The controversy was connected with a question which has always been one of the most important in those countries which have a highly developed representative constitution. When, on April 23, at the wish of the government the proposal was made to allow the granting of subsidies to precede the discussion of grievances, this proposal, after long debate, was rejected in the House of Commons; it was thought that it ought not to set so bad an example to posterity. The House came to a resolution to grant no money, unless it received at all events simultaneously the definite assurance of redress on those three points under which all others were comprised--security for religion, for property, and for Parliamentary liberties. By this resolution the House of Commons at once placed itself in opposition to the intentions of the government, which required grants of money without delay. For what a wide prospect must have been opened by the discussion of these points even in a friendly and indulgent spirit! On the evening of the same day a meeting of the Privy Council was held, and, at Strafford’s proposal, although not without opposition, a resolution was taken to bring the matter before the House of Lords. Not that the power of granting subsidies was ascribed to that House; the formal question was laid before it, whether the King ought first to give satisfaction to his subjects, or to [A.D. 1640.] expect satisfaction from them[173]. In the House of Lords a tendency in favour of the opposition was not wanting: the Earls of Southampton and Rutland, and Lords Say and Brooke were against the King’s proposal. But the majority were still decidedly in favour of the government; and a resolution was passed that the satisfaction to be given to the King must precede the discussion of grievances[174]. The members of Convocation without waiting any longer granted the King six subsidies. The House of Commons in great excitement remarked that its rights were thereby trenched upon, as the granting of subsidies belonged to that House alone[175]. Hereon the House of Lords once more took the matter into consideration on the 29th of April; but on a second division they arrived at just the same result as before. The Lords again took the side of the government by a majority of twenty votes. The King considered this an important advantage, and Strafford as the only man whose advice he could follow. He said to him that he had more confidence in him than in all the Privy Council together, and the Queen spoke of him as her husband’s most capable and trustworthy minister.