Page:Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons (4th ed, 1818, vol I).djvu/227

5.] of the 6th of January, 1641, "They were far from any endeavour to protect any of their Members, who should be, in due manner, prosecuted according to the Laws of the Realm, and the Rights and Privileges of Parliament, for Treason, or any other Misdemeanour; being sensible, that it equally imported them, as well to see justice done against them that are criminous, as to defend the just Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, and Parliament of England.

It may be proper to make some pause at this period of the dissolution of the Parliament of 1628, because the conduct of Charles I. during the next twelve years, opens a very different scene. Finding that it was impossible to prevail on any House of Commons (of which he had tried three in three years) to comply with his exorbitant ideas of Regal Prerogative, or to give countenance to the arbitrary measures of his Ministers, he resolved to get rid of all restraint; and accordingly introduced such a system of tyranny into every part of the Government, that the Constitution was entirely destroyed, and lost in the power of the Crown.—Notwithstanding that he had so lately given the most solemn assent to the Petition of Right, he now as publicly violated it in every instance: (1.) By his circular letters to the Lords Lieutenants of Counties, he exacted loans and benevolences without pretence of law; and Gentlemen of fortune and rank in the country were imprisoned for refusing to contribute; Tonnage and Poundage were taken without the Rh