all the charges which were laid upon the shoulders of the Roman Catholics, such as obtaining the accusation of treason against the members of both Houses, being in arms for the King, &c., they declare that, as good watchmen for the welfare of the King, Church, and State, the Lords and Commons hold it advisable to put themselves into a posture of defence, to provide arms, &c., to defend their several counties from domestic insurrections or foreign invasions; that the sheriffs, &c., take care that their magazines of powder, arms, and other ammunition, be furnished; cause strong guards to be set for their security, as well as for the apprehending of suspected persons, &c.

In the course of the debates upon this question, Sir Benjamin Rudyerd delivered his opinion as follows:-*

"Mr. Speaker,-In my opinion it is requisite we should publish a declaration, because there are so many depravers of this Parliament.

"First, the Papists, who never like any Parliament, but this worst of all; likewise the number of delinquents who are to be punished by this Parliament; and the loose libertines who would not be

Taken from the original, in the possession of Dr. Robinson of Warley, in Essex.

governed either by law or Parliament. All these must needs amount unto a multitude.

"Whatsoever they traduce, yet, by God's assistance, we have done great things this Parliamentthings of the first magnitude. We have vindicated the liberty of our persons - the freedom of our estates. We have gotten, by the King's grace and favour, a triennial—a perpetual Parliament, wherein all other remedies and liberties are included.

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"We have done something too for religion. reckon that last, because we have done least in it. I am sorry to speak it, but it is true, that at this time there is a great dissolution in Church matters; but I hope the pious endeavours, and prudent care, of this House, will shortly set them in a quiet and a peaceable way.

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Truly, sir, it goes hard with a Parliament when it is put to make an apology for itself, because apologies are commonly accounted suspicious; but the malignity and machinations of these times have enforced it-have made it necessary. I confess it troubles me that the honour of this House should suffer the least suspension or diminution: let it therefore provoke us, Mr. Speaker, to make our future acts and actions to be a real, continual, indisputable declaration, for then we shall never need another.

"As for this declaration, my vote goes along in general with the narrative historical part of it; but for the prophetical part, to foresee the whole work of this Parliament to come, and to bind it up by anticipation and engagement of votes beforehand, for aught

I know, sir, we have no such custom. Further, I humbly desire the House to take into consideration, that if we do fail in performing some things which we promise and the world will expect, whether we shall not lose more by non-performance of those few than we shall get by all the rest of the declaration.

In any of my doubts I shall be glad to be settled by better judgments."

Soon after these events, Sir Benjamin Rudyerd evidently took alarm at the violent measures of the more influential members. He saw

a spirit of determined opposition to all the institutions of the country; and, possibly, he may have doubted the sincerity of those with whom he had acted conscientiously when calling loudly for the redress of grievances which pressed heavily on all classes of the community. But these had mostly been redressed by the monarch, and with a precipitancy which was as ill-judged as had been his former haughty opposition to the petitions of the people. The Parliament, in fact, saw that they had but to ask, and they should receive; to knock, and all would be opened to them. This state of things engendered desires which, at any previous period of the history of the country, would have been regarded as visionary and chimerical. The love of change and abolition superseded the justice of amending or reforming

that which was worthy in its institution, but had become vicious and corrupt in its administration. Thus had they successfully sapped all the sacred foundations of the kingdom; and, under colour of disabling bishops from holding civil offices, they surreptitiously introduced clauses in the bill which should operate as an entire abolition of that sacred office; and though this was seen through and averted for the moment, the Commons grew bolder by success, and soon accomplished their aim, an extraordinary proceeding on the part of those who held so much to the spirit of holy writ, because all the writings of the Apostles so clearly, both in letter and in spirit, point to bishops as the fit and proper governors of the discipline of the Church. Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, however, in all these violent measures, had the honour to vote with the minority. His zeal was tempered with moderation; and, no doubt, the lessons he endeavoured to inculcate in others were not without effect upon his own actions. He had frequently observed, that "success enlarged men's thoughts, or bred thoughts in those who never thought before;" and the result of the political agitation of that period clearly demonstrated the validity of his judgment. Seeing through the clouds which

now gathering over the monarchy, he endeavoured to bring about an accommodation with the King; and for this purpose, he addressed the house in the following short but pithy speech, which Rushworth and the old collectors style the vertical point.

"Mr. Speaker, His Majesty hath clearly and freely put himself into the hands of this Parliament; and, I presume, there is not a man in this house but feels himself advanced in this high trust; but if he prosper no better in our hands than he hath done in theirs who have hitherto had the handling of his affairs, we shall for ever make ourselves unworthy of so gracious a confidence.

"I have often thought and said, that it must be some great extremity that would recover and rectify this state; and when that extremity did come, it would be a great hazard whether it might prove a remedy or ruin. We are now, Mr. Speaker, upon that vertical point, and therefore it is no time to palliate; for this will but foment and hasten our own undoing."

But the Parliament had gone too far to recede. The situation of the monarch was beyond measure perplexing: his actions were watched with a lynx-eyed scrutiny; his prerogatives daily and hourly invaded; all the institutions of the country (which, according to the ideas generated by the system of education in which he had

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