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journment. Thereupon the House adjourned; but, on the 2nd of March, Sir John Eliot stood up, and, after expressing his duty to the king, once more denounced Arminianism, and then fell with his whole weight upon the great Bishop of Winchester and his greater abettor"that is," continued Eliot, "the Lord Treasurer Weston, in whose person all evil is concentrated, both for the innovation of religion and invasion of our liberties; he being now the great enemy of the commonwealth. I have traced him in all his actions, and I find him building on those grounds laid by his master, the great duke; he, secretly, is moving for this interruption; and, from this fear, they go about to break parliaments, lest parliaments should break them." Then the Speaker, Sir John Finch, delivered a message from the king, commanding him “to adjourn the House until Tuesday come seven-night following." Several members objected that this message was vexatious and irregular, and that it was not the office of their Speaker to deliver any such commands-for the adjournment of the House properly belonged to themselves. And then they said that, after they had settled a few things, they would satisfy his majesty. Sir John Eliot forthwith produced a remonstrance to the king against the illegal levying of tonnage and poundage, and against the lord treasurer, who "dismayed the merchants, drove out trade," &c. Eliot desired the Speaker to read this paper, but the Speaker said he could not, as the king had adjourned the House. It was then proposed that the remonstrance should be read by the clerk of the House, at the table, but the clerk also refused. And thereupon Eliot read it himself with much more effect than either of the officials could have produced. When Sir John had finished the reading, the Speaker refused to put it to the vote, saying, "he was commanded otherwise by the king." Mr. Selden then got up and said, "Mr. Speaker, if you will not put the question, which we command you, we must sit still; and so we shall never be able to do anything." The Speaker replied, that he had an express command from the king, so soon as he had delivered his message of adjournment, to rise. And thereupon he

rose; but Hollis, son to the Earl of Clare, Mr. Valentine, and other members of that stamp, forced him to sit down again, and held him fast to his chair. At the same time some of the patriots locked the doors of the House, and brought up the keys to the table. Sir Thomas Edmonds and other members of the House, who were privy counsellors or courtiers, rushed to the release of the pinioned speaker. "God's wounds!" cried Hollis, "he shall sit still till it pleases us to rise." A rude scuffle ensued, during which the Speaker shed an abundance of tears. As the courtiers were too weak to release him, he at last sat still, and said, crying more than ever, “I will not say I will not, but I dare not. I have his majesty's commands. I dare not sin against the express command of the sovereign." Selden then delivered a constitutional speech on the duties of a Speaker of the House of Commons, and told him that he ought to proceed and put the remonstrance to the vote; but the Speaker "still refused, with extremity of weeping and supplicatory orations. Sir Peter Hayman, a gentleman of his own county and of his own blood, told him that he blushed at being his kinsman; that he was a disgrace to his country-a blot to a noble family; that all the inconveniences that might follow-yea, even to the destruction of parliamentwould be considered as the issue of his baseness by posterity, by whom he would be remembered with scorn and disdain." Sir Peter ended by recommending, that if he would not do his duty, he should be brought to the bar of the House, and a new Speaker chosen at once.

END OF VOL. X.

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