§ XVII.

QUESTION PUT, AND PALMER'S
PROTEST.

MR. Secretary Nicholas had not long left the House when, a little after twelve o'clock, the main question whether the Remonftrance should Refiftance pass was at laft allowed to be put. In his to putting Hiftory, Clarendon admits that it was the

question.

party led by Mr. Hyde (himself) which fo long had refifted the inceffant calls for a divifion; and that they hoped to profit in numbers by fo wearing out their opponents, is the plain and irresistible inference. Nevertheless, he proceeds to tell his readers that when midnight arrived, many were gone home to their lodgings out of pure indifpofition of health, having neither eat nor drank all the day; and others had withdrawn themselves, that they might neither confent to it, as being against gained by their reafon and confcience, nor difoblige the delay. other party by refufing;* leaving it to be inferred, that the gain from delay was entirely to the other party, not his own. In another paffage the conveys a fimilar impreffion, informing us that candles having been called for when it grew dark "(neither fide being very "defirous to adjourn it till the next day,

Which

fide

though it was evident very many withdrew "themselves out of pure faintness and difHyde's "ability to attend the conclufion), the debate statement: continued till it was after twelve of the "clock, with much paffion." And again he

locke's :

fays, in a third paffage,* that the party led by Mr. Pym knew well enough that the House had not, at that time, half its members present,. though they had provided that not a man of their party was abfent; and that they had even then carried it by the hour of the night, which drove away a greater number of old and infirm oppofers, than would have made those of the negative fuperior in number. Affum- Whiteing for a moment that this was fo; that the hour of the night did really carry it; and that it was, as Whitelocke affirms Sir Benjamin Rudyard compared it to, the verdict of a ftarved jury; furely it is inexplicable that from Pym and his friends, who were to profit reafons by the exactly oppofite course, should have to the proceeded all the efforts that were made to force on the divifion at an earlier hour. But the first thing to fettle, in difputes of this kind, is the authenticity of the point in difpute. We commonly are at "What's the reason "of it," as Selden fays, before we are sure of the thing; and he interpofes an excellent

*Hift. ii. 44.

contrary.

"The fitting up all night caufed many through weak"nefs or wearinefs to leave the Houfe, and Sir B. R. to com"pare it to the verdict of a starved jury" (Memorials, 51, ed. White1732). In reading the Memorials, however, valuable as locke's they are, it is always neceffary to keep in mind not only the Memofact that they were compiled at a time not very favourable to rials. the cause which the author had once ftrongly fupported, and that great portions of them confift of paragraphs taken not very difcriminatingly from Journals and Newspapers, but the fufpicion which there is good ground for entertaining that Not relithey were very greatly interpolated before publication. The able. publication took place in Charles the Second's reign, twentytwo years after the restoration, feven after Whitelocke's death.

Truth of

the cafe.

queftion of my Lady Cotton's, "when Sir "Robert was magnifying of a fhoe, which "was Mofes's or Noah's, and wondering at "the strange shape and fashion of it, but, Mr. "Cotton, fays fhe, are you fure it is a fhoe?" The real truth in this cafe appears to be, that there is no fhoe. The evidence difproves the affertion that a number of "old and infirm " oppofers" had been driven away before the Numbers vote by the lateness of the hour.

on first divifion :

310.

Very few indeed, and thofe only occafional ftragglers, had quitted the House before the great divifion. Two divifions on minor points preceded it, as we have feen, with fome interval interpofed; yet upon the firft, three hundred and ten members divided, and upon the fecond, three On fecond hundred and eight; and these, being more divifion than three fifths of the entire House, were certainly as large an affemblage as had been muftered fince the Recefs within its walls.*

308.

commonly prefent.

What, then, were the numbers on the third and most important divifion? They had been reduced by fimply one vote, and this in all probability the vote of Secretary Nicholas. quote the entry from the Journals.† "The

I

*This point has already been adverted to ante, 163-4; and I will only add that in a debate reported by D'Ewes on the Numbers 13th of the month following that in which the Remonftrance was paffed, it appears that the exact number abfent on the latter occafion were abfent ftill. The expreffion ufed is, "200 "members ftill abfent after our recefs." And in this particular debate, "Sir John Evelyn of Surrey" undertook to fhow that that number" had not been here fince this fecond meeting." On this fame occafion it was that Strode made the propofition, already referred to, to fine a member 50l. or expel him, if he quitted town without leave. "It was," fays D'Ewes, "much "debated, but laid aside."

+ Commons' Journals: ii. 322.

queftion being propofed, whether this De"claration, thus amended, fhall pafs; the "question was put, whether this question "fhould be firft put? and it went with the "Yeas: And then the question was put, on third "whether this Declaration, thus amended, division : "fhall pafs? The House was divided. Sir 307. "Frederick Cornwallis and Mr. Strangways, "tellers for the Noe, 148; Sir John Clot"worthy and Mr. Arth. Goodwyn tellers for "the Yea, 159. Refolved, upon the quef"tion, that this Declaration, thus amended, "fhall pass."

The question fo long and desperately debated had hardly thus been fettled, however, when that new question arofe which was to create a new and worfe agitation, and to carry New quefalmost to the pitch of frenzy the excited tion paffions of the House. As foon as the vote was declared, Clarendon proceeds to say in his Hiftory, "Mr. Hampden moved that there might be an order entered for the present

raised.

printing it, which produced a sharper debate "than the former. It appeared then" (as if this had not been avowed all through the debate), "that they did not intend to fend it Clarenup to the houfe of peers for their concur- don's Narrence; but that it was upon the matter an Hift. ii. "appeal to the people, and to infufe jealoufies 42. "into their minds. It had never* been the

"custom to publish any debates or deter

The firft editors of Clarendon feem to have been fo startled by his ufe of this word, in direct contradiction of a well-known fact, that they substituted “seldom” for it. The genuine text was only reftored in 1826-7.

rative:

As to Hyde's protest:

"minations of the Houfe, which were not regularly first tranfmitted to the house of "peers; nor was it thought, in truth, that "the House had authority to give warrant "for the printing of anything; all which was offered by Mr. Hyde, with fome "warmth, as foon as the motion was made for "the printing it: and he said, 'he did believe "the printing it in that manner was not

lawful; and he feared it would produce "mischievous effects; and therefore defired "the leave of the House, that if the queftion "fhould be put, and carried in the affir"mative, that he might have liberty to "enter his proteftation;' which he no fooner "faid than Geoffrey Palmer (a man of great Palmer's reputation, and much efteemed in the House) "ftood up, and made the fame motion for

as to

as to others :

as to clofe of debate:

himself, that he might likewise proteft.' "When immediately together, many after"wards, without diftinction, and in some "diforder, cried out, They did proteft:' "fo that there was after scarce any quiet "and regular debate. But the House by degrees being quieted, they all confented, "about two of the clock in the morning, to "adjourn till two of the clock the next "afternoon."

So did the chief actor in a very memorable scene, writing deliberately in his exile a few years after the event, when nothing of the dignities, the refponfibilities, or the trials incident to his later life, had occurred to impair or preoccupy his memory, defcribe the close of a stormy debate in which he had taken fo