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 MDCCCXXXV.
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 JOHN SELDEN 
 
 AND NOTICES OF THE POLITICAL CONTEST DURING 
 
 HIS TIME 
 
 GEORGE W. JOHNSON 
 
 SELBEN'S HIRTH-PLACE 
 
 LONDON 
 ORR AND SMITH 
 
 MDCCCXXXV.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WIIITEFRIARS. 
 
 (late T. DAVISON.)
 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 EDWARD GEOFFREY, LORD STANLEY, 
 
 ^5tse iWtmoirs 
 
 A FELLOW PATRIOT, 
 
 ARE 
 
 RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED BY ONE WHO ADMIRES HIS TALENTS, 
 MODERATION, AND INTEGRITY. 
 
 866020
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 There is no period of our national History more 
 crowded with interesting events, or in which more worthy 
 characters shone forth than in the first half of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 In that period came forward the struggle that determined 
 the just limits of the Crown's prerogative and of the 
 People's liberty : — that struggle which stained England 
 for the last time with the bloodshed of civil war: — that 
 struggle in which one Monarch died upon the scaffold, 
 and another was ejected from the throne; — in which the 
 nation escaped from one tyranny but to yield to another 
 and then returned to its former o])pression before it could 
 attain the just equipoise of freedom. 
 
 It was a period of eventful transition. — The birthtime 
 of discussions some of which even at the present period
 
 VI TREFACE. 
 
 continue to be agitated. Tithes — Church Government — ■ 
 Episcopal Legislators — the forms of the Liturgy — the 
 privileges of the Peerage — the rights of the Universities 
 — equitable Taxation — and many others of various degrees 
 of importance, were then for the first time and repeatedly 
 debated. 
 
 That period embraced the lives-time of Hampden, 
 Strafford, Pym, Clarendon, Selden, Falkland, Charles the 
 First, Cromwell — and many others of as varied degrees of 
 character and worth — who with mind, and hand, and 
 voice strove for their different creeds of political right, 
 
 All dauntless souls erect, who smiled on death. 
 
 To the history of those times, and of those characters, 
 the author of these pages has long delighted to devote his 
 leisure; and the Plumian library in his immediate vicinity, 
 many private collections, and the stores of the British 
 Museum, have been sedulously examined by him for relative 
 information. 
 
 His reason for selecting the biography of Selden, as 
 the centre round which to gather his information, will 
 appear in the course of the work. At all events the
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 greatest scholar, and the most disinterested patriot of a 
 period fertile in learned and noble characters, would not 
 have been unworthy of a more able memorialist. 
 
 How the author has executed his task, is for others to 
 determine. Whatever they may decide, — should criti- 
 cism commend more than castigate his work — still he 
 will heartily and sincerely join any one who shall say 
 "would it were worthier" — and to that end, should it 
 pass to another edition, a very great obligation will be 
 conferred upon him by any one who will point out its 
 deficiencies, or who will impart additional information. 
 
 For one endeavour, however, he will not be satisfied 
 with restricted praise — the effort to be correct. In every 
 possible instance, following Selden's advice not to rely 
 upon " visual beams refracted through another's eye," he 
 has referred to original authorities, and in attestation that 
 he would not willingly mislead, he has as generally been 
 particular in naming them. Some able writers, covetous 
 of all the praise due to them for original research, have 
 withheld this satisfactory testimony. But though he has 
 no lack of desire for worthy fame, and would claim 
 tribute where it is due, he thinks it much more important
 
 VUl PREFACE. 
 
 for a writer to secure the confidence of his readers than to 
 risk it in an endeavour to guard against the annoyance of 
 seeing little minds commit petty depredations upon his 
 literary gatherings. 
 
 Throughout he has endeavoured to be moderate and 
 just in estimating the stirring characters and incidents 
 he has had to notice. To declare that he is totally 
 unbiassed would be to arrogate to himself a superhuman 
 acc^uirement. However, he has been watchful in his 
 efforts to be impartial ; but fears, in spite of himself, it 
 must have peeped out in some passages, that he would 
 willingly find palliations for those who he is reluctant 
 to confess often erred. Notwithstanding, he is indeed 
 deceived if he is a partisan of extreme political opinions, 
 and will confess himself much self-mistaken if any proof 
 can be adduced that he does not without equivocation or 
 reserve unite with De Foe, in the conviction that, " as 
 there is but one hiterest in the nation," so that there 
 ought to be *' but one party — a party adhering to un- 
 biassed justice."
 
 MEMOIRS OF JOHN SELDEN, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DIVISIONS OF POLITICAL PARTIES. ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS 
 
 OF CHANGE. — THE MODERATE PARTY. THE LATTER, IN THE 
 
 TIME OF CHARLES THE FIRST, ESPECIALLY NOTICED IN THIS 
 
 WORK. — HIS REIGN AN ERA IN ENGLISH HISTORY. SELDEN A 
 
 LEADER OF THE MODERATE PARTY. — ITS POLITICAL CHARAC- 
 TERISTICS. NOTICES OF SOME OF HIS POLITICAL FRIENDS. 
 
 SIR JOHN ELIOT. DENZIL IIOLLIS. SIR JOHN MAYNARD. 
 
 BULSTRODE WHITELOCKE. JOHN PYM. — HAMPDEN. — SIR EDWARD 
 
 COKE, AND OTHERS. — RISE OF THE OPPOSITION-. PUBLIC PRESS. 
 
 The political history of every nation, during every age, 
 informs us of the division of its people into two great 
 parties — those who covet an alteration of its constitution 
 and policy, and those who are opposed to such a change. 
 These antagonist parties always have and always will exist, 
 for no government can so happily proceed as to please 
 every citizen ; or be so generally profligate and oppres- 
 sive as to have no friends. However, upon the acts 
 of the government depends which party shall einl)race 
 the majority of the people — for no facts in history are 
 more certain than that no agitator, however eloquent, 
 can make a people anxious for change, if they really have 
 
 li
 
 2 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 just cause for contentment; and that no partisan can 
 render them satisfied, if the sources of their unhappiness 
 are pressing around them. Temporary excitements may- 
 be produced — passions may be casually excited ; but the 
 common sense of a nation always ultimately prevails, 
 and common sense can never be made to confound the 
 characteristics of good government and misrule. The 
 party opposed to change, and in this country they have 
 been known as courtiers, cavaliers, tories, and conser- 
 vatives, usually have fallen into the great error of being 
 opposed too indiscriminately to all reforms. — Upon tw^o 
 great constitutional points, the Royal Prerogative and 
 the Established Church, they have ever held opinions 
 bigotedly opposed to all alterations, and our history 
 records that they have maintained and fought for the 
 most absurd reliques of feudal seigniory, and for the 
 continuance of ecclesiastical immunities and pluralities, 
 with an energy that could not be excelled if the struggle 
 was to decide the fate of monarchy and Christianity. 
 
 The party comprising the advocates of reform, known 
 in this country by the names of Precisians, Roundheads, 
 Levellers, Whigs, and Radicals, have similarly been prone 
 to an extreme error, by combating for subversion when 
 amendment alone has been necessary. They abolished 
 monarchy and episcopacy when their corruptions only 
 required to be removed. 
 
 The contests between these two great parties are the 
 events which usually engage the notice of the historian.
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 
 
 The leaders, of these opponents are those who mostly obtain 
 the notice of the biographer. This is no cause of wonder, 
 for it is the collision of extreme partisans that produces 
 the greatest displays of eloquence, the most important 
 intrigues, and the ultimate appeal to arms. It is such 
 that cause and are identified with the most dazzling and 
 the most exciting achievements of life. 
 
 But such are not necessarily the most important of 
 events ; such are not necessarily the most influential of 
 individuals. At all times, and even during the most 
 hostile contest of the two parties, there is a third and 
 always eventually prevailing party, who may justly be 
 called the Moderators. — To the efforts of this party, as it 
 existed in the time of Charles the First, the following 
 work is especially devoted. Such a party always consists 
 of those members of both parties who would rectify 
 abuses without subverting the institutions to which they 
 are incident; because they revere those institutions 
 without a fondness that canonizes even their faults. The 
 opinions of these men upon the great political questions 
 of their time, in the aggregate are generally correct, and 
 though, during the excitement of their immediate era, 
 their sober opinions may be too often neglected for others 
 more decidedly marked by the spirit of party ; yet when 
 the contest is over, whichever extreme may triumph, 
 those sober opinions are acknowledged to be correct by 
 the sure evidence — that they are invariably adopted. " In 
 troubled water," said Selden, " you can scarce see your 
 
 B 2
 
 4 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 face ; so in troubled times you can see little truth. 
 'When they are settled and quiet then truth appears." 
 
 This class of politicians being aware that every national 
 change is productive of some evil, are proportionately 
 circumspect and reluctant to incur the responsibility 
 Avhich devolves .upon all who are its voluntary inducers. 
 If they hesitate to cause a present evil, for the securing 
 of a present superior good, they pause still longer if that 
 good is only prospective and far distant ; for statesmen, 
 like trustees, have no right to hazard the property of the 
 cestui-que use for the uncertain chance of its improve- 
 ment. Their discretion induces them occasionally to 
 support measures that curtail the powers of the executive ; 
 and at other times to restrain the increased influence of 
 the democratic part of the constitution ; but whichever 
 line of policy they may be pursuing, they are guided by 
 the desire of preserving that medium which is most 
 conducive to the happiness and safety of the whole — and 
 no sarcasms, no taunts, no authority will convince them 
 that, having once entered upon a political path, they ought 
 ever to tread in any other, though to continue in their 
 course would conduct them further from their object. 
 They will always attend to the motives of those who 
 propose a change, and view the measure with less sus- 
 picion, if it is urged by the remonstrances of friends, than 
 if it is enforced by the censures of enemies : for they 
 justly estimate that the object of the first is to amend, 
 that of the second is to destroy; and they will not be
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 5 
 
 inconsistent if they oppose a measure supported by the 
 hitter, and advocate it when proposed by the former, 
 if for this reason only, that they would not add strength 
 by their countenance, even for a season, to those whose 
 aim is known to be destruction. 
 
 The friends of rational freedom, they will ever view 
 with suspicion the advocates of extravagant liberty ; for 
 history records that few ever aimed or arrived to be 
 a tyrant, that did not subvert the existing government as 
 a vehement clamourer for freedom. It is true, that the 
 Independents in the time of Charles, and the Republicans 
 in the later period of Louis the Sixteenth, probably had 
 respectively no intention to establish the tyranny of 
 Cromwell, or of Robespierre ; but this affords a reason so 
 much the more powerful why the statesman should oppose 
 rather than promote the noisy declaimers for liberality ; 
 for if he joins them it is impossible to be secure that he 
 can control them ; and no one can say how far they will 
 proceed who avow that they aim at extremes ; for there 
 are fanatics in politics as there are in religion. 
 
 Finally, the moderators in politics are those who act 
 from a conviction that man in society has duties to 
 perform, whose claims upon his attention are far greater 
 than those of his mere will — these are his duties to God 
 and to his fellow-creatures. These duties are tauaht him 
 by his Bible, and as that authority declares that society is 
 instituted for the general happiness of mankind, he will 
 endeavour to establish laws that shall really be " bene-
 
 b MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ficence acting by a rule." He will not endeavour to 
 doubt, but strive to be steady and immoveable in his 
 opinions concerning these duties, knowing that they were 
 imposed upon him as rules of conduct, not as themes for 
 casuistical contention. 
 
 An English statesman of this class will view our 
 constitution as it is — " the result of the thoughts of 
 many minds in many ages ; as no simple, no superficial 
 thing, nor to be estimated by superficial understandings. — 
 It takes in too many views, it makes too many combi- 
 nations, to be so much as comprehended by shallow minds. 
 Profound thinkers will know it in its reason and spirit. 
 The less inquiring will recognise it in their feelings and 
 their experience. Rational and experienced men tolerably 
 well know, and have always known, how to distinguish 
 between true and false liberty ; and between the genuine 
 adherence and the false pretence to what is true. But 
 none, except those who are profoundly studied, can com- 
 prehend the elaborate contrivance of a fabric fitted to unite 
 private and public liberty with public force, with order, 
 with peace, with justice, and, above all, with the contri- 
 vances formed for bestowing permanence and stability 
 through ages upon this invaluable whole*." 
 
 The reign of Charles the First, by general consent, is 
 considered to be the most interesting period of our 
 history; it was the period in which the just prerogative 
 of the crown, and of the liberties of the people, were 
 
 * Burke's New Whigs to the Old Whigs, 114.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 7 
 
 defined ; it involved the determination of constitutional 
 points — of political differences — of legal details that were 
 of the utmost national importance, and many of which are 
 especially interesting at the present period. 
 
 It was the misfortune of James the First and of his 
 son to live at the period when the people were become 
 too enlightened to require or to suffer a despotic sove- 
 reignty ; and, being educated in a school that instilled 
 into their minds the firmest conviction of the absolute 
 power and divine right of kings, those two monarchs 
 ruinously opposed themselves to the popular claims. 
 
 In tracing the progress of this contest, the biography 
 of Selden has been selected as an appropriate vehicle. 
 Selden was a scholar, a lawyer, and a philosopher ; and 
 the learning and mental discipline which his requisite 
 studies insured, prepared him to act a temperate and 
 thoughtful part as a legislator and a patriot. — He was 
 a chief of the moderate party ; and with him co-operated 
 a band of true lovers of their countrv, who, less known 
 than the Hampden, and Cromwell, the Buckingham and 
 Strafford of their day, deserve a far more great renown, 
 
 if moderation and consistency in virtuous principle are 
 the best endowments of the human character. 
 
 Previously to proceeding with the Memoirs of Selden, 
 and of the great national transactions with which he was 
 connected, it will be neither uninteresting, nor useless, to 
 glance over the leading features of the lives of a few of 
 those firm and moderate statesmen with whom he co-
 
 8 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 operated, and whose names will so frequently occur in 
 future pages. 
 
 Sir John Eliot was descended from a family of gentle 
 blood long resident in Devonshire, but he was born in 
 Cornwall in 1592. His family, just previous to this 
 event, had purchased from the Champernov^nes very 
 considerable estates in his native county. Among these 
 was the Priory of St. Germalns and its demesne, w^hich 
 subsequently descended to Sir John, under the name, 
 which they still retain, of Port Eliot*. 
 
 He became a gentleman commoner of Exeter College, 
 Oxford, in l607, but left it without a degree after a 
 residence of three years, and addressed himself to the 
 study of the law. Although admitted to the bar, he does 
 not appear to have practised, but to have pursued the 
 study rather with the view of fitting himself for the still 
 higher office of a legislator. Previously to making an 
 effort to obtain a seat in parliament, he passed some time 
 in a continental tour, and here met with George Villiers, 
 whose youthful and engaging manners then gave no 
 indication of the after character he acquired. Alike in 
 age, and similarly ardent in their temperament, they 
 united in the pursuit of pleasure ; and there is scarcely a 
 reason to doubt that the knighthood and vice-admiralty of 
 Devonshire, obtained by Eliot in 1618, w^ere the boons 
 conferred by Villiers, who had then begun to rise in 
 
 * The Earl of St. Germpihs is a lineal descendant from Sir John, 
 and is possessed of these estates.
 
 JOHX SELDEN. 9 
 
 court favour. Buckingham, as lord high admiral, would 
 influence the appointment of correllative officers, and a 
 letter exists, written by Selden in November 1628, convey- 
 ing his opinion whether Sir John's patent of knighthood 
 was made void by the death of the grantor. Buckingham 
 fell in that year. 
 
 From the time of his return from abroad until the period 
 of his death. Sir John Eliot was the representative of 
 Cornwall, or some one of its boroughs, in every parliament. 
 
 Every action of his life demonstrated the ardour of his 
 temperament. He carried off the daughter of Sir Daniel 
 Norton, then under the protection of the court of wards, 
 for which it fined him 4000/. ; and this sum was well spent, 
 for it was the purchase price of a domestic happiness that 
 was undisturbed but by death ; and the two sons who 
 were the issue of this marriage, he found the chief solace 
 and support of his most tried and afflicted hours. 
 
 In a moment of excited wrath, kindled by the memory 
 of old family quarrels, and by recent personal offence, he 
 nearly killed an opponent, Mr. Moyle, with his rapier. 
 For this he made all the atonement in his power ; he 
 lamented the infirmity of his nature, and magnanimously 
 conquering the pride that chokes the confession of error, 
 he sought forgiveness of his opponent, and asked and 
 obtained his friendship publicly*. 
 
 * Mr. D'Israeli, in his Commentaries on the Life of Charles the 
 I'irst, has taken an imperfect view of the transaction. Full particulars 
 are given in Miss Aikin's work relating' to the same monarch, and in 
 Lord Nugent'^ Memorials of Hampden.
 
 10 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Equals in ardour, and in firmness of purpose, Villiers 
 and Eliot now took different paths ; one became the 
 parasite of the crown, and the distender of its arbitrary 
 power — the other became the advocate of the people, and 
 the defender of the supremacy of the laws. 
 
 From that period they became the most inveterate 
 enemies. Eliot, who has been well termed " the Junius 
 of his era,'* pursued Buckingham with all the powers of 
 his mind, enforced by the most powerful and chaste 
 eloquence. In vain did the king threaten and punish ; 
 the patriot was irrefragable. He was thrown into the very 
 dungeon which, by a curious coincidence, became the place 
 of confinement for Buckingham's assassin — a criminal, 
 probably, who would have never been roused to action 
 had his victim taken warning from the voice of Eliot. 
 
 Without conceding a single point Eliot was released 
 from prison ; but the parliament being dissolved, and he 
 refusing to pay the loan imposed by the king without its 
 sanction, he was again incarcerated ; and again unbent 
 was he restored to liberty, to resume his labours in parlia- 
 ment. Fresh efforts in the cause of national liberty were 
 met by the court party by fresh repetitions of outrage. 
 Eliot was committed to the King's Bench, and thence 
 to the Tower, from which prison he never was again 
 released. He refused to submit to the degrading and 
 unjust terms offered by the court, and prepared, with his 
 usual energy, to endure that confinement which he foresaw 
 would be for the residue of his life. He had, some years
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 11 
 
 previous to liis first imprisonment, assigned over all his 
 estates, with provident forethought, in trust for the use of 
 his children ; and now, when informed that he was 
 sentenced to pay a fine of 2000/. he replied, " I have 
 two cloaks, two suits, two pair of boots and galla-shees, 
 and a few books ; that is all my present substance, and if 
 they can pick out of that 2000/. much good may it do 
 them." 
 
 In the solitude of his prison he continued to act a 
 part consistent with his more active life. In letters still 
 remaining among the papers of the St. Germajin family, 
 we have his own assurance that, though " faint and feeble," 
 he did " not 'bate a jot of heart and hope." He wrote 
 to Hampden and other friends, as well as to his sons. He 
 warned the latter that the only overwhelming sorrow that 
 could come upon him, would be a knowledge of their 
 unworthiness, by which he pathetically observes, " I shall 
 then receive that wound, which, I thank God, no enemy 
 could give me ; — sorrow and affliction of mind, and that 
 from them from whom I expected the contrary." — He 
 further occupied his monotonous leisure by composing 
 a treatise upon the " Monarchy of Man," which is 
 preserved among the Harleian manuscripts, and is an 
 eloquent expressing of learning and religion, applicable 
 to our conduct in life. 
 
 Imprisonment slowly completed its work of death. 
 
 His legal adviser related, that he " found him the same 
 cheerful, healthful, undaunted man as ever ; " but he was
 
 12 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 gradually sinking. His native county petitioned for his 
 release ; he applied to the court of king's bench, but the 
 Lord Chief Justice Richardson, coldly remarking "that 
 though brought low in body, Sir John was as high and 
 lofty in mind as ever," directed him to petition the king. 
 Sir John conveyed a request for a release to Charles — 
 and (my hand trembles whilst I write it) the king made 
 answer — " It is not humble enough ! " The petition was 
 reworded, but still the unbroken spirit of Eliot spoke in 
 Avords that were uncringing, and there came to it no 
 reply ! ! 
 
 The patriot rose to meet his impending fate. — He sent 
 for a painter, that his descendants might know the 
 lineaments of their ancestor, who died for the legal 
 freedom of their country — " Let it be preserved," was his 
 desire, " as a perpetual memorial of my hatred of tyranny." 
 It still exists at Port Eliot, and well expresses the 
 features pale and contracted by the inroads of consump- 
 tion. Some few letters of this his dying period remain, 
 and they have the most eloquent expressions of resigna- 
 tion and of hope. He said he had now nothing remaining 
 in this world, " but the contestation between an ill body 
 and the air, that quarrel and make friends as the summer 
 winds affect them ; " but he was contented, and looked 
 forward with fearless and enthusiastic delight to the 
 arrival of the period of his departure to that eternal 
 home " where the weary are at rest." 
 
 He died in the third week of November, 1632. But
 
 JOHX SELDEN. 13 
 
 Stuart hatred was not yet satiated. Let the iincommented 
 fact be recorded, and terminate this notice. Sir John's 
 son petitioned to be allowed to convey the body of his 
 father into Cornwall ; and the inexorable, the obeyed 
 answer was — " Let Sir John Eliot's body be buried in 
 the church of that parish where he died." His ashes rest 
 in the Tower chapel*. 
 
 It has been observed, that a work by Sir John Eliot 
 remains unpublished (Harleian MSS. 2228. 60. B.). It 
 is entitled " The Monarchy of Man. A treatise philoso- 
 phical and moral, wherein some questions of the politics 
 are obviously discussed." 
 
 This treatise was written whilst its author suffered 
 under the dreary certainty of an imprisonment that would 
 have no mitigator but death. Yet viewing it as the will 
 of God, he was content, and has recorded his resignation 
 on the title-page of his work in this submissive motto : — 
 " Deus nobis hsec otia." 
 
 The following extracts will serve to record his delibe- 
 rate opinions of government. Having argued, both from 
 reason and experience, that a monarchy assisted by a 
 senate, and regulated by known laws, is the best form of 
 government, he proceeds : " We must note that monarchy 
 is a power of government and rule for a common good 
 and benefit, not an institution for private interest and 
 
 * Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1810, 128. Bliss's Wood's Athen. 
 Oxon. ii. 478. D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature. Sloane MSS. 
 Harleian MSS. Rushworth.
 
 14 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 advantage. Two general duties are comprehended in the 
 kingly office, the one looking to the conservation of the 
 whole, the other at the disposition of the parts : this 
 reflecting on the heiie esse and well-heing, the other on 
 the being and subsistence. For without a provision in 
 general, moving like the spirit upon the waters, there 
 would be nothing but darkness and confusion." 
 
 "To promote that national unity, that pure diapason 
 and consent, and in that strength to encounter all oppo- 
 sition to the contrary for the public utility and good, 
 because no single ability is sufficient, helps and advantages 
 are provided. Laws and constitutions are enacted, which 
 are a level and direction ; and a council is ordained to be 
 aiding and assisting, as Minerva unto Jupiter." 
 
 There is space but for one more quotation, and it is 
 worthy of him over whose character I linger with a 
 fondness that makes the last relative word partake of the 
 pain that accompanies a farewell to those of one's own 
 household. " Happiness," says this practised son of mis- 
 fortune, " is not in outward fortune, or condition ; to be 
 happy depends not on greatness, honour, riches, or the 
 like ; but in any state or quality that elixir may be 
 found, — from the most simple being of mankind, this 
 quintessence may be drawn. It is a clear and firm habit 
 and position of the mind ; by knowledge rectifying all 
 the actions and affections to the rule and conformity of 
 reason. If, as Plutarch says, thou hast but learned the 
 knowledge of this good, thou experiencest what an excel-
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 15 
 
 lence it is, whatever be tliy fortune, whatever thy condi- 
 tion, whatever state or quality thou sustainest ; though 
 thou be poor, neglected, in disgrace, recluse, and 
 sequested from society, yet thy imprisonment shall be 
 sweet, thou shalt be honourable in disgrace, rich in the 
 greatest poverty, respected in neglect, and God shall love 
 and favour thee ; thou shalt esteem that life w^hicli is in 
 private and leisure, not less pleasant than any dignity or 
 empire : as it is private, it is so much more thine own, 
 and thou more master of thyself." In so regulating the 
 mind, and combating the passions, which he considers 
 in detail, he observes, we are sustained by religion, 
 and, like the martyrs, enabled to view death as another 
 way to happiness — "that eternal happiness and felicity, 
 which is the chief object of all hopes ; namely, that su- 
 pernatural felicity to come — that transcendent happness 
 hereafter, that is to be looked for in the New Jerusalem." 
 Dexzil Hollis, Baron of Isfield, in Sussex, was born 
 in 1597. He was the bed-fellow and companion of Charles 
 the First, when they were in their boyhood ; but though he 
 always regarded the king, and was in tvirn beloved by that 
 monarch, yet the higher claims of his country made him 
 firm in opposing his public policy. He was a leader of 
 the moderate Presbyterian party, and Clarendon says 
 that they viewed him with reverence. He was by turns 
 persecuted by the royalists and by Cromwell, for he with 
 equal firmness opposed them both in their illegal out- 
 stretches of power. In a future page we shall see that
 
 16 .MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the king came witli arms to drag him from the House of 
 Commons, and subsequently the creatures of Cromwell 
 impeached him of high treason, and forced him into exile. 
 He promoted the restoration of Charles the Second, 
 but still firm to his first principles, he opposed with an 
 integrity that was uninfluenced by court honours, every 
 measure that he deemed an encroachment upon the 
 liberties of his countrymen. He died in 1690. 
 
 The courage and impartial bearing of Mr. Hollis is 
 x^ouched by two characteristic anecdotes. The republican 
 Ireton having during a debate insulted him in the House 
 of Commons, was challenged by him, but Ireton refusing 
 to fight a duel, on a plea of its being contrary to his 
 conscience, Hollis pulled his nose, telling him that " if 
 his conscience kept him from giving men satisfaction, it 
 should keep him from provoking them." And at another 
 time being under the King's safe conduct at an inn in 
 Oxford, some of the royalist officers cudgelled his servants, 
 and rated both them and their master as rogues, rebels, 
 and traitors ; upon hearing which Mr. Hollis not only 
 collared and chastised the most burly of the assailant 
 cavaliers, but took from him his sword *. 
 
 The principles of this patriot are thus told by himself, 
 in the work he wrote during his exile. He says his 
 party " resolved to put their lives into their hands, and 
 
 * Clarendon's Hist, of Rebellion, iii. 44, fol. ed. Whitelocke's 
 Memorials, 108. See more of this nobleman in Collins's Historical 
 Collections of the House of Hollis, &c.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 17 
 
 offer them a sacrifice to the welfare of their prince and 
 country. I say prince as well as country, for they looked 
 upon him as the sovereign whom nature, duty, the com- 
 mand of God, and the laws of men obliged them to 
 reverence, and to love as the head of the people ; whose 
 greatness consisted in his people's, and his people's in 
 his ; and therefore neither could be great, nor happy, 
 without the other, which made those faithful ones put 
 them both in the same balance, and rather adventure his 
 displeasure by promoting the public cause, than (as they 
 thought) his ruin by deserting it*." 
 
 Sir John Maynard was a native of Devonshire, 
 being born at Tavistock in 1602. He was successively 
 a student of Exeter Hall, Oxford, and of the Middle 
 Temple. He first came into parliament in 1640. 
 
 He opposed the illegal measures of the king, but he 
 was as stern an opponent of the errors of the parliament 
 and of Cromwell. Although a manager of the prose- 
 cutions against Strafford and Laud, he was, by particular 
 desire, appointed with Mr. Whitelocke to a consultation 
 with the Scotch commissioners, as to the best mode of 
 removing Cromwell as a fomenter of disputes between 
 the two nations ; and then we find him, with Mr. Serjeant 
 Glynn, a prisoner in the Tower, for opposing the violence 
 of the parliamentarian army. Upon his release he was 
 still the opponent of illegality by whoever practised, for 
 
 * Memoirs of Lord HoUis, 5. 
 C
 
 18 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 he not only told the House that they dissolved themselves 
 when they voted against any further addresses to the king ; 
 hut, when he was excluded by their especial vote from 
 his seat, he boldly risked the consequences of infringing 
 that vote, and, presenting himself upon the floor of the 
 House, poured forth such an eloquent and forcible per- 
 suasive against the execution of the king, that Cromwell 
 thought the safest way to silence him was to bring him 
 to its bar. Cromwell made him a serjeant, but he sent 
 him to the Tower when he found that no favour would 
 mitigate his opposition to his illegal measures. Charles 
 the Second duly estimated his integrity, and not only 
 confirmed him in the dignity of a serjeant, and conferred 
 upon him a knighthood, but would have made him a 
 judge, if he could have afforded to sacrifice the superior 
 emoluments of his professional practice. In 1647, 
 Whitelocke relates, that he is said to have realised seven 
 hundred pounds on one circuit, which was esteemed a 
 larger sum than had ever been taken before by a pleader 
 upon such an occasion. He assisted in bringing about 
 the revolution of 1688; and when nearly eighty-seven 
 possessed his mental powers in undiminished vigour. 
 Burnet* says, that William the Third once remarked to 
 Sir John, that he had outlived all his contemporary 
 lawyers, to which he replied, that, if his majesty had not 
 come over, he might have also outlived the law. So 
 
 * Hist, of his Times, i. 803.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 19' 
 
 undisabled was his mind, that in 1689 he was made one 
 of the lords commissioners of the great seal. He died in 
 October 1690* 
 
 Clarendon gives him due praise for integrity of pur- 
 pose ; and even the prejudiced Warlmrton in modern times 
 observes of him, that he went through all periods at the 
 same steady pace and with the same adherence to his 
 party, adhering to presbytery for the sake of civil liberty, 
 rather than to civil liberty for the sake of presbytery f. 
 
 Mb. Bulstrode Whitelocke was the son of a judge 
 of the same name, and was born in 1605, in the house of 
 Sir George Crooke, in London, who was his mother's 
 uncle. He was successively at Merchant Tailors' School, 
 and a commoner of St. John's College, Oxford. His studies 
 subsequently at the Middle Temple were superintended 
 by his father. In his public career he was invariably 
 opposed to extreme measures; and though he accepted 
 office and acted both in the senate and camp with the 
 opponents of Charles, yet he was always in favour of his 
 restoration, and that of his descendants to the powers of 
 a limited monarchy. He opposed the assumption of the 
 crown by Cromwell, and endured in consequence an 
 embassage, but really a banishment to the court of 
 Sweden. Charles viewed him as really friendly to the 
 
 * There is a portrait of him in Lyson's Environs, ii. 235. See 
 further of him in Athense Oxoniensis, and Noble's Memoirs of the 
 House of Cromwell. 
 
 t Warburton's Letters, 154, 4to. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 cause of monarchy; and though he unquestionably 
 occasionally erred by supporting men who were repub- 
 licans, he as undoubtedly did so with the impression that 
 it was to save the country from a worse despotism. 
 Clarendon speaks of him as a man of great learning in his 
 profession and general knowledge, and that he opposed 
 the king without malice or rancour ; that he was carried 
 away by the tide which he would have directed, and when 
 he failed, did so from infirmity, and not intentionally *. 
 
 He died at Chilton House, and was buried at Fawley in 
 Buckinghamshire in 1675 t. 
 
 John Pyini was born in Bedfordshire, in 1584. His 
 family ranked with the gentry of that county. Of his 
 early life little more is known than that he was a student 
 of Pembroke College, Oxford ; that thence he proceeded 
 to one of the inns of court, and was admitted to the 
 degree of a barrister. Shrewd, decisive, and persevering, 
 he attracted the notice of the Earl of Bedford, by whose 
 interest he obtained a responsible situation in the ex- 
 chequer, and w^as first introduced to parliament as the 
 representative of Tavistock. He does not appear at this 
 period to have been a very leading politician, " but was 
 rather noted for extreme humanity, affability, courtesy, and 
 cheerfulness of spirit in every condition," and as sharing a 
 happy home, and cultivating intellectual pleasures with 
 
 * Clarendon's Autobiog. i. 60, 8vo ed. 
 
 f Wood's Athenae Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 1046. For more particulars 
 of his life, see his own " Memorials," and Biograph. Britannica.
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 21 
 
 his wife, who possessed " excellent accomplishments and 
 learning rare in her sex." These i)leasures, which are 
 part of the few that can be reviewed without regret, 
 were with him of short duration. His wife died in 1620, 
 and Pym then advanced into more public life. The 
 struggle against despotism had become more earnest, and 
 therefore putting his children under the care of trust- 
 worthy guardians, he devoted himself to the public good, 
 and it became *' his meat and drink, his work, his exercise, 
 his recreation, his pleasure, his ambition, his all." 
 
 Of the chief public transactions in which he was 
 engaged, notices will occur in future pages, and it 
 requires only to be observed here, that however he may 
 have occasionally erred, yet the testimony of the impartial 
 Rushworth, of his opponent Clarendon, and of his friend 
 Dr. Marshall, coincide in supporting the declaration he 
 drew up as the hour of death w^as approaching, in which 
 he fervently declares himself in favour of a limited 
 monarchy, and defends " the integrity of his intentions 
 to God, his king, and his country." This was confirmed 
 by his conduct in that hour when no man is a hypocrite 
 — on his death-bed he was heard to pray for the king and 
 his posterity, for the parliament, and the cause of the 
 people. He died at Derby-house on the 8th of December 
 1643*. 
 
 * Clarendon's Hist, of Rebellion, Franklin's Annals, Rushworth's 
 Collections, Whitelocke's Memorials, Echard's History, Dr. Mar- 
 shall's Funeral Sermon, and various contemporary memorialists, are
 
 22 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Sir Dudley Digges was the worthy son of a worthy 
 parent ; his father, Mr. Thomas Digges, being one of the 
 most learned and pious public characters of the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Sir Dudley was born in the year 1583 ; in 1598 he 
 entered as a gentleman commoner of University College, 
 Oxford ; took his degree of bachelor of arts in 1601 ; 
 and then, having studied for some time at one of the inns 
 of court, and received the order of knighthood, he pro- 
 ceeded on a lengthened continental tour. His first public 
 employment was as ambassador to the court of Russia in 
 1618 ; and two years svibsequently he went as a com- 
 missioner to Holland, to obtain a restitution for injuries 
 committed upon some of our countrymen in the East 
 Indies by the Dutch. He was a member of the parlia- 
 ment that met in January 1621, and having opposed the 
 illegal measures of the crown, was included by King 
 James among " the ill-tempered spirits," whom he resolved 
 to oppress. Together with Sir Thomas Crew, Sir Nathaniel 
 Rich, and Sir James Perrot and others, he was compelled 
 by a commission under the great seal, to proceed to 
 Ireland, to inquire into various ecclesiastical and civil 
 affairs connected with the king's interests. Sir Peter 
 Hayman was at the same time sent into the Palatinate 
 upon some errand that was similarly important in appear- 
 ance, but which in reality was also frivolous. Their 
 
 the sources from which the ahove and fuller information of Pym may 
 1)6 olitained.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 23 
 
 oifence appears particularly to have been an opposition to 
 the marriage of Prince Charles to the Spanish Infanta ; 
 and the employments were forced upon them in order to 
 inflict upon them the expense. Sir Peter Hayman was 
 sent a second time into the Palatinate, for refusing to 
 lend money to the king, and the privy council did not 
 attempt to conceal that such an illegal punishment was 
 inflicted upon him for not submitting to an illegal 
 demand. The following is a detail of the conference 
 between himself and the council in his own words. " I 
 have not forgotten my employment into the Palatinate. 
 I was called before the lords of the council, for what I 
 knew not, but I heard it was for not lending on a privy 
 seal. I told them to take my estate if they chose ; I 
 would give it up, but lend I would not. They charged 
 me with unwillingness to serve the king. I said I had 
 my life and my estate to serve my country and my 
 religion. They told me that if I did not pay I should be 
 put upon an employment of service. I declared my 
 willingness. After ten weeks waiting, they told me I 
 was to go with a lord into the Palatinate, and that I 
 should have employment there and means befitting. 
 I told them I was a subject and desired means. They 
 said I must go on my own purse. I told them no one 
 goes to war at his private cost. None were ever sent out 
 in that way. Lawyers told me I could not be so sent. 
 Having this assurance, I demanded means, and was
 
 24 MEMOlllS OF 
 
 resolved not to stir but upon those terms ; and in silence 
 and duty I refused. Upon this, having given me a 
 command to go, after twelve days they told me they 
 would not send me as a soldier, but to attend as an 
 ambassador. I knew that stone would hit me, therefore I 
 settled my troubled estates, and addressed myself to the 
 service." 
 
 In 1626, Sir Dudley Digges was one of the eight 
 members of the House of Commons, who carried up the 
 impeachment to the peers against the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham. For their conduct on this occasion the govern- 
 ment committed him and Sir John Eliot to the Tower ; 
 his lodgings were also searched and his papers seized. 
 
 The House of Commons so highly resented this 
 imprisonment of their members, that they resolved " not 
 to proceed with any more public business until they were 
 righted in their privileges." This brought on an expla- 
 nation, and both the Lords and Commons agreeing that 
 Sir Dudley did not speak anything during the opening of 
 the impeachment, that did or might trench upon the 
 king's honour, or that exceeded his commission, he was 
 forthwith released. 
 
 The part of Sir Dudley's speech that had been mis- 
 represented to the king was that in which he spoke of 
 " an injury offered to the person of the late king (James)," 
 but which was easily understood when its context was 
 also quoted, which remarked upon the duke's having so
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 25 
 
 acted, that his faults were undeservedly attributed to that 
 monarch. 
 
 Upon the subject to which the above quoted words 
 would bear an application, namely the reported unnatural 
 death of King James, the duke and the court were sensi- 
 tively alive. For although there is no evidence to affix to 
 Buckingham the crime of intentionally hurrying him out 
 of life, yet he was sufficiently indiscreet, and the death of 
 the king, in whose favour he was failing, for him was so 
 opportune, that many rumours intimating his criminality, 
 were circulated and extensively credited*. 
 
 * There was a curious tract published in 1642, entitled " Strange 
 Apparitions, &c." pretending to be a conversation between the Ghosts 
 of King James, the Duke of Buckingham, the Marquis of Hamilton, 
 and Dr. George Eglisham, the king's physician. In this the Duke is 
 openly charged with murdering the king, and that Dr. Eglisham had 
 accused him with the crime to King Charles and the parliament, but 
 was in consequence obliged to fly into Holland, and was there mur- 
 dered. He charged the Duke and his mother with giving the king a 
 white powder, and applying a plaister to his breast which caused his 
 death. Sir A. Weldon, in his " Court and Character of King James," 
 says that the king, on his death-bed, declared that it was the plaister 
 and powder had injured him. Dr. Goodman, in his " Aulicus Coqui- 
 nariae," though he denies that the plaister was poisoned, mentions 
 nothing concerning the powder, and confesses that the physicians, Dr. 
 Lister, Dr. Chambers, and others, " were much offended that any one 
 durst assume such boldness without their consents," as to apply a 
 plaister, and immediately removed it. Dr. Ramsay is said to have 
 openly accused the Duke of poisoning the king, before a committee of 
 the House of Commons. — (^Sir E. Peyton's " Divine Catastrophe of 
 the House of Stuart.") 
 
 These were all contemporary and variously biassed authorities ; as 
 such they are none of them entitled to implicit confidence. Wilson, also
 
 26 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 In the parliament assembled in 1628, Sir Dudley 
 Digges was one of the representatives of the county of 
 Kent. He continued to pursue a temperate line of 
 politics ; he seconded the motion for granting the supplies, 
 because, as he justly maintained, they were necessary to 
 support the king's honour, which is identified with that 
 of the nation ; but in bis conference with the lords, 
 relating to the petition of right, he firmly demonstrated 
 that he was, as he said, resolved to maintain the funda- 
 mental laws and liberties of the kingdom, which included 
 the just prerogative of the crown ; and when the king, 
 as will be detailed in a future jiart of this work, attempted 
 to restrain the freedom of debate, Sir Dudley indignantly 
 called upon the House to demonstrate their resentment : 
 " Let us," were his words, " let us arise and be gone, or 
 sit still and do nothing." 
 
 In 1630, Sir Dudley was granted the reversion of the 
 office of master of the rolls, then held by Sir Julius Caesar, 
 and upon his death, he proceeded with the official duties in 
 1636. There is no doubt that this was intended by the 
 government as a bribe to mitigate his ojiposition to their 
 measures. How it would have succeeded, we have no 
 means of judging, for he died in 1639, just previous to 
 the assembling of another parliament. The acceptance of 
 this office was no guarantee of apostacy, therefore we have 
 
 a contemporary, and more unprejudiced, did not know to which opinion 
 to incline, and after considerable research relating- to this event, I am 
 unable to satisfy my mind.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 27 
 
 110 right to conclude, that he would have acted incon- 
 sistently with that piety and integrity for which all 
 parties gave him credit *. 
 
 Sill Edwin Sandys deserves a particular notice, as 
 one of the earliest constitutional opponents of the court 
 measures, and as one of the first sufferers in the cause of 
 freedom. 
 
 He was the second son of Dr. Edwin Sandys, Arch- 
 bishop of York, and was born at Worcester about the 
 year 1561. He was admitted a scholar of Corpus Christi 
 College, Oxford, in 1577, under the tutorship of the 
 celebrated "judicious" Mr. Hooker, who afforded this 
 testimony of his judgment, that he consulted him upon 
 the details of his great work upon " Ecclesiastical Polity." 
 In 1579, he obtained a fellowship, and two years subse- 
 quently was collated to a prebendship of York, although 
 he was not of the clerical profession. Giving up his 
 fellowship, he proceeded on a very extended continental 
 tour, and upon his return, Wood says, " he grew famous 
 for his learning, prudence, and virtue." 
 
 In 1602, he resigned his prebendal stall, and in the 
 following year, having received a knighthood from King 
 James, was employed by that monarch in several affairs 
 of great trust and consequence. As a member of parlia- 
 ment, he conscientiously attended his duties, and Wood 
 says, that he was as constant in his attendance as the 
 
 * Wood's Athenae Oxon. and Fasti. Camden's Apparatus. Parlia- 
 ment. History. Kushworth. Whitelocke, &c.
 
 28 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 speaker ; and was esteemed faithful to his country without 
 any falseness to his prince. 
 
 His imprisonment in 1621, and other particulars, will 
 be noticed in a succeeding chapter. 
 
 Subsequently, he became treasurer to the undertakers 
 for the western plantations. 
 
 He died in 1629, and was buried at Northbourn in 
 Kent. His seven sons, with one exception, were sup- 
 porters of the cause of the parliament. His second son, 
 Colonel Edwin Sandys, fell in a skirmish of cavalry near 
 Worcester. 
 
 Sir Edwin was the author of " Europae Speculum, or 
 a View or Survey of the State of Religion in the Western 
 Parts of the World." This he wrote at Paris in 1559. 
 It is an exposure of the errors and fallacies of the papal 
 religion. He bequeathed 1500/. to the University o^ 
 Oxford, to establish a metaphysical lectureship *. 
 
 To these brief notices might be added another — of 
 Hampden, if it had not been done so fully of late by 
 Lord Nugent ; and of Sir Edward Coke, if his biography 
 were not in the hands of a near relative. Nor need these 
 be all, for the Earl of Bedford, Robert Phillips t, Miles 
 
 * Wood's Atbenfe Oxon, by Bliss, ii. 472. 
 
 f Sir Robert Phillips was one of three hundred and ninety-four 
 knights, dubbed by King James, on the 23rd of July, 1603. He was 
 several times the county representative and sheriff of Somersetshire, 
 between the years 1623 and 1627. He was the son of Sir Edward 
 Philips, of Montacute, in Somersetshire, who was Master of the Rolls 
 in 1608.— (Nichols' Progresses of James the First, i. 207 — 213.)
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 29 
 
 Hobart*, Benjamin Rudyardf, Thomas Crew t, Nathaniel 
 Rich§, James Perrott, Walter Long, Benjamin Valen- 
 tine, Strafford in his early career, and many others, 
 might be included. 
 
 It was at the lodgings of Pym, in Gray's Inn Lane, 
 and at those of Selden, that the leaders of this party met 
 for the purpose of arranging and agreeing upon their 
 votes in the House of Commons. The extreme advocates 
 of change met similarly at the residences of Cromwell, 
 Haselrigge, and Oliver St. John. 
 
 Up to this period, the opponents of the court party in 
 parliament had carried on a desultory warfare ; but 
 
 * Sir Miles Hobart was a younger son of the Chief Justice, Sir 
 Henry Hobart. He was born at Plumsted in Kent, in 1595. He was 
 created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles the First. 
 For the active part he took in the opposition to the court he was 
 thrown into prison in 1629, and died there, it is said, from the blows 
 inflicted by his gaoler, in 1631. — (Noble's Memoirs of the House of 
 Cromwell, ii. 128. Nichols' Progresses, iii. 888.) 
 
 f Sir Benjamin Rudyard was of West Woodhay, in Berkshire. 
 Though a consistent advocate of freedom, yet in 1642, thinking that 
 the king had made sufficient concessions, he strenuously supported the 
 proposition for a peaceful agreement, and warned the House of the 
 horrors of a civil war. He was a poet, a wit, and a critic, in all of 
 which accomplishments Ben Jonson says he excelled. He died in 
 1658. — (Ashmole's Berkshire. Granger's Biog. History. Gentleman's 
 Mag. 78, 103—79, 123, &c.) 
 
 '\. Sir Thomas Crew was of Wich Malbane, in Cheshire. He was in 
 the legal profession, a king's sergeant, and brother to the Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas of the same name. He was twice speaker 
 of the House of Commons. He died, aged 68, in the year 1634. — 
 (Nichols' Progresses of James, i. 267.) 
 
 § Sir Nathaniel Rich, of London, was knighted in 1617.
 
 30 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 experience had taught, — and increased knowledge made 
 them confident to act up to their experience, — that a united 
 party could only be effectually thwarted by a similarly 
 united opposition. Such a combination was so novel, 
 that we shall see that the king's ministers commenced a 
 prosecution against its leaders for an illegal cabal ; and to 
 escape detection, the oppositionists resorted to the place 
 of rendezvous with dise:uised faces*. Such was the be- 
 ginning of that opposition party, the constant existence 
 of which is one of our greatest safeguards against misrule. 
 I do not place it alone in the superlative, because we 
 benefit now also by the guardianship of the public press, 
 that mighty enforcer of opinion, whose controlling power 
 was duly estimated by the politician who said, " I will 
 give the king a corrupt ministry, if he will grant me a 
 perfect freedom of the press." 
 
 The examination of Sir Edwin Sandys before the Privy 
 Council in 1621, aimed at discovering the parties who 
 acted thus concertedly in opposition to the government. 
 He was asked, " What conference he had at any time, and 
 with whom, touching the petition to be made to the king 
 by the parliament for the longer continuance thereof, 
 after his majesty had signified to the Houses his purpose 
 of dissolving thereof? and where he dined that day the 
 message was brought ? What conference he had and with 
 
 * I mention this upon the authority of a friend, who saw the state- 
 ment in a contemporary letter, now in the possession of the Trevor 
 family.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 31 
 
 whom, either by word, message, or writing ? " And many 
 other questions of similar import *. 
 
 So conscious were they of the scrutinising eye that was 
 kept upon their proceedings, and of the disregard of their 
 parliamentary privileges by the government, that, to avoid 
 any record to aid its oppressive measures. Sir Peter Hay- 
 man, in 1624, obtained an order that the clerk "should 
 set no man's name to the motions he made |." 
 
 There is no reason why Ralph Hopton, and the Lords 
 Falkland, Clarendon, Hertford, Capel, Dunsmore, &:c., 
 should not be added to the band of temperate statesmen 
 enumerated above ; for they certainly agreed in their love 
 of constitutional liberty, and though they took opposite 
 
 * Harleian MSS. 161. PI. 33, c. 
 
 t The first appearance of Selden as a speaker in the House of Com- 
 mons, was in co-operation with this party, on the 19th of March, 1624, 
 in a lengthened discussion concerning- the granting of subsidies to the 
 king. A motion was made to adjourn the debate, but Sir Henry 
 Savill opposed it in an angry tone. He said that " he had done an ill 
 office to the king who moved to have it questioned; for the House 
 being divided, if the king should fail it would be a great discredit." 
 
 Sir Dudley Digges replied, " it was the old fashion of parliament, if 
 a man spake absurdly or distastefully, not to cry him down, but for him 
 to be answered or checked." 
 
 j\Ir. Selden said, " I will not speak to the great matter in hand, nor 
 to the orders of the House, being so young a parliament man, but yet," 
 he continued, " I have been no stranger to the journals of either House, 
 and found that the pettiest business hath not been so precipitated." 
 
 It was eventually postponed until the following morning*. 
 
 * Journal of a member of this parliament. Harl. MSS. 1840, <S:c. 
 PI. 45 a.
 
 33 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 sides in the appeal to the sword, yet that appeal was hur- 
 ried on by other spirits than those by which they were 
 actuated ; and could the settlement of the national differ- 
 ences have been left to their arbitrament, there would 
 have been no points on which they would have substan- 
 tially differed ; for they did not disagree upon the funda- 
 mental principles of the constitution, and therefore would 
 have required no changes but such as are founded upon 
 the laws and usages of which that is composed.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 33 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BIRTH OF SELDEN. EDUCATION. APPLIES TO THE STUDY OF THE 
 
 LAW. EARLY PATRONS. LITERARY FRIENDS. THE COLLEGE OF 
 
 ANTIQUARIES. HIS FIRST PUBLICATION. HIS SECOND. HIS 
 
 THIRD. ASSISTS DRAYTON. SELDEN's POETRY. HIS " TITLES 
 
 OF HONOUR." EDITS FORTESCUE, AND HENGHAM's WORKS. 
 
 HIS FIRST WORK ON THE JEWS. POLITICAL STATE OF ENG- 
 LAND. PUBLISHES HIS " HISTORY OF TYTHES." PERSECUTION 
 
 TO WHICH HE IS CONSEQUENTLY SUBJECTED. — BEN JONSON IS 
 HIS ADVOCATE WITH THE KING. SELDEN's DECLARATION RE- 
 LATING TO THE WORK. WRITES ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF 
 
 CHRISTMAS-DAY, AND ON A PASSAGE IN REVELATION. 
 
 The birth-place of John Selden is Salvington, a hamlet 
 of the parish of West Tarring, in the county of Sussex. 
 Tarring is about two miles from Worthing. Its church, 
 which is conspicuous on the left of the road leading from 
 this watering place to Arundel, offers few objects of anti- 
 quarian interest, and its time-faded registers would be 
 seldom perused if they did not contain the record of 
 Selden's birth. 
 
 The cottage in which he was born still remains. It 
 was then known as Lacies, being the residence attached to 
 a farm of about eighty-one acres. The date of 1601, 
 which is upon its front, testifies that it was then the 
 same humble edifice as at present. A further testimony
 
 S4 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 that it remains unaltered is afforded by its lintel, on the 
 inside of which is carved a latin distich, said to have 
 been composed by Selden when only ten years old. Its 
 rude characters of mingled capitals and small letters, 
 may justify the conclusion, that he was the engraver as 
 well as the versifier. The distich is this : — 
 
 Gratus, honeste, mihi, non claudar inito sede "! u- # 
 Fur, abeas; non sum facta soluta tibi. 
 
 Which may be thus translated : — 
 
 Walk in and welcome, honest friend ; repose. 
 Thief, get thee hence : to thee I'll not unclose. 
 
 One end of the cottage abuts upon the lane leading 
 to it. Its decayed thatch, crazy inclosures, and ill-kept 
 garden, do not accord with the wishes of those who 
 admire the character of him whose earliest footsteps were 
 there. The wood-work, arranged with formal design in 
 the wall of its end that faces the lane, as shown in some 
 drawings, is no longer to be seen. A bricklayer, some 
 months since, considered it of more importance to exclude 
 
 * This inscription has been differently stated by those who have 
 recorded it. The following literal copy, made at the time of a personal 
 inspection, is submitted to the reader's judgment. 
 
 GRATvs Honeste mih* no clavoaR inito sedkb' 
 
 FVR abeas: no sv facta solvta tibi. 
 
 The last character of the first line is somewhat imperfect. It probably 
 v/as intended as a contraction of " que." In this case the literal trans- 
 lation is, — " Honest friend thou art welcome to me, I will not be 
 closed, enter and be seated. Thief! begone, I am not open to thee."
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 35 
 
 the rain, than to preserve the ornamental appearance, 
 and it now presents a continuous surface of ill-applied 
 plaister. Vines and currant trees are trained over the 
 front and the other end. The back overlooks a farm- 
 yard. The front door is very low, opening at once into 
 the only sitting-room of the cottage. On the inside of 
 the lintel of this door, partially obscured by white-wash, 
 and partially by renewed plaisterings of the ceiling, is 
 inscribed the verse already quoted. 
 
 When visited, in August 1834, the cottage contained 
 no other relic of Selden, and there was nothing unusual 
 in its spacious hearth, the songs and ill-executed drawings 
 that were attached to its walls, or in any of the furniture 
 of its sitting-room. Some good-natured pilgrim had pinned 
 up a copy of the inscription ; and an usher, well-meaning 
 but incompetent, had added a laudatory distich unworthy 
 of transcription. Without a chance of increasing our 
 biographical store, it was gratifying to sit in this room 
 and chat for an hour with its present kind-hearted old 
 tenant, the Widow Kennard. She is no memorialist of 
 Selden ; but she is a worthy specimen of the contented 
 English peasant, whose vigour has passed during seventy 
 years of labour. 
 
 The father of Selden was a small farmer, or as Aubrey 
 describes him, " a yeomanly man of about 40/. per 
 annum*." Anthony Wood, with customary coarseness, 
 
 * There is reason to believe that he pursued the trade of a cart* 
 Wright, as well as that of a farmer ; for in the parish register, I observed 
 
 D 2
 
 36 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 says be was " a common fidler," and an entry in the 
 parish register, perhaps, sanctions the conclusion that he 
 did not refuse to be recompensed for his musical per- 
 formances ; but various facts prevent us believing that he 
 subsisted upon that resource. " He played well upon 
 the violin, in which he took delight," says Aubrey, 
 " and at Christmas time, to please himself and his 
 neighbours, he would play to them as they danced.'* 
 The son of Judge Malet had heard that he taught the 
 lute *. 
 
 Wood says, that it was his musical performances won 
 him his wife. Hers was an extraction superior to his 
 own. She was Margaret, heiress of Thomas Baker, who 
 resided in the neighbouring parish of Rustington, and 
 was descended from a knighted family of that name in 
 Kentt. 
 
 The issue of this marriage was John, whose biography 
 is here undertaken ; two younger sons, who died infants, 
 and a daughter, who married to a John Bernard, of 
 
 a baptism is recorded, iu the year 1379, of a daughter of " John Selden, 
 the wheller." 
 
 * Aubrey's MSS. in the Ashmolean Museum. Wood's Athense 
 Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 376. Wood's MSS. by Hearne. Append, ad Lib. 
 Nig. Scac. 594. 
 
 -f- Selden's Epitaph, written by himself. The father and mother of 
 Selden lived to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of seeing their son rising 
 to virtuous eminence. They were buried at Tarring, the latter on 
 the 11th of October, 1610, the former on the 1st of February, 1616. 
 The race of the Seldens seems to be extinct. I have never heard of 
 a living representative.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 37 
 
 Goring, in Sussex, by whom she had two sons and four 
 daughters. They appear to have remained in humble 
 situations. Mr. Bernard is probably alluded to by Wood, 
 when he states, that Selden had a brother, who was a 
 musician at Chichester, and having a large family, as well 
 as being an invalid, he had a pension of about 25l. per 
 annum, from some charitable individuals, Selden being 
 also a contributor to his necessities*. 
 
 In the parish register of West Tarring is this entry : 
 « 1584 — John, the sonne of John Selden, the minstrell, 
 was baptized the 20th day of December :" a document 
 substantiating the statement of Dr. Wilkins, that he was 
 born on the l6th of that month t. 
 
 His first academical instructions were received at the 
 free-school of Chichester, whose master then was Hugh 
 Barker, afterwards highly distinguished as a civilian. 
 His speedy baptism suggests that his earliest infancy 
 was sickly ; but this unhealthiness must have soon passed 
 away, for his progress as a student was rapid, as instanced 
 in the verse already quoted. He who could write Latin 
 verses at ten years old, had not been much interrupted by 
 illness. This is further proved, by his proceeding to 
 college when only fourteen. 
 
 * Wood's MSS, by Hearne, 594. 
 
 f In 1726, Dr. Wilkins published a uniform edition of Selden's 
 Works, with his Life, in Latin, prefixed. This is necessarily a chief 
 authority, and is that upon which reliance is placed in the following- 
 pages, when others are not particularised.
 
 38 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Mr. Barker was very partial to him ; and Wood says, 
 that to him and to Dr. Juxon, Selden was indebted for 
 his exhibition at Oxford*. He was admitted of Hart 
 Hall, carrying with him a strong recommendation from 
 his Chichester preceptor to his brother, who was a Fellow 
 of New College. This brother, Mr. Anthony Barker, and 
 another Fellow of the same College, Mr. John Young, 
 assisted him with their instructions. 
 
 There is no record that Selden distinguished himself 
 as a competitor for any of the honours of the University. 
 They can be won, almost exclusively, by the Mathema- 
 tician and the Poet. Among these, Selden held no 
 prominent rank, his genius at no period of his life 
 displaying itself either in abstract calculations, or in 
 excursions of the imagination ; although, from having 
 written some commendatory verses which are prefixed to 
 Drayton's " Barons' Wars," and to Browne's *' Britannia's 
 Pastorals," Suckling mentions him in his " Sessions of 
 the Poets." In this ballad, Apollo is represented as 
 presiding at a meeting where various poets prefer their 
 claims to the Laureateship. Selden is not among these ; 
 but it is said, " he sat close to the chair," and Suckling, 
 probably, intended it as a compliment, intimating that, 
 for his scholarship and taste, Apollo selected him as a 
 counsellor. It is certain that Selden's poetical attempts 
 are not above mediocrity. 
 
 Selden was not am ong the dandies of the University ; 
 
 * Wood's MS S. by Ilearne. 594.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 89 
 
 for Sir Giles Mompesson, who was his contemporary at 
 Hart Hall, described him to Aubrey as " a long scabby- 
 polled boy, but a good student *." 
 
 According to Dr. Wilkins, Selden resided four years 
 at Oxford, and then removed to London, entering himself 
 at Clifford's Inn, in 1602. Wood says, he was entered 
 at Hart Hall, in Michaelmas Term, 1600, and that he 
 stayed at Oxford about three years. 
 
 Having initiated himself in the study of the law, he 
 removed for its completion, to the Inner Temple, in 
 the May of I6OJ5. His chamber was in an uppermost 
 story of Paper Buildings, looking towards the garden, 
 having a small gallery to w'alk in attached t. 
 
 It is certain, that even whilst a tyro, Selden was dis- 
 tinguished for his abilities. Lady Cotton told Sir William 
 Dugdale, that, dining one Christmas time at Sir Thomas 
 Alford's, in Sussex, Selden, then a young student, sat at 
 
 the lower end of the table, and " was looked upon to be of 
 parts extraordinary, and somebody asking who he was, 
 
 it was replied ' his son that is playing the violin in the 
 
 hall+."' 
 
 Thus early in life was his introduction to the notice of 
 
 the Cotton family, to w'hom he soon after became more 
 
 intimately attached ; for Mr. Fabian Phillips told Aubrey, 
 
 * Wood's Athense Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 378. 
 
 t Aubrey's MSS. — Wood's Athenae Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 378. 
 
 X Ibid. 377.
 
 40 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 that when young, Selden copied records for Sir Robert 
 Cotton. 
 
 From the many known examples which attest, that in 
 youth we readily acquire the tastes and habits of those 
 that are around us, we are justified in surmising-, that 
 this early intercourse gave Selden a bias in favour of 
 antiquarian studies. His mind required no stimulus ; a 
 fondness and an effort for the acquirement of knowledge 
 distinguished him at this period of life, which is too often 
 characterised by a thirst for less innocent and less enduring 
 pleasures ; and it is animating to know what a co-partner- 
 ship in knowledge existed between him and some others, 
 who were in after-life companions in eminence. When 
 students, as well as in their riper years, Henry Rolle, 
 afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Sir 
 Edward Littleton, afterwards Lord Keeper, Sir Edward 
 Herbert, afterwards Attorney General, Sir Thomas Gar- 
 diner, afterwards Recorder of London, were Selden's 
 associates, and Wood says, " it was the constant, and 
 almost daily course, for many years together, of those 
 great traders in learning, to bring in their acquests 
 therein, as it were in a common stock, by natural com- 
 munication, whereby each of them, in a great measure, 
 became the participant and common possessor of each 
 others learning and knowledge *." The depth of legal 
 
 * Wood's AthenfB Oxon. ii. 203.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 41 
 
 knowledge which he evinced upon many memorable 
 occasions in after-life, testifies that these efforts were not 
 mis-spent. 
 
 Eloquence, we may believe, from the specimens of his 
 speeches that remain, was not one of his qualifications. 
 His memory was a vast store-house of authorities, and he 
 beat opposition to a stand-still by a weight of facts and 
 precedents. Wood says, that " he seldom or never 
 appeared at the bar, but sometimes gave chamber-counsel, 
 and was good at conveyancing." 
 
 His mental qualifications, and the example of his early 
 friends, led him to the particular study of the antiquities 
 of his profession. Let no one regret that he did not 
 otherwise devote himself. Curiosity is a propensity wisely 
 interwoven with our nature ; it is the motive that propels 
 us most to the acquirement of knowledge, and that which 
 directs us to ascertain the history of the past is among 
 the most usei'ul, if only because experience is the best 
 guide for the future. The researches of the antiquarian 
 have collected some of the best authorities to which the 
 historian can refer for information, and from the coins, 
 inscriptions, etymologies, and archives, which have been 
 gathered and compared, we alone are able to obtain that 
 knowledge by which we can understand, correct, and 
 substantiate statements which would be useless, if received 
 with only limited credit. 
 
 When we reflect that Leland, Speed, Stowe, Camden, 
 Cotton, Spelman, Usher, Dugdale, Raleigh aiid many
 
 42 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Others of similar learning, were nearly all contemporaries 
 of Selden, we may believe that England was among the 
 most distino-uished in this research after the knowledge of 
 the olden time, and that it was among the most favoured 
 branches of literature pursued by the intellectual energy 
 that seemed, at this period, to have aroused the educated 
 of Europe. 
 
 Those students of antiquities, held weekly meetings, of 
 what they termed " The Antiquaries' College." Their 
 first assemblies appear to have taken place under the 
 auspices of Archbishop Parker, in 1572. Their object 
 was to collect into one repository, manuscripts, coins, seals, 
 and whatever else would facilitate the study of history. 
 They met for nearly twenty years at the house of Sir 
 Robert Cotton. In 1589, they determined to apply to 
 Queen Elizabeth for a Charter of Incorporation, proposing, 
 that the Society should bear her name, have a president, 
 and be subject to the visitations of certain of the chief 
 officers of the government. The encouragement they 
 met with is not certain ; however, they continued their 
 meetings. At these they supped together, and delivered 
 their opinions and dissertations upon some subject of 
 English Antiquities that had been proposed at their 
 previous meeting, acquiring by this approach to the 
 freedom of domestic intercourse, a manumission from the 
 buckram of form that is a restraint upon all our public 
 associations. 
 
 These private meetings were again attempted to be
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 43 
 
 raised into a National Academy and Library of Anti- 
 quities, in the reign of Jaines the First. Spelman, 
 Camden and others, agreed to the regulations of a society. 
 Among these, they determined, " for avoiding offence, 
 that they should neither meddle with matters of state 
 nor religion ; " yet they were jjermaturely extinguished, 
 for " before our next meeting," says Spelman, " we had 
 notice that his Majesty took a little mislike to our society, 
 not being informed that we had resolved to decline all 
 matters of state. Yet, hereupon, we forbore to meet 
 again, and so all our labour is lost *.'* 
 
 Selden has been mentioned, by some writers, as being 
 one of that fraternity of Antiquarians, but his name does 
 not appear in Fenn's list, nor in that afforded by any 
 competent authority. Indeed, it is barely possible that 
 he could have been one of them, for their meetings were 
 discontinued entirely, with some unsuccessful attempts 
 at revival, from 1604 to 1707, a period embracing 
 nearly the whole of his life, subsequently to his leaving 
 Oxford. A manuscript, written about the year 1619, 
 only speaks of Selden, as one who would worthily support 
 such an institution t. 
 
 The work that announced Selden to the public as a 
 student of our national antiquities, was his Analecton 
 Anglo- Jh'ltanmcon, llhri duo. This, according to the 
 
 * Spelman's Preface to his Discourse of the Four Law Terms. 
 Archfcologia i. Pref. 3, 15. 
 
 1 OUlys's Life of Sir W. Rayleigh, i. cxxx.
 
 44 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 date of the preface, was finished in tlie year 1607- He 
 dedicated it to Sir Robert Cotton. Having given it to a 
 bookseller, who might mistake the author's gene/osity to 
 be founded upon a low estimate of its merits, it was not 
 published until nine years subsequently, and then in a 
 form so incorrect and altered, that Selden complains he 
 could scarcely recognise it as his own composition. The 
 more legitimate conclusion seems to be, that the bookseller 
 considered it an inferior composition, and it would be 
 difficult to find a competent judge who would reverse 
 such a decision. It is true that Degory Whear, in his 
 " Method of Reading History," is loud in its praise, but 
 it was certainly the commendation of the friend, not of 
 the critic. The style is, perhaps, the most pedantic that 
 could be selected from the multitudinous specimens 
 afforded by that age of pedantry ; but a still worse 
 fault is, that its details are very meagre. Its praise 
 must be limited to that apology which was offered by 
 his own maturer judgment — " setatula non itaindignum." 
 It is a chronological digest of records relating to the 
 history of England previous to the Norman invasion. 
 
 In 1610, Selden printed, at his own expense, two 
 works, entitled Eiiglands Epiiiomis, and Jani A7iglortim 
 fades altera, the first in English, the latter in Latin. 
 They each consist of quotations from ancient authorities, 
 with the compiler's remarks, illustrativ^e of the state and 
 })rogress of the English law, from the earliest times to 
 the conclusion of the reign of John in the Fjinnomis^ and
 
 JOHN SEI.DEN. 45 
 
 to the end of that of Henry the Second in the Latin 
 treatise. The latter was translated into English, and 
 notes added, by Dr. Adam Littleton, under the fictitious 
 name of Redman Westcot. This was published in 1683. 
 As an industrious and faithful collection of authorities 
 and illustrations, it deserves very great praise ; and the 
 reader s patience would merit no less, which could endure 
 the perusal without being wearied by the intricate and 
 inflated style. Dr. Aikin justly observed that, in the 
 preface to the Latin Treatise, the author seems to have 
 endeavoured to employ all the uncommon phraseology and 
 remote allusions that he had picked up in his classical 
 reading, whence it is an almost perpetual enignja. 
 
 In the same year Selden published an Essay on " The 
 Duel, or Single Combatr Its merit is acknowledged 
 by its passing through two subsec[uent editions, one in 
 the year 1706, and the other in 1712, at the time of the 
 quarrel between the Duke of Hamilton and Lord 
 Mahon *. Of such extra judicial combats, he speaks 
 but transiently, confining his attention chiefly to the 
 forms and ceremonies attending judicial combats since 
 the Norman settlement. The two first sentences of the 
 preface afford a specimen of his style, and tell the object 
 of the work. 
 
 " Reader, I open not a fence-school, nor shall you here 
 learn the skill of an encounter, nor advantageously in the 
 
 * Bibliotheque Anglaise, vi. 1.
 
 46 ime:moirs of 
 
 lists to traverse your ground. Historical tradition of 
 uses, and succinct description of ceremony are my ends, 
 both deduced from the ancients, but without proselenic 
 affectation *." 
 
 When Drayton published his Polyolhio7i in 1613, which 
 is a description of the English and Welsh counties, in 
 Alexandrine verse, Selden furnished notes to the first 
 eighteen chapters, or songs. These notes abound with 
 accurate, curious and entertaining illustrations. He thus 
 early appreciated, and throughout his career acted up to 
 the conviction, that accuracy is the Antiquarian's indis- 
 pensible title to respect. " My thirst," he says, in his 
 preface to these notes, " compelled me always to seek 
 the fountains, and by that, if means grant it, judge the 
 river's nature. Nor can any, conversant in letters, be 
 ignorant what error is oft-times fallen into, by trusting 
 authorities at second-hand, and rash collecting, as it were, 
 from visual beams refracted through another's eye." 
 This preface bears the date of I6l2. The profusion of 
 references made in these notes, as well as in almost all 
 his other writings, are convincing testimonies of his fidelity 
 and industry. 
 
 Selden's intimacy with Drayton, Browne, and Jonson, 
 
 * Particular attention was paid to the laws relating to duels, at the 
 commencement of this century, probably from the horror which the 
 king had to such contests. Among- the Cotton MSS. there is a volume 
 comprising much information relating to them, written between the 
 years 1609 — 1613 Among them a treatise said to be by James the 
 First.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 47 
 
 the poets, is no evidence of himself being a successful 
 flirter with the Muses *. He cultivated their friendship ^ 
 because they had other sym])athies in common. Drayton 
 was an antiquarian, Brown was a fellow templar, Jonson 
 had learning, that acquired him the esteem of most of 
 his literary contemporaries, and they all were wits, willing 
 and capable to sparkle round a social bowl. 
 
 In 1614, Selden published his largest English, and, in 
 the opinion of Usher, his best work. It is certainly that 
 which affords the most copious display of his profound 
 research into the history and antiquities of his own and 
 other modern countries. This was his treatise on " Titles 
 of Honour.^'' 
 
 * The following verses, which form the best, I think, of the three 
 poetical effusions which I know as his productions, were addressed 
 " To Mr. William Brown," and prefixed to this author's Poems. 
 
 " So much a strang-er my severer muse 
 
 Is not to love-strains, or a shepherd's reed, 
 But that she knows some rites of Phoebus' dues, 
 
 Of Pan, of Pallas, and her sister's meed. 
 Read, and commend, she durst, these tun'd essays 
 
 Of him that lows her (she hath ever found 
 Her studies as one circle). Next she prays 
 
 His readers be with rose and myrtle crown'd ! 
 No willow touch them ! As his bays t are free 
 From wrong of bolts, so may their chaplets be. 
 
 f Bays (fair readers) being the materials of poets' garlands (as myr- 
 tles and roses are for enjoying lovers, and the fruitless willow for them 
 which your inconstancy too often makes most unhappy) are supposed 
 not to be subject to any hurt of Jove's thunderbolts as other trees 
 are. — J. Selden.
 
 48 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 It embraces call dignities, from the monarch to the 
 gentleman, that are not officiary, and contains a treasury 
 of historical and antic|uarian information, valuable, inter- 
 esting, and having this voucher of accuracy, that the 
 work is regarded as an authority in our courts of law. 
 He published an enlarged edition in 1631 ; a third 
 appeared in 1672 ; and a Latin translation, by Simon 
 John Arnold, was printed at Frankfort, in 1693 *. 
 
 Success stimulated him to fresh exertion, for it is only 
 the unworthy that are either insensible to, or undesirous 
 of praise. In 1616, he re-edited two ancient Law Tracts ; 
 Sir John Fortescue " De Laudibus Legum Angliae," and 
 the " Summoe" of Sir Ralph Hengham ; — addressed 
 " A brief Discourse touching the office of Lord Chan- 
 cellor of Erigland,*' to Sir Francis Bacon on his 
 promotion to the Lord Keepership ; and according to 
 Gataker, he about the same time contributed the marginal 
 notes to the collection of voyages and travels, published 
 as " Purchas's Pilgrimage." 
 
 In 1617, Selden contributed to the same industrious 
 compiler a short paper, " Of the Jews sometimes living 
 in England." It is chiefly remarkable, for being his first 
 publication relating to the people, to whose antiquities 
 he subsequently devoted so much attention — a people 
 certainly the most interesting of all the nations of the 
 earth. The chosen and first favoured, yet most dis- 
 
 * Dr. Aikin's Life of Selden. 10.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 49 
 
 obedient of all tribes ; favoured with laws written by 
 the immediate finger of God ; the depositaries and 
 guardians of his revelations, yet the most erring and the 
 most rebellious of his creatures ; the authors of the 
 earliest authentic literature, yet the most ignorant of 
 people ; destroyed as a nation, yet preserved as indivi- 
 duals ; scattered over the face of the earth, yet entirely 
 national ; the origin and the murderers of the Messiah ; 
 the deadly enemies of Christianity, yet affording perma- 
 nent evidences of its truth ; despised and oppressed, yet 
 they flourish ; cursed, " yet they thrive wherever they 
 come ; they are able to oblige the prince of the country 
 by lending him money ; none of them beg *." 
 
 It must have been an unthinking acquiescence to the 
 statements of the Chroniclers, when Selden stated, that it 
 was "an usual crime" of the Jews to kidnap a Christian 
 boy at Easter, and, after circumcising, to crucify him ; 
 for although our old Chronicles contain many complaints 
 of this union of blasphemy and murder, yet it was so 
 evidently opposed to the interests of the Jews, and so 
 repugnant to human nature, that it cannot but be con- 
 sidered as a fable invented to divert the pity that might 
 otherwise be popularly manifested on account of the 
 extortions and cruelties practised by the government 
 upon these outcasts of Israel. 
 
 One cannot but be additionally surprised at Selden's 
 
 * Selden's Table Talk, s. Jews- 
 E
 
 50 INIEMOIUS OF 
 
 easy assent to such a calumny ; his mind being peculiarly 
 adapted to the extrication of truth from its amalgam 
 with falsehood * ; and he must have felt a more than 
 common interest in a people whose antiquities he made 
 his most particular study. In his next publication he 
 appeared in this field of literature, the cultivation of it 
 placing him immediately in the rank of the first scholars 
 of the age, and introduced him to the literati of Europe- 
 This was his celebrated work, " De Diis Syris, Syn- 
 tagmata duo t." 
 
 The primary subject of this work, is a history of the 
 Idol Deities, mentioned in the Old Testament ; but it also 
 includes a general inquiry concerning the Syrian Idolatry, 
 and occasional illustrations of the ancient theology of other 
 heathen nations. It was first published in 1617, and its 
 merits are attested by other editions being printed, in 
 1627, at Leyden, and at Leipsic in 1663, and 1680. The 
 edition of 1637 appears to have been imdertaken by the 
 Elzevirs, at the recommendation of the learned Daniel 
 Heinsius, and they obtained the additions and corrections 
 of Selden, through their relative, the Rev. Ludovic de Dieu, 
 who was a pastor and professor in the Walloon College 
 at Leyden. This learned oriental scholar and Heinsius 
 undertook to correct the sheets as they were printed X. 
 
 * The motto he selected for his " De Diis Syris," is this quotation 
 from Lactantius, — " Primus sapientise gradus est falsa intelligere." 
 f The learned Bochart styled this Uhellum aureum. 
 X Opera Omnia, ii. 212.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 51 
 
 The application from the Elzevirs, was made in 1627, 
 but more than a twelvemonth elapsed before Selden could 
 devote himself to the task, for in the mean time he had 
 been occupied as a leader in the memorable political 
 struggles of the period. 
 
 This very erudite work commences with Prolegomena 
 on the geography of Syria, on the Hebrew language, 
 and on the origin and progress of Polytheism. It then, 
 in two Syntagmata, enters upon the history of the Syrian 
 deities. 
 
 The whole course of Selden's life is an assurance that 
 he was no borrower from secondary authorities, if the 
 primary were to be obtained ; yet when a host of ecclesi- 
 astical enemies were gathered against him on account of 
 his work on Tythes, one of the most rancorous of them. 
 Dr. Richard Montague, charges him with having 
 plagiarised the chief part of this work " De Dlis St/ris,'^ 
 from the " Semestria" of Peter Faber ; a charge which, 
 Selden says, needs no other refutation, than a comparison 
 of the two works *. 
 
 It now becomes necessary to enlarge our attention from 
 following the quiet progress of an antiquarian student 
 to a rapid and partial recognisance of the political state 
 
 * Preface to the Leyden edition. It necessarily arises, that in a 
 work relating- to such distant anticjuities, and requiring- references to 
 such a mass of Eastern literature, that many errors must occur; the 
 sources of these have been pointed out by Le Clerc. (Biblioth. 
 Chois. vii.) 
 
 E 2
 
 52 MElMOIllS OF 
 
 of England at this period, for without this, it would 
 not be quite intelligible how Selden's next publication 
 gathered upon him the indignation and persecution of the 
 Government both in its lay and ecclesiastical character. 
 
 The prerogative of the king, whatever checks and 
 prunings the legislature may occasionally apply, has 
 always a tendency to increase, and one immunity and 
 privilege after another had gathered to the crown, until 
 its Tudor and Stuart wearers were inclined to forget 
 that such privileges were granted as marks of affectionate 
 regard by the people to the monarch, and are not inherent 
 rights, marking the sovereign as a being of an order 
 superior to that to which his subjects belong. Henry 
 the Eighth, Mary, and Elizabeth, were all guilty of this 
 error. They were despotic, and though, perhaps, anxious 
 for their people's welfare, yet they thought that welfare 
 should proceed only in such course as the royal will 
 might dictate. James the First was similarly wrong, 
 and when the conduct of his immediate successor showed 
 a still increasing disregard for the will of the people, 
 that indignant spirit of freedom was roused to action, 
 that no after offers of accommodation could appease. 
 
 The representative portion of the government had 
 debased itself into a mere form, for the parliament had 
 consented that Henry the Eighth's proclamations should 
 have the force of acts of parliament *. Mary had 
 
 * 31 Henry VIII. c. 8 & 34, and 33, c. 23, repealed by the 1st 
 Edward VI. c. 12, s. 5.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 53 
 
 informations filed by her attorney-general against nearly 
 forty members of the House of Commons, who seceded 
 from it when they found its majority inclined to sacri- 
 fice every thing to the executive*. Elizabeth thought it 
 no undue extension of the prerogative to dictate to the 
 House of Commons what they should debate upon, or to 
 imprison its members who displeased her f ; and in the 
 course of these pages we shall see that James the First 
 and his son were still more despotic, and their des- 
 potism was rendered more apparent by the opposition 
 which it called into activity, — an opposition that they 
 vainly attempted to overcome, and which they could not 
 even temporarily repress. The treatment of Selden 
 was a part of this rising struggle between despotism and 
 liberty, and the narrative of its progress will afford a 
 good example whereby to estimate the merits of the 
 combatants. 
 
 The advancement of ecclesiastical power and privi- 
 leges had accompanied, though not in an equal degree, 
 the increase of the royal prerogative, and when the 
 Court of High Commission was created by act of par- 
 liament in the reign of Elizabeth, and to be called into 
 activity at the will of the sovereign, there was placed 
 at the monarch's disposal the means, and the clergy 
 were rendered the instruments, of as perfect a tyranny 
 as ever violated the liberties of a people. The statute 
 
 * Coke's 4 Institute, 17, «S:c. Strype's Memorials, 3, 163. 
 t Parliamentary Hist. iv. 97, 181, 215, 365, &c.
 
 54 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 (1 Eliz. c. i.) empowered the sovereign by letters patent 
 to appoint commissioners, and they were chiefly selected 
 from the episcopal bench, who were " to visit, reform, 
 redress, order, correct, and amend all such errors, 
 Iieresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts, and enor- 
 mities whatsoever," as any spiritual or ecclesiastical 
 power might lawfully do. Under the shelter of these 
 very general words, says Blackstone, means were found 
 in that and the two succeeding reigns to vest in the High 
 Commissioners extraordinary and almost despotic powers 
 of fining and imprisoning, which they exerted much 
 beyond the degree of the offence itself, and frequently 
 over offences by no means of spiritual cognisance *. 
 
 These ecclesiastical judges were rendered the regu- 
 lators of men's opinions. They were empowered, or 
 at least assumed the power, to administer ex officio 
 oaths to any person whom they chose to cite before 
 them, and if the answers they thus extorted were not 
 satisfactory, they fined and imprisoned the object of 
 their displeasure, without any limit except such as their 
 own will defined. Moreover those, says Sir Edward 
 Coke, who were wrongfully fined, imprisoned and injured 
 by colour of the High Commission, were unable to appeal 
 to the common law courts for redress, because " the High 
 Commissioners, knowing the weakness of their authority, 
 kept the commission secret, and, contrary to law and 
 
 * Commentaries on the Laws of England, iii. 68.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 55 
 
 justice suffered not the same to be inrolled in the 
 Chancery, so that the subject lived under an unknown 
 commission and authority*." 
 
 Thus increasing in power and privileges, which it 
 was evident the laity in general might not acknowledge as 
 their right, for they would hardly admit that power and 
 infallibility in a Protestant king and clergy which they 
 had just rejected in the Papal system, and fearing to trust 
 their cause to the sense the community might entertain of 
 the ability and requisite prerogatives of their respective 
 offices, both the monarch and the clergy laid claim to an 
 appointment Jure divhio, or, as Selden expressed it — 
 " They run to the Jus divinum^ lest, if they should 
 acknowledge that what they have they have by positive 
 law, it might be as well taken from them as given to 
 them." This, however, only increased their resemblance 
 to the papal authorities, and brought them further in 
 opposition to the growing knowledge of the people. 
 
 Whilst the claims of the royal and clerical prerogative 
 were raised so high, — whilst the throne and the pulpit 
 alike poured forth announcements of the divine rights 
 of their occupants, Selden published his " History of 
 Tytkes" We have the biography of the work from his 
 own pen. 
 
 He says, that previously to the year 1618, pursuing 
 an uncontrolled habit of study, full of ambition and 
 
 * 4 Institute, 032.
 
 56 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 hope, he determined to write, among other works, a 
 History of Tythes, a Diatribe on the Birth-day of Christ, 
 and upon the Dominion of the Sea. The History of 
 Tythes was printed at London, in English, being duly 
 licensed for the press by the signature of the divinity 
 licenser ; but no sooner was it published than it excited 
 the displeasure of the whole court and the bench of 
 bishops, with the exception of Dr. Andrews, the bishop 
 of Winchester. " As soon as it was printed and public," 
 says Selden, " divers were ready, and that in much 
 shorter time than they could possibly have read it, to 
 publish, and that also frequently in sermons, that it was 
 written to prove that tythes were not due Jti?-e div'mo. 
 Many lay-hearers believed them, and were ready to 
 believe, or at least suspect, that some such thing was 
 proved, because they that reported it, seemed both 
 judicious and to be so much offended with it, that they 
 would not have it seen at all, least it should prejudice 
 that divine right. Some also, as I can testify myself, 
 upon the various report of it, believed confidently that 
 it was written to prove, nay that it had proved, that no 
 tythes at all were due : others, that I had concluded that, 
 questionless, laymen might, with good conscience, detain 
 impropriated churches ; others, that it was expressly 
 against the tythes of London." 
 
 Whoever has referred to the work will at once appreciate 
 how unfounded were all these opinions respecting it; and 
 his own statement of his motives for publishing it, and
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 57 
 
 the intention of the work, are so clear and in accordance 
 with its execution, that he may be quoted as a faithful 
 reviewer of his own work. He says, " The cause which 
 first made me think of it, was, that I saw the bare, histo- 
 rical part of learning, and of human laws made touching 
 tythes, and of the various practice of payment, both in 
 this kingdom and in other states, lay wholly, or too 
 much, neglected amongst them, who nevertheless, having, 
 as divines and canonists, written of tythes, would (as I 
 conceived by their works) have made use of that his- 
 torical part, if they had been furnished with it. The 
 practice of the Jews, the various interpretations among 
 the ancients of tythes given before the law ; the tythes 
 of the Gentiles, and the multitude of examples in the 
 practice of payment and jurisdiction exercised touching 
 them, both in foreign states and at home, were such things 
 as I doubted not but that every ingenuous Christian 
 would be glad to know in this consideration of this 
 ecclesiastic revenue — and I doubted not at all but that 
 it would have been acceptable to the clergy, to whose 
 disputations and determinations I resolved wholly to leave 
 the point of divine right of tythes, and keep myself 
 wholly to the historical part." 
 
 In this last opinion Selden was disgracefully deceived. 
 Dr. Tillesley, Archdeacon of Rochester, Dr. Montague, 
 afterwards Bishop of Chichester, and finally of Norwich, 
 besides many others of less abilities, poured upon the 
 work and its author their "Answers" and ''Animad-
 
 58 MEMOIUS OF 
 
 versions." A warning of the hostility he was rousing- 
 had been communicated to him before the printing of 
 his work was completed, and he stopped its publication 
 to add an appendix, strengthening his details by fresh 
 authorities, and correcting the inaccuracies that had 
 crept into the text. Thus fortified, he fearlessly gave 
 it to the public, declaring he did not value " what any 
 one might cast at it through his secure confidence only in 
 any of those old ensigns of dissembled ignorance or gra- 
 vity, the beard, the habit, and title. It is for such to 
 learn by, not at all to censure." 
 
 I have perused the " History of Tythes,^'' as well as 
 the chief of the writings of its opponents, and I coincide 
 with Dr. Aikin in thinking that, upon a review of this 
 controversy, it will probably be the opinion of the 
 enlightened clergy of the present day that their prede- 
 cessors displayed both an illiberal and a needless 
 jealousy with respect to a doctrine that can never be 
 made so clear to the laity as to become a solid founda- 
 tion for their claim to an adequate maintenance ; and 
 that Selden, whatever was his intention, has done them 
 more service by establishing their legal right to tithes, 
 than injury by bringing into question their divine 
 right : and certainly, if the claims of the clergy are 
 placed upon the same footing with the right of individuals 
 to their estates, they can have little cause to fear, or to 
 complain*. 
 
 * Aikin's Life of Selden, 33.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 59 
 
 A religious establishment, says the logical Paley, is 
 no part of Christianity ; it is only the means of incul- 
 cating it. It cannot be proved that any form of church 
 government was laid down in the Christian as it had 
 been in the Jewish Scriptures. Now, as there is this 
 dissimilarity between them as to the appointment of the 
 priesthood, so do they differ in their statements concerning 
 a provision for its maintenance. The Old Testament 
 establishes tithes — the New Testament gives no directions 
 concerning them ; it merely states the equitable position, 
 that they who serve the altar, should live by the altar ; 
 but the amount and regulation of the ecclesiastical dues 
 is nowhere mentioned. A religion calculated for every 
 nation and every age could establish no universal fiscal 
 ordinance. Those who have endeavoured to prove that 
 tithes are due to the Christian clergy by divine appoint- 
 ment, have consequently been compelled to cite their 
 authorities from the Books of Moses, the inapplicability 
 of which is evident, for the Jewish polity was instituted 
 for and confined to one small tribe. It was customary, 
 in the injudicious phraseology of the 17th century, as 
 well as of succeeding ones, to talk of the clergy as the 
 servants, &c. of God, as if they were more particularly 
 a part of his household, than the congregations of which 
 they were the ministers ; and, carrying on the delusive 
 verbiage still further, a divine right to tithes was asserted, 
 inasmuch as that they were God's part, and therefore the 
 clergy must be entitled to them, — a logic that would
 
 60 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 be satisfactory as soon as it is proved that they are not 
 equally God's when employed in the support of the laity. 
 Selden, when at Greenwich, probably in attendance 
 upon King James, to explain his purpose in publishing 
 the History of Tythes, was much pressed by the favorite, 
 Buckingham, to declare his opinion whether the claim to 
 them by the clergy was founded upon a Divine right. 
 From the quiet retirement of his chambers, in the Temple, 
 Selden wrote to the displeased marquis a letter, that must 
 have made him feel what were the writer's convictions, 
 yet that it was unjust, being then under a cloud and 
 restrictions, to call upon him for such an explicit con- 
 fession. " If, my lord," says Selden, in this excellent 
 letter, " I should upon study of it chance to conclude, 
 through my own collection, that tithes are due Jure divino, 
 I should, notwithstanding, much doubt of my own judg- 
 ment, when I find, that not only in the churches of France, 
 Spain, Italy, Germany, and of all other foreign Christian 
 commonwealths, whose practice I have read of in their 
 laws and decisions, but also in the laws and practice of 
 this his majesty's great monarchy, that no tithes are at 
 all, or have been for many ages since, paid or to be 
 recovered as due Jure divino, but only according as the 
 secular laws made for tythes, or local customs, ordain or 
 permit them." He then states the confounding fact that 
 •' in a book written in behalf of all the clergy, especially 
 of the bishops, by the name of ' An Admonition to the 
 People,' printed by public authority, and by Queen
 
 JOHN SEI,DEX. 61 
 
 Elizabeth's printer, it is expressly affirmed, that it is 
 among the greatest and grossest errors of the Papists, 
 to hold that tenths and offerings are in the church ^'?/r^ 
 clivino. 
 
 " On the other side, my lord, if I should, perhaps, 
 after studying the question, resolve to myself that they 
 were not due jure divhio, but only by the positive law of 
 the Church and State ; I know my expression of so much 
 would but add to the displeasure hitherto conceived against 
 me. Think it not wilfulness, therefore, when I desire so 
 to abstain from studying the question for expression of 
 my opinion in a matter, in the resolution whereof on the 
 one side, I should tax both the state where I live, and also 
 all Christendom, for committing every where, by execution 
 of their established laws, against God's laws ; and in re- 
 solving (as it might happen on the other side), I could 
 gain nothing but increase of displeasure against myself." 
 " But, my lord, you spoke also of the great prejudice 
 that the clergy have suffered through the publishing of 
 that book. I doubt not, but that both his majesty and 
 your lordship have been moved only by information to 
 speak of such prejudice. I would to God, your lordship 
 would be pleased to but ask of them which give the 
 information, for some particular example, wherein any 
 clergyman hath been, or indeed can be barred through 
 it of one penny profit of such tythes as his majesty's laws 
 command ; I dare venture the loss of my life if any such 
 example can be manifested, whatsoever their information
 
 62 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 be. For indeed also, my lord, if it had been so, that my 
 whole treatise had been written in express terms and to 
 no purpose but to prove that tythes had not been due 
 J2ire divino (which is the worst that I can be charged 
 with), and although, my lord, so much had been also 
 proved, yet could not any man of the clergy have lost the 
 least part of his tythes, which are paid, and ever have 
 been recovered through England, as in all other kingdoms 
 of Christendom, according only as the king's positive laws 
 command or allow the demand of them. And although 
 there had been such prejudice to them ; alas ! my lord, 
 what were my opinion for a remedy ? There are enough 
 that have and do write, at their pleasure, for the affirmative 
 opinion. All, that will, have liberty (and some use it) to 
 write here and preach what they will against me, to abuse 
 my name, my person, my profession, with as many false- 
 hoods as they please ; and my hands are tied : I must not 
 so much as answer their calumnies. I am so far from 
 writing more of it, that I scarce dare (for my own safety) 
 so much as say they abuse me, though I know it. What 
 prejudice thensoever there were, the expression of my 
 opinion, I conceive, could add nothing to the remedy, 
 especially when for so much as lies in opinion or persuasion 
 of the people, it is wholly in their hands who so pretend 
 their own prejudice. Take these things, I beseech your 
 good lordship, into your consideration, and I trust they 
 will so clear me with your lordship of all imputation of 
 wilfulness, that your lordship shall not have cause to
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 63 
 
 lessen your most noble regard towards me, in intercession 
 to his majesty for my standing right in his favour ; to 
 whom as I owe all the humblest and most ready service 
 of a subject, so would I gladly ever abstain from fro- 
 wardly shewing any such weakness as might justly note 
 me for one unworthy any way to serve him*." 
 
 For this letter no one could find a reply, and his 
 opponents had the good sense to decline a rejoinder to 
 what was unanswerable. 
 
 There is probably now but little diversity of opinion as 
 to the title by which the tithes of Christendom are 
 claimed, and it must have been a gratification of 
 honourable pride to Selden to find that, but a few years 
 subsequently, the persecutors of his work sought and 
 found in it the best defence of their revenues. In 
 16.53, the House of Commons, inclining to the petitions 
 presented to them, began to inquire why they should 
 not abolish tithes, in order, as the Kentish petition 
 expressed it, " that that Jewish and Antichristian bondage 
 and burdens on the estates and consciences of the godly 
 might cease." In reference to this. Dr. Langbaine, 
 writing to Selden in the August of that year, said, 
 " Upon occasion of the business of tithes now under 
 consideration, some, whom it more nearly concerns, have 
 been pleased to inquire of me what might be said as 
 to the civil rights of them, to whom I was not able to 
 
 * Opera Omnia, iii. 1393—6.
 
 64 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 give any better direction than by sending them to your 
 ' History.' Haply it may seem strange to them, yet 
 I am not out of hopes, but that work (like Peleus' hasta) 
 which was looked upon as a piece that struck deepest 
 against the divine, will afford the strongest arguments 
 for the civil right ; and if that be made the issue, I do 
 not despair of the cause*." 
 
 Although no fault could be detected in the work, 
 although it is, as Selden states in the preface, "a mere 
 narrative, and the History of Tythes " — a collection of 
 authorities by a legal antiquary — yet the king and the 
 Court of High Commission were resolved that a lesson 
 should be taught to the people, that truth must be 
 suppressed if militating against their wishes. 
 
 The king, who had no knowledge of Selden but 
 through the misrepresentations of his courtiers, sum- 
 moned him by his secretary. Sir Robert Naunton, to 
 appear, with his work, at the Palace of Theobalds. *'I," 
 
 * Leland's Collectanea, by Hearne, v. 291. Referring to this letter, 
 Selden said, and proud must he have been of the opportunity — " One 
 writ me word that my History of Tythes was now become like 
 Peleus's hasta, to wound and to heal. I told him in my answer I 
 thought I could fit him with a better instance. It was possible it might 
 undergo the same fate that Aristotle, Avicen, and Averroes did in 
 France, some five hundred years previously ; which were excommu- 
 nicated by Stephen, Bishop of Paris, because that kind of learning 
 puzzled and troubled their divinity. But finding themselves at a loss 
 some forty years after (which is much about the time since I writ my 
 History) they were called in again, and so have continued ever since." 
 Table Talk, s. Tithes.
 
 JOHN SEI.DEX. 65 
 
 says Seidell, " being then entirely a stranger to tin; 
 court, and known personally there to a very few, was 
 unwilling to go thither unaccompanied," and conse- 
 quently he obtained the attendance of his old friend 
 and fellow-templar, Edward Heyward, of Reepham, in 
 Norfolk, and of Ben Jonson, " princeps poetarum," to 
 introduce him to the king *. 
 
 Selden could not have made a more judicious choice than 
 he did when he selected Jonson to introduce him to the 
 offended James, for this monarch was very much attached 
 to the poet, who could adapt himself to so many of his 
 tastes. Jonson was a master of literature, and could 
 humour his pedantry ; he was a poet, and could offer 
 grateful incense ; he was a convivialist, and could add to 
 the pleasures of his carousals t. Jonson also employed 
 
 * Opera Omnia, ii. 1422. Jonson thus speaks of his two friends: — 
 
 " O how do I count 
 Among- ray comings in, and see it mount, 
 The gain of two such friendships, Heyward 
 And Selden ! Two names that so much understand." 
 f It was probably at the Mermaid, in Friday-street, celebrated for 
 being the rendezvous of wits, that Selden and Jonson became acquainted ; 
 and, once acquainted, they would naturally be more than usually attracted 
 to each other, for besides the sympathy of genius, they would feel 
 mutually for each other, as having similarly won their way from indi- 
 gence to distinction. Jonson had another cause for sympathising with 
 Selden, for he had likewise suffered from .James's displeasure, for some 
 supposed satire upon the Scots, in the play of " Eastward Hoe." Having 
 united with Marston and Chapman to produce this drama, when they 
 were committed to prison on its account, he voluntarily accompanied 
 tl)em. At first a report was circulated, as he liimself tells us, tli-it tluy 
 
 F
 
 6() MEMOIRS OF 
 
 liis interest in favour of Selden with the favourite, 
 BuckiMii'hain ; who moreover was his advocate with his 
 enemies the bishops. 
 
 woukl have their ears and noses cut. This rumour reached his mother, 
 and at an entertainment which he «^ave upon his deliverance, at which 
 entertainment Camden and Selden, among others, were present, " she 
 drank to him, and shewed him a paper which she designed, if the sen- 
 tence had taken effect, to have mixed with his drink, and it was strong 
 and lusty poison. To shew that she was no churl," adds Jonson, 
 " she designed first to have drank of it herself." — (Jonson's Works by 
 Gifford, 1. Ixxv.) 
 
 At the Mermaid Tavern, Sir W. Raleigh, in 1603, had established 
 a club, which exhibits in its sparkling list of members, Shakspeare, 
 Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Cotton, Carew, Martin, Donne, and 
 Selden, " whose names, even at this distant period, call up a mingled 
 feeling of reverence and respect. There, in full How and confidence of 
 friendship, the lively and interesting ' wit-combats' took place between 
 Shakspeare and Jonson ; and hither, in probable allusion to them, 
 Beaumont fondly lets his thoughts wander, in his letter to Jonson from 
 the country. 
 
 ' What things have we seen 
 Done at the Mermaid ! Heard words that have been 
 So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, 
 As if that every one from whom they came 
 Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest.' " 
 
 (Jonson's works, 1. Ixvi.) 
 The intimacy and affection that existed between Selden and Jonson, 
 are shewn by many passages in their works. Jonson addressed to him 
 a long series of laudatory verses, in which he speaks of him with fond- 
 ness as a man, and with admiration as a " monarch of letters *. " James 
 created Jonson Poet Laureate, with the still more useful appendage of 
 one hundred marks' salary. Jonson, anxious to obtain all possible 
 
 * Selden repaid Jonson with his own merchandize, for he addressed 
 him in some Latin verses, entitled " Ad V. CI. Ben Jonsonium, 
 Carmen Protrepticon." (Opera Omnia, ii. 17 IG.)
 
 .lOHN SKLDEN. 67 
 
 When admitted to a conference with the king, his 
 majesty, as Selden reports, repeatedly descanted, some- 
 times learnedly, sometimes humorously, and at other 
 times angrily, upon various quotations from the work, but 
 chiefly upon the apostolic appointment of the anniversary 
 of Christ's nativity, the king telling him that he sus- 
 pected that he agreed with those contentious Scots, who 
 refused to celebrate the festival upon any particular day. 
 Selden replied, that so far from that being his opinion, he 
 considered the 25th of December might be demonstrated 
 by calculation to be the correct day. Upon which the king 
 commanded him to compose a treatise upon the subject, 
 a command which we shall see he promptly obeyed *. 
 
 Selden had two conferences with King James at 
 Theobald's, and one at Whitehall, and bears testimony in 
 
 information relating- to his title, applied to Selden, the result of which 
 application was, a long chapter, the 43rd, of his " Titles of Honour," 
 " On the custom of giving Crowns of Laurel to Poets." This infor- 
 mation we have from the chapter itself, whose conclusion is — " Thus 
 have I, by no unseasonable digression, performed a promise to you, my 
 beloved Ben Jonson, — your curious learning and judgment may correct 
 where I have erred, and add where my notes and memory have left me 
 
 short. You are — 
 
 Omnia carmina doctus 
 
 Et calles mython plasmata et historiam." 
 
 Selden was a contributor to an unfinished History of Henry the Fifth, 
 
 written by Jonson, and destroyed by an accidental fire, which consumed 
 
 that poet's library. This we learn from the poet, who, lamenting his 
 
 loss in " An Execration on Vulcan," says of the History — 
 
 " Therein was oil, besides the succours spent. 
 
 Which noble Carew, Cotton, Selden sent." 
 
 ^ Vindicia' Maris Clausi, 19. 
 
 F 2
 
 08 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 several parts of his after-writings to the ability and 
 courtesy of his majesty. These conferences were in the 
 December of 1618, and Selden had reason to believe, from 
 his favourable reception by the monarch, that the storm 
 of persecution was passed aside. In this he was mistaken, 
 for, on the 28th of the following month*, he was called 
 before some members of the High Commission Court, 
 being Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of 
 London, Winchester, and Rochester, and three laymen. 
 He had been examined previously by the Privy Council. 
 In the presence of those prelates, he signed the following 
 declaration : — 
 
 "My good Lords — I most humbly acknowledge the 
 error which I have committed in publishing the History 
 of Tithes ; and especially in that I have at all, by shewing 
 any interpretations of Holy Scriptures, by meddling with 
 councils, fathers, or canons, or by what else soever occurs 
 in it, offered any occasion of argument against any right 
 of maintenance, jure divino, of the ministers of the 
 gospel ; beseeching your lordships to receive this inge- 
 nuous and humble acknowledgment, together with the 
 
 * Camden thoug-ht it of sufficient importance to deserve a note in 
 his Annals, that Selden's " trouble" concerning his History of Tithes, 
 beg-an on the 22nd o fDecember, 1618. (Camden's Ann. Apparatus, 
 Jac. I. p. 397.) Another authority, Dr. Tillesley, states that Selden 
 was before the High Commissioners on the 28th of the previous 
 October. I have not been able to ascertain which date is correct, and 
 indeed it matters but little whether, in this exercise of tyranny, the 
 king or the commissioners had precedence.
 
 .JOHN SELDEN. 69 
 
 unfeigned protestation of my grief, for that through it I 
 have so incurred both his majesty's and your lordships' 
 displeasure conceived against me in behalf of the Church 
 
 of England." 
 
 Selden's enemies did not fail to trumpet this forth as a 
 confession of delinquency, and a recantation of error ; 
 but whoever considers the document attentively, will 
 appreciate that it was drawn up by some friendly hand as 
 a middle course that would prevent any collision, and yet 
 entitle neither party to a claim of victory. Selden's own 
 estimate of the transaction is open to no censure. He 
 savs, " I confess that I did most willingly acknowledge, 
 not only before some lords of the High Commission (not 
 in the High Commission Court), but also to the lords of 
 his majesty's Privy Council, that I was most sorry for the 
 publishing of that history, because it had offended ; and 
 his majesty's most gracious favour towards me received 
 that for satisfaction of the fault in so untimely printing 
 it. And I profess still to all the world that I am sorry 
 for it, and so should I have been, if I had published a 
 ^nost orthodox catechism that had offended. But is there 
 I syllable in it of less truth because I am sorry for the 
 publishing of it?" He then states that the declaration 
 he signed was drawn up purposely through the favour of 
 some of the lords of the High Commission, in order that 
 he might not suffer from the misrepresentation of any 
 verbal acknowledgment he might utter, and he concludes 
 by declaring of the work to which it related, that " there
 
 70 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 is not a passage in it, but that I did ever think, and now 
 do think to be most constant truth, as I have there 
 delivered it*." 
 
 The most tyrannical of the proceedings against Selden, 
 were the suppression of his work by the Court of High 
 Commission t, and that whilst any one was at liberty to 
 assail it, he was strictly forbidden to write in its defence ; 
 "If," said King James to him, "you or your friends 
 write anything against Dr. Montague's confutation, I will 
 throw you into prison t ! " So that Selden could only 
 write his replies secretly, and circulate them among his 
 friends. Even this imperfect justice was earned with no 
 small danger. These prohibitions failed, as they always 
 have failed, and always will fail, to suppress the dis- 
 semination of truth. The work remains one of the 
 monuments of the accuracy and learning that charac- 
 terised the author, whilst the records of James's despotism 
 survive only as a warning of the imbecility of misdirected 
 power. 
 
 In his History of Tythes, Selden had spoken of " the 
 unlimited liberty " and " confident daring " of contempo- 
 rary writers, in interpreting that passage of St. John's 
 Revelation, which assigns 666 as the number of " the 
 beast ; " and he farther praised the judgment and modesty 
 of Calvin, who had declared that he could not understand 
 so obscure a writing as that book of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 * Opera Omnia, iii. 1371. f Opera Omnia, iii. 1451. 
 
 X Vindicise Maris Clausj, ibid. ii. 1423.
 
 JOHN SELDEN, 71 
 
 Now it unfortunately happened, that King James had 
 written a bulky interpretation of this part of the New 
 Testament, and had taken upon himself to declare the 
 probable meaning of the mystic number. The monarch 
 called upon Selden to explain more fully what he intended 
 by his observations upon these subjects, and Selden 
 adroitly replied, that he did not say, or intend, that all 
 were guilty of unlimited liberty and trifling boldness in 
 their interpretations ; and that, in saying Calvin was 
 modest and judicious in declining the task, he did not 
 intend that others, more comjjetent, were impudent 
 and without judgment to attempt it. So far, Selden 
 obeyed the rules of courtesy blamelessly, but there are 
 unnecessary compliments and expressions of admiration 
 included in these two short explanations, that " cannot 
 be read without a very painful sense of the degradation 
 incurred by literature, when brought in collision with 
 power, unless supported by a proj)er sense of its own 
 dignity*." When Selden spoke of the monarch's com- 
 position as being "the clearest sun among the lesser 
 lights," and as a performance " most divine and kingly,*' 
 he condescended to a self-degradation of his own judgment 
 that was totally unworthy. 
 
 We have seen, that the king suspected from a passage 
 in the History of Tythes, that Selden doubted, whether the 
 25th day of December was really the natal day of our 
 
 * Aikin's Life of Selden, 37.
 
 72 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Saviour. This excited his majesty's especial displeasure, 
 because a similar disbelief was entertained bv the Puri- 
 tans, — a sect, above all others, the objects of his dislike ; 
 and he was unwilling that they should profit by the 
 authority of Selden. 
 
 The passage to which the king referred, is in the 
 Appendix or Review of the 4th chapter of the History. 
 It is very far from implicating Selden in the opinion ; but 
 in accordance with the direction of the king, he wrote a 
 treatise " Of the Birth-day of our Saviour.''* It is an 
 elaborate work, equally convincing in its authorities and 
 reasoning, and it is satisfactory to know, that such a man 
 as Selden considered that our correct observance of the 
 anniversary is proved " by rational inference, by express 
 testimony of the ancients, and by common and continual 
 practice of several churches : " — " by authorities derived 
 from the eldest of the Christian times and apostolical tra- 
 dition, received even from the practice of the disciples * " 
 It is satisfactory, inasmuch as that accuracy is always 
 desirable, otherwise, if we gratefully celebrate the event, 
 it is of very minor importance whether we commemorate 
 it on the correct anniversary. 
 
 * Opera Omnia, iii. 1409—1450,
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 73 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EFFECT OF PERSECUTION UPON SELDEN. INTELLECTUAL CHA- 
 RACTER OF THE TIMES. STILL SUPERSTITIOUS. SCIENCE OF 
 
 GOVERNMENT YET IMPERFECT. HOUSE OF COMMONS ROUSE IN 
 
 THE REIGN OF JAMES. COMMENCEMENT AND COURSE OF ITS 
 
 STRUGGLE WITH THAT MONARCH. JAMEs's CONSEQUENT DISLIKE 
 
 OF PARLIAMENTS MODES OF RAISING SUPPLIES. PERSEVE- 
 RANCE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN ITS REFORMS. — VICES OF 
 
 THE TIMES. LORD BACON. — SELDEN HIS ADVISER. CHARACTER 
 
 OF JAMES THE FIRST. SPANISH MATCH. — PETITION OF GRIEV- 
 ANCES. — PROTESTATION. THE KINg's INDIGNATION. — PARLIA- 
 MENT DISSOLVED. 
 
 Selden is an instance, among many others, that 
 persecution usually defeats its own object. The intention 
 of the court party, in visiting him with an outstretch of 
 its power, was to check the tide of inquiry and I'eforma- 
 tion, that was now setting in strong against all the illegal 
 and unreasonable aggressions of the executive, both in its 
 civil and ecclesiastical regime. If Selden had been allowed 
 to record his opinions unnoticed, his habits and tempera- 
 ment were too retired for it to be probable, that he would 
 ever have pressed himself forward into the turmoil of 
 political opposition. However, the man that was con- 
 sidered important enough to be oppressed by the court, 
 was necessarily presented to its opj)onent.s as worthy of
 
 74 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 their encouraging attention, and they found in Selden a 
 supporter, who ever after ranked among the halistce of 
 their party. 
 
 Whoever has studied modern history, must have 
 noticed the intellectual energy that began to inspire, 
 generally, the inhabitants of Europe, in the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries. The revival of the Aristotelian 
 Philosophy, of Mathematical Science, and the newly- 
 created pursuit of natural and experimental research, were 
 results, perhaps, as much as they subsequently became 
 the promoters, of the mental vigour of the age. The 
 mind of man can never be subjugated ; knowledge may 
 be withheld from the majority of a nation, and for a series 
 of centuries ; it may be effected that it shall be deficient 
 in information, and ignorant of its rights, but no tyranny 
 can prevent some gatherer of knowledge being secretly at 
 work, or conquer the courage that will urge the acquirer 
 to reveal his acquisitions to mankind. Such was the case 
 in the two centuries to which I have alluded, and it soon 
 appeared that the human mind, though long deprived of 
 knowledge, was still desirous of its acquirement, and 
 correct in its estimate of that which is to be preferred. 
 Cardinal Casa, who lived in a part of those periods, 
 observed " that in all things there was a desire to be in a 
 better state, than the condition in which they were exist- 
 ing*." The newly discovered art of printing aided the 
 
 * Docta Ignor. 1.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 75 
 
 rapid Scatisfaction of this desire ; the centres from which 
 knowledge emanated were numerous, and as if roused 
 and guided by some invisible agency which everywhere 
 operated, mankind emerged to a superior condition, felt 
 that they were actuated by a superior impulse, and could 
 not and did not continue what they had been *. 
 
 However, the human mind had not, even in the seven- 
 teenth century, escaped from all its grosser weaknesses ; 
 and though it delighted more than formerly in acquiring 
 real knowledge, yet the prevalence of superstition confesses 
 it was yet greatly deficient, and the taste for learning 
 Av^as still too immature, not to delight in some of the 
 puerilities of wit. That source of inquietude, an atten- 
 tion to omens, infected all classes. Archbishop Laud 
 registered his dreams, and a grave annalist of that time 
 records that a wing of the dove on the sceptre was broken 
 off, and was " a maim on the emblem of peace." Another 
 historian considered the coronation dress being of an 
 unusual colour, and the chaplain's unlucky text (Rev. ii. 
 10) as premonitions of Charles being deprived of the 
 regal office, and of his premature death. That monarch 
 consulted astrologers as guides to his times of action, and 
 his cousin and conqueror Cromwell had faith in lucky 
 days. Selden, in his first prefaces, has frequent allusions 
 to the science of the stars, and even ascribed his recovery 
 from a dangerous illness to the skill of Dr. Robert Floyd, 
 
 * Turner's Hist, of Edward VI. &c. iii. 27.
 
 7() MEMOIRS OF 
 
 who, better known by the names of Fludd and de Fluc- 
 tibus, was a distinguished Rosicrucian philosopher, and 
 insured the efficacy of his nostrums by the mystical 
 incantations which he muttered over his patients. In the 
 literature of the period the same imbecility is apparent, 
 among other symptoms, in the prevalence of anagrams. 
 When such men as Roger Bacon, Huygens, Galileo, and 
 Newton, condescended to conceal their discoveries from 
 the world by giving them an anagram matic form, we 
 may more readily excuse that affectation of modesty 
 which appeared in such Scriptores mbiores, as gave their 
 names transposed in the title-pages of their ephemerae — 
 a pretence of concealment that showed a willingness to be 
 known. This love of anagram was linked with the 
 superstition of the age ; for passing by the thousands of 
 names of which no rational transposition could be made, 
 if one occurred that bore any relation to the bearer's 
 fortunes, it was viewed as a species of prophetic revelation. 
 Lady Davies, widow of the Irish Attorney-General, in the 
 reign of James the First, laid a claim to the gift of 
 prophecy, and supported her pretensions by observing, 
 that her name, Eleanor Davies, formed the anagram 
 "■' Reveal O Daniel.'' She was brought before the Court 
 of High Commission, but still persisted in her claims to 
 the prophetic spirit. At length. Dr. Lamb overcame her 
 with " an arrow borrowed from her own quiver," for he 
 shewed her that a more correct anagram of her name was 
 '^ Never so mad a Ladie'' and ridicule effected that
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 77 
 
 in which reason failed; '* for," says Heylin, "she after- 
 wards grew wiser, or was less regarded *." The acute 
 and elegant James Howell remarks, when noticing 
 the Attorney-General, William Noye, " I never heard a 
 more j)ertinent anagram than was made of his name / 
 moyle in laivf." Dr. Tillesley, in the course of his 
 animadversions upon Selden's History of Tythes, remarked 
 in this spirit of anagrammatic trifling that his name trans- 
 posed signified nothing — quasi needless. Selden retorted, 
 " By virtue of a like way of wit (that I confess I will 
 never make an example to mine), some take it for needles 
 that have pricked the Doctor. I remember the schoolboys 
 had this trick when I was a child, and we commonly so 
 called each other with turning our names backwards, and 
 so the boys then called me. Would the Doctor but allow 
 me such a piece of boy's play, I could give him a signifi- 
 cant anagram of his own name ; / tell lies makes it 
 exactly t." 
 
 In the science of government, in the reciprocal duties 
 and rights of the ruler and the governed, up to this period 
 there alone seems to have been no commensurate improve- 
 ment. This is no cause for astonishment or for censure; for 
 though tlie difficulties attending alterations in the system 
 of government are imaginary rather than real, yet these 
 
 * Life of Laud, 266. 
 
 •j- What would lie have thought of that of Horatio Nelson — Honor 
 est a Ni/o ! 
 
 J Opera Omnia, iii. 1386.
 
 78 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 anticipated difficulties arise from some of the best feelings 
 .of our nature. We are attached to the legislature and 
 executive under which we have long enjoyed domestic 
 happiness ; and even when we feel that our property and 
 liberty have been invaded unnecessarily, yet religion, 
 habit, and respect for constituted authorities, combine to 
 make us patient, and active to hope for a change of mea- 
 sures, rather than prompt in the effort to alter the cause. 
 Even when the tyranny of an evil government has ren- 
 dered vexations and sorrows as abundant as the pleasures of 
 life, still a discontented people usually continue to suffer, 
 until some accident, like a pebble falling into the Geyser, 
 rouses its excited though slumbering energy into activity. 
 England had participated in the general improvement of 
 Europe ; and, like other countries of this division of the 
 globe, it suffered silently beneath the despotism of its 
 government, until it was roused from its apathy, in the 
 17th century, by its unkinglike monarch James ; and in 
 vindicating its liberty set a noble example, which no 
 other country has imitated, except in its most melancholy 
 proceedings. 
 
 The peers willingly, and the commons pusillanimously, 
 submitted to the absolute sway which was coveted and 
 employed by the house of Tudor ; and so accustomed had 
 the latter become to the infringement of their liberties, 
 that when Queen Elizabeth imprisoned four of their 
 members for speaking of a topic with which she had 
 forbidden them to interfere, when she ordered " that the
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 79 
 
 House of Coinmoijs should not deal or meddle with any 
 matters touching her person, or estate, or church-govern- 
 ment," that the house agreed not to petition for their 
 release, fearing they should " make their case the worse*." 
 
 Submission to such thraldom was a tacit sacrifice of 
 their power to that of the sovereign ; and it requires no 
 argument to show, that the king who dictates to a 
 parliament what shall be the subjects of their deliberations, 
 and imprisons those of its members who depart from the 
 rule he prescribes, may occasionally benefit by its advice, 
 but is totally uncontrolled by its power. 
 
 At the very commencement of the reign of James 
 the First, the House of Commons showed a resolution to 
 be less submissive than in the previous reign. To form a 
 just estimate of the merits of the two great contending 
 parties, in the conflict between whom Selden became inti- 
 mately involved, it will be requisite to trace the struggle 
 from its opening. 
 
 In the first parliament that James summoned, the 
 Commons rejected an attempt of the crown and of the 
 House of Lords to interfere in their determination of a 
 disputed return for Buckinghamshire. They were suffi- 
 ciently moderate to listen and to reply to the arguments 
 of the judges, who maintained that the decision of such 
 causes appertain to the Court of Chancery ; and although 
 a yielding on either side was rendered unnecessary by one 
 
 * Pailiaineiilarv History, iv. 230 — 365.
 
 80 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of the candidates resigning, yet it was a novelty for the 
 Commons, in opposition to the crown, to take even the first 
 step to conquest— the resolution to oppose. Moderation 
 attended the dispute to its close, but the moderation did 
 not degenerate into pusillanimity. 
 
 The house passed several acts for the improvement of 
 ecclesiastical government ; and Sir Edwin Sandys suc- 
 ceeded in a motion to petition the king to part with 
 homage, tenures in capite, and other feudal prerogatives of 
 the crown. It is true this petition was abandoned after a 
 conference with the Lords, but it is memorable as the first 
 effort of the Commons to diminish the oppressive privileges 
 of the kingly office *. 
 
 James, ruled by his favourites, extravagant in his ex- 
 penses, and lavish in his bounties, was continually in want 
 of money ; and the House of Commons evinced its sense 
 of his ruinous weakness, by resolving that the bill which 
 granted him a liberal subsidy should not be presented 
 until the Petition of Grievances could accompany it. The 
 examination and search into these national oppressions 
 were so diligent and particular, that the king complained 
 that " they had sent an Oijes through the nation to find 
 
 them I ." 
 
 The above were transactions of the year 1605. Four 
 years subsequently the same anxiety of the House of 
 Commons to remove the oppressive prerogatives of the 
 
 * Parliamentary Hist. v. 85 — 103. t Ibid. 154
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 81 
 
 crown is similarly apparent, and whoever will dispas- 
 sionately read their address to the king, must admit, that 
 there is in it no request or expression militating against 
 the spirit of true loyalty. It justly asserts that their 
 privileges and liberties are their right and due inhe- 
 ritance, as fully as their lands and goods ; and that they 
 cannot be withheld or impaired without wrong being 
 done proportionably to the whole realm*. This was no 
 unnecessary, or uncalled for declaration, for James had 
 more than once expressed his conviction of his own abso- 
 lute power, and this doctrine of despotism was still farther 
 propagated by one of the court civilians. Dr. Cowell, who 
 in a work called " The Interpreter," maintained the 
 king's superiority to the law. This was too bold a 
 declaration for even the king to sanction ; but, though 
 he ordered the work to be suppressed, he took the author 
 under his protection ; and though both the Houses of Par- 
 liament severely censured its author, his majesty screened 
 him from further punishment t. Altogether the proceed- 
 ings of the parliament were much too uncompromising 
 of the liberty of the subject to be agreeable to the king, 
 and his displeasure is apparent in the abruptness of its 
 dissolution, which he said in the proclamation was "for 
 many good considerations known to himself t." 
 
 The subsequent expedients for raising money adopted 
 
 * Petyt's Jus Parliament. 227, contains it at large. 
 
 t Petyt's Miscellanea Parliamentaria, 64. Parliament. Hist. v. 225- 
 
 :j: Ibid. 269. 
 
 G
 
 82 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 by James and his ministers were various. He took an 
 aid of his subjects, to which the feudal right of the 
 crown entitled him, upon the marriage of his daughter. 
 A new dignity was created, entitled a Baronetcy, and 
 two hundred of these satires upon honorary distinction 
 were sold for 1000^. each* These resources, as well as 
 the more iniquitous one of raising the value of the gold 
 coin, and the impolitic institution of a state lottery, 
 the first in England, all failed in affording a sufficient 
 revenue, and consequently in 1614, another parliament 
 was reluctantly summoned. 
 
 The whole tenor of James's treatment of his parliament 
 justifies the remark of Wilson, who was a contemporary 
 and dispassionate historian, " that the king required 
 none of their advice, he wanted only their money t.'* 
 Archbishop Usher affords similar testimony ; for, when 
 he was selected by the House of Commons to preach 
 before them, the king told him " he had an unruly flock 
 to look unto next Sunday," and concluded some good 
 hints as to the subjects the bishop might enforce in his 
 
 * James was lavish of honours as well as of money, and the former 
 were dispensed so plentifully as gifts as well as bargains, that a pasqui- 
 nade was exhibited at St. Paul's Cross, announcing that a system of 
 mnemonics had been discovered, which would assist the memory " to a 
 competent knowledge of the names of the nobility." This prostitution 
 of noble distinctions was deprecated in a more serious remonstrance, 
 addressed to the king by thirty-three English peers.— (Wilson's James 
 the First, 7—187. 
 
 t Ibid. 177.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 83 
 
 discourse, by telling him to remind them JSis dat qui cito 
 dat*. Waller also related a curious conversation, that 
 occurred in his presence, which is illustrative of the court 
 feeling upon the point. James was at dinner, whilst 
 Dr. Neale, the Bishop of Durham, and Selden's friend 
 Dr. Andrews, the Bishop of Winchester, stood behind his 
 chair. " My lords," said the king, " cannot I take my 
 subjects' money when I want it, without all this forma- 
 lity in parliament?" The sycophantic Neale replied, 
 " God forbid. Sir, but you should; you are the breath of 
 our nostrils." Upon which the king turned to Dr. 
 Andrews, with, " Well, my lord, what say you ?" " Sir," 
 replied the bishop, " I have no skill to judge of parlia- 
 mentary cases." " No puts off, my lord,'' retorted the 
 king, " answer me presently." " Then, Sir," said the 
 bishop, " I think it lawful for you to take my brother 
 Neale's money, for he offers itt." The king's idea of the 
 office proper to a parliament is further illustrated by his 
 treatment of the one he had just summoned. Having de- 
 layed for some time to vote him any money, he sent them 
 word by their Speaker, " that unless they forthwith pro- 
 ceeded to treat of his supply, he would dissolve them ;" — a 
 threat that was executed immediately afterwards^. The king 
 
 * Parr's Life of Usher, 18. 
 
 t Biog. Britan., in vita Andrews. 
 
 \ Wilson says, that such members as had rendered themselves 
 obnoxious to the court, were committed to the Tower, and otherwise 
 punished, (Life of James the First, 78,) biit Camden does not mention 
 this instance of oppression. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 now endeavoured to replenish his exchequer by a bene- 
 volence. A proclamation directed to the sheriff of each 
 county, commanded them to obtain from the inhabitants 
 such sums as they chose to give ; but as the significant 
 order was inserted, that the names of those who refused 
 to contribute were to be made known to the king, it was 
 well observed, that this "'free gift was urged against 
 their wills*." 
 
 The dislike James acquired towards the parliament was 
 deep and enduring. He was indignant at their attempts 
 to regulate the prerogative of the crown, as well as at 
 their tardy grant to him of money. His feelings towards 
 the representatives of the people were truly expressed, 
 when he told his courtiers — " I am but one king, but 
 there are five hundred in the House of Commons t." 
 However, trusting that the people's anxiety to recover 
 the palatinate for his daughter would induce them to open 
 to him their purses, he again assembled a parliament 
 in 1620 1; but it was as uncompromising as its prede- 
 cessors, and at length, yielding to the united desires of 
 both houses, he gave his assent to the correction of the 
 obnoxious grievances. A supply was immediately granted 
 
 to him§. 
 
 The Commons effectually pursued the patentees and 
 
 * Wilson and Camden, in anno 1617. 
 
 f R. Coke's Detection of the Court, &c. 100. 
 
 \ Rushworth's Collection, i. 20. 
 
 § Ibid. 24. Parliament. Hist. v. 334—349. •
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 85 
 
 monopolists to whom had been illegally sold permis- 
 sion to grow wealthy at the expense of their fellow- 
 subjects. The most prominent of these were Sir Francis 
 Mitchell, and Sir Giles Mompesson, the supposed type of 
 Massinger's character of Overreach. These were not 
 the worst of the public delinquents. Corruption had 
 tainted the administration of justice, and the remainder 
 of the session was occupied by the impeachment of the 
 highest offender. Lord Bacon. This princely merchant 
 in knowledge, but bankrupt in firmness and principle, 
 was one of the friends of Selden, and as there will be no 
 other occasion in these pages to refer to this illustrious 
 delinquent, the few records of their intimacy that remain 
 may be here accumulated. 
 
 It is universally true that the majority of courtiers are 
 parasites : they attach themselves to the monarch with the 
 intention of abstracting from him all the benefits they 
 can, and one reign differs in this respect from another only 
 in the profuseness with which the monarch ministers to 
 their insatiable demands. The reign of James the First 
 stands prominent among those that are infamous for this 
 lavish expenditure, and the corrupt modes that were 
 vmblushingly adopted to supply the requisite means. 
 Profligate expenditure was the prevailing vice, and such 
 unregulated waste usually induces a profligate supply; 
 for the integrity that does not check extravagance seldom 
 shrinks from corruption. Monopolies enriched the indi- 
 viduals who enjoyed them, but oppressed the people in
 
 86 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 general : patents of privileges preserved the patentee from 
 expenditure, if they did not directly increase his funds, 
 and in every instance they impeded the administration of 
 justice. Bribery was notorious ; the administrators of 
 the laws were not beyond the reach of corruption ; and 
 this canker infected the highest as well as the lowest 
 officers of the state. 
 
 To escape the seductions of vice is at all times difficult, 
 and that, perhaps, is the hardest to avoid which we see 
 yielded to by others without compunction and without 
 punishment. " I may be frail," said Lord Bacon, pleading 
 to the king, " and partake of the abuses of the times^'* 
 and surrounded as he was by a system of extravagance, 
 corruption, and bribery, this is the only plea that can be 
 allowed to mitigate our reprehension of this otherwise 
 great man. It is the only one that can be urged in 
 defence of Selden, for accejjting the price for which he 
 was enabled to sell the registrarship of Westminster 
 College, a place given to him by Lord Keeper Williams 
 solely for the purpose of sale *. 
 
 * Racket's Memoir of L. K. Williams, 69. Wilson states the 
 following- examples of the emulation in extravagance, and of the pre- 
 valence of corruption even in the disposal of the highest offices. When 
 the Earl of Northumberland heard that the favourite Buckingham, rode 
 in a coach drawn by six horses, he immediately employed eight for a 
 similar purpose. " In the late queen's reign," adds the historian, 
 " there were no coaches, and the first had but two horses." After- 
 wards, when Buckingham introduced sedan chairs, " the people would 
 rail on him in the street, loathing that men should be brought to as 
 servile a condition as horses."
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 87 
 
 Bacon, pursuing the observations from which an 
 extract has been just made, adds, " I am resolved, when I 
 come to my answer, not to trick up my innocence by 
 cavillations or voidances, but to speak the language that 
 my heart speaketh to me in excusing, extenuating, or 
 ingenuously confessing." When the period for his reply 
 arrived, in conformance with this resolution, he pleaded 
 guilty to all the facts stated in the charges against him, 
 and sought refuge in the mercy of his judges. The true 
 penitent pouring out a confession of error, urged only 
 by conviction, and resolving to tread an onward path of 
 rectitude, must command our pity, and even a kinder 
 feeling ; but the confessions of Bacon are abject rather 
 than ingenuous, and savour more of the hope of pardon 
 than of repentance of error. Making every allowance 
 for the adulatory language so common to the period, still 
 the style of his confession, and of his subsequent letters to 
 the king, is grovelling and whining ; betraying a desire of 
 restoration to power and office, that would prevent any 
 meanness being considered too degrading if it were the 
 purchase-price of that advancement. Our contempt is 
 not mitigated by finding that though he confessed his 
 guilt, he had serious thoughts and a desire to avoid the 
 judgment against him by a mere technical objection ; 
 
 Sir Henry Montague was said to have given twenty thousand jiounds 
 for the office of Lord Treasurer, and he probably was expected to make 
 the most he could of his bargain. — (Wilson's James the First, 
 130—148.)
 
 88 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tempting us to conclude that the penalty was more 
 severely felt, than the consciousness of the crimes that 
 merited it. 
 
 Lord Bacon asked Selden whether the judgment 
 against him was good, as the proclamation that sum- 
 moned the parliament styled it a convention^ and not a 
 session^ as is usual ; but Selden gave no countenance to 
 such an idea. " Admitting," he said, " that it vras no 
 session, but only a convention, yet the judgments given 
 in the Upper House, if no other reason be against them, 
 are good ; for they are given by virtue of that ordinary 
 authority which they have as the supreme Court of 
 Judicature." He suggested that the judgment might be 
 of no force because it was not recorded *. 
 
 It has been stated that Lord Bacon testified his esteem 
 for Selden's learning and judgment in his last will, b) 
 directing that his advice should be taken concerning the 
 publishing or suppression of his manuscript treatises. 
 There is no such direction in the copy of the will 
 extracted from the registry of the Prerogative Court of 
 Canterbury, given in Bacon's Works f. 
 
 In the year 1621 the House of Commons commenced 
 the session by again preparing a detail of the national 
 grievances. Their reasons for so doing, were now even 
 
 * Selden's Letter, dated February the 14th, 1621, with some notes 
 indorsed upon it by Lord Bacon, is in Bacon's Works, vi. 308. 
 Edition, 1824. 
 
 t Ibid. 411.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 89 
 
 more urgent than before. The claims of the king were 
 more lavish than previously, and there were increased 
 reasons for fearing the establishment of the Papal 
 religion. 
 
 The king possessed none of those brilliant qualities 
 that dazzle a people, and make them willing to excuse an 
 extravagance that arises from the more generous emotions 
 of our nature. He was neither young, courteous, open- 
 hearted, or brave ; but on the contrary old, unwilling to 
 be seen by his people, hypocritical, and cowardly. The 
 man of common reason knows that exterior deformity and 
 deficiency of grace are of very trivial consideration in 
 forming an estimate of mankind, but he also knows that 
 it has great influence with the majority of individuals, 
 and there is no doubt that the personal appearance of 
 James did much in increasing the disgust his misrule pro- 
 duced. He neither acted nor looked like a king : he was 
 awkward and rickety in his movements, bulky in person, 
 and with a tongue too large for his mouth, he slobbered 
 out his words, which were additionally mutilated by a 
 broad Scotch accent. Education had not improved him : 
 learned, but deficient in useful endowments, he was a 
 pedantic, blustering poltroon. He was ridiculed at home 
 and abroad for that weakness, which made him conceive 
 that he could deceive his people by proclamations, and 
 foreign nations by his ambassadors. The first, says 
 Wilson, were current coins a great while, till the multi- 
 tude of them lessened their valuation ; and the estimate,
 
 90 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 on the continent, of his foreign policy, is evinced by a satiri- 
 cal speech in a contempoiary Spanish comedy. A messenger 
 is represented as arriving in great haste with the news that 
 a formidable army would soon march to the relief of the 
 Palatinate, for the king of Denmark was about to furnish 
 it with 100,000 pickle herrings; the Dutch with 
 100,000 butter boxes ; and England would send 100,000 
 ambassadors*. 
 
 Proclamations were such favourite compositions of this 
 monarch, that the same author tells us it was intended 
 to publish them in a volume, for the more full informa- 
 tion of his subjects. However, he wished, like Henry 
 the Eighth, to endue them with more authority than they 
 possessed, by obtaining to them the obedience paid to 
 leo-islative enactments. In 16 10, Sir Edward Coke was 
 summoned before the privy council, and asked, whether 
 the king by his proclamation could prohibit the erection 
 of buildings in and near London, and the making of 
 starch from wheat. In favour of such an increase of 
 power to proclamations, Lord Chancellor Ellesmere 
 observed, that every precedent had a first commencement ; 
 and all the council, considering that at that time it was 
 necessary to strengthen the king's prerogative, advised 
 Coke and his brother judges to give a favourable opinion. 
 The great author of the Institutes, with unwavering 
 firmness, replied, " The king cannot change, without 
 
 * Wilson's James the First, 11—192.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 91 
 
 parliament, any part of the common law, nor create any 
 
 oftence by his proclamation which was not an offence 
 
 before*." This disclosure of the secret history of the 
 
 period, shows that the jealousy entertained of the despotic 
 
 intentions and desires of James by the parliament was no 
 
 unjust suspicion of popular faction, for could he have 
 
 obtained his wish, he would have been the most absolute 
 
 of kings. No monarch can be more absolute than the 
 
 one whose proclamations are laws ; and a parliament 
 
 would never be needed when a mere regal prescript could 
 
 create crimes, command supplies, and embody troops. 
 
 The private manners of the court, and the public crimes 
 
 of the courtiers, increased the discontent, contemjit, and 
 
 hatred of the people. The very ladies of the palace were 
 
 licentious and intemperate. The king was disgustingly, 
 
 if not criminally, fond of his male favourites, whom he even 
 
 pardoned for the murders they had plotted within his 
 
 palace ; whilst their guilt was rendered more apparent by 
 
 the trials and executions that were permitted of their less 
 
 criminal accomplices. To his favourites he was lavishly 
 
 extravagant of gifts, for he gave away without any check 
 
 of reason to the impulse of the moment. " What says 
 
 he? — What says he?" said this monarch to one of the 
 
 grooms of the bedchamber, to whom Sir Henry Rich was 
 
 whispering. Upon being informed that the latter wished 
 
 * 12 Coke's Reports, 74, 2nd edition.
 
 92 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 he had the 3000/. which some porters had just brought 
 for the king's use, he immediately gave it to him, saying, 
 " I am more delighted to think how much I have pleasured 
 you in giving this money, than you can be in receiving 
 it." This was a generous sentiment, and probably was 
 the issue of a generous impulse, but the king should have 
 remembered that his income came from his people, and 
 that what he lavished would have to be resupplied at 
 their expense. That it was a thovightless impulse we 
 may the more readily believe, because when he had 
 as recklessly directed 5000/. to be given to Viscount 
 Rochester, his trusty and wise treasurer the Earl of 
 Salisbury, had that sum in silver coin heaped upon the 
 table by which the king necessarily passed. James paused 
 before the glittering heaps, and inquired for whom they 
 were provided ; being informed, he said that it was too 
 much for one man, and reduced his gift more than one 
 half *. Another instance of his extravagance is furnished 
 in the following extract, from one of his own letters to his 
 Lord Treasurer Cranfield, in 1622. " I fynde Bucking- 
 hame, muste paye twentie thousandie powndis for his 
 lande at Burghlie ; and the provisions for his wyfe's 
 lying in and meubling are lyke to coste teime thousande ; 
 besydes three thousande for his own newe house. Doe 
 
 * Wilson's James the First, 76—61.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 93 
 
 quicklie thairfore quhat ye are to doe for him, and re- 
 member that a thing done in tyme is twice done*." 
 
 The king was now intent with immoveable earnestness 
 upon marrying his son Charles to the Spanish Infanta. 
 Between the government of Spain and James there had 
 long previously passed mutual declarations and instances 
 of good-will t. Sir Walter Raleigh had been sacrificed to 
 auspiciate the same court ; the Palatinate had been lost 
 by machinations springing from the same source ; a 
 proclamation had been issued permitting sports and pas- 
 times on Sundays ; and the increase of the number and 
 boldness of avowed Papists, was a subject of very marked 
 notoriety. These facts justified and confirmed a very 
 prevalent opinion, that James secretly favoured the Roman 
 Catholics, and that in the next reign the papal religion 
 would be re-established. 
 
 Before the House of Commons could despatch their 
 messengers with their Petition of Grievances, in which 
 their fear of the Papists, and the complaints of extra- 
 vagance were prominent features, the king was made 
 acquainted with its contents ; and he immediately wrote 
 to the speaker of the House forbidding its presentation. 
 Notwithstanding this command, the Commons persisted in 
 sending it, together with a remonstrance, by the hands of 
 twelve of their members, for whom, when James heard of 
 
 * Harleian MSS. 6987, art. 1. 
 
 t Watson's Philip the Third, i. 153.
 
 94 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 their approach, he is said to have ordered twelve chairs, 
 " for there were twelve kings coming*." 
 
 The king refused to receive the petition, and to the 
 remonstrance he returned a harsh reply. Eventually, 
 finding the House resolved not to grant him any supplies 
 unless their complaints were attended to, he adjourned 
 and finally dissolved the parliament, accompanying the 
 dissolution with a lengthy proclamation of his reasons. 
 
 Previous to the adjournment, the House of Commons 
 inserted the following protest in their journals. 
 
 " The Commons now assembled in parliament being 
 justly occasioned thereunto, concerning sundry liberties, 
 franchises, and privileges of parliament, amongst others 
 here mentioned, do make this protestation following:— 
 " That the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions 
 of parliament are the ancient and undoubted birth-right 
 and inheritance of the subjects of England ; and that the 
 arduous and urgent affairs concerning the king, state, and 
 defence of the realm, and of the church of England, and 
 the maintenance and making of laws and redress of 
 mischiefs and grievances which daily happen within this 
 realm, are proper subjects and matter of debate and 
 counsel in parliament; and that in the handling and 
 
 * Another contemporary says, " The king- retired not long since, to 
 Newmarket, not very well pleased, and this week there went thither 
 twelve from the House of Commons, to whom Sir Richard Weston was 
 the mouth; the king not liking- the message they broug-ht, called them 
 his ambassadors" — (Howell's Letters, sect. 3, p. 52. Edit. 1645.)
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 95 
 
 proceeding of those businesses, every member of the 
 House of Parliament hath, and of right ought to have, 
 freedom of speech, to propound, treat, reason, and bring to 
 conclusion the same. And that the Commons in parlia- 
 ment have like liberty and freedom to treat of these 
 matters, in such order as in their judgments shall seem 
 fittest ; and that every member of the said House, hath 
 like freedom from all impeachment, imprisonment, and 
 molestation (other than by censure of the House itself) 
 for or concerning any speaking, reasoning, or declaring 
 any matter or matters touching the parliament, or parlia- 
 ment business ; and that if any of the said members be 
 complained of, and questioned for any thing done or said 
 in parliament, the same is to be showed to the king, by 
 the advice and consent of all the Commons assembled in 
 parliament, before the king give credence to any private 
 information *." 
 
 This protestation was entered in the journals on the 
 18th of December, and was evidently called forth by a 
 letter addressed to the House by the king on the previous 
 day, in which he stated, " The plain truth is, that we 
 cannot with patience endure our subjects to use such anti- 
 monarchical words to us, concerning their liberties, except 
 they subjoined, that they were granted unto them by 
 grace and favour of our predecessors t." 
 
 * Rushworth, i. 53. 
 t Journ. of the House of (Commons, 19 James I. Petyt's Jus 
 Parliament., 305.
 
 96 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Previously to drawing up their protest, Selden had 
 been consulted by the House of Commons, concerning 
 the authorities by which their rights and privileges were 
 supported. Being introduced before the house, he spoke 
 very fully upon these topics, aud with patriotic ardour 
 digressed to express his opinions vipon the prospect of 
 popery being re-established ; concluding by anathema- 
 tising those courtiers who endeavoured to alienate the 
 affections of the king from the parliament. If Selden 
 did not draw up the protestation, he certainly advised its 
 composition. It was agreed to, upon the motion of 
 Mr. Crew, supported by Mr. Alford, Sir John Hilliard, 
 Sir George Moore, Mr. Finch, Mr. Noy, and Sir Edward 
 Coke. 
 
 Of the privileges claimed by the commons in the above 
 protest, no one will now entertain an opposing doubt. 
 They have been admitted and sanctioned since by all true 
 patriots, such as Selden declared himself proud to associate 
 with ; namely, those who are " lovers equally of the royal 
 prerogative, and of the just liberty of their country.'' 
 James formed of it a different estimate, and at a council 
 held at Whitehall, on the 30ih of the month in which 
 the protest was agreed to, he tore it with his own hands 
 from the Journals of the House*. 
 
 * Rushworth, i. 34. In a memorial concerning- this protest, the 
 king mentions as an aggravation of the Commons' oflFence, that their 
 protest was agreed upon at so late an hour as " six o'clock at night,'' 
 and " by candlelight !" The usual custom of the parliament was, to
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 97 
 
 Although the Register of Council Cases relates that the 
 judges and privy council were present at this inroad upon 
 the records of parliament ; and although the king caused 
 to be inserted in the above-mentioned Register, that the 
 protest was " invalid, annulled, void, and of no effect," 
 yet the true nature of this erasure cannot be disguised. 
 It betrays the impotent petulance of a despotic mind, 
 vented upon the record of opinions which it could not 
 overcome ; opinions which in succeeding years have been 
 admitted as correct, whilst the erasure that would have 
 swept them away, only serves to chronicle another proof 
 that the struggle of despotism against the liberties of an 
 united people is eventually vain. 
 
 meet in the morning-, and to rise at twelve, that the committees, upon 
 whom lay the chief business, might have the afternoon uninterrupted. 
 It afterwards became a custom to continue debating until four. — (Cla- 
 rendon's Hist, of the Rebellion, i. 105 — 107. Fol. ed.) 
 
 H
 
 98 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SELDEN IMPRISONED FOR HIS ADVICE UPON THE PROTESTATION. 
 
 OBTAINS HIS RELEASE. WRITES ON THE JUDICATURE OF PAR- 
 LIAMENT, AND ON THE PRIVILEGES OF THE BARONAGE. EDITS 
 
 EADMER. BENEVOLENCES RAISED. EARL OF CARLISLE'S ADVICE 
 
 TO THE KING. — SUMMONS A PARLIAMENT. — SELDEN A MEMBER. 
 CELEBRATED ELECTION COMMITTEE. REFUSES THE READER- 
 SHIP AT LYONS INN. — CONSEQUENCES. CHARLES COMES TO THE 
 
 THRONE. CHARACTER. — ILL POLICY. — PARLIAMENT SUMMONED 
 
 AND DISSOLVED. SELDEN A MEMBER. ILLEGAL MODES OF RAIS- 
 ING SUPPLIES. — ANOTHER PARLIAMENT. — COURT EFFORTS TO 
 
 EXCLUDE SOME MEMBERS. SELDEN A MEMBER. UNPOPULARITY 
 
 OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. — DR. TURNER COMMENCES HIS 
 
 IMPEACHMENT. SELDEn's ARGUMENTS. — KING INTERFERES. 
 
 CHARGES AGAINST THE DUKE. — SELDEN A MANAGER. SIR JOHN 
 
 ELIOt's CONCLUDING SPEECH. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. 
 
 In the proclamation which dissolved the Parliament, 
 the king spoke of certain " evil-affected and discontented 
 persons," and of " some ill-tempered spirits," who " took 
 such inordinate liberty, not only to treat of his high 
 prerogative, and of sundry things, that, without his special 
 direction, were no fit subjects to be treated of in parlia- 
 ment ; but also, to speak with a less respect of foreign 
 princes, his allies, than was fit for any subject to do of 
 any anointed king *." 
 
 * Rymer's Foedera, xvii. 344.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 99 
 
 In the same spirit of tyranny, and disregard for the 
 privileges of Parliament, that had previously been mani- 
 fested by James and his ministers, some of the evil- 
 affected persons, and ill-tempered spirits above alluded to, 
 were arrested upon warrants issued by the Privy Council. 
 Sir Edward Coke and Sir Robert Philips were committed 
 to the Tower ; and Mr. Pym, Mr. Mallory, the Earl of 
 Southampton, Sir Edwin Sandys, and Selden, to other 
 places of confinement *. 
 
 The warrant for Selden's imprisonment was signed by 
 five of the Privy Council. It directed his committal to 
 the Tower "for certain reasons of state known unto his 
 majesty," and prohibited his having communication with 
 any body but the sheriff, the executor of the warrant 
 (Cuthbert Lamplugh), or the necessary attendant, unless 
 in the presence of the above named officer t. 
 
 Instead of being confined in the Tower, Selden was 
 
 * Rushworth, i. 55. Harleian MSS. 161, pi. 33 e. p. 35. One 
 authority erroneoiisly says that Selden was a member of Parliament at 
 this time. This is Mr. Hacket, who states, " Mr. J. Selden (my 
 great friend while he lived) was clapt up, because, being a member of 
 the House of Commons, he had preferred the danger of telling- truth, 
 before the safety of silence." — (Memoir of L. K. Williams, 69.) Sehien 
 himself is a better authority upon this point. He says — " I was com- 
 mitted to custody for certain parliamentary matters, with some leading 
 statesmen who were lovers of the prerogative of the sovereign, as well 
 as of the true liberty of their country, not because I had acted rashly, 
 but because I had mingled with them as a counsellor (for as yet I 
 was not one among the members of parliament)." — (Viudicise Maris 
 Clausi, 28.) 
 
 t Harl. MSS. 2217. pi. 61. h. 
 
 II 2
 
 100 MEMOIES OF 
 
 retained in the custody of the Sheriff of London (Mr. 
 Robert Ducie, afterwcards a baronet), who lodged him in 
 his own house, and Selden acknowledges his treatment by 
 that gentleman to have been friendly and liberal. How- 
 ever, he was for a time restrained from the society of his 
 friends, and the unnecessary punishment was superadded 
 of denying him the free enjoyment of his books ; but his 
 keeper ventured, at his particular request, to indulge him 
 with the use of two works ; the Alexiad of Anna Comnena, 
 and Eadmer's History, which last then existed only in 
 manuscript. Of the first named, he translated a part into 
 Latin ; the latter work he afterwards published with 
 copious notes. 
 
 Immediately after he was arrested, Selden wrote the 
 following letter to Sir George Calvert, Principal Secretary 
 of State. 
 
 " Most honoured Sir, 
 
 " This most unlooked for imprisonment which I now 
 suffer (but why, on my soul I cannot guess), falls in a 
 time, when I have divers businesses of private men in my 
 hands and under my direction. The warrant of my 
 commitment is somewhat rigorous. 
 
 " My humble suit to your honour is, that through your 
 favour, I may have granted me so much liberty here, as 
 that I may have speech with my friends upon such kinds 
 of business, openly, in the hearing of those gentlemen who 
 are trusted with me. And I profess it on the hope of
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 101 
 
 my salvation, that there is not a secret (that hath, or can 
 possibly have any reference to the public) touching which 
 I desire either to hear or tell anything from or to any 
 person living. So clear is my breast. And, I beseech 
 your honour, let me be dispatched in the making it 
 appear. So I humbly beseech you also, that my papers 
 (which are the labours of many hours, and a great part of 
 the furniture of my study in my profession, among which 
 there is nothing that was written for secret) may be safe. 
 Let me obtain these suits now, and my liberty once had, 
 (which I know I never deserved to lose) shall express me, 
 " Humbly at your honour's service, 
 
 "J. Selden." 
 
 ''June 18, 1621. 
 " From Mr. Sheriff Ducie, his house*." 
 
 The Lord Keeper Williams pleaded for the favourite 
 Buckingham's interest in behalf of Selden. Having 
 asked a similar favour for the Earl of Southampton, who 
 had been committed to his custody, he added, in the same 
 letter, 
 
 ** Poor Mr. Selden flies to the same Altar of Mercy, 
 and humbly petitioneth your Lordship's mediation and 
 furtherance. He and the world, take knowledge of that 
 favour your Lordship hath ever afforded my motions and 
 myself without the motion of any, and so draweth me 
 along to entreat for him. The which I more boldly do, 
 
 * Harl. MSS. 286, pi. 67 c.
 
 102 MEMO Ills OF 
 
 because by his letter enclosed, he hath utterly denied, 
 that ever he gave the least approbation of that power 
 of judicature lately usurped by the House of Commons. 
 My Lord, the man hath excellent parts, which may be 
 diverted from an affectation of applause of idle people, to 
 do some good and useful service to his majesty *.'* 
 
 Either the interest made in his favour prevailed, or it 
 was found there was not a cause of detention sufficient, 
 even to satisfy the Court, though willing to punish, and 
 consequently Selden's confinement was of no very long 
 duration. He was committed to the Sheriff's custody on 
 the 16th of June, and was liberated on the 18th of July t. 
 
 Previously to his liberation, he was, together with the 
 Earl of Southampton, the Earl of Oxford, and Sir Edwin 
 Sandys, examined before the Privy Council. There is a 
 narrative of this examination among the Harleian Manu- 
 scripts. Only one question is stated as being put to 
 Selden, and to that no reply is mentioned. It was, " Do 
 you not wish that the House of Commons had power of 
 Judicature t? " Another question proposed to him was, 
 "What power has the Parliament without the King§?'* 
 To these queries, it appears, he was prevented replying 
 by his friend Bishop Andrews, who justly regarded them 
 as captious questions. 
 
 * Hacket's Memoir of L. K. Williams, 69. 
 f Camden's Annal. Appar. Jacobi I. 72, 73. 
 X Harl. MSS. 161, pi. 33 e. p. 35. 
 § Opera Omnia, ii. 443.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 103 
 
 The usurpation of the power of judicature by the 
 House of Commons, alluded to in the above examination, 
 and in the Lord Keeper's letter, was in the case of a Mr. 
 Edward Lloyde, who had spoken disrespectfully of the 
 Princess Palatine. They had examined witnesses against 
 him, imprisoned, and finally sentenced him to the pillory, 
 and a fine of one thousand pounds. To these proceedings 
 the House of Lords objected, as an infringement of their 
 privileges ; correctly and effectually insisting, " that the 
 House of Commons have no power of judicature, and no 
 coercion against any, but in matters concerning their own 
 house *." 
 
 Whatever may have been the colourable plea urged by 
 King James and his Ministers, for infringing upon the 
 liberty, and marking their displeasure of Selden, it is very 
 certain that the gravamen of his offence with them was 
 his advocating the cause of the people, and his firmly 
 expressed opinions in opposition to their grievances and 
 the infringement of their liberties. 
 
 With regard to the charges which are implied by the 
 queries addressed to him, even supposing them to be 
 supported by truth, they inculpated him of no more than 
 the entertaining of an erroneous opinion ; to punish for 
 which, is a parallel specimen to that other absurd effort 
 of tyranny, of which the fitting parent was Henry the 
 Eighth, commanding, that no one should presume to 
 
 * Parliament Hist. v. 427—435.
 
 104 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 think that his marriage with Anne of Cleves was valid. 
 Selden, as the Lord Keejier stated, in his letter to Buck- 
 ingham, condemned the assumption of judicature by the 
 House of Commons, and in an Essay on The Judicature 
 of Parliament, which he wrote about this time, though it 
 was not published until 1681, he expressly states that 
 the Commons have no judicial voice over the subject 
 generally. 
 
 The Lord Keeper hints, in the same letter, that Selden 
 might be "diverted" from the popular party ; a sugges- 
 tion that is degrading only to its author. Selden had 
 given no cause for a surmise that he was venal, and in 
 the course of a long political life, he showed by his con- 
 sistent course, though courted by the opposite extremes of 
 party, that neither dignities or emoluments could tempt 
 him to become a partisan ; for he rejected all such offers, 
 and died as he had lived, the friend of moderate liberty 
 as insured by a restricted monarchy. 
 
 The high estimation which was entertained of Selden's 
 legal and antiquarian knowledge is attested by the fact, 
 that the House of Peers, by special application in 1621, 
 induced him to compose a work, in which was collected 
 the authorities relating to The Privileges of tJie Baron- 
 age of England*. This other example of his learning 
 and industry was not published until 1642. It contains 
 a great body of precedents, relating to them collectively 
 as a branch of the legislature, and as individual barons. 
 
 * Opera Omnia, iii. 1474.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 105 
 
 Selden had now retired to his most cherished mode of 
 life, — the quiet inquiry after the knowledge and customs 
 of preceding ages, upon any particular point of which, 
 no man was so capable of concentrating information, for 
 none had such a general yet deep knowledge of the 
 authorities in which it is contained. In 162'3, he pub- 
 lished Eadmer's Historice Novorum, sive sui seculi, lihr 
 sex. Upon this previously unprinted chronicle, we have 
 seen that Selden was engaged whilst in the custody of the 
 Sheriff; and although various other works, requiring varied 
 and voluminous references, had engaged his attention 
 during the intervening two years, yet his notes to this 
 History show no mark of neglect, or of hasty editorship. 
 They are replete with curious legal and historical infor- 
 mation, especially relative to the period concerning which 
 Eadmer wrote. Bale and Pits had confounded this 
 author with the Abbot of St. Albans, who bore a similar 
 name ; but Selden, in his preface, shows that they were 
 distinct persons. 
 
 The History embraces the public transactions from the 
 Norman Invasion to the twenty-second year of the reign 
 of Henry the First (1066 — 1122). 
 
 The literary retirement of Selden was soon disturbed, 
 for in the struggle between the people and their govern- 
 ment, he was again called upon to be active. 
 
 In the absence of a Parliament, James had recourse for 
 raising money to another Benevolence, or, as it was more 
 aptly termed at the time, another Malevolence. In the
 
 106 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 order to each Sheriff, for raising it, there was again the 
 very significant sentence, significant in that era of High 
 Commission and Star Chamber citations, " if any person 
 shall, out of obstinacy or disaffection, refuse to contribute 
 herein, proportionably to their estates and means, you are 
 to certify their names to this the Council Board." 
 
 This extortion failed to replenish effectually the Royal 
 Exchequer, and the Committee of Peers, who sat once a 
 week at Whitehall to receive the petitions of the people, 
 was equally inefficient in satisfying the nation that its 
 grievances were noticed as attentively as they would be by 
 its representatives in Parliament*. 
 
 The people of England were not to be thus deceived, 
 and their discontent was so general and determined, that 
 as the Earl of Carlisle informed the king, some of the 
 members of the late parliament had been actually pro- 
 ceeded against, after its dissolution, for having voted 
 subsidies without a redress of grievances being previously 
 obtained. In the same letter of advice, this nobleman 
 recommended his majesty to summon a parliament ; to 
 strengthen his interest with the Protestant powers of the 
 continent; and to "cast off and remove all jealousies " 
 that he entertained of his people. " Your majesty," he 
 eloquently and wisely concludes, " must begin with the 
 last ; for upon that foundation you may afterwards set 
 what frame of building you please. And when should 
 
 * Rush worth, i. 61. Rymer's Public Acts, xvii. 452.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 107 
 
 you begin, Sir, but at this overture of your parliament, 
 by a gracious, clear, and confident discovery of your 
 intentions to your people? Fear them not. Sir; never 
 was there a better king that had better subjects, if your 
 majesty would trust them. Let them but see that you 
 love them, and constantly rely upon their humble advice 
 and ready assistance, and your majesty will see, how they 
 will give you their hearts ; and, having them, your 
 majesty is sure of their hands and purses. Cast but 
 away some crumbs of your crown amongst them, and 
 your majesty will see those crumbs will work a miracle ; — 
 they will satisfy thousands. Give them assurance that 
 your heart was always at home, though your eyes were 
 abroad ; invite them to look forward, and not backward ; 
 and constantly maintain what with confidence you under- 
 take, and your majesty will find admirable effects of this 
 harmonious concord *." 
 
 James was at length compelled by his necessities 
 again to summon a parliament. In this, which met in 
 February, 1624, Selden sat as one of the representatives 
 of the borough of Lancaster. It does not appear whether 
 it was through some particular interest, by his own active 
 canvas, or owing to reputation for talents and independent 
 politics, that he obtained this national honour. Dr. Aikin 
 was probably right in concluding that " his being known 
 as an able supporter of popular rights, and as a sufferer 
 
 * Cabala, 198. Rushworth, i. 11.5.
 
 108 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 in the cause, pointed liim out to the electors at a time 
 when the House of Commons was regarded as the great 
 barrier against the claims of regal prerogative, and 
 members were chosen rather for their public principles 
 than for their private connections.'* 
 
 The King's Speech at the opening of Parliament was 
 conformable to the advice given by the Earl of Carlisle, 
 and the conduct of both houses seems to have met with 
 his majesty's entire approbation, for he told them that 
 " this parliament would be crowned with the greatest 
 happiness that ever was held by a king */' Yet to this 
 parliament the king voluntarily allowed the previously 
 almost unthought of privilege of appointing the treasurers 
 and commissioners for managing the disbursement of the 
 money they had voted for the relief of the palatinate f- 
 They had also successfully impeached the lord treasurer ; 
 brought charges against the Bishop of Norwich ; and laid 
 restrictions upon impeachments and monopolies. These, 
 and other facts unnecessary to be here detailed, lead to the 
 conclusion, that now James was freed from the influence 
 of the Spanish court, and that Buckingham was not so 
 over-ruling a favourite as in former years, he would have 
 assumed less despotic measures, and have been, as in 
 private life, though impetuous and liable to sudden 
 impulse, eventually moderate and kind. However, these 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. vi. 4—339. f Rushworth, i. 130.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 109 
 
 can be but speculations, for James died on the 27tli of 
 March, 1625. 
 
 Selden took no prominent part in the debates of this 
 session. It was one of unusual concord between all the 
 branches of the legislature, and therefore there were no 
 exciting subjects of debate, when even the apathetic are 
 roused to energy, and the inexperienced forget their 
 timidity. But one question was mooted, in which his 
 particular services as an authority were required. 
 
 This was the memorable election committee, of which 
 its chairman, Serjeant Glanville, published the Reports. 
 No committee was ever constituted of more distinguished 
 individuals than this. Besides Selden and Glanville, 
 among its members were Sir Edward Coke, Noy, Pym, 
 and Finch. 
 
 It was an opinion defended by James and others, who 
 desired to maintain the influence that such authority 
 afforded to the monarch, that as the writs for the sum- 
 moning a parliament issue from, and are returned into 
 the Court of Chancery, so the determination of the validity 
 of the returns to those writs is, and ought to be, part of 
 the jurisdiction of that court. 
 
 In those days the Lord Chancellor was invariably an 
 instrument of the court ; and the House of Commons duly 
 appreciated that if he had to decide the legal qualification 
 of the elected, he would be dangerously liable to lend his 
 opinion in favour of the claimant who was supported by 
 the court influence. This committee therefore laboured,
 
 110 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and succeeded in the effort, to establish the right of the 
 House of Commons, to determine all disputes relative 
 to the return of its own members. This is now the 
 undisputed practice, ratified by enactments of the legis- 
 lature ; but until this committee successfully terminated 
 its labours, and gained this bulwark of the independence 
 of the House of Commons, it was an undecided point of 
 contested jurisdiction. 
 
 The reports of this committee are luminous upon the 
 subject submitted to its consideration. The law of 
 elections was then entangled by contradictory decisions ; 
 and had never been submitted to a general rational exa- 
 mination. There was a host of prejudices against in- 
 fringing upon the power of the king and his judges to be 
 removed. Yet this committee surmounted every difficulty ; 
 and established not only the jurisdiction of the house over 
 the elections of its members, but also upon the basis of 
 the common law, that the right of election in boroughs is 
 in those who possess property within their precincts, and 
 is not founded upon the royal grant. 
 
 Selden's name occurs as being a member of several other 
 committees, and these duties, added to his literary pur- 
 suits, appear to have fully occupied his time; for he 
 refused to engage in the duties of reader of Lyon's Inn, 
 to which he was chosen by the benchers of the Inner 
 Temple. His refusal, and the consequent displeasure of 
 the benchers, is thus recorded in their Register : 
 
 " Whereas an order was made at the Bench Table this
 
 JOHN SELDEN. Ill 
 
 term, since the last parliament*, and entered into the 
 Buttery-Book in these words : — Jovis, 21 Die Octobris, 
 1624. Memorandum, That whereas John Selden, Esq. 
 one of the utter barristers of this house, was, in Trinity 
 term last, chosen Reader of Lyon's Inn, by the gentlemen 
 of the same house, according to the order of their house, 
 which he then refused to take upon him and perform the 
 same, without some sufficient cause or good reason, not- 
 withstanding many courteous and fair persuasions and 
 admonitions by the masters of the bench made to him ; 
 for which cause he having been twice convented before 
 the masters of the bench, it was then ordered, that there 
 should be a ne recipiatur entered upon his name, which 
 was done accordingly ; and in respect the bench was not 
 then full the further proceedings concerning him were 
 respited until this term. Now this day, being called 
 again to the table, he doth absolutely refuse to read. The 
 masters of the bench, taking into consideration his con- 
 tempt and offence, and for that it is without precedent 
 that any man elected to read in chancery has been dis- 
 charged in the like case, much less has with such wilful- 
 ness refused to read the same, have ordered that he shall 
 presently pay to the use of this house the sum of twenty 
 pounds for his fine, and that he stand and be disabled ever 
 to be called to the bench, or to be Reader of this house. 
 Now at this parliament the said order is confirmed : and 
 
 * The sittings of the Masters of the Bench are so denominated.
 
 112 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 it is further ordered, that if any of this house which here- 
 after shall be chosen to read in chancery, shall refuse to 
 read, every such offender shall be fined, and be disabled to 
 be called to the bench, or to be a Reader of this house." 
 
 I am unwilling to consider that Selden looked upon it 
 as derogatory to one of his literary and legal distinction to 
 lecture to students upon the elements of his profession, 
 because other men, his equals in mental powers, and 
 public estimation, have delighted to afford such an ami- 
 able and beneficial aid to those who look up to them as 
 examples, and who will succeed them in the advance to 
 knowledge. I would rather believe the reason to be that 
 he found the quality of his mind unfitted for the task 
 of instruction ; and it admits of little doubt, if we may 
 judge from his writings, that no man was less qualified to 
 render the path to knowledge easy or inviting. He did 
 not succeed in selecting the alluring, and would have 
 considered any lecture incomplete, unless it exhausted all 
 the learning of the subject. It is still more certain that 
 he had abundant employment in parliament, in his pro- 
 fession, and in his study ; the first of which had greater 
 claims upon his care, and all of them were more congenial 
 to his taste. Pecuniary considerations also may have 
 influenced his determination, for to the person who held 
 it the office of Reader was then very expensive*. 
 
 * Dodsley's Old Plays, ix. 364. Six hundred pounds in less than a 
 fortnight. Herbert's Antiq. of the Inns of Court, 237.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 113 
 
 When Seidell became a still more eminent and influ- 
 ential agent in the political struggle of the time, and as 
 literary and legal fame continued to increase, the benchers 
 of the Inner Temple considered it expedient to mitigate 
 the first determination of their wounded pride and indig- 
 nation. In 1632 they rescinded the order that he should 
 be incapable of becoming a bencher of their Inn, and 
 raised him to the dignity in the Michaelmas Term of that 
 year. 
 
 It required a character more conciliating, more tempe- 
 rate, and more firm than Charles the First, to dispel the 
 political clouds that his father's misrule had engendered, 
 and to remove the unfavourable impressions which 
 circumstances attendant upon himself created in the 
 public mind. Charles had all the endowments requisite 
 to adorn, but was deficient in the absolutely necessary 
 qualifications of a monarch. He was dignified, elegant, 
 accomplished, and moral, but he never promised faithfully, 
 he never yielded graciously, and he never held firmly. 
 He was too entirely a Stuart to disregard the dictates of 
 his own will, and to anticipate the wishes of his people : 
 he was too obstinate to learn from daily experience that 
 resistance to the nation s opinion is vain ; he invariably 
 opposed and as invariably yielded, but he never yielded 
 until he had forfeited all merit for the concession. His 
 firmness and his pliancy were alike misplaced. The first 
 measures of his reign aggravated rather than allayed the 
 popular discontent. He retained as his most influential 
 
 I
 
 114 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 advisers the Duke of Buckingham and Archbishop Laud, 
 who both supported extreme opinions in favour of an 
 absolute monarchy, and were alike suspected of being 
 friendly to the Papal religion : he married a Roman 
 Catholic princess, and the injudicious committal to her 
 care of the direction of the education of their issue, were 
 measures more than ever offensive to Protestant England- 
 An inquisitorial communication was made to the govern- 
 ment by the Archbishop of a list of the beneficed clergy, 
 with an O or a P attached to each name accordingly as he 
 considered them orthodox or puritanical*. Part of the 
 British fleet were lent to the King of France for the pur- 
 pose of acting against his Protestant subjects, though the 
 seamen mutinied rather than go upon the service ; and a 
 heavy demand for supplies was made upon the country. 
 AVe need not therefore be surprised that the parliament 
 which was assembled at the opening of the new reign 
 was not all smiles and congratulations. In this parliament 
 Selden sat as one of the representatives of Great Bedwin. 
 
 It commenced its proceedings with an examination of 
 the national grievances ; and by voting the bill granting 
 tonnage and poundage t only for one year, though it had 
 usually been granted to the king, upon his accession, for 
 
 * Rusbworth, i. 167, 
 
 t Tonnage was an impost granted to the crown upon every ton of 
 merchandize exported or imported. Poundage was a similar impost, 
 upon all exports and imports, of twelve-pence out of every pound of 
 their value.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 115 
 
 life. To this proceeding James, according to Sir Philip 
 Warwick, had warned the Commons by raising, besides 
 such customs as were granted by parliament, others 
 without its consent. Their rising murmurs intimated 
 that they considered the Duke of Buckingham as the 
 primary cause of all the present misrule, and the king, 
 resolving to protect his favourite, dissolved the parlia- 
 ment*. The Commons gave Charles a premonition of 
 their firmness by delaying his messenger, sent to summon 
 them to their dissolution, until they had framed a protes- 
 tation to his majesty t. 
 
 The act granting subsidies had not been passed, conse- 
 quently money had to be raised upon loan, and it was 
 effected by a process that was as compulsory as a benevo- 
 lence, and rendered still more annoying by having the 
 inquisitorial accompaniments of an income tax. The 
 lieutenants of the counties were directed to inquire, '* by 
 any means or instruments they lihecl hest^'' of the sums 
 of money that persons within their jurisdictions, excluding 
 noblemen, were able to contribute, and upon the report of 
 such inquiry, a letter under the Privy Seal was directed 
 to each person, ordering him to pay into the hands of an 
 appointed receiver, a promise of repayment being added, 
 the sum at which he was assessed. The sums so levied 
 
 * Rushworth, i. 191. Franklyn's Annals, 113. May's Hist, of the 
 Long Parliament, &c. 
 
 t Sir P. Warwick's Memoirs, 13. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 varied, according to the published accounts, from ten to 
 thirty pounds *. 
 
 Although the king dissolved the parliament with such 
 a determined aspect, and the Lord Keeper Williams was 
 displaced for his opposition to the dissolution, yet the 
 necessities of the state compelled its reassembly in the 
 February following. This early recal prevented the 
 members forgetting the anger that had been vented upon 
 them, at the same time that it was a confession of their 
 ^id being necessary ; — a remembrance and conviction that 
 could not tend to propitiate their feelings towards the 
 x:ourt party ; and when it was announced that to exclude 
 from the House some of the leading members of the 
 opposition, they had been elected sheriffs, for no one can 
 be a representative in parliament of any part of the county 
 over which his shrievalty extends, this must have made 
 them sterner still in the political contest that approached. 
 Sir Edward Coke was one of those who it was thus 
 attempted to exclude, but he was more than a match for 
 the court tacticians. As soon as he was pricked Sheriff 
 of Buckinghamshire, he objected to the customary oath, 
 because, as he justly observed, it bound him " to destroy 
 all heresies commonly called Lollm'dies^'" and as, when 
 that oath was first prescribed, Protestants were intended 
 by that designation, he should have to swear to eradicate 
 the established religion. The oath was immediately 
 
 * Rushworth, i. 193,
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 117 
 
 altered, and Coke submitted to take it in its amended 
 form. He was thus precluded sitting for the county in 
 which he resided, but he was too good a lawyer not to be 
 aware that he was not prevented by his office being the 
 representative of any other, and he had interest sufficient 
 to be elected for the County of Norfolk ; against which 
 election the government vainly protested *. 
 
 The unpopularity of the Duke of Buckingham has been 
 noticed already, and the contemporary historians of all 
 parties agree that the public hatred continued to increase 
 with the thinking part of the community as well as the 
 merely clamorous. At length a member of the House of 
 Commons, Dr. Turner t, brought forward six explicit 
 questions tending to inculpate the royal favourite. They 
 were founded upon general report, and it was, therefore, 
 first debated whether an accusation so sustained could be 
 entertained by the House. Mr. Littleton, Sir Thomas 
 Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford, Selden t, and 
 others, argued in the affirmative. The reasoning employed 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. vi. 422. 
 
 f Sir Philip Warwick says rather bitterly; '* he (Dr. Turner, a 
 physician) was an inconsiderate, as well as an inconsiderable courtier 
 dependant, and one familiar with and usually divertizing the Court 
 Lords." (Warwick's Memoirs, 16.) He represented the boroug-h of 
 Shrewsbury. Wotton describes him as " a travelled doctor of physic, 
 of bold spirit, and of able elocution." 
 
 :]; I am not aware of what place Selden was the representative in this 
 Parliament.
 
 118 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 by Seidell is a fair representation of what they urged in 
 support of their opinions. They were not debating, he 
 observed, whether they could impeach before the House 
 of Lords upon common fame, but whether it was a justi- 
 fication for inquiry ; and surely it was, otherwise no great 
 man would be accused, for fear of danger. He reminded 
 the House that mythology felicitously tells us that the 
 faults of the deities were untold until the goddess Fame 
 was born : that in every court of justice accusations are 
 brought upon report ; and even in indictments for murder 
 are the words de eo male creditur. Evidence has to sub- 
 stantiate the accusation subsequently. He concluded by 
 observing that, after all, these cases are to be decided by 
 the usage of parliament, and not either by the common 
 or the civil law, citing the cases of the Dukes of Suffolk 
 and Somerset, who were complained of and removed from 
 their offices upon charges founded on general rumour. 
 
 It is remarkable that not one state officer spoke in oppo- 
 sition to this motion against Buckingham, the Chancellor 
 of the Duchy alone expressing a negative opinion, and 
 that not until he was asked. It was carried by a large 
 majority *. 
 
 The king exerted himself in defence of his favourite. 
 He summoned the House to his presence, and commanded 
 its members to desist proceeding against the duke, who, 
 he declared, he knew better than they did. "Any attack 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. vi. 438.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 119 
 
 upon him, added the king, I shall consider injurious to 
 my own honour." 
 
 The House passed by this effort to divert the course of 
 justice, and finnly pursued its duty. It proceeded in 
 preparing the impeachment, which in the Journal is 
 called " The Cause of Causes ;" and having appointed Sir 
 Dudley Digges, Sir John Eliot, Mr. Herbert, Mr. Glanville, 
 Mr. Whitby, Mr. Pym, Mr. AVandesford, and Selden, 
 chief managers of the charges it contained, with sixteen 
 others as assistants, the House on the 8th of May, 1626, 
 informed the peers they were ready to proceed with the 
 imjDeachment *. 
 
 The charges against the duke were thirteen in number. 
 Of these the fourth and fifth were assigned to the 
 management of Selden, probably, on account of the 
 attention he was known to have paid to the maritime laws 
 of this country, for he had presented his work entitled 
 " Mare Clausum " to King James, although it had not 
 then been published. Selden's speech in support of these 
 charges, is for the most part composed of quotations of 
 authorities, demonstrating the duties which devolved upon 
 the duke, when, in the words of the patent, he was created 
 " Grand Admiral of England, Ireland, Wales, Normandy, 
 Aquitain, the town of Calais, and its Marches, and Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Fleets and Seas of the said King- 
 doms : " — in demonstrating the evils which arose from 
 
 * Rusbworth, i. 302.
 
 120 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 inattention to those duties, and the capital punishments 
 that in former reigns had been inflicted upon those who 
 had neglected the care of similar offices. 
 
 The fifth article, particularly charged the duke with 
 the detention of a French Merchantman, and that in 
 defiance of an order of the Court of Admiralty, he not 
 only had detained part of her cargo, consisting of gold, 
 precious stones, &c., of the value of twenty thousand 
 jDounds, but had seized the vessel a second time. Selden 
 concluded his address with a descant upon the evil conse- 
 quences such oppression insured to our commerce, and by 
 citing the records of punishments that had been inflicted 
 upon similar offenders *. 
 
 Sir John Eliot, when all the charges had been enforced 
 seriatim by his associate managers, summed up the im- 
 peachment in a speech that will bear comparison with the 
 most eloquent displays of invective that occurred upon 
 the somewhat similar impeachment of Mr. Warren 
 Hastings. The speech is given fully in the Journal of 
 the House of Lords, by Rushworth, and in the Parlia- 
 mentary History, but I must add an interest to these 
 pages, by giving an extract from this eloquent peroration. 
 
 " Your lordships have an idea of the man : what he is 
 in himself, what in his affections ; you have seen his 
 power, and some, I fear, have felt it. You have known 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. vii. 60—71. This work gives a much fuller 
 report of the proceedings, and from authentic sources, than either 
 Wilkins, or Rushworth.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 121 
 
 his practice, and have heard the effects. It rests then to 
 be considered, what, being such, he is in reference to 
 the king and state ; how compatible or incompatible with 
 either. 
 
 '•' In reference to the king, he must be styled the canker 
 in his treasure ; in reference to the state, the moth of all 
 goodness. What future hopes are to be expected, your 
 lordships may draw out of his actions and affections. 
 
 " I will now see, by comparison with others, to what 
 we may find him likened. I can hardly find him a match 
 or parallel in- all precedents. None is so like him as 
 Sejanus, who is thus described by Tacitus : — * Audax, sui 
 obtegens, in alios criminator, juxta adulator et superbus.' 
 To say nothing of his veneries, if you please to compare 
 them, you shall easily discern wherein they vary ; such 
 boldness of the one, hath lately been presented before you, 
 as very seldom, or never hath been seen. For his secret 
 intentions and calumniations, I wish this parliament had 
 not felt them, nor the other before. For his pride and 
 flattery, it is noted of Sejanus, that he did ' clientes suos 
 provinciis adornare.' Doth not this man the like ? Ask 
 England, Scotland and Ireland, and they will tell you. 
 Sej anus's pride was so excessive, as Tacitus says, that he 
 neglected all counsel, mixed his business and service with 
 the prince, seeming to confound their actions, and was 
 often styled 'Imperatoris laborum socius.' How lately and 
 how often hath this man commixed his actions, in dis- 
 courses, with the actions of the king ?
 
 122 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 *' My lords, I have done. You see the man ! Only this 
 which was conceived by the knights, citizens, and bur- 
 gesses should be boldly by me spoken. That by him came 
 all those evils ; in him we find the cause ; and on him 
 we expect the remedies ; and to this end we met your 
 lordships in conference ; to which, as your wisdom invites 
 us, so we cannot doubt, but in your lordship's justice, 
 greatness and power, we shall, in due time, find judgment 
 as he deserves. 
 
 " I conclude by presenting to your lordships the par- 
 ticular censure of the Bishop of Ely, reported in the 
 eleventh of Richard the Second, and by giving you a 
 short view of his faults. He was first of all noted to be 
 luxurious. He married his own kindred to personages of 
 the highest rank and places. No man's business was 
 done without his help. He would not suffer the king's 
 council to advise in matters of state. He grew to such a 
 height of pride, that no man was thought worthy to speak 
 to him. And, lastly, he delivered his castles and forts 
 of trust to obscure and unworthy men. His doom was 
 this : — * Per totam insulam publice proclametur : Periat qui 
 perdere cuncta festinat ; oi3primatur, ne omnes opprimat.' " 
 
 Sir John Eliot's comparison of the duke to Sejanus 
 particularly annoyed the king, for we learn from a private 
 letter of the period that he observed, "by comparing 
 Buckingham to Sejanus, implicitly, he must intend me 
 for Tiberius *." 
 
 * Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, 2n(l Series, iii.371.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 123 
 
 Whether the evidence against the duke was sufficient 
 to substantiate the charges in the impeachment cannot 
 now be determined, for the king dissolved the parliament 
 before the day of trial was appointed. This extended 
 shelter afforded by the prerogative, induces the belief that 
 the guilt was capable of satisfactory proof, for no one will 
 be wilHng to entertain the only other admissible inference, 
 that the peers of England were too prejudiced against the 
 culprit to deliver an unbiassed judgment. 
 
 At the conclusion of the impeachment, before Sir John 
 Eliot and Sir Dudley Digges had left the House of 
 Lords, they were beckoned out, and committed to the 
 Tower, upon warrants from the Privy Council*. But 
 the opinion of the judges being declared against this 
 illegal and despotic act, and the House of Commons 
 having voted that neither they, nor any of the other 
 managers of the impeachment had exceeded their commis- 
 sion, the two prisoners were released, though to gratify 
 the petty resentment of the court, and revealing its im- 
 potent desire of revenge. Sir John Eliot was detained 
 some days the longest in prison t. 
 
 * Sanderson's Life of Charles the First, 45. 
 
 f The anger of the court, and its warfare against those who after- 
 wards became the leaders of the opposition, began very early. There 
 is an order from the Lord Keeper Coventry, dated the 8th of July, 1G26, 
 directing the clerk of the crown to strike from the commission of the 
 peace, Oliver St. John, William Coriton, Sir John Eliot, Sir Dudley 
 Digges, Sir Thomas Wentworth, Sir John Strangeways, Edward Alford, 
 &c. (Ilarleian MSS. 286. PI. 6, e.)
 
 124 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Against the dissolution of the parliament, the House of 
 Commons remonstrated ; and the court, we are assured, 
 could neither refute its arguments, nor subdue the spirit 
 that dictated it, because a proclamation commanded all 
 copies of the remonstrance to be burned *. 
 
 * Rushvvorth, i. 412.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 125 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ARBITRARY TAXATION RESORTED TO. THE CLERGY ADVOCATE 
 
 ARBITRARY POWER. — IMPORTANCE OF A CHURCH ESTABLISH- 
 MENT. — DR. SIBTHORPE's SERMON. SELDEn's OPINION. — FIVE 
 
 GENTLEMEN CONTEST THE INFLICTION OF THE. LOAN. — SELDEN 
 ONE OF THEIR ADVOCATES. — ASPECT OF AFFAIRS. — SIR R. COT- 
 TON'S ADVICE. DREAD OF THE PAPAL RELIGION. POLITICAL 
 
 PARTIES. — PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. SELDEN A MEMBER. THE 
 
 CASE OF THE LOAN DEBATED. PETITION OF RIGHT. SELDEN's 
 
 PART IN ITS COMPOSITION. — UNJUSTLY CHARGED WITH ERASING 
 
 RECORDS. king's ANSWERS TO THE PETITION. THE SPEAKER'S 
 
 MESSAGE FROM THE KING. — EFFECT OF IT ON THE HOUSE. — ■ 
 VOTE AND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 The only legitimate means of raising money for the 
 service of the state, being again removed by this dissolu- 
 tion of the parliament, recourse was had to a loan, a 
 benevolence, arbitrary duties upon merchandise, and other 
 modes of extortion. To these the spirit of the people 
 still elastically revolted, and the clergy were applied to by 
 the misguided court to mitigate the opposition, by urging 
 from the pulpit the necessity of that obedience to the 
 royal will, which would have been rendered cheerfully to 
 the acts of the legislature. In many instances, it is to be 
 regretted, the clergy were obsequious to the dictates of the 
 court, for as the abuse of a system is too usually con- 
 founded with its radical deficiencies, it served then as
 
 126 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 it has served since, to aggravate the dislike of those, whose 
 mistaken love of liberty objects to any direct support 
 being given to an ecclesiastical establishment by the 
 government. This must have been deplored by every 
 well-wisher of his country, for the benefit of an establish- 
 ment so supported, which is the only rational meaning of 
 the too-little understood husting-cry of " Church and 
 State," seems to be too demonstrable to be opposed by 
 any who have examined the subject attentively. The 
 argument does not embrace the question, which form of 
 church government is the best ; but whether the form 
 most approved of by the people ought to be maintained 
 and encoiiraged by the legislature ? The arguments by 
 which an affirmative answer to this question might be 
 maintained, are many and invincible ; — the authorities 
 that might be quoted are above appeal ; and when we 
 remember that many parts of republican America are, and 
 republican France was, the most licentious and irreligious 
 of states, they afford impressive illustrations of the result 
 in countries without a national establishment for religious 
 instruction. 
 
 The advantages of a well-regulated church establish- 
 ment are apparent without any such appeals to the 
 testimony of experience. It cannot but benefit the morals 
 and manners of the people, to have in every parish a 
 religious and well-educated clergyman. — It cannot but 
 aid the diffusion of wealth, and the employment of the 
 people, to have the incomes of the clergy so equally
 
 JOHN SELDEX 127 
 
 expended among them. It cannot but encourage an 
 attention to religion, to have a professor of it regularly 
 and unsubjugated to his flock, reading the tidings of the 
 gospel, and advocating opinions that are the reasoned 
 wisdom of ages, and not the mere dictates of individual 
 caprice. It must be a benefit and a comfort to have such 
 a teacher ready, at the summons of every one confided to 
 his charge, to unite them in marriage, to christen their 
 offspring, and to advise with in a dying hour. A well- 
 regulated church establishment provides all this, and 
 though some of its teachers may be deceivers, and totally 
 insufficient and unworthy, yet such exceptions are no 
 proofs of the badness of the system. No human institu- 
 tion would endure the application of so rigid a test. 
 Perfection is incident to none of them. Such an estab- 
 lishment is a fixed centre ; it may not be mathematically 
 perfect, but it is a fixture — a standard — opposed to and 
 constantly tending to check sectarianism, to which man is 
 far too prone. A still worse tendency of our nature is to 
 a neglect and carelessness about the things of eternity, and 
 this negligence can in no way be effectually opposed but 
 by an establishment that provides mentors and guides 
 independent of the recklessness of the people. 
 
 An established church does not require that the clergy 
 are to be subservient to the government ; ready at its 
 command to advocate its measures, and enforce its prin- 
 ciples. Politics are not themes fitting to be descanted 
 upon in the pulpit. A clergyman, as Selden observed,
 
 128 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 should go no further in his addresses to his congregation 
 than a general recommendation of obedience to the 
 government ; how to obey is information afforded by 
 another profession. " The parson of the Tower," he 
 further remarked, " who was a good, discreet man, told 
 Dr. Moseley (who was sent to me, and the rest of the 
 gentlemen committed the third of Charles, to persuade us 
 to submit to the king) that he found no such words as 
 parliament, habeas corpus, return, tower, &c., neither in 
 the fathers, nor the schoolmen, nor in the text ; and 
 therefore for his part he believed he understood nothing 
 of the business. A satire upon all those clergymen that 
 meddle with matters they do not understand *." 
 
 One of the clergy who rendered himself liable to this 
 reproof was Dr. Sibthorpe. In a sermon, preached before 
 the judges of assizes at Northampton, he ventured to 
 maintain that " the king might make the laws, and do 
 what he pleased." He applied to the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury for a licence to print this sermon, but 
 Dr. Abbot was too firm a friend to the constitution of 
 his country to sanction, by such permission, a work that 
 advocated doctrines which supported its direct violation t. 
 Dr. Sibthorpe then applied to Laud, the Bishop of 
 London, whose chaplain, Dr. Worral, signed its impri- 
 matur. After reflection made him dissatisfied with this 
 
 * Seidell's Table Talk, s. Clergy. 
 
 t For this refusal, the Archbishop was suspended. (Rushworth, i. 
 439.
 
 JOHX SELDEN. 129 
 
 acquiescence, and he subsequently sent the sermon to 
 Selden, requesting his opinion of the contents. Selden 
 discreetly avoided committing his sentiments to writing, 
 but in a private interview he told Dr. Worral " he had 
 given his sanction to a work full of erroneous principles, 
 which, if they were true, would abolish all ideas of meum 
 et tuiim, and leave no man in England possessed of 
 property. When the times shall change," he added, 
 " and the late transactions shall be scrutinized, you will 
 gain a halter, instead of promotion for this book." Poor 
 Worral, who was not the firmest of mortals, immediately 
 erased with great care his subscription to the licence ; 
 but it was afterwards signed by Laud himself, and pub- 
 lished under the title of " Apostolical obedience, c^c. *." 
 
 This combination of the church and crown against the 
 constitutional liberty of the people involved them in one 
 and the same ruin ; for when oppression goaded the latter 
 to an active determination for relief, they directed their 
 efforts, primarily, against those who had been the ad- 
 vocates of the misrule ; and it is one of the examples of 
 the Stuart characteristic abandonment of friends, that 
 before Charles fell, he consented to measures which 
 weakened the power and aided in the overthrow of the 
 hierarchy, that had been the most persevering of his 
 supporters in the struggle for unlimited power. 
 
 The inquisitorial loan, already alluded to, was the chief 
 
 * Ruslnvorth, 444. 
 K
 
 130 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 source of revenue, and, consequently, was exacted with 
 rigour. The number of the gentry who refused to 
 contribute was very considerable; and in committing 
 them to prison for this refusal, for the court dared thus 
 to violate their chartered liberty, the superlative of annoy- 
 ance was brought upon them by selecting for them gaols 
 that were distant from their homes. The voice of the 
 nation was raised against this oppression, but opposition 
 was checked by additional aggressions. Sir Randolph 
 Crew was displaced from the chief justiceship for 
 objecting to the loan; soldiers were billeted upon the 
 people, and martial law predominated. Resistance was 
 thus checked, but it gathered strength during its sup- 
 pression, and when it eventually burst forth, these 
 aggravations gave a sterner spirit to those who struggled 
 for freedom. 
 
 It was not the amount of the loan so much as the 
 illegal mode of its being levied that was objected to ; and 
 Sir John Eliot spoke the language of his fellow prisoners, 
 and of all England, when, in his petition to the king, 
 he declared that his conscience would not allow him 
 to submit to an exaction that was unsanctioned by 
 parliament. 
 
 Five of the imprisoned patriots were brought by writs 
 of habeas corpus into the Court of King's Bench, where 
 Noy, Bramston, Calthorpe, and Selden pleaded for their 
 discharge*. 
 
 * Whitelock's Memorials, 8.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 131 
 
 Sir Edward Hampden was one of those five prisoners ; 
 and on the 212d of September, 1627, Selden thus argued 
 his case. 
 
 After taking some technical objections to discrepancies 
 between the writ for his client's committal, and that for 
 his detention, he proceeded — 
 
 " Now, my lords, I will speak a word or two to the 
 matter of the return, and that is touching an imprison- 
 ment by the king's special command, and by the lords of 
 the council, without any cause being expressed. 
 
 " Admitting either, or both of these to be the return, I 
 think that by the settled and constant laws of this king- 
 dom, without which we have nothing, no man can be 
 imprisoned by either of them, without a cause of commit- 
 ment expressed in the return. 
 
 " My lords, the statute of Magna Charta, caput 29 ; — 
 that statute, which, if it were in this respect observed as 
 it ought to be, every man would enjoy his liberty better 
 than he doth, that law expressly says — No freeman shall 
 be imprisoned without due course of the law. Out of the 
 very body of this Act of Parliament, besides the expla- 
 nation of other statutes, it appears — Nullus liber homo 
 capiatur vel imprisonetur, nisi per legem terrae. 
 
 " My lords, I know the words (per legem terrae) leave the 
 question where it was, if the interpretation of the statute 
 were not. But, I think, under your lordships' favour, 
 that in this statute they must have intended by due 
 course of law, either by presentment or indictment. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " My lords, if the meaning of these words (per legem 
 
 terrse) were but as we use to say, according to the law, 
 
 which leaves the matter very uncertain, and, by a special 
 
 command of the king, be within the meaning of those 
 
 words (according to law), then this act hath done nothing. 
 
 The act declares — No freeman shall be imprisoned but by 
 
 the law of the land ; now, if you will understand these 
 
 words 'per legem terrae' in the first sense, this statute 
 
 shall descend to villeins as well as freemen ; for in that 
 
 sense if I imprison another man's villein, the villein may 
 
 have an action of false imprisonment against me by the 
 
 law of the land. But in those days lords and the king, 
 
 for then they had villeins, might imprison them, and the 
 
 villeins had no remedy. Therefore, those words in the 
 
 statute (per legem terrae) were to help freemen who ought 
 
 not to be imprisoned but by due course of the law. 
 
 Unless the interpretation be thus, no man shall have any 
 
 privilege above the villein. 
 
 " Then I conceive, my lords, these words — per legem 
 
 terrae — must be here so interpreted, as they were in the 
 
 forty-second year of the reign of Edward the Third. 
 
 The bill is worthy the observing. It recites. That whereas 
 
 divers persons were, without any writ or presentment, cast 
 
 into prison, it might be enacted that it should not be so 
 
 done hereafter. The (king's) answer there is — That 
 
 because there is an article of the Great Charter, therefore 
 
 this shall be granted. So that it seems this statute is not 
 
 taken to be an explanation of, but the very words of 
 
 Magna Charta.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 133 
 
 " I will conclude with an observation upon these words 
 of the statute of Magna Charta — 'Neither will we come 
 upon him ' — which words of themselves signify not 
 much now, as a man cannot find any fit sense for them. 
 But, my lords, in the seventeenth year of King John, 
 there was a great charter made, by which the statute in 
 the ninth of Henry the Third, whereby we are now 
 regulated, was framed, and there the words were — 
 Neither will we put him into prison ; that is, the king 
 himself will not : and to illustrate this, there is a story of 
 that time in Matthew Paris. In that book this charter 
 of King John is set down at large ; which book is very 
 authentic, and there it is entered — ' And in the ninth of 
 Henry the Third this statute was renewed in the same 
 words with that charter of King John ' — and, my lords, 
 he might know it better than any other, for he was the 
 king's chronologer in those times. 
 
 " Therefore, my lords, since there are so many reasons, 
 so many precedents, and so many statutes which declare 
 that no freeman whatsoever ought to be imprisoned but 
 according to the law of the land ; and that the liberty of 
 the subject is the highest inheritance that he hath, my 
 humble request is that according to the ancient laws and 
 privileges of this realm, this gentleman, my client, may 
 be bailed * " 
 
 * Harleian MSS. 252, PL 72, f. Opera Omnia, iii. 1933. The 
 first named authority is most accurate. 
 
 Selden maintained his actual opinion when he thus argued for Sir
 
 134 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Heath, the Attorney-General, argued against the dis- 
 charge of the prisoners. His arguments were neither 
 powerful nor convincing ; but this was of no importance, 
 for the predetermination of the judges was with him, and 
 the Chief Justice, Hyde, having declared the opinion of 
 the court against the release of the prisoners, they were 
 remanded to their places of confinement *. 
 
 The supplies that were thus illegally raised were as 
 unfortunately expended in a disastrous expedition against 
 the Isle of Rhee. Our foreign relations were most 
 unpromising of good ; the Palatinate was nearly subdued ; 
 our Protestant allies were generally defeated ; and 
 through the evil policy of Buckingham, we had now both 
 France and Spain to contend against as enemies. At 
 home affairs were in no degree more consolatory. We 
 have seen that some of the chief commoners of England 
 were imprisoned, and, as Sir Robert Cotton informed the 
 Privy Council when they desired his opinion, there was 
 "amongst the better sort of the multitude,'* deep dis- 
 trusts of the Government favouring the Papal religion ; 
 
 Edward Hampden's release, and later decisions have shown that his 
 opinion was correct. Subsequently in the House of Commons, he 
 observed, " I profess, though once I was counsel, and then spoke for 
 my fee for the gentlemen in their habeas corpus, yet now I speak 
 according to my knowledge and conscience. The question is, whether 
 any subject or freeman that is committed to prison, and the cause not 
 shewn in the warrant, ought to be bailed or delivered? I think, confi- 
 dently, it belongs to every subject that is not a villein, that he ought 
 to be bailed or delivered." 
 
 * Whitelock's Memorials, 8, Rushworth, i. 450.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 135 
 
 complaints of ill-management ; jealousies of a standing 
 insubordinate army ; and a dislike of the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham. To remove these he advised the assembling of 
 parliament, and " a gracious yielding to their just 
 petitions *." 
 
 Sir Robert Cotton, justly placed as the most prominent 
 cause of the people's dissatisfaction, their jealousy of the 
 Papal religion being favoured by the court, for it undoubt- 
 edly was the one that most alienated from the king the 
 affections of his people. The existence of this jealousy 
 has already been noticed as existing in the last, and at the 
 opening of the present reign, and whether it was by 
 accident, or whether the truth peeped out, need not be 
 here inquired, it is certain that the conduct of the govern- 
 ment was such as sanctioned the suspicion that it 
 favoured this object of the people's detestation. Whoever 
 reads the historical authorities of the period must have 
 the conviction forced upon him that this was a very 
 operative cause in bringing about the subversion of the 
 government. The people were chiefly Protestants, too 
 lately escaped from the persecutions of Catholic Mary, 
 and from the struggle against the invading power of 
 Jesuitical Spain ; and too much grieved by seeing their 
 brethren suffering in France, not to make the intolerant 
 religion that occasioned those sufferings the object of 
 their greatest fear and hatred. 
 
 The queen and courtiers, many of whom, like her, were 
 
 * Cotton's Posthumous Works, by Howell. Rushworth, i. 467.
 
 136 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Papists, favoured every description of pageantry in the 
 exercises of devotion, as well as in their every day plea- 
 sures. They were not contented even with six days 
 of frivolity, but proclamations were issued almost com- 
 manding, and positively encouraging the pursuit of 
 jollity and amusements on the Sunday. Extravagance, 
 the mere forms of religion, and incessant dissipation, were 
 the characteristics of the court. 
 
 The people, in accordance with that characteristic of 
 our nature which inclines us to avoid the tastes and 
 practices of those we dislike, and to loath them in pro- 
 portion as we are urged to imitate them, became less 
 liberal, less social, and more inclined to sobriety and 
 simplicity, both in their public and private habits. 
 
 The mutual disgust that thus gradually grew up 
 between the court party and the majority of the people 
 was soon loudly expressed, and, as neither party was 
 willing to yield, the population of England speedily classed 
 itself in two great parties *. 
 
 When King James died, the nation was divided into 
 four parties f. The two great political parties were the 
 Royalists, who maintained a prerogative of the crown to 
 be, that its wearer's will is superior to the law, and the 
 Country, or Legal party, who supported the superiority 
 
 * A very full and interesting- detail of the discontent and insurrec- 
 tionary spirit that was now prevalent is given from private letters, &c. 
 by Mr. Disraeli, in his excellent " Curiosities of Literature." Second 
 Series, iii. 379. 
 
 I Coke's Detection of Court and State, 206.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 137 
 
 of the laws, and the maintenance of the constitution. 
 The majority of the people then interfered but little 
 with politics, but were chiefly distinguished by the differ- 
 ence of their religous tenets. These were the Tiiritans 
 and the Papists, for all sects were merged in these two, 
 accordingly as they favoured the popular or courtly mode 
 in their religious observances. The latter party gradually 
 coalescing with the court, and advocating its measures ; 
 the Puritans by a simultaneous movement united with 
 the legal party, and the contest between them became the 
 more inveterate as it thus involved the most exciting of 
 all principles — those of politics and religion. 
 
 As far as assembling a parliament, Sir Robert Cotton's 
 
 advice was adopted by the king. Previously to its being 
 summoned, by an order of the Privy Council, those who 
 had refused to contribute to the loan were released from 
 confinement. In that order, their names, amounting to 
 seventy-six, are given * ; and we thence learn that they 
 embraced some of those who had been, and who continued 
 to be, the most distinguished of the opposition members, 
 for they were again returned by their former constituents 
 almost by acclamation. Their release was necessarily 
 looked upon as a tardy confession of error, rather than as 
 an exercise of clemency ; so difficult is it to escape from 
 the consequences of perpetrated evil. The sufferers came 
 into the political arena stimulated to aim at the over- 
 throw of the authors of those arbitrary measures by wliich 
 
 * Rushwortli, i. 473.
 
 138 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 they had been oppressed, but the almost unanimous feeling 
 which the House of Commons evinced for a redress of 
 grievances was a genuine representation of the indignation 
 and wishes of the community. A contemporary historian, 
 by no means friendly to their proceedings, confesses that it 
 was no vulgar party casually predominating, when he 
 states that the members of the House of Commons 
 possessed wealth far exceeding that of the members of the 
 Upper House *, and we know that they were not its 
 inferiors in talent. 
 
 Selden, according to his own statement, was again 
 returned for the town of Lancaster t, which is probably 
 correct, rather than that of Dr. Wilkins, who notices 
 him as one of the representatives of Ludgershall. 
 
 The parliament assembled in March, 16^8, and the 
 Commons immediately proceeded to a consideration of the 
 grievances under which the country suffered. Numerous 
 committees were appointed for this purpose ; and Selden 
 appears to have been chairman, for he delivered the report 
 of one that was directed to consider all the proceedings 
 that had been adopted respecting the writs of habeas 
 corpus, moved for in the case of those who refused to 
 contribute to the loant. From this report, it appears 
 that Sir Robert Heath, the attorney-general, made the 
 
 * Sanderson's Life of Charles the First, 106. 
 f Selden's Vindicise, 30. 
 
 X Parliament. Hist. vii. 385. Epheraeris Parliamentaria. Sir J. 
 Napier's MSS.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 139 
 
 draught of a judgment which he wished the clerk of the 
 court to enter as if it had been passed by the judges, but 
 he faithfully refused to do so without their order, which 
 they declined giving. The attorney-general continued, 
 though vainly, to importune him to make the entry, and 
 finally, about a week before the parliament assembled, he 
 fetched away the copy. 
 
 Conduct so illegal scarcely needs a comment. The 
 government evidently wished meanly to find a shelter 
 for its conduct behind a strongly expressed judgment, 
 apparently coming from the judges ; but it is certain that it 
 was an attempt to sap the liberty of the subject, tending 
 to weaken the bonds of society, by rendering the people 
 suspicious of the guardians of justice, which, being dis- 
 covered, must have more keenly edged the indignation of 
 those who were closing with the authors of such nefarious 
 practices. 
 
 When the cause of those who had been imprisoned 
 came to be fully debated, the defenders of the government 
 attempted to extenuate its conduct upon very untenable 
 grounds. They urged that those who refused to con- 
 tribute to the loan were not imprisoned, they were only 
 confined ! 
 
 Selden passed by the technical distinction without a 
 difference contained in this argument, and met them upon 
 their own ground. " I will admit," said Selden, " confine- 
 ment is different from imprisonment; and it is against the 
 law that any should be confined, either to his house or
 
 140 MEMOIllS OF 
 
 elsewhere. I know of nothing that is called a punishment, 
 but there is some ground of it, or mention thereof, either 
 in Acts of Parliament, Law Books, or Records ; but for 
 this of confinement I find none* " 
 
 In other debates relative to this subject, Selden took a 
 very prominent and efficient part. He incontrovertible 
 argued against committals, without the cause of imprison- 
 ment being expressed ; against levying money upon the 
 jDeople, without the consent of parliament ; and in favour 
 of a habeas corpus being granted when applied for in 
 every case of imprisonment. 
 
 On the 3d of April, four memorable resolutions, em- 
 bodying these opinions, were passed by the House of 
 Commons ; and a committee was appointed to hold a 
 conference with the Upper House, to request its con- 
 currence in an address to the king, declaring that such are 
 the legitimate liberties of the subject. This terminated 
 in the production of the celebrated Petition of Right. 
 
 Sir Edward Coke, Sir Dudley Digges, Mr. Littleton, and 
 Selden, were appointed by the Commons to be speakers at 
 this conference. The lord president, when he made a report 
 of it to the Peers, mentioned Selden as " a great anti- 
 quarian and pregnant man," whose task it vfas to produce 
 precedents, and state the laws relating to the various parts 
 of the petition f. 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. vii. 403. From some manuscript notes of Sir 
 John Goodriche, a member of this Parliament. Rushworth, i. 522. 
 t Journal of the House of Lords in temp.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 141 
 
 The speech of Selden upon this occasion, so important 
 and so interesting to Englishmen, has been preserved, and 
 the following is a copy, amended by the comparing of 
 various authorities : — 
 
 " Your lordships have heard from the gentleman who 
 spoke last (Mr. Littleton), a great part of the grounds 
 upon which the House of Commons, after mature deli- 
 beration, proceeded to that clear resolution touching the 
 right of the liberty of their persons. The many Acts of 
 Parliament, which are the written laws of the land, and 
 are expressly to the point, have been read and opened ; 
 and such objections as have by some been made unto 
 them, and objections also made out of other Acts of 
 Parliament, have been cleared and answered. 
 
 "It may seem now, perhaps, my lords, that little 
 remains needful to be further added for the enforcement 
 and maintenance of so fundamental and established a 
 right and liberty belonging to every freeman of the 
 kingdom. But the House of Commons, taking into 
 consideration that in this question (being of so high a 
 nature that never any exceeded it in any court of justice) 
 all the several ways of just examination of the truth 
 should be used, have most carefully informed themselves 
 of all former judgments or precedents concerning this 
 great point, and have been no less careful to the due 
 preservation of his majesty's prerogative than of their own 
 rights. The precedents here are of two kinds, either
 
 142 MElVrOTllS OF 
 
 merely matter of record, or else the formal resolutions of 
 the judges after solemn debate on the point. 
 
 " These precedents the House of Commons has com- 
 manded me to present to your lordships ; which I shall, 
 as briefly as I may, so I do it faithfully and perspicuously. 
 To that end, my lords, before I come to the particulars of 
 any of those precedents, I shall first remember to your 
 lordships that which seems a general key for the opening 
 and true apprehension of all those on record ; without 
 which key, no man, unless he be versed in the entries and 
 practice of the King's Bench, can possibly understand. 
 
 " My lords, in all cases where any right or liberty belongs 
 to the subject by any positive law^ written or unwritten, 
 if there was not also a remedy by law for the enjoying 
 or regaining of this right or liberty when it is violated or 
 taken from him, the positive law would be most vain and 
 to no purpose. 
 
 " Therefore I shall first observe the remedy that every 
 freeman is to use for the regaining of his liberty when he 
 is against law imprisoned. That remedy is by a writ of 
 de odio et atra, or de homine replegiando, or habeas 
 corpus, and corpus cum causa. 
 
 " The writ of habeas corpus, or corpus cum causa, is the 
 highest remedy in law for any man that is imprisoned by 
 the especial command of the king, or of the lords of the 
 privy council, without showing the cause of the commit- 
 ment. Neither is there in the law any such thing, nor
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 143 
 
 ever was tliere mention of any such thing in the laws of 
 this land, as a Petition of Right to be vised in such cases 
 for liberty of the person ; nor is there any legal course to 
 be taken for enlargement in such cases, however the 
 contrary has upon new ground or colour of law been 
 contended. 
 
 " Now, my lords, if any man be so imprisoned by any 
 such command, or otherwise, in any prison whatsoever 
 through England, and desire either by himself or any 
 other in his behalf, this writ of habeas corpus, in the 
 Court of King's Bench, the writ is to be granted to him, 
 and ought not to be denied him any more than an original 
 writ in the chancery, or other common process of law may 
 be denied. 
 
 " The writ is to be directed to the keeper of the prison 
 in whose custody the prisoner remains, commanding him 
 that at a certain day he bring in the body of the prisoner, 
 together with the cause of his being seized and detained ; 
 and oftentimes the cause of detention only is expressed, 
 that of caption being omitted. The keeper of the prison, 
 therefore, returns by what warrant he detains the prisoner, 
 and with his return filed to his writ, he brings the pri- 
 soner to the bar at the time appointed. When the return 
 is thus made, the court judges of its sufficiency or insuffi- 
 ciency only out of the body of it, without having respect 
 to any other circumstance. That is, they are to suppose 
 the return to be true; for if the gaoler makes it falsely,
 
 144 ]\rEM01RS OF 
 
 the party may have his remedy by an action on the case 
 against liim. 
 
 " Now, my lords, when the prisoner comes thus to the 
 bar, if he desires to be bailed, and the court, upon view of 
 the return, thinks him in law to be bailable, then he is 
 always first taken from the keeper of the prison that 
 brings him, and committed to the charge of the marshal 
 of the King's Bench, and afterwards bailed ; for the court 
 is supposed never to bail any man that is not their own 
 prisoner, by being in the custody of the marshal of the 
 court. But if, upon the return of the habeas corpus, it 
 appears to the court, that the prisoner ought not to be 
 bailed, nor discharged from the prison whence he is 
 brought, then he is remanded, there to continue until by 
 due course of law he may be delivered, and is the highest 
 award or judgment that ever was or can be given upon a 
 habeas corpus. 
 
 "If the judges doubt only whether in law they ought 
 to take him from the prison whence he came, or give a 
 day to the sheriff to amend his return (as they often do), 
 then they remand him only during the time of their doubt, 
 or until the sheriff has amended his return. 
 
 "Your lordships have heard the resolution of the 
 House of Commons, touching the enlargement of a man 
 committed by command of the king or privy council, or 
 any other, without cause being shown of such commit- 
 ment ; which resolution, as it is grounded upon acts of
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 145 
 
 parliament already shown (the reason of the law of the 
 land being committed to the charge of another to open to 
 you), so it is strengthened by many precedents and 
 records." 
 
 Selden then quoted a chronological series of cases, in 
 which the judges had invariably admitted to bail, or 
 discharged all persons committed to prisons upon causes 
 so undefined ; and to animadvert upon such as had been 
 cited in support of a contrary practice. A more distinct, 
 lucid, and ably supported argument, perhaps, cannot be 
 found in our legal annals. In conclusion, he said, " Having 
 thus gone through the charge committed to me, lest your 
 lordships should be put to much trouble and expense of 
 time, in finding and getting copies at large, of those 
 things which I have cited, we offer unto your lordships 
 authentic copies of them all ; and so I leave them, and 
 whatsoever else I have said, to your lordships' further 
 consideration *." 
 
 When the attorney general intimated his dissent to 
 the arguments and authorities produced by Sir Edward 
 Coke and Selden, Coke pledged his credit as a lawyer, 
 that " it lay not under Mr. Attorney's cap to answer any 
 one of them." Selden added, that, with his own hand, he 
 had copied the authorities as preserved in the records of 
 the Tower, the Exchequer, and the King's Bench, and 
 
 * Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum, 173. pi. 77, c. Opera 
 Omnia, iii. 1958. Rnshworth, i. 3.30. Parliament. Hist. vii. 415.
 
 14G JMEMOIRS OF 
 
 " would engage his head, that Mr. Attorney should not 
 find in all those archives, a single precedent omitted ; " 
 and Mr. Littleton further observed, that he had examined 
 them syUahatim, and whoever said they were not faithful 
 spoke falsely *. 
 
 To be certain that the copies of precedents were cor- 
 rectly made, the peers, with commendable strictness, 
 appear to have referred to the original records ; and, in the 
 course of this reference, to have found some of them were 
 deficient or destroyed. This seems to be a reasonable 
 conclusion ; and that with a less praiseworthy desire to 
 blacken the cause of the petitioners, the court party 
 at once promulgated, that Selden was the person who had 
 committed this larceny upon justice ; for Sir James 
 Strangeways reported to the House, that as he was going 
 upon business into the Committee Chamber of the House 
 of Lords, some one asked him " If he had heard nothing? " 
 and upon his entering the room, the Earl of Suffolk 
 inquired, whether it was not intended by the House " to 
 hang Selden ? for by God he had rased a record, and was 
 worthy to be hanged for it." 
 
 Selden immediately replied, " As for erasing records, I 
 hope no man believes I ever did, therefore, I cannot guess 
 what the earl means. I did deliver in whole copies of 
 divers records, examined by myself and several other 
 gentlemen of this House. These I delivered into the 
 
 * D'lsraeli's Curiosities of Literature, 2nfl Series, iii. 428.
 
 JOHN SKLDEX. 147 
 
 House of Lords, and the clerk of the crown brought in 
 the records of his office. I desire that it may be a 
 message from this House to the lords at the bar, to make 
 out a charge against the earl that spoke this, and I hope 
 we shall have justice." 
 
 Sir Robert Phillips was directed by the House tem- 
 perately to require an explanation, and he reported that 
 the earl had openly protested, " upon his honour and soul, 
 he had used no such words." However, Sir Christopher 
 Neville and Mr. Littleton bore direct testimony to the 
 truth of Sir James Strangeways' statement, and they 
 further testified, that the earl said, that Selden endeavoured 
 to divide the king and his people; that the lords ought 
 to join in a petition to the king to have him hanged, and 
 that he would not be in his case for ten thousand pounds. 
 This and other confirmatory evidence, justified the com- 
 mittee in resolving, that, notwithstanding the earl's denial, 
 they were convinced he had brought a most unjust and 
 scandalous charge against Mr. Selden. They concluded 
 by requesting the lords to visit the earl with such punish- 
 ment as he deserved *. Other more important transactions 
 engaging the attention of parliament, any further pro- 
 ceedings upon this subject seem to have been neglected. 
 
 The remainder of the session was chiefly occupied in 
 drawing up the Petition of Right. In justifying its 
 various clauses, Selden bore a very efficient part ; and it 
 
 * Journals of both Houses, in temp. — Parliamont. Hist. vii. 451. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 IMEMOIP.S OF 
 
 would be difficult to find any series of legal arguments 
 more logical, or better supported by authorities, than 
 those which he delivered on this occasion *. 
 
 After a series of tedious conferences and debates, the 
 two Houses agreed as to the wording of this celebrated 
 petition. It expresses a desire, that, in conformity with 
 long sanctioned statutes, the people may not be taxed 
 in any form without the consent of Parliament ; that no 
 one shall be imprisoned upon warrants that do not specify 
 the offence with which he is charg-ed : that soldiers mav 
 not be billeted upon the people against the will of the 
 latter; and that martial law may not be enforced, nor 
 any person be punished, but according to the law of the 
 land. 
 
 At the present day we may be inclined to feel surprise 
 that such requests should be made, the subjects of so 
 formal a petition, for we live at a happy period in which 
 their denial or infringement is unknown. It was not so 
 during the days of which we are now sketching the events, 
 for the Petition of Right contained a statement of 
 examples of the invasion of all those rights. It requires 
 then no apology; and on other occasions in this anxious 
 and critical struggle, which was to decide the termination 
 or establishment of an absolute monarchy, the parliament 
 may be excused, if they occasionally asked for what was 
 superfluous or even wrong ; and we ought to lament that 
 
 * Journal of the House of Commons, i. 883. Parliament. Hist. vi. 
 and vii., contain a full report of them.
 
 JOHN SELDEN 149 
 
 we have at all to blame those who strove and suffered to 
 maintain the liberties we enjoy, and of which we are so 
 justly and so jealously proud. 
 
 The answer of the king to this petition was favourable, 
 but the House of Commons was not satisfied until the 
 king in full parliament gave his assent in the usual form. 
 To this, after some delay, Charles consented, and having 
 directed the clerk of parliament to cut out his first answer, 
 the petition was again read, and the customary affirmation, 
 Soit droit fait comme il est desire, was given*. The 
 parliament was right in requiring conformance to the 
 regular form ; for the court evidently intended to take 
 advantage of its defect. The king objected to adopt it, 
 and subsequently an endeavour was made to conceal its 
 performance. 
 
 In the interval between the first and second assent of 
 the king to the Petition of Right, a scene occurred in the 
 House of Commons, that ought not to be passed over 
 without notice. It fully demonstrates the sincerity of its 
 members, and the deep desire that animated them to 
 perform their duty : it informs us how firmly public 
 opinion set against the Duke of Buckingham ; and to what 
 extent the king was willing to proceed in support of his 
 favourite. 
 
 Sir John Eliot, in the course of one of his speeches, 
 approaching to some reflection upon the duke, the speaker 
 (Sir John Finch) rose from his chair and announced with 
 
 * Parliiuuent. IIi>,t. viii. 14(3 — 202.
 
 150 MEMOlllS OF 
 
 emotion, " There is a command laid upon me to interrupt 
 any that shall go about to lay an aspersion on the ministers 
 of state." The effect of this announcement on the 
 members was electric. Sir John Eliot resumed his seat ; 
 and though one or two others attempted to address the 
 House, their pained feelings would not allow them to 
 proceed. Among these was Sir Edward Coke ; but even 
 he, who had faced unmoved the opposition of courts, nor 
 melted for the sorrows of those who smarted beneath his 
 invectives, confessed by his faultering voice, and the tears 
 upon his aged cheeks, the mental agitation that compelled 
 him to desist. The speaker of the House pretended to 
 share in the general feeling, and declaring that he could 
 no longer endure the spectacle of such sorrow in the Com- 
 mons of England, he obtained leave to pass from the 
 chair, and hastened to the king; from whom, after an 
 absence of three hours, he returned with a message 
 desiring them to adjourn until the following morning. 
 
 During the absence of the speaker, in a committee of 
 the whole House, they voted the Duke of Buckingham to 
 be the principal cause of the evils of which they com- 
 jjlained. A remonstrance to this effect, eloquently 
 expressed, in the promotion of which Selden was very 
 active, was presented to the king. 
 
 They subsequently prepared another remonstrance, 
 declaring that the impost of tonnage and poundage was 
 no prerogative of the crown, but was always granted to the 
 king by parliament. In support of this, Selden, as usual
 
 JOilX SEl.DEN. 151 
 
 argued most satisfactorily from precedents. In this con- 
 sisted his strength as a debater. He was a living Bib- 
 liotheca of authorities, — a literary Ajax, ready to hurl a 
 mass of facts upon his opponents *. 
 
 Sir Edward Coke moved, that the remonstrance which 
 implicated the duke of Buckingham should be presented 
 by the House in a body ; and Selden, in seconding this 
 motion, proposed a declaration against him, with the 
 addition of a request that lis might ba removed from 
 authority, from personal attendance upon the king, and 
 that judgment be required against him upon the impeach- 
 ment in the last Parliament f. The remonstrance was 
 drawn up and digested by Sir Henry Martin, Sir Nathaniel 
 Rich, Sir Thomas Wentworth, Sir John Eliot, Mr. 
 Prynn, Mr. Littleton, and Selden t. 
 
 * Rushworth, i. 609— 62S. Parliament. Hist. viii. 191—236. 
 t Whitelock's Memorials, 10, &c. 
 X Harleian MSS. 2217. pi. 61, h.
 
 152 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HIS CHARACTER. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED THE FAVOURITE 
 
 BUCKINGHAM. SELDEn's CONNECTION WITH THE KENT FAMILY. 
 
 PUBLICATIONS. " MARMORA ARUNDELLI ANA," &C. — PUBLIC 
 
 EVENTS. PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLES. — PETITION OF RIGHT. 
 
 COMPLAINT OF GRIEVANCES. SELDEN BECOMES INDIGNANT. 
 
 THE KING ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL THE FREEDOM OF THE 
 
 HOUSE. EXTRAORDINARY SCENE. THE SPEAKER REFUSING TO 
 
 DO HIS DUTY. FIRST SYSTEMATIC OPPOSITION. — SELDEN AND 
 
 OTHER MEMBERS ARRESTED. THEIR FATE. SELDEN VAINLY 
 
 PROSECUTED ON ANOTHER CHARGE. FINALLY DISCHARGED. 
 
 It is too often the case that a people attribute their 
 adversities to some unpopular leader ; and history affords 
 many examples where their complaints have been by their 
 government diverted and concentrated upon one unhappy 
 scape-goat, whose blood has been poured out to appease 
 the wrath that should have visited many and greater 
 culprits. Such however was not the case of the Uuke of 
 Buckingham, the prime favourite of the monarch, and the 
 most influential member of his ministry. Contemporaries 
 of every political grade and hue acknowledge him to have 
 been a selfish and despotic politician. This opinion was 
 entertained by his friends, as well as by the nation 
 generally, and the knowledge of his offences was whispered 
 to him by his well-wishers, and was forced upon his
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 153 
 
 jitteiition by the outcries of the multitude. Mr. Howel 
 warned him of his danger in a calm and disinterested 
 letter, and that " it were not amiss if he would be pleased 
 to part with some of the places he held," and to conduct 
 himself with less haughtiness, and more attention to the 
 wishes of the people *. The opinion of these is told in 
 one sentence of Lord Clarendon's Autobiography ; he says 
 the death of the duke " produced a due observation of and 
 obedience to the laws t." He fell by the hand of Feltou 
 on the 2i3rd of August, 1628, another warning of the 
 untimely end, that, in some form or other, has usually 
 fallen upon the favourite courtiers of the kings of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 It is a fact, though not a surprising one, that scarcely 
 one of those ftivourites has been worthy of such distinction. 
 It is not surprising, because none but a weak monarch 
 singles out an individual on whom he may lavish his 
 favours ; and he who renders himself particularly agreeable 
 to the imbecile, cannot be expected to be very wise, very 
 undesigning, or very virtuous. 
 
 George Villiers was not an exception. He was one of 
 those thoroughly base characters in whom no historian, 
 contemporary or subsequent, has been able to discover a 
 redeeming quality. To advance his own fortunes was his 
 chief object of action, and to the hindrance of this no 
 friendship, no tie of kindred, no regard for his country's 
 
 * Ilowel's Letters, sect. iv. p. 25. Ed. 1645. 
 f Octavo edition, i. 10.
 
 151 MEMOIUS OF 
 
 welfare, was allowed to interfere. Honourable ambition 
 was degraded in him into the most engrossing selfishness ; 
 and having no scruple as to the means he adopted for its 
 gratification, he was continually acting criminally by 
 design. These are hard words, but they are justified by 
 the facts recorded by contemporary annalists. But one of 
 the least known of these need be quoted. 
 
 His intention to overturn Episcopacy in order to secure 
 the support of the Presbyterians, when he considered 
 himself declining in the favour of King James, is recorded 
 by Hacket, and is mentioned by Hume. Dr. Preston was 
 then at the head of the anti-episcopal party, and to his 
 friends the doctor acknowledged that, although he used 
 the duke as a tool, he found him to be as vile and profli- 
 gate as any man could be *. 
 
 The occasion of the duke first obtaining the notice of 
 King James, was w^orthy of them both. " The king, *' 
 says Roger Coke, "about the beginning of March, 1612, 
 according to his usual methods, went to take his hunting 
 pleasures at Newmarket, and the scholars (as they termed 
 them) at Cambridge, who knew the king's humour, in- 
 vited him to a play called "Ignoramus" (written by 
 Ruggles), to ridicule the practice of the common law. 
 Never did anything so hit the king's humour as this play 
 did ; so that he would have it acted and acted again ; and 
 
 * Hacket's Life of Lord Keeper Williams, 205. Lansdowne MSS. 
 932 — 88. Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature. Second Series, iii. 
 347, &c.
 
 J(3HN SEl.DEN. 1.55 
 
 it was increased with several additions, which yet more 
 pleased the king. At this play it was so contrived, that 
 George A^illiers should appear with all the advantages his 
 mother could set him forth ; and the king, so soon as he 
 had seen him, fell into admiration of him *." James 
 made him his cup-bearer ; and finally, when this capricious 
 monarch became weary of his then favourite, the Earl of 
 Somerset, he selected Villiers to be his successor. 
 
 " It was now observed," says Archbishop Abbot, " that 
 the king began to cast his eye upon George Villiers, who 
 was theu his cup-bearer, and seemed a modest and 
 courteous youth. But King James had a fashion that he 
 would not admit any to nearness about himself but such 
 a one as the queen commended unto him, and made some 
 suit on his behalf; that if the queen afterwards, being 
 ill-intreated, should complain — ' Dear one,' he might 
 answer, ' it is 'long of yourself, for you were the party 
 that commended him unto me.' " The queen could never 
 be induced to interest herself in favour of "\"illiers, and 
 when the archbishop spoke to her in his favour, she 
 replied, " My lord, you and the rest of your friends, know 
 not what you do. I know your master better than you 
 all, and if this young man be once brought in, the first 
 persons that he will plague must be you that labour for 
 him ; yea, I shall have my part also. The king will teach 
 him to despise and hardly intreat us all, that he may 
 seem to be beholden to none but himself." " Noble 
 
 * Coke's Detection of the Court and State, 75.
 
 156 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 queen," concludes the prelate, "how like a prophetess did 
 you speak *." 
 
 Wilson gives a spirited sketch of Buckingham's subse- 
 quent promotion. " To speak of his advancement by 
 degrees,'" says this merry, unprejudiced historian of his 
 own times, " were to lessen the king's love ; for titles were 
 heaped upon him ; they came rather like showers than 
 drops. As soon as Somerset declined, he mounted. Such 
 is the court motion. He now reigns sole monarch in the 
 king's affection ; every thing he doth is admired for the 
 doer's sake. No man dances better ; no man runs or 
 jumps better; and indeed he jumped higher than ever 
 Englishman did in so short a time f." This last stroke 
 of satire was certainly not groundless, for in 1617 he was 
 only cupbearer, and in 1621, when he was impeached by 
 the House of Commons, his titles are thus enumerated. 
 
 " George, Duke, Marquis, and Earl of Buckingham, 
 Earl of Coventry, Viscount Villiers, Baron of Whaddon, 
 Great Admiral of the kingdoms of England and Ireland, 
 and of the principality of Wales, and of the dominions 
 and islands of the same, of the town of Calais, and of the 
 marches of the same, and of Normandy, Gascoign, and 
 Guienne ; General, Governor of the Seas and Ships of the 
 said kingdom ; Lieutenant-General, Admiral, Captain- 
 General and Governor of his Majesty's Royal Fleet and 
 Army lately set forth ; Master of the Horse of our 
 Sovereign Lord the King ; Lord Warden, Chancellor, and 
 
 * Rushwortl), i. 456. f Wilson's Jumes the First, IOj.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 157 
 
 Admiral of the Cinque Ports, and of the members thereof; 
 Constable of Dover Castle ; Justice in Eyre of the Forests 
 and Chases on this side the Trent; Constable of the 
 Castle of Windsor; Gentleman of his Majesty's Bed- 
 chamber; one of his Majesty's most honorable Privy 
 Council in England, Scotland, and Ireland ; and Knight 
 of the most honorable Order of the Garter*.'* 
 
 If Buckingham had lived, it is certain that he still 
 would have obtained the shelter of the royal prerogative, 
 for the remonstrances of the Commons were received by 
 the king with marked impatience, and after passing the 
 Bill of Subsidies, he prorogued the parliament. 
 
 Being thus discharged from his parliamentary duties, 
 Selden now retired to those literary occupations which 
 were so much more in unison with his taste than the 
 excitement of political life. The place of his repose was 
 at the seat of the Earl of Kent, at Wrest, in Bedfordshire. 
 Aubrey has informed us, that this nobleman was a very 
 early patron of Selden, and that previously to this period 
 he had appointed him his solicitor and steward t." Sucli 
 appointments were not unusual at that period by those 
 who had much landed property, and the salary at that time 
 of his life must have been with Selden a worthy consi- 
 deration. It is true, that, intimate as they were, it would 
 seem more generous if the earl had allowed him an 
 
 * Rushworth, i. 303. 
 
 t Aubrey MSS. in the Ashmolean Museum. Wood's Athenoe 
 Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 378.
 
 158 ME.AIOIRS OF 
 
 annuity, without the exaction of services; hut Selden 
 would then have had to endure the distasteful feeling 
 that will always come upon the generous spirited who 
 suffer an eleemosynary benefit. 
 
 The follow ing characteristic letter to Sir Robert Cotton, 
 is a further attestation of Selden's early connection with 
 the Kent family. The earl, whose '* office" is mentioned, 
 was probably Charles, the seventh earl, who died the 
 previous year*. The Bishop of Lincoln spoken of was 
 liis friend Dr. Williams, the lord keeper ; and the Bishop 
 of Winchester, whose death he mentions, was Dr. Andrews. 
 
 " Noble Sir, 
 
 " Had I not thought with assurance to have seen you 
 again long ere this, you had long since heard from me ; 
 that so my service might have been presented to you, 
 and I might also have received the comfort of your 
 being well. 
 
 " Till Saturday we despatched not my Lord of Kent's 
 office. Now that is done I shall soon come up again. 
 
 " My Lord of Lincoln remembered you especially when 
 
 * An Inquisition of Office was an inquiry made by the sheriff or 
 other king's officer, &c,, concerning- any matter that entitles the king- 
 to the possession of lands, or tenements, or goods. Thus, when one of 
 his tenants died, an inquest of this kind was held, called an inquisitio 
 post mortem, to inquire whether he was entitled to any of those 
 oppressive advantages which accrued to the crown under the feudal 
 system. They were not abolished until the restoration of Charles the 
 Second. Rlackstone's Comment, iii. 2.58.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 159 
 
 I was with him the last week at Biigden, where he hves 
 finely within doors and without, and deserves the love and 
 honour of good men. 
 
 " My Lady of Kent presents you with a red deer pie 
 by this bearer. For she gave it me to send you ; and 
 with it you have the entire affection of 
 
 " Your most acknowledging servant, 
 
 " J. Selden. 
 
 " Sept, 25, 1626. Wrest, in Beds. 
 
 " Since I wrote this, I hear of the loss of my Lord of 
 Winchester. His lingering sickness hath, together with 
 his age, made his best friends the easier take it, I doubt 
 not. It was rather nature than death that took him away, 
 if they might be divided in him. I heartily wish his 
 library may be kept together, at least till we may see it. 
 Something I have in it that I value much, and something 
 else of slighter moment. That which I would take care 
 of for myself is an Armenian Dictionary. I never saw 
 another copy, and my lord borrowed it of me some two 
 years since. A Cedrinus also he hath of mine, which 
 I must render to Mr. Boswell. These two I would not 
 willingly lose. What else his library hath of mine is of 
 no great moment ; but I shall know when I come into 
 mine own, where I have something also that was his. I 
 shall soon see you I hope now, though, if it please you to 
 write, I shall receive it before I shall see you*." 
 
 * r 
 
 Cotton MSS. Vespasian. F. xiii. 165, b.
 
 IGO MEIVIOIRS OF 
 
 The literary subjects which now occupied Selden's 
 attention, may be learned from the three works which he 
 published about this period. 
 
 The two first, *' Of the Original of Ecclesiastical 
 Jurisdiction of Testaments," and " Of the Disposition 
 or Administration of Intestates' Goods," are composed of 
 authorities and deductions relative to the ancient practice 
 in those branches of the law% and are supposed to have 
 been suggested to him by debates in the House of 
 Commons, concerning the king's right to the goods of 
 bastards who die intestate. 
 
 His other publication, entitled " Marmora Arundel- 
 liana, sive Saxa Grseca incisa," was of more popular 
 interest. 
 
 The Arundelian Marbles w^re so called from having 
 been obtained for the Earl of Arundel, by Mr. William 
 Petty, whom the earl employed in the year 1624 to procure 
 for him antiquarian remains in various countries of the 
 East. They are also known as the Oxford JNIarbles, 
 because they are in the possession of that University by 
 the gift of the grandson of the first importer. They have 
 the third designation of the Parian Chronicle, because 
 they declare themselves to have been engraved in the Isle 
 of Paros, 264 years before the Christian era. 
 
 They reached England about 1627, and being seen in 
 the gardens of Arundel House by Sir Robert Cotton, he 
 engaged Selden to examine them during the ensuing 
 morning. He obtained permission to associate with
 
 JOHN SELDEN. l6l 
 
 himself in this examination Mr. Patrick Young and Mr. 
 Richard James, two of the best scholars of the age. 
 
 Their delight and ardour in the pursuit is told by 
 Selden in one sentence : ** At the first dawn of day we 
 triumvirs came to the Arundelian Gardens." The marbles 
 were broken in many fragments, disfigured with dirt, 
 and imperfect — the deficiencies and erasures were many — 
 but they continued in the mutual labour of cleansing, 
 washing, and adapting with the natural unweariedness of 
 antiquaries. They first discovered the decrees of the 
 Smyrneans, and their treaty with the Magnesians for the 
 safety of King Seleucus Callinicus. 
 
 The intelligence of this discovery was soon diffiised, for, 
 as Selden observed, every one loves to impart information, 
 and numerous applications were the consequence for more 
 explanatory particulars. Selden declined giving any copies 
 of the inscriptions, even to his most intimate friends, 
 fearing the publication of errors in such frequent trans- 
 criptions, but promising to publish the whole collectively. 
 
 Successive visits discovered other Greek inscriptions, 
 of which the most valuable were some containing the 
 dates of facts, which, though unfortunately imperfect, 
 afforded a number of fixed points in the early history of 
 Greece, that are of the greatest use in chronology. 
 
 The work in which they were published occupied 
 Selden' s time during the parliamentary recess, and he 
 acknowledges, with the genuine emphasis of gratitude, 
 that he owed to the Earl and Countess of Kent, that 
 
 M
 
 162 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 peaceful retirement at their country house, which enabled 
 him to pursue the work free from the disturbances of the 
 metropolis*. However faulty in some respects, it is 
 another monument of the varied and deep learning of 
 its author, whose relaxation was an employment that 
 would have been a labour to most minds. It was pub- 
 lished in 1629, dedicated to his coadjutor Mr. Young, 
 whose valuable assistance he liberally acknowledges. The 
 inscriptions, to which are added some preserved in ancient 
 Latium, are accompanied by a preface, an apparatus, a 
 canon chronologicus, and by historical notes. 
 
 In their perfect state these marbles bore a chronological 
 record of the principal events in Grecian history, from 
 the commencement of the reign of Cecrops, 1582 years 
 before the nativity of Christ, to the termination of the 
 archonate of Diogenetus, in the year 264 preceding that 
 era. That part which recorded the history of the last 
 ninety years is lost, and the whole is so defaced and 
 mutilated, that in many places it is rendered intelligible 
 only by the learning and perspicacity of its annotators. 
 Where there is so much room for conjecture, there is 
 necessarily ample opportunity for dispute, and there has 
 been no deficiency of learned dust-shedding upon this 
 theme. 
 
 The dates of nearly all the events between the destruc- 
 tion of Troy and the acquirement of an annual magistracy 
 
 * Opera Omnia, ii, 1439.
 
 JOHN SEl.DEX. 163 
 
 by the Athenians, are twenty-six years earlier than those 
 given by Eusebius and other approved chronologists. 
 Though often usefully employed, this disagreement has 
 much depreciated their authority. Some antiquarians 
 have even doubted their authenticity. Those who are 
 interested in the contest will find the conflicting argu- 
 ments ably enforced in the wi'itings of Mr. Hewlett and 
 Mr. Robinson. 
 
 The subsequent history of these marbles may be 
 succinctly told. During the civil wars they were much 
 injured, some being appropriated to the commonest uses, 
 and others were irrevocably lost. In 1667 they were given 
 to the University of Oxford, when a new edition of Selden's 
 work relating to them was published, with additional notes 
 by Dr. Prideaux. Mr. Mittaire and Dr. Chandler have 
 subsequently written more largely and successfully upon 
 their statements. They have shown that many errors 
 were committed by Selden in his work ; but were they 
 even more numerous and of greater magnitude, they 
 might readily be excused in a first attempt to edit such 
 imperfect and defaced inscriptions. 
 
 In the interval that had elapsed since the last prorogation 
 and the reassembly of parliament, if the government had 
 purposely adopted such measures as were calculated to 
 irritate the House of Commons, and to efface the little 
 esteem in which it was yet retained by that assembly, it 
 could not have been more successful. 
 
 Dr. Laud, whom the House had charged with being a 
 
 AT 9.
 
 164 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 schismatic, and who was universally allowed to be inclined 
 to arbitrary measures, was promoted to the Bishopric of 
 London, and admitted to be the king's most influential 
 
 adviser. 
 
 Dr. Montague and Dr. Mainwaring, each of whom 
 
 had been censured by the House for publishing sermons 
 
 advocating the cause of despotism, were advanced by the 
 
 court party. The first was raised to the bishopric of 
 
 Chichester, and the second was presented to two valuable 
 
 livings. It is true that a proclamation had been issued 
 
 for suppressing Dr. Montague's work entitled "Apello 
 
 Csesarem," but the reward was more likely to encourage, 
 
 than the punishment was calculated to deter ; and, as one 
 
 of the members observed, " calling in the appeals to 
 
 Caesar was of little avail, for if they can get bishoprics 
 
 for writing such books, we shall have many more that 
 
 will write books in that kind*." 
 
 The Commons had protested against tonnage and 
 poundage, or any other customs, being levied without 
 they were first granted by parliament ; yet the goods of 
 Mr. Vassals, of Mr. Chambers, and of Mr. Rolls, one of 
 their own members, had been seized for refusing to pay 
 this unsanctioned impost. 
 
 The ill-will of the House would not be at all mollified 
 by the defection of Sir Thomas Went worth. He had 
 been one of the most forward of the advocates of the 
 people, but had now been seduced over to the court party, 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. viii. 261.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 165 
 
 and raised to the peerage as Baron Wentworth. He was 
 afterwards more unhappily known as the Earl of Strafford. 
 
 Irritated by all these causes of dissatisfaction, the 
 parliament met on the 20th of January, 1629- 
 
 Selden again appeared in it as one of the most active 
 of its members. A mind constituted like his is weary 
 only when it is without employment. He seems to have 
 addressed himself to his parliamentary duties with the 
 same ardour and with as much mastery as to the 
 deciphering of inscriptions, the accumulation of autho- 
 rities, or the details of legal practice. So true is it that 
 whichever way genius is directed it will succeed, and 
 if sustained by perseverance, succeed eminently. 
 
 He was appointed to examine whether the Petition of 
 Right had been properly enrolled, and to inquire why it 
 had been printed with his majesty's first answer ap- 
 pended. His report, which contained information showing 
 the determination of the government to suppress the copies 
 to which the king's second assent was added, though no 
 proceedings upon it were taken, could not but heighten 
 the jealousy and excite the ill-will of the House towards 
 the executive*. 
 
 When the imposition of tonnage and poundage became 
 the subject of debate, the king, at a personal conference 
 with both Houses, told them that he considered those 
 sources of revenue to be no part of his prerogative, but 
 the gift of the people, and that he had enforced it under 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. viii. 24j.
 
 1()() MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the [)ersuasion that the parliament would ultimately grant 
 it to him. The speech was conciliatory, though this 
 excuse was sufficiently unsatisfactory ; for no one has a 
 right to take property merely because he thinks the 
 owner intends to give it to him. In those jealous times 
 it would have been more wise to wait until the gift was 
 presented. 
 
 The Commons, unpacified by several messages from 
 the king, continued to pour out a series of complaints 
 respecting the religious and political grievances which 
 oppressed the people. They evidently mistrusted the 
 king's advisers, for one despotic minister had fallen only 
 to be succeeded by another equally favourable to absolute 
 monarchy; words therefore could not now mollify the 
 indignation that acts of oppression had roused. The 
 time had been when hope lent a willing ear to the con- 
 descending words and promises of our monarchs, for there 
 had been a time when they promised faithfully. The 
 kingly word had ceased to be inviolable, and hope had 
 ceased to be credulous. Charles had always promised 
 liberally; he did so still. Yet now, as formerly, he 
 continued to act in defiance of the laws — he granted the 
 Petition of Right, and violated it the next week. 
 
 There is no reason, therefore, for us to be surprised 
 that there is a sternness to be observed in the language of 
 the several speakers, very different from that which is 
 apparent in preceding sessions. 
 
 Seklen had always spoken with moderation of the
 
 JOHN SELDEN 167 
 
 court measures, and had chiefly confined himself, when 
 speaking, to the authorities and precedents that related to 
 the subject under debate ; but the spirit of the man was 
 now roused : even his temperate nature acknowledged that 
 the period of silent endurance was passed, and he spurned 
 the wrong which was evidently designedly inflicted. 
 
 When the chancellor of the duchy could only plead in 
 defence of the seizure of the goods of Mr. Rolls, and of 
 serving him with a subpoena whilst upon a committee, 
 that it was a mistake, Selden warmly retorted, " This is 
 not to be reckoned as an error, but questionless this is 
 done purposely to affront us, and of this our own lenity is 
 the cause*." 
 
 The officer, or customer, who made the seizure, did 
 not mollify the irritation of the members by the evidence 
 he rendered them, for he said " he knew Mr. Rolls was a 
 parliament man, and that he told Mr. Rolls he did not find 
 any parliament man exempted in his commission, and that 
 if all the body of the House of Commons were in him, 
 he would not deliver the goods." It was injudiciously 
 suggested, that the advisers of the king were more in 
 fault than these officers, and this again roused the ire of 
 the members. " If there be any near the king," said 
 Selden, " that misinterpret our actions, let the curse light 
 on them, and not on us. I believe it is high time to 
 right ourselves ; and until we vindicate ourselves in this 
 it will be in vain for us to sit heret." 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. viii. 286. f Parliament. Hist. viii. 310—315.
 
 1G8 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Bodies of men, as well as individuals, are undoubtedly 
 liable to commit mistakes, for they are still human beings, 
 but as, during the whole of this sessions, the court party 
 were in various forms aggressors, it is too much to require 
 a belief that in every instance it erred without intention : 
 more especially as every aggression was in accordance 
 with their own principles. The concluding transaction of 
 the session was consistent with these convenient errors. 
 It was a mistaken attempt to control the freedom of the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 A message from the king was announced to the House 
 by the speaker, commanding him to adjourn it. Several 
 members immediately objected, " that it is not the office 
 of the speaker to deliver any such command to them ; for 
 the adjournment of the House did properly belong to 
 themselves," and without further attention the House 
 endeavoured to proceed with its debates. 
 
 Upon this occasion, Sir John Eliot appeared for the last 
 time in parliament ; the privy council thence consigned 
 him to that imprisonment, from which he never came forth 
 but upon his bier. 
 
 Sir John, knowing that the king had determined to 
 dissolve the parliament, resolved upon this day to pass a 
 resolution against tonnage and poundage. When prayers 
 were concluded he arose, amid the cheers of the House, 
 and not only incontestibly showed the ruinous conse- 
 quences of such illegal taxation, but warned the House 
 not to slumber over its duty. " Buckingham is dead,'*
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 1^9 
 
 were the warning words of this patriot, " but he lives in 
 Neil and my Lord Treasurer Weston. I have traced 
 them in all their actions, and I find them building on the 
 foundation laid by their master, the Duke. Out of fear, 
 they go about to break parliaments, lest parliaments should 
 break them." 
 
 He concluded by moving for the adoption of a remon- 
 strance to the king, with a refusal to grant the impost at 
 present. But when the speaker was requested to put the 
 question that it be adopted, he refused, saying, " He was 
 commanded otherwise by the king." 
 
 Selden then rose and thus addressed him : " Mr. Speaker, 
 dare you not put the question when we command you ? 
 If you will not, we must sit still, and so we shall 
 do nothing, for they that come after you may plead 
 a similar excuse. We sit here by command from the 
 king, under the Great Seal ; and as for you, you are, by 
 his majesty's command, sitting on his throne before both 
 Houses, appointed our speaker ; — Do you now refuse to be 
 our speaker ? " 
 
 This rational appeal could not alter his determination ; 
 he replied, " he had an express command from the king, 
 so soon as he had delivered his message, to rise," and so 
 saying, he attempted to leave the chair, but was retained 
 in it by Mr. Hollis (son of the Earl of Clare), Mr 
 Valentine, and other members. Sir Thomas Edmonds 
 and others of the privy council endeavoured to release
 
 170 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the speaker, but Mr. Hollis swore " by God's wounds, he 
 should sit still until it pleased the House to rise." 
 
 The tumult in the House was great and disgraceful; 
 disgraceful because the opinion against the speaker should 
 have been unanimous. The court party vociferously 
 opposed the question's being put ; and the friends of the 
 House's privileges supported it by counter acclamations. 
 Even blows were exchanged, and many laid their hands 
 upon their sword-hilts. In the lobbies it was believed 
 that swords were drawn, for in a manuscript letter of the 
 period it is stated that a Welsh servant came in great 
 haste, and endeavoured to gain admittance at the door, 
 saying, " I pray you let hur in ; let hur in to give hur 
 master his sword *." 
 
 The speaker wept bitterly whilst he declared that he 
 dared not put the question, but his tears were not for the 
 trampled liberties of his country. They were the abject 
 confession of fear for his own interests. He was the 
 creature of the court, and instead of daring to disregard 
 its frowns whilst he performed his duty to his country, he 
 implored the House not to force him to his ruin ; reminded 
 it that he had been a faithful servant ; and concluded by 
 saying, what his conduct belied, that he was willing to die 
 for his country, but, which was more true he dared not 
 offend against the commands of his sovereign. 
 
 * D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, Sec. Ser. iii. 426.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 171 
 
 Seidell felt that this pusillanimity was more worthy of 
 <!ontempt than pity, and told him " that he had ever loved 
 his person well, but he could not choose but blame him 
 now, being the servant of the House, that he should 
 refuse their command under any colour. His obstinacy 
 would be a precedent to posterity if it went unpunished, 
 for hereafter if they should meet with a dishonest speaker, 
 and they could not promise themselves to the contrary, he 
 might, under pretence of the king's command, refuse to 
 propose the business and intendment of the House.*' 
 
 Sir Peter Hayman was still more severe in his reproval. 
 He told him, " he was sorry he was his kinsman, for that 
 he was a disgrace to his country, and a blot upon a noble 
 family ; that all the inconveniences, or even destruction, 
 that should follow, would come upon posterity as the issue 
 of his baseness, and that he would be remembered with 
 scorn and disdain." He concluded with declaring his 
 opinion that the refractory speaker ought to be called to 
 the bar, and a new speaker chosen. 
 
 All these arguments, reproaches, and threats were vain » 
 the recreant speaker returned only tears and poltroon 
 entreaties. Finally Mr. Hollis was called upon to read 
 three protestations, stating that whoever caused an inno- 
 vation of religion, advised the imposition of tonnage and 
 poundage without the assent of parliament, or whoever 
 voluntarily paid it, if levied without such sanction, would be 
 a capital enemy of this kingdom, and a betrayer of its liberty. 
 The House having agreed to these declarations, adjourned.
 
 172 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 During these exciting proceedings, the king, hearing 
 that the House persisted in sitting, sent a messenger to 
 command the serjeant to bring away the mace, but the 
 House would not permit this formal suspension of its 
 proceedings. His Majesty then sent a summons to them 
 by the Usher of the Black Rod, but he was denied admit- 
 tance. Enraged at this opposition, Charles sent for a 
 guard to force the door j but fortunately the House had 
 risen before it arrived. 
 
 Eight days subsequently, March the 10th, 1629, the 
 king dissolved the parliament. In his address, he only 
 spoke to the Lords ; but, alluding to the Lower House, he 
 said they had " some vipers " and " evil affected persons " 
 among them, " who must look for their reward *." 
 
 The kindling spirit of the people of England must 
 have been more and more apparent to the king. It was 
 evident that the speeches of his father, and his own, could 
 not persuade them to be contented under their grievances, 
 and in proportion as violent measures, and repetitions of 
 oppression were resorted to, the opposition to them was 
 firm and elastic. On the contrary, whenever the king 
 had shown a willingness to attend to the complaints of 
 the people, and to acknowledge their liberties, so propor- 
 tionately had they manifested their joy, and shown by 
 their representatives, that *' those who have their hearts 
 may command their purses also.'* 
 
 These were eloquent facts, yet, unhappily, they had no 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. viii. 310—349.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 173 
 
 monitory influence upon those by whose counsel Charles 
 was guided. The queen, Strafford and Laud, seemed to 
 think it unworthy of a king to rule by any other than 
 " high measures," and they pursued that lofty course, 
 fatally regardless of the wishes and affection of the 
 people. 
 
 In previous reigns, those in parliament who objected to 
 the measures of government, spoke and acted without 
 union, and without any previous agreement ; but the 
 systematic and continued oppression of the court party, 
 had now taught its opponents to consult and act together 
 in their resistance. It was speedily observed that this 
 union was strength, and the Star Chamber informa- 
 tions soon after brought forward, were parts of an effort 
 by the government to break down that opj^ositioti, which 
 then began and has ever since continued, as a party, to be 
 an efficient conservative of our liberties. 
 
 Even before the parliament was dissolved, warrants 
 were directed from the Privy Council to Sir John Eliot, 
 Sir Miles Hobart, and Sir Peter Hayman, and to Denzil 
 Hollis, William Coriton, Walter Long, William Strode, 
 Benjamin Valentine, and John Selden, Esquires, com- 
 manding their appearance on the following day. 
 
 The four first named obeyed the summons. 
 
 The Privy Council inquired of Mr. Hollis, why, on the 
 day of the tumult in the House of Commons, he had 
 placed himself, contrary to custom, above the privy 
 councillors, and next to the speaker's chair? To which
 
 174 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 he replied, '* That at some other times as well as then, he 
 seated himself in the same place; and as for sitting 
 above the privy councillors, he considered he was entitled 
 to do so in any place, unless at the council board. 
 He went to the House with a zeal to do the king service 
 equal to that of any of its members, but finding his 
 majesty was offended with what he had done," he humbly 
 desired that he might rather be the subject of his mercy 
 than of his power.'* 
 
 *' You mean," said the Lord Treasurer Weston, "of 
 his majesty's mercy rather than of his justice." But Mr. 
 Hollis disavowed this acknowledgment of guilt by re- 
 plying, " I say of his majesty's power, my lord." 
 
 Sir John Eliot was questioned concerning certain 
 speeches he had uttered, and the papers he had read in the 
 House ; but in his reply he was quite as free from pusilla- 
 nimity as Mr. Hollis. " Whatever was said or done by 
 me in that place and at that time," he rejoined, " was 
 performed by me as a public man, and as a member of 
 that House ; and I am, and always shall be, ready to give 
 an account of my sayings and doings there, whenever I 
 shall be called unto it by that House ; where, as I take 
 it, it is only to be questioned. In the mean time, being 
 now but a private individual, I will not trouble myself to 
 remember what I have either spoken or done in that place 
 as a public man." 
 
 Sir Miles Hobart was as uncompromising. He desired 
 to know by what warrant he could be called upon to ac-
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 175 
 
 count for his conduct in parliament ; and insisted that, for 
 anything done there, parliament itself could alone inquire. 
 He acknowledged that he shut the door of the House on 
 the day in question, and that, having locked it, he put the 
 key into his pocket, because the House so directed him. 
 
 Sir Peter Hayman, in reply to the council, said, that he 
 reproved the speaker *, because the speaker, as the servant 
 of the House, ought to have obeyed its command. If the 
 king had directed him, being in the speaker's chair, to 
 deliver such a message, he should have requested his 
 majesty to select some other person to communicate it to 
 the House. 
 
 In conclusion, these four gentlemen were committed 
 close prisoners to the Tower, where Selden and the others, 
 with the exception of Mr. Strode and Mr. Long, soon 
 joined them. The studies of Sir John Eliot, of Mr. 
 Hollis, and of Selden were sealed up ; and a proclamation 
 being issued for the apprehension of the two who had not 
 appeared, they were soon after taken and committed to 
 the King's Bench Prison t. 
 
 * Sir John Finch, the speaker, whose pusillanimous conduct the 
 House, both at this and other times, had cause to reprehend, was a 
 tool of the court party. He was subsequently made Lord Keeper of 
 the Great Seal, and created Lord Fordwich ; but when the Parliament 
 became predominant, he was accused of high treason, and fled from its 
 authority into Holland. 
 
 t In 1641, the House of Commons voted that all these proceedings 
 were breaches of privilege. (Parliament. Hist. ix. 465.)
 
 176 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 After Seidell and his fellow-prisoners had been about 
 two weeks in confinement, they were subjected to a very 
 strict examination before the Earls of Arundel, Dorset and 
 Manchester, who came to the Tower with others of the 
 privy council. Sir Robert Heath, the attorney-general, 
 examined them upon questions which had been previously 
 prepared. Selden says, that he was chiefly interrogated 
 as to his opinion concerning ship-money being part of the 
 royal prerogative, and that to the questions he answered 
 so ingenuously, that he hoped to obtain a speedy libera- 
 tion. But that hope altogether deceived him *. 
 
 Conduct so inquisitorial, and so repugnant to the usual 
 rules of English justice, was the common routine of Star 
 Chamber practice, and the next step in this course of 
 oppression and breach of privilege, which in our times 
 would at once be rightly branded as an attempt to preju- 
 dice the administration of the laws, was passed by in those 
 days of accustomed wrong as not particularly blameworthy. 
 This step was the summoning the judges before the Privy 
 Council to obtain their opinions upon certain questions 
 which were considered to be involved in the cases of these 
 gentlemen. As they agreed that a member of parliament 
 could be punished for uniting himself with other members 
 in parliamentary resolutions tending to bring hatred and 
 contemi)t upon the government, the attorney general 
 
 * Vindicise Maris Clausi, 31.
 
 JOHN SKLDEN. 177 
 
 exhibited an information in the Star Chamber against the 
 nine members *. 
 
 The information specified that they had entered into an 
 unlawful confederacy to disturb the government and 
 interrupt the trade of the realm ; and that, in furtherance 
 of their design, they had written false and scandalous 
 assertions against several of the Privy Council. Also, 
 that when the speaker of the House of Commons an- 
 nounced to its members, his majesty's pleasure was that 
 they should adjourn, Sir John Eliot rose several times to 
 speak, and when the speaker endeavoured to leave the 
 chair, Denzil Hollis and Benjamin Valentine, being one 
 on each side of the speaker, held him in against his will, 
 and upon his struggling to rise, again thrust him back. 
 That Sir John Eliot produced a paper which he desired 
 to have read, that thereupon was a confusion, and the con- 
 test became so hot, that William Coriton actually assaulted 
 another member named Winterton, and many members 
 wishing to leave, Sir Miles Hobart, at his own suggestion, 
 locked the door of the House : that they then endeavoured 
 to persuade the speaker to read the paper, and as he per- 
 tinaciously refused, Selden moved that the clerk of the 
 House should read it. For these proceedings, for several 
 speeches, and other supposed offences, the attorney general 
 prayed his majesty that they might be subpoenaed to appear 
 in the court of Star Chamber. 
 
 To this information, Selden demurred, and pleaded that 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. viii. .3.54—308. Riishwoitli, i. GCA—GIO. 
 
 N
 
 178 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 he was not responsible for his speeches in parliament ; and 
 that there was no proof of a confederacy. He then pointed 
 out, that many parts of the pretended offences did not 
 affect him, and observed in conclusion, "No sufficient 
 cause is set forth in the information to put this defendant 
 to make answer to the matters therein contained. And 
 whereas, in the said information, there is a charge, or pre- 
 tence of a charge, laid against this defendant, for conspiring 
 and confederating with the other defendants ; this defend- 
 ant saithp not acknowledging any charge either of that kind, 
 or any other kind in the said information contained, to be 
 true, that as he conceives he is not bound to make any 
 answer not only for the reasons before expressed, concerning 
 the rights and liberties of every member of the House of 
 Commons, but also for that he conceives it is lawful for 
 any members of the same House for the time being, freely, 
 according to their judgments and opinions, to join together, 
 or agree in preparing to deliver, or in delivering into the 
 said House, either by speech or writing any matter that 
 may be communed or treated of in the same House, of 
 which nature all the particulars supposed to have been 
 prepared or delivered in the information are ; and having 
 free liberty to consult, advise and agree together concern- 
 ing the weighty affairs of the church and kingdom is not, 
 nor ought to be called or named a confederacy, nor 
 questioned by information thus exhibited." He then 
 prayed to have the information dismissed and his reasonable 
 costs paid.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 179 
 
 It is not uninteresting to know Selclen*s opinion of tlie 
 forcible detention of the speaker. He thus expresses 
 himself. "It is supposed in the information, that the 
 speaker, according to his majesty's command, endeavour- 
 ing to go out of the chair, was there retained against his 
 will. This defendant conceiveth it to be so far both in 
 form and matter from a charge to be answered to by this 
 defendant, that out of the very words and matter of the 
 information, the said speaker ought to have been so stayed 
 at that time ; for besides that, it is a right belonging to 
 that House, that its speaker by commandment of its 
 members is to do whatsoever belongeth to his duty in the 
 said House ; and it appeareth, from the words of the 
 information, that the greatest number of the House had 
 assented, before the pretended time of keeping the speaker 
 in the chair, to the adjournment of the House, according 
 to the signification of his majesty, it was then the speaker's 
 duty, according to the custom of the House, to have 
 declared the adjournment itself, and it was his bounden 
 duty to stay in the chair, until he had pronounced the 
 adjournment so assented to. And it is ordained by 
 authority of parliament in the 6th year of Henry the 
 Eighth, that no member of the House of Commons for 
 the time being may depart or absent himself from the 
 parliament until it is fully ended, finished, or prorogued, 
 except he have licence of the speaker and commons of the 
 
 House *." 
 
 * Harleian MSS. 2217. PI. 61, h. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 However doubtful it may be whether the ordinance of 
 the 6th of Henry the Eighth applies to an adjournment, 
 as it does to a prorogation of parliament, it is not at all 
 uncertain, that it is the duty of the speaker to remain in 
 the chair until the House has agreed to adjourn. Selden 
 could not plead that this was not done, because in that 
 case, he would have admitted the occurrence of an event 
 that chiefly implicated his friends. Whether they were 
 right in holding the speaker in his chair, is a question 
 which an information could not impugn : if it were a breach 
 of parliamentary privilege, the House of Commons was the 
 guardian and vindicator of its own rights perfectly uncon- 
 nected with the Star Chamber ; as it was an assault the 
 speaker had his private remedy. That the king has no 
 right to command the House to adjourn, is perfectly 
 clear, though it is his undoubted prerogative to prorogue 
 or dissolve the whole parliament. 
 
 The court party was too conscious of the badness of 
 their case to show any alacrity in bringing it to an issue ; 
 consequently, Selden and his fellow prisoners were brought 
 up on their motion by writs of habeas corpus to the bar 
 of the king's bench prison, on the first day of Trinity 
 Term, 1629- 
 
 The declaratory part of the warrant for the imprison- 
 ment of Selden, to Sir Allen Apsley, the lieutenant of 
 the Tower, as returned by that officer, stated " that this 
 commitment was for notable contempts by him committed 
 against ourself and our government, and for stirring up
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 181 
 
 sedition against us." Upon this Mr. Littleton pleaded 
 for his client's release. 
 
 He acknowledged the king's power to commit, but, at 
 the same time, he showed that the court of king's bench 
 had power to bail any one that was so committed. The 
 question therefore to be resolved was, whether the offences 
 specified in the warrant were such as allowed the prisoner 
 to be bailed. Having demonstrated that in this case they 
 neither amounted to treason or felony ; and that they 
 were not provided for by any express statute, he con- 
 cluded with an incontrovertible appeal to the common 
 law, and the lately enacted Petition of Right, that Selden 
 might be admitted to bail*. 
 
 In reply, the attorney general argued for Selden and 
 his fellow prisoners being remanded, for Hobart, Hollis, 
 and Valentine agreed to have their cases concluded by 
 the determination upon Selden's case. Sir Robert Heath 
 evidently felt that the law was against him, and relied 
 upon convincing the judges that it was their duty to 
 recommit them if they thought it for the good of the 
 commonweal. He concluded with an admonition, which 
 the event proved was a confession that the court party 
 had prejudged the cases of the prisoners. He used these 
 remarkable words : " I am confident that you will not 
 bail them if any danger may ensue ; bat first you are to 
 consult with the king, and he will show you where the 
 danger rests." 
 
 * Rushvvortli, i. Appendix, 28 — 39.
 
 IS2 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 The consultation of English judges with the king as 
 to the judgment they should give, needs no invective of 
 the historian, the common sense and the heart of every 
 reader will supply the just comment. The present 
 instance affords an example of the legitimate conse- 
 quences. The judges informed the king, that, by their 
 oaths, they were bound to bail the prisoners. So far they 
 were uncorrupted, but they were base enough to request 
 his directions for them to perform their duty. However, 
 Charles was resolved that the law should not be superior 
 to his will, and he dared in the face of his people to set 
 them an example of contempt for the institutions and 
 laws of the country. 
 
 When the judges were prepared to deliver their judg- 
 ment upon this question, which so much involved the 
 liberty of the subject, no prisoners appeared according to 
 the rule of the court — the bar was vacant. Proclamation 
 was consequently made calling upon the keepers of the 
 several prisons to produce the prisoners. The marshal 
 of the king's bench alone appeared ; and he informed the 
 court that, upon " the king's own warrant," his prisoners 
 had been removed to other places of confinement. 
 
 The counsel for the prisoners prayed the court to 
 declare its opinion of the law of the case, but this was 
 declined by the judges, because, as the prisoners were 
 absent, they could be neither bailed, delivered, or remanded. 
 Their lordships had been prepared for this conclusion, 
 because the evening previously the king wrote to inform
 
 JOHN SELDEN 183 
 
 them that the prisoners would not be allowed to come 
 before them, in consequence of his hearing " how most of 
 them awhile since did carry themselves insolently and 
 unmannerly," both towards himself and their lordships. 
 " Nevertheless," continued this contemptible apology 
 for injustice, " the respect we bear to the proceedings 
 of the court hath caused us to give way that Selden 
 and Valentine should attend you to-morrow." Upon more 
 mature deliberation, about three hours afterwards, even 
 this was altered, the king informing the judges in a 
 second letter, " that all the prisoners would receive the 
 same treatment*." 
 
 Thus did the infatuated court urge on towards ruin. 
 Sir Robert Cotton had warned it of the increasing dis- 
 satisfaction of the people ; and Lord Carlisle had long 
 previously urged upon its attention the great political 
 truth, that to gain their good opinion is to obtain power. 
 Yet these admonitions were disregarded, and if we trace 
 the public transactions of the government step by step ; 
 if we notice the series of violations that were offered to 
 the national institutions and liberties, the conviction is 
 forced upon us, that no conduct could be pursued better 
 calculated to precipitate the governed and the government 
 into that lamentable collision which invariably is fatal to 
 the latter. The parliament also had warned the court 
 that submissive endurance was at an end, and that no 
 
 * llushwoi-th, i. 679—681.
 
 184 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 government would be obeyed without resistance that did 
 not guide its proceedings by the established laws. The 
 policy dictated by common sense, and common sense is 
 the best political as well as the best domestic mentor, was 
 to adopt such a guide, and to relax rather than outstretch 
 the prerogative of the crown. Had the opposition been 
 a petty faction, an illegal effort of government might 
 have crushed it ; but no oppression by that power, how- 
 ever determined, could beat down the united resolve of 
 the nation. Every fresh injustice acted but as a stimulus 
 to those who had already been roused to resistance. 
 
 The course that was thus unwisely and illegally 
 adopted was pursued with severity. Solitary confine- 
 ment, that is, imprisonment without any intercourse 
 with friends, or personal occupation, is the most severe 
 punishment, short of a lingering death, that can be 
 inflicted upon our nature. To this species of imprison- 
 ment; to the worst of weariness, the weariness of 
 lengthened inactivity ; Selden, and his fellow prisoners, 
 were at first condemned. During the first three months, 
 the tedious monotony of this imprisonment was without 
 the happy companionship of a book, and of course writing 
 materials were strictly forbidden. With books they could 
 not have conspired treason, therefore their denial was an 
 unnecessary deprivation, the severity of which they will 
 duly estimate, who, like Selden, are blessed with a taste 
 for literary pursuits. " After the lapse of about three 
 months," says Selden, " permission was obtained for me
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 185 
 
 to make use of such books as by writing for I procured 
 from my friends and the booksellers, for my own library 
 then, and long subsequently, remained under seal." The 
 books he obtained were the Bible, both Talmuds*, some 
 later Talmudic writers, and Lucian. He says, " also 
 I extorted by entreaty from the governor (Sir Allan 
 Apsleyt) the use of pens, ink and paper; but of paper 
 only nineteen sheets, which were at hand, were allowed 
 each of which were to be signed with the initials of the 
 governor, that it might be ascertained easily how much and 
 what I wrote : nor did I dare to use any other. On these, 
 during my prison leisure, I copied many extracts, from 
 the above-named books, which extracts I have now in my 
 possession thus signed and bound together t." 
 
 Towards the close of the vacation, the judges of the 
 king's bench, being all in the country, were summoned 
 to meet at Serjeant's Inn, on Michaelmas Day ; and on 
 
 * Sir Robert Cotton appears to have been his agent in obtaining^ 
 books. He probably obtained " The Talmuds of Babylon, in sundry 
 great volumes," of the Bishop of Lincoln. — (Cotton MSS. Julius. 
 C. 3, 18 d. 
 
 f Selden always spoke gratefully of the kindness of this gentleman. 
 Sir Allan died in May, 1630, of a fever, which he caught during Buck- 
 ingham's unfortunate attack upon the Isle of Rhee. His daughter, 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, speaking of him, when Governor of the Tower, says,. 
 " he was a father to all his prisoners, sweetening with such compas- 
 sionate kindness their restraint, thut the affliction of a prison was not 
 felt in his days." She adds, that he had a singular kindness for all 
 persons that were eminent in learning. — (Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, 
 12.) 
 
 \ Opera Omnia, ii. 1428.
 
 ]8() MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the following morning, the Chief Justice (Sir Nicholas 
 Hyde) and Mr. Justice Whitelock had a conference with 
 the king at Hampton. His majesty then told them he was 
 willingthe members in the Tower should be bailed, although 
 they were so obstinate that they would not even petition 
 him and confess " that they were sorry he was offended 
 with them*." He then told the judges that he should 
 abandon the proceedings against the members in the 
 Star Chamber, and indict them in the court of king's 
 bench. The judges told him " the offences were not 
 capital, and that by law the prisoners ought to be bailed, 
 giving security for their good behaviour." 
 
 On the first day of Michaelmas Term the judgment of 
 the court being again moved for, it was pronounced to 
 the intent they had previously informed the king ; Selden, 
 answering for himself and his brother prisoners, replied 
 that they had their sureties ready for the bail, but not for 
 the good behaviour, and desired that the first might be 
 accepted, and the latter not urged t. He reminded the 
 court that they had been imprisoned thirty weeks ; that 
 in all the arguments the only question had been, whether 
 
 * The court party finding that it had erred without attaining its object, 
 would willingly have sneaked out of any further proceeding. It ena- 
 ployed Dr. Mosely (see p. 100) to persuade the imprisoned members 
 to submit, but they would not sue for an acquittal as a boon, which 
 they knew they were entitled to obtain as a right. 
 
 t The sureties ready to bail Selden, he tells us, were Henry, after- 
 wards Earl of Bath, Robert, Earl of Essex, Sir Robert Cotton, and his 
 son, Thomas Cotton.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 187 
 
 they were or were not bailable : and that finding sureties 
 for their good behaviour was admitting by implication 
 that they were guilty. In conclusion, said Selden, " we 
 demand to be bailed in point of right ; and if of right it 
 be not grantable we do not demand it. The finding of 
 sureties for good behaviour is merely a point of discretion, 
 and we cannot assent to it without great offence to the 
 parliament where these matters, which are surmised by 
 the return, were acted *." 
 
 These just objections to finding sureties for their good 
 behaviour were not all that could have been urged, 
 for there was this other that was very sufficient. They 
 would hate been held in thraldom to the amount of the 
 security by their persecutors ; for, as the judicature of 
 England was then unfortunately constituted, it would 
 have interpreted any conduct to be a breach of good 
 behaviour, that the Stuart party with any colourable 
 reason might suggest. We have already seen it consented 
 not to do right when that party dictated, and without 
 any other appeal to the history of the period, we must be 
 conscious that there is no wide interval between passive 
 and active injustice. 
 
 Selden remarks in his last published work, and the 
 subsequent reversal of the judgment justifies his assertion, 
 tliat the judges themselves were conscious that he and his 
 fellow prisoners had done nothing that required them to 
 find sureties for their good behaviour ; and their counsel 
 
 * Rushw ortb, i. G82.
 
 188 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 as well as their own experience assured them, that they 
 were only usually required of criminals ; they, therefore, 
 refused to enter into these recognisances, not only because 
 it would be conduct unworthy of themselves, but because 
 they were determined that the privileges of parliament, 
 and consequently the just liberty of the English people 
 should not be infringed by their acquiescence *. 
 
 Consequently they were remanded to the Tower, and 
 their persecution was now changed in form, as the king 
 had announced, to an information against them in the 
 court of king's bench. Selden, Hollis, Valentine, and 
 Eliot were made the subjects of this proceeding. They 
 excepted to the jurisdiction of the court, as their offences 
 were alleged to have been committed in parliament, and 
 therefore by parliament alone were punishable. This 
 exception was overruled, and judgment was finally given 
 against them, upon the plea nihil dixit, " that they should 
 be imprisoned, and not delivered until they had given 
 security for their good behaviour, and made a submission 
 and acknowledgment of their offences." 
 
 In subinitting to this sacrifice of inclination to duty, 
 Selden had to overcome many temptations besides our 
 natural repugnance to captivity. Far more than the 
 requisite number of friends were ready to be his sureties ; 
 they urged him to comply, and represented that the time 
 of his imprisonment was of an entirely indefinite duration. 
 The chief justice declared that there was no other pur- 
 
 * Opera Omnia, ii. 1 !29.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 189 
 
 chase price for his liberty, and when it was remarked 
 that he had been already eight months in prison, that 
 judge, who, as Selden remarks, ought to be " the legal 
 vindicator of every personal liberty," observed they might 
 be lengthened into eight years, unless he submitted. 
 Entreaties and threats were alike unavailing, and he 
 remained firm even with the knowledge that those, who 
 had hitherto suffered firmly by his side, faltered in their 
 endurance, and at length compromised with their common 
 oppressors. 
 
 Mr. Hollis paid one thousand marks ; Mr. Long two 
 thousand marks ; Mr. Valentine five hundred pounds, and 
 were, with Mr. Hobart and others, released after various 
 terms of imprisonment, upon entering into bonds of two 
 thousand pounds each, not to come nearer the court than 
 ten miles*. 
 
 Sir John Eliot fell a martyr to the cause, dying in 
 prison rather than submit to pay a fine of two thousand 
 pounds. He was warned that the confinement was 
 killing him, but he suffered and died with magnanimity. 
 He thought, and wrote, and wept with anxiety, for the 
 welfare of his orphan boj'^s, but he resolved to leave them 
 his example as well as his precepts to excite them to live 
 worthily. This seems a case in which even the most 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. viii. 388. Mr. Long- yielded to the entreaties of 
 his wife and mother ; but when he understood that his fellow-prisoners 
 had refused to tinrl sureties for their good behaviour, " he had no rest 
 till he had made his sureties to desist from their suretyship, and so was 
 again returned into prison." (Sloane MSS.)
 
 190 MEMOTT^S OF 
 
 tyrannical might have relented ; it was a father and a 
 citizen sacrificino- himself for the interests of his children 
 and his country. But the prison was allowed to complete 
 its tardy yet certain work of death, and when the last 
 great day of recompense arrives, there surely will be more 
 than one trembler for the unpardoning part he took in 
 the destruction of the patriot Eliot*. 
 
 Selden was not dismissed without further persecution, 
 for he was attacked upon another charge, though yet 
 unfreed from the sentence already stated. 
 
 The attorney general filed an information in the Star 
 Chamber against him, Sir Robert Cotton, and Gilbert 
 Barrell, for " intending to raise false, scandalous, and 
 seditious rumours" against the king and his govern- 
 ment, as appeared in "a false, seditious and pestilent 
 discourse," which they had " seditiously framed, contrived, 
 and written." 
 
 This discourse was entitled, " A proposition for his 
 majesty's service, to bridle the impertinency of parlia- 
 ment," and upon their trial was incontestibly proved to 
 
 * In 1641, the parliament voted the treatment of these g-entlemen 
 to be a breach of the privilege of parliament, and gave to them, or 
 their heirs, (accordingly as they had, or had not, survived,) 5000/. 
 each, as some recompense for the expense and loss they had suffered. 
 In 1667, when the decision of the legislature may be esteemed more 
 dispassionate, both houses of parliament agreed in resolving that the 
 judgment of the court of king's bench upon these sufferers in the 
 cause of freedom, "was an illegal judgment, and against the freedom 
 and privileges of parliament." (Croke's Reports, iii. 609.)
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 191 
 
 have been written by Sir Robert Dudley, commonly called 
 Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland, in the 
 reign of James the First. The manuscript was in the 
 library of Sir Robert Cotton, and copies of it being traced 
 to the possession of Selden, Barrell, and the Earls of 
 Bedford, Somerset, and Clare, they were all implicated in 
 its dissemination until the decision of the court deter- 
 mined its true origin. 
 
 It appears to have been a satire upon the spirit of the 
 Stuart government ; and the ministers of Charles must 
 have so thought, otherwise they would have never pro- 
 secuted such men as Sir Robert Cotton and Selden, who 
 had been the unflinching advocates of constitutional 
 liberty, for a composition of which every sentence 
 recommends the most absurd system of despotic misrule. 
 A few short extracts will best show its character. 
 
 It recommends the king to have a fort in every town, 
 well supplied with men and the necessaries of war, for 
 " it is a greater tie of the people by force and necessity 
 than merely by love and affection, for by the one the 
 government resteth always secure, but by the other no 
 longer than the people are well contented. Secondly, it 
 forceth obstinate subjects to be no more presumptuous 
 than it pleaseth your majesty to permit them. Your 
 majesty's government is more secure by the people's more 
 subjection, and by their subjection your parliament must 
 be forced consequently to alter their style, and to be con- 
 formable to your will and pleasure ; for their words and
 
 192 MEMOUIS OF 
 
 opposition import nothing when the power is in your 
 majesty's hands to do with them what you please." The 
 second part of the discourse relates to his majesty's 
 revenues, and advises that if " subjects have not wit 
 or will to consider their own interest, your majesty's 
 wisdom must repair their defects, and force them to it by 
 compulsion*." 
 
 At length, WTary of this contest with men who would 
 
 * There is a complete copy of this discourse among the Harleian 
 MSS, To it are appended some particulars relating- to this extraor- 
 dinary prosecution. Still more, full information is contained in Sir 
 Symonds D'Ewe's Journal, preserved among the same MSS. See also 
 the Gentleman's Magazine, xxxvii. 335. 
 
 A manuscript note of Chief Justice Hyde's says, that the informa- 
 tion exhibited on this occasion hy the attorney general included the 
 Earls of Bedford, Clare, and Somerset. Instead of giving an honest 
 acquittal to all the defendants, the Lord Keeper Coventry signified to 
 the court, that the king, out of his grace and joy of the birth of a 
 prince, (Charles, born the May before,) would pardon them, and not 
 proceed to demand sentence. But on motion by the attorney general, 
 that Sir Robert Cotton had in his library, records, evidences, ledger- 
 books, original letters, and instruments of state belonging to the king 
 (and to prove it the attorney general shewed a copy of a pardon 
 which Sir Robert had obtained from King James, for embezzling re- 
 cords, and other offences,) it therefore was thought lawful, and ordered 
 that commissioners should be appointed who might search his library, 
 and withdraw from it all the king's papers. (Lansdowne MSS. 841, 
 fo. 79.) This was the death-blow to Sir Robert; from that day he 
 declined in health, frequently declaring to his friends, " that they had 
 broken his heart who had locked up his library from him ;" and just 
 previous lo his death, he had the privy council informed, " that their 
 so long detaining his books from him, without rendering any reason 
 for the same, had been the cause of his mortal malady." He died in 
 Mav, 1631.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 19^ 
 
 yield nothing of their rights, and over whom no advantage 
 could be gained, the court mitigated the suggestions of 
 its anger, and an order was sent by the privy council to 
 the lieutenant of the Tower, to release such as remained 
 in his custody from close confinement, to allow them such 
 freedom as could be enjoyed within the walls, and for 
 them to have a free intercourse Avith their friends. The 
 government took care that they should pay for this 
 indulgence, since Selden informs us, that whereas they 
 had, according to custom, been liberally dieted at the 
 expense of the crown, whilst closely imprisoned, they were 
 now left to provide for themselves *. 
 
 This relaxation encouraged them to request a still 
 more diminished restraint, for, considering that it would 
 be more difficult to obtain permission to go occasionally 
 abroad in the Tower than in any other prison, Selden 
 and Mr. Strode two or three weeks subsequently obtained 
 their removal by habeas corpus to the marshalsea. They 
 and their fellow prisoners w^ere removed to this prison 
 upon a committal similar to the original, directing their 
 detention until they found security for their good 
 behaviour. 
 
 Selden was detained in the marshalsea until May, 
 1630, but his imprisonment was scarcely more than 
 nominal ; for, upon submitting to certain rules, he was 
 allowed to go without the walls wherever and as often as 
 
 * Opera Omnia, ii. 1430. 
 O
 
 194 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ]ie wished. During all its periods he appears to have 
 borne his confinement with much equanimity. Even 
 whilst in the Tower, his letters contained no weak lamen- 
 tations, for he had that truly philosophical habit, which 
 all would do vrell to cultivate, of availing himself of as 
 much happiness as circumstances placed in his power, 
 rather than of decreasing that which he could enjoy by 
 lamenting that it was not more. Thus he quietly 
 remarks in a letter to Sir Robert Cotton, that he shall 
 pursue certain extended literary occupations, " for," he 
 adds, " I have much time here before me*." 
 
 When his imprisonment was so relaxed, that he could 
 pursue his studies without hindrance, a chief bitterness 
 of the punishment was removed. Among other works of 
 which his prison-leisure was the birth-time, was his 
 learned dissertation, " De Successionibus in Bona Defuncti 
 ad Leges Ebrseorum," to which he prefixed this motto 
 from Prudentius. 
 
 Et sordes arcta inter vincla recusat. 
 
 Which was understood, as he intended, to allude to the 
 disgraceful condition on which liberty was offered him t. 
 
 The plague raging in the neighbourhood of the mar- 
 shalsea, Selden, through his friend Sir Toby Matthews, 
 obtained permission from the Lord Treasurer, the Earl 
 of Portland, to be removed to a still more comjnodious 
 
 * Cotton MSS. Julius. C. 3. pi. 18. 
 f Opera Omnia, ii. 14-31,
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 195 
 
 place of imprisonment, the Gate-house in Westminster ; 
 and soon after, the still greater indulgence of being 
 allowed to proceed on a visit to the Earl of Kent at Wrest. 
 A circumstance which Grotius, who had himself suffered 
 in the cause of liberty, declared to be the only satisfactory 
 news he had lately received from England. His words 
 are, " From Great Britain, I have nothing good since the 
 Arundelian Marbles, except this one thing, that that 
 most excellent man, and most intrepid citizen, Selden, is 
 released to enjoy the open air ; to the gratification of all 
 good men * " 
 
 In this country retirement among those whom he 
 regarded, and who returned his affection, he soon acquired 
 a healthy elasticity of spirit, as appears in one of the only 
 familiar letters unconnected with literature, that we know 
 proceeded from his pen. 
 
 " To Dr. Samuel Turner. 
 
 " If I knew any title bad enough for one that hath 
 so promised to come hither and fails, I w^ould put it in 
 the front of these ; neither can you redeem yourself from 
 the danger of having it hereafter, when it is invented, 
 unless you come quickly and excuse yourself. 
 
 I cannot give you any other account of my lord's health 
 (which you desired) than that I found him, I think and 
 hope, very well — his eyes a little blood-shot; but his 
 
 * Epistolai ad Gallos, 1 10. Opera Omnia, ii. 1431.
 
 196 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 journey the next morning early to Burbage, in Leicester- 
 shire, prevented my further intelligence from him to you. 
 My lady wonders that you keep not your word in coming 
 hither, and I think she will tell you so herself. I will 
 not be so uncharitable as to suggest, that you will not 
 furnish us with the news of the present, if you bring 
 it not. 
 
 " I beseech you remember my service to my good friends 
 whom we last enjoyed together at dinner ; I am both 
 theirs and your humble servant, 
 
 "J. Selden.'* 
 
 "Sept. 3, Wrest*." 
 
 Selden's retirement did not remain long undisturbed. 
 Serjeant Maynard argued, but in vain, for his entire 
 release when the judges returned to London at the 
 commencement of the Michaelmas Term ; and they 
 subsequently complained to the Lord Treasurer of his 
 irregular removal without their concurrence; imputing 
 its suggestion to Selden's contempt for the courts of law 
 and his delight in opposing the judges. There is no 
 doubt that Selden, and he had ample reason, considered 
 the judges to be base panders to the wishes of the court, 
 and consequently worthy of contempt and detestation. So 
 entirely did he deem them unworthy of respect, that he 
 had refused to unite with Hobart, Strode, and Valentine 
 in a petition to them for removal, which had been attended 
 
 * Harleian MSS. 7003. Select.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 19^ 
 
 with success, but waited until they had proceeded on their 
 circuits ; and then, as already stated, applied to the Lord 
 Treasurer. This nobleman assured the judges that 
 Selden had solemnly declared, that a removal by his 
 authority was legal. Ultimately, Selden was removed to 
 his previous place of imprisonment *. 
 
 His confinement continued until the following May, 
 1631, when, owing to the occurrence of some law-suits 
 between the Earls of Arundel, Pembroke, Kent, and 
 Shrewsbury, the two first named successfully employed 
 their influence with the king to obtain his liberation, 
 Selden being accurately acquainted with the subject in 
 dispute. He was only required to give bail for his 
 appearance within a certain period at the bar of the 
 court, or before one of the judges ; and finally upon his 
 petition, early in 1634, he was entirely exonerated from 
 bailf. 
 
 * Rushworth, ii. 73. 
 
 -j- His lodging, in 1631, appears to have been at "William Lee's, 
 stationer, Fleet-street," for the notice for his appearance at any time, 
 was to be left there. — (Opera Omnia, ii. 1431.)
 
 1^8 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SELDEN EMPLOYED IN TWO IMPORTANT CAUSES. HIS WORK, " DE 
 
 SUCCESSIONIBUS AD LEGES EBRiEORUM." EPISCOPALIANS AND 
 
 PRESBYTERIANS. MASQUE PERFORMED BY THE INNS OF COURT 
 
 BEFORE THE KING AND QUEEN. SELDEn's SHARE IN THE AR- 
 RANGEMENT. HIS WORK, " DE MARE CLAUSUM." STATE OF THE 
 
 COUNTRY. CAUSES OF DISCONTENT. PERSECUTION OF ARCH- 
 BISHOP WILLIAMS. ATTEMPT TO FORCE EPISCOPACY UPON 
 
 SCOTLAND. — DEFECTION OF SOME OF THE OPPOSITION MEMBERS. 
 
 SHIP MONEY AND OTHER IMPOSTS. PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED 
 
 AND DISSOLVED. 
 
 The dispute in which the above noble families were 
 either immediately, or collaterally interested, was con- 
 cerning some estates, and the baronies of Grey and 
 Ruthen. 
 
 With relation to the dignities, the question was, the 
 title being created to one and his heirs, and he having a 
 son and daughter by his first wife, and a son by his 
 second wife, whether, after his decease and the subsequent 
 decease of his eldest son, the sister of the latter, or his 
 lialf brother should succeed to the title. 
 
 Selden argued strenuously and learnedly in favour of 
 the sister, who in this case, had that relationship to his 
 late friend, the Earl of Kent. Of her son. Sir Michael 
 Longueville, he was the advocate. The judges decided
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 199 
 
 in favour of the half brother, who was Anthony Grey, 
 Earl of Kent *. 
 
 In the same year, 1631, Selden was retained as counsel 
 for Donald, Earl Rhea, in his charge of treason against 
 David Ramsay. The circumstances were succinctly 
 these : — ■ 
 
 The Marquis of Hamilton, having engaged to assist 
 the King of Sweden in an expedition against Germany, 
 employed David Ramsay a gentleman of the Privy- 
 Chamber, in 1630, to arrange with the Earl of Rhea 
 and others, to assist him. Ramsay was an intemperate, 
 garrulous character," and Lord Rhea coming to England, 
 charged him with saying, that the marquis had a design 
 upon England rather than Germany. These words 
 being denied by Ramsay, the matter was referred to a 
 judicial examination, but after much recrimination, the 
 cause was removed from Selden's management, and from 
 the jurisdiction of the common law courts, for both parties 
 desired to decide the cause according to the rules of the 
 Earl Marshal's Court, namely by duel. The day was 
 appointed for the combat, but the king, with some severe 
 reprehensions on Ramsay's character, forbade the en- 
 counter f . 
 
 It has been noticed that whilst confined in the 
 marshalsea, Selden occupied his time by comi^osiiig a 
 
 * Croke's Reports, iii. 601. Opera Omnia, iii. 1712—1727. 
 f Burnet's Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, 12 — 15, and more 
 fully in Sanderson's Life of Charles.
 
 200 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 work " De Successionibus in Bona Defuncti ad Leges 
 Ebrceoruin." This was first printed in 1631, but a more 
 enlarged and more correct edition was published in 1636, 
 together with a treatise relative to the ecclesiastical polity 
 of the same people, entitled " De successione in Pontifi- 
 catum Ebraeorum." 
 
 To the first named work, are prefixed Prolegomena, 
 relating to the utility of inquiries into this part of the 
 Hebrew law ; to the oath per Anchialum, mentioned by 
 Martial ; to the two Talmuds ; and to the schools of law 
 at Jerusalem before its destruction under Vespasian. The 
 work itself contains twenty- seven chapters, in which all 
 the particulars respecting the laws of succession by inheri- 
 tance to property among the Jews are discussed. 
 
 The other treatise, said by the author in his preface, 
 of to have been composed at Wrest in the summer of 1634, 
 is divided into two books, of which the first contains 
 liistorical notices of the succession of high priests, from 
 Aaron to the destruction of the second Temple ; and the 
 second book comprehends the laws of pontifical succession, 
 and of admission to the sacerdotal office, with descriptions 
 of their vestments, the ceremony of institution, &c. 
 
 Both works were re-edited at Leyden, in 1638, with 
 additions by the author ; and at Frankfort in 1673 *. 
 
 Selden dedicated these works to Dr. Laud, then become 
 Archbisho]) of Canterbury, and his biographer just quoted, 
 
 * Aikin's Life of Selden, 84.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 201 
 
 has suggested that his so doing " will undoubtedly injure 
 his character for consistency, in the opinions of many ; '* 
 but they can only be such persons as have never read that 
 dedication. In it there is not one expression, that can be 
 construed into approbation of the primate's conduct as a 
 politician, or as a divine, but Selden expressly declares, 
 that it is a token of gratitude, a slight return for the 
 assistance he had afforded in obtaining materials for com- 
 posing the work. Laud had allowed Selden the free use 
 of the Lambeth library, and otherwise conferred on him 
 considerable favours. To the archbishop, then, as his 
 benefactor, and as a friend of literature, Selden dedicated 
 his work, and I have yet to learn the ethics, that teach 
 we should not be grateful to those who do us good, 
 because we are their adversaries in politics. Every 
 scholar will acknowledge, that Laud is to be admired, not 
 only for his literary attainments, but as the benefactor 
 of Oxford ; surely then it is to the credit, rather than to 
 the dispraise of Selden, that he willingly acknowledged 
 the favour and merits of one, against whom through life 
 he waged on principle a political warfare. 
 
 It has been observed in a previous page, that the 
 people at this period were divided into two religious 
 parties ; one favouring Episcopacy, and chiefly supporters 
 of an vmrestricted monarchy ; the other Presbyterian, and 
 generally belonging to the party who opposed the govern- 
 ment. The former, like the court, whose measures they 
 supported, were exccssi\ely fond of every species of
 
 202 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 splendour and pageantry, and amongst these they liberally 
 patronised the numerous varieties of public and private 
 theatricals. 
 
 In the reign of James, the court is described by Wilson, 
 as a continued maskarado, in which " the queen and her 
 ladies like so many sea nymphs, or Nereides, appeared 
 often in various dresses, to the ravishment of the beholder : 
 the king himself being not a little delighted with such 
 fluent elegancies, as made the nights more glorious than 
 the days." In the reign of Charles, there is ample 
 testimony, that this taste was not at all on the wane. 
 
 Flying to the extreme of opposition, the puritanical 
 party universally and totally objected to theatrical 
 performances ; and Prynne, one of their most learned, 
 most enthusiastic, and therefore most erring leaders, 
 hurled a ponderous quarto of learning and virulence at 
 this object of their strenuous hate. He pointed out such 
 blasphemy and licentiousness in the stage literature of the 
 day, as no one can refuse to join in deprecating ; but 
 illogically condemning generals from particulars, every 
 composition for the stage, and all its accompaniments 
 were included by his dismal fanaticism, in one general 
 condemnation, and reprobated as ''undoubtedly sinful, 
 yea, utterly unlawful unto Christians *." 
 
 * Although Prynne carried his condemnation of theatricals to an 
 erroneous excess, yet, none but Stuart tyranny would have inflicted 
 upon him, for publishing- it in his " Histriomastix," such a dispropor- 
 tionate and cruol punishment, as the cutting ofl' his ears whilst exposed
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 203 
 
 It was to testify their loyalty to the reigning monarch, 
 and perhaps to evince, that they did not coincide with the 
 stern puritanism of their member Mr. Prynne, that the 
 four inns of court, about Allhallowtide, in 1633, resolved 
 to unite in performing a royal masque before their 
 majesties. 
 
 Selden once observed, " that few men make themselves 
 masters of the things of which they write and speak * ;" 
 and the justness of this observation is exemplified by the 
 ignorant criticism which some of the most judicious of 
 our writers have bestowed upon our masques of which the 
 above was a specimen. Warburton terms them " fooleries." 
 Malone describes them as " bungling shows ;" and Granger 
 calls them " wretched performances." Yet these critics 
 must have known that the preparation of these masques 
 cost thousands of pounds ; that they were performed 
 upon the occurrence of the most joyous events, by the 
 most distinguished of the nobility ; and above all, that 
 only the most celebrated poets were accustomed to com- 
 pose the dialogues and songs ; and the most distinguished 
 architects, painters, and mechanists were employed in the 
 preparation of the scenery. If the vituperative criticism 
 had been confined to the costly masquerading that pre- 
 vailed in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and to the 
 mythological mummeries that were exhibited before Queen 
 
 on the pillory, imprisonment for life, a fine of 5,000^., and expulsion 
 from Oxford and Lincoln's Inn. 
 * Table Talk, s. Learning-.
 
 204 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Elizabeth at London, Norwich, and elsewhere, there 
 would be no reason to dissent from the condemnation ; 
 ])ut it is not deserved by the masques exhibited in the 
 reign of Charles the First, for which Jonson and Milton 
 wrote, and for which Inigo Jones designed. The works 
 of Sir William Davenant afford us the description of the 
 scenery of a masque, called " The Temple of Love ;" 
 of the poetry of these exhibitions we need no other 
 example than Milton's " Comus ;" and from those it is 
 evident that they closely resembled the operas of the 
 present day ; generally far excelling them as literary 
 compositions, and equalling them in the gorgeousness and 
 intricacy of scenery and devices. 
 
 For the preparation and regulation of the masque 
 determined upon by the inns of court, the last that was 
 performed before the unfortunate Charley, two members 
 of each inn were chosen to form a committee, and one 
 cannot but smile to find such grave characters as those of 
 which it was composed, arranging so pantomimic a work, 
 with an ardour and earnestness, similar to that with which 
 they strove for the liberties of their country. 
 
 Mr. Edward Hyde (afterwards Earl of Clarendon), 
 Mr. Whitelocke (soon afterwards a Commissioner of the 
 Great Seal to Cromwell), were the deputies of the Middle 
 Temple ; Mr. Noy (attorney general), and Mr. Gerling, 
 rejDresented Lincoln's Inn. Sir John Finch (Speaker of 
 the House of Commons, and subsequently Lord Chan- 
 cellor), and another gentleman were for Gray's Inn ; and
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 205 
 
 Sir Edward Herbert (afterwards attorney general), and 
 Selden, were the delegates of the Inner Temple. 
 
 This committee appointed several sub-committees, one 
 to prepare the poetry ; another, to which Selden belonged, 
 for the dresses of the masquers and anti-masquers; and 
 to Whitelocke in particular was confided the arrangement 
 of the music. This memorialist observes, with some 
 complacency, that it was so performed, that it excelled 
 any previously heard in England. Ben Jonson wrote 
 the poetry ; Inigo Jones designed the architectural scenes 
 and the machinery ; and Lord Bacon assisted Selden in 
 arranging the dresses and devices. 
 
 The masque was performed at Whitehall, on Candle- 
 mas night as a suitable conclusion for Christmas. The 
 rehearsals were numerous. Everything was splendid. 
 It was preceded by a procession, for the performers 
 assembled at Ely House, Holborn, and proceeded down 
 Chancery Lane, to Whitehall. This was magnificent and 
 fantastic. In it there was mingled some political satire, 
 for there were representers of patentees and monopolists, 
 one of whom carried a pattern of a large bridle bit, and 
 begged a patent that none in the kingdom might use any 
 but such bits as they bought of him. 
 
 There was some danger of a schism occurring among 
 the great arrangers of this splendid folly, for pride, 
 inopportunely suggested that some one of the inns must 
 have its benchers ride in the last of the four chariots that 
 formed part of the procession, and " consequently," says
 
 206 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Whitelocke, *' there grew a difference about the order of 
 their going, which of the inns should have the first 
 chariot, so of the rest in their order; also how the several 
 grand masquers should sit in the first place." To 
 obviate this last difficulty, the chariots were so con- 
 tructed as to have no place of superiority ; and the order 
 of precedence for the inns was decided by casts of the 
 dice ! Fortune gave the place of honour to Gray's Inn. 
 So contemptible, oftentimes, are great men in little 
 things. 
 
 The procession, and " the dances, figures, properties, 
 voices, instruments, songs, airs, composures, and actions," 
 passed without any failure ; " and the scenes were most 
 curious and costly;" but, adds their recorder, as if he 
 lamented they would live only in description, " this 
 earthly pomp and glory, if not vanity, was soon passed 
 and gone as if it had never been* !*' 
 
 In the year 1609, Grotius published a work entitled 
 *' Mare Liberum," of which the ostensible object was to 
 maintain as a principle, that the sea is a territory open 
 and free to the use of all nations, but really written in 
 defence of the right which was claimed by his country- 
 men, the Dutch, to have a maritime intercourse with the 
 East Indies ; a right that was claimed as a monopoly by 
 the Portuguese. A few years subsequently, Selden en- 
 gaged in the refutation of the principle maintained by 
 
 * Whitelocke's Memorials.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 207 
 
 Grotius, and arranged his authorities and arguments in a 
 work, which in manifest contrast to the other, he deno- 
 minated "Mare Clausum." 
 
 It may be remembered, that at the time Selden was in 
 disgrace for the publication of his " History of Tythes," 
 the Duke of Buckingham was applied to, to be the author's 
 mediator with the king ; and it is not at all improbable, 
 that the duke mentioned this work upon our maritime 
 rights, which Selden then contemplated, as a subject 
 likely to propitiate James, who would readily approve of 
 any work that maintained the power and extent of his 
 dominion. That monarch ordered Selden to prepare it 
 for the press, and in obedience to that command, in the 
 summer of 1618, he forwarded a manuscript copy to his 
 majesty. Having cursorily perused it, he gave it to the 
 duke for the purpose of its being revised by Sir Henry 
 Martin, who was a very incompetent judge of its merits, 
 if the number of his judgments as president of the 
 Admiralty Court that were reversed by the House of 
 Lords, is a proof of incapacity. Sir Henry having 
 approved of the work, making but one amendment and 
 that a verbal one, the duke sent for Selden to his room, 
 and after a short conversation concerning the work, 
 was on the point of writing the permission to have it 
 printed, when suddenly laying down the pen, he said, 
 " The king shall do this with his own hand in honour 
 of the work ;" and he immediately proceeded with 
 Selden to the royal chambei-. James was about to sign
 
 208 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the imprimatur, when he remarked, " I recollect some- 
 thing is said here concerning the North Sea which may 
 displease my brother of Denmark, whom I would not 
 now offend, because I owe him a large sum of money, 
 and intend shortly to borrow a larger." This Selden was 
 accordingly ordered to alter. The alteration was soon 
 completed, and Selden returned with his manuscript ; but 
 after waiting upon the duke longer and more often than 
 he thought there was need, and after all without obtaining 
 an audience, he refrained from attending. Subsequently 
 the Earl of Pembroke obtained its perusal. With him it 
 remained for a considerable period, and eventually was 
 neglected until the year 1635. About this time the 
 Dutch having nearly monopolised the Northern Fishery, 
 and their right to take herrings upon our shores being 
 disputed, the Elzevirs republished the work of Grotius 
 and several other publications, which they considered 
 favourable to the Dutch claim. Selden's work was now 
 remembered, and being mentioned to King Charles, pro- 
 bably by Dr. Laud, he commanded that it should be 
 published, and after a revisal not only by the author, but 
 by the king and some of his council, it was printed at the 
 close of the last named year *." 
 
 * We have this narrative, and many other particulars of Selden's 
 life from his " Vindicise Maris Clausi," a pamphlet which he published 
 in ] 653, to refute a calumny propagated by Theodore Graswinckel, a 
 Dutch civilian, which asserted that Selden had written his " Mare 
 Clausum," to propitiate the king, and had effectually made it his occu- 
 pation to write fabulous statements for that purpose.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 209 
 
 The intention of Selclen's work may be understood 
 from this translation of its title page. " The closed Sea ; 
 or Two Books concerning the Dominion of the Sea. In the 
 first, it is demonstrated that the sea, by the law of natm*e 
 and of nations, is not common to mankind, but is capable 
 of private dominion, or property, equally with the land. 
 In the second, it is maintained that the King of Great 
 Britain is lord of the circumfluent sea, as an inseparable 
 and perpetual appendage of the British Empire." 
 
 So satisfactory, and so important was the work con- 
 sidered by the government, that the following entry, dated 
 March the 26th, 1636, was made in the minutes of the 
 privy council. '' His majesty, this day in council, taking 
 into consideration a book lately published by John Selden, 
 Esq. entitled * Mare Clausum, seu de Dominio Maris,* 
 written by the king's command, which he hath done with 
 great industry, learning, and judgment, and hath asserted 
 the right of the crown of England to the dominion of the 
 British Seas ; the king requires one of the said books to 
 be kept in the Council chest, another in the Court of 
 Exchequer, and a third in the Court of Admiralty, as 
 faithful and strong evidence to the dominion of the 
 British Seas*." 
 
 Although the arguments of Selden were considered so 
 satisfactory in this country, the continental nations were 
 
 * In compliance with this order, it is related that Sir William IJeccher, 
 one of the clerks of the council, delivered a copy to the Rarons of the 
 Exchequer, in open court. — (Heylin's Life of Laud, 322.) 
 
 P
 
 210 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of a totally different opinion ; but as both were directly 
 interested parties, they justly may be appealed from as 
 being liable to give prejudiced judgments. Puffendorff 
 seems to utter the dictates of equity upon this subject, 
 when he says, that every maritime people at all ac- 
 quainted v/ith navigation, are lords of the sea, where it 
 toucheth their own shore, so far as it may be counted a 
 defence, especially in ports and other places where there 
 is a convenience of landing ; and that, with regard to the 
 ocean, it is clear, that to sail upon it in a peaceful manner 
 both is, and ought to be, the free privilege of all nations. 
 It is, because no one people have attained such a right 
 over the ocean, as will justify them in shutting out all 
 others from the same benefit, a?id it ought to he, because, 
 the law of general humanity and kindness requires it*. 
 
 Against these principles Selden does not argue, but 
 demonstrates that all history proves that treaties, alli- 
 ances, and the dictates of power have perpetually modified 
 and regulated them, as the safety or the interest of 
 particular nations have dictated. 
 
 The " Mare Clausum," was translated into English by 
 Marchmont Needham, in 1652; the period when the war 
 occurred between this country, under the parliament, and 
 the Dutch. This translator substituted a dedication, 
 " to the Supreme Authority of the Nation, the Parlia- 
 ment," for Selden's similar address to the king. He also 
 
 * Law of Nature and Nations, b. \y, c. 5, s. 8 & 10.
 
 JOHN SEI.DEN. 211 
 
 added an appendix containing some additional documents, 
 contributed by President Bradshaw. An improved trans- 
 lation by J. H. was published in 1663, 
 
 The next four years are nearly a total blank in the 
 biography of Selden. This period certainly was not 
 passed in idleness, for at its termination he published his 
 work, " De Jure Naturale et Gentium juxta Disciplinam 
 Ebraeorum." We are therefore assured that he was 
 engaged in his favourite study of legal antiquities. It is 
 also probable that he was holding communion with that 
 party of moderate politicians with whom he had con- 
 sistently co-operated, and who would naturally consult 
 together, and arrange their plans for rescuing their 
 country from that tyranny, of which tlie recital even now 
 cannot be perused unmoved. The period of effective 
 exertion arrived in 1640, but previously to entering into 
 that fresh era of Selden's life, some notice must be taken 
 of the principal public events that occurred during the 
 years that had elapsed without a parliament. 
 
 Lord Clarendon says that in this space of time " the 
 king was resolved to try if he could not give his people a 
 taste of happiness, and let them see the equity of his 
 government in a single state." The experiment was a 
 signal faihu-e, for the opponents of absolute monarchy 
 need not quote a period better illustrating its evils than the 
 eleven years over which we will take a Parthian glance. 
 
 The reader may refer to Clarendon, Whitelocke, Rusli- 
 worth, and Franklvn, writers tinctured with widely
 
 212 MEMOIRS or 
 
 differing prejudices, yet he will find they concur in 
 acknowledging the facts, although they occasionally 
 attribute to thein different characteristics. 
 
 They agree that during this period the agricultural 
 and commercial interests were particularly flourishing. 
 From this it has been deduced that an arbitrary monarchy 
 is not opposed to the welfare of the people, and if our 
 view is confined to its effect upon their wealth, we might, 
 except in its worst possible extreme in some eastern 
 nations, assent to the induction. But every reader who 
 has one ray of generous feeling in his nature will at once 
 acknowledge that there are other securities necessary to 
 him, and much more essential to his happiness; the 
 security that the money he contributes to the state is 
 justly demanded, and duly expended in its service ; the 
 security that he may maintain his innocent opinions 
 without any danger of being fined for them to a ruinous 
 amount, or of being tortured and perpetually imprisoned 
 for their maintenance. These securities did not exist in 
 the unparliamentary times of Charles ; even Clarendon 
 acknowledges that the Council Board and Star Chamber 
 struck at the very foundations of the national liberties, and 
 consequently, though peace was maintained abroad, and 
 riches accumulated at home, the nation could not have 
 been contented and happy. That it was not, is maintained 
 by the fact that the people subverted the government, 
 and strove to replace it by one that promised to be less 
 despotic.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 213 
 
 It is the impolicy of the aristocracy of all ages to con- 
 duct themselves for the most part as if they considered 
 themselves a distinct race to the rest of their fellow- 
 subjects, and this conduct became so marked at this 
 period — they were so overbearing in their demeanour — 
 there was such a diversity in the law that was measured 
 out to the nobility and to the commons — the appropriately 
 named Star Chamber had such respect for those who wore 
 that badge — that the spirit of the nation revolted against 
 those who instead of being its honour and ornament, were in 
 too many instances its oppressors and disgrace. Finally the 
 feeling against them became too soured to allow them as a 
 body any acknowledgment of superiority ; and Secretary 
 Nicholas informed Charles the First, in a private letter, 
 that " the committees of both Houses had met at a con- 
 ference, and both Lords and Commons were bare-headed 
 at it, a private intimation being given that if the Lords 
 should have put on their hats, the Commons were resolved 
 to have done so likewise*." 
 
 It will be sufficient to quote two of the most prominent 
 instances of individual oppression that marked this period. 
 Prynne, for the second time, with Burton and Bastwick, 
 were publicly mutilated and consigned to solitary and 
 distant prisons. Let a reference be made to the state- 
 ment of their mock, iniquitous trial ; to the insults offered 
 them by their judges; and to the cruel cuttings and 
 
 * Evelyn's Diary, hy Bray, ii. 32.
 
 iil4 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 burnings tliey endured *, and then let the reader ask his 
 heart and his reason if there is any cause to wonder that the 
 people resolved to shake off the government that permitted 
 such tyranny. Many were willing to escape from it 
 rather than to witness the horrors of a civil strife, and 
 many were the emigrants who desired to seek a home 
 without oppression in the wilds of Connecticut. Eight 
 ships laden with these exiles lay in the Thames. John 
 Hampden and his cousin Oliver Cromwell were among 
 them, having actually embarked, when an order of 
 Council prohibited the emigration, and Charles thus 
 unconsciously retained the chiefest instruments of his 
 overthrow. 
 
 The persecution of Dr. Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, 
 and at one time Lord Keeper, was another blot upon this 
 decade without a parliament. He had been the supporter 
 of Buckingham, and the patron of Laud ; but having too 
 wisely opposed their plans, they resolved upon his ruin. 
 He was accused in the court of Star Chamber of betraying 
 the king's counsels, and the course of iniquity that was 
 pursued by his accusers, from the tampering with his 
 witnesses to the secret advising with his judges, may be 
 read in the prolix, learned pages of his biographer f. 
 
 Years elapsed in the pursuit of his condemnation ; 
 charges, against every rule of justice, were abandoned to 
 institute others that seemed to arise from the evidence ; 
 
 * State Trials, i. 459—482. 
 
 t Hacket's Life of Williams, 112—126.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 215 
 
 and finally, not satisfied with inflicting a fine often thousand 
 pounds, and committing him to an imprisonment that was 
 to last during the king's pleasure. Laud and others, who 
 were his enemies and his judges, lamented that they could 
 not add to his sufferings by some personal degradation. 
 
 Though so much time was occupied in the concoction 
 of his trial, yet when the final period arrived, there was as 
 little lenity sliowai in allowing time for the defence, as there 
 had been in shortening the period of suspense, when 
 activity would have been a mercy. The following letter 
 to Selden from the bishop will afford some new light upon 
 the subject. 
 
 " My very worthy friend, 
 
 " It is not a voluntary resolution, but pure and 
 (in a manner) last necessity which makes this unreasonable 
 motion unto you. My causes are both to be heard, and 
 the last first. And that with such a precipitancy of the 
 hearing, as, though all men speak loud against, yet cannot 
 be prevented. Upon Friday next they will begin. And 
 although my counsel have certified the impossibility of 
 running over 3,500 sheets of paper, examining and brevi- 
 ating the same ; yet upon the king's strict resolution not 
 to change the day, they are so kind as to strive to under- 
 take the defence. To wit — Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Fountain, 
 and Mr. Vaughan. They only desire your company by 
 way of advice, for three days and no more. My house is 
 now private, and one end thereof empty, which would be
 
 216 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 at your service. And if your health, occasions, and other 
 respects, will permit you to put upon an old friend this 
 great obligation, you shall never again encounter an oppor- 
 tunity that will more honour you with good and merciful 
 people, and more bind unto you in eternal chains of new- 
 affections 
 
 " Your somewhat troubled, but innocent and hopeful 
 friend, 
 
 " J. Lincoln." 
 
 " Westminster Coll. 
 this 9th of June, 1637*." 
 
 The despotism of the government was not confined to 
 acts of individual tyranny, it extended its oppressions to 
 active endeavours to subjugate the religious opinions of 
 the people ; as well as to general invasions of their 
 property and freedom. The Scotch nation dared to differ 
 with our government upon ecclesiastical affairs, and our 
 national arms were resorted to and disgraced in the vain 
 endeavour to bring about an opposite conviction. 
 
 The attempt to controul by force the religious opinions 
 of the subject also extended to England. Although there 
 was no parliament sitting, the convocation was allowed 
 to continue in assembly, and in 1640, by *' the king's 
 majesty's licence," its resolutions, under the title of 
 •' constitutions and canons ecclesiastical," were published. 
 
 * Harleian MSS. 7001, Ixvii. f.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 217 
 
 They maintained the divine right of kings, and the 
 absolute unlawfulness, under any circumstances, of re- 
 sisting his commands. By them popish recusants, and all 
 sectarians, were ordered to attend upon the services of the 
 established church, or to suffer excommunication ; and in 
 case of continued adherence to their opinions, the judges 
 of assize were solemnly and profanely adjured, in the 
 name of the Almighty, to punish them. In a similar 
 persecuting spirit, all schoolmasters, lawyers, physicians, 
 and clergymen were required to swear that they approved 
 of, and would preserve the doctrines and policy of the 
 established church *. 
 
 Corruption as well as oppression, was successfully busy, 
 and we are powerfully tempted to believe with Lord 
 Walpole, that " every man has his price," when we read 
 that Mr. Noy, and Mr. Littleton, were bought to the go- 
 vernment interest, by being promoted to the offices of the 
 attorney and solicitor-generalships. These men had been 
 
 * Sparrow's Collection of Articles, &c, 345. Ed. 1684. It is a 
 melancholy fact, that every religious sect, when allowed to have poli- 
 tical power, seems to acquire a persecuting spirit. It is needless to more 
 than mention the Roman CathoUcs. Even the Presbyterians and 
 Independents are not exempt. When ascendant during the interreg- 
 num, their assembly of divines were equally intolerant. " They 
 taught," says Milton, " compulsion without conviction, which not long- 
 before they complained of as executed unchristianly against themselves." 
 — (Milton's Prose Works, iv. 84. Ed. 1806.) The parliament went to 
 the extreme of religious persecution, by even adjudging various sectaries 
 to be guilty of felony, and worthy of capital punishment.— (Scobell's 
 Collection, part I. p. 149. Kd. 1658.)
 
 218 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 prominent defenders of the people's rights, and though we 
 do not assent to Walpole's axiom, yet these apostates 
 warn us of a degrading result of experience, that profes- 
 sion and principle are not inseparable. 
 
 Proclamations during this period, of course, were 
 equivalent to laws, and Rushworth enumerates an 
 abundance, regulating and altering the commerce and 
 internal policy of the nation. 
 
 The obtaining supplies was of first importance, and 
 these were procured by means of tonnage and poundage, 
 and other still more burdensome levies upon the shipping 
 interest, and by selling the grants of innumerable patents 
 and monopolies. " These," said Sir John Culpepper, 
 " like the frogs of Egypt, have gotten possession of our 
 dwellings, and we have scarcely a room free from them. 
 They sip in our cup ; they dip in our dish ; they sit by 
 our fire ; we find them in the dye-vat, washing-bowl, and 
 ])owdering-tub. They share with the butler in his box. 
 They have marked and sealed us from head to foot. 
 They will not bate us a pin *." 
 
 * These were allusions to the unparliamentary duties upon wines, 
 tavern licences to dress meat, an imposition upon coals, a monopoly of 
 soap, a duty upon salt, and the patents for cards and dice, for beaver 
 hats, lace, pins, &c. — (Rushworth, ii. 917.) 
 
 " The odious and crying project of soap," so emphatically denounced 
 by Clarendon, was a suggestion of the new attorney-general, Noy. It 
 was pursued by him with all the acrimony of a new convert. The use 
 of any soap, but such as was made by the king's patentee, was prohibited, 
 though that was so vile a compound as to be injurious to the articles 
 upon which it was employed as a detergent.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 219 
 
 Another oppressive source of supply, was levying fines 
 upon such individuals, as, having a certain amount of 
 property, refused to accept knighthood, to which they 
 were entitled by the obsolete feudal law. The fines now 
 levied under the old forest laws were similarly obnoxious 
 and oppressive. Lord Clarendon states, that these, and 
 many other projects for raising money, " some ridiculous, 
 and some scandalous, but all very grievous," originated 
 with the privy council. 
 
 The impost of ship money, if it were not the most 
 irritating exaction, is the one most connected in our 
 memories with these times because it gave the people the 
 first opportunity of legally opposing the unjust demands 
 of the court, and first introduced to public notice the 
 individual whose name, and that of patriot have become 
 almost synonymous. It was a tax rendered still more 
 impopular by its being the occasion of demonstrating that 
 the judges betrayed the sacred charge with which they 
 were intrusted. Neither was it less obnoxious by being 
 suggested by Mr. Noy, who the people could not but 
 view as a traitor to their cause. 
 
 It was first proposed to be levied upon the maritime 
 towns, for the ostensible purpose of maintaining the navy, 
 but as Selden observed, that was like putting in a little 
 auger, that afterwards a larger might be inserted, for the 
 tax was extended over the inland counties. 
 
 In common with others of the county of Buckingham, 
 John Hampden, Esfj[., of Stoke Mandcville, was assessed
 
 220 MEMOIH.S OF 
 
 to pay twenty shillings. He refused to comply with the 
 demand upon the ground that it was illegal, not being 
 sanctioned by parliament. The cause was very ably 
 argued before the twelve judges, of whom Sir Richard 
 Hutton, and Sir George Croke alone, had courage suffi- 
 cient to give their opinion against the king. Before the 
 case was thus argued, their judgment in writing had been 
 IJrivately obtained, and to this, which was in favour of the 
 prosecution, even Hutton and Croke had subscribed. 
 
 Rebuked by his conscience, Croke nobly dared to confess 
 his error, and in his public judgment, he unanswerably 
 showed his reasons for pronouncing against the king's 
 levy of the tax. In a statement of these reasons laid 
 before his majesty, he candidly acknowledged that he had 
 suffered himself to be overruled in the first instance, by 
 his brethren of the coif, but, he continued, " if I had been 
 of the same opinion that was subscribed, yet upon better 
 advisement being absolutely settled in my judgment and 
 conscience in a contrary opinion, I think it no shame to 
 retract that opinion, for humanum est errare, rather than 
 to argue against my conscience." Judge Hutton spoke 
 in words nearly similar*. 
 
 * State Trials, fol. Ed. i. 624. The Lord Keeper Finch, confirmed 
 these statements in his defence before the House of Commons. — (Par- 
 liament. Hist. ix. 172.) This worthy once openly declared in court, 
 that no man need dispute before him an order of the privy council, for 
 it •' should always be ground enough for him to make a decree in 
 Chancery."
 
 JOHN SEI.DEN. 221 
 
 It deserves again to be recorded that in his wife, Croke 
 found a sustainer and guardian of his innocence*. He 
 hesitated to tread the path of duty, when she urged him 
 from his suspense, and bade him without any fear to dare 
 to do right. This is woman's own dominion — it is here 
 that she is a helpmate for man, — and he degrades her and 
 weakens himself, if he does not teach her to be more than 
 his plaything. Let our daughters as well as our sons 
 have impressed upon them, that public virtue is to the 
 full as important as private morality, and we shall add a 
 mighty strength to the buttresses of our integrity, for we 
 shall have on its side the deep though quiet influences of 
 home. Let it not be argued for a moment, that w^oman 
 should be taught to neglect one domestic care, or that she 
 should join in the turmoil of politics ; but the education 
 that formed the wives of Sir George Croke, of Sir John 
 Bankes, of the Earl of Derby, and of George Canning, 
 did not take away one grace, or one quality, which should 
 have had its abiding place in their bosoms. 
 
 That the decision of the majority of the judges was 
 iniquitous has long since been determined. Even Cla- 
 rendon says, that the cause was adjudged " upon such 
 grounds and reasons as every by-stander was able to swear 
 were not law." 
 
 Selden, in common with every patriot, applauded those 
 who refused to pay the imposition until it was legally 
 approved, but as justly condemns those who factiously 
 
 * Wliitelocke's Memorials.
 
 222 jNIEMoirs of 
 
 continued to resist its payment after the judicial decision 
 in its favour. " They that at first would not pay ship 
 money," he said, " till it was decided, did like brave men 
 (though perhaps they did no good by the trial) but they 
 that stand out since and suffer themselves to be distrained, 
 never questioning those that do it, do pitifully, for they 
 only pay twice as much as they need *." An observation 
 to which many extravagant politicians of the present day 
 would be wiser in attending. 
 
 Selden evidently doubted whether Hampden's contest 
 against the payment of ship money, though praiseworthy 
 and correct, was of any benefit to the country, and we may 
 consider that his doubt was founded upon a just fear that 
 it would aggravate the growing enmity between the people 
 and the sovereign, and would involve in one feeling of 
 dislike all the constituted branches of the executive. 
 
 All the arbitrary measures for enriching the exchequer 
 having failed ; crippled in resources, and defeated in 
 measures, the king, hoping that it would be less untract- 
 able to his wishes than its predecessors, summoned a 
 parliament. It met in the April of 1640. Of this Selden 
 was not a member. 
 
 Though ardent in the pursuit of grievances, yet its 
 desires were expressed moderately, and Clarendon says it 
 was " exceedingly disposed to please the king and to do 
 him service.'* Notwithstanding, Charles dissolved it after 
 a transient session of three weeks. The same historian 
 
 * Table Talk, s. Ship Money.
 
 JOHN SELDEN 223 
 
 remarked that, " it could never be hoped that more sober 
 and dispassionate men would ever meet together in that 
 place, or fewer who brought ill-purposes with them ; nor 
 could any man imagine what offence they had given 
 which put the king upon that resolution*." This was 
 no subsequent conclusion of the earl's, for previous to 
 the dissolution he urged his persuasion upon the atten- 
 tion of Laud in a private conference!. He is equally 
 clear in expressing his opinion of the effect produced 
 by these frequent and abrupt dissolutions of the par- 
 liament. Such measures were unreasonable, unskilful, 
 and precipitate. The king and his people parted at these 
 seasons with no other respect and charity one towards 
 the other, than persons who never meant to meet but in 
 their own defence ; and he laments that there should 
 then have been traitorous counsellors about his majesty 
 who fomented this mutual mistrust. He acknowledges 
 the people were liberally and well-inclined towards the 
 government, if it had not by its indiscretions confirmed 
 and enlarged their jealousies of some of its members. Of 
 these jealousies the king was aware, for at the opening of 
 the next parliament he requested the Commons to unite 
 with him in laying aside " all suspicion one of another," 
 
 * Mrs. Hutchinson says, the reason of this abi'upt dissolution was, 
 that the king feared the parliament intended to vote against the war 
 with Scotland, upon which he was violently determined. — Mem. of 
 Colonel Hutchinson, 71. 
 
 t Clarendon's Autobiography, fol. Ed. 38.
 
 224 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 but, unfortunately, he was not wise or not firm enough 
 to act candidly in accordance with that advice. The 
 leaders of the ultra opposition party rejoiced at the disso- 
 lution of this parliament, as they did at all the other 
 violent and short-sighted measures of the court, for they 
 knew that by strengthening and increasing the national 
 dissatisfaction, the resolution for reform was rendered 
 proportionately firm and uncompromising. Within an 
 hour after the dismissal of the parliament, Clarendon met 
 Oliver St. John, who usually taciturn and melancholy, 
 was now smiling and communicative, for he said, " he 
 foresaw that the progress of events was all well ; that 
 affairs must be worse before they were better, and that the 
 parliament just terminated would never have done what 
 was necessary *." 
 
 * Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion, i. 110 fol.
 
 JOHN SKLDEX. 225 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MEETING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT SELDEn's OPINION OF THE 
 
 BISHOPS SITTING IN PARLIAMENT. COMMITTEES OF GRIEVANCES. 
 
 SELDEN AND THE EARL OF CLARENDON CLOSE THEIR FRIEND- 
 SHIP. CHARGES AGAINST THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. HIS 
 
 TRIAL. — BILL OF ATTAINDER. SELDEn's VOTE IN HIS FAVOUR. 
 
 CHARLES CONSENTS TO HIS EXECUTION. FUTILITY OF CRIMINAL 
 
 MEASURES OF EXPEDIENCY. KING CONSENTS TO THE PERMANENT 
 
 EXISTENCE OF THE PARLIAMENT. SELDEN's LINE OF CONDUCT. 
 
 CONVOCATION OF THE CLERGY CALLED IN UUESTION. SELDEN 
 
 OPPOSES THE ABOLITION OF EPISCOPACY. PUBLISHES ANOTHER 
 
 WORK CONCERNING THE JEWS. 
 
 The parliament that had been so rashly dissolved in 
 May, had to be re-assembled in November, and its mem- 
 bers must have come with feelings additionally irritated, 
 for they had witnessed a continuance of the national 
 misrule, and repeated experience convinced them that 
 every attempt at reformation brought upon them the 
 displeasure of the government, contumely, inconvenience, 
 and expense. 
 
 In the intervening six months, ship money had been 
 levied with severity, and the mayor and sheriffs of Lon- 
 don prosecuted for too much leniency. Arbitrary loans 
 exacted, especially in those counties where the soldiers 
 were quartered, and the government condescended to the 
 swindling practice of purcliasing merchandise upon long 
 
 Q
 
 226 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 credit, and selling it for ready money. It was even 
 proposed to debase the currency. These profligate at- 
 tempts to supply the exchequer, were still more odious, 
 because they were made to support the Scottish war of 
 persecution. Disgrace again fell upon the English army. 
 It would not face the enemy. It mutinied rather than be 
 employed upon such a service. Defeated — beggared — 
 the king was willing to adopt any resource rather than 
 the legitimate one of a parliament. He summoned a 
 council of peers, but even this failed, and all subterfuges 
 being exhausted, he reluctantly ordered the usual writs to 
 be issued. 
 
 This parliament, which, it was remarked, many thought 
 would never have had a beginning, and afterwards that it 
 would never have had an end, is well known as the Long 
 Parliament^ and finally, as the Rump. It well merited 
 the first designation by lasting thirteen years, and the 
 latter from being gradually reduced in numbers, until, as 
 Clement Walker, a hostile contemporary observed, it 
 became " a fag-end, a rump of a parliament, with corrupt 
 maggots in it*." 
 
 The high reputation which Selden had gained by his 
 mental exertions, added to his well-known detestation of 
 violent political measures, may have recommended him to 
 the University of Oxford at this crisis, for he was returned 
 by it unanimously as one of its representatives in this 
 
 * History of Independency, ii. 32.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 227 
 
 parliament : but it is not improbable that his moderation 
 had been mistaken by the court party for an inclination to 
 support their measures, and that they had recommended 
 him to their partisan university. It is certain that Laud 
 had declared that he would bring him over. 
 
 However, they were mistaken, and as we shall see 
 presently, expressed their surprise at his conduct, for they 
 could not understand the merit of one who conscientiously 
 gave or withheld his vote according to the dictates of 
 his own reason. They had successfully tampered with 
 Noy, Wentworth, and others, and from this experience 
 concluded that there was a bribe to be found sufficiently 
 tempting to subdue the virtue of one who had been their 
 companion. It is consolatory to know that they judged 
 erroneously, and that the annalist can record a noble band 
 of public characters, of whom Eliot, Whitelocke, and 
 Selden were a portion at this era, who did not consider, 
 like a political agitator now on the wane, that public 
 principle is a farce 
 
 The parliament began with as good an aspect as could 
 be desired, for though the redress of abuses, the removal 
 of grievances, and the prosecution of their suggestors, had 
 precedence, yet supplies were voted, and at the close of 
 January, when the king addressed both Houses, he expressed 
 himself satisfied in general with their proceedings, and 
 that he was ready to concur in reforming " all innovations 
 in the church and commonwealth." There was one point 
 upon which they were at issue. A resolution had passed 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 MEMOIRS or 
 
 the House of Commons, and a bill founded upon it, 
 declaring that no bishop or other clergyman, ought to be a 
 privy councillor, in the commission of the peace, or to have 
 any judicial power in a civil court, it being a hindrance to 
 his spiritual functions, and injurious to the commonwealth. 
 Alluding to this, the king observed, " I make a great 
 difference betwixt reformation and alteration of govern- 
 ment ; though I am for the first, I cannot give way to the 
 latter. I will not say that bishops may not have over- 
 stretched their power, or encroached upon the temporal, 
 which if you find, correct and reform the abuse. Yet you 
 must understand that I cannot consent to the taking away 
 their voice in parliament, which they have anciently 
 enjoyed under so many of my predecessors, even before 
 the Conquest, and ever since, and which, I conceive, I am 
 bound to maintain as one of the fundamental institutions 
 of this kingdom*." 
 
 In this opinion Selden coincided ; " bishops," he said, 
 " have the same right to sit in parliament as the best earls 
 and barons ; that is those that were made by writ. If you 
 ask one of these why they sit in the House, they can only 
 say that their fathers and grandfathers, &c. sat there 
 before them. And so say the bishops, he that was a 
 bishop of this place before me, sat in the House, and he 
 
 * Parliamentary History, ix. 95 — 210. In this, as in many other 
 of his opinions and resolutions, Charles was lamentably infirm. Shortly 
 after this speech was delivered, he consented to the exclusion of the 
 bishops from parliament.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 229 
 
 that was a bishop before him, &c. It is true the titles of 
 the first are inheritable, whilst those of the second are 
 not, yet that takes not away the bishops' right. The 
 bishops were not barons because they had baronies annexed 
 to their bishoprics, for few of them had : besides few of 
 the temporal lords had baronies ; but they are barons 
 because they are called by writ to the parliament, and 
 bishops were in the parliament ever since there was any 
 mention or sign of a parliament in England. You would 
 not have bishops meddle with temporal affairs — think 
 who you are that say it. — If a papist, they do in your 
 church ; if an English protestant, they do among you ; 
 if a presbyterian, you allow your lay-elders should meddle 
 with temporal affairs as well as spiritual. Besides, all 
 jurisdiction is temporal, and in no church but they have 
 some jurisdiction or another. The question then will be 
 reduced to majus and minus ; they meddle more in one 
 church than in another. To take away the bishops' 
 vote, is but the beginning to take them away ; for then 
 they can no longer be useful to the king or state*." 
 If to these considerations are added the facts that from 
 education, experience, and profession, they must be among 
 the best informed, and probably among the most virtuous 
 of the nation ; that they are less likely to be slavish 
 admirers of the king, because they are elected for life, 
 and their children are not heirs to the dignities they may 
 
 * Tulile 'J'ulk, y. IJishops in Piirliaiiietit.
 
 a^O ME MO Ills OF 
 
 acquire ; and that if they did not sit in parliament they 
 might in convocation ; the most ingenious may be puzzled 
 for an excuse to justify their exclusion from among the 
 councillors of the nation. Some who object to their 
 admission among those councillors seem to forget that 
 bishops are particularly appointed to superintend the 
 discipline of the church; that its temporal welfare is 
 another of their appropriated cares. Others seem to 
 expect that they should be exclusively careful in spiritual 
 affairs; and to think that a man, dedicated to God, 
 may not so much as, when he is required, cast a glance 
 of his eye, or some minutes of time, or some motions of 
 his tongue, upon the public business of his king and 
 country. " Those," said good Bishop Hall, who for his 
 virtues and eloquence has been called the English Seneca 
 " those that expect this from us, may as well, and upon 
 the same reason, hold that a minister must have no 
 family, or, if he have one, must not care for it ; yea, that 
 he must have no body to tend, but be all spirit. My 
 lords, we are men of the same composition with others, 
 and our breeding hath been accordingly. We cannot 
 have lived in the world, but we must liave seen it, and 
 observed it too ; and our long experience and conversation, 
 both with men and books, cannot but have put something 
 into us for the good of others*." 
 
 * The excellent address to the House of Lords from which the above 
 is extracted, is given in the folio edition of the Bishop's Works, and in 
 the Parliament History, ix. 283.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 231 
 
 The petitions to the House of Commons complaining of 
 grievances were so numerous, that the whole House was 
 divided and sub-divided into more than forty committees 
 for their examination. Each committee attended to the 
 petitions relating to a particular cause of complaint. 
 They all might be reduced to these classes; religion, 
 popery, ecclesiastical courts and encroachments ; public 
 affairs, especially concerning Ireland and Scotland, judges 
 and courts of justice, &c. This is very sufficient testi- 
 mony that the whole country felt and resented the 
 misrule under which it suffered, and that the parliament 
 was not an association of turbulent agitators, and exciters 
 of sedition, but that its members were the faithful de- 
 clarers of the nation's oppressions and desires of reform. 
 
 Among all these causes of complaint that arising from 
 a fear that the national religion was in danger still 
 continued the foremost and most prevalent. Sir Edward 
 Nicholas writing privately to the king in September, 
 1641, informs him "how it is insinuated upon all occasions 
 that popery (which is generally exceeding distasteful to 
 your subjects of this kingdom) is too much favoured by 
 your clergy here, and in your own court, and that this 
 opinion hath and doth (more than anything) prejudice to 
 your majesty in the esteem and affection of your people *." 
 From this source arose another committee, of which 
 Selden, Cromwell, Lord Falkland, Mr. Hyde, Mr. HoUis, 
 and others were members, to which was referred " a bill 
 * Evelyn's Diary, by Bray, ii. 21.
 
 232 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 for abolisliiiig superstition and idolatry, and for advancing 
 the worship and service of God." 
 
 On tlie day the session commenced, Selden was no- 
 minated one of a committee to attend to the petitions 
 which were presented against the Earl Marshal's Court 
 of Honour. Its arbitrary proceedings were so reprobated 
 in the report of this committee, that the House of 
 Commons voted it was a grievance, and consequently it 
 was abolished*. 
 
 In addition to these, and others of less importance, 
 Selden was one of the committee of twenty-four, ap- 
 pointed, upon the motion of Lord Digby, to draw up a 
 faithful declaration of the state of the nation as apparent 
 from the petitions that had been presented. The decla- 
 ration or remonstrance which they prepared, afforded 
 Mr. Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, a pretext 
 upon which to announce his desertion to the court party. 
 It was a very copious and unmitigating relation of 
 grievances, and Mr. Hyde considered its tendency so 
 inflammatory, that he published to it a reply. His own 
 autobiography tells us of his long secret intercourse with 
 the government, but this was the era of Selden and his 
 friend separating also in their public path of politics. 
 Their friendship remained unaltered, and it affords 
 testimony in favour of both, that Mr. Hyde on every 
 occasion stood forth in defence of his friend's con- 
 scientious conduct. 
 
 * Rushworth, ii. 1056.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 233 
 
 The long series of niisgovernment that has required 
 notice in these pages, demonstrates that much, very much, 
 required to be altered and redressed ; and though the 
 House of Commons, urged by its long-repressed eagerness 
 for reform, sought for changes that were not amendments, 
 and demanded punishments upon offenders exceeding 
 their demerits ; yet if these remedial excesses had been 
 corrected with moderate firmness ; if error had not been 
 clung to pertinaciously ; if the yieldings had not been 
 base ; and if the aggressions had been less rash : above 
 all, if in accordance with the hope Lord Clarendon 
 expressed to Lord Digby, the king had firmly resolved 
 never to depart from his own virtue, there would have 
 been a thorough reform without the destruction that 
 followed. Unfortunately all these wiser courses were 
 neglected. Every amendment was opposed until ac- 
 quiescence was w ithout merit ; and it was soon discovered 
 that what was yielded was intended to be opportunely 
 resumed. Moreover, Charles forsook himself, and sacri- 
 ficed his friends, and from that time he had no right to 
 expect constancy in any of his followers. Many actually 
 withdrew ther support, and he thus weakened his power 
 to restrain at the very time when that power was most 
 needed. 
 
 On the 11th of November, Mr. Pym began to unfold 
 the charges against the Earl of Strafford. This nobleman, 
 as noticed in a previous page, was a strenuous supporter 
 of the rights of the people, when he bore no other title 
 than his family name of Wcntwortli, but he had been
 
 234! - MEMOIRS OF 
 
 seduced to the government party*. He had been the 
 intimate friend of Pym, and when he was making his 
 peace with the court, he sent for him to a private con- 
 ference to Greenwich. Here by allusions and hints he 
 began to sound whether there was any chance of gaining 
 him to the same party, but Pym stopped him abruptly by 
 saying " you need not use all this art to tell me that you 
 have a mind to leave us ; but remember what I tell you 
 — you are going to be undone : remember also that though 
 you leave us, I will never leave you while your head is 
 upon your shoulders." He kept his wordt. 
 
 Lord Clarendon mentions Selden as one of those 
 who were " clesig7iecl by the House of Commons to 
 be Strafford's accusers," and his name occurs in all 
 the committees appointed to search for precedents of 
 attainders, preparing articles of accusation, holding 
 conferences with the lords, and other preliminary ar- 
 
 * " Sir Thomas Wentworth and Mr. Wandsworth," says Howell, "are 
 grown great courtiers lately, and come from Westminster Hall to 
 White Hall, (Sir John Saville their countryman having- shown them 
 the way with his White Staff.) The Lord Weston tampered with the 
 one, and my Lord Cottington took pains with the other, to bring- them 
 about from their violence against the prerogative." (Howell's Letters, 
 sect. 5. p. 25. ed 1645.) 
 
 f Wellwood's Memorial, 53. Mr. Pym was the most influential of 
 all the opponents of the court. His influence arose from his thorough 
 knowledge and habits of business, his mental penetration, powers of 
 debate, and private worth. Mr. Baillie gives this instance of the popu- 
 larity of Mr. Pym in 1643. " On Wednesday Mr. Pym was carried 
 from his house to Westminster, on the shoulders, as the fashion is, of 
 the chief men in the Lower House, all the House going in procession 
 before him." (Baillie's Letters and Journals, i. 409.)
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 235 
 
 rangements. However he was not one of those who 
 eventually were appointed to conduct the prosecution, 
 from which, and from his subsequent vote there is reason 
 to believe that to his judgment the evidence against the 
 earl was never satisfactory. The last time Rushworth 
 mentions Selden in connection with the preparations for 
 the trial of this unfortunate nobleman, is as one of the 
 committee of free conference with the lords, after the 
 earl had put in his answer. This was on the 6th of 
 March, 1641. On the 18th of the same month, 
 Mr. Glyn, was added to the committee of twelve who 
 managed the prosecution, and in all after proceedings 
 seems to have occupied the station that was intended for 
 Selden *. 
 
 In this work it is unnecesary to detail the evidence 
 produced upon this memorable trial, an event which, a 
 contemporary well observed, " we can hardly call the 
 trial of the earl of Strafford only : the king's affections 
 towards his people and parliament ; and the hopes of 
 three kingdoms depending on it, were all tried when 
 Strafford was arraigned t." Whoever reads the evidence 
 in these days, when the spirit of partisanship has no in- 
 fluence upon the judgment, must conclude that although 
 it proved him to be an apostate from the cause of liberty, 
 and a despot in his public acts and councils, yet it failed 
 to convict him as a traitor. Yet these legislators who 
 
 * Rushworth's Trial of Strafford, 33—38. 
 t May's History of tlic Parliument, 87.
 
 236 MEMOIllS OF 
 
 voted for his condemnation upon the charge of treason, 
 are not without an extenuating plea, for in the statute 
 under which he was arraigned (25 Edw. 3, st. 5, cap. 2.) 
 there is a clause empowering the parliament to declare 
 whether any particular offence " ougJit to be judged 
 treason." The injustice and danger of such a clause 
 is demonstrated by this example, for the power was 
 entrusted to men, many of whom unquestionably had not 
 moral courage sufficient to maintain the dictates of their 
 consciences. 
 
 The earl's replies to the charges were eloquent expres- 
 sions of able arguments. His judgment throughout was 
 l^rudent and skilful ; he maintained firm denials where he 
 considered his cause strong, and submitted to judicious 
 yieldings where he felt himself to have been in error. 
 His bearing was uniformly dignified and calm ; he was 
 bold without being audacious, and courteous without 
 being servile*. 
 
 Denham, who was probably an eye-witness, has left this 
 memorial of the effect produced by his pleading 
 
 Such was his force of eloquence, to make 
 The hearers more concern'd than he that spake 
 Each seem'd to act that part he came to see. 
 And none was more a looker-on than he ; 
 So did he move our passions, some were known 
 To wish, for the defence, the crime their own. 
 Now private pity strove with public hate, 
 Reason with rage, and eloquence with fate. 
 
 * See Rushworth's " Tryal of Thomas Earl of Strafford," passim.
 
 JOnX SELDEN. 237 
 
 This trial, which an eye-witness and its reporter re- 
 marks, was, " the most solemn, deliberate, and every 
 way the greatest trial, whereof we have any account in 
 our English Story *=,*' requires more than a brief notice. 
 The preparations for the trial were made with unusual 
 solemnity, under the directions of a committee of both 
 Houses of Parliament. 
 
 The usual courts of justice were too small and incon- 
 venient for the assemblage that it was known would 
 attend its progress ; the flooring of the painted chamber 
 was considered unsafe ; other rooms were similarly 
 objected to ; and consequently Westminster Hall, was 
 fitted up for their accommodation. 
 
 A closet was provided for the king, the queen, the prince 
 and their attendants, close behind the benches occupied 
 by the peers ; and its front was so inclosed by arras or 
 curtains, that the royal party could hear and see the 
 whole of the proceedings without being recognised. 
 Charles however was too deeply interested, and too 
 desirous to influence the court by the open acknowledg- 
 ment of his presence, to remain even partially concealed, 
 and an eye-witness relates, that the king, who was 
 present every day, with his own hands drew back, during 
 the first morning, the tirlie or curtain, and exposed the 
 royal party " full in the eyes of all t." 
 
 * Rushworth's Tryal of Thomas, Earl of Strafford, in Prof, 
 t Robert Baillie's Letters and Journals, i. 236—297. Raillie 
 was one of the Scotch commissioners present at the triah To him and
 
 238 MEM onus OF 
 
 Seats were prepared for the lord high steward, who 
 then was the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, and for the 
 rest of the House of Peers, who sat as the arbiters of the 
 earl's fate. Woolsacks were placed for the judges, as 
 their law counsellors : seats also were provided for the 
 members of the House of Commons, who came, not with 
 their speaker and the mace as a branch of the legislature* 
 but as a committee of the whole House ; other seats were 
 prepared for the commissioners of Scotland and Ireland, 
 and it thus became, says Rushworth, an assembly of the 
 three kingdoms. 
 
 At the lower end of this temporary court was erected 
 an inclosure for the thirteen managers of the impeachment 
 appointed by the House of Commons ; and close to them 
 stood the prisoner, with a table and desk before him, and 
 a chair to rest in when weary. Adjoining the earl sat 
 Rushworth, clerk of the House of Commons, " to take in 
 characters whatsoever should be said either against or 
 for him," — and his very lengthy and able report of this 
 trial, attests to the truth of his assurance, that " he hath 
 not wittingly or willingly omitted the least particle said 
 in the prisoner's defence, either by himself or others ; '* 
 and he adds that " he hath not varied the form or 
 manner of his expressions, being full of eloquence, and 
 pleasing rhetoric, and excellently adapted to move com- 
 passion both in his judges, and the numerous auditors." 
 
 to Rushworth I almost exclusively refer. Rushworth states that only 
 the prince made his appearance.
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 239 
 
 As already observed, it was on the 11th of November, 
 1640, that Mr. Pym moved the House, after the lobby 
 had been cleared, and the key laid upon the table, that 
 the Earl of Strafford might be impeached; and, the 
 house having assented, Mr. Pym the same day went up 
 and arraigned him at the bar of the House of Lords. 
 
 The arrangement of the charges ; the collecting of 
 witnesses, and other preparatory measures could not be 
 completed with similar promptitude; and it was not 
 until the 22nd of the following March, that the trial was 
 opened in Westminster Hall. 
 
 About seven o'clock on the morning of the trial's 
 commencement, the earl came from the Tower, accom- 
 panied by one hundred soldiers, armed with partizans, in 
 six barges, with fifty pair of oars. When he landed at 
 Westminster, he was received by two hundred of the 
 London trained band, who guarded him into the Hall ; 
 but there was no tumult in the crowd through which he 
 passed ; the bystanders generally saluted him, and he re- 
 turned their salutations courteously. ^Vhen the earl 
 entered the Hall, the attendant porter inquired whether 
 the axe should be carried before him ; but this ceremony 
 was dispensed with, not only at the command of the king, 
 but because it was not customary to do so except wlien 
 the party accused is tried by a jury. 
 
 The first day was occupied with reading twenty-eight 
 articles of the impeachment, and the earl's reply to them,
 
 240 MEMOIKS OF 
 
 and the trial subsequently proceeded with intervals of 
 various duration until the 12th of April. It would be 
 tedious, and it is unnecessary, to follow its diurnal 
 progress ; but I shall give an abstract of such of the 
 proceedings as were most important and interesting. 
 
 Mr. Pym commenced with this preamble. " This, my 
 lords, is a great cause, and we might sink under its 
 weight, and be astonished with the lustre of this noble 
 assembly, if there were not in the cause strength and 
 vigour to support itself, and to encourage us. It is the 
 cause of the king ; it concerns his majesty in the honour 
 of his government, in the safety of his person, and in the 
 stability of his crown. It is the cause of the kingdom ; it 
 concerns not only its peace and prosperity, but its very 
 being. We have also that piercing eloquence, the cries 
 and tears, and prayers of three kingdoms assisting us." 
 He then proceeded to descant upon the answer of the earl 
 to the charges of the impeachment ; and to examine 
 witnesses, to show that certain acts of his government as 
 lord lieutenant of Ireland were unconstitutional. 
 
 The earl by his cross examinations and reply, elicited 
 that they were not his acts but those of the Irish Privy 
 Council. Though refused his request of a day's delay to 
 answer the evidence adduced, but obliged to a prompt 
 reply, he argued ably, unconfused, and with dignity, 
 judiciously striving, as in the following passage, to mollify 
 the asperity of his prosecutors, and to gain over to his
 
 JOHN SEI-DEN. 1^41 
 
 cause the good wishes of his judges and auditors. " I 
 desire leave to say," said the earl, " in the presence of 
 Almighty God, that I shall desire to be delivered from 
 the afflictions which He hath laid upon me for my sins, 
 no other way than as in the intention of my heart, and 
 endeavour of my mind, I have been most faithful and 
 true to his majesty and the commonwealth ; and I well 
 trust and hope that by the time all these things come to 
 conclusion, and have been fully heard, I shall recover in 
 great measure, the favour and good opinion of the 
 honorable House of Commons ; in which House I have 
 spent a great part of my time. I doubt not but it is 
 known to many who sit here, what my conduct hath 
 been there. I never was yet impeached of untruth in my 
 private conversation, and I hope they will think of me 
 charitably until they have heard the whole business ; and 
 then I doubt not that I shall take off in great part their 
 hard opinion, and procure to myself their compassion and 
 favour, and that leaving all public employments I shall 
 go in peace and quietness to my grave." 
 
 On the third day one observation made by Serjeant 
 Maynard affords a true statement of what really was the 
 state of the impeachment. " It is," said Mr. Maynard, " a 
 charge of high treason — a treason not ending and expiring 
 in one single act of a discontented heart, but a habit of 
 treason exercised by this great lord, ever since the king's 
 favour was bestowed on him." There really was no 
 one specific act of treason established in any of the charges, 
 
 K
 
 243 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 but a series of tyrannical conduct, and to this the earl 
 applied an unanswerable observation, when he inquired 
 " since one thousand misdemeanours will not make one 
 felony, shall twenty-eight misdemeanours* heighten it to 
 
 treason ? '* 
 
 The anxiety of the managers on the part of the 
 Commons occasionally betrayed them into inopportune 
 interruptions of the earl's defence; but the earl always 
 met them with a reproof of mingled dignity and gentle- 
 ness that as often recalled them to a sense of their duty. 
 On one such occasion he observed, " Let no hasty words 
 be misinterpreted, remembrance being had that I am 
 speaking for my life and my children. Gentlemen will 
 do well not to put me out of my way, but to let me speak 
 the poor few things I can for myself, and then leave them 
 to your lordships' judgment." 
 
 The most weighty accusation against the earl, was 
 spread through the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th articles of 
 the impeachment, amounting to his advising the king in 
 conversation at the council table, that in case he could 
 not manage the parliament and people of England by 
 legal means, that he should subjugate them by force of 
 arms. The proof of this rested chiefly upon the evidence 
 of Sir Henry Vane, treasurer of the king's household, and 
 principal secretary of state. Such a witness was perhaps 
 never before or since exposed in a court of justice. It 
 
 * Twenty-eight were the numher of the charges against him.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 24^ 
 
 was well observed of a man who was continually weeping 
 when there was no rational cause, that he was either a 
 fool or a hypocrite ; and it is an observation as much 
 founded upon experience, that the man who is constantly 
 assuring us of his veracity, is conscious that it is very 
 open to doubt. Such a man was Sir Henry Vane. Let 
 one question and its answer suffice. 
 
 " Did you hear my Lord of Strafford, tell the king, 
 that having tried the affections of his people, he was 
 absolved from all rules of government?" He answered, 
 " that to the general question he doth not remember — 
 but to these words which have been read, he shall, as 
 near as he can, ingenuously deliver what he did formerly 
 depose ; ever reserving to himself words to the same 
 effect. That he considers very well where he is, and the 
 presence before whom he speaks ; that he hath never in 
 the whole course of his life loved to tell an untruth, much 
 less in this honourable assembly. That he shall, as near 
 as he can, in this case, tell their lordships plainly and 
 truly the matter," and then proceeds to give his answer, 
 interweaving it with sundry " if he do not very much 
 mistake," — " to the best that he can remember," — " as he 
 conceives," and concluding with " he must be ingenuous, 
 — he must say all he hath deposed, or is required," and 
 that " if it were the last hour he is to speak, it is the truth 
 to his best remembrance." 
 
 If Sir Henry spoke the truth, never did any one so 
 completely succeed in making it appear like falsehood — 
 
 11 2
 
 244 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Never did any one ever appear more like a perjurer afraid 
 of the consequences of his attested perfidy*. 
 
 Against this charge the earl observed that it was main- 
 tained by one doubtful witness, which could not establish a 
 debt, much less a treason ; and eloquently argued against 
 the betrayal of private intercourse. " If words," said the earl, 
 " spoken to friends in familiar discourse, spoken in one's 
 chamber, spoken at one's table, spoken in one's sick bed, 
 spoken, perhaps, to gain better reason, to obtain more 
 clear light and judgment by reasoning; if these things 
 shall be brought against a man as treason, this, under 
 favour, takes away the comfort of all human society. By 
 this means we shall be debarred of speaking with wise and 
 good men, the principal joy and comfort of society, in 
 order to become wiser and better ourselves. If these 
 things be strained to take away life and honour and all 
 that is desirable, it will be a silent world ; a city will 
 become a hermitage, and sheep will be found amongst a 
 press of people. No man shall dare to impart his solitary 
 thoughts or opinion to his friend and neighbour, but 
 thereby be debarred consulting with wiser men than 
 himself, whereby he may understand the law wherewith 
 he ought to be governed." 
 
 * The earl, in his final address, did not fail to remark upon Sir 
 Henry's evidence. These professions of his speaking- clearly and 
 plainly, said his Lordship, and of his consideration before whom he 
 was, which are something- unusual clauses to men that come to give 
 evidence upon oath, make me conceive him but a dubious and uncertain 
 witness."
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 245 
 
 He then argued convincingly, that the words attributed 
 to him were at the worst of doubtful import, and rising in 
 spirit as he won his way, he concluded by saying, " those 
 words charged upon me were not wantonly or unneces- 
 sarily spoken, or whispered in a corner, but were uttered 
 in full council, where I was by the duty of my oath, obliged 
 to speak according to my heart and conscience in all things 
 concerning the king's service. So that if I had forborne 
 to speak what I conceived for the benefit and advantage of 
 the king and the people, as I conceived this to be, I had 
 been perjured towards God ; and yet it seems that by the 
 utterance of them I am in danger of being adjudged a 
 traitor. If that n;icessity is put upon me, I thank God 
 that by his blessing I have learned not to stand in fear of 
 him that can kill the body ; but I must stand in fear of 
 him that can cast body and soul into eternal torment. If 
 that be the question, that I must be a traitor to man, or 
 perjured to God, I will be faithful to my creator ; and 
 whatsoever shall befal me from popular rage, or my owji 
 weakness, I must leave it to the Almighty, and to your 
 lordships' honour and justice." 
 
 On the 12th of April he was called upon to sum up his 
 defence. Upon that day he excelled all his former efforts, 
 and his children, who were that day in court, might 
 remember to their dying hour with pride, the talents, the 
 dignity, and pathetic eloquence that their father on that 
 day exhibited in their and his own behalf. Tiiat speech 
 occupies nearly thirty folio pages of Rush worth's work,
 
 24:6 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and is an admirable example of condensed reasoning, of 
 analysis of evidence, and of appeal to the feelings. A few- 
 extracts from it must be all that can be here related. 
 
 He commenced with this appeal to his judges, " My 
 lords, my memory is weak, my health hath been impaired 
 and I have not had such quiet thoughts as I desired to 
 have had in a business of so great and weighty importance 
 to me. Therefore I shall most humbly beseech your lord- 
 ships, that by your wisdom, your justice and goodness, I 
 may be so much bound to you, as to have my infirmities 
 supplied by your better abilities, better judgments, and 
 better memories." 
 
 Having proceeded then to discuss, compare, and rebut 
 the various evidences against him with admirable per- 
 spicuity, and argued that at the most the whole amounted 
 but to constructive treason, he thus concluded : — 
 
 " My lords, may your lordships be pleased to have that 
 regard to the peerage of England, as never to suffer 
 yourselves to be put upon those moot points, upon such 
 constructions and interpretations and strictness of law 
 as these are, when the law is not clear nor known. If 
 there must be a trial of wits, I do most humbly beseech 
 your lordships to consider that the subject should be of 
 something else than of your lives and of your honours. 
 
 " My lords, we find that in the primitive time, on the 
 sound and plain doctrine of the blessed apostles, they 
 brought in their books of curious arts and burnt them. 
 My lords, it will be likewise, under favour, wisdom and
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 247 
 
 providence in your lordshijis, for yourselves and posterities, 
 and for the whole kingdom, to cast from you into the fire, 
 those bloody and mysterious volumes of constructive and 
 arbitrary treasons, and to betake yourselves to the plain 
 letter of the statute, that tells you where the crime is, that 
 so you may avoid it ; and let us not, my lords, be ambi- 
 tions to be more learned in those killing arts than our 
 forefathers were before us." 
 
 " My lords, I beseech you that you will be pleased to 
 consider, and let my particular case be so looked upon, as 
 that you do not, through me, wound the interest of the 
 commonwealth. For howsoever those gentlemen at the 
 bar say they speak for the commonwealth, and they believe 
 so ; yet, under favour, in this particular, I believe I speak 
 for the commonwealth too ; and that the inconveniences 
 and miseries that will follow upon this will be such as 
 that it will come, within a few years, to that which is 
 expressed in the statute of Henry the Fourth, it will be of 
 such a condition that no man shall know what to do, or 
 what to say. 
 
 " Do not, my lords, put greater difficulty upon the mi- 
 nisters of state, than that with cheerfulness they may serve 
 the king and the nation ; for if you will examine them by 
 every grain, it will be so heavy that the public affairs of the 
 kingdom will be left waste, and no man will meddle with 
 them that hath wisdom, and honour, and fortune to lose. 
 
 " My lords," he concluded pointing to his children, " I 
 have now troubled your lordships a great deal longer than
 
 248 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 I sliould have done were it not for the interest of those 
 jiledges that a saint in heaven has left me. I should be 
 
 loath, my lords " but his feelings would not allow 
 
 him to complete the sentence. A pause for a short space 
 having restored his self command, he proceeded, "What 
 I forfeit for myself is nothing, but I confess that my 
 indiscretion should forfeit for them wounds me very 
 deeply. You will be pleased to pardon my infirmity ; — 
 something more I should have said ; but I see I shall not 
 be able, and therefore I will leave it. 
 
 " And now, my lords, for myself, I thank God I have 
 been taught by his good blessing towards me, that the 
 afflictions of this present life are not to be compared with 
 that eternal weight of glory that shall be revealed for us 
 hereafter : and so, my lords, even so with all humility, 
 and with all tranquillity of mind, I do submit myself 
 clearly and freely to your judgments ; and whether that 
 righteous judgment shall be to life, or to death, Te 
 Deum luudamus^ Te Dominum confitemurr 
 
 On Mr. Pym devolved the arduous task of recovering 
 to the cause of the parliament the calm attention of the 
 judges, which must have been hurried away by the 
 mingled feelings of admiration and pity which the earl's 
 address engendered in the heart of every auditor. Than 
 Pym no man knew how to succeed better in this task ; 
 he was fully conscious that it was for him to allay the 
 excitement, and with sober and didactic eloquence he 
 assayed to assuage the agitated element around him.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 249 
 
 He commenced by reminding the peers that he stood 
 there to advocate the safety of the people, the object of all 
 laws. " It is the law," he continued, " that puts a difference 
 between good and evil, between just and unjust ; if you 
 take away the law all things will fall into confusion, 
 every man will become a law to himself, which, in the 
 depraved condition of human nature, must needs produce 
 many great enormities ; lust will become a law ; and 
 envy will become a law ; covetousness and ambition will 
 become laws, and what dictates such laws will produce 
 may easily be discerned in the late government of Ireland.' 
 
 Mr. Pym proceeded much further in this, which has 
 always been considered an admirable eulogium upon the ad- 
 vantages of a just code of laws; and after expatiating upon 
 the earl's offences, and recurring to the punishment they 
 merited, he thus proceeded. " His death will not be a 
 new way of blood," — at that moment his eye involun- 
 tarily met the earnest gaze of the earl ; and he faltered 
 beneath the indignant glance of an eye that beaming with 
 all its accustomed fire, spoke more rebukingly when com- 
 pared with the otherwise wasted frame of his early friend. 
 Pym rallied and attempted to go on, but " to humble 
 the man," observed Baillie, " God let his memory fail him. 
 He looked on his papers, but they could not help him." 
 He hurried to close his address, and left Mr. Glynn to 
 reply more fully to the earl's summary ; and to Mr. St. 
 John to argue the points of law. 
 
 The House of Commons did not press for judgment
 
 250 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 upon this impeachment, but two days previous to its close 
 introduced a Bill of Attainder against the earl. This 
 they professed was their intention from the beginning ; — 
 they wished to establish the facts in open court, and then 
 to found upon it a Bill of Attainder. 
 
 The reason for adopting such an irregular course 
 seems inexplicable — it could not be because they feared a 
 majority of the peers were in favour of the earl, because 
 the Bill of Attainder must come before the same judges. 
 It, perhaps, was a course adopted to give time for the work 
 of intimidation which might be necessary to obtain the 
 requisite assents — and if so, full advantage was taken of 
 the intervening time to bring that means into operation. 
 Rumours of plots, some real and others imaginary, were 
 circulated ; multitudes of people surrounded the houses 
 clamouring for " justice " upon the Earl of Strafford. 
 Intimidation effected what reason, honour, and Christianity 
 would not permit, and the earl died upon the scaffold on 
 the 12th of May, 1641. 
 
 Mr. Whitelocke, who was chairman of the committee 
 that prepared the charges against the earl, says of him, 
 *' certainly never any man acted such a part, on such a 
 theatre, with more wisdom, constancy, and eloquence; 
 with greater reason, judgment, and temper ; and with 
 a better grace in all his words and gestures, than this 
 great and excellent person did ; and he moved the hearts 
 of all his auditors, some few excepted, to remorse and 
 pity." Lord Digby, who had been one of the same
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 251 
 
 committee, nobly stood forward to oppose the earl's 
 condemnation for treason. He said, " I believe his acts 
 in themselves as high, as tyrannical, as any subject ever 
 ventured on ; I do not say but others may represent him 
 as a man as worthy to die, and perhaps worthier, than 
 many a traitor ; I do not say but they may justly direct 
 us to enact that such acts shall be treason for the future ; 
 but God keep me from giving judgment of death upon any 
 man, and of ruin to his innocent offspring, upon a law 
 made a posteriorV' 
 
 The vote, however, was carried against the earl by a 
 majority of 204< opposed by 59- 
 
 Franklyn, expressly says, that Lord Digby and Selden 
 were convinced by the defence, and left the prosecution 
 when the Bill of Attainder was introduced*. They 
 were in the glorious minority above enumerated, and 
 their names were unintentionally honoured by the rabble, 
 when it posted them up in Palace Yard and other places, 
 as being " StrafTordians, and betrayers of their country t." 
 
 The merit of those who opposed the wishes of the 
 prevailing majority is more enhanced by the fact, that all 
 who so opposed them were liable to the violent and brutal 
 disapprobation of the populace, who the leaders of the 
 majority were weak and base enough to incite to violence 
 
 * Franklyn's Annals, 892. 
 t Parliament. History, ix. 257 — 288. Warwick's Memoirs, 161. 
 Rushworth's Trial of .Strufiford, 59, &c.
 
 252 MEM OIKS OF 
 
 against those persons and measures of which they dis- 
 approved. In the instance before us, Sir John Strangeways 
 declared in a petition, that although he was at his house 
 in Dorsetshire, during the voting of Strafford's attainder 
 yet his name had been inserted among the Straffordians," 
 and consequently his person had been rendered odious 
 and his life endangered*. Many of the peers, appre- 
 hensive of incurring popular displeasure, disgracefully 
 shrunk from their duty, for when the last great question 
 involving the earl's life was decided, only forty-five of 
 them were in the House of the eighty who had attended 
 his trial. Of these nineteen voted in his favour, and 
 twenty-six against him t. 
 
 The greatest known delinquent in this tragedy was the 
 king. The others who sat in judgment upon the earl 
 can never be ascertained to have acted against their con- 
 sciences, until the day when the secrets of all hearts will 
 be made manifest; but Charles the First has registered 
 to all posterity that he sacrificed his friend with the hope 
 of thereby benefiting himself. In the presence of all his 
 parliament, after every proof had been gone through, the 
 king declared , " in my conscience I cannot condemn him 
 of high treason. To satisfy my people I would do great 
 
 * Rushwortli's Collections, iv, 279. Warwick's Memoirs of Charles 
 the First, 6. 
 
 f Journal of the House of Lords. Whitelocke's Memorials. Nalson's 
 Collections, &c.
 
 JOHN SEI.DEX. 253 
 
 matters; but in this of conscience, no fear, no respect 
 whatsoever shall ever make me go against it*." Yet in 
 eight days after the king consented to his execution ! 
 
 If a reference is made to what his best apologists have 
 written upon this criminal consent, we shall find with 
 regret that all the palliating circumstances they adduce, 
 amount to no more than that Charles permitted death to 
 be inflicted on one who he was convinced was innocent, 
 because that death might benefit himself and his family. 
 When we reflect that the sufferer was his friend, and 
 remember the noble yet pathetic letter the earl wrote to 
 him, whilst he yet balanced the decision of his fate ; and 
 that he was not without a mentor at the time, for 
 Dr. Juxon to the last warned him, " that if he were not 
 satisfied in his conscience he ought not to do it whatsoever 
 happened f," we must feel that Charles had left none but 
 the tyrant's plea, that he did it from policy ; a plea of 
 which he must have observed the universal applicability 
 when some few years subsequently he bowed down him- 
 self before the headsman. Charles was bitterly punished 
 for this and all his errors, and in further mitigation of our 
 indignant feeling towards him, it should be remembered 
 that the struggle of his heart against consenting was long 
 
 * Journal of the House of Lords. Parliament. Hist., ix. 287. 
 
 t Charles from experience ought to have confided in the advice of the 
 irreproachable Dr. Juxon, for ho told Sir Philip Warwick, " I never got 
 his opinion freely in my life, but when I had it, I was ever the better 
 for it." (Warwick's Memoirs, 96.)
 
 254 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and anguishing; that the hope to appease the clamour 
 against those most dear to him was a powerful temptation ; 
 that the advice of some of his council was most base ; and 
 that his repentance was sincere and permanent. 
 
 No event in history more powerfully demonstrates the 
 futility of that policy, which has recourse to criminal 
 measures for support, than this consenting of Charles to 
 the execution of the Earl of Strafford. The effects were 
 totally the reverse of those intended to be produced. 
 
 Its first marked result was that it destroyed the con- 
 fidence of the king's friends ; for when they saw that 
 there was no faith to be founded upon his promises, and 
 that his word and his conscience were disregarded when 
 his interests required, they naturally concluded that there 
 was no assured safety to themselves. Consequently Lord 
 Cottington resigned the mastership of the wards ; Bishop 
 Juxon his post of lord treasurer : the Earl of Newcastle 
 declined the preceptorship of the prince, and the Earl of 
 Pembroke retired from the lord chamberlainship *." 
 
 Instead of conciliating the people it undoubtedly drew 
 upon the king their contempt ; and we may be proud to 
 know, that there never yet was an individual who shrank 
 from the suffering necessary to preserve his innocence that 
 obtained the approbation of Englishmen. " That the 
 king should be induced to consent to the execution of the 
 earl," says Whitelocke, " was admired by most of his 
 subjects, as well as by foreigners." 
 
 * Whitelocke's Memorial, &c.
 
 .lOHN SELDEX. 255 
 
 From the moment Charles consented to sign the 
 warrant of death, he must have lost his self respect, and 
 stung by the " still small voice," that would be ever 
 whispering his self-condemnation, have viewed with 
 distaste, not to say hatred, the parliament which had 
 urged him to the deed. Charles also speedily found by 
 a woeful experience that to acquiesce to an unreasonable 
 demand will never satisfy the demander. By asking it 
 he incurs a degree of guilt ; each addition of guilt brings 
 its addition of fear, and every such fear is restless until 
 the injured person is deprived of the power either to 
 recover his right or to revenge his injury*. 
 
 The parliament continued to require greater measures 
 of reform, and greater securities against the recurrence of 
 misrule : these, whether reasonable or supererogatory were 
 usually obstinately opposed and then weakly assented to. 
 One false step followed close upon the heels of another, 
 and Charles very early renounced the possibility of re- 
 trocession, and laid the foundation of his own ruin by 
 passing the act that made the parliament undissolvable 
 without its own consent. This consent blindly weakened 
 his power, as well as basely subverted the constitution he 
 had sworn to preserve t. 
 
 * Warwick's Memoirs, 163. 
 
 t " It is impossible to think," says Sir Philip Warwick, who was 
 (Charles's secretary, " how so intelligent a person as this king was, 
 should, by any persuasions, which were certainly great on the queen's 
 side, or treachery, which certainly was great on the side of many of 
 his great courtiers, be induced thus to divest himself of all majesty
 
 256 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 From this time the spirit of the court party was 
 broken, and consequently less check being offered to 
 the advances of the parliament, it proceeded in its 
 career of political change with increased speed. It is 
 impossible to commend the policy of some of their en- 
 actments, yet the king enumerated a curious list of the 
 past sources of oppression, when he thus reminded the 
 parliament of some of the bills to which he had assented : 
 " Are the bills for triennial parliaments ; for relinquishing 
 our title of imposing upon merchandise, and power of 
 pressing soldiers ; for taking away the star-chamber, and 
 high-commission courts ; and for regulating the council- 
 table, but words ? Are the bills for the forests, the 
 stannary courts, the clerk of the market, and the taking 
 away the votes of the bishops out of the House of Lords, 
 but words ? Lastly, what greater earnest of our trust and 
 reliance on our parliament could, or can, we give than the 
 passing of the bill for the continuance of this present 
 parliament '*? " 
 
 If, as in the above instances, the parliament had 
 restrained itself to its appropriate office of legislation, the 
 king could have had little cause for complaint, but it 
 mistrusted him too much not to desire for its own safety 
 to take from him the execution as well as the enactment 
 
 and power ; or to be so overseen, as to think, he should avoid danger 
 by running- into the greatest hazards imag-inable. But wisdom often 
 quits a man, when misfortune hath led him into extremities,'" — (War- 
 wick's Memoirs, &c. 182.) 
 * ParHament. Hist. x. 383.
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 257 
 
 of the laws. They were fatally jealous of each other, and 
 as he had at first opposed himself to all reformation, now 
 that he had been compelled to yield, the parliament 
 placed no confidence in the sincerity of his compliances. 
 It justly looked upon him as a receding enemy, that only 
 waited for a favourable opportunity again to advance, and 
 it consequently feared to stay its progress in the restric- 
 tions of his prerogative, whilst there remained with him 
 the power of an effectual regression. 
 
 One point is most clear ; the parliament greatly erred in 
 destroying the monarchy, but when a view is taken of the 
 whole of the rash, duplex conduct subsequently pursued 
 by Charles, it is perhaps imj^ossible to determine where it 
 could have stopped in restricting his power with a perfect 
 security, that the oppressions of an absolute monarchy 
 could not recur. 
 
 The conduct of the king naturally afforded grounds for 
 the suspicions of the parliament, many instances have 
 already been noticed, and others will hereafter, be men- 
 tioned, but here one fact only need be stated, which is, 
 that being obnoxious to the parliament was always a 
 recommendation to court favour. No sooner did Lord 
 Digby, Sir Philip Warwick, and Mr. Hyde become 
 opposed to the measures of the parliament, than they 
 immediately ranked among the king's favourites. Thus 
 the branches of the legislature practically declared they 
 were no longer acting in union for the public good, and 
 the enmity increased until they agreed but on one point, 
 
 s
 
 258 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and that unfortunately an error, namely that the preroga- 
 tive of the crown and the liberty of the people could not 
 be co-existent. 
 
 The part which Selden took during this exciting 
 period is not fully known. His name is found as one of 
 various committees, particularly that appointed to hold a 
 conference with the lords upon the disgraceful treaty 
 which the king had entered upon at Ripon with the 
 Scotch ; of another appointed to examine into the illegal 
 proceedings in the exchequer-chamber, respecting ship 
 money ; and of a third upon the appointment of a Custos 
 Regni during the king's absence in Scotland *. In these 
 he acted as a pioneer to prepare the ground for future 
 operations, but when the state of the established church 
 was brought before the legislature, he stood forward and 
 occupied a more prominent station in the contest. 
 
 The clergy of the period were men of extensive 
 literary acquirements ; " all confess," says Selden, " there 
 never was a more learned clergy : no man taxes them with 
 ignorance : — but they have worse faults.*' They were 
 especially notorious for being, in general, too inattentive to 
 their religious duties, and too interfering with political 
 affairs. Their enemies therefore consisted of those who 
 condemned them as inactive teachers ; those who objected 
 to their theological opinions ; and those who opposed their 
 state power : and all unfortunately united to subvert 
 
 * Parliament. Hist., ix. 503.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 259 
 
 rather than to correct them. It has ah'eady been re- 
 marked, that in the declarations of grievances, those 
 relating to religion and ecclesiastical affairs, had always 
 occupied a primary position, and now that the work of 
 reformation was actively proceeding these met with an 
 early attention. 
 
 It has been noticed that during the long suspension 
 of parliament a convocation of the clergy had draw'n up 
 new canons and ordinances. This deserved the atten- 
 tion of the legislature, and previous to its consideration 
 by the whole House, a committee, of w hich Selden was a 
 member, proceeded to search for convocation warrants and 
 other preliminary information. To assure us that the 
 clergy had been wrong in their proceedings, we need no 
 other authority than Clarendon, who says, " The convo- 
 cation made canons, which it was thought it might do ; 
 and gave subsidies out of parliament, and enjoined oaths, 
 which certainly it might not do : in a w^ord, did many 
 things Avhich in the best of times might have been 
 questioned, and therefore were sure to be condemned in 
 the worst, and drew the same prejudice upon the wiiole 
 body of the clergy, to which before only some few 
 clergymen were exposed *." 
 
 The members of that convocation, therefore were justly 
 alarmed when they became acquainted with the proposed 
 parliamentary inquiry. The following letter to Selden 
 
 * Hist, of the Rebellion, i. 11(5. Fol. Ed. 
 S 2
 
 260 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 from Archbishop Laud, is at once a confession of error 
 and of fear. 
 
 *' To my much honoured friend, Mr. John Selden, 
 " These, Sal. in Christo. 
 " Worthy Sir, 
 
 "I understand that the business about the late 
 
 canons will be handled again in your House to-morrow. 
 
 I shall never ask any unworthy thing of you, but give me 
 
 leave to say as follows : If we have erred in any point of 
 
 legality unknown to us, we shall be heartily sorry for it, 
 
 and hope that error shall not be made a crime. We hear 
 
 that ship money is laid aside as a thing that will die of 
 
 itself, and I am glad that it will have so quiet a death. 
 
 May not these unfortunate canons be suffered to die as 
 
 quietly without blemishing the church, which hath so 
 
 many enemies both at home and abroad? If this 
 
 may be, I here promise you, I will presently humbly 
 
 beseech his majesty for a licence to review the canons, and 
 
 abrogate them ; assuring myself that all my brethren will 
 
 join with me to preserve the public peace, rather than any 
 
 act of ours shall be thought a public grievance. And upon 
 
 my credit with you I should have moved for this licence 
 
 at the very first meeting of this parliament, but that both 
 
 myself and others did fear the House of Commons would 
 
 take offence at it (as they did at the last), and said we 
 
 did it on purpose to prevent them. I understand you 
 
 mean to speak of this business in the House to-morrow
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 261 
 
 and that hath made me write these lines to you, to let 
 you know our meaning and desires. And I shall take it 
 for a great kindness to me, and a great service to the 
 church, if by your means the House will be satisfied with 
 this, which is here offered of abrogating the canons. 
 •* To God's blessed protection, I leave you, and rest 
 " Your loving poor friend, 
 
 "W. Cant." 
 
 " Lambeth, Nov. 29, 1640." 
 
 " I mean to move the king this day for a licence, as is 
 within mentioned * 
 
 ja } J 
 
 Such an application was not likely to meet with com- 
 pliance in an assembly the majority of whose members 
 were inimical to the church establishment, anxious to 
 avail themselves of every opportunity to attack it, and 
 strenuous in their exertions to effect its overthrow. They 
 were sustained by the prejudices of the people, for the 
 tide of public opinion set strongly against the episcopal 
 form of church government. Mr. Bagshaw, who was 
 reader of the Middle Temple, lecturing during the Lent 
 vacation of 1640, upon the statute passed in the 25th 
 of Edward the Third, inferred from its enactments, that 
 bishops as spiritual lords have no right to sit in 
 parliament. It is true, that he was silenced by the 
 government, but the support he met with, and the very 
 
 * Biofjraphia Britan., tVotii tlie Harding' MSS.
 
 26^2 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 fact of his lecturing on the topic before such an audience, 
 is testimony of that opinion not being unpalatable or 
 unfavoured *. 
 
 Selden consistently adopted the moderate and wise 
 course of improvement rather than of destruction, and 
 declaring himself an enemy of the church's usurped 
 powers, threw himself directly in opposition to those who 
 wished to subvert its doctrines and discipline. 
 
 Many preliminary skirmishes occurred before the fate 
 of the establishment v/as finally determined. Upon the 
 occasion of a remonstrance being presented from some 
 sectarian ministers against the government of the church, 
 Selden protested against the discussion of religious topics 
 in the House of Commons, and the debate then proceeded 
 upon the right of bishops to suspend the inferior clergy 
 from the performance of their ministerial duties. In 
 opposition to this right Sir Harbottle Grimston employed 
 the following extraordinary logic. " That bishops are 
 Jure divino is a question ; that archbishops are not Ju?'e 
 divino is out of question. Now that bishops, who are 
 questioned whether Jure divino, or archbishops, who out 
 of question are not Jure divino, should suspend ministers 
 that axe Jure divino, I leave to you to be considered." 
 
 To this, in a happy vein of ridicule, Selden thus replied. 
 " That the convocation hjure divino is a question ; that 
 parliaments are not Jure divino is out of question ; that 
 
 * Heylin's Life of Laud, 38L Whitelocke's Memorials, 3L
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 263 
 
 religion is jure dimno there is no question. Now, sir, 
 that the convocation, which is questionable whether jure 
 div'mo, and parliaments which out of question are not 
 jure clivino, should meddle with religion, which, question- 
 less injure divino, I leave to your consideration !" 
 
 Sir Harbottle, pursuing his argument, observed, " that 
 archbishops are not bishops." To which Selden rejoined, 
 " that is no otherwise true than that judges are no lawyers, 
 and aldermen no citizens * ! " 
 
 On the 31st of January 1641, a declaration was read in 
 the House of Commons against episcopacy. Selden used 
 all his learning and reason to defeat it, by endeavouring to 
 establish that it is not a subject properly within the 
 authority of parliament. His opposition was in vain, for 
 the bishops were deprived of their seats in parliament, 
 and the clergy generally proscribed from holding any 
 civil office, early in the following month. As Selden 
 had foretold, this was but a prelude to the abolition of 
 episcopacy, which was finally voted by the same parlia- 
 ment in September, 1642. 
 
 A man's favourite pursuit will obtain his attention even 
 when he is engaged in the most dissimilar occupations, 
 and this predominating influence, which made Newton 
 work problems amid the bustle of a market day, and 
 Korner write poetry amid the awful preparations of 
 battle, impelled Selden to pursue his antiquarian litera- 
 
 * Franklyn's Annals, 836. Rushworth, &c.
 
 2()4 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ture through the excitement, and turmoil of tbis 
 revohitionary crisis. 
 
 In 1640 he published one of his most erudite works, 
 entitled " De Jure Naturali et Gentium juxta disciplinam 
 Ebraeorum, libri septem." Its design is supposed to 
 have been suggested to him by Grotius's celebrated 
 treatise " De Jure Belli et Pacis," yet its method is 
 totally different, and its motto from Lucretius, claims for 
 its subject the merit of absolute novelty. It is without a 
 dedication; an observable circumstance, indicative of the 
 dubious complexion of the time in which it appeared, but 
 it is ushered in by a preface, containing an analysis of the 
 work, which the variety of its matter and intricacy of its 
 arrangement renders very necessary. 
 
 Speaking first of the title, he explains the Jus Naturale 
 to mean the law of the world, or universal law ; and the 
 Jus Gentium to be the peculiar law of different nations. 
 He quotes Lucan's similar definition in the apposite 
 lines : — 
 
 Sed neque jus mundi valuit, neque foedera sancta 
 Gentium. 
 
 Selden limits this natural or universal law to those 
 precepts which the Jewish books and traditions lay down 
 as delivered by Noah to his posterity, and as supposed to 
 have been derived by him from Adam, to whom they were 
 given by God. Of these seven heads are enumerated, 
 namely, 1. Idolatry. 2. Blasphemy. 3. Homicide. 4.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 265 
 
 Illicit concubinage. 5. Theft. 6. Eating flesli severed 
 from a living animal. 7. Judicial proceedings and civil 
 obedience. 
 
 Under these heads is given a digest of all the laws 
 embracing the civil and religious polity of the Jews, 
 distinguishing that part of it which belongs to the uni- 
 versal law, from that which is national or municipal. In 
 an introductory book he details the Hebrew philosophy, 
 and the sources of natural law, according to the Jewish 
 writers, particularly considering the supposed origin and 
 authority of the Noachide precepts. 
 
 It is evident from this outline, that the w^ork is to 
 be regarded as historical rather than philosophical, and 
 therefore, although Le Clerc's opinion of it may be well 
 founded, it does not follow that Selden is censurable for 
 not having performed what he did not attempt. That 
 critic says, " Selden only copies the Rabbins, and scarcely 
 ever reasons. His rabbinical principles are founded upon 
 an uncertain supposition of the Jewish tradition, tiiat God 
 gave to Noah seven precepts, which all the human race 
 was to observe. If this were denied the Jews would be 
 much at a loss to prove it. Moreover his ideas are very 
 imperfect and embarrassed." In answer to this it may be 
 observed, that as it was Selden's professed object to exhibit 
 Jewish law as laid down by the Jewish writers them- 
 selves, he was in some measure constrained to follow their 
 method, and certainly to deliver faithfully their laws and 
 opinions. Besides no one can deny that Selden has made
 
 266 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 his work a valuable repertory of all that history or tradi- 
 tion informs us concerning the Hebrew institutions before 
 and after the Mosaic dispensation. On which account it 
 has been much commended by learned men both at home 
 and abroad, and it made a large addition to the reputation 
 he already possessed for indefatigable industry and pro- 
 found erudition. An abridgment of this work was 
 published by J. F. Buddoeus, professor of philosophy at 
 Halle in 1695 *. 
 
 * Aikin's Life of Selden, 108.
 
 JOHN seldp:n. 267 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MODERATE PARTY. KING RASH IN HIS CONDUCT. PARLIA- 
 MENT ACT ILLEGALLY. KING ATTEMPTS TO SEIZE FIVE OF THE 
 
 MEMBERS IN THE HOUSE. STRENGTHENS THE OPPOSITION. 
 
 SELDEN REFUSES THE LORD KEEPERSHIP. BREACH BETWEEN THE 
 
 KING AND THE PARLIAMENT WIDENS. — CIVIL WAR COMMENCES. 
 
 SELDEN'S STRENUOUS OPPOSITION TO AN APPEAL TO ARMS. 
 
 EPISCOPACY AND PRESBYTERIAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. — SEL- 
 DEn's TRANSLATION FROM EUTYCHIUS. — NOT OPPOSED TO EPIS- 
 COPACY. 
 
 The moderate party in the parliament, which in this 
 country always eventually prevails, was unfortunately 
 weak in numbers, but was gradually increasing. Their 
 just fundamental principle was well expressed by a bar- 
 rister named Smith, who was one of their number, when 
 he warned the House of Commons that " prerogative and 
 liberty are both necessary to the kingdom, and, like the 
 sun and moon, give a lustre to the nation so long as they 
 walk at their equal distances, but when one of them 
 ventures within the other's orbit, like those planets in 
 conjunction they then cause a deeper eclipse,'* 
 
 To this band of germine patriots Selden belonged, and 
 it is gratifying to observe, that even in the hostile colli- 
 sion that was proceeding between the extreme parties, he 
 was enabled occasionally to secure respect to the rules
 
 268 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of justice and to legal authorities. Thus, when it was 
 debated whether the pay of certain officers, suspected of 
 plotting against the parliament, should cease, Selden 
 successfully reminded the House, that there was no judg- 
 ment, or even charge passed against them, therefore they 
 could not have incurred a forfeiture*. 
 
 This influence of the moderate party, and the natural 
 results of a continued progress in a course of reformation, 
 gradually reduced the strength of the partisans of extreme 
 change. The predominance of political reformers in 
 general, must be of temporary duration. Time always 
 reduces their numbers, until their party becomes a mi- 
 nority. Some will desert them because they act too 
 rashly ; others will withdraw their support because they 
 
 * Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State to Charles the First, in 
 a private letter to this monarch, dated August, 1641, speaks more par- 
 ticularly of this transaction. He says, " Yesterday the Commons 
 ordered that the pay of Colonels Wilmot, Ashburnham, and the rest of 
 the soldiers that are questioned in parliament, shall be sequestered until 
 their business shall be heard and adjudged. And upon the discourse of 
 that business, Mr. Selden did then deliver his opinion with much con- 
 fidence, that by the act of oblivion, Mr. Percy and Mr. Jermyn, and all 
 the rest that are questioned with them, are freed and pardoned, which 
 he argued so strongly out of the words of that act, as the sages of the 
 House who oppugned his opinion did not give any reasonable answer 
 to. The House was not well pleased with him who delivered this 
 opinion. Some said it was not the intention of the House to pardon 
 them, but it was replied that laws are to be understood according to the 
 words of the acts, not according to the intention of the makers, further 
 than the words will bear." — (Bray's Memoirs, &c. of Evelyn, ii. 7. 
 Parliament. Hist, ix., 531.)
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 269 
 
 proceed with too little vigour ; others will grow weary of 
 the constant efforts to improve ; and differences will divide 
 them both in determining what is faulty and what is 
 remedial. Thus vmagreeing among themselves, they fail 
 before a less numerous, yet more united party, until the 
 deficiencies, which time will render apparent in all human 
 institutions, or some violent outrage of the executive, 
 again unites them to effect changes which must be unani- 
 mously desirable. 
 
 At this period one rash proceeding of the king, goaded 
 by the constant vigilance and aggressions of the parlia- 
 ment, or acting upon the advice of incompetent counsellors, 
 completely deprived him of the advantage he was gaining, 
 united the declining party of the parliament, and rendered 
 him more than ever an object of distrust and dislike *. 
 
 Both these causes may have united in making Charles 
 adopt this measure, for the parliament had proceeded in 
 its course without any attention to the king's feelings, 
 and Clarendon says he acted upon the sole advice of Lord 
 Digby. 
 
 The House of Commons had especially directed its 
 attention against those who it considered the instruments 
 and advisers of the national misrule. The Lord Keeper 
 Finch, and Secretary Windebank fled from the prosecution 
 that was commenced against them. Many minor offenders 
 met with various degrees of punishment, and the king's 
 
 • Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion, i. 279.
 
 270 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 chief minister, Archbishop Laud, was committed to 
 custody*. They sent commissioners to watch the king, 
 whilst executing the Scotch treaty ; they appointed 
 standing committees, during the recess, to attend to 
 various internal regulations of the country ; they ordered 
 the governor of Hull not to attend to the king's commands 
 unless signified to him by themselves ; and they resolved 
 to put the kingdom in a posture of defence without 
 consulting the king. These were excessive outstretches of 
 their power, and inroads upon the king's prerogative, but 
 they descended even to paltry interferences with the 
 management of the royal establishment that could produce 
 scarcely any other effect than an exasperation of those 
 whom it annoyed. 
 
 Whatever may have prompted the measure, on the 
 3rd of January 1642, the attorney general, Sir Edward 
 Herbert, exhibited articles of impeachment before the 
 House of Lords, against Lord Kimbolton, Sir Arthur 
 Haselrigge, and Messrs. Hollis, Pym, Hampden and 
 Strode. It charged them with endeavouring to deprive 
 the king of his regal power, and to exalt that of the 
 
 * Selden was nominated one of the committee to prepare his articles 
 of impeachment, but there is no reason to believe that he engaged in 
 that painful task. There were a sufficient number of talented and 
 professional men in the House, to prevent a necessity for him to 
 sacrifice the inclinations of friendship to his public duty. Neither 
 the Archbishop in his very particular diary, or any other authority 
 mentions Selden as being- employed in his impeachment.
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 2?! 
 
 people ; with attempting to render the army disaffected ; 
 inviting a foreign invasion (that of the Scots) ; subverting 
 the rights of parliaments; and encouraging tumults 
 against it and the king. The lords attended to the 
 impeachment. The studies and trunks of some of the 
 accused were placed under seal, and on the same day, but 
 previously, the king sent a Serjeant at arms, to the speaker 
 of the House of Commons requiring him to deliver up 
 the five impeached members. 
 
 The whole of this proceeding was a tissue of error. It 
 was ill-judged to proceed at all ; it w^as illegal if the 
 offences were committed by the accused in parliament ; it 
 was illegal to proceed against the five commoners, other- 
 wise than by a trial by jury ; and the peers acted illegally 
 by at all entertaining the impeachment. 
 
 With becoming resolution the House refused to deliver 
 up its members so accused, but they were ordered to 
 attend daily, and his majesty was informed that his 
 message should be considered, as it was of great conse- 
 quence and concerned the privileges of parliament. 
 Charles, however, did not require their advice ; he had 
 resolved to adopt the suggestions of his own will. "Ac- 
 cordingly," says Rushworth, who was clerk of the House, 
 and an eve-witness, "when the five accused members 
 came this day (4th of January 1641), after dinner into 
 the House, they were no sooner seated in their places, but 
 the House was informed by one Captain Langrish, lately 
 an officer in arms in France, that he came from among the
 
 272 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 officers and soldiers at Whitehall ; and understanding 
 from them that his majesty was coming with a guard of 
 military men, commanders and soldiers, to the House of 
 Commons, he passed by them with some difficulty to get 
 to the House before them, and sent in word how near 
 they were come. Whereupon, a certain member of the 
 House having also private intimations from the Countess 
 of Carlisle, sister to the Earl of Northumberland *, that 
 endeavours would be used this day to apprehend the five 
 members, the House required them to depart forthwith, 
 to the end that a combustion in the House might be 
 avoided, if the said soldiers should use violence to pull 
 any of them out. To this request four of them yielded 
 ready obedience, but Mr. Strode was obstinate, until Sir 
 Walter Earl, his ancient acquaintance, pulled him out by 
 force, the king at that time entering into the New Palace 
 Yard, in Westminster. As his majesty came through 
 Westminster Hall, the commanders, reformadoes t, &c. 
 who attended him, made a lane on both sides of the Hall, 
 through which his majesty passed, and came up the stairs 
 
 * This lady was a complete political intriguer, for secretary Nicholas 
 mentions her bringing information to the court party. — (Evelyn's Diary, 
 &c. by Bray, ii. 24.) However, in heart she was attached to the oppo- 
 sition. Sir Philip Warwick says that she was a busy stateswoman, at 
 first attached to Wentworth, but at this period to Mr. Pyra. He adds, 
 that " she was become such a she-saint, that she frequented their 
 sermons and took notes !" — (Sir P. Warwick's Memoirs, &c. of Charles 
 the First, 204.) 
 
 t Reformado. An officer retained in a regiment after his company 
 is disbanded. — (Ben Jonson, in Todd's Johnson's Diet.)
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 27S 
 
 to the House of Commons, and stood before the guard of 
 pensioners and halberteers, who also attended the king's 
 person *. The door of the House being thrown open, his 
 majesty entered the House, and as he passed up towards 
 the chair, he cast his eye on the right hand, near the bar 
 of the House, where Mr. Pym used to sit, but his 
 majesty not seeing him there, for he knew him well, went 
 up to the chair and said, 
 
 *• By your leave, Mr. Speaker t, I must borrow your 
 chair awhile." 
 
 Whereupon the speaker came out of the chair, and his 
 majesty stepped up into it. After he had stood in the 
 chair awhile, and cast his eye upon the members as they 
 stood up uncovered, not discerning any of the five 
 members to be there, his majesty spoke as follows : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " I am sorry for this occasion of coming unto 
 you. Yesterday I sent a serjeant-at-arms upon a very 
 important occasion, to apprehend some that, by my com- 
 mand, were accused of high treason, whereunto 1 did 
 expect obedience, and not a message : And I must declare 
 unto you here, that, albeit, no king that ever was in 
 England shall be more careful of your privileges to main- 
 
 * Mrs. Hutchinson says, that the guard which came with Charles to 
 seize the five members consisted of about 400 gentlemen and soldiers, 
 armed with swords and pistols. — (Mem. of Col. Hutchinson, 76.) 
 
 f Mr. Lenthall. 
 
 T
 
 274 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tain them to the uttermost of his power than I shall be ; 
 yet you must know, that, in cases of treason, no person 
 hath a privilege ; and therefore I am come to know if any 
 of these persons that were accused are here ; for I must 
 tell you, Gentlemen, that so long as these persons that I 
 have accused for no slight crime but for treason, are here, 
 I cannot expect that this House will be in the right way 
 that I do heartily wish it ; therefore I am come to tell 
 you that I must have them wheresoever I find them." 
 
 The king then inquired of the speaker, who was 
 standing below by the chair, '* whether any of those 
 persons were in the House? Whether he saw any of them, 
 and where they were ? " To which inquiries the speaker, 
 falling on his knee, answered, 
 
 " May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to 
 see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House 
 is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here ; and I 
 humbly beg your majesty's pardon that I cannot give 
 any other answer than this to what your majesty is 
 pleased to demand of me." 
 
 " Well," continued the king, again addressing the 
 House, " since I see all the birds are flown, I do expect 
 from you, that you will send them unto me as soon as 
 they return hither. I assure you, on the word of a king, 
 I never did intend any force, but shall proceed against 
 them in a legal and fair way, for I never meant any 
 other. 
 
 " And now, since I see I cannot do what I came for, I
 
 JOHN SEI,DEN\ 275 
 
 think this is no unfit occasion to repeat what I have said 
 formerly ; that whatsoever I have done in favour, and to 
 the good of my subjects, I do mean to maintain it. I 
 will trouble you no more, but tell you I do expect as soon 
 as they come to the House, you will send them to me ; 
 otherwise. I must take my own course to find them." 
 
 The king having concluded his speech retired from the 
 House, which was in great disorder ; and many members 
 cried out aloud, so as he might hear them, " Privilege ! 
 Privilege I The House forthwith adjourned until the 
 next day at one o'clock *." 
 
 In consequence of this violent and illegal procedure, the 
 opposition party gained an ascendancy superior to that 
 from which they had been declining. The city was 
 re-aroused to declare and even arm in their defence, and 
 this rekindled feeling was communicated to and expressed 
 by the country. Four thousand of the Buckinghamshire 
 freeholders, Hampden's neighbours, rode to London, 
 and expressed their readiness to die in defence of the 
 parliament. 
 
 The commons appointed a committee to sit within the 
 precincts of London, protected by a strong guard of 
 citizens, to decide finally upon the remonstrances and 
 reports prepared by other sub-committees. To one of 
 these Selden was nominated, to whose care was consigned 
 an examination of the violation of parliamentary privi- 
 
 * Rushworth's Collections, . Parliament, Hist., x. HUi. Cla- 
 
 rendon's Hist, of tlie l?cb('llion, i. 281. Autohiograpliy, 4(i. 
 
 T 2
 
 27G MEMOIRS OF 
 
 leges, and the framing of a petition to the king on the 
 subject. 
 
 Charles, however, persisted in the course upon which 
 he had entered, and on the following day a proclamation 
 was drawn vip, directing the apprehension of the five 
 members. The lord keeper, Sir Edward Littleton *, 
 refused to seal this proclamation, consequently it was 
 pasted up at Whitehall-gate, but went no further, being 
 a few days after suppressed by order of the parliament, 
 upon pain of death t. 
 
 This, and other conduct of the lord keeper, which 
 showed that he disapproved, or was afraid to support the 
 measures of the government, determined the king to 
 remove him from his office. Charles had now removed 
 to York, and he thence " sent an order to the Lord 
 Falkland, to require the seal from the lord keeper, in 
 which the king was very positive, though he was not 
 resolved to what hand to commit it. His majesty wished 
 them (for he always included Sir John Colepepper and 
 Mr. Hyde in such references) to consider ' whether he 
 
 * Lord Clarendon g-ives him a very high character for professional 
 learnings and personal bravery, but there are recorded too many instances 
 of his vacillation, duplicity, and positive falsehood, to allow us to 
 esteem him. Clarendon says, " he had taken great pains in the hardest 
 and most knotty part of the law, as well as that which is most customary, 
 and was not only very ready and expert in the books, but exceedingly 
 versed in the records, in studying and examining whereof he had kept 
 Mr. Selden company, with whom he had great friendship, and who had 
 much assisted him." — (Hist, of Rebellion, i. 443.) 
 
 t Harleian MSS. 4931, 67 d.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 277 
 
 should give it to the Lord Chief Justice Banks (against 
 whom he made some objection himself), or into the hands 
 of Mr. Selden,' and to send their opinions to him. The 
 order was positive for requiring it of the present officer, 
 but they knew not who to advise for a successor. The 
 Lord Chief Justice Banks appeared to be as much afraid 
 as the other, and was not thought equal to the charge in 
 a time of so much disorder, though otherwise he was a 
 man of great abilities, and unblemished integrity ; they 
 did not doubt of Mr. Selden's affection to the king, but 
 they knew him so well, that they concluded he would 
 absolutely refuse the place if it was offered to him. He 
 was in years and of a tender constitution ; he had for 
 many years enjoyed his ease, which he loved ; was rich, 
 and would not have made a journey to York, or have lain 
 out of his own bed for any preferment, which he had 
 never affected *." 
 
 This reasoning evidently was correct, for although it is 
 not certain that the offer of the lord keepership was made 
 to Selden, and, eventually, Littleton continued to hold the 
 seals, yet the following letter fully confirms Lord Claren- 
 don's opinion. 
 
 " Mr. Selden to the Marquis of Hertford. 
 *' My Lord, 
 
 " I received from his most excellent majesty a 
 command for my waiting on him at York, and he is most 
 
 * Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion, i. 445.
 
 278 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 graciously pleased to say, that I should make as much 
 haste as my health will permit. I have been for many 
 weeks, my lord, very ill, and am still so infirm that I have 
 not so much as any hope of being able to endure any kind 
 of travel, much less such a journey. Yet, if that were all, 
 I should willingly venture any loss of myself rather than 
 not perform my duty to his majesty. But, if I were able 
 to come, I call God to witness, I have no apprehension of 
 any possibility of doing his majesty service there. On 
 the other side it is most probable, or rather apparent, that 
 a member of the House of Commons, and of my condition, 
 by coming thither, might thereby soon be a cause of some 
 very unseasonable disturbance ; by this name I call what- 
 soever will at this time (as this would) doubtless occasion 
 some further or other difference betwixt his majesty and 
 that House *. My legal and humble affections to his 
 majesty and his service are, and shall be, as great and as 
 hearty as any man's, and therefore, when I am able, I 
 shall really express them. But, I beseech your lordship, 
 be pleased, upon what I have represented, to preserve me 
 from his majesty's displeasure, which I hope too from his 
 
 * Selden was always opposed to the policy that reduced the number 
 of the king's friends in the parliament at Westminster. He observed 
 upon another occasion, " the king- calling his friends from the parlia- 
 ment, because he had use of them at Oxford, is, as if a man should 
 require a little piece of wood, and run down into the cellar, and took 
 the spiggot ; in the meantime all the beer runs about the house. 
 When his frienda are absent the king will be lotit." — (Table Talk, 
 s. The King.)
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 279 
 
 most excellent goodness towards me. Your lordship's 
 great and continued favours to me embolden me to make 
 this suit, which granted will be a singular happiness to 
 
 " Your lordship's &c. *" 
 
 This transaction seems not to have escaped the know- 
 ledge of the parliament. The best check to desertion 
 would be to insist upon a regular attendance in the 
 House, and on the 4th of February there was issued a 
 peremptory order for Mr. Selden and others to attend 
 within three days at furthest, and to continue their service 
 at the House t. 
 
 This and other attempts made by the king to obtain 
 councillors of moderate principles was now too late. He 
 had clung to despotic power too ardently not to evince, or, 
 what produced the same effects, not to raise the fear that 
 it was coveted by his heart. What was extorted from 
 him, therefore, was likely to be returned to with avidity, 
 and even if he had appointed Hollis secretary of state ; 
 Pym, chancellor of the exchequer ; St. John, solicitor 
 general ; Selden, lord keeper ; and Hampden, preceptor 
 to the Prince of Wales, as w^as once proposed and partially 
 effected, still the confidence of the parliament would hardly 
 have been gained to their administration. Charles had 
 been the deceiver too often and too long. 
 
 * Harding MSS. in Biographia Britaiinica. 
 ■j- Journal of the House of Commons, ii. 955.
 
 JJ180 MEMOIRS OI'^ 
 
 Every day added to the width of the breach between 
 the king and the parliament. The paper-warfare between 
 them became more decisive in its tone, for " the pen- 
 militant had as many sharp encounters as the sword," and 
 the chance of agreement was proportionately and daily- 
 less. It soon became apparent that the contest must be 
 decided by an appeal to the ultimate of human decisions 
 — that of arms, and consequently it was of the utmost 
 importance to secure an advantage in levying men and 
 providing the requisite stores. Fully aware of this, the 
 ])arliament passed a bill, enacting, that the lieutenants of 
 the various counties were to be guided in that duty of their 
 office by such directions as might be signified to them by 
 the parliament. It never could have expected that at 
 this crisis the king would give his assent to this measure, 
 yet it was foreseen that his refusal would give additional 
 colour to the charge that he contemplated making war 
 against them. The king rejected the bill, and the 
 parliament then informed him, that it should be carried 
 into execution without his concurrence. This accordingly 
 was done, accompanied by a declaration which was com- 
 municated to the king by a committee of both Houses. 
 The Earl of Pembroke, who was one of this deputation, 
 asked the king whether the regulation of the militia might 
 not be granted as was desired by the parliament for 
 awhile? but Charles energetically replied, "By God, not 
 for an hour ; vou have asked that of me which was never
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 281 
 
 asked of a king, and with which I will not trust my wife 
 and my children *." 
 
 The parliament then issued an ordinance, naming 
 lieutenants for all the counties, and conferring upon 
 them the command of the militia within their respective 
 districts. To this the king had previously issued a com- 
 mission of Array, empowering certain noblemen, upon 
 whom he could depend, to raise soldiers for his service. 
 
 It has been disputed who first commenced the active 
 preparation for hostilities, but when both parties had 
 resolved to appeal to the sword, it seems of little conse" 
 quence to inquire who was most prompt in executing the 
 resolution. There is no doubt, however, that Charles 
 first imsheathed his arms, for in April, 1642, when Hull 
 was refused to be surrendered to his summons, he gathered 
 forces together for its reduction, Hacket, who was a 
 contemporary, and wrote strenuously against the parlia- 
 ment, says decidedly, " the king opened the Temple of 
 Janus, that was close shut before, and let out wart." 
 Selden's opinion of the non-importance of this inquiry 
 appears in this passage. " The king and the parliament 
 now falling out are just as when there is foul play offered 
 amongst gamesters, one snatches the other's stake, — they 
 seize what thev can of one another's. It is not to be 
 asked whether it belongs not to the king to do this or 
 that ; before, when there was fair play, it did ; but now 
 
 * Parliament. Hist., x. 353. f Lift- of [.. K. Williams, IRS.
 
 282 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 they will do what is most convenient for their own 
 safety*." 
 
 Selden was equally opposed to either party raising 
 troops, for he always argued for obedience to existing 
 laws ; and in this instance they clearly enacted that the 
 consent of all the branches of the legislature were neces- 
 sary to be given before this very important power of the 
 executive should be exercised. Both parties, therefore, 
 acted illegally. Even Judge Blackstone douhted whether 
 the commission of Array issued by the king was legal, 
 and therefore we may conclude, that there is authority to 
 convince any one who is more moderate in his ideas of 
 monarchical rights. 
 
 The judges, and others who advised the king to issue 
 this commission, founded its justification ui)on a statute 
 passed in the fifth year of the reign of Henry the Fourth ; 
 but the parliament voted it to be contrary to the laws, and 
 to the-liberty of the subject. " Selden in the debate upon 
 this subject declared himself very positively, and with much 
 sharpness against it, as a thing expressly without any legal 
 authority : the statute upon which it was grounded being, 
 as he said, repealed ; and he discoursed very much of the 
 ill consequences which might result from submitting to it. 
 He answered the arguments which had been used to 
 support it ; and easily prevailed with the House not to 
 like a proceeding which they knew was intended to do 
 
 '• TabJe Talk, s. The King.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 283 
 
 them hurt. But his authority and reputation prevailed 
 much further than the House, and begot a prejudice 
 against it in many well-affected men without doors. 
 When the king was informed of it he was much troubled, 
 having looked upon Mr. Selden as well-disposed to his 
 service ; and the Lord Falkland, with his majesty's leave, 
 wrote a friendly letter to him, ' to know his reason, why, 
 in such a conjuncture, whatever his opinions were, he would 
 oppose the submission to the commission of Array, which 
 nobody could deny to have its original from law, and 
 which many learned men still believed to be very legal, 
 to make way for the establishment of an ordinance which 
 had no manner of pretence to right*? ' " 
 
 To this inquiry Selden frankly replied in a letter to 
 Lord Falkland ; of which this is an extract : — 
 
 " That of the vote your lordship speaks is true, as I 
 presume you by this see in print. But in what degree it 
 was grounded upon my authority (which doubtless goes 
 here for little or nothing), you may guess by this that I 
 was not in the House at that voting, or any other time 
 when any agitation or mention of it was there, till 
 yesterday, when there was a declaration passed there to 
 show the reasons of that vote. But it is true, that I Avas 
 of the committee of Lords and Commons, to whom some 
 days since it was referred, and amongst the rest my 
 opinion, upon the best consideration 1 could give, was, 
 
 * Claren'lon's Hit>t. of the I^'elu'llioii, i. •)I7.
 
 284 MEMOiiis or 
 
 that it is against law ; and so is my opinion still, which 
 shall change, as in all other things, when I shall be taught 
 the contrary*." 
 
 In this, or in some other letter written at the same 
 time, Selden, according to Clarendon, " did as frankly 
 inveigh against the ordinance for the militia," which he 
 said, " was without any shadow of law, or pretence of 
 precedent, and most destructive to the government of the 
 kingdom ; and he acknowledged that he had been the 
 more inclined to make that discourse in the House against 
 the commission, that he might with the more freedom 
 argue against the ordinance, which was to be considered 
 upon a day then appointed, and he was confident that he 
 should likewise overthrow the ordinance, which he con- 
 fessed could be less supported ; and he did believe that it 
 would be much better if both were rejected than that 
 either of tliem should stand and remain uncontrolled t.'* 
 
 In his opinion that he should be able to prevent the 
 passing of the ordinance, Selden w^as deceived, for at the 
 conclusion of the debate which decided upon it, he was 
 one of the tellers of a minority of forty-five, who were 
 defeated by a majority of nearly three times that number t. 
 
 A statement made by Whitelocke has been thought to 
 involve Selden's claim to the merit of consistency in 
 his conduct relative to this transaction. He says that 
 
 * Biographia Britan. from the Harding MSS. 
 f Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion, i. 517. 
 X Parliament. Hist., xi. 281.
 
 .JOHN SELDEX. 285 
 
 *' Maynard, Glyn, Grimston, St. John, Selden, and divers 
 other gentlemen of great parts and interest, accepted 
 commissions of deputy lieutenancy, and continued in their 
 service in parliament*." Dr. Aikin inclines to think 
 that the name of Selden was erroneously inserted in this 
 list, not only because it is scarcely credible that he should 
 so grossly have violated his consistency, but because his 
 habits of life and state of health rendered him very 
 unlikely to undertake a military commission, for the 
 furtherance of which he had no familv or local influence t. 
 In this reasoning there is not much weight, for we have 
 seen that Clarendon acknowledges that the authority of 
 Selden's name was very influential with the people ; a 
 deputy lieutenant is seldom a military officer ; and he had 
 the influence of the Kent family at command. 
 
 If Selden did accept a deputy lieutenancy, he was not 
 personally active in the office, for the debates upon the 
 ordinance did not terminate until the beginning of May, 
 and his name appears on the 23rd of that month as one 
 of a committee to consider of an order for raising volun- 
 teers for an expedition to Ireland ; on June the 2nd, in a 
 
 * Whitelocke's Memorials, 56. Wood says that Selden is affirmed 
 to have written " An Answer to his Majesty's Declaration about the 
 Commission of Array," supporting the legality of the people's oppo- 
 sition to the crown. As much more copious, and more accurate 
 biographers of Selden do not mention this, we are not obliged to admit 
 as a fact what is doubted by an author so liable to error as Wood. — 
 (Athense Oxon. 182.) 
 
 f Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, 121.
 
 286 MEIMOIKS OF 
 
 committee to frame an ordinance for augmenting the 
 naval forces ; and vve shall see that other occupations 
 must have permanently detained him in London. But 
 granting that Selden accepted the appointment, and if he 
 did, as regards turpitude, it signifies little whether he was 
 an active or passive officer; it does not affix any conviction 
 of inconsistency upon his character. However resolutely 
 he opposed the proceedings of the parliament which he 
 considered erroneous, yet it is certain that he considered 
 its cause fundamentally just — it was the party with which 
 he generally acted. Therefore, although he equally 
 objected to the issuing of the commission and of the 
 ordinance for raising troops, yet when he saw the king 
 persistent in his purpose, he would have been unreasonable 
 then to have maintained that his own friends ought still 
 to remain passive. He had opposed an appeal to arms, 
 yet when one party prepared an army, he must have 
 acknowledged that self-defence called upon the other to 
 follow the example ; and when it obeyed the call there 
 could be neither inconsistency nor error in aiding its 
 exertions. 
 
 About this period the comparative merits and autho- 
 rities in support of the opponent forms of episcopal and 
 presbyterian church government were disputed, with 
 much acrimony, by Petau, Saumaise, and other learned 
 writers of continental Europe. The political state of 
 England rendered it here a peculiarly interesting con- 
 troversy, for, as already noticed, episcopalians and
 
 JOHN SEI.DEN. 287 
 
 presbyterians were almost synouymes of royalists and 
 parliamentarians. The friends of episcopacy were not 
 without advocates in this country. Of these it will be 
 sufficient to mention Dr. Hall, whose " Episcopacy by 
 Divine Right asserted," published in 1640, is considered 
 a bulwark of that form of church government. This 
 work, which benefited by the correction of Laud, was 
 written to confute the assertions of the Scotch, that 
 episcopacy is uncln-istian, and therefore unlawful *. 
 
 One particular point in this controversy was, whether 
 in the early ages of the church, the episcopal and pres- 
 byterial orders were of equal or different powers. A 
 celebrated passage in the works of Jerome mentions, that 
 in the Church of Alexandria, from its first foundation to 
 nearly the close of the second century, the presbyters 
 always elected a bishop from among themselves by their 
 own authority. Of this fact, a remarkable confirmation 
 exists in the account of the Alexandrian church, contained 
 in the Annals of the Patriarch Eutychius, or Said Ibn 
 Batrik, who flourished in the early part of the tenth 
 century. Of these annals which were written in the 
 Arabic language, and then untranslated, Selden procured 
 two manuscripts, from which he published a work thus 
 entitled : " Eutychii ^^^^gyptii, Patriarchal orthodoxorum 
 Alexandrini, Scriptoris, ut in Oriente admodum vetusti et 
 illustris, itain Occidente tum paucissimis visi, tum per raro 
 
 * Heylin's Life of Laud, .375, &c.
 
 288 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 auditi, Ecclesiae suae Origenes." The part relating to the 
 before-mentioned controversy, is a statement that the 
 Evangelist Mark, having converted and baptized one 
 Hananias, a shoemaker of Alexandria, and having consti- 
 tuted him a patriarch of that city, appointed eleven other 
 persons to be presbyters, with the injunction that when 
 the patriarchate became vacant, they should choose one 
 of their number and consecrate him patriarch by the 
 imposition of hands, at the same time electing a person 
 to fill his place in the presbytery : so that there should 
 always be twelve presbyters, the patriarch being reckoned 
 as one ; and that this mode continued in practice to the 
 time of the Patriarch Alexander, who directed that 
 thenceforth, on the decease of a patriarch, a new one 
 should be ordained by an assembly of bishops. 
 
 Selden's production of this passage, with his accompa- 
 nying criticisms, involved him in hostilities with the 
 zealous advocates of episcopacy, both protestant and papal. 
 Petau animadverted upon the work with moderation ; 
 but Abraham Ecchelensis, a Maronite priest in the pay of 
 the Roman pontiff, employed so much personal abuse in 
 an attempt to refute Selden's notes, that he injured his 
 own reputation more than that of him whom he attacked. 
 John Morin and Eusebius Renaudot engaged in the same 
 cause. The latter expresses far too much and too general 
 contempt for Selden's oriental learning *. 
 
 * Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, 122.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 289 
 
 Seidell had imbibed a great opinion of Eutycliius as an 
 author, from Erpenius, who, as he says, gave him a copy 
 of this work wlien in London. Selden in the same year 
 persuaded Dr. Pococke to undertake its translation, and 
 to print this with the original Arabic at Oxford, engaging 
 himself to be at the whole expense of publishing the 
 edition. It appeared in 1656 *. 
 
 It would be erroneous to conclude that, by publishing 
 this work, Selden intended to declare his enmity to the 
 episcopal form of church government, for in many parts 
 of his other works he expressly declares himself in its 
 favour t. He undoubtedly published it, prompted by his 
 general love of truth, and because it favoured his own 
 opinion that the government of the church, as much as 
 
 * Dr. Langbaine, who at the desire of Selden, assisted in the trans- 
 lation, writing' to Dr. Pococke soon after Selden's decease, says that 
 he saw him the day previous to his death, and that he told him, in the 
 hearing of one of his executors, Mr. Hayward, how he had disposed of 
 his impression of Eutychius to the two translators, by a codicil made 
 to his will in June, 1653. "I mentioned to him," adds Dr. Lang- 
 baine, " that he had often spoken of intended notes, upon which he 
 gave orders, that all letters or notes concerning that author should be 
 delivered to us."— (Twell's Life of Dr. Pococke, i. 189, &c. Ed. 181G. 
 
 f Upon this point we have the unimpeachable testimony of Mr. 
 Baillie, who at that very period exultingly informed the presbytery of 
 Irvine, that " the House of Commons had given the bishops the first 
 wound, by taking away their votes in parliament, and one of these 
 days they will cast down their cathedrals, deaneries, and prebendaries, 
 and also spoil them of their usurped ordination and jurisdiction, to 
 erect presbyteries in all the land, let Selden and some few others gnash 
 their teeth as they will."— (Baillie's Letters and .Journals, i. 231.) 
 
 U
 
 290 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the government of the rest of the state, is subject to the 
 will of the legislature *. 
 
 The outcry that lately arose against the bishops has its 
 parallel in the time of Selden, and now, as then, the 
 multitude extravagantly conceive that mal-administration 
 arises from the nature of the office, rather than from the 
 disposition and qualifications of its holder. No one who 
 gives an unbiassed opinion, can argue that there have not 
 been bishops unworthy of their stations, but there have 
 been a far greater number distinguished for their exemplary 
 piety and learning. It would occupy more space than can 
 be permitted in these pages to detail the conflicting 
 arguments that have been urged in favour and in repre- 
 hension of an episcopal form of church government, but 
 it is certain and satisfactory to those who would maintain 
 our establishment, that a politician, temperate and learned 
 as Selden, thought it the form most consonant with a 
 monarchy. At the same time he firmly maintained his 
 opinion that they are subject to the regulating power of 
 the nation. " They are equally mad," he said, *' who 
 maintain that bishops are so jure divino that they must 
 be continued ; and they who say they are so unchristian, 
 
 * Those who consider the discipline of the church to be properly a 
 part of the civil poHty of a state, have been named Ei-astians, after 
 Erastus, who, in the 16th century, publicly maintained this opinion. 
 Baillie calls Selden "the head of the Erastians." — (Ibid. ii. 96.) 
 Baxter, another contemporary, speaks of him similarly.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 291 
 
 that they must be put away: all is as the state pleases*." 
 However justly the general form of our church govern- 
 ment is maintained, it is vain to argue that some of its 
 details do not need amendment, or that some of its 
 excrescences might riot be advantageously removed. It is 
 injudicious to allow the fear that innovation will become 
 uncontrollable to render us indisposed to the application 
 of rational remedies ; for it is a truth without any excep- 
 tions, that errors pertinaciously clung to, will sooner or 
 later bring to ruin that system to which they are chained, 
 yet to strengthen these shackles is the effort of those 
 unfortunate minds that cannot distinguish between the 
 attempt to improve and the attempt to subvert ; which 
 see in every change a revolution, and in every reformer 
 a destroyer. 
 
 * Table Talk, s. Bishops out of Parliament. 
 
 u 2
 
 ^92 MF.AIOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CIVIL WAR PROCEEDS. — QUEEn's IMPEACHMENT. —WALLER's PLOT. 
 
 SELDEN not implicated. — ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES. — SELDEN A 
 
 MEMBER. ITS PROCEEDINGS. SELDEn's OPINION OF OUR TRANS- 
 LATION OF THE BIBLE. INCORRECT EDITIONS. BISHOP USHER 
 
 HIS FRIEND. —THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT. SELDEN's 
 
 SIGNATURE EXPLAINED. ATTAINDER OF ARCHBISHOP LAUD. 
 
 SELDEN NOT CONCERNED. — HIS EFFORTS TO RESTORE THE ARABIC 
 PROFESSORSHIP. A COMMISSIONER OF THE NAVY. — THE SELF- 
 DENYING ORDINANCE.— SELDEN VOTED A SUM OF MONEY BY THE 
 PARLIAMENT. — ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. — ABOLITION 
 OF THE COURT OF WARDS. REFUSES THE MASTERSHIP OF TRI- 
 NITY COLLEGE. HIS EXERTIONS FOR THE UNIVERSITIES. — 
 
 EMPLOYED TO REGULATE THE HERALDS' OFFICE. — PUBLISHES 
 ANOTHER WORK ON THE JEWS. EDITS " FLETA." 
 
 The opponent parties in the state had now proceeded 
 in their dissentions to the ultimate extreme., and England 
 saw, it is to be hoped for the last time, those worst of 
 martial conflicts in which the victor knew, that, in every 
 fallen antagonist, there was the' occasion of sorrow and 
 deficiency of power to the land for whose welfare he 
 fought. 
 
 It is not within the purpose of this work to detail the 
 unnatural battles that occurred during this contest ; such 
 a narrative is to be found in the works of the general 
 historians of the period, and in the biographers of those
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 293 
 
 who mingled in the various encounters, from the fight at 
 Edge-hill to the battle of Naseby-field *. Selden was 
 too entirely of a pacific habit to afford an occasion for his 
 biographer to tell again the stirring incidents of even a 
 skirmish of outposts, but he was sufficiently identified 
 with other transactions of this period to render it 
 necessary to introduce further mention of other interesting 
 occurrences in this most important era of our national 
 history. 
 
 The warfare was waged in other arenas than the camp, 
 and many of the civil events of the time indicate the 
 im2)lacable spirit of partisanship, as fully as when it was 
 enforced by the musket and sabre. It was apparent in 
 the impeachment of the queen for high treason. 
 
 With the energy and faithfulness of a wife, this high- 
 spirited woman had obtained supplies in Holland, and 
 other places, and, just previous to the battle of Edge-hill, 
 had joined her husband with three thousand foot and 
 thirty troops of cavalry. For these acts, which claim our 
 admiration, however we may disapprove the cause for 
 which she was so strenuous, Mr. Pyni, by an unanimous 
 vote of the House of Commons, in May 1643 impeached 
 her before the Lords, for having "levied war against the 
 parliament and kingdom." This proceeding, evidently 
 intended to terrorise the royalists, was alluded to by 
 
 * These, wliich were the first and last decisive battles in the civil 
 war, occurred on the 23rd of October, 1G42, and on the 14th of June, 
 1645.
 
 294 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the queen in a letter which she addressed to the 
 Duke of Hamilton. " You will give a share of this 
 good news to all our friends, if any dare own them,' 
 selves such, since the House of Commons have declared 
 me a traitor. — I know not yet what the House of Lords 
 have done upon it. God forgive them for their rebellion, 
 as, I assure you, I forgive them from my heart for what 
 they do against me." 
 
 The House of Lords did not proceed with the impeach- 
 ment until the following January, when, having appointed 
 a committee to consider the subject, they requested the 
 other House to allow them the occasional assistance of the 
 solicitor general, Mr. Glyn, Selden, and others of their 
 members, to search for precedents and records *. 
 
 Clarendon says, that this impeachment was resolved 
 upon as a declaration of uncompromising hostility by the 
 violent members of the popular party, who found that by 
 temporising and endeavouring to come to terms with the 
 royalists, they were gradually losing ground. Such is 
 usually the fate of reformers, who, if they pause before 
 their object is attained, are weakened by the tendency of 
 the public opinion to gravitate back to the old system : — 
 to stand still is to begin to recede. The existence of 
 Waller's plot, and one or two other circumstances, are 
 strong evidence that the popular feeling was known 
 not very much to preponderate in favour of the parlia- 
 ment. The number of peers and members of the House 
 
 * Parliament. Ilist. xii. 266, xiii. 15.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 295 
 
 of Commons who attended the king at Oxford, and the 
 armies which he was enabled to raise, are very conclusive 
 on this point. A private letter of this date from Colonel 
 Wilmot to Mr. Crofts in Holland, says, " The king, that 
 very lately appeared almost abandoned by all his subjects, 
 is now become the favourite of the kingdom *." Then, 
 again, libels, pasquinades, and caricatures began to appear 
 so notoriously against the parliament, that an ordinance 
 was actually passed to repress them, for the liberty of the 
 subject was found to be not sacred when it annoyed those 
 who were usually its most noisy advocates. The existence 
 of those libels proves that the feeling of the people was 
 largely against the parliament, for, as Selden said, " you 
 may see by them how the wind sits. As take a straw 
 and throw it up into the air, you shall see by that which 
 way the wind blows, which you will not do by casting up 
 a stone. More solid things do not show the complexion 
 of the times so well as ballads and libels t." 
 
 The royalist conspiracy, which, from the poet of this 
 name being its chief promoter, is known as Waller's Plot, 
 purposed to introduce troops into London at the time the 
 citizens favourable to Charles were to rise, and, by seizing 
 the most obnoxious of the parliament members, thus 
 create a powerful diversion in his behalf t. 
 
 • Parliament. Hist. xi. 261. 
 t Table Talk, s. Libels. 
 
 I Clarendon's Hist, of Rebellion, ii. 101, c"vc. Parliament. Hist. xii. 
 279. 295.
 
 296 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 The king's known regard for Selden, and the modera- 
 tion of liis political career, gave occasion to the suspicion 
 entertained by some of the most anti-monarchial of the 
 parliament, that he might be an accessory, or have some 
 knowledge of this plot. The pusillanimous Waller, who 
 " preserved his dear-bought life " by the most circum- 
 stantial betrayal of his friends, was asked whether Selden, 
 Whitelocke, Pierpoint and others, were acquainted with 
 the design ? The reply of Waller is an honourable testi- 
 mony to the character of those patriots ; he said, " that 
 they were not, but that he did come one evening to 
 Selden's study, where Pierpoint and Whitelocke then 
 were with Selden, on purpose to impart it to them all ; 
 and speaking of such a thing in general terms, these 
 gentlemen did so inveigh against any such thing as 
 treachery and baseness, and that which might be the 
 occasion of shedding much blood, that he durst not, for the 
 respect he had for Selden and the rest, communicate any 
 of the particulars to them, but was almost disheartened 
 himself to proceed in it*." 
 
 Tt is an interesting employment of the imagination 
 to pause and " contemplate such men as Selden and 
 Whitelocke, in the privacy of confidential friendship 
 conferring on the awful ])rospect presented by their 
 country. Not actuated by enthusiasm, religious or poli- 
 tical, habituated to venerate established institutions, and 
 
 * Whitelock's Memorials, 66.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 297 
 
 to look for redress of grievances from the remedies 
 provided by the law and constitution, yet, strongly im- 
 pressed with the wrongs and abuses which had attended 
 the late arbitrary administration, they must have viewed 
 with jealousy the rise of another power, which, wielded 
 by violent men, and equally uncontrolled, might proceed 
 still greater lengths in overthrowing the barriers of right 
 and liberty. They saw the nation rent into opposite and 
 irreconcileable parties*, between which the sword was the 
 sole umpire ; and finding daily more cause to despair of 
 the success of healing measures, they must have been 
 occupied in preparing their minds for the part they were, 
 by principle, called upon to act in the crisis. Under 
 similar impressions men were to be found in the opposite 
 parties, who probably differed from each other in political 
 sentiments only just so much as to give a final prepon- 
 derance towards the cause of the king or of the parlia- 
 ment. Their mutual object was conciliation, and each 
 was disposed to make some concessions for effecting it. 
 They disagreed on the question, " Quis justius induit 
 
 * Selden foresaw that the conilict must terminate in the total over- 
 throw of one or the other of the two contending- parties — there was no 
 alternative towards which they could mutually recede. " It is hard," 
 he observed, " to make an accommodation between the king- and the 
 parliament. If you and 1 fell out about money, you saying- 1 owed you 
 twenty pounds; I saying, I owed you but ten pounds; it might be a 
 third party allowing- me twenty marks might make us friends. liut 
 if I said I owed you twenty pounds in silver, and you said tiuit I owed 
 you twenty pounds of diamonds, it is imjtossible we should ever agree : 
 — this is tk-; case." — (Table Talk, s. The King.)
 
 298 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 anna?" — but concurred in still keeping peace in view, 
 as the only desirable termination. If we suppose the vir- 
 tuous Falkland added to the party, conferring in Selden's 
 study, how little diversity of opinions and wishes would 
 he have brought*!" Pierpoint ought not to be omitted 
 in our imagining of this council of worthies, for until he 
 became disgusted, late in the contest, with the weak and 
 treacherous conduct of the court party, Clarendon assures 
 us that he was a man of the greatest moderation in his 
 counsels, and most solicitous upon every opportunity for 
 peace. Such men are the best friends of their country. 
 They are those who, gifted with sound discretion and 
 judgment, take, in obedience to those guides, their parts 
 in the disputations of the day, without degenerating into 
 partisanship. They maintain opinions because they con- 
 sider them correct, but never because they are advocated 
 by a party. They detest the bigotry that will not see 
 wisdom in an opponent, or error in a friend. Selden 
 never asked before he concluded his judgment which of 
 the disputants wore the pale purple badge of the royalists, 
 or the orange favour of the parliamentarians t; and in the 
 
 * Dr. Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, 127. 
 
 + Many of the regiments of the parliament army, being raised by the 
 unaided influence of various of the nobihty and gentry in their several 
 neighbourhoods of residence, adopted for the colour of their uniform 
 that of the livery of their commanders. Thus, Hampden's men were 
 in green, Lord Say's and Lord Mandeville's in blue. Lord Brook's in 
 purple, and Denzel Hollis's in red. The livery of Lord Essex was 
 orange, and, in compliment to the commander-in-chief, that colour was 
 adopted as the general badge of the party for their scarfs and favours.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 299 
 
 the next public duty which engaged his attention there is 
 no doubt that he paid as little regard to the peculiar 
 tenets of the divines with whom he was associated, but 
 opposed or supported their propositions according to the 
 dictates of his own reason, without inquiring whether 
 they emanated from an episcopalian, an independent, or 
 a presbyterian. 
 
 After a twelvemonth's dilatory consideration, an ordi- 
 nance passed both houses of parliament, in June ]64)3, 
 for assembling a synod of divines and laymen " to settle 
 the government and liturgy of the Church of England." 
 Among them were Whitelocke and Selden. The number 
 of individuals named to constitute this synod was 
 much exceeding that which actually assembled. These 
 amounted to sixty-nine *. 
 
 Mr. Baillie, principal of the University of Glasgow, 
 who was one of the Scotch deputies to this assembly, 
 thus describes it. " The like of that assembly I did never 
 see, and, as we hear say, the like was never in England, 
 nor anywhere is shortly like to be. They did sit in 
 Henry the Seventh's Chapel, in the place of the con- 
 vocation, but since the weather grew cold, they did go to 
 the Jerusalem Chamber, a fair room iti the Abbey of 
 Westminster. The house is all well hung, and has a good 
 fire, which is some dainty at London. We meet every 
 
 * Rushworth, v. 333. Husband, 208.
 
 300 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 day in the week but Saturday, sitting commonly from 
 nine to two or three after noon. The prolocutor at the 
 beginning and end has a short prayer. Ordinarily there 
 will be about sixty of their divines present. These are 
 divided into three committees, in one whereof every man 
 is a member, but no man is secluded who chooses to come 
 to any of the three. Every committee, according to the 
 parliament order, takes a subject of consideration, and in 
 their afternoon meeting prepare matters for the assembly, 
 setting down their opinions and the texts which support 
 them." He adds, " those who speak, harangue long and 
 learnedly : I do marvel at the very accurate and extem- 
 poral replies that many of them usually make *." 
 
 A sermon, at their first meeting, was preached by 
 their prolocutor, Dr. Tvvisse, to them and the two houses 
 of parliament ; and a day or two subsequently they kept 
 a public fast t. The following statement, by Mr. Baillie, 
 of what they endured on such occasions, demonstrates 
 that this was not merely a nominal affliction. " After 
 Dr. Twisse had begun with a short prayer, Mr. Marshall 
 prayed large two hours. After, Mr. Arrowsmith preached 
 an hour, then a psalm ; thereafter Mr. Vines prayed near 
 two hours, and Mr. Palmer preached an hour, and Mr. 
 Seaman prayed near two hours, then a psalm ; after, 
 Mr. Henderson preached, and Dr. Twisse closed with a 
 
 * BaiUie's Letters and Journals, i. 396. f Parliament. Hist. xi. '279.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 301 
 
 short prayer and blessing." Our author calls this 
 " spending from nine to five very graciously*." 
 
 These well-meaning men as they excelled us in the 
 patient endurance of protracted devotions were our equals 
 in the enjoyment of conviviality. The same author 
 describes some of the incidents of an entertainment given 
 to the two houses of parliament and the assembly, at 
 Taylors' Hall, by the Corporation of London, in January 
 1644. " The feast," he says, " was very great, valued at 
 four thousand pounds sterling, yet we had no dessert, nor 
 music, but drums and trumpets. All was concluded with 
 a psalm, whereof Dr. Burgess read the line ! There was 
 no excess in any we heard of. The speaker of the House 
 of Commons drank to the Lords in the name of all the 
 Commons in England. The Lords stood up every one 
 with his glass, for they represent none but themselves, 
 and drank to the Commons t." 
 
 This mingling of psalms with their feasting, and fasting 
 with the despatch of business, for the parliament had 
 monthly days of abstinence, are characteristics of that 
 religious enthusiasm that was so generally prevalent in 
 the reigns of Charles and his successor Cromwell. In the 
 latter period it had increased and displayed itself in the 
 most fantastic forms, having rendered many insane, and a 
 still greater number hypocrites. Tlie partisans of Charles 
 
 * Baillic's Letters, ii. 19. t Uml i. 425.
 
 302 MEMOIKS OF 
 
 were called camdiers and maligncints by their opponents, 
 and in return tliey designated the parliamentarians puri- 
 tans and round-heads. The title of puritan sarcastically 
 alluded to that superlative innocency and spirituality 
 which the chief of them professed, and was a name which 
 Selden said " he trusted he was not either mad enough or 
 foolish enough to deserve." It was the fashion of the time 
 to wear the hair in flowing locks, but the puritans "cut 
 their hair so close that it would scarcely cover their ears ; 
 many cut it quite close round their heads, with so many 
 little peaks, as was something ridiculous to beholdj," and 
 acquired them the name of roundheads. Mrs. Hutchinson 
 says, " that though her husband acted with the puritan 
 party, they would not allow him to be religious, because 
 his hair was not in their cut *." 
 
 Selden was certainly no friend to the synod. He 
 complained severely against the rashness with which they 
 came to their conclusions, and had little respect for their 
 learning. " It is not unusual in the assembly, he ob- 
 served, to revoke their votes, by reason that they make so 
 much haste : it is that will make them scorned. It is not 
 enough to say the House of Commons revoke their votes, 
 for theirs are but civil truths which they by agreement 
 create and uncreate as they please. But the truths the 
 synod deals in are divine ; and when they have voted a 
 
 * Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, 100.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 303 
 
 thing, if it be then true, it was true before, not true 
 because they voted it, nor does it cease to be true because 
 they vote otherwise." 
 
 Whitelocke says, that, in their debates, Selden spoke 
 admirably, and confuted them in their own learning. 
 Sometimes, when they had quoted a text of scripture to 
 prove their assertion, he would silence them by saying, 
 '* Perhaps in your little pocket Bibles with gilt leaves," 
 which they would often produce as authorities, " the 
 translation may be thus, but the Greek or Hebrew signifies 
 otherwise *." 
 
 We have ample reason to know that the objections 
 made by Selden to the text of the bibles produced by the 
 synod divines were not captious. He was no pedant, and 
 the copies we have of the translations of the Bible then in 
 common use, are evidence that there were abundance of 
 errors to afford matter for the most lengthened and re- 
 peated indulgence of his objections, without his being 
 chargeable with hypercritical nicety. 
 
 It must be evident to every reflecting mind, that the 
 bible, as the sole source from which our knowledge of pure 
 religion can be derived, should be published in a form 
 scrupulously correct. In this age of ignorant fanaticism 
 such correctness was neglected ; it was made an all-im- 
 portant object to have cheap Bibles to distribute among 
 the poorer classes ; and Fuller informs us of the result, 
 when he quibblingly says, " the small price of the bible 
 
 * Whitelocke's Memorials., 68.
 
 304) MEMOIRS OF 
 
 hath caused the small prizing of the Bible." The struggle 
 among the booksellers was to produce copies at the lowest 
 charge, which insured a closer attention to all requisites 
 rather than correctness. This culpable neglect obtained 
 the notice of the government in the early part of the 
 reign of Charles the First, owing to the following circum- 
 stance :— Archbishop Usher, on his way to perform 
 service at St. Paul's Cross, entered a bookseller's shop and 
 purchased a London edition of the bible, in which, to his 
 astonishment and dismay, he found the text he had 
 selected was omitted. This was the occasion of the first 
 complaint upon the subject*, and, inducing further atten- 
 tion, the king's printers in 163-2 were justly fined 3000/. 
 for omitting the word " not " in the seventh command- 
 ment f. During the reign of the parliament a large im- 
 pression of the Bible was suppressed on account of its 
 errors and corruptions ; and we have more than one 
 authority attesting that these were the results of design 
 as well as of negligence. Butler is the historian, at the 
 same time that he is the satirist of the time, when he 
 says, 
 
 Ere the storm of war broke out, 
 Relig-ion spawn 'd a various rout 
 Of petulant, capricious sects, 
 The maggots of corrupted texts. 
 
 Hudibras, Pt. -3, Canto 2, 1. 7. 
 
 * Harleian MSS. 6395. D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, 
 Second Series, iii. 315. 
 f Selden's Table Talk, s. Bible.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 305 
 
 The errors detected in two of the editions, actually 
 amounted respectively to 3600 and 6000 *. , 
 
 It may be inquired by the reader, what had become 
 during this time, of the translation of the Bible completed 
 during the reign of James the First, which is the one now 
 in use, and is usually known by his name ? Such inquirer 
 will hear with surprise, that the manuscript copy was in 
 the possession of two of the king's printers, who from 
 cowardice and connivance sujDpressed the publication, and 
 consequently an uncorrupted edition of the English Bible 
 did not appear until 1660 f. Of this edition it is grati- 
 fying to have the approbation of a judge so comj^etent as 
 Selden. " The English translation of the Bible," he said, 
 *' is the best translation in the world, and renders best the 
 sense of the original, taking in for the English translation 
 the bishops' Bible, as well as King James's. The trans- 
 lators in King James's time, took an excellent way. That 
 part of the Bible was given to him who was most excellent 
 in such a tongue — as the Apocrypha to Andrew Downes 
 (Greek professor at Cambridge) — then they met together, 
 and one read the translation, the rest holding in their 
 hands some Bible either of the learned tongues, or French, 
 Spanish, Italian, &c. If they found any fault they spoke ; 
 if not, he read on. 
 
 " There is no book so translated as the Bible for the 
 
 * G. Garrard's Letter to the Earl of Strafford, i. 20H. 
 -|- Harleian Collect, iii. 280, D'lsracli, ut supra. 
 
 X
 
 306 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 purpose. If I translate a French book into English, I 
 turn it into English phrase, not into French-English. 
 For II fait froid, I say It is cold; not It mahes cold; 
 but the Bible is rather translated into English words than 
 into English phrase. The Hebraisms are kept, and the 
 phrase of that language is kept. This it is which renders 
 its notes and illustrations useful *." 
 
 As there was ample justification and opportunity for 
 Selden's serious criticism at the assembly or synod, of 
 which he was a member, so, upon the same occasion, he 
 found numerous objects for his raillery. Though many 
 in that assembly were learned men, yet too many of them 
 were far otherwise. As an example, we are told by a 
 contemporary, that some of them, who were ignorant of 
 ancient geography, were disputing what was the actual 
 distance in miles between Jerusalem and Jericho, and 
 they variously surmised that it was twenty, ten, or seven ; 
 the last number being preferred, because fish was brought 
 from the latter town to the market of the other. How- 
 ever, Selden again unsettled the question by observing 
 that " possibly the fish in question were salted ! " 
 
 Archbishop Usher had been nominated a member of 
 this synod, but, although he was as liberal in his political 
 and religious opinions as Selden, with whom he was very 
 intimate, he consistently declined to take a part in its 
 proceedings. He did not rest contented with a passive 
 
 * Table Talk, s. Bible.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 30? 
 
 dissent, but firmly maintained the reasonableness of the 
 ecclesiastical polity to which he had subscribed, and 
 publicly preached against the authority and intentions of 
 the synod. This was highly resented by the parliament, 
 and refusing to him the liberty of opinion which they 
 claimed for themselves, they passed an ordinance con- 
 fiscating his library, then in Chelsea College, and it 
 would have been lost to its learned and excellent owner, 
 if Selden had not exerted his influence and obtained 
 permission for Dr. Featly, one of the synod, to purchase 
 it for a trivial sum, as if the books were for his own use. 
 
 The intimacy of Selden with Usher commenced in 
 1609, in which year the latter, then Professor of Divinity 
 at Trinity College, Dublin, was in London purchasing- 
 books for its library. Their mutual delight in the same 
 branch of literature promoted an intercourse between these 
 two antiquaries, and strengthened the friendship that was 
 founded upon their similarity of mind and temperament. 
 In June 1646, Selden was enabled to perform another 
 act of kindness to his friend, who, being summoned 
 before a board of examiners at Westminster, and 
 captiously questioned, was finally tendered the nega- 
 tive oath, required to be taken by all who had been 
 adherents of the king, or had come from any of his 
 garrisons. Usher desired time to consider it, and being 
 dismissed from before the committee, he escaped the 
 necessity of a second appearance, for by the exertions of 
 Selden and otlier friends in the parliament he was 
 
 X 2
 
 308 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 permitted to retire into the country without further 
 molestation *. 
 
 Selden's political career was now almost concluded ; 
 he still continued liis attendance in parliament, and raised 
 his voice to warn it against the committal of errors that 
 would endanger the national happiness, but he was almost 
 left alone as a moderator. Some of his party, disgusted 
 with the duplicity of the king, had joined the staunchest 
 sujiporters of the parliament ; and others, weary of its 
 sway, had joined the royalist forces. Selden still remained 
 independent, the consistent objurgator of the mistakes of 
 both parties. Upon great occasions, he was always at his 
 post ; but the mind will relax in making efforts that 
 prove invariably ineffectual — disease and age aided in 
 subduing his energy, and yielding more to his love of 
 studious quietude, the remainder of his life was devoted 
 chiefly to literary pursuits. 
 
 On the 6th of November, 1643, he was, by a vote of 
 the House of Commons, appointed keeper of the records 
 in the Tower t. He probably retained this office until 
 deprived of it by the sweeping enactment of the self- 
 denying ordinance, which in 1645, forbade the members to 
 hold any office, civil or military. It is certain he did not 
 retain it in August, 1651, for in that month Whitelocke, 
 being one of the lords commissioners of the great seal, 
 reported from the council of state, that the abolition of 
 
 * Parr's Life of Usher. f Whitelocke's Memorials.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 309 
 
 the court of wards had taken away the profits attached 
 to the office of the keeper of the Tower records ; and 
 being consequently in danger of neglect, the House of 
 Commons resolved that the Master of the Rolls for the 
 time being should have the care of them *. 
 
 In February 1644, a subscription to the solemn league 
 and covenant was imposed by the parliament upon all 
 who were within its influence. This celebrated compact 
 pledged its subscribers to strive for the preservation 
 of the reformed religion, and for the union of the 
 churches of the three kingdoms ; " to endeavour to 
 extirpate popery, prelacy (that is church government by 
 archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, 
 deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and all other 
 ecclesiastical officers depending on the hierarchy), super- 
 stition, heresy, schism, and profaneness ;" to preserve the 
 rights of parliament, the liberties of the kingdom, and the 
 king*s person and authority, that it might be manifest 
 they had " no thoughts or intentions to diminish his 
 majesty's just power and greatness;" that they would 
 strive to discover the disaffected, and to preserve peace ; 
 that they would be active in supporting this engagement, 
 and that they would endeavour to be more truly reli- 
 gious t. To none of these i)ledges, hut that relating to 
 episcopacy, could any rational objection be raised. It is 
 certain, from the opinions related at p. 289, that Selden, 
 
 * Parliamcnf. IIi>(., .\ix. -iUi). 1 H'i^l- xii. u"Ju.
 
 310 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 was then friendly to that form of church government, yet 
 he subscribed to the covenant, which engaged him to 
 strive for its abolition. This compels us to adopt one 
 of two conclusions, namely, that, in accordance with 
 Clarendon's character of him, this was an instance of his 
 sufficient indulgence of his own safety ; or that he con- 
 sidered a presbyterial form of the church establishment 
 best suited to the democratic government then esta- 
 blishing. We may justly adopt the latter conclusion, 
 because we have seen that he did not shrink from suffering 
 in the maintenance of his own ideas of right; and we 
 have his very marked opinion, recorded by the editor of 
 his confidentially expressed sentiments, tliat " bishops do 
 best stand with monarchy." It is indeed obvious, that a 
 peerage, lay or ecclesiastical, does not assort well with a 
 government that is neither monarchical nor aristocratical. 
 In a democracy, founded upon general equality, the 
 superiority of nobility is inadmissible. The probability 
 that he was actuated by this opinion, is strengthened by 
 the fact, that although the covenant was ordered to be 
 taken by all the kingdom in September 1643, he did 
 not sign it until the following February, when it was 
 evident that the cause of monarchy was lost*. Selden 
 undoubtedly most approved of a monarchical form of 
 government, and struggled firmly in its defence, but the 
 majority of the nation thought otherwise, and our own 
 
 * Rushwortii's Collections, Part iii. 481.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 311 
 
 judgments, independent of the confirming opinions of 
 Vattel and other authorities, assure us, that the will of 
 the majority should prevail. Selden submitted to its 
 decision, and, when he signed the covenant, employed his 
 judgment, like a good citizen, in promoting measures to 
 assist its beneficial operation. 
 
 At this period occurred the attainder of Archbishop 
 Laud, who was at once the Mec£enas and Sejanus of this 
 reign. Physiognomy does not play us false in offering 
 this man's face as an index of his character. Vandyke 
 pourtrayed his features, and in the portrait which yet 
 survives, the diminutive eyes, contracted forehead, pointed 
 nose, and compressed tout-en-seinble, warn us to expect 
 that littleness and cunning — that acuteness and meanness 
 — which were his mental characteristics. History records 
 that he aimed to effect his measures by tyranny and 
 persecution, and that he finally sought for safety in 
 intrigue. He trembled at the inauspicious prognostics of 
 omens and dreams, and though without fear he could 
 commit to prison those who conscientiously dillercd with 
 him in opinion, he quailed because his picture fell from 
 its hanging, and because he dreamed his teeth were 
 starting from their sockets ! 
 
 Notwithstanding the great demerits of Laud, and his 
 unfitness to be the minister of government, over a free 
 and enlightened people, it seems, from the evidence 
 admitted by all parties, that he was unfairly tried and 
 unjustly condennied.
 
 312 MEINIOIIIS OF 
 
 He was unfairly tried, because his peers and judges did 
 not pay that attention to his cause, during its progress, 
 that is due from every judicial functionary to every 
 defendant, upon every charge, however trifling, and much 
 more when it involves his life. " My hopes under God," 
 said the archbishop in his Diary, " were upon the Lords, 
 yet, ^vhen my trial did come on, it did somewhat trouble 
 me to see so few lords in that great House; for at the 
 greatest presence that was any day of my hearing, there 
 were not above fourteen, and usually not above eleven or 
 twelve. Of these, one third part, at least, each day took, 
 or had occasion to be gone before the charge of the day 
 was half given. I never had any one day the same 
 Lords all present at my defence in the afternoon, that 
 were at my charge in the morning. Some leading lords 
 were scarce present at my charge four days of all my long 
 trial, nor three at my defence ; and, which is most, no one 
 Lord was present at my whole trial, but the Right 
 Honourable the Lord Gray of Werk, the speaker, with- 
 out whose presence it could not be a House." When the 
 bill of attainder passed against him, there were only six 
 peers present*. 
 
 He was unjustly condemned, because there were only 
 fourteen peers present when they finally voted him guilty 
 of endeavouring to subvert the laws ; to overthrow the 
 Protestant religion; and that he was an enemy to parlia- 
 
 * Heylin's Life of Laud, 494.
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 313 
 
 ments. The consequences of that dereliction of their 
 duty by his judges, however, is upon their own heads ; 
 and no prisoner can be rescued from the possibility of 
 having such delinquents to decide his fate. But in this 
 case, after the peers had so voted, they consulted with 
 the twelve judges, and they unanimously declared, that 
 though guilty of all the charges, they did not amount to 
 treason, by any known or established law of the land. 
 Yet the House of Commons, as in the case of the Earl of 
 Strafford, having passed a bill of attainder against the 
 archbishop, the Lords similarly assented to it, and on the 
 10th of January, 1644, he was beheaded on Tow^er-hill, 
 in despite of the king's pardon, which he pleaded. 
 Affording another testimony that tyranny and disregard 
 of the laws are not crimes peculiar to kings. 
 
 It is true, that, having disclaimed obedience to Charles, 
 they were not to be expected to pay much attention to his 
 judicial determinations ; and it is also true that this 
 clause in the Statute of Treasons (25 Edward 3, c. 2,) 
 permits that " if any case supposed to be treason, which 
 is not specified in this act, doth happen before any judge, 
 the judge shall tarry without going to judgment, till the 
 cause be shewn and declared before the king and bis 
 parliament, whether it ought to be judged treason." 
 True it is, that this may be pleaded in excuse for the 
 course adopted by the parliament with relation to Laud, 
 but it would always be better for such high i)o\vers so to 
 proceed, that they should require no apology for tlicir
 
 314 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 acts. They who would command our reverence for 
 their justice, must not persist in traversing the very line 
 which is barely legal. A master in the science of laws 
 has laid down an axiom coming with conviction to every 
 mind, that, if the crime of high treason is indeterminate, 
 this alone is sufficient to make a government degenerate 
 into arbitrary power*; and when this is aggravated by 
 the enactment of bills of attainder, which are nothing 
 less than ordinances for punishing men for disregarding 
 laws that did not exist until after their offences, no 
 greater concentration of tyranny can be imagined. It 
 would be much wiser to let the offender pass unpunished, 
 for " the escape of one delinquent can never produce so 
 much harm to the community, as may arise from the in- 
 fraction of a rule, upon which the purity of public justice, 
 and the existence of civil liberty, essentially depend t." 
 
 The archbishop had cause to complain of injustice in 
 various forms. He was committed to custody on the 
 18th of December, 1640, and was allowed to remain in 
 prison until the 12th of March, 1643, before he was 
 brought to trial. His papers, and other means of pre- 
 paring his defence, were also withheld. 
 
 Mr. Pym was intended to conduct this prosecution, 
 as he had that of the Earl of Strafford. He carried up 
 the impeachment to the House of Lords, and enforced its 
 
 * Montesquieu L'Esprit des Loix, 1. xii. c. 6. 
 t Paley's Moral Philosophy, 1. vi. c. 8.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 315 
 
 charges, with his usual ability ; but before the day of 
 trial arrived, he was sinking beneath his task of public 
 service, and he rested in the grave about a month pre- 
 viously to the archbishop. 
 
 It was the misfortune, or the crime, of Sir Henry Vane, 
 to be the only witness to criminal words spoken at the 
 council table by Laud, as he had been upon a similar 
 occasion against Straiford. " For the honour of Sir 
 Henry Vane," said the archbishop in his defence, " let 
 me not forget that he is a man of some years. Memory 
 is one of the first powers of man on which age works, yet 
 his memory is so fresh, that he alone can remember words 
 spoken at a full council table. No person of honour re- 
 members them but himself. But I would not have him 
 brag of it, for St. Augustine says that some of the worst 
 of men have great memories, and are so much the worse 
 for having them. God bless Sir Henry*." 
 
 It is past all just doubt, that a majority of those who 
 prosecuted and condemned Strafford and Laud were 
 actuated by the best motives. They estimated them 
 truly as arbitrary ministers ; as talented, influential men, 
 and above all others, the most dangerous opponents of 
 the just freedom of the nation ; but it would surely have 
 
 * StateTrials, i. 8 26, fol. ed. Cl.irendon says decidocUy, tliat to 
 gratify his revenge, Sir Harry Vane sacrificed his honour and faith to 
 effect the ruin of the Earl of Straiford. — (Hist, of Ilehelh(Mi, ii. lii'S, 
 fol.) If he perjured himself to destroy the one, who will crtdit his 
 testimony against the other?
 
 316' MEMOIRS OF 
 
 been wiser and more just to have imprisoned them until 
 the contest for liberty had ceased. If the contest termi- 
 nated in its favour, those ministers might then be re- 
 leased without being capable of injury ; and if the cause of 
 liberty failed, it uould not have been to the disadvantage 
 of its champions that they had been merciful. However, 
 those champions thought that they did but their duty in 
 taking away, beyond the reach of accident, the power of 
 Strafford and Laud, to do injury to their fellow country- 
 men ; and they may be excused, if in a conflict so 
 momentous, and in which there had been so much suffer- 
 ing, they erred on the side of safety. Though obliged 
 to condemn their error, let us mitigate our censure, by 
 reflecting that they were carrying on a warfare to secure 
 the liberties we are now enjoying. 
 
 With the management of Dr. Laud's attainder, Selden 
 does not appear to have been concerned. His name does 
 not occur in any of the debates which it occasioned, and 
 this admits the conclusion, that though he w^ould not 
 throw his weight into the scale against his friend, yet he 
 could not raise his voice conscientiously in his favour. 
 This did not arise from a fear to oppose the predominant 
 powers, or because he had become inactive even in the 
 cause of justice ; his past efforts and sufferings shelter 
 him from the first suspicion, and from the second by the 
 fact that when he understood that in consequence of 
 Dr. Laud's attainder, the parliamentary commissioners 
 had seized upon his endowment of the Arabic Professor-
 
 JOHN SEI.DEN. 317 
 
 ship at Oxford, he exerted himself until he obtained its 
 restitution. 
 
 The endowment of the Arabic professorship was an 
 estate of about forty pounds per annum value in Berk- 
 shire. Mr. Greaves acquainted Selden with the injury 
 done by its seizure to their friend Dr. Pococke, and 
 Selden in reply expressed his sense both of the injustice 
 and scandal of the proceeding, as well as his conviction 
 that the commissioners could have no countenance for it 
 from the order of the parliament, for the sequestration 
 appointed by that order only related to individuals, and 
 could not affect corporations. Having made himself 
 thoroughly acquainted with the case, he earnestly exerted 
 himself to obtain restitution, which he at last effected 
 about the middle of 1647; Dr. Pococke thus being 
 deprived of his stipend for about three years *. 
 
 In 1644 appeared Selden's work " De Anno Civili 
 veteris Ecclesiae, seu Reipublicae Judaicae, Dissertatio." 
 It begins with a preface, in which is shown the impor- 
 tance of such a chronological inquiry to the correct 
 understanding of the Scriptures; and the necessity of 
 resorting to the best sources for elucidation, namely, tlie 
 writings of the two sects of Talmudists, or traditionalists 
 of the Jewish church, and the Karaites, or scripturists. 
 In the numerous chapters of the work are discussed all the 
 
 * Twell's Life of Pococke, i. 100. E.l. ISKi.
 
 318 MEIVrOTUS OF 
 
 j)oints relative to the Jewish calendar, its calculations of 
 months, lunar ])hases, &c. The whole exhibits a pro- 
 fundity of learning, but it is not without deficiencies and 
 mistakes, arising chiefly from a want of authorities. 
 These were pointed out by J. Gottfred Schuppart*. 
 
 In April 1 645, the parliament appointed a committee of 
 six Lords and twelve Commoners to conduct the business 
 of the Admiralty. Selden was named to be one of these 
 commissioners ; but before they could enter upon the 
 duties of their office, the plan, probably in consequence 
 of the ordinance to be next mentioned, was altered, and 
 the management was vested in three selected from the 
 eighteen at first appointed. Selden was not one of this 
 triumvirate t. 
 
 In the same month was passed " the self-denying 
 ordinance" that secured to Cromwell an easy passage to 
 the throne, for " Protector' was but King writ large.'* 
 His party, for the anti-monarchists were now divided 
 among themselves, by deceiving many as to the tendency 
 and effect of this ordinance, obtained a majority in its 
 favour ; and it was tliereby enacted, that all members of 
 the parliament should be excluded from any office, civil or 
 military. In consequence the Earls of Essex and Man- 
 chester, Sir William Waller and other commanders of the 
 parliament's army, were compelled to resign. Cromwell 
 
 * Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, 131. 
 t Whitelocke's Memorials, 137.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 319 
 
 alone obtained, through his friends' exertions, leave to 
 remain for short successive periods with the troops, and 
 having succeeded in officering these with his own partisans, 
 and ingratiating himself with the men, he finally obtained 
 them as the means whereby he subverted the power that 
 had so unwittingly ministered to his rise. More artful 
 speeches are nowhere to be read than those with which 
 Cromwell beguiled the parliament*. Essex, Whitelocke, 
 and others, saw through his Machiavelian practices, and 
 counselled together how they might effectually oppose 
 the enactment of the ordinance. They even considered 
 whether they should impeach himf ; but Cromwell, than 
 whom no man knew better how to make use even of 
 his enemies, diverted them from or thw^arted all their 
 plans. 
 
 In the June of this year the House of Commons 
 ordered that such of their members as had lost the benefit 
 of their estates during the war, or were in such necessity 
 that they could not without some supply attend upon 
 the House, should have an allowance of four pounds per 
 week. We have a list of nearly seventy members who 
 received this allowance. Among them are Whitelocke, 
 Pym, Dryden, Sir Martin Lister, Sir Philip Stapylton 
 and others well known in the literary and political annals 
 of the period. Selden was not one of these pensioners t. 
 
 * Parliament. Hist. xiii. 370, &c. 
 ■f Whitelocke's Memorials, 111. 
 I Parliament. Hist. xiii. 404.
 
 320 MEINIOIRS OF 
 
 But in the following year, 1647, a vote passed the House 
 of Commons, giving to him and others who had illegally 
 suffered in the third year of Charles's reign, whilst oppos- 
 ing the arbitrary measures of that period, five thousand 
 pounds each, and revoking all sentences then passed against 
 them *. Authorities differ as to whether Selden received 
 the money thus voted: Wood says "some say he refused 
 it, and could not out of conscience take it ;" but that he 
 received a part of the sum is nearly certain, for in the 
 Journal of the House of Commons there are two entries 
 ordering payments of the moieties. The first order is dated 
 the 11th of May 1647, and the other the 11th of November 
 of the same year. If the first moiety had not been accepted, 
 why order the payment of the second? Walker says that 
 Selden received half the money voted to him t. It would 
 have been no disgrace if he had taken the whole that his 
 country considered he merited for his losses and sufferings 
 in her cause. 
 
 All history concurs in Selden's observation that Eccle- 
 siastics as a body are too apt to strive for the acquisition 
 of political influence. From the earliest introduction of 
 Christianity to the period of the Reformation, there had 
 been one continued struggle of the Church to obtain a 
 
 * In 1640, the House of Commons felt such resentment at the 
 refusal to bail Selden and his fellow- prisoners, that it was seriously 
 debated whether they should not have a compensation given them out 
 of the estates of the Judges, who had decided against them.— (White- 
 locke's Memorials, 37.) 
 
 I Hist, of Independency, 108. Ed. IGGO.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 321 
 
 predominance of civil power. Seklen, in common Avith 
 every legislator who is wise enough to learn from the past, 
 jealously opposed all attempts to increase that power which 
 the Reformation had subdued. In 1645 it was proposed 
 to empower the clergy of the new Establishment to exer- 
 cise, with no other controul than their own discretion, the 
 ecclesiastical punishments of excommunication and sus- 
 pension from the Sacrament. Selden successfully opposed 
 this innovation, for the Parliament refused to confer upon 
 them such judicial powers. 
 
 Selden, in the course of his arguments against the 
 measure, reverted to facts, and employed reasoning that 
 may be advantageously attended to by many of the subor- 
 dinate clergy of our times. He observed that "for four 
 thousand years there was no sign of any laws to suspend 
 persons from the performance of their religious exercises. 
 Under the Mosaic dispensation every sinner was especially 
 directed to offer his sacrifices because he was a sinner; and 
 no priest or other authority had power to restrain him 
 unless his impenitence could be shown, which was difficult 
 to be done. It is true that strangers were forbidden the 
 passover, but they were Pagans, and this is not now the 
 question, but whether protestants are to be kept from the 
 sacrament, or other part of protestant worship. No divine 
 can show that for this there is any command. The passage 
 in scripture that is quoted as directing excommunication 
 (* put away from among yourselves that wicked person,* 
 
 Y
 
 322 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 1 Corinth, v. 13) is a corruption of the Greek. It should 
 be TO TTovrjpov, put away that evil from among you. There 
 is a new edition of Theodoret published that has this 
 correctly. It is true that the Christians, before the civil 
 state became Christians, did by covenant and agreement 
 determine certain rules of conduct, and he that did not 
 observe what had been agreed upon, should come no more 
 amongst them, that is, be excommunicated; but if, after 
 Christ had suffered, the Jews had become Christians, the 
 same freedom would have been permitted to the sacrament 
 as had been allowed to their sacrifices. 
 
 " The other passage, which is quoted from the gospel of 
 St. Matthew (' tell the Church'), is but a weak ground 
 upon which to raise excommunication, especially from the 
 sacrament, for when those words were spoken the sacrament 
 was not instituted. The Jewish Sanhedrim sat in the 
 Temple at Jerusalem, and the meaning of that passage is, 
 that if, after once or twice admonishing a brother, he 
 remained unreclaimed, he was to be taken thither. Excom- 
 munication was first adopted by Pope Victor, 180 years 
 after Christ, and then in a sectarian quarrel about the 
 observance of Easter, which demonstrates it to be of human 
 invention. When Constantino became a Christian he 
 acquired a devotion to the clergy that made him allow 
 them to be judges of all things, but that did not continue 
 more than three or four years, and then their interference 
 was restricted to religion. All jurisdiction belonged to him.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 323 
 
 and he scanted them out as much as he pleased. Tliis has 
 continued ever since. Ecclesiastics now excommunicate 
 in matters concerning adultery, tythes and wills, which 
 is the civil punishment the state allows for such offences; 
 but if a bishop excommunicates a man for what he ought 
 not, the judge has power to remove the excommunication 
 and to punish the bishop. If ecclesiastics have such 
 jurisdiction from God why do they not excommunicate for 
 murder, &c.? As the civil power has taken away all but 
 three things, why may not these be also taken away? 
 If they were, the Presbyters would be quiet* ." 
 
 In the same year, 1645, during a debate upon an 
 ordinance for discharging the wardship of the heirs of 
 Sir Christopher Wray, who had died in the service of the 
 Parliament, Selden, Maynard and others so displayed to 
 the House of Commons the origin, abuses, and oppressions 
 incident to wardships, that it gave rise to an order for the 
 abolition of them, and other remnants of feudal tenures t. 
 It has been justly said that a monarchical government is 
 best calculated for active measures, but in this instance a 
 democracy rivalled it in promptness. The vote was passed 
 by the Commons, sanctioned by the Lords, and ordered to 
 be printed and published in the course of one day *. 
 
 In the August of this year, upon the death of Dr. 
 Eden, Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Selden liad the 
 
 * Whitelocke's Memorials. Table Talk, s. Excoiuimiiiiration. 
 t Whitelocke's Memorials, 199. 
 J Parliament. Hist. xiv. 264. 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 honour conferred upon him of being unanimously chosen 
 his successor. It adds to the worth of this testimony 
 that some of the members of both Houses of parliament 
 approved of his preferment to the office, yet he was the 
 active supporter of no party, and that at a time when 
 an opponent was seen in every one who was not a violent 
 coadjutor. The following extracts from the letter to Selden, 
 announcing his election, show the rational motives which 
 actuated the electors. 
 
 " From the first we chose you to the Mastership of 
 Trinity Hall, because we thought that it was incumbent 
 upon us to provide not only a Master to our College, but 
 an ornament of literature, and a guardian and patron for 
 the University. We trust that you will suffer your will, 
 which has hitherto flowed for our advantage, to continue 
 to direct and confirm our welfare. In your power it rests 
 whether we shall have to lament our loss. If your modesty 
 successfully opposes, we will appeal to your humanity. 
 Grant then that it may be as we hope and ardently desire 
 — let us forthwith hail you as our guardian, that they who 
 were preserved under Eden, may continue to be happy 
 under Selden." As a further proof of their anxiety to 
 have him as their President, the Fellows prematurely 
 informed the Chancellor of the University of the choice 
 they had made, and requested his ratification of their 
 election. 
 
 Selden declined this office, as he had studiously declined 
 all other honours that had sought his acceptance ; and this
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 326 
 
 rejection did not arise from any dislike to the clerical 
 body, as was imagined by Dr. Wilkins, for Trinity Hall 
 is a foundation for the study of civil and canon law, and 
 its fellows are entirely of that faculty. Dr. Eden was 
 eminent as a civilian, and was a member of the long 
 parliament. Better reasons for his refusal may be found, 
 though not recorded, in his age, his infirmities, his love of 
 literary leisure, and his close connection with Oxford, his 
 alma mater. 
 
 Although Selden declined this union with the University 
 of Cambridge, he availed himself of every opportunity to 
 show his care of its interests, united as they were with the 
 interests of learning. Dr. Bancroft, who died in 1610, 
 had left his library to the archbishops, his successors in 
 the see of Canterbury, on condition that the one who 
 succeeded him should give security that he would leave it 
 entire and without embezzlement ; but in case of refusal 
 to give such security, he bequeathed it to Chelsea 
 College*, then building, on condition that that institu- 
 tion should be finished within six years after his decease. 
 If this did not occur, he left his library to the University 
 of Cambridge. 
 
 Whether his successors, Abbot and Laud, gave the 
 
 * Chelsea College appears to have been founded by Dr. Sutcliffe, 
 Dean of Exeter ; to consist of a provost and twenty fellows, who were 
 to answer all sectarian publications written against the Protestant 
 religion, or its episcopal government. — (Kennet's Complete Hist, of 
 England,ii. 685.)
 
 S26 lAIEMOIKS OF 
 
 security required, does not appear. However, the books 
 remained at Lambeth, until the order of bishops being 
 abolished, and Chelsea College abandoned, as more likely 
 to create contention than assuage sectarian animosity, 
 Selden suggested to the University that their right to the 
 books had arisen on the contingent remainder. It con- 
 sequently presented a petition to the House of Lords, and 
 Selden pleaded for them so successfully, that the Uni- 
 versity obtained an order not only for the books of 
 Dr. Bancroft, but those of his successor, Dr. Abbot*. 
 Archbishop Juxon, after the Restoration, demanded their 
 restitution, and in the time of his successor, Dr. Sheldon, 
 they were restored to the Lambeth library!. Selden's 
 object, therefore, was attained — their preservation entire 
 during the prevalence of that neglect of literary property 
 which disgraced the anti-monarchical period. 
 
 Selden's exertions for the protection of learning and its 
 nurseries, the universities, were strenuous, general and un- 
 remitting. Mr. D'Israeli remarks, that the republicans of 
 England at that period, like those of France in the next 
 century, were infected with a hatred of literature and the 
 arts ; " the burning of the records in the Tower, he adds, 
 was certainly proposed ; a speech of Selden's, which I 
 cannot 'immediately turn to, put a stop to these incen- 
 
 * For this and other services, the University returned Selden thanks 
 in two letters given by his biographer, Dr. Wilkins. 
 t La Neve's Lives, &c., of Protestant Bishops, 87.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 327 
 
 diaries*" It is certain that a similar spirit rendered 
 them inimical to the privileges of the universities, and 
 made them desirous to reduce, if not entirely to confiscate, 
 their revenues. Contrary to his habits of retirement, and 
 conscious of the additional protecting power it would 
 impart, Selden obtained, in 1647, the appointment of 
 one of the parliamentary visiters of the University of 
 Oxford. 
 
 His guardianship had soon to be exercised, for Wood 
 relates that Bradshaw proposing, in harsh terms, an 
 immediate visitation, Selden successfully objected to the 
 injustice of such a proceeding before the University had 
 provided itself with legal assistance. The question in 
 dispute was whether the University should admit the 
 visitatorial power of the Parliament. By the aid of 
 Mr. Prynne they reduced the controversy to a question 
 whether the king had previously had the right of being 
 visiter, for if it had been propounded, " whether the 
 kingly power was not virtually included in the parlia- 
 ment?" no lawyer would have dared to argue for the 
 negative. It was owing to the exertions of Prynne and 
 Selden that counsel were allowed to the University t. 
 
 Dr. Gerard Langbaine, provost of Queen's College, 
 Oxford, in a letter dated March, 1648, thus animatedly 
 expresses the sense of his exertions in its favour, that was 
 entertained by the university. " We are all abundantly 
 
 * Curiosities of Literature, Second Series, iii. 446. 
 t Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, &c., i. 130.
 
 328 MEMOIKS OF 
 
 satisfied in your unwearied care and passionate endeavours 
 for our preservation. We know and confess 
 
 Si Pergama dextra 
 Defendi poterant, etiam hac defensa fuissent. 
 
 " Of this we are confident, that (next under God's) it 
 must be imputed to your extraordinary providence, that 
 we have stood thus long : you have been the only belli 
 mora, and 
 
 " Qiucquid apud nostrse cessatum est maenia Trojae, 
 Hectoris 
 
 " (I cannot add ^nea^que, for you had no second) 
 
 " manu victoria Gx'aium 
 Haesit 
 
 By your good acts, and prudent manage, our six months 
 have been spun into two years, and it has been thus far 
 verified upon us, by your means, ?iec capti pottiei'e 
 capi*." 
 
 In the Journals of the House of Commons, of the date 
 of May 1645, there is an order " for Mr. Selden to bring 
 in an ordinance for regulating the Heralds' Office, and 
 the heraldry of the kingdom." The College of Heralds is 
 subject to the control of the Earl Marshal of England, in 
 whose court all disputes concerning their craft are deter- 
 mined, and as this dignity and court had been abolished 
 by the parliament, Selden was required to propose some 
 substitute for its superintending jurisdiction. 
 
 * Leland's Collectanea, by Hearne, v.282.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 329 
 
 The knowledge of such subjects displayed by Selden 
 ill his " Titles of Honour," probably pointed him out as 
 fitted for this task, and although without pretensions to 
 armorial distinctions, yet he had not that petty proneness 
 of a weak mind to esteem as valueless that of which it 
 has not the possession. Selden duly estimated the value of 
 temporal dignities and their attendant pageantry, without 
 yielding in any degree the just claim of our nature, that 
 there is a gradation of moral as well as hereditary dignity. 
 " The king," said Selden, " cannot make a gentleman of 
 blood ; but he can make a gentleman by creation. If 
 you ask which is the better of these two? — civilly, the 
 gentleman of blood — morally, the gentleman by creation 
 may be better ; for the other may be a debauched man, 
 this a person of worth." 
 
 The gossiping Aubrey expresses his wonder that 
 Selden should not have obtained a coat of arms ; but we 
 should rather approve that good sense that made him 
 content with his own plumage. Selden, says Dr. Heylin, 
 chaplain to Charles the First, might, as was generally 
 believed, have chosen his own preferment at court, but 
 he regarded his literary pursuits more than all other 
 employments ; and no one will wish his choice had been 
 different. One cannot help feeling a satisfaction that he 
 died a commoner. There are some bright names in our 
 national history, as Boyle, and Milton, and Shakspeare, 
 and Locke, before which even the addition of " Mr." is 
 an offensive surplusage. They are of an exalted rank in
 
 330 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 every man's esteem, with which the herald has no concern. 
 For a similar reason we must all feel that no title could 
 add dignity to the plain name of John Selden. We may 
 feel proud that he was entirely one of us, and still prouder 
 to coincide with the opinion of Dr. Heylin, that it is " a 
 name that stands in need of no titles of honour*." 
 
 In 1646, Selden published his work entitled "Uxor 
 Ebraica ; seu de Nuptiis et Divortiis ex Jure Civili, id est, 
 Divino et Talmudico, veterum Ebraeorum, Libri tres." 
 
 In his former work on the Jewish natural and inter- 
 national law, he had treated of everything relative to the 
 Hebrew matrimonial regulations that came under those 
 two heads. In this work he completed the subject by 
 adding all that relates to it from what he terms their civil 
 law, that is, the matrimonial rites, customs, and institu- 
 tions proper to their nation, and derived either from the 
 Levitical law, or from their ancient customs, and the 
 ordinances of their rulers. He says " I shall consider my 
 task as performed if I have duly explained the particular 
 causes from which, by this law, marriages were either 
 prohibited, enjoined, or permitted ; also the solemn forms 
 and circumstances of contracting them, the nuptial rites, 
 the mutual duties of the parties, and the rules of divorce." 
 He further enumerates among the particulars of his work, 
 what he calls the stupendous doctrines of the Karaites 
 respecting incest ; and incidental notices of many things 
 
 * Life of Laud, ^321.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 331 
 
 relating to the modes of contracting and dissolving 
 marriages among Pagans, Mahomedans, and Christians in 
 the East and West, which have either been derived from 
 Jewish customs or appear to resemble them. 
 
 From this view of the materials of the " Uxor 
 Ebraica," it will be seen that it ranks with the most 
 curious and interesting of his publications, and was 
 accordingly received by the learned with merited applause. 
 Another edition of it was printed at Frankfort, in the 
 year 1673 *. 
 
 In 1647, Selden edited an edition of " Fleta." This 
 work, says Lord Coke, was written by some learned lawyer, 
 who being committed to the Fleet Prison, had leisure 
 there to compile it, and concealed his name, as he states 
 in the preface, by calling it after the place of his confine- 
 ment. It is divided into six books, of which the first 
 treats of the crown pleas ; the second gives a copious and 
 curious account of the officers of the king's household, &c. 
 The other four books are more exclusively occupied with 
 details of our national law. 
 
 This work was found in a very ancient manuscript in 
 the Cotton Library!, and Selden says it was then the 
 only one known to be existing. The booksellers having 
 determined to publish it, employed a transcriber so careless 
 or inefficient, that, upon comparing it with the original 
 manuscript, many hundred errors were discovered, and 
 
 * Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usiier, 138. 
 t Cotton MSS. Julius, H. 8.
 
 332 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 after all, the edition was very inaccurate. To it Selden 
 prefixed a dissertation, which was subsequently translated 
 by Mr. R. Kelham, and an extract from whose copious 
 title-page will give an epitome of its contents. According 
 to this it contains " many curious particulars relating to 
 those ancient authors on the laws of England, Bracton, 
 Britton, Fleta and Thornton ; showing what use was 
 made of the imperial law in England, whilst the Romans 
 governed here ; at what time it was introduced into this 
 nation ; what use our ancestors made of it ; how long it 
 continued ; and when the use of it totally ceased in the 
 king's courts at Westminster."
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 3liS 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CONCLUDING SCENES OF HIS LIFE. — STRIVES TO RECONCILE THE 
 
 CONTENDING POLITICAL PARTIES. THE KING MIGHT HAVE BEEN 
 
 RESTORED. DEATH OF CHARLES. ITS ILLEGALITY. SELDEN 
 
 PREVIOUSLY RETIRED FROM PUBLIC LIFE. CROMWELL SEEKS HIS 
 
 ASSISTANCE. — WRITES ANOTHER WORK CONCERNING THE JEWS. 
 
 HIS LAST PUBLICATIONS. — PREPARES FOR DEATH. HIS LAST 
 
 MOMENTS. — FUNERAL. — MARRIED TO THE COUNTESS OF KENT. 
 
 HIS WILL. — HIS "TABLE TALK." HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 We have now arrived at the period of the concluding 
 political efforts of Selden's life; efforts that were admir- 
 ably consistent with the temperate opinions which had 
 guided him through those times of extreme discord and 
 ultra-politics. Every vote and action of his parliamentary 
 career unite as an index of his wishes and thoughts 
 respecting the national government, and tell us as plainly 
 as if he had copied for us the tablets of his heart, that 
 abhorring the illegal measures of Charles, and persuaded 
 that of the two contending parties the parliament was 
 least in error, he yet desired the establishment of a duly- 
 restrained monarchy. 
 
 During the contest in 1()47, between the Presbyterian 
 party of the parliament, and the independent portion that 
 joined the army, Selden apj)ears to have sided with the
 
 334 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 former. His name is not in the list of the latter, who 
 signed an engagement to support the army *. On the 
 11th of December, in the same year, after the members 
 had again vmited, Selden went up with a message to the 
 Lords from the Commons, desiring their consent to four 
 bills, and, in the event of such concurrence, that they 
 might be presented to his majesty for his assent. These 
 bisll were concerning the management of the army and 
 navy ; for justifying the proceedings of parliament in the 
 late war ; concerning the peerage and the adjournment of 
 both Houses t. When the Scotch commissioners desired 
 that the above named bills might be communicated to 
 them, Selden again appeared at the bar of the House of 
 Lords, with two resolutions, vindicating, from such inter- 
 ference, the independence of parliament J. 
 
 In this last effort to effect a reconciliation between the 
 king and the parliament, we may readily conceive that 
 Selden was active and earnest ; and certainly no person 
 was more likely to succeed in this effort, than he who was 
 respected and trusted by all parties. 
 
 Under any circumstances it would occur that the 
 propositions of the parliament would endeavour to secure 
 to it safety and influence, and they would be the more 
 strict and more careful because there could be little confi- 
 dence in the king's sincerity. His private papers, which 
 had been taken at the battle of Naseby, and which the 
 
 * Parliament. Hist, xvi. 244. t Il^id- 403. J Ibid. 429.
 
 JOHN SELDEX. 335 
 
 '*Eikon Basilike" mentions without denying that they 
 were genuine, declared unequivocally, that though he 
 called the parliament by that name, yet in his conscience 
 he did not hold it to be one, nor should he, in the event 
 of success, treat it as such. It therefore behoved that 
 assembly to deprive him by every precaution of the power 
 to harm them. To effect this, they proposed, in the four 
 bills just mentioned, that the military power should be 
 entirely under the management and controul of the 
 parliament for twenty years ; and that the raising or 
 maintaining any other troops should be illegal. Subse- 
 quently the consent of the three estates should always be 
 requisite to the management of the national military. 
 That all proceedings and declarations against any member 
 of the parliament for his conduct during the late war were 
 illegal. That all titles of honour conferred since the 
 20th of May, 1642, the day the lord keeper deserted the 
 parliament, should be void. And that the parliament 
 might adjourn itself at any time, and to any place that it 
 preferred. Besides these there were some accompanying 
 propositions for sequestrating the estates of certain of the 
 royalists, and others for the establishing a Presbyterian 
 form of church government, &c. 
 
 That these were hard terms for the king to accept no 
 one will dispute, but it is quite as certain that to many of 
 them he would not object ; that the parliament, if they 
 acted consistently, or with regard to their own safety, 
 could not require less; and that, situated as he was, he
 
 '336 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 could not reasonably expect more favour *. The hardest 
 article was, that which called upon him to sanction the 
 forfeiture of the estates of those who had supported him. 
 However, to this he does not object in his reply, but 
 chiefly that such propositions deprive him of all 
 sovereignty, and concludes by expressing an unalterable 
 resolution not to treat with the parliament, unless he can 
 do so personally f. 
 
 Both Houses, in the hastiness of anger, passed an 
 ordinance that it should be high treason to propose any 
 further treaty with the king ; a vote violent, unjust and 
 absurd, for though they might have a majority against 
 such communication, they had no right to impose silence 
 upon those who entertained a different opinion. Clarendon 
 says that the agreeing to that " monstrous declaration," 
 caused many of the members to withdraw themselves from 
 an attendance upon parliament t It is but justice to 
 observe that they rescinded that ordinance soon afterwards, 
 and evidently would have concluded terms with the king, 
 if the majority of those members who were favourable to 
 such agreement, had not been forcibly expelled by Crom- 
 well's party, and thus a predominance secured to those 
 who opposed it, and who eventually brought the king 
 to his death. 
 
 * The king- was now a prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle, 
 t Parliament. Hist. xvi. 483, 
 
 X History of Rebellion, v. 94, 8vo. ed. There is little doubt of 
 Selden being- among these seceders.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 337 
 
 Seidell was not among those members who were im- 
 prisoned or expelled by the army, nor yet among those 
 who continued to assume the office of legislators. He 
 therefore must have voluntarily \vithdrawn himself when 
 he saw that the military were determined to subvert the 
 government. 
 
 There is scarcely room to doubt that at this last period 
 of the struggle, the king might have saved his life and 
 regained his throne. The Presbyterians having a majority 
 in the parliament, and supported by the city of London 
 and by the Scots, openly avowed themselves to be deter- 
 mined against any religious toleration. The independents, 
 who chiefly constituted the English army, remonstrated 
 against this, and finding their petitions disregarded, 
 Cromwell and Ireton, their most influential officers, offered 
 terms to Charles. However he fled from them, and 
 became a prisoner of the parliament, whose offers, we 
 have already stated, he had similarly rejected. All con- 
 temporary authorities agree, that he now entertained the 
 vain idea, that he was important and necessary to the 
 success of either party, and offending both by his haughti- 
 ness, insincerity, and duplicity, whichever triumphed, he 
 could be trusted by neither. Unfortunately for him, the 
 independents attained the superiority, and having ex- 
 pelled from the remaining part of the parliament all who 
 were opposed to their plans, the residuum formed that 
 " high court of justice " which found him guilty of trea- 
 son against the state, and consigned him to the scaffold. 
 
 z
 
 338 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 What was Seldeiis opinion of the final treatment to ^ 
 which Charles was subjected has been sought, but without 
 success. If the question were simply, whether a nation 
 has a right to depose its sovereign, or even put him 
 to death — the answer might be reasonably in tlie 
 affirmative. "A king," said Selden, "is a thing men 
 have made for their own sakes ;— for quietness' sake." 
 They grant him certain high privileges and powers ; but 
 it is upon the condition that he shall guard their liberties 
 and administer the laws. The moment he neglects either, 
 be has broken the condition, and his privileges are for- 
 feited. Ipso facto he is reduced to the liabilities of a 
 subject. It matters little whether such a delinquent's 
 crimes appear in the form of murder, rape, or general 
 tyranny ; he has disregarded the purposes for which he 
 was raised to the throne, and no reason, either technical 
 or moral, can convince the understanding that he has not 
 degraded himself, or is not justly brought within the 
 power of the law which he despised. If it is asked, who 
 should be his judges ? it may be answered, without the 
 fear of a rational objection, that having forfeited his 
 prerogative, he might be arraigned before those to whose 
 integrity he had confided the dispensation of justice. 
 
 If it is asked, who should be the prosecutor ? it may 
 be answered, the power to whom the nation next confides 
 the sovereignty — for to that power it delegates the adminis- 
 tration of retributive as well as of preventive justice. The 
 dignity of the delinquent might claim a trial before a
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 339 
 
 higher tribunal, and the Commons of England might 
 vindicate the rights of the people, by impeaching him at 
 the bar of the House of Lords. It would be absurd to 
 admit as a good plea, that these tribunals have no juris- 
 diction over such an offender. From what has been 
 suggested, even as a technical objection, it appears inv^alid, 
 and in that case, if the most high tribunal of the realm 
 is assigned to administer to him justice, he can avail 
 himself of no further appeal ; and the most hardy 
 defender of absolute monarchy, will not dare to maintain 
 that a king, being once chosen, may violate the nation's 
 laws and the laws of God without the possibility of 
 redress. What sympathy of our nature, what dictate of 
 our reason, would it shock to see' a John, a Richard the 
 Third, or a Henry the Eighth, condemned by the laws 
 which he had infracted * ? 
 
 Admitting, under certain circumstances, the liability of 
 our kings to be arraigned for their crimes, the succeeding 
 query arises, Did Charles the First come within such 
 liability? The answer must be in the affirmative. 
 Charles certainly violated the laws and trampled upon the 
 liberties of the people. He levied taxes, imprisoned his 
 subjects, and tampered with the judges, in defiance of the 
 
 * There is no writer upon the Law of Nations that does not ac- 
 knowledge their right to depose their sovereigns who act in subversion 
 of their laws and liberties. — Locke on Government, ss. 213 — 243. 
 Vattel's Law of Nations, 1. i. c. 4. PuffendorPs Law of Nature and 
 Nations, by Barbeyrac, 1. vii. c. 8, s. 5, &c., and many others, as Sidney, 
 Le Clerc, and even liarclay, may be referred to. 
 
 z 2
 
 340 MESIOIRS OF 
 
 parliament, and in contempt of every rule of justice. He 
 prevented the parliament assembling at its proper periods ; 
 by repeated dissolutions endeavoured to coerce it to his 
 will ; and made his own proclamations have the same 
 power as the acts of the legislature. Finally, he en- 
 deavoured, by force of arms, to subdue the opposition that 
 his illegal measures had roused into action, and for this 
 purpose he not only levied soldiers in his own dominions, 
 but made arrangements for the introduction of foreign 
 troops. Each of these acts was a breach of the constitu- 
 tion, and rendered him liable to and worthy of degrada- 
 tion from that office of which he neglected the duties and 
 perverted the powers. 
 
 Lastly arises the question. Was the power legal that 
 condemned him? and there can be as little reason for 
 hesitating in replying to this as to the former query. 
 
 The high court of justice had not a shadow of legal 
 power, nor the remotest right to try, much less to condemn 
 him. It is no mere technical objection to observe, in the 
 first place, that the parliament had renounced all right 
 to arraign Charles, for after all his offences had been 
 completed, and they had got him in their power, they 
 acknowledged him as their king ; they treated with him 
 as such at Newport ; and as they acknowledged him as 
 their sovereign, and were willing to retain him upon 
 the throne, they then renounced the right to try him, for 
 that right accrued to them only by the forfeiture of the 
 office which they still acknowledged he retained. With
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 341 
 
 additional absurdity he was arraigned as, " Charles 
 Stuart, King of England." 
 
 But the court had no right to try him. It not only 
 was not founded upon the will of the nation, but was 
 constituted in defiance of even the last exuviae of its 
 legislature. The House of Commons was so only in 
 name, its more appropriate title would have been the 
 delegation of the army, for by force the military had 
 expelled from the House all the members who would not 
 support their extreme faction, and the greatest number 
 that now assembled, and who voted for the appointment 
 of " the High Court of Justice," did not amount to 
 seventy. 
 
 The House of Peers consisted of a still narrower remnant ; 
 for although, according to Rushworth, Whitelocke, and 
 Walker, it had a larger attendance upon the occasion of 
 the debate concerning the appointment of the above named 
 court, than for a long time previous, yet the number then 
 amounted but to sixteen, and of these, twelve voted against 
 it, and the others did not record their opinions *. 
 
 The court then was appointed in defiance even of the 
 wreck of the legislature, and as it was illegally constituted, 
 for that and other reasons, it acted consistently in defiance 
 of the laws throughout. The trial of Charles was a mere 
 farce, and it would not have been in any degree more a 
 murder, if the army-leaders had privately destroyed him, 
 
 * Parliamerit. Hist., xviii. 492.
 
 342 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 as one portion of them strenuously desired might be 
 eflfected. 
 
 Before Charles was arraigned, the political life of Selden 
 had closed, yet he did not retire because his influence was 
 gone, for Cromwell sought his aid, but he withdrew from 
 an assembly whose conduct had ceased to meet with his 
 approbation, and to whose proceedings opposition was 
 vain. There seems to be little doubt that he was one of 
 the members intended by the vote of the House on the 
 22nd of February 1649, that none who had been absent 
 since the 31st of the preceding December, unless upon 
 their military duty, should be admitted without further 
 order. 
 
 There can scarcely be a less disputable mark of 
 integrity and worthiness in an individual than his 
 succeeding in securing the "golden opinions" of parties 
 opposed to each other in contending for the same object, 
 and concerning which object that individual is known by 
 them to differ with them both. Now of all contentions 
 History affords uniform testimony that none are so jealous 
 and implacable as those in which are involved the religious 
 opinions and the temporal pre-eminence of the disputants. 
 Mingling in such contentions, Selden passed his life, a 
 prominent actor in them all, and yet so moderate, 
 consistent and talented was his course, that although 
 occasionally supporting and opposing each, the extremes 
 of the conflicting parties looked up to him and sought of 
 him the aid of his abilities. We have already seen that
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 343 
 
 Charles the First wished to bestow upon Selden the highest 
 civil office of the kingdom, and we have now arrived at 
 the period when the successful opponent of that monarch 
 proposed to avail himself of his literary, legal, and political 
 acquirements. When the Eikon Basilike appeared, its 
 pathos, humble tone, and religious sentiments, were so 
 coincident with the spirit of the age, and so strengthened 
 the feeling of pity and admiration that is always suggested 
 by the exhibition of the unfortunate suffering with mag- 
 nanimity, that probably a contemporary did not express an 
 exaggerated opinion when he declared, that if that publica- 
 tion had issued from the press three weeks earlier Charles 
 would not have died upon the scaffold. It is very certain 
 that those who signed his death warrant hesitated even at 
 the last moment before they affixed to it their signatures, 
 and if the popular voice had declared in his favour more 
 loudly, they probably would have withheld them entirely. 
 As it was the " Eikon Basilike " had such an influence in 
 winning public favour to the royal cause, that Cromwell 
 considered it essentially necessary that an answer to it 
 should be published. He selected Selden to execute this 
 purpose, and is said to have applied to him personally, 
 and by their mutual friends, to persuade him to undertake 
 the task. He unhesitatingly declined, and it was even- 
 tually replied to by the poet Milton. 
 
 The opinion that Cromwell entertained of Selden is 
 shown still further by the following incident. Soon after 
 he had dissolved the parliament in April 1653, and
 
 341 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 informed the council of state that it should meet no more, 
 he sent for two influential members of the army faction, 
 and complaining to them that he feared he was not 
 equal to the government that had devolved upon him, 
 requested that they would persuade the chief justice St. 
 John, Selden, and some others, "to draw up some instru- 
 ment of government." In other words, to arrange a new 
 form of the executive*. It is probable, as the contem- 
 porary, prejudiced author from whom we obtain this 
 information surmises, that this was mere duplicity in 
 Cromwell, but that does not weaken the testimony it 
 affords that Selden was admired and trusted by the most 
 opposite factions!. 
 
 Selden continued his studies and his care of the literary 
 interests of the country. In July, 1649, a vote passed in 
 parliament for the preservation of the books and medals 
 in the library at St James's Palace, and the care of them 
 was offered to Mr. Whitelocke, which he accepted, he 
 says, at the earnest persuasion of Selden, who declared 
 that "if he did not undertake the charge, all those rare 
 monuments of antiquity would be lost; and there were 
 not the like to them, except in the Vatican, in any library 
 in Christendom J." 
 
 * Ludlow's Memoirs, 176. Ed. 1731. 
 
 f It is an impression upon the author's mind that he has seen it 
 stated, that Cromwell offered to make Selden his attorney general, but 
 he has been unable to find an authority upon the point. 
 
 X Whitelocke's Memorials, 401.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 345 
 
 In 1 650 Selden published the first book of his work, "De 
 Synedriis et Prefectiiris Juridicis veterum Ebragoriim.'* 
 Upon this he had employed the care and researches of 
 which he was capable during twelve years. His object 
 was to relate every thing recorded concerning the San- 
 hedrim or Juridical Courts of the Jews, both before and 
 after the promulgation of the Mosaical Laws ; together 
 with such collateral notices of similar institutions in 
 modern times and countries as he had interspersed in his 
 other works, of which the polity of the Jews is the primary 
 subject. This first book brings his details from the 
 Creation to the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, and 
 was in all probability published separately as a vehicle for 
 the author's opinions against the right of excommunica- 
 tion, so enlarged by the presbyterians, and which occupy 
 so many of its pages. It was followed three years 
 afterwards by a second book, comprising the judicial 
 history of the Jews to the destruction of the temple. A 
 third, which was not printed until after Selden's death, 
 proposed to treat particularly of the great Sanhedrim, 
 but he had left it incomplete. The whole occupies one of 
 the six folio volumes which contain his works, and in none 
 of these has he displayed more of his multifarious and 
 recondite erudition. However, it incurred a good deal of 
 criticism. In particular, his tenets concerning ecclesiastical 
 censures were controverted by various foreign theologians. 
 The author's learned countryman, Sir John Marsiiam, 
 also expresses a doubt whether the Patriarchs exercised
 
 346 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 any proper civil jurisdiction, and gives as his opinion that 
 the whole Hebrew polity was posterior to the departure of 
 the Israelites from Egypt. 
 
 In 1652, was published a collection of " Ten Writers 
 of English History posterior to Bede," to which Selden 
 prefixed some account of the authors, entitled " Judicium 
 de decem Historise Anglicanae Scriptoribus." In the 
 commencement of this preface he informs the reader that 
 he was not the editor of the collection, and had no other 
 concern in it than occasionally looking over the proof 
 sheets, and communicating some collations of manuscripts 
 from the library of Sir Thomas, son of the late Sir 
 Robert Cotton ; but that at the request of the bookseller he 
 was induced to prefix this dissertation. It begins with 
 Simon of Durham, whose history of that church, Selden 
 endeavours to prove to have been really composed by 
 Turgot, prior of the monastery of Durham, and Bishop 
 of St. Andrews, in Scotland. He takes occasion in this 
 place to give some account of the Keledei, or Culdees, of 
 Scotland, who long afforded an example of presbyterial 
 ordination, without the intervention of a bishop. It is to 
 be remarked, that in the preface to Dr. Wilkin's edition 
 of Selden's works, is inserted a disquisition by Thomas 
 Rudd, keeper of the Durham library, in which he 
 vindicates the claim of Simon to the composition of this 
 history. The other writers in the collection, noticed by 
 Selden, are Prior John, and Richard of Hexham ; Serlo, 
 a monk of Fountain's Abbey ; Ealred, abbot of Rivaulx ;
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 347 
 
 Ralph de Diceto, dean of St. Paul's, London ; John 
 Brompton, abbot of Joreval ; Jervaise, a monk of Canter- 
 bury ; Thomas Stubbes ; William Thorne, a monk of 
 Canterbury ; and Henry Knighton, a canon of Leicester*. 
 
 The last of Selden's writings was an answer to Theodore 
 Graswinckel, a Dutch jurist, who in a refutation of a work 
 by Burgus on the Dominion of the Genoese Sea, assigned 
 very derogatory motives to Selden for writing his " Mare 
 Clausum." The motto of Selden's Vindication, as well 
 as its title page, indicates that he keenly felt the libel ; 
 " Contumeliam nee fortis potest, nee ingenuus pati." 
 The work, which is dated from his house in White 
 Friars, May the 1st, 1653, is chiefly valuable and interest- 
 ing on account of the biographical information it affords 
 relative to the author; which information has been 
 frequently quoted and acknowledged in preceding pages. 
 
 In 1654 Selden felt those warnings of decay that 
 admonish us finally to set our house in order. He pursued 
 the suggestion without delay. He is one of that nu- 
 merous band of transcendent minds who have borne 
 testimony that the first thing needful is to prepare for 
 eternity. His life had been a preparation for death, for 
 he had lived virtuously and conscientiously, and he told 
 his friends Archbishop Usher, and Dr. Langbaine, who 
 attended him during the days of departing life, " that 
 
 * Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, 14G — 160.
 
 348 MEMOlllS OF 
 
 although he had his study full of books and papers upon 
 most subjects in the world, yet he could not recollect any 
 passage whereon he could repose his mind, except some 
 out of the Holy Scriptures ; of which the one that made 
 most impression upon his spirit was that contained in the 
 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th verses of St. Paul's epistle to 
 Titus*." In those passages the apostle gives a summary 
 of the Christian doctrine — obedience to the commands of 
 God, and faith in the redeeming sacrifice of our Saviour. 
 This then was Selden's creed, and, consonant with the 
 other conduct of his life, yielding to authority that cannot 
 err, and unbiassed by enthusiasms to which he never 
 submitted, he adopted the religion of the Bible, content 
 with fundamentals necessary to be known, and despising 
 the sectarian bigotry that hurled damnation upon those 
 who differed with them about a name, or even a still less 
 material opinion upon a still less material doctrine. On 
 the 10th of November, Whitelocke received the following 
 invitation from his dying friend. It was the last exertion 
 of his pen. 
 
 " My Lordt, 
 
 " I am a most humble suitor to your lordship, that 
 you would be pleased that I might have your presence for 
 
 * Wilkins in vita Seldeni. He quotes a work entitled " Historical 
 Applications and occasional Meditations upon several subjects ;" written 
 " by a Person of Honour," repeated in Woodward's " Fair Warning to 
 a Careless World." 
 
 f Whitelocke was one of the Lord Commissioners of the Great Seal.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 349 
 
 a little time to-morrow, or next day. Thus much wearies 
 the most weak hand and body of 
 
 Your lordship's most humble servant, 
 
 J. Selden." 
 
 « Nov. 10, 1654, White Friars." 
 
 Whitelocke obeyed the summons, and advised him upon 
 the subject of settling his estate, and altering his will. 
 He also agreed to be one of his executors. What was the 
 advice given we are not informed, but we are told that 
 the bodily strength of Selden failed before he could fulfil 
 his last intentions *. 
 
 He expired on the 30th, within sixteen days of com- 
 pleting his seventieth year. The immediate cause of his 
 decease was dropsy. 
 
 Death came to him without terror. He had his funeral 
 scutcheons prepared some months before he died, and had 
 similarly anticipated the composition of his own epitaph t. 
 
 * Whitelocke's Memorials, 590. 
 
 t Aubrey MSS., Wood's Athenae Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 378. 
 
 Selden's epitaph for himself is as follows : — 
 
 " Natus est 16 Decembris Salvingtoniae, qui viculus est Terring-, 
 oppide in Sussexia maritimi, in cedibus Lacies ibi dictum, parentibus 
 honestis, Johanne Seldeno, Thomse filio (qui anno natus, septua- 
 
 genarius obiit), et Margarita Bakera, Thomae cognominis a Rushing- 
 ton, ex equestri in Cantia Bakerorura familia oriundi filia unica et 
 haerede, quibus primogenitus et haeres. Fratres habuit ex hisce binos, 
 Georgium et Henricum, in curio mortuos ; sororem unicam Mariam, 
 Johanni Bernardo e Goring enuptam. 
 
 Literis puerilibns in schold Cicestrieiisi pulilioa Oxoiiiiim ainandatns
 
 350 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Some may be ready to exclaim against this as a vain 
 weakness. But surely it is no symptom of weakness to 
 view with composure the requisite attendants of the 
 charnel house ; and there it not one sentence in the 
 epitaph that savours of mistimed vanity. It is interesting 
 because it records his estimate of his own character, 
 and certainly deserves no reprehension for arrogance, 
 because it merely records the truth. A man may ac- 
 knowledge the possession of attainments without vaunting 
 of their acquirement. 
 
 After stating his admission into the society of the Inner 
 Temple, he adds, " he applied himself to the studies of 
 the place neither remissly nor unsuccessfully ; but in- 
 dulging his natural disposition, and little fitted for the 
 bustle of courts, he betook himself to other studies as an 
 inquirer. He was happy in friendships with some of the 
 best, most learned, and even most illustrious, but not 
 without the heavy enmity of some intemperate adversaries 
 
 est ; ubi in Aula Cervina, disciplinis academicis per aliquot annos 
 incubuit. Jus illic Anglicanum ultro affectans, primo Hospitii Clif- 
 fordensis Londini, deinde Interioris Templi, Maii 1604, Socius adrnis- 
 sus est : non indiligenter loci studiis, nee infeliciter, operam navavit . 
 sed genio suo indulgentior, nee molestiis forensibus satis idoneus, ad 
 alia, ut explorator, se contulit. Amicitiis cujusque ordinis, optimis, 
 doetissimis, amplissimis, etiam et illustrissimis, nee paucis beatus 
 fruebatur, nee sine summis procacium aliquot veritatis et libertatis 
 justse ossorum inimicitiis quas gravissime sed viriliter perpessus est. 
 Conaitiis Parliamentariis ut burgensis ssepius intererat, etiam et in illis 
 
 quae et regem habuere et nullum. Denatus — — . anno hie prope 
 
 situs est."
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 351 
 
 of truth and genuine liberty, under which he severely but 
 manfully suffered. He served as a burgess in several 
 parliaments, both in those which had a king, and those 
 which had none." 
 
 The risk of wearying the reader must be incurred by 
 detailing at length, upon Aubrey's authority, the con- 
 cluding ceremonies with which Selden*s remains were 
 interred in the Temple Church. 
 
 " His executors invited all the parliament men, all the 
 benchers, and great officers. All the judges had mourning, 
 as also abundance of people of quality. His grave was 
 about ten feet deep, or better ; walled up a good way with 
 bricks, of which also the bottom was paved, but the sides 
 at the bottom for about two feet high were of black 
 polished marble, wherein his coffin (covered with black 
 baize) lieth ; and upon that wall of marble was presently 
 let down a huge black marble stone of great thickness, 
 with this inscription: — 
 
 " Hicjacet corpus Johannis Seldeni, qui obiit 30 die Novembris, 1654." 
 
 Over this was turned an arch of brick (for the house 
 would not lose their ground), and upon that was thrown 
 the earth, &c., and on the surface lieth another fair grave- 
 stone of marble, with this inscription : — 
 
 " J. Seldenus, J. C. heic situs est." 
 
 There is a coat of arms on the flat marble, but it is
 
 352 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 indeed the coat of his mother, for he had none of his own, 
 though he so well deserved it*." 
 
 A mural monument to his memory was subsequently 
 placed in the circular part of the church. 
 
 Archbishop Usher, owing to his age and infirmities, 
 had ceased to preach to large congregations, but on this 
 occasion he again occupied the pulpit, thereby intending 
 to testify his regard for Selden, and for his executors, who 
 made it their particular request. In this discourse, like 
 almost all preachers of funeral sermons. Usher exceeded 
 the bounds of legitimate praise. Thus he told his auditors 
 that he considered Selden so great a scholar that he was 
 scarcely worthy to carry his books after himt. 
 
 Mr. Richard Johnson, master of the Temple, read over 
 the corpse the service of the New Directory, or liturgical 
 form prepared by the Synod; adding extempore, "if 
 learning could have kept a man alive, this our brother had 
 not died t." 
 
 Selden was tall, his height reaching to about six feet. 
 His face thin and oval, and the whole head not very large. 
 His nose was long, and inclining to one side. His eyes, 
 which were grey, full and prominent §. 
 
 * Aubrey's MSS., Wood's Athense Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 379. 
 
 An anonymous writer states that these arms are an alteration of 
 those of the Bakers, of Sisinghurst ; being- azure, on a fess between 
 three Swan's heads, erased or ducally gorged gules, as many cinque- 
 foils of the last. — (Gent.'s Magazine for September, 1834, 257.) 
 
 t Parr's Life of Usher, 75. 
 
 ■^ Wood's Athense Oxon., ii. col. 184. 
 Aubrey MSS., Wood's Athense Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 378.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 353 
 
 He kept a plentiful table, and was never without the 
 society of learned guests. But he was temperate both in 
 eating and drinking, though he was accustomed jocularly 
 to observe, " I will keep myself warm and moist as long as 
 I live, for I shall be cold and dry when I am dead." We 
 can form an estimate of his sociality from one sentence of 
 his intimate friend Whitelocke, who has recorded, tha 
 "his mind was as great as his learning: he was as 
 hospitable and generous as any man, and as good company 
 to those whom he liked*." 
 
 His generosity was not confined to his convivial hours. 
 Meric Casaubon told Dr. Usher that Selden, in a time 
 of need, aided him with a considerable sum. He patronised 
 Mr. Kelly, when pursuing his antiquarian travels ; he 
 subscribed largely to the publishing of Walton's Polyglot 
 Bible ; he was the patron of Farington and Ashmole the 
 antiquarians; and detecting the merits of Hale, while 
 yet a stripling, he continued, though much his senior, his 
 unwavering friend t. 
 
 When called upon by those whom he considered it 
 necessary to see, though his occupation prompted him to 
 wish them absent, he threw a slight covering over the 
 books and papers upon his table, so that they remained 
 undisturbed and unnoticed by his visiter; but with those 
 with whom he was intimate he was less ceremonious, and 
 Colomies relates that when Isaac Vossius was ascending 
 
 * Whitelockc's Memorials, 590. f Wood's Athense Oxen., in vitis. 
 
 A A
 
 354 ivrEMOiRS of 
 
 Seidell's stairs, he would sometimes call to him from their 
 summit, that he had not leisure for conversation. 
 
 The intimacy and connection of Selden with the Earl of 
 Kent has been noticed in preceding pages of this work. 
 The earl died in 1639, without issue, and from that time 
 Selden appears to have made the family mansions at 
 Wrest in Bedfordshire, and White Friars in London, his 
 places of residence. It is doubtful whether he was married 
 to the Countess, or merely resided with her as the legal 
 adviser of the family, which being needed in the life time 
 of the earl, must have been much more necessary after 
 his decease. Previously to Selden becoming an inmate 
 of the house another law authority had necessarily been 
 employed, for he once noticed, "Lady Kent articled with 
 Sir Edward Herbert, that he should come to her when 
 she sent for him, and stay with her as long as she would 
 have him ; to which he set his hand ; then he articled 
 with her, that he should go away when he pleased, and 
 stay away as long as he pleased, to which she set her 
 hand*." "When I read this passage," says Dr. Aikin, " I 
 was at a loss to conceive what was the nature of the 
 connection between her ladyship and Sir Edward. A 
 legal friend suggested to me that the latter, who was 
 an eminent lawyer, was probably retained for his advice 
 by Lady Kent at an annual salary; and he produced to 
 
 * Table Talk, s. Contracts.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 355 
 
 me examples of deeds granted for payments on the same 
 account; one of them so late as the year 1715.'* 
 
 The Countess of Kent was Elizabeth, daughter and 
 coheiress of Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. There 
 passes under her name a book entitled, "A choice JManual 
 of rare and select secrets in Physick and Chirurgery ; " but 
 her being an author was not the most estimable part o^ 
 her character. She was eminent for her virtue and piety. 
 She died in 1651 *. She appointed Selden her executor, 
 and bequeathed to him the Friary House, in White 
 Friars; and from her he is believed to have derived a 
 chief part of the considerable property of which he died 
 possessed. There is strong reason to believe that he was 
 bound to her by other ties than those of service and 
 friendship. Wood says equivocally that they lived together 
 in a conjugal way; but Aubrey says expressly that 
 Selden was married to the Countess, though he never 
 acknowledged the marriage until after her death, when it 
 became necessary to avow it in the course of some legal 
 proceedings!. 
 
 When Selden died, his barber, who had noticed his 
 learning and been annoyed by his eccentricities, for Selden 
 would often escape from his hands to make a note of the 
 
 * Nicbolls' Literai-y Anecdotes, viii. 510. 
 
 t Aubrey's MSS., Wood's Athense Oxon. by Bliss, iii. 378. The 
 same authority alludes to two illegitimate daughters of Selden, by an 
 unnamed mother. One married a tradesman of Bristol. 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ideas and recollections that arose in his mind, declared his 
 anxiety to know how he had devised his property, for 
 added the tonsor, " I never knew a wise man make a 
 wise will." 
 
 In the opinion of some persons, Selden's last testament, 
 will not be esteemed an exception to this result of the 
 barber's experience, for he left only small legacies to his 
 relations, and the residue of his fortune, which was 
 estimated at forty thousand pounds, to his four executors 
 and residuary legatees. These were Lord Chief Justice 
 Hale, Chief Justice Vaughan, Rowland Jukes, and 
 Edward Herbert, Esqs. * In the opinion of others, by so 
 disposing of his fortune, Selden will be thought to have 
 acted wisely, for the very reason which he used to assign to 
 Sir Bennet Hoskyns and others, who were his intimate 
 friends : " I have no one to make my heir," he said to 
 them, " except a milk-maid ; and such people do not 
 know what to do with a great estate." Grostest, Bishop 
 of Lincoln, in a previous century, acted upon a similar 
 principle, for when his brother applied to him for pre- 
 ferment, he answered, " brother, if your plough is broken, 
 I'll pay for the mending of it ; or if an ox is dead, I'll 
 pay for another ; but a ploughman I found you, and a 
 ploughman I will leave you. " 
 
 To each of his nephews and nieces Selden bequeathed 
 one hundred pounds. To various other persons he left 
 
 * Aubrey leaves a blank for this last gentleman's name, stigmatising- 
 him as Selden's " flatterer."
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 357 
 
 tokens of his regard. One especially bespeaks an attention 
 to what was probably in accordance with the wishes of the 
 Kent family. He left the plate and a diamond hat-band 
 which had belonged to the Earls of Kent, to Mr. Grey-Lon- 
 gueville, as a heir-loom, he being nephew of the last earl. 
 
 The disposal of his library was every way worthy of 
 commendation. He resolved that it should be preserved 
 entire for the benefit of his countrymen. Originally he 
 determined to bequeath it to the University of Oxford, 
 but with a weak betrayal of wounded pride, he altered 
 this resolution, because the deposit of a sum of money had 
 been required of him, before he was permitted to have the 
 loan of a manuscript from the Bodleian library. Such a 
 demand was in accordance with its regulations, and on 
 this consideration ought to have been submitted to by 
 him without objection, particularly as the university had 
 made one special regulation in his favour, that he might 
 have any three books from the library at a time, upon 
 giving a bond that they should be returned within a 
 year*. Although Selden withdrew the express bequest of 
 his library to the university, yet he left its disposal to the 
 discretion of his executors, and even by his uncertain 
 expression, seemed willing to confess that he relented of 
 his petulant resolution. He requests them " rather to 
 part the books among themselves, or otherwise dispose of 
 thera, or the choicest of them, for some public use, than 
 
 * Biographia Britan. in vita.
 
 358 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 put them to any common sale," and further suggests for 
 their preservation *' some convenient public library, or 
 some college in one of the universities." His executors 
 very correctly considered themselves to be " the executors, 
 not of his anger, but of his will," and they in that spirit, 
 after selecting some of the books, and offering them to the 
 benchers of the Inner Temple as the foundation of a 
 law library, presented the remainder, together with his 
 museum, to the University of Oxford. Eventually, the 
 benchers slighting the offer, and delaying to provide a 
 depository for the books, the whole, comprising more than 
 eight thousand volumes, were conveyed to the university, 
 one of the terms enforced by the executors being, that 
 they should be for ever kept together, and in a distinct 
 body, with the title of " Mr. Selden's Library." They 
 are preserved in a separate apartment of the Bodleian 
 library. Anthony Wood has recorded that the books 
 arrived at the university in September 1659, and that he 
 with the head librarian, and several assistants, were 
 employed some weeks in sorting and arranging them. In 
 opening some of the books they found several pairs of 
 spectacles, which Selden must have put in and forgotten 
 where he had placed them. 
 
 In the previous June Selden's antique marbles 
 had arrived, and they were finally arranged in one of 
 the schools, each specimen being marked with his 
 initial *. 
 
 '* Wood's Autobiography.
 
 JOHN SELDEN, 359 
 
 A work entitled " De Nummis," was published in 
 1675, and is stated in the title-page to have been written 
 by Selden. This is a literary fraud. It was written by 
 Alexander Sardus, and published five years before Selden's 
 birth, and was reprinted at Frankfort, in 1609, as well as 
 in the eleventh volume of Graevius's Thesaurus Antiqui- 
 tatum Romanorum. The edition under Selden's name 
 differs only in the titlepage and dedication *. 
 
 In 1689 appeared Selden's " Table-Talk," from which 
 so many quotations have been made in preceding pages. 
 Its editor was the Rev. Richard Milward, who for many 
 years was Selden's amanuensis, and consequently had the 
 most favourable opportunities of becoming acquainted 
 with the sentiments and opinions which he has recorded!. 
 A note made by the Earl of Oxford on a manuscript copy 
 of this work states, " this book was given in 168 — by 
 Charles Earl of Dorset, to a bookseller, in Fleet-street, in 
 order to have it printed, but the bookseller delaying to 
 have it done, Mr. Thomas Rymer sold a copy he procured 
 to Mr. Churchill, who printed itt." The authors of the 
 Leipsic " Acts of the Learned," gave a decided opinion 
 against the genuineness of this work, because they con- 
 sidered that it contains sentiments contrary to those 
 
 * Wood's Athenre Oxon., iii. 373. 
 
 t Mr. Milward was of Trinity College, Cambridge, rector of Little 
 Braxted, in Essex, upon the presentation of its then patron, the Earl 
 of Pembroke ; and installed a canon of Windsor in 1G66. lie died in 
 1680. (Newcourt's Repertorium. Kenet's Catalogue.) 
 
 X Harleian MSS. 1315. pi. 42 b.
 
 3G0 MEMOIllS OF 
 
 recorded in Selden's works, and others that are not 
 worthy of him. Dr. Wilkins and others have coincided 
 in this condemnation. That it contains many obser- 
 vations which, being made in the prompt onflow of 
 conversation, Mr. Milward would have done better not to 
 have registered, cannot be denied, but that the work is at 
 issue with Selden's more considerately delivered opinions 
 has never been demonstrated. That as a whole it is 
 unworthy of Selden is denied by the public approbation 
 bestowed upon it. It has passed through numerous 
 editions, and indeed may be considered as one of the Eng- 
 lish classics. A better critic than those of Leipsic, Dr. 
 Johnson, entirely dissents from them, for replying to an 
 observation made by Mr. Boswell in praise of the French 
 Ana, he said, " a few of them are good, but we have one 
 book of that kind better than any of them — Selden's 
 Table-Talk *." 
 
 Selden adopted for his motto, Trepl navros r^v eXevQepiav, 
 
 liberty concerning all things f. His life was one con- 
 sistent comment upon that text, a text to which no 
 good man will object, and which only the bad will abuse 
 by misconstruction. In social life we have seen that he 
 encouraged an innocent freedom from icy formality in the 
 observance of rules which were made to protect and not 
 to enslave social intercourse. 
 
 * Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 321. 
 ■\ He inscribed this in all his books, as may be seen by referring to 
 those in the Bodleian,
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 361 
 
 As a citizen, whilst he supported the government of the 
 state, he as strenuously opposed the abuses of its power. 
 For, although he perfectly understood the necessity of 
 sacrificing in society some part of our individual freedom, 
 for the security of the remainder, he as entirely perceived 
 that the protecting power we create is not to be implicitly 
 submitted to when it oppresses rather than preserves. 
 
 In religion he exercised the same freedom. His 
 opinions relative to ecclesiastical discipline have already 
 been noticed. They were those of common sense. 
 Coming to the inquiry unshackled by prejudice, without 
 any temporal interests to support, intimate with the first 
 authorities and particularly attached to the study of the 
 Scriptures, — Selden was one of the most unexceptionable 
 judges of the truth of Christianity, and, as already noticed, 
 we have the satisfaction to know that he declared in its 
 favour. 
 
 Without professing, that we know, any particular creed, 
 (and who will say that Luther, or Calvin, should bind 
 such men as Selden, Newton, Grotius, Boyle, and Locke, 
 to every tenet of their belief?) he lived and died as might 
 be expected of one who derived his Christianity from the 
 Bible. Aubrey has a tale that Mr. Hobbes succeeded in 
 persuading Selden to decline in his last moments the 
 attendance of a clergyman, and hence his infidelity has 
 been asserted. However, we have more certain testimony 
 than that of Aubrey, that Selden was a firm believer. 
 Besides the authorities quoted at p. 29H, \vc may refer (o
 
 362 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the words of his contemporary, Mr. Baxter, who observed, 
 " The Hobbians and other infidels would have persuaded 
 the world, that Selden was of their mind, but Sir Matthew 
 Hale, his intimate friend and executor, assured me that 
 Selden was an earnest professor to the Christian faith, and 
 so angry an adversary to Hobbs, that he hath rated him 
 out of the room *." It is true that Sir Symonds D'Ewes 
 tells us that though he always held " a good outward cor- 
 respondence," with Sir Robert Cotton and Selden, yet he 
 never sought or obtained much intimacy with them, " both 
 of them being more learned than pious ;" but what reliance 
 we ought to place in the judgment of such a violent 
 calvinistic bigot as Sir Symonds, may be left to the 
 decision of any reader, who will first make himself ac- 
 quainted with his diary, of which extracts are given by 
 various authorities f. On the other hand, Selden's 
 intimate friends were of the most learned and most pious 
 of the age ; the man who was beloved and sought for by 
 Sir Matthew Hale, and Archbishop Usher, will not be 
 condemned because he did not agree with Sir Symonds's 
 standard of excellence. 
 
 Of his learning notices are spread through the preceding 
 pages. Another testimony is in the following list of those 
 who were his friends and correspondents, and who looked 
 up to him as '* the great dictator of learning." This list 
 
 * Baxter's Diary, by Silvester, Pt. 3, 48. 
 
 i Kippis's Biographia Brit, in vita. D'Israeli's Curiosities of Lite- 
 rature, 2nd Series, iii. 329.
 
 JOHN SELDEN. 363 
 
 is from a life of Selden in French, among the Birch 
 Manuscripts. Grotius, Saumasius, Bochart, Langbaine, 
 Pricaeus, Petit, Gataker, Casaubon, Jim., Gerard Vossius, 
 Imperialis, Holstenius, Rivet, Pococke, Golius, Purchas, 
 Spelman, Gronovius, Daniel Heinsius, Taylor, Louis du 
 Moulin, Boeclar, Spizelins, and if to these are added 
 Jonson, Peiresc, Usher, Herbert, Ravius and Meibomius, 
 there is enumerated a society of eminent acquaintances 
 such as few men ever enjoyed *. 
 
 The best panegyric of Selden, is a faithful relation of his 
 life. This has been attempted in the foregoing pages, and 
 the whole may be summed up in the words of his friend 
 Lord Clarendon: — " He was a person whom no character 
 can flatter, or transmit in any expressions equal to his 
 merit and virtue. He was of such stupendous learning, 
 in all kinds and in all languages, that a man would have 
 thought he had been entirely conversant among bo oks 
 and had never spent an hour but in reading and writing ; 
 yet his humanity, courtesy, and affability were such, that 
 he would have been thought to have been bred in the 
 best courts, but that his good nature, charity, and delight 
 in doing good, and in communicating all he knew, ex- 
 ceeded that breeding. His style in all his writings seems 
 harsh and sometimes obscure, which is not wholly to be 
 imputed to the abstruse subjects of which he commonly 
 treated, but to a little undervaluing of style, and too much 
 
 * Birch MSS. 4247,1.1. 107 v.
 
 364 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 propensity to the language of antiquity ; but in his 
 conversation he was the most clear discourser, and had the 
 best faculty of making hard things easy, and presenting 
 them to the understanding, of any man that hath been 
 known. Mr. Hyde was wont to say that he valued himself 
 upon nothing more than upon having had Mr. Selden's 
 acquaintance from the time he was very young. If he 
 had some infirmities with other men, they were weighed 
 down with wonderful and prodigious excellencies in the 
 other scale *." 
 
 Poetry also contributed its aid to sound Sefden's elegiac 
 praise. The following lines, tinctured with the pedantry 
 of the age, are a very small part of the offering to his 
 memory, written by his worthy contemporary. Dr. 
 Bathurst. 
 
 " We ask not now for ancestors, nor care 
 Tho' Selden does nor kindred boast, nor heir 
 Such worth best stands alone, content to be 
 To itself both founder and posterity. 
 
 ***** 
 
 When all thy statues shall be worn out so 
 That even Selden would not Selden know, 
 Ag-es to come shall in thy virtue share ; 
 He that dies well, makes all the world his heir f." 
 
 * Clarendon's Autobiography, 16. Fol. ed. 
 f Dryden's Miscellanies, Part iii., 44.
 
 PORTRAITS OF SELDEN. 
 
 I am aware of four orig^inal painted Portraits of Selden. Thes 
 were by Mytens, Van Dyck, Sir Peter Lely, and W. Faithorne. That 
 by INIytens Is in the Bodleian Library. 
 
 Of these there have been many engraved copies. 
 
 1. Prefixed to his " Nativity of Christ," by J. Chantrey, 8vo. 1G61. 
 
 2. A quarto mezzotinto, after ^'^an Dyck's portrait, by J. Faber, Jun 
 
 1713. 
 
 3. A copy of Faithorne's, by J. Sturt. 
 
 4. A copy of Lely's, by G. Vertue, prefixed to Selden's Works, 
 
 edited by Dr. Wilkins, folio, 1726. 
 
 5. One after Faithorne, by R. White, prefixed to the " Janus 
 
 Anglorum," 1683, folio. 
 
 6. One prefixed to Dr. Pococke's edition of " Eutychius," 1658, 
 
 folio. 
 
 7. One at the corner of a portrait of Sir Thomas Bodley, by M. 
 
 Burgher ; being the frontispiece to the " Catalogue of the 
 Bodleian Library." 
 
 8. One by Freeman, after that by Sir P. Lely, prefixed to Dr. 
 
 Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, 1812, 8vo. 
 
 9. One engraved by Van Hove, 1677^ 12mo. 
 
 10. One with a library in the back ground, with four Latin verses 
 
 affixed, G. L. p. Scarce. 
 
 11. One by W. Birch, 1789, after the painting by Lely. 
 
 12. One by W. Holl, after the original by JMytens. In " Lodge's 
 
 Portraits."
 
 366 PORTRAITS OF SELDEN. 
 
 13. One " Johannes Seldenus " with the arms from his monument, and 
 
 his motto. No engraver's name to my copy. 8vo. 
 
 14. One " Johannes Seldenus Armig." J. C. Bocklin, sculp. 8vo. 
 There has very lately been published another beautiful likeness of 
 
 Selden, in the " Gallery of Portraits," published by the Society for 
 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 
 
 Many minor copies have appeared in editions of Selden's "■ Table" 
 Talk," that are not worthy of further notice. 
 
 A medal bearing Selden's likeness was engraved by one of the 
 Dassiers. (Nichol's Literary Anecdotes, i. 133. See also Bromley's 
 Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits. Granger's Biographical 
 Hist, of England.)
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abbot, Dr., 155 
 
 Accommodation between the king 
 
 and the parliament hopeless, 297 
 
 " Administration of intestate's 
 
 goods, 160 
 Admiralty committee, 318 
 Aids, 82 
 Alexiad, 100 
 Alford, Mr., 96, 123 
 " Analecton Anglo-Britannicon," 
 
 43 
 Anagrammatic trifling, 76 
 Andrews, Dr., anecdote of, 83, 
 
 102, 158 
 Antiquarian contemporaries of Sel- 
 
 den, 41 
 Antiquarian College, 42 
 " Apello Csesarem," 164 
 " Apostolic obedience," 129 
 Apsley, Sir A., 185 
 Arabic professorship of Oxford, 
 
 317 
 Aristocracy, 213 
 Arundel marbles, 160 
 Assembly of divines, 299, 302 
 Attainder against Strafford, 250 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, 86 
 
 Bagshaw, Mr., 261 
 
 Baillie, Mr., 299 
 
 Bail, law of, 145 
 
 Baker arms, 352 
 
 Bancroft's library, 325 
 
 Baronetcies, 82 
 
 Bastwick, 213 
 
 Benchers censure Selden, 110 
 
 Benevolence, A., 84, 105 
 
 Bibles, cheap and inaccurate, 303 
 
 , our present translation, 305 
 
 " Birth-day of our Saviour," 72 
 Bishops excluded from parliament, 
 
 228, 261 
 Bishops not jure divitio, 290 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 86, 92, 
 
 108, 115, 117, 119, 150, 152 
 Burton, 213 
 
 Cambridge benefited by Selden, 
 
 325 
 Canons issued, 216 
 Carlisle, Countess of, 272 
 B a
 
 368 INDEX. 
 
 Carlisle, Earl of, 106 Constructive treason, 236 
 
 Catholic religion dreaded, 135 Coriton, Wm., 123, 173 
 
 Cavaliers, 2, 302 Corruption prevalent, 217 
 
 CjBsar, Sir J., 26 Corporation feast, 301 
 
 " Chancellor, brief discourse of Cotton family notice Selden, 39, 
 
 the," 48 160 
 
 Charles I., his character, 113, 233 Cotton, Sir R., 135, 160, 190, ]92 
 
 consents to Strafford's Council of peers, 226 
 
 death, 252 Country party, 136 
 
 ^ subvert Court of James I. licentious, 91 
 
 the constitution, 255 Courtiers, 2, 85 • 
 
 retires from London, Cowell, Dr., 81 
 
 276 Crew, IMr., 29, 96 
 
 • commences the war, , Sir R,, 130, 
 
 281 Croke or Crooke, Sir G., 19, 220 
 
 , his duplicity, 334 Cromwell, O., 214, 231, 318, 343 
 
 illegally condemned. Currency proposed to be debased^ 
 
 340 225 
 
 Christmas day, 56, 72 
 
 Chelsea College, 325 j)_ 
 
 Church, an established one bene- 
 ficial, 126, 258 Davies Lady, 76 
 
 government resettled, " De Diis Syris," 50 
 
 299 Successionibus in bona De- 
 
 Civil war, 292 functi," 194, 200 
 
 Clarendon, Earl of, 222, 231, 232 Successione in Pontificatum." 
 
 Clergy advocate absolute power, 200 
 
 ]25 Jure Naturale et Gentium," 
 
 not to be privy councillors, 211, 26, 
 
 &c., 228, 263 Anno Civili Veteris Eccle- 
 
 covetous of power, 320 siae," 317 
 
 Coaches introduced, 86 Synedriis et Praefecturis," 345 
 
 Coin altered in value, 82 Nummis," 359 
 
 Coke, Sir E., 90, 96, 99, 109, Despotic measures, 182 
 
 116, 140, 145, 150 Devotions protracted, 300 
 
 Commission of array, 281, 282 Digby, Lord, 269 
 
 Commons, house of, 52, 79, 103 Digges, Sir D., 22, 119, 123, 140 
 
 Committee of peers, 106 Drayton's Polyolbion, 46 
 
 Conference between the houses, Dryden a pensioner, 319 
 
 140 Ducie, Robert, 100 
 
 Convocation without a parliament, " Duel," Selden s work on " The," 
 
 216, 259 45
 
 INDEX. 
 
 369 
 
 E. 
 
 Eadmer, 100, 105 
 
 Earl Marshal's court, 232 
 
 Eden, Dr., 325 
 
 Edge Hill, battle of, 293 
 
 Edmonds, Sir T., 169 
 
 " Eikon Basilike," 343 
 
 Elections, right of interference in, 
 
 79 
 
 , committee on the law 
 
 of, 109 
 Eliot, Sir J., 8, 119, 120, 123, 
 130, 149, 151, 168, 173, 174, 
 177, 189 
 Elizabeth's treatment of the com- 
 mons, 53, 78 
 EUesmere, Lord Chancellor, 90 
 Emigration attempted, 214 
 " England's Epinomis," 44 
 Episcopacy in danger, 154, 262 
 
 defended, 287 
 
 best assorts with mo- 
 narchy, 310 
 " Europae Speculum," 28 
 " Eutychii iEgyptii, Patriarchae, 
 
 &c." 287 
 Exaction of money, 115, 125, 130 
 Excommunication not legal, 321 
 Extravagance, 85 
 
 Falkland, Lord, 31, 231 
 Fanaticism of the period, 301 
 Finch, I\lr., 9(5, 109 
 Finch, Sir J., 149, 169, \7o, 220, 
 
 269 
 Fivemembers impeached, 270 
 
 Fleet lent to the king of France, 
 
 114 
 " Fleta," 331 
 Floyd or Fludd, Dr., 76 
 Fortescue, " De laudibus Le- 
 
 gibus," 48 
 Freedom of debate obstructed, 168 
 
 G. 
 
 Glanville, Serjeant, 109, 119 
 Glynn, Mr., I7, 235, 249, 294 
 Grey and Ruthen, baronies of, 198 
 Grievances, 114, 138, 231 
 Grimstone, Sir Harbottle, 262, 
 285 
 
 H. 
 
 Hale, Sir M., 353, 356, 362 
 Hampden, Sir E., 131 
 , J., 28, 214, 219, 270, 
 
 275, 279, 298 
 Haselrigge, Sir A., 270 
 Hayman, Sir P., 31, 17^, 173, 
 
 175 
 Heath, Sir R., 134, 138, 17G, 181 
 Heralds' office, 328 
 Herbert, Mr., 119,270 
 Hengham's " Summae," 48 
 Heywood, Edward, 65 
 Hi<rh Commission Court, 53 
 High Court of Justice, 33/ 
 Hilliard, Sir J., 96 
 '' History of Tythes," 55 
 Hobart,SirM., 29, 173, 174, 189 
 Honorary distinctions, 82 
 Holies, Mr., 15, 169, 173, 189, 
 
 231, 270, 279, 298 
 Ilutton, Sir K., 220
 
 370 INDEX. 
 
 K. 
 
 " Ignoramus," 154 Kent, Countess of, 354 
 
 Imprisonmentnotconfinement, 139 , Earl of, 157, 354 
 
 Independents quarrel with the Kimbolton, Lord, 270 
 
 Presbyterians, 333 Kings liable for their crimes, 338 
 
 Inscription in Selden's cottage, 34 Knighthood enforced by fine, 219 
 
 Intellectual improvement of Eng- 
 land, 74 T 
 
 " Interpreter, the," 81 
 
 Intolerance of the Presbyterians, g^^^^^ ^^^^ 33 
 
 337 
 
 ' Lancaster elects Selden, 107 
 
 J Laud, Dr., 114, 163, 201, 260, 
 
 270,311 
 
 James I. disputes with Selden, 65 Legal party, 136 
 
 67 Lenthall, Mr., 273 
 
 on Revelations, 71 Lister, Sir M., a pensioner, 319 
 
 , his character, 80 Littleton, Mr., 117, 140, 146, 
 
 lavish of honours, 82 151, 217, 276 
 
 's idea of parliaments, 83, Liturgy resettled, 299 
 
 84 Loan exacted, 130, 225 
 
 • -, his person and character, j^o„g parliament, 226 
 
 89, 91 Long, Walter, 173, 189 
 
 erases the journals of the Lottery instituted, 82 
 
 House of Commons, 96 
 
 dies, 109 
 
 suspected of being poi- M. 
 
 soned, 25 
 
 James, Richard, 161 Mainwaring, Dr., 164 
 
 " Jani Anglorum," 44 Malignants, 302 
 
 Jews, Selden's first essay on the, Mallory, 99 
 
 48 " Mare Clausum," 56, 207 
 
 Jonson, Ben, 65 Liberum," 206 
 
 Judges consult with the king. Maritime dominion, 56 
 
 J 82 " Marmora Arundelliana," 160 
 
 Judicature of the House of Com- IMasques, 203 
 
 mons, 102 Martin, Sir H., 151 
 
 " of Parliament," 104 Maynard, Sir J., 17, 241, 285 
 
 Jus Divinum, 55 Mermaid Inn, 65 
 
 Juxon, Dr., 253, 254 Milward, Rev. Mr., 3.59
 
 INDEX. 
 
 371 
 
 Mitchell, Sir R, 85 
 Moderate party, 3, 31, 267 
 Mompesson, Sir G., 85 
 Monopolists, 85, 218 
 " Monarchy of Man," 13 
 Montague, Sir H., 87 
 
 ■ , Dr., 164 
 
 Moore, Sir G., 96 
 Moseley, Dr., 128, 196 
 
 N. 
 
 Naseby, battle of, 293 
 
 • papers, 335 
 
 Neale, Dr. , anecdote of, 83 
 Northumberland, Earl of, 80 
 Noy, Mr., 96, 109, 217 
 
 O. 
 
 Office, inquisition of, 158 
 
 Opinions endeavoured to be con- 
 trolled, 103 
 
 Opposition, the, 29, 173, 178 
 
 Orange, the parliamentary colour, 
 298 
 
 Ordinance for the militia, 280, 
 284 
 
 " Oriffin of Ecclesiastical ' Juris- 
 diction of Testaments," 160 
 
 Overreach, Sir G., 85 
 
 Oxford, Earl of, 102 
 
 marbles, 160 
 
 indebted to Selden, 327, 
 
 357 
 
 P. 
 
 Papists encouraged, 93 
 , 137, 231 
 
 Parian Chronicle, 160 
 Parliament assembled, 107, 114, 
 
 137, 163, 222, 226 
 dismissed, 157> 172 
 
 223 
 
 not called for eleven 
 
 years, 211 
 
 made permanent, 255 
 
 exceed their jurisdic- 
 tion, 256 , 270 
 
 Parliamentary time of sitting, 96 
 
 Patience under tyranny, 78 
 
 Patentees, 85, 218 
 
 Patriots described, 96 
 
 People should be conciliated, 107 
 
 Persecution adopted by all sects, 
 217 
 
 , its effect, 73 
 
 Petitions of grievance, 93 
 
 Petition of right, 140, 147, 165 
 
 Philips, Sir R., 28, 99, 146 
 
 Pierrepont, Mr., 296, 298 
 
 Pocock, Dr., 317 
 
 Poets laureate, 67 
 
 Political parties, 1, 136 
 
 state of England previous 
 
 to the time of James I., 52 
 
 Portraits of Selden, 365 
 
 Prerogative, efforts to reduce, 80 
 
 Preston, Dr., 154 
 
 Presbyterian church government, 
 
 287 
 " Privileges of the Baronage," 104 
 Privy seal, 115 
 Proclamations, 90, 218 
 " Proposition for his majesty's 
 
 service," 190 
 Protest of the House of Commons, 
 
 94 
 Prynn, 151, 202, 213, 327 
 Puritans, 137, 302
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Purple the royalist colour, 298 
 Pym, J., 20, 99, 109, 119, 233, 
 
 240, 248, 270, 273, 279, 293, 
 
 314, 319 
 
 Q- 
 
 Queen impeached, 293 
 
 R. 
 
 Raleigh's literary club, 6G 
 
 Ramsay, David, 199 
 
 Readership of Lyon's Inn, 110, 
 
 112 
 Reforms effected, 256 
 Reformadoes, 272 
 
 Religious parties, 137, 201 
 
 Republican Vandalism, 32(i 
 
 Rhea, Donald, Earl, 199 
 
 Rich, Sir H., 91 
 
 , Sir N., 29, 151 
 
 Rochester, Viscount, 92 
 
 Rolls, ]Mr., 164, 167 
 
 Roundheads, 2, 302 
 
 Royalist cause ascendant, 295 
 
 Royalists, 136 
 
 Rudyard, Sir B., 29 
 
 Ruggles, the play-writer, 154 
 
 Rump, the, 226 
 
 S. 
 
 St James's Palace library, 344 
 St. John, Mr. O , 123, 224, 279, 
 
 285 
 Salisbury, Earl of, 92 
 Salvington, Selden's birth-place,33 
 Sandys, Sir Edsvin, 27, 30, 80, 
 
 99,' 102 
 
 Science of government unimprov- 
 ed, 77 
 
 Scape-goats, political, 152 
 
 Scotch Presbyterians oppressed, 
 216 
 
 Sedans introduced, 86 
 
 Selden's parentage, 36 
 
 birth, 37 
 
 • education, 38 
 
 studies the law, 39 
 
 early friends, 40 
 
 .. studies antiquities, 41 
 
 poetry, 47 
 
 — first persecution, 57 
 
 introduced at court, 65 
 
 declaration relating to his 
 
 History of Tithes, 68 
 
 Bacon's adviser, 88 
 
 consulted by the House of 
 
 Commons, 96 
 
 imprisoned, 57, 99, 173, 
 
 184 
 
 incorruptible, 104 
 
 in parliament, 31, 107, 
 
 117, 138,226 
 censured by the Templars, 
 
 110 
 
 charged with erasing re- 
 cords, 146 
 the Earl of Kent's steAV- 
 
 ard, 157 
 more stern in opposition, 
 
 166 
 
 's study sealed up, 1 75 
 
 examined by the privy 
 
 council, 176 
 
 refuses to give bail, 186 
 
 again prosecuted, 190 
 
 why his biography select- 
 
 ed, 7 
 
 his first parliamentary 
 
 speech, 31
 
 INDEX. 
 
 373 
 
 Selden elected a bencher of the 
 
 Inner Temple, 113 
 " ■ argues against the Duke 
 
 of Buckingham, 117 
 
 pleads for the objectors to 
 
 the loan, 130 
 
 Sheriffs unable to represent their 
 
 counties in parliament, 116 
 Ship-money 219, 225 
 Sibthorpe, Dr., 128 
 Solemn league and covenant, 309 
 Solitary confinement, 184 
 
 characterised by the Lord Spanish match, 93 
 
 President, 1 40 Speaker forcibly held in the chair, 
 
 's lodging, 197 169, 179 
 
 and Hyde separate, 232 Soap, a grievous monopoly, 218 
 
 votes for Strafford, 251 Southampton, Earl of, 99, 102 
 
 offered the Chancellorship, Stapylton, Sir P., 319 
 
 277:. 279 Statesmen, their duties, 4 
 made a deputy lieutenant, Strafford, Earl of, 117, 151, 164, 
 
 285 
 
 233 
 
 399 
 
 a member of the Synod, 
 
 keeper of the Tower re- 
 
 ords, 308 
 a manager of the Admi- 
 
 ', his trial, 236 
 
 ralty, 318 
 
 voted money, 320 
 
 elected Master of Trinity 
 
 Hall, 323 
 
 , visiter of Oxford, 327 
 
 might have had any pre- 
 
 ferment, 329 
 strives for a reconciliation. 
 
 334 
 
 political life closed, 342 
 
 admired by Cromwell, 343 
 
 prepares for death, 347 
 
 dies, 349 
 
 , his epitaph, 349 
 
 funeral, 351 
 
 's arms, 352 
 
 's person, 352 
 
 's character, 353, 360, 303 
 
 ■ s will, 355 
 
 . '9. motto, 360 
 
 "s friends, 36.3 
 
 Self-denying ordinance, 318 
 
 Straffordians, 251 
 Strangeways, Sir J., 123, 146, 252 
 Stuart faithlessness, 129 
 Strode, Wm., 173, 193, 270 
 Suffolk, Earl of, 146 
 Superstition of the 17th century, 
 75 
 
 T. 
 
 " Table Talk," 359 
 
 " Ten Writers of Englisli His- 
 tory," 346 
 
 Terms proposed to Charles, 335 
 
 Theatricals reprobated, 202 
 
 Tillcsley, Dr., 77 
 
 '' Titles of Honour," 47 
 
 Tithes, right to, 59, 63 
 
 Tonnage and poundage, 150, 165, 
 218 
 
 Tories, 2 
 
 Treasurership, Lord, 87 
 
 Turner, Dr., 117, 195 
 
 U. & V. 
 
 Fsher, Archbibhop, 82, .301, 306, 
 347, 352
 
 374 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 « Uxor Ebraica," 330 
 Valentine Mr., 169, 173, 189 
 Vane, Sir H., 242, 315 
 "Vindiciae Maris Clausi," 208, 
 347 
 
 W. 
 
 Waller s plot, 294, 295 
 Wardship abolished, 323 
 Wandesford, Mr., 119 
 Wentworth, Sir T., 123, 151, 164 
 Weston, Sir R., 94 
 
 Whigs, 2 
 
 Whitby, Mr., 119 
 
 Whitelocke, Mr. B., 19, 296, 319, 
 
 344, 348 
 Williams, Lord Keeper, 101, 116, 
 
 158, 214 
 Windebank, secretary, 269 
 Worral, Dr., 128 
 Wrest, 157 
 
 Young, Patrick, 161. 
 
 THE END, 
 
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