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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.
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