events during his reign, if we
regard it as divided into three periods. During the first, which
continued about four years, Charles and the Parliament were both upon
the stage, contending with each other, but just at open war. Each
party intrigued, and maneuvered, and struggled to gain its own ends,
the disagreement widening and deepening continually, till it ended in
an open rupture, when Charles abandoned the plan of having Parliaments
at all, and attempted to govern alone. This attempt to manage the
empire without a legislature lasted for ten years, and is the second
period. After this a Parliament was called, and it soon made itself
independent of the king, and became hostile to him, the two powers
being at open war. This constitutes the third period. Thus we have
four years spent in getting into the quarrel between the king and
Parliament, ten years in an attempt by the king to govern alone, and,
finally, ten years of war, more or less open, the king on one side,
and the Parliament on the other.

The first four years--that is, the time spent in getting really into
the quarrel with Parliament, was Buckingham's work, for during that
time Buckingham's influence with the king was paramount and supreme;
and whatever was done that was important or extraordinary, though done
in the king's name, really originated in him. The whole country knew
this and were indignant that such a man, so unprincipled, so low in
character, so reckless, and so completely under the sway of his
impulses and passions, should have such an influence over the king,
and, through him, such power to interfere with and endanger the mighty
interests of so vast a realm.

It must not be supposed, however, in consequence of what has been said
about the extent of the regal power in England, that the daily care
and responsibility of the affairs of government, in its ordinary
administration, rested directly upon the king. It is not possible that
any one mind can even comprehend, far less direct, such an enormous
complication of interests and of action as is involved in the carrying
on, from day to day, the government of an empire. Offices,
authorities, and departments of administration spring up gradually,
and all the ordinary routine of the affairs of the empire are managed
by them. Thus the navy was all completely organized, with its
gradations of rank, its rules of action, its records, its account
books, its offices and arrangements for provisionment and