In January, 1628 [N. S.], he delivered, at the Board, the substance of the remarkable Discourse which has been more than once printed under the title, ‘_The Danger wherein this Kingdom now Standeth, and the Remedy_.’ [Sidenote: DISCOURSE ON THE CALLING OF A PARLIAMENT. 1628. Jany.] The courtliness of its tone no more detracts from its incisiveness of stroke, than a jewelled hilt would detract from the cleaving sweep of a Damascus blade, when wielded by well-knit sinews. It led instantly to the calling of the Parliament. [Sidenote: MS. LANSD., 254, ff. 258, seqq.] But neither its essential and true loyalty to the King, nor the opportune service which it rendered to the country was to make the fortunes of its author any exception to those which—sooner or later—befell every councillor of CHARLES THE FIRST, who, in substance if not in form, was wont to put Country before King. In that third Parliament of CHARLES Sir Robert himself had no seat. In the Parliament which preceded it he sat for Old Sarum, having lost his seat for Huntingdonshire. But he continued to be the active ally and the influential councillor of the leaders of opposition to strained prerogatives. When the Parliament assailed Bishops NEILE and LAUD, the inculpated prelates, it is said, threw upon COTTON as much of their anger as they well could have done had he led the assault in person. The opportunity was not very far to seek. [Sidenote: THE ‘PROPOSITION TO BRIDLE PARLIAMENTS.’ 1629. October.] Not long after the dissolution in March, 1629, of that Parliament of the assembling of which Sir Robert COTTON’S patriotic effort had been the immediate occasion, and to some of the effective blows of which he had helped to give vigour, some courtier or other brought to CHARLES’ hands a political tract, in manuscript, and told him that copies of it were in the possession of several statesmen. Those—with one exception—who were then named to the King were men wont to be held in greater regard in the country than at Court. The pamphlet bore for its title: ‘_The Proposicion for Your Majesties Service ... to secure your Estate and to bridle the impertinencie of Parliaments_.’