is the grievance of grievances! Let us set down the causes of all our disasters, and they will all reflect upon him. As to going to the lords, that is not via regia; our liberties are now impeached; we are deeply concerned; it is not via regia, for the lords are not participant with our liberties. It is not the king but the duke that saith, We require you not to meddle with state affairs, or the ministers thereof. Did not his majesty, when prince, attend the upper house in our prosecution of lord chancellor Bacon and the lord treasurer Middlesex?"
The secret was out; the word was spoken! The name at which Charles and the duke had trembled, lest it should come into discussion, was, spite of threats and messages, named; and the naming, and the charging with all the disgraces and miseries of the nation, was received with a sudden and general acclamation of "Yea! yea! 'Tis he! 'tis he!" The day was come that James had so solemnly warned both Charles and Buckingham of—when they should have their bellyful of impeachments; having, as Coke now reminded them, themselves set the ball rolling. Aldred, in the letter just quoted, says:—"As when one good hound recovers the scent, the rest come in with full cry, so one pursued it, and every one came home and laid the blame where he thought the fault was, on the duke of Buckingham, to wit." The duke was speedily accused of treachery and incapacity, both as high admiral and commander-in-chief. All the disgraceful failures, at Cadiz, at Rochelle, on the isle of Rhé, and even in Germany, were charged upon his evil counsels or worse management.
Selden proposed a declaration to his majesty under four heads, expressive of the dutiful devotion of the house, of the violation of the nation's liberties, of the intentions of the house, and of the interference of the duke to prevent inquiry. He declared that all this time they had been casting a mantle over the accusation made against Buckingham, and that it was time to revert to that. "At this moment," says Aldred, "as we were putting the question, the speaker, having been not half an hour, but three hours absent, and with the king, returned, bringing this message—that the house should then rise—being about eleven o'clock—adjourn till the morrow morning, and no committees to sit, or other business to go on in the interim."
The next day the house met, when Finch apologised for his absence, and his going to the king, declaring that he had communicated nothing but what was to the honour of the house; and wishing that his tongue might cleave to the roof of his mouth before he spoke a word to the disparagement of any member. He informed them that his majesty had no desire to fetter their deliberations, so that they did not interfere with his ministers, and added words of courtesy from the king. The commons observed that they had no intention of charging anything on the king, but must insist on inquiring when necessary into the conduct of his ministers; and the words of Mr. Kirton being found fault with, which intimated a hope that all those found guilty, might have their throats cut, the house resolved that "he had said nothing beyond the bounds of duty and allegiance, and that they all concurred with him therein."
On the following day they went into committee, and commenced their labours of inquiry into the proceedings of the executive. They examined Burlemachi, a foreign speculator, as to a commission which he was alleged to have, for engaging and bringing into this kingdom troops of German horse. He confessed to such warrant, and to having received thirty thousand pounds for this purpose; one thousand of these horse being, as he admitted, already raised and armed, and waiting their passage in Holland. "And the intention of bringing over these mercenaries," said one of the members, "is to cut our throats, or to keep us in obedience!" Another member declared that twelve of the commanders were already arrived, and had been seen in St. Paul's. The house next fell upon a new scheme of excise, which it was proposed to levy without consent of parliament, and voted that any member who had any information regarding this new imposition and did not disclose it, was an enemy to the state, and no true Englishman.
The danger which was obviously approaching Buckingham in the proceedings of this committee, alarmed the king; and the same day, the 7th of June, he commanded the commons to meet him in the house of lords, and then observing that he thought he had given a full and specific answer to their petition of right, but as they were not satisfied, he desired them to read the petition again, and he would give them an answer which should satisfy them. Taking his seat on the throne, this was done, and he then ordered the former answer to be cut off, and the following, in the established form, to be inscribed—"Let right be done as is desired." "Now," he added, "I have performed my part; wherefore, if this parliament have not a happy issue, the sin is yours. I am free of it."
Thus was passed the Petition of Right, the most important document since the acquirement of Magna Charta. The rejoicing for this conquest, this assurance of quieter days and secure firesides, sped through the city, and thence over the kingdom, and was everywhere demonstrated by acclamations, ringing of bells, and bonfires. On the 10th of June, three days afterwards, the king, as if pleased with this public expression of satisfaction, sent Sir Humphrey May to inform the house of commons that he was graciously pleased that their Petition of Right, with his answer, should be recorded not only on the journals of parliament, but in those of the courts of Westminster, and should, moreover, be printed for his honour and the content of the people. On the 12th the commons showed their content by voting the king the five subsidies, and hastening to pass the bill for five other subsidies granted by the clergy.
But the exultation over this great triumph did not prevent the commons from pursuing their labours of inquiry into abuses. They obtained a judgment from the lords against Dr. Mainwaring for his encouragement of kingly absolutism in his sermons, and censured Laud and Neale, of Winchester, for licensing similar sermons; they then came to Buckingham himself, and voted a strong remonstrance against his undue influence and unconstitutional doings, which was presented by the speaker to the king. The house felt itself highly aggrieved by a speech which the favourite was reported to have made at his own table—"Tush! it makes no matter what the commons or parliament doth; for without my leave and authority, they shall not be able to touch the hair of a dog." Buckingham protested that he had never
