want of things without which we cannot live."

The speech is vehement; but the great position, that grievances
ought to be redressed before supplies are granted, is agreeable
enough to law and reason: nor was Waller, if his biographer may be
credited, such an enemy to the king, as not to wish his distresses
lightened; for he relates, "that the king sent particularly to
Waller, to second his demand of some subsidies to pay off the army,
and Sir Henry Vane objecting against first voting a supply, because
the king would not accept unless it came up to his proportion, Mr.
Waller spoke earnestly to Sir Thomas Jermyn, comptroller of the
household, to save his master from the effects of so bold a falsity;
'for,' he said, 'I am but a country gentleman, and cannot pretend to
know the king's mind:' but Sir Thomas durst not contradict the
secretary; and his son, the Earl of St. Albans, afterwards told Mr.
Waller, that his father's cowardice ruined the king."

In the Long Parliament, which, unhappily for the nation, met Nov. 3,
1640, Waller represented Agmondesham the third time; and was
considered by the discontented party as a man sufficiently trusty
and acrimonious to be employed in managing the prosecution of Judge
Crawley, for his opinion in favour of ship-money; and his speech
shows that he did not disappoint their expectations. He was
probably the more ardent, as his uncle Hampden had been particularly
engaged in the dispute, and, by a sentence which seems generally to
be thought unconstitutional, particularly injured.

He was not, however, a bigot to his party, nor adopted all their
opinions. When the great question, whether Episcopacy ought to be
abolished, was debated, he spoke against the innovation so coolly,