The first object was mainly to be gained by providing for biennial Parliaments and for a redistribution of seats, which, by suppressing what in later times were known as rotten boroughs, would have made Parliament more representative (§ I, 1-5).

The second object was to be gained by the establishment of religious liberty, by depriving the Bishops of coercive jurisdiction, and by repealing all Acts imposing penalties upon attending or not attending on any special form of worship, or upon refusing to take the Covenant (§§ 11-13).

With the power of Parliament thus attenuated, it remained to be considered what were to be its relations with the Crown. Here the necessity of distinguishing between restrictions needed whilst the excitement of the Civil War was calming down, and restrictions permanently necessary was not left out of sight. The militia was to be placed for ten years under the Parliament. After that it was to be commanded by the King, but not without the advice and control of Parliament (§ II, 1, 2). For seven years there was to be a Council of State, the members of which were to be at once agreed on, and this Council of State was to superintend the militia and to conduct foreign negotiations, the final decision in peace or war being reserved to Parliament (§ III, 4, 5, 6). No attempt was made to interfere with the King's choice of his officers, except that Royalists who had borne arms against the Parliament were to be excluded from office for five years, and from sitting in Parliament till after the end of the second biennial Parliament (§ II, 4). No Peers created after May 21, 1642, were to sit in Parliament without the consent of the Houses (§ V). Acts under the King's Great Seal since it had been carried off from Parliament were to be declared invalid, and those under the Parliament's Great Seal to be valid (§ VII).

Such were the principal proposals made in this noteworthy document. It is unnecessary to call attention to its vast superiority, from a constitutional point of view, to

d

the. Presbyterian plan of waiting upon events. Yet it was this very superiority which rendered it impossible to put it in execution. It contained too much that was new, too much in advance of the general intelligence of the times, to obtain that popular support without which the best Constitutions are but castles in the air; and even if this could have been got over, there was the fatal objection that it proceeded from an army. The Presbyterian plan was more suited to the slow and cautious progressiveness of human nature. It too, however, had for the present its root of failure in it, in that it was based on the calculation that Charles, if he were restored to power, would be amenable to Presbyterian pressure. He was already giving them hopes that he would be so. Before the end of July he had intimated to the Scots his readiness to make such concessions to them as would induce them to send an invading army to support the Presbyterians in England. The army, on its part, on August 6, took military possession of Westminster. Yet, even so, it found its hold upon Parliament uncertain, and instead of taking up the Heads of the Proposals, the Houses sent to the King a revised edition of the Propositions of Newcastle, differing mainly in this, that it proposed a limited toleration for dissentient Puritans whilst forbidding all use of the Book of Common Prayer. In reply, the King, on September 14, expressed his preference for the army proposals (No. 63, p. 241). November 11, he fled from Hampton Court, where he had been under the custody of the army, to the Isle of Wight, where he was placed in virtual imprisonment in Carisbrooke Castle. On November 17, he wrote a letter to the Speaker of the House of Lords (No. 64, p. 243), offering to abandon the militia during his own life, but refusing to abolish Episcopacy, and proposing three years' Presbyterianism, to be followed by a system to be approved of by the King and the Houses, with full liberty to all those who should differ on con. scientious grounds from that settlement, and consenting to consider the proposals of the army concerning elections

On

and the succession of Parliaments. Parliament replied on December 14, by sending the Four Bills (No. 65, p. 248), which, together with the accompanying demands, were tantamount to a reiterated request for the acceptance of the Propositions of Newcastle.

On paper, at least, Charles had the advantage; but on December 26, he concluded a secret engagement with the Scottish Commissioners (No. 66, p. 259), on the basis of the three years' Presbytery, but substituting for the full liberty for those who differed from the final settlement of the Church a clause providing that an effectual course was to be taken for suppressing the opinions and practices of Anti-Trinitarians, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Arminians,' &c. On this ground the Parliament of Scotland was to require the disbandment of all armies, and if that was denied, to assert the right which belongs to the Crown in the power of the militia, the Great Seal, bestowing of honours and offices of trust, choice of Privy Councillors, the right of the King's negative voice in Parliament,' &c. (p. 261). If this were denied, a Scottish army was to invade England with these objects, and also to endeavour that there might be 'a free and full Parliament in England, and that a speedy period be set to this present Parliament.' By additional articles (No. 67, p. 264), Charles engaged to certain personal conditions in favour of Scotsmen. The discrepancy between the terms offered to the Scots and those which he offered to the English Parliament, offers a good illustration of the difficulty of coming to terms with Charles. The simple addition of the words 'the right of the King's negative voice in Parliament,' made the rest worthless. He would start with the understanding that Episcopacy was established by the law of the land, and would therefore hold its legal position as soon as the three Presbyterian years were over, except so far as it was modified by mutual agreement between Charles and the Houses. As, however, he was, according to the rules of the old Constitution and his present claim entitled to reject any

compromise which he disliked, he would find himself, when the three years were over, master of the situation.

Two days after the signature of the Engagement, Charles refused his consent to the Four Bills in a paper (No. 68, p. 265), to which the Houses replied on January 17, 1648, by the vote of No Addresses (No. 69, p. 267), breaking off all further negotiations with the King.

The secret engagement with the Scots produced the Second Civil War. The army returned exasperated, and after an attempt of the Parliament to come again to terms with the King in the Treaty of Newport, carried out Pride's Purge, and on January 8, 1649, obtained from the members who still remained sitting an Ordinance for the erection of a High Court of Justice for the trial of the King (No. 70, p. 268).

It

On January 15, 1649, whilst the King's fate was still in suspense, the Council of the Army set forth a document known as the Agreement of the People (No. 71, p. 270). was a sketch of a written Constitution for a Republican Government based on the Heads of the Proposals, omitting everything that had reference to the King. The Heads of the Proposals had contemplated the retention of the Royal authority in some shape or another, and had been content to look for security to Acts of Parliament, because, though every Act was capable of being repealed, it could not be repealed without the consent both of the King and the Houses, and the Houses might be trusted to refuse their consent to the repeal of any Act which checked the despotism of the King; whilst the King could be trusted to refuse his consent to the repeal of any Act which checked the despotism of the Houses. With the disappearance of Royalty the situation was altered. The despotism of Parliament was the chief danger to be feared, and there was no possibility of averting this by Acts of the Parliament itself. Naturally, therefore, arose the idea of a written Constitution, which the Parliament itself would be incompetent to violate. According to the proposed scheme, the existing Parliament was to be

After this there was to be a

dissolved on April 30, 1649. biennial Parliament without a House of Lords, a redistribution of seats, and a rating franchise. For seven years all who had adhered to the King were to be deprived of their votes, and during the first and second Parliaments only those who had by contributions or by personal service assisted the Parliament, or who had refrained from abetting certain combinations against Parliament, were to be capable of being elected, whilst those who had actually supported the King in the war were to be excluded for fourteen years. Further, no official was to be elected. There was to be a Council for managing public affairs.' Further, six particulars were set down with which Parliament could not meddle, all laws made on those subjects having no binding force.

6

6

As to religion, there was to be a public profession of the Christian religion 'reformed to the greatest purity of doctrine,' and the clergy were to be maintained 'out of a public treasury,' but not by tithes.' This public religion was not to be 'Popery or Prelacy.' No one was to be compelled to conformity, but all religions which did not create disturbances were to be tolerated. It was not, however, to be understood that this liberty shall necessarily extend to Popery or Prelacy,' a clause, the meaning of which is not clear, but which was probably intended to leave the question open to Parliament to decide. The Article on Religion was, like the six reserved particulars, to be out of the power of Parliament to modify or repeal.

The idea of reserving certain points from Parliamentary action was one which was subsequently adopted in the American Constitution, with this important difference, that the American Constitution left a way open by which any possible change could be effected by consulting the nation; whilst the Agreement of the People provided no way in which any change in the reserved powers could be made at all. In short, the founders of the American Constitution understood that it was useless to attempt to bind a nation in perpetuity, whilst the English Council of the Army either