of March by the lord mayor, and
more than two hundred common-councilmen, liverymen, and city officers.
It was read to the king as he sat upon his throne, and perhaps the ears
of royalty were never destined to hear stronger remonstrances than
this memorial contained. It told him that secret and evil counsellors,
combined with a corrupt parliament, robbed the people of their dearest
rights, and that they had done a deed more ruinous in its consequences
than the levying of ship-money by Charles I., or the dispensing power
assumed by James IL, and which deed must vitiate all the further
proceedings of the present parliament; it called God and man to witness
that the citizens would not be thus cheated of their liberties; and that
as they were gained by the stern virtues of their ancestors, so they
should be preserved by themselves; and it concluded by praying that the
king would dissolve the present parliament, and remove from him all
evil counsellors. With a clouded brow the king in reply pronounced the
contents of this memorial to be disrespectful to himself, injurious
to his parliament, and irreconcilable to the principles of the
constitution; and he asserted that he had ever made the law of the land
the rule of his conduct, that he esteemed it his chief glory to rule
over a free people, and that he had a right to expect from them a steady
and affectionate support. The city deputation withdrew, amidst the
manifest resentment of the courtiers, and the court instantly resolved
to bring the memorial before the notice of parliament. This was done on
the 19th of March, when it was moved by Sir Thomas Clavering, "That
to deny the legality of the present parliament, and to assert that the
proceedings thereof are not valid, is highly unwarrantable, and has a
manifest tendency to disturb the peace of the kingdom, by withdrawing
his majesty's subjects from then-obedience to the laws of the realm."
This motion was warmly opposed, but it was carried by a large majority,
and an address to the king was also agreed to in condemnation of the
city memorial, both by the lords and the commons. It is said that the
king graciously received this address, but that he thought the city
magistrates ought to have been proceeded against by parliament for their
conduct. On the other hand, the city and the people of Middlesex were
offended by the conduct of the opposition, and the smallness of
the minority that voted against the address, and they passed