Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/82

36 the archbiſhop taking very ill, rebuked him: “, quoth he, if you loved the King, you would not be a hindrance to the peace of the kingdom.” But the King, ſeeing the archbiſhop going to be very angry, ſaid, “We have all of us ſworn to theſe liberties and we are all bound to obſerve what we have ſworn.” And, forthwith taking advice upon it, ſent his letters to the ſheriff of every county, to cauſe twelve knights or legal men to make an inquiſition upon oath what were the liberties of England in the time of K., his grandfather, and to make him a return of it by a certain day.

vowing, and afterwards making inquiry was ill reſented, and was one of the falſe ſhifts which were ſo peculiar to that prince. The motion of the archbiſhop was ſo manifeſtly neceſſary for the ſettling the young King in his throne, that our hiſtorian, ſays, it was impiouſly oppugned by : and, indeed, the reflections he makes on the whole paſſage are very remarkable from the pen of a courtier. I only obſerve, that was the fitteſt interpreter of an arbitrary prince’s mind; for he was an old arbitrary inſtrument, and one of King ’s generals in his barbarous invaſion: and though