"his Grace," said he hoped that, before the year ran round,
his grace would either have more grace or no grace at all; "for," he
added, "our manifold griefs do fill a mighty and vast circumference,
yet in such a manner that from every part our lines of sorrow do meet
in him, and point at him the center, from whence our miseries in this
Church, and many of them in the Commonwealth, do flow." He said, also,
that if they must submit to a pope, he would rather obey one that was
as far off as the Tiber, than to have him come as near as the Thames.

Similar denunciations were made against Strafford, and they awakened
no opposition. On the contrary, it was found that the feeling of
hostility against both the ministers was so universal and so strong,
that the leaders began to think seriously of an impeachment on a
charge of high treason. High treason is the greatest crime known to
the English law, and the punishment for it, especially in the case of
a peer of the realm, is very terrible. This punishment was generally
inflicted by what was called a bill of attainder, which brought with
it the worst of penalties. It implied the perfect destruction of the
criminal in every sense. He was to lose his life by having his head
cut off upon a block. His body, according to the strict letter of the
law, was to be mutilated in a manner too shocking to be here
described. His children were disinherited, and his property all
forfeited. This was considered as the consequence of the _attainting_
of the blood, which rendered it corrupt, and incapable of transmitting
an inheritance. In fact, it was the intention of the bill of attainder
to brand the wretched object of it with complete and perpetual infamy.

The proceedings, too, in the impeachment and trial of a high minister
of state, were always very imposing and solemn. The impeachment must
be moved by the Commons, and tried by the Peers. A peer of the realm
could be tried by no inferior tribunal. When the Commons proposed
bringing articles of impeachment against an officer of state, they
sent first a messenger to the House of Peers to ask them to arrest the
person whom they intended to accuse, and to hold him for trial until
they should have their articles prepared. The House of Peers would
comply with this request, and a time would be appointed for the trial.
The Commons would frame the charges, and appoint a certain number of
their members to manage the prosecution. They would collect evid