, were
declared incapable of holding office under the State: and by an
unjustifiable clause which was introduced into the Act before its final
adoption Sir Harry Vane and General Lambert, though they had taken no
part in the king's death, were specially exempted from the general
pardon.

[Sidenote: Settlement of the Nation.]

In dealing with the questions of property which arose from the
confiscations and transfers of estates during the Civil Wars the
Convention met with greater difficulties. No opposition was made to the
resumption of all Crown-lands by the State, but the Convention desired
to protect the rights of those who had purchased Church property and of
those who were in actual possession of private estates which had been
confiscated by the Long Parliament or by the government which succeeded
it. The bills however which they prepared for this purpose were delayed
by the artifices of Hyde; and at the close of the Session the bishops
and the evicted Royalists quietly re-entered into the occupation of
their old possessions. The Royalists indeed were far from being
satisfied with this summary confiscation. Fines and sequestrations had
impoverished all the steady adherents of the royal cause, and had driven
many of them to forced sales of their estates; and a demand was made for
compensation for their losses and the cancelling of these sales. Without
such provisions, said the frenzied Cavaliers, the bill would be "a Bill
of Indemnity for the king's enemies, and of Oblivion for his friends."
But here the Convention stood firm. All transfers of property by sale
were recognized as valid, and all claims of compensation for losses by
sequestration were barred by the Act.

From the settlement of the nation the Convention passed to the
settlement of the relations between the nation and the Crown. So far was
the constitutional work of the Long Parliament from being undone that
its more important measures were silently accepted as the base of future
government. Not a voice demanded the restoration of the Star Chamber or
of monopolies or of the Court of High Commission; no one disputed the
justice of the condemnation of Ship-money or the assertion of the sole
right of Parliament to grant supplies to the Crown. The Militia indeed
was placed in the king's hands; but the army was disbanded, though
Charles was permitted to keep a few regiments for his guard. The revenue
was fixed at L1,200,000, and this sum was granted to the