ield to rebels; and the proceedings in Scotland
since the pacification of Berwick seemed to him mere rebellion. A fresh
General Assembly adopted as valid the acts of its predecessor. The
Parliament only met to demand that the council should be responsible to
it for its course of government. The king prorogued both that he might
use the weapon which fortune had thrown into his hand. He never doubted
that if he appealed to the country English loyalty would rise to support
him against Scottish treason. He yielded at last to the counsels of
Wentworth. Wentworth was still for war. He had never ceased to urge that
the Scots should be whipped back to their border; and the king now
avowed his concurrence in this policy by raising him to the earldom of
Strafford, and from the post of Lord Deputy to that of Lord Lieutenant.
Strafford agreed with Charles that a Parliament should be summoned, the
correspondence laid before it, and advantage taken of the burst of
indignation on which the king counted to procure a heavy subsidy. But he
had foreseen that it might refuse all aid; and in such a case the Earl
and the Council held that the King would have a right to fall back on
"extraordinary means." Strafford himself hurried to Ireland to read a
practical lesson to the English Parliament. In fourteen days he had
procured four subsidies from the Irish Commons, and set on foot a force
of 8000 men to take part in the attack on the Scots. He came back,
flushed with his success, in time for the meeting of the Houses at
Westminster in the middle of April 1640. But the lesson failed in its
effect. Statesmen like Hampden and Pym were not fools enough to aid the
great enemy of English freedom against men who had risen for freedom
across the Tweed. Every member of the Commons knew that Scotland was
fighting the battle of English liberty. All hope of bringing them to any
attack upon the Scots proved fruitless. The intercepted letters were
quietly set aside; and the Commons declared as of old that redress of
grievances must precede any grant of supplies. No subsidy could be
granted till security was had for religion, for property, and for the
liberties of Parliament. An offer to relinquish ship-money proved
fruitless; and after three weeks sitting the "Short Parliament" was
dissolved. "Things must go worse before they go better" was the cool
comment of St. John. But the country was strangely moved. After eleven
years of personal rule, its hopes had r