the regard
and consideration of the public. In the execution of this office, they
now kept their ears open to complaints of every kind; and they carried
their researches into many grievances which, though of no great
importance, could not be touched on without sensibly affecting the king
and his ministers. The prerogative seemed every moment to be invaded;
the king's authority, in every article, was disputed; and James, who was
willing to correct the abuses of his power, would not submit to have
his power itself questioned and denied. After the house, therefore, had
sitten near six months, and had as yet brought no considerable business
to a full conclusion, the king resolved, under pretence of the advanced
season, to interrupt their proceedings; and he sent them word, that he
was determined, in a little time, to adjourn them till next winter. The
commons made application to the lords, and desired them to join in a
petition for delaying the adjournment; which was refused by the upper
house. The king regarded this project of a joint petition as an attempt
to force him from his measures: he thanked the peers for their refusal
to concur in it; and told them, that, if it were their desire, he would
delay the adjournment, but would not so far comply with the request of
the lower house.[**] And thus, in these great national affairs, the same
peevishness, which, in private altercations, often raises a quarrel from
the smallest beginnings, produced a mutual coldness and disgust between
the king and the commons.

* It is thought, that appeals from chancery to the house of
peers first came into practice while Bacon held the great
seal. Appeals, under the form of writs of error, had long
before lain against the courts of law. Blackstone's
Commentaries, vol. iii. p. 454.

* Rushworth, vol. i. p. 35.

During the recess of parliament, the king used every measure to render
himself popular with the nation, and to appease the rising ill humor
of their representatives. He had voluntarily offered the parliament to
circumscribe his own prerogative, and to abrogate, for the future, his
power of granting monopolies. He now recalled all the patents of
that kind and redressed every article of grievance, to the number
of thirty-seven, which had ever been complained of in the house of
commons.[*] But he gained not the end which he proposed. The disgust
which had appeared at parting, could not so suddenly be dispe