EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON in
this session, on the importance of granting an immediate supply to the Palatinate. This speech was published under his name, and attracted con- siderable attention, but there seems to be no doubt that it was a forgery, and was never uttered in Parliament by Cecil or anyone else. 1 He was at this time a member of the Council of War, which was considering the best means of securing the safety of the Palatinate, and no doubt he lent his name to the pamphlet, in order to promote what he considered a good cause. 2
The session was a stormy one, and at the last sitting before the adjournment on June 4th, Sir John Perrot made his momentous speech, in which, after alluding to the danger in which the true reli- gion stood, both at home and abroad, and recalling the King's declaration at the beginning of Parlia- ment, that " if the Palatinate could not be re- covered by treaty, he would adventure his blood and life in the cause," he appealed to the House to make a public declaration before they parted, " that if the treaty failed, they would, upon their return, be ready to adventure their lives and estates, for the maintenance of the cause of God, and of his Majesty's royal issue."
1 A copy exists in the British Museum, and it is printed in the Cal. S. P. Dom., February 5th, 1620-1. Professor Gardiner, who was the first to discover that it was not authentic, says : " Whoever was the author, the speech does him great credit. There is a fine ring in its language from beginning to end. Nothing, in the course of writing this work, has been more painful than the act of drawing my pen, in obedience to the laws of historical veracity, through the extracts which I had credulously inserted in the text " (IV. 29, note).
a Dalton, I. 346.
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