29th, "who certified the legality of the patents are glanced at, but they are chiefly above the reach of the House; they attempt so much that they will accomplish little." Coke, who was now the chief leader in Parliament, began to talk ominously of precedents, and to lay down rules about the power of the House to punish--rules which were afterwards found to have no authority for them.

Cranfield, the representative of severe economy, insisted that the honour of the King required that the referees, whoever they were, should be called to account.

The gathering clouds shifted a little, when the sense of the House seemed to incline to giving up all retrospective action, and to a limitation for the future by statute of the questionable prerogative--a limitation which was in fact attempted by a bill thrown out by the Lords.

But they gathered again when the Commons determined to bring the whole matter before the House of Lords.

The King wrote to warn Bacon of what was coming.