III. After the prorogation the house of com- CHAP. mons refumed the bufinefs of the twelve commiffioners, and made provision for them 1640 by a charge upon the principal towns and counties in Ireland; and they appointed a committee to draw up inftructions for them. This was the fecond inftance of these parliamentary commiffioners; the first has been noted in the account of the feffions in one thousand fix hundred and thirteen and one thousand fix hundred and fifteen: their inftructions were, to apply to the king for a bill to modify Poynings' law, that the house might draw bills by their own committee during a feffion; that the farming of the revenue and expenfive licences for exportation might be prohibited; and that printed regulations of the courts of juftice might be established by law. On the 10th of February the house was taken up with arrangements about levying fubfidies and the order of the preceding 20th of October on this subject, which had been erafed, was restored. On CHAP. On the 16th of February a very extraor¬ III. dinary propofition was made to the lords, 1640, defiring them to take the judges' opinion upon twenty-one queries; and on the 17th an unanimous proteftation was entered against the preamble to the act of subsidies of the laft feffion, which they declared was foifted in and entered against the knowledge of the house by lord Strafford and his abettors. At the close of this they state a proclamation of the king in one thousand fix hundred and twenty-five, prohibiting all applications to the lord deputy and council for juftice, and referring lawsuits, in all cafes, to the ordinary courts of law. The Caftle Chamber was never formally abrogated by a law, (as the Star Chamber was in England,) but it has fallen into difufe ; a bill for this purpose paffed the lords in one thousand fix hundred and ninety-feveneight, but was not returned. John Fitzgerald efq., who was duly returned for Enniftiougue, having been committed to the Marfhalfea, upon the calling of III. of the house the 20th of February, this ex- CHAP. traordinary order was made; "That the "That the "committee of privileges fhall note the 1649. "abfent members, and report which of "them ought to continue, and which ought "to be put out or removed; and that Mr. "Fitzgerald fhould be enlarged and restored "to his feat *. The 23d of February the house was employed in reading a letter from the commiffioners in England, and in fending them farther inftructions. 1 On the 27th of February one thousand fix hundred and forty a committee of fortyfour were appointed to draw up articles of impeachment against the chancellor fir Richard Bolton, the bishop of Derry, the chief juftice Lowther, and fir George Radcliff. Of the meffage to the lords, the report was made the fame day by captain Mervyn, who was speaker after the restora¬ * Commons Journals, vol. i. page 306. Ibid. 309. CHAP. tion; which imported that the house did III. impeach the faid perfons of high treason; 1640. and defired that their persons might be fecured, and fequeftered from the house of lords, the council table, and other places of judicature; to which the lords fent them word by the black rod, into the middle room, that they would confider of it. This term, middle room, which occurs fo often, was a void space between the two rooms deftined for the two houses before the restoration in the caftle of Dublin; at which period they removed to Chichester house, on the fite of which the present house of parliament was founded. From the 28th of February to the 6th of March one thousand fix hundred and forty, on which laft day the articles of impeachment against the aforefaid perfons were prefented*, the house was taken up principally with an examination into the innovations of the charter of the University: but as this was a matter of the utmost confe * Commons Journals, vol. i. p. 319. Ibid. 328. quence, quence, not only to them, but to the moft CHAP. diftant pofterity, as the cause of learning was materially affected by it, I fhall spare 1640. no pains to detail this matter, and to give it at full length, with an ardent hope that, fooner or later, parliament may take this into confideration, tread in the steps of their ancestors, and accomplish a work which was left unfinished by their predeceffors. A committee was appointed on the 23d of February one thousand fix hundred and forty, to confider of the ftate of the college, and to examine their charters. When they met to put this order in execution the 28th of the fame month, they found that a by-law, or ftatute, had been lately made there, "Whereby any ftudent or member "who should exhibit a complaint of griev "ances fhould be fufpended or expelled." This regulation, however, was set aside; and the members being at full liberty to represent their grievances, it gave rise to a long inquiry, and it was refolved, "That the govern |