these on mine. Since then our aims are only for the general good,
let us act with confidence in one another, which will not fail, by
God's blessing, to make me a happy king, and you a great and flourishing
people."

It might have been thought that no words less likely to give offence had
ever been uttered from the English throne. But even in those words the
malevolence of faction sought and found matter for a quarrel. The gentle
exhortation, "Let us act with confidence in one another," must mean
that such confidence did not now exist, that the King distrusted the
Parliament, or that the Parliament had shown an unwarrantable distrust
of the King. Such an exhortation was nothing less than a reproach;
and such a reproach was a bad return for the gold and the blood which
England had lavished in order to make and to keep him a great
sovereign. There was a sharp debate, in which Seymour took part. With
characteristic indelicacy and want of feeling he harangued the Commons
as he had harangued the Court of King's Bench, about his son's death,
and about the necessity of curbing the insolence of military men. There
were loud complaints that the events of the preceding session had been
misrepresented to the public, that emissaries of the Court, in every
part of the kingdom, declaimed against the absurd jealousies or still
more absurd parsimony which had refused to His Majesty the means of
keeping up such an army as might secure the country against invasion.
Even justices of the peace, it was said, even deputy-lieutenants, had
used King James and King Lewis as bugbears, for the purpose of stirring
up the people against honest and thrifty representatives. Angry
resolutions were passed, declaring it to be the opinion of the House
that the best way to establish entire confidence between the King and
the Estates of the Realm would be to put a brand on those evil advisers
who had dared to breathe in the royal ear calumnies against a faithful
Parliament. An address founded on these resolutions was voted; many
thought that a violent rupture was inevitable. But William returned an
answer so prudent and gentle that malice itself could not prolong the
dispute. By this time, indeed, a new dispute had begun. The address
had scarcely been moved when the House called for copies of the papers
relating to Kidd's expedition. Somers, conscious of innocence, knew that
it was wise as well as right to be perfectly ingenuous, and resolved
that there sh