had dissolved in anger the parliament which assembled in January 1621, on account of its refusal of further supplies, Waller went to court and saw the king dine in public. Bishop Andrews, and Neil then bishop of Ely, stood behind his chair: the monarch turned to them, and, with his usual indiscretion, asked them aloud, if he might not levy money upon his subjects when he wanted it, without applying to parliament. Neil, one of the most shameless of his flatterers, replied without hesitation, "God forbid you might not! for you are the breath of our nostrils.” "Well, my lord," said the king to Andrews," and what say you?" "Sir," replied the bishop, "I am not skilled in parliamentary cases." "No put-offs, my lord," insisted the king," answer me presently.” “I think, then,” replied the bishop, "that it is lawful for you to take my brother Neil's money, for he offers it." Nothing but the wit of the answer could have atoned for its courage.

Bishop Andrews was one of the few clerical members of the society of antiquaries: Bacon appears to have held him in high esteem, and addressed to him his "Dialogue on a holy war," with an interesting epistle dedicatory, in which he enters at large into his own manner of life, and details the philosophical reflections and pursuits which consoled him under adversity and disgrace. The bishop ended his honorable and exemplary career in September 1626, in his 71st year. His death was bewailed, amongst the national calamities of the time, in an animated Latin elegy from the pen of a youth whose noble

mind, penetrated with that affectionate veneration for the wise and good which affords the best presage of future excellence, delighted thus to pay its pure unbidden homage to the reverend sanctity of the aged prelate. This youth was Milton, then in his eighteenth year. The concluding lines, in which he represents himself as transported in a vision to the gardens of the blessed, have been thus beautifully rendered into English by the poet of the "Task:"

....

"While I that splendor, and the mingled shade
Of fruitful vines, with wonder fixt survey'd,
At once, with looks that beamed celestial grace,
The seer of Winton stood before my face.
His snowy vesture's hem descending low
His golden sandals swept, and pure as snow
New-fallen shone the mitre on his brow.
Where'er he trod, a tremulous sweet sound
Of gladness shook the flowery fields around :
Attendant angels clap their starry wings,
The trumpet shakes the sky, all æther rings,
Each chaunts his welcome, folds him to his breast,
And thus a sweeter voice than all the rest:
'Ascend, my son! thy father's kingdom share!
My son! henceforth be freed from every care!'
So spake the voice, and at its tender close
With psaltry's sound th' angelic band arose.
The night retired, and chased by dawning day
The visionary bliss pass'd all away.

I mourn'd my banish'd sleep with fond concern;
Frequent to me may dreams like these return."

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XXII.

1621, 1622.

Parliament assembled.-Speech of the lord-keeper.-Lord Digby's account of his negotiations.—Petition and remonstrance of the commons.-The king's letter to the speaker. -Reply of the commons.—The king's rejoinder.—His reception of a committee of the house.--Conciliatory advice of the lord-keeper neglected by the king.-Notice of ad-journment delivered by the prince of Wales.-Protestation entered by the house on its journals.-Imprisonment of Philips, Selden, Pym and Mallory.-Other members sent to Ireland.—Attempts to ruin sir Edward Coke.—Sir John Savile bought over by the court.-Liberation of Selden.Committal of the earls of Southampton and Oxford.-Lord Spencer and others reprimanded.—Remonstrance against the creation of Scotch and Irish peers.-Menacing words of the king to the earl of Essex.—A benevolence extorted.— Freedom of speech restrained.—Caricatures of king James. -General liberation of prisoners for recusancy.—Restraints laid on preachers.-Anecdote of the lord-keeper. KING James's reluctance to call the parliament again into activity had appeared by his directing it to be further adjourned from November 1621 to the February following; but the return of lord Digby at this juncture from an unsuccessful embassy undertaken in behalf of the palatine, seemed to render an immediate declaration of war against the house of Austria inevitable, and parliament was therefore again

VOL. II.

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again summoned to meet for dispatch of business in November.

In the absence of the king, for which illness was the plea, the lord-keeper addressed the two houses: he claimed extraordinary praise for the gracious care of his majesty over the nation since the last recess, in giving favorable answers to several petitions touching trade; in importing bullion and prohibiting the exportation of iron ordnance; and moreover, in reforming by proclamation six- or seven-andthirty patents complained of as grievances: and all this" without the least trucking or merchandizing with the people; a thing unusual in former times."

Having made the most of this part of his case, the orator proceeded to remind the lower house of its pledge to assist his majesty in carrying on war for the recovery of the hereditary dominions of the palatine; he stated that his majesty had "heroically" sent forty thousand pounds of his own to keep together the army of count Mansfeldt in the Lower Palatinate, and urged the necessity of speedy supplies of money from parliament to prevent it from disbanding.

Lord Digby then gave, by his majesty's command, a narrative of his own unsuccessful negotiations in Germany; they had failed simply because the duke of Bavaria, having possessed himself of the whole of the Palatinate except a few garrisoned towns, and being authorised by the emperor to hold it as his own, did not think proper to relinquish his prey at the mere request of the king of Great Britain,

who

who had no equivalent to offer him. It even appeared that this prince had treated with something very much resembling ridicule the efforts of the ambassador to procure his consent to a truce, of which the beaten party would have reaped the sole advantage.

To these gracious communicatious a vote of supply was the expected return; but a well-founded disdain of the trifling and temporising conduct of the king, and distrust of his further intentions, checked the feelings of the house; and they resolved first to try the spirit of the king by a petition and remonstrance setting forth the causes of the public dissatisfaction then prevailing, and pointing out the remedies. The presentation of this remonstrance proved the most important political event in the reign of James; it was the signal and commencement of that open discord between king and parliament which involved in its results both the fate of the Stuarts and the higher destinies of England itself; and it will be necessary to examine with attention a document so important.

The preamble states the case of the commons as follows:

"We.....in all humble manner calling to mind yourgracious answer to our former petition concerning religion, which, notwithstanding your majesty's pious and princely intentions, hath not produced that good effect which the danger of these times doth seem to us to require: and finding how ill your majesty's goodness hath been requited by princes