans and precise people, and took order, that the like unlawful carriage should not be used by any of them hereafter, in the prohibiting and unlawful punishing of our good people, for using their lawful recreations and honest exercises, upon Sundays and other holidays, after the afternoon sermon or service: we now find, that two sorts of people, wherewith that country is much infected (we mean Papists and Puritans) have maliciously traduced and calumniated those our just and honourable proceedings: and therefore, lest our reputation might, upon the one side (though innocently), have some aspersion laid upon it; and upon the other part, our good people in that country be misled, by the mistaking and misinterpretation of our meaning; we have therefore thought good, hereby to clear and make our pleasure to be manifested to all our good people in those parts.

It is true, that at our first entry to this crown and kingdom, we were informed (and that too truly) that our county of Lancashire abounded more in popish recusants, than any county of England, and thus hath still continued since, to our great regret, with little amendment; save that now of late, in our last riding through our said country, we find, both by the report of the judges, and of the bishops of that diocese, that there is some amendment now daily beginning; which is no small contentment to us.

The report of this growing amendment amongst them made us the more sorry, when, with our own ears, we heard the general complaint of our people, "That they were barred from all lawful recreation and exercise upon the Sunday's afternoon, after the ending of all divine service"; which cannot but produce two evils: the one, the hindering of the conversion of many, whom their priests will take occasion hereby to vex; persuading them, that no honest mirth or recreation is lawful, or tolerable, in our religion; which cannot but breed a great discontentment in our people's hearts, especially of such as are, peradventure, upon the point of turning. The other inconvenience is, that this prohibition barreth the common and meaner sort of people from using such exercises, as may make them bodies more able for war, when we, or our successors shall have occasion to use them; and, in place thereof, sets up filthy tipplings and drunkenness, and breeds a number of idle and discontented speeches in their alehouses: for when shall the common people have leave to exercise, if not upon the Sundays and holidays? Seeing they must apply their labour, and win their living in all working-days.

Our express pleasure therefore is, that the laws of our kingdom, and canons of our church, be as well observed in that county, as in all other places of this our kingdom; and, on the other part, that no lawful recreation shall be barred to our good people, which shall not tend to the breach of our aforesaid laws, and canons of our church: which to express more particularly, our pleasure is, that the bishops, and all other inferior churchmen, and churchwardens shall, for their parts, be careful and diligent, both to instruct the ignorant, and convince and reform them that are misled in religion; presenting them that will not conform themselves, but obstinately stand out, to our judges and justices; whom we likewise command to put the law in due execution against them.

Our pleasure likewise is, that the bishop of that diocese take the like strait order with all the Puritans and Precisians within the same; either constraining them to conform themselves, or to leave the county, according to the laws of our kingdom, and canons of our church; and so to strike equally, on both hands, against the contemners of our authority, and adversaries of our church. And as for our good people's lawful recreation, our pleasure likewise is, that after the end of divine service, our good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged, from any lawful recreation, such as dancing, either men or women; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any such harmless recreation; nor from having of May-games, Whitson-ales, and Morrice-dances; and the setting up of May-poles, and other sports therewith used, so as the same be had in due and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of divine service; and that women shall have leave to carry rushes to the church, for the decoring of it, according to their old custom. But, withal, we do here account still as prohibited, all unlawful games to be used upon Sundays only; as bear and bull baitings, interludes, and, at all times, (in the meaner sort of people by law prohibited) bowling.

And likewise we bar, from this benefit and liberty, all such known Recusants, either men or women, as will abstain from coming to church or divine service; being therefore unworthy of any lawful recreation after the said service, that will not first come to the church and serve God: prohibiting, in like sort, the said recreations to any that, though conform in religion, are not present in the church, at the service of God, before their going to the said recreations. Our pleasure likewise is, that they to whom it belongeth in office, shall present, and sharply punish all such as, in abuse of this our liberty, will use these exercises before the ends of all divine services, for that day. And we likewise straitly command, that every person shall resort to his own parish-church to hear divine service, and each parish by itself to use the said recreation after divine service; prohibiting likewise any offensive weapons to be carried, or used in the said times of recreations.

THE POSITION OF THE JUDGES.

=Source.=--Bacon's _Essay of Judicature_.

Fourthly, for that which may concern the sovereign and estate. Judges ought above all to remember the conclusion of the Twelve Tables, "Salus populi suprema lex"; and to know that laws, except they be in order to that end, are but things captious, and oracles not well inspired. Therefore it is a happy thing in a state when kings and states do often consult with judges; and again when judges do often consult with the king and state; the one, when there is matter of law intervement in business of state; the other, when there is some consideration of state intervement in matter of law. For many times the things deduced to judgment may be _meum_ and _tuum_, when the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate: I call matter of estate, not only the parts of sovereignty, but whatsoever introduceth any great alteration or dangerous precedent; or concerneth manifestly any great portion of people. And let no man weakly conceive that just laws and true policy have any antipathy; for they are like the spirits and sinews, that one moves with the other. Let judges also remember, that Solomon's throne was supported by lions on both sides: let them be lions, but yet lions under the throne; being circumspect that they do not check or oppose any points of sovereignty. Let not judges also be so ignorant of their own right, as to think there is not left to them, as a principal part of their office, a wise use and application of laws. For they may remember what the Apostle said of a greater law than theirs, "nos scimus quia lex bona est, modo quis ea utatur legitime."

THE VOYAGE OF THE "MAYFLOWER" (1620).

=Source.=--Bradford, _History of Plymouth Plantation_. Chapter IX.