t; but rapacity and avarice were vices with which he was
entirely unacquainted.

* Rushworth, vol. i. p. 217. Whitloeke, p. 5.

** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 306, etc., 375, etc. Journ. 25th
March, 1626.

*** Whitlocke, p. 7.

It is remarkable that the commons, though so much at a loss to
find articles of charge against Buckingham, never adopted Bristol's
accusation, or impeached the duke for his conduct in the Spanish treaty,
the most blamable circumstance in his whole life. He had reason to
believe the Spaniards sincere in their professions; yet, in order to
gratify his private passions, he had hurried his master and his
country into a war pernicious to the interests of both. But so rivetted
throughout the nation were the prejudices with regard to Spanish deceit
and falsehood, that very few of the commons seem as yet to have been
convinced that they had been seduced by Buckingham's narrative: a
certain proof that a discovery of this nature was not, as is imagined by
several historians, the cause of so sudden and surprising a variation in
the measures of the parliament.[*] [1]

While the commons were thus warmly engaged against Buckingham, the king
seemed desirous of embracing every opportunity by which he could express
a contempt and disregard for them. No one was at that time sufficiently
sensible of the great weight which the commons bore in the balance of
the constitution. The history of England had never hitherto afforded one
instance where any great movement or revolution had proceeded from
the lower house. And as their rank, both considered in a body and as
individuals, was but the second in the kingdom, nothing less than fatal
experience could engage the English princes to pay a due regard to the
inclinations of that formidable assembly.

The earl of Suffolk, chancellor of the university of Cambridge, dying
about this time, Buckingham, though lying under impeachment was yet, by
means of court interest, chosen in his place. The commons resented and
loudly complained of this affront; and the more to enrage them, the king
himself wrote a letter to the university, extolling the duke, and giving
them thanks for his election.[**]

The lord keeper, in the king's name, expressly commanded the house not
to meddle with his minister and servant, Buckingham; and ordered them to
finish, in a few days, the bill which they had begun for the subsidies,
and to make some addition to them; otherwise they mu