The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-21

thrown his son. Upon evidence which could
not have stood amoments investigation in law
court, bill of attainder was framed, Henry
being AFRAID lest the forms of alegal trial might
delay his chance of slaughter till II was too late.
The King was too i'll to give his assent to the
bill which was hurried through Parliament
with disgraceful haste, and the royal assent was
given by commission which 1t Is doubtful II
Henry ever signed. This was done on the 9th
OF January, when Henry was at his last gasp,
and-so indecent was the behavior OF those who
would please the tyrant, and who feared the
HoWards-an order was forthwith sent to the
lieutenant OF the Tower to execute his prisoner
next morning. Ere next morning came Henry
was oead aud the lieutenant, doubling what
he should do under these circumstances de-
layed, aud the life OF the poor bereayed duke
was saved.
The last Christmas spent by Henry's daughter
Elizabeth was u SID contrast to the many happy
ones which had preceded it. The great queen
had outlived her popularity, and was fallen into
q melancholy ttOm which nothing seemed able
20 rouse her. she had never been the same
woman since the death OF Essex; she safe whole
days by herself, ndulgtug IN the most gloomy
reflections; every rumOr az tated her with new
and imaginary terIors'; she could hardly be
persuaded to take any nourishment, and her
temper became such as to render tner daily
service almost unbearable to her attendants.
IL found heT.o says Sir John Harrington, who
was allo we'd to see her at Christmas 1902. "in
most pitiable state. She bade the Archbishop
reverence that | mad seen him with the Lord
Deputy (EsscX). She looked up, with much
choer and grief in her COunenauCe, aud said,
%, now 1t miudeth me that you was one who
saw this man elsewhere,' and hereat she
dropped tear and smOte her BOSOM" The
shade OF the Earl Of Essex seemed to haunt her
perpetualIy; so much so, that at the end OF her
last illness, which began at this time, she would
not stay in bed, and she answered the entrea-
ties of the Lord Admiral that she would return
to her couch, by saying that if he had seen
what she saw there, he would never make
the request. RecolleCtioDs, too, Of the
sad writer of the sad letter which she
had received at Christmas sixteen years
before might have been present to her mind -
tine letter in which Mary Queen of Scots made
her four last requests of her cousin of England,
and winch drew tears, but no mercy, from that
cousins heat. These thoughts, ana others like
them, fretted the mind OF the great queen from
Christmas time till Easter, when she passed
! away, and gave place TO him of whom the Duke
OF Suly wittily said, referring to his scholastic
| requirements and his .Blngship, that he was
"the wisest fool in Europe"
One Christmas in his reign the Christmas of
! lG2l-is too remarkable 10 be passed unnOticed.
TRere had been for many months violent
| quarrel between the King and the House of
Commons i'll the course OF which James had
| given vent TO those highflown, impractiCable
ideas OF his upon the relation OF king to people,
| which, put IN practice by him and hls son,
! brought about the civil war. Before separating
| for the Christmas holidays the House of Com
mons summed up all the points of the cOutrO-
| versy, aud entered Il solemn protest upon Its
| journals against all the violent language and
| the violent acts made use OF and committed by
! the king. The protest was the manly prototype
| OF the Grand Remonstrance, presented a few
| yeas later 10 Charles |, and asserted that "the
liberties and jurisdictions of Parliament are the
| ancient and undoubted biTthrght and inherit.
| anCe Of the subjects of Englaud,' with mach
| more TO the same purpose. Having discharged
| this duty, the members went 10 their homes for
| the hOiaays, and James, hearing what had been
! written, sent tor he journal, and, with his oRn
hand, lore out the page IN the presence OF his
! council.
In few years the spirit which prompted such
| conduct bore trait and we tud at the end Of Il
| quarter of a century from this time, C1ustmas
! coming round as Il day appointed by "the
! Houses" Tor day of "lastng and public humili-
| the nation was brought. We find within that
time an Archbishop of Canterbury (Laud)
| keeping Christmas with death warrant tor his
compositions; and we find the king himself
! (Charles l. spending his last cheerless Christ
| mas at Windsor, month before his execution,
in such sOrrowful wise that we must needs pity
him. A prisoner, IN daily apprehension OF the
| evil that actually did oYeTta69 him. nsultcd
| 10y his guard deprived OF the solace Of his
! family, utterly broken and cast down, tue cause
! for which he had strIven irrclTicVably lost, and
his conscience whispering to him bitter things
! especially in connection with the name Of the
| Earl Ut StTahOrd no wonder ii the poor man
| felt he was almost forsaken by God, to whom
let Us believe, he nevertheless drew near and
| found that comfort which they ever ind who
truly seek Him.
Had the captive monarch been gifted with
foresight to peer into the luture, he might have
seen, eleven years onward, sight which haC
gone far 10 console him tor the evil plight in
which he was. He might have seen General
Monk at Christmas, 1862 preparing to march
his northern army on London, bending his
energies 10 the task OF undoing the WORK SC
laboriouslY accomplished by Protector Crom
well. Yet, had his vision been extended still
mOle, he would have seen sight to bring all
ms feelings OF desOation back again. 1t was on
Christmas Day, 1888, that James ii, that luck
less son OF luckless talher, reached the coast
OF france, fugitive from mis- own dominiOns
On that day the Parliament, whose journals
the fist Stuart King of England had Sc
! rudcly handled siXty-siX years before, pre-
sCntcd an address to the Prince OF Orange
| beggng him 10 assume ana exercise he govern.
mcnt OF the country till convention Of the
chief n en- OF the kngdOm could meet and
decide how he might lawfully continue TO do so
as king, 1t was sad Chris S'ma9 tor James and
| HIS Ianily, despite the distractions which the
! generosity OF the French king so freely provided
| Tor them; but 10 was a glorious Christmas Day
Tor tie people Of Great Britain, who, delivered
| by a OlUouiess revolution from an uubearablg
| system oi government, began on that day a ne Y
! life, and startcd once II ne upon the career OF
! ndcECndcnce and pros penty, ia which they
| have continued, with sllg at interruptions, do M
| 10 the pre- Cnt time.
Shortly before Christmas, 1861, the frs! cases
| OF Inc Great Plague were reported in LO dOn
~ ere another Christmas had come and gone
! There was scarce n house in the metropolis in
! which there had not Deen one DEAD. The cold
| weather had been looked 10 IN vain "A mcauS
! OF repression for the duCase: the spring anG
| summer came, and the LoudOuers fell by tho
| thousand a day.
On the 2jth Of December, 1879 began whlt is
known as the Great Frost, which lasted for siN
weeks without break. The Thames was frozen
! over. an WAS Tyustp0 whole on the ice DN