Part 9 (1/2)
On the 29th of Novee:--
”Yesterday the Bill of the King's Declaration in religious matters was read for the first ti 'twas carried 183 against 157 in the negative, so there is an end of that Bill and for those excellent things therein We oodness, who, I ive than we to receive”
It is a noticeable feature of this correspondence that Marvell seldom mentions which way he voted himself
The letter of the 4th of Dece matter:--
”GENTLEMEN,--Since es hath been carryed up to the Lords; and a Message to them from our House that they would expedite the Bill for confires, and other bills of publick concern, not returned to us We had then the Bill for six moneths asses away Court of Wards and Purveyance, and establishi+ng the moiety of the Excise of Beere and ale in perpetuum, about which we sit euery afternoon in a Grand Committee Upon Sunday last were consecrated in the Abby at Westminster, Doctor Cossins, Bishop of Durham, Sterne of Carlile, Gauden of Exeter, Ironside of Bristow, Loyd of Landaffe, Lucy of St
Dauids, Lany, the seuenth, whose diocese I remember not at present, and to-day they keep their feast in Haberdasher's hall, in London
Dr Reinolds was not of the nuone down to Hereford for Dr Monk, the Generall's brother, at present Provost of Eaton 'Tis thought that since our throwing out the Bill of the King's Declaration, Mr Cala of Bishopricks
To-day our House was upon the Bill of Attainder of those that haue been executed, those that are fled, and of Cromwell, Bradshaw, Ireton, and Pride, and 'tis ordered that the carkasses and coffins of the four last named, shall be drahat expedition possible, upon an hurdle to Tyburn, there (to) be hanged up for a while, and then buryed under the gallows
”WESTMINSTER, _Dec 4, 1660_”
Marvell's cool reporting of the hideous indignity inflicted upon his oldit to pass _sub silentio_, is one of the many occasions that stirred Mr Grosart's wonder Nerves were tough in those days Pepys tells us unconcernedly enough how, after seeing Lord Southampton sworn in at the Court of Exchequer as Lord Treasurer, he noticed ”the heads of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton set up at the further end of West ht[95:1]
The Convention Parliament was dissolved on the 29th of December 1660
On 1st April 1661 Marvell was returned for the third and last time for Hull, for Charles the Second's first Parlia dissolved till January 1679, after Marvell's death It is known in history as the Pensionary or Long Parliaures were as below:--
Colonel Gilbey, 294 Mr Andrew Marvell, 240 Mr Edward Barnard, 195 Mr John Ramsden, 122
Marvell was not present at or before the election, for on the 6th of April he writes:--
”I perceive by Mr Mayor that you have again (as if it were grown a thing of course) made choice of me now, the third time, to serve for you in Parlia but your constancy, so shall I, God willing, as in gratitude obliged, with no less constancy and vigour continue to execute your commands and study your service”
A word h members The members'
fee was 6s 8d for every day the Parliaes were paid by the corporation out of the borough funds It was never a popular charge Burgesses in many places cared as little for MP's as do some of their successors for free libraries Prynne, perhaps the greatest parliamentary lawyer that ever lived, told Pepys one day, as they were driving to the Teesses to be returned to Parliaht Prynne could find, fixed by law, but was at first left to the discretion of the sheriff, and that several boroughs had coe of sending up burgesses
In August 1661 the corporation paid Marvell 28 for his fee as one of their burgesses, being 6s 8d a day for eighty-four days, the length of the Convention Parliaes until the end of his days; but it is perhaps a mistake to suppose he was the very last member to do so It was, however, unusual in Marvell's tih of a very decided ”Church and King”
co character or independence, but it steadily deteriorated in both respects
Vacancies, as they occurred, and they occurred very frequently in those days of short lives, were filled up by courtiers and pensioners
In the selluhly libellous ”Dod,” often attributed to Marvell, a record is preserved of more than two hundred members of this Parliaelluraphic picture we have of this Parliament is to be found in one of Lord Shaftesbury's political tracts entitled ”A letter from a Parliament reatly scandalized at our slow and confused Proceedings I confess you have cause enough; but were you but within these walls for one half day, and saw the strange make and complexion that this house is of, you would wonder as much that ever you wondered at it; for we are such a pied Parliament, that none can say of what colour we are; for we consist of Old Cavaliers, Old Round-Heads, Indigent-Courtiers, and true Country Gentlemen: the two latter are s to soed with the nurown aged, and almost past his vice, is daue to the world than his debauchery was, for he is so ot to the B(ishop) that he forces his Loyalty to strike sail to his Religion, and could be content to pare the nails a little of the Civil Government, so you would but let him sharpen the Ecclesiastical Talons: which behaviour of his so exasperates the Round-Head, that he on the other hand cares not what increases the Interest of the Crown receives, so he can but diminish that of the miter: so that the Round-Head had rather enslave the Man than the Conscience: the Cavalier rather the Conscience than the Man; there being a sufficient stock of animosity as proper matter to work upon Upon these, therefore, the Courtier ains the Round-Head either to oppose or absent by telling them, If they will join him noill join them for Liberty of Conscience And when any affair is started on behalf of the Country he assures the Cavaliers, If they will then stand by hiainst the fanatics Thus play they on both hands Wherefore it were happy that he had neither Round-Head nor Cavalier in the House, for they are each of thenifies nothing but their fostering their old venoe to bear down each other, though it be in the destruction of their country For if the Round-Heads bring in a good bill the Old Cavalier opposes it, for no other reason but because they brought it in”[98:1]
Such was the theatre of Marvell's public actions for the rest of his days, and if at tiery of his satire, it ought to be found easy to forgive him
The two members for Hull were soon ian by quarrelling with one another, Marvell writing ”the bond of civility betwixt Col Gilby andunhappily snappt in pieces, and in such manner that I cannot see how it is possible ever to knit theain” House of Commons quarrels are usually soon made up, and so was this one The custoh they are all written in Marvell's hand--but if this was for any reason inconvenient, Marvell signed alone No letters, unless in Marvell's writing, are preserved at Hull, which is a curious fact
One of these bits of local business related to a patent alleged to have been granted by the Crown to certain persons, authorising them to erect and maintain _ballast wharfs_ in the various ports, and to es in respect of them This was resented by the members for the ports, and on Marvell's motion the matter was referred to the Committee of Grievances, before whom the patentees were summoned When they came it appeared that the patent warranted none of the exactions that had been de these charges was nothing more than a draft framed by the patentees themselves, and not authorised in any way The patent was at once suspended Marvell, like a true et any little local credit that may be due for such proh I count all things I can do for your service to benotice of in respect of what I owe you) I ht to let you know that I, and I alone, have had the happiness to do that little which hitherto is effected”