BY WRITERS WHO LIVED IN THE TIME OF THOSE AND SOLD BY R. BICKERSTAFF, ESSEX-STREET, STRAND, THE PREFACE. THIS part of the History of England is generally con. sidered as more interesting than that of any preceding period of it, because it contains an account of the grand struggle between King Charles the First and the people of England, (acting under the direction of the famous Long Parliament that met on the 3d of November, 1640,) to determine, " Whether he should be permitted to govern them by his sole will and pleasure, as an Absolute Monarch, and without the assistance of a Parliament, (as he had done very lately for ten years together, before the Civil War began ;) or whether he should be compelled to consent to admit the two Houses of Parliament to a participation of the Legislative authority with him, so that no new Law could be made, nor any old one be repealed or altered; nor any new Tax be imposed upon the People; without their joint consent: to which participation of the Legislative Power with the two Houses of Parliament, all the kings of England, his predecessors, ever since the creation of the House of Commons by King Edward the First, in the 23d year of his reign, A.D. 1295, had uniformly consented, as to a known and established maxim of Government." This was the real subject of the dispute between King Charles and his Parliament: for, as to the Ex |
