[204] The obscure words of the protocol in Hardwicke, State Papers ii. 247, are explained by the note of Sir Henry Vane, p. 196.
[205] Pamphlet of 1643 on the elections of 1640: ‘We elected such as were not known to us by any virtue, but only by crossness to superiors.’ Montereuil reports about the same time that the elections had begun ‘par le choix des personnes, que l’on croit moins portées à favoriser le roi d’Angleterre.’
CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST SITTINGS OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
On the morning of November 3, 1640, the Lord Steward appeared in the vestibule of St. Stephen’s chapel, which since the Reformation had served as the place of meeting for the Lower House. The clerk of the crown called over the names of the members, who took the oaths of allegiance and supremacy at the hands of the Lord Steward or his deputies appointed for the purpose. An hour after midday the King, who had come in a barge from Whitehall, landed close to Westminster bridge. After hearing a sermon in the Abbey, he opened Parliament with a speech in the House of Lords, which the Commons attended. When the latter had returned to their own house, and taken their seats, the Treasurer of the King’s household nominated as Speaker a young barrister, named William Lenthall. He was accepted with general acclamation, and then conducted by the Treasurer and one of the secretaries to his chair, a few feet in front of the chapel window, opposite the places of the members, which rose in two ranks one behind the other[206]. The government had at an earlier period thought of designating as Speaker one of their own supporters, but in spite of all their efforts had failed to secure his election. It may be assumed that the hearty reception accorded to the new Speaker did not so much apply to him, since he was as yet little known, as express a sense of the advantage gained through the rejection of the other.
It was remarked with displeasure and dissatisfaction that the King came to the opening of Parliament, not with the pomp of a splendid cavalcade, but in a plain barge, just as if A.D. 1640. a session were being opened after a prorogation[207], and in fact this corresponded with his feelings and language. He referred in his speech to the previous Parliament, and now as then entered immediately on the questions of the Scottish war, and the redress of grievances. The difference however between the two occasions was most marked and complete. The King no longer claimed precedence for the question of supplies for the war: he left it to Parliament to decide which of the two subjects it would take up first. But it was his wish and hope to direct their attention before everything to getting rid of the Scots from English territory: for the pressure which weighed on the northern counties, the welfare and honour of the whole country, rendered this absolutely necessary. To the same effect spoke the Lord Keeper Finch; he brought vividly forward the innovations of the Scots, which were opposed to the fundamental laws of the realm, and to monarchical institutions. As it had excited some remark that the King had directly called the Scots rebels, he deemed it advisable, a couple of days later, to explain himself in a second speech[208], without however withdrawing what he had said. On this second occasion he expressed again his expectation that the Lords would help him to bring his Scottish subjects to reason—for such in any case they were, though rebels so long as they were in England—and to send them back into their own country, whether they would or no. The Lords seemed to assent to this. The Scottish commissioners had come to London, and a conference between the Lords and the Lower House would shortly be necessary, in order, as they requested, to settle in Parliament terms of accommodation with them. After a few A.D. 1640. days the Lords actually proposed such a conference, but the Commons declared that they were at present too busy with other weighty matters.
Among the latter the King roused at once the liveliest opposition when he urged in harsh language the removal of the Scots. It was through the attitude of the Commons in the last Parliament that the expedition of the Scots had been undertaken. The whole course of events, the convocation of another Parliament, originated in the advance of the Scots into England. How could the Lower House, which held the Scottish cause to be its own, have declared against them?
Without paying any attention to the King’s wish to undertake or to decide on some measure against the Scots, the Commons, as soon as they had despatched the first formal business, began the discussion of grievances, with the intention not merely of removing them, but also of punishing their authors. The first sitting in which this took place, that of November 7, is specially remarkable for the feelings then exhibited.
First, John Hampden submitted a complaint about the cruelties which had been perpetrated in consequence of a refusal to pay ship-money, for which he made the Lord Chief Justice and Judges of the King’s Bench answerable. Next was mentioned the far grosser ill-treatment which Bastwick and Burton had suffered at the hands of the spiritual tribunal. The reply which the King’s servants made, that this was a matter of State, in which they must first enquire of the King, was met by a reminder that the King had already given them leave to enquire into abuses. It was resolved that Burton and Bastwick should be summoned before Parliament to plead their own cause. Then the member for Hertford presented a petition from that county, in which the chief grievances that had come before the last Parliament were repeated. The county prayed not merely for the removal of them, but for the discovery and punishment of their authors. Harbottle Grimstone, member for Colchester, who had once expiated in prison his resistance to a loan for Charles I, called to remembrance the disappointments which had befallen the members of the last Parliament. A.D. 1640. ‘But what good,’ cried he, ‘have our complaints or our petitions ever done? The judges have overthrown the law, and the bishops religion.’ The same tone was adopted by men of generally moderate opinions. Benjamin Rudyard inveighed against the King’s counsellors, who, while they talked of his service, really sought nothing but their own interest; who by their conduct caused confusion, and then used that very confusion as a pretext for measures seven times worse than the previous ones. Francis Seymour, the brother of Hertford, added that no man could any longer endure the present state of things, without being false to the duty which he owed not merely to the King but also to his country. The assembly had thus been brought into such a state of violent agitation coupled with self-confidence, as might naturally result from the knowledge of having suffered wrongs, and of being in a position to terminate them, when John Pym, who had already spoken once, rose for the second time to make a general reply.
John Pym belonged to the school of Coke and Cotton, which desired to see the parliamentary rights that had been won in Plantagenet times re-established in England. In previous Parliaments he had appeared as one of the leading opponents of monopolies, and other exercises of prerogative. James I had remarked with dislike his imperious and unyielding spirit. Moreover he like others was actuated by Calvinistic zeal for that exclusive Protestantism which he regarded as the only form of religion tolerated by law in England. He had at all times contended not only against financial extortion, but also against the favour which Catholic tendencies found, and had more than once had to encounter the King’s vengeance in consequence. When Parliaments were no more held, and judicial decisions legalised ship-money, the hope of accomplishing any good in England seems to have failed in him as in others: we find his name among those who were directing their gaze to the shores beyond the Atlantic, and the colonies to be planted there. It does not appear certain whether he or his friends had actually formed the purpose of emigrating; but there is no doubt that he, and other like-minded members of the nobility A.D. 1640. and gentry, took part in the commercial intercourse with Providence, and had acquired possessions in Massachusetts. George Fenwick, the agent of Lords Say and Brooke, for a long time would allow no settlement in their districts; he kept them vacant for the owners, who might at any moment be expected to arrive[209]. Then came the troubles in Scotland. The same sentiments which drove Winthrop and his friends to America, now kept Pym and his associates in England. The former gave way when the ecclesiastical tyranny of Laud became unendurable to them: the latter, when the first commotion began, seized on the hope of freeing England also from it. The ideas of the Scots were of a very similar type: rigid Calvinism in doctrine pervaded all, together with demands for independence in the Church, and a political constitution which should secure this. The English and Scottish movements and the emigration to America sprang from one and the same source. Among those who promoted the union between England and Scotland John Pym stands foremost. Through him above all men it came to pass that the Parliament of the spring of 1640, instead of voting subsidies against Scotland, brought into prominent notice the English grievances of like character. Thereupon followed the rising in arms of the Scots, and a general ferment in England. John Pym instigated the popular petitions demanding a Parliament: he prepared and directed the elections: he was in fact often pointed out as the author of this Parliament. At all times a declared enemy of Spain, he had no objection to enter into alliance with the French, whose interests were identical with those of England[210]. His peculiar talent lay in combining opposites, and directing towards one end movements which were remote from one another. Pym was no rigorous Puritan: he loved cheerful conviviality: occasionally, in street ballads or violent lampoons, he is accused of irregularities of conduct. But from the time when he reached the point which made political influence A.D. 1640. possible for him, he gave his whole heart to the task he had set himself. Personal considerations swayed him not; the interests of his family were of no weight with him; he died in debt: from earliest dawn till late into the night he laboured for his end. Other men could but follow him, or hate him from the bottom of their hearts[211]. Through the force of the ideas of which he was the champion, he is for all time a man of great historical importance: through the zeal and good fortune with which he acted, he gained an unique political position. He was the representative of the opposition in the old Parliament, and of the alliance with the Scots which characterised the new. He could reckon on producing a great impression by every word he spoke.
In parliamentary assemblies the most influential speeches will be, not those which approach most nearly to the ideal of classical eloquence, but those which best correspond to the education and mental tendencies prevalent at the time. Pym’s speeches, as has been observed, move in the fetters of scholastic distinctions: but that was the form in which men of that epoch were wont to think, in consequence of the style and method of teaching then in vogue. They are solid, energetic, and altogether calculated to win acceptance for the conclusions to which they point. On this occasion he entered in more detail than before into the source and nature of the evils from which England was suffering. He attributed them to the violence of the spiritual and perversion of the temporal courts, above all to the contempt for the privileges of Parliament and the favour shown to Papists, even in military employment. He illustrated each of his positions by quoting piquant, pertinent, and sensational particulars, in order to support the conclusion that a plan had been formed for altering and destroying piecemeal, not merely the established religion, but also the constitutional form of government. This, he said, was not only treason, but the greatest of all imaginable treasons: it touched alike the King and the kingdom[212]. A.D. 1640. To direct the general zeal towards the discovery and punishment of the authors of these treasons and their accomplices was the special object of his words, and he attained it fully.