s conduct. Lord
Falkland alone, though known to be his enemy, modestly desired the
house to consider whether it would not better suit the gravity of their
proceedings, first to digest by a committee many of those particulars
which had been mentioned, before they sent up an accusation against him.
It was ingeniously answered by Pym, that such a delay might probably
blast all their hopes, and put it out of their power to proceed any
further in the prosecution: that when Strafford should learn that so
many of his enormities were discovered, his conscience would dictate
his condemnation; and so great was his power and credit, he would
immediately procure the dissolution of the parliament, or attempt some
other desperate measure for his own preservation: that the commons
were only accusers, not judges; and it was the province of the peers to
determine whether such a complication of enormous crimes in one person,
did not amount to the highest crime known by the law.[*] Without further
debate, the impeachment was voted: Pym was chosen to carry it up to the
lords: most of the house accompanied him on so agreeable an errand;
and Strafford, who had just entered the house of peers, and who little
expected so speedy a prosecution was immediately, upon this general
charge, ordered into custody, with several symptoms of violent prejudice
in his judges as well as in his prosecutors.

* Clarendon, vol. i. p. 174.

In the inquiry concerning grievances, and in the censure of past
measures, Laud could not long escape the severe scrutiny of the commons;
who were led too, in their accusation of that prelate, as well by their
prejudices against his whole order, as by the extreme antipathy which
his intemperate zeal had drawn upon him. After a deliberation which
scarcely lasted half an hour, an impeachment of high treason was voted
against this subject, the first both in rank and in favor throughout the
kingdom. Though this incident, considering the example of Stratford's
impeachment, and the present disposition of the nation and parliament,
needed be no surprise to him, yet was he betrayed into some passion when
the accusation was presented. "The commons themselves," he said, "though
his accusers, did not believe him guilty of the crimes with which
they charged him;" an indiscretion which, next day, upon more mature
deliberation, he desired leave to retract; but so little favorable were
the peers, that they refused him this advantage o