DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69463#0340
STRAFFORD. [England.
military, besides advancing considerable sums to the king,
without any charge to England. He restored the rights
of the church, he established English laws, reformed the
army, discharged the debts of the crown, secured the
seas, and paid the utmost attention to commerce and
trade. But unfortunately, these measures, however salu-
tary and praise-worthy, were not attended with popula-
rity. In a nation so averse to the English government
and religion, his very virtues were sufficient to draw on
him the public hatred. The manners and character of
this great man, though to all full of courtesy, and to his
friends affectionate and endearing, were in general, rigid,
haughty, and severe. His authority and influence, dur-
ing the period of his government, were unlimited ; but no
sooner had adversity seized him, than the concealed aver-
sion of the nation blazed up at once, and the Irish parlia-
ment used every expedient to aggravate the charges,
which-he was soon fated to encounter.
From this unenviable, though honourable post, he was
summoned, in 1639, by the king, to assist him in his
design of subduing the Scots. In the management of the
affairs of Scotland, the conduct of Charles had been
marked by weakness and inconsistency: yielding when
he ought to have commanded; issuing the most arbitrary
edicts, without providing himself with the means of cn-
forcing them, he alternately excited terror and contempt.
With all the respect due to his private virtues, with all
the compassion which his melancholy fate exacts from
those who peruse the disastrous annals of his reign, it is
impossible wholly to clear him from those charges of insin-
cerity, and even dissimulation, which were so frequently
urged against him. When, at length, the increasing dis-
turbances of the north compelled him to raise an army
for the support of his authority, such was his comparative
penury, that he wras obliged to have recourse to a mode
military, besides advancing considerable sums to the king,
without any charge to England. He restored the rights
of the church, he established English laws, reformed the
army, discharged the debts of the crown, secured the
seas, and paid the utmost attention to commerce and
trade. But unfortunately, these measures, however salu-
tary and praise-worthy, were not attended with popula-
rity. In a nation so averse to the English government
and religion, his very virtues were sufficient to draw on
him the public hatred. The manners and character of
this great man, though to all full of courtesy, and to his
friends affectionate and endearing, were in general, rigid,
haughty, and severe. His authority and influence, dur-
ing the period of his government, were unlimited ; but no
sooner had adversity seized him, than the concealed aver-
sion of the nation blazed up at once, and the Irish parlia-
ment used every expedient to aggravate the charges,
which-he was soon fated to encounter.
From this unenviable, though honourable post, he was
summoned, in 1639, by the king, to assist him in his
design of subduing the Scots. In the management of the
affairs of Scotland, the conduct of Charles had been
marked by weakness and inconsistency: yielding when
he ought to have commanded; issuing the most arbitrary
edicts, without providing himself with the means of cn-
forcing them, he alternately excited terror and contempt.
With all the respect due to his private virtues, with all
the compassion which his melancholy fate exacts from
those who peruse the disastrous annals of his reign, it is
impossible wholly to clear him from those charges of insin-
cerity, and even dissimulation, which were so frequently
urged against him. When, at length, the increasing dis-
turbances of the north compelled him to raise an army
for the support of his authority, such was his comparative
penury, that he wras obliged to have recourse to a mode