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HISTOEY OP ENGLAND

chap, the crown. As there was to be a King, and as no new King— 1 — was to be found, it was necessary to leave the regal title toCharles. Only one course, therefore, was left: and that wasto disjoin the regal title from the regal prerogatives.

The change which the blouses proposed to make in ourinstitutions, though it seems exorbitant, when distinctly setforth and digested into articles of capitulation, really amountsto little more than the change which, in the next generation,was effected by the Revolution. It is true that, at the Revolu-tion, the sovereign was not deprived by law of the power ofnaming his ministers: but it is equally true that, since theRevolution, no ministry has been able to remain in office sixmonths in opposition to the sense of the House of Commons.It is true that the sovereign still possesses the power of crea-ting peers, and the more important power of the sword: butit is equally true that in the exercise of these powers the so-vereign has, ever since the Revolution, been guided by ad-visers who possess the confidence of the representatives ofthe nation. In fact, the leaders of the Roundhead party in1642, and the statesmen who, about half a century later,effected the Revolution, had exactly the same object in view.That object was to terminate the contest between the crownand the Parliament, by giving to the Parliament a supremecontrol over the executive administration. The statesmen ofthe Revolution effected this indirectly by changing thedynasty. The Roundheads of 1642, being unable to changethe dynasty, were compelled to take a direct course towardstheir end.

We cannot, however, wonder that the demands of theopposition, importing as they did a complete and formaltransfer to the Parliament of powers which had always be-longed to the Crown, should have shocked that great party ofwhich the characteristics are respect for constituted authorityand dread of violent innovation. That party had recently