his death: (as for example in his fpeech against the Court of Wards as late as '45); ftill inceffantly defiring a compromife; and, though he never regained any eminence in public affairs, not paffing from the scene till he was eighty-feven. Acting in It seems quite clear, therefore, that the writers or Houfe till politicians who want a precedent for the defer- æt. 87. tion and abuse of a great cause, or a set of great principles, muft not go to the life of the very eftimable Sir Benjamin Rudyard. They must be fatisfied with the ftudy of the life of Hyde, which will fhow them, perhaps better than any other piece in history, how it is poffible to act in intimate union with the principles and policy of a particular party at the commencement of a life, and to employ its clofe in steadily blackening the characters and opinions of the men with whom one had fo acted cordially in earlier days. When Rudyard resumed his feat, he was Mr. fucceeded by Mr. Bagfhaw, the member for Baghaw speaks: Southwark, whofe effective fpeech on grievances at the opening of the feffion had for a time given him a place in the House which he failed to make good. He had now joined Hyde's party, but did them small service in this difcuffion. All that has furvived of his fpeech are two objections to a paffage in the Declaration as to the abuses of the law courts; and against the tendency of one expreffion, against "the rest of the clergy," to comprehend and Remonblame the whole of that profeffion. But he ftrance. was followed by a more powerful speaker. the Sir John speaks. SXV. SPEECHES OF CULPEPER, PYM, BRIDG- SIR John Culpeper, Dering's colleague in Culpeper the reprefentation of Kent, and, after Falkland, Hyde's ftrength and reliance in the debate, fpoke next after Bagfhaw; and we may well fuppofe the fpeech, from the fragment of it that remains, to have been highly characteristic of the man.* With a ready elocution, he had a rough and hafty temper; and though, when he pleased, few were fo qualified by memory and quickness to seize Manner of and reproduce all the points in a difcuffion, he fpeaking. feldom faw, or cared to fee, more than that fingle point to which he chofe to address himfelf. At all times in speaking, Hyde admits, he was warm and pofitive, uncourtly and ungraceful in his mien and motion, and somewhat indifferent to religion. His firft objection now Character of Culpeper. "He feldom made an entire judgment of the matter in queftion, for his apprehenfion was commonly better than "his refolution; and he had an eagerness or ferocity that "made him lefs fociable than his other colleagues; (for his "education and converfe in the world had been in part "military) and his temper hafty."-Sir Philip Warwick's Memoires, p. 196. "He might very well be thought a man "of no very good breeding; having never facrificed to the "Mufes, or converfed in any polite company."-Clarendon's Remark Life, i. 106-8. In his History (ii. 94), he fays that he could by Hyde: upon occafion, when he spoke at the end of a debate, as his custom often was, recollect all that had been faid of weight on all fides with great exactness, and exprefs his own fenfe with much clearness and fuch an application to the House, that no man more gathered a general concurrence to his opinion than he. This defcription, however, from other applicable accounts, would seem to be much more applicable to the to Pym. speaking of Pym. more ftrance : fary: to the Remonftrance was that it spoke of alter- Objects to ing the government of the Church, and would Remontherefore offend the people; an argument which certainly no other fpeaker would have had the boldness to put in that form. He then declared his oppofition to rest upon two grounds. The firft was, that the Declaration was unneceffary. The parliament had not not necefbeen "fcandaled" by any public act, and therefore needed not to fend out any declaration to clear themselves. The fecond was, that if this were not fo, it was yet both unconftitutional and dangerous in its prefent form. Going but from that House, he faid, it went but on one leg. All remonftrances fhould be and danaddreffed to the King, and not to the people, gerous in because it belonged to the King only to redress grievances. Their writs of election did not warrant them to fend any declaration to the People people, but only to treat with the King and not to be the lords: nor had it ever been done by any alone. parliament heretofore. It would be moft dangerous for the public peace. form. addreffed The member for Tavistock rose after him, and delivered a fpeech which in the manufcript record of the debate before me is characterised Pym as an answer to what had been faid by the peaks. various members who preceded him; and of which the fragment remaining, fcanty as it is, fhows that this was indeed its character. Even here its maffive and equal proportions are manifeft; and we may trace again the calm power and felf-poffeffion with which the veteran leader of the Parliament appears to have paffed in review the previous fpeakers, as his cuftom Anfwers preceding was in the great debates, and to have answered fpeakers. each. The boldness and plain fpeaking of his reference to the King was even for him remarkable. To Hyde's appeal that the House should be chary above all things of the King's honour, Replies Pym replied that the honour of the King lay to Hyde: in the fafety of the people, and that the members of that House had no choice now but to tell the truth. They had narrowly escaped great dangers, and the time was paffed for concealment. The Plots had been very near the King. All had been driven home to the Court and the Popish party. To what the noble lord (Falkland) had objected against the alleged replies to neceffity of difallowing the votes of the Popish Falkland. lords and their abettors the bishops, he answered that good laws paffed in fpite of thofe votes formed no answer to the affertion that the continued prefence of fuch voters would prevent the future enactment of fimilar neceffary laws. That debate itself might help to fhow how their dangers were increafing upon them; and "will any one deny," afked Pym, "that the Popish lords and the bishops do now obstruct " us?" Nor could he fee any breach of privilege in naming them; for had they not heretofore often complained of particular lords being away, and of miscarriages that lords had occafioned? Where alfo, he defired to know, Parlia- fhould be the danger apprehended by "the "noble learned lord" in the recommendation King. to his Majefty not to choose such counsellors as that House might be unable to approve? "We have suffered fo much by counsellors of Claim of ment to advise minifters. "the King's choofing," faid Pym, "that we Right to "defire him to advise with us about it." He controul maintained that this courfe was conftitutional, and where was the objection to it? Many of the King's fervants were known to have moved him about fuch counsellors, and why may not the parliament? He enlarged upon this; and illuftrated the mischief of difregarding fuch advice by that quarrel with the first parliament upon the unwife treaty of peace with Spain, which had been fraught with fo many evils. The fame worthy lord, and the knight who Replies to spoke after him in the debate, had objected to Culpeper. the expreffion idolatry. But for himself, he declared his opinion that altar-worship WAS idolatry; and fuch worship had undoubtedly been enjoined by the bishops in all their cathedrals. Coupling afterwards Sir John Culpeper's affertion as to the danger of disturbing Replies to the exifting Church government, with Sir Dering. Edward Dering's urgent appeal against the danger of permitting fectarianifm to intrude into the liturgy or fervice, Pym avowed his readiness to join in a law against fectaries, and remarked that they would moft furely prevent the evil by going to the root of what caused it. Let them take care, then, that no more of fuch pious and godly minifters as were now feparatifts beyond the fea, fhould be driven out of England for not reading the Book of Sports. Adverting next to what had fallen Slanders from opponents of the Declaration in admiffion against of the flanders thrown out against parliament, Pym challenged them to fhow that anything but a Declaration could take away the accufa Parlia |