OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. 321 



cherished by them, which they then do for their own 

 sake, not his, though he had spent and lost above 

 7, or 800,000, sterling ; and narrowly escaped several 

 times, both by sea and land, imminent dangers, and long 

 and close imprisonment, and a scaffold, threatening 

 death, as I have done, Experte Crede Roberto, my Lords ; 

 yet happy is this day unto me, wherein I have the honour, 

 sitting amongst your Lordships, to express from my 

 heart that I have not the least repining thought within 

 me, though I had suffered ten times more for so good a 

 cause, and so gracious and obliging a master as the late 

 King, of happy memory, was unto me. And for so 

 majestical and promising a Prince as my new sovereign 

 is, whom God long preserve ; and, morally speaking, 

 cannot do amiss, whilst he hearkens to so wise a great 

 Council, and so tender of his good and welfare as your 

 Lordships, assisted by so discreet, experienced, and well- 

 affected persons as sit now in the honourable House of 

 Commons, the whole kingdom s representatives. And 

 may your Lordships be ever as tender of your innate 

 privileges, members, and birthrights, as they of theirs, 

 and both of you equally likewise tender of his Majesty s 

 just and undoubted prerogatives, upon which two 

 hinges, or rather bases (that is, our most gracious King s 

 prerogatives and the birthright of his subjects), this 

 excellent government of King and Parliament outvies 

 and excels all other in the world. Let them, therefore, 

 my Lords, hold together as the surest props of a settled 

 kingdom ; his Majesty s power consisting in nothing 

 more than in the greatness of your Lordships, who are, 

 as well by Divine Providence as human policy, allotted 

 to be as it were the medium between the King and 

 the people 5 that is, to interpose yourselves as mediators 

 if the King s supreme authority should become severe, 

 which cannot be feared from so gracious a Prince ; as 



