fterwards that they flourished
in all the perfection of their handicraft, and have contrived that these
monuments of art shall carry down to posterity the _memory of their_
SHAME _and of their age_. These image-breakers, so famous in our
history, had already appeared under Henry the Eighth, and continued
their practical zeal, in spite of proclamations and remonstrances, till
they had accomplished their work. In 1641 an order was published by the
Commons, that they should "take away all scandalous pictures out of
churches:" but more was intended than was expressed; and we are told
that the people did not at first carry their barbarous practice against
all Art to the lengths which they afterwards did, till they were
instructed by _private information!_ Dowsing's Journal has been
published, and shows what the _order_ meant! He was their giant
destroyer! Such are the Machiavelian secrets of revolutionary
governments; they give a _public_ order in moderate _words_, but the
_secret_ one, for the _deeds_, is that of extermination! It was this
sort of men who discharged their prisoners by giving a secret sign to
lead them to their execution!

The proclamations of James the First, by their number, are said to have
sunk their value with the people.[248] He was fond of giving them gentle
advice; and it is said by Wilson that there was an intention to have
this king's printed proclamations bound up in a volume, that better
notice might be taken of the matters contained in them. There is more
than one to warn the people against "speaking too freely of matters
above their reach," prohibiting all "undutiful speeches." I suspect that
many of these proclamations are the composition of the king's own hand;
he was often his own secretary. There is an admirable one against
private duels and challenges. The curious one respecting Cowell's
"Interpreter" is a sort of royal review of some of the arcana of state:
I refer to the quotation.[249]

I will preserve a passage of a proclamation "against excess of lavish
and licentious speech." James was a king of words!

"Although the commixture of nations, confluence of ambassadors, and
the relation which the affairs of our kingdoms have had towards the
business and interests of foreign states have caused, during our
regiment (government) a greater openness and liberty of discourse,
even concerning MATTERS OF STATE (which are _no themes or subjects
fit for vulgar persons or commo