A BRIEF SPEECH IN THE END OF 

 THE SESSION OF PARLIAMENT 7 JACOBI. 

 PERSUADING SOME SUPPLY TO BE GIVEN TO HIS 



MAJESTY; WHICH SEEMED THEN TO 



STAND UPON DOUBTFUL TERMS, AND PASSED 



UPON THIS SPEECH. 



THE proportion of the king s supply is not now in 

 question : for when that shall be, it may be I shall 

 be of opinion, that we should give so now, as we may 

 the better give again. But as things stand for the 

 present, I think the point of honour and reputation 

 is that which his majesty standeth most upon, that 

 our gift may at least be like those showers, that may 

 serve to lay the winds, though they do not suffici 

 ently water the earth. 



To labour to persuade you, I will not : for I 

 know not into what form to cast my speech. If I 

 should enter into a laudative, though never so due 

 and just, of the king s great merits, it may betaken 

 for flattery : if I should speak of the strait obliga 

 tions which intercede between the king and the sub 

 ject, in case of the king s want, it were a kind of 

 concluding the house : if I should speak of the dan 

 gerous consequence which want may reverberate 

 upon subjects, it might have a shew of a secret me 

 nace. 



