e the granting of
that supply was, in a manner, tacitly contracted for, upon the royal
assent to the petition; and had faith been here violated, no further
confidence could have subsisted between king and parliament. Having
made this concession, the commons continued to carry their scrutiny
into every part of government. In some particulars, their industry was
laudable; in some, it may be liable to censure.

A little after writs were issued for summoning this parliament, a
commission had been granted to Sir Thomas Coventry, lord keeper, the
earl of Marlborough, treasurer, the earl of Manchester, president of the
council, the earl of Worcester, privy seal, the duke of Buckingham, high
admiral, and all the considerable officers of the crown; in the whole,
thirty-three. By this commission, which, from the number of persons
named in it, could be no secret, the commissioners were empowered to
meet, and to concert among themselves the methods of levying money by
impositions, or otherwise; "Where form and circumstance," as expressed
in the commission, "must be dispensed with, rather than the substance
be lost or hazarded."[*] In other words, this was a scheme for finding
expedients which might raise the prerogative to the greatest height, and
render parliaments entirely useless. The commons applied for cancelling
the commission;[**] and were, no doubt, desirous that all the world
should conclude the king's principles to be extremely arbitrary,
and should observe what little regard he was disposed to pay to the
liberties and privileges of his people.

* Rushworth, vol. i. p. 614. Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 214.

** Journ. 13th June, 1628.

A commission had likewise been granted, and some money remitted, in
order to raise a thousand German horse, and transport them into England.
These were supposed to be levied in order to support the projected
impositions or excises, though the number seems insufficient for such a
purpose,[*] The house took notice of this design in severe terms: and no
measure, surely, could be projected more generally odious to the whole
nation. It must, however, be confessed, that the king was so far
right, that he had now at last fallen on the only effectual method for
supporting his prerogative. But at the same time, he should have been
sensible that, till provided with a sufficient military force, all his
attempts in opposition to the rising spirit of the nation, must in
the end prove wholly f