the Presbyterianism which pleased it. The Loyalists were alarmed by rumors that Scotland was holding treasonable communication w

Parliament. Stra

with Strafford's impeachment for High Treason. The great Earl's apologists among the Lords, his ow

signature to the fatal paper. It is said that as Strafford passed to the block, Laud, who was at the window o

ce, then,-a wild exultant shout.

fford's Death.

d of the High Commission Court; then a bill was passed requiring that Parliament be summoned

Parliament does not exist by sanction of the

perfidiously planning to overawe it by military force? The attempted arrest of Hampden, Pym, and three other leaders was part of this "Army Plot," whi

hat if either Crown or Parliament must go down, better for England that it should be the crown. He saw also, that the vital principle in Parliament lay in the House of Commons. If the King refused to act with

volutionary and without precedent it has since been accepted a

: Oliver

he gave that order. Cromwell could not so accurately have defined the constitutional right of his cause as Pym had done, nor make himself its adored head as was Hampden; but he had a more compelling genius than either. His

field, Pym was dead, he was virtual head of the cause. Perhaps it needed just such a terrible, uncompromising instrument, to carry England over such a c

ful members. A Parliament, with the House of Lords effaced, and with 140 obstructing members excluded, leaving only a small body of men of the same mind, sustained by the moral sentiment of a Cromwellian

eath of Char

He conducted himself with marvellous dignity and self-possession throughout the trial, and at

rned without any King or House of Lords. Cromwell was "Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland." He scorned to

safety, and there was prosperity. But there was rage and detestation, as Cromwell's soldiers with gibes and jeers, hewed and hacked at venerable alt

s richl

dim religi

e track of those

ong Parliame

s, and calling them names neither choice nor flattering, ordered them to "get out," then locked the door, and put the key into his pocket. Such was the "dissolution"

his authority; no "Star Chamber" to enforce his order. Men were not being nailed by the ears to the pillory, nor mutilated and branded, for resisting his will. But the spect

by his foreign policy he made himself the terror of Europe; Spain, France, and the United

on of evil, or of righteousness, must ever remain in dispute. We shall never know whether or not his de

Charles I

support his burden. Charles II., who had been more than once foiled in trying to get in by the back door of