this committee, after a long resistance on the part of the Lords, was
dissolved,[a] and another established in its place, under the name of the
committee of the two kingdoms, composed of a few members from each house,
and of certain commissioners from the estates of Scotland.[2] On this new
body the Peers looked with an eye of jealousy, and, when the Commons, in
consequence of unfavourable reports, referred to it the task of "preparing
some grounds for settling a just and safe peace in all the king's
dominions," they objected not

[Footnote 1: Clarendon, iii. 440-454. Journals, 399, 404, 451, 459, 484,
485; Dec. 30; Jan. 16, 30; March 6, 11. Rushworth, v. 559-575, 582-602.]

[Footnote 2: Journals of Commons, Jan. 30; Feb. 7, 10, 12, 16; of Lords,
Feb. 12, 16.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Feb. 16.]

to the thing, but to the persons, and appointed for the same purpose a
different committee. The struggle lasted six weeks: but the influence of
the upper. house had diminished with the number of its members, and the
Lords were compelled to submit,[a] under the cover of an unimportant
amendment to maintain their own honour. The propositions now[b] brought
forward as the basis of a reconciliation were in substance the following:
that the covenant with the obligation of taking it, the reformation
of religion according to its provisions, and the utter abolition of
episcopacy, should be confirmed by act of parliament; that the cessation of
war in Ireland should be declared void by the same authority; that a new
oath should be framed for the discovery of Catholics; that the penalties
of recusancy should be strictly enforced; that the children of Catholics
should be educated Protestants; that certain English Protestants by name,
all papists, who had borne arms against the parliament, and all Irish
rebels, whether Catholics or Protestants, who had brought aid to the royal
army, should be excepted from the general pardon; that the debts contracted
by the parliament should be paid out of the estates of delinquents; and
that the commanders of the forces by land and sea, the great officers
of state, the deputy of Ireland and the judges, should be named by the
parliament, or the commissioners of parliament, to hold their places during
their good behaviour. From the tone of these propositions it was evident
that the differences between the parties had become wider than before, and
that peace depended on the subjugation of the one by the su