On the 21st of January, the two houses assembled according to the previous arrangement, when a committee was formed “to consider the laws already in force, that tend to the preservation of religion—what defects are in the execution of them, or what new laws may be thought needful[18].” The lord chancellor gave special directions to the clerk to notice the peers who should fail to attend in their places; for there was a suspicion that certain Roman Catholic lords were implicated in the treason. Some were in consequence imprisoned and fined. In the House of Commons the same subject was discussed the first day of the session. The minds of men indeed could dwell on nothing else; nor is it surprising that such was the case; for a most horrible plot had been discovered, and the traitors were already in prison awaiting the sentence of the law. At length a committee was appointed to decide upon some course to be taken against jesuits, seminaries, and other papal agents.
The conspirators were tried and convicted at common law, as will be related in the next chapter; but the parliament seemed anxious to award some new punishment, beyond that which was ordinarily inflicted on traitors, on such culprits, for the purpose of marking their sense of their crime. Accordingly a committee was appointed in the lords to consider what extraordinary punishments should be inflicted. While they were engaged in this business, it was reported to the house, that it was not convenient to delay longer the trial of the conspirators, and therefore the matter dropped. The commons were no less anxious on the subject than the lords. The question was debated at some length; but at last it was determined, that the conspirators should be left to the ordinary courts of justice. On the 25th of January, however, the commons framed and passed a bill, which was sent up to the lords, entitled, “An Act for Appointing a Thanksgiving to Almighty God every year on the Fifth of November.” When the bill was carried to the lords, the messengers stated, “that the whole body of the commons having entered into consideration of the great blessing of God, in the happy preservation of his majesty and the state, from the late most dangerous treason intended to have been attempted by the instigation of jesuits, seminaries, and Romish priests, had framed and passed the said bill in their house, as the first fruits of their labours, in this session of parliament, which they did very earnestly recommend to their lordships.” The lords read and passed the bill in three days, without even going into a committee. This act is, therefore, the first in the printed statutes of the session. Several bills were passed against recusants and as a protection to the Protestant religion. On the 27th of May the session was terminated[19].
It may be mentioned, that the ceremony of examining the vaults is performed at the commencement of every session. Whether indeed it has been continued since the destruction of the two houses by fire, I am unable to determine; but as the cellar must still remain, I should imagine that the ceremony is still repeated. At all events, such was the case prior to the fire. The cellar is still designated Guy Fawkes’s Cellar.
Footnotes:
[16] “Never,” says Fuller, “were two bad men’s deaths more generally lamented of all good men: only on this account, that they lived no longer to be forced to a further discovery of their secret associates.”—Book x. 36.
[17] Parl. Hist. v. 125.
[18] Ibid. v. 141.
[19] During this session an Act was passed, by which every one was obliged to take the oath of allegiance—“a very moderate test,” says Hume, “since it decided no controverted points between the two religions, and only engaged the persons who took it to abjure the pope’s power of dethroning kings.” Mr. Hallam’s testimony is equally conclusive: “We cannot wonder that a parliament so narrowly rescued from personal destruction, endeavoured to draw the cord still tighter round these dangerous enemies. The statute passed on this occasion is by no means more harsh than might be expected.”—Const. Hist. i. 554-5.
CHAPTER VI.
TRIAL OF THE CONSPIRATORS.