UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND.

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that in which Lewis the Eighteenth and the Duke of Richelieu chap.

were placed while the Chamber of 1815 was sitting. Even if-

the King had been desirous to fulfil the promises which he hadmade to the Presbyterians, it would have been out of hispower to do so. It was indeed only by the strong exertion ofhis influence that he could prevent the victorious Cavaliersfrom rescinding the act of indemnity, and retaliating withoutmercy all that they had suffered.

The Commons began by resolving that every member vioimcoshould, on pain of expulsion, take the sacrament according cavaliersto the form prescribed by the old Liturgy, and that the Cove- 1," w i>,i r -nant should be burned by the hangman in Palace Yard. An hame '"'act was passed, which not only acknowledged the power ofthe sword to be solely in the King, but declared that in no ex-tremity whatever could the two Houses be justified in with-standing him by force. Another act was passed which re-quired every officer of a corporation to swear that he heldresistance to the King’s authority to be in all cases unlawful.

A few hot-headed men wished to bring in a bill, which shouldat once annul all the statutes passed by the Long Parliament,and should restore the Star Chamber and the High Commis-sion; but the reaction, violent as it was, did not proceedquite to this length. It still continued to be the law that a Par-liament should be held every three years: but the stringentclauses which directed the returning officers to proceed toelection at thd proper time, even without the royal writ, wererepealed. The Bishops were restored to their seats in theUpper House. The old ecclesiastical polity and the old Li-turgy were revived without any modification which had anytendency to conciliate even the most reasonable Presbyte-rians. Episcopal ordination was now, for the first time, madean indispensable qualification for church preferment. Abouttwo thousand ministers of religion, whose conscience did notsuffer them to conform, were driven from their benefices in