"By that time," he said with more truth than discretion, "we may have some lights from below which may be useful for our guidance." His motion was carried; but his language was severely censured by some of his brother peers as derogatory to their order.
[643] On the twenty-eighth the Commons resolved themselves into a committee of the whole House.

A member who had, more than thirty years before, been one of Cromwell's Lords, Richard Hampden, son of the illustrious leader of the Roundheads, and father of the unhappy man who had, by large bribes and degrading submissions, narrowly escaped with life from the vengeance of James, was placed in the chair, and the great debate began.
It was soon evident that an overwhelming majority considered James as no longer King.

Gilbert Dolben, son of the late Archbishop of York, was the first who declared himself to be of that opinion.

He was supported by many members, particularly by the bold and vehement Wharton, by Sawyer, whose steady opposition to the dispensing power had, in some measure, atoned for old offences, by Maynard, whose voice, though so feeble with age that it could not be heard on distant benches, still commanded the respect of all parties, and by Somers, whose luminous eloquence and varied stores of knowledge were on that day exhibited, for the first time, within the walls of Parliament.

The unblushing forehead and voluble tongue of Sir William Williams were found on the same side.
Already he had been deeply concerned in the excesses both of the worst of oppositions and of the worst of governments.