eiZ LIFE OE:RICHARD BAXTER Charles I. succeeded to the throne of his father at the age of twenty-five, in circumstances which demanded of the chief magis- trate not so much great force and splendid talents, as good common sense, and plain common honesty, directed by a spirit of kindness towards the people. The English nation had long been accustom- ed to some measure offreedom ; and though the constitution of the kingdom was not then that well-defined system of distributed and balanced powers which it now is, and though sovereigns had often transcended the bounds of law, and in many instances had made their own will their rule of government, it had been well under- stood, from the earliest ages, that the rights of the subject were as real as the prerogative of the monarch. Themonarchy had always been limited, not only, like every other ancient monarchy in Eu- rope, by the nature of the feudal system, but limited still more by many a provision for the security of individual rights. And though the boundaries of power, seem to have advanced and receded from time to time, as the monarch was more or less energetic, or as the barons and people were more or Jess spirited in the assertion of their rights, it was at every period, and under every,reign, an indis- putable principle of English freedom, that no man could be right- fully deprived of property or liberty but in the course of law, and that no law could be made but by the consent of the people ex- pressed in parliament. James I. himself, a foreigner in England, and having neither knowledge of theEnglish character nor sympa- thy with the English spirit, attempted to govern on the most arbi- trary principles. The other monarchs ofEurope, having gradually undermined, or violently overthrown, the barriers of the old feudal constitutions, had made themselves absolute; and the successor of Elizabeth, so far as he was capable of forming or comprehending any scheme ofpolicy, pursued his measures with reference to a similar result. Had he beenas much of aman as she was to whose throne he succeeded, his successmight not have been quite impossi- ble. As it was, his imbecile efforts to play the absolute monarch at once roused in his subjects the spirit to assert their rights, and gave them strength to resist aggression. He died baffled, disgraced, de- spised and unlamented ; and his son inherited, not only his throne, al- readybeginning to be undermined, but his weak and vacillatingjudg- ment, his faithless disposition, hisprinciples ofusurpation and arbitra- ry misrule, his love of ecclesiastical pomp and ceremony, and even his subjection to the influence of a worthless and odious favorite. The first important act of Charles, after his accession, was his marriage with Henrietta, a sister of the king of France, which had been agreed on during the lifetime of his father. The bride brought with her into the kingdom a retinue of Romish servants, priests and courtiers, who, by the marriage treaty. were to be allow-
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