the first militia bill and its sion Bill.1 the second them, and to execute martial law. militia bill and its militia ordinance passed by the houses and put in force with Before the Impressment Bill, with its negative clause, thus became a law, a militia bill was brought into the commons by Hazlerigg, which contained the positive proposal provisions; that the command of the militia or trained bands of the counties should be taken entirely out of the king's hands and placed in that of a lord general, to be named by parliament, who should have power to raise men, to levy money to pay While that bill was pending, Charles caused another to be introduced upon the same provisions; subject, by which the command of the militia was to be exercised for one year within the realm under the direction of the king signified by the two houses, and under the direction of the parliament alone when the army was employed oversea.2 When it was understood that Charles would refuse his assent to his own bill on account of changes that had been made in it, the house brought forward a militia ordinance, which conferred the power upon fifty-five commissioners of array to name deputy lieutenants with the approval of parliament, to train the militia for war, to appoint officers, and to suppress "all rebellions, insurrections, and invasions," according to directions from the king signified by parliament. That ordinance, after having passed both houses, was sent to the king two days after his approval of the Impressment Bill, and on the 9th of March he refused to accept it absolutely, whereupon the houses early in May ordered it to be put into execution, and it was so enforced to the south of the Humber.3 Long before that point was reached, however, Pym, armed with petitions from every part of England, had been forced to overcome the opposition of the lords to his policy by declaring that it would be a sad thing "that the story of this present parliament should tell posterity that in so great a danger and extremity the house of commons should be forced to save the who finally kingdom alone, and that the house of peers should have no enacting the part in the honor of the preserving of it."4 Under that spur the lords joined with the commons early in February, not only in the enactment of the Bishops' Exclusion Bill,5 but also in a petition to the king asking that the fortresses and the militia out the king's assent; Pym's means for coercing the lords; joined in Bishops' Exclusion 1 16 Car. I. c. 28. 2 Lords' Journals, vol. iv. p. 709. 3 Cf. Gardiner, Hist. Eng., vol. x. pp. 161, 167, 172, 194, 202. 4 January 25, 1642. 5 Lords' Journals, vol. iv. p. 564. refused friends from West claimed sovereign; should be put in the hands of persons in whom parliament could confide.1 When, on April 23, Charles attempted to enter Charles Hull, the great magazine of the north, its governor, Sir John admission Hotham, who had secured it by command of the parliament, to Hull; refused him admission. So much was the breach widened by that event that before the end of May, Falkland, who had become secretary of state, Culpepper, who had become chancellor of the exchequer, and Hyde, the real leader of the royalist party, who refused to take office, withdrew from their the king's places at Westminster, and with thirty-two peers and sixty withdrew members of the commons joined the king at York, Lyttelton, minster; the lord keeper, following with the great seal.2 On the 6th of June 6 June, parliament distinctly asserted its claim to sovereignty in parliament a resolution which declared that "the king's supreme and royal to be pleasure is exercised and declared in this high court and council, after a more eminent and obligatory manner than it can be by any personal act or resolution of his own; " 8 and to give force to that declaration, the lords on the 4th of July joined with the commons in appointing a committee "to take into committee consideration whatsoever may concern the safety of the king- appointed; dom, the defence of the parliament, and the present observation of the peace of the kingdom, and opposing any force that may be raised against the parliament." 4 Only two days be- houses won fore, the houses had won the control of the fleet,5 and two days the fleet; later, a vote was passed to raise a special army for active service, the army of which Essex was appointed commander-in-chief, with whom Essex; each member declared his willingness to live and die "in this cause, for the safety of the king's person, the defence of both houses of parliament, and of those who have obeyed their orders and commands, and for the preservation of the true religion, laws, liberties, and peace of the kingdom."6 In the the king not mean time Charles had not been idle. Before the end of February the queen had gone abroad with the crown jewels in order to purchase arms and ammunition and to solicit the aid of foreign powers. After that it was that the king, who had 1 Lords' Journals, vol. iv. pp. 556, 558. 2 Green, Hist. of the Eng. People, vol. iii. p. 215. 8 Lords' Journals, vol. v. p. 112. 4 This committee was composed of five lords, Northumberland, Essex, Pembroke, Holland, and Saye; and • Commons' Journals, vol. v. p. 208. of safety control of under inactive; fixed his residence at York; missions of array; final attempt at reconciliation June 2; been asked by parliament to remain near Westminster,1 withdrew to the north, fixing his residence before the end of March at York. In May the lord keeper was ordered to remove the law courts from Westminster to that city, and there during that month Charles began the formation of a military force by calling upon the gentry and the trained bands of Yorkshire to gather around him in arms. On the 11th of June more active issued com- measures were taken by the issuance of commissions of array of the Tudor type, directing the trained bands to place themselves at the disposal of royal officers, a measure whose legality was sharply challenged by the parliament. In the midst of these warlike preparations a final effort to reach an understanding was made by the houses, who submitted to Charles on the 2d of June nineteen propositions, in which they offered to be reconciled with him provided he would concede the sovereignty of parliament by placing under their control the entire executive and judicial machinery of the kingdom, the reformation of the church, together with a certain control over the selection of all peers to be thereafter created. On the 18th rejected by these propositions were rejected upon the ground that their acceptance would deprive the king of all real power and make him the slave of a faction of his subjects.5 On the 22d of August the royal standard was raised at Nottingham, and a proclamation read by the herald-at-arms denouncing Essex as August 22. a traitor, a ceremony which was intended as a formal recognition of the fact that the civil war had actually begun. terms Charles June 18; royal tingham 1 An Exact Collection, p. 92. For 2 Rushworth, vol. iv. pp. 615, 621. 4 Lords' Journals, vol. v. p. 97. 5 Rushworth, vol. iv. pp. 722, 735; Clarendon, vol. i. pp. 634–647. On the 12th of July the houses made another offer of an accommodation, which Charles rejected on the 19th. Lords' Journals, vol. v. p. 235; Clarendon, vol. i. pp. 684-693. CHAPTER III. THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. tution by the I. NOTHING is more remarkable in the history of the Eng- Continuity of developlish constitution than the persistent continuity of its devel- ment of the English opment, through which all of the changes and innovations constidemanded by the wants of a great and growing nationality have been gradually brought about without any open break with the past. The nearest approach to an exception to this as affected general rule is to be found in the revolutionary period, which revolutionbegins with the meeting of the Long Parliament and ends ary epoch; with the Restoration, the period of upheaval during which the social, political, and religious forces that abide in the England of to-day broke the spell of custom and tradition by which the medieval church, the medieval monarchy, and the dying feudalism had so long enthralled the minds of men. True it is that when Puritanism laid down the sword, the republican régime which had been set up in its name gave way to a restoration of the monarchical system, not, however, in the monarchy form in which it had been overthrown, but as purified and in the form remodelled by the drastic and enduring legislation enacted it was overduring the first ten months of the Long Parliament.1 And apart from the permanent legal changes thus brought about by positive legislation must also be estimated the ultimate ultimate effects of many new ideas then germinated, which, after hav- new ideas germinated ing been for a time put aside, have ripened at last into some during of the most important reforms of modern times. It is thus period of possible to trace to this period of upheaval, characterized by a freedom of thought never before known, not only the beginnings of the great parties which have ever since dominated the political and religious life of England, but also the germs 1 "Whatever had been done so far by the Long Parliament stood the test of time. The overthrow of the special courts, by which the prerogative had been defended under the Tudors and the first two Stuarts, together with the abandonment by the king of all claim not restored in which thrown; effect of upheaval; Puritan of religious toleration, of electoral reform, of the cabinet system, of modern taxation, as well as the transition from the ancient to the modern military system. Only the outward forms of the work of Puritanism perished at the moment of its apparent overthrow. While Cromwell and his republic passed away, the indomitable spirit of civil and religious liberty that culminated in them has lived on as the advancing advancing and reforming force in English society which expressed itself first in the revolution of 1688, and finally in that whose outcome was the Reform Bill of 1832. It is, therefore, from this period of transition from the old to the new, during which the beginnings continuity of England's political life was for a moment suspended, not broken off, that we can begin to trace the beginnings of the constitution in its modern form. spirit lived on as the force in English society; of the modern constitution. Conserv ative basis the war began; 2. At the beginning of the conflict the parliamentary party upon which had no idea either of deposing the king, or of bringing him to justice for his misdeeds. When Essex was appointed commander, each member of the house swore to die "in this cause for the safety of the king's person," and when the new general quitted London, he was commanded to follow the king "and by battle or other way rescue him from his perfidious councillors and restore him to parliament," 2 and in the covenant with the Scots the houses swore "to uphold the person of the king and his authority." The theory was thus recognized at Westminster that the king was still a factor in the constitution, although separated from his parliament by evil councillors. Out of this anomalous condition of things arose the legal fic"the king in tion that "the king in parliament waged war against the king parliament waged war in the royalist camp." To supply the vacuum thus created by against the the king's absence, the executive power was for the time being put in the hands of a joint parliamentary Committee of Safety,3 and in November, 1643, the houses authorized the use of a new great seal, which was intrusted to six commissioners named by themselves. Each party did all in its power to give to its king in the royalist camp;" 1 "The history of English progress since the Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has been the history of Puritanism." - Green, Hist. of the Eng. People, vol. iii. p. 322. 2 Commons' Journals, vol. v. p. 208 et seq. 8 This committee, appointed July 4, 1642, was composed of five lords and fifteen commons, among whom were Pym, Hampden, Holles, and Marten. Lords' Journals, vol. v. p. 178; Commons' Journals, vol. ii. p. 651. 4 Lords' Journals, vol. vi. pp. 305, 318. In 1649 the commons, after assuming supreme authority, ordered a new seal |