sl8 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

chap. the English parliament, with whom they weretv - already so closely connected, and who could

1641 * alone fulfil any articles, which might be agreed

on. Except dispatching a small body to supportthe Scottish colonies in Ulster, they would,therefore, go no farther at present, than sendingcommissioners to London, in order to treat withthat power, to whom the sovereign authority wasnow in reality transferred

The king too, sensible of his utter inabilityto subdue the Irish rebels, found himself obliged,in this exigency, to have recourse to the Englishparliament, and depend on their assistance forsupply. After communicating to them the intel-ligence, which he had received, he informedthem, that the insurrection was not, in his opi-nion, the result of any rassi enterprise, but of aformed conspiracy against the crown of England.To their care and wisdom, therefore, he said*he committed the conduct and prosecution of thewar, which, in a cause so important to nationaland religious interests, must of necessity be im-mediately entered upon, and vigorously pursued 41 .Meeting of The English parliament was now assembled;the English an d discovered, in every vote, the same dispo-pariument. , in which they had separated. The exalt-

ing of their own authority, the diminishing ofthe king’s, were still the objects pursued by themajority. Every attempt, which had been made

44 Rushworth, vol. v. p. 407.

45 Clarendon , vol. ii. p. joi.