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Show 120 A.TROC10'GS JtiDGES. [A. D. 1020. the omnipotence of Parliament ha ' pa ~ ~cd into a 1naxim. lie had 110 respect whatever for the !louse of Comn1on~ or any of its priY.ileges, being of opinion that it had l>een called into exi tence by the crown only to a"si~t in raising the rc,·cnuc, and that, if it refu~ed nccc~sary supplies, the king, a Pater Patrice, mu t proviue for the uefence of the reahn in th same manner a" before it had exi tencc. lie llitn:elf seYcral times refu ~ed a seat in that a sembly, which he said wa ~ "only fit for a pitiful Puritan or a pretenuing patriot;'' and he expressed a resolution to get on in his profes::;ion without beginning, as n1any of his brethren did, by herding "·ith the seditious, and trying to nndennine the power:S which for the public good the crown had immen1orially exerciseu and inalienably pos es eel. To enable him to defend the ~ e with proper skill and effect, he was con ~ tautly peru ~ing the old records; and, from the Conquest down \Yarus, they were as familiar to him as the cases in the last nu1nbcr of the periodica1 reports are to a n1odern practitioner. Upon all questions of prerogative law which could arise he was ·omplcte tna. tcr of all the authorities to be ciLecl for the crown, and of the answer' to be given to all that coulu be cited against him. As he would neitlPr go into Parlimnent nor n1ake a spla. h in \Vestmin ter Ilall in the ".edition line," his fi·icnds were apprehensive that his great acquire1nents as a lawyer never would be known; but it happened that, in the year lGlD, he was appointed "reader" for the Inner Ten1ple, and he delirered a series of lectures, explaining his vie"·s on constitutional subjects, which forever established his reputation. On the first vacancy which afterwards occurred in the oflke of solicitor general, he was appointed to fill it; and Sir Thomas Coventry, the attorney general, expressed high HOJa: H.T Il L\..'l'II. 121 sati.~f~tetion at lln Ying hiu1 fur a colleague. ·v cry important proceedings soon al'i er Jollowetl, upon the in1p achmen t of Lord Bacon and the }HtnishtncnL of the mouopolists; but, as the e were all in Parliament, be 1nade no conspic11ous figure during the remainder of the reign of J mnes I. Soon after the co1nmencemeut of the reign of Clwrle: I., he was prmnoted to the ofiice of attorney general; and then, upon variou. important occasions, he uelivered arguments in support of the unli1nitcd pow r of tl1e crown to imprison anu to impose taxe~, w b ich cannot now be read without adiniration of the learning ancl ingenu ity which they di .' play. The fir t of the ~ e \VHR when Sir Th01nas Darnel aud hi:S patriotic associates were brought by habeas coJpns before the Court of ICing's Bench, having been com1nitteLl in reality for refusing to contribute to the foreed loan, but upon a warrant by the king and council whieh did not specif)r any offence. I have already JH ~nt ion ed the ·peechcs of their coun ·el.* "To these pleading~ for liberty," says IIallam "IIcath, the attorney general, rc:plied in a pecC'h of considerable ability, full of tho e high prineiples of prerogative which, trampling as it were on all statut and precedent seen1Cd to tell the judges that tlwy were placed there to obey rather than to deterrnine." "This commit1nent,'' he said, '' i · not in a legal aud ordinary way, but by the special cotnmand of our lord the king, which in1plies not only the fact <lone, but so extraordinarily done, that it is notoriously hi maje ty's imn1ediate act, and he wills that it should be so. • hall we n1ake inquirie:; whether his commands are lawful? \Vho slwll call in question the * See life of Hyde, ante, p. 97. 11 |