Second Debate: fays a member who took roth Nov. On Wednesday, the 10th of November, part in the debate, "we proceeded with the Remonftrance where "we left off yesterday." Infertions and additions were again made, among them one having reference to flavish doctrines against the fubject's property in his estate, very generally preached from pulpits before the King; and a peremptory order, iffued at this fitting, to the No copies effect that the clerk should on no account give given out. out copies of the Declaration until the Houfe had fully perfected it, may ferve to show how intereft was gathering around it from day to day. to be 11th Nov. Strode. The Irish Rebellion, and provifion for the Speech by levies and expenditure it had fuddenly rendered neceffary, occupied the House fo inceffantly during the fitting of the 11th of November, that the order for refuming the Remonftrance had to be laid afide; but a remarkable allufion was thrown out in reference to it, by Strode, in the course of the debate on the raifing money for fupply of his Majesty's wants in Ireland. He fpoke of the diffatisfaction of the people, and of the injuftice of laying further burdens on Deftina them, until fomething were done to reaffure them under their prefent fears and mifgivings, and to give them hope that what with fo much avowed: toil and facrifice had been lately gained was not again to be completely loft. "Sir," faid the member for Beeralfton, "I move against "the order of the committee that we should tion of Remonftrance to go to the people. not admit of the giving of money till the "Remonftrance be paffed this House, and gone "into the country to fatisfy them." This at any rate was plain fpeaking. Thus early in the debates, the defire and the design of the promoters of the Remonftrance were frankly avowed. It was to be to them fome guarantee that the army about to be raised for the To be fuppreffion of Irish rebellion, fhould not here- printed after be used for the fuppreffion of English culated. liberty. It was to be printed and circulated among the people. and cir Debate: 12th Nov. That was on Thursday, the 11th of Novem- Third ber. On the day following, the Remonstrance was proceeded with, and every part fo obftinately difputed, that the Houfe fat far into that November afternoon. A motion for rifing having been refifted fuccessfully, another member moved that candles fhould be brought. Motion This was a proceeding as yet very rarely e reforted to; it having been only during the proceedings on the Attainder of Strafford that the order of the House had been fo far relaxed as to admit of new motions made, except with fpecial permiffion, after noon.† "Sir," said for can dles. Strode seems to have had the habit of blurting out in Strode's words, in a sudden impulfive way, what the more referved of manner of the party more prudently were content to leave as matter of speech. inference from their acts. As to the question of disbanding the Scotch army, for inftance, he frankly avowed: "We 66 cannot yet spare the Scotch. The fons of Zeruiah are too "ftrong for us," for which, being called to order, the House refused to exact any apology. (Journals, Feb. 6, 1640-1.) What he thus openly declared had till then (according to May, lib. i. cap. viii.) been afferted principally by the ill- Avowal affected, who not only in difcourfe but written libels taxed the Parliament with it, imputing it to them as a crime of too Scotch much distrust of the King, and accufing them of having kept army. up a foreign army to overawe their own Prince. I find, from the D'Ewes manuscript before me, that on the 4th December 1640, on the motion of Strode, an order was made that " every one upon coming into the House who did as to D'Ewes of candles. the advocate for candles, who was no other than D'Ewes himself, "we have now been in favour ❝ fitting in the house near upon feven hours" (the ordinary hour of meeting was eight o'clock in the morning, but of late, in confequence of the prolonged fittings, the hour had been generally nine, fometimes even ten o'clock), "and we do not now think fit to rife, but we will still fit. I defire that we may fit "according to the ancient ufe of parliaments, having the ufe as well of our eyes as of our "ears; and that lights may be brought in." Private reports to the King. Shilling fines. Orders as to bufinefs: On this very day, Nicholas had written fomewhat more hopefully to the King that the House had been the day before fo employed about Irish affairs, that they meddled not with their Declaration: but after a very few days he has, lefs eagerly, to report that they have been making up for loft time. "The House "of Commons," he wrote, "haftens by all means the finishing of the Declaration or "Remonftrance; and for the more speedy expediting of it, they have at the committee "not take his place, or did, after taking his place, talk fo "loud as to interrupt the bufineis of the House from being "heard, fhould pay a fhilling fine, to be divided between the "ferjeant and the poor.' And to this order, on the motion of Sir John Strangways, the member for Weymouth, it was added that after twelve o'clock no new bufinefs be entered "into, or moved, without the leave of the House." More formally it was refolved a few days later, upon the motion of Sir Walter Earle, the other member for Weymouth, "that "the ancient order of the House be observed: namely, that 66 no bills be read the fecond time but between the hours of "nine and twelve." To which it was added, at the suggestion of Mr. Speaker (Lenthal), that all bills might be read a first reading of time, early in the morning. For further notices of fuch orders and modes of proceeding in the House, fee Arrest of Five Members, § xxiii. as to Bills. paffed by many particulars to avoid the "delay of long debates." of His 15th Nov. In those few words were alfo expreffed the Tenacity steady perseverance and tenacity of what was Majesty's truly to be called His Majefty's Oppofition. oppofiEvery inch of the ground was fo contefted, tion. indeed, that only the most watchful and refolute determination could avail to maintain any part of it unimpaired; and all the forms of the House were exhaufted in pretences for delay. The whole of the fitting of Monday, Fourth the 15th of November, was taken up with the Debate: difcuffion of the single clause which ultimately ftood as the hundred and ninetieth. In this, adverting to the charges brought by the illaffected party against the leaders of the House of Commons, it was affirmed, in contradiction. of those charges, that not the meddling of the Commons with the power of epifcopacy, but the idolatry and popifh ceremonies introduced As to into the Church by command of the bishops bishops' favouring themselves, were the caules why fectaries and idolatry. conventicles abounded in England, and why Englishmen, seeking liberty of worship, had been driven into exile. A debate of extraordinary vehemence arofe upon this word. command. It was led by Sir Edward Der- Speech by ing, the member for Kent, who but a Dering. * * Poor Sir Edward Dering got himself only laughed at for his pains in going fuddenly over to Hyde's party on this and the other queftion of the Bishops. He loft his feat in the House fhortly after, and failed to obtain any standing with the Royalifts. Yet he seems to have been an eloquent and on the whole a well- Dering meaning man, and hardly to have deserved the fneers of Claren- fneered don; who in his Hiftory (i. 416) characterises him as a man of at by levity and vanity, eafily flattered by being commended; and Clarengoes fo far as to affert that his "greatest motive" in moving the don. Falk land's former little while before had moved the reading of a bill for extirpating bishops, deans, and chapters; and it was fupported by Lord Falkland, who, on the 8th of the preceding February, had diftinctly charged the bishops with having destroyed unity under pretence of uniforattack on mity, with having brought in superstition and Bifhops. fcandal under the titles of reverence and decency, with having defiled the Church by adorning the churches, and deftroyed of the gofpel as much as they could without bringing themselves into danger of being deftroyed by the law. With a pettifogging worthier of Hyde than of himself, Falkland now joined Dering in afking where proof was to be found that the bifhops had iffued any "command" for vehement the introduction of idolatry. Who hath read defence, this command? they asked. "Who hath "heard it? Who hath feen this commanded Prefent Fifth idolatry? The day closed while yet the debate had not; an order being made that the Remonftrance fhould be refumed the next day at ten o'clock, and that meanwhile the claufe which had then been debated fo much, fhould be recommitted to the committee that originally drafted it, to prepare it in such a manner as might be agreeable to the sense of the House. On Tuesday, the 16th, the debate was reDebate: fumed accordingly; but the obnoxious word remained in the claufe as again introduced, 16th Nov trenchant bill against the Bishops, was that he might have the Cuneta prius tentanda, fed immedicabile vulnus |