356 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

HAP. authority of the laws, to the venerable prece-J,vil- dents of many ages, the popular leaders werei«4* afliamed to plead nothin'g but fears and jealousies,which were not avowed by the constitution, andfor which , neither the personal character' ofCharles, so full of virtue, nor his situation, sodeprived of ail independent authority, seemed' to afford any reasonable foundation. Grievanceswhich had been fully redressed; powers , eitherlegal or illegal, which had been entirely renoun-ced; it seemed unpopular, and invidious ,* andungrateful, any farther to insist on.

The king, that he might abate the universalveneration, paid to the name of parliament, had* issued ardeclaration, in which he set forth all thetumults, by which himself and his partisans inboth houses had been driven from London; andhe thencd® inferred, that the assembly at West-minster was nch longer a free parliament, and , till .its liberty were restored,was entitled to no authority.

As this declaration was an obstacle to all treaty,some contrivance^ seemed requisite, in order toelude it.

A letter was written, in the foregoing spring,to the earl of Essex , and subscribed by theprince, the duke of York, and forty three noble-men *. They there exhort him to be an instru-ment of restoring peace, and to promote thathappy end with those, by whom he was employed.Essex, though much disgusted with tj^e parlia-

* Clarendon, VoL iu. p. 44.2. Rush. vol. vi. p. 566.I^hidocke, p. 77. ■