No More Learning

He fought on the side of the
**
80 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Whilst Lilburn lay in gaol, great changes were in progress throughout the country. King Charles had by this time embroiled himself to a most dangerous extent on all sides. In Scotland he had attempted
to coerce the people into an unpopular religious ob servance, and had found, when it was too late, that the people of that country, when they came to a mental resolve, were not to be deluded by regal cajolery, or to be frightened by a display of regal anger. To them the question of a liturgy was a question of duty to their God, which they dared to think more important than fealty to an earthly King. The popular feeling could find no expression and no safety-valve in a Newspaper, and could be shown through the press only in a book. Such publications did not fail to appear, and to be read. The arm of authority was stretched out to stay the printed thoughts, —three proclamations were issued,* all of an unpopular character, the third being directed against a certain "seditious book," which was ordered to be suppressed. This brought affairs to a crisis. A tumult arose in Edinburgh ; three hundred women, attended, says Carte, by " a rabble of men," sought to tear the authors of the obnoxious ordinances
Parliament in the chief battles of the Civil War ; at Brentford he was taken prisoner, and narrowly escaped the gallows; at Marston Moor he led a regiment of dragoons very gallantly, and at the conclu sion of the strife of the sword he wielded a pen. His opinions sub sequently got him into gaol on a charge of contempt, and he was brought before the House of Lords for that offence. He contrived, even whilst in gaol, to publish a pamphlet. The courage that availed him in the pillory did not fail him afterwards. He was tried for accus ing Cromwell and Ireton of treason ; but his defence was so clever, that he obtained an acquittal. He died in 1657.
* Oct. 17. See Carte's History of England, p. 141-2.
PUBLIC SYMPATHY AND EXCITEMENT. 87
to pieces, and the noblemen and priests who assembled in the Scottish city to suppress the people's thirst for freedom of conscience and thought, had a narrow
escape for their lives.
The friends of Prynn, Bastwick, and Burton were
also active, though not so violent as their Scottish brethren. These writers had been confined in prisons in this country, but the number of their sympathizers increased so rapidly that the King's advisers thought it best to remove them to more distant places of security ; and they were accordingly taken to gaols across the sea.
Prynn was sent to a castle in Jersey, and Burton to Guernsey, but their absence did not effect the pur pose the king had in view, for the obnoxious opinions were nourished in silence only to display their real strength when a favourable opportunity arose. The wives and other relatives of the condemned writers led the van of those who sought their emancipation. The power of the supreme court—the Star Chamber— no man, however bold, had yet ventured to impeach;* but the sentence of that authority, it was urged, had
consigned Prynn and his companions to some prison in England or Wales; it was the Lords of the Council who had selected more distant places of incarceration. This change in the mode of carrying out the Star Chamber decision was declared to be a violation of it. Meanwhile, the King's difficulties in Scotland compelled him to be more conciliating towards the Parliament ; and he promised, if they agreed to his demands for
money to help him against the Scotch, he would give * Clarendon, Hist, of Rebellion, Vol. 159.
I. , p.
88 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
the Commons of England satisfaction in their just demands. All this was thought to augur well; but a hasty and ill-advised dissolution of the Parliament soon made affairs worse than ever. Troubles grew on all sides, and murmurs were rising audibly in all parts of the kingdom. Money was the Monarch's great want, and, in the hope of getting he summoned the memorable Parliament that met on the 3rd of Nov.
1640—as proved, to sit so long and to do so much. Soon after they assembled, the friends of Prynn, aided the pressure from without, induced the speaker to
issue his warrant " to the Governors and Captains of the several Castles, to bring their prisoners in safe custody to London. "
Now the feelings of the people were displayed, as Clarendon bears witness and such witness, hating Prynn and his opinions, may well be relied on not to exaggerate the favour shown to the released writers. " Prynn and Burton," says the Chancellor, " being neighbours, though in distinct islands, landed at the same time at Southampton, where they were received, and entertained with extraordinary demonstrations of affection and esteem attended marvellous conflux of company; and their charges not only borne with great magnificence, but liberal presents given to them.
And this method and ceremony kept them company
all their journey; great herds of people meeting them at their entrance into all towns, and waiting upon them out, with wonderful acclamations of joy. When they came near London multitudes of people of several conditions, some on horseback, others on foot, met them some miles from the town, very many having
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TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF PRYNN. 89
been a day's journey; and they were brought, about two of the clock in the afternoon, in at Charing Cross, and carried into the City by above ten thousand persons with boughs and flowers in their hands, the common people strewing flowers and herbs in the ways as they passed, making great noise and expressions of joy for their deliverance and return, and in those acclamations mingling loud and virulent exclamations against the Bishops who had so cruelly prosecuted such godly men. In the same manner, within five or six days after, and in like triumph, Dr. Bastwick returned from Silley, landing at Dover, and from thence, bringing the same testimonies of the affections and zeal of Kent as the others had done from Hampshire and Surrey, was met before he came to Southwark by the good people of London, and so conducted to his lodging likewise in the City. "*
This great and unmistakeable demonstration of
wide-spread sympathy for men who had been im prisoned because they were popular writers, was not without further results. Prynn was elected a Member of Parliament for Newport ; the abuses of the irrespon sible Court that had condemned him were again brought prominently forward; and when the King, humbled by the difficulties which his mode of govern ment had accumulated about him, came again to the
* Prynn, like Lilburn and Knightley, when opportunity offered, returned good for evil, by an exhibition of tolerance when their enemies required it. Prynn spoke in the House of Commons in favour of Charles the First, when such a course was eminently dangerous. After the Restoration, the author of the philippic against plays and players was made keeper of the records by the very King who was so great a patron of the stage and its immoralities. He died in 1669.
90 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Parliament for aid, that Parliament gave in a list of grievances for redress. Prominent in the catalogue was the obnoxious tribunal that had done so much injustice ; the King yielded ; and in February 1641 the Star Chamber, to the great joy of all good men, was abolished !
This was the first great step tOIS'jdg. lhsJ-'^ty^L- t^fiJJflS^ in England, and no sooner had it been taken than the Newspapers began to print English News and to discuss English affairs. But the Parliament did not content themselves with abolishing the Star
Chamber: they openly placed their legislative con- ductLififbie the people for scrutiny, by allowing the publication of reports of their proceedings. These
were first issued under the title of T) turn at. Occurrences In Parliament, and were continued from November the 3rd, 1641, tffl'fhe Restoration put an end, for a time, to a custom so dangerous to despotism.
In the British Museum Collection we find the pro ceedings of the earlier days of the Long Parliament printed in a volume; but numbers of the separate pamphlets and Newspapers may be seen. Here is the title page of one :—
Diurnal Occurrences, or the heads of several proceedings in both Houses of Parliament, from the 13th of December to the 20th of the same, 1641. Wherein they concluded what English and Scottish forces, both of horse and foot, shall speedily be sent for Ireland &c.
This early Newspaper report of Parliamentary pro ceedings contains six small quarto pages, besides the title, and has for imprint the royal arms, with the
reports
OLD NEWSPAPERS IN THE MUSEUM. 91
initials C. 11. Subsequent publications are to be seen with the heading " Speeches and passages of this great and happy Parliament. "
Our national library is rich in printed memorials of this important period of our history. In the basement story (not to call it the cellar) of the British Museum, the visitor who has the good fortune to gain admission to the place finds our English national collection of political
more than a thousand yards of shelving are there stored with volumes of Newspapers. The earliest in date are small meagre-looking octavos and quartos ; and as the eye ranges in the half-obscured light along the laden shelves, from the corner where these primitive sheets of the time of James the First and Charles the First now stand, the volumes are seen growing in size and number as their dates rise, until the journals of one county in our time are found exceeding in bulk and completeness the whole Newspaper literature of the Kingdom during an entire century of its earlier existence. These files of old Papers excite a strange feeling. Few things are sought with more eagerness, and few things are sooner cast aside as worthless, than a Newspaper ; yet still fewer are more interesting than a file of such old prints. Look into them. You see the aspects, and hear (as some one says) the very hum of a past life. In history we have the experience of a
told in its results, its events ; the indi viduals are lost in the consideration of their epoch; but in an old volume of Newspapers you have the past generation telling their own story; breathing, as it were, their every-day life into print —confessing to the
generation
journals. Certainly
92 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
future the deeds of their own hour. In these Museum vaults the papers least imposing in outward aspect are perhaps the most important. Some of those, so small and so poorly printed that they become contemp tible in appearance when compared with the broad sheets of our day, have nevertheless a deep interest from matter they contain. In one we have the death of Hampden told, others describe the executions of men whose namesare now so prominent in history, and as we go on in the search, we find, one by one,
notices of all the great events of the great civil war. *
*The "London's Intelligencer, or Truth impartially related from thence to the whole Kingdome to prevent mis-information," has the following account of the execution of Archbishop Laud :—
"Thursday, January 16, 1644. —On Friday last, Jann 10, (about twelve a clocke) the Archbishop of Canterbury was brought from the Tower, attended by the Lieutenant and Officers belonging thereunto. At his comming he made his last Sermon or ultimum vale on the Scaf fold, upon the conclusion whereof and of two short prayers, and the saying of these words, Lord receive my spirit, the Executioner parted his head from his body at one stroke. A cloud attended the time of execution, but the Sun was splendent as soone as his head was off.
cotemporary
" The fancies or conjectures of the multitude concerning this break ing forth of the Sunne are various, and are formed according to the severall dispositions of the persons framing ; (although for my owne part I cannot looke upon it as any matter extraordinary) yet for the satisfaction of some I shall briefly mention three of the most probable and rationall publique conjectures.
" That which was brought by the Episcopall and malignant party was — That the Sun did before ( as abhorring such an act) hide itselfe in a cloud till the act was done, and then shone forth in its lustre.
"Asecond (and those the more moderate and well-affected party observed) — That the Sun, immediately after his Execution shone forth in much brightnesse, as rejoycing and triumphing to behold such an exem plary and necessary act of justice inflicted upon so eminent and notorious
a delinquent.
thomasson's collection. 93
The papers produced by Butter and his cotempo- raries scarcely fill one short shelf in the great Museum
collection, but the library is abundantly supplied with pamphlets and journals of a somewhat later date.
From 1640 till the Restoration of Charles the Se cond nearly thirty thousand journals, pamphlets, and papers were published. The press during its first freedom had perhaps allowed that liberty to run into licence —it had literally rioted in production. Fortu nately for history, a Mr. Thomasson, who lived through the stormy period of the Civil War and the Common wealth, was induced to make a collection of everything that issued from the press during his time. He ob tained a copy of each pamphlet and stray sheet that
" A third party — That it did portend or prognosticate, that the light of the Gospett that hath been heretofore so much eclypsed by the interpo sition of this Archbishop and his instruments should now be displayed and discover itselfe in its beauty and brightnesse.
" I shall leave the issue of these conjectures or constructions to the omnipotent and omniscient Disposer of all things, and shall now trouble you no more with his quondam little Grace of Canterbury, than this : That as in his life time (usque ad momentum mortis) he had contented himselfe with set formes and models, his prayer which he said imme diately after his speech on the Scaffold being before penned and con trived by himselfe ; so he wanted not an ocean or deluge of common prayer to waft him to his place. The prayers were rehearsed, and also an oration concerning his death was made by one Fletcher, at his interring in Barking Church, neere Tower-MU, the same day. "
The Weekly Intelligencer refers to Hampden's death :—
"The loss of Colonel Hampden goeth near the heart of every man that loves the good of his King and Country, and makes some conceive little content to be at the army now that he is gone. The memory of this deceased colonel is such, that in no age to come but it will more and more be had in honour and esteem : a man so religious, and of that prudence, judgment, temper, valour, and integrity, that he hath left few his like behind. "
94 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
was procurable, and this store of valuable evidences on the events and feelings of a remarkable era is now safely housed in the British Museum. The story of how this collection was made, and for whom;* how
* The following memorandum, relative to this collection of News papers, books, and pamphlets, is from the curious autograph in the first volume of the Catalogue :—
"A Complete Collection of Books and Pamphlets Begun in the year 1640, by the Special Command of King Charles the First of Blessed Memory, and continued to the happy Restoration of the Government, and the Coronation of King Charles the Second. There hath been very much money disbursed, and great Pains taken, and many Hazards run, in making an exact Collection of all the Pamphlets that were published from the Beginning of that Long and Rebel-Par liament, which began November 1640, till His late Majestie's Happy Restauration and Coronation, consisting of near Thirty Thousand several Sorts, and by all Parties. They may be of very great Use to any Gentleman concerned in Publick Affairs, both for this Present, and After- Ages, there being not the like in the World, neither is it possible
to make such a Collection. The Collection contains above Two Thou sand bound Volumes, all of them uniformly bound, as if they were done at one Time, and all exactly Marked and Numbered. The Method that has been observed, is Time, and such punctual Care was taken, that the very Day is written upon most of them, when they came out. The Catalogue of them fairly written, is in Twelve Volumes in Folio ; and though the Number of them be so great, (when the Books are set in their order according to the Mark set upon each of them) the smallest Piece, though but one Sheet of Paper, being shown in the Catalogue, may be found in a moment ; which method is of singular use to the Reader. In the whole are contain' d near one Hundred general MS. Pieces that were never printed, all, or most of them on the King's
behalf, which no man durst then venture to publish without endanger ing his Ruine. But the Peruser now may by them be let into the Knowledge of many Occurrences in those Times, which have pass'd hitherto unobseiVd. This Collection was so privately carried on, that it was never known that there was such a Design in hand ; the Collector designing them only for His Majestie's Use that then was : His Ma
jesty having occasion for a Pamphlet, could no where compass the Sight of it but from him, which His Majesty having perused, was very
FIRST PUBLICATION OF THE DEBATES. 95
King Charles the First was to have paid for but by his unhappy fate was prevented from fulfilling his contract; how, through manifold dangers, the books were saved from destruction how the restored King, Charles the Second, allowed the widow of the collector to go unrewarded, and to seek another purchaser for these rare documents gathered together for his prede cessor; and how, finally, George the Third obtained the volumes, and gave them to the Museum, story that has been often told.
With this previous reference to the existing copies of Newspapers of the time we speak of, let us return to the period when the Parliament first offered their pro-
well pleased with the Design, and commanded Person of Honour to restore with his own Hands, and withall express' His desire of hav ing the Collection continued This was the great Encouragement to the Undertaker, who had otherwise desisted prosecuting so difficult and chargeable Work, which lay heavy Burden upon himself and his
Servants for above Twenty Years. To prevent the Discovery of them, when the Army was Northwards, he pack'd them up in several Trunks, and by one or two in Week sent them to trusty Friend in Surry, who safely preserVd them; and when the Army was Westward, and fearing their Return that way they were sent to London again but the Col lector durst not keep them, but sent them into Essex, and so according as they lay near Danger, still, by timely removing them, at great
Charge, secur'd them, but continu'd perfecting the Work. And for farther Security to them, there was bargain pretended to be made with the University of Oxford, and Receipt of Thousand Pounds given and acknowledge to be in part for them, that the Usurper had found them out, the University should claim them, who had Greater Power to struggle for them than private man. All these Shifts have been made, and Difficulties encounter'dto Keep the Collection from be ing embezell'd and destroy' which with the great Charges of collect ing and binding them, cost the Undertaker so much, that he refused Four Thousand Pounds for them in his Life time, supposing that Sum not sufficient to re-imburse him. "
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90 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
ceedings for the consideration of the nation through the medium of the press.
The publication of Parliamentary debates was an im mense concession towards popular liberty, since it was an admission that the people had a right to know and to canvass the conduct of their representatives. This virtual admission produced a host of pamphlets and Newspapers; and, as the contest between the Throne and the Parliament became more fierce, both sides, as we have already said, caUedjn_the„ aid of the press, and by its_meaaa_ appealed to the nation for support. Men of all ranks were now asked to do what had been before forbidden : they were asked to read controversial writings, in which the political points at issue between Royalists and Roundheads were canvassed, and News papers multiplied ; the most popular title for such publications being Mercury. This name was used, as we have seen, in one of Butter's Newspapers ; and now that English politics were no longer forbidden, Mercurius Britannicus rose from the imprint of the Weekly News to be the heading of a popular journal. There would seem to have been either a lamentable want of originality or a very great affection for the word Mercurius, for we find it used by both parties, and with various additions, some of them curious enough: — Mercurius Fumigosus, Mercurius Veridicus, Mercurius Pragmaticus, Mercurius Politicus, Mercurius Rusticus, Mercurius Aulicus, are amongst the Newspaper titles of this period ; and when one of these became successful, other journalists seem at times to have appropriated the fortunate cognomen without hesitation. Each
army is said to have had a printing press in its baggage
THE DESTRUCTION OF MANUSCRIPTS. 97
train, and the belligerents used lead in types with almost as much zeal as they employed it in bullets—firing pamphlets when not employed in firing cannon-shot. *
* One natural effect of the introduction of News-books and News
papers, and cheap volumes on various subjects, was to complete a work
of destruction which the si^gressioa. . p^jssjj^oiig^ougeir^^ begun. The manuscripts which had been stored up for generations were now regarded as little more than waste parchment. This havoc has been thus described in Aubrey's History of Wiltshire : — " The fashion then was to save the ferules of their books with a false cover of parchment scilicet old manuscript, which I was too young to understand; but I was pleased with the elegance ofthe writing, and the coloured initial letters. I remember the rector here, Mr. William Stump, great-grandson of the clothier of Malmsbury, had several manuscripts of the Abbey. He was a proper man, and a good fellow, and when he brewed a barrel of special ale, his use was to stop the bung-hole under the clay with a sheet of manuscript. He said nothing did it so well, which methought did grieve me then to see. Afterwards, I went to school to Dr. Latimer, at Leigh Delamar, the next parish, where was the like use of covering of books. In my grandfather's days, the manuscripts flew about like butterflies: all music books, account books, copy books, &c, were covered with old manuscripts, as we cover them now with blue paper or marbled paper. And the glovers at Malmsbury made great havoc of them, and gloves were wrapped up no doubt in many good pieces of
antiquity. Before the late wars, a world of rare manuscripts perished hereabout ; for within half a dozen miles of this place was the Abbey of Malmsbury, where it may be presumed the library was as well fur nished with choice copies as most libraries of England; and perhaps in this library we might have found a correct Pliny's Natural History, which Cauntus, a monk, here did abridge for King Henry the Second. Within the aforesaid compass were Broadstock Priory, Stanley Abbey, Farleigh Abbey, Bath Abbey, eight miles, and Cirencester Abbey, twelve miles. Anno 1638, I was transplanted to Blandford school, in Dorset, to Mr. William Sutton. Here also was the use of covering of books with old parchments, leases, &c. ; but I never saw anything of a manuscript there. Hereabout were no abbeys or convents for men. One may also perceive by the binding of old books how the old manu scripts went to wreck in those days. About 1647, I went to Parson
Stump, out of curiosity to see his manuscripts, whereof I had seen some VOL. I. H
98 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Between one and two hundred of these partizan
Newpapers, which appeared after the meeting of the Long Parliament and before the Restoration, may yet be seen. Their contents show how unscrupulously their editors attacked all opponents. The writers were men originally in various ranks of life, who had been drawn to the task by the requirements of the times, and some of them cut so prominent a figure that their names be came public property, and their lives found a chronicler in Anthony Wood. One of these was Marchamont Nedham, who took up a pen for the double purpose of helping the popular cause, and making Newspaper writing a source of income. He plied his self-imposed task most industriously for several years ; but the changes of those perilous times appear to have thrown him into the power of the Royalist party, and, probably to save his neck, he wrote for a while in favour of those who held him in duresse. When opportunity served, however, he returned to his original camp, and wrought constantly and faithfully for the Commonwealth, until the Restoration, when his pen was soon relinquished for the pestle and mortar. The change in his politics, however, though but for a season, has been regarded as sufficient to condemn him to something very like infamy, though such changes were sufficiently common amongst politicians, divines, and soldiers, in the times when Nedham lived. The facts handed down to us about this early and prolific Newspaper writer were
in my childhood; but by that time they were lost and disperst. His sons were gunners and soldiers, and scoured their guns with them; but he showed me several old deeds granted by the lord abbots, with their seals annexed. "
MARCHAMONT NEDHAM. 99
collected by Anthony Wood, whilst Nedham's name was yet fresh in the public mind ; and, not forgetting the strong political bias of the biographer, we may glean from his descriptions a more favourable account of this scribe than the author of the Athense Oxoni-
ensis would have us entertain. Nedham was born at Burford in Oxfordshire, in 1620, and was sent for education to Oxford, where he took a degree. His subsequent career is thus sketched by his political opponent :—
At length, being invited to London, he had conferred upon him an usher's place in Merchant Taylors' School, but how long he continued there I cannot justly tell. Sure it is that, upon the change of the times, he became an under clerk in Grey's Inn, where, by virtue of a good legible court hand, he obtained a comfortable subsistence. Soon after, siding with the rout and scum of the people, he made them weekly sport by railing at all that is noble in his intelligence called Mercurius Britannicus, wherein his endeavours were to sacrifice the fame of some lord or person of quality, nay of the King himself, to the beast with many heads. Diego writeth that Barceus meeting with the Devil sitting at his ease upon a chair bid him rise up and give place to his betters. The tale was moralized in Britannicus, who might very well have challenged the precedency of Satan, to have thrust him out of his chair, the seat of the scornful ; where he sate several years, and outrailed all the Shimeis and Rabsekebs, and out-railed all the Simmiasses and Pseudolusses that ever sate in that chair. So that this Nedham being become
popular, and an active man in person among the rout, he was commonly called Captain Nedham of Grey's Inn, and what he said or wrote was looked upon as gospel. About that time he studied physic: followed the chemical way; and, by 1645, began to practice and by that and his writing maintained himself in very genteel fashion. But so was, that either by his im prisonment in the Gate-house for libel on His Majesty, in the opening or explaining his cabinet letters, an. 1645, or for some
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100 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
scorn or affronts put upon him, he forthwith left the blessed cause, and obtaining the favour of a known Royalist to introduce him into His Majesty's presence at Hampton Court, an. 1647, he then and there knelt before him, and desired forgiveness for what he had written against him and his cause, which being readily granted, he kissed His Majesty's hand, and soon after wrote Mercurius Pragmaticus, which being very witty, sati rical against the Presbyterians, and full of loyalty, made him known to, and admired by the bravadoes and wits of those times. But he, being narrowly sought after, left London, and for a time skulked at Minster Lovel, near Binford in Oxfordshire, in the house of Doctor Peter Heylin. At length being found out,
imprisoned in Newgate, and brought into danger of his life, Lenthall, the Speaker of the House of Commons, who knew him and his relations well, and John Bradshaw, President of the High Court of Justice, treated him fairly, and not only got his pardon, but, with promise of rewards and places, persuaded him to change his style once more, meaning for the Independents
then carrying all before them. So that being brought over, he wrote Mercurius Politicus, so extreme contrary to the former, that the generality for a long time, especially the most generous Royalists, could not believe that that intelligence could possibly be written by the same hand that wrote the M. Pragmaticus. The truth is, these last were written for about an year and an half, and were endeavoured by the Parliamenteers to be stifled ; but the former, (the Politici,) which came out by authority, and flew every week into all parts of the nation for ten years, had very great influence upon numbers of inconsiderable persons, such who have a strange presumption that all must needs be
true that is in print. He was then the Goliah of the Philis tines—the great champion of the late usurper, whose pen in comparison of others was like a weaver's beam.
After some further fierce abuse of the tone adopted by Nedham in his political writings, Wood thus con tinues his description of that writer's career :—
In the year 1660, he being conscious to himself that he might be in danger of the halter once more, skulked, (some say
nedham's career. 101
fled into Holland,) till such time as he could get his pardon, or that the act of oblivion should pass. In the mean time were not wanting some forward Loyalists to complain of and write against him. But notwithstanding all verbal and printed com plaints, he, for money given to an hungry courtier,* obtained his pardon under the great seal, which was his defence oftentimes, particularly at Oxford act in 1661, when these several acts upon him in St. Mary's Church to hale him before a justice, and so to prison for treason ; so that I say, being free, and at liberty by reason of that seal, which he several times produced, he exer cised the faculty of physic to his dying day among the brethren, which was a considerable benefit to him. He was a person endowed with quick natural parts, was a good humanitian, poet, and boon droll, and had he been constant to his cavaliering
principles he would have been beloved by, and admired of all ; but being mercenary, and valuing money and sordid interest, rather than conscience, friendship, or love to his prince, was much hated by the Royal party to his last, and many cannot yet endure to hear him spoken of.
Among other works published by Nedham, was Mercurius Britannicus, communicating the Affairs of Great Britain for the better Information of the People. These Mercuries began about the middle of August 1643, and were carried on thence, week by week every Monday, in one sheet, to the latter end of 1646 or beginning of 1647.
Mercurius Pragmaticus, communicating Intelligence from all Parts, touching all Affairs, Designs, Humours and Conditions throughout the Kingdom, especially from Westminster and the Head-quarters. There were two parts of them, and they came out weekly in one sheet in quarto. The former part commenced the 14th September, 1647, and ended the 9th of January, 1648. The other which was entitled Mercurius Pragmaticus, for King Charles the Second, and commenced the 24th April, 1649, but quickly ended. There were now and then other Pragmatici that peeped forth, but they were counterfeit.
* 1659, Aug. 15. Resolved that Marchamont Nedham, gentleman, be, and is hereby, restored to be writer of the Publick Intelligence, as formerly. Journals of the Home of Commons, Vol. VII. , p. 758, Cole.
102 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Mereurius Politicus. Comprising the Sum of Foreign Intel ligence, with the Affairs now on foot in the three Nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
In speaking of Nedham's Mercury, Anthony Wood gives some information about other Newspapers that appeared at the same time and soon afterwards. These statements, it should be borne in mind, come from a cotemporary authority.
He says : —
These Mercuries came out weekly, every Wednesday, in two sheets quarto, commencing 9th June, 1649, and ending 6th of June, 1650. At which time, being Thursday, Nedham began again with number 1, from Thursday, June 6 to Thursday, June 13, 1650. Beginning—"Why should not the Commonwealth
****
have a fool as well as the King had his? "
The Mercurii Politici (wherein were many discourses against Monarchy, and in behalf of a free state, especially in those which were before Oliver Cromwell gaped after a supremacy,) were constantly carried on until about the middle of April, 1660, when (as several times before) the author was prohibited by order of the Council of State. By virtue of which order, Henry Muddiman and Giles Dury were authorized to publish their Intelligence under the titles of Parliamentary Intelligencer and Mercurius Publicus, which continued (Dury soon after giving over) till the middle of August, 1663 ; and then Roger L'Estrange published the Intelligence twice every week in quarto sheets,
under the titles of the Public Intelligencer and the News. The first of which came out the 31st August, and the other on the 3rd September, an. 1663. These continued to the 29th January, 1665, at which time L'Estrange desisted, because in November going before, were every other kind of Newspapers published twice every week in half a sheet in folio. These were called The Oxford Gazette, and the first commenced 7th November, 1665, the King and Queen with their Courts being then at Oxon. These for a little time were written, I think, by Henry Muddi man : but when the said courts removed to London, they were entitled and called the London Gazette ; the first of which, that
nedham's antagonists. 103
was published there, came forth on the 5th of February following, the King being then at Whitehall. Soon after, Mr. Joseph Williamson, Under-secretary of State, procured the writing of them for himself; and thereupon employed Charles Perrot, M. A. , and fellow of Oriel College, Oxon, who had a good command of his pen, to do that office under him, and so he did, though not constantly, to about 1671. After which time they were constantly written by under-secretaries belonging to those that are principal, and do continue so to this day.
The Public Intelligencer communicating the chief occurrences and Proceedings within the Dominions of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c, came out weekly, every Monday, but contained mostly the same matter that was in the Politici*
The animus of this sketch of Nedham and his writings is too apparent to mislead an impartial reader. The damage that his pen had done to the Royal cause explains the feeling manifested against him by a bio grapher, who, being a Royalist, wrote when monarchy was again in the ascendant. The great bulk of Ned- ham's writings were in aid of the popular cause, and those who cried out so loudly about his unprin cipled, though temporary, service on the opposite side, offer us no evidence to show that his pen was not taken up upon compulsion. Yet the acrimony of Wood pursues its victim even beyond the grave, as we
see in the following last notice :—
At length this most seditious, mutable, and railing author, Marchamont Nedham died suddenly in the house of one Kidder, in D'Evreux-Court, near Temple-bar, London, in 1678, and was buried on the 29th November, (being the Vigil of St. Andrew,) at the upper end of the body of the church of St. Clement Danes near the entrance into the chancel. Soon after, that church being pulled down and rebuilt, and the letters on his grave taken away and defaced, you shall have in their place this
* Wood's Athenie Oxoniensis, VoL III. , p. 1180.
104 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
epitaph, made on him an. 1647, printed at the end of Mercurius Britannicus, his welcome to Hell :—
Here lies Britannicus, Hell's barking cur, That son of Beliel, who kept damned stir :
And every Maiday spent his stock of spleen
In venomous railing on the King and Queen, Who tho' they both in goodness may forgive him, Yet (for his safety) we '11 in Hell receive him. *
The pen that abuses Nedham might be expected to praise those who were his political opponents, and, accordingly, we find the writers on theRoyal side treated with much more lenity, though they seem to have been little more respectable than the scribes of the Parlia
mentary cause. John Birkenhead, the chief antagonist
of Mercurius Britannicus, is thus delineated Wood:—
John Birkenhead was the son of Randall Birkenhead of Northwych in Cheshire, saddler, was born there, became a ser- viter of Oriell College under the tuition of Humphrey Lloyd,
(afterwards Bishop of Bangor,) in the beginningof the year 1632, aged 17 years, where continuing until he was Bachelor of Arts became amanuensis to Dr. Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, taking a liking to him for his ingenuity, did, by his diploma, make him Master of Arts in 1639, and, by his letters commen datory thereupon, he was elected probationer-fellow of All Souls' College in the year following. After the Rebellion broke out,
and the King and his Court had settled themselves at Oxford, this our author Mr. Birkenhead was appointed to write the Mercurius Aulicus; which, being very pleasing to the loyal party, His Majesty recommended him to the electors, that they would choose him Moral Philosophy Reader; which being accord ingly done, he continued in that office, with little profit from
till 1648, at which time he was not only turned out thence, but from his fellowship by " the Presbyterian visitors. " Afterwards
* Wood's Athens Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 1819.
by
it,
JOHN BIRKENHEAD. 105
he retired to London, suffered several imprisonments for His Majesty's cause, lived by his wits, at helping young gentlemen out at dead lifts in making poems, songs, and epistles on and to their respective mistresses, as also in translating and writing several little things and other petite employments. After His Majesty's Restoration he was, by virtue of his letters sent to the University, actually created Doctor of the Civil Law, and, in 1661, he was elected a burgess for Wilton to serve in that Parlia
ment which began at Westminster on the 8th of May the same year. In 1662, Nov. 14, he received the honour of knighthood from His Majesty ; and, in 1663, he was constituted one of the Masters of Requests, (in the place of Sir Rich. Fanshaw, when he went ambassador into Spain,) he being then, also, Master of the Faculties, and a Member of the Royal Society. A certain anonymus tells us that this Sir John Birkenhead was a poor alehouse keeper's son, and that he got by lying (or buffooning) at Court, to be one of the Masters of Requests and Faculty Office, and in boons at court £3000. The truth had he not been
given too much to bantering, which now taken up by vain and idle people, he might have passed for good wit and had he also expressed himself grateful and respectful to those that had been his benefactors in the time of his necessity, which he did not, but rather slighted them (showing thereby the bareness of his spirit) he might have passed for friend and loving com panion. He hath written —
Mercurius Aulicus, Communicating the Intelligence and Affairs of the Court (at Oxon) to the rest of the Kingdom. The first of these was published on the 11th of Jan. 1642, and were carried on till about the end of 1645, after which time they were published but now and then. They were printed weekly in one sheet, and sometimes in more, in quarto, and con tained great deal of wit and buffoonery, * All that were then in Oxford knew well enough that John Birkenhead
began and carried them on, and in his absence P. Heylin sup plied his place, and wrote many of them. *
The different fate of the men who espoused the Wood's Athenee Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 1203.
*
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106 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
royal and the popular cause is made manifest in the pages of Anthony Wood. Birkenhead was knighted, made a doctor of laws by royal command, was elected a member of Parliament, and obtained lucrative ap pointments under the Crown. Nedham, in his old age, had to work as a practitioner of the healing art for his bread. When Birkenhead died, no scurrilous epitaphs were suggested for his tomb, though in scur rility he certainly equals his less-favoured opponent. " Sir John Birkenhead," says Wood, " died within the
of Whitehall, on the 4th of December, or thereabouts, in 1679, and was buried on the 6th day of the same month, near to the school door in the churchyard of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the city of Westminster ; leaving then behind him a choice col lection of pamphlets, which came into the hands of his executors, Sir Richard Mason and Sir Muddiford Bramston. "
The other chief writer in the Court paper was less fortunate than Birkenhead, so far as worldly rewards went :—
Peter Heylin, the coadjutor of John Birkenhead, was born
at Pentrie-Heylin in Montgomeryshire, 29th November, 1599, and died at Westminster, 1662. He was a staunch Royalist, and suffered much in the cause, but would seem not to have been well rewarded at the Restoration; for, in 1660, upon His
precincts
return to these kingdoms, he was restored to his
Majesty's
spiritualities,
minster, which was a wonder to many, and a great discontent to him and his ; but the reason being manifest to those that well knew the temper of the person, I shall forbear to make mention of that matter any further. He was a person endowed with singular gifts, of a sharp and pregnant wit, solid and clear judgment. In his younger days he was accounted an excellent
but never rose higher than Sub-dean ofWest
PETER HEYLIN.
poet, but very pragmatical ; in his elder, a better historian, a noted preacher, and a ready and extemporanean speaker. He was a bold and undaunted man among his Mends and foes (though of very mean port and presence) ; he was accounted too high and proud for the function he professed.
In 1642, leaving his prebend of Westminster, and his rectories in Hampshire, upon a foresight of ruin to come, he followed the King to Oxon, where, having little to live upon, did, by the King's command, write the weekly intelligence called Mercurius Aulicus, which had been begun by John Bir kenhead, who pleased the generality of his readers with his waggeries and buffooneries far more than Heylin. *
Heylin seems to have been profound, clever, and proud, whilst Birkenhead was talented, unscrupulous, and amusing. The difference in the amount of their rewards for Court service is easily understood, when we remember that Charles the Second was the Monarch at whose hand they sought payment—a King who liked amusement far better than duty, and who used a restored sceptre for little else than to compel the means of an enlarged profligacy.
Another Newspaper writer was obtained from the Church in the person of Bruno Ryves, who, during the Civil Wars, wrote the Mercurius Rusticus. He supported the Royal cause, and thus subsequently earned preferment for himself and children in the Church.
Bruno Ryves was born in Dorsetshire, made one of the clerks of New College in 1610, where continuing till he was Bachelor of Arts, became one of the chaplains of Magdalene College in 1616. Soon after he proceeded in arts, became a most noted and florid preacher, vicar of Stanwell in Middlesex, rector of St. Martin's-de-le-Vintry in London, chaplain to His
* Wood's Athena; Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 556.
108 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Majesty Charles the First, and, in 1639, proceeded to the degree of doctor of divinity ; but the Rebellion breaking out soon after, he was sequestered of his rectory by the Presbyterians, plun dered and forced to fly, and at length losing his vicaridge, he shifted from place to place, and, by the favour of His Majesty, had the deanery of Chichester and the mastership of the hospital there conferred upon him, though little or no profit accrued thence till after the Restoration of King Charles the Second. About which time, being sworn chaplain in ordinary to him, had the deanery of Windsor conferred on him, in which he was installed 3rd September, 1660, and so consequently was dean of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire. Afterwards he became rector of Acton in Middlesex, was sworn Scribe of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, 14th January, 1660, and about that time was made rector of Horsley, near to and in the county of Oxford, which I think is annexed to his deanery, as the deanery of Wolverhampton but all separated by Mr. Baxter, thereby to make him great pluralist, without any consideration had to his great sufferings occasioned by the Presbyterians. He hath written —
Mercurius Rusticus or, The Countrie's Complaint, recount ing the sad Events of this lamentable War. Which Mercurius in number at least 19, commencing from 22 Aug. 1642, came out in one sheet, sometimes in two in quarto.
Mercurius Rusticus. The second Part in Number giving an account of the Sacrileges in, and upon, several Cathe drals. *
Ryves lived to see one of his sons dean, and the other "an eminent divine in the Church. " This Newspaper writer died in 1677; the Mercurius Rus ticus was afterwards reprinted.
One more portrait of writer of Mercuries may be quoted from the pages of the Royalist chronicler but will be seen that, as the original aided the Presbyterians with his pen, Anthony Wood cannot
•Wood's Athenae Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 1110.
it
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GEORGE WITHER. 109
bring himself to speak favourably of him. George Wither may be called the satirical rhymster of the
Revolutionary era, whilst Milton was its great poet. Wither belonged to a good family in Hampshire ; was educated at Magdalene College, and afterwards entered as a student in the legal region of Lincoln's Inn. But the dry law was forsaken for more pleasant occupations.
His geny hanging after things more smooth and delightful, he did at length make himself known to the world (after he had taken several rambles therein) by certain specimens of poetry ; which being dispersed in several hands, became shortly after a public author, and much admired by some in that age for his quick advancement in that faculty. But so it was that he shewed himself too quick and satirical in his " Abuses stript and whipt," was committed prisoner to the Marshalsea; where, continuing several months, was then more cried up, especially by the Puritanical party, for his profuse pouring forth of English rhyme, and more afterwards by the vulgar sort of people for his
prophetical poetry, in regard that many things were fancied by them to come to pass which he pretended to predict. In 1639 he was a captain of horse in an expedition against the Scots, and quartermaster-general of the regiment wherein he was captain, viz. , of that regiment of, or next under, the earl of Arundel, gen eral of the forces in the said expedition. But this our author, who was always from his youth Puritannically affected (suffici ently evidenced in his satires), sided with the Presbyterians in the beginning of the civil wars raised by them, an. 1642, became an enemy to the King and regality, sold the estate he had, and, with the moneys received from raised a troop of horse for the Parliament, was made a captain, and soon after major, having this motto on his colours, " Pro Rege, Lege, Grege but being taken prisoner by the cavaliers, Sir Jo. Denham, the poet, (some of whose land at Egham, in Surrey, Wither had got into his clutches,) desired His Majesty not to hang him, " because that so long as Wither lived Denham would not be accounted the worst poet in England. " About that time he was consti
a ;"
it,
110 THE FOUETH ESTATE.
tuted by the said Long Parliament a justice of peace in quorum for Hampshire, Surrey, and Essex (which office he kept 16 years), and afterwards was made by Oliver major-general of all the horse and foot in the county of Surrey, in which emplo y ment he licked his fingers sufficiently, gaining thereby a great odium from the generous Royalists. After the King's Restora tion in 1660, he lost all the lands that had belonged to Royalists and bishops, which he before had either bought or had con ferred upon him for the love and zeal he had to the blessed cause. And being then looked upon as a dangerous person to the King and State, especially for a scandalous and seditious libel he had then dispersed, was committed prisoner to New gate, and afterwards, upon his own confession, and the oaths of two persons that he was the author of he, by order of the House of Commons, was sent in custody and committed close prisoner to the Tower of London, to be debarred from ink and paper, and about the same time (24 March, 166j) an impeach ment was ordered to be drawn up against him. In both which prisons he continued three years and more, wrote several things by the connivance of the keeper, of which some were afterwards made public, yet could never refrain from shewing himself a Presbyterian satirist. * * * The things that he hath written and published are very many, accounted by the gene rality of scholars mere scribbles, and the fancies of conceited and confident, if not enthusiastical, mind. Among them was —
Mercurius Rusticus printed 1643. This was written in imitation of the Weekly Intelligence then published, offering, between jest and earnest, some particulars to consideration, relating both to civil and military transactions, and hinting notions then pertinent to those times, &c. The beginning of this Mercurius Rusticus (to distinguish Mercurius Rusticus written by Dr. Ryves) this —" By your leave, gentlemen, when seriousness takes not effect, perhaps trifling may," &c*
At length, after this, our author had lived to the age of 79 years, mostly spent in rambling unsettled condition, con cluded his life on the second day of May, 1667 whereupon his body was buried between the east door and south end of the
* "Wood's Athens Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , 767.
p.
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GEORGE WITHER. Ill
church (which stands north and south) belonging to the Savoy hospital in the Strand, near London. *
" He would," says Aubrey, " make verses as fast as he could write them, and though he was an easie rhymer and no good poet, he was a good vates. He had a strange sagacity and foresight into mundane affairs. He was an early observer of quicquid agunt homines ; his wit was satyrical. "
In the paper war which these first Newspaper writers waged with each other, though they had lofty topics for discussion, and discussed them, yet at other times they descended to low trivialities and gross per sonal abuse. Thus, in the Papers of 1642, we find the Britannicus, t the Aulicus,t and a friend of the latter the Aquaticus, indulging in a contest of this kind. The following passage is from the 1 8th Number of the Britannicus : —
Though I thought it beneath my pen to dip into the lies, and follies, and calumnies of such an Oxford pamphlet, (the Mercurius Aulicus,) yet because I was informed it was not the work of one but many ; viz. , Deckenhead the scribe, Secretary Nicholas the informer, George Digly the contriver, and an assessement of wits is laid on every college, and paid weekly for the continuation of this thing called Mercurius Aulicus ;— upon these considerations, and to vindicate the honour of a Parliament, I tooke my pen, I have discovered the lies, forgeries, insolencies, impieties, prophanations, blasphemies, Popery of the two sheets, and now I have done ; and you, most excellent Senates, (this is addressed to the Parliament,) that you may see how justly I have replyed, and how unjustly ye are calumniated,
* Wood's Athena Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 767.
t" Mercurius Britannicus, communicating the Affairs of Great Bri
tain for the better information of the people. 1642. "
J "A Diurnall, communicating the Affairs and Intelligence of the
Court to the Rest of the Kingdom. Oxford, Printed by H. Hall for W. Webb, Anno Dom. , 1642. "
112 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
I have summed up his last abused, printed at Oxford, formerly an university, now a garrison of Popery, His Majesty's own Royall Court for the recreation of their nobility and gentry, and clergy, and other leige people.
Then follows "A Catalogue of the Abuses, Re
proaches, and Calumnies against the present Parlia ment, this last week in the first sheet. "
The nature of the collection of epithets may be well imagined. One of the "wits," for whom an assessement was stated to be laid on every college, accordingly replied without loss of time in a succeeding publication. * The wit of the colleges would appear to lie in parody, to judge from the answer in question.
Though I thought it beneath my pen to dip into the lies, follies, and calumnies of such a foolish London pamphlet, yet because I was informed that it was not the act of one, but many, which for a while made me think that this monster piece of vanity was the abortive issue of Mr. Saltmarsh the scribe, until I remembered that he had spent more than all his own wit upon his Epigrammarasacra : the Close-Community, the Infor mer, till I considered that it stood not with the policy of their state, that they should inform any but the Close Committee of the Common Counsell, that should inform Captain Ven, that should inform the Prentices and Butchers when 't was fit to make a tumult at Whitehall, and the Brownists when at West minster, and also the Woemen and Schoolboys to petition against evil counsellers ; Tom May, the contriver and chief engineer, (but that I thought he was better at translation than invention,) and especially because I heard an assessement of wit was laid upon the Synod, and every lecturer and private conventicler, from Mr. Marshall at Margaret's to Green the felt-maker in
* "Mercurius Aquaticus," or the Water Poet's Answer to all that hath or shall be (! ) writ by Mercurius Britannicus. Fi-inted at the Waine of the Moone. Page 121, and Number 16 of Mercurius Britannicus. 1643.
THE MARINE MERCURY. 113
the tub, and paid weekly for the continuation of this thing called Mercurius Britannicus, —upon these considerations, and not to vindicate Aulicus, who is only unhappy, in that he must weekly write to their capacity, who have not more brains than Britannicus, I take up my pen. "
The writer then goes on to catalogue the abuses and reproaches levelled against the Court, as in the other case ; but his list need not be repeated, for it is dull and spiteful, and we have had specimens enough of the Newspaper writing of that time to show its manner and temper when it descended to personality.
The title Mercurius was not limited to papers of News. Thus we find in the Museum Collection " The Marine Mercury, or a true relation of the strange appearance of a Man Fish about three miles within the river Thames, having a musket in one hand and a petition in the other, credibly reported by six sailors, who both saw and talked with the monster, whose names here following are inserted. To which is added a relation of how Sir Simon Heartly with his company gave battle to a company of rebels and slew 500, took four colours, and routed 1500 more, this being performed on the 6th of January, 1641, &c. Printed in the year 1 642. "
According to the monster's own account of himself, he came on a friendly errand, and the paper he held in his hand contained an account of the plots of foreign princes against the country. He also offered his assistance as a courier to collect News, for which he was well adapted, seeing that his steeds were the rapid monsters of the deep, " that Barbary, Roebuck, and Hart were but mere dromedaries to that he rode
on, and that within half an hour he could be in the VOL. I. I
114 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
remotest parts of the ocean for the discovery of the most intricate designs that were in agitation. "
There exists an old play, printed in the year 1641, called " Mercurius Britannicus, or the English Intelli gencer; A Tragic- Comedy at Paris, acted with great applause. " The subject of the play is political, and refers to the extra-judicial opinions of the judges in the case of Ship money.
The friends of Royalty published a Mercurius Poeticus,* in which the King's cause is advocated and the Parliament abused in good set terms, if not in the best verse. The " poem" concludes thus: —
Great Charles, be pacified, for now ThouIt see rebellion fall,
Thy traitorous subjects must allow Thee King, or perish all.
With a morsel of "foreign News" from a jour nal + of the year 1642, these extracts and the present chapter may close : —
Leipsic, 30th June. The Swedes play master everywhere, they have taken Brunne, Zagerdorf and Ratibore, they have commanded some thousands towards Bing, and 4000 horsemen towards the drawbridge of Vienna. At Zitlin in the Marquis- ate of Bradenburgh was seen at Noon-day a black cloud, in it
* Mercurius Poeticus, discovering the Treasons of a thing called Parliament, also giving perfect intelligence of all the most remarkable undertakings from the Kingdom of Scotland, Pembrook Castle, and other parts now in a military posture, for the restoration of His Majesty and the laws of the Kingdom. No. 1. From Friday May 5, to Friday May 13, 1648.
t An excut Coranto from most parts of Christendom from July 3, to this present, viz. , from Cullen, Leipsich, Newherne, Aldenburg,
Bohemia, Vienna, Prague, Collen, (Cologne,) Hamburgh. London, printed by L. N. and J. F. , for E. Husbands, and J. Frank.
OLD "marvellous" paragraph. IIS
two fighting swords, and out of it rained much blood, and fiery skulls fell out of it to the ground, and so consumed.
This morsel of the marvellous, prepared for the appetite of News-readers two centuries ago, is doubtless
the great progenitor of that famous paragraph which, from time to time, runs the round of the Newspapers in this our nineteenth century, headed — "A Shower of Frogs. "
i2
CHAPTER IV.
THE PRESS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, THE RESTORATION, AND THE REVOLUTION.
" This is true liberty, when free-born men,
Having to advise the public, may speak free, Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise ; Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace : What can be juster in a state than this V
Eubip. Sicetid. in Areopagitica.
Bacon and Sir Lionel Cranfield. —The Long Parliament and the Press. — Ordinances. —Milton's Plea for Unlicensed Printing. —The Restora tion shackles the Press. — Trial and Fate of Twyn. — L'Estrange the Censor and Editor. —The London Gazette appears. —The Revolution of 1688.
BACON, after he was sentenced in Parliament, met Sir Lionel Cranfield, whom King James had then just made Lord Treasurer. The disgraced
philosopher, having first congratulated the newly- appointed dignitary on his advancement to so emi nent a place of honour and trust, says Petyt,* told him, between jest and earnest, that he would recom mend to his Lordship, and in him to all other great officers of the Crown, one considerable rule, to be carefully observed, which was, to Remember a Par liament will come.