CCCV1 LIFE OF BACON. 



maintain a good correspondence with their prince, they 

 without one dissenting voice voted him two subsidies, and 

 that too at the very beginning of the session, contrary to 

 the maxims frequently adopted by former parliaments, (a) 

 They then proceeded, in a very temperate and decided 

 manner, to the examination of their oppressions, intimating 

 that the supply of the King s distresses and the removal 

 of their vexations were to advance hand in hand without 

 precedency, as twin brothers. 



Of their grievances the Commons loudly and justly 

 complained. Under the pretext of granting patents, the 

 creatures of Buckingham had rapaciously exacted large 

 fees. These exactions can scarcely be credited, (b) There 

 were patents for every necessary and conveniency of life ; 

 for gold and silver thread; for inns and alehouses; for 

 remitting the penalties of obsolete laws, and even for the 

 price of horse-meat, starch, candles, tobacco-pipes, salt, 

 and train-oil ; (c) and such traders as presumed to continue 



(a) Hume. (6) Journals. 



(c) The following notes from the Journals of the Commons, 6th March, 

 may convey some idea of the state of these grievances : 



&quot; That Mr. Chr. Villyers was to have 800/. per annum ; Sir Edw. V. 

 5001. per annum ; and the King 200/. per annum ; and that Sir Edw. V. 

 hath had WOOL or thereabouts; Chr. V. 150/. 



&quot;That Sir Francis M. had 100/. per annum, payable quarterly, and had 

 it paid two years. 



&quot; That some were committed for refusing to be bound, first by Sir G. M. 

 and Sir Francis -Michell ; after, by the Chief Justice. 



&quot; That the patent 9 Jac. passed by the Countess of Bedford. 



&quot; That he brought in 2,000/.; Fowles, 1,000/. &c. 



&quot; The first patent procured by Lord Harrington and Countess of Bed 

 ford; the projector, to her Lassells. That they compounded with her for 

 her interest in it. Knoweth not who preferred the petition. Bradde the 

 first mover of it to him, and Dykes the second. That it was their own 

 device, to change it from a patent to a commission. 



&quot; That Sir G. M. and Sir Francis Michell executed the commission. 



