During three years the King had been proof to all argument and to all entreaty.

Every minister who had dared to raise his voice in favour of the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the realm had been disgraced.

A Parliament eminently loyal had ventured to protest gently and respectfully against a violation of the fundamental laws of England, and had been sternly reprimanded, prorogued, and dissolved.

Judge after Judge had been stripped of the ermine for declining to give decisions opposed to the whole common and statute law.

The most respectable Cavaliers had been excluded from all share in the government of their counties for refusing to betray the public liberties.