mers. It required that "the capital and grand author
of all the troubles and woes which the kingdom had endured, should be
speedily brought to justice for the treason, blood, and mischief of which
he had been guilty;" that a period should be fixed for the dissolution of
the parliament; that a more equal representation of the people should be
devised; that the representative body should possess the supreme power, and
elect every future king; and that the prince so elected should be bound to
disclaim all pretentions to a negative voice in the passing of laws, and to
subscribe to that form of government which he

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Oct. 30.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Nov. 16.]

should find established by the present parliament. This remonstrance
was addressed to the lower house alone, for the reformers declared
themselves[a] unable to understand on what ground the lords could claim
co-equal power with the representatives of the people, in whom alone the
sovereignty resided.[1] It provoked a long and animated debate; but the
Presbyterians met its advocates without fear, and silenced them[b] by an
overwhelming majority. They felt that they were supported by the general
wish of the nation, and trusted that if peace were once established
by agreement with the king, the officers would act dare to urge their
pretensions. With this view they appointed a distant day for the
consideration of the remonstrance, and instructed the commissioners at
Newport to hasten the treaty to a speedy conclusion.[2]

The king now found himself driven to the last extremity. The threats of the
army resounded in his ears; his friends conjured him to recede from his
former answers; and the commissioners declared their conviction, that
without full satisfaction, the two houses could not save him from the
vengeance of his enemies. To add to his alarm, Hammond, the governor of the
island, had received a message from Fairfax to repair without delay to the
head-quarters at Windsor. This was followed by the arrival[c] of Colonel
Eure, with orders to seize the king, and confine[d] him again in Carisbrook
Castle, or, if he met with opposition, "to act as God should direct him."
Hammond replied with firmness, that in military matters he would obey his
general; but as to the royal person, he had received

[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 343, 346, 355. Rushworth, vii. 1298, 1311, 1331.]

[Footnote 2: Journals of Commons, Nov. 20, 24, 30. There were two divisions
r