CHAPTER III. Meeting of Parliament-the King's Speech-Address of the Commons-Dispute respecting Elections-Union with Scotland, and case of the Bishop of Bristolthe Revenue-Exemption of Members from Arrest-Necessities of the Government-Subsidy delayed, and Parliament prorogued-Causes of this course of proceeding in the Commons-Civil Grievances Religion Strong prejudice of James against the Puritans-Conduct of the Puritans-how far censurable ? 1604. A FEW weeks subsequent to the meeting at Hampton Court, James summoned his first parliament. This measure had been Meeting of so long delayed in consequence of an alarming pestilence, Parliament, which from the time of the king's accession had not March 19, ceased to ravage the metropolis and its neighbourhood. To avoid the infection the court had been removed to different places during this interval. In the proclamation issued to convene the Great Assembly of the nation, the monarch betrayed the same arbitrary temper, and the same imprudence that were so observable in his conduct in the recent conference. It showed that James was solicitous to attach the authority peculiar to statutes of the realm to royal proclamations, and that he was not only disposed to assume the office of political instructor to his untaught subjects, but to assert a right of judging on certain questions connected with the return of members, which the Commons of the last reign had been careful to secure as privileges necessary to their independence. But the character of the persons returned at this "We admonish," said the juncture was felt to be the great point. monarch," that there be great care taken to avoid the choice of persons either noted for their superstitious blindness one way, or for their turbulent humours other ways, because their disorderly and unquiet spirits will disturb all the discreet and modest proceedings in that greatest and gravest council."* The king's speech. When the two houses assembled James congratulated them on the pacific relations of the country with regard to the states of the continent, on the domestic tranquillity which resulted from the unanimity and affection so manifest on his accession, and on the prospect afforded by his appearance among them of a much nearer connexion between England and Scotland. But the great king to the utmost, so that he caused the preacher to be arrested, and declared he had never in Scotland heard so scandalous a preacher." Beaumont. Dépêches. July 8. About six months later the same writer reports, "the Puritans are furious and speak very irreverently of the king's person, on account of which he, as I know, is in great anxiety." Jan. 12, Feb. 3. * Rymer's Fœdera, xvi. 561. Parliamentary History, ii. 968. Ed. 1807. It was required in the proclamation, that the sheriffs should not return members for the decayed boroughs. element of prosperity would be found in concord with respect to religion, and in approaching this topic there was matter for complaint. "At my first coming in," said the king," although I found but one religion, and that the one which by myself is professed,--publicly allowed and by law maintained; yet found I another sort of religion, besides a private sect, lurking within the bowels of this nation. The first is the true religion, which by me is professed, and by law is established; the second is those they falsely call Catholics, but truly Papists; the third, which I call a sect rather than a religion, is the Puritans and Novelists, who do not so far differ from us in points of religion, as in their confused form of policy and purity-being ever discontented with the present government, and impatient to suffer any superiority, which maketh their sect insufferable in any well-governed commonwealth*." But while the Puritans were thus denounced as a sect not to be suffered, the church of Rome was described as our mother church, though defiled with some infirmities and corruptions, and his majesty was willing -even anxious, to meet its members in the midway, so that all novelties might be removed on either side." In conclusion it was significantly intimated, that the new parliament would be much more profitably employed in looking to the due execution of old laws than in devising new ones. From the complexion of this speech, we must suppose that the king was still labouring under much misconception with regard to the real strength of the Puritans-notwithstanding the number of clerical signatures that had been attached to the millenary petition. The sort of comparison instituted between this party and the Catholics, and the bare hint at a possible pacification with Rome, must have filled every genuine Puritan with indignation and alarm. They were men who had given proof under Elizabeth that when employed in checking the encroachments of tyranny, or in extorting concessions deemed necessary to the protection of their country against popery and oppression, they were not to be awed by the wrath of the powerful. In the present possessor of the throne they saw one to whom England owed no debt, and one whom none could fear, and few could respect, either at home or abroad. Commons. It is not surprising, therefore, that the address of the Commons by their Speaker was studiously framed so as to declare the proper Address of the authority of parliament, and to point out the limits imposed by the constitution on the power of the crown. "By the power of his majesty's great and high court of parliament only," said that officer to the monarch, "new laws are to be instituted, imperfect laws reformed, and inconvenient laws abrogated, whose power therein is such and so absolute that no such laws can either be instituted, reformed, or abrogated, but by the unity of the Commons' agreement, the Lords' accord, and your majesty's royal and regal assent-for that this court Parl. Hist, ii. 977-988. standeth compounded of two powers, the one ordinary, the other absolute; ordinary in the Lords' and Commons' proceedings, but in your highness absolute either negatively to frustrate, or affirmatively to confirm; but not to institute. The body of which court, or council of state, consisteth of two houses, the one the lower house of parliament, the members whereof are the knights of the shire, and burgesses of towns and corporations; the other the higher house, formed of the lords spiritual and temporal*." In such language did the first English parliament assembled under the house of Stuart address its sovereign. That such statements would not be acceptable to the monarch was well understood, and that was the reason for making them the more distinct and emphatic; and it is to be especially observed, that the declarations thus made on the subject of parliamentary authority have respect-not to theories, but laws,-not to what it might be wise and just to do, but to what had been long since determined and established. Thus the struggle between the crown and the people under the Stuart family had its beginning from the moment they were brought together, and is to be marked, we must repeat, as one relating from its commencement to what should be retained, more than to what should be introduced; the innovation meditated being on the part of the sovereign, and not of the subject. The commons were not ignorant that the practice of the English government, and down even to very recent times, had been frequently arbitrary and tyrannical. But they were no less sensible that such practices were generally violations of the law, and their great maxim from this juncture was to resist all such outbreaks of power by a more vigorous appeal to the statutes which had been framed to prevent them. to elections. The first point of formal dispute between the commons and the crown related to the right of the house to judge exclusively on all questions pertaining to the election and eligibility of its They claim the sole authority members. The king, in his recent proclamation con- of judging vening the parliament, had seen it proper to declare, with respect among other novel matters of instruction, that no outlaw could be returned. Sir Francis Godwin, member for the county of Buckingham, was rejected on this plea by the clerk of the crown, and a new writ being issued, Sir John Fortescue, a member of the council, was returned in his roomt. But the commons insisted that the Parl. Hist. ii. 989. The following entry of proceedings in the lower house in 1562 will show the usage of parliament in such instances at that period. "John Smith, returned burgess for Camelford, upon a declaration by Mr. Marsh that he had come to this house being outlawed, and also had deceived divers merchants in London, taking wares of them to the sum of 3007., minding to defraud them of the same, under colour of the privilege of this house. The examination hereof, committed to Sir John Mason and others of this house, was found and reported to be true." But though the fact of outlaw, and the intention to defraud, were "reported to be true," John Smith retained his seat by a majority of 112 to 107. (Parl. Hist. i. 677.) Ín the interval decision in such cases rested with the house alone, and having examined the case of Godwin, declared him eligible, and duly chosen. James fled to the judges, as the interpreters of the law; but as those functionaries held their office during the royal pleasure only, their authority in such a case was naturally viewed with suspicion by the house; the members accordingly protested against any appeal from the makers of the law to those whose office was to administer it. * After much altercation, it was agreed that both Sir Francis Godwin and Sir John Fortescue should be passed by, and a new writ granted. But as the king conceded, by Sir Francis Bacon, that the commons were "a court of record, and a judge of returns; " and as the new writ was issued by the house, and not by the king, the result was a victory on the side of the people. From this time, the right of the commons to be the sole judge in disputed elections has never been questioned. The court affected to look on the affair as of small moment, but it was well known that much importance was attached to it by the popular party, both on its own account, and as having supplied occasion for a trial of strength with respect to similar questions.† Union with The king's favourite project of an union with Scotland was coldly entertained. Commissioners were appointed, but a book, published in its favour by the bishop of Bristol, was de nounced as containing "sundry slanderous passages, tending to murmurs, distraction, and sedition," and as intended to produce a prejudgment of the question. The author, who probably meant little more than to commend himself to his sovereign, was obliged to appear at the bar of the house, and to confess himself penitent for his offence. We shall have frequent occasion to notice the interference of parliament in such matters, as also the practice of the court in appealing to the opinion of the judges. But with respect to the former usage, it is to be observed that it embraced the only means possessed by the Puritan and popular party of exercising any control over the press, the licensing of publications being in the hands of the court. And with regard to the latter custom, it is to be remarked that the legal from 1562 to 1604, the popular feeling had gained much ground in the constitution; and with these facts in his recollection, the reader may consult Hume on this par ticular. *In defending their conduct on this point, the house stated, "In the memorable case of Sharp, which happened 31st of Henry Vl., the judges being asked their opinions by the lords, answered in these words: It has not been used beforetime, nor becomes it us to determine matters concerning the high court of parliament, which is so high and mighty in its nature, that it is judge of the law, and makes that to be law which was no law, and that to be no law which is, and the determination of its privileges belongs to the lords in parliament, and not to the justices." Parl. Hist. i. 1037. The reader will find, that notwithstanding such assertions of its illegality, the Stuart princes never ceased to turn from the decisions of parliament, when opposed to their wishes, to the more pliable verdicts of the judges. It was found that Godwin had been outlawed, but it was urged that, admitting the validity of the objection, the sentence had been remitted by his majesty's general pardon at his inauguration. Winwood, ii. 19. Parl. Hist. i. 998–1017. erudition discovered by the popular advocates in the commons was often such as to leave the partisans of the prerogative without refuge, except by obtaining a corrupt decision from the bench, where men might be placed and replaced at the pleasure of the crown. Still the conduct of the house toward the bishop of Bristol must be characterized, from the little we know of it, as intolerant and severe, The revenue. But the great object of James in assembling a parliament was to replenish the exchequer, and, after much unwelcome delay, the treasurer began to press this subject more seriously on the attention of the house. The important branch of revenue arising from duties levied on merchandise at the ports, then known by the name of tonnage and poundage, was voted to the crown in the manner usual on the accession of a new sovereign. Cecil then applied for the grant of a subsidy, which was a kind of property-tax voted from time to time by parliament. These subsidies, of which constant notice occurs in this period of English history, were reserved to meet those exigencies of government which were not supposed to be provided for by the perma nent revenue. arrest. But the house hesitated on this point, and allowed itself to be drawn aside during several days in prosecuting a question of priviDispute relege. A member had been committed to the Fleet prison specting the on some matter of debt, and the serjeant-at-arms was in- exemption of members from structed to see him set at liberty without delay; but, to the surprise of the house, the warden of the prison refused, and with an obstinacy which justified the suspicion that his conduct was governed by those who sought to deprive the commons of that freedom from arrest which had been obtained with so much solicitude and effort under Elizabeth. After three examinations, and the punishment of very inconvenient accommodations in the Tower, the delinquent warden appeared on his knees at the bar, confessing his error and presumption, and his unfeigned sorrow that he had so offended that honourable house. The absent member appeared in his place. The penitence of his keeper was attributed to a private message from the king. Necessities of the govern The debate on the subsidy was now resumed, During nine months, the house had managed to evade this question, while the difficulties of Cecil had multiplied daily. A courtier, in a letter dated two months prior to this time, writes, "My ment. lord treasurer is much disquieted how to find money to supply the king's necessities, and protested to some of us poor men that were suitors to him for relief, that he knoweth not how to procure money to pay for the king's diet. We do here all apprehend that the penury will more and more increase, and all means be shut up for yielding any relief." These forebodings it seems were not groundless, for even now, the |