Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/108

 them; to have maintained this survey stiff and staunch against the impugnation of some thousand diligent fault finders; to have freed myself and my sureties by the consent and mediation of forty-five officers of the Army; a greater number, Mr. Speaker, than usually voucheth any Act called the Army's; to have assigned satisfaction for above twenty thousand debentures, as that admitted of no dropping and changing afterwards; and so as a slight copy out of our book is accepted in Courts of Justice as good evidence, merely by virtue of the natural justice and validity whereupon it stands; to have done this under the eye of the chief authority, without ever receiving any check or reproofe for what was done; or without being bid so much as to take heed, or do so no more; and, which is more than all, Mr. Speaker, that God gave me courage to oppose the greatest persons, though always with due respect to their condition, merely to obtain strictness of rule; although those worthy persons have afterwards accompted our severity their security, and have thanked us for it. The truth of it is, Mr. Speaker, this kind of severity to those that could not bear it but made us enemies; whereas corrupt partiality would have made us a kind of friends; and this is not the course of corrupt and wicked ministers.'

The House of Commons seems to have been inclined to regard Sir Hierome and his charges with considerable impatience. Possibly they had heard of Mr. Wadman and of 'Tuggin.' The accounts of the debate suggest the reflection that Parliamentary human nature in the days of the Commonwealth was much as it is now. Members begin rising to order and asking Mr. Speaker: 'I wonder you, Sir, so much forget yourself as to hearken to private quarrels, and neglect the public.' Then, 'the House fell a talking with one another.' Then somebody moves that 'the gentleman bring his charge in writing,' and so on. Eventually the House, 'after that they had tryed by interrupting and downright jeering Sir Hierome to stop his mouth, did in order to be rid of him order that he should put his charges into writing, and that