Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century

Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714

He was superiour to all those passyons and affections which attende
vulgar mindes, and was guilty of no other ambition, then of knowledge,
and to be reputed a lover of all good men, and that made him to much a
contemner of those Artes which must be indulged to in the transaction
of humane affayrs. In the last shorte Parliament he was a Burgesse
in the house of Commons, and from the debates which were then managed
with all imaginable gravity and sobriety, he contracted such a
reverence to Parliaments that he thought it really impossible, that
they could ever produce mischieve or inconvenience to the kingdome,
or that the kingdome could be tolerably happy in the intermissyon
of them; and from the unhappy, and unseasonable dissolution of that
convention, he harboured it may be some jealousy and præjudice of
the Courte, towards which he was not before immoderately inclined,
his father havinge wasted a full fortune ther, in those offices and
imployments, by which other men use to obtayne a greater. He was
chosen agayne this Parliament to serve in the same place, and in the
beginninge of it, declared himselfe very sharply and sevearely against
those exorbitances which had bene most grievous to the State; for
he was so rigidd an observer of established Lawes and rules, that he
could not indure the least breach or deviation from them, and thought
no mischieve so intollerable, as the præsumption of ministers of
State, to breake positive rules for reason of State, or judges to
transgresse knowne Lawes, upon the title of conveniency or necessity,
which made him so seveare against the Earle of Straforde, and the L'd
Finch, contrary to his naturall gentlenesse and temper; insomuch as
they who did not know his composition to be as free from revenge as
it was from pryde, thought that the sharpnesse to the former might
proceede from the memory of some unkindnesses, not without a mixture
of injustice from him towards his father; but without doubte he was
free from those temptations, and was only misledd by the authority
of those, who he believed understoode the Lawes perfectly, of which
himselfe was utterly ignorant, and if the assumption, which was
scarce controverted, had bene true, that an endeavour to overthrow
the fundamentall Lawes of the kingdome had beene treason, a stricte
understandinge might make reasonable conclusions to satisfy his owne
judgement, from the exorbitant partes of ther severall charges.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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History

Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century

Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714

He was superiour to all those passyons and affections which attende
vulgar mindes, and was guilty of no other ambition, then of knowledge,
and to be reputed a lover of all good men, and that made him to much a
contemner of those Artes which must be indulged to in the transaction
of humane affayrs. In the last shorte Parliament he was a Burgesse
in the house of Commons, and from the debates which were then managed
with all imaginable gravity and sobriety, he contracted such a
reverence to Parliaments that he thought it really impossible, that
they could ever produce mischieve or inconvenience to the kingdome,
or that the kingdome could be tolerably happy in the intermissyon
of them; and from the unhappy, and unseasonable dissolution of that
convention, he harboured it may be some jealousy and præjudice of
the Courte, towards which he was not before immoderately inclined,
his father havinge wasted a full fortune ther, in those offices and
imployments, by which other men use to obtayne a greater. He was
chosen agayne this Parliament to serve in the same place, and in the
beginninge of it, declared himselfe very sharply and sevearely against
those exorbitances which had bene most grievous to the State; for
he was so rigidd an observer of established Lawes and rules, that he
could not indure the least breach or deviation from them, and thought
no mischieve so intollerable, as the præsumption of ministers of
State, to breake positive rules for reason of State, or judges to
transgresse knowne Lawes, upon the title of conveniency or necessity,
which made him so seveare against the Earle of Straforde, and the L'd
Finch, contrary to his naturall gentlenesse and temper; insomuch as
they who did not know his composition to be as free from revenge as
it was from pryde, thought that the sharpnesse to the former might
proceede from the memory of some unkindnesses, not without a mixture
of injustice from him towards his father; but without doubte he was
free from those temptations, and was only misledd by the authority
of those, who he believed understoode the Lawes perfectly, of which
himselfe was utterly ignorant, and if the assumption, which was
scarce controverted, had bene true, that an endeavour to overthrow
the fundamentall Lawes of the kingdome had beene treason, a stricte
understandinge might make reasonable conclusions to satisfy his owne
judgement, from the exorbitant partes of ther severall charges.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century

Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century

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