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pointed solicitor for the people of England. Dorislaus, Steele, and Aske, were named assistants. The court sat in Westminster-hall.

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"The pomp, the dignity, the ceremony of this transaction,' says Hume, "corresponded to the greatest conception that is suggested in the annals of human kind. The delegates of a great people, sitting in judgment upon their supreme magistrate, and trying him for his misgovernment and breach of trust." The solicitor, in the name of the Commons, represented, that Charles Stuart, being admitted King of England, and entrusted with a limited power; yet, nevertheless, from a wicked design, to erect an unlimited and tyrannical government, had traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present Parliament, and the people whom they represented, and was therefore impeached as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and a public and implacable enemy to the commonwealth. After the charge was finished, the president directed his discourse to the King, and told him, that the court expected his answer.

The King, though long detained a prisoner, and now produced as a criminal, sustained, by his magnanimous courage, the majesty of a monarch. With great temper and dignity he declined the authority of the court, and refused to submit himself to their jurisdiction. Three times was Charles produced before the court, and as often declined their jurisdiction. On the fourth, the judges having examined some witnesses, by whom it was proved that the King had appeared in arms against the forces commissioned by the Parliament, they pronounced sentence against him. The King seemed very anxious at this time to be admitted to a conference with the two houses; and, it was supposed, that he intended to resign the crown to his son; but the court refused, and considered the request as nothing but a delay of justice.

It is confessed, even by his enemies, that the King's behaviour, during this last scene of life, does honour to his me

mory; and that, in all appearance, before his judges he never forgot his part, either as a prince or as a man.

Firm and intrepid, he maintained, in each reply, the utmost perspicuity - and justness both of thought and expression. Mild and equable, he rose into no passion at that unusual authority which was assumed over him. His soul, without effort or affectation, seemed only to remain in the situation familiar to it, and to look down with contempt on all the efforts of human malignity and iniquity. The soldiers, instigated by their superiors, though with difficulty, cried aloud for justice: Poor souls, said the King to one of his attendants, for a little money they would do as much against one of their commanders. Some of them were permitted to go to the utmost length of brutal violence, and to spit in his face as he was conducted along the passage to the court. To excite a sentiment of pity was the only effect which this inhuman insult was able to produce upon him.

The people, though under the rod of lawless unlimited power, could not forbear, with the most ardent prayers, pouring forth their wishes for his preservation; and, in his present distress, they avowed him, by their generous tears, for their monarch, whom, in their misguided fury, they had before so violently rejected. The King was softened at this moving scene, and expressed his gratitude for their dutiful affection. One soldier too, seized by contagious sympathy, demanded from heaven a blessing on oppressed and fallen majesty. His officer overheard the prayer, and beat him to the ground in the King's presence. The punishment, methinks, exceeds This was the reflection which Charles formed on

the offence. that occasion.

Three days were allowed the King between his sentence and his execution. This interval he passed in great tranquillity, chiefly in reading and devotion. All his family that remained in England were allowed access to him. It consisted only of

the Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Gloucester; for the Duke of York had made his escape. Gloucester was little more than an infant: the princess, notwithstanding her tender years, shewed an advanced judgment; and the calamities of her family had made a deep impression on her. After many pious consolations and advices, the King gave her in charge to tell the Queen, that, during the whole course of his life, he had never once, even in thought, failed in his fidelity towards her; and that his conjugal tenderness and life should have an equal duration.

To the young Duke, too, he could not forbear giving some advice, in order to season his mind with early principles of loyalty and obedience towards his brother, who was soon to be his sovereign. Holding him on his knee, he said, "Now they will cut off thy father's head." At these words the child looked very steadfastly upon him. "Mark, child! what I say. They will cut off my head, and perhaps make thee a king: But mark what I say, thou must not be king as long as thy They will cut off thy

brothers, Charles and James, are alive.
brothers' heads if they can catch them!
they will cut off at last!
made a King by them."

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And thy head too therefore, I charge thee, do not be The Duke, sighing, replied, "I will be torn in pieces first." So determined an answer, from one of such tender years, filled the King's eyes with tears of joy and admiration.

On the morning of the fatal day, the King rose early, and calling Herbert, one of his attendants, he bade him employ more than usual care in dressing him, and preparing him for so great and joyful a solemnity. Bishop Juxon, a man endowed with the same mild and steady virtues, by which the King himself was so much distinguished, assisted him in his devotions, and paid the last melancholy duties to his friend and sovereign. The street before Whitehall was the place destined for the execution for it was intended, by choosing the very place in

sight of his own palace, to display more evidently the triumph of popular justice over royal majesty. When the King came upon the scaffold, he found it so surrounded by soldiers that he could not expect to be heard by any of the people. He addressed, therefore, his discourse to the few persons who were about him; particularly Colonel Tomlinson, to whose care he had lately been committed, and upon whom, as upon many others, his amiable deportment had wrought an entire conversion. He justified his own innocence in the late fatal wars, and observed, that he had not taken arms till after the Parliament had enlisted forces; nor had he any other object in his warlike operations than to preserve that authority entire which his predecessors had transmitted to him. He threw not, however, the blame upon the Parliament: but was more inclined to think, that ill instruments had interposed, and raised in them fears and jealousies with regard to his intentions. Though innocent towards his people, he acknowledged the equity of his execution in the eyes of his Maker; and observed, that an unjust sentence, which he had suffered to take effect, was now punished by an unjust sentence upon himself. He forgave all his enemies, even the chief instruments of his death; but exhorted them, and the whole nation, to return to the ways of peace, by paying obedience to their lawful sovereign, his son and successor. When he was preparing himself for the block, Bishop Juxon called to him, "There is, Sir, but one stage more, which, though turbulent and troublesome, is yet a short one. Consider, it will soon carry you a great way; it will carry you from earth to heaven, and there you shall find, to your great joy, the prize to which you hasten, a crown of glory."-" I go," replied the King, "from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown; where no disturbance can have place." At one blow his head was severed from his body. A man in a vizor performed the office of executioner; and another, in a like disguise, held up to the spectators the head

streaming with blood, and cried aloud, This is the head of a Traitor !

Such was the tragical end of Charles the First, a man in private life adorned with every virtue that confers lustre on the human character, but, as a monarch, of a disposition unfit for the critical and perplexed times in which he lived. A few days after the decapitation of the King, the House of Commons passed an ordinance, declaring the House of Lords abolished as useless and dangerous; and they likewise voted the monarchical form of government dissolved. It is remarkable that Martin, a zealous republican, in the debate on this question, confessed, that if they desired a King, the last was as proper as any gentleman in England. The Commons ordered a new great seal to be engraved, on which that assembly was represented with this legend, ON THE FIRST YEAR OF FREEDOM, BY GOD'S BLESSING, RESTORED, 1648. The forms of all public business were changed from the King's name to that of the keepers of the liberties of England; and it was declared high-treason to proclaim, or any otherwise acknowledge, Charles Stuart, commonly called Prince of Wales.

"The confusions which overspread England after the murder of the King," says Hume, "proceeded as well from the spirit of refinement and innovation which agitated the ruling party, as from the dissolution of all that authority, both civil and ecclesiastical, by which the nation had ever been accustomed to be governed. Every man had framed the model of a republic; and, however new it was, or fantastical, he was eager in recommending it to his fellow-citizens, or even imposing it by force upon them. Every man had adjusted a system of religion, which, being derived from no traditional authority, was peculiar to himself; and, being founded on supposed inspiration, not on any principles of human reason, had no means, besides cant and low rhetoric, by which it could recommend itself to

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