[234] "I observe since my coming to town, a very great alteration of the affections of the City, to what they were when I went away. They say a great present is to be presented to the King after dinner, and a petition such as he will be glad to receive, the contents I hear not yet, only one clause for the maintenance of Episcopacy and the suppression of schism."—Robert Slingsby, State Papers Dom., Nov. 25.
Respecting the King's reception, Wiseman says, "I confess it was a great one every way, and so acknowledged beyond the precedent of any made to former Kings, that history makes mention of, which well suits with the goodness, sweetness, and meritorious virtues of so gracious a King as ours is. The present mean estate of the Chamber denied the form of a gift, but this of the hearts of the citizens and those of the better sort, and at this tune so seasonably expressed, was of greater import to His Majesty than, for my part, I dare take upon me to value."—2nd Dec., 1641. State Papers, Dom.
[235] Nalson, ii. 681. Rushworth, iv. 432.
[236] Letter of Thomas Wiseman, addressed to "Sir John Pennington, Admiral of his Majesty's fleet for the guard of the Narrow Seas."—State Papers Dom., 9th Dec., 1641.
[237] In the same letter to Sir John Pennington, Wiseman says, "His Majesty was pleased, with a return of many thanks for his entertainment, to set a mark of his favour by knighting the seven aldermen, whereof your cousin the alderman was none, whose ways, as you partly know, are rather to please himself than to strive to do any acceptable service for the king, if it stand not with the sense of the preciser sort of the House of Commons."
[238] Sir Ralph Hopton gave a report to the House of the interview.—Parl. Hist., ii. 942.
[239] Rushworth, iv. 452.
[240] State Papers Dom. Letters of Robert Slingsby, dated (by mistake) 6th Dec., 1641, and properly placed under Jan. 6th, 1641-2. Slingsby is not perfectly accurate in his account of what took place in the House.
[241] The High Church Lord Mayor Gourney would not accompany them.
[242] Nalson, ii. 764.