sorder and confusion may break in upon
us; I doubt not but God in his good time will discover them to me, and
that the wisdom and courage of my high court of parliament will join
with me in their suppression and punishment."[*] Nothing shows more
evidently the hard situation in which Charles was placed, than to
observe that he was obliged to confine himself within the limits of
civility towards subjects who had transgressed all bounds of regard, and
even of good manners, in the treatment of their sovereign.

The first instance of those parliamentary encroachments which Charles
was now to look for, was the bill for pressing soldiers to the service
of Ireland. This bill quickly passed the lower house. In the preamble,
the king's power of pressing, a power exercised during all former times,
was declared illegal, and contrary to the liberty of the subject. By
a necessary consequence, the prerogative, which the crown had ever
assumed, of obliging men to accept of any branch of public service, was
abolished and annihilated; a prerogative, it must be owned, not very
compatible with a limited monarchy. In order to elude this law, the king
offered to raise ten thousand volunteers for the Irish service: but
the commons were afraid lest such an army should be too much at his
devotion. Charles, still unwilling to submit to so considerable a
diminution of power, came to the house of peers, and offered to pass
the law without the preamble; by which means, he said, that ill-timed
question with regard to the prerogative would for the present be
avoided, and the pretensions of each party be left entire. Both houses
took fire at this measure, which, from a similar instance, while the
bill of attainder against Strafford was in dependence, Charles might
foresee would be received with resentment. The lords, as well as
commons, passed a vote, declaring it to be a high breach of privilege
for the king to take notice of any bill which was in agitation in either
of the houses, or to express his sentiments with regard to it, before it
be presented to him for his assent in a parliamentary manner. The king
was obliged to compose all matters by an apology.[**]

* Nalson, vol. ii. p. 748.

** Rush. vol. v. p. 457, 458, etc. Clarendon, vol. ii. p.
327. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 738, 750, 751, etc.

The general question, we may observe, with regard to privileges of
parliament, has always been, and still continues, one of of the
greatest m