throne. It ascribed his illegal course of action to the influence of evil advisers, and it demanded that only those persons should be admitted to his counsels who possessed the confidence of the Parliament.

After a long and stormy debate, the Remonstrance was carried by a majority of eleven. At one time the temper of the members became so warm that swords were drawn, and a desperate personal struggle seemed imminent when a calm question of Hampden quieted. the stormy scene.

A few days afterwards the king, on his return from Scotland, entered the city in state, and was entertained at a splendid banquet in the Guildhall. The citizens, still loyal to their sovereign, received him with shouts of welcome. Elated by his enthusiastic reception in the city, he treated the Remonstrance, when presented to him at Hampton Court, with good-humoured contempt, and entirely ignored its demands.

5

At once, the whole tone of feeling in the city completely altered. Crowds of apprentices began to gather round Whitehall during the discussion of a Bill for the exclusion of bishops from the Lords; and with shouts of 'No bishops!' hustled them on their way to the House. Conflicts became frequent between them and the courtiers. The latter, in mockery of their affected military air, were nicknamed Cavaliers; the former, in scornful allusion to their cropped hair, were dubbed Roundheads.

6

During the disputes regarding the bishops, news reached Charles of an intention to impeach the queen on account of her supposed connection with intrigues against the Parliament. Pym, Hampden, and other three leaders were accused of high treason at the bar of the Commons and their immediate arrest demanded.8 Previous to this

their studies had been sealed up by the king's orders. The Commons appointed a committee to consider his demand, but at the same time arrested the officers who had carried out the royal mandate.

Charles was urged by the queen to seize the five members in the House by armed force. "Go, you coward," she exclaimed, "and pull these rogues out by the ears, or never see my face more. When it became known that Charles was approaching the House with five hundred armed followers, the accused members left their places and rowed down the river to the city. Charles, when he took up his position at the Speaker's chair, found that his birds had flown;'. and withdrew amid indignant cries of Privilege! Privilege! '9

The violent proceedings of the king aroused the darkest fears. The Commons, for greater security, withdrew to the city, where they sat in committee in the Guildhall and denounced the conduct of the king as treason. The train-bands 10 turned out in their defence; and Charles, learning that they were about to return to Westminster, retired to Hampton Court. The time for compromise was now past, and both parties began to prepare for an appeal to the sword..

1. The Long Parliament nominally existed for nearly twenty years, but it actually sat only from 1640 to 1653, and then for a few days in 1660. It was thus not in reality the longest Parliament; the Pension Parliament of Charles II. sat regularly for eighteen years (1661-1679).

2. This was the first decidedly unconstitutional step taken by the Parliament.

4. Most probably not over 40,000 actually perished.

5. Whitehall, at that time a royal palace. Liko Hampton Court it was granted to Henry VIII. by Wolsey.

6. Cavaliers, i.e., horsemen.

7. Roundheads, a term of contempt, referring to the close-cropped hair of the Puritans. 8. This incident is usually called 'the attempted arrest of the five Members.' They were Pym, Hampden, Hazelrig, Hollis, and Strode.

3. The first immediate cause of the Civil War
probably was what is known as the 'In-
cident,' or flight of Argyle and Hamilton,
the two leaders in Scotland of the party
opposed to the king. Charles was believed
to be implicated in a plot for killing or
carrying them away. This, and the mas-
sacre in Ireland, led to the drawing up of
the Grand Remonstrance, by which the 10.
hostile feeling to Charles was revived.

9. It is one of the privileges of Parliament, that no member can be in any way interfered with for anything said or done in the Commons except by the action of the Commons themselves,

Train-bands, equivalent to the modern militia,

THE CIVIL WAR.

1642-1646.

HE Beginning of the Struggle.-The time had now come when the question whether king or Parliament was to be supreme could only be settled by an appeal to arms. The struggle was to be a long and severe one; in it one king lost his life, a second his throne, and a whole dynasty their right of succession. At its beginning, all moderate men regarded the contest with sorrow and regret.

The king seems to have seen, before his opponents, that nothing but war could decide the points in dispute. Accordingly, the queen was sent over to Holland1 with the crown jewels to raise money and purchase arms. The Commons urged the king to resign to Parliament the command of the militia-then the only standing force of the realm. Upon his refusal, they passed the necessary ordinance without his consent.

Charles now retired to Yorkshire; and the first actual check was given to his arms at Hull, on the 23rd of April 1642. Here, Sir John Hotham the governor refused either to admit the king with his party, or to give up to them the great magazine of arms and ammunition which had been stored there for the war against the Scots. Parliament also secured Portsmouth 2 and the Tower of London, and resolved to "put the kingdom in a posture of defence."

3

Geographically, it may be said that London and the parts about it, with the eastern counties, were devoted to the Parliament; while Wales, with the North and South-west, were on the whole inclined to the king. Of

classes of society, the nobles and their retainers were enthusiastically royalist; but the citizen, the merchant, and the artizan were firm supporters of the National Assembly. Finally, of religious parties, those holding high-church principles were unfaltering in their attachment to the cause and person of the monarch; while the Puritans were the most formidable of his opponents, and the most determined adherents to the cause of popular liberty.

The command of the royal army was given to the Earl of Lindsay, but the king himself and his nephews Rupert and Maurice exercised a paramount influence. The Earl of Essex was general of the Parliamentary army, which began to gather in the midland counties.

4

On the evening of a very stormy and tempestuous day in August 1642, Charles set up his standard at Nottingham, where he was joined by many noblemen and gentlemen from London.

Cavaliers successful in Campaigns of 1642 and 1643. From Nottingham, Charles proceeded westward; and, having gathered a considerable force at Shrewsbury, resolved to march on London. Essex, advancing to intercept him, fell in with the royal forces encamped on Edgehill, on the borders of Warwickshire. Led by the fiery Prince Rupert, the cavalry of Charles dashed against both wings of the army of Essex and scattered them in headlong flight; but the Parliamentary infantry broke the centre of the royal line and all but captured the royal standard. Night fell while victory was yet undecided. On the morrow Essex fell back on London, while Charles established himself at Oxford.

During the year 1643, the tide of success still flowed in favour of the Cavaliers. The noble Hampden was