Marten to go up two steps higher, that he might more and Pym. eafily be heard by the whole House. In this pofition, Mr. Harry Marten, the member for Berkshire, was "the gentleman below." Mr. Pym, the acknowledged chief of the majority of the Commons, is ever in his "ufual place "near the Bar," juft beyond the gallery on the fame right-hand fide of the houfe at entering. Sir John Culpeper, member for Kent, and fo foon to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, is "the Culpeper, "gentleman on the other fide of the way."* Hyde, Falkland, He fat upon the left-hand fide; and near him, and moft generally together, fat Hyde and FalkPalmer. land; Mr. Geoffrey Palmer, the member for Stamford, and Sir John Strangways, fitting near. On the fame fide at the upper end, on the Speaker's right, fat the elder Vane, member for Wilton, for a few days longer Secretary of State and Treasurer of the Household; near whom were other holders of office. Sir Vane and Thomas Jermyn, his Majesty's Comptroller, King's who fat for Bury St. Edmund's; Sir Edward minifters. Herbert, the Attorney-General, who fat for Old Sarum; Oliver St. John, the SolicitorGeneral, member for Totness, still holding the office in the King's fervice which had failed to draw him over to the King's fide; Mr. Coventry, member for Evesham and one of the King's household; † and young Harry Vane, member for Hull, and as yet Joint-treasurer of the Navy; all fat in this quarter, on the Speaker's 66 * "I defired that the gentleman on the other fide of the way-and then I looked on Sir John Culpeper, &c." "For if the gentleman on the other fide who last preffed "it—and then I looked towards Mr. Coventrie, &c." members. right. Near them fat alfo Mr. Edward Nicholas, Clerk of the Council, foon to be Sir Edward and Secretary of State in place of Windebank, now an anxious auditor and fpectator of this memorable debate, which he was there to report to the King. Between these Indepenmembers and Hyde, on the fame fide of the dent house, fat the member for Wilton, Sir Benjamin Rudyard; Sir Walter Earle; William Strode; and lawyer Glyn, the member for Westminster. Mr. Herbert Price, the member for Brecon, with Mr. Wilmot, member for Tamworth, and a knot of young courtiers, fat at the lower end of the house on the fame fide, immediately on the left at entering. John Hampden, Hampden fat on the other fide, behind Pym; Cromwell, and between him and Harry Marten, fat Ed- Hollis,and mund Waller; on one of the back benches, Selden. Cromwell; not far from him, Denzil Hollis ; and under the gallery, the member for Oxford University, the learned Mr. Selden.* Near him fat lawyer Maynard, the other member The for Totnefs; and over them, in the gallery lawyers. itself, that fuccessful lawyer, Mr. Holborne; Sir Edward Dering; and the member for Leicestershire, Sir Arthur Hafelrig. But our lift must come to a close. The reader has been detained too long from the debate on the Great Remonftrance. * "I said that I did prize whatsoever should fall from the pen or tongue of that learned gentleman under the gallery "—and then I looked towards Mr. Selden, &c." Waller, Eighth Hyde fpeaks. Doubts remon XIV. SPEECHES OF HYDE, FALKLAND, * HYDE opened this remarkable debate in a 2zd Nov. fpeech of great warmth and great length. The general ground of objection he took was that a Declaration fo put forth was without precedent; and he questioned the power of the House, in fo far as this was defined by the words used in the writs of election, to make, alone, a remonstrance to the people, without the concurrence of the Lords. Arguing from this, he afferted that the form of the Declaration touched the honour of the King, and that Houfe's it ought not, for that reafon, to be made right to public or be circulated among the people. Such a publication could only be justified by having peace for its end, and here every fuch object would be frustrated. In the Remonftrance itself, apart from these confiderations, he did not deny that there might be a propriety. The members of the House were accused to have done nothing either for King or kingdom. It was right to repel that charge. But if a Objections parliament must make an apology, let them show what they had done without looking too far back. They may defire themselves to fee, but they should not divulge, their own infirmities, any more than a general the defects ftrate. to form and language: Mr. Philip Warwick, young courtier as he was, and admirer of all things courtly, could yet detect the points in which the King's principal advocate in the Houfe was weak, as well for himself as his caufe. "Mr. Hyde's language "and style," he remarks, Hyde's were very fuitable to business, if wordinefs. "not a little too redundant." Memoires, p. 196. of his army to the enemy. All was true, if expreffed modeftly. But fuch paffages as Sir unjust to John Eliot's imprisonment under the King's the King. own hand, and his wanting bread, were 111expreffed. Let them be chary of Majefty. They stood upon their liberties even, for the Sovereign's fake: left he should be King of mean subjects, or they subjects of a mean King. Falkland fpeaks. Lord Falkland rofe immediately after Hyde, Lord. and, as his wont was, fpoke with greater paffion in his warmth and earnestness; his thin highpitched voice breaking into a scream, and his little, fpare, flight frame trembling with eagernefs. He ridiculed the pretenfion fet up in the Declaration to claim any right of approval King's over the councillors whom the King fhould right to name; as if priest and clerk fhould divide own nomination and approval between them. He ministers name his * In Sir Ralph Verney's Note of the debate (p. 121), this paffage ftands Sir John Eliot's imprisonment, under the Allufion King's own hand, and the King's wanting bread, ill ex- to Eliot "preffed." It is clear, however, that the words marked in in Remonitalics are a repetition by mistake from the previous line. ftrance: Clarendon in his History (ii. 51) affects to quote, in the exact words of the Remonftrance as it paffed ("after many unbe"coming expreffions were caft out "), the paffage respecting Eliot; and he quotes it in inverted commas, thus: "One of "which died in prifon, for want of ordinary refreshment, "whofe blood ftill cried for vengeance." The "want of "ordinary refreshment" in the hiftory, is clearly the fame as "wanting bread" in the fpeech; yet certainly the Remonftrance as printed says no such thing, and the words, if ever incorthere, must have been among the unbecoming expreffions caft rectly out. The paffage really runs thus: "Of whom one died by "the cruelty and harshness of his imprisonment, which would quoted by Hyde. "admit of no relaxation, notwithstanding the imminent "danger of his life did fufficiently appear by the declaration "of his phyfician. And his release, or at least his refresh"ment, was fought by many humble petitions. And his "blood ftill cries, &c." denounced it as unjust that the concealing of delinquents fhould be caft upon the King. He faid (forgetting a former fpeech of his own going directly to this point) it was not true to allege that Laud's party in the Church were in league with Rome; for that Arminians Defends agreed no more with Papists than with Protestants. And, with the power to make laws, why should they refort to declarations? Only where no law was available, were they called. to fubftitute orders and ordinances to com Laud. mand or forbid. Reminding them of the exifting state of Ireland, and of the many disturbances in England, he warned them Dangers that it was of a very dangerous confequence of at that time to fet out any remonstrance: at Remon ftrance. least such a remonftrance as this, containing many harsh expreffions. Above all, it was dangerous to declare what they intended. to do hereafter, as that they would petition his Majefty to take advice of his parliament in the choice of his privy council; and it was of the very worst example to make fuch allufion as that wherein they declared that already they had committed a bill to take away bishops' Apology votes. He pointed out the injuftice of imputing to the bishops generally the description bifhops of the Scotch war as bellum epifcopale, which he afferted had been fo ufed by only one of them. He very hotly condemned the expreffion of "bringing in idolatry," which he characterised as a charge of a high crime against all the bishops in the land. And he for * See ante, P. 217 |