discords,
this advantage was more equally shared; and superior numbers, it was
expected, must at length obtain the victory..The king's troops, also,
ill paid, and destitute of every necessary, could not possibly be
retained in equal discipline with the parliamentary forces, to whom all
supplies were furnished from unexhausted stores and treasures.[*]

* Rush, vol vi. p, 560.

The severity of manners, so much affected by these zealous religionists,
assisted their military institutions and the rigid inflexibility of
character by which the austere reformers of church and state were
distinguished, enabled the parliamentary chiefs to restrain their
soldiers within stricter rules and more exact order. And while the
king's officers indulged themselves even in greater licenses than those
to which during times of peace they had been accustomed, they were apt
both to neglect their military duty, and to set a pernicious example of
disorder to the soldiers under their command.

At the commencement of the civil war, all Englishmen who served abroad
were invited over, and treated with extraordinary respect; and most of
them, being descended of good families, and by reason of their absence
unacquainted with the new principles which depressed the dignity of the
crown, had enlisted under the royal standard. But it is observable, that
though the military profession requires great genius and long experience
in the principal commanders, all its subordinate duties may be
discharged by ordinary talents and from superficial practice. Citizens
and country gentlemen soon became excellent officers; and the generals
of greatest fame and capacity happened, all of them, to spring up on the
side of the parliament. The courtiers and great nobility, in the
other party, checked the growth of any extraordinary genius among the
subordinate officers; and every man there, as in a regular established
government, was confined to the station in which his birth had placed
him.

The king, that he might make preparations during winter for the ensuing
campaign, summoned to Oxford all the members of either house who
adhered to his interests; and endeavored to avail himself of the name
of parliament, so passionately cherished by the English nation.[*] The
house of peers was pretty full; and, beside the nobility employed in
different parts of the kingdom, it contained twice as many members as
commonly voted at Westminster. The house of commons consisted of