taries of
State, the one, Nicholas, was a devoted Royalist; the other, Morice, was
a steady Presbyterian. Of the thirty members of the Privy Council,
twelve had borne arms against the king.

[Sidenote: The Convention.]

It was clear that such a ministry was hardly likely to lend itself to a
mere policy of reaction, and the temper of the new Government therefore
fell fairly in with the temper of the Convention when that body, after
declaring itself a Parliament, proceeded to consider the measures which
were requisite for a settlement of the nation. The Convention had been
chosen under ordinances which excluded Royalist "Malignants" from the
right of voting; and the bulk of its members were men of Presbyterian
sympathies, loyalist to the core, but as adverse to despotism as the
Long Parliament itself. In its earlier days a member who asserted that
those who had fought against the king were as guilty as those who cut
off his head was sternly rebuked from the Chair. The first measure which
was undertaken by the House, the Bill of Indemnity and Oblivion for all
offences committed during the recent troubles, showed at once the
moderate character of the Commons. In the punishment of the regicides
indeed a Presbyterian might well be as zealous as a Cavalier. In spite
of a Proclamation issued in the first days of his return, which
virtually promised mercy to all the judges of the late king who
surrendered themselves to justice, Charles pressed for revenge on those
whom he regarded as his father's murderers, and the Lords went hotly
with the king. It is to the credit of the Commons that they steadily
resisted the cry for blood. By the original provisions of the Bill of
Oblivion and Indemnity only seven of the living regicides were excluded
from pardon; and though the rise of Royalist fervour during the three
months in which the bill was under discussion forced the House in the
end to leave almost all to the course of justice, yet a clause which
made a special Act of Parliament necessary for the execution of those
who had surrendered under the Proclamation protected the lives of most
of them. Twenty-eight of the king's Judges were in the end arraigned at
the bar of a Court specially convened for their trial, but only thirteen
were executed, and only one of these, General Harrison, had played any
conspicuous part in the rebellion. Twenty others, who had been prominent
in what were now called "the troubles" of the past twenty years