Lambert, contenting themselves with a joint address of both houses to the king, that, if they should be attainted, execution as to their lives might be remitted. Haslerig was saved on a division of one hundred and forty-one to one hundred and sixteen, partly through the intercession of Monk, who had pledged his word to him. Most of the king's judges were entirely excepted; but with a proviso in favor of such as had surrendered according to the proclamation, that the sentence should not be executed without a special act of Parliament. Others were reserved for penalties not extending to life, to be inflicted by a future act. About twenty enumerated persons, as well as those who had pronounced sentence of death in any of the late illegal high courts of justice, were rendered incapable of any civil or military office. Thus after three months' delay, which had given room to distrust the boasted clemency and forgiveness of the victorious Royalists, the Act of Indemnity was finally passed.

Ten persons suffered death soon afterwards for the murder of Charles I, and three more who had been seized in Holland after a considerable lapse of time. There can be no reasonable ground for censuring either the king or the Parliament for their punishment, except that Hugh Peters, though a very odious fanatic, was not so directly implicated in the king's death as many who escaped, and the execution of Scrope, who had surrendered under the proclamation, was an inexcusable breach of faith. But nothing can be more sophistical than to pretend that such men as Hollis and Annesley, who had been expelled from Parliament by the violence of the same faction who put the king to death, were not to vote for their punishment, or to sit in judgment on them, because they had sided with the Commons in the civil war. It is mentioned by many writers, and in the Journals, that when Mr. Lenthall, son of the late speaker, in the very first days of the Convention Parliament, was led to say that those who had levied war against the king were as blamable as those who had cut off his head, he received a reprimand from the chair, which the folly and dangerous consequence of his position well deserved; for such language though it seems to have been used by him in extenuation of the regicides, was quite in the tone of the violent Royalists.

§3. Adjustment of the Land Claims

A question apparently far more difficult was that of restitution and redress. The crown lands, those of the Church, the estates

in certain instances of eminent Royalists had been sold by the authority of the late usurpers, and that not at very low rates, considering the precariousness of the title. This naturally seemed a material obstacle to the restoration of ancient rights, especially in the case of ecclesiastical corporations, whom men are commonly less disposed to favor than private persons. The clergy themselves had never expected that their estates would revert to them in full propriety, and would probably have been contented, at the moment of the king's return, to grant easy leases to the purchasers. Nor were the House of Commons, many of whom were interested in these sales, inclined to let in the former owners without conditions. A bill was accordingly brought into the House at the beginning of the session to confirm sales, or give indemnity to the purchasers. I do not find its provisions more particularly stated. The zeal of the Royalists soon caused the crown lands to be excepted. But the House adhered to the principle of composition as to ecclesiastical property, and kept the bill a long time in debate. At the adjournment in September the chancellor told them his Majesty had thought much upon the business, and done much for the accommodation of many particular persons, and doubted not but that, before they met again, a good progress would be made, so that the persons concerned would be much to blame if they received not full satisfaction, promising also to advise with some of the Commons as to that settlement. These expressions indicate a design to take the matter out of the hands of Parliament. For it was Hyde's firm resolution to replace the Church in the whole of its property, without any other regard to the actual possessors than the right owners should severally think it equitable to display. And this, as may be supposed, proved very small. No further steps were taken on the meeting of Parliament after the adjournment, and by the dissolution the parties were left to the common course of law. The Church, the crown, the dispossessed Royalists, reëntered triumphantly on their lands; there were no means of repelling the owners' claim, nor any satisfaction to be looked for by the purchasers under so defective a title. It must be owned that the facility with which this was accomplished is a striking testimony to the strength of the new government and the concurrence of the nation. This is the more remarkable, if it be true, as Ludlow informs us, that the chapter lands had been sold by the trustees appointed by Parliament at the clear income of fifteen or seventeen years' purchase.

The great body, however, of the suffering cavaliers, who had

compounded for their delinquency under the ordinances of the Long Parliament, or whose estates had been for a time in sequestration, found no remedy for these losses by any process of law. The Act of Indemnity put a stop to any suits they might have instituted against persons concerned in carrying these illegal ordinances into execution. They were compelled to put up with their poverty, having the additional mortification of seeing one class, namely, the clergy, who had been engaged in the same cause, not alike in their fortune, and many even of the vanquished republicans undisturbed in wealth which, directly or indirectly, they deemed acquired at their own expense. They called the statute an Act of Indemnity for the king's enemies, and of oblivion for his friends. They murmured at the ingratitude of Charles, as if he were bound to forfeit his honor and risk his throne for their sakes. They conceived a deep hatred of Clarendon, whose steady adherence to the great principles of the Act of Indemnity is the most honorable act of his public life. And the discontent engendered by their disappointed hopes led to some part of the opposition afterwards experienced by the king and still more certainly to the coalition against the minister.

§ 4. Abolition of Ancient Feudal Burdens

No one cause had so eminently contributed to the dissensions between the crown and Parliament, in the last two reigns, as the disproportion between the public revenues under a rapidly increasing depreciation in the value of money and the exigencies, at least on some occasions, of the administration. There could be no apology for the parsimonious reluctance of the Commons to grant supplies, except the constitutional necessity of rendering them the condition of redress of grievances; and in the present circumstances, satisfied, as they seemed at least to be, with the securities they had obtained, and enamoured of their new sovereign, it was reasonable to make some further provision for the current expenditure. Yet this was to be meted out with such prudence as not to place him beyond the necessity of frequent recurrence to their aid. A committee was accordingly appointed "to consider of settling such a revenue on his Majesty as may maintain the splendor and grandeur of his kingly office, and preserve the crown from want and from being undervalued by his neighbors." By their report it appeared that the revenue of Charles I from 1637 to 1641 had amounted on an average to about £900,000, of which full £200,000

arose from sources either not warranted by law or no longer available. The House resolved to raise the present king's income to £1,200,000 per annum, a sum perhaps sufficient in those times for the ordinary charges of government. But the funds assigned to produce his revenue soon fell short of the Parliament's calculation.

One ancient fountain that had poured its stream into the royal treasury it was now determined to close up forever. The feudal tenures had brought with them at the Conquest, or not long after, those incidents, as they were usually called, or emoluments of seigniory, which remained after the military character of fiefs had been nearly effaced, especially the right of detaining the estates of minors holding in chivalry without accounting for the profits. This galling burden, incomparably more ruinous to the tenant than beneficial to the lord, it had long been determined to remove. Charles, at the treaty of Newport, had consented to give it up for a fixed revenue of £100,000, and this was almost the only part of that ineffectual compact which the present Parliament were anxious to complete. The king, though likely to lose much patronage and influence, and what passed with lawyers for a high attribute of his prerogative, could not decently refuse a commutation so evidently advantageous to the aristocracy. No great difference of opinion subsisting as to the expediency of taking away military tenures, it remained only to decide from what resources the commutation revenue should spring. Two schemes were suggested the one, a permanent tax on lands held in chivalry (which, as distinguished from those in socage, were alone liable to the feudal burdens); the other an excise on beer and some other liquors. It is evident that the former was founded on a just principle, while the latter transferred a particular burden to the community. But the self-interest which so unhappily predominates even in representative assemblies, with the aid of the courtiers who knew that an excise increasing with the riches of the country was far more desirable for the crown than a fixed land-tax, caused the former to be carried, though by the very small majority of two voices. Yet even thus, if the impoverishment of the gentry, and dilapidation of their estates through the detestable abuses of wardship was, as cannot be doubted, very mischievous to the inferior classes, the whole community must be reckoned gainers by the arrangement, though it might have been conducted in a more equitable manner.

The statute 12 Car. II, c. 24, takes away the court of wards, with all wardships and forfeitures for marriage by reason of tenure, all

primer seizins and fines for alienation, aids, escuages, homages, and tenures by chivalry without exception, save the honorary services of grand sergeanty, converting all such tenures into common socage. The same statute abolishes those famous rights of purveyance and preemption, the fruitful theme of so many complaining Parliaments; and this relief of the people from a general burden may serve in some measure as an apology for the imposition of the excise. This act may be said to have wrought an important change in the spirit of our constitution, by reducing what is emphatically called the prerogative of the crown, and which, by its practical exhibition in these two vexatious exercises of power, wardship and purveyance, kept up in the minds of the people a more distinct perception, as well as more awe, of the monarchy, than could be felt in later periods, when it has become, as it were, merged in the common course of law, and blended with the very complex mechanism of our institutions. This great innovation, however, is properly to be referred to the revolution of 1641, which put an end to the court of star chamber, and suspended the feudal superiorities. Hence with all the misconduct of the two last Stuarts, and all the tendency towards arbitrary power that their government often displayed, we must perceive that the constitution had put on, in a very great degree, its modern character during that period; the boundaries of prerogative were better understood; its pretensions, at least in public, were less enormous; and not so many violent and oppressive, certainly not so many illegal, acts were committed towards individuals as under the two first of their family.

$5. Disbandment of the Army

In fixing upon £1,200,000 as a competent revenue for the crown, the Commons tacitly gave it to be understood that a regular military force was not among the necessities for which they meant to provide. They looked upon the army, notwithstanding its recent services, with that apprehension and jealousy which became an English House of Commons. They were still supporting it by monthly assessments of £70,000, and could gain no relief by the king's restoration till that charge came to an end. A bill therefore was sent up to the Lords before their adjournment in September, providing money for disbanding the land forces. This was done. during the recess: the soldiers received their arrears with many fair words of praise, and the nation saw itself, with delight and thankfulness to the king, released from its heavy burdens and the