Nov. 3. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



337 



LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1855. 



MST or THE NAMES OP THE MBMBEBS OT THE 

 HOUSE OF COMMONS THAT ADVANCED HORSE, 

 MONEY, AND PLATE TOR DEFENCE OF THJB PAB- 

 tlAMENT, JUNE 10, 11, AND 13, 1642. 



The following list of contributions, " in horse, 

 money, and plate," swiftly filled in when the 

 peril of an approachinjij collision in the field be- 

 tween the King and Parliament was hourly be- 

 coming more imminent, at the outset of the civil 

 war in the month of June, 1642, by menabers of 

 the House of Commons, in accordance with a re- 

 solution they had just passed, inviting voluntary 

 aid "for defence of the Parliament," or, in the 

 emphatic but loyally-guarded language of one of 

 the patriot contributors, " for maintenance of the 

 true Protestant religion, the defence of the king's 

 person, his royall authoritie and dignitie, our 

 lawes, liberties, and privileges conjunctively," 

 faithfully transcribed from an original (MS.) 

 parliamentary minute-book of the period, has, 

 notwithstanding the great historic interest at- 

 taching to such a document, never, I believe, yet 

 been published. 



As one of those comparatively slight "remnants 

 of history " which, coming down the stream, has 

 fortunately hitherto "escaped," as Lord Bacon 

 expresses it, " the shipwreck of time," had it re- 

 lated to some infinitely less important phase than 

 this, almost the first opening dawn, as it were, of 

 actual hostilities in that most sublime of civil con- 

 flicts, the conflict of the seventeenth century, it 

 would still, fragmentary though it be, have pre- 

 sented a valuable memorial addition to the al- 

 ready richly laden — would that in reference to 

 this, particular era we'could yet say impartial ! — 

 page of English history. 



A state paper, however, of, to say the least, high 

 biographic and historic interest, has this once sim- 

 ple but significant record of the early sacrifices 

 made by our illustrious ancestors, — the mere ear- 

 nest, as it unhappily proved, of farther sacrifices 

 and future sufierings in the " good old cause," as 

 it shortly after, towards the close of the con- 

 test, came to be called, of constitutional liberty, 

 — now become. Strikingly, because minutely, 

 illustrative — confirmatorily so at all events — 

 of the high and purely disinterested objects 

 for which — admittedly, I believe I may say 

 beyond all cavil or question in these " latter 

 days " — the parliamentary reformers of 1640 first 

 individually and collectively entered upon that 



freat struggle, on the final issue of which, under 

 'rovidence, the future liberties of Englishmen 

 were to depend, when taken in conjunction with 

 its parent resolution, it none the less distinctly. 

 No. 314.] 



because incidentally, marks the firm, unfaltering 

 purpose, thorough determination, and steady, en- 

 thusiastic, earnest, enduring zeal, yet tempered 

 by loyal respect to the person of the sovereign, 

 with which, when on the very eve of " appealing 

 to that high Being who gave them the rights of 

 humanity," the "Commons of England" prepared 

 to take the field. 



Viewed simply, however, as an authentic co- 

 temporary roll, quaintly, in the very language 

 of the hour, setting forth the names, and iwdi- 

 cating the resources, ability, or amount of devo- 

 tion* to the public service of those distinguished 

 men, who, having freely come forth at their 

 country's bidding in her dark hour of diffi- 

 culty and gloom, and once " put hands to the 

 plough," now, when the great crisis had at length 

 arrived, " looked not back," but nobly committed 

 themselves, their lives, liberties, families, and 

 fortunes, " for better for worse," to the doubtful 

 issue of a gigantic quarrel in a just and glorious 

 cause, such a memorial as this can scarcely be 

 deemed unworthy of being rescued from the dust, 

 oblivion, and neglect in which it has, apparently 

 for now over some two hundred years, silently 

 reposed. 



It will be found to contain the names of many, 

 the great majority, in fact, of those "giant pa- 

 triots " and " fiery spirits " who originally consti- 

 tuted the " life and soul " of that immortally fa- 

 mous body, that mighty Sanhedrim, the Long 

 Parliament, — a set of men fit to grapple with 

 tyranny, to rescue the country from ruin, to 

 rescue truth when pushed from the tribunal of 

 the judges, and to vindicate the ancient, rightful, 

 and free constitution of England, — a parliament, 

 the name of which is still, after the lapse of two 

 centuries, inseparably associated with unfading 

 recollections of its possession of perhaps the 

 noblest intellect, the highest qualities, and the 

 most glorious heroism ever brought to the direc- 

 tion of great state afiairs, — a parliament whose 

 untiring labours, indomitable energy, daring en- 

 terprise, and undaunted courage in pursuit of 

 freedom, fairly entitles it to the long-delayed but 



* It would, perhaps, scarcely be fair, however, to infer 

 want of zeal in anj' instance, even did (which is not the 

 case) the amount of any particular subscription at first 

 sight seem to warrant such an inference. The resolu- 

 tion itself, however, carefully guards against the possi- 

 bility of any such construction, by expressly declaring 

 that, " inasmuch as the condition of the estates and occa- 

 sions of men is not always proportionable to their affec- 

 tions, no man's affection shall be measured bj' the propor- 

 tion of his offer, so that he express his good will to this 

 service in any proportion whatsoever." Excess of zeal, 

 on the contrary, may readily be traced in the liberal con- 

 tributions broiight in by Cromwell and other leading 

 Parliamentarians. The " Resolution," or rather " Declar- 

 ation," itself will be found in extenso on the Commons' 

 Journals of this date. It is too lengthy to incorporate in 

 these pages. 



