This honour, which had rarity to recommend it, elicited a graceful and earnest letter from the new member. “THE EARLE OF SALSBURY’S LETTER. ”GENTLEMEN, “As ye precedent you have made in choosing me to be your Burgess is unusual (I believe), if not ye first among you, so do it lay ye greater obligation upon me, neither is that favour a little heightened by my being so much of a stranger to you as indeed I am; and as you have here an open and free acknowledgment from me of your kind and good affections in so unanimous an election of me to serve you in Parliament, as your letter doth express, so cannot they merit or you expect more thanks than I do really return unto you for them. You have been pleased cheerfully (as you say) to confer your freedom upon me. I shall ever be zealous in maintaining yours, and, as I am not ignorant of the great trust you have placed in me, so shall you never be deceived in it; for ye addresses you are to make me (as your occasion shall require) they shall not be so many as cheerfully received, and whatsoever may concern the public good or yours, shall ever be pursued with all faithfulness by him that is “Your very loving friend, “SALSBURY.” CHAPTER II. PARLIAMENTARY LIFE UNDER THE STUARTS; PAID MEMBERS. The days of the Long Parliament were fruitful in frank out-of-door expressions of opinion under the rule of Charles I. and the Commonwealth; but, although political feelings were embittered, it does not appear that the franchise was exposed to any undue influence worth recording. A certain amount of governmental favour was reckoned of use in isolated instances; this patronage was considered safe to return nominees for such places as the Cinque Ports. But few election squibs, pure and simple, can be discovered before the Restoration. Ballads are less rare; these for the most part deal with the broader party relations, and are confined within discreet limitations, for “privilege of parliament” was rigorously enforced under Cromwell. On the disappearance of the Commonwealth, the spirits of the Cavalier wits and rhymsters revived, with all the more liveliness for their long-enforced repression. As an animated and characteristic example of the ballads produced at the close of the stern conventicle _régime_, we include the _jeux d’esprit_ written upon the moribund parliament, when it was no longer formidable,--dissolution having, for the time being, shorn its far-reaching and vengeful claws, while a changed head of the State had rendered its return to a lease of power extremely problematical. It is fair to say that, for the most part, the disappearance of this straight-laced and tyrannical House of Commons was hailed as a national relief: the theory of flying “to ills we know not of” had yet to be realized with the gradual development of the Merry Monarch’s selfish and ruinous system, the most iniquitous ever tolerated.