of his own kingdom) in the quarrel of that royal and gallant lady, his Majesty's sister, for the recovery of her and her children's patrimony, with the preservation and re-establishment of our religion in those countries; so that the King is bound in nature, in policy and religion, to relieve and assist both the persons and the cause to the utmost of his power. Believe it, the hinge of most of the businesses moved in Christendom turns on the affairs of Germany; for if that great body were once united under one head, it would crush all the rest with the weight of it. Next, let us look a little over into France; there shall we find the poor men of our religion exposed to the fury of an enraged king, with a juster pretence against them than hath been at any time heretofore. Besides, which is worse, the kings of Spain and France are united against them and us, and made better friends than ever they meant to have been; so that not to succour and support the professors of our religion will not be infidelity and cruelty but improvidence and folly, for their ill is ours. If Rochelle should be lost, which is now in losing, and his Majesty not able to set out one ship to help it, if it should be lost, it will hazard the total extirpation of the religion; besides it would be an extraordinary advantage to the King of France for shipping, and as great a disadvantage to us in respect of his neighbourhood; and if the Sound should be lost too, how should we escape from being swallowed up by a Spanish invasion? This island would be more like a prison than a kingdom, for we should not then be able to walk abroad. These are dangers too many; yet

have I willingly abridged them: for I had rather come to the remedy and so should we all, this consists only in money plentifully and speedily brought in, wisely and judiciously laid out. I doubt not but we are all resolved to give, wherefore let us prepare ourselves to give plentifully, to satisfy the public occasions and to leave his Majesty out of necessity, for necessity is the worst counsellor, and I shall be very sorry that we of all others should be guilty of placing such ill counsel about the King. And now, to think of sparing

when all lies at stake, of frugality. Let us give speedily, for delay is the greatest danger of all dangers, it will not only lose that which we give, but that also which we would give. And this I propound, not as the King's business, but our own, wherein every man in this House hath particular interest, if his fortune, his life, his religion be any thing unto him. Neither speak I this to divert the great business in hand, but to hasten it; for I love, Mr. Speaker, as well to tread upon English ground as any man here doth.”

were the most undoing kind

6

Mr. Pym followed Sir B. Rudyerd in a short speech, in which he said "that dispatch was better than discourse. A man in a journey is hindered by asking too many questions. A word spoken in season is like an apple of gold set in pictures of silver,' and actions are more precious than words. Let us hasten our resolutions to supply His Majesty." Whereupon, after

some debate, it was resolved unanimously, "That five subsidies be given to His Majesty, and Mr. Secretary Cooke was appointed to acquaint the King with the resolution of the House."

The "Parliamentary History" names Rudyerd, Cooke, and Pym only as having taken any prominent part in this day's debate. The gracious answer of the King to the Commons, thanking them for the resolution of supply, was not without its alloy by reason of the Duke of Buckingham's perhaps well-intended, but certainly injudicious, observations, or rather set speech, to the King in the presence of the Secretary after the announcement of the resolution, spoken, no doubt, with the intention that it should find its way to the ears of the Commons. In this speech, after congratulating the King upon this manifestation of his subjects' love, he begs that he may give up the title of favourite, and that the King will confer it on his people they to be his favourites, he the King's servant; and that he will account the Commons, though a body of many members, all of one heart. He then tells the King, the Commons have taken his heart and drawn from him a declaration of his love for Parliaments. He advises Charles to keep his word in the redress

of grievances, as the Commons have kept theirs in the supply.

"Now, sir," he said, "to open my heart, and to ease my grief, please you to pardon me one word more. I must confess I have long lived in pain, sleep hath given me no rest, favours and fortune no content, such have been my secret sorrows to be thought the man of separation, that divided the King from his people, and them from him; but I hope it shall appear they were some mistaken minds, that would make me the evil spirit that walketh between a good master and loyal people, by ill offices: whereas, I shall endeavour to approve myself a good spirit, breathing nothing but the best services to them all. Therefore this day I account more blessed to me than my birth, to see myself able to serve them, to see you brought into love with Parliaments, to see a Parliament express such love to you and God so love me and mine as I joy to see this day."

This speech, even if the genuine impulse of his mind, was not only injudicious but presumptuous, and was most severely censured in the House of Commons by Sir John Elliot, in an address as full of dignity as of correct appreciation of the relative duties of the King towards his people, without other interposition or interference than the knowledge his Majesty entertained of the fidelity and affection of his subjects. Though the Commons had resolved on the

supply, no time was stated, and the King had sent several messages begging them to hasten it; but they were very ill received, for they were regarded more as an evidence of his desire to touch the supplies than to redress their grievances: besides, they had no security that the King would not prorogue or dissolve the Parliament the moment his wants were satisfied. The conference with the Lords upon "the liberty of the subject" occupied many days, during which his Majesty's necessities increasing, on the 28th of April he went down to the House and spoke by the Lord Keeper, desiring the Commons to rely on his royal word and promise for the preservation of their rights and the liberties of his subjects, and to lose no further time in granting him the supplies they had voted, as his business was urgent, &c. Mr. Secretary Cooke in a laboured speech, echoing the King's as delivered by the Lord Keeper, entreated the House to rely on their Prince's word, who " acknowledged the efficacy of Magna Charta and the other six statutes, and declared that hereafter they should never have cause to complain of any breach of the laws, but (alluding to their continued debates upon grievances, which the Commons wisely desired to see in a