essage to Laud.--Composure of
Strafford.--His execution.--Execution of Laud.--His firmness.

The Parliament assembled in November, 1640. The king proceeded to
London to attend it. He left Strafford in command of the army at York.
Active hostilities had been suspended, as a sort of temporary truce
had been concluded with the Scots, to prepare the way for a final
treaty. Strafford had been entirely opposed to this, being still full
of energy and courage. The king, however, began to feel alarmed. He
went to London to meet the Parliament which he had summoned, but he
was prepared to meet them in a very different spirit from that which
he had manifested on former occasions. He even gave up all the
external circumstances of pomp and parade with which the opening of
Parliament had usually been attended. He had been accustomed to go to
the House of Lords in state, with a numerous retinue and great parade.
Now he was conveyed from his palace along the river in a barge, in a
quiet and unostentatious manner. His opening speech, too, was
moderate and conciliatory. In a word, it was pretty evident to the
Commons that the proud and haughty spirit of their royal master was
beginning to be pretty effectually humbled.

Of course, now, in proportion as the king should falter, the Commons
would grow bold. The House immediately began to attack Laud and
Strafford in their speeches. It is the theory of the British
Constitution that the king can do no wrong; whatever criminality at
any time attaches to the acts of his administration, belongs to his
_advisers_, not to himself. The speakers condemned, in most decided
terms, the arbitrary and tyrannical course which the government had
pursued during the intermission of Parliaments, but charged it all,
not to the king, but to Strafford and Laud. Strafford had been, as
they considered, the responsible person in civil and military affairs,
and Laud in those of the Church. These speeches were made to try the
temper of the House and of the country, and see whether there was
hostility enough to Laud and Strafford in the House and in the
country, and boldness enough in the expression of it, to warrant their
impeachment.

The attacks thus made in the House against the two ministers were
made very soon. Within a week after the opening of Parliament, one of
the members, after declaiming a long time against the encroachments
and tyranny of Archbishop Laud, whose title, according to English
usage, was