Chapter II

Influence of administration under Charles I.--Ballad on
the Commonwealth--House of Commons: “A General Sale of
Rebellious Household Stuff”--The Parliament under the
Restoration--Pepys and Prynne on the choosing of “knights
of the shire”--Burgesses sent up at the discretion of the
sheriffs--The king’s writ--Evils attending the cessation of
wages to parliamentary representatives--Andrew Marvell’s ballad
on a venal House of Commons--The parliament waiting on the
king--Charles II. and his Commons--“Royal Resolutions,” and
disrespect for the Commons--The Earl of Rochester on Charles
II.’s parliament--Interference in elections--Independence
of legislators _versus_ paid members--The Peers as “born
legislators and councillors”--“The Pensioner Parliament”
coincident with the remission of salaries to members of the
Commons--“An Historical Poem,” by Andrew Marvell--Andrew
Marvell as a paid member; his kindly relations with his Hull
constituents--Writ for recovering arrears of parliamentary
wages--Uncertainty of calling another parliament--The
Duke of Buckingham’s intrigues with the Roundheads; his
“Litany”--Degradation of parliament--Parody of the king’s
speech--Relations of Charles II. and his Commons--Summary
of Charles II.’s parliaments--Petitioners, addressers, and
Abhorrers--The right of petitioning the throne--The Convention
Parliament--The Long Cavalier Parliament--The Pensioner
Parliament and the statute against corruption--“The Chequer
Inn”--“The Parliament House to be let”--The Habeas Corpus
Parliament--The country preparing for Charles II.’s fourth
parliament--Election ballads: “The Poll,”--Origin of the
factions of Whigs and Tories--Whig and Tory ballads--“A
Tory in a Whig’s Coat”--“A Litany from Geneva,” in answer
to “A Litany from St. Omer”--The Oxford Parliament of eight
days--“The Statesman’s Almanack”--A group of parliamentary
election ballads, 1679-80--Ballad on the Essex petitions--The
Earl of Shaftesbury’s “Protestant Association”--“A Hymn
exalting the Mobile to Loyalty”--The Buckingham ballad--Bribery
by Sir Richard “Timber” Temple--The Wiltshire ballad--“Old
Sarum”--Petitions against prerogative--The royal pretensions to
absolute monarchy--The “Tantivies,” or upholders of absolute
kingly rights over Church and State--“Plain Dealing; or, a
Dialogue between Humphrey and Roger, as they were returning
home from choosing Knights of the Shire to sit in Parliament,
1681;” “Hercules Rideing”--“A Speech without-doors, made
by a Plebeian to his Noble Friends”--Philippe de Comines
on the British Constitution--On freedom of speech--A true
Commonwealth--The excited state of parties at the summoning
of the Oxford Parliament, 1681--Ballads on the Oxford
Parliament--The impeachment of Fitz-Harris, and the proposal of
the opposition to exclude the Duke of York from the “Protestant
succession”--Squabble on privilege between the Peers and
Commons--The Oxford Parliament dismissed, after eight days, on
this pretence--“The Ghost of the Late Parliament to the New
One to meet at Oxford”--“On Parliament removing from London to
Oxford”--“On his Majesty’s dissolving the late Parliament at
Oxford”--A “Weeked” Parliament. 22