(Chat Moss, it is presumed,) "rose up out of its place, moved a great distance, carrying trees, stone-troughs, &c. before it, and committing apparently much devastation: . it filled the brookes and rivers, slew the fish, blackn'd the water, made some fruitful land barren."

CHAPTER II.

From the accession of James the First may be dated the active development of that religio-political spirit which eventually led to results so important to this nation. Gifted with considerable powers, and prompted by the best inclinations, one of the first acts of James was to annul many of those exclusive privileges, granted by his predecessor, which had fettered the enterprize of his people and interfered injuriously with the trade of Manchester and other towns. But in this as in every change to which he and his successors consented, he stands liable to the charge of having done just enough to excite hope and too little to satisfy reasonable desires. In dealing with religious matters he was even less fortunate: he presided over a well-meant, but foolish and unprofitable, disputation at Hampton Court, between the Bishops and the non-conformists, the only result of which was to raise expectations which could never be gratified, and consequently to render more bitter the hostility of the sectarians. This conference was attended by Dr. Chadderton, D.D., a Manchester man of some celebrity.

In 1618 the King visited Lancashire, and made a short sojourn at Hoghton Tower; during which time, learning no doubt the injurious effect of the severe restrictions upon popular sports, he took occasion to modify them, but without much apparent benefit on the one hand, whilst on the other he greatly offended the Puritans. An amusing anecdote is recorded of Dr. R. Murrey, who was

installed Warden of Manchester about this period, through the mediation of some friendly Scottish Lords at Court. In addition to being a "great pluralist," he appears to have had mental disqualifications for his high office, which, however, he did not often exhibit in Manchester, having only preached twice in the town during his Wardenship; first from Genesis, and afterwards, by a bound, from a text in Revelations, which caused it to be remarked that in his preachings he had "begun and ended the Bible." This great pluralist, discoursing on one occasion before royalty, selected as his text the words "I am not ashamed of the Gospel," whereby he gave the learned monarch an opportunity of rebuking him, when he came to kiss his Majesty's hand. "Thou art not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ," said the monarch, "but by the Gospel of Christ may be ashamed of thee." The retort was more just than dignified.

The eventful reign of Charles I., a period fraught with some cheering and many painful recollections, at length commenced. The nation had arrived at that condition when a collision between the opposing parties in the state could scarcely have been averted, save by some miraculous intervention. It is not surprising, when a Queen like Elizabeth had been baffled in all her endeavours to keep down, in its infancy, the spirit of hostility to the national institutions as they then existed in Church and State, that a King like Charles I. should fail in a similar endeavour, when time had strengthened and embittered long-existing animosities. The Puritans, and not the Papists, were now the objects of jealousy. This party, under whose banners were ranged many of the beneficed clergy, raged so fiercely in Manchester that, in 1632, a paper inciting the people to open rebellion, in consequence of the unfriendly spirit manifested by Government towards the Puritans, was posted

on the Collegiate Church doors. It was entitled "A little melancholic treason extracted from a distracted and simple soul," and was of course forthwith pulled down and transmitted to the Privy Council. The ancient family of the Traffords joined, with apparent cordiality, the advocates of the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII., and subsequently continued strenuously to uphold the new ecclesiastical arrangements until the reign of Charles; when, in 1632, Sir Cecil Trafford relapsed to the Catholic Church, in whose bosom his successors have ever since continued. In 1635 the King re-founded the College in Manchester, enjoining particularly, in the charter, that the Warden and Fellows should thenceforward reside in the town. Prior to this event the clergy had been divided among themselves, at a time when Puritanism was making rapid progress, and when, consequently, union and activity were on their parts especially desirable. Richard Heyrick, the then Warden, was more jealous of Popery than of Puritanism, and appears to have taken freqnent occasion to denounce the former from the pulpit. Manchester, he said, had become the "Goshen of this Egypt:" "great men (referring to Sir Cecil Trafford) have followers of their vices as of their persons; and when they please to be idolaters, their children, and servants, and tenants, their poor kindred, and idolizing neighbours, will to the mass with them." The Papists were closely organized in Lancashire; the clergy knew it; and the denunciations of their creed from the Protestant pulpits were proportionately loud and frequent. There was, too, a continued apprehension of those secret plots, so rife in the reign of Mary, suspicion of which had been revived by the gunpowder treason in the time of James. The anniversary of his deliverance was still strictly observed by the people, whilst to the clergy it gave opportunity for extraordinary fulminations. On one of

these occasions Heyrick, taking as his text the striking words of St. Paul, "Brethren stand fast," glanced briefly but forcibly at the machinations of Fawkes and his associate conspirators:-"The knife was at the throat, the dagger at the breast, the powder in the barrel, the match burning in the hand, and there was the villain ready to give fire, but God delivered us: they perished in their treason, and let their memories perish with them."

The events of the fifteen years which elapsed from the accession of Charles to the outbreak of the great rebellion are familiar as household terms. It will suffice here to state, that Lancashire equally with other counties, and Manchester as one of the chief towns, suffered under the oppressive measures to which favoured councillors advised the King; that in the Dutchy was planted a branch of the iniquitous Star Chamber; and that the bitterness of spirit every where engendered by these proceedings suffered no mitigation amongst us. Party politics ran "mountains high," and made the subsequent conflict more of a local than a general struggle. In the preparations for the illfated Scottish expeditions of the King, Sir Cecil Trafford was appointed to levy troops in Lancashire; and when, in July, 1640, Charles experienced some reverses and retreated, an order for public fasting and humiliation was issued in Manchester. The religious devotions at the Collegiate Church terminated on the occasion with an eloquent discourse by the Warden, Heyrick, who, preaching from the text, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” feelingly dwelt upon the evils of social conflict. "War (he said) is only sweet to them that are ignorant of it. Our kingdom hath enjoyed a longer time of peace than some kingdoms have; our age hath not been roused with the barking of uncouth wolves; the midnight drum hath not frightened our sleep; the sounding trumpet hath not deaft our ears; our beacons have not been fired, our ships