form of government established in England.

* Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 4.

The genius of the two religions, so closely at this time interwoven
with politics, corresponded exactly to these divisions. The Presbyterian
religion was new, republican, and suited to the genius of the populace:
the other had an air of greater show and ornament, was established on
ancient authority, and bore an affinity to the kingly and aristocratical
parts of the constitution. The devotees of Presbytery became of course
zealous partisans of the parliament: the friends of the Episcopal church
valued themselves on defending the rights of monarchy.

Some men also there were of liberal education, who, being either
careless or ignorant of those disputes bandied about by the clergy of
both sides, aspired to nothing but an easy enjoyment of life, amidst
the jovial entertainment and social intercourse of their companions. All
these flocked to the king's standard, where they breathed a freer air,
and were exempted from that rigid preciseness and melancholy austerity
which reigned among the parliamentary party.

Never was a quarrel more unreal than seemed at first than between the
contending parties: almost every advantage lay against the royal cause.
The king's revenue had been seized from the beginning by the parliament,
who issued out to him from time to time small sums for his present
subsistence; and as soon as he withdrew to York, they totally stopped
all payments. London, and all the seaports, except Newcastle, being in
their hands, the customs yielded them a certain and considerable supply
of money; and all contributions, loans, and impositions were more easily
raised from the cities, which possessed the ready money, and where men
lived under their inspection, than they could be levied by the king in
those open countries which after some time declared for him.

The seamen naturally followed the disposition of the sea ports to which
they belonged: and the earl of Northumberland, lord admiral, having
embraced the party of the parliament, had appointed, at their desire,
the earl of Warwick to be his lieutenant; who at once established his
authority in the fleet, and kept the entire dominion of the sea in the
hands of that assembly.

All the magazines of arms and amunition were from the first seized by
the parliament; and their fleet intercepted the greater part of those
which were sent by the queen from Holland. The king was obliged, in