dered off the Land's-end, by a vessel of Normandy, in which were an English captain and several Irish kernes. In 1567 Bishop Grindal writes to Cecil, asking him to obtain a licence to make a collection for the ransom of English captives in Algiers; in 1573 the earl of Worcester, going as ambassador to France, was plundered by pirates in mid channel, and, in the same year, William Holstock, the comptroller of the navy, was sent against them with a strong force. He captured 20 ships and 900 men, but it was necessary, only two years after, to send him again, with theDreadnought" and "Foresight," to repress the freebooters infesting the narrow seas. In 1576, three ships were sent on the same business, under Henry Palmer. It would seem, however, that the pirates, when taken, were far too leniently dealt with, as we have, in 1575, Dr. Lewes, the judge of the Admiralty Court, writing to Walsingham, to urge that some at least of the Frenchmen lately condemned for piracy must be executed. Thus matters seem to have continued during the whole of Elizabeth's reign, the mention of “pirates," "abettors of pirates," receivers of pirates' goods," &c. being of very frequent occurrence in state papers.

66

66

The truce concluded between the Spaniards and the Dutch by James I. in 1609 had the effect of greatly increasing the ravages of the pirates. Many of the Dutch and English seamen, unwilling to give up their lucrative habit of plundering the Spaniards, repaired to the West Indies, where they soon were known under the name of Buccaneers; and others went to the Barbary States, where they became renegades, and induced the "Turks," as they were called, to repair to the English and Irish seas, and even to venture into the Thames. Lithgow, a Scotchman, who visited Barbary in 1615, thus mentions the English renegades:

"Here in Tunis I met with our English captain, General Waird, once a great pirate and commander at sea, who, in despite of his denied acceptance in England, had turned Turk, and built there a fair palace, beautified with rich marble and alabaster stones; with whom I found domestic some fifteen circumcised English runagates, whose lives and countenances were both alike, even as desperate as disdainful. Yet old Waird, the master, was placable, and joined me safely with a passing landconduct to Algiers; yea, and divers times in my ten days' staying there, I dined and supped with him, but lay aboard in the French ship."

James' government was too weak to put down the pirates by force, and took, instead, the unwise course of offering bribes and pardons, which they very generally refused to accept. In 1612 we meet with a list of "pirate captains, over whom Peter Eston is general." Pardon was offered to them, on condition of their restor

ing some prizes taken, but they seem not to have accepted the terms; and the pardon was even offered a second time, with the like result. In consequence steps were taken to encourage the sea-ports to fit out expeditions against the pirates, by allowing them to retain for themselves any captures that they might make. A commission to this effect was granted to the city of Exeter, dated March 26, 1613, and no doubt to other ports; indeed, the same grant was made to private individuals, as to Nicholas Leate and John Dike, London merchants (March 24, 1616), and about this very time a pirate ship was captured between Margate and Broadstairs. At last, in 1620, the city of London contributed £40,000 and other places smaller sums, with which a fleet was fitted out, and attacks made on several of the pirates' strongholds, but nothing of consequence was effected, and they grew more daring than ever in their ravages. So urgent did the case become, that some vessels were detached from the fleet sent against Cadiz in 1625, to look after a "Turkish fleet" that was said to have captured Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel. This proved not to be the case, but in the following year a petition was presented to the king from 2000 women, who describe themselves as the wives of English slaves in Barbary. The unhappy quarrel between Charles and his parliament denied him the power of helping them, but it may well be believed that a wish to do so, had quite as much weight as indignation at the aggressions of the Dutch, in inducing the issuing of the ship-money writs.

The Dutch considered themselves abandoned, when James made peace with Spain, and they had long been the bitter enemies of their former allies. They strove to drive the English alike from the northern fisheries and the India trade, not hesitating at the most atrocious cruelties, as at Amboyna, to effect their purpose. They also set at nought the old doctrine of the supremacy of the King of England in the narrow seas (see A.D. 1320), fished without licence on the English coast, and even ventured to land, and march miles into the interior in pursuit of the crews of Spanish vessels. Such conduct was justly deemed intolerable by the King, but the Puritans, who had ever had republican leanings, were not moved by it, and as it did not seem advisable to summon a Parliament, in which it was known that they would be in the ascendant, the example of Queen Elizabeth was followed, and the first writ of ship-money was drawn up by Noy, the attorney-general, who had once been a Puritan himself.

The ancient precedents were most care fully followed, and the writ was addressed

only to maritime towns and counties. It was estimated to produce £100,000, and about that sum was gathered in, without any noticeable complaint. But it was soon seen that this sum would not suffice, and a new writ was then issued (Aug. 1635), which extended the tax to the inland shires and towns, on the plea that it was for a national purpose; and accordingly the building of several large ships was commenced, one of which was styled "The Sovereign of the Seas," and was long after known as the finest man-of-war of the age. But its name was taken as an offence by the Dutch and their Puritan sympathisers, who at once commenced a fierce clamour against the tax, which had not been objected to whilst the repression of piracy seemed the only object. The extended tax was expected to produce about £220,000, and 45 ships, of various sizes, manned, equipped, and stored for six months, were to be ready at Portsmouth by the 1st of May, 1636. The levying of the tax, however, was neglected by the sheriffs and their officers in some cases, and in others, where they attempted to do their sworn duty, they were violently resisted. Goods and cattle seized in default of payment found no purchasers, and a Derbyshire knight, Sir John Stanhope, of Elvaston, set the example, which was speedily followed, of retaking them by force. On the other hand, Sir John Hotham, in Yorkshire, earnestly promoted the payment of the tax, and many of the gentry and clergy contributed more than they were assessed at, as a kind of protest against the opposition of John Hampden, Lord Saye and Sele, and others.

In spite of all the difficulties that the Puritans could raise, a fleet was got together, which in 1635 and again in 1636 effectually curbed the Dutch; and in March, 1636, a squadron of seven vessels was dispatched to Sallee. It was commanded by Admiral Rainsborough, and consisted of the Leopard, Antelope, Hercules, Mary Providence, Expedition, Mary Rose, and Roebuck, and carried 194 guns, and 990 The real leader of the expedition

men.

A.D. 1635.

A fleet of forty vessels is sent to sea, under the earl of Lindsey, and another of twenty vessels under the earl of Es

He was assessed in two sums, of 20s. for lands in Great Missenden, and 31s. 6d. for lands in Great Kimble. In the former place a monument was erected in 1863 in commemoration of his refusal of payment.

They were Hutton and Croke. What reason influenced the former is not known; but White

was one John Dunton, a reformed renegade, who had been taken off the Isle of Wight (Sept. 1634) in command of a Sallee ship manned by 21 Moors and 5 Dutch renegades. He was tried and condemned at Winchester, but saved his life by volunteering to point out the weak points of the Barbary ports, and he sailed as master in the Admiral's ship. The squadron reached Sallee March 24, when they found a war raging, the Sallee men being engaged in an endeavour to throw off the authority of the king of Morocco. The admiral supported the king's party, eventually obtained the liberty of a large number of English slaves, and, after visiting other piratical towns, reached England on the 7th October, bringing with him an ambassador from the Moorish king, who promised to suppress Christian slavery. This marked success, however, was lost on the Puritans, and their clamour so increased that at last the king was advised to ask the opinion of the judges as to the legality of the tax. Their unanimous opinion was (1) that when the kingdom was in danger, the king may legally call on his subjects for ships, or money to supply them; and (2) that the king is the sole judge of the necessity. Hampden still refusing to pay, the cause was argued in the courts before the whole twelve judges, when all but two adhered to their former opinion, and judgment was pronounced against him. Lord Saye and Sele at first threatened also to stand a trial, but after this decision he gave way, and the tax was levied, as occasion required, without further opposition; but the Long Parliament voted it illegal, and, on the strength of this ex post facto condemnation, pronounced the judges who had sanctioned it guilty of "treason"-thus adopting one of the very worst actions of their predecessors, the servile parliaments of the Tudors. The fleet that had been raised in spite of their opposition they seized for their own purposes, and the victories of Monk, Deane and Blake were gained by vessels built with the proceeds of the "treasonable" ship-money writs.

sex, for the protection of merchants; many of the Dutch fishing vessels are sunk or taken.

A proclamation issued against de

lock says that Croke changed his judgment in deference to his wife.

From accounts preserved in the Public Record Office it appears that the sum of £183,482 had been collected up to Nov. 25, 1637, and that only £12,918 remained to be gathered in.

parting out of the realm without licence', July 21.

Archbishop Laud holds a visitation, in which, among other things, he insists on the communion-table in churches being placed altarwise; the bishop of Lincoln (John Williams) denounces this as an innovation.

The lord deputy (Wentworth) procures the formal adoption of the English Articles by the Irish Church'.

The archbishop endeavours to reduce the descendants of the French and Walloon settlers to conformity with the Church.

THESE Congregations, originally formed by refugees from France and Holland in the time of Elizabeth, were found in London, Norwich, Southampton, Canterbury, Maidstone, Sandwich', and elsewhere; and, according to the archbishop's statement, which is well supported, there were ample reasons for his interference. They - evinced no thankfulness for the protection they had so long enjoyed; their members, though born in England, seldom learnt the language, they refused to impart a knowledge of their manufactures to Englishmen, and, by "living in England as if they were a kind of God's Israel in Egypt," they reflected dishonour on the Church, and encouraged nonconformity, and "became a kind of State within a State;" so that Laud justly thought "no State could with safety, or would in wisdom, endure it."

That there was reason to apprehend political dangers from these people is abundantly evident from a passage in the Naval Tracts of Sir William Monson. In May, 1605, a Dunkirk vessel had taken refuge at Sandwich, and two Dutch ships lay at the mouth of the haven ready to capture her when she should put to sea. Sir William was sent to prevent this, and he obliged the

i "Ministers unconformable to the discipline and ceremonies of the Church," it appears, were in the habit of retiring to the Bermudas. None were in future to go, except by licence of the archbishop of Canterbury; and those already there were to be brought back by a ship which the lord admiral (Algernon Percy, earl of Northumberland) was ordered to fit out.

The Articles of the Church in Ireland were more decidedly Calvinistic than those in England, as the Lambeth Articles (see A.D. 1595) had been incorporated with them. It was owing to the advice of Archbishop Laud that this step was taken, which was reluctantly acceded to by Archbishop Usher and the Irish prelates, who looked upon it as a surrender of the independence of their national Church.

* See A. D. 1569.

The State Papers of both James' and Charles' reigns contain numerous complaints of the turbulent and seditious character of these settlers, particularly in the sea-ports.

Dutch to retire. In reporting his proceedings to the Council, he says:

carriage of the people of Sandwich, you would "Had your lordships seen the dispositions and have thought it strange that subjects durst oppose themselves so openly against the state; thousands of people beholding me from the shore, looked when the sword should make an end of the difference, and publicly wished the success to the Hollanders, cursing both me and his majesty's ship. But it was no marvel, for most of the inhabitants are religion truly Dutch, as two of the grave ministers either born, bred or descended from Holland; their of Sandwich have complained to me, protesting they think that that town and the country there

abouts swarms as much with sects as Amsterdam.

"Your lordships must give me leave a little to digress, and express the state of Sandwich, and the use Holland may make of it if ever they become enemies to England; and though Sandwich be but a barrel-haven, and that ships cannot enter but upon a flood, and at no time any great vessels of burden, yet is our Downs within two miles from thence, where thousands of ships may ride as Hollanders be disposed to give an attempt, now safely as in any harbour of Europe; and if ever the that Flushing is in their possession, it is but one night's sailing from thence to Sandwich. The town I know in this kingdom, and a place of little deis more naturally seated for strength than any fence as it is used. An enemy having the command of a harbour approaching a town of no defence which may be made impregnable, being sure of the hearts of the men within it, and to be relieved within twelve hours by sea, I refer the consideration thereof to your lordships."

This was made an accusation against him at his trial, when he was charged with endeavouring to sow dissension between the English and the other Reformed Churches; but it appears from the original act (Sept. 26, 1635) that the matter was misrepresented, when it was said that he had suppressed these congregations. They were still to continue, but to be composed of foreignborn members only; their descendants were "to conform themselves to the English Liturgy, every one in his parish," their occasional resort to the foreign churches, however, not being prohibited. The bishop of Norwich (Matthew Wren) zealously seconded the archbishop's views, and in consequence many of the foreigners left that city.

The fortifications, for the support of which Richard III. granted the customs of the port, had been suffered to fall into decay, after the building of the neighbouring castles of Sandown, Deal, and Walmer.

Archbishop Laud strongly opposed this project; so did Lord Cottington, but to annoy the archbishop (with whom he was at variance) he pretended the contrary, and argued in a way that well illustrates the mode of converting light matters into serious offences which then prevailed in the Courts. He said the park would be convenient for the king's pleasure in the winter season, without his being obliged to make any long journeys; that to oppose his resolutions therein could only proceed from want of affection to his person, and he was not sure that it might not be high treason. "The other," says Clarendon," upon the wildness of his discourse, in great anger asked him, Why? whence had he received that doctrine? Cottington Coolly replied, "They who did not wish the king's health could not love him; and they who went about to hinder his taking recreation, which preserves his health, might be thought, for aught he knew, guilty of the highest crimes.'

The names of these judges were, Finch, chief

with the Dutch, and seemed likely to result in war; the virulence of party, however, held the archbishop responsible for all, and denounced him as a persecutor for his share in what was but a reasonable measure of precaution in the event of hostilities.

pay the tax, and are in consequence sued in the court of Exchequer.

A proclamation issued, April 30, imposing restrictions on emigration to America. This proclamation states that " men of idle and refractory humours, whose only or principal end

is to live without the reach of authority," daily withdraw themselves with their families to the plantations, where many disorders have been caused by

them. It therefore ordains that no shall quit the country without the lipersons of property ("subsidy-men") cence of the privy council, nor poorer men without licence of the justices, and to be entitled to these licences, all are to produce certificates of having taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the testimony of their parish minister as to conformity in ecclesiastical matters.

The cause of ship-money is argued at great length before the twelve judges, when they all, except Croke and Hutton, give their judgment for the crown', June 12.

AND THE LIBELLERS,

placed in the pillory together, and mutilated, June 30.

The punishments inflicted on these

justice (see A.D. 1629); Berkley, Bramston, Crawley, Croke, Davenport, Denham, Hutton, Jones, Trevor, Vernon, and Weston.

9 He was cousin to Oliver Cromwell and had before this been embroiled with the courts for neglecting to attend his parish church, and for mustering the train-bands in Beaconsfield churchyard on a Sunday; for which he had to make a formal submission. He sat in the Long Parliament for Buckinghamshire, and on the breaking out of the war became a colonel. He was mortally wounded in a skirmish at Chalgrove, near Oxford, June 18, 1643, and died six days after.

г

Though the cause was thus decided, Lord Saye, a Puritan, still disputed it, but he gave way eventually, rather than go to a trial.

William Prynne, as already mentioned, was a barrister. Henry Burton, a divine, was born in Yorkshire in 1579; he had been tutor to several noblemen, and at one time was clerk of the closet to Prince Charles, in which office he was super

men have brought great odium on the court which ordered them, though it cannot be denied that their conduct seemed intended as a direct challenge to authority, to lay its hand heavily upon them; and under even the last of the Tudors they would have lost their lives, if we may judge by the fate of the Brownists (see A.D. 1583, 1593). It must also be borne in mind that even the ordinary courts habitually passed sentences of extreme severity in cases of ordinary character, where no political offence was alleged.

Prynne had already suffered four years' imprisonment for his "Histriomastix," but, undeterred by this, he contrived to have printed", beside some smaller matters, "A Divine Tragedy, containing a catalogue of God's judgments against Sabbathbreakers," in which the clergy who read the Book of Sports were classed with the most heinous offenders. Burton also, while in the hands of the court for his sermon, printed "News from Ipswich," containing charges of Romish innovation against Bishop Wren, of Norwich, whose fidelity to the Church had rendered him very odious to the Puritans. Bastwick, who had published a book called “Elen

seded by Bishop Laud. He became incumbent of St. Matthew, Friday-street, London, and preached there, on Nov. 5, 1636, a sermon from Proverbs xxiv. 21, 22, which occasioned his citation before the High Commission Court. John Bastwick was born in Essex in 1593; he studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, had long travelled abroad, and had recently settled as a physician at Colchester, when his vehement book against episcopacy brought him into trouble.

t See A.D. 1633.

u How this was effected is told in some Starchamber papers preserved in the Public Record Office. The father of Prynne's servant was a cheesemonger in Newgate market, and a printing-office in which one Gregory Dexter worked was close adjoining. To him Prynne's servant brought manuscripts, promising that he should be well paid for his labour. Prynne, walking out with his keeper, often came to Wickens' house, and was there taken into a private room, where Dexter brought him proofs, and remained whilst he examined them. In order that the keeper might be able to swear that he had seen nothing of this, he was by the good man of the house "persuaded to go upstairs, and not stay in the open shop." Dexter and two other printers were examined in the Starchamber on this matter, and in consequence, the delinquent keeper and the servant were both committed to the messenger of the court, in whose custody they remained a considerable time.

chus Papismi," identifying prelacy and popery, when questioned for it, in the same spirit of contumacy followed it up with "A New Litany." The works of the whole were worded in the style of the most offensive of the MarPrelate tracts; and the writers, when in gaol, so openly defied all authority, that the judges declared it was only owing to the king's mercy that they were not charged with treason.

Prynne was already under sentence of what, for a man of his unbending temper, was probably equivalent to imprisonment for life; the same sentence was now pronounced against the other two. They were all fined £5,000 each, degraded from their professions, placed in the pillory, their ears cut off, their cheeks and foreheads branded", and they were then removed to Lancaster, Launceston, and Carnarvon. Vehement expressions of sympathy with Prynne on his journey through Coventry and Chester, which almost amounted to riots, causing his keepers to apprehend a rescue, and for which both places were heavily fined, occasioned a change in their destinations, (Aug. 27,) and they were sent, Prynne to Jersey, Burton to Guernsey, and

answers is preserved by Whitelock: "That the prelates are invaders of the king's prerogative royal, contemners and despisers of the Holy Scriptures, advancers of popery, superstition, idolatry. and profaneness: also they abuse the king's authority, to the oppression of his loyalest subjects, and therein exercise great cruelty, tyranny, and injustice; and in execution of those impious performances they shew neither wit, honesty, nor temperance. Nor are they either servants of God or of the king, but of the devil, being enemies of God and the king, and of every living thing that is good. All which the said Dr. Bastwick is ready to maintain, &c."

y He was to be imprisoned until he made submission; but this was a customary judgment, and not meant as any peculiar hardship on him.

Prynne had already suffered this mutilation: what remained of his ears was pared off so closely that his life was, by his partisans, said to be endangered; but the incidents of his journey to his distant prison of Carnarvon immediately after shew this to be a gross exaggeration.

a Clarendon, though condemning the men as persons of bad repute, remarks on the insult offered to the learned professions by this proceeding, and says, "Every profession, with anger and indignation enough, thought their education, and degrees, and quality, would have secured them from such infamous judgments, and treasured up wrath for the time to come." The letters branded were "S.L." for "seditious libeller;" but Prynne wrote an epigram, in which he interpreted them as standing for "Stigmata Laudi."

His removal from Carnarvon to Jersey was, in consequence of bad weather, a matter of some difficulty, and occupied a great length of time. The