Strafford obstinately persisted in the line of policy which [A.D. 1640.] he had once taken up. He persisted in attributing to the Scots those very intentions of which they declared their horror. Even in the proclamation of the King the enterprise of the Scots was described as a raid of freebooters, after the fashion of former centuries[188]. The spiritual and temporal lords were summoned in the style of former ages, to join the King’s standard with the followers whom they were bound to bring. Strafford still hoped to put down the opponents of the sovereign authority in both countries. He thought to bring the strength of England into the field by the means which formerly had been at the service of the crown; he intended that the very revolt of the Scots should help him to subdue them. A new battle of Flodden Field would have restored the monarchy as it once existed, on both sides of the border. No one will make any very heavy political charge against Strafford on the score of his government of Ireland, or of the partisan attitude which he had taken up in the intestine struggle in England in general; for the ideas for which he contended were as much to be found in the past history of England as were those which he attacked. His royalist principles are not without basis and elevation; he at all events had no conscious intention of proceeding to employ illegal violence. The greatest blame which falls upon him is incurred by his behaviour during these days; his mistake lay in wishing to treat England in the same way as Ireland: but a past success is an evil counsellor under circumstances which are entirely different; both he and his sovereign were deficient in the sense of what was practicable in England. While they in their zeal were proceeding to the most extreme assertion of the prerogative for which old precedent could be found, they were placed in a position where such an assertion could no longer be made with effect. For whatever may be the nature of laws, they never can be executed unless, to a certain extent, they are voluntarily accepted. Strafford’s most imprudent [A.D. 1640.] act was the prosecution of the war against Scotland, after Parliament had refused to grant the subsidies necessary for that object. However large the sums which the Lords might contribute in accordance with the pledge which they had given, it was clear that these would not suffice to carry on a great war. But what resources were left when these were exhausted?