uthority of laws, served, however, to discover the temper and
disposition of the house. They voted, that whoever had advised his
majesty to refuse the exclusion bill, were promoters of Popery and
enemies to the king and kingdom. In another vote, they named the marquis
of Worcester, the earls of Clarendon, Feversham, and Halifax, Laurence
Hyde, and Edward Seymour, as those dangerous enemies; and they requested
his majesty to remove them from his person and councils forever. They
voted, that, till the exclusion bill were passed, they could not,
consistent with the trust reposed in them, grant the king any manner
of supply. And lest he should be enabled, by any other expedient, to
support the government, and preserve himself independent, they passed
another vote, in which they declared, that whoever should hereafter
lend, by way of advance, any money upon those branches of the king's
revenue arising from customs, excise, or hearth money, should be judged
a hinderer of the sitting of parliament, and be responsible for the same
in parliament.

The king might presume that the peers, who had rejected the exclusion
bill, would still continue to defend the throne, and that none of the
dangerous bills, introduced into the othe*[**missing r] house, would
ever be presented for the royal assent and approbation. But as there
remained no hopes of bringing the commons to any better temper, and
as their further sitting served only to keep faction alive, and to
perpetuate the general ferment of the nation, he came secretly to a
resolution of proroguing them.

{1681.} They got intelligence about a quarter of an hour before the
black rod came to their door. Not to lose such precious time, they
passed, in a tumultuous manner, some extraordinary resolutions. They
voted, that whosoever advised his majesty to prorogue this parliament
to any other purpose than in order to pass the bill of exclusion, was a
betrayer of the king, of the Protestant religion, and of the kingdom of
England; a promoter of the French interest, and a pensioner of France:
that thanks be given to the city of London for their manifest loyalty,
and for their care and vigilance in the preservation of the king and of
the Protestant religion: that it is the opinion of this house, that that
city was burned in the year 1666 by the Papists, designing thereby
to introduce arbitrary power and Popery into the kingdom: that humble
application be made to his majesty for restoring the