The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
_A._ The grievances were commonly such as these; the King’s too much
liberality to some favourite; the too much power of some minister or
officer of the commonwealth; the misdemeanour of judges, civil or
spiritual; but especially all unparliamentary raising of money upon the
subjects. And commonly of late, till such grievances be redressed, they
refuse, or at least make great difficulty, to furnish the King with
money necessary for the most urgent occasions of the commonwealth.
_B._ How then can a King discharge his duty as he ought to do, or the
subject know which of his masters he is to obey? For here are manifestly
two powers, which, when they chance to differ, cannot both be obeyed.
_A._ It is true; but they have not often differed so much to the danger
of the commonwealth, as they have done in this Parliament, 1640. In all
the Parliaments of the late King Charles before the year 1640, my Lord
of Strafford did appear in opposition to the King’s demands as much as
any man, and was for that cause very much esteemed and cried up by the
people as a good patriot, and one that courageously stood up in defence
of their liberties; and for the same cause was so much the more hated,
when afterwards he endeavoured to maintain the royal and just authority
of his Majesty.
_B._ How came he to change his mind so much as it seems he did?
_A._ After the dissolution of the Parliament holden in the years 1627
and 1628, the King, finding no money to be gotten from Parliaments which
he was not to buy with the blood of such servants and ministers as he
loved best, abstained a long time from calling any more, and had
abstained longer if the rebellion of the Scotch had not forced him to
it. During that Parliament the King made Sir Thomas Wentworth a baron,
recommended to him for his great ability, which was generally taken
notice of by the disservice he had done the King in former Parliaments,
but which might be useful for him in the times that came on: and not
long after he made him of the Council, and after that again Lieutenant
of Ireland, which place he discharged with great satisfaction and
benefit to his Majesty, and continued in that office, till, by the envy
and violence of the Lords and Commons of that unlucky Parliament of
1640, he died. In which year he was made general of the King’s forces
against the Scots that then entered into England, and the year before,
Earl of Strafford. The pacification being made, and the forces on both
sides disbanded, and the Parliament at Westminster now sitting, it was
not long before the House of Commons accused him to the House of Lords
for high-treason.
_B._ There was no great probability of his being a traitor to the King,
from whose favour he had received his greatness, and from whose
protection he was to expect his safety. What was the treason they laid
to his charge?