CHAP. VI - Parliament of 1679

Summary

For eighteen years there had been no general election in England. All the greater was the excitement and the tumult with which the new writs filled the kingdom. Everywhere in the towns and boroughs those who possessed votes met together, eating and drinking, talking and smoking at the fireside: conscious of their importance, they enjoyed themselves together for some days; they were in no hurry, for the candidate had to pay for everything. Foreigners are astonished at the sum to which the costs of an election amounted.

When the King determined on a dissolution, which he did most reluctantly, and which without doubt he ought to have done much sooner, he still did not mean to go over from one party to another. He wished, as it were, to punish the encroachments of the existing members of Parliament, who, under the influence of one another's society, ever lost more and more of their old submissiveness, so that he could no longer produce any impression on them. He hoped to procure from the same stratum of the population, the gentry, more trust-worthy adherents, for in the country there were many faithful men devoted to the monarchy, who were not affected by the intrigues at court and the animosity against the ministers; these might be won by marks of favour and would hesitate before causing another dissolution, which would render useless all the expenses they had incurred.