obliged to
make the choice of speaker fail on Lenthal, a lawyer of some character,
but not sufficiently qualified for so high and difficult an office.[*]

* Clarendon, vol. i. p. 169.

The eager expectations of men with regard to a parliament, summoned
at so critical a juncture, and during such general discontents; a
parliament which, from the situation of public affairs, could not be
abruptly dissolved, and which was to execute every thing left unfinished
by former parliaments; these motives, so important and interesting,
engaged the attendance of all the members; and the house of commons was
never observed to be from the beginning so full and numerous. Without
any interval, therefore, they entered upon business, and by unanimous
consent they immediately struck a blow which may in a manner be regarded
as decisive.

The earl of Strafford was considered as chief minister, both on account
of the credit which he possessed with his master, and of his own great
and uncommon vigor and capacity. By a concurrence of accidents, this man
labored under the severe hatred of all the three nations which composed
the British monarchy. The Scots, whose authority now ran extremely
high, looked on him as the capital enemy of their country and one whose
counsels and influence they had most reason to apprehend. He had engaged
the parliament of Ireland to advance large subsidies, in order to
support a war against them: he had levied an army of nine thousand men,
with which he had menaced all their western coast: he had obliged the
Scots who lived under his government, to renounce the Covenant, their
national idol: he had in Ireland proclaimed the Scottish Covenanters
rebels and traitors, even before the king had issued any such
declaration against them in England, and he had ever dissuaded his
master against the late treaty and suspension of arms, which he regarded
as dangerous and dishonorable. So avowed and violent were the Scots in
their resentment of all these measures, that they had refused to send
commissioners to treat at York, as was at first proposed; because, they
said, the lieutenant of Ireland, their capital enemy, being general of
the king's forces, had there the chief command and authority.

Strafford, first as deputy, then as lord lieutenant, had governed
Ireland during eight years with great vigilance, activity, and prudence,
but with very little popularity. In a nation so averse to the English
government and relig