That kings have no more immunity than others from the consequences of evil doing is a proposition which seemed monstrous to many in Milton’s day, but which will command general assent in ours.  But to lay it down that “any who has the power” may interpose to correct what he chooses to consider the laches of the lawful magistrate is to hand over the administration of the law to Judge Lynch—­rather too high a price to pay for the satisfaction of bringing even a bad king to the block.  Milton’s sneer at “vulgar and irrational men, contesting for privileges, customs, forms, and that old entanglement of iniquity, their gibberish laws,” is equivalent to an admission that his party had put itself beyond the pale of the law.  The only defence would be to show that it had acted under great and overwhelming necessity; but this he takes for granted, though knowing well that it was denied by more than half the nation.  His argument, therefore, is inconclusive, except that portion of it which modern opinion allows to pass without argument.  He seems indeed to admit in his “Defensio Secunda” that the tract was written less to vindicate the King’s execution than to saddle the protesting Presbyterians with a share of the responsibility.  The diction, though robust and spirited, is not his best, and, on the whole, the most admirable feature in his pamphlet is his courage in writing it.  He was to speak yet again on this theme as the mouthpiece of the Commonwealth, thus earning honour and reward; it was well to have shown first that he did not need this incentive to expose himself to Royalist vengeance, but had prompting enough in the intensity of his private convictions.

He had flung himself into a perilous breach.  “Eikon Basilike”—­most timely of manifestoes—­had been published only four days before the appearance of “The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.”  Between its literary seduction and the horror generally excited by the King’s execution, the tide of public opinion was turning fast.  Milton no doubt felt that no claim upon him could be equal to that which the State had a right to prefer.  He accepted the office of “Secretary for Foreign Tongues” to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, a delegation from the Council of State of forty-one members, by which the country was at that time governed.  Vane, Whitelocke, and Marten were among the members of the committee.  The specified duties of the post were the preparation and translation of despatches from and to foreign governments.  These were always in Latin,—­the Council, says that sturdy Briton, Edward Phillips, “scorning to carry on their affairs in the wheedling, lisping jargon of the cringing French.”  But it must have been understood that Milton’s pen would also be at the service of the Government outside the narrow range of official correspondence.  The salary was handsome for the time—­L288, equivalent to about L900 of our money.  It was an honourable post, on the manner of whose discharge the credit of England