ons!
First, owing to his influence the establishment of that council for
war had been granted which now gave occasion to the demand for
Parliamentary control: and next, he had allowed the fall of Bacon, and
had most deliberately overthrown Cranfield by the help of Parliament.
These were just the transactions which endangered his own existence by
the consequences of the principles involved in both cases alike.

The King was certainly moved by personal inclination to take the part
of his minister; but he was also moved by anxiety about the
application of these principles. He complained that without actually
established facts forthcoming, on the strength of general rumour,
people wished to attack the man on whom he bestowed his confidence:
but Parliament, he said, was altogether overstepping its competence.
It was wishing to inspect the books of the royal officers, to pass
judgment upon the letters of his secretary of state, nay, even upon
his own: it permitted and sheltered seditious speeches within its
bosom. There never had been a king, he affirmed, who was more inclined
to remove real abuses, and to observe a truly Parliamentary course;
but also there had never been one who was more jealous of his royal
honour. The more violently Buckingham was attacked, the more it
appeared to the King a point of honour to take him under his
protection against charges which he considered futile.

The Lower House did not take up all the points in dispute which the
King proposed for discussion. It excused some things which had
occurred to the prejudice of the royal dignity, but in the principal
matter it was immovable. It asserted, and adhered to its assertion,
that it was the constant undoubted right of Parliament, exercised as
well under the most glorious of former reigns as under the last, to
hold all persons accountable, however high their rank, who should
abuse the power transferred to them by their sovereign and oppress the
commonwealth. They maintained that without this liberty no one would
ever venture to say a word against influential men, and that the
common-weal would be forced to languish under their violence.

The impeachment was drawn up in regular form by eight members, among
whom we find the names of Selden, Glanvil, Pym, and Eliot. On the 8th
of May it was carried by 225 votes to 116 to send up to the Lords a
proposal for the arrest of Buckingham.

In the Upper House, the members of which were by no means more
favo