aw permitted it, to their own
conventicles in back streets, and made it their boast that they had
never entered their parish churches, for the upkeep of which they were
compelled to subscribe--save for the purpose of being married. The
nation suffered by reason of this complete severance. Trade excepted,
there was no community of interest between Church and Dissent. Sobriety,
gravity, a decent way of life, the sense of religious obligation (even
when united with the habit of _extempore_ prayer, and a hereditary
disrespect for bishops' aprons), are national assets, as the expression
now goes, which cannot be disregarded with impunity.

The Conventicle Act Marvell refers to was a stringent measure, imposing
pecuniary fines upon any persons of sixteen years of age or upwards who
"under pretence of religion" should be present at any meeting of more
than five persons, or more than those of the household, "in other manner
than allowed by the Liturgy and practice of the Church of England."
Heavier fines were imposed upon the preachers. The poet Waller, who was
"nursed in Parliaments," having been first returned from Amersham in
1621, made a very sensible remark on the second reading: "Let them alone
and they will preach against each other; by this Bill they will
incorporate as being all under one calamity."[145:1] But by 144 to 78
the Bill was read, though it did not become law until the following
session. An indignant Member of Parliament once told Cromwell that he
would take the "sense" of the House against some proposal. "Very well,"
said Cromwell, "you shall take the 'sense' of the House, and I will take
the 'nonsense,' and we will see who tells the most votes."

In February 1670 the king opened a new session, and in March Marvell
wrote a private letter to a relative at Bordeaux, in which he "lends his
mind out," after a fashion forbidden him in his correspondence with his
constituents:--

"DEAR COUSIN,-- ... You know that we having voted the King, before
Christmas, four hundred thousand pounds, and no more; and enquiring
severely into ill management, and being ready to adjourn ourselves
till February, his Majesty, fortified by some undertakers of the
meanest of our House, threw up all as nothing, and prorogued us from
the first of December till the fourteenth of February. All that
interval there was great and numerous caballing among the courtiers.
The King also all the while examined at council