Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/152

138 uttered such words, and called upon the house of lords to demand that the members of the commons who had thus reported it, should be called in to prove it; but the duke was forced to content himself with entering his protest on the journals of the lords.



The commons not having voted the tonnage and poundage, calculated that the king would not hastily dissolve the house, and therefore prayed him to remove Buckingham from his counsels, as the author of so many calamities; and they took the opportunity to remind him that tonnage and poundage could not be collected without their consent, as the king's concession of the Petition of Right testified. This called forth Charles again as hotly as ever. Though he had admitted, in granting this petition, that no kind of duty could be imposed without consent of parliament, he now sought to except the tonnage and poundage from this condition. He therefore, on the 26th of June, suddenly went to the house of lords, and summoned the attendance of the commons. The action had been so impromptu, that the lords had no notice of it, and neither he nor they had had time to robe themselves, when the commons at nine o'clock in the morning made their appearance. All unrobed as he was, Charles seated himself on the throne, and lectured the commons on their already beginning to put false constructions on his passing the Petition of Right. "As for the tonnage and poundage, it is a thing I cannot want,