WHEN the king came to York, which was about the middle of August, he found no part of either army disbanded; for, though orders had been issued to that purpose, yet the money, without which it could not be done, was not yet come to their hands; and because so great a sum could not be presently procured, as would satisfy both, an act of parliament had been passed, for the satisfaction of the principal officers of the king's army, by which they were promised payment, upon the public faith, in November following; till which time they were to respite it, and be contented that the common soldiers, and inferior officers, should be fully satisfied upon their disbanding.

During the time of the king's abode at York, which was not many days, the earl of Holland, lord general, made a suit to him for the making a baron; which, at that time, might have been worth to him ten thousand pounds. Whether the king apprehended the making an unfit man, who might dis

serve him in the house of peers; or whether he resolved to contain himself from enlarging that number, except upon an extraordinary relation to his own service, I know not: but he thought not fit, at that time, to gratify the earl: by which he took himself to be highly disobliged, (as the courtiers of that time took whatsoever was denied to them, as to be taken from them,) and having received some information, from sir Jacob Ashley and sir John Coniers, of some idle passages in the late tampering with the army to petition, which had not been before heard of; as soon as the king was gone towards Scotland (though his majesty hath since told me, "that he thought he had left the

earl at parting in very good humour, and devotion "to his service") he wrote a letter to the earl of Essex, to be communicated in parliament, that " he found there had been strange attempts made "to pervert and corrupt the army, but, he doubted "not, he should be able to prevent any mischief :" the whole sense being so mysterious, that it was no hard matter, after it was read in both houses, to persuade men, that it related to somewhat they had yet never heard; and being dated on the sixteenth day of August, which must be the time that the king was there, or newly gone, (for he took his journey from London on the tenth,) seemed to reflect on somewhat his majesty should have attempted. Hereupon their old fears are awakened, and new ones infused into the people; every man taking the liberty of making what interpretation they pleased of that which no man understood.

The papists were the most popular commonplace, and the butt against whom all the arrows

were directed; and so, upon this new fright, an order was made by both houses for disarming all "the papists in England:" upon which, and the like orders, though seldom any thing was after done, or no matter of moment, yet it served to keep up the fears and apprehensions in the people, of dangers and designs, and to disincline them from any reverence or affection to the queen, whom they began every day more implacably to hate, and consequently to disoblige. And, as upon those, and the like light occasions, they grew to a license of language, without the least respect of persons, of how venerable estimation soever; so they departed from any order or regularity in debate; or rules and measure in judging; the chief rulers amongst them first designing what they thought fit to be done, and the rest concluding any thing lawful, that they thought, in order to the doing or compassing the same: in which neither laws nor customs could be admitted to signify any thing against their sense.

I remember, about that time, in the providing money for the disbanding the armies, upon which they were marvellously solicitous, from the time that the king went towards the north, there arose a question, Whether Wilmot, Ashburnham, and Pollard, should receive their pay due to them upon their several commands, lying under the charge of the plot, for bringing up, and corrupting "the army;" very many passionately alleging, that such men ought not to receive their pay, who had forfeited their trust:" yet there wanted not many who alleged, “that they had the security of an act of parliament for their payment, and that

"in justice it could not be detained from them; "that, though they lay under the displeasure of the house, yet there was so far from a judgment, that "there was not so much as a charge against them, but that they were at liberty under bail; and "therefore they could not be said to have forfeited "any thing that was their own." In this debate the house seemed equally divided, till one, who well knew what he said, told them, "that

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there could not be any reasonable pretence for detaining their due, as well for the reasons that "had been given, as, that they were absolutely pardoned by the late act of oblivion, and pacification, between the two kingdoms :" the which was no sooner said, than many of those who were before inclined to the gentlemen, changed their opinions, and, without so much as calling to have the statute read, declared, "that they could have no benefit by that act of parliament, because then, the same

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might be as well applied to the archbishop of "Canterbury." And so, without further weighing the law, or the reason, it was thought sufficient, not only to exclude them from that benefit, but to bar them from their money; lest they might be thought to be admitted to it for that reason, which might prove an advantage to another, to whom they had no inclination to be just. And no question, they had been overseen in the penning that statute; the words, in their true and genuine signification and extent, comprehending as well the archbishop of Canterbury, as those who at that time had no contempt of the security they reaped thereby.

Soon after the king went into Scotland, there being some motion "to adjourn the houses till after

Michaelmas," which seemed to be generally inclined to, very many of both houses being willing to refresh themselves in the country, after so long absence from their homes, (the summer being far spent, and the plague increasing; of which some members had died: and others were in danger, having been in infected houses,) and conceiving, that there was no more to be done till the return of the king, save only the procuring money to finish the disbanding; went into the country: and others, who stayed in the town, were less solicitous to attend the public service; but betook themselves to those exercises and refreshments which were pleasanter to them: insomuch, as within twenty days after the king's remove, there were not above twenty lords, nor much above a hundred commoners, in both houses. But this was the advantage they looked for; those persons continuing (especially in the house of commons) to whose care and managery the whole reformation was committed. They now entered upon the consultation of the highest matters, both in church and state; and made attempts and entries upon those regalities and foundations, which have been since more evident in wider and more notorious breaches.

So when they assumed the power to control and reverse the license and power granted by the king to the Spanish ambassador, for transporting four thousand Irish soldiers upon the disbanding that army into Flanders, (as was before touched,) and to the French ambassador, for three thousand of the army disbanded here, for the service of that king; in debate whereof they used all license to look into the mysteries of state, and to weigh the