but not according to the common will." With such a king as James on the
throne, is it a wonder that the more intelligent and conscientious of
his subjects--like the Pilgrims and Puritans--sought a home on this side
the Atlantic, where wild beasts and savage men were their only
persecutors?

We are told that "the face of the Court was much changed in the change
of the king" from James to Charles I; "that the grossness of the Court
of James grew out of fashion," but the people were slow to learn the
difference. Of the two evils, James was to be preferred. Charles ascends
the throne with flattering promises, attends prayers and listens to
sermons, pays his father's debts and promises to reform the Court. Let
us see what he does. The brilliant but profligate Buckingham is retained
as prime minister. Charles marries the beautiful Henrietta Maria, the
Roman Catholic princess of France. He fits out fleets against Spain and
other quarters, and demands heavy taxes to meet his heavy expenses.
Parliament is on its dignity, and demands its proper recognition. He
dissolves it, and calls another. That is more rebellious, and that he
summarily dissolves. Men of high and low degree go to prison at the
king's behest, and the disobedient were threatened with severer
penalties.

The people of England are aroused, as the king of the earth sets himself
against their claims in behalf of the royal prerogative. The king and
the people are at war. Which will come off conquerer? There is only one
answer to that question, for the battle is one between the pigmy and the
giant. The contest grows sharper as the months go on, and the people are
in constant alarm. Murders are common, and even Buckingham, the favorite
minister, dies at the point of the assassin's knife, and the murderer
goes to the Tower and the scaffold accompanied by the tumultuous cheers