274 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

chap. and eloquence. Lord Falkland bad accepted theXjV. office of secretary ; a man who adorned the puresti« 42 . virtue with the richest gifts of nature, and themost valuable acquisitions of learning. By him ,assisted by the king himself, were the memorialsof the royal party chiefly composed. So sensiblewas Charles of his superiority in this particular *that he took care to disperse every-where thepapers of the parliament together with his own,that the people might be the more enabled , bycomparison, to form a judgment between them ;The parliament, while they.distributed copies oftheir own, were anxious to suppress all the king’scompositions

To clear up the principles of the constitution ,to mark the boundaries of the powers intrusted bylaw to the several members, to Ihow what greatimprovements the whole political system hadreceived from the king’s late concessions, to'' demonstrate his entire confidence in his people,

and his reliance on their affections, to point outthe ungrateful returns which had been made him,,and the enormous encroachments, insults, andindignities, to which he had been exposed; thesewere the topics, which, with so much justness ofreasoning and propriety of expression , were in-sisted on in the king’s declarations and remon-strances

" Rulhworth, vol. v. p. 7; i.

,I * See note [G] at the end of the volume.

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