experience had taught,—and increased knowledge made them confident to act up to their experience, that a united party could only be effectually thwarted by a similarly united opposition. Such a combination was so novel, that we shall see that the king's ministers commenced a prosecution against its leaders for an illegal cabal; and to escape detection, the oppositionists resorted to the place of rendezvous with disguised faces*. Such was the beginning of that opposition party, the constant existence of which is one of our greatest safeguards against misrule. I do not place it alone in the superlative, because we benefit now also by the guardianship of the public press, that mighty enforcer of opinion, whose controlling power was duly estimated by the politician who said, “I will give the king a corrupt ministry, if he will grant me a perfect freedom of the press."

The examination of Sir Edwin Sandys before the Privy Council in 1621, aimed at discovering the parties who acted thus concertedly in opposition to the government. He was asked, "What conference he had at any time, and with whom, touching the petition to be made to the king by the parliament for the longer continuance thereof, after his majesty had signified to the Houses his purpose of dissolving thereof? and where he dined that day the message was brought? What conference he had and with

* I mention this upon the authority of a friend, who saw the statement in a contemporary letter, now in the possession of the Trevor family.

whom, either by word, message, or writing?" And many other questions of similar import *.

So conscious were they of the scrutinising eye that was kept upon their proceedings, and of the disregard of their parliamentary privileges by the government, that, to avoid any record to aid its oppressive measures, Sir Peter Hayman, in 1624, obtained an order that the clerk "should set no man's name to the motions he made t."

There is no reason why Ralph Hopton, and the Lords Falkland, Clarendon, Hertford, Capel, Dunsmore, &c., should not be added to the band of temperate statesmen enumerated above; for they certainly agreed in their love of constitutional liberty, and though they took opposite

* Harleian MSS. 161. Pl. 33, c.

†The first appearance of Selden as a speaker in the House of Commons, was in co-operation with this party, on the 19th of March, 1624, in a lengthened discussion concerning the granting of subsidies to the king. A motion was made to adjourn the debate, but Sir Henry Savill opposed it in an angry tone. He said that "he had done an ill office to the king who moved to have it questioned; for the House being divided, if the king should fail it would be a great discredit."

Sir Dudley Digges replied, "it was the old fashion of parliament, if a man spake absurdly or distastefully, not to cry him down, but for him to be answered or checked."

Mr. Selden said, “I will not speak to the great matter in hand, nor to the orders of the House, being so young a parliament man, but yet," he continued, "I have been no stranger to the journals of either House, and found that the pettiest business hath not been so precipitated." It was eventually postponed until the following morning*.

* Journal of a member of this parliament. Harl. MSS. 1840, &c. Pl. 45 a.

sides in the appeal to the sword, yet that appeal was hurried on by other spirits than those by which they were actuated; and could the settlement of the national differences have been left to their arbitrament, there would have been no points on which they would have substantially differed; for they did not disagree upon the fundamental principles of the constitution, and therefore would have required no changes but such as are founded upon the laws and usages of which that is composed.

CHAPTER II.

BIRTH OF SELDEN.-EDUCATION.-APPLIES TO THE STUDY OF THE LAW.-EARLY PATRONS.-LITERARY FRIENDS.THE COLLEGE OF FIRST PUBLICATION.-HIS SECOND.-HIS 66

ANTIQUARIES.-HIS

THIRD. ASSISTS DRAYTON.SELDEN'S POETRY.-HIS TITLES OF HONOUR."-EDITS FORTESCUE, AND HENGHAM'S WORKS.—

HIS FIRST WORK ON THE JEWS.-POLITICAL STATE OF ENGLAND.-PUBLISHES HIS "HISTORY OF TYTHES."-PERSECUTION

TO WHICH HE IS CONSEQUENTLY

HIS

SUBJECTED.-BEN JONSON IS

ADVOCATE WITH THE King.-seldeN'S DECLARATION RELATING TO THE WORK.-WRITES ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF CHRISTMAS-DAY, AND ON A PASSAGE IN REVELATION.

THE birth-place of John Selden is Salvington, a hamlet of the parish of West Tarring, in the county of Sussex. Tarring is about two miles from Worthing. Its church, which is conspicuous on the left of the road leading from this watering place to Arundel, offers few objects of antiquarian interest, and its time-faded registers would be seldom perused if they did not contain the record of Selden's birth.

The cottage in which he was born still remains. It was then known as Lacies, being the residence attached to a farm of about eighty-one acres. The date of 1601, which is upon its front, testifies that it was then the same humble edifice as at present. A further testimony

D

that it remains unaltered is afforded by its lintel, on the inside of which is carved a latin distich, said to have been composed by Selden when only ten years old. Its rude characters of mingled capitals and small letters, may justify the conclusion, that he was the engraver as well as the versifier. The distich is this:

Gratus, honeste, mihi, non claudar inito sede

Sque

bis*

Fur, abeas; non sum facta soluta tibi.

Which may be thus translated :—

Walk in and welcome, honest friend; repose.

Thief, get thee hence: to thee I'll not unclose.

One end of the cottage abuts upon the lane leading to it. Its decayed thatch, crazy inclosures, and ill-kept garden, do not accord with the wishes of those who admire the character of him whose earliest footsteps were there. The wood-work, arranged with formal design in the wall of its end that faces the lane, as shown in some drawings, is no longer to be seen. A bricklayer, some months since, considered it of more importance to exclude

*This inscription has been differently stated by those who have recorded it. The following literal copy, made at the time of a personal inspection, is submitted to the reader's judgment.

GRATVS Honeste MIH NO clavDaR INITO SEDEB'

FVR ABEAS: NO SV FACTA SOLVTA TIBI.

The last character of the first line is somewhat imperfect. It probably was intended as a contraction of "que." In this case the literal translation is," Honest friend thou art welcome to me, I will not be closed, enter and be seated. Thief! begone, I am not open to thee."