[26] Commons Journals, March 26, 1681.
[27] Lord Keeper and Chancellor.
[28] The scapegoat, Fitz-Harris, who was promptly got rid of, for fear of revelations, being executed June 9, 1681.
[29] That the Lords contested the claim of the Commons to impeach and condemn any one whom they might accuse of a crime was a grievance of the Lower House.
[30] Mr. Samuel Lewen.
[31] His seat was Long Ditton, near Kingston, which town had surrendered its charter to King Charles II. about a month before his death. King James appointed Sir Edward Evelyn one of the new corporation.
[32] A Child was subsequently successful in getting returned for Middlesex. Child died in 1740, and was succeeded by Hugh Smithson, who later became known as the recipient of the honours of the Dukes of Northumberland.
[33] The term “Tacker” was due to the chief member for Oxford University, William Bromley, having, in the session just closed, moved “That the Bill to prevent occasional nonconformity might be tacked to the Land Tax Bill.” The practice of tacking was condemned by the Lords, most of whom had signed a resolution to the effect they would never admit a “tack” to a money-bill. The party in the Commons strove vigorously to carry their point upon two bills being thus conjoined, whence they began to be known as “the Tackers.” In return, they stigmatized their opponents as “Sneakers.”
[34] Tacks, otherwise Tackers, i.e. High-Church Tories, who were first so called from their efforts to tack the Occasional Conformity Bill on to a money bill, so that it could not be sent back by the Lords.
[35] Jacobites.