BUCKINGHAM'S FAULTS.

expedition, costing thousands of innocent lives, could

299

CHAP.
VIII.

1625.

not be explained away. Nor is Buckingham's a case in which further publicity than he was able to appeal Aug. 12. to would present his ability in a better light. For some time he had been occupied in undoing the results of his own mistakes. The engagement about the Catholics and the loan of the ships to the King of France had been mainly his doing. The manner in which he had extricated himself from those entanglements was not known to the House of Commons. But it is known to us; and we may be sure that if the Commons had known what we know they would have been even more indignant than they were. As it was, the general opinion of moderate Englishmen was probably well expressed by a foreign diplomatist who took but little interest in the Parliamentary conflict. Since he had come to England, he said, he had learned Rusdorf's opinion. the truth of two paradoxes. Under Jamés, he found that it was better to take a bad resolution than none at all; under Charles, that it was better to give effect to a bad resolution with prudence and ability, than to give effect to a good resolution without forethought and consideration.1

The attitude which Charles would take towards this declared want of confidence in his minister would evidently depend upon the amount of confidence which he himself continued to feel in him. And unfortunately there was no chance that his reliance. on Buckingham would be shaken. His own mind. had nothing originative about it. When once the brilliant schemes of Buckingham had dazzled his understanding, he adopted them as his own, and from that moment all chance of inducing him to abandon

1 Rusdorf to Camerarius, Sept. ; Consilia et Negotia, 69.

Attitude of the King.

CHAP.
VIII.

them was at an end. He had no power of stepping out of himself to see how his actions looked to other 1625. people, especially when, as was certain to be the case, the real objections to his policy were mixed up with offensive imputations which he knew to be unfounded in fact.

Aug. 12.

Conflict

between

Parlia

ment.

The difference of opinion between the King and Crown and the Parliament was thus reduced to a contest for power. The two great elements of the constitution which had worked harmoniously together were brought at last into open conflict. The right of enquiry before subsidies were voted would, if once it were admitted, place the destinies of England in the hands of the House from which subsidies proceeded. But it would be a mistake to suppose that either party in the quarrel were grasping at power for its own sake. Charles believed that he was defending a wise and energetic minister against factious opposition. The Commons believed that they were hindering a rash and self-seeking favourite from doing more injury than he had done already. If neither were completely in the right, the view taken by the Commons was far nearer to the truth than the view taken by Charles.

Conservatism of the House.

So far as the difference between the King and the House went beyond the mere question of confidence, the Commons stood upon a purely conservative ground. We look in vain amongst their leaders for any sign of openness to the reception of new ideas, or for any notion that the generation in which they lived was not to be as the generation which had preceded it. Their conception of the war was more suited to 1588 than to 1625, and the mazes of European politics formed for them a labyrinth without a thread. In all they had to say about the affairs of the Continent it is hard to find a single word which betrays any real know

CONSERVATISM OF THE COMMONS.

301

CHAP.
VIII.

1625.

ledge of the wants and difficulties of the Protestants of Germany. In home politics, too, their eyes were equally directed to the past. The form of religion Aug. 12. which had grown up under the influence of the Elizabethan struggle with Spain was to be stereotyped. Differences of opinion were to be prohibited, and the Calvinistic creed was to be imposed for ever upon the English nation.

But if the temper of the Commons was thus purely conservative, its conservatism was to some extent justified by the nature of the alternative offered to it. Charles's foreign policy was as ignorant as that of the Commons, and far more hazardous. Charles's ecclesiastical policy had hardly yet had time to develope itself. But signs were not wanting that it would be even more dangerous than that which was secure of the popular favour. If the Commons were ready to proscribe the religious opinions of the few, the men whom the King honoured with his preference were ready to proscribe the religious practices of the many.

THE CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE.

303

CHAP.

IX.

1625.

Aug.

with the

comes to

France which dashed to the ground the hopes which had been formed of the cessation of the civil war. There were many persons about the Court of Lewis who had no liking for Richelieu's policy of toleration. The peace The Prince of Condé, if report spoke truly, sent a hint Huguenots to Toiras, who commanded the French troops outside nothing. Rochelle, that the peace must in one way or another be made impossible. To carry such counsels into execution presented no difficulties to Toiras. The Rochellese, pleased with the news that peace had been made at Fontainebleau, pressed out without suspicion into the fields to gather in their harvest.

innocent reapers Toiras directed his cannon.

Upon the

Many of

them were slain, and Toiras then proceeded to set fire to the standing corn. Loud was the outcry of the Aug. 1o. indignant citizens within the walls. It was impossible, they said, to trust the King's word. The ratification of the treaty was refused, and it seemed as though the war must blaze up once more with all its horrors.1 t was not long before the burden of war fell upon ho were most innocent. The English ships were now the hands of the French admiral, and in a naval enrement which took place off Rochelle on September 5, Sept. 5. bise was entirely defeated, and driven to take an ominious refuge in an English port.

those

Defeat of
Soubise.

affected

ham.

uch a calamity could hardly have been foreseen How it
y one. But it was none the less disastrous to Bucking
Ingham's designs of conciliating the English
All the long intrigue carried on with the as-
f Nicholas was rendered useless. The English
in French hands, and they would doubtless
ainst Rochelle. What a handle this would
kingham's accusers it was easy to foresee.
bable that this misfortune was already

the Town of Rochelle, Aug. 10; Lorkin to Conway,