r in Parliament, while the king could give
him _power_.

Kings can exercise, accordingly, a great control over the minds of
legislators by offering them office; and King Charles, after finding
that his first advances to Wentworth were favorably received,
appointed him one of his Privy Council. Wentworth accepted the office.
His former friends considered that in doing this he was deserting
them, and betraying the cause which he had at first espoused and
defended. The country at large were much displeased with him, finding
that he had forsaken their cause, and placed himself in a position to
act against them.

Persons who change sides in politics or in religion are very apt to go
from one extreme to another. Their former friends revile them, and
they, in retaliation, act more and more energetically against them. It
was so with Strafford. He gradually engaged more and more fully and
earnestly in upholding the king. Finally, the king appointed him to a
very high station, called the Presidency of the North. His office was
to govern the whole north of England--of course, under the direction
of the king and council. There were four counties under his
jurisdiction, and the king gave him a commission which clothed him
with enormous powers--powers greater, as all the people thought, than
the king had any right to bestow.

Strafford proceeded to the north, and entered upon the government of
his realm there, with a determination to carry out all the king's
plans to the utmost. From being an ardent advocate of the rights of
the people, as he was at the commencement of his career, he became a
most determined and uncompromising supporter of the arbitrary power of
the king. He insisted on the collection of money from the people, in
all the ways that the king claimed the power to collect it by
authority of his prerogative; and he was so strict and exacting in
doing this, that he raised the revenue to four or five times what any
of his predecessors had been able to collect. This, of course, pleased
King Charles and his government extremely; for it was at a time during
which the king was attempting to govern without a Parliament, and
every accession to his funds was of extreme importance. Laud, too, the
archbishop, was highly gratified with his exertions and his success,
and the king looked upon Laud and Wentworth as the two most efficient
supporters of his power. They were, in fact, the two most efficient
promoters of his destruction