The custom of paying members of the House of Commons for the loss of time and travelling expenses, was common in the seventeenth century; constituencies believed such equivalents necessary for the attention to their interests and wishes which a Parliamentary agent was expected to give. In the old Corporation books of provincial towns are many entries for payments to members of Parliament, and in some instances
1
The custom of paying members of the House of Commons for the loss of time and travelling expenses, was common in the seventeenth century; constituencies believed such equivalents necessary for the attention to their interests and wishes which a Parliamentary agent was expected to give. In the old Corporation books of provincial towns are many entries for payments to members of Parliament, and in some instances we find them petitioning to Government for disfranchisement, because they could not afford to pay the expenses of a Member.
2
Marvel's first exposé of Parker's false logic was in 1672, in the poem named above, which was immediately answered by Parker, and re-answered by Marvel, who appears to have had some private threat sent him, as he says his pamphlet is occasioned by two letters; one the published 'Reproof' of him by Parker in answer to his first attack; 'the second, left for me at a friend's house, dated November 3d, 1673, subscribed J. G., and concluding with these words:—If thou darest to print any lie or libel against Dr. Parker, by the Eternal—I will cut thy throat.' This last reply of Marvel's, however, effectually silenced Parker: 'It not only humbled Parker, but the whole party,' says Burnet, for, 'from the king down to the tradesman, the book was read with pleasure.'
3
'No stronger satire could be penned than that descriptive of the Court of Charles, in the poem called 'Britannia and Raleigh:'—
'A colony of French possess the Court,Pimps, priests, buffoons, in privy chambers sport;Such slimy monsters ne'er approach'd a throneSince Pharaoh's days, nor so defil'd a crown;In sacred ears tyrannic arts they croak,Pervert his mind, and good intentions choak.'But not only do the courtiers feel the lash, for when Raleigh implores Britannia to urge his duty on the king, and save him from the bad who surround him, she interrupts him with—
'Raleigh, no more! for long in vain I've try'dThe Stuart from the tyrant to divide.'4
'Marvel died in 1678, in his fifty-eighth year, not without the strongest suspicions of having been poisoned; for he was always very temperate, and of an healthful and strong constitution to the last.'
5
On the death of this rector, however, the monument and inscription was placed on the north wall of the church, near the spot where he is supposed to lie.
6
The Literary World at that period was edited by the able, candid, and universally beloved C.F. Hoffman.—(Ed. Int.)
7
"The writer seems not to have been aware that this still leaves the priority to Laborde—whose journey was undertaken even earlier than that of Robinson, and whose really valuable work, Commentaire Geographique sur l'Exode et les Nombres, which now lies before us, was published in the very year of Mr. Kellogg's journey, 1844. This work certainly forms the best literary result of Laborde's celebrated journey."
8
Foreign Reminiscences. By Henry Richard Lord Holland. Edited by his Son, Henry Edward Lord Holland. Longman and Co., London. New-York: Harpers.