Lords," says Rowland, "were animated by the same feeling;" and both went to work in earnest. The Commons impeached the Earl of Strafford, the King's chief adviser, and the Lords tried him for High Treason. He was condemned and executed. Sir F. Windebank, Secretary of State, was next impeached, but he escaped to France. The new canons of the Clergy were all denounced, as not having the consent of Parliament; the tax called "Ship Money" was declared illegal; and the Commons expelled four of their Members for being monopolist patentees. The impeachments of Archbishop Laud and the Lord-Keeper Finch followed. The Lords condemned the Archbishop, who was afterwards executed. Finch fled to France.

The King was alarmed, and resorted to strategy. He summoned both Houses, and made a conciliatory speech. More politic still, he offered office to the Puritan party. Oliver St. John, one of his bitterest enemies, became Solicitor-General. The Earl of Bedford, one of the Puritan leaders of the Lords, and Mr. Pym, of the Commons, were tempted with high appointments; but they waived their claims until their fellow-leaders were provided for.

Parliament, however, pressed on. They passed an Act that neither House should be dissolved or prorogued without their consent. The High Commission Court. and the odious Star Chamber were abolished--both effective instruments of tyranny in previous reigns. The King was completely cowed. He assented to all those Acts stripping him of the prerogatives his predecessors had enjoyed. He remonstrated sometimes. "You have taken the Government almost in pieces," he said once: "it is almost off the hinges."

The surrender of the Royal power was so complete

that a popular reaction in the King's favor took place. Demonstrations of loyalty and affection burst forth whenever he appeared. This alarmed Oliver Cromwell, who had now become the real leader of the Puritan party, and bent on the downfall of the unfortunate Charles. So adroitly had he played his role that few suspected it was his hand skilfully guiding the various movements which were fast precipitating the country into civil war. Cromwell counted on the fatuity of his intended victim, and was not disappointed. The Puritan party in the Commons suddenly proposed a "Grand Remonstrance against any control over legislation by the Crown. It was debated twelve hours, and passed-159 to 148. Cromwell said to Lord Falkland, as they left the House, "If the Remonstrance had been rejected, I would have sold all that I had the next morning, and never have seen England more." Hume refers to this Remonstrance as aiming at "an abolition almost total of the Monarchical Government of England." Hallam considers that "it was put forward to stem the returning tide of loyalty, which threatened to obstruct the further progress of the popular leader." Other attacks on the Crown followed. The Commons accused twelve Bishops of High Treason, and the Lords ordered their arrest.

The unanimity of the Lords and Commons-the Nobles and Middle Class-during this epoch is striking. The Lords aimed at the establishment of Parliamentary Government, and the abolition of absolute power. So did a portion of the Commons, to the number of 148. Another portion, counting 159, with Oliver Cromwell at their head, had a very different project in view, which neither the Nation, the Lords, nor a half of the Commons suspected at the time.

The King, after he had accepted the "Grand Remonstrance and several other measures strongly obnoxious to him, at last determined to yield no more. Accordingly, he ordered four Members of the Commons, Pym, Hampden, Haselrigge, and Strode, with one Member of the Lords, Kimbolton, to be accused of High Treason-January, 1642. He even went in person to the House of Commons with a guard to arrest the objects of his resentment; but they escaped as he entered. The King then asked the Speaker if the accused were present. Falling on his knees, the Speaker replied, "I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here, and humbly beg your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this." The House then adjourned in great excitement. Next day they passed a declaration that the King's proceedings were a breach of the rights and privileges of Parliament, and adjourned for a week. The House of Lords made a similar adjournment.

On reassembling, the accused Members took their places. The King admitted his impetuosity, offered a free pardon, and appealed to the Lords to mediate once more between him and the Commons. The appeal, however, came too late. The Commons grew more defiant. They demanded, with the concurrence of the Lords, that the town of Hull, with its magazine and arms, should not be given up without their authority. Both Houses next passed a Bill removing the Bishops from Parliament; and to this Bill the King, contrary to expectation, assented. They then insisted on taking the command of the Militia; but with this demand the King resolutely refused to comply, and thus the final breach was made.

From this brief résumé it will be plainly seen that Parliament was triumphant in every contest with the vacillating Charles. It stripped him of all his prerogatives, and extinguished irresponsible power in England. When the King signed the law which made Parliament indissoluble but by its own vote, his surrender was complete. If Parliament, therefore, merely sought for a preponderance over the Sovereign, the struggle was ended. In all the previous conflicts between King and Parliament, the concessions of the King terminated the contest. In this way for centuries Parliamentary power grew up, and Royal authority was cut down. It is often asserted that Charles was faithless, and would have reclaimed the power he had yielded; but if Parliament was strong enough to take it from him, how could he recover it? The truth is, as subsequent facts proved, there was a wing of the Puritan party in the Long Parliament of 1640, called the "Root and Branch Men," and afterwards known as the "Independents," who aimed at something more than the union of Legislative and Executive power in the hands of Parliament—a faction whose real object was to suppress the Monarchy itself. The opportunity was favorable, for the King though able, was irresolute, and controlled by the influences about him,* so that Par

* The wife of Charles exercised a fatal ascendency over him. She was intrepid, but ignorant of England and the situation. It was she who forced the hesitating King to attempt the seizure of the five members of the Commons, his bitterest antagonists. "Go, coward," she exclaimed, "and pull out these rogues by the ears, or never see my face again." When the conflict became inevitable, she escaped to Holland, and sold her own and other jewels to buy arms. Eluding the cruisers, she landed soon afterwards on the Yorkshire coast. A few hours later, four Parliamentary ships came up, and opened fire on the village she occupied. Fleeing with her attendants to a ditch in the outskirts, she crouched there for a time in concealment, until the Queen remembered she had

liament was constantly able to overcome him. Cromwell, who had put himself at the head of the Independents, saw that victory over such an antagonist in the field was certain, and would place the Government

in his grasp.

There was one other man in England who foresaw this. "Who is that sloven ?" said Lord Digby, one day, to Hampden, pointing to a Member of the Commons. "That sloven," he replied, "will be the greatest man in England, if we ever come to a breach with the King, which God forbid." The sloven, Oliver Cromwell, and his cousin, John Hampden, had resolved on a breach with the doomed King, and they accomplished it.

The attempt to obtain the command of the Militia proved that the Puritan leaders had resolved on civil war. This was so evident that the King decided to leave London, March, 1642, and prepare for the conflict. There was no standing army in England, and both sides were compelled to enroll troops. In June, Parliament obtained money from the Corporation of London and other sources. In the same month, they voted "nine proposals" of reconciliation with the King, which required that all civil, military, and reli

left her pet lapdog behind. Heedless of the danger, she flew back, and brought off her favorite in her arms. A soldier was killed near her in the ditch, and her party were covered with earth by a ball striking the ground near them. On another occasion, when a Parliamentary ship was in chase of her, she commanded her captain not to strike, and, to the terror of all, bade him at the last extremity to blow up his vessel. During the campaign of 1644 she gave birth to her last child; and a few days later she was forced to escape in disguise, and wandered to Falmonth, whence she embarked for France, where her nephew, Louis XIV., then reigned. She had many noble traits; but, being a Catholic, she was hated by the Puritans and Presbyterians. She said once, "Though they hate me now, perhaps they will not always hate me; and if they have any sentiments of honor, they will be ashamed of tormenting a poor woman who takes so little precaution to defend herself."