Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

66

opinion he had ventured to express in the debate, that the House of Commons had no right to print without the Lords' concurrence. Wherefore, he added, if the motion were persisted in, he should ask the leave of the House to have liberty to enter his protest. Culpeper's speech in the same strain, replying to the determined objection made upon this, first very calmly by Pym, and then more excitedly by Denzil Holles, carried the excitement still higher; and in the midst of it were now heard several voices, and among them very conspicuously that of Palmer, crying out that they also protested. Some one then rose, and moved that the names of the protesters might be taken; but this being declared against the forms and orders, was not at the moment pressed. "So," according to D'Ewes's account, derived from Sir Christopher Yelverton, "this matter was understood to be laid aside until a further "time of debate, when everybody thought the business "had been agreed upon, and that the House should have risen, it being about one of the clock of the morning ensuing, when Mr. Geoffrey Palmer, a lawyer of the "Middle Temple, stood up." He should not be satisfied, he said, for himself or those around him, unless a day were at once appointed for discussion of whether the right to protest did not exist in that House; and meanwhile he would move, with reference to such future discussion, that the Clerk should now enter the names of all those whose claim to protest would then have to be determined. At these words the excitement broke out afresh; loud cries of "All! All!" burst from every side where any of Hyde's party sat; and Palmer, carried beyond his first intention by the passion of the moment, cried out unexpectedly that he did for himself then and there protest, for himself and all the rest-" of his mind," he afterwards declared that he meant to have added, but for the storm which suddenly arose.

66

66

The word All had fallen like a lighted match upon gunpowder. It was taken up, and passed from mouth to mouth, with an exasperation bordering on frenzy; and to

those who in after years recalled the scene, under that sudden glare of excitement after a sitting of fifteen hours, —the worn-out weary assemblage, the ill-lighted dreary chamber, the hour sounding One after midnight, confused loud cries on every side breaking forth unexpectedly, and startling gestures of violence accompanying them,—it presented itself to the memory as a very Valley of the Shadow of Death. "All! all!" says D'Ewes, was cried from side to side; "and some waved their hats over their "heads, and others took their swords in their scabbards "out of their belts, and held them by the pummels in "their hands, setting the lower part on the ground; so,

66

66

as if God had not prevented it, there was very great "danger that mischief might have been done. All those "who cried All, all, and did the other particulars, were of the number of those that were against the "Remonstrance." And among them was the promising young gentleman of the King's house, Mr. Philip Warwick, the member for Radnor, who bethought him, as we have seen, of that brief scriptural comparison from the wars of Saul and David,' his application of which comprised all that, until now, was known to us of this extraordinary scene. He thought of what Abner said to Joab, and Joab to Abner, when they met on either side of the pool of Gibeon; and how, having arisen at the bidding of their leaders to make trial of prowess, their young men caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's side, and so fell down together: a result which might have followed here, had not the sagacity and great calmness of Mr. Hampden, by a short speech, prevented it.

It is not perhaps difficult to imagine, from what D'Ewes goes on to say of the short but memorable speech, with what exquisite tact and self-control this profound master of debate calmed down the passions of that dangerous hour. He saw at once that the motion

1 Second Book of Samuel, Chap. ii. v. 12-16.

66

for printing could not then with safety be persisted in ; and, reminding the House that there might be many who, having supported the Remonstrance, might yet be opposed to the printing of it, he asked how any one could so far know the minds of such as to presume to enter a protest for them? "Some who were against the printing of the Remonstrance," says D'Ewes, "yet disavowed Mr. "Palmer's desiring to have a protestation entered in their 66 names; and Mr. Hampden demanded of him how he could "know other men's minds? To whom Mr. Palmer answered, "having leave of the House to speak, that he having once "before heard the cry All, All,' he had thereupon "desired to have the said protestation entered in all their 66 names."

The mere question and answer had quelled the unnatural excitement, and brought the House again, as Hampden anticipated, within government and rule. Agreement was then come to, that the question as to the printing of the Declaration should for the present be left undetermined, with the understanding that it was not to be printed without special leave. Hyde's party would further have restricted this order, by introducing the word "published" into it; but Pym, refusing to consent to that addition, divided the house once more, and carried the original proposal, “that "this Declaration shall not be printed without the particular order of the house," by a majority of twenty-three; thus leaving the publication free, and restraining the printing only until further order. The numbers were 124 to 101; Sir Edward Dering and Sir Robert Crane, D'Ewes's colleague in the representation of Sudbury, being tellers for the minority; and for the majority, Sir Walter Earle and Mr. Richard Knightly, the member for Northampton. Between the last division and the present, thirty-five of Pym's party and forty-seven of Hyde's had quitted the house. And so, says D'Ewes, "the House arose just "when the clock struck two the ensuing morning."

66

Clarendon fixes the hour of meeting the next day as late as three o'clock, but in reality they assembled only a

little later than the usual hour. Much important business not admitting of delay was in hand; and the further loan of fifty thousand pounds from the City for the Irish affairs, to bear interest at eight per cent, had this day to be completed. A little incident marked the temper of the House. Early in the month the Queen's confessor, Father Philips, had for contumacious conduct been committed by the Lords to the Tower, and no order was to be given for his release without the knowledge of the Commons. He had now made submission, and in deference to an urgent message from the Queen, the Lords had ordered his release; but on their messenger bringing this intimation to the Commons, a peremptory refusal was sent back, and Father Philips had to return to the Tower. This incident had passed, and it was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, when Pym rose and made allusion to the scene of the night before. He lamented the disorder on that occasion, which, he said, might probably have engaged the House in blood. It proceeded principally, he continued, by the offering a protestation, which had never before been offered in that assembly; and was a transgression that ought to be severely examined, that mischief hereafter might not result from the precedent. He therefore proposed that the House should the next morning enter upon that examination : and in the meantime he advised that men might recollect themselves, and they who used to take notes might peruse their memorials; to the end that the persons who were the chief causers of the disorder might be named, and defend themselves the best they could. "And with this "resolution," adds Clarendon, "the House rose; the "vexation of the night before being very visible in the "looks and countenance of many."1

How far the further statement made herein by Clarendon is to be believed, must be judged upon the facts. He says, as we have seen, that the House did not

1 Hist. ii. 46. D'Ewes simply says of the rising of the House, that "they appointed to meet to-morrow

"at ten, and rose between four and "five of the clock."

66

meet till three in the afternoon: But the statement in D'Ewes's Notes (and this is borne out by the Journals) leaves no doubt that the House was in debate soon after ten o'clock. He asserts that the most part of the day had been passed by the leading men in private consultations, having for their object how to chastise some of those who most offended them the night before, and how to punish the attempt to introduce the dangerous and unheard-of precedent of protesting against the sense of the house: But the private consultations must in this case have been held during the open sitting, for the leading men on Pym's side were unquestionably engaged, in public, upon the bill for determining parliamentary privilege, upon the Committee of Irish affairs, upon the bill of tonnage and poundage, upon the City loan, and upon the case of the Queen's confessor. He explains that the subject of private consultation was all the more grateful to the "leading violent men who bore the greatest sway," because they should thereby take revenge upon Mr. Hyde (himself), whom they perfectly hated above any man, and to whose activity they imputed the trouble they had sustained the day before; only they encountered an unexpected difficulty from an important section of their supporters, the Northern men as they were called, led by Sir John Hotham, Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, and Sir Philip Stapleton, members for Beverley, Scarborough, and Boroughbridge, who were so grateful to Mr. Hyde for his services in overthrowing the monstrous oppression of the Court of York, that they refused to join against him, though very eager to make others responsible; and he adds that this dispute, which broke out at the private council in the morning, occupied all that day and night, and was only terminated by the compromise of selecting another person, Palmer, to bear the brunt of punishment: But if all this were so, it is strange that neither Sir Simonds D'Ewes, nor Sir Ralph Verney, in Notes still preserved exactly as they were taken at the moment, should in any form confirm or make allusion to it; and still

« ZurückWeiter »