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HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

X.

1088 .

Debateon thestate ofthe na-tion.

the Whigs. Devonshire moved that Tuesday the twenty-ninth should be the day. “By that time,” he said with moretruth than discretion, “we may have some lights from belowwhich may be useful for our guidance.” His motion was car-ried; but his language was severely censured by some of hisbrother peers as derogatory to their order.*

On the twenty-eighth the Commons resolved themselvesinto a committee of the whole House. A member who had,more than thirty years before, been one of Cromwell’s Lords,Richard Hampden, son of the illustrious leader of the Round-heads, and father of the unhappy man who had, by largebribes and degrading submissions, narrowly escaped with lifefrom the vengeance of James, was placed in the chair, andthe great debate began.

It was soon evident that an overwhelming majority con-sidered James as no longer King. Gilbert Dolben, son of thelate Archbishop of York, was the first who declared himselfto be of that opinion. He was supported by many members,particularly by the bold and vehement Wharton, by Sawyer,whose steady opposition to the dispensing power had, in somemeasure, atoned for old offences, by Maynard, whose voice,though so feeble with age that it could not be heard on distantbenches, still commanded the respect of all parties, and bySomers, whose luminous eloquence and varied stores ofknowledge were on that day exhibited, for the first time,within the walls of Parliament. The unblushing foreheadand voluble tongue of Sir William Williams were found onthe same side. Already he had been deeply concerned in theexcesses both of the worst of oppositions and of the worst ofgovernments. He had persecuted innocent Papists and in-nocent Protestants. He had been the patron of Oates andthe tool of Petre. His name was associated with seditiousviolence which was remembered with regret and shame by allrespectable Whigs, and with freaks of despotism abhorred byall respectable Tories. How men live under such infamy it isnot easy to understand: but even such infamy was not enoughfor Williams. He was not ashamed to attack the fallen master

* Lords’ Journals, Jan. 25. 168|; Clarendon's Diary, Jan. 23, 25.