CHARLES I.

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conduct in the house : The levying of taxes chap.without consent of the commons: The introducingof superstitious innovations into the church , i«»i.

without authority of law: In short, every thing,which, either with or without reason, had givenoffence, during the course of fifteen years, frontthe acceflion of the king to the calling of thepresent parliament. And, though all these griev-ances had been already redressed, and even lawsenacted for future security against their return,the praise of these advantages was ascribed , notto the king, but to the parliament, who hadextorted his consent to such salutary statutes.

Their own merits too, they asserted, towards!the king, were no less eminent , than towardsthe people. Though they had teized his whole?revenue, rendered it totally precarious, and madeeven their temporary supplies be paid to theirown commissioners , who were independent ofhim ; they pretended , that they had liberallysupported him in his necessities. By an insult stiltmore egregious, the very giving of money to theScots , for levying war against their sovereign ythey represented as au instance of their dutytpwards him. And all their grievances , theysaid , which amounted to no less than a totalsubversion of the constitution , proceeded entirely*from the formed combination of a popish faction,,who had ever swayed the kin'g’s counsels , whathad endeavoured , by an uninterrupted effort, tointroduce their superstition, into Bngland and

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