It was necessary that the Lords Justices should prorogue the Parliament to the sixth of December.

The delay was imputed, and justly, to adverse winds.
But the malecontents asked, with some reason, whether His Majesty had not known that there were often gales from the West in the German Ocean, and whether, when he had made a solemn appointment with the Estates of his Realm for a particular day, he ought not to have arranged things in such a way that nothing short of a miracle could have prevented him from keeping that appointment.
Thus the ill humour which a large proportion of the new legislators had brought up from their country seats became more and more aced every day, till they entered on their functions.

One question was much agitated during this unpleasant interval.

Who was to be Speaker?
The junto wished to place Sir Thomas Littleton in the chair.

He was one of their ablest, most zealous and most steadfast friends; and had been, both in the House of Commons and at the Board of Treasury, an invaluable second to Montague.