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accept it as Pym and Hampden. The main demands made in it were two: first, that the King would employ such councillors and ministers as the Parliament might have cause to confide in; and secondly, that care should be taken to reduce within bounds that exorbitant power which the prelates have assumed to themselves," whilst maintaining "the golden reins of discipline," and demanding "a general synod of the most grave, pious, learned and judicious divines to consider all things necessary for the peace and good government of the Church.' So convinced Cromwell that the Remonstrance would be generally acceptable to the House, that he expressed surprise when Falkland gave his opinion that it would give rise to some debate. It was perhaps because the Remonstrance had abandoned the position of the Root-andBranch Bill and talked of limiting episcopacy, instead of abolishing it, that he fancied that it would gain adherents from both sides. He forgot how far controversy had extended since the summer months in which the Root-and-Branch Bill had been discussed, and how men who believed that, if only the King could be induced to make more prudent appointments, intellectual liberty was safer under bishops than under any system likely to approve itself to a synod of devout ministers, had now rallied to the King.

It was, by this time, more than ever, a question whether Charles could be trusted, and Cromwell and his allies had far stronger grounds in denying than their opponents had in affirming that he could. After all, the ecclesiastical quarrel could never be finally settled without mutual toleration, and neither party was ready even partially to accept such a solution as that. As for Cromwell himself, he regarded those decent forms which were significant of deeper realities even to many men who had rebelled against the pedagogic harshness of Laud, as mere rags of popery and superstition, to be swept away without compunction. With this conviction pressing on his mind, it is no wonder that, when the great debate was over late in the night, after the division had been taken which gave a majority of eleven to the supporters of the Remonstrance,

GROUP OF FIVE MINIATURES.

At top) JOHN SELDEN, from the original in the Duke of Buccleuch's collection, at Montague House; (below on left) SERJEANT, afterwards SIR JOHN MAYNARD, from the original in the Duke of Buccleuch's collection, at Montague House; thelow on right ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX. from the original in the Royal collection at Windsor Castle; (in centre) JOHN HAMPDEN. from the original in the Royal collection at Windsor Castle; at bottom) JOHN PYM, from the original by Samuel Cooper, in the collection of Mrs. Frankland-Russell-Astley, at Chequers Court.

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