itic's own memory stand
much higher? Was he not the King's evil genius, who, together
with the Queen, pushed him to that fatal step--the arrest of the
five members?

How soon Parliament acquired the evil habit of dealing by fire
and the hangman with uncongenial publications is proved by the
fact that in one year alone the following five leaflets or
pamphlets suffered in this way:--

1. _The Kentish Petition_, drawn up at the Maidstone Assizes by
the gentry, ministry, and commonalty of Kent, praying for the
preservation of episcopal government, and the settlement of
religious differences by a synod of the clergy (April 17th,
1642). The petition was couched in very strong language; and
Professor Gardiner is probably right in saying that it was the
condemnation of this famous petition which rendered civil war
inevitable.

2. _A True Relation of the Proceedings of the Scots and English
Forces in the North of Ireland._ This was thought to be
dishonouring to the Scots, and was accordingly ordered to be
burnt (June 8th, 1642).

3. _King James: his Judgment of a King and a Tyrant_ (September
12th, 1642).

4. _A Speedy Post from Heaven to the King of England_ (October
5th, 1642).

5. _Letter from Lord Falkland_ to the Earl of Cumberland,
concerning the action at Worcester (October 8th, 1642).

Thus did Parliament, and the House of Commons especially, improve
upon the precedent first set by the Star Chamber; and the
practice must soon have somewhat lost its force by the very
frequency of its repetition. David Buchanan's _Truth's Manifest_,
containing an account of the conduct of the Scotch nation in the
Civil War, was condemned to be burnt by the hangman (April 13th,
1646), but may still be read. _An Unhappy Game at Scotch and
English_, pamphlets like the _Mercurius Elenchicus_ and
_Mercurius Pragmaticus_, the _Justiciarius Justificatus_, by
George Wither, perished about the same time in the same way; and
in 1648 such profane Royalist political squibs as _The
Parliament's Ten Commandments_; _The Parliament's Pater Noster,
and Articles of the Faith_; and _Ecce the New Testament of our
Lords and Saviours, the House of Commons at Westminster, or the
Supreme Council at Windsor_, were, for special indignity,
condemned to be burnt in the three most public places of London.

The observance of Sunday has always been a fruitful source of
contention, and in 1649 the chief magistrates in England and
Wales were ordered by the