he had no right. This
nettled lord Falkland, and made him exert his spirit to humble and
oppose the supercilious churchman. This conduct of his lordship's,
gave Mr. Hampden occasion to court him to his party, who was justly
placed by the brilliance of his powers, at the head of the opposition;
but after a longer study of the laws of the realm, and conversation
with the celebrated Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, he changed his
opinion, and espoused an interest quite opposite to Hampden's.

After much importunity, he at last accepted the Seals of his Majesty,
and served in that employment with unshaken integrity, being above
corruption of any kind.

When he was vested with that high dignity, two parts of his conduct
were very remarkable; he could never persuade himself that it was
lawful to employ spies, or give any countenance or entertainment to
such persons, who by a communication of guilt, or dissimulation of
manners, wind themselves into such trusts and secrets, as enable them
to make discoveries; neither could he ever suffer himself to open
letters, upon a suspicion that they might contain matters of dangerous
consequence, and proper for statesmen to know. As to the first he
condemned them as void of all honour, and who ought justly to be
abandoned to infamy, and that no single preservation could be worth so
general a wound and corruption of society, as encouraging such people
would carry with it. The last, he thought such a violation of the law
of nature, that no qualification by office could justify him in the
trespass, and tho' the necessity of the times made it clear, that
those advantages were not to be declined, and were necessary to be
practised, yet he found means to put it off from himself[4].

June 15, 1642, he was one of the lords who signed the declaration,
wherein they professed they were fully satisfied his Majesty had
no intention to raise war upon his Parliament. At the same time he
subscribed to levy twenty horse for his Majesty's service, upon which
he was excepted from the Parliament's favour, in the instructions
given by the two Houses to their general the Earl of Essex. He
attended the King to Edgehill fight, where after the enemy was routed
he was exposed to imminent danger, by endeavouring to save those who
had thrown away their arms. He was also with his Majesty at Oxford,
and during his residence there, the King went one day to see the
public library, where he was shewed, among other boo