disappointment which hailed the news of the disappearance of the five. "Zounds!" stormed one of them in wrath, "they are gone, and now we are never the better for our coming."

As the king passed down the House, sullen murmurs of discontent muttered threateningly along the crowded benches, which, almost before he had departed, broke out into loud cries of "Privilege, privilege." With these cries ringing in his ears, and amid the shouts and execrations of the disappointed desperadoes, he passed along to Whitehall. And so ended the parliamentary contest between the king and his subjects.

"The arrest of the five members," observes Mr. Forster, "was the final stage of the struggle against the Grand Remonstrance. It was a violent effort to reverse the eleven votes by which the victory was achieved, and to constitute the leaders of the minority masters of the House of Commons." The immediate question on which the outbreak of the civil war ultimately turned was the demand of Parliament that to them should be transferred the full control of the militia; but this demand was prompted by the inveterate distrust and fear of the king, which the attempt on the five members had fanned to an extraordinary height, and "when Charles and his armed attendants passed through the lobby of the House of Commons on the 4th of January, the civil war had substantially begun."

The Commons' Committee appointed to inquire into the matter decidedly declared that the attempted arrest was a breach of privilege. Treason, they argued, must have been committed in the House or out of it. If the former, only the House (under the privilege of secrecy) could bear witness of it. If the latter, the House must be convinced of the truth of the charge before surrendering its members. In either case it was definitely laid down that no member of the House could be arrested without the consent of the House; and that the only legal mode of trying a member of the House for treason was by the ordinary common-law procedure of a true bill of a grand jury, and subsequent trial by a petty jury.

On January 10 the king departed from Whitehall, never

to enter it again save as a prisoner. The next day saw the triumphant return of the five members to Westminster, accompanied by the trained bands of the City, and a host of boats manned by the seamen and watermen of the Thames. Pym was now the acknowledged chief of the nation. The parliamentary struggle was practically at an end; the out十 break of the civil war was a mere question of time.

SECTION 3.-The Revolutionary Period.

The Commons at once acted vigorously and decidedly. They announced to the Lords that they would be glad of their help, but if it were refused they would do their best to save the kingdom alone. This bold announcement scared the Lords from their policy of obstruction, and bills were rapidly passed excluding the bishops from the Upper House and transferring to Parliament the control of the army and navy. A long paper war ensued between king and Parliament on these subjects, during the progress of which Hyde, Falkland, and the Royalists, amounting to thirty-two peers and sixty members of the House of Commons, withdrew from Westminster and joined the king at York. The demands of the Parliament rose continually higher, and in the end Charles determined to settle the disputed questions by force of arms. The parliamentary leaders at once declared the full capacity of the two Houses to act with sovereign power without the king. An executive committee of the principal men was appointed, and a parliamentary army raised.

On the revolutionary period which follows it is impossible to do more than touch briefly, owing to its absence of constitutional value, save in ultimate result. It was this mutilated Parliament, no longer fully representative of the realm, which carried on the war to its successful close. It was this same Parliament, or rather its Presbyterian majority, headed by Holles, who quarrelled with their victorious army, and the generals, Cromwell, Fairfax, and Ireton. It was this Parliament, still further reduced by Colonel Pride's forcible purge of forty members, and a later expulsion of one hundred more, which, under the title of the Rump, earned for itself undying fame by the execution of Charles, and the

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abolition of monarchy and the House of Lords. Their greed of power, however, led them to endeavor to perpetuate their own individual existence in the new Parliament, which was now urgently demanded. This attempt brought them into collision with Cromwell and the army, and after vain efforts at an accommodation, the general called in the aid of a company of musketeers, drove the members out of the Commons' House by force, and locked the door. "We have heard," said John Bradshaw, one of the executive committee, "what you have done this morning at the House, but you mistake, sir, if you think this Parliament dissolved. No power on earth can dissolve this Parliament but itself.

These words sound the keynote of the difficulties which beset Cromwell's efforts to restore parliamentary government. There was a strong republican party, headed by Vane and Ludlow, who were alienated by the expulsion of the Rump just as the Presbyterians had been thrown into opposition by the removal of Holles and their other leaders. These two parties were far more difficult to deal with than the Royalists and the Anabaptists, who confined their efforts to secret plots of insurrection and assassination; for they contrived invariably to secure a very strong position in Cromwell's Parliaments, and by systematic obstruction and open hostility rendered all effectual action out of the question. The imposition of oaths to support the existing Government produced little good, for the oath was taken with the lips, and rejected immediately by the heart. The natural result was the total failure and early dissolution of the Parliaments of 1654 and 1657.

The Parliament of 1654, however, will always form a memorable date in our parliamentary annals as the first Parliament which was representative of the United Kingdom, and as the first step in the direction of a reform of the representative system. Its numbers were four hundred and sixty in all, of whom four hundred sat for England, thirty for Scotland, thirty for Ireland. A number of rotten boroughs were disfranchised, and their members given to the counties. A number of large towns, among which was Birmingham, were enfranchised. A partial redistribution of the county seats was made so as establish some sort of equality between pop

ulation and representation, a uniform qualification of two hundred pounds being fixed for both electors and members. With the dissolution of this Parliament ended all hope of a restoration of constitutional government, for Cromwell did not dare to trust to freedom of election again.

His death plunged the country into a series of disputes between the military leaders, amid which the survivors of the Rump, declaring that their dissolution was invalid as having been effected without their consent, reassembled and endeavored to grasp into their hands again the reins of power, only to be once more dissolved by General Monk as the first step in the direction of the restoration of the monarchy. Overtures were immediately made to Charles II., and a Convention Parliament summoned to treat for his return.

The lawyers of the Restoration declared of course that the legal constitution had been only suspended during this period, that it revived again at its close, and that the work of Cromwell died with him. But this, however true in law, was false in reality. The monarchies of Charles I. and of his son stood on two sides of a gulf which no legal formula could successfully span; the cause of absolute monarchy was lost forever, and the predominant influence of the House of Commons in the government of the nation was successfully established. Cromwell's dynasty, indeed, died with him, but the spirit which had animated the men of the Great Rebellion lived on.

CHAPTER VIII.

PARLIAMENTS OF THE RESTORATION. (1660-1688.)

SECTION 1.-The Convention of 1660.

PARLIAMENT met on the 25th of April, 1660. The Commons proceeded at once to choose a Speaker, and their choice fell on Sir Harbottle Grimston, a Presbyterian, who was very favorable to the king's return. The Peers met in the House of Lords, and elected the Earl of Manchester to be their president. Their number, moreover, having by the 27th risen to thirty-six, they signalized that day by the first public use of a privilege long proscribed, and desired a conference with the Commons on the affairs of the kingdom. The Commons meanwhile had acted strictly according to the ancient forms. Committees of Privilege had been appointed. Solemn votes of thanks had been decreed to Monk and Ingoldsby for their great and manifold services. It is highly probable that the question of imposing some limitations on the royal power would have been discussed at the conference, but when the day came the whole subject was adroitly evaded by a stroke of management. Mr. Annesley reported to the Commons, by order, that the Council of State had received letters from the king. Sir John Grenville, the bearer, was thereupon called in, and the king's letter to the Speaker was recited to the House. The royal missives to the Lord Mayor and General Monk, for the City and army, were next read, amid manifestations of the utmost loyalty and enthusiasm.

A similar scene was shortly afterwards enacted in the Lords. Loyal answers were immediately prepared by both Houses; Grenville was publicly thanked and rewarded by the Commons; and resolutions were hastily carried in favor of the re-establishment of monarchy. The Commons voted the king a present of £50,000 for his immediate necessities. The