tions could by degrees grow up and increase to the strength and nature of laws."

Two great measures-which, however, were not carried out in this reign-occupied much of the attention of this Parliament. The first was the union of England and Scotland as one nation under the same Parliament and government, which the king was extremely anxious to bring about; expressing his desire that as there was unus rex, so there might be unus grex, and una lex, one king, one country, one law. In this, however, he was not cordially met by Parliament. The other measure was the abolition of the feudal revenues of the crown, which the Commons desired, and for which they were willing that the king should receive an adequate compensation. This affair acquired the name of the great contract between the king and people. James sent a message to the Lords, offering to accept a commutation of £200,000 yearly. The Commons, after contending for £180,000, at length came up to the price demanded; but while the Lords were striving to carry through the contract on the part of the king, the Commons suddenly changed their minds, from a feeling, it is supposed, that they could have no security for the performance of the arrangement, from the laxity of the prevailing doctrines of divine right. The king was displeased, and dissolved the Parliament, with no good humor on either side.

The failure of the great contract, and the dissolution of Parliament without the grant of a supply, left James in great embarrassment. He was not involved in war, but the supply of his court and favorites required large sums of money. Its effect upon the people is described as beneficial. "Freedom from war made riches flow; no taxes anyways burdensome-the grant of subsidies during this king's reign being but a poor pittance compared with those of Elizabeth. How he kept up his estate and expense of court is a secret." Various devices were adopted to raise money for the royal treasury. A new order of dignity-that of baronets was invented, for patents to which a fee of £1,000 was paid. The current value of the gold coin was raised; and a lottery, the first drawn in England, was instituted.

These resources proving insufficient, and the king's necessity

being great, he was induced again to try the effect of a Parliament. He was strongly urged to do so by Sir Francis Bacon, who, seconded by others of the king's ministers and courtiers, undertook to assemble such a House of Commons, and so to manage it when assembled, as that it should be subservient to the king's wishes. These therefore got the name of undertakers.

The Parliament met on the 5th of April, 1614, but the scheme was eminently unsuccessful. The Commons passed a unanimous vote against the king's right of imposing taxes without the consent of Parliament; and they desired a conference with the Lords touching the point of impositions. The Lords desired the opinions of the judges on the subject, in order to regulate their answer to the Commons but the judges, headed by Sir Edward (Lord) Coke, declined to give an opinion, on the ground that the question might come before them judicially; and the Lords, unable to settle a satisfactory answer, sent a message to the Commons declining the conference. The Commons thereupon declared that they considered a great wrong had been done to them, which they had so taken to heart that they had determined to forbear all parliamentary matter, until they might receive a different answer from the Lords. This threat was directed against a bill of supply, which the king's secretary had introduced into the lower house. The Lords, to whom the king had sent a commission to dissolve, gave the Commons time to reconsider their resolution; but on the 7th of June, there being no change, the Parliament was dissolved. Not a single bill was passed in this Parliament.

Six years elapsed before another Parliament was called; and during that time the king and his ministers supported the court and state from the ordinary resources, or by such loans and benevolences as they could. procure. This period is described as the "halcyon days in England, no taxes being now paid, trade open to all parts of the world, a profound peace reigning everywhere; but in 1620, this quietude was disturbed by a war which broke out in Germany, by which Frederic, Count Palatine of the Rhine, who had married the king's daughter, the princess of England, was dispossessed of all his hereditary dominions. James's pacific temper was roused to revenge his son in law, and to recover his terri

tories and the inclination of the people being in favor of the support of the Protestant interest in Germany, he ventured to call a Parliament.

66

It met on the 30th of January, 1620-'1, and was opened by a rather lugubrious speech from the king, in which he humbled him. self in a manner inconsistent with high prerogative principles. He said to them, "I have often piped to you, but you have not danced; I have often mourned, but you have not lamented." He asks, Why are you called ?" and replies, "To advise the king in his urgent affairs; to give him your best advice in such errands as he shall ask of you, or you shall think fit to ask his advice in." To the House of Commons he said, "You are the authors of sustenance to the king, to supply his necessities, and this is the proper use of Parliaments." "The main errand, to speak the truth, which I have called you for, is for a supply of my urgent necessities." He reminds them of the eighteen years of peace they had enjoyed, " and yet, with these eighteen years, I have had less supplies than many kings before. The last queen had what came, by computation, to £135,000 a year at least. I had never above four subsidies and six fifteenths." He told them that "bis dat qui cito dat; " that in his first Parliament he was led by the old counsellors he found, which the old queen had left; and in the last Parliament there came up a strange kind of beasts called undertakers, a name which in his nature he abhorred, and which had caused a dissolution.

Mr. Secretary Calvert put the house in mind of what the Parliament was principally called for; and it was agreed that the occasion was more pressing than any since the recovery of the Holy Land. But the Commons were in no hurry to supply the king's necessities, and Sir Edward Coke moved for a committee of the whole for grievances; sarcastically saying, that "the remedying of them would encourage the house and enable them to increase the supply." The committee was appointed, and the supply was deferred; but the Commons, who were favorable to the recovery of the Palatinate, and had assented to a resolution encouraging the king to attempt it, passed a subsidy bill, and received the thanks of the king for their cheerfulness in passing it.

Parliament had sat several months, and many bills had been introduced, but none had been brought to a conclusion, when the House of Commons incurred the displeasure of James. On the 28th of May the lord treasurer announced that the king intended to adjourn the Parliament, and to adjourn rather than prorogue: and the judges, on being consulted, announced their opinion that the effect of an adjournment by royal commission was to reserve all bills not passed, in the same state, until their next meeting. The Commons urged the Lords to join them in a petition to prevent the adjournment, and in a conference expressed "their grief and passion that they could not perform what they had promised for the good of the commonwealth." But the king was not to be moved from his determination. He attended the House of Lords to adjourn the Parliament, affirmed that if the Commons had behaved with humility, he would have granted them ten days longer, but that now he would not yield to their requests. Yet, if the Lords thought ten days more would be of advantage, he would grant it to them. The Lords thereupon had a conference with the Commons, but the latter indignantly refused to ask for further adjournment.

On the reassembling of Parliament, on the 20th of November following, a session commenced, in which the struggle between the king and Commons reached its climax. After a speech by the lord keeper Williams, the lord treasurer urged the king's wants; declared that the two subsidies which had been granted by the Parliament had been spent about the Palatinate; promised that future supplies should be wholly employed for the recovery of the Palatinate; and ended by expressing a wish "that the Commons would so handle this business as to make his majesty in love with parliaments."

The Commons were in no haste to grant supplies, but went upon the old topic of grievances. The principal of these was the danger to the established religion which they apprehended from the intended match between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain, then publicly talked about. They drew up a petition, to be presented to the king, in which they pointed out the evils which, they believed, would fall on the nation from the Spanish match. The

king, having received a copy of the petition before the Commons had time to present it in form, was so displeased, that he sent a letter to the speaker, forbidding it to be sent to him. He said, in his letter, that he had heard by reports, that some fiery and popular spirits of the House of Commons had argued and debated publicly, of matters far above their reach and capacity, tending to his high dishonor, and breach of prerogative royal. He commanded that none should presume to meddle with anything concerning his government or deep matters of state; adding that " we think ourself very free and able to punish any man's misdemeanor in Parliament, as well during the sitting, as after, upon any occasion of any man's insolent behavior that shall be ministered unto us.”

They did not,

The Commons despatched messengers to bring back the members whom they had sent to deliver the remonstrance, and they drew up a second petition or remonstrance, which they sent along with the former by twelve of their members. The latter opens with the expression by the Commons, of loyal and submissive feelings toward the king, and proceeds to justify their having taken into consideration (being invited to do so by the king) both the war abroad and the security of our peace at home. they said, assume to encroach or intrude upon the sacred bounds of the royal authority, "to whom, and to whom only, it belonged to resolve of peace or war, and of the marriage of the prince his son. But as his humble subjects, representing the whole commons of the kingdom, they resolved, out of their cares and fears, to demonstrate these things to his majesty; and that without expectation of any answer than what at his good pleasure and in his own time should be held fit." They besought him to receive their former declaration, and added, "But whereas your majesty, by the general words of your letter, seems to restrain us from intermeddling with matters of government, in particulars which have their motion in courts of justice—the generality of which words might involve those things which are the proper subjects of parliamentary occasions and discourse-and whereas your majesty doth seem to abridge us of the ancient liberty of Parliament, for freedom of speech, jurisdiction, and just censure of the house, and other proceedings there the same being our ancient and undoubt

.