about
one hundred and forty; which amounted not to above half of the other
house of commons.[**]

* Rush. vol. vi. p. 559.

** Rush. vol. vi. p. 566, 574, 575.

So extremely light had government hitherto lain upon the people that
the very name of excise was unknown to them; and among the other evils
arising from these domestic wars was the introduction of that impost
into England. The parliament at Westminster having voted an excise on
beer, wine, and other commodities, those at Oxford imitated the example,
and conferred that revenue on the king. And, in order to enable him
the better to recruit his army, they granted him the sum of one hundred
thousand pounds, to be levied by way of loan upon the subject. The king
circulated privy seals, countersigned by the speakers of both houses,
requiring the loan of particular sums from such persons as lived within
his quarters.[*] Neither party had as yet got above the pedantry of
reproaching their antagonists with these illegal measures.

The Westminster parliament passed a whimsical ordinance, commanding
all the inhabitants of London and the neighborhood to retrench a meal
a week, and to pay the value of it for the support of the public
cause.[**] It is easily imagined that, provided the money were paid,
they troubled themselves but little about the execution of their
ordinance.

* Rush. vol. vi. p. 590.

** Dugdale, p. 119. Rush. vol. vi. p. 748.

Such was the king's situation, that, in order to restore peace to the
nation, he had no occasion to demand any other terms than the restoring
of the laws and constitution; the replacing him in the same rights which
had ever been enjoyed by his predecessors; and the reestablishing on
its ancient basis the whole frame of government, civil as well as
ecclesiastical. And that he might facilitate an end seemingly so
desirable, he offered to employ means equally popular, a universal
act of oblivion, and a toleration or indulgence to tender consciences.
Nothing therefore could contribute more to his interests than every
discourse of peace, and every discussion of the conditions upon which
that blessing could be obtained. For this reason, he solicited a treaty
on all occasions, and desired a conference and mutual examination of
pretensions, even when he entertained no hopes that any conclusion could
possibly result from it.

For like reasons, the parliament prudently avoided, as much as possible,
all advances t