ferior court for their
conduct as members of a superior, they were condemned to be imprisoned
during the king's pleasure, to find sureties for their good behavior,
and to be fined, the two former a thousand pounds apiece, the latter
five hundred.[*] This sentence, procured by the influence of the
crown, served only to show the king's disregard to the privileges
of parliament, and to acquire an immense stock of popularity to the
sufferers who had so bravely, in opposition to arbitrary power, defended
the liberties of their native country. The commons of England, though
an immense body, and possessed of the greater part of national property,
were naturally somewhat defenceless, because of their personal
equality, and their want of leaders: but the king's severity, if these
prosecutions deserve the name, here pointed out leaders to them, whose
resentment was inflamed, and whose courage was nowise daunted, by the
hardships which they had undergone in so honorable a cause.

So much did these prisoners glory in their sufferings, that, though they
were promised liberty on that condition, they would not condescend even
to present a petition to the king, expressing their sorrow for having
offended him.[**] They unanimously refused to find sureties for their
good behavior, and disdained to accept of deliverance on such easy
terms. Nay, Hollis was so industrious to continue his meritorious
distress, that when one offered to bail him, he would not yield to the
rule of court, and be himself bound with his friend. Even Long, who
had actually found sureties in the chief justice's chamber, declared in
court that his sureties should no longer continue.[***] Yet because Sir
John Elliot Happened to die while in custody, a great clamor was raised
against the administration; and he was universally regarded as a martyr
to the liberties of England.[****]

* Rushworth, vol. i. p. 684, 691.

** Whitlocke, p. *13.

*** Kennet vol. iii. p. 49.

**** Rushworth, vol. v. p. 440.

CHAPTER LII

CHARLES I.

{1629.} There now opens to us a new scene. Charles naturally disgusted
with parliaments, who, he found, were determined to proceed against him
with unmitigated rigor, both in invading his prerogative and refusing
him all supply, resolved not to call any more, till he should see
greater indications of a compliant disposition in the nation. Having
lost his great favorite, Buckingham, he became his own minist