a Bill, for the association of the King's Protestant subjects. This measure was ably opposed by Mr. Harbord, who remarked, that ever since the trial of Wakeman, the clergy had preached up the danger of fanatics to be greater than that of Papists, and that to disinherit the Duke was against the law of God. He, therefore, feared that the present Bill might serve to show the divisions among the Protestants, and be at last evaded. The Bill itself was an imitation of one of Queen Elizabeth, to prevent a Popish successor; but, as Sir Willam Jones observed, all the privy counsellors were then for the interest of the Queen; whereas they were all now for that of the successor. This, and the other objections before mentioned, probably determined the promoters of the Bill not to press it with great eagerness. On the 17th, the House made further resolulutions for bringing in several Bills. One for more effectually securing the meeting and sitting of parliaments; another, enacting, that the judges should be appointed during good behaviour; and another, to make illegal exaction of money upon the people high treason. On the 18th, the day appointed for taking the King's speech into consideration, Mr. Hampden, * See this Bill at length, in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. vii. after a long speech, moved for an address, to assure the King, that when he should be pleased to grant such laws as were necessary for the security of our religion, they would be ready to give him what money his occasions might require. He was followed by Lord Russell, who said, "Sir, seeing it so apparent that all our fears of Popery arise from and centre in the Duke, and "that it is impossible the affairs of this nation "should ever settle on a good Protestant bottom "as long as there is a Popish successor, which "cannot be prevented but by the Succession "Bill; that there may be no ill construction "made of our desires, I would humbly move 66 66 you to offer to supply the King with what money he may need for the support of Tangier and alliances, upon his granting of "the Succession Bill only; that so His Majesty "may have no reason to be diffident of us; not "doubting but that if we can once lay a foun"dation for a good correspondence, that His 66 Majesty will take so much content in it, beyond what he doth now enjoy, that, to pre"serve it, he will afterwards grant us what more "Bills may be further necessary for the security "of the Protestant religion. And, therefore, I 66 am not for clogging this address with any re : This speech shows, that, however unwilling Lord Russell may have been to engage in the Exclusion Bill, he was fully sensible, that when once in forwardness, it ought to be pursued with firm and undeviating constancy. He was supported by Sir W. Jones, who said, with profound judgment, "Without the Exclu"sion Bill, there can be no expedient but what "will leave us in that miserable condition "of having, first or last, a contest with our legal King; and there can be no such "thing as setting up a power to oppose him, "but by putting a kind of supreme authority in "the Parliament, with a power to oppose, as "well by making war, as laws, which might prove the destruction of the monarchical "government." The House, however, misled by Mr. Garroway, was in favour of representing all grievances at once; and in the address which was voted on the 30th, we find, besides a petition to the King that he will give his assent to the Exclusion Bill, when tendered to him in a parliamentary way, other requests concerning the judges, the lord lieutenants and deputy lieutenants, justices of the peace, and officers of the army and navy. A Bill was next brought in to exempt Protestant dissenters from the penalties to which 1 they, as well as Papists, were liable by the 35th of Elizabeth. This Bill passed both Houses; but when the King prorogued the Parliament, he privately ordered the clerk not to present it to him. One of the most important labours of this session, was an enquiry into the conduct of the judges. The most obnoxious of these was the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs. Lord Russell introduced, at the Bar of the House of Commons several witnesses, who proved that a grand jury of Middlesex had been dismissed in an irregular manner, when they were about to present the Duke of York as a Popish recusant, and to deliver a petition for the speedy meeting of Parliament. In the debate which followed, Mr. Sydney mentioned that there had been a consultation of the judges about printing; and that they gave their opinion that there was no way to prevent printing by law, as the act concerning it had expired. Upon which, some of the judges were put out, and new ones put in; and a fresh opinion was given, subscribed by all the judges, "That to print or publish any news-books, or pamphlets of news whatever, is illegal; that it is a manifest intent "to the breach of the peace, and the offenders 66 may be proceeded against by law for an il 66 legal thing." * In consequence of this opinion, a proclamation was issued to forbid printing news without the King's permission; and Scroggs sent a messenger to seize all unlicensed books and pamphlets of news, and to apprehend their authors. These facts were strongly commented on by the Whig members. No wonder, it was said, that petitioning for a parliament was discountenanced in the country, when a judge in Westminster-Hall made it a ground for discharging a grand jury, occupied in the execution of their duty. Such a proceeding amounted to a denial of justice, and was, in fact, a suspension of the laws: for laws themselves are but dead letters, unless their execution is secured. The government of Scotland, it was urged, had been quite altered since the Restoration, by some new laws; and that of England might be soon changed by the perversion of the old. § The proclamation concerning the press was, in fact, an assumption of legislative power. It was remarked, that an extra-judicial opinion of the judges brought Charles the First into contest concerning ship-money, and was the beginning of all his difficulties. # It be * State Trials. ↑ Sir W. Jones. Sir H. Capel. |