XCVII,

PARLIAMENT.

1. ALL are involved in a parliament. There was a time when all men had their voice in choosing knights. About Henry the Sixth they found the inconvenience; so one parliament made a law, that only he that had forty shillings per annum should give his voice, they under should be excluded. They made the law who had the voices of all, as well under forty shillings as above; and thus it continues at this day. All consent civilly in a parliament; women Io are involved in the men, children in those of perfect age,

those that are under forty shillings a year in those that have forty shillings a year, those of forty shillings in the knights.

2. All things are brought to the parliament, little to the courts of justice; just as in a room where there is a banquet presented, if there be persons of quality there, the people must expect, and stay till the great ones have done. plained, e. g. by Laud, in his sermon before Charles' second Parliament: 'I know there are some that think the Church is not yet far enough beside the cushion; that their seats are too easy yet and too high too. A parity they would have; no bishop, no governor, but a parochial consistory, and that should be lay enough too. Well, first, this parity was never left to the Church by Christ. He left Apostles, and disciples under them. No parity. It was never in use with the Church since Christ; no Church ever, anywhere, till this last age, without a bishop. ... And there is not a man that is for parity-all fellows in the Church -but he is not for monarchy in the State.' Laud's Works, vol. i. pp. 82, 83.

ch. 7,

1. 4. so one parliament made a law &c.] The Act 8 Henry VI, recites that elections of knights of shires have been made by large and excessive numbers of persons of small substance, and that riots and disturbances are likely thence to arise. It enacts, accordingly, that knights of shires to come to Parliament be chosen by residents in the shire having free land or tenement worth at least a clear forty shillings by the year.

By 10 Henry VI, ch. 2, it is further expressly said that the qualifying estate must be a freehold.

3. The parliament in flying upon several men, and then letting them alone, does as a hawk that flies a covey of partridges, and when she has flown them a good way, grows weary and takes a tree; then the falconer lures her down, and takes her to his fist; on they go again, hei ret; up springs another covey; away goes the hawk, and as she did before, takes another tree, &c.

4. Dissentions1 in parliament may at length come to a good end, though first there be a deal of do, and a great deal of noise, which mad wild folks make; just as in 10 brewing of wrest-beer, there is a great deal of business in grinding the malt, and that spoils any man's clothes that comes near it; then it must be mashed; then comes a fellow in and drinks off the wort, and he's drunk; then they keep a huge quarter when they carry it into the cellar, and a twelvemonth after 'tis delicate fine beer.

5. It must necessarily be that our distempers must be worse than they were in the beginning of the parliament. If a physician comes to a sick man he lets him blood, it may be he scarifies him, cups him, puts him into a great 20 disorder, before he makes him well; and if he be sent for to cure an ague, and he finds his patient has many diseases, a dropsy, and a palsy, he applies remedies to them all, which makes the cure the longer, and the dearer : this is the case.

6. The parliament men are as great princes as any in the world, when whatever they please is privilege of parlia ment; no man must know the number of their privileges, and whatsoever they dislike is breach of privilege. The 1 Dissentions. H. 2, written above the line] dissenters, H. and S.

1. 14. drinks off the wort] i. e. drinks some from the wort.

1. 15. they keep a huge quarter] i. e. they make a great noise or disturbance. See Halliwell, Glossary of Archaic Words; sub voce 'Quarter.'

1. 29. breach of privilege] Clarendon remarks, with instances, on the extent to which this claim was made, and condemns, as Selden

duke of Venice is no more than the speaker of the house of commons; but the senate at Venice are not so much as our parliament men, nor have they that power over the people, who yet exercise the greatest tyranny that is anywhere. In plain truth, breach of privilege is only the actual taking away of a member of the house; the rest are offences against the house. For example, to take out process against a parliament man, or the like.

7. The parliament party, if the law be for them, they call 10 for law; if it be against them, they will go to a parliamentary way: if law be for them 1, then for law again: like him

If law be for them] if no law be for them, MSS.

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does, the notion that their being judges of their privileges should qualify them to make new privileges, or that their judgment should create them such.' This he terms 'a doctrine never before now (i. e. before 1641) heard of.' Hist. vol. i. 618-620.

1. 9. if the law be for them &c.] This seems to refer to the proceedings at the trial of the Earl of Strafford. As Clarendon tells the story, his accusers began in due form of law, and when there were difficulties in the way of obtaining a conviction, they then resolved to proceed by attainder. Later, when the Bill of Attainder had been sent up to the Lords, and his accusers had promised 'to give their Lordships satisfaction in the matter of law,' Mr. Solicitor St. John, speaking on behalf of the Commons, urged inter alia, 'That, in that way of bill, private satisfaction to each man's conscience was sufficient, although no evidence had been given in at all, and as to pressing the law, he said, it was true we give law to hares and deer because they are beasts of chase, but it was never accounted either cruelty or foul play to knock foxes and wolves on the head as they can be found, because they are beasts of prey.' Clarendon, Hist. i. 337 ff.

St. John's speech, as Nalson relates it, points no less clearly to a 'Parliamentary way' of overriding the law: 'My Lords, in judgment of greatest moment, there are but two ways for satisfying those that are to give them, either the lex lata, the law already established, or else the use of the same power for making new laws, whereby the old at first received life. . . . The same law gives power to the Parliament to make new laws, that enables the inferior court to judge according to the old.... What hath been said is, because that this proceeding of the Commons by way of Bill implies the use of the meer legislative power, in respect new laws are for the most part passed by Bill.' Nalson, Collections, ii. 162.

that first called for sack to heat him; then small drink to cool his sack; then sack again to heat his small drink.

8. The parliament party do not play fair play, in sitting up till two of the clock in the morning, to vote something they have a mind to. 'Tis like a crafty gamester that makes the company drunk and then cheats them of their money. Young men and infirm men go away. Besides, a man is not there to persuade other men to be of his mind, but to speak his own heart; and if it be liked-so: if not, there's an end.

ΤΟ

XCVIII.

PARSON.

I. THOUGH We write [parson] differently, yet 'tis but person; that is the individual person set apart for the service of such a church, and 'tis in Latin persona, and personatus is a parsonage. Indeed with the canon lawyers, personatus is any dignity or preferment in the church.

1.3. in sitting up till two of the clock] This was done in the debate on the Remonstrance (1641). The Remonstrance was carried shortly after midnight by 159 to 148 votes. Then came a new debate whether the Remonstrance should be printed, and it was finally resolved that it was not to be printed without the particular order of the House. The attempt to introduce a further restriction that it was not to be 'printed or published' did not succeed, the adverse votes being 124 to 101. The House rose at two in the morning. See Cobbett's Parliamentary History, and Forster's Grand Remonstrance, §§ 17 and 18. The Commons Journals, ii. 322, record the debates and their result, but say nothing about the hour at which a division was taken or at which the House rose. Clarendon's account is exact as to the hours. Hist. i. 485. 1. 12. yet 'tis but person] 'Those words universae personae regni, I interpret all Abbots, Conventual Priors, and the like... which yet time and use with us hath long since confined only to the Rectors of Parishchurches.' Selden, Titles of Honour, ii. 5, sec. 20; Works, iii. 732.

1. 14. personatus is a parsonage] 'Personatus et dignitas vere supponunt pro eodem; licet in aliquibus locis rectores ecclesiarum

K

2. There never was a merry world since the fairies left dancing, and the parson left conjuring. The opinion of the latter kept thieves in awe, and did as much good in a country as a justice of peace.

XCIX.

PATIENCE.

PATIENCE is the chiefest fruit of study. A man by striving to make himself a different thing from other men by much reading, gains this chiefest good, that in all fortunes he hath something to entertain and comfort To himself withal.

20

C.

PEACE.

1. KING James was pictured going gently down a pair of stairs, and upon every step was written peace, peace, peace; the wisest way for men in these times is to say nothing.

2. When a country-wench cannot get her butter to come, she says the witch is in her churn. We have been churning for peace a good while, and 'twill not come; surely the witch is in it.

3. Though we had peace, yet 'twill be a great while ere things be settled: though the wind lie, yet after a storm the sea will work a great while.

vocantur Personae et sic habent personatum non tamen dignitatem.' Ducange, Glossary, Personatus; and see Selden, iii. 732.

That parson and person were once used indifferently, appears from e. g. 'An Acte that no parson or psons shall susteyne any prejudice by means of the attaynder of the Lord Cardinall.' 21 Henry VIII, cap. 25. So, too, in 1 Edward VI, cap. 12, sec. 5.