The upper house demanded a free conference, which proved ineffectual. New resolutions were taken by the commons, diametrically opposite to those of the peers; who, on the other hand, attended the queen with along representation of all the particulars relating to this affair. They affirmed that the proceedings of the house of commons against the Aylesbury men, were wholly new and unprecedented: that it was the birthright of every Englishman, who apprehended himself injured, to seek for redress in her majesty’s courts of justice: that if any power could control this right, and prescribe when he should, and when he should not, be allowed the benefit of the laws, he ceased to be a freeman, and his liberty and property were precarious. They requested, therefore, that no consideration whatever should prevail with her majesty to suffer an obstruction to the known course of justice, but that she would be pleased to give effectual orders for the immediate issuing of the writs of error. The queen assured them that she would have complied with their request, but finding an absolute necessity for putting an immediate end to the session, she knew there could be no further proceedings on that matter. On the very day, which was the fourteenth of March, she went to the house of lords and passed the bills that were ready for the royal assent. Then she thanked the parliament for having despatched the public business: she warned them to avoid the fatal effects of animosity and dissension: and ordered the lord keeper to prorogue them to Thursday the first of May; but on the fifth of April they were dissolved by proclamation, and another was published for calling a new parliament. The queen, accompanied by the prince of Denmark, made an excursion to Newmarket, and afterwards dined by invitation with the university of Cambridge, where she conferred the honour of knighthood upon Dr. Ellis the vice-chancellor, upon James Montague, counsel for the University, and upon the celebrated Isaac Newton, mathematical professor. The two houses of convocation still continued at variance. The lower house penned petulant representations, and the archbishop answered them by verbal reprehension and admonition. The tory interest was now in the wane. The duke of Buckinghamshire was deprived of the privy-seal, and that office conferred on the duke of Newcastle, a nobleman of powerful influence with the whig party. The earl of Montague was created marquis of Mounthermer and duke of Montague; the earl of Peterborough and lord Cholmondeley were chosen of the privy-council; and lord Cutts was sent to command the troops in Ireland under the duke of Ormond.