OPENING THE LONG PARLIAMENT [FINCH (Sir John, 1584-1660, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1628-1629, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1634-1640, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, 1640-1641, from 7th April 1640 1st Baron Finch of Fordwich)]

Contemporary manuscript copy of his Speech at the Opening of the Long Parliament, following the Speech from the Throne, a summary at Charles I's request of what has happened since the Short Parliament of April - May 1640, saying that "Since the conquest there was never yet a time that did more require & pray for the best advice & affection of the English people", not by looking at objects "in a multiplying glass" or "in the pieces of a broken glass ... by halves" but in a mirror (para. 1), namely "The Kingdom of England ... to whom conquerors never yet gave new laws", but which has "the ... constitution of a Commonwealth made glorious by antiquity" (para. 2), and by beholding there "The King ... the life of the law" (para. 3) whose "glorious ancestors have so long swayed the sceptre ... in the high attributes & great prerogatives which these so ancient ... laws have ... invested him" (para. 4), if you "wipe the glass ... you shall surely behold him a king of exemplary piety & justice ... depth of judgment & unparalleled temper & moderation", as shown "at the great Council of the Peers at York", (in August this year) (para.5), praising too "another part of himself, his dearest Consort ... there is none (his Majesty only excepted) whose affection and endeavour ... can cooperate more to ... a right understanding between the King & his people" (para. 7), and "his best image and superscription, our excellent young Prince, and the rest of the royal and lovely progeny" (para. 8).
"From the throne turn your eyes to the 2. supporters", Finch continues, namely "the nobility & clergy ... the gentry & commons" (para. 9), asking "where is there in any part of the world a Nobility so ... magnanimous ... neither to eclipse the throne nor overtop the people" (para. 10) or "a Commonalty so free" with "the balance so equally held ... as here", with its beam and line "in right angles", turn it "never so little ... it grows quickly acute or obtuse ... so in states the least diminution maketh a great change", acting together His Majesty and this assembly can "make us live between the Tropics of Moderation" with "no declension ... to the Poles of Severity or Impunity" (para. 11).
Turning to his summary, Finch recalls the Scottish threat in 1639. "His Majesty by his wisdom & goodness settled ... a pacification at Berwick", which he carefully observed but which was "strained beyond bounds" by the Scots, and at this "His Majesty could not in honour connive" (para. 13). Finch passes over the Short Parliament's refusal even to discuss money, and stresses the king's wisdom in again raising an army (in June 1640 onwards) "by the unanimous advice of all his Privy Councillors ... to reduce [the Scots] to the modest condition of their obedience ... & to defend this kingdom from all damage and danger" (para. 14). Finch laments "too benign an interpretation" of the Scots' behaviour which impeded the king (para. 16), but Charles hurried north to York [August 20th - 23rd 1640] just as, as he had foreseen, the Scots "passed the ... Tweed and Tyne" and seized Newcastle, forcing contributions from Northumberland and Durham, "besides many other spoils and destructions" (para. 17).
With "neither time nor place to call his Assembly of Parliament", at York he summoned a Great Council of all the Peers "as was frequently used by his predecessors, though not of late times ... not to prevent, but to prepare for a Parliament" (paras.18, 19, 21), as "will appear plainly by the Acts ... of that Assembly, of which if those that attended as officers & ministers there had been come to town ... I should better have been able to give you an account, but I must now trust to my memory" (para. 22).
The Lords met on the 24th September, the king declaring his resolution to call a Parliament and that "there was nothing he did more desire than to be rightly understood of his people", (para. 23), he needed advice on answering the Petition by "his subjects of Scotland ... at Newcastle", how to treat with them, (paras. 25, 26), and how to maintain his own army "in the mean time" (para. 27).
The Lords with great "freedom of discourse" (para. 28) took the latter question first, and, agreeing with the king that any question of supply must not be "binding to the Subject but ... left wholly to this Supreme Jurisdiction", they "sent up 6. Lords of that great Council" with letters to the City of London (para. 29), "and the City gave an answer fit for the Chamber of the King and part of the money is already lent, & they will be as ready ... to supply the rest" (para. 30).
As to the Scots' demands, the king "was pleased that those great Officers and Ministers of his that best understood the laws and ... usages of that Kingdom" should "expound them ... to their Lordships" and show in what respects the Scots "exceeded the Articles of Pacification" of 1639, "the square and rule of the Treaty with them" (para. 31). "His Majesty then protested ... to be wholly guided ... by their advice ... for the honour of this nation and the safety of it" (para. 32), "Yet in justice, they thought it fit to hear what could be said on the other side" (para. 33). Accordingly 16 named Lords were commissioned under the Great Seal to treat with the Scots at Ripon (para. 35), where the Scots demanded £40,000 a month maintenance for their own army (para. 38). Given the depredations in Northumberland and Durham, both of which "had already made a Composition and Agreement" with the Scots, the possibility of a battle if Yorkshire were invaded, "where there were so many twenties to one" and the resulting danger to the whole kingdom (para. 40), the Commissioners "did conclude for £850 per diem ... for two months ... from 16th October" and "took Articles for a cessation of Arms" (para. 41). Finch ends "It is his Majesty's pleasure, that you of the House of Commons repair to your own house, there to choose your Speaker", the famous William Lenthall. Paragraphs neatly numbered in margin in pencil to correspond with Rushworth's printed version, 5 sides folio and conjugate leaf, House of Lords, 3rd November worn at edges with loss of one or two letters (easily supplied) and in folds of second conjugate leaf, otherwise very legible

This is clearly a 'royalist' version, as compared with Rushworth's 'parliamentarian' version, which can be seen in British History Online, Parliamentary Sources, 'Historical Collections', Vol. 4, 1640-1642. Words in the present manuscript praising or giving credit personally to the king and his rule are toned down, altered or omitted in Rushworth. Passages that are nonsense in Rushworth are correct in the present manuscript, which must be nearer the original. See the examples below.
In 1629 Finch was famously held down in the Speaker's chair while the Commons debated Charles I's command to adjourn, shortly before the 11 years of personal rule. In the Long Parliament he was an early target of the Commons. On 21st December 1640 he fled from committal for impeachment and lived poorly in the Netherlands, being allowed to return only in 1653.

SOME EXAMPLE VARIANTS
(A) = Present manuscript. (R) = Rushworth.
Para. 1, 2. Finch is saying we must not exaggerate our situation by looking at objects in a "multiplying glass", but treat England as a mirror and behold her true glories. Yet in para. 2, where A has (correctly) "The Kingdom of England is this glass", R inserts "multiplying", making nonsense here.
Para. 4. R omits the lines quoted above that mention the king's prerogatives.
Para. 7. A: The Queen is "the mirror of mirrors and conjugal affection". R: simply "the mirror of Virtue".
Para. 8. R omits "and superscription" and for "lovely" (progeny) reads "lively".
Para. 9. A: "Shew". R: "Stem", with uncertain meaning.
Para. 11. A: "Where is there a Commonalty so free and ... the balance so equally held to the 3. estates as here? And certainly as long as the beam is so held we can never be unhappy". R: "Where was there a Commonwealth so free, and the balance so equally held as here? And certainly so long as the beam is duly held, it cannot be otherwise". A: The Balance has "no declension on either side to the Poles of Severity or Impunity". R: "no declension from the Pole of Security" which again is nonsense in this context.
Para. 18. R omits "by his predecessors, though not of late time".
Para. 22. R omits "but I must now trust to my memory".
Para. 29. A: "sent up 6. Lords of that great Council" [to London]. R: "sent half a dozen of my Lords".
Para. 32. A: "to be wholly guided & directed". R: "to be wholly ruled, guided and directed".
Para. 35. A, among the Commissioners to the Scots: "Lord Howard of Estriggland & Dunsmore". R (rightly): "Lord Howard of Escrick, Savile & Dunsmore".
Para. 40. A: "where there were so many twenties to one". R: "at such odds".
Provenance: From a small group of papers, 1640-1641, one marked "brought these papers from Woodhey 1741". Woodhey Hall, near Nantwich, was in 1741 among the Cheshire properties of Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart. His grandmother Grace was the daughter of Sir Thomas Wilbraham, (1630-1692, 3rd and last Baronet of Woodhey). Sir Thomas, a Royalist, in 1651 married heiress Elizabeth Mytton (1632-1705, the architect). Elizabeth was also stepdaughter to Sir William Brereton (1604-1661), who had led the campaign in Cheshire to abolish bishops.

Item Date:  1640

Stock No:  55793      £1250

             Add to Wish List     Order/Enquire