6. Practices of the Court Party. evil coun THEN arofe, in connection with this men- Claufes tion of laws fo defirable to be paffed, the con- 143-153fideration of fuch and fo many obftructions and difficulties then lying across the path to their accomplishment, as might ftill prove strong enough, and obftinate enough, to defy removal. The heart of the Remonftrance lay here; and Obftrucits authors made no fecret of their aim in tions expected. fo fhaping and directing it. The malignant party, they frankly declared, reprefenting still the authors and promoters of all the miferies and wrongs therein defcribed, had taken heart again. Even during the prefent parliament, Preferthat party had been enabled again to prefer to ment of degrees of honour, and to places of truft and fellors. employment, fome of its own factors and agents; and had ufed this influence to work, in the King, ill impreffions and opinions of the proceedings of the House of Commons: as if its members had altogether done their Reproach own work and not his, and had obtained from against him many things very prejudicial to the Crown, both in refpect of prerogative and profit. To wipe out which laft-named flander, they thought it good to declare, that,-in voting 25,000l. a month for the relief of the Northern Counties, in voting 300,000l. by way of brotherly affiftance to the Scots, and in voting above of re50,000l. a month for the charge of the army, fupport fusing to all these fums, which, with the addition of the Crown. monies yielded by affeffments on merchandize, amounted to a million and a half fterling, had House: been contributed to the greatness, the honour, and the fupport of the King. He was bound to protect his fubjects; and his fubjects might well have claimed exemption from contributing to the relief of burthens, created by the very A million wrongs inflicted on themselves. Yet, out of and a half their purfe fince the prefent parliament met, the King. had this million and a half been voted to his voted for Claufes Majefty, by thofe very members. of the House of Commons whom the ill-affected were now fo "impudent" as to reproach with having done nothing for the King! (143 to 153 inclufive.) As to the other reproach put forth to justify 154-161. the flander, and touching mainly the question of prerogative, it was met with challenge as frank and refolute. While they acknowledged with thankfulness, and in the most impreffive Popular language, that the King had given his confent, bills paffed during the preceding ten months, to more by King. good bills for the advantage of the fubject than had been in many previous ages, they Four great acts recited. yet weaken the issue whether or not they had been careful, No intenever, to avoid defiring anything that fhould tion to weaken the Crown in its juft profit or its Crown by neceffary power. The Star Chamber and High them. Commiffion had cealed, for fome time before their abolition, to bring in any confiderable fines; and, fruitful to the laft in oppreffion, were fo no longer in revenue. The Triennial Bill had fallen fhort of what the ancient law, existing still in two unrepealed ftatutes appointing parliaments each year, would have justified them in demanding. And though there might indeed feem to have been, in the Bill against putting an end without its own consent to the Parliament then fitting, fome restraint of the Restraints royal power in diffolving parliaments, it was neceffary to be remembered that the defign of that ftatute was by no means to take the authority out of the Crown, but fimply to fufpend its operation for the fpecific time and occafion. Without it, the great pecuniary charges heretofore described could never have been undertaken the first confequence whereof must have been, the giving up of both armies to confufion and of the kingdom to plunder; and the first and greatest facrifice, that of the public peace and of the King's own fecurity. (154 to 161 inclufive.) to fafety. Thus far the flander of the ill-affected had Claufes reached, in relation to the King. But it had 162-168. taken also a wider range; and,-by such asperfions as that the Houfe of Commons had spent much time and done little work, especially in the grievances concerning religion; and that it preffed itself upon the kingdom with peculiar against Slanders liament. the Par- burthens, not only by the voting of many fubfidies heavier than any formerly endured, but by excefs in the protections against suits and debts granted to its members, the attempt had been made to damage, with the people, the reputation of their reprefentatives, and to bring the English nation out of love with ParliaDanger of ments. Yet was there truly a ready answer, hafty judg- if they to whom fuch flander was addreffed would but look back and forward. ments. Before they judged this Parliament, let them look back to the long growth and deep root of the Grievances it had removed, to the powerful fupports of the Delinquents it had ftruck down, to the great neceffities of the Commonwealth for which it had provided,-let them look forward to the many advantages which not the present only but future ages would reap, from the laws it had paffed and the work Compari- it had accomplished,—and where was the infon with different judgment, to which its burthen laid upon the fubject would not feem lighter than in any former example, and to which its time spent in deliberation would not appear to have been better employed than a far greater proportion of time in many former parliaments Alleged put together? In the only direction where it former parlia ments. was poffible that just reafon for complaint might privilege. exift, already a bill was under difcuffion to provide a remedy; and any undue stretching of thofe protections* from suit and arrest which were neceffary to the discharge of the By which the debts from parliament men, and their "followers, and dependants, were not recoverable." Clarendon, Hift. ii. 55. functions of a legiflator, would now very speedily be removed. (162 to 168, inclufive.) hoftile to But what was the character of the men, and Claufes what their daily practices and efforts, by 169-180. whom these flanders had been bufily difperfed? They were the fame men who most bufily had fown divifion between the fifter kingdoms, and ftriven to incense against each other the subjects of one Crown: Who had been able fo The party to influence the bishops, and a party of Popish Parlia lords in the upper House, as to create those ments. very obftructions and delays for which the lower House was affailed: Who had laboured, not unsuccessfully, to feduce and corrupt fome even of the reprefentatives of the people, and to draw them into combinations against the liberty of parliament: Who, by their inftruments and agents, had tampered with the King's army for the fame wicked and traitorIntriguers ous purpose, and had twice engaged in plots with to bring up a force to overawe the delibera- Army. tions of the House of Commons, and to seize the perfons of its leaders: Whofe defigns with this view, as well in Scotland as in England, had still been defeated, before ripe for execution, by the vigilance of the wellaffected; but who had been fo far more fuccessful in Ireland, that not till the very eve of the day when the main enterprise fhould have Promoters been executed at Dublin, was difcovery made, of Reby God's wonderful providence, of their scheme to poffefs themselves of that whole country, to fubvert totally its government, to root out and destroy the Proteftant religion, and to bellion. |