History of the House of Commons, from the Convention Parliament of 1688-9 to the passing of the Reform Bill, in 1832

Preface

. A popular History of the House of Commons, fur nishing biographical notices of those members who have been most distinguished in its annals, and describing the changes in its internal economy, powers, and privi leges, appears to be still wanting in our literature. In vain we look for many a likeness in the national por trait-gallery of senators who have achieved greatness within the walls of St. Stephen's Chapel; — the long array of Speakers, lawyers, country gentlemen, and men of the sword, marshalled in the procession of England's worthies, seems far from complete. How little is comparatively known of those who claimed precedence as first commoners in the land! The name of Powle, to whom belonged the peculiar honour of presiding over the Convention, sounds almost strangely in our ears; Sir John Trevor is chiefly remembered by the erroneous statement of Granger, that he put the question to the vote on his own expulsion; of the virulent declaimer Foley, the scheming Lyttleton, the " one Smith," who occupied the chair of the first Par liament of Great Britain, — scarcely more than a few empty titles and barren dates are recorded! Nor have the great lawyers, who informed the debates with their constitutional knowledge, and whose a

PREFACE.

. merits are deeply graven in the statute-book, been more fortunate in obtaining an " honest chronicler." The venerable trimmer, Serjeant Maynard, exhibiting, in his eighty-eighth year, the very impersonation of Chaucer's portraiture of A Serjeant-at-law wary and wise, That oft had been at the pervise, There was also ; full of rich excellence, Discreet he was, and of great reverence; the " gentle Somers," who redeemed his learned brothers from the charge, too common in that age, of universal corruption; the tainted learning of Sawyer and Williams; the stout-hearted Price, who rescued by his eloquence so fair a portion of the principality from the prodigal gifts of King William; the black-letter Jacobite Sir Bartholomew Shower; the impetuous Lechmere, who harangued the House immediately on taking the oaths, and was facetiously objected to by a country gentleman, as not having a right to speak, not being at the time a sitting member; the much-quizzed Sir Joseph Jekyll, " that good old neutral member," — Who never changed his politics or wig, — deserve to be better known.

Even the most exalted in professional rank, Cowper, Harcourt, King, Parker, have been consigned to the tender mercies of genea logists, and compilers of peerages, instead of having their names written in characters that may be read in the Fasti of their country. The history of the House itself is not less con cealed from the popular gaze, locked up, as it were, in its voluminous Journals, State Trials, Parliamentary Debates, and Precedents of Hatsell. Yet even by a

PREFACE.

. V lover of light reading how much interest and amusement may be found in a review of its former privileges; some obsolete, or retrenched, and some forgotten; of those hard-won rights to personal and deliberative freedom, which the progress of constitutional principles has sanctioned and matured; of its large powers both to reward and to punish; of its power of impeachments, that ponderous instrument of the vengeance of the Commons, blunted by frequent and injudicious use; of its former vindictive expulsion of members, and tyranni cal sentences on offenders kneeling at the bar! What singular changes have been wrought by Time, the great innovator, in the internal economy of the House — in the hours of meeting — in the frequency of attendance — in the length and importance of de bates — in the number of members who take part in discussions — in the age of entering Parliament, in the increased intelligence of our legislators — in the order and decorum of proceedings — in the temper and tone of oratory — in its electrical power upon public opinion — in the crowded strangers' gallery — in the extent and variety of petitions !

The improved good sense of the grand inquest of the nation as a corporate body must be admitted by those who contrast the present wonders of reporting with the debates within closed doors, when all publication of what passed was strictly forbidden, and Somers jotted down in pencil the heads of discourse upon the vote of abdication; or who compare the modern publicity of the short-hand writer with the stealthy notes taken by Cave and Woodfall behind the gallery clock, and published, after an interval of six months, under

PREFACE.

. VI the disguise of Roman names. The well-regulated communication between the king and parliament — the subsidence of disputes and jealousies between the two branches of the legislature, once oscillating against each other — the reforms in our civil code — those anecdotes of legislation which illustrate manners — the course of criminal jurisprudence widening and deepen ing, and becoming ensanguined in its hue, till arrested by a wise humanity — the decided improvement as a class in the representatives of the people, and their title to rank as the first assembly of gentlemen in Europe, — can scarcely fail to interest all who delight in literature, unless, indeed, the historian be unworthy of his theme. To fuse together these rich materials into one complete memorial, and present a graphic History of the Commons' House of Parliament is the design of the present work.

It would have been too discursive, and occupied an inconvenient space, had it recounted at length the first struggles of " Goodman Burgess" with the Tudors, and his bold defiance of the Stuarts. A more recent period has therefore been selected. commencing with the Convention Parliament of 1688, and ending with the second parliament of King William IV., which suffered a total change in its constitutional character and constituency, when the royal assent was given to the Reform Bill. Within these two strongly-marked metes and bounds, the noble introduction and eventful close to modern parliamentary records, there is comprehended a space of 144 years, which may be again subdivided into three distinguishing æras. The first

PREFACE.

. VII includes a space of 39 years, from the abdication of James to the death of George I. in 1727, charac terized by master spirits, critical events, and stirring debate. The second æra, a sort of mezzo-termino, comprehends the reign of George II., when men in office were corrupt, and public morals low, and the general topics of discourse resembled parish vestry discussions, but still a prosperous reign, the sound common sense of Walpole promoting, even by inglorious arts, the national welfare, and Chatham's genius rescuing the age from mediocrity. The regular publication of the debates, and troubles in America, usher in the last and most glorious epoch, the days of North and Burke — of Pitt and Fox — of Windham and Canning — of Tier ney, and Brougham, and Peel, illustrated by oratory enduring as the language, and with memories of statesmen that can never die.

This volume is dedicated to the first of these periods; a model of the House of Commons, as it was at the close of the seventeenth century — a monument, however imperfect, to the sayings and deeds of those patriotic legislators, who framed the Bill of Rights, conquered France in her height of pride, established the Union with Scotland, secured the Protestant faith by the Act of Settlement, and with the Septennial Act confirmed the independence of the representatives of the people. Ergo ipsos quamvis angusti terminus ævi Excipiat neque enim plus septuma ducitur ætas At genus immortale manet, multosque per annos Stat Fortuna domus et avi numerantur avorum.

PREFACE.

. VIII A sew sentences as to the execution of the first volume. The lives of all the speakers and lawyers have been recomposed, and in the decided majority of instances are new, a circumstance Avhich may atone for some omissions and mistakes. It is hoped that the memoirs of Harley and Somers will not be considered even relatively too long by those who bear in mind how completely the one swayed the parliaments of King William, and the other those of Queen Anne. As we approach more closely to our own times, the characters of eminent statesmen are too well known and too ably recorded to require or justify similar diffuseness. The author has searched in vain no less for a complete history of the obsolete privileges of the House, than for a narrative, illustrated by examples, of the manner in which freedom of person and of speech has been impugned, advanced, and confirmed.

He is far from flattering himself that he has supplied the deficiency, but for the attempt solicits indulgence. W. C. T. TORRINGTON SQUARE, February, 1843. Page 1 33 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Chapter I

A Retrospective History of the Speakers of the House of Commons who preceded the Revolution — Sir Thomas Hungerford — The first Parlour — Notices of Sir Peter de la Mare, Thorpe, and Sir John Tiptoft — Names not historical till the reign of Henry VII. — The chair then usurped by lawyers — Dudley— Sir Thomas More — Sir Edward Coke — Formal excuses introduced under Henry V. — Ceremonial speeches marked by Eastern adulation and abject insincerity — Specimens of orations, pedantic and hollow, in Sir Richard Onslow and Serjeant Yelverton — Character of Lenthall — Slight respect paid to the Speaker under the military regime — Notices of Sir Harbottle Grimston, Sir Edward Turner, Sir Edward Seymour — Rank and emoluments of the Speaker — Increase of consideration ......

Chapter II

Life of the first Speaker in the reign of William and Mary, Mr. Henry Powle; a leader of the country party in the Parliaments of Charles II. — Specimens of his eloquence — One of the few Commoners in the king's first Privy Council — A manager of Lord Stafford's impeachment — Pensioner of Louis XIV. — Member of the Royal Society — At the Revolution unanimously chosen Speaker — Retirement to the Rolls and Death — Life of Sir John Trevor — Anecdotes of this servile and corrupt courtier — Justly expelled the House — Continued judge notwithstanding, till his death — A very good lawyer — Life of Mr. Paul Foley — Elected Speaker by a lucky accident — An artificer of grievances and bold declaimer — Life of Sir Thomas Littleton — Brought up to trade — One of the good old jobbing whigs — A complacent treasurer of the navy, and excellent man of business ...... CONTENTS. X Fage 87 121

Chapter III

Life of Robert Harley Earl of Oxford and Mortimer— Of a good family, inclined to Presbyterianism — Entered the House as an independent Member — An excellent Financier, the Speaker of three Parliaments, Secretary of State — ■ Intrigued against and cashiered by his Colleagues — Dexterously supplanted them — Stabbed into favour — Earl and Treasurer the same week — Within three years the most popular and most unpopular man in England — Unduly extolled in his life-time — Unjustly disparaged since — Had great faults as a Minister of State, dilatory, the constant dupe of the morrow — Fond of finesse and insincere — A trimmer and trickster by policy — Hated by the Duke of Marlborough and by Lord Bolingbroke — Responsible for a portion of this hatred — Too eager for, and too retentive of power. ......

Chapter IV

Life of Speaker Harley, continued — The favourable features of his public and private character delineated — Magnanimous in disgrace — Of unshaken constancy in the tower — No Jacobite — Frugal of the public money — Incorrupt — Tolerant — Moral — Domestic — Devoted to literature, and the friend of literary men — A firm ally of the Church of England — An excellent companion — Patron of Defoe, Parnell, Congreve, and Steele — The playful associate of Sir Christopher Wren, Prior, Pope, Arbuthnot, and Swift — Founder of a noble library — Patriots may find much to blame in Lord Oxford, but scholars must revere the collector of the Harleian Manuscripts.

Chapter V

Life of the Speaker described by Evelyn as " one Mr. John Smith" — A staunch whig — The whipper-in of his party Presided over the first Parliament of Great Britain Instances of his sophistry — Life of Sir Richard Onslow — Succeeded Mr. Smith at his request — Sir Richard a sorry rhetorician — His family have returned three Speakers to the House— Anecdotes of his grandfather, Speaker and Solicitor-General to the Queen — Nick-named " stiff Dick" CONTENTS. XI Page 160 196 by the tories — A great stickler for minute forms — Anec dote of his contest with the black rod — Laden with honours at the succession of George I. — Ennobled repartee of his son — Life of Mr. William Bromley, twenty-six years M.P. for the University of Oxford — Wrote remarks on the Grande Tour of France and Italy — Extracts from the book — Maliciously criticised by the whigs — Favourably contrasted with Addison's tour — Mr. Bromley factious against Marlborough — Eager against the dissenters — The champion of high church commits a sad blunder as Speaker — Letters to Sir Thomas Hanmer — His pet name "the squire" — An excellent specimen of the English country gentleman .....

Chapter VI

Life of Sir Thomas Hanmer — The model of Sir Charles Grandison — Marries the Duchess of Grafton — Anecdotes of that lady — Sir Thomas author of the bill for qualifying members by estate — Complimented by Steele on his election to the chair — Correspondence with Steele on his expulsion — Rhymed against for his independence — Prior's letter to the ex-Speaker— His unhappy second marriage — Recreations in gardening and literature — Letters on subjects of science — Edits Shakespeare — Niched into the Dunciad — Assailed by Johnson, and Warburton, and Hervey — Hanmer's rejoinder — Death and superb epitaph — Spencer Compton the first Speaker who held his post for one entire reign — A formal and solemn Speaker — A good balancer of periods — Defective disciplinarian — Chosen premier by George H., but resigned from incompetency — Raised to the peerage three steps at once — Earl of Wilmington fawned upon by Bubb Doddington — On Walpole's resignation First Lord of the Treasury — Satirized in verse and prose by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams— A frigid patron of Young and Thomson — Termed by Walpole after his death " an arrant nobody" .....

Chapter VII

The obsolete and extinct privileges of members reviewed — The wages formerly given to knights and burgesses — Curious CONTENTS. XII Page 240 268 anomalies in the writs de expensis— Origin of the custom of wages— Abuse— Pensioner Parliament ashamed of their hire— Andrew Marvell the last recipient— Impolicy of reviving salaries to senators— Abuse of written protections designed originally for menial servants, granted to friends and needy retainers — Anecdotes from the journals of the extent to which these unreasonable protections were carried— Complaints of members for breaches of privilege in the persons of their servants — End of these sins and follies — Inconvenience and injustice of the privileges claimed by members on their own behalf of exemption from all actions and suits— Instances of the wrongs inflicted in consequence — The personalty of members formerly privileged even against the crown — Members of Parliament real gainers by divesting themselves of these vexatious immunities .....

Chapter VIII

Freedom of speech the quintessence of the four essences, according to Coke, how battled for under the Plantagenets, and impugned by the Tudors and Stewarts — Fierce conflict of its champions with Queen Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. — Sir John Eliot and the other "vipers" illegally punished for alleged seditious speeches in the House, and fearfully avenged — The Long Parliament inimical to free discussion — Attacked after the Restoration by personal violence — Debate on the mutilation of Sir John Coventry for a sharp jest — License still indulged at the expense of Charles II. — Abjectly abandoned by the Parliament of James II. — Freedom of speech an article of the Bill of Rights — Excessive liberties taken with the name and person of King William — Taunting reflections of Sir Charles Sedley, Sir William L. Gower, John How, Granville, and Sir John Knight — The Commons indulged an equal latitude of remark at the expense of the Upper House and individual peers, but would not allow a murmur against the sweet voices of the majority — Offensive phrases arbitrarily noticed and punished — Examples in Manley, Cæsar, Windham, and Shippen — The House at length ashamed of its capricious tyranny — The privilege has been long well understood and acted upon CONTENTS. XIII Page 315

Chapter IX

Petition for privilege from arrest first included in the prayer of Sir John Cheney— Importance to electors of this freedom from personal restraint— Its gradual extension to all civil process— Case of Ferrers— Of Sir Thomas Shirley and Asgill— The advantages and attendant inconveniences of this protection discussed— Mr. Baring's bill to take away exemption from arrest for judgment debts of doubtful expediency—An independent House of Commons must be free in every particular— The privilege of franking letters traced to an ignoble origin — Anecdotes of its convenience and abuse — Attempts of Lord North and Mr. Pitt to abate it — This last feather in the plume of privilege at length torn away. .

Chapter X

Lawyers the most early and resolute champions of privileo*e Sir Edward Coke, Selden, and Hyde — The fears of usurping Kings the best homage to their merits — Excluded from the "lack-learning Parliament" — Objects of jealousy to the Crown, to churchmen, country gentlemen, and courtiers — Causes of this general unpopularity — Lawyers in the House not numerically formidable — Their importance and deserts — The chief artificers of the happy revolution — Memoirs of the most eminent lawyers in the House during the reigns of William, Anne, and George I., commencing with Serjeant Maynard, the Father of the Bar for forty-eight years, a member, and first Commissioner of the Great Seal at eighty-seven — Anecdotes of his shrewdness and appetency of gain — A manager of the impeachment of Strafford and Laud— Impeached himself — Pleaded for the life of Charles I. — Afterwards the Protector's Serjeant — Pleaded against Cavaliers to the death — Swore fealty to Richard Cromwell — Welcomed the abjured Stuart on his restoration — Refused a judgeship as interfering with his gains — Anecdotes of his craft, parsimony, and adroit trimming — Excellent at repartee — A clever but prejudiced debater — Quoted Syriac in the House — Conducted the conference with the Lords at the Revolution, and drew strange analogies from the Old CONTENTS. Page 332 362 Bailey — The ruling passion strong in death — Too astute to be venerable — too learned for a pettifogger

CHAPTER XL

Life of the " gentle Somers" — A " weakly boy" — Anecdotes of his youth— Friend of the young Duke of Shrewsbury — Among the mob of gentlemen who translated Plutarch — Junior counsel to the Bishops at thirty-seven, then comparatively unknown — Returned to the Convention for Worcester — Specimens of his eloquence in the House — Solicitor and Attorney-General — Lord Keeper in 1693 — His celebrated judgment in the Bankers' case — Too pliant a courtier — Injudiciously yielded to his Sovereign's wishes in the first Partition Treaty — Impeached for granting powers under the Great Seal, leaving blanks for names — Made a vigorous defence at the bar of the House — The King compelled to sacrifice the keeper of his conscience — Composed the last and memorable royal speech of William — Obnoxious to the Prince of Denmark — Dismissed from the Privy Council — President of the Royal Society — Reconciled to Queen Anne on the death of her husband- Bland and conciliating in his manners — Hated by the Duchess and disliked by the Duke of Marlborough — Commanded to resign his staff of office, 1710 — Bowed down by sickness, but, even when imbecile, the oracle of the Whigs — Anecdotes of his old age — The blemishes in his moral character — Noted libertinism — Love of money and insincerity — The tributes of the wise and good, both in prose and verse, to his excellence, of Swift and Addison, of Mackintosh and Lord J. Russell, of Garth and Warton — The name of Somers an heir-loom to his country

Chapter XII

Lives of two other great lawyers in the Convention Parliament, but wanting moral worth, Sir Robert Sawyer and Sir William Williams — Mr. Sawyer " a great practiser in the Exchequer" — Speaker of the House in 1678— Attorney-General from 1681 to 1687, six years stained with blood — History of his hunting to the death, College, Lord William Russell, Algernon Dudley, and Sir Tho- CONTENTS. XV Life Page 397 mas Armstrong — Dismissed from office by James II. for his attachment to the Church of England — Leading counsel for the seven bishops — Specimen of his jejune oratory in their defence — Returned to the Convention for the University of Cambridge — Expelled for his participa tion in the judicial murder of Armstrong — Died in 1692 —Anecdotes of the youth of his rival, Sir Wm. Williams — A railing and homely Speaker of the House of Commons — Specimens of his vituperative eloquence to Sir Francis Wythens and Sir Robert Peyton— Fined £10,000 for publishing, as Speaker, Dangerfield's narrative, implicating the Duke of York — This illegal fine never repaid to Wil liams — Defended with vigour and ability many state prisoners in Charles II.'s reign — Suddenly apostatized to the court of James II. — His petulant prosecution of the bishops — Anecdotes of his demeanour at the trial — Instant to abandon his abdicated Sovereign — A ready debater in the Parliament of William III. — Close of his versatile and turbulent life — Happy in one circumstance, the being founder of an illustrious race ....

Chapter XIII

of the exemplary Tory lawyer Robert Price — Anecdotes of his youth and travels — His opposition to the grant of several lordships in the principality to the Earl of Portland — Specimens of his speech, published under the title of " Gloria Cambriæ" — Appointed a Baron of the Exchequer on the accession of Queen Anne — Instance of his incorrupt opposition as Judge to the personal wishes of George I. — Curious history of his eldest son, the member for Weobly — Life of the fiery Jacobite Sir Bartholomew Shower, un noticed in Biographical Dictionaries — Extracts from his common-place book — Devoted champion of high church — Wrote virulent pamphlets against King William — Specimens of his writings and speeches in defence of prisoners for high treason — Intrepid counsel for Lord Banbury and Sir John Fenwick — Carried off by fever in 1700 — Life of an equally impetuous W7hig lawyer, Lord Lechmere — His exploits as barrister, and on taking his seat — Leader of the House and Attorney-General at the accession — His me- CONTENTS.

Page morable prosecution of Matthews, for printing a treason able libel — Accused of corruption by the Solicitor-General, Sir William Thompson — History of that singular charge — His triumphant acquittal — Quarrels with Walpole — Anec dotes of his dissensions, restiveness, and precipitancy — Called up to the House of Lords — Amusing interview with George II. — Died of apoplexy in June, 1727 . 428 Illustration. Interior of the House of Commons in 1690 Frontispiece. HISTORY OP THE HOUSE OE COMMONS.

Chapter I

The first speakers of the House of Commons were chosen from belted knights and commoners of distinction, the choice being made by the House, but in accordance with the previous nomination of the king. Sir Thomas Hungerford, 51 Henry III., in the year 1376, is the first named as speaker in the parliament roll, and termed parlour, or mouth of the House. Rut, as the ancient parliament-rolls recorded only the acts that passed between both Houses, and the laws that were made, omitting all matters of form and ceremony, it may be conjectured that the antiquity of the office is coeval with the sitting of the Commons apart from the Lords. In the 44th year of Henry Ill's, reign, their refusal to suffer the recall of Adomar, the Bishop of Winchester elect, from banishment, is signed by Petrus de Mounteforti, vice communitatis.

The head of these ambulatory parliaments, meeting one year at Winchester, another at Rutland, now sum moned to Kenilworth, and anon to St. Edmondsbury, for the mere purpose of granting supplies, and re- VOL. I. B stricted to two or three weeks, as the commonalty kept a sharp reckoning of the wages due to " Good man Burgess Y' could not but share in their original insignificance. His person was not always sacred from violence, nor his authority from contempt. Sir Peter de la Mare was committed close prisoner to Nottingham Castle for having spoken too freely of the royal favourite, Alice Pierce\ When Sir John Pickering declared, in the name of the Commons, that the late King Edward III. had promised to dis charge them of all tallages for a long time, the steward of the household, Sir Richard-le-Scroop, replied that, " saving the honour and reverence due to the king and Lords, what the Commons said was not true."

The floor of the House of Lords would have been covered with gauntlets, had the audacious steward ventured such an aspersion on their veracity, but the Nether House (as they were termed, nor was the term misapplied) heard in silence, and made no sign of anger, or remonstrance. Further humiliation was heaped upon the speaker in the reign of this petulant monarch, Richard II. A member having ventured to bring in a bill for avoiding the extravagant expenses of the king's household, he commanded the Duke of Lancaster to charge Sir John Bussey, the speaker, on his allegiance, to acquaint him who it was that brought such an impudent pro posal before parliament. With an abject humility, characteristic of the times, and of the slight estimation in which both the office of speaker and the privileges of the House were then held, Sir John Bussey gave up the bill and the name of the person who had intro- * Elsynge's Mode of Holding Parliaments. b Parliamentary History, vol. i. duced it, Thomas Haxey, clerk.

The poor clerk was condemned to die the death of a traitor, for having taken such an unwarrantable license, but was after wards pardoned, and his attainder in the next reign reversed. The succeeding speaker, Thomas Thorpe, whose name has acquired great celebrity from the privileges of the House being broken in his person, met with a more tragical fate. During his speakership, we are told by D'Ewesc, " there were repeated prorogations and adjournments of parliament. Richard, Duke of York, having gained the ascendant of the king, prepared habiliments of war in the palace of the Bishop of Durham. Thorpe, being speaker, by command of the king, seized the arms, whereupon the duke brought his action of trespass in the Exchequer against Thorpe, and upon trial that term recovered l,O00Z. damages, and thereupon Thorpe was com mitted to the prison of the Fleet in execution."

In vain the whole House petitioned to have their speaker restored, urging his privilege, " by common custom, time out of memory of man, and ever afore these times, used in every of the parliaments of the king's noble progenitors." Their just petition was unheeded. The Duke of York stood up in his place in the Lords' House, and declared that Thorpe, having been cast in an action of trespass, for carrying away his goods, lay now in prison in execution, where he (the duke) prayed that he might remain. His prayer was in the nature of a command, for we find in six weeks the duke installed Protector. The peers of parliament accordingly resolved that the speaker should remain in execution, notwithstanding his privilege, and required the Commons to c Sir Symonds D'Ewes' Journal. B elect a new speaker, which they did as directed.

The unhappy Thorpe, being compelled to pay these exor bitant damages, fled to the king, was taken prisoner at Nottingham field, and sent to Newgate, thence committed to the Marshalsea, and at last beheaded at Haringay Park, in Middlesex. The change of dynasty was fortunate, however, for the privileges of the Com mons, whose rising spirit and increased importance appear to have been engrafted on the usurpations of the government. The first speaker in the parliament of Henry IV., Sir John Tiptoft, though he excused himself on account of his youth and want of discretion, and expressed sur prise at his excuse not being received, told the monarch plainly, in open parliament, that his house was far more chargeable, yet less honourable, than that of any of his progenitors". Other remarkable instances of this juvenile speaker's audacity are recorded.

He required that the castle of Manlion, the key of the three kingdoms, which was kept by a foreigner, should be kept in future by Englishmen only, and assured the king that the report of the Commons having talked of his person otherwise than beseemed them was untrue, which assurance Henry IV. said he believed. Anxious to conciliate, that monarch not only bore with, but rewarded, a freedom of speech which his predecessor had punished in Haxey as treasonable. " Hie crucem tulit, hie diadema." Sir John Tiptoft was amply requited for bis happy daring with a rich grant of forfeited lands, with a patent of nobility as Earl of Worcester, and (strange specimen of regal bounty) with the goods and chattels of Peter Priswick, carpenter, a felon, amounting to £150. The bold language of this lucky speaker was too dan- " Prynne, cited by Hatsell. gerous to be drawn into a precedent.