James, the son of queen Mary and lord Darnley, the handsomest couple of their age, was homely in his person and ungainly in his manners. lie possessed learn ing, and sonic ingenuity of speculation in moral and general subjects, but neither his judgment nor morals were of a high cast. ‘Vithout the dignified reserve which should accompany a proud king, or the art of condescension which makes affability popular, he blend ed a vulgar stateliness and a familiarity, so incongruous ly together, that during his whole reign he reminds us more of some mock king in a farce, than of a real one on the theatre of history. Ills pretensions to arbitrary power, whilst he had not a regiment of guards to en force them, betray such ignorance of human nature, and so much of the vulgar and childish notion of kingly right, that they lose all resemblance to lofty and impos ing ambition.
The colonization of North America, is the most me morable circumstance in the history of James's reign. Elizabeth had done little more than given a name to Virginia:, the feeble colony which she planted was aban doned entirely. Even after Argal had discovered a more direct Crack to that continent, and after a new co lony had been settled in James's reign, there were not alive more than 400 colonists in 1614. But by the cul ture of tobacco they soon acquired wealth, and extend ed their numbers to other places.
Charles I. succeeded to the same favourite, the same ministers, and council, which his father had possessed, and unhappily inherited the same principles in govern ment. It was not improbable if James had lived, that Buckingham whose influence had for some time fasten ed rather on the weakness than on the affections of the old king, would have been dismissed ; hut his power was established by the ascension of Charles, at the time when his temporary popularity, obtained by the rupture with Spain, began to decline, or rather was changed into the most inveterate dislike on the part of the nation.
The marriage treaty with France had been concluded in James's lifetime. It was solemnized at Paris with great magnificence, where the Duke of Chevreuse per formed the part of proxy for the king of England. Buck ingham was sent over to France to conduct the queen home. She arrived at Dover on the 12th of June, and the marriage was consummated next day at Canterbury. On the 16th, their Majesties entered into London ; and the new parliament met next day. Charles inherited a scanty treasury and revenues, which had been inadequate even to support a peace establishment. The war, though produced by a freak of his own or of Buckingham's, had been sanctioned by the voice of the nation and of the parliament. The new parliament itself, chiefly com posed of Puritans, never pretended to advise pacific measures, and must have been conscious that the king could neither recede from war with honour, nor prose cute it with advantage, without their advice and assist ance. To support this war, for which the nation had clamoured for so many years, to enable Charles to wrest the Palatinate from the victorius Ferdinand and the mighty armies of Austria, and to cope with Spain, the richest monarchy in Europe, they gave to his earnest entreaties a supply of 112,000 pounds. The excuses
that have been alleged for this insulting parsimony, are the public hatred at Buckingham, and the discovery of the war having been produced by the artifices of that favourite. This apology is insufficient : if the war was found impolitic or unnecessary, the commons should have openly told the king to abandon it. If it was neces sary, they ought not to have avenged themselves for a lesser grievance, by inflicting upon the nation a greater.
Charles was obliged, by reason of the plague, to ad journ the parliament for a few weeks in the summer, but he re-assembled them at Oxford, and implored them to assist his necessities. Besides his German warfare, lie had a subsidy to pay to his ally the king of Denmark ; and, independent of debts contracted by himself and his father, the expenses of the including tile defence of Ireland, amounted annually to a million and one hun dred thousand pounds. Though a fleet and army were lying at Portsmouth in want of pay and provisions, the commons refused further aid. James had belore his death, promised to lend the king of France one ship of war and seven armed vessels. They were borrowed on pretence of being employed against the Genoese, who, as the allies of Spain, were sufficiently odious to the English to make such an use of them popular. Louis afterwards persuaded Charles to be allowed to employ them as lie pleased, and they were sent under vice-ad miral Pennington to Dieppe, to assist against the Hu gonots. Pennington being himself unwilling for the service, gave way to the resolution of his crews not to serve against Protestants. On returning to time Downs. he was persuaded again to sail for France, on pretence that the French king had made peace with the Hugo nets ; but the fleet finding themselves deceived, deserted him. When the news reached the commons at Oxford, they applauded the conduct of the sailors, forgetting that if they meant to be at war with Spain, they were fight ing the battles of that power, by assisting the Hugopots: who were in secret alliance with his Catholic majesty. They renewed their clamours against popery, demanded the punishment of Catholics for asserhbling to celebrate the rites of their religion, and remonstrated against some pardons lately granted to priests, who had been convict ed of that offence. They also enacted laws for the stricter observance of the Sabbath, (as it was now puri tanically called,) and petitioned the king for replacing such able clergymen as had been silenced for want of conformity to the church. The king availed himself of the appearance of the plague at Oxford, to dismiss a parliament, who gave him nothing but complaints, and by dissolving, instead of proroguing them, he marked his displeasure at their conduct.