ebuke. He did not
call it a threatening, "for he scorned to threaten any but his equals,
but an admonition from him who by nature and duty has most care of his
people's preservation and prosperity." Whatever it might be, whether
menace or reproof, it had no effect upon the sturdy veteran. "What a
word," exclaimed Coke in his speech upon the usual motion for supply "is
that _franchise_! The lord may tax his villein, high or low; but it is
against the franchise of the land for freemen to be taxed but by their
consent in Parliament;" and the speaker implored his listeners to
withhold that consent while there remained one legitimate grievance for
the king to remedy. Having made his speech he brought forward and
carried resolutions that are memorable in the annals of our
constitutional history, and which, indeed, were made the foundation of
the Habeas Corpus Act fifty years afterward. His next step was his
greatest. He formed the famous _Petition of Right_, the second _Magna
Charta_, as it has been aptly called, of the nation's liberties. The
petition enumerated all the abuses of prerogative under which the
country groaned, and after declaring them all to be contrary to law
"assumed the form of an act of the Legislature, and in the most express
and stringent terms protected the people in all time to come from
similar oppressions." The king attempted to evade the obligation about
to be forced upon him, but his adversary was as inflexible as iron, "not
that he distrusted the king, but that he could not take his trust save
in a Parliamentary way." The lords passed the bill, but loyally
introduced a proviso that completely nullified its operation. "This,"
exclaimed Coke, "turns all about again," and at his instigation the
accommodating proviso was at once rejected. The Lords agreed "not to
insist upon it," and nothing was left for His Majesty but to resort,
under the direction of Buckingham, to fraudulent dealing. The trick did
not answer. Buckingham was denounced, the Petition of Right, in spite of
the king, received the royal assent in due form, and bonfires throughout
London testified to the happiness of the people at the restoration of
their liberty. King Charles would never have died on the scaffold had he
not violated in later years the solemn pledge he gave on this occasion
to his trusting subjects.

With this achievement ended Coke's political career. The _Petition of
Right_ was carried in 1628. He was absent from Parlia