sisted of more than double their stated complement. He was conscious, however, that with such an army he could by no means resist the infinitely superior forces of his enemies, if, acting simultaneously from a general preconcerted plan, they had been as united in their attacks as in their hatred against him: but knowing their discordance, he grounded all his schemes and hopes upon it, and was not disappointed. The revolted troops in Wales were defeated, and their remnants having thrown themselves into Pembroke, were there closely besieged, and soon after taken by Cromwell. Lambert gained advantages over Langdale and Musgrave in the north. The earl of Holland was defeated at Kingston, and taken prisoner at St. Neots.

The Kentish royalists, defeated at Maidstone by Fairfax, having joined those of Essex, and retreated to Colchester, he laid siege to that place, which defended itself to the last extremity. A new fleet was manned, and sent out, under the command of Warwick, to oppose the revolted ships, of which the prince of Wales had taken the command, and had already entered the river Thames and taken many ships of great value, while the duke of York, his brother, made his escape from St. James's palace to Holland.

The army being thus employed in all quarters, and at a good distance from London, the parliament began to resume its wonted courage and spirit; and the city, following the example, delivered to them a petition, that they would enter into a personal treaty with the king, as there was no other way which could restore again the kingdom to a happy peace. A committee of the house of commons was appointed accordingly to meet with a committee of the common council, to confer about the means of providing for the king's safety and security during the time of the treaty. After many delays, it was settled that the

treaty should take place in the Isle of Wight, where his majesty should enjoy honour, freedom, and safety. A committee of both houses was accordingly sent to the king for that purpose in the beginning of August. They had previously repealed the vote of non-addresses, recalled the eleven impeached members, and reversed the vote by which they were expelled.

The king received the commissioners very graciously, and told them that no man could desire a peace more heartily than himself; that though he was without any man to consult with, and without a secretary to write what he should dictate, yet they should not wait long for his answer, which he gave them within two or three days, all written with his own hand; and in which, after lamenting the extreme restraint he was under, he said, he should not think himself in any freedom to treat, except before the treaty began, all such persons might have liberty to repair to him whose assistance and advice he should stand in need of in the treaty; as for the place, he could have wished, for the expedition that would have resulted from thence, that it might have been in or near London; but since they had resolved that it should be in the Isle of Wight, he would not object against it, and named the town of Newport for the place. He sent the names of those of his servants whose attendance he desired in their several offices; in the number were included the duke of Richinond, the marquis of Hertford, the earls of Southampton and Lindesey, all four gentlemen of his bed chamber and of his privy council. He sent likewise a list of several bishops, common lawyers, civilians, and of such of his chaplains as he desired to consult, and insisted that he might be in the same state of freedom as he enjoyed lately at Hampton Court.

When the commissioners returned from the Isle

of Wight, news was brought of the defeat of the Scottish army; and Cromwell had written to his friends, "What a perpetual ignominy it would be "to the parliament, that nobody abroad or at "home would ever give credit to them, if they "should recede from their former declaration of no further addresses to the king, and conjured "them to continue firm in that resolution." But they had gone too far now to recede. Since the petition from the common council for a treaty, a great many members who had opposed the vote of no more addresses to the king, and from the time it had passed had absented themselves from parliament, upon the first mention of a treaty, flocked again to the house, and secured a great majority against Cromwell's party; and the victory he had obtained made them more earnest and solicitous for the speedy conclusion of a treaty, which they considered as the only means to prevent the confusion which the victorious army was likely to bring upon the kingdom. They insisted accordingly, and it was voted that the king should be immediately satisfied in all that he had proposed in his answer. Having proceeded thus far, they appointed fifteen commissioners to treat with the king, and enjoined them to prepare every thing for the treaty with all possible expedition. But sir Henry Vane, one of the ablest leaders of the independent party, being one of those commissioners, used all his arts to obstruct the negociation, in hopes that Cromwell would dispatch enough his affairs in Scotland so as to return in time, and oppose more powerful arguments to the intended treaty.

The first point insisted on by the commissioners was the king's recalling all his proclamations and declarations against the parliament, and the acknowledging that they had taken arms in their own defence. He frankly offered the former concession,

but the falsehood and indignity of the latter begat in his breast an extreme reluctance against it. The parliament, conscious that the letter of the law condemned them as rebels and traitors, would not give up a point so necessary for their future security; and the king, finding that peace could be obtained on no other terms, at last yielded to it. He only entered a protest, which was admitted, that no concession made by him should be valid unless the whole treaty of pacification were concluded. He consented likewise, that the parliament should retain during the term of twenty years the power over the militia and army, and that of levying what money they pleased for their support. He even yielded to them the right of resuming at any time afterwards the same authority, whenever they should declare such a resumption necessary for public safety; which evidently implied a total and perpetual resig nation of the important power of the sword. He relinquished to them the government of Ireland, the conduct of the war there, and the nomination to all the great offices, during twenty years. renounced the power of the wards, and accepted of one hundred thousand pounds a year in lieu of it. He acknowledged the validity of their great seal, and gave up his own. He abandoned the power of creating peers without the consent of parliament; and he agreed that all the debts contracted in order to support the war against him, should be paid by the people. When these concessions, so exorbitant, so subversive of the English constitution, were extorted from Charles, he could not help observing, that he had been more an enemy to his people by this treaty, could he have prevented it, than by any other action of his life.

He

The only two demands of the parliament, on which the king's resistance was absolutely invincible, were the abolition of episcopacy and the giving up of his friends to punishment. He could have

consented to the suppression of archbishops, deans, canons, and prebends, but he deemed the bishops of apostolical institution, and exclusively invested with the power of ordination. As to the royalists, whose estates were almost entirely under sequestration, he consented that they should pay such composition as they and the parliament could agree on, and only begged that they might be made as moderate as possible. The book of cominon prayer he was willing to renounce, but required the liberty of using some other liturgy in his own chapel, a demand which was positively refused by the parliament, who persevered in insisting on the establishment of presbytery, the sale of the chapter lands, the abolition of all forms of prayer, and strict laws against the Catholics. In the discussion on these articles, two of the parliamentary theologians told the king, that if he did not consent to the utter abolition of episcopacy he would be damned. But the following vote of the lords and commons is both the most shocking instance, and the strongest proof of the frantic fanaticism that prevailed at that time: "The

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houses, out of their detestation to that abomina"able idolatry used in the mass, do declare, that they cannot admit of, or consent unto, any such indulgence in any law, as is desired by his majesty, for exempting the queen and her family "from the penalties to be enacted against the exer"cise of the mass."

The presbyterians were so completely blinded by bigotry, that though their most important interest was evidently to conclude as soon as possible their treaty with the king, and to invest him with such power as might enable him to protect them against the resentment of the independent party, the violences of the army, and the threatening tyranny of Cromwell, yet they were willing to abandon all interests whatsoever rather than the most minute of their theological pretensions. On the other hand,