nst his general. The court, which consisted
of the chief officers of the army, found the crime to be capital, and
condemned that nobleman to lose his head.[*]

In vain did Strafford plead in his own defence against this article of
impeachment, that the sentence of Mountnorris was the deed, and that too
unanimous, of the court, not the act of the deputy; that he spake not
to a member of the court, nor voted in the cause, but sat uncovered as
a party, and then immediately withdrew, to leave them to their freedom;
that, sensible of the iniquity of the sentence, he procured his
majesty's free pardon to Mountnorris; and that he did not even keep that
nobleman a moment in suspense with regard to his fate, but instantly
told him, that he himself would sooner lose his right hand than execute
such a sentence, nor was his lordship's life in any danger. In vain did
Strafford's friends add, as a further apology, that Mountnorris was a
man of an infamous character, who paid court by the lowest adulation to
all deputies while present, and blackened their character by the vilest
calumnies when recalled; and that Strafford, expecting like treatment,
had used this expedient for no other purpose than to subdue the petulant
spirit of the man. These excuses alleviate the guilt; but there still
remains enough to prove, that the mind of the deputy, though great and
firm, had been not a little debauched by the riot of absolute power and
uncontrolled authority.

When Strafford was called over to England, he found every thing falling
into such confusion, by the open rebellion of the Scots, and the secret
discontents of the English, that, if he had counselled or executed any
violent measure, he might perhaps have been able to apologize for his
conduct from the great law of necessity, which admits not, while the
necessity is extreme, of any scruple, ceremony, or delay.[**] But, in
fact, no illegal advice or action was proved against him; and the whole
amount of his guilt, during this period, was some peevish, or at most
imperious expressions, which, amidst such desperate extremities, and
during a bad state of health, had unhappily fallen from him.

* Rush. vol. iv. p. 187.

** Rush. vol. iv. p. 559.

If Strafford's apology was in the main so satisfactory when he pleaded
to each particular article of the charge, his victory was still more
decisive when he brought the whole together, and repelled the imputation
of treason; the crime