e protestant cause in Europe.

Still no supplies! but protestations of duty, and petitions about
grievances, which it had been difficult to specify. In their
"Declaration" they style his Majesty "Our dear and dread sovereign," and
themselves "his poor Commons:" but they concede no point--they offer no
aid! The king was not yet disposed to quarrel, though he had in vain
pressed for dispatch of business, lest the season should be lost for the
navy; again reminding them, that "it was the _first request_ that he
ever made unto them!" On the pretence of the plague at Oxford, Charles
prorogued parliament, with a promise to reassemble in the winter.

There were a few whose hearts had still a pulse to vibrate with the
distresses of a youthful monarch, perplexed by a war which they
themselves had raised. But others, of a more republican complexion,
rejected "_Necessity_, as a dangerous counsellor, which would be always
furnishing arguments for supplies. If the king was in danger and
necessity, those ought to answer for it who have put both king and
kingdom into this peril: and if the state of things would not admit a
redress of grievances, there cannot be so much _necessity for money_."

The first parliament abandoned the king!

Charles now had no other means to despatch the army and fleet, in a bad
season, but by borrowing money on privy seals: these were letters, where
the loan exacted was as small as the style was humble. They specified,
"that this loan, without inconvenience to any, is only intended for the
service of the public. Such private helps for public services which
cannot be deferred," the king premises, had been often resorted to; but
this "being the _first time_ that we have required anything in this
kind, we require but _that sum which few men would deny a friend_." As
far as I can discover, the highest sum assessed from great personages
was twenty pounds! The king was willing to suffer any mortification,
even that of a charitable solicitation, rather than endure the obdurate
insults of parliament! All donations were received, from ten pounds to
five shillings: this was the mockery of an alms-basket! Yet with
contributions and savings so trivial, and exacted with such a warm
appeal to their feelings, was the king to send out a fleet with ten
thousand men--to take Cadiz!

This expedition, like so many similar attempts from the days of Charles
the First to those of the great Lord Chatham, and to our own--conclu