disreputable his sincerity at present, it is in vain to deny that he had made the most valuable concessions, and such as had cost him very dear. Even in this business of the militia he would have consented to nominate the persons recommended to him as lieutenants, by commissions revocable at his pleasure; or would have passed the bill rendering them irremovable for one year, provided they might have received their orders from himself and the two Houses conjointly. It was not unreasonable for the king to pause at the critical moment which was to make all future denial nugatory, and enquire whether the prevailing majority designed to leave him what they had not taken away".

6. Propositions tendered to the King at York. (June 2, 1642). Although both parties had given evidence of their determination to appeal to the sword, the two Houses apparently for no other reason than to quiet the clamours of those who thought the king more disposed to treat than to fight, sent a petition to the king with nineteen propositions, which being accepted would form the basis of a pacification. They were founded upon various addresses and declarations of an earlier date, and framed after the model of the concessions obtained by the Scots. Hallam says, they "went to abrogate in spirit the whole existing constitution, and were in truth so far beyond what the king could be expected to grant, that terms more intolerable were scarcely proposed to him in his greatest difficulties, not at Uxbridge, nor at Newcastle, nor even at Newport". By these propositions it was demanded that the king's ministers, privy council, and judges, should be approved in parliament, and take such an oath as the Houses should prescribe, and hold their places only during good behaviour: that the education and marriage of the royal children should be regulated by parliament: that the church government and liturgy should be reformed as the two Houses should advise that the king should dismiss all his guards and recall his proclamations, but leave the militia at the disposal of the House, till it was further settled by a bill; and and that all forts be under the command of persons appointed by the king, with the approval of parliament: that no peer should sit in parliament, unless with the consent of both Houses: that the king should ally himself with Protestant princes for the maintenance of the true faith, and that popish peers be deprived of their votes, and children of Catholics be brought up in the Protestant faith and that he should clear, by act of parliament, Lord Kimbolton and the other accused members. Charles replied that he was willing to abolish innovations in religion, to exclude Catholic peers, and would agree to the forced education of catholic children, but to the other demands he would not consent, for the power legally placed in the two Houses was more than sufficient to prevent and restrain the power of tyranny".

7. The parliament formally decides on war. July 12, 1642. To carry into execution the orders of the parliament, and to take charge of the public defence, a Committee of Safety was appointed, consisting of five lords, Northumberland, Essex, Pembroke, Holland, and Say; and ten commoners, Hampden, Pym, Hollis, Martin, Fiennes, Pierpont, Glyn, W. Waller, Stapleton, and Merrick. When the answer to the propositions of York was received, a vote taken for raising ten thousand volunteers in London, was opposed by only forty-five members of the Commons. Effective measures were forthwith adopted, the public revenues were seized for the parliament, and the counties ordered to provide arms and ammunition for immediate use. And finally, on the 12th July, the Houses vote that an army be raised "for the defence of the king and parliament", to consist of twenty regiments of foot, of about one thousand men each, and seventy-five troops of horse, of sixty each. The Earl of Essex was appointed general-in-chief, and the Earl of Bedford general of horse. Charles almost immediately proclaimed Essex and his officers guilty of treason.

SECTION XIV. THE CIVIL WAR IN 1642.

1. The causes of the Civil War. The immediate causes of this war, between men of the same blood, are to be found in the preceding narrative; the causes more remote are thus stated by Guizot :

"When we glance at the state of the free institutions of England at the end of the sixteenth century, we find first, fundamental principles of liberty, of which neither the country nor the legislature had ever lost sight, second, precedents and examples of liberty-a good deal mixed, it is true, with inconsistent examples and precedentsbut sufficient to legalize and sustain the claims, and to support the defenders of liberty in any struggle against tyranny or despotism; third, special and local institutions, replete with germs of liberty; the jury, the right of assembling, and of being armed; the independence of municipal administrations and jurisdictions; fourth and last, the parliament and its power, of which the crown had more need than ever, since it had lavished away the greater part of its independent revenue, domains, feudal rights. &c., and was dependent for its very support upon the national vote.

The political condition of England, therefore, in the sixteenth century, was wholly different from that of the continent. In spite of the tyranny of the Tudors, and systematic triumph of pure monarchy, there was still a fixed fulcrum, a sure means of action for the new spirit of liberty.

There were, then, two national wants in England at this period: on one side was the need of religious revolution and liberty in the heart of the reformation already commenced; and on the other, was required political liberty in the heart of the pure monarchy then in

progress; and in the course of their progress, these two wants were able to invoke all that had already been done in either direction. They combined. The party who wished to pursue religious reformation, invoked political liberty to the assistance of its faith and conscience against the king and the bishops. The friends of political liberty again sought the aid of the popular reformation. The two parties united to struggle against absolute power in the temporal and in the spiritual orders, a power now concentrated in the hands of the king. This is the origin and purport of the English Revolution.

It was thus essentially devoted to the defence or achievement of liberty. For the religious party it was a means, and for the political party an end: but with both, liberty was the question, and they were obliged to pursue it in common. There was no real religious quarrel between the episcopal and the puritan party; little disputes upon dogmas, or concerning faith; not but that there existed real differences of opinion between them-differences of great importance; but this was not the principal point. Practical liberty was what the Puritans wished to force from the Episcopal party: it was for this that they strove. There was also another religious party who had to found a system, to establish its dogmas, ecclesiastical constitution, and discipline; this was the Presbyterian party: but though it worked to the utmost of its power, it did not in this point progress in proportion to its desire. Placed on the defensive, oppressed by the bishops, unable to act without the assent of the political reformers, its allies and chief supporters, its dominant aim was liberty, the general interest and common aim of all the parties, whatever their diversity, who concurred in the movement. Taking everything together, the English Revolution was essentially political; it was brought about in the midst of a religious people, and in a religious age; religious thoughts and passions were its instruments; but its chief design and definite aim were political, were devoted to liberty, and the abolition of all absolute power."

The same writer, after noticing the prevalent notion that the English and French Revolutions were unexpected events, which threw society out of its ancient and natural course, observes:-" Far from having interrupted the natural course of events in Europe, neither the English Revolution nor our own, ever said, wished, or did anything that had not been said, wished, done, or attempted, a hundred times before they burst forth. They proclaimed the illegality of absolute power; the free consent of the people in reference to laws and taxes, and the right of armed resistance, were elemental principles of the feudal system; and the church has often repeated these words of St. Isodore, which we find in the canons of the fourth council of Toledo: He is king who rules his people with justice; if he rule otherwise, he shall be no longer king." They attacked prerogative, and sought to introduce greater equality into social order: kings throughout Europe have done the same; and down to our own times, the various steps in the progress of civil equality have been founded upon the laws and measured the progress of royalty. They demanded that public offices should be thrown open to the citizens at large, should be distributed according to merit only, and that power should be conferred by election: this is the fundamental principle of the internal government of the church: which not only acts upon it, but has emphatically proclaimed its worth."

2. Preliminary movements of the Parliamentarians. On the return of the commissioners from their interview with the king at Theobalds, the Houses resolved that the kingdom should be put in a posture of defence by authority of parliament alone. Orders were immediately issued for fitting out the entire fleet and putting it under the command of Northumberland, Lord High Admiral of England, but in consequence of his indisposition, the command fell to the Earl of Warwick. The two principal forts in the kingdom, the Tower and Hull, were already in their hands, and to these Portsmouth and Dover were added before the king raised his standard. In April an ordinance was voted, declaring the king's commissions of lieutenancy illegal and void. The month following, the ordinance for the militia was directed to be carried into effect, and in less than a week Skippon mustered six regiments of London trained-bands in Finsbury-fields: the citizens were forbidden to take up arms at the command of the king. In the country, many of the trained-bands met and exercised spontaneously. Neither were means wanting: the City lent £100,000; the same sum was taken from the funds raised for the relief of Ireland; and a subscription was opened in both Houses. An appeal made to the citizens brought in money, plate, and jewels. For ten days the stream flowed into Guildhall; even poor women brought in their wedding-rings, and their gold and silver hairpins.

3. Preliminary movements of the King. For a time after the king reached York, though many cavaliers joined him, there was a want of money, arms, and ammunition; Charles even found it difficult to furnish his own table, and provide for the ordinary expenses of his household. The queen had sold some of the crown jewels in Holland, but it was not easy to send the proceeds to England. In April, an attempt was made to obtain possession of the arms and military stores in the magazine at Hull, but Hotham, the governor, refused to admit the king, and the parliament, to secure the stores, ordered them to be removed to the Tower. When in May the parliament ordered its ordinance respecting the militia to be carried out, Charles denounced it as illegal, and called upon the gentry of Yorkshire to come in and form a guard. Commissions of array were also issued, and ran side by side, in nearly all the counties, with the parliamentary ordinance of militia. Speaking generally, the king's principal supporters were found in the West and North: in several of the midland counties he shared about equally with the other party. Still the great difficulty was the want of money. Imitating the parliament, Charles called on his supporters to send in contributions; this call produced little effect, and his commissioners, who collected

from one country seat to another, added but slightly to the common fund. When in July the parliament decreed the formation of an army, the cavaliers rose in all directions, and spreading themselves over the country, spoiled the funds of the parliament, by carrying off their money, horses, and arms. The loyal university of Oxford sent its plate to the king, and Cambridge was about to do so, when Cromwell performed his first exploit, by stopping the plate, and seizing the magazine in Cambridge castle. Meanwhile the queen had sent from Holland the first instalment of military stores.

4. The Royal Standard set up at Nottingham. Aug. 22, 1642. Having issued a proclamation requiring all men capable of bearing arms to repair to Nottingham, the king on the 22nd raised his standard, which was deemed equivalent to a declaration of hostilities. Clarendon's account says "the standard was erected about six of the clock in the evening of a very stormy and tempestuous day. The king himself, with a small train, rode to the top of the castle-hill, Varney, the knight-marshal who was standard bearer, carrying the standard, which was there erected in that place with little other ceremony than the sound of drums and trumpets. Melancholy men observed many illpresages about that time. There was not one regiment of foot yet brought thither, so that the trained bands which the sheriff had drawn together, were all the strength the king had for his person and the guard of the standard. There appeared no influx of men in obedience to the proclamation; the arms and ammunition were not yet come from York, and a general sadness covered the whole town. The standard was blown down the same night it had been set up, by a very strong and unruly wind, and could not be fixed again in a day or two, till the tempest was allayed". Rushworth's account disagrees with that just given. He says the standard was set up "in great state," that a herald-at-arms read a proclamation declaring the ground and cause of his majesty's setting it up, and that at night it was taken down and carried into the castle. The king passed several days at Nottingham in fruitless expectation that forces would come in. Meanwhile the parliamentary army was gathering at Northampton, and already numbered several regiments. Under these circumstances, his council urged negotiation, and four deputies were sent to London; they returned without accomplishing anything.

5. Composition and character of the two armies. About three-fourths of the nobility and principal gentry, led by honor, attachment to the church, or a suspicion of the designs of the parliament, attached themselves to the royal cause. Catholics were at first excluded, but necessity soon obliged the king to