As Macaulay well
says,[28:1] "It would be difficult to find in the whole history of
England such an instance of tyranny, perfidy, and folly." But worse was
to follow. The Commons refused to surrender their members, and Charles
resolved on their forcible arrest on the floor of the House. The
threatened members, however, had been warned, and had taken refuge in
the City of London; their absence, together with the dignified attitude
of the remaining members, prevented the outrage ending in bloodshed: in
a bloodshed the possibility of which it is even to-day impossible to
contemplate with equanimity.
Though the Militia Bill, which would have given Parliament the control
of the armed forces of the nation, was the ostensible, this outrage on
the part of the King was the direct and mediate, cause of the outbreak
of the Civil War. "To be safe from armed violence," the Commons, as far
as the rules of the House would permit, placed themselves under the
protection of the City; and the day previous to the one fixed for their
return to St. Stephen's under the protection of the trained bands of
London, the King left Whitehall, to return to it only to pay the dire
penalty for his past offences. Both sides now actively prepared for the
inevitable struggle. Owing to Pym's forethought, the Tower was
blockaded, and the two great arsenals of Hull and Portsmouth secured for
the Parliament. Owing to the force and boldness of his language, the
House of Lords was scared out of the policy of obstruction it had taken
up.
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