he velle, the kingly power to the willing mind, enabled
him to execute what before he could but will.'

[450] Letter from the Pope to the Princess, Dec. 28, 1624: 'Cogitans
ad quorum triumphorum gloriam vadis, fruere interim expectatione tui.'

[451] 'Some spare not to say that all goes backward since this
connivance in religion came in, both in all wealth valour honour and
reputation.' Letter of Chamberlain, June 25, 1625.

[452] 'Tonnage, a duty upon all wines imported; poundage, a duty
imposed ad valorem on all other merchandises whatsoever.' Blackstone,
Commentaries i. 315.

[453] 'Whosoever gave the counsel (of the meeting in Oxford) had the
intention to set the king and his people at variance.' Nethersole to
Carleton, Aug. 9, 1625: a circumstantial and very instructive document
(St. P. O.).

[454] Hacket ii. 20.

[455] Arthur Ingram to Wentworth, Nov. 1625 (Strafford Papers, i. 29),
names besides Guy Palmer, Edward Alford, and a seventh, who had not
had a seat in the last Parliament, Sir W. Fleetwood.

[456] Ewis in Ellis, i. 3, 217. The Dutch ambassador present in
England, Joachimi, to whose letter I referred, does not seem to have
mentioned it.

[457] A memorial of what passed in speech from H. M. to the Earl of
Totness, March 8, 1625-26; St. P. O. The King says 'Let them doe what
they list: you shall not go to the Tower. It is not you that they aim
at, but it is me, upon whom they make inquisition. And for subsidies
that will not hinder it; gold may be bought too dear.'

[458] Correro: 'Questo termino di via parlamentaria vuol dire libere
concessioni secondo la loro dispositione e di haver cognitione in
qualche maniera delli impieghi.'

[459] 'Ils disent' (so it is said in Ruszdorf, Negotiations i. 596)
'que tout alloit mal, que les deniers qu'ils ont contribue ont ete mal
employes: il falloit toujours et avant toutes choses redresser et
regler le gouvernement de l'etat.'

CHAPTER VII.

THE COURSE OF FOREIGN POLICY FROM 1625 TO 1627.

In reviewing so important a conflict as that which had broken out at
home, it almost requires an effort of will to bestow deep interest
upon foreign affairs in turn. But not only is this necessary from the
connexion between the two, but we should not be able to understand the
history of England if we left out of consideration its relation to
those great events of European importance which absorbed even the
largest share of public attention.

Charles I ha