everything that Strafford could or would justify: but he pointed out that the things which could justly be imputed to him could only be reckoned as slight offences: the sum of all these misdemeanours did not amount to one felony, and a hundred felonies were yet no treason, the three things being altogether distinct from one another. With redoubled vehemence the prosecution attacked his influence over English affairs, in relation to which the violent measures that he had counselled in his speeches, the furious threats which he had employed against the citizens of London on their refusal of a loan, and above all the advice given by him to the King to dissolve the last Parliament, were imputed as crimes. Strafford calculated that none of this could be proved against him. But after some delay a private document was produced, which seemed to admit of no answer: it was the protocol of the sitting of May 5, already mentioned, in the hand of Sir Henry Vane. The younger Vane, who belonged to the separatist party, had found it among his father’s papers, and without much hesitation had handed it to Stafford’s enemies. According to this paper Strafford had on that day, in his eagerness to induce the King to make war on Scotland, reminded him of the Irish troops, of which he could dispose, and that certainly in language which might perhaps apply to England also[229]. We will not discuss the question whether Strafford would not have brought the Irish army into England had need arisen: his disposition renders it not improbable, but as a matter of legal evidence it did not follow from the words of the protocol, and he himself gave it an unqualified denial. What will be the end of it, he added, if words which are spoken in the King’s Privy Council, half understood or misunderstood by its members, are to be turned into crimes; no one will any longer have the courage to speak out his opinion plainly to the King.