After the charge, colonel Harrison, the fon of a butcher, a moft furious enthufiaft of the army, was fent with a strong guard to conduct the king to London. In the mean time an ordinance had paffed in the Lower Houfe, for a High Court of Juftice fo called, to try the king for high treafon, though he himself was the only perfon against whom high treafon could be committed. But the Lords, then remaining to fit in the houfe, few and weak as they were, unanimously rejected it.. However, the Rump of the Commons proceeded without them, and locked up their door against them; who, by this time, through their many other weak and wicked compliances, had rendered themselves ufelefs, as their fellow-rebels in the Lower House voted them. And now, with unparalleled unprecedented impudence, a pack of deteftable mifcreants, with Bradshaw their prefident, prefume to fit in judgment upon their fovereign, and to condemn him to death for high treafon, who, by our law, can perfonally do no wrong, and is exempt from any earthly punishment. The king's behaviour, during the laft period of his life, does great honour to his memory. In all his appearances before thofe infamous villains, and moft execrable of all created be. ings, who called themselves his judges, (for three times was he produced before them, and as often he declined their jurifdiction, and pleaded his own caufe,) he never forgot his part, either as a prince or as a man. Firm and intrepid, he maintained, in each reply, the utmost perfpicuity and juftnefs, both of thought and expreffion. Mild and equitable he rofe into no paffion at that unusual authority, which was affumed over him. His foul, without effort or affectation, feemed only to remain in a fituation familiar to it, and to look down with: contempt on all the efforts of human malice and iniquity. The moft fhocking inftances of rudenefs and familiarity he bore with meeknefs and ferenity. The foldiers, inftigated by their fuperiors, and being inceffantly plied with prayers, fermons, and exhortations, were brought, though with difficulty, to cry out for juftice. Poor fouls! faid the king to one of his attendants, for a little money they would do as much against their commanders. Some of them were permitted to go to the utmost length of brutal infolence, and to spit in his face as he was conveyed along the paffage to the court. To the indelible fcandal of this nation, and amazement of all the world, that fo much virtue, in a civilized country, could ever meet with fo fatal a catastrophe, the royal martyr, of whom the world was not worthy, was condemned to suffer death, and the unparalleled murder and parricide was commit B 2 ted, ted, 30th January, 1649, O. S. be aftonifhed, O earth! Wonder, O heavens! and Yet it must be remembered, that fome of the most eminent of the nobility, namely the Earl of Southampton, the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, and the Earl of Lindfay, to their immortal honour, did not only offer themfelves as hoftages, but even to fuffer in his ftead. : Amidft all the convulfions of this kingdom, we find nothing to be equalled, to be mentioned with the trouble, rebuke and blafphemy of this day. There has been a weakness and a tyranny of princes; there have been murmurs and a madness of the people. Tumultuous times, infurrections, civil wars, and dreadful battles; plots, affaflinations, poifons, and the graves of princes made in prifons; but no court of law, no palacegate, no fcaffold, axe, and noon-day fun thefe were the accomplifhments of wickednefs, that were referved to blacken this epoch. The crime of this day was beyond all example of ancient or modern times, and was, as the voice of the nation in parliament declared it, a moft impious and execrable murder. We do renounce, abominate, and proteft againft that impious fact, the execrable murder, and moft unparalleled treafon, committed against the facred perfon and life of our fovereign; and as à lafting monument of our inexpreffible deteftation and abhorrence of this villainous and abominable fact, we meet on this anniverfary day of fafting and humiliation, to implore the mercy of God, that neither the guilt of that facred and innocent blood, nor thofe other fins by which God was provoked to deliver up both us and our king into the hands of cruel and unreasonable men, may at any time hereafter be vifited upon us or our pofterity. Murder, where it is fimple, and of the meaneft of our fellow-creatures, is the most unnatural and moft inhuman offence. To fhed innocent blood, was what the law of Nature and reafon of mankind did ever abominate and refrain: no nation, ever fo barbarous, looked upon murder with indifference. Among our Saxon ancestors, there were, indeed, pecuniary compofitions for fhedding of blood, a cuftomary Wiregild or Blodewite, a mulet and forfeiture of goods or money, in proportion to the quality or value of the dead perfon. Luitur etiam homicidium certo armentorum aut pecorum numero; recipitque fatisfactionem totus domus. Tacitus de Mor. German. But the true caufe of accepting fuch a flight compenfation for life, was grounded on the mean ftate. of villains and bondmen, whose blood was not thought to deferve the blood of the lord or the *Tacitus fays univerfa domus. free tenant. And when the blodewite did afterwards extend to making fine for the death of freemen, and even of thanes or nobles, yet then it was for the cafual misfortune, and the manflaughter, not the deliberate malice of plotting to take away a life. Qui volens hominem occider it morte multatur Leg. Aloredi regis. Cades manifefta funt jure humano inexpiabilia. Canuti Leges, num. 61. c. 6. By our prefent conftitution, the life of every fubje&t is a public truft, and the party himself cannot difpose of it. So tender are our laws in cafes of blood, that for a private perfon of the greatest dignity to kill, except in felf-defence, the vileft beggar, the most notorious malefactor, the very condemned criminal, is murder in the eye of the law. In cafes of murder, there is no mitigation in being only acceffary, they all become principles in it; and left there fhould be any connivance by the relations of the murdered perfon with the murderers, the profecution lies in the name of the common parent. And left by fome default in the first procefs, the guilty fhould happen to be acquitted, there lies a remedy of appeal, by the wife or beirmale, to fecure the execution of juftice on the notorious offender, not to be obftructed by a pardon, pending the appeal. Such a fafeguard to the lives of men, are the laws of England, above any other conftitution in the world. And when the meaneft fubject is fo defended and preferved, what greater regard muft needs be had to the life of the fupreme magiftrate? The first act upon our rolls, declarative of treasonable offences, makes it undoubted treafon to compafs or imagine the death of our Lord the king. So nicely tender are our laws of the fovereign prince's life, above all other confiderations in the world, that the very thought or imagination of fo doing would be liable to all the penalties of treafon. But thofe horrid mifereants, in ridicule of our laws, pretended to try and condemn their royal mafter, by forms of law, and executed their fentence in the face of the fun, as a fpectacle to the whole world, and in defiance of Heaven. No prince's character is more varioufly defcribed, according to the different principles on the one fide, and prejudices on the other. But it is no wonder that thofe, who brandished rebellious arms in the field, and afterwards dipped their hands in the blood of the Lord's anointed, did endeavour to blacken his reputation, in excufe of their own actions against him. Nor is it ftrange, if men of the fame diabolical fpirit do ftill load his memory with the moft odious calumnies of popery and arbitrary power; and impudently ridicule his fufferings, becaufe he lived the ornament, and died the martyr of the English church and monarchy. B 3 • God G. alone is an infallible judge and difcerner of the heart: ny beholds, with an unerring eye, the uprightness or obof human thoughts and intentions; therefore none but Bechamutely and decifively pronounce of any perfon, that hose her holy or fincere, or wicked or profane. But we muft r jugment from the outward actions; and wherefoever wafad a regular conduct, where all the duties to God and man, anfar as we can obferve, are exactly and punctually discharged ; where there are no vinble infractions of divine or human laws, we are to look upon the perfon fo qualified as a great, good, and virtuous man. Whoever impartially confiders the royal martyr's conduct from his afcencing the throne to his martyren, must be forced to give him the character of great, good, and glorious. His devotion to God was regular, and conftant both in public and private, and that not cold and formal, but with an infamed zeal and affection. The splendor of an earthly crown did not make him neglect preparing for a heavenly one. In the midt of the higheft plenty, and all the means of gratifying a fenfual a petite, he was remarkably temperate, chafte and lober. His conjugal affection has been even imputed as a crime; for he was an inviolable obferver of the matrimonial And if we confider him in the lat fcene of his life, in his behaviour both before and at the feaffold, we may obferve an admirable compofition of Christian meeknefs and royal grandear; how, under the extremeft preaures, he never could be prevailed with to do any thing uncecoming either the Chriftion or the King. The most of this prince, both in public and private difè, may wit) advartog, bijt in opposition to any monarch age or nation can present to us. ms, indied, to be the complaid miles of that perfect character, anim the drominatus of a page wid wie nan, philofothers fond of de ine, ting, as a fion of their imagination, than in lopes of ever joing it reduced to practice; jo happily were sure they blences, and fo at dach privert t'etter from exceeding its proper dil b. He knew bio to enchilate the enterprising spirit with t'e es à ? me levation. His chracter, both in public and private lie, is almol without berth. He feems to have poffelld every accomplähmert bod of body and mind, which mkes a man either caimalle or an labl.." "His elocution was eaty, pectualive, and at command. He was a fincere friend, an caly, polite, and ailable companion; carried a princely w m • The parage in Itabes is copied from Hame, and forms a part of the character of Alfied. Our decor, though a copious tranfcriber, makes no acknowledgment of obligations of this kind. S dignity, dignity, without pride and haughtinefs; was learned without pedantry; was orthodox without fuperftition; was brave in the field, and wife in council; compofed in the most perplexed cafes; modeft in profperity, and great in adverfity. But fhould I attempt to enumerate his virtues, they would fill up many pages therefore, without entering farther into the particulars of fo exemplary a character, which cannot be comprehended in a few words, we may venture to fay with Clarendon, That he was the worthieft gentleman, the beft matter, the best friend, the best husband, the beft father, the best chriftian, that the age, in which he lived, produced. We have the warrant of authority, both in church and ftate, to pronounce him innocent, and a glorious martyr; while his enemies are declared a pack of miscreants, as far from being true proteftants, as they were from being good fubjects. And this may ferve for a certain teft of the true friends and enemies of the church of Eng land, that he cannot be a friend to our church or ftate, who is an enemy to the royal martyr Charles I. Charles I. was: He was no wax I have told you, in a few words, what now I tell you, in as few, what he was not. or ftraw king: he was not a prince that is the dupe of his fervants, and understands neither his own weakneís nor ftrength! a prince incapable of making himfelf either feared or beloved. He was eafy and gentle; but was not led by his ministers as a flock of fheep by their fhepherd. He was not a child in council; a ftranger to the army. In fine, he was not a prince, with few vices in his heart, or rather in his conftitution, but with all manner of defects in his understanding. The king's ftatue, in the Exchange, was thrown down, and on the pedeftal thefe words were infcribed: Exit Tyrannus, Tegum ultimus; The tyrant is gone, the last of the kings. To run over all the miferies, all the fcenes of distraction and confufion that followed this abomination of wickedness, would be a new fuffering, unless it were to admire and adore the goodnefs of God in our deliverance; that our legal monarchy, deftroyed and drowned in blood, fhould rife up in peace, and long continue to flourish; that our parliamentary conftitution, broken in pieces, and patched up into feveral deformed fhapes, fhould reallume its ancient glory; that our national church, perfecuted, forfaken, and extinct to all appearance, fhould recover its original beauty of hol nefs; that the laws of England be brought back from the point of the fword to the council of justice, and flow in their wonted bounds and channels; that our nobility and gentry, infulted by the rabble, and enslaved by armed men, fhould be reinftated in hereditary wealth and honour; that all the people, opprefld and vexed with fequeftration, plunder, free quarter, contribution, loan, B 4 and |