rta."

They resolutely and calmly faced their King, the "Petition" in one
hand, the {107} granted subsidies in the other. For a while he defied
them; but the judges were whispering in his ear that the "Petition"
would not be binding upon him, and Buckingham was urging him to yield.
Perhaps it was Charles Stuart the gentleman who hesitated to receive
money in return for solemn promises which he did not intend to keep!
But Charles the King signed the paper, which seven judges out of
twelve, in the highest court of the realm, were going to pronounce
invalid because the King's power was beyond the reach of Parliament.
It was inherent in him as King, and bestowed by God. _Any infringement
upon his prerogative by Act of Parliament was void_!

With king so false, and with justice so polluted at its fountain, what
hope was there for the people but in Revolution?

From the tyranny of the Church under Laud, a way was opened when, in
1629, Charles granted a Charter to the Colony of Massachusetts. With a
quiet, stern enthusiasm the hearts of men turned toward that refuge in
America. Not men of broken fortunes, adventurers, and criminals, but
{108} owners of large landed estates, professional men, some of the
best in the land, who abandoned home and comfort to face intolerable
hardships. One wrote, "We are weaned from the delicate milk of our
Mother England and do not mind these trials." As the pressure
increased under Laud, the stream toward the West increased in volume;
so that in ten years 20,000 Englishmen had sought religious freedom
across the sea, and had founded a Colony which, strange to say,--under
the influence of an intense religious sentiment,--became itself a
Theocracy and a new tyranny, although one sternly just and pure.

The dissolute, worthless Buckingham had been assassinated, and Charles
had wept passionate tears over his dead body. But his place had been
filled by one far better suited to the King's needs at a time when he
had determined not again to recall Parliament, but to rule without it
until resistance to his measures had ceased.

It was with no sinister purpose of establishing a despotism such as a
stronger man might have harbored, that he made this {109} resolve.
What Charles wanted was simply the means of filling his exchequer; and
if Parliament would not give him that except by a dicker for reforms,
and humiliating pledges which he could not keep, why then he would find
new ways of raising