ing tonnage and
poundage without consent of parliament, and offered it to the clerk to
read. It was refused. He read it himself. The question being then called
for, the speaker, Sir John Finch, said, "That he had a command from the
king to adjourn, and to put no question;"[*] upon which he rose and left
the chair. The whole house was in an uproar. The speaker was pushed back
into the chair, and forcibly held in it by Hollis and Valentine, till a
short remonstrance was framed, and was passed by acclamation rather than
by vote. Papists and Arminians were there declared capital enemies to
the commonwealth. Those who levied tonnage and poundage were branded
with the same epithet. And even the merchant who should voluntarily pay
these duties, were denominated betrayers of English liberty, and public
enemies. The doom, being locked, the gentleman usher of the house of
lords, who was sent by the king, could not get admittance till this
remonstrance was finished. By the king's order, he took the mace from
the table, which ended their proceedings,[**] and a few days after the
parliament was dissolved.

The discontents of the nation ran high, on account of this violent
rupture between the king and parliament. These discontents Charles
inflamed by his affectation of a severity which he had not power, nor
probably inclination, to carry to extremities. Sir Miles Hobart, Sir
Peter Heyman, Selden, Coriton, Long, Strode, were committed to prison on
account of the last tumult in the house, which was called sedition.[***]

* The king's power of adjourning, as well as proroguing the
parliament, was and is never questioned. In the nineteenth
of the late king, the judges determined, that the
adjournment by the king kept the parliament in statu quo
until the next sitting, but that then no committees were to
meet; but if the adjournment be by the house then the
committees and other matters do continue. Parl. Hist, vol v.
p. 466.

** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 660. Whitlocke, p. 12.

*** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 661, 681. Parl. Hist. vol. viii.
p. 354 May, p. 13

With great difficulty, and after several delays, they were released; and
the law was generally supposed to be wrested in order to prolong their
imprisonment. Sir John Elliot, Hollis, and Valentine, were summoned to
their trial in the king's bench, for seditious speeches and behavior in
parliament; but refusing to answer before an in