om must be a blank for all private
affection; and had that lesson been taught, the character of Charles was
destitute of all aptitude for it. To reign without a refractory
parliament, and to find among the people themselves subjects more loyal
than their representatives, was an experiment--and a fatal one! Under
Charles, the liberty of the subject, when the necessities of the state
pressed on the sovereign, was matter of discussion, disputed as often as
assumed; the divines were proclaiming as rebellious those who refused
their contributions to aid the government;[299] and the law-sages
alleged precedents for raising supplies in the manner which Charles had
adopted. Selden, whose learned industry was as vast as the amplitude of
his mind, had to seek for the freedom of the subject in the dust of the
records of the Tower--and the omnipotence of parliaments, if any human
assembly may be invested with such supernatural greatness, had not yet
awakened the hoar antiquity of popular liberty.

A general spirit of insurrection, rather than insurrection itself, had
suddenly raised some strange appearances through the kingdom. "The
remonstrance" of parliament had unquestionably quickened the feelings of
the people; but yet the lovers of peace and the reverencers of royalty
were not a few; money and men were procured to send out the army and the
fleet. More concealed causes may be suspected to have been at work. Many
of the heads of the opposition were pursuing some secret machinations;
about this time I find many mysterious stories--indications of secret
societies--and other evidences of the intrigues of the popular party.

Little matters, sometimes more important than they appear, are suitable
to our minute sort of history. In November, 1626, a rumour spread that
the king was to be visited by an ambassador from "the President of the
Society of the Rosycross." He was indeed an heteroclite ambassador, for
he is described "as a youth with never a hair on his face;" in fact, a
child who was to conceal the mysterious personage which he was for a
moment to represent. He appointed Sunday afternoon to come to court,
attended by thirteen coaches. He was to proffer to his majesty, provided
the king accepted his advice, three millions to put into his coffers;
and by his secret councils he was to unfold matters of moment and
secrecy. A Latin letter was delivered to "David Ramsey of the clock," to
hand over to the king: a copy of it has been