ames' Park. It was a
bitterly cold morning. Evelyn records that the Thames was frozen over.
The season was so sharp that the King asked to have a shirt more than
ordinary when he carefully dressed himself. He left St. James' at ten
o'clock. He remained in his chamber at Whitehall for about three hours
in prayer, and then received the sacrament. He was pressed to dine, but
refused, taking a piece of bread and a glass of wine. His purposed
address to the people was delivered only to the hearing of those upon
the scaffold, but its purport was that the people "mistook the nature of
government; for people are free under a government, not by being sharers
in it, but by due administration of the laws of it." His theory of
government was a consistent one. He had the misfortune not to understand
that the time had been fast passing away for its assertion. The headsman
did his office; and a deep groan went up from the surrounding multitude.

It is scarcely necessary that we should offer any opinion upon this
tremendous event. The world had never before seen an act so daring
conducted with such a calm determination; and the few moderate men of
that time balanced the illegality and also the impolicy of the execution
of Charles, by the fact that "it was not done in a corner," and that
those who directed or sanctioned the act offered no apology, but
maintained its absolute necessity and justice. "That horrible sentence
upon the most innocent person in the world; the execution of that
sentence by the most execrable murder that was ever committed since that
of our blessed Saviour," forms the text which Clarendon gave for the
rhapsodies of party during two centuries. On the other hand, the
eloquent address of Milton to the people of England has been in the
hearts and mouths of many who have known that the establishment of the
liberties of their country, duly subordinated by the laws of a free
monarchy, may be dated from this event: "God has endued you with
greatness of mind to be the first of mankind, who, after having
conquered their own king, and having had him delivered into their hands,
have not scrupled to condemn him judicially, and, pursuant to that
sentence of condemnation, to put him to death."

In these times in England, when the welfare of the throne and the people
are identical, we can, on the one hand, afford to refuse our assent to
the blasphemous comparison of Clarendon--blasphemy more offensively
repeated in the church s