help of
his Majesty of Great Britain and the rest of our friends, to give unto
the Count Palatine good conditions. If ever we are to do any good for
the liberty of Germany and religion now is the time." But this appeal
met offers of "words only" and Denmark withdrew from the strife in
despair. James in fact was as confident in his diplomatic efforts as
ever; but even he saw at last that they needed the backing of some sort
of armed force, and it was to procure this backing that he called for
supplies from the Parliament.

[Sidenote: Impeachment of the monopolists.]

The Commons were bitterly chagrined. They had come together, trusting
that their assembly meant such an attitude on the part of the Crown as
would have rallied the Protestants of Germany round England, and have
aided the enterprise of the Dane. Above all they hoped for war with the
power which had at once turned the strife to its own profit, whose
appearance in the Palatinate had broken the strength of German
Protestantism, and set the League free to crush Frederick at Prague.
They found only demands for supplies, and a persistence in the old
efforts to patch up a peace. Fresh envoys were now labouring to argue
the Emperor into forgiveness of Frederick, and to argue the Spaniards
into an evacuation of Frederick's dominions. With such aims not only was
no war against the Spaniard to be thought of, but his good-will must be
sought by granting permission for the export of arms from England to
Spain. The Commons could only show their distrust of such a policy by a
small vote of supplies and refusal of further aid in the future. But if
their resentment could find no field in foreign affairs, it found a
field at home. The most crying constitutional grievance arose from the
revival of monopolies, in spite of the pledge of Elizabeth to suppress
them. To the Crown they brought little profit; but they gratified the
king by their extension of the sphere of his prerogative, and they put
money into the pockets of his greedy dependants. A parliamentary right
which had slept ever since the reign of Henry the Sixth, the right of
the Lower House to impeach great offenders at the bar of the Lords, was
revived against the monopolists; and James was driven by the general
indignation to leave them to their fate. But the practice of monopolies
was only one sign of the corruption of the court. Sales of peerages,
sales of high offices of State, had raised a general disgust; and t