1. Their good correspondence with this House. 2. A declaration of the proceedings against the Bishop. 3. Reason why they went no further. [1.] That they were interessed as well as we :— If not, yet the union of the two Houses gave them an interest. [2.] A rebuke to the Bishop. That which durst not shew his head in Parliament should go to the Press in mean hands. That any man should presume to let the King see more than a Parliament could.— The King the head, we the body: if any man will swell above the circumference, it must be a wert or a wenn. [3.] The Bishop made submission with them :-Peccavi, pœnitet, non putaram.—They remitted in respect of his coat.That he was a member.-That he came under the shadow of the Cypress-tree, the Union, Conclus. Less severely reported than performed.1 Here Bacon (who appears to have confined himself to a report of Cecil's speech) would probably have wished the matter to rest. And though the House was not quite satisfied, but (in order that the Press might better know the limits of its liberty) proceeded to demand the suppression of the book and the public delivery of the Bishop's submission in writing, that it might be placed on record,2 the compiler of the Journals seems to have been unable to discover 1 C. J. p. 236 (11 June). The proceeding of the Lords is recorded in their own Journals (5 June) thus: "After that the Lords had entered into speech and consideration of some meet course to be taken for yielding satisfaction to the Lower House touching that matter, they did all agree in opinion, that the same might best be done if the said Bishop would voluntarily acknowledge himself to have committed an error in that behalf, and to be sorry for it; which acknowledgment the said Bishop in the end did accordingly make; and did express the same in these words following, videlicet : "1. I confess that I have erred in presuming to deliver a private sentence in a matter so dealt in by the High Court of Parliament. "2. I am sorry for it. "3. If it were to do again, I would not do it. 666 4. But I protest it was done of ignorance and not of malice towards either of the Houses of Parliament, or any particular member of the same; but only to declare my affection to the intended Union, which I doubt not but all your Lordships do allow of.'" As we shall have to deal from time to time with questions bearing upon the just limits of liberty in speech and writing, I thought it as well to give this at full length, as a good illustration of what was thought by the guardians of liberty to be a transgression of those limits. 2 C. J. p. 244 (21 June). VOL. III. P what came of that demand: and therefore I suppose it was not insisted on. At the same time a more legitimate cause of remonstrance was given by a protest from the Convocation House against the pretensions of the House of Commons to "deal in any matters of Religion;" accompanied with a threat that if the Bishops would not desist from conferring with them, " they would appeal to the King, who had given them authority to deal only in such matters." This protest having been publicly read by a Bishop at a Conference, put them upon searching for "precedents"—a search which is sure to end favourably to the stronger party; and would undoubtedly have raised a storm, had either the King or the Lords taken part with Convocation. As it was, a declaration from the Bishop of London that "they conceived the privilege of Parliament to stand upright"3 was accepted as sufficient. All these incidental troubles must have been very annoying to the King, if only as delays and interruptions, though he had the prudence to keep personally clear of them: and there were other measures coming on, in which it was hardly possible to avoid a direct disagreement. He had settled the Church question to his own satisfaction at the Hampton Court Conference; and now the Commons were urging a large measure of reform, in the interest of the nonconforming clergy. He had taken order for the revocation of all monopolies which should appear to himself and Council prejudicial to the subject and now they were preparing a large measure for the liberation of Trade, aimed at the monopolies of the great companies.5 The discussion of the terms of the proposed composition for Wardship and Tenures led inevitably to enquiries into the true state of the Crown revenew; which was then reckoned one of the arcana imperii,-no fit subject for popular criticism. Under these various trials, the scanty measure of patience with which he was endowed by nature had begun to fail, and the distastes against which he had hitherto been struggling, to re-assert themselves-encouraged no doubt by the sympathy they were sure to meet with from the conservatism which prevails in all Upper Houses, whether temporal or spiritual; when this same Wardship and Tenure question, which had been opened under Bacon's management at the beginning of the session with fair words and prospects, came at last (30 May) to be discussed in a conference managed by Sir Edwin Sandys, and found the weather quite changed. Not that the Commons 1 "For the submission, that being a fault committed, etc., quære."-C. J. p. 251 (2 July). 4 lb. p. 199. 5 lb. p. 218. 2 C. J. p. 235 (8 June). 3 Ib. p. 251 (2 July). had changed their ground. What they desired was no more than the Lords had already in a general way and with seeming alacrity agreed to,—namely that they would join with them in a petition to the King for leave to treat the particulars being to be arranged in conference. But they now discountenanced the proposition altogether; and besides answering the reasons urged by the Commons, went on to expostulate with them on the manner in which they had spent their time—all speaking in the same sense. Sensi ex composto rem geri, said Sir E. Sandys in concluding his report. And to make matters worse, no sooner had the conference broken off on these unsatisfactory terms, than the King, by a coincidence which if undesigned was unlucky, desired the attendance of the whole House, that he might speak to them. And his speech, being (as we gather from what followed-for I find no report of it) a review of all their proceedings during the session in a tone of censure and dissatisfaction, had the usual effect of hurting their feelings and provoking them to reply. But the state of feeling which it produced will be best understood from the 'order' entered in the Journals the next day—the result of the debate on Sir E. Sandys' report. Which, though very clumsily drawn up, I give as it stands. Veneris 1o Die Junii, 1604. This day Sir Edwyn Sandys, making report of the late conference had with the Lords, according to a former commission of this House, touching the matter of Wardship and other the incidents thereunto, instead of acceptation and assent to join in petition to his Majesty, delivered from their Lordships no other than matter of expostulation, opposition of reason to reason, admonition, or precise caution, in proceeding which suiting with the grounds of his Majesty's speech subsequent, advisedly and of purpose made upon that occasion to the whole House, assembled by his Majesty's direction at Whitehall, on Monday last (wherein many particular actions and passages of the House were objected unto them, with taxation and blame), summoned the duty and judgment of the House to consider, what were fittest to be done; and amongst others the motion of Sir Thomas Ridgway, one of the Knights for Devonshire, induced the House to this consideration; that since it appeared his Majesty had made such an impression of mislike of the proceedings of the House in general, as also that the grounds conceived touching Wardship and matters of that nature, seemed to be so weakened and impugned; it were necessary and safe for the House, and dutiful and convenient in respect of his Majesty, instantly to advise of such a form of satisfaction, either by writing or otherwise, as might in all humility inform his Majesty in the truth and clearness of the actions and intentions of the House from the beginning, thereby to free it from the scandal of levity and precipitation; as also of the proceedings in particular touching the said matter of Wardship; with this special care, that a matter so advisedly and gravely undertaken and proceeded in, might not die or be buried in the hands of those that first bred it.1 A proceeding like this,-entailing as it must a personal controversy with the King on points to which he had thus publicly committed himself,-could not be expected to have a satisfactory result. But it would take time. Time would allow feelings to cool on both sides and meanwhile they could give satisfaction of a more promissing kind by making haste with what remained to be done. The Union Act, which had just been sent down from the Lords, had been read once. It was now read a second time, committed, reported, passed, and sent back to the Lords, by whom it was received with great applause-all in a day: the day after the King's speech. And it was agreed at the same time that all further proceedings in the matter of Purveyors should be allowed to sleep till the next session. Measures which were not lost upon the King: as may be seen by the message which he sent to the House only three days after. Mr. Speaker delivereth from the King a message of three parts: Matter of his relation to us: Of his princely satisfaction. When he looked into the gravity and judgment of this House, and of the long continuance of the Parliament; so few matters of weight passed, and that matter of Privilege had taken much time (which, notwithstanding, he was as careful to preserve as we ourselves); he was moved with jealousy that there was not such proceeding as, in love, he expected. This the cause of unkindness. That we should not think this declaration to us was any condemnation of our ingratitude or forgetfulness of him; but by way of commemoration and admonition, as a father to his children; neither did he tax us; but only remember us of expedition, omitted and desired. Lastly, that he is resolved, we have not denied anything which is fit to be granted. That he had divers arguments of our good affections : 1. Our doubt of his displeasure. 2. Our desire to give him satisfaction; which he accepteth as a thing done, because desired by us. 3. He observeth the difference of our proceeding, sithence his speech unto us, with greater expedition in those things desired to be effected by him, than before: He giveth us thanks, and wisheth we would not trouble ourselves with giving him satisfaction. And he giveth what time we desire for finishing the matters of importance depending." 1 C. J. p. 230. 2 Ib. p. 231. 3 Ib. p. 232 (5 June). In spite however of this message, which may be regarded as the King's Apology to the Commons, the Committee appointed to prepare the threatened Apology of the Commons to the King went on diligently with their work; and at the end of a fortnight laid the result before the House:-a grave and important document, in which all their proceedings that had been found fault with were recapitulated and justified, point by point; and which, though not formally placed on record, remains to this day a notable landmark in the progress of constitutional liberty. The question was, what to do with it. I do not know that any exception was or could be taken either to the substance of it or the style. But seeing that the positions which it maintained were threatened only in words and by implication, that the Commons remained masters of the field in fact, that there was no pretence for a serious declaration of hostilities, and that the formal delivery of such an argument could have led to nothing but an angry altercation and a quarrel in the honeymoonwhich would have been bad for all parties-those who wished to preserve harmony could not wish that it should be pressed further. Bacon was certainly among those who spoke against presenting it, though we have no account of what he said. And as the Journals contain no notice of the final resolution, we may conclude that it was in favour of letting the dispute rest; and that the document was not officially brought under the King's notice. pen from Nevertheless, as it had been twice read in the House, we may be sure that he heard of it: and that unluckily at a time when he was endeavouring to digest a fresh disappointment. At the beginning of the session, hoping to please everybody and wishing to avoid everything that might cast a shadow over the general satisfaction, he had resolved that no demand should be made on his subjects for money; and in this resolution he had persevered so constantly and so For long that I have no doubt it was a true intention of his own. full three months he had refrained both his tongue and his all allusion to the subject-had not said so much as that he meant to say nothing-but maintained on all occasions a politic and dignified reserve which was very unusual with him. Now however that the prorogation was near at hand, it was represented to him by some who thought they understood the Lower House, that a session closing without any vote of supply would have a bad appearance, and be subject to unfavourable construction. Upon which it seems to have been arranged that, the Lords having or making occasion to confer with the Commons upon a Tonnage and Poundage Bill, the C. J. pp. 243, 995. |