Two additional Subsidies voted.] Dec. 23. The commons having resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, on the Supply, it was resolved, "That two Subsidies more should be added to those Subsidies already agreed upon, to be employed to the same uses, or to such as this house shall appoint." On this occasion,

Sir Benj. Rudyard rose and said: Mr. Speaker; The principal part of this business is money; and now we are about it, I shall be glad we may give so much as will not only serve the turn for the present, but likewise to provide that it come not quick upon us again: I believe that the two Subsidies are spent already. We know how much time this business hith cost us; if we be but half as long about another, it may cost more than money: for if two armies should be driven to extreme necessity, (and they will be judges of their own necessity) we shall not be able to sit here, and give more, though we would. Believe it, sir, this is the business of all the businesses in the house; of all the businesses in the kingdom: if we stand hacking for a little money, we may very thriftily lose all we have; this being a business of so peremptory and destructive a nature. Wherefore, my humble and earnest motion is, That we may dispatch it fully, and at once; if there should be an overplus of money remaining, we can soon resolve how to spose of it. Four Subsidies will do the work, they be given presently; for every day tells us that we are not so much masters of our own time and occasions, as to do every thing when we would let us do this whilst we may. Though I dwell not in the North, yet I dwell ia England.'

The Abp. of Canterbury's Petition to the Jards. The same day a Petition was presented to the lords from the archbishop of Canterbury,

in these words:

Spring-Garden, or any belonging to the king's house. But to be suffered to speak with nobody at that time out of the presence of the said usher, and he to be answerable for his grace's forthcoming."

Information against Dr. Fiers Bishop of Bath and Wells.] Dec. 24. It was resolved, by the commons, upon the question, That, upon several Informations and Complaints to this house made against Dr. Wm. Piers, bishop of Bath and Wells, of divers heinous crimes, tending to corruption and subversion of religion in that diocese, and other misdemeanors of a high nature, a message shall be sent to the lords, to desire them to take security from himself, and others, to be forthcoming, and to stand and abide the judgment of parliament. Sir H. Mildnay to go up with this message.' This was done accordingly, and the bishop, by himself and sureties, was bound in 10,000/. bond to answer this Charge of the commons against him.

6

เ

Alterations in the Judges Patents.] Jan. 15. About the beginning of this month a motion having been made, That for the future, this clause, Quamdiu se bene gesserint,' might be inserted in the patents of the Judges, instead of Durante beneplacito;' and a committee having been appointed to wait on the king with this request, the earl marshal and the lord Chamberlain reported this day, That his majesty condescended to the desired alteration for the future.

Bill for frequent holding of Parliaments.] Jan. 19. A Bill was brought in and read, called, A bill for preventing Inconvenience happening by the long Internission of Parliaments;' and, upon the question, ordered to be engrossed. The next day it passed the commons, and was sent up to the lords. In the course of its progress through the commons,

Lord Digby addressed the house thus: "That whereas your lordships petitioner, Mr. Speaker; I rise not now, with an intent when he was to withdraw and leave that ho- to speak to the frame and structure of this nourable assembly, gave offence to your lord- | bill, nor much by way of answer to objections ships in some thing which passed from him in that may be made; I hope there will be no his speech, he is very heartily sorry for the occasion for this, but that we shall concur, all saine; and most humbly prayeth that your unanimously, in what concerneth all so univerlordships will pass by that passionate offence, sally. Only, sir, by way of preparation, to the pressed from your petitioner by the weight and end that we may not be discouraged in this nexpectedness of the charge which fell upon great work, by difficulties that may appear in him. And that your honourable lordships the way of it, I shall deliver unto you my apwould be pleased to grant that your humble prehensions in general, of the vast importance petitioner may have some liberty to take the and necessity that we should go through with it. air, for his health's sake, under what safe- The result of my sense is, in short, this, That, guard your lordships shall think fit; and this unless for the frequent convening of parlia regard that his health begins to fail himments, there be some such course settled as already, by reason the house where he is hath no place in which he may take any fresh: air at all."

Whereupon the house ordered, "That the archbishop should take the air, for his health's sake, in company with Mr. Maxwell, the gentleman usher, to any place excepting the

From the original edition printed by Tho. Walkley.

may not be cluded, neither the people can be prosperous and secure, nor the king himself solidly happy. I take this to be the unum necessarium: let us procure this, and all our other desires will effect themselves. If this bill miscarry, I shall have left me no public hopes; and, once past, I shall be freed of all

* From the original edition, printed by Thomas Walkley,

this is a map of England too, and both at the same time but too true.-As it cannot he deniesi, Mr. Speaker, that, since the Conquest, there hath not been in this kingdom a fuller concur rence of all circumstances in the former charac ter, to have made a kingdom happy, than for these 12 years last past; so it is most certain, that there hath not been, in all that deduction of ages, such a conspiracy, if one may so say, of all the elements of mischief in the second cha racter, to bring a flourishing kingdom, if it were possible, to swift ruin and desolation. I

magnitude to the rights and property of the subject, as one branch of our beslaving since the Petition of Right! The branch I mean is the Judgment concerning Ship-Money-This being a true representation of England, in both aspects, let him, Mr. Speaker, that (for the uninatched oppression and enthralling of free subjects, in a time of the best king's reign, and in memory of the best laws enacted in favour of subjects liberty) can find a truer cause than the ruptures and intermission of parliaments; let him, I say, and him alone, be against the settling of this inevitable way for the frequent

public fears.-The essentialness, sir, of frequent parliaments, to the happiness of this kingdom, might be inferred unto you by the reason of contraries, and from the woful experience which former times have had of the mischievous effects of any long intermission of them. But, Mr. Speaker, why should we climb higher than the level we are on; or think further than our horizon; or have recourse for examples in this business to any other promptuary than our own memories; nay, than the experience almost of the youngest here? The reflection, backward, on the distractions of former times upon inter-will be bold to say, (and I thank God, we have mission of parliaments, and the consideration, so good a king, under whom we may speak forward, of the mischiefs likely still to grow boldly of the abuse of his power, by ill ministers, from the same cause, if not removed, doubt- without reflection upon his person) that an acculesly gave first life and being to those two dor- mulation of all the public Grievances since Magmant statutes of Edw. 3. for the yearly holding Charta, one upon another, unto that hour m of a parliament: and shall not the fresh and which the Petition of Right passed into an act of bleeding experience, in the present age, of mi- parliament, would not amount to so oppressive, series from the same spring, not to be para-I am sure not to so destructive, a height and lelled in any other, obtain a wakening, a resurrection for them? The intestine distempers, sir, of former ages upon the want of parliaments, may appear to have had some other co-operative causes; as, sometimes unsuccessful wars abroad; sometimes, the absence of the prince; sometimes, competitions of titles to the crown; sometimes, perhaps, the vices of the king himself. Let us only consider the posture, the aspect of this state, both toward itself and the rest of the world; the person of our sovereign, and the nature of our suffering, since the 3d of his reign: and there can be no cause, colourably inventible, whereunto to at-holding of them.-It is true, sir, wicked ministribute them, but the intermission, or, which is worse, the undue frustration of parliaments, by the unlucky use, if not abuse, of prerogative in the dissolving them. Take into your view, Mr. Speaker, a kingdom in a state of the greatest quiet and security that can be fancied; not only enjoying the calmest peace itself, but, to improve and secure its happy condition, all the rest of the world at the same time in tempests, in combustions, in uncomposable wars. Take into your view, sir, a king, sovereign of three kingdoms, by a concentring of all the royal lines in his person, as indisputably as any mathematical ones in Euclid; a king, firm and knowing in his religion, eminent in virtue; a king, that hath, in his own time, given all the rights and liberties of his subjects a more clear and ample confirmation, freely and graciously (I mean in the Petition of Right) than any of his predecessors, (when the people had them at advantage) extortedly. This is one map of England, Mr. Speaker. A man, sir, that should present unto you, now, a kingdom, groaning under that supreme law which salus populi periclitata would enact; the liberty, the property, of the subject fundamentally subverted, ravished away by the violence of a pretended necessity; a triple crown shaking with distempers; men of the best conscience ready to fly into the wilderness for religion! Would not one swear that this were the antipodes to the other? And yet, let me tell you, Mr. Speaker,

ters have been the proximate causes of our miseries; but the want of Parliaments the pri mary, the efficient causes: il ministers have made ill times; but that, sir, hath made ili ministers. I have read, anong the laws of the Athenians, a form of recourse, in their oaths and vows of their greatest and public concernment, to a threefold deity, Supplicium exaudtori, purgatori, malorum depulsori. I doubt not but we, here assembled for the commonwealth in this parliament, shall meet with al these attributes in our sovereign. I make question but he will graciously hear our sup plications, purge away our grievances, and expel malefactors; that is, remove ill ministers, and put good in their places. No less can be expected from his wisdom and goodness.-But let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, if we partake not of one attribute more in him; if we address not ourselves unto that, I mean bonorum cotservatori, we can have no solid, no durab comfort in all the rest: for lethis majesty hear our complaints never so compassionately: Let him purge away our grievances never so effica ciously: let him punish and dispel ill ministers never so exemplarily: let him make choice of good ones never so exactly: yet, if there be ne a way settled to preserve and keep them good. the mischiefs and they will all grow again he Sampson's locks, and pull down the house upon our heads. Believe it, Mr. Speaker, they wil It hath been a maxim among the wisest legi

lators, That whosoever means to settle good | let them enjoy, unmolestedly, what belongs laws, must proceed in them with a sinister unto them of right: if that hath been invaded opinion of all mankind, and suppose, that who- and violated in any kind, whereby affections soever is not wicked, it is for want only of the are alienated, the next consideration for a wise opportunity. It is that opportunity of being prince, that would be happy, is how to regain ill, that we must take away, if ever we mean them; to which 3 things are equally necessary. to be happy; which can never be done, but by 1. Reinstating them in their former liberty. 2, the frequency of Parliaments. No state can Revenging them of the authors of those violawisely be confident of any public minister's tions; and, 3. Securing them from apprehencontinuing good, longer than the rod is over sions of the like again. The first, God be him. Let me appeal to all those that were thanked, we are in a good way of. The sepresent in this house, at the agitation of the cond in warm pursuit of. But the third, as Petition of Right; and let them tell us truly essential as all the rest, till we be certain of of whose promotion to the management of Triennial Parliaments, at the least, I profess I affairs do they think the generality would, at can have but cold hopes of.-I beseech you that time, have had better hopes than of the then, since that security for the future is so late Mr. Noy and sir Tho. Wentworth; both necessary to that blessed union of affections, being at that time, and in that business, as I and this bill so necessary to that security; let have heard, most keen and active patriots; and us not be so wanting to ourselves, let us not the latter of them, (to the eternal aggravation be so wanting to our sovereign, as to forbear to of his infamous treachery to the commonwealth offer unto him this powerful, this everlasting be it spoken) the first mover and insister to philter, to charm unto him the hearts of his have this clause added to the Petition of Right, people, whose virtue can never evaporate. 'That, for the comfort and safety of his majes- There is no man, Mr. Speaker, so secure of ty's subjects, he would be pleased to declare another's friendship, but will think frequent his will and pleasure, that all his ministers intercourse and access very requisite to the should serve him according to the laws and support, to the confirmation of it: especially if statutes of the realm.' (See p. 377).-And ill offices have been done between them; if yet, Mr. Speaker, to whom now can all the the raising of jealousies hath been attempted. mundations upon our liberties, under pretence There is no friend but would be impatient to of law, and the late shipwreck, at once, of all be debarred from giving his friend succour and our property, be attributed more than to Noy: relief in his necessities.-Mr. Speaker, permit and those, and all other mischiefs whereby this me the comparison of great things with little. monarchy hath been brought almost to the What friendship, what union can there be so brink of destruction, so much to any as to that comfortable, so happy, as between a gracious grand a postate to the commonwealth, the now sovereign and his people? And what greater beutenant of Ireland? The first I hope God misfortune can there be to both, than to be hath forgiven in the other world; and the lat- kept from intercourse, from the means of ter must not hope to be pardoned in this, till he clearing misunderstandings, from interchange be dispatched to the other. Let every man of mutual benefits? The people of England, but consider those men as once there were; sir, cannot open their ears, their hearts, their the excellent law for the security of the sub-mouths, or their purses, to his majesty, but in ject, enacted immediately before their coming parliament. We can neither hear him, nor to employment, in the contriving whereof then-complain, nor acknowledge, nor give, but there. selves were principal actors; the goodness and virtue of the king they served; and yet the high and public oppressions that, in his time, they have wrought; and surely there is no man but will conclude with me, that, as the deficience of parliaments hath been the causa cansarum of all the mischiefs and distempers of the present times; so the frequency of them is the sole catholic antidote that can preserve and Secure the future from the like.--Mr. Speaker, me yet draw my discourse a little nearer to tas majesty himself, and tell you, that the frequency of parliaments is most essentially neersary to the power, the security, the glory of the king. There are two ways, Mr. Speaker, cipowerful rule, either by fear, or love; but only one of happy and safe rule, that is, by love; that Firmissimum imperium quo obedientes gaudent:" to this Camillus advised the Romans. Let a prince consider what it is that moves a people, principally, to affection and dearness towards their sovereign, he shall see that there needs no other artifice in it than to

let

VOL. II.

This bill, sir, is the sole key that can open the way to a frequency of those reciprocal endearments, which must make and perpetuate the happiness of the king and kingdom. Let no man object any derogation from the king's prerogative by it. We do but present the bill, it is to be made a law by him. His honour, his power, will be as conspicious in commanding at once that parliaments shall assemble every third year, as in commanding a parliament to be called this or that year. There is more of majesty in ordaining primary and universal causes, than in the actuating particularly of subordinate effects. I doubt not but that glorious king Edw. 3. when he made those laws for the yearly calling of parliaments, did it with a right sense of bis dignity and honour. The truth is, sir, the king's of England are never in their glory, in their splendor, in their majestic sovereignty, but in parliament. Where is the power of imposing taxes? Where is the power of restoring from incapacities? Where is the legislative authority? Marry, in 2 Z

have been earnest in demanding the same. But the thankfulness which we conceive to be due, does not consist in our affections or words at this time, but in the mutual kindness and real declarations to be expected from the whole

totally exhausted, his debts excessively multi- | for their friendly assistance and relief, than we plied, the kingdom generally impoverished by grievous burthens and disordered courses! All this supply is to be drawn out of us only, without the least help from any of his majesty's other dominions; which to my seeming, will be an utter draining of the people, unless Eng-kingdom of Scotland, in all times to come: land be puteus inexhaustns, as the Popes were and that, not only for the measure and proporwont to call it.-Notwithstanding, sir, now tion which the parliament hath conceived to that I have in part opened the state we are in, be fit, and which, to begin our thankfulness though nothing so exactly as they have done now, we do, in the name of the whole kingtheirs, I shall most willingly and heartily afford dom, chearfully accept of; but also for the the Scots whatsoever is just, equitable, and kind and Christian manner of granting it unto honourable, even to a convenient, consider- us, as to their Brethren; which addeth a weight able, round sum of money, towards their losses above many thousands, and cannot be comand expences, that we may go off with a friendly pensated, but by paying the reciprocal love and and handsome loss: if they reject it, we shall duty of Brethren; and for the Resolution, To unprove our cause. It was never yet thought, consider, in due time, for the raising the same Mr. Speaker, any great wisdom, over much to for our relief, which also maketh the benefit trust a successful sword. A man that walks to be double. This makes us confident that upon a rising ground, the further he goes, the God, whose working at this time hath been targer is his prospect; success enlarges men's wonderful, hath decreed the peace and amity desires, extends their ambition, it breeds of the kingdoms, and will remove all rubs out thoughts in ther they never thought before; of the way, that our enemies at last will despair this is natural and usual. But the Scots being to divide us, when they see that God hath truly touched with religion, according to their joined us in such a fraternity; and that Divine profession, that only is able to make them keep Providence will plentifully recompence unto their word; for religion is stronger and wiser the kingdom of England their justice and kindthan reason, or even reasons of state.-Beyondness, and unto Scotland all their losses; which all this, Mr. Speaker, the remarkable traces of shall, by these and other means amongst ourGod's wonderful Providence in this strange selves, be repaired by the rich and sweet work, are so many, so apparent, as I cannot blessing of the purity and power of the gospel, but hope, almost to belief, that the same all-attended with the benefit of a happy and duragoverning merciful hand, will conduct and lead ble peace, under his majesty's long and prosus to a happy conclusion; will contract a closer, perous reign, and of his royal posterity to all firmer union between the two nations, than generations." Dated Feb. 5, 1649. any meer hunan policy could ever have effected, with inestimable benefits to both; in advancing the truth of religion; in exalting the greatness of the king; in securing the peace of his kingdoms, against all malicious, envious, ambitious opposites to religion, to the king, to his kingdoms; wherein I presume, all our desires and prayers do meet.'

On the 3rd of Feb. the Affair of the Scots was again taken into consideration, by a committee of the whole house; and it was resolved, on the question, "That this house doth conceive that the sun of 300,000/. is a fit proportion for the friendly Assistance and Rolief for merly thought proper to be given towards the supply of the Losses and Necessities of our brethren of Scotland; and that this house will, in due time, take into consideration the manner how, and the time when, the same shall be

A Conference concerning the King's reprieving Goodman, a condemned Seminary Priest.] Jan. 23. The commous sent up to desire a conference with the lords, which being agreed to, a report of it was made in the upper house, by the lord privy seal, to this effect:-" That Mr. Glynn had acquainted them with the commons sending to the city of London, to advance money for his majesty's service, and that of the commonwealth; answer was returned, That there was a general discontent amongst the citizens, for the reprieval of one Goodman, a seminary priest, lately condemned for high treason, who had been formerly so for the same offence, and banished this kingdom. By which they found that there was a great connivance at Jesuits and Priests through the kingdom, to the great disheartening of the people in this time of parliament, when they expect a thorough reformation. The con The Scots Commissioners return Thanks.] mons, therefore, desired their lordships assistThe next day this Resolution of the commons ance to discover such instruments as have dared was made known to the lords, at a conference, to intercede for the interruption of public jusand 3 days after, we find an Answer of the Scots tice against such offenders, &c." The lords Commissioners entered in the Lords' Journals, thought proper to acquaint the king with this by way of returning their thanks for this extra-message from the commons, and appointed ordinary bounty; which we give in its own the lord privy seal and the earl marshal to dewords:"We intreat your lordships, whose liver it. endeavours God hath blessed in this great work, to make known to the parliament, that we do no less desire to shew our thankfulness

raised."

The King's Speech relating to the Distrac tions in the Government.] This day, the king having commanded both houses to come be