Lord Ruthen, Sir Harbottle Grimston, Mr. Pym, and Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, were the first to come forward and take the oath and covenant, "never to consent to the laying down of arms, so long as the Papists, now in open war against the Parliament, shall by force of arms be protected from the justice thereof," &c.

Though much has been said in just condemnation of the Puritanical spirit which pervaded almost all classes at the period in question, it cannot be denied that there was about this time a semblance of reason in the alarm of the Commons for their religion and liberties. Sir Edward Deering, who had been one of the earliest patriots, who had, in fact, if not in his veneration of the Protestant establishment, at least in his love for Protestantism, which was equalled only by his enmity to Catholicism, gone farther than any man in the House, even to move the taking away of the bishops' votes, had seen the errors of the Commons; and, having been expelled the House for publishing his speeches, he fled to the King at Oxford, and remained there for several months. When the Parliament at Westminster published their offer of pardon, he came in and submitted himself to them, was pardoned, and retired to his seat in

Kent, where he shortly after died. Sir Edward is reported by Lord Clarendon to have been a "man very opposite to all their designs, but a man of levity and vanity; easily flattered by being commended;" but his strict probity and honour were universally aknowledged: such was his character even in the opinion of his enemies. On his return from the King about this period, where he had been mixing with the principal officers of the court, he gave such a vivid picture of their rancorous hostility to the Parliament, and of their bloody intentions of revenge in the event of success over the Parliamentary forces, as well as of their unalterable determination to have the free exercise of the Catholic religion; that he, Sir Edward Deering, feeling the greatest alarm for the safety of the people, quitted them in disgust, and determined to divulge all that he had heard and witnessed. His statement must have had a great effect upon the Commons, and would certainly excuse their subsequent misgivings and suspicions of the King himself.

On the 12th of June, by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, the Earls of Northumberland, Bedford, Pembroke, Salisbury, Holland, and Manchester,

Viscount Conway, Viscount Say and Seale* (who was Sir Benjamin Rudyerd's colleague in the Court of Wards), and the Lords Wharton and Howard, together with John Selden, Pym, Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, and Sir Henry Vane, Junior, &c., were appointed to consult with the assembly of learned and godly divines for settling the government of the Church.

By reference to the orders in Council, it appears that Sir Benjamin Rudyerd was frequently named upon committees for the examination of those matters which should best tend to the security of the Commons, and was appointed commissioner for putting into execution several ordinances of both Houses of Parliament; and on the 19th March, 1645, he was, with several peers and members of the House, appointed commissioner for supplying the office of Constable and Marshal of England in matters of arms, and to settle and regulate the Heralds' Office, a commission which was opened for the purpose of punishing those who had assumed arms to which they were not entitled, and for the hearing and determining all manner of offences and abuses since the beginning of the

* Upon the impeachment of Lord Cottington he was appointed Master of the Court of Wards.

Parliament, committed by the bearing, assuming, giving, granting, or allowing of any coat or escutcheon of arms, or of any crest thereunto belonging, other than those to which the parties were entitled.

The civil war was now raging in all its fury, the excesses of which could not have been otherwise than abhorrent to the mild and humane sentiments of our author Rudyerd, although little or no information can be obtained as to the opinions he may have expressed from time to time upon the good or bad success of the Parliamentary arms, and indeed the nation was then too much occupied in the bloody and unnatural conflict of political parties to offer any space in the history or chronicles of the times for aught beyond the narratives of battles and sieges, and the details relative to the provision of such means as should enable the Parliament to continue the hellish strife of civil war, at least until the extermination, or entire submission, of one or other of the conflicting parties. There exists, however, in the record of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd's votes, satisfactory evidence of his joining heartily upon all occasions with those who advocated an accomodation with the King, and the settlement of the peace of the kingdom. The only speech of any importance by Sir Benjamin

Rudyerd about the period in question (1645-46) was the one he delivered on the occasion of the resolution of the House to abolish the Court of Wards and Liveries, which must be read with peculiar interest by all who can appreciate the disinterested conduct he exhibited in not opposing a motion which involved the loss of his office of surveyor, or second judge of that court, at a time too when he was well aware it was not in the power of Parliament to grant him any compensation that could be at all adequate to the emoluments he derived therefrom, and that, in the event of any settlement of the distractions of the country, no reliance could be placed upon its confirmation by the Government. However, in the same spirit of moderation which guided all his actions, he suggests rather the reformation of the abuses of the Court, than the abolition of the Court itself, although he states that he will offer no obstacle to the latter course, if the King, whose interests were so much at stake, consented to compound for that which was already his own.

This address, which is headed "Sir Benjamin Rudyerd's Speech on a General Complaint of the Court of Wards and Liveries, and a Proposition for Compounding for it with the King," is also from Dr. Robinson's collection, and it does not appear that it has ever been published :—