Sir Francis Goodwin was chosen member for the county of Bucks, and his return, as usual, was made into chancery. The chancellor, pronouncing him an outlaw, vacated his seat, and issued writs for a new election ". Sir John Fortescue was chosen in his place by the county. But the first act of the House was to reverse the chancellor's sentence, and restore Sir Francis to his seat. At the king's suggestion, the Lords desired a conference on the subject; but were absolutely refused by the Commons, as the question entirely regarded their own privileges'. The Commons, however, agreed to make a remonstrance to the king by the mouth of their speaker; in which they maintained, that though the returns were by form made into chancery, yet the sole right of judging with regard to elections belonged to the House itself, not to the chancellor. James was not satisfied, and ordered a conference between the House and the judges, whose opinion in this case was opposite to that of the Commons. This conference, he said, he commanded as an absolute king; an epithet, we are apt to imagine, not very grateful to English ears, but one to which they had already been somewhat accustomed from the mouth of Elizabeth '. He added, That all their privileges were derived from his grant, and hoped they would not turn them against him*; a sentiment which, from her conduct, it is certain that princess had also entertained, and which was the reigning principle of her courtiers and ministers, and the spring of all her administration. The Commons were in some perplexity. Their eyes were now opened, and they saw the consequences of that power which had been assumed by the chancellor, and to which their predecessors had, in some instances, blindly submitted. By this course, said a member, the free election of the counties is taken away, and none shall be chosen but such as shall please the king and council. Let us, therefore, with fortitude, understanding, and sincerity, seek to The facility with which he departed from this pretension is another proof that his meaning was innocent. But had the privileges of Parliament been at that time exactly ascertained, or royal power fully limited, could such an imagination ever have been entertained by him, as to think that his proclamations could regulate parliamentary elections? e Winwood, vol. ii. p. 18, 19. g Journ. 3d April, 1604. i Camden, in Kennet, p. 375. f Journ. 26th March, 1604. h See note [BB], at the end of the volume. CHAP. XLV. 1604. XLV. CHAP. maintain our privilege. This cannot be construed any contempt in us, but merely a maintenance of our common rights, which our ancestors have left us, and which it is just and fit for us to transmit to our posterity'. Another 1604. said ", This may be called a quo warranto to seize all our liberties. A chancellor, added a third, by this course may call a Parliament consisting of what persons he pleases. Any suggestion, by any person, may be the cause of sending a new writ. It is come to this plain question, whether the chancery or Parliament ought to have authority"? Notwithstanding this watchful spirit of liberty which now appeared in the Commons, their deference for majesty was so great, that they appointed a committee to confer with the judges before the king and council. There the question of law began to appear, in James's eyes, a little more doubtful than he had hitherto imagined it; and in order to extricate himself with some honour, he proposed that both Goodwin and Fortescue should be set aside, and a writ be issued, by warrant of the House, for a new election. Goodwin gave his consent, and the Commons embraced the expedient; but in such a manner, that while they showed their regard for the king, they secured for the future the free possession of their seats, and the right which they claimed, of judging solely in their own elections and returns". A power like this, so essential to the exercise of all their other powers, themselves so essential to public liberty, cannot fairly be deemed an encroachment in the Commons; but must be regarded as an inherent privilege, happily rescued from that ambiguity which the negligence of some former Parliaments had thrown upon it. At the same time the Commons, in the case of Sir Thomas Shirley, established their power of punishing, as well the persons at whose suit any member is arrested, as the officers who either arrest or detain him. Their asserting of this privilege admits of the same reflection". About this period, the minds of men throughout Europe, especially in England, seem to have undergone a general, but insensible, revolution. Though letters had 1 Journ. 30th March, 1604. m Id. ibid. n Id. ibid. been revived in the preceding age, they were chiefly cultivated by those of sedentary professions; nor had they, till now, begun to spread themselves, in any degree, among men of the world. Arts, both mechanical and liberal, were every day receiving great improvements; navigation had extended itself over the whole globe; travelling was secure and agreeable; and the general system of politics in Europe was become more enlarged and comprehensive. In consequence of this universal fermentation, the ideas of men enlarged themselves on all sides; and the several constituent parts of the Gothic governments, which seem to have lain long inactive, began every where to operate and encroach on each other. On the continent, where the necessity of discipline had begotten standing armies, the princes commonly established an unlimited authority, and overpowered, by force or intrigue, the liberties of the people. In England, the love of freedom, which, unless checked, flourishes extremely in all liberal natures, acquired new force, and was regulated by more enlarged views, suitable to that cultivated understanding which became every day more common among men of birth and education. A familiar acquaintance with the precious remains of antiquity excited, in every generous breast, a passion for a limited constitution, and begat an emulation of those manly virtues, which the Greek and Roman authors, by such animating examples, as well as pathetic expressions, recommend to us. The severe though popular government of Elizabeth had confined this rising spirit within very narrow bounds: but when a new and a foreign family succeeded to the throne, and a prince less dreaded and less beloved, symptoms immediately appeared of a more free and independent genius in the nation. Happily, this prince possessed neither sufficient capacity to perceive the alteration, nor sufficient art and vigour to check it in its early advances. Jealous of regal, because conscious of little personal authority, he had established within his own mind a speculative system of absolute government, which few of his subjects, he believed, and none but traitors and rebels, would make any scruple to admit. On whichever side he cast his eye, every thing CHAP. XLV. 1604. XLV. CHAP. concurred to encourage his prejudices. When he compared himself with the other hereditary sovereigns of 1604. Europe, he imagined, that as he bore the same rank, he was entitled to equal prerogatives; not considering the innovations lately introduced by them, and the military force by which their authority was supported. In England, that power, almost unlimited, which had been exercised for above a century, especially during the late reign, he ascribed solely to royal birth and title; not to the prudence and spirit of the monarchs, nor to the conjunctures of the times. Even the opposition which he had struggled with in Scotland encouraged him still farther in his favourite notions; while he there saw, that the same resistance which opposed regal authority, violated all law and order, and made way, either for the ravages of a barbarous nobility, or for the more intolerable insolence of seditious preachers. In his own person, therefore, he thought all legal power to be centred, by an hereditary and a divine right: and this opinion might have proved dangerous, if not fatal, to liberty, had not the firmness of the persuasion, and its seeming evidence, induced him to trust solely to his right, without making the smallest provision, either of force or politics, in order to support it. Such were the opposite dispositions of Parliament and prince, at the commencement of the Scottish line; dispositions just beginning to exist and to appear in the Parliament', but thoroughly established and openly avowed on the part of the prince. The spirit and judgment of the House of Commons appeared, not only in defence of their own privileges, but also in their endeavour, though at this time in vain, to free trade from those shackles which the high exerted prerogative, and even, in this respect, the ill-judged tyranny of Elizabeth, had imposed upon it. James had already, of his own accord, called in and annulled all the numerous patents for monopolies which had been granted by his predecessor, and which extremely fettered every species of domestic industry: but the exclusive companies still remained; another species of monopoly, by which almost all foreign trade, except that to France, was brought into the hands of a few 4 See note [DD], at the end of the volume. XLV. 1604. rapacious engrossers, and all prospect of future improve- CHAP. ment in commerce was for ever sacrificed to a little temporary advantage of the sovereign. These companies, though arbitrarily elected, had carried their privileges so far, that almost all the commerce of England was centred in London; and it appears that the customs of that port amounted to one hundred and ten thousand pounds a year, while those of all the kingdom beside yielded only seventeen thousand'. Nay, the whole trade of London was confined to about two hundred citizens, who were easily enabled, by combining among themselves, to fix whatever price they pleased both to the exports and imports of the nation. The committee appointed to consider this enormous grievance, one of the greatest which we read of in English story, insist on it as a fact well known and avowed, however contrary to present received opinion, that shipping and seamen had sensibly decayed during all the preceding reign'; and though nothing be more common than complaints of the decay of trade, even during the most flourishing periods, yet is this a consequence which might naturally result from such arbitrary establishments, at a time when the commerce of all the other nations of Europe, except that of Scotland, enjoyed full liberty and indulgence. While the Commons were thus attempting to give liberty to the trading part of the nation, they also endeavoured to free the landed property from the burden of wardships", and to remove those remains of the feudal tenures under which the nation still laboured. A just regard was shown to the crown in the conduct of this affair; nor was the remedy sought for considered as a matter of right, but merely of grace and favour. The profit which the king reaped, both from wards and from respite of homage, was estimated; and it was intended. to compound for these prerogatives by a secure and independent revenue. But after some debates in the House, and some conferences with the Lords, the affair was found to contain more difficulties than could easily, r Journ. 21 May, 1604. s Id. ibid. A remonstrance from the Trinity-house, in 1602, says, that in a little above twelve years after 1588, the shipping and number of seamen in England decayed about a third. Anglesey's happy future State of England, p. 128, from Sir Julius Cæsar's Collections. See Journ. 21 May, 1604. u Journ. 1 June, 1604. |