Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/93

Rh that his best interests, which consisted in a good understanding with his subjects, could be maintained only by calling frequent parliaments: advice not likely to be acceptable to a monarch who had issued a proclamation, commanding all his people, from the highest to the lowest, "not to intermeddle, by pen or speech, with state concernments and secrets of empire, at home or abroad, which were not fit themes for common meetings or vulgar persons;" but, whatever their secret dissatisfaction might be, the whole body of the nation manifested so much zeal for the recovery of the palatinate, that the juncture was deemed favourable for relieving the king's pecuniary difficulties, who consented with this view to summon a parliament.

This resolution was no sooner formed, than the chancellor was instructed to confer with the most proper persons as to the best means of carrying it into effect; and he accordingly availed himself of the assistance of the two chief justices, and of Serjeant Crew, who, after mature deliberation, agreed upon four points, which were immediately communicated to his majesty and to Buckingham.

Different days were fixed for the meeting of this eventful parliament, which was called with a full knowledge of the king's motive for sum moning them; and that, had not the expedient respecting benevolence wholly failed, this council of the nation would never have been assembled; as the king considered the Commons "daring encroachers upon his prerogative; endeavouring to make themselves greater, and their prince less, than became either." Previous to the meeting, the lord chancellor was raised to the dignity of Viscount St. Alban, by a patent which stated that the king had conferred this title because he thought nothing could adorn his government more or afford greater enconragement to virtue and public spirit, than the raising worthy persons to honour; and with this new dignity, he, on the 27th day of January, was with great ceremony invested at Theobalds, the patent being witnessed by the most illustrious peers of the realm, the Lord Carew carrying, and the Marquess of Buckingham supporting the robe of state before him, while his coronet was borne by the Lord Wentworth. The new viscount returned solemn thanks to the king for the many favours bestowed upon him.

The thirtieth of January, an ominous day to the family of the Stuarts, was at last fixed for the king to meet his people, writhing as they were under the intolerable grievances by which they were oppressed; grievances which, notwithstanding the warnings and admonitions addressed to the king when he ascended the throne, had most culpably increased. Power, not only tenacious inretaining its authority, but ever prone to increase its exactions, may disregard the progress of knowledge, but it is never disregarded with impunity. Truth, the daughter of time, not of authority, is constantly warning the community in what their interests consist, and that to protect, not to encroach upon these interests, all governments are formed.

Upon the opening of parliament the king addressed the Commons. He stated his opinion of their relative duties: that he was to distribute justice and mercy; and they, without meddling with his prerogative, were by petition to acquaint him with their distresses, and were to supply his pecuniary wants.

At first there appeared nothing but duty and submission on the part of the Commons. Determined, if possible, to maintain a good correspondence with their prince, they without one dissenting voice voted him two subsidies, and that too at the very beginning of the session, contrary to the maxims frequently adopted by former parliaments. They then proceeded, in a very temperate and decided manner, to the examination of their oppressions, intimating that the supply of the king's distresses and the removal of their vexations were to advance hand in hand without precedency, as twin brothers.

Of their grievances the Commons loudly and justly complained. Under the pretext of granting patents, the creatures of Buckingham had rapaciously exacted large fees. These exactions can scarcely be credited. There were patents for every necessary and convenience of life; for gold and silver thread; for inns and ale-houses; for remitting the penalties of obsolete laws, and even for the price of horse-meat, starch, candles, tobacco-pipes, salt, and train-oil; and such traders as presumed to continue their business without satisfying the rapacity of the patentees, had been severely punished by vexatious prosecutions, fine, and imprisonment. The outcries of the subject were incessant. "Monopolies and briberies were beaten upon the anvil every day, almost every hour." The complaints were so numerous that not less than eighty committees to redress abuses in the church, in the courts of law, and in every department of the state, were immediately nominated. From the mass of evils under consideration, the House first directed its attention to the three great patents, of inns, of ale-houses, and of gold and silver thread. The chief actors were Sir Giles Mompesson, a man of property, and a member of the house, and Sir Francis Michell, his tool, a poor justice, who received annually £100 for issuing warrants to enforce his tyranny. The rage for punishment was not confined to Mompesson and Michell. Sir Henry Yelverton, the attorney-general, who had incurred the displeasure of Buckingham, was prosecuted and severely punished, for some irregularity respecting a patent for a charter for the city of London.

It appeared before a committee of the house, that the profits from these patents were shared by