e of the sovereign. And it appeared
that he might well hope to succeed, as a considerable alleviation was
offered at the same time to the King's subjects as well.

The King reminded them that the feudal prerogative formed one of the
fairest jewels of his crown, that it was an heirloom from his
forefathers which he could not surrender; honour, conscience, and
interest, equally forbade it. The Lower House replied that it would
not dispute about honour and conscience, but as to interest, that
might be arranged. They were ready by formal contract to indemnify the
crown for the loss which it would suffer.[367]

The crown demanded L100,000 as a compensation for the loss it would
suffer; and besides this, the L200,000 before mentioned which it
required for restoring the balance between income and expenditure. We
need not here reproduce the repulsive spectacle presented by the
abatement of demands on the one side, and the increase of offers on
the other. At last the Lord Treasurer adhered to the demand for
L200,000 everything included. He declared that if this was refused the
King would never again make a similar offer. On this at last the
Parliament declared itself ready to grant the sum; but, even then, set
up further conditions about which they could not come to an immediate
agreement, so that their mutual claims were not yet definitively
adjusted.

On the contrary these negotiations had by degrees assumed a tone of
some irritation. Parliament found that the Earl of Salisbury had acted
unconstitutionally in proposing to raise the scale of duties without
its consent, and would not be content with his reference to the
decision of the judges mentioned above, and to the conferences with
the merchants. He endeavoured at a private interview with some of the
leading members to bring round the opinion to his side: but the House
was angry with those who had been present at it, and their good
intentions were called in question.[368]

The speeches also, with which the King twice interrupted the
proceedings, produced an undesirable effect. He was inclined to meet
the general wishes, without surrendering however any part of his
prerogatives. But at the same time he expressed himself about these in
the exaggerated manner peculiar to him, which was exactly calculated
to arouse contradiction.[369] Whilst he was comparing the royal power
to the divine, he found that the House on one pretext or another
refused even to open a letter which